If jumps and turns are generally favoured by bravura dancers who have a “need for speed” showing off their technical abilities, then adagio dancing, with its slow, lengthened and connected movements is where highly lyrical dancers make their mark. It is typically in the adagio, rather than in complicated combinations of double-quadruple fouettés, where the audience can sit back and contemplate the poetry and emotion ballerinas convey through their bodies.

Here we highlight some of the steps which might appear in adagio sequences in ballet. Note that steps which are typical of allegro work might also appear here (pirouettes, ronds de jambe) and vice versa, so none of them are exclusive to one form or another.

Mercury by Giambologna (1580) housed in the Bargello Museum, Florence. Photo: Alinari/Art Resource © Source: Britannica ©

Adagio

(in French: adage) in Italian means ‘At ease’, ‘leisurely’; a movement in slow tempo. In ballet Adagio refers to a series of slow and refined movements performed as a single phrase, in a fluid manner, each preparatory step seamlessly linking to the next. The adagio is typically the opening section in a grand pas de deux (followed by the variations and the coda), the part where the ballerina performs slow movements with the assistance of her partner.

Attitude

A ballet pose which originated from a statue by Giovanni de Bologna (Giambologna, see figure). One leg is lifted behind in a well turned-out manner, with the knee forming a 90 degree angle.

Arabesque

The term derives from a type of Moorish decoration. One leg supports the body while the other is extended behind, with the shoulders and hips kept square to the line of the body.

Devéloppé

Developing movement (originally, temps développé). Starting from fifth position, the working leg is raised following the supporting leg up to the knee (in retiré). It is then slowly extended to an open position en l’air and held there. The body is kept square to the direction the dancer is facing, with the hips aligned. Développés can be performed in any direction (devant, à la seconde, derrière, etc.).

Lauren Cuthbertson does an arabesque as the Winter Fairy in The Royal Ballet's Cinderella. Photo: Bill Cooper / ROH ©

Tour de Promenade or Tour Lent

Refers to a slow turn done on one foot. The dancer moves her/his heel while keeping a specific pose such as arabesque or attitude. The turn can be executed en dehors (outwards) or en dedans (inwards).

Penché or Penchée

To lean or incline. For example, as in an arabesque penché.

At the 0:36 mark Alina Cojocaru (as Giselle) does a développé à la seconde, following with a tour de promenade en attitude; and at 1:20 a beautiful arabesque which lowers into a penché.

Fondu

To melt, to sink. The term is used to describe the lowering or “melting” of the body towards the floor through the bending of the supporting leg.

Détourné

A pivot turn on pointe. For instance, starting in fifth, the dancer relevés and turns towards the back foot. As the dancer lowers his/her heels the back foot becomes the front one.

Marianela Nuñez (as Gamzatti) does an arabesque en fondu ending on a penché at 0:24 and a detourné at 0:51.

You can also see plenty of detournés in the Sugar Plum Fairy variation.

Dégagé

Disengaged. The working leg is lifted or tossed lightly into the air in an open position, the foot pointed. It is generally used as a connecting step, for instance, to transfer the body’s weight.

Dégagé à l’arabesque en tournant

Starting in croisé devant en l‘air (with the front leg extended and raised), the dancer slowly turns outwards on the flat of the foot, passing the working leg through the second position while turning the body from the waist so that the  working leg is extended in arabesque croisé derrière. See Tatiana Terekhova video below for example.

The reverse, starting from arabesque croisé and ending croisé devant is referred to as Détourné en l’air.

Rond de Jambe

It literally means round of the leg or, in other words, a circular movement of the leg. They can be done outwards (en dehors) or inwards (en dedans). Though usually a barre step, it can also be done par terre (on the floor) as a connecting step. The Prelude in Les Sylphides includes ronds de jambe par terre.

Rond de Jambe en l’air

Here the circle is drawn by the toe. Both legs are turned out. The working leg moves from the knee down so that the thigh is as steady, high and as horizontal as possible.  The toe creates the circle from the supporting leg’s knee into second position en l’air. The movement is accentuated when the working leg reaches the extended position à la seconde.

At the 1:00 mark, Kirov ballerina Tatiana Terekhova does a series of ronds de jambe en l’air while hopping on pointe. This Don Q. variation starts with an arabesque fondu, followed by attitude. Watch out also for a Dégagé à l’arabesque en tournant (starting from attitude croisé devant) at 0.21.

Grand Rond de Jambe

This movement is usually preceded by a développé devant from which the leg extends from the hip and draws a semi-circle from the front passing through second position en l’air to end up in fourth derrière en l’air. It can also be done in reverse, starting with a développé derrière and drawing the semi-circle towards the front.

Myriam Ould Braham (as Aurora) does some Grand Ronds de Jambe en l’air at the beginning of The Sleeping Beauty’s Act II variation.

Pas de Bourrée Couru

A series of “running” (couru) steps on pointe or demi-pointe with the feet close together. If done in fifth position the steps are said to be en cinquième or a pas suivi. If done in first position, legs are kept turned in and they are said to be en première or simply, pas couru.

At 0:27 Marianela Nuñez (as Myrtha) enters the stage in a series of gliding bourrées. She also does an arabesque which turns into a tour de promenade (1:29), followed by a penché (1:46 ). Lookout for attitudes at 3:05.

Sources and Further Information:

1. Technical Manual and Dictionary of Classical Ballet by Gail Grant. BN Publishing. ISBN 1607960311.
2. The Borzoi Book of Ballets by Grace Robert. Kessinger Publishing Co. ISBN 1419122010.

Note: Whilst we have used widely known names, note that terminology might vary slightly from school to school.

Even though people get very excited about developing new technologies, it seems to hard to monetize them.  Against all odds, Twitter is profitable.  Dell says that Twitter generated $6.7 million in revenue this year.  However, a few users are finding ways to really make their tweets count.

AdAge made a slideshow showing the value of different companies and their tweets.  The most notable of these slides was Kim Kardashian’s:

The text reads: “Kim Kardashian’s Tweet Stream, $10,000 a tweet.”  A TWEET!

What is she famous for again?

She has 2.7 million followers on Twitter (of which I am one) and is the top celebrity on Ad.ly, a service that allows celebs to monetize their social media.

While her tweets might be worth $10,000, I am curious how much value a company actually derives and how much she makes.  Just looking at her feed right now, she posts several times a day and posted about ‘Reebok Easy Tones’ just a couple hours ago.  It’s clearly a product placement, but the followers don’t seem to care (she is choosing the products to place carefully…I suddenly remember why she is famous).

If marketers are willing to pay, and people are willing to buy it, then why shouldn’t Kim profit?

