by Josh Davenport

A recent article discussed how retailers are largely ignoring people on social media networks. Two-thirds of all customer issues are largely ignored by retail brands. This shocking statistic indicates a lack of understanding of the inherent qualities of social media.

Social Media's main quality is the conversation. That is, the web is a space where retailers can connect with their customers one-to-one. It's not dissimilar to the storefront: customers come in, associates interact with them, give them advice and guidance and ultimately, the customers purchase the product.

With the rise of the big-box stores (and some of the worst offenders are big boxes), customer service became an issue. Stores became widely known for having few associates and those who were there were unknowledgeable. Even department stores have cut staff in an effort to shave costs.

These efforts were largely counterproductive! Customers who had a bad experience would tell their family and friends. Even if the store had cost on its side, often the retailer would lose sales to a higher-end retail brand that put effort into making customer service a key part of its strategy.

Now we find the process repeating again. Even as companies like Zappos and Southwest Airlines are owning the social media space, interacting with their customers on Twitter and Facebook, we find that retailers are ignoring their customers once again. 

Companies see Facebook as a platform for marketing: offering deals and coupons to customers who like their page. This ignores the primary purpose of the medium: to connect. These retailers are doing nothing more than treating the greatest method for reaching out and connecting with their customers as nothing more than a grab for eyeballs, like any other traditional media outlet.

The irony is that there are companies who've learned this lesson well. These are the companies whose agility in the social sphere will pay off with increased sales and brand loyalty. Others... may find themselves abandoned by irate consumers. Ambivalence, in this case, is worse than contempt.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com

by Brian Brooker

In many ways, I’m an unlikely person to speak about Steve Jobs.  I’m not much of a computer person.  I’m not technically minded.  But then again, maybe I am the perfect person.  
 
Steve Jobs knew how to create products for people like me.  People who want to listen to music or write a script or play a game but who don’t know much about computers or how they work.
  
Steve Jobs was a master of simplifying.  He boiled everything down to its essence.  He understood the power of design and it shone through in all of his inventions, including the Apple stores that sold them.
 
Steve Jobs was a visionary.  I don’t use that word lightly.  I put him in the same space with Walt Disney.  Jobs was prescient.   He could see what we wanted before we knew we wanted it.  And once he created it, we couldn’t imagine our lives without it.
 
Steve Jobs was driven. He never stopped creating. He had countless inventions and he kept working right up until his death.  It was “the discovery” that drove him; not the riches that followed.
 
Steve Jobs was brave. He believed there was a better way and he was bold enough to change things.  He kicked convention in the balls.
 
I can’t think of another person on the horizon like him.  I’m in awe of what he did and who he was.  

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

By JD Hillen

There is a lot of hubbub about HTML5 taking over Flash as the “must use” technology for developing interactive web and mobile applications. And like any debate, there are just as many arguments that support the claim as there are to refute it. 

While virtually being blocked from running on Apple’s mobile devices, Adobe has rolled with the punches. Where most companies would have rolled over, Adobe went ahead and created some amazing tools that make cross-browser and cross-mobile development extremely easy and cost effective, all through the Flash platform (Flash Builder 4.5 & Flash CS5.5 both allow you to develop on Flash / Flex / or AIR and then compile your project out for mobile, desktop, and web.) 

In addition to some smart dev tools, Adobe has partnered directly with Google as well as Facebook to bring the best Flash experience possible to the web and mobile devices.  Point is, I don’t think Flash is going away anytime soon.

HTML5 may be the “greatest” according to some, but in reality, it is just another technology like JavaScript, PHP or .NET that can be added to our development arsenal.

As creative technologists, our job is to recognize problems and use the best technology solutions available. HTML 5 might be new, but it doesn’t make Flash defunct or not a valid option for many, many of our projects.

Here are a few links that show HTML5 browser support, Browser usage stats, and Flash Player market penetration.

HTML5 & CSS3 Support - http://bit.ly/qx65NC
Browser Usage Statistics - http://bit.ly/rsq5Hi
Flash Player Market Penetration - http://adobe.ly/rsx1dm

JD Hillen
|Creative Technologist

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

We're constantly interested in how best to engage with customers. After all, it's the main business we're in here. What is advertising but delivering the right message to the right people at the right time? 

So it was with some interest that we recently came across this article by Brian Solis at the Harvard Business Review: "Social Media's Impending Flood of Customer Unlikes"

So, it's up to brands to make sure that their messages are interesting, engaging and most importantly, useful. Research shows pretty consistently that consumers follow brands that give them valuable offers/discounts or in order to make purchases. 

Strategy is the key here. Finding out what a brands' customers want from their social media stream and giving more of it. This can create what social media is ultimately all about, a conversation, and that's the true meaning of engagement.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

We hosted the first BR Open this summer. A great way to show off the little-known skills of our people. Sure, they're fantastic creatives, but they've also got some serious game!

We had our ladder tournament and finally we reached the championship match and we crowned our winners!

Finalists_Interview.avi Watch on Posterous

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

By David Drace

Just over 60 years ago, a visionary ad agency creative director named Bill Bernbach had an epiphany and created a new team structure. 

Prior to his innovation, the Copywriter and Art Director usually worked in different rooms. The writer came up with the ideas and the Art Director put them into layout. Bernbach realized that when words and artwork worked together, more powerful ideas emerged, particularly in the new world of broadcast television. The best big ideas came from the cooperation of those two minds (hence the copywriter/art director team that we see as the “traditional” structure today). That team structure resulted in brilliant work like this:

That was at the dawn of broadcast television – the last media revolution. 

