iPhone release lives up to the iHype

Waiting for an iPhone was exactly the experience I expected.
Apple handed out bottles of SmartWater and coupons for a free coffee at the Starbucks next door. The Kona Grill, a nearby restaurant, gave away pizza and Martin+Osa handed out 20% off coupons. The other people in line were nice, several had iBooks with them and many did not already have cell service from AT&T.
There were 12 people already waiting when I showed up at one of the two Apple stores in Austin at 9:15. The line had grown to about 50 when the store opened at 10:00 and 150 by the time the TV news arrived later in the morning.

At 2:00, employees closed the store and taped black paper over the windows. A nice touch to build anticipation.

The crowd yelled out a 60-second countdown to 6:00, when the black paper was torn down and the doors opened revealing the entire store covered in iPhone displays.

Supply seemed plentiful and each person in line was allowed to buy two, so I doubt many people will double their money on eBay. But a woman paid the girl in line behind me $200 to buy her one.

Each shopper got a special branded bag.

Of course, the packaging is great.

Get a McClane

To celebrate Justin Long's new movie Live Free or Die Hard, I created this Get A Mac/John McClane mashup.

Lazy creative is a horse’s behind

The latest American Copywriter podcast made an excellent point about forcing tv concepts into print ads.
I saw an example of the phenomena in NYC.
This Sony Cyber-shot TV spot is great:

Can’t say the same of the print ad:

Yo momma

Despite the repetitive set up of the lines, I like this Manhattan Mini Storage campaign.

Hope the show is as good as the tagline

Sorry for the lack of posts, I was in New York last week pounding the pavement with portfolio in hand.
Saw these promos for Mad Men all over the place.

I'm gonna buy a fifth of Jack Daniels for the premiere.
Don't know if it will it take off like cosmos after Sex in the City. But it's certainly more likely than agency folks wearing suits to the office again.

Why throw money away on marketing?

I once pitched the idea of having e*trade write "other things to do with your money" on one dollar bills. But my otherwise brilliant CD shot it down for legal reasons. So I turned the idea into an art project called Post No Bills.

I was pleased to learn from Chimp Media Monitoring that a brand finally did something similar that's truly great.

Saatchi & Saatchi scattered £1,500 in cash on the ground in a public square with this sticker for Carlsberg. The PR it generated was mentioned in this story on experiential branding by Claire Beale in The Independent.

“Hey hot stuff, I’d nail that stud.”

Getting catcalls from construction workers is a cliché of city life, but I had never heard any. Until it happened to me.
Luckily, it was another Bom Chicka Wah Wah promotion from Axe.

Men walking through the West End in Dallas were subjected to whistles and suggestive remarks from this construction crew. A “Bom Chicka Wah Wah” sticker on their hardhats was the only overt branding, besides an occasional shout of something like, “You must be wearing Axe.”
I overheard several conversations about the stunt throughout the day. And I must admit it did give my ego a bit of boost.
No word on if the spray gets the same results from actual union labor.

Car Sharing

Just read an article on Austin CarShare. I think it’s a great idea.
For a monthly membership fee, you can reserve a car parked at various spots around town. You unlock it with a special key fob and go. When you’re done, you just return it to the same place.

I'm looking forward to giving up my car when I move to New York, but it's reassuring to know zipcars offers the same service if I go through withdrawal.

Roll on

I saw the World's Largest Ball of Barbed Wire when my best friend and I drove cross-country one summer in college.
So no wonder I love this new campaign out of Ogilvy in NY.




ibm.com/outwithcables

File naming tip

Just got this email from a mole at an unnamed local agency:
Subject: Totally abrasive art director incident of the week
I opened a layout this guy did to make a mechanical of it, and I clicked on the image of a child in it.
The name of the image was "retardgoofballinhospital.jpg"
Doesn't sound that bad, huh?
Not until you realize it's an ad for a Children's Cancer Hospital.