You can read the the full list of ten AdAge Best Ideas of the Decade at AdAge. I’ve selected and excerpted three of the ten ideas that interested me most. And I’ve reordered them to my taste as well. (emphasis and links added)

LOVEMARKS
Not everyone in Adland has shown love for Saatchi & Saatchi CEO Kevin Roberts‘ belief that Lovemarks is the way forward for brand marketing. Strip away the cheesy language, though, and his philosophy — aiming to create emotional connections between consumers and brands that become lasting relationships — is tough to quarrel with. And, compared to most agency positioning, like say TBWA vet Jean Marie Dru’s Disruption, Lovemarks is a simple, more accessible technique to grasp. For all the butt of jokes Lovemarks has been, it’s also proved a successful new-business tool for Saatchi that attracted a swath of marketers during this decade, from packaged goods accounts to fast feeders like Wendy’s. Most famously, Lovemarks was what attracted JCPenney to hand its $430 million ad account to Saatchi after Mr. Roberts told CMO Mike Boylson that Penney’s needed to be a Lovemark with Middle America.

TIPPING POINT
In his 2000 book, New Yorker writer Malcolm Gladwell [K: his blog is very readable] introduced the language of connectors and mavens, the 80/20 rule and sticky ideas in an attempt to understand how ideas spread through cultures. In the early part of the decade, this terminology was relied upon to explain how trends caught on. Although it’s been largely supplanted by the language of virality, Gladwell’s thinking still has resonance. Peer-to-peer pass-along has become the single most important factor in considering how ideas — marketing or otherwise — get distributed in a marketing world marked by extreme clutter. [...]

CROWDSOURCING
[...] “crowdsourcing” — thought to have been coined in 2006 by Wired Magazine — has gone from one-off contests staged to give brands a jolt of PR buzz to mass collaboration efforts that allow consumers to affect the look and feel of brands in meaningful ways. The phenomenon caught fire in 2000, with smaller companies such as Jones Soda using its website to poll its young customers about new drink flavors, and it wasn’t long before the big guys caught on. [K: There is a long list of technical uses not explored here but should be noted.] Frito Lay’s Doritos brand has made an annual tradition out of its consumer-generated Super Bowl spots, while package-goods giant Unilever actually dumped its agency, Lowe, London, so it could crowdsource campaigns.

Strong images and powerful words combine to make an eye-catching campaign that draws new customers to your brand. You want to have accurate words, along with the right graphics, to make a lasting brand impact.

In this tough market, Internet search engines are making the difference. So, you want specific words that tell a story on your Web site, as well as your print advertising. We’ll start with words that just don’t work.

Many businesses love these modifiers: multi-faceted, collaborative, in-depth and comprehensive. These words are over used, and they don’t tell your customer about the product or service. Consumers have less of an attention span on the Web. They want to be able to quickly skim over words to get the gist. Those words just leave the customer guessing.

What isn’t multi-faceted? You might as well just use the word “complicated,” which is also an immediate turnoff to consumers looking to simplify their lives.

As long as you have one employee, your business is collaborative. That word doesn’t set you apart. Everybody works together – so nix this word.

If you use the word in-depth that means you don’t know how to describe your product or service. If you don’t know what it does, how can you sell it? Show and tell. “In-depth” does neither.

The same with comprehensive. Your ad campaign, Web copy and print materials should be specific. You should work hard to describe your business, not have your customer work hard trying to decipher what you want to say. Clear writing is essential to selling.

So, what words work? It’s kind of a trick question. Clear words. Specific words. There isn’t a top 10 list because it’s different for every business, product and service offering. The Internet is the medium where many customers are going first to find a business or service. With keyword searches in Google mattering more and more, you can’t wait any longer to find the industry specific words that work best for your business. Your marketing firm can help you find these words by gathering data, analyzing your competitors and crunching the words through Web site keyword programs. You don’t have to do this alone – let your agency help you. Then, take their advice!

To show just how essential the right words are in branding, I’ve picked a few campaigns that make an impact on the page, and with consumers.

• Levi’s 

  Selling Americana 

   

A new generation has been introduced to the immortal words of Walt Whitman’s “America” (the poet himself reading on archival tapes) and “Pioneers O Pioneers!” through the raw and dramatic “Go Forth” campaign. In these spots we watch diverse Americans wearing lived-in jeans frolic in a dark and uncertain world. The tagline encapsulates the economic condition while also calling for progress: Your Levi’s have been with your through all this. Now run toward your destiny (with our brand).

Levi’s is the rare American brand that was actually around when Whitman was alive. And there’s logic to this match between a quintessentially American poet and a quintessentially American product. Whitman’s verse allows Levi’s to evoke not only its proud history but a forward-looking present—the pioneering, American mindset that Whitman captured and that Levi’s hopes to embody.

• Jameson

It’s not just Irish whiskey, it’s an entire brand story imagined around its famous namesake, John Jameson. If you haven’t sat up and taken notice to the story of Jameson’s leap into the sea to save a barrel of his whisky, then you just haven’t been watching television in the last few months. Affluent young professionals least affected by the recession have rocked Jameson’s sales over the last few months.

This company started its marketing campaign small – with word of mouth through bar tenders and servers. Small businesses can use Jameson as an example of building that branding budget.

The word-of-mouth strategy – originally solely focused in New York – worked well enough to make the brand big enough to advertise in print and out-of-home venues in other major markets with a campaign focused heavily on taste. That effort has created a national brand that earlier this year launched its first-ever TV campaign, from TBWA/Chiat/Day, New York.

You may feel far from commercial spots such as these, but with the story telling words in your campaign that tell your target audience what you do, you can start in the Las Vegas market, and then take it global.

By Biff Burns, Senior Director, Corporate Direct Response, Mercury Media Boston

I just finished looking at Ad Age’s “Best TV Spots of the Decade.”  And although it can be debated endlessly, they were extremely well done, grabbed attention, held it, and even gave me a more solid emotional attachment to the brands they promoted (I love Skittles and there they were!).  But none of them sold me anything and it made me think about one of the cornerstones of advertising: support and sell products for the companies that are doing and buying the advertising.

I can’t help but wonder if the CMOs at all of the featured companies have been at their respective companies for the past decade.  How can any CMO possibly tie the time, effort and money spent to create and buy the media for those spots to actual, honest-to-God ROI?   In these hyper-competitive times, not “asking for the order” after all that time, effort and money spent seems less and less relevant.

I can’t wait to see Ad Age’s “Top 10 Direct Response Commercials” of the decade.  It must be being published soon.  CEOs will be demanding it!

Book of Tens: Best TV Spots of the Decade

The Staff of Creativity Unveils Its Favorites
Published: December 11, 2009

Sure, the future is here and it’s all about integration and digital and social media and yadda yadda yadda. But we still have a soft spot for the traditional spot. Here is Creativity’s best of the decade.

