June 7th, 2010

Junk Mail by the Numbers.

As designers, we must understand the impact of the marketing tactics we recommend to our clients.

via @LenKendall & @DR4WARD

Posted By: Jeff

June 6th, 2010

Lots of talk about Ideas.

I’ve noticed a lot of talk lately about the value of IDEAS. At Hero the value of ideas and the value of design is an on-going topic we believe is central to the services we provide our clients. I’ll use this post to catalog things I’ve been hearing lately and older references I’ve used to inform my thinking.

Add your comments and send me links to articles you’ve found helpful in framing this topic for you. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted By: Jeff

June 4th, 2010

Hero, NetNewsdesk and ARCADIS win Gold at the AMA Peak Awards.

Last night Hero and our client ARCADIS won a gold at the AMA Colorado Peak Awards for our GRiP Direct Mail campaign. This is our third award for this work. Thanks to the Hero staff, our client Julie Bowden and our partner Steve Miller at NetNewsdesk.

Previous awards for the GRiP campaign include one for Direct Mail and on for Promotional Product from the Colorado Business Marketing Association.

Posted By: Jeff

May 14th, 2010

Big ideas on whiteboard. Animated.

I came across this video today. It’s from a series of animated presentations produced by the RSA. This one, Drive, is based on a presentation by Dan Plink. I found it mentioned in a tweet from Modernista.

via @hellnoharms Most impressive thing I’ve seen in 2010: http://bit.ly/bHJnDz

This falls into the “I wish I’d done that category” for me. Here’s why I like it:

1. Big Insights – I’ve always been curious about what motives people to do great work. As a creative director I deal with this issue everyday. My approach has been to give people my thoughts, direction and guidance, then stay out of their way until they need me again. Based on Dan Plink’s findings, I’m getting somethings right.
2. Cool Whiteboard Design – I love information design and whiteboards. I love the immediacy of communication that comes from talking and drawing and writing while working out a problem with my team. This also reminds me of work Hero did for the Denver50 ad show. We created illustrations on whiteboards and used them through the campaign and show.
3. Great Production – What can I say? This is cool to watch, and so simple. Reminds my of the Post-It Note video created by Bang-yao Liu. This falls into the “I’m going to try that” category.

Check out the other five videos in the series here.

And check out the studio that created these videos, CognitiveMedia. Lots of great work.

Posted By: Jeff

May 8th, 2010

Sharp Thinkers & Digital Guides. Part 3.

This week’s Sharp Thinker is someone everyone in PR, marketing and social media should get to know, Brian Solis.

Brian Solis is globally recognized as one of most prominent thought leaders and published authors in new media. A digital analyst, sociologist, and futurist, Solis has influenced the effects of emerging media on the convergence of marketing, communications, and publishing.

Brian’s recent work with Jess Thomas on The Conversation Prism has been pretty visible on SoMe channels and in the design community, so you may have already seen their infographic (shown above). But there is also an excellent blog on the site which both Brian and Jess are contributing to.

One recent post from Brian, Using the Conversation Prism to Establish a Conversation Index, is an excellent primer on how organizations can learn to participate in social networks. And how they can learn to integrate “marketing, service, sociology, psychology, creativity, sales, and a dedicated practice of transparent Social Customer Relationship Management”. Great stuff.

Read the article: Using the Conversation Prism to Establish a Conversation Index

Read Brian’s blog: http://www.briansolis.com

Posted By: Jeff

May 5th, 2010

Cross your creative team with a capital T.

Last week we profiled Edward Boches, CCO of Mullen. This week we’ll do it again because once again he’s laid it down with a great blog post, The New Creative Team and Getting It To Work. Not much to say other than “read it”. Also, follow the breadcrumbs to other great reads such as Tim Brown’s Change by Design and the Derek Robson presenation, Agency Evolution.

Image borrowed from @edwardboches.

Posted By: Jeff

April 29th, 2010

Sharp Thinkers & Digital Guides. Part 2.

Around Hero we’re still feeling inspired by the Boulder Digital workshop 2 weeks ago. We’re clicking through the presentation decks almost daily, encorporating what we learned into our thinking. One of the workshop decks,  A Generation Has to Die by Edward Boches, has become a bit of a touchstone for us.

It’s a sharp overview of the changes taking place in the minds and behaviors of consumers in this post-digital age. Its also a wake-up call for marketers and agencies who are still clinging to things as they were. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted By: Jeff

April 28th, 2010

Jeffrey Hayzlett. Kodak’s celebrity CMO in Denver.

Join Denver’s best marketers and printers for a luncheon presentation with Jeffrey Hayzlett, Chief Marketing Officer and Vice President, Kodak and author of The Mirror Test. He’s big, he’s boisterous and he has the guts to ask the tough questions most managers are afraid to ask.

May 5th, 11:30AM–1:30PM
at the Renaissance Hotel

Find all the event information here: http://bit.ly/Hayzlettemail

Presented by:
New Denver Ad Club
Colorado Business Marketing Association
Printing Industries of Colorado

Posted By: Jeff

April 20th, 2010

Sharp Thinkers & Digital Guides. Part 1.

Last week I attended a workshop at Boulder Digital Works. The things I learned there lit a serious fire under my butt and the connections I made have led me to the blogs, twitters and tumblrs of some really sharp thinkers.

People worth listening to.

Digital has changed the world and the world of advertising that I work in. Understanding the changes, seeing the patterns and turning insights into actionable information is difficult. It’s difficult for everybody, for every agency, no matter what the size, not matter what the client.  Some people are a bit further ahead on the learning curve and are thankfully willing to share their thoughts on the monumental changes, new dynamics, dare I say paradigm shift happening in advertising today. I’ll call this group of digital guides and sages Sharp Thinkers. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted By: Jeff

April 15th, 2010

“Everything is digital” – @edwardboches

Today I attended day one of a three day workshop at Boulder Digital Works called Making Digital Work. Today’s stellar presentations left me with these thoughts:

Over the past few years advertising agencies have worked to integrate digital and social media capabilities into their service offerings. They even used the phrase integrated marketing to show clients they were smart enough to put all the pieces together—traditional, digital, research, social and pr. Well, those days are gone. Integrated isn’t special anymore, it’s the norm. And digital isn’t a bolt on service. As Edward Boches says “Everything is digital”. No doubt, he’s right.

The word, digital, has come to represent a host of discreet tactics such as websites, video, web apps, mobile and social media. It’s also the glue that connects all elements of a campaign together. Ex. A campaign is begun in social media, anchored by a fan page, supported by a website that aggregates user content, which is published from a mobile app, promoted by paid media (online, tv, print), fulfilled by direct-mail, editorialized by PR and posted back out in social networks. At every point the web, mobile or networked, is the bridge from one point of engagement to another. It’s the feedback loop that rewards users with what Michael Tabtabai calls “digital souvenirs” and it provides the analytics agencies use to monitor, adjust and evaluate a campaign.

So the question about digital today is not whether to use it, but how to use it. How to express a big idea through the right mix of channels, platforms and technologies. It’s a question I’m hoping my time at the Making Digital Work workshop will answer.

More thoughts tomorrow.

Posted By: Jeff