Facebook recently announced that it bought Instagram for a whopping $1 Billion, and that seems to be all everyone has been talking about lately. Well, ALMOST everyone. Check out this cute clip from last night's Jimmy Kimmel where adorable old people are interviewed for their thoughts on the acquisition.
The new site provides a more advanced and sophisticated interface for Institutional Investors and Libraries seeking Value Line's best-in-class investment research.
Congratulations also to our client, Jason Wiseberg, who was promoted to VP in charge of the unit.
Barker DZP Credits:
Design: Yimeng Bai
Project Lead & UX: John Lu
CD: Sandi Harari
AE: Arielle Kepler
Content: Sam Stroube
As a professional in advertising, I am seldom knocked out of my chair by a commercial. Almost never in fact, even though there is so much good advertising being produced these days. But last night, I found myself staring at the screen, blown away by what I was witnessing. Tactically, it made no sense at all, and yet that’s what made it so brilliant. Budgetarily, it was so exorbitant and lavish as to be nearly obscene—and that is why it was such a savvy investment. And in format, it was so unusual that it was as if the ritual of watching television had suddenly been reinvented. It was “L’Odyssée de Cartier.”
Yes, at 3:30, it covered an entire commercial pod mid-way through “The Good Wife,” a slot that would normally have contained 7 or more commercials. A little research this morning revealed that the short film commemorates Cartier’s 165th anniversary, was directed by Bruno Aveillan, took 2 years to produce and used three panthers on four continents. But while many will surely dismiss this as a symbol of everything that’s wrong with the world (Occupy Cartier? The 0.0001%?), I would defend this as quite possibly the smartest piece of marketing I’ve ever seen. Why?
Because with only one impression, it will forever change the way millions of consumers think of Cartier. Luxury is a tough business. (And the past few years have indeed taken a toll, although not as much as you might think. Sales in Asia have become paramount for nearly every brand.) And in luxury, brand is everything. As an agency that has worked in the category, we understand how it operates inversely from conventional FMCG marketing. In that tradition, the consumer has a problem, and voila, Tide or Bounty or Pampers or whatever has the solution. But in luxury, there is no need. It begins with desire. It starts with how we believe this brand will help transport us toward the aspirational vision we have of ourselves, or our wives, or whomever. And Cartier just moved the bar far, far higher.
But why was this so smart as to be jaw-dropping? Well, let’s break it down.
1) Illogical timing. About 80% of all luxury advertising occurs in November and December. The other 20% hits Valentine’s day. The timing of this spot doesn’t correspond to anything at all. So it stands out, far from the clutter. By having this come out of nowhere, Cartier achieved a 100% Share of Voice in the category, and for at least a while, 100% Share of Mind!
2) Lavishness. While no one is talking numbers, it is quite possible that this is the most expensive commercial ever produced. Our Exec Producer was guessing $7,000,000 or more. My number was closer to $5MM, but either way, the quality of the production is non-pareil. That exquisiteness does more to communicate the history and values of the Cartier brand than anything else.
3) Length. There was a time when the :60 commercial was king. And Carter was in the White House. We live in a world of :15s sprinkled with :30s, to the extent that a :60 spot these days is almost jarring—and very, very rare. At 3:30, the Cartier film seemed to stop the entire experience of watching television. It was disorienting, weird, affecting. And memorable. It was much more than a commercial; it was an experience. One shared in millions of homes at once, and talked about then, today, tomorrow.
4) Social Media. Facebook and Twitter have lit up for Cartier. Less than 24 hours later, YouTube has 250,000 views. And if you want to see the power of this spot, read the comments, over 500 already.
All in all, a remarkable moment in marketing—at least in my white gold-and diamond-encrusted book.
AEG’s exciting announcement comes on the heels of the highly successful launch of AXS.com , AEG's new ticketing site that competes with Ticketmaster. AXS.com gives the purchaser a more transparent, fan-friendly place to buy tickets -- addressing aspects of ticketing that Ticketmaster consumers have long complained about.