Cadbury “Gorilla”
Agency: Fallon, London
Director: Juan Cabral

No swirling fabrics, no dreamy ladies, no satisfied young snackers, no … chocolate. “Gorilla” didn’t contain the same ingredients as many chocolate ads before it. Instead, it contained a grape purple backdrop, a gorilla, a set of drums and a few key moments from a monster ’80s track. When it debuted in 2007, “Gorilla” engendered a fierce debate amongst industry types about what exactly has become of advertising. To fans — and fans were many: The ad has been viewed more than 4 million times on YouTube, inspired a host of tributes and captured the Film Grand Prix at Cannes — it was an exemplar of the new branded storytelling. Detractors, of course, asked what any of it had to do with chocolate. Fallon’s Juan Cabral (author of Sony “Balls”), who wrote and directed the spot, answers the question “Why?” simply: “It kind of makes sense to be honest. It’s a very powerful drum solo. So a gorilla has to play it.”

Sony Bravia “Balls”
Agency: Fallon, London
Director: Nicolai Fuglsig, MJZ

A bunch of colorful balls bouncing through the streets of San Francisco. Like Fallon London’s other big spot of the oughties, the genius of “Balls” was hard to convey on paper. But in the hands of director Nicolai Fuglsig, the idea resulted in two and a half minutes that could only be called art. Mr. Fuglsig, a former war photographer from Denmark, is known for his attention to detail — he regularly makes physical models of his sets before shooting — and he knew going into “Balls” that he would be conjuring the ball bonanza 100% in camera. Mr. Fuglsig marshaled 12 air-powered mortars to fire 250,000 balls into the air, adding tiny touches like a frog jumping out of the way of balls dropping through a drainpipe, and setting the artful imagery to a Jose Gonzalez cover the The Knife’s “Heartbeats.” The ad was by far the best ad of 2006 and one of the best of the decade.

Skittles “Touch”
Agency: TBWA/Chiat/Day, New York
Director: Tom Kuntz, MJZ

Singling out one of the Skittles spots produced under Gerry Graf’s reign at TBWA/Chiat/Day, New York, is sort of silly. It’s like, well, no, it is choosing between a candy-eating beard, a physically and emotionally wounded papier mache office worker and a singing rabbit (the agency’s dancing lad for Starburst probably belongs on this list too). All the Skittles work created by Mr. Graf, executive creative director, Group Creative Directors Ian Reichenthal and Scott Vitrone, and the creative team of Eric Kallman and Craig Allen deserves (and got) praise for reinvigorating the once mighty ad form called the TV spot. If Skittles work pre-2004 was all candy deluges and magic realism, Mr. Graf’s work was more grounded in everyday reality. A hilariously weird, sometimes troubling version of everyday reality. In 2007, “Touch” added a touch of melancholy to the hilarity with Tim, a video-store employee with a candy version of King Midas disease. Like all the Skittles spots, it proved that you could put the product front and center and still create something striking, entertaining and effective.

Nike “Move”
Agency: Wieden & Kennedy, Portland, Ore.
Director: Jake Scott, RSA

Nike has been setting new standards for spots since 1982 and a new century brought a new string of classics. Nike and Wieden kicked off the new millennium with one of its best efforts ever — the wry “Morning After,” directed by Spike Jonze, which showed us a man sticking with his morning run against a backdrop of every paranoid Y2K nightmare come true (the spot technically broke at the end of ‘99). Among the many other ’00s highlights are “Tag,” the 2002 Cannes Film Grand Prix winner directed by Frank Budgen, and, more recently, David Fincher’s stunning “Fate.” “Move,” released ahead of the 2002 Olympics, is essentially a series of intimate athletic moments woven together against a piano and strings track. It sounds simple — and it is. But the agency’s creative rigor, Jake Scott’s direction, Adam Pertofsky’s editing finesse and a truly stirring original track from Elias made “Move” one of the more unforgettable embodiments of the Nike ethic.

Apple iPod “Hip Hop”

Agency: TBWA, Los Angeles
Director: Dave Meyers, @radical.media

The dancing silhouettes are what most people think of when they think of iPod advertising. But the very first iPod commercial looked very different. It showed some dude grooving in his apartment and transferring a track to a futuristic looking white device. Not an embarrassing effort, certainly. But … this was the iPod, one of the most ground-breaking, industry-shattering gadgets of this or maybe any decade, the product of Apple’s legendary design ethic. In 2003, TBWA regrouped and created a series of spots based on a print and outdoor campaign. The spots depicted black silhouetted figures busting a move against vibrant backgrounds, with the only visible detail the bright white device and ear buds of the iPod. Music video director Dave Meyers translated the concept with style, using, in this case, “Hey Mama” from the (then good) Black Eyed Peas to drive the visuals. The white buds became epochal and the campaign one of the most recognizable — and parodied — of the ’00s.

Got Milk? “Birthday”
Agency: Goodby Silverstein & Partners, San Francisco
Director: Noam Murro, Biscuit Filmworks

Like a few other advertisers on this list, the California Milk Processors Board had an almost crushing creative legacy to live up to when it entered the ’00s. “Got Milk?” was created by Goodby in 1993 and the campaign birthed one of the most famous American commercials of modern times, the Michael Bay-directed “Aaron Burr.” The “Got Milk” theme was adopted nationally in 1998 and spawned hundreds of print ads featuring mustachioed celebrities. In 2003, Goodby did “Aaron Burr” and the mustache proud with a tale of a creepy clairvoyant kid and dark events at a birthday party. Director Noam Murro delivers a lush and genuinely eerie cinematic experience, channels ’70s horror classics such as “The Omen” and coaxes a brilliant performance from the kid and his father. Goodby has gone on to further “Milk” triumphs in the digital space, but “Birthday” stands as a testament to the agency’s legendary zeal for advertising craft.

Honda “Grrr”
Agency: Wieden & Kennedy, London
Director: Smith and Foulkes, Nexus Productions

Can hate be good? Can hate be great? What an absolutely nutty thing to be asking in a commercial. And yet the provocative question formed the basis for one of the freshest spots of the ’00s and surely one of the most memorable ads ever for a diesel engine. Legend has it that Honda engineer Kenichi Nagahiro hated the noise and dirt associated with diesel technology and insisted on starting from scratch for Honda’s eventual entry into the category. The idea of hatred as a creative motivator was translated by the team of Sean Thompson, Michael Russoff and Richard Russell, under the direction of Executive Creative Directors Tony Davidson and Kim Papworth, into a catchy tune. The lyrics were sung and spoken by Garrison Keillor in a sweet animated spot full of woodland creatures and flying diesels. The spot, which won the Cannes Grand Prix in 2004, was part of Wieden’s “Power of Dreams” campaign for Honda, which included another decade-defining spot, “Cog.”

