brandflakesforbreakfast

what could bacon do for you?

noreply@blogger.com (darryl ohrt) — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 11:05:00 +0000

Bacon. The magical, mystical food that no human can resist. FreshBooks put bacon to work on the streets of Austin, TX at SXSW. To promote their online invoicing product, they got right to the point: Freshbooks can make you bacon.

Forget social media. Or search. Bacon is the new, must-have marketing tool that can sell your product to anyone with a tummy. Yummy. This, and more SXSW fun on the official Brand Flakes for Breakfast SXSW Edition.

search that listens to you

noreply@blogger.com (darryl ohrt) — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 10:44:00 +0000

Siri is a new search and "getting things done" tool for your magical iPhone. Whatever you need, just say it outloud, and Siri gets you on your way.

Like a personal assistant in your pocket. Not sure if "fill out my expense reports" will work, but if it involves search, Siri is there for you. From @mtlb & @thebeancast

posting in lite mode

noreply@blogger.com (darryl ohrt) — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 12:57:00 +0000

The world-class Brand Flakes for Breakfast blogging crew is at the SXSW interactive festival, so BrandFlakes will be in BloggingLite mode today and tomorrow.

Keep up with the details on the Brand Flakes SXSW Edition, and find all of the cool Humongo people to follow in this post. We've also been interviewing interesting marketing geeks, and have some awesome videos to share later in the week.

In the meantime, enjoy this 8 bit map of Austin, TX. Just because you needed it, and 8 bit is all the rage.

not going to austin? fake it.

noreply@blogger.com (darryl ohrt) — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 11:33:00 +0000

Plenty of interactive geeks from across the land are on their way to Austin, Texas to partake in the SXSWinteractive conference. (We're covering our adventures, in a SXSW edition of BFFB.)

Maybe your boss wouldn't approve the budget. Or you're afraid of Texas. Or you have work to do.

If that's the case, SwissMiss has started a #VirtuallyAttendingSXSW hashtag, and will be tweeting away. And there's plenty of other people who have joined in on the fun.

If you're more of a lurker, and less of a tweeter, we suggest that you keep an eye on @tsand's Twitter stream. He's been known to create his own ImagicationSXSW, that's pretty much guaranteed to have you spitting coffee into your keyboard.

Going to Austin? Give any of the Humongo crew a shout. We want to drink Texas beer with you. Details and links here.

We're heading to SXSW!

noreply@blogger.com (darryl ohrt) — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 16:13:00 +0000

The Humongo crew is headed to Austin, TX for SXSW, the annual music, film and interactive super festival. We'll be attending the geekiest portion of the conference - SXSWinteractive.

Stuck at home? Not to worry. We'll be doing our best to share our experience. And we're also producing a series of videos interviewing interesting people that we believe you might be inspired by.

Check the Brand Flakes for Breakfast SXSW Edition for the latest from all of the Humongo superstars (and friends):

Darryl Ohrt: That's me, the official Prime Minister of Awesome at the world's greatest agency.

Chris Spada: Designer, creator, and now blogger at Humongo. He'll be hitting Austin for the first time. Chris will also be covering the conference at CT's creative powerhouse ConnCreatives.

Kristien Del Ferraro: From our new awesomely cool parent company Source Marketing, Kristien will be sharing her internet genius, and also hitting the geek festival as a first timer.

Ben Kunz: Thought leader, Business Week writer, blogger for Thought Gadgets, and man of brilliance from media buying and strategy firm MediAssociates will be interviewing the internet's brightest people on BrandFlakes video.

Renato Ghio: (Yes, that's a wig.) The master with a HD camera and editing suite in his backpack, he's the man responsible for all of the world-famous PlaidNation tour videos. He'll be producing the best interviews of the smartest people.

So make room for a little bit of Texas!

a list of 50 really creative people

noreply@blogger.com (darryl ohrt) — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 12:50:00 +0000

Creativity Magazine just named their 50 people and companies who they believe have made the biggest impact across creative culture.

While they completely missed out on Humongo and Brand Flakes for Breakfast, we like that they included Lady Gaga, our friends at Ford Motors, our new best brother Alex Bogusky, and a bunch of other agencies that are bigger than us.

You can always Photoshop yourself into the list, and give it to your mom for the fridge.

in the old days, there was geocities

noreply@blogger.com (darryl ohrt) — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 12:43:00 +0000

You probably like reading Wired because it keeps you up on the latest in everything interactive, technology, design and stuff that we generally like to call "yummy."

