Viva La Revolución

Porching those Spanish Lessons / Cutting a Red Thread in the Digital Disco

Austin McKenna is a 12th Level Ad Wizard...

Sadly, I’m one of the few staffers here that wields zero command of a foreign language. I can count to ten in Spanish, order a ham sandwich in French (avec moo-tard), and know that Deutsch means German, in German, but that’s about the extent of my functional literacy. However, it dawned on me while extolling the merits of some banged up web widget to a gaggle of non-admen friends at a dinner party recently, I actually do speak a second language, one which is nearly impossible to follow by laymen and is entirely rooted in a pirated, highly nefarious reinterpretation of the King’s English. Jargon-driven, chock full of marcom buzz words, rife with acronyms, it’s learned in boardrooms and on conference calls, certain gems passed down by mentors or via an addiction to our industry trades. Both preposterous, and terribly genius, this new parlance often suggests replacing once-simple directives with “actionable” nouns, thereby creating all new uses for common household items, like the table and couch.

Many of us leverage scalability and engage measurability metrics on countless calls during a workday, but it’s the devotion to furniture-driven analogies that really plusses out this lingua franca. For instance, “couching” an idea is solid, as is “tabling” a strategy, and how many of us “carpet” key markets as a means to ensure the big idea “rugs” under our heroics? Most points possible: our campaign was “stove” by the accountants. “Stove”, both a cooking apparatus, and the act of being delivered to the bottom of the ocean by a whale, achieves perfect application.

Weapons and soldiering also make for good vocabulary, and seriously ratchet up the urgency of any sentence: The campaign is tanking. Let’s unleash the full arsenal, page the silver bullet and execute the surgical strike, our guerilla teams are in the trenches, we can pound the beaches with staggered salvos, bangalore the CRM department, buttress vanguard communications with blanket message, and redeploy resources as needed. When the brick and mortar guys sack the cloaking strategy, we counter with human capital – that’s mission critical.

I’d propose heavier attention to Hollywood, clearly an untapped resource for mach-five jibber jabber. Rewrites are rewrites, but pulling a Weinstein while green rooming a hostile client, demands the tissue session comes with a rider. Alternatively, we gaff the ROI modeling exercise and put the second unit on brief detail.

Smell a curtain call. Laptop requires percussive maintenance.

Off to make sausage thereby operationalizing the mouse potatoes.

SCOTT GOODSON'S CANNES LIONS BLOG

The following passages are from Scott Goodson's guest blog for AdWeek during the week of Cannes.

Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Am leaving for Cannes on Wednesday night with my Frog colleague Kerry Quinn. Looking forward to the ruckus. Was supposed to be there today, but we made the final of a rather exciting pitch that culminates tomorrow at high noon. The anticipation of it all has inspired me for the last few yards to the pitch finish line. The dash to the airport. The old friends, new friends, the work, the meetings, the bar of great gutters. All rather fun and very inspiring—in small doses, of course.
Last year as a member of the Titanium jury, I was whisked here and there, had my personal door opener, valet parking service. This year I’m a pack rat, and rather looking forward to it. All the stress and pressure of judging ... I’m actually looking forward to putting my feet up and enjoying it all.

I most look forward to:
1) The globality of it all. Hanging out with great talent from Tokyo to Toronto, from Sweden, Holland, Brazil, Mongolia, New Zealand, Russia, India. This is the true greatness of Cannes. Much like the thrill of the global family coming together at the Olympics.
2) Seeing a ton of work. There’s nowhere else on the planet where you can peruse warehouse loads of category work. You work on shoes? Well, the shoe industry will run 793 TV spots from around the world at 1 p.m. You do digital work for cars? Salon H from 7 a.m. until midnight.

Finding the Perfect New York Dog

Caroline Jackson writes:

Whoa. This can be a really really really tough task. I have been desperately wanting a pooch to call my own for about 2 or 3 years now. They are just so damn cute. And nothing beats the unconditional love of man’s best friend. Apart from the whole responsibility thing (walking them, no more late nights, no more spur of the moment vacations, will my land lord let me have a dog in my apartment, paying for doggie daycare, picking up after your beloved pup on the street ), holding me back is the quandary of what breed to get. This decision is only heightened living in new york city. You need a dog that appreciates the indoors, because of this a dog that doesn’t shed too much & isn’t too smelly. One that doesn’t need exorbitant amounts of exercise, isn’t too big (especially if you live in a typically small apartment like me). But at the same time, I don’t want a small dog. Because lets face it, if I wanted a small dog I could just get a cat or a bunny rabbit (no offence to small dog owners – this is merely my humble opinion. I know plenty of people who love small dogs – Paris Hilton comes to mind).