Coca-Cola “Happiness Factory”
Agency: Wieden & Kennedy, Amsterdam
Director: Psyop

Released in 2006, “Happiness Factory” marked the return to form of one of America’s iconic, but creatively lapsed and internally struggling brands. After seemingly losing its way on the ad front for several years, Coke dug deep and, in 2005, sought a creative partnership with Wieden & Kennedy, in Portland and Amsterdam. The “Coke Side of Life” campaign from Portland yielded such gems as the Cannes Gold Lion-winning “Videogame” and the superb 2008 Super Bowl entry “It’s Mine.” In Amsterdam, meanwhile, “Happiness Factory” grew out of the “Happiness in a Bottle” theme that the agency had been working on. The agency partnered with animation wizards Psyop to bring to life a magical world inside a Coke vending machine. The ad went on to inspire a suite of “Happiness Factory” projects, including a charming behind-the-scenes film that featured interviews with animated versions of real Coke employees.

Fox Sports “China”
Agency: Cliff Freeman & Partners
Director: Traktor

“China” was part of a series of spots from Cliff Freeman & Partners promoting Fox Sports’ regional coverage. Creative director Eric Silver teamed up with Traktor to create depictions of ostensible sporting events from around the world. In “China,” we see the ages-old tradition of tree cathing; in “India,” we are witness to the solemn sport of blind clubbing; “Turkey” brings us professional dirt diving. The grainy footage and deadpan style made these absurd activities seem perfectly real, all the better to deliver the underlying message, that no matter what your arcane athletic interest, Fox Sports is on it. The campaign earned the Cannes Film Grand Prix in 2001 and was a classic example of the dear departed agency’s oeuvre.

E-Trade “Monkey”
Agency: Goodby Silverstein & Partners
Director: Bryan Buckley

One of many Gerry Graf/Bryan Buckley collaborations, “Monkey” is perhaps the ultimate spot symbolic of the go-go dot-com days. We could go on, but instead we’ll turn it over to Mr. Graf: “Here’s my favorite story about shooting the monkey: The day of the shoot … Bryan goes up to the monkey trainer and says, ‘In one take, I want the monkey to come out of the car, shut the car door, run up the sidewalk, jump over the boombox, turn around, bend down, turn the boombox on, climb up on top of the trash can, start clapping, and when I say ‘Cut,’ have the monkey stop clapping.’ The trainer is like, ‘OK, give me 45 minutes.’ Then Bryan goes to the two actors and says, ‘All you have to do is, when the music turns on, start clapping, when the music turns off, stop clapping.’ So the trainer is ready. OK, action. So the monkey jumps out of the car, shuts the door, runs up the driveway, jumps over the thing, turns it on, jumps on the trash can, starts clapping, Bryan yells ‘Cut’ and he stops clapping. And the two fucking guys are still clapping.”

William F. “Biff” Burns, Jr. is Senior Director, Corporate Direct Response for Mercury Media.  Prior to joining the agency, Burns served as VP of Marketing at ContextWeb, Inc., a contextual media and technology company based in New York, where he helped to launch the ADSDAQ Exchange, the largest private contextual ad exchange in the marketplace.  Burns also served as VP of Marketing for Burst Media, one of the first internet advertising networks, where he helped the company go public on the London Stock Exchange and developed three specific business units:  Burst Network, Burst Direct and Burst Ad Conductor.

Contact him at bburns@mercurymedia.com

Google is making some big moves in local advertising lately.

A couple weeks back the search giant added a mobile couponing option to its Google Local Business Center listing. This means that when a mobile web search lands you on a business’s “Place Page,” you can get a coupon that is redeemable straight from your phone (no need for printing).

Now, Google has launched a new effort to send window decals to over 100,000 local businesses in the U.S. that have been the most sought out and researched on Google.com and Google Maps.

They’re calling these businesses the “Favorite Places on Google” and you’ll now start to find them in over 9,000 towns and cities, in all 50 states. You can also explore a sample of the Favorite Places in 20 of the largest U.S. cities at google.com/favoriteplaces. Each window decal has a unique bar code, known as a QR code that you can scan with any of hundreds of mobile devices — including iPhone, Android-powered phones, BlackBerry and more — to take you directly to that business’s Place Page on your mobile phone. With your mobile phone and these new decals, you can go up to a storefront and immediately find reviews, get a coupon if the business is offering one or star a business as a place you want to remember for the future. Soon, you’ll be able to leave a review on the mobile page as well, just like on your desktop.

As Ad Age reported, Google also dabbled with QR codes in newspapers last year: “Google has already seen results from a recent test campaign conducted in three markets with jewelry retailer Blue Nile. Each ad contained a QR code and a response tag, and was tested against the same ads without the tags. The code-enhanced ads ended up driving 6.5 times more revenue than the ads without.”

Google has nothing to lose by trying this, and they know that both local and mobile are their future. Typing into a little search box is annoying on a mobile phone, and new “mobile paths” like shortcodes, QR codes and image recognition may soon replace text-entry search altogether. By helping businesses add these new calls-to-action that lead to Google’s Place Pages — as well as beef up their mobile presences with mobile coupons — they are attempting to own this emerging space.

Overall, this is good news for the mobile industry — Google can help push adoption of these technologies — but there is still the barrier of cost. QR decoding requires data, which requires money. Will people be willing to pay money (albeit tiny amounts) to read what is ostensibly an ad? Or will Place Pages provide enough value (through information, maps, reviews and now coupons) that people won’t even think twice about it?

Post: Courtesy Adage

The Adage 100 is out. No, this one is not a listing of marketing blogs. It is that paid list I do not have access to this year. The top global marketers. Coke is pretty high on the list with $2.6 spend on it by it. China is pretty high too, in fact higher than one coke or the #1 P&G , most probably I am bang on there because the sneak blurb on the subscription is 62% of the top 100 spend was outside the US and a lot of it in China. IBM is the other culprit. As a corporate marketer caught in a mostly suds and soda campaign they were mostly in print and their TV ads never appealed to the same audience. We were going somewhere when I was with IBM, now I am not so sure.

CBS has sold off all its Superbowl inventory – almost all of it, with money going after a recessionary rate card and most marketers opting to roll last years budget spends. Hyundai is added to that count. Citi, ING and HSBC made it to the Top 100 list but considerably lower ranked. Especially as they can count less of the sports sponsorships from here. GM and J&J both may not come back to the Top 10 in 2010, but I have a feeling Reckitt Benckiser will only make it bigger. Witness here:

‘Our Home Our Planet’ is the next step in Reckitt Benckiser’s Carbon 20 programme which aims to reduce by 20% the Total Carbon Footprint from cradle to grave of all Reckitt Benckiser’s products by 2020. (RB site)

I haven’t seen many people talk about spending on their creative/design houses this year but hopefully 2010 will see a lot of them coming back with niche houses bagging the $1 billion plus accounts. MCD and Burger King need to take over war cries from Pepsi and Coke, that one is a definite #1 wish on my list and no video games from Coke please..or the elves in the machine second life stuff, which is much the same. The European and Latam campaigns are now being pushed to Asia, i think bad deal.