It's also fun to look back a few years at the stuff our industry pimped, promoted and then threw away. That's the premise of Wired Reread, a blog devoted to scanning old issues of Wired to show dead, funny, or the overall ridiculousness of our industry. Like an ad for Geocities, above. Geocities. Hehe.

this is a really big poker game

noreply@blogger.com (darryl ohrt) — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 12:34:00 +0000

I don't know why, but over-sized props thrown into real life always looks interesting.

So when PokerStars.com needed to get the word out about their super large hub of everything poker, they pulled together really large English rugby players, and some extra large cards. Cute. In a rugby player playing poker kind of way.

i don't need your card

noreply@blogger.com (darryl ohrt) — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 12:28:00 +0000

I've been saying this forever, but Chris Brogan just perfectly summarized what should be the new business card etiquette, everywhere:

Unless you want to do business with me, don’t give me a business card. We both know how to reach each other, so unless one of us asks for one, let’s not hand them out. We tend to give out business cards because we’ve been taught this is what to do. It’s not. It’s the old way. In the old way, we just blast people with messages whenever WE need something. In the new way, you and I should only exchange cards if we’re looking to do future business. Otherwise? We roughly know how to reach each other, don’t we?

Save a card. Save the planet. Rewire the way humans do business.

Seems like common sense, right? Yet how many meetings did you sit through in the last week, where everyone in the meeting did the card exchange? Even though everyone in the meeting is already on the same email thread.

Business cards: only when you absolutely need them. (Pictured above: the single best business card, ever.)

rally the cause changes the world

noreply@blogger.com (darryl ohrt) — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 12:50:00 +0000

Our friend @scottyhendo and his friends are up to some awesome goodness.

Their company Cause Shift is producing remarkable, innovating thinking for non-profits. They just launched a new campaign We Can End This, a nationwide campaign to end hunger.

They'll also be facilitating a "Cause Lab", to be kicked off at SXSW in a few days, that will pull together some of the industry's brightest people for brainstorming, strategic thinking and conceptualization on how to best make this happen market by market across the country.

Think you can't make a difference? Here's proof that a handful of people can pull together some of the biggest brands and thinkers in the business to make magic happen.

(Oh - and if you're going to SXSW, bring a can of food with you. Or participate in the Cause Lab, and help make change happen.)

Disclosure: We friended Scott on the PlaidNation tour, he's since become a client, but that doesn't change our opinion that this is revolutionary breakthrough work.

widgets done well

noreply@blogger.com (darryl ohrt) — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 12:38:00 +0000

We've all heard the buzz about widgets, but the truth is, not many brands have done this well. Worklight is looking to change that.

Check out the widget they produced for Best Western. Guests can get rates, check availability and make reservations without ever leaving Facebook, the blogs or the sites that they're on.

With the Worklight platform, brands can build widgets once (or have their agencies build them :), and Worklight syndicates it out to multiple platforms. Securely. Sounds like a deal. Let's go.

social media can sell burgers

noreply@blogger.com (darryl ohrt) — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 12:14:00 +0000

Here's a super awesome case study on how a local burger joint in Milwaukee used Four Square to pack his restaurant with patrons, more than doubling his typical Sunday sales.

That's a 110% increase in business without an agency, without advertising, without super bad tv spots. It's a good day for burgers and fries. From @DJLitten

meet humongo.

noreply@blogger.com (darryl ohrt) — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 18:41:00 +0000

We have some gigantically exciting news to share. The agency formerly known as Plaid has been acquired by Source Marketing (an MDC Partners company) and will now become Humongo.

Humongo?
We feel that this new partnership deserves more than a press release. It's a huge move. A massive combination of creative super power. If awesome were a size XL, it would be Humongo. So as of today, that's the name of the greatest agency in all of the land.

Humongo. Say it out loud, with your arms in the air. Isn't it fun?

We're pretty stoked. We'll now have the resources to grow like never before. We'll have access to affiliate agencies that provide our clients what we can't. Imagine a small digital creative agency with the keys to the big guys. That's Humongo.

Our new parent company Source Marketing brings massive marketing prowess to the table that can only be described as ginormous. Sales funnels? Retail activation? ROI? Want your marketing campaign to pay for itself super fast? They've been doing all of that and more for companies like Bic, Philips, Reckitt Benckiser, Panasonic, Hunter Douglas, HSBC, Intel, Time Warner Cable and others.

We're also a part of the MDC Partners network. That gives Humongo some ginormous company. Agencies like Kirshenbaum Bond Senecal and Partners, Veritas Communications, Vitro Robertson, Mono, Red Scout...and did we mention Crispin, Porter & Bogusky??

