Miike Snow

Advertising Week - Part 1

Last week was Advertising Week and I was able to attend a few sessions. I must say that all the events I went to were running late compared to previous years. Logistical hiccups aside, I really enjoyed the Digital Creative panel with Ben Palmer from The Barbarian Group; Tor Myrhen, CCO at Grey; Conor Brady, CCO at Organic; Marc Lucas, CD at Razorfish and Sophie Kelly from Strawberry Frog. The conversation really got started discussing what to do with the sea of available data/metrics and digital's unique flexibility in terms of adjusting work based on the response the data shows. Directly linked to the above is the need to set up objectives upfront and decide what needs to be measured.

While it might seem like an obvious step, clients are all too often doing something in reaction to their competition rather than questioning why they need to "be" on Twitter and how they're measuring the success of that initiative. The other central point of discussion was the "growing up" of digital agencies as the Internet has become a "permanent medium":

• Clients are now putting digital at the center of their marketing strategies. OK, duh... but this means that the growth opportunities for interactive agencies might not be necessarily be in interactive. In other words, the Big Idea is not dead as clients are looking for the best way to activate ideas in the market. No matter which partner they came from...
  

• The corollary for digital agencies: they need to be more comfortable "sitting at the table" and developing relationships with clients so they can move away from a project-based approach. Just like traditional agencies...

• Conor from Organic also suggested a move toward what he described (with a great Irish accent) as an open source agency model with the ability to bring in partners where they don't have the in-house expertise to deliver on projects outside of their regular field.

The panel ran out of time talking about what I was the most interested in: the shift in allocating budgets from paid media (the traditional advertising model) to content creation (ie: engaging Web sites, iPhone apps etc...). And how to measure the effectiveness of content creation.

Big City, Big Dreams

Seen on the streets of NYC... 99 cents doesn't strike me as being that great a dream... I like my dreams to be worth at least $3.99. Before tax...

Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros

This is going to be top of my playlist for the week. Closely followed by Home.

Phoenix: Live!

Phoenix played an absolutely amazing gig at Central Park's Summerstage on Friday night. Pretty much the perfect set up: outside, cool weather, and Phoenix playing the best songs from their 3 albums. They've got to be one of the best bands right now. Passion Pit did a great job opening. They're the American Hot Chip if you ask me.

Hey Marseilles

thisthis

Apocalyptico. In Sydney....

Sidney has been hit by a massive sand storm (who knew?), and the pictures look like a newly-discovered city on Mars... or the end of the world. Depending on your sci-fi preferences. More absolutely amazing pictures Here.

Erykah Badu Remix

Great remix of Erykah Badu's soldier by Co. listen on his MySpace page. Or download the track for free here. I think I prefer the remix to the original song.

Maps of New York

Nerd alert! "Mapping New York's Shoreline, 1609-2009" opens on friday at the New York Public Library. The exhibit features 200 maps, prints and atlases mostly from the library's amazing collection (above a map showing New Amsterdam's original land plots). The show focused on Manhattan's is one of many cultural events this year marking the 400th anniversary of Dutch explorer Henry Hudson's arrival in what is now Manhattan.

More pics at Gothamist

Did You Know 4.0

Cassettes Won't Listen

Message a Caractere Informatif

I'mma let you finish

Judging by the amount of entries at the I'mma Let You Finish blog, Kanye West must have made US productivity drop by double digits. Still, some of the best submissions below:

The Science of Sleep

Very funny (and true) series of illustrations about sleeping. Or lack of... by Christoph Niemann on the NYT's Abstract City.

Greyboy

Great bassline on this one.

Republicans Can't Speil to Seive There Lifes

At least it seems to me that most of the signs in this "Best Of Misspelled Political Signs" are being waved by angry Republicans. OK, I'll be generous... let's say that Republicans are disproportionately dyslexic. Or maybe they're just not good at fitting big words on small signs.

See, it wouldn't happen if they were Democrats, as they'd have a long history of demonstrating, exercising their political voice, and writing big words on small signs. Instead, they only develop that skill when someone tries to impose socialist monstrosities such as affordable healthcare upon them.

Oops... looks like I slipped out of my generous disposition...

Via Yes But No But Yes

PS: I did have to spell-check "disproportionately"...

Interruptions Part II

You Lie

It looks like Joe Wilson's now infamous "You Lie!" is going to stay in popular culture... As witnessed by this real promo for a fake reality TV show.

Mayer Hawthorne

After Amy, Adele, Sharon and Nicole, the soul revival continues with Mayer Hawthorne. His particular reinterpretation of soul comes infused with super-retro doowop vocals as much as hip-hop beats. His other single, Maybe so, maybe no. is also well worth a listen.

Say Hi

Geeks Diagram

How many colors do you overlap?

Via Rubbishcorp.

Upstate trip: Barns Galore

As part of our upstate swing we drove over the Hudson river to the foot of the Catskill mountains into Delaware county. It's basically barn land: new, old, working, decrepit, converted, rotting... Click on the picture for more. The highlights:

• The bibliobarn in South Kortright
• Dinner at the Stone and Thistle, with the couple running the Stony Creek farm and their organic chicken in our plates.
  

Not as successful were the two nights in the yurt with the remnants of hurricane Danny battering the Eastern seaboard. 14 hours of solid rain thank you very much...

Upstate trip: Dinner in Pine Plains

A few days off in Pine Plains in late August (R&S, thanks for lending us your great place!). Click on the picture for Filly's artistic interpretation of Jenny Holzer.

How Advertising Sells (Powder) Chicken Stock

Go Post-modern:Advertising Making fun of advertising


Go Absurdist: What's up with the ghost?


Go with the Kids: that always works.


All ads are from Madre in Buenos Aires and pretty much the best ads for selling instant soups and chicken stock that I've seen. I also love how 'advertising' is called 'propaganda' in Argentina in the first ad...

More of the Hip-hop music

Neurosonics Audiomedical Labs Inc.

This is how they make the hip-hop music sounds... I get it.

Digital Overload

I don't like my inbox(es) as much as I used to...

Esser: Sounds like England...

... with the perfect summer song.

Thanks MC Bonito for tuning me in.

It's a small (but beautiful) world

The New Scientist published an article with a series of visually compelling maps that show the most interconnected and remote places on earth.

The model used for the maps calculated how long it would take to travel to the nearest city of 50,000 or more people by land or water. The model combines information on terrain and access to road, rail and river networks. It also considers how factors such as altitude, steepness of terrain and hold-ups like border crossings slow travel.

A few interesting points:

• Less than 10% of the world's land is more than 48 hours of ground-based travel from the nearest city. In the Amazon, for example, extensive river networks and an increasing number of roads mean that only 20 per cent of the land is more than two days from a city - around the same proportion as Canada's Quebec province.

• The winner of the world's most remote place is... the Tibetan plateau. From there, it's a three-week trip to the cities of Lhasa or Korla - one day by car and the remaining 20 on foot.
  

More amazing maps and visuals here.