This year will see even more from HSBC as they are going to find the time and energy to capitalise on their strengths and continue on the ‘Think Global, Act Local’ vector and maybe General Mills will get together with Kraft and get a joint campaign..that one would be for the wish list. I guess one of these properties like NFL, Superbowl and more would easily outdo any of these individual networks if it comes to higher yields but it won’t happen in a hurry. The Olympics would have got on to the Top 100 by themselves though and IPL would be competing for some of that $200 million the Superbowl will again outdo in Feb. In all, an insipid much the same 2010 awaits this list. It’s a boring world, I can already see everyone having shifted to electric cars.

Social Media spends, all said and done are unlikely to be more than 2% for any of these brands..

[Categories Branding, Superbowl, Ad spending]

This is a great article by Stuart Parkin about trends in the Advertising Job Market. Although he concentrates mainly on the advertising world, these trends can also be seen among other job markets. This article was initially published on AdAge.com.

10 Trends to Watch in the Advertising Job Market
One Career Coach’s Observations on What’s Happening Out There Now
By Stuart Parkin
Published: October 15, 2009

As we enter the fourth quarter, the advertising and media landscape shows about as much certainty as the weather. Agencies continue to let staff go but, perhaps confusingly, in some cases, are hiring in numbers. One agency CEO explained this as a “retooling of our talent pool” while another explained that “there’s no margin for error. If we get business, we hire and [if we] lose it we fire.” As a recruiter, I can vouch for a re-engineering process that all agencies are grappling with, albeit from different perspectives. And as a result, there are a number of clear trends emerging for the job market.

1. Confidence levels have improved. This plays out in the vernacular used by the media and by Wall Street and this is permeating, to some degree, the overall media landscape. There is a desire to be more positive and to talk things up, at least a bit.

2. More potential candidates, employed as well as unemployed, are contemplating job, if not major career, changes. Individuals are feeling burned out, having worked consistently long hours in streamlined companies, or just feel the business is not evolving fast enough to satisfy their work aspirations. Those seeking work are offering to do more for less. The class of 2008 is offering themselves as interns to gain work experience.

3. Having cut back hugely over the last 18 months, many businesses are stretched and contemplating increasing bandwidth. This process is not clear cut. Agencies are adjusting their talent base. People are being hired while still many are being fired. Much of the hiring taking place is still at the margins of this adjustment or against client wins and losses. Purse strings are still fairly tightly closed, if slackening a tad.

4. The process of hiring people has seen a greater use of internal recruiters. Where external recruiters are used there is, in many cases, a cutting back of the number of search agencies/recruiters used. Search fees have also been squeezed by agencies. There has been a movement to contingency vs. retained searches. There is an increasing use of social networking/digital mediums to find and attract job seekers.

5. Among employees there is a willingness and ability, particularly with the development of social-networking tools, to help connect and recommend others. Digital resources have in themselves (along with typical hiring criteria) made the talent world appear much smaller.

6. It’s taking longer to make decisions. That’s in part because it’s a buyers’ market and also because hiring is often taking place only as extra business is accrued. Further, no one wants to make the wrong decisions.

7. There are still some job-growth areas. These relate to the obvious: digital, the emerging “battlefield’; those with brand/communications planning combination skills; and the perennial — health care — and any results-oriented personnel such as great sales/new-business people.

8. More than ever, candidates need to market themselves. They must have a focused offering, use social networking, have a clear idea of what they want, and should not rely exclusively on recruiters.

9. Recruiters will succeed through taking a longer-term perspective to the business of aligning talent. An increased focus is needed on “relationship building,” not only with clients but with candidates. For clients, it will be increasingly key to understand organizational culture; for candidates a focus on provision of “best advice” will continue to be the best way to build the recruiter’s reputation/business. It will also be key to avoid “force-fitting” candidates to jobs.

10. Optimal talent sourcing will need human-resources departments to have more cooperation and involvement of departmental managers. This is particularly true when it comes to the quality of job briefs. Greater focus on high-quality briefs will both save huge amounts of time for internal personnel, as well as recruiters, and help the company recruit more cost effectively.

We have had a year of slashed budgets as companies improved numbers via cost savings and efficiencies. As 2010 beckons, purse strings are not going to be suddenly loosened, and growth is likely to be very gradual. The question is whether there will be sustainable increases in expenditure occurring from this point and through 2010. To do so it will have to be innovation-led — and this, in turn, makes the hiring of the best talent more important than ever.

Beyond the low-hanging fruit…

As we approach Thanksgiving, I’m compelled to say a little something about gratitude. After all, gratitude is the very definition of giving thanks. Many of us (myself included) often experience a lapse in gratitude. We get caught up in the business of work and the mostly silly dramas that govern our lives.

I once heard a parable that I’d like to paraphrase here:

Every day a group of men set out to forage in the savannah by their village. They ventured far in order to get to the forest and its abundance of resources. Half way existed a lone, large tree in which they took a break to rest and eat lunch. “A shame this tree,” one man said. “It has no fruit for eating.” The others agreed. “And its wood isn’t suitable for building either.”

The men failed to realize the great benefit the tree provided. In fact, the old tree was a refuge. Though dead and barren, it provided shelter from the noonday sun without which their journey would have been infinitely more treacherous. This critical benefit was lost on the men.

I recall a company meeting at my previous agency. We’d had a tough year. Morale was low. The employees were skeptical about their agency’s future. Many used the setting as a forum to voice their complaints: Management was inept, they cried. Our clients are bound to mediocrity. Woe is us!

During my turn to speak I told the story about the old tree. Though our agency was, in fact, beleaguered I wanted us to appreciate all that we had: jobs, community and a place to voice our grievances freely and without fear of reparations.

In some respects I was talking to myself. I shared many of my fellow’s misgivings but I wanted healing words. Not apathetic ones. We’d had plenty of those already. Change was needed. And change would come. But on that day I needed gratitude. I worked for one of the greatest advertising agencies in the world. It had been hobbled but it was still there. Despite our weakened position, so were we.

That first winter for the pilgrims was a brutal one. Many did not make it. Yet, a precious few did. With help from the Indians, they not only survived the second winter; they thrived. Despite their many hardships the frail community held a great feast. The rest is history.

Steff\’s Twitter

The Happy Soul Industry on Amazon

OK, the survey was done by Western Union, but it is a bit scary.

The Western Union Company (NYSE:WU), a leader in the money transfer segment of global payments, found in a recent consumer survey, that 65 percent of Americans plan to skip ‘Black Friday’ holiday shopping this year, citing crowded stores as a major reason.

Combined with what Wal-Mart CMO Stephen Quinn recently said (watch this AdAge video and see a transcript below) at a conference, we can’t ignore how tough lives are with some people.

For the record, I have transcribed what some of Quinn said in the video here (emphasis added).

