Right-Half Chow

The Cans Festival

It seems like everything Banksy touches these days turns to gold, so it's refreshing to see that he does all the effort to get new people involved in the scene as well.

If you're in London or passing through, pray that some of the art is still there and go check it out.

The Kaiser speaks

And you should listen (hell, if Martin Sorell reads up, why shouldn't you), at least to this post about the way we should often assume that, as professionals, we should know what is best for our clients, and stick by that until the end. I don't want to go into detail but I can think of some shameful instances for myself. And there's not just the failure of the brand that awaits the client, it's a troubled relationship with mediocre work for years to come...

As an agency we're going through a lot of changes at the moment, and if I had to name one thing that has improved the way we work right now it's never to assume that a client won't buy into something because it doesn't fit his or her way of working.

And then there's the massive effort to keep everything on track after you presented it and the client's doubts are beginning to raise their ugly heads. Just keep on working and tugging stubbornly to make sure that an idea is executed to the full extent of it's potential.

Dude

Since the substantial overuse of the word by Hurley in Lost, all positive connotations the word got from The Big Lebowski have been eradicated. Enter Bud ligt, who are launching Dudemadness...

Not the most original  strategy for a beer I'd say, we've had Jupiler with 'men know why' for decades now, but they never focused on the 'men' moments apart from some moronic tie-in with extreme sports action. If that leads you to buy more beer and confirms you in your manhood you probably already drank too many braincells to death. I do like the new 'men need a break' idea for Jupiler Blue though.

I can sympathise with some of the 'dude-moments' but it's just such a letdown to see it followed by a pay-off for a light beer... I still don't understand the appeal: if you're going to drink beer than drink beer, especially if it needs to tie in with some kind of male bonding/understanding type of thing. And if you want to avoid the Hurley look and start wearing a bra, remember that you don't have to drop down from one of Alaska's most dangerous peaks to call it sports...

The Loudness War

It's always a joy to find people who are able to explain inherently complex matter in a clear and simple way. The past few years there's been lots of talk on 'overproducing' and 'overcompressing' music, and you often hear sound afficionados mumble about the loss of range in modern music productions. This short video explains everything:

There is kind of a similar thing happening in marketing and advertising today. Brands are trying to shout at the top of their lungs in the same channels, repeating the same message with the same colours and the same sounds, losing the subtle touches that are often needed to become more than a onedimensional promotional idea.

That's actually the way the basic media approach worked: turn it up in all frequencies in order to get a maximum of reach. And that's precisely the reason why planners should be more involved in the media planning process: on the lookout for those frequencies and areas where it might be more interesting to approach people from a different, potentially more subtle, angle. As the video rightly states: you need silence to be able to hear a sound. 

Mixes via Pando

Ok, as I'm not able to share it through Imeem, I have been looking for another way and I'm kind of hoping Pando has the answers, let's see if this works:

It's not ideal because you need to download the client, but it's not that big and genuinely useful for other stuff as well.

EDIT: apparently some people have trouble using the client, so it's here locally as well:

Download andys_birthday_boenk_1.mp3

A Glass And A Half Full

I've just spent the better part of an hour surfing the Cadbury site, not because it is superflashy and has a ton of modern features but because it entertains me and remains interesting (kudos for including a link to the remixes). And it's got a nice, Nintendo-y videogame feel to it actually, and that is a tone that fits perfectly with the Cadbury theme. Nothing overly fancy, but really playful and colourful, with a nice and easy soundtrack.

I've always wondered where they'd go with their work outside of the  Gorilla and Trucks feelgood vibe, but this environment makes perfect sense and gives them a platform to talk about some basic truths about the product as well (go outside and talk to the cows about the secret). Just a shame that you have to go and find a UK postcode to register for news...

I even went looking for all the letter clues to get in the vault (not that it's hard, but it was fun), I was just disappointed that I didn't find a high res quicktime version of the Trucks 90' cut there.

New Ief Noise

Back by popular demand, and I'm kind of hoping this platform works out for sharing music. This was a mix I did for the birthday of a good friend, kind of a last minute hussle up, but I think it has quite a nice ring to it (and don't let the title mislead you, it's actually quite palatable):

Hell, I've just realised that they don't really allow for a straight download, I'll upload the file as soon as possible.