So with the all the aforementioned things to think about, plus the fact that there is a lot of pressure to adopt a furry friend from a shelter or the pound, it’s a lot for a city girl to think about.

Some of my favorite dogs like the Bernese Mountain Dog, Great Dane, Newfoundland, Mastiff, Old English Sheep Dog – are all too big. And lets face it, with their long coats they get pretty smelly. And they shed.

My all time favorite Boarder Collie or the Australian Shepherd need too much exercise. Apparently if in a confined space too long as a puppy they get depressed and destructive. These dogs need a purpose – a job, if you will. They were bred to be working dogs, so they need a daily task. There are no cattle or sheep in the city to round up that I know of.

My boyfriend is obsessed with German Wired Haired pointers. I think they’re pretty ugly (in a cute dog-like way of course), so it’s lucky they also need plenty of exercise. Off the list.

The consideration set shrinks with the long list of criteria. I think the French Bulldog is pretty cute but they are a dime a dozen these days. Same with the Puggle (pug/poodle – sounds like a pretty horrible combination but very cute).

Anyway, lots to think about, more research to do. I will be sure to keep you apprised of my progress.

The Ultimate Park Checklist

Caroline Jackson writes.......

I happen to love spending time in the park. A few weekends ago, a friend and I took a leisurely stroll through Central Park (one of my faves – a little out of the way so a special treat too) but when we were ready to set up camp, we realized a bunch of things we wish we brought. To avoid being super jealous of your next blanket neighbors, here is a checklist of what not to go to the park without!

Some sort of Coffee - Just because you are nursing a hangover doesn't mean you should waste a wonderful day at the park! A coffee product will help. Personally, I like to enter the park at West 86 Street. If you are entering there - be sure to stop at the Starbucks on West 86th and Columbus. I would first use the bathroom and then order a grande skim latte, or if it is super hot (like today) an simple iced coffee should do the trick. Or if you can find a Dunkin Donuts (not too hard I should imagine) the new Tropicana iced smoothie is to die for!

A sheet or blanket - Who wants grass stains on their Sunday best – not me!

FENG SHUI MARKETING

Scott Goodson Writes:

We all want more fortune and prosperity in our lives. So, come on, think about this for a moment. Rather than standing around and waiting for something positive to happen, make use of the powers of “Feng Shui Marketing”. What is “Feng Shui Marketing”, you ask? It is marketing using the principles of Feng Shui and thinking of marketing environments as one would think about Feng Shui and physical space. Physical or virtual, the same rules apply in my mind.

Feng Shui is a Chinese philosophy that has existed for more than 4000 years. It’s about arranging environments to make better use of them. The underlying principle is to live in harmony with an environment so that the surrounding energy works for you rather than against you.

These days, more and more people think about ads as environments – to not only convey a message to people, but to encourage a dialogue with them that makes both of them and the brand emerge stronger and happier every day this relationship continues.

Feng Shui says you’ll attract fortune and prosperity with beautiful and asthethically pleasing ads more than you will with ugly ads. Feng Shui marketing can also increase business profitability, gain competitive advantage, enhance both creator and audience well-being, maximize health, wealth and happiness to run a successful communications campaigns. Feng Shui marketing can reduce stress and turn adversity into your advantage.

JOOST AWSOME DUDE

Scott Goodson writes:

Today, I installed Joost and took it for a test ride. It was joost awesome. Very easy to install. Joost click and snap, you're live. The birth of on-demand television on the internet is here (what took so long!), and it's going to be joost amazing. User interface is typically not the first priority of new technological wonders. But this beaut is joost smooth. Playback was joost wonderful on my wireless connection here in the StrawberryFrog Pond in the penthouse atop a building on Madison Ave. Couple of beta early kinks? Here's a quick comparison to my Optimum HDTV package.
- Joost has to work on its video quality, but then again I'm watching it on my Mac and not on a Samsung HDTV.
- Optimum costs an arm and a leg. Joost is, well, free.
- Optimum has a bunch of first rate films I can watch at will on demand for 4.95 a pop. Joost has National Geographic.
- "Ok, ok," you say..."you're being hard". Ok, channel selection is great if you like cartoons from 1830 and TV sitcoms from when I was a wee lad, and lots of nature programming. But then again this is Beta and the reason they're live is because they want to attract hot content. To be fair, they've got some hot stuff on there too...P Diddy belts it out, Comedy Central, MTV and VH1 are there as well as other quality channels. CBS has announced that it will add the entire CSI franchise to Joost, plus a string of other hits including NCIS, Numb3rs, the CBS Evening News, CBS Sportsline, Survivor and Showtime Boxing. Joost lovely as I am a Katie Couric fan!
- But by and large, once they get the new platform onto a Mac or PC near you, content is joost so important for this brand to thrive. Now the business model...it's a planned advertising channel. So you will see short adverts paying for the content. But this is joost the start and as a marketing mind, I can already envison some really fresh and innovative ways to deliver digital content. What's really cool is, ultimately, this content will be wireless and mobile and joost that, in a nutshell is what separates Joost from the old boys. I am a fan, and once the programming revs up a notch I'll be joost a bigger fan. As I suspect many people will be too.

