The Good, the Bad, the Nike

October 14, 2008

Some days, you just need to sit back and enjoy the beauty of a great Nike commercial.


Maybe it’s the Ennio Morricone track. Or, maybe it’s the consistent entrance of each player (LaDainian Tomlinson: always from the right; Troy Polamalu: always from the left). Regardless, it’s a wonderful story.

(Via: V.V.I.’s twitter)

By Corey

Filed Under Advertising

Saying what you mean. Showing what you say.

October 8, 2008

It’s simple.

In marketing, you want to say what you mean.

And visually, you want to back up what you say with images that correspond.

Any disconnect will be noticed. Pounced upon. Seen as weakness, as an disingenuous attempt at trust.

Say what you mean. Show what you say. Mean what you show.

These are all common things to keep in mind when designing and writing and developing a concept in all aspects of marketing. But really, I’m using these common sense ideas as an excuse to play this great YouTube clip: A’Ha’s “Take On Me,” as if the song was written to match the video.


It all makes so much more sense now. Take me on.

By Corey

Filed Under Off Topic, Marketing

When the audience helps. Or not.

October 8, 2008

When you ask the general public to come up with great ideas for you, you risk the backlash of information overload. Even more, you risk an unfiltered flow of unfocused and pedestrian ideas.

At the same time, you also tap into the untapped – reaching outside of your cozy office, looking past that copywriter who may be stuck on his or her own idea and into the vast world of unbridled creativity.

Which will you get?

Example one: Best Buy is looking to reach out to a female market that doesn’t quite jibe with the current color scheme. Blue and yellow are about as attractive as neon pink and lime green, apparently.

Their idea is to ask their customers to help create an interior design that better suits the buying styles of women.

Putting aside the assumption that more stylish carpets will lead to more television sales, my question is with the validity of tapping into customers for a retail redesign.

From what I know about interior design (which admittedly isn’t much) it seems like this is counterproductive. Design – both interior and in other fields - isn’t something that can simply be cobbled together from different minds. There’s a fluid method that benefits from likeminded ideas, each leading into the next, creating consistency. Creating a larger view of the situation.

In other words, taking one idea from this person and one idea from another and smashing them together is kind of like matching plaid with stripes. They might work on their own, or as part of an overall theme, but how well will they look side by side?

Example two: There’s an art in collecting the views of an outsider. Which is exactly what David, a fellow copywriter and Moleskin enthusiast, does for Write In My Journal, a project that asks complete strangers – people David may never meet again – to, fittingly, write in his journal.

It’s simple. David finds someone who looks interesting and asks them to write what they want. In doing so, he has developed a collection of thoughts that span from introspective to absurd. And it’s fascinating. I can’t stop reading it. He’s gathering together an army of ideas. He’s showing how the collective effort can be greater than the individual parts. It succeeds in spite of it’s randomness, because it’s unfocused and unbridled.

There’s a fine line between success and failure when it comes to asking your customers for help. Does it work? Is it hampering? Do you get inspired work or do you get a watered down, ideas-by-committee feel? The answer is cheap – but accurate.

It depends.

(via brand flakes for breakfast and metafilter)

By Corey

Filed Under Marketing, Design, The Process