“You may have heard of this notion of the “pay check cycle”. We see it in our business to an enormous degree. That is where you see a surge in retail sales at the beginning of the month and then to a little bit lesser degree at the middle of the month. Thats when people get paid.

And just so you have a little bit of a sense of what is going in America today. [...] On the last day of the month, in the last 12 hours of that day, our sales will be down 10, 15, sometimes 20 percent versus the exact same day a year ago. At mid-night, when the clock ticks over to one o’clock and a lot of the government cheques are deposited into people’s accounts. We see an unbelievable surge in our business. You see growth of 200, 300 percent for that same time period a year ago. Thats when people are getting paid.

You want to know what people are buying? They are buying diapers. They are buying baby formula. They are buying food for their families. In other words, there are families in America today who are not eating at the end of the month. And who are literally lining up at mid-night so they can get food to take home so their family can eat. And this has become very exaggerated through this time period.”

Recently, AdAge has evaluated magazines in search of the the overall best magazines. But what makes up an “A-list” magazine? Great editorial? Think again. There are many more balls in the air to juggle than you might have thought. With magazines on the brink of possible nonexistence (so excited to be a magazines major…) it is important to understand that everything from the way readers perceive magazines to the reason they pick them up is changing.

AdAge has recently reevaluated what goes into a great magazine. It turns out that it’s all about branding. They looked for magazines that were making smart licensing moves, becoming retailers in their own right, creating revenue-generating digital content, building smart cross-media content and ad platforms, or finding a way to engage and monetize their communities (take a breath…).

The good news is that it looks like our local BHG brand made No. 2, so Meredith must be doing something right! AdAge credits the success of BHG to the expansion of their brand outside of the print magazine (Walmart products, etc). What do you think is the most important part of a magazine, taking into account their uncertain future? What will keep magazines alive?

When you think of advertising markets, Charlotte, North Carolina is not on the list. This might be changing due to the interesting work coming from Boone Oakley, a small agency in Charlotte that recently won Ad Age’s Small Agency Award for Southeast Agency of the Year.

The agency, started by two creative directors from the Martin Agency, is best known for their ability to use guerilla tactics and crazy stunts to put small clients on the map.

They use this philosophy to market themselves. Type in www.booneoakley.com and instead of the typical agency website, you end up on a YouTube page featuring a series of Boone Oakley videos.

Here is the first video on the “website” and we think it’s a pretty good representation of this award-winning, innovative agency.

We also like this interesting work for HBO.

Sources:
• Boone Oakley website
• Adage.com
• Adweek.com

The only constant in advertising is change. To maintain success, you have to keep up. That isn’t easy. Especially with this revolutionary change we’re experiencing in communications.  I try to learn something new every day. I know that to do so is essential for my ability to survive, let alone succeed.

“In times of change, learners inherit the Earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.”

Eric Hoffer, American Social Writer

I have great respect for Tim Williams. He is the author of the book Take a Stand for Your Brand, an important read for every small-to mid-size agency CEO. In a recent AdvertisingAge article he writes,

“… we’re at the nexus of the Great Recession and the Great Transformation of Marketing. In circumstances like these, a strategy of “just try harder” won’t take you very far.”

Tim shares 15 things your agency can’t afford to risk during these current times of change:

1. A skill set built mostly around interruption instead of engagement.
2. A digital department in place of a digital competency.
3. Core competencies focused on “one to many” instead of “one to one.”
4. Creating brand-to-consumer communications at the expense of consumer-to-consumer communications.
5. Lack of analytics and tools to measure effectiveness.
6. Production systems that are linear instead of organic.
7. Developing media plans instead of channel plans.
8. Placing media instead of creating media.
9. Creating brand transactions instead of brand relationships.
10. Focusing on “the big idea” instead of “big multichannel ideas.”
11. Traditional production staff instead of “producers.”
12. Expecting account executives to be both strategic leaders and project managers.
13. Continuing to allocate client budgets to media instead of creative.
14. A business strategy that attempts to support high-value offerings (strategy and ideation) as well as increasingly low-value offerings (basic production and execution).
15. Selling hours worked instead of value created.

I would add a 16th risks that agencies can’t afford to take:

Beginning 2010 without a written new business strategy, that includes social media as a primary component, to generate inbound leads.

Read the entire article, Agencies: 15 Risks You Can’t Afford Not to Take

Social Media is also impacting ad agency new business …

• Four Ways Social Media is Changing Advertising Agencies New Business
• Ad agency having explosive new business growth by leading with social media
• Ad Agency Survey Finds Traditional New Business Methods Aren’t Working
• “Social Media ‘Teaches’ Ad Agencies to Promote Themselves the Right Way”

What if you had the opportunity to travel to 206 countries in one year and all you had to do was document your journey via social media like Facebook, Flickr, and YouTube?

Expedition 206

Well, three VERY lucky people are getting to do just that through Expedition 206, a campaign that will send these young adults to 206 countries and territories where Coca-Cola is sold. The project is a big way for Coca-Cola to engage the entire globe with their brand message, “Open Happiness.” I can hear them singing now…do-do-do-do-dooo always Coca-Cola! (bottle opening) Aaahhhhh!

There’s no question these lucky 3 will claim 2010 as the year they will never forget. They get spoiled with laptops, smartphones, and cameras for their 275,000 mile tour which begins in Madrid on Jan. 1, 2010. Jealous yet? I am. On top of that, they get to participate in landmark events with Coca-Cola such as the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olymic Games, FIFA 2010 World Cup in South Africa, and the World Expo 2010 in Shanghai.

And guess what?! One of the lucky 3 – Tony Martin, 29 – is a Washington, D.C., native who is now teaching in Munich! So proud.

I read this article on Advertising Age about this global social media campaign and am completely fascinated by its magnitude and sheer brilliance. This is a prime example of why I even got into marketing in the first place and why my blog is even called Monicultural Marketing. I love, live, and breathe culture; whether they be similar or different, loved or loathed. As I read the article, it reminded me of one of my favorite comm classes at VT called Visual Ethnography. This course challenged me to observe and analyze different cultures and then develop projects to help educate others on that particular group of people. This is where I really learned that I could apply my love for cultures and mix it with communication.

Coca-Cola purposely chose three people of different geographic and ethnic origins and want them to learn about and engage with other cultures around the globe to create a sense of unity for all Coca-Cola consumers around the world.  Talk about a product bringing people together…if any product could do it, I’m confident Coca-Cola can.  Man, this is making me crave that fizz feeling. One day you’re going to see me develop part of a campaign just as brilliant, if not more, than this one.

Here’s the Ad Age article: Behind Coca-Cola’s Biggest Social Media Push

You can also follow Expedition 206 on Twitter @x206.  I think this could potentially be the prototype for a future social media “MTV’s Real World”.

No Mas.

