Sitting in a SXSW session entitled something like “Flash versus HTML5″ I sat unconvinced that HTML5 presented a viable alternative, or threat to Flash. Sure, Steve Jobs is posturing and Adobe’s rebuttal was weak, very weak.
Now, present day. Holy crap. HTML5 is legit. We’re building test cases, testing browsers, kicking the tires and getting excited about the ability to bring our brand of Flash micro-site to iPad users the world over (and other people with smart phones and mobile devices that don’t use an IE browser).
VLG joined forces with Nothing But Nets to put an end to malaria. Nothing But Nets is a global, grassroots campaign to raise awareness and funding to combat malaria, one of the largest killers of children in Africa. Join our team. Share this link. Donate.
While the UN Foundation has been working with the UN to fight malaria for years, it was Rick Reilly’s column about malaria in Sports Illustrated challenging each of his readers to donate at least $10 for the purchase of an anti-malaria bed nets, that led to the creation of the Nothing But Nets campaign in 2006.
It cost $10 to put insecticide-laced mosquito nets into the hands of families in need. We’ve set a modest goal of delivering 250 nets to Africa, but we need your help.
The facts:
Every 30 seconds a child dies from malaria in Africa.
Children and pregnant women are most susceptible to malaria.
An insecticide-treated bed net can protect a family of four for up to four to five years.
Watch a quick video showing net distribution in the Ivory Coast:
Did Dominos need a focus group to find out it’s pizza crust tasted like cardboard, or it’s sauce like acidic canned tomatoes? No, the group just confirmed what they knew to be true. Fix what’s broken, then run a self-deprecating ad campaign to get your back in your customers good graces.
Kudos to Dominos. The personalization used is killer. You may not be able to go one-to-one everywhere, but you need to start building brand evangelists one at a time. Without seeing their revenue numbers I’d bet this latest campaign (and better pizza) should give them a bump.
Should you spend time pulling together a focus group, or fixing what you know to be broken?
We limit all our creative briefs to one page. Period. If you go over you need to cut something out. Yes, you can be too far under. There is an art to a good creative brief.
I stumbled upon (not by using StumbleUpon) this slide deck by Dare, which I assume is a British ad agency. I didn’t do too much digging, but they keep talking about British apples. What I did do was flip through a great instructional manual on what does and does not constitute a good brief. Kudos to Dare.
Please read if you like creative briefs. Please read if you don’t like creative briefs.
Once you get past Hugh’s self-promotion and work your way below “the fold” on this webpage you know that he wrote a book. In the book he wrote down most or some or all of the tips he’s used to be more creative in art and business.
You can read 25% of the book by following the link above. Or this one. You get the first 37 tips. The valuable tips, the last two, you’ll need to read when you buy the book. That’s my assumption. Check it out.
BTW - The guy draws art on the back of business cards, so…
Godin put up a post last week that deserves a second look. He paints a simple, yet effective analogy that compares tired, stagnant and declining companies to bus companies. He could just as easily said the same of train companies (at least here in the U.S.). Whether it’s Greyhound or AMTRAK his explanation holds water.
The characteristics associated with bus companies should serve as red flags to our organization or yours. We work with many companies in the Fortune 500 and see firsthand the challenge faced by some of our best customers. Bureaucracy often slows the pace of creative marketing, neutralizing the benefit gained through agility when attacking markets. We, of course, are ready to help our customers stave off these giant killers.
Tired, by-the-book, aging companies that fear no one, because they’re convinced they own enough market share to be safe. They coast. Market share is lost and one day great companies wake up to find they are just so-so having lost their way. Seth Godin’s post is worth a read. Check it out here.
We dug up a nice blog post about typography that reminds us to pay attention to more than words. Discussions about typography sometimes regress into snobbery. Sometimes we over think font selection, but it’s important. Legibility, thematic tie-ins, and mood are all important considerations when picking the right font for you microsite or website.
From time to time we surf the web looking for content made credible by the designer’s choice of font. Our next design could undoubtedly be influenced by the work of others and often is. Take a look at the work on I Love Typography and recommend others. Always nice to share.
Bouncing around Nerdom is a growing debate about the utility and impact of HTML5 on web development and the web in general. If you are so inclined we wanted to bring this discussion to your desktop. The good news is you can skip the video and rest at ease knowing we’re on top of the trends and always working to bring you the best microsites in the industry. For now that means we’re sticking with the one that brought us this far…Adobe’s Flash.
My name is Michael, and I’m an addict. From social media to web-based and iPhone apps I am guilty of a leap-then-look mentality. If you tell me you found a smoking hot iPhone app for 80’s trivia I will download it without giving it a second thought. Tell me about a great new time management application online, I’m there. Yes, I’ll register for inclusion in the industry specific directory of advertising movers and shakers.
Now I find myself in the ugly position of having no earthly idea what I’ve signed up for, how, why or when. What good are all these time management, SEO friendly, networking savvy applications if I don’t use them?
So many apps, so little brand loyalty
This post would be really awesome if provided a link applications that keep track of everything. I know the apps are out there, but if I sign up it’s just another login ID and password and URL I have to remember. Yep, I have a problem. Admitting the problem is the first step.
