Posts Tagged ‘Funny’

Storytelling. A Day in New York and an Insight about Marketing.

If you are a regular reader of my blog or if you follow me on twitter you might know that I spend this week in New York City. I am not working or attending a conference. I am just here on vacations, meeting friends and having a good time. While I spent the day exploring Manhattan (once again) I was run over by the same impressions that most foreigners are faced with when they return to the Big Apple for the first time in a while – it’s an inspirational overkill.

Of course, you cannot compare NYC to, let’s say, my hometown Frankfurt. But on the other hand – why not? Let’s just focus on something you can compare, even though both cities vary in size, culture and history drastically. Let’s just compare products and how they are presented. And when I thought about how NYC markets its goods I instantly found out what’s missing in Germany – heart and soul in selling products. That’s the result of 5 hours of just walking south from Greenwich to Chinatown.

Kiosk – 95 Spring Street, Soho

Kiosk is a highly unusual but very, very cool mixture of a folk museum and a cross-cultural retail-venture of everyday-items. Encounter helpful stuff in use in Portugese kitchens, Chinese kindergardens or German Scout Camps. Every item is presented with a short heritage about its sense, function and why it’s so special.
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Social Media. How we forgot about Fun.

Everybody who works in digital marketing, especially in social, talks about fast little concepts. My team likes to call this ’speedboat strategies’. And it’s based on the concept of unconventional or adaptive marketing – launch many cheap, engaging ideas and kill the ones which don’t work. Play with the ones which are fast enough and make them better. That’s basically the broad marketing approach for a time which does not believe in big ass TV commercials anymore.

Social Influence Marketing plays an important role here. Not understood as execution of tools but as the brand’s reaction to a user who acts and reacts 24/7. And in fact it’s not strategy creation in the first place that challenges us. It is its execution. Social effects cannot be properly planned. They can be initiated, they can be encouraged…but they cannot be put in conventional marketing plans and KPI’s. It’s dynamic, that’s the good and the bad thing about it.

But let’s be honest. There is one thing called strategy. And then there is another thing called Fun. I love to talk to clients how they might be able to open up one day, what they might be able to gain, etc. But just starting a social process and watching people have fun with it, is just glorious. This week I started two of these processes. And both were cool.

  • Facebook Fanpage 1: Keine Sonderbriefmarke für Dr. Helmut Kohl (“A special stamp for Helmut Kohl”) – Yes, that’s a weird one. A colleague of mine got a Friend Request you get by one of these guys from first grade on Facebook. He accepted and got an invitation 5 minutes later to a public pledge to the German Parliament to print a special stamp for our former chancellor Helmut Kohl. This bizarre movement even made it to Facebook and Youtube in order to recruit 50,000 people signing up for this pledge (to make the parliament start the process). Personally I don’t like Helmut Kohl. But what’s even more important is, that there are unresolved claims of corruption and a very arrogant old chancellor who still believes he has unified Germany on his own. That’s why I started the Fanpage “No stamp for Helmut Kohl” with 340 Fans in 2 days and it is still growing. Not big but funny.
  • Facebook Fanpage 2: Postfits. Two colleagues of mine had a good idea yesterday. They took Post-It notes, drew something on it and attached them to their heads. The result – they looked like Pirates, Piggies or whatever. Simple and stupid fun. So we created Postfits (Post-It + Outfit = Postfit) and asked for user pics. Just for the kicks of it. By now we have had a lot of fun, a lot of cool pics by many people and 200 Fans in 24 hours (and all of them had a good laugh). Check out Postfits here and join the party. :-)

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IKEA. Do You Need a Hand?

There are ads and then there are ads. The clever, simple and intriguing idea below does three things at once (which is not common for German creation anymore): It describes a problem, it solves it using the brand’s means and it’s not just award-focused Zombie creation. High five Grabarz & Partner. I love it.


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Chat Roulette. If you turn your head I win.

Old Spice. The Most Effective Commercial in the History of Everything.

I have to admit, I really love traditional advertising once in a while. Old Spice shows how it is getting done: Create a strong idea, and execute it brilliantly…wow. I am sure, this is the most effective commercial ever – even though it makes me feel woefully inadequate. High five Old Spice. It’s diabolic and I love it.

Agency Strike. Belgian Agencies show the Finger.

Basically it’s an update to my post from yesterday which reacts on Bud’s article about the future of agencies. Today the agencies of Belgium went on strike to protest against the erosion of pitch norms. They synchronized their websites to display one message which you can click through one after another and jump from website to website – an impressive act of resistance against what seems to be the sad truth in the industry nowadays.

I have posted the screenshots of all 14 pages below. The virtual strike will only last for a week.



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Code Monkey. A Hymn for the Industry.

Jonathan Coultron is a singer and songwriter from NYC. His song Code Monkey has been around for some time but it took me until today to find it on thesixtyone.com. And it’s a fantastic song – a hymn for a whole industry. Check it out here and sing along

Charlie Brooker. Your Own News Report Template in a Nutshell.

Oh, and as I was in the process to write about cynical DIY ways to create your own PR drama, here is a brilliant analogy – creating your own dramatic news flick out of nothing. Or to be more precise, creating something which looks like news but is just a format. The Guardian’s Charlie Brooker demonstrates a literal version of any piece of outdoor news report on TV nowadays. It looks serious. And by god, it is (via brandflakesforbreakfast).

Apple. Inside the App Store’s Rejection Department.

The unparalleled freedom of Web 2.0 can nowhere be witnessed as fully as in Apple’s App Store. Well, of course there is criteria to become part of this exclusive digital warehouse – clear, transparent criteria to leave no room for speculation how to get in there. And in order to stop everyone with bad or fake ideas to take advantage of them, Apple, and you, the user, Apple has now opened the doors to its App Store Rejection Department. Thanks to Chris for this link.

Ad spoofs. And now here comes MAFIA WARS.

You have probably watched the hilarious Farmville ad spoof last week. Well, as every successful entertainment concept needs a sequel, here is it – the Mafia Wars ad spoof. It is basically a remixed version of the original spot but we like it nevertheless…kind of (5 out of 10 points because of a lack in originality). Thanks to allfacebook for the link.

Davaidavai? What’s that?

Hi, I am Gerald Hensel and I am your host tonight.

Davaidavai is a blog about the stuff which drives my professional life. Digital ideas, social media, advertising in and beyond the 1s and 0s that seem to have taken control of pretty much everything… I work as strategic concept developer for Neue Digitale / Razorfish in Frankfurt, Germany. If you wamt to check out what I do beyond davaidavai, simply follow this link. And don't forget to send me a message...

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