Bench Press 2.0

Possibly a bit far fetched as a title, but this idea is truly fantastic:

via Photojojo

Flower Power

According to this, the picture below represents this blog. Looks really interesting but the site doesn't really offer a lot of explanation on the links (the colours indicate lots of links, pictures and DIV tags, whatever that may be) which is kind of a pity. I was hoping to have lengthy conversations on the flowery qualities of this site...

Found on Welcome to Optimism.

Dare to think

I don't have the habit of posting work from the office but sometimes I just can't help it...

A few years ago we came up with the 'dare to think' idea for the University of Ghent, when most universities and high school educational institutions in Belgium were still portraying themselves using improbable career perspectives and uninteresting (and stupidly bland) promises of the 'exciting student life beyond the school's walls'...

It seemed like a good idea to talk about a mentality rather than a promise: an independent university for independent minds, embodied in the 'dare to think' moniker.

4 years down the line we still use the same concept and it's proven highly effective, not just the sheer increase of the number of students that apply every year, but especially the increase in pride and the number of billboards that are being stolen all over the city of ghent. Without using any blatant nudity, we might add. What's more: the whole proposition is so unique and right for the brand that it allows us to use new ideas and emanations of the concept every year, without losing anything in attribution or recognisability, it's perfect illustration of the coherent vs consistent debate.

One of the curious things about the campaign is the fact that it remains pretty hard to brief new teams every year: for once they're being told that a campaign shoulcn't be immediately comprehensible and straight to the point but rather confusing and thought-inducing. You'd think that that would be a great add-on to any briefing, but it tends to complicate things. In the end there's just one benchmark for us: does it make you think in more than one direction? As our creative director put it: the ad is the entry exam.

And just for the record: the Darfur one was conceived before Spielberg turned against the IOC, we actually asked permission to use the rings in november last year. Given the current commotion it is not that difficult to see why they asked the university to stop using the image though...

On a final note, the radio spots (for the Dutch speaking among you) can be heard here, here and here. And as a brilliant illustration of the campaign, a known Belgian radio station pulled the Consolidated ad, even though they have the song on their playlist. What a contrast with this fantastic piece by the sceptical futuryst.

Sorry for that, we're just really happy with the campaign...

April Fool by the BBC?

Even though it looks like quite a production for a simple joke...

Cadbury Trucks

The follow up to Gorilla, and they've picked a great track to accompany it this time (I'm not that much of a Philip Collins fan...), but it's a tough one to work into steady rhythm set, I can tell you that.

The track was used by Erol Alkan for a video promoting his Bugged Out mix cd a few years back too, I'll see if I can find the film and upload it somewhere, I seem to recall it lingering on one of my hard disks at home.

Moldover Octamasher

The title probably doesn't ring a bell for most of you, but don't let that stop you from taking a look at the movie. I've already mentioned several times that I'm currently investing a bit more of my time in music and specifically Ableton, and it has often struck me how automation is making the production and deejaying part of the business a lot easier.

Most of the time it nets you discussions between old school vinyl jockeys and new-fangled laptop kids: the older ones accusing the younger ones of cheating, the younger ones calling the older ones technically obsessed snobs... Both sides probably have a point, but that's easy for me to say as I'm playing around with both methods and have finally found a way to incorporate the laptop stuff in my classic setup.

Looking at the instrument in the video below you have to conclude that this is making music and music production more interesting than ever. It won't be long until everybody is able to produce, mix and remix music, and the evaluation will be based on what you hear, rather than what you know...

That being said, you still need someone to come up with the technology, and if you'd like to see more of Moldover's stuff, check out Controllerism.

Conistency is good, for once...

Especially when you have to make a single idea look credible. Studio Brussel, a Belgian youth radio station is celebrating it's 25th birthday as Brudio Stussel, and look what shows up if you tune in while driving:

Flip, the case for simplicity, but for whom?

Yes, we all make the case that technology needs to cater for everyone, including our grand parents and their parents: they want to use cell phones too, they need to be able to program their digicorders to watch programs on their flat screens as well,...