Call it guerrilla marketing: Columbia uses ads to persuade rebels to turn themselves in

I’m glad to see that the Colombian government is using an ad campaign encouraging armed insurgents to defect from the jungle.  Their message platform is based on presenting the disillusions the rebels have about their “revoluntionary” life.  The AdAge article talked about how creative team members interviewed ex-rebels to understand the psychology of being part of las FARC in Colombia and why it’s so hard to get out.  But this ad campaign is different from the ones we know.  They are not cheery.  They are not full of laughter or smiling.  They do not sound like a commercial.  They sound like a war movie.  They sound like people dying.  They sound like fear.  I was trying to embed the commercial in here but it didn’t quite work.  So here is the link to the video.

Here is the AdAge article: Colombia Uses Ads to Persuade Rebels to Turn Themselves In

I’m really happy to see campaigns like this that not only present a harsh truth to the public, but also confront a tough social, political issue.  This reminds me of how powerful marketing can really be if done well.  It’s not just about selling products.  We can sell ideas, too.  We’re in the idea innovation business and I think this campaign is a great idea.  Thumbs up.

• Be sure to check out The CW’s site for all the new video content this week.
• We don’t have ratings yet for last night’s One Tree Hill and Gossip Girl as Nielsen (the company responsible for them) had technical difficulties today.
• The CW Source has podcasts for last week’s OTH and GG.
• MTV has an article on the Blake Lively (Serena, Gossip Girl) feature in Nylon.
• Gossip Girl and 90210 are included in TVGuide.com’s sweeps roundup for this week.
• The Los Angeles Times has a spoilish interview with Jessica Stroup (Silver, 90210).
• PEOPLE.com has a short blurb on the Silver storyline in tonight’s episode.
• EW.com has a spoilish interview with AnnaLynne McCord (Naomi, 90210).
• AdAge has an article on 90210’s partnership with Ford for the Warriors in Pink campaign.
• Modern Salon has an article on copying 90210 hairstyles, but only includes Stroup and Shenae Grimes (Annie).
• Kellan Lutz (George, 90210) said he turned down the lead role in Twilight.
• In an article on Heather Locklear’s return to Melrose Place, 90210 is mentioned a bit. And this one mentions Laura Leighton (Sophie, Beverly Hills 90210).
• E! Online has an interview with Jennie Garth (Kelly, Beverly Hills 90210).
• In the new issue of Entertainment Weekly, McCord’s Naomi is made their list of Top TV Bitches. The EW.com version also includes: Brenda (Shannen Doherty, Beverly Hills 90210), Julie (Melinda Clarke,  The O.C.), Busy Phillips (Audrey, Dawson’s Creek) for her role in Freaks & Geeks and Jessica Walters (Tabitha, 90210) for her role in Arrested Development.
• There’s been conflicting reports that The CW will air the remaining episodes of The Beautiful Life, which starred Mischa Barton (Marissa, The O.C.).
• PEOPLE.com has an interview with Nikki Reed (Sadie, The O.C.).

Anyone in the industry knows Advertising Age is  (www.adage.com) a key publication for all the latest news in advertising.  Their latest article covers the top brands that continued to do well even during the slow economy [http://adage.com/article?article_id=140445].  Some of the brands are well known ones including Cover Girl, DiGiorno, HP, Mt. Dew, Subaru and some more surprising ones… like the Snuggie.  I got the sense that the Snuggie was just a silly info-mercial product made fun of by everyone, but apparently, thanks to its marketing, the Snuggie has become a pop culture hit.  The Snuggie now comes in different designs, including animal prints and college themes, even ones for kids and dogs.  The product is sold in stores such as Bed Bath and Beyond, even Lord and Taylor.  Who would have thought this simple blanket with sleeves would grow to be such a huge success?  That’s the power of marketing.

So I thought I’d start off by sharing some (5 to be exact) of the total time suck blogs currently in my life.  These are the reasons I stay up too late, don’t get as much work done as I want and how I end up staring at a computer for 15 hours everyday.  Since they suck time from my life, I thought I’d share them with you, so they can suck time from your life as well.

A few are funny, a couple are relevant to our culture, some are relevant to marketing and advertising and others are just blogs that I can’t stop looking at, no matter how hard I try. Let time stand still:

Wend Magazine

Seth Godin

Fail Blog

AdFreak

Design Sponge

According to Chris Dickey, in a recent AdAge article, 2010 is the year for retailers to rethink pricing, discounts strategy and start rebuilding their brand value. He states:

“Today many retailers find that their most immediate issue is working their way back out of discount-driven brand-price erosion.”

This really shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone. Learning that consumers were seeking lower prices, many marketers hastily responded with what they “assumed” that meant to women. Companies simply offered discounts, coupons and slashed pricing with little regard to their brand, but more importantly with little understanding of women. As a result, companies have devalued their brands and will now have to spend a great deal of money to restore it.

They weren’t hearing what women were truly seeking – a friend or a partner who would empathize with them through the stressful and challenging recession. I am not suggesting that reduced pricing is not part of the solution, but brand value must be communicated consistently and how the savings are delivered creates the fine line between compromising your brand and winning the short-term purchase as well as the long-term trust and loyalty of women. A January 2009 Marketing Week study conducted by HPI about the effects of the Recession on women, revealed:

• Brands need to communicate they are on women’s side
• Brands need to balance messages with both optimism and empathy
• If you’re a premium brand you can’t suddenly claim to be cheap, but you can make sure they understand the value you offer in terms of the quality of the brand

Highlights of Chris’ article including his suggested steps to slowly return to profitability are noted below. I would add: ALWAYS keep the female in mind. It could help you prevent discounting mistakes other companies have made, or even speed the brand rebuilding process.

Most companies did a fair amount of discounting damage in 2008 and 2009 to merely survive. While this strategy addressed an immediate, sometimes dire, business situation, brands also taught the consumer to wait for a discount. Many brands have set new low-bar expectations for the consumer on what a good price, good deal and good offer is. And while 2010 will certainly not be the year we “get back to normal,” it is the year that many brands have to rethink their discount and pricing strategy to slowly return to higher profitability.

Step 1 – Assess the damage.
For instance, your best consumers have changed their buying patterns in frequency and/or average ticket, eroding short-term and likely long-term lifetime value. You have probably lost some of your best consumers to lower-value competitors, and you’ve grown your base of deal seekers.

Step 2 – Determine where the opportunity is to retrain, reactivate or acquire.
There are five typical segments of consumers ripe for testing your way out of discounting.

1. Loyal consumers
2. New consumers
3. Mid-level consumers
4. Lapsed “best” consumers
5. Prospects who look like best consumers

Step 3 – Develop a comprehensive testing plan to determine how best to increase profit margin and long-term value by segment.
Begin to test retraining these consumers by evolving the offer strategy to determine where the optimal point of response versus margin comes into play. Changing customer behavior takes some time and patience to achieve; be patient.

Step 4 – Learn, evaluate and optimize.
Make  sure you measure everything as you are testing different strategies.