In sum...this review hasn't given this fresh innovation joostice, it's lovely and sassy. I give it joost 4.5 stars.

GET TO KNOW:

Justin Luke writes:

Esopus: One of my favorite magazines. Published twice-yearly, it features great perspectives on art, photography, music, and literature. The presentation is beautiful. Printed with special papers, materials, etc. And the price is right...$10! You cannot find a magazine of this caliber for $10. )

Vvork.com: A wild site. Hosted by an online collective of artists, curators, editors, and designers that publish random stuff (random arty stuff). Circles, body building, calculators, hair metal bands, shopping carts, post-it notes... you’ll find it all at vvwork.com.

Change the Model, Change the world

Today, our CEO, Scott Goodson is chairing the 2007 Global Future Marketing Summit.

If you couldn't make it, don't fret. We're posting Scott's keynote speech in its entirety here on the blog.

Scott's Keynote Speech:

Good morning, everyone. I’m Scott Goodson, founder of StrawberryFrog and Chairman of the 2007 Global Future Marketing Summit, New York. Let me welcome you to the future.

Welcome to March 5, 2017...

GLOBAL SOUL BRANDING: PART 3

Scott Goodson writes:

Another trend in Global Soul Branding is "Riding the Oceans” - the idea that the blue parts of our planet can tell us more about cultural movements than the continents.

This is a world of old assimilations and new migrations, and we are perhaps at the moment very lucky to be at this stage. Here ethnic identity is not yet blurred and the world is in an exciting state of mixing and mingling and transferring of tastes. It may not last.

Take as an example the ever-growing online gaming experience phenomena. In some cases communities are continental, but most of the time global, where players are playing and chatting for hours with the same people. In this give-and-take, you get to know people and their real, as well as their virtual world. In the latter the process never stops: the world evolves round the clock hence the status of your character may change even while you sleep.

Aficionados of this world develop their networks hoping from contact to contact, meeting in forums. They know the events happening in their own country as well as any other on the planet. If not physically traveling there, they know all about it via the Internet.

I am personally engaged in the WORLD SUDOKU LEAGUE. Every day at midnight GMT a new Daily Sudoku board is uploaded to World Sudoku League and can be accessed both from the World Sudoku League website and via the Sudoku Master 3 mobile game. The scores from each Daily Sudoku board can be found at the Scoreboard page. You can browse older scoreboards through the calendar at the same page. All acquired scores are applied towards your World Sudoku League ranking.

All this contagious globalism is yours, for a small price. Or even free if you want it, on sites like www.netbabyworld.com/

GLOBAL SOUL BRANDING: PART 2

Scott Goodson writes:

What is the Global Soul?

The co-founder of StrawberryFrog, Brian Elliott put it this way:

“Back when we were envisioning what Strawberry Frog could be, we recognized the emergence of a Global Soul—a universal mindset, an electromagnetic current of people and ideas circling the globe. We saw how people in the Americas, Europe, Africa and Asia are influenced by ideas from miles away. Different cultural backgrounds collaborating can capture that common core.”

Pico Lyer describes these values in his book “The Global Soul.”  Born to Indian parents, raised back and forth between England and the United States, and living now in Japan when he's not visiting some far-flung corner of the earth, Pico Lyer calls himself "a mongrel," part of a fast-growing population of global souls who exist in many cultures all at once "and so fall in the cracks between them."

What do marketers need to know about this global soul? It is about opportunity, but it’s also about a greater sense of peril. Universal insight into human values increasingly joins more and more of us around the world, but not in the form of one top down advertising campaign. Rather its through new technology, tools, and understanding of our new world that we can help marketers attract a unified mosaic of diversity.

The way to understanding this is by looking at trends in the cultural conversation.  For now, let’s talk about one that marketers cannot ignore (expect more to be coming soon)  – "The Active Mosaic” - How yesterday’s melting pot or salad bowl is becoming a continuous amalgamation of random cultural influences.