There's plenty more on deck to be announced in the coming months. In the meantime, we'll be making our clients huge, building creative campaigns that rock the nation, and generally planning world domination.

Get in on the Humongo action.
Follow us on Twitter. Become our fan on Facebook. Check out the Humongo website. More importantly, take a look at your brand and ask yourself "could I use a little Humongo?"

We're here, ready to make something huge for you.

what do people need most, to buy your product?

noreply@blogger.com (darryl ohrt) — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 13:01:00 +0000

Money. How many times have you been out with friends, and you just need some more cash to pick up the next round? And the bar has an ATM, but there's a $7 service fee.

Not to worry. Absolut has you covered, with a branded cash machine that doles out the dough without any service fee. Think people will buy Absolut on the next round?

(More importantly, do all of the girls in Europe wear ginormous belts??)

how to sell a fast bike

noreply@blogger.com (darryl ohrt) — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 12:59:00 +0000

Your creative brief: show that this BMW Superbike can go from 0 to 60 in 2.9 seconds. How do you do that?

Simple, effective, awesome. From The Denver Egotist.

coffee that does the trick

noreply@blogger.com (darryl ohrt) — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 12:50:00 +0000

When a single shot can communicate your entire message, that's advertising on fire. Wonderous.

a trailer for a book that you'll want to read

noreply@blogger.com (darryl ohrt) — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 12:36:00 +0000

Xplane produced this video for Youngme Moon, to promote her new book "Different."

It's beautifully produced, thoroughly engaging, completely inspiring, and makes you want to buy the book. Which is exactly what a trailer for a book should be doing. Nice work.

how to show people that drawing is fun

noreply@blogger.com (darryl ohrt) — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 13:05:00 +0000

The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum is hosting an event called Draw On, that looks to inspire people from all walks of life to draw.

They've got impressive drawing elite involved with the event, like Maurice Sendak, Peter H Reynolds, and street artist KAWS. Here's the challenge: most adults have been been told for years that "you're not creative." Or that "drawing is for artists. Or kids."

This is exactly the mindset that Draw On! hopes to crush. Anyone can draw, and have fun doing so. Our own Matt Hunsberger produced a site that is entirely drawn. Even down to the sponsor logos. If that wasn't enough drawing, he created the site in mostly black & white, with ample white space, and gave the user a box of drawing tools. Go ahead. Draw all over the site. Have fun. Draw like you haven't drawn since you were 12.

Disclosure: Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum is a client and Matt Hunsberger works for the greatest agency in the land, but that doesn't change the fact that this is awesome work.

how to get a skater's attention

noreply@blogger.com (darryl ohrt) — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 12:51:00 +0000

Skate brand Performa installed rating labels next to popular skate obstacles, rating their difficulty.

This campaign gets to where their audience lives, and then proves that the brand thinks just like them. Genius. From @Khuda1.

if you still write on paper, you'll dig this

noreply@blogger.com (darryl ohrt) — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 12:44:00 +0000

An entire blog devoted to creative ways that Moleskine notebooks have been customized by their owners. Wonderful.

what to do with that favorite tshirt

noreply@blogger.com (darryl ohrt) — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 12:37:00 +0000

Send Hellow Rewind your old favorite t-shirt, and they'll craft it into a custom designed laptop sleeve.

If that wasn't delicious enough, the entire operation is devoted to helping sex trafficking victims in NYC. They get to learn marketable skills to re-enter the workplace, and you get a juicy hot laptop sleeve. Everyone wins. From @mtlb

how to get rid of google juice

noreply@blogger.com (darryl ohrt) — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 12:27:00 +0000

If you've ever had a second thought about all of the Google juice you're generating on the internet, you'll love this piece from the Onion. From BakerTweets

guest posting on adland this week!

noreply@blogger.com (darryl ohrt) — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 13:57:00 +0000

Just in case you haven't been paying attention, I've joined a few of the most awesome bloggers in the blogosphere and am guest posting over at Adland this week. Badass blogger Ask Dabitch is taking some unblogging time, and we're filling in with goodness.

(Mostly, I'm attempting to find stuff that @mtlb and @caff haven't already found on the internet days ago...which is almost impossible.)

it's friday. your boss doesn't really expect productivity today anyway.

noreply@blogger.com (darryl ohrt) — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 13:11:00 +0000

I am guessing that if you download this app today, you will get nothing done all day, AND be a big hit at your office. Just a suggestion.

why do day traders need better setups than internet workers?

noreply@blogger.com (darryl ohrt) — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 13:04:00 +0000

Couldn't you use few more browser windows? Wouldn't this make your cube just a little more delicious? Just wondering.