Pay with your phone

September 29, 2010 ecommerce / Public Relations / Uncategorized
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In some cites you no longer need to purchase tokens or a metro pass for public transportation. Visa has teamed up with Apple and Blackberry to create an application that will charge transit fares to your Visa by simply waving the enabled smart phone in front of a reader. The idea behind this is to creates faster movement through some of the worlds busiest transit terminals, and also be more convenient for the customer. This means no more line ups to buy tokens or tickets. Currently in North America it is being tested in New York City. I have no doubt that this trial will be a success. It really only takes one visit to New York’s Port Authority during rush hour to see that anything that could possibly speed up the process would be a welcomed change.

For more details check out this article.

– Sandra

The 3D TV Phenomenon

September 17, 2010 Design / Marketing / Public Relations / Television / Uncategorized
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By now just about everyone has seen a 3D movie in the theatre, it’s pretty hard to avoid seeing one anymore. We’ve been hearing about 3D television for over a decade now, but finally it is available in nearly every store you walk into. I was recently out looking at televisions and was amazed at how well these TVs, with the flick of a switch, create a 3D cinema-like effect. As I was looking I began to wonder what it would be like to watch a 3D television every day — would my eyes adjust to them? Perhaps I am just not used to it yet, I feel a little off balance after watching a 3D movie. I got to wondering what kind of strain it would put on my eyes long-term. I considered all of these things, even though a 3D TV is far from being in my budget.

I decided to head to trusty Google and see what people were saying about it. I was shocked to find quite a lot of controversy over the issue. Apparently there have even been warnings issued by the manufacturers to avoid use if you are in poor health, tired, or drinking alcohol, under the age of 6 or over the age of 65. I’m sorry but that is just not cool, the only time I watch TV is when I am tired or not feeling well.

Customers are also cautioned to immediately stop watching 3D pictures and consult a medical specialist if they experience any of the following symptoms: (1) altered vision; (2) light-headedness; (3) dizziness; (4) involuntary movements such as eye or muscle twitching; (5) confusion; (6) nausea; (7) loss of awareness; (8) convulsions; (9) cramps; and/or (10) disorientation. Parents should monitor and ask their children about the above symptoms as children and teenagers may be more likely to experience these symptoms than adults.

Groups considered to be at high-risk for these side effects are; pregnant women, young children, teens, the elderly, people prone to seizures or stroke, people prone to dizziness or motion sickness, people with eye problems, people who are out of shape, and people who have been drinking. It has also been attributed to damaging people’s depth perception.

At this point I got to thinking, am I talking about television or the side effects of medication?! Cool as 3D is, and as much as I enjoy it in the theatre every now and then, maybe its best to wait a little while longer with my HDTV and let this technology develop. In the mean time, perhaps we should pass a law about driving under the influence of TV.

– Sandra

Engine Work – Featuring Tweed Billboards

September 7, 2010 Uncategorized
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Well, it’s September and that means we are all back to work. Speaking of work, this past Labour Day weekend as I was driving up North through Tweed and I saw a couple more of Engine’s creations along side the highway. We work closely with The Eastern Ontario Trails in conjunction with the Municipality of Tweed. I saw these two billboards and had to pull over to take some photos to show you. The first billboard is a welcome sign for the town of Tweed itself, and the second billboard is for the newly completed Tweed Recreation Centre dedicated to Erin Palmateer. It was a pleasure working on both billboards, and as I said a few weeks ago, it is definitely rewarding to see our work out in the public eye. I look forward to seeing, and showing you more in the future. Happy Trails!

www.thetrail.ca
twp.tweed.on.ca

– Kathy

The Cost of Buying Cheap

August 27, 2010 Uncategorized
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There is always a lot of discussion regarding where it is best to shop. We often see campaigns telling us to buy locally owned, but how much difference does it really make?

The majority of consumers look for the cheapest prices when shopping, or the store they perceive to have the lowest pricing. While it feels great to save a few dollars on a shopping trip, lets take a quick look at the actual cost of buying cheaply.

It only takes the most basic economics to figure out that larger chains and box stores can usually undercut the prices of an local or independent store. Here is where it gets tricky, larger stores do incredible amounts of market research to figure out what products people price compare most often, then they make sure those items are priced low, and they make up for these loss leaders in other hidden expenses.

But lets look at the cost apart from the bottom line of your bank statement. What most people don’t think about is the costs to their local community, the environment and their country’s economy. I find it ironic that the same people who talk the most about recession and economic downturns typically tend to be those the most guilty of causing the problem.