The instant success of AXS.com was a "clear sign to some in the industry that AXS provides legitimate competition to market leader Ticketmaster." (Billboard)
Barker DZP has partnered with AEG from the beginning of the development of the AXS brand, working closely with AEG SVP of Digital, Todd Sims. We began by developing the AXS spotlight logo, and then designed the highly-differentiated AXS.com site, which the New York Times lauded as "sleek.” Barker DZP also worked on brand strategy, tagline/positioning, collateral materials, and venue/partner web sites as well as all venue signage and digital opportunities.
Our work with AEG is one of the best examples of the integrated services that have become the hallmark of Barker DZP. From brand identity to advertising, from video production to e-commerce website development, from motion graphics to social media, AEG challenged us across the full range of our capabilities, and we are delighted by their success.
Click here to visit the site: http://www.axs.com/
Click here for the full article: http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/18/concerts-to-be-focus-in-shift-from-hdnet-to-axs-tv/?ref=ryanseacrest
It's that time of year again! Time to dress up and head out to the People's Choice Awards to watch America's favorite celebrities turn out to honor the fans. And so, we'd like to take a second to honor one of the agency's longest standing and amazing clients. To all those at P&G Entertainment and TeleNext, it is a pleasure and an honor to have worked with you for six years in both the "off season" and the wild gear up for this event, made even more exciting this year with new host Kaley Cuoco (The Big Bang Theory) and the red carpet preshow airing on ReelzChannel.
In early 2011, we were happy to be named Kiss Products' creative agency to execute the launch of their new nail product, imPress Press-On Manicure, which falls under the company's Broadway Nails line. The campaign, featuring singer and X Factor judge Nicole Scherzinger, launched in early December on TV and in digital units -- and the displays we designed can be found in stores like Walmart and CVS nationwide.
Anyone who's used WebEx or GoToMeeting knows that the technology behind video conferencing feels like it has evolved little past video chatting and IM. What happened to the video phones we were promised decades ago?!? Anyways, a group of students from MIT Media Lab have come out with a project that uses Microsoft's Kinect camera technology that makes conference calls cool and bleeding edge. The Kinected Conference uses a Kinect camera and sound sensors to transform videoconference rooms into interactive displays. What this means is that your view of a video conference becomes an augmented reality display. You can zoom in on the person who is speaking while blurring out the guys chatting in the background, or little thought bubbles pop up next to each person that displays the person's name, title, links to digital files. The killer feature is what they call "Spacial Augmenting Reality" where the 3-D positioning of objects displayed are "assigned with an augmented status." This means parties on both sides of the conference call can view and interact with digital models or renderings in 3D space.
Forget Pandora and iTunes, there's now a new way to listen to music on the internet -- and it's VERY addictive. Turntable.fm is in its beta stage and not yet fully open to the public, but you can get in if you have a Facebook or Twitter friend using it. Turntable.fm allows users to pick an Avatar and hop into a user-created "Room" (my personal favorite is Indie While You Work). There are 5 DJ spots per room at a time which anyone can grab; good luck getting a DJ spot in a popular room! DJs upload music to a queue from their own iTunes or by a digital content provider called Medianet. People who are listening in the room can press the "Lame" or "Awesome" button when a song is played -- too many "Lames" and the song is skipped, and for each "Awesome", the DJ gets a point. There's also an old-school chat feature so everyone in the room can chat with each other.
Turntable is unlike any other music-based social media out there right now. It allows you to be as involved as you want to be; you can DJ and play your own music while chatting about it with others, or you can just sit back and listen. I'm excited for the launch so I can get more people I know into my own music room (which is called Pizza Party if anyone out there wants to join me).
It seems close to a lifetime ago when Facebook challenged Myspace for the throne of social media, lest we forget it's been a mere 3 years since. In this age when empires rise and fall in the blink of an eye, Facebook has become so ubiquitous that a world without it seems almost unimaginable. Google, the company that can do anything you can do better has just announced it's newest product, Google+ in the hopes of changing that paradigm. Will Google become the new face(book) of social media? I for one welcome our new Google overlords.
