Michael Buffa
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REBUS
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Rivet is Branded Action.
The marketing landscape is changing dramatically, and Rivet (formerly Zipatoni) invites you to learn about how merging two different disciplines–branding and activation–has led to some innovative ideas for local and national clients alike. We’ll share a range of work, answer your questions and leave plenty of time for networking and noshing.
Our name may have changed, but our bar is still stocked! Beer and wine will be served by our own resident bartenders, and we will proudly serve appetizers by Local Harvest, The Riverfront Times’ #1 New Restaurant in 2009.
555 Washington Avenue
2nd Floor
St. Louis, MO 63101
Parking
Paid parking is available right around the corner at the Edward Jones Dome, and we are conveniently located just steps away from the Metrolink Convention Center stop.
This is the weekly REBUS link dump. Each week a staff writer creative director will give you 4 delicious links to fatten up your advertising knowledge and clog your work-flow.
This week: Jamey Larkin, Group Creative Director, Propaganda-inc. He blogs, but judging by his list I’m not sure he reads them.
Coroflot
The contingency plan. A source that may come in handy after you tell your boss to suck it.
Northernbrewer
Get everything you need here to make your own beer. I’m currently brewing Nukey Brown.
STLtoday
If you like Saint Louis sports, Bernie Miklasz’s column is a great read. If you don’t like sports, it’s a good read.
Houseplans.com
I have this site bookmarked for when I build my own home. I hope this site is still up 20 years from now.
We’ve got friends in high places. Occasionally they stop by to share their wisdom.
Jamey Larkin is a Group Creative Director at Propaganda-inc. Here is his blog. He’s here to share some of his badassedness with you, so gather round, and listen to this tale of wonder-ment and magic…
In the next few weeks you may notice a new beverage at your local grocery store or pharmacy. It’s called Nawgan and it was formulated by life-long brain scientist, Robb Paul. Nawgan has a patented blend of ingredients combined and specially formulated to help support memory and cognitive skills.
I led the Propaganda team charged with designing the logo, packaging and brand identity for Nawgan. The challenge was creating something fresh enough to appeal to people in their twenties, yet medicinal enough that baby-boomers would believe in its benefits.
Click here to see some of the rejected legwork that helped guide me to the final piece.
On February 9, 2010, Google unleashed the revolutionary Google Buzz.
Are you ready for it? Are you ready to have your mind blown? Unlike any other social networking site, Google Buzz connects you with your friends and allows you to share things that you find interesting!
Well sure, Buzz is similar to other social networking sites. It allows you to share videos, photos, status updates, links, etc. But Buzz is revolutionary because- hold on, nope… It sounds to me that Buzz is exactly like Facebook. Maybe I’m missing the big picture here. Let me take a look… (click, click, click) Um… So, now what? I can “follow” people (why even bother coming up with a new word for it?) and I can post things, I can- yeah, whatever. Is there a “not interested” button for the entire application? That would be great. Here’s why:
1. I’ve been on Facebook since 2006. I’ve got bajillion friends. I’m established, and so are the other 400 million active users and their 60 million status posts per day.
2. Most of my contacts through Gmail are professors from college, professional contacts, and family members. Forgive me, but I’m not exactly about to start “following” the human resources person at prospective employers or my former ethics professor.
3. The capstone course during my senior year in college was Advertising Campaign Production. Our client was AOL Instant Messenger. The assignment was to create a social networking product to compete with MySpace and Facebook. Even two years ago, we thought it would be tough. Scratch that- damn near impossible. Even so, we came up with some pretty killer ideas. Google obviously didn’t see our presentation at the finals.
4. Why would I waste my time to find all of my friends’ e-mail addresses, weed out the ones who aren’t with Gmail, and add the rest to my contacts to do… exactly what I’m doing right now on Facebook?
5. The only difference I could find is the feature that allows you to see the exact location of other Buzz users. That’s just way too big brother-y to me.
6. It’s called Buzz. Nothing turns me off more than using a buzz word, much less the word “buzz” itself. That’s the best they could come up with? Buzz? I’m thinking this is how that brainstorming session went down:
“We need to come up with something that’ll really grab peoples’ attention, ya know? Something that’ll generate a buzz in the online community.”
“Oh my god that’s it! Jeff, you’re a genius! How about we call it…”
“Buzz!”
“Yeah! It’s perfect!”
Does anyone else smell a future South Park episode?
Final comments: Sorry Google, but you should stick with what you know. You bit off more than you could chew and now you just look like a big dummy with your face stuffed full of cheesy poofs.
This is the weekly REBUS link dump. Each week a staff writer will give you 4 delicious links to fatten up your advertising knowledge and clog your work-flow.
This week: Hilary Clements
Hello all, it’s time once again for four delectable links to stimulate the senses.
A wonderful collection of spaces, city guides, trends, recipes, and all around interesting things
Unnecessary Quotes
Just laugh with me.
Great place to browse, and buy, great design from designers.
The weekly agency to admire.
In tough economic times like these, clients are looking to cut corners wherever they can. Even on their Super Bowl commercials. Some are even turning to user-generated content to avoid agency fees. I’d like to offer up an easier solution though.
Don’t run a damn Super Bowl commercial.
This I’m not saying that no one should make commercials for the Super Bowl. After all, the 2010 Super Bowl was the most watched program in TV history, and people go out of their way to watch the commercials. I’m just saying that if you’re so worried about the cost, don’t blow millions of dollars on one :30 commercial.