Creative Technology

Now we’re in the midst of another revolution. None of the old tools have gone away (words and pictures are still of paramount importance in great advertising), but there’s a powerful third element that’s present in most innovative work we’re seeing these days. You can call it many things – experience, interactivity or online engagement – but whatever you call it, the work leverages technology in a new or interesting way. 

Since understanding technology is not the forte of most art directors or copywriters (they have enough on their plates already), many of today’s Bernbachs have realized the need for a new member in the traditional team. The common title for this new role is “Creative Technologist.”

As a new area of specialization, there are about as many creative technologist job descriptions as there are creative technologists. But Bob Greenberg of R/GA, the creative technologists’ Bill Bernbach, sums it up nicely:

“There are critical creative needs that didn't exist in the old advertising. Advertising is no longer just about the display ad or the TV commercial or the banner; it's about creating meaningful tools and architecting user experiences. Our technology group, they can keep up to speed technically with the top people at HP or IBM. But they also understand how to work with others to create an application that will lead to community."

When you add technology to the equation, you get ideas like this:

Nike+ earned R/GA Adweek’s Digital Campaign of the Decade in 2009.

Job Descriptions are So 1960

A Creative Technologist can come from many backgrounds. But it’s generally someone who has good knowledge of programming and can write code, but who also has a passion for creativity and big ideas. And someone who can look ahead to the new and developing technology. It’s a pretty tall order.

So what does a CT do? It varies greatly between agencies. But I like how Trevor O’Brien, McKinney’s Creative Technology Director sums it up:

Mark Avnet of 360i has this to add:

“They sketch with technology, just like a visual creative can sketch with a pencil. They’re steeped in strategy, so the things they come up with make sense – it’s not about technology just for the sake of technology. The experiences they design address real needs of people and brands.”

It’s probably one of the most interesting jobs in advertising today. A CT spends a good deal of his or her time experimenting with new technology and using it to solve problems that haven’t even been defined yet. This constant experimentation and quest for innovation keeps the job interesting. And the new experiences that come out of this experimentation have the potential to captivate and delight consumers, and turn them into advocates for your brand. That’s our ultimate goal.

Here are a few of our own examples, showing what can happen when creative technologists are invited to the concepting couches at BR.

Honor Angus (McDonald’s):

http://www.honorangus.com/

Love Letters (Elbow Chocolates):

http://www.elbowchocolates.com/loveletters/

Seek Your Balance (Commerce Bank):

http://seekyourbalance.brmethod.com/

Stache The Halls (Self-Promotion):

http://stachethehalls.com/

Although we’ve had creative technology people at BR for as long as we’ve been doing digital work, it hasn’t been a formal role or title until now. We feel that formalizing the role will help elevate and validate the discipline, while helping to alleviate the identity crisis that some technical folks face in the ad agency world.

Are you a Creative Technologist, or do you work in an agency or organization that has people acting in similar roles? We’d love to hear your thoughts and experiences.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Reposted from http://bartolucci.posterous.com

by Joe Bartolucci

Hello and greetings from the Midwest (now a little further south).

I’m in a pitch where the RFP states “We want to see Integration, Integration, Integration.”

Okay. So they want integration, that’s pretty clear. However, when you dive into it, clients have different meanings of integration. Mostly, they have a very uninformed idea of integration, which I call “Matchy-Matchy” or “Matching Luggage.” See the attached photo of matching luggage.

Not only is it pretty uninspiring (I chose something ugly ), but all the pieces of luggage pretty much do the same thing, they hold your stuff.

If you are someone more experienced at building integrated campaigns, you realize a better expression of this might be something like this photo of a grilling set.

All the pieces look somewhat similar, right? But every single piece within the set is designed to do something very specific (much like all of our media channels available to us today).  All of them used together hopefully deliver something very successful (& tasty).

So if you’re off to design some integrated marketing campaign, it’s best to understand what each medium is best at doing and don’t try and make each medium do everything… or the same thing (like luggage). Try to strategize around making your campaign act differently in different media and leverage the strengths of each. And please don’t try and make everything look exactly alike, because if you're clients are smart, that's all you get credit for.

Wishing  @Jess3 could make an amazing info-graphic to explain this better? Hollah if you want to work on it together. @bartonow

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

One of the great things about this industry is when we're able to share good news. We put it up and spread it around far and wide. Well this good news should spread itself it's so sweet!

BR has been a partner with Hostess Brands for six years. We started with project work, then we were awarded their snack cake work and then the media for the company's brand portfolio. It's been a fantastic relationship that's been characterized by hard work, great creative and a deepening trust. Here's some of our work for Hostess:

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

BR has been lucky enough to have some fantastic interns this summer. Today is their last day and it's time to use this space to thank them for their hard work. You've been fantastic colleagues and we wish you success and happiness in everything you do.

We're glad we taught you one thing at least: you know how to BE REAL! 

Bernstein-Rein's 2011 Interns are:

Account Management

Andrea Carroll - University of Kansas

Emily Cray - Elon University

Media

Hilary Golubski - University of Kansas

Stephen Fowler - Indiana University

Creative

Katie Hayes (Writer) - University of Missouri

Caitlin Workman (Art Director) - University of Kansas

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Permalink | Leave a comment  »