Brands will need to rethink their offer strategy from one purely of discount to one of a price/value balance, with the emphasis on relevant value that will, in turn, justify a premium. It’s not a new challenge, but overcoming it after significant erosion will be a key lever to increased profitability. The good news is, it’s a strategy that can be tested, targeted and optimized — starting today.

For the complete AdAge article, click here.

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Stephanie Holland is President and Executive Creative Director for Holland + Holland Advertising,Email Birmingham, Alabama. Working in an industry that is dominated by men, she is one of only 3% of the female creative directors in the country. Stephanie works mostly with male advertisers, helping them successfully market to women. Subscribe to She-conomy by

Above is a quick interview I did with CC Chapman (@CC_Chapman) at the 140 Conference in LA. As a 21 year old senior I like to see myself as any average adult in the consumer world (with maybe a little bit less money though). But in the eyes of of marketers I am a Millennial. A different animal altogether to advertise to and reach. In this new age where, according to a recent AdAge article, the new Holy Grail of marketing: the consumer connection, is so important, reaching my generation is sometimes a challenge. CC talks about how fast my generation will call you out, and he is right, you can’t just make a connection with us, you also have to offer us real value. Maybe I am a little selfish to want every brand to cater to me specifically, but that is what brands are going to have to learn to do for us.

The second question CC addresses is something I am sure many of my fellow Gen Y’ers have had to deal with, not every boss gets how to reach people our age. I have been fortunate enough that almost everyone I have worked for has completely embraced it, so I never had to grind my teeth behind their back shaking my fist at them. But not everywhere embraces this new form of direct to consumer relations. As CC said, when the Millennials start to take the executive level offices, we will certainly all embrace this new way of catering to our consumers, and will be able to individualize service that much more.

Read more from CC Chapman, he is a genuine guy who will engage with you and teach you.

I read a very good and insightful article in today’s Adage, “Why Digital Agencies are Indeed Ready to Lead” by Jacques-Herve Roubert. I agree with his contention that Digital agencies are indeed ready to lead and as he points out, our company, Ascentium, is demonstrating that in fact with our relationship with Precor, but also increasingly so with some of our other accounts who are looking for to us for ideas and strategy and their traditional agencies for mass advertising.

The reasons for this are many and you pointed out some really good ones regarding where the energy, ideas and innovation is coming from. But the basic underlying reason is rooted in the business model of the big traditional agencies more than anything else. The traditional business model is based on revenue streams from media, not direct billable hours. This means that to be successful, agencies were forced into thinking about media as the prime distribution channel because that is how they make money. Digital agencies are not boxed in that way and as a result, they are able to look more broadly across channels and take a more customer-centric approach to communication than a media or product based approach.

Devotion to gathering customer intelligence across multiple channels online, offline and emerging social channels and then applying that to create customer experiences which produce trackable and measureable results is the key to our success at Ascentium and I believe that same can be said for the other great emerging digital agencies cired as well, like AKQA and TribalDDB. The big agencies are saddled with the innovator’s dilemma and while it won’t be the end of them, it certainly erects a big speed bump to innovation.

I usually try to avoid discussing client-related work in this blog. That said, today I have to mention one client and a very successful initiative they have going. But my reason for doing so is that this project substantiates some important opinions I have regarding the triggers that cause a piece of content not just to make a quick viral splash, but rather to send out lasting ripples.

Back in college I remember late nights working in the studio and watching TV. The local commercials were among my favorite. Shot on video with poor audio and even worse schtick, I came to enjoy the characters running these small furniture retailers, music stores, etc. It was basically modern-day Kitsch. Syracuse’s ‘Bee Bop Shop’ is still in my mind after all this time.

Many years later MicroBilt has sponsored Rhett and Link two Internet comedians to go out and make local commercials.

For me, I Love Local Commercials (a.k.a. ILLC) is a textbook viral marketing story, the central theme of which is authenticity and the critical role it plays in viral transmission.

Here are three ways MicroBilt’s initiative embodies authenticity:

1. It’s true to the grit of the genre. A lot of ‘viral’ video today – while funny –  has high production values. It’s fairly obvious when an agency has been involved because, well, it feels like slick agency content. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but sometimes that slick agency veneer feels like ‘a commercial we couldn’t air on TV’ and I think more people than just me pick up that scent.

Rhett and Link obviously respect the local commercial in all its underproduced glory. The people on screen are obviously being cued off camera. The editing cuts linger just a little longer than they should in places. The on-screen titles are huge typographic clusters complete with blinking phone numbers. In short, rather than try to elevate the production values of local commercials they respectfully adhered to everything that makes local TV the gem in the rough that it is.

2. It’s true to the purpose of the videos. You’ll notice MicroBilt had the courage and clarity to take a big risk by allowing Rhett and Link to be sparing in their sponsorship mentions. The commercials are truly for the businesses being advertised and not shallow shills for MicroBilt. For a sponsoring company to respect the authenticity of the effort that much says something. I’m not the only one who thinks so. A number of the trade mentions about the program have made note of this, commending the decision to do so.

3. It’s true to the strategy of the sponsor. MicroBilt’s reason for being is to help small businesses. That means this project is in line with the strategy, not borrowed interest. Often shock tactics, edgy humor or grossout stunts drive viral content (because they cause it to go viral). This gets impressions but often creates a disconnect with the enterprise behind it. These quick-hit stunt might make an initial splash, but on the A.D.D. Internet they come and go with no lingering impact. Viral material with resonance and authenticity, like the classic Dove real beauty work, continues to make the rounds time and time again because something in these pieces keeps them relevant.

MicroBilt believes in small business so much, they’re helping them promote themselves and treating the iconic local commercial as a piece of cultural art to be celebrated. There’s no disconnect between the execution and the strategy. Owners of small business appreciate it too. So much so that thousands have signed up, or been nominated by others, to get their own commercial. When was the last time a business-to-business company’s clients signed up in droves to be a part of that company’s marketing?

Not surprisingly the consistent display of authentic intention on numerous levels has driven real success by many measures – awareness, engagement, buzz, viral distribution and equally importantly, by giving the hardworking people at MicroBilt something to be very, very proud of.

The campaign has been celebrated by AdAge and national publications. It has stirred a healthy amount of controversy and conversation without going over the line. The whole time Rhett and Link and MicroBilt have been mutually supportive of one another – obviously each respecting the other’s role in the project. ILLC has been picked up by numerous local radio and television programs. It’s been Tweeted about. In short its done exactly what viral is supposed to do, and its done it for a data solutions and risk management company – exactly NOT the type of company you’d expect such a thing from.

Businesses that don’t think they’re sexy or virally inspirational should take heart, anyone can be worthy of buzz if its done right.

The big lesson here, as so many companies try to engineer something to ‘go viral’, is to keep focused on authenticity – to your strategy, your brand and your customers.