What got my panties in a bunch was something that Seth Stevenson, a contributor for Slate Magazine (slate.com), wrote in his Ad Report Card.
“In the battle of pure humor spots, I’d say Doritos bested Bud Light. Which is remarkable when you consider that all the Doritos ads were submitted as part of a contest, while the Bud Light ads were made by an expensive advertising agency. Chalk one up for the slightly superior mediocrity of crowds.”
Regardless of what you think of the spots themselves, are clients actually saving that much money by relying on the “mediocrity of crowds?” Maybe it’s because I’m in the industry and would like to stay in it, but I don’t think you can build a brand doing that. It’s one thing to keep consumers involved in a brand, but a UGC (user-generated content) contest seems like a very shallow way of doing that. I’d love to hear other people’s opinions on it though.
Now, if you don’t mind, I’m going to find some contests to enter. I’m broke.
Whoever said, “Don’t judge a book by its cover” most certainly did not work in advertising.
As ad-ites, we do the opposite as part of our job. It’s not about tricking consumers, but rather, tapping into human instinct. As a rule, people judge based on senses, sight included. Knowing this proves there is power in the creative. How it looks is a large part of whether or not the products will sell or be memorable.
The McGowan Crain REBUS event highlighted this principle when they unveiled a new brand of Vodka.
Typically each liquor has a persona. Gin plays the part of a prohibition gangster, scotch breathes old money, rum will take you to a pirate riddled beach, whiskey rides rough, tequila revels in crazy, and vodka has airs like a snotty rockstar.
Not 1860s American Vodka. Inspired by Soulard staple drinkery, The 1860’s Saloon, its design casts aside stereotypes, and creates a a bit of a shelf-presence whore. Nestled in an embossed leather sleeve with side lacing, it works hard to look tough, and is clearly designed to capitalize on an untapped segment of the spirits market- the rough neck vodka drinker.
5 times distilled and charcoal filtered, 1860’s boasts a unique, smokey taste that further heightens it’s testosterone infused personality. A vodka that grows hair on your chest? Who would have thought it.
There’s no doubt it will get attention, if nothing else, on the wings of being a novelty. But will it succeed long-term? There’s danger in being too different, and it does have a small, if only momentary twang of awkwardness. Akin to seeing James Bond in boots and Levis.
And maybe that’s the genius of it.
I’d like to share with you some personal insight on the deep [ok,loose] correlation I’ve found between SEO and the trials of my reckless youth.
The first time I recognized a relationship between SEO and my strained
existence was during the course of reading a book about Google’s
founders, Larry Page and Sergy Brin. It turns out that they mapped
Google’s algorithmic structure after real-world human interactions in
the academic community. Essentially, they took the peer review
concept and adapted its trust-building mechanisms to the digital
space. Ingenious, I say. It’s all relative.
Humor me for a bit while I connect the dots.
Like I said previously, I think my life provides an appropriate backdrop for the
entire SEO scenario. At one point in my life, like most, I was a
newbie. New in town with no connections (inbound links), no
infrastructure (meta) and no idea how to get my new life started (no
$300/hr consultant). All I had was my good looks (content), a goal and
a healthy dose of desperation to provide motivation.
Naturally, my initial desperation lead me down a path of convenience
and risky behavior (buying links and booze for underage friends). I
found myself wanting to fast-track my progress, willing to do anything
for a buck. I altered my appearance (keyword meta) and dodged between
groups looking for an outlet and praying for success… and success
never came. Weighing the long-term consequences of my seemingly
synthetic morals I determined a method for growing into a more organic
existence.
It occurred to me that nothing is as solid as an honest name (title
meta) supported by a set of clearly defined principals (H1 & bold
tags). Considering the unique worth of my personal content, I found
that trustworthiness was often rewarded with prosperity. One
interesting way I came to measure the magnitude of this prosperity was
with the quality of numbers in my phone (inbound & reciprocal links).
I found I was no longer reliant on dealers and pushers for
connections. As my reputation (Pagerank) improved, I found myself
networking in more exclusive social circles (1st page SERPs) and
dating higher caliber women (customers).
All in all, I have come to realize that honest long-term growth is
best leveraged by honest interaction. Just as there are no silver
bullets for defining personal and financial success, there are no
sure-fire shortcuts in the world of SEO. Our content needs to be
thoroughly vetted by the system (Google) before we are allowed to
achieve any measure of success.
So, the [over-simplified] moral of the story? The next time you find
yourself wondering how to improve your SEO, look within. Consider how
you would solve the problem in real-world terms, between friends or
colleagues. Give those abstract pages, competitors and concepts names
like Gary, Bill and Sue then solve the problem interpersonally.
This is the weekly REBUS link dump. Each week a staff writer will give you 4 delicious links to fatten up your advertising knowledge and clog your work-flow.
This week: Jessen Wabeke
PSFK
A trends research and innovation company out of NY that follows everything from advertising to technology and cultural trends.
The Denver Egotist
There’s no shortage of great work coming out of the Mile High City, and the Egotist promotes Denver pride relentlessly.
Ask a Copywriter
Veteran word jockey Brian Thompson provides photos and insights on campaigns he sees around NYC.
We Are Hunted
Pitchfork, but without all the words. Trust me, music sounds better when it isn’t accompanied by 8 paragraphs of self-gratifying pomposity.
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RIVET
550 Washington Avenue, St. Louis, MO 63101
(314)752-5550
http://www.rivetglobal.com//
More information to come.
REBUS St. Louis 