Caffeinated posts from a copywriter/adgrunt. I write about advertising, design, astronomy, cooking, and pretty much anything else that strikes my fancy, including random bits of reference info for work purposes. You may also know me as 'that other gal' who helps run Adland. | make contact | RSS Feed | ATOM

Tuesday, October 31, 2006
[ :: sidetracks :: Happy to see you ]

+ Yes, elephants are self aware. You can now continue on your way.

[ :: adgruntie :: Good client? ]

+ An article titled 50 ways to leave your client lists some ways to identify a good client.

Here's what great clients look like:

* They want to learn from you. They ask questions, listen attentively, and take your suggestions. They believe in your expertise and are willing to work with you to achieve a goal.

* They have a point of view and express it openly. They let you know where they're "coming from" and why, and clue you in on their thoughts. If there are cultural or political hot buttons looming, they alert you and gladly tell you where they stand.

* They don't look for a way to upstage you. They see you as part of the team and build you up in front of colleagues.

* They don't have power-play needs. They're confident in themselves and in you. They hired you, trust you to produce the work they contracted for, and support you wholeheartedly.

* They seek and are open to new and different perspectives. They realize the power of many diverse ideas and how the whole is often greater than the sum of the parts. They value the diversity of thought that you bring to the table.

* They don't see the work engagement as either career-making or career-breaking. They realize that one project doesn't a career make, and they aren't on pins and needles watching every move you make.

* They've already figured out the value proposition for using your services. They don't continually require that you validate your worth. They recognize that you can help them become more successful by letting you do the work you've been contracted to do, in partnership with them.

* They accept that you don't have all of the answers. They recognize that while you have insight and experience, the collective wisdom of the two of you or you and a client project team is valuable.

* They respect your knowledge, skills, and experience. They appreciate your total background, which complements theirs. They share information, include you in meetings in which you get input for meassuring success, and test their ideas about current organizational issues with you regularly.

* They don't hold you hostage over your fees. They accept your honesty, agree to pay you what was contracted for, and don't take a nickel-and-dime microscope to every invoice you submit.

* They don't begrudge the fact that you have to charge for your services. They recognize that you're in business too, understand that you have expenses and have to make a living, and aren't envious of "all that money" you're making.

[ :: adgruntie :: Comcast rant sorta ]

+ Last night while watching TV, I started thinking about Comcast's advertising strategy. Is there one? Is it to saturate the marketplace with their ads? Thinking about the spots I've seen recently, I found it interesting that Comcast has so many spots that are somewhat unrelated. And there are so many campaigns simultanously running, it's sort of strange. There are the turtles, the comcast labs spots, the new random ones which I suppose could be part of the labs but I don't recall seeing that come up at the end, so I can't say.

The one that really bothers me though is the Comcast Labs - Dishes spot. The audio is so out of sync with the video and it drives me batty every time I see it. You'd think someone would have fixed it. But no, it continues to air all screwy. Grr.

[ :: adgruntie :: Why viral campaigns fail ]

+ AzA Creations' new report provides a list of top 10 reasons viral campaigns fail.

1. Neglecting promotion and seeding. Utilise mailing lists, press releases, forums and invest in banner impressions or PPC.

2. Failing to create an incentive for users to pass it along. Make the content itself good/funny – according to AzACreations, 88% of web users say they have forwarded on jokes or cartoons.

3. Failing to capitalise on a campaign that proves successful. If your campaign starts to take off, ask yourself whether you can get any further publicity, further monetise incoming traffic or use it to generate leads.

4. Trying to copy a popular viral campaign when it doesn't fit your aims. If a campaign isn't suited for you, you will end up with something that’s out of synch with your brand.

5. Failing to integrate viral campaigns with other marketing efforts. Implement the concept of viral marketing to other campaign processes, and test out different types of viral campaigns.

6. Using a sledgehammer rather than a fine scalpel. Simple ideas, such as email signatures, often produce better results.

7. Failing to understand the SEO value of viral marketing. Try designing viral pieces around your important keywords, and provide users with easy means to link to your application or site.

8. Forgetting to ask the user to take action. Encourage them to submit an email or sign up for a newsletter, as well as adding the application to their website or blog.

9. Not making it easy enough for users to forward content. Use send to friend forms, single button clicks etc.

10. Confusing your marketing message with 'the hook' that will attract users. Don't be too self promoting.

Sunday, October 29, 2006
[ :: designy :: Retro posters ]

+ Retro posters (via coudal).