Every dollar you spend locally, in a locally owned businesses more than triples in its monetary benefit to your local economy. Local business owners are making long term investments in their/your community, the least we can do is support them and in turn support our own community. The more your purchase locally, the more it also reduces our impact on the environment. Every product or service we import, burns fossil fuels and costs money to transport. Really no matter how you look at it, buying locally is a win-win. The cost of not supporting local companies is simply too high; we voluntarily destroy the future of our own community and country.

I recently got married and I challenged myself to see how much I could support friend’s businesses and local businesses. Where are you shopping?

Check out some people who helped me out with the big day!

Amanda Benton
Thompson Tents
Glamour Junkie
Dresses & Dreams
Richard Davis
Jenna Simpson
Polish Day Spa
Rob Rapino
Studio DK
Avondale Florists

– Sandra

Pop Life: Art in a Material World

August 23, 2010 Art / Design
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This summer, if you are fortunate enough to visit Ottawa, I highly recommend visiting the National Gallery of Canada to see the Pop Life exhibition. It runs from June 11- September 19th.

As it states on the National Gallery website, Pop Life: Art in a Material World explores the complex relationship between contemporary art, marketing, and the mass media that has evolved since the 1980s when Andy Warhol’s uttered his provocative maxim that “being good in business is the most fascinating kind of art.” The exhibition includes over 250 various mediums from paintings, drawings, prints, sculptures, videos, and installations created over the past 30 years. Very cool!

I am most interested in the Damien Hirst performance exhibition featuring twins. The gallery is recreating the 1992 performance where Damien commissioned a set of identical twins to spend time sitting in front of his trademark spot paintings. Dressed in identical clothing, the twins could do various things, as long as their actions were mirroring each other. The original performance was about “surface appearances, individuality, and making a scene”.

Being a twin myself, of course I wanted my sister and myself to apply! How awesome would it be to be a part of the artwork at the National Gallery of Canada! My sister is going next week to see the exhibition.

Other featured artists include Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, Peter Nagy, to name a few. Visit the gallery website for more information.

Damien Hirst
Daniel Oliver & Christopher Oliver (detail), 2009, household gloss paint on wall, chairs and twins, dimensions variable. Installation view: Tate Modern, London, 2009–2010.
© Damien Hirst,
courtesy Science Ltd., London.
Photo: © Tate Photography


If you are not able to go to the Gallery before the exhibition closes, you should go to the online store to order your memorabilia. I think I’d like to get one of the Pantone mugs, or the Keith Haring Radiant Baby watch.

—Kathy

Art or Marketing, you decide!

July 29, 2010 Art / Marketing / Social Media / Uncategorized / Web
2 comments

Yesterday, Mashable featured a piece on a new video where a “Guy Walks Across America” that is quickly hitting viral status. At first glance, it seems like a project that can be considered a work of art. I have a hunch that this may be a subtle marketing campaign, but you be the judge:


READ MORE TO SEE MY THOUGHTS

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New Internet Spice

July 22, 2010 Advertising / Marketing / Social Media / Web
1 comment

Last week, the internet saw one of the most popular viral campaigns of all time! Old Spice teamed up with Wieden + Kennedy to bring “The Man Your Man Can Smell Like” guy, portrayed by actor Isaiah Mustafa, to fans by creating a series of personalized Youtube responses.

How great was this campaign for exposure?

In a 24 hour period, they were able to get:
•    180+ videos created
•    5.9 million views
•    22,500 comments

We can compare this to other notable viral videos and see that it beats out influential people like Obama and Bush.

(Via Mashable)

I will have to agree with Iain Tait, Wieden + Kennedy’s Global Interactive Creative Director , when he says, “In a way there’s nothing magical that we’ve done here, we just brought a character to life using the social channels we all use every day. But we’ve also taken a loved character and created new episodic content in real time.”

They used many of the principals for social media success that have been discussed thoroughly around the internet. This campaign engaged consumers, added value to their lives, was created in a human voice and was done in a timely fashion. Let me explain:

  • Engage Even if the personalized was response wasn’t written directly to you, it still felt like he was in your bathroom answering questions.
  • Add Value This is something that consumers had never seen before, a global national brand reaching out to its consumers through a ‘brand mascot’.  You simply HAD to tell all your friends that would care!
  • Human Voice Even though it was a global-national brand, it felt more like a simple sketch comedy bit. It felt real, it felt human.
  • Timely The fact that these responses were sent out in real-time is unbelievable and makes this campaign a huge success – it was about conversation.

