Yesterday I attended my first TED conference, the TEDxHamburg. It was a day of great inspiration and I definitely got a whole bunch of new insights to bring into my everyday work. For some photos and resources from the event feel free to have a look at my post on weareyouneak.com.

Brooklyn born blog International Tapes an attempt to contextualize cassette culture in a global setting; showcasing content ranging from lost tapes found from around the world, new music, and artist interpretations of the modern mixtape.

To me, this is one great example for a person sharing its passion with the world, collecting & sharing otherwise forgotten sounds and at the same time inspiring others to digg deeper into the materia or stand up for their “nerdism” as well. Even if you think you are alone with your interest, you never really are. There is always someone just like you. The internet connects and gives everyone a voice.

Things have been pretty busy the last months. A lot of new challenges and even more to come. I really did treat this blog a little like an unloved stepchild and fell in love with the simplicity of tumblr. Check out my A.D.O.M. tumblr for some inspirational input in forms of video that I have been trying to collect there, giving it no comment. Be sure to check out Weareyouneak.com as well to get a perspective on fashion related stuff and some private photography works in collaboration with Sevda Albers. Will try to live more like I preach in the future, but you gotta experiment a bit huh? So here comes just a short video by Vans. Love the emotion it transports, not to mention the sound by Flying Lotus. Pure dope!

An interview with Sylvester Stallone on the “Expendables”. Not really an an epic idea, but I do like it. On the one hand because I am an old Sylvester Stallone fan (Yes, I am a child of the 80ies…) and on the other hand because I like small details that make the difference. I think this is one of those things that CAN make your campaign go wild. But the more the better, and if the base ain’t right even mechanics like this don’t matter. But so far… Share or die!

Hell yeah, I love it! Besides making really strong quality-products for different occasions, they manage to communicate in a way that is just right. To launch their new series of iPad accessories, Incase “teamed up” with three, let’s say personalities that are the target-group and strong influencers of the target-group at the same time. I guess this is what you call authentic, isn’t it? The campaigns do not put product in the foreground so that you as a customer do not feel like you are a victim of cheap product placement. It rather uses the Incase product as well as the iPad itself and gives a lot of room for how the main character(s) use(s) the product. This could be an image movie for both Incase, Apple, the artist as well as the company behind the app shown. Using photos, video and audio to present the campaign (all sharable), does not make it worse.

Social Media, the big buzz-word of the last years and it’s latest and fastest growing service “Twitter” still seems to be one of the most controversial ones. Some love it, some hate it. But like all the other services like Myspace, MeinVZ, Facebook etc it always depends on what you want to do with it. Different people use different services in a totally different way than others. Exchange information with people you like or admire, meet old and new friends, connect in order get your business going, play on your virtual farm, collect information from a general point of view or a specific area etc. There are countless combinations and the social networks work as highly complex filters from all the stuff on the internet that each individual can customize for it’s own needs. One thing that most brands or causes want or should try to reach is engagement. That is where the true strength of those networks lies and that is exactly what our initiative was about. Don’t tell Ashton. Engage people through taking something relevant for them in order to get them to participate in the “Don’t tell Ashton”-Movement and at the same time give them something back. Through letting them be part of the artwork, the term “social currency” got visualized like seldom before. As you can see from the various feedback regarding the project and the happy ending, will say the delivery of the final artwork personally to Ashton through delegates from our class, this sure was a year well spent bringing lots of new insights.

As you might have noticed I am a big fan of Nike’s sneakers, especially the Air Max 1 and a lot that Nike does in “supporting” subculture or sports I am a fan of as well. This though really is a fail in my opinion because of mainly three things. The branding, the availability and the content itself. Nike here claims to be the supplier of the “true” city, giving the do-ers and watchers of different subcultures, that in any way are connected to Nike or Nike wants to be connected with, a platform they can share their personal experiences and views on. Additionally it is filled up with new and upcoming limited Nike products and places of purchase of course. But is that what those people want and this spirit lives on? Yes, it may be nowadays in a world where sharing becomes currency. But will it still be trustworthy and reliable when branded this way by a big brand? You have to keep in mind that you will have to compete with all the other already trustworthy and more or less independent sources of information. I doubt it will and that people will want to participate, especially with other forums around that have been born by the spirit of the thing itself and not as a marketing idea born in the office of an ad-agency. From the subculture point of view I would almost call this way of branding intrusion. This goes hand in hand with the second point, the availability. Why just launch an iPhone-app without the “True City” platform being based on a website that everybody can access and be a part of, especially the ones being a part of the city-life willing to contribute to “True City”. Yes, the iPhone is my phone of choice as well, but does this audience/target-group have to be locked this much? I think it would have been a great add-on to a web-based platform. This way it feels more like part of a fancy case-movie in a portfolio of an ad-agency, but nothing more. It just does not help the cause or business of “True City”. The third thing I really do not understand is how this app can be launched almost empty? Where is the content that makes it useful for users and brings the motivation for contributors? Just asking a handful of “the usuals” and letting them name a handful of their true city spots simply isn’t enough to make this app run and makes it look almost desperate. I will be greatly surprised if this is going to be a successful stunt other that for someones portfolio. This is just not what it (Nike) wants and claims to be. Check the campaign-site including an introduction video here. Sorry Nike, but Adidas’s “Urban Art Guide” beats you “by head and shoulders”!