[ :: adgruntie :: Second Life for Advertisers ]

+ So it seems that the new trend for ad agencies is to set up shop in Second Life. So far BBH, Leo Burnett, and Crayon (which launched both in SL and in real life at the same time) have office space in the online space. The site has been around since 1999 but recently it has picked up steam with marketers and advertisers as a place to reach and interact with consumers, test marketing plans and new product ideas, as well as provide information on current products.

So I decided to see what the big deal was and I've created a persona to check it out. You have to download a program to your computer which accesses the web and puts you into the virtual reality. You pick a name, although for your last name you're given a list to choose from. Although recently, companies have been able to pay a fee to get their corporate name as their last name.

That's because the company has decided, CNET News.com has learned, to charge individuals who want a real last name a $100 setup fee and a $50-a-year maintenance fee. Companies that want their corporate name can have unlimited accounts for a $1,000 setup fee and $500 a year.

That means that we'll be seeing more instances of companies like Sun populating the world with last names like "SunMicrosystems."

The article states that the reasoning behind it, beyond being another way for the SL to make money, is that many coporations don't find the list of last names available for free to be "professional enough".

You go through a tutorial which teaches you how to change your appearance, learn how to pick up things and move them, how to fly, and other things. There is a search feature which provides the ability to find people, places and events. Type in BBH and you'll see their buildings and can be teleported to their office. Of course I checked it out on a Sunday so there was no one there...although I do have no idea if people are there during the week. I'll have to go back and check it out. BBH does have some of their ads up on the walls, their sheep logos around the place and conference areas where you can sit down and hang out.

Linden Labs makes most of its money leasing "land" to tenants, Rosedale said, at an average of roughly US$40 per month per "hectare" or US$195 a month for a private "island." The land mass of Second Life is growing at about 8 percent a month, a spokeswoman said, and now totals "30,000 hectares," the equivalent of about 246km2 in the physical world. Linden Labs, a private company, does not disclose its revenue.

That's definitely cheaper than any real real estate anyone would be able to find. Perhaps that's part of the allure for smaller businesses trying to get off the ground as well.

Many corporations also have SL locations. Coca Cola, Wells Fargo, Nissan, and Pontiac have jumped on the SL bandwagon to flog their wares and build brand awareness to the SL community.

In Second Life, retailers like Reebok, Nike, Amazon and American Apparel have all set up shops to sell digital as well as real-world versions of their products. Last week, Sun Microsystems unveiled a new pavilion promoting its products and IBM alumni held a virtual world reunion.

This week, performer Ben Folds will promote a new album with two virtual appearances. At one, he will play the opening party for Aloft, an elaborate digital prototype for a new chain of hotels planned by Starwood Hotels and Resorts. The same day, Folds will also "appear" at a new facility his music label's parent company, Sony/BMG, is opening at a complex called Media Island.

Heck, even Reuters has set up a SL office.

From what little I saw in my first 2 hours trying to figure the place out, is that there are some billboard type placements (granted I haven't been very many "places" in the place either so, this is just from a n00b POV. (n00b=newbie) And in fact, a press release was issued by a company called Centric.

"We had to do it," said Stoddard. "We noticed that display ads have gotten out of hand. They come in huge, ugly, garish clusters which really detract from the SL experience. So, now we're the only ad agency in Second Life that's actually removing ads."

So there is a danger even in the virtual worlds to create massive amounts of clutter. What a surprise! ;)

Second Life isn't the only virtual reality out there. I came across Kaneva (thanks to gmail contextual ad from an email I sent to a friend talking about this). Is it possible that web 3.0 will move beyond the consumer generated content aspect of sharing and whatnot and evolve into this virtual reality where your avatar interacts with every person you come into contact with on the web? Will email and IM morph into a pixelated world that never shuts down and is constantly running in parallel with the "real" world we inhabit? It seems possible. Although I do have to say, I'm not sure I want the ability to chat with every single person that I might be on a webpage with or what have you. Still it is an interesting notion.

And if that is the case, the marketing implications could very well stem from what agencies and marketers learn through the first few steps of places like Second Life.
Friday, October 27, 2006
[ :: adgruntie :: New ad blog on the block ]

+ The Post Lounge out of Australia has a blog. It's only a week old, but could be interesting.

[ :: adgruntie :: Marketing via Beer Tap Handles ]


+ It's Friday and I really need to keep working. But this story about beer taps and marketing caught my attention.