So we are told we need to simplify interfaces, go back to the basic functions: phones which can make calls (as opposed to organise your life, take pictures, do the grocery shopping and schedule your evening out), computers which are able to send emails and browse the web without the need to touch a button on a keyboard,...

I came across the Flip only recently, and I think it's a fantastic product (I've yet to find a retailer who sells them in Europe). In essence it's a camcorder which does what it have to do: record video. No menus, no weird interfaces, just a big record button and play and delete functions.

You'd think it was ideal for someone older who does not have the technological luggage we young hipsters have... But when I discussed the merits with an older acquaintance of ours who might fit that bill, he bluntly stated that it was way too 'Fisherpricy' for him.

And that's where the trouble starts: lots of people who don't really follow technology (and gadgetry) trends expect technological innovations to be a bit 'difficult'. Lots of buttons and functions often translates as 'more powerful' (or more flexible), that's probably why there's quite a bit of resistance against Macs from pc users. Things that look too simple and almost 'toy-like' can easily put off those target groups who still expect technology to be expensive and sturdy (and to last a lifetime, which is probably a bigger issue now that I think of it).

If you look at a success product like the iPod, you should be able to point out how they opened up the market to an audience that, previously, wouldn't even have considered an mp3 player. And while they did enlarge the market, I do get the impression that it became widely adopted by young people who are used to technology and the speed of evolution these days. They have come to terms with the fact that it is a toy, and that it will probably be replaced by another toy in a year or so (see also: the 30 year old sofa vs the Ikea Klippan with 'disposable' covers...).

It doesn't seem to dampen their sales results though...

The 2008 Planner Survey

Heather Lefevre needs you for the next installment of her annual planner survey. Fill in the survey here, drop your email address if you want the results here.

No time for elaboration or funny pictures at the moment, will try to update later.

More Skittles Madness

They've quite brilliantly captured a completely bonkers communication territory, and the new spot is a worthy contender for the craziness competition that must surely be held in their offices:

And then there are the following sites: National S'Mores Day, The Brownie Batter Buddies and, last but not least, Chocolate Car Email.

Bathroom Drama

The most sophisticated piece of technology you'll ever pee on... Hilarious!

And it gave Iain Tait a splendid idea for a new pregnancy test.

DIY Ikea

Sure, every assembly procedure from Ikea is a bit of DIY, but apparently you can go a step further. This weekend I have occupied myself with Lack, Expedit and Lillberg (but that was for Mira's room and doesn't really count in this regard), assembling this with the following result:

Let me gloat a little bit more and add another picture to show my mighty Ikea-skills:

But that's not the entire reason why I'm posting this...
Why didn't anyone tell me there was a huge Ikea Hack community out there?

I've been coming up with unorthodox uses for Ikea furniture since I found my first student room in Ghent: just picking up the catalogue and browse and combine (based on the size of different objects) was enough (they had some handy cupboards that were great speaker stands if you combined them with a ...

My curiosity was picked by the Pimp My Billy concept, and after a really short Google tour I stumbled upon a semi-organised Ikea hack community:

Tons of ideas, some very simple and clean, others (admittedly) more of a far-fetched story.

I went looking for reactions from Ikea on the hacks, and could not come up with anything significant. Likewise, there is nothing to be found on their local site either. If I were them I'd be pretty supportive for this kind of thing. Sure, newly constructed objects might not adhere to the same safety standards, but acknowledging the fact that they exist does not necessarily mean that you take all the risk as a company (although you can never be sure in he US for example...).

On the other hand: this must be a fantastic source of inspiration for them. Take the dj console for example: it's a pretty simple object, required only a few extra holes and two lack pieces that need to be trimmed (sawed). The colour is the same, the size (width) is the same,... It would be a cinch for them to put it in production.

And what's more, the active nature of these communities allows them to monitor the popularity of different hacks. They should be organising contests like this one to see what they can get out of it.

In the end, it's a great accent for the strength of the concept: design which can be fit in everywhere and is affordable enough to let you experiment and customise. After all, you won't be so quick to saw your new Eames chair in two, would you?

Test your ears

A fantastic and simple concept, and something that you're willing to accept from this kind of organisations, I almost felt embarrassed that they needed to excuse themselves for using this trick.