I got a really split opinion about the American Apparel’s ads. On one hand I find them really sexist and think the models should at least look a bit older and not like 16 or even younger. But on the other hand I think it just suits the brand and puts the products in focus. Nothing more and nothing less. And I honor the fact that it underlines and is honest about the fact that indeed sex does sell. Also the style just is “state of the time” and the continuous communication has helped the brand selling regular basic styles and regular quality at a really high price. Of course it could not last long before someone on any of my social-networks started to spread the word about their latest campaign, the “Best Bottom Contest“. Girls make a photo of their bump, upload it and the visitor can vote. If you take a look at the stats of each photo, it is incredible how many views each post gets and how many girls have uploaded a photo to participate. This fast spreading takes place because of the interest that both the girls as well as the visiting guys/girls have. Everyone wants to get the most votes and guys want to tell their friends what cool site they just found. To do that, you share the link. In this case through direct linking to your facebook or twitter account. As the winner of this contest you get to be the next “butt-model” and the 10 first contestants get a voucher for over 300$ to spend at American Apparel. If you see this from an AA-cost perspective you keep pretty low costs on your campaign and even get a crowdsourced model for your next print-ads on the road. Pretty smart, huh?

This new short film by Spike Jonze “I’m here” (or at least it’s trailer) has been spreading pretty fast during the last week. While many so called collaborations really are intrusive and you get the feeling that you actually got nothing more than old fashioned advertising with one of the parts just putting their stamp on something, this really is the Spike Jonze style you would expect and it’s pureness fits perfectly to the one Absolut Vodka stands for. While Absolute may not profit from this collaboration in direct increasing sales, it sure is a long lasting brand-building key as well as an honest commitment to the work and person of Spike Jonze. Read more about the background and details on theinspirationroom.com. Just last week, Great Works launched the site for the upcoming movie here. The site is clean, built like a cinema and you get to navigate it as if you were the visitor. With some small background infos, cast and director, trailer and the small but important option to share the content, you’ll also find a blog about the film. Usually this is the part of a website where you tend to get “unfiltered” background info, pics related to anyone part of the projects, thoughts etc as well as place for visitors to discuss and share their views in the comments. I tend to call it the soul of any project, website or brand. Here unfortunately, it contains just another short info about where the film can be seen the next two months and nothing else. I you do not intend to fill the blog, why even bother making one? This way it looks even more dead than without a blog at all. Hope to see this “small” detail change soon, because otherwise I really love this concept!

I just stumbled upon this new site/concept by New Balance. Like many other sneaker brands, NB has long had the problem of being “face-less” and having a hard time differentiating from their competitors. Aparts from using collaborations as a tool to give a brand more personality, grabbing theme or behaviour widely spread in the “target-group” also is great tool. By creating the mentor “William Moustache” and giving him a digital life throughout all the relevant channels like in this case the fastest growing social-media network in Germany Facebook, you give people a chance to connect and at the same time interact with him. On the landing page of the Moustache Club, the visitor can choose between visiting the blog, where he can send in his own pictures and interpretations of a moustache and participate in a challenge, going direct to the New Balance Main Page as well as connecting to the caracter. Using the fashion- and streetwear-tradeshows like the Bright for launch and bringing the Club to “real life” is in my opinion a great timing for catching even more ambassadors to the brand and concept. The blog and challenge is also featured as sites on Facebook and available on Twitter. Allover I think this is a really nice concept and a good execution, but I kind of miss the direct connection and easy access to a direct conversion. It’ll be interesting to see how this concept will be growing (or not).