[ :: spacey :: Elephants and Event Horizons ]

+ How to be in two places at once...I think I need to find me a black hole!

Comes from an article in New Scientist on elephants and event horizons. Interesting stuff.

Last night I watched a PBS program on the Earth's magnetic field. Apparently in the future the magnetic fields will flip, which is part of a process that has been occuring forever.
Wednesday, October 25, 2006
[ :: adgruntie :: Pink I wanna puke ]


+ So, some of you might know my loathing of pink used in advertising, marketing and whatnot as a way to mean it's for girls. This tool set takes the cake. A pink, fluffly cake.

How in the hell is this thing functional? Nothing like pink fluffy fur getting in the way while trying to screw in a screw or hammer in a nail! And I'm sure fur really adds to the ability to get a good grip on them as well. Argh!
Friday, October 20, 2006
[ :: adgruntie :: BK Triple Whopper - Eat Like a Snake ]

+ Is Crispin trying to win an award for strangest ads? Considering the amount of oddness in ads lately, maybe I should start my own award show. ;)

Thursday, October 19, 2006
[ :: adgruntie :: Responsible Communicators? ]

+ after these messages is a new site that is self-described as:
This isn't AdCritic, Cannes or the OSCARS. After These Messages is a forum for communicators to share, discuss and critique various forms of our work-not just on creativity-but on how the work is affecting society and our culture as well. As a member and contributor, you'll earn points for your actions, redeemable for goods from our campaign schwag bag. (So maybe we are just a little bit OSCARS.)

Looks interesting. All I can think of though from that title is "after these messages we'll be riiiight back" from Saturday morning cartoons when I was a kid.

[ :: sidetracks :: Yelper Alert ]

+ My new obsession lately is yelp.com. Some good writers out there reviewing local places. I wish it was more international, but it looks like they're working in that.

From a marketing/business perspective, it's actually interesting to see what folks are writing about in terms of being good or bad. And it's handy for finding new hot local places or not so local places. Could be good for scouting out your next away shoot for restaurants, etc.
Thursday, October 12, 2006
[ :: adgruntie :: GE/NBC/TV ]

+ Last night I watched the premiere of 30 Rock. It was pretty good. I have to say that the whole GE thing is a bit funny/forced, but heck, they own NBC so what you gonna do? ;) I had to wonder while watching the show if the oven that Alec Baldwin's character helped develop/market was real. And yes it is. I wonder if GE has seen more hits to their page for the product after last night. And oh my...on the page for it there's a clip of Alton Brown talking about the oven! :x

[ :: adgruntie :: Sustainable office begins with worms ]

+ How do you make your office more green? Worms. Yup. Also, Top 10 Ways to Reduce, Reuse & Recycle at the Office, which provides information on setting up your own worm bin!

[ :: adgruntie :: Get your Enviga ]

+ Drink this, lose weight?...apparently so. Actually more like boost metabolism. Looks like a new drink trend is in town. ;)

Rhona Applebaum, chief scientist for Coca-Cola Co., said that extensive scientific studies showed that three cans a day of the drink will burn a net average of 60 to 100 calories. The company conducted a double-blind, placebo study with Switzerland's University of Lausanne and referred to four other existing studies supporting the green-tea and caffeine claims. The companies didn't test the benefits of a single can, which, based on the three-can result would seem to have a negligible net calorie burn.

To set itself apart from the onslaught of silver-bullet diet products that Mr. Warner said are often "fat-based, overhyped and underdeliver," the marketers see Enviga as a way to "set the standard" on weight-management products. "When you look on the internet or made-for-TV statements that are out there, it is concerning to us that we make sure ... there isn't any magic bullet out there," said Ms. Applebaum.

Tuesday, October 10, 2006
[ :: yummies :: Food and copyright ]

+ A very intersting article on innovation in the restaurant industry and copyright.

As a writer, I rely on copyright law for much of my income, so I'm already sympathetic to Shaw's argument. People who sweat over new ideas deserve compensation. And there's a sense in which rewriting the copyright code to include food seems like the ultimate acknowledgment that chefs have arrived. Once they were seen as tradesmen, like carpenters and plumbers. Now we treat them as creative artists—shouldn't the law see them that way too?