I am hard-pressed to call this campaign a success, yet. I would still want to see how this campaign had an impact on sales before we start creating case studies that will be looked at until the end of time. I have no doubt that there is a positive influence on the bottom line, but at the very least I think this campaign has reinforced the “new and youthful” revival to the Old Spice brand.  I also believe that this has opened up a chasm of potential in how brands can now communicate with their consumers.

What are your thoughts?

Making the Best Out of a Media Frenzy

July 9, 2010 Uncategorized
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I saw something beautiful last night. Yes, it was ‘The Decision’ on TSN (ESPN). No, I am not an avid basketball fan who is joining the Miami fan bandwagon. If anything, I am a little disappointed to see another Raptor star leave Toronto (Stoudamire, McGrady, Carter and now Bosh). Sorry, not the right blog for this… back to marketing.

Over the last couple days, the media has been drooling over where arguably one of the best NBA players of all time, Lebron James, will be playing next year.  After seven years in Cleveland without a championship, Lebron felt it might be time to move on.

What do you get when you put ‘The most sought-after free agent of all time’, ‘6 NBA teams that would do anything to get him’, ‘a huge mass of intrigued fans’ and ‘media boosting his ego from every angle’?

The ability to create an event (or spectacle) that benefits a great cause!

All the proceeds from this televised event, where Lebron James announced he would be joining the Miami Heat, went to the Boys and Girls Clubs of America. We saw ads from:

Hotels.ca, Redbull, Nestea, Moores, McDonalds, Degree, Shell, ABC (World cup coverage), Vitamin Water, Bing, TSN (the OPEN coverage), Red Lobster, OH! Henry, Sapporo, Mercedes-Benz, University of Phoenix, Nissan Versa, Lenscrafters & Malibu Rum

Along with the five scholarships from the University of Phoenix, I am interested to hear how much money will be raised from the event/six city tour.

I think it is amazing that people were quickly able to turn this media frenzy into something that can tangibly help people. I know a lot of sports fans think this was a joke and many people could have guessed he was going to Miami to join Wade and Bosh. They criticized him for this just being an ego-driven televised special to boost his ego, but it wasn’t.

Sure, he could have just done a press conference and been done with it. The build up that gathered over 150,000 Twitter followers in 7 hours was critical to making this a success that companies were dying to be a part of.

Brilliant is all I can say.

What are your thoughts?

Creative or Crazy?

July 8, 2010 Advertising / Art / Marketing
5 comments

Sir Pennywise - Community Bank

I used to live in a small town in Southern New York. In June of 2007 someone decided that it would be a great idea to raise money for charity while advertising for local businesses. This was accomplished using four-foot tall fiberglass squirrels. You know, kind of like the moose you see sometimes around Toronto, but not really. In Olean, NY, a person, or business could purchase one of these squirrels and customize it however they pleased. These sculptures were then places all over town, in front of businesses, along the streets, in parks, you name it, there are squirrels everywhere. To date there are twenty-five squirrels and counting.

Many businesses decided to decorate these squirrels as part of their local advertising. It was a visible sign of their contribution to the community. Interesting idea, in my opinion, perhaps a good idea gone wrong. Part of what made it so funny was you

Ronald McSquirrel - McDonalds

could walk down the street and see five squirrels before you would meet another person. I used to live just down the street from Ronald McSquirrel, I have to admit it never really made me want to go to McDonnalds. Had it not been located right across from the police station I would have put a paper bag over its head. Honestly, check it out! It is a little creepy.

Okay, seriously though, despite my little rant about the squirrels, I love it when people come up with innovative ideas. I also love to see businesses getting involved in the local community.  I might not be a big fan of this particular project, but I can’t argue with the fact that everyone talks about it. We take pictures of them, and I personally can’t deny a few late night Olean squirrel-hunting adventures. I have to acknowledge that in many ways Olean’s “Woodland in the City” campaign seems to be a success, and they have raised a lot of money to build a museum for children downtown. So tell me what you think, creative or crazy?

Cutter - Cutco Knife Factory

Florence Squirrelingale, RN - Olean General Hospital

Lady Justice - Dwyer, Black & Lyle PPC

Nutty O’ St. Nick - Olean Chamber of Commerce

Social Media Platforms to Share your Work

July 5, 2010 Art / Social Media
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The following is a part of our One For the Creative Types Series. We are looking to help people transform their web presence from “starving artist” to “social media savvy entrepreneur.”


As you start to settle into the social media space, you are constantly inundated with news about “the next great social network.” You proceed to sign up to everything but let most of the accounts idle. Does this sound familiar?  I know it does for me.  It is amazing how many of the Twitter accounts out there are rarely used.

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