The trouble, as even Shaw will admit, is that many chefs don't like the idea. Even Grant Achatz, who says that the Interlude Web site showed 17 dishes he invented, is against a copyright system for food. "Chefs won't use it," Achatz says. "Can you imagine Thomas Keller calling me and saying, 'Grant, I need to license your Black Truffle Explosion so I can put that on my menu'?"

Even if chefs did support the system, it's not clear they would benefit from it. Shaw compares chefs to musicians, who have generally profited from the copyright law. My fear, though, is that they are more like newspaper reporters, who typically surrender ownership of their work. If a reporter writes a story on the company's clock, that story belongs to The Man. If copyright law were extended to restaurants, it seems quite likely that proprietors would lay claim to any dishes invented in their kitchens. What about the sous-chef or line cook whose brilliant idea this afternoon landed right on tonight's menu—what are the chances he'd see any royalties? Restaurateurs would stockpile the rights to scads of recipes with the hope that one of them will turn out to be the next molten chocolate cake. Only chef-owners would retain their rights, and chef-owners are already the elite of their profession.

Thursday, October 05, 2006
[ :: sidetracks :: The Power Of The Dark Crystal ]

+ OMG! They're making a sequel to the Dark Crystal!! Upside, Brian Froud is working on the designs again. It's intersting...I'm not sure until just now that I was aware that he was behind The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth...but it makes total sense...and I feel silly for not having put two and two together. ;)

[ Fall is here ]


+ The view out my window today. The squirrels have been awfully playful lately too. Every so often I hear a mad rustle of leaves as a squirrel leaps from one branch to a much smaller branch. It always looks like they are about to fall to the ground or into the water below, but I've yet to hear a crunch, splat or splash.

[ :: adgruntie :: Life gets in the way ]

+ Gah. Today I realized I haven't updated my portfolio site in ages. I also haven't updated my hard copy (tangible/real) porfolio in a bit either. It always seems that when things get hectic...work-wise and/or generally in life, the book is what gets left behind, sitting on a shelf getting dusty. It's really a bad thing.

The thing is, while I'm freelancing right now, I'm so crazy with work that I don't have time to update my book as I should for fulltime job opportunties...and yet, as that is really my main goal...I must get back on that.

Freelancing is great...but there is something to be said for steady paychecks and some consistency working with the same team(s) on a daily basis. Quite honestly when I have gone in for interviews for jobs and they ask me why I want a fulltime job it really makes me crazy. Is this question being asked because it's "on the list" of interview questions. Or is it because they figure if you're freelancing you'd never think about a fulltime job (then why the heck would I be there, sitting face to face with this person trying to impress them enough to offer me a job?). I don't get it.

I haven't even bothered looking for vacancies in the last, oh, 4-6 months probably. Not great. I must get back on the horse.
Tuesday, October 03, 2006
[ :: adgruntie :: Viral and You Tube? ]

+ Yesterday I posted parts from an article questioning if ad agencies can come up with a formula for viral ads. Today techdirt.comhas a piece on a sort of related topic that's worth checking out. Here's some of it:

The simplest approach would be pre-roll advertising, a short ad that plays at the beginning of each clip. This would be lucrative, except for the fact that it annoys people.
[snip]
People don't like their personal expression or communication to be invaded by ads. If YouTube started inserting pre-roll into its clips, it's likely that users would migrate over to Google Video, or one of many other online video sites; and since YouTube's only valuable asset is its user base, it can't afford to see that happen. YouTube has to keep pursuing unobtrusive strategies such as Fred Wilson's suggestion of selling off the post-video recommendation links and continuing to sign deals with major content owners, that use the site as a promotional tool.

Yup. Yup. Uh-huh. The writer of this, Joe, is on to something. I have to say that the other side of the situation is that if you pre-roll ads in the same loading of the videos, people will pause, wait for it to load and then skip past what you're forcing them to watch, or go find one of the many many other sites out there that serve up shared content. Youtube is not the only one...it's just the largest.

Also I know content providers (networks, etc) have paid deals with YouTube, but as far as I know, advertisers who seed content on these types of sites don't pay for doing so. Perhaps if they made people who put on content for profit pay there could be a solution of some sorts as well. They pay for other seeding sites. Why not these places that are free to John Q. Pubilc? Just. A. Thought.

[ :: yummies :: The rise of food television ]

+ The rise of food television from The New Yorker is well worth a read if you're a foodie or watch Food Network. Bill Buford watched the food network for 72 hours. The article is his commentary on the shows, interviews with network folk and discusses the differences between the channel's shows and the likes of the renouned Julia Child.

From a marketing standpoint, the changes at Food Network are somewhat interesting as well. They have dropped most of their professional chefs in favor of cooks of the common wo/man...more or less.
(via kottke.com)
Monday, October 02, 2006
[ :: adgruntie :: Can agencies figure out a viral formula? ]

+ Viral ads - It's an Epidemic:

Madison Avenue has always tried to create infectious ads. Think of those beer commercials with catch phrases that some of your more tiresome coworkers repeat around the water cooler. But viral marketing truly came of age with the Internet.

Marketers discovered that if they came up with a really good beer ad, consumers would e-mail it to their friends. That was a revolution at the time. Now it seems so Web 1.0. In the age of user-generated content sites like YouTube, MySpace Video, and Google (Charts) Video, consumers and advertisers are able to upload ads that can be shared virally by millions of people.

This means some interesting twists for the business of advertising. A successful viral ad is distributed widely for free - Smirnoff didn't pay YouTube a dime. On the other hand, the advertiser has no control over where the message winds up. (There's always the chance that it might appear next to a Hitler video or a booty clip.)

And here's an intriguing question: Can YouTube and Google Video figure out a way to make this a business? If so, could they become the web's equivalent of the broadcast networks?

These are the sorts of riddles that keep media moguls awake at night. YouTube and its brethren turn the industry's hierarchy upside-down. Advertisers usually sit at the top because they provide most of the funding for television broadcasters, magazines, and newspapers. As long as advertisers are willing to write checks, these traditional media outlets are happy to let them dictate when and where their ads run. Consumers, at the bottom of the hierarchy, don't have much say as far as advertising and programming are concerned.

In user-generated content sites, the concerns of the advertisers are secondary to those of the consumer. Sites like YouTube can't survive without their videos. The last thing founders Chad Hurley and Steve Chen say they want to do is have advertisers plaster the site with pitches that alienate users. Hurley and Chen are reserving the top right corner of YouTube's home page for paid videos and creating "brand channels" for clients like Warner Music.

They hint that they are working on a mind-blowing new advertising model that may eclipse these efforts. But they aren't any more specific, and many ad agency people wonder if the founders really have any idea how to turn advertisers like Smirnoff, who are freely spreading viral messages on YouTube, into paying customers.

Then again, Madison Avenue is also having trouble coming up with a viral advertising model. Like the YouTube founders, ad agency people speak worshipfully about the users of these sites. They fear angering them by marketing to them too overtly.

Rich Silverstein, a founder of Goodby Silverstein & Partners, the San Francisco-based agency famed for the "Got milk?" campaign, says his agency has yet to actually pay to post a video on YouTube. It's far better, he says, to turn these people into your distributors by making ads so great that consumers pass them around and upload them to such sites.

"If it's worthy, if it's pass-around worthy, it's going to do good for your brand," Silverstein says. "If they are not passing it around, it's crap. It's useless."

The trouble with this from an advertiser's standpoint is that it's like pop music: How many people have ever been able to figure out the formula for a Top 40 hit? Silverstein, for instance, points to two short web films that his firm made for Specialized Bikes. One of them, a faux news report about a biker who outraces a police car, was viewed 82,000 times on YouTube. The other, a clever cartoon about a hapless mountain biker who ignores a danger sign and is clawed by a bear, gnawed by piranhas, struck by lighting, and chopped by a woodsman's axe, has been viewed 5,000 times.

It may be good advertising, and it may be distributed for free, but it isn't much to crow about when YouTube attracts 34 million unique visitors a month, according to Nielsen.

Kevin Roddy, executive creative director of Bartle Bogle Hegarty, says, "I believe if you want to be successful in the world of viral, you need to play by the rules of entertainment, not the rules of selling. A lot of brands might have difficulty with that. But as soon as you [sell], people say, 'Well, I'm not going to do your work for you.'"

[ :: adgruntie :: Researchers perpetuating fraud? ]

+ No big surprise to me. From adage.com:

Just 0.25% of the population supplies 32% of responses to online surveys, said Simon Chadwick, former head of NOP Research in the U.K. and now principal of Cambiar, a Phoenix consultancy, citing research by ComScore Networks. More broadly, he said, 50% of all survey responses come from less than 5% of the population.

That leaves lingering suspicions that survey research may be getting less reliable. "We're perpetuating a fraud," Mr. Chadwick said.

Hmm. Sounds like how Nielsen does their ratings.

Kim Dedeker, VP-consumer and market knowledge at P&G, presented one example in which online and mail surveys on an instant-coffee concept came up with diametrical results.

"If I had only had the online result in this particular case, I would have taken a bad decision right to the top management," she said.
[snip]
In another case, two surveys a week apart by the same online researcher yielded different recommendations. "We're having tremendous issues moving from concept to launch," Ms. Dedeker said. Research that qualifies projects for millions of dollars in advertising and capital investment sometimes is contradicted by other studies just before rollout.

While she was careful not to blame online research or specific vendors, she said the problems boil down to "the integrity and methodology," with respondent-participation problems one possible factor. "I'm not sure we're aligned on the nature of the disease we're treating," she said.

Nor were participants aligned on a solution. Online research -- once touted as a way to improve respondent cooperation -- now may be making it worse. While it's easier to respond to online surveys, it's also easier to crank them out, leading more consumers to tune them out, said Patrick Glaser, director-respondent cooperation for the Council for Marketing and Opinion Research.

The one major issue they aren't even addressing in this article in reation to online polling or surveying is the fact that I know no one who enters in the correct information in any sort of info gathering form online. At sites such as an alcohol company where you must input your age to access the site, I've not once entered my correct birth date or year. Not once. Many other sites where I need to put in information to access data, again, I don't give my information. Sometimes I'm a 70 year old man living in Alaska and other times I'm 45 year old woman living in Nebraska or London.

This is the biggest problem I would think for using data from online surveys. You have no way to guarantee that the data you are using is accurate.

[ :: rant :: Failing at Customer Service ]

+ I have to take my car in for service...and some stuff that is covered under warantee...which means I have to go to a dealer. Thing is reading the reviews online of the area dealerships really freaks me out. At least half the reviews are about being swindled or cheated or plain poor service. And I have to wonder if a good percentage of the other half that are positive aren't planted by the dealerships. It's just depressing that there is no place in this state that has a good reputation for not overcharging or just plain poor customer service.

It's a shame really. Especially as customer service is so key to a service business. Any service business that cannot get its customer service act together really shouldn't remain in business for long. Although many people are afraid to say something it seems, or just don't bother. Sites like yelp.com help to make a difference, but even then there are not always reviews all places someone would be looking for. In many cases this is where word of mouth is more valuable than say the Better Business Bureau or something. Speaking to friends, family and co-workers about their experiences with companies can provide valuable input towards decision-making.

And those companies who treat their customers like dirt should feel the impact. Although I do know of a few people who will go back to places that treat them poorly because of convenience or low price. But all that does is reinforce the poor customer service behavior. Consumers should make choices with their wallets. It's really the only way for businesses really "get it".

[ :: adgruntie :: BBH Goes Virtual ]

+ Bartle Bogle Hegarty has opened a virtual advertising agency.

BBH's move, within online virtual reality world Second Life, comes as rival Leo Burnett unveiled plans to set up Leo Ideas Hub, a virtual creative department, using Second Life to bring together its agency creatives from around the world.

[...snip...]

Second Life is different from other online social networks because it is a 3D virtual reality world that mixes gaming with commerce. Subscribers create their own virtual alter egos - avatars - to live an alternative life.

Second Lifers take part in hundreds of activities, from making friends to clubbing or shopping: there's even a red light zone. They also use their own virtual currency - Linden dollars, named after the company that developed Second Life, Linden Labs - which is convertible into dollars.

BBH has worked with London-based virtual world design agency Rivers Run Red to create a virtual agency populated by avatars of BBH staff including global chairman John Hegarty.

"We've done this to better explore and understand how new digital social environments work, and to challenge ourselves not just to talk digital but be digital," said the BBH director of content, Mark Boyd."Our aim also is to engage with the Second Life community and add value to it with interesting content."

Justin Bovington, the creative director at Rivers Run Red, said: "Many brands and agencies have tried to dump product into Second Life or asked to buy a billboard - proof they just don't understand the market."
[...snip...]
"The big question for any brand or agency entering this space is what added value they can create - which is what makes BBH¹s move groundbreaking."

[ :: spacey :: Astronomy Video ]

+ Part one of a series: Life in the Universe (#1): Just on Earth, or Everywhere?

Also worth checking out: The Hubble Deep Field Video.

[ :: sidetracks :: Third Screen Film Fest ]

+The Stonecutter