New Next: It's what's on the inside that counts

I've been working on an internal communications project for a few months now, and have been therefore thinking about it a lot. It's so interesting to me now. I've gotten to play with some applications like Yammer and Jive SBS, and think about channels in a different way. Despite the newness, it still feels familiar. Companies are made of people, just like anything else, and I realized that communicating with people is just that: communicating with people, no matter the context. Sounds a bit obvious, but I didn't consciously think about it this way until I felt that "riding a bike" sense on the project.

Anyway, I wrote about internal culture & communications for the May New Next. For the past two months, the publishing schedule at the magazine was being shifted and sorted around*, so I think I actually wrote this back in February. Kind of explains the not-so-current nature of the examples, but the overall point is still relevant.


Here's the text:

When brands and their agencies plan communications together, a component that largely gets overlooked is what to do within the company itself. Internal communications is a massive group of channels, and in the past couple of years it has become clear that what happens inside company walls is as important (if not more) as what is said outside.

A few brands have been on the right track and investing in their "insides" for a while now, and have earned respect in turn. Starbucks gives health care benefits, coffee and business education to all of its employees; Nokia's "Power of We" environmental initiative began as an internal credo and rallying cry; Google's "20 percent time" philosophy keeps employees inspired and allows them to enrich every part of their lives.

The most recent and impressive example of a brand that has done this is Honda, who recently relaunched their Power of Dreams Web site. Through a series of short documentaries, employees and friends of the company are interviewed to give candid thoughts and anecdotes.


The series that launched first, Dream the Impossible, centers around the tenacity that Honda employees have in achieving seemingly impossible goals and being unafraid of failure. Engineers, designers and even Honda's then-president and CEO regale us with stories. They touch on engine failures, factory recalls, public apologies and taking risks without a safety net. Giving this type of bare-it-all peek behind Honda's curtain is admirable; how many CEOs publicly talk about encouraging their employees to fail as many times as it takes in order to make "fantastic advances in technology"? It feels honest and genuine, and not just a marketing gimmick. The videos also demonstrate the value that Honda places on community by showcasing anecdotes and opinions from employees at all levels within the company.

New videos will be uploaded every few months to give us a peek into Honda, and the minds that make the company tick. Together, the videos lead to an insightful understanding of the values and philosophies that fuel the company, and speak volumes more than a traditional ad campaign could.

The news about Takeo Fukui's stepping down actually broke a week after I sent the article to my editor, so I had to scramble to change the details. I was a bit sad, since his part in the failure video made the biggest impression on me. Hopefully the new President/CEO (Takanobu Ito) continues on with this philosophy.

* Amber also wrote an article that ran in the May issue. It's about the new platforms for tv-watching that are always popping up, and what they mean for content distributors, hardware manufacturers, cable companies, etc. It's really smart and insightful. Check it out: New Next: TV Channels the Internet on her blog. Both are x-posted to House of Naked.

New Next: Sink your teeth into it

Once again, this was not the headline originally written for the column. It's not too bad, though, so oh well. Hi guys. I have the flu, I think. This is a post I don't have to put too much effort into right now, because I wrote it almost two months ago. Convenient! Here you go.


It's no secret that HBO has been in the vanguard of storytelling for the past decade - but not only in its programming. The pay-TV giant has been revolutionizing its category, marketing itself not just as a network but as an entertainment property.

Last year, in addition to promoting the end of The Sopranos as if it were a blockbuster film - going so far as hiring Annie Leibovitz to photograph the cast for a Vanity Fair spread - HBO broke ground with HBO Voyeur, which showed the company understands the importance of promoting its brand as much as what it airs. In case you missed Voyeur, it was the winner of dozens of awards, including the Gold Clio for consumer-targeted site and Cannes Promo Grand Prix, and it was written up on more than 500 blogs. Watch the story at hbovoyeur.com.

Refusing to rest on its laurels, HBO continues to adapt to its surroundings, constantly reinventing itself. By the time you read this, the network will have promoted its new vampire series, True Blood, for four months before it even premiered. The company enlisted independent agency Campfire to help in promotion. Previously involved in Audi's "Art of the Heist" and "Beta-7" for SEGA, Campfire is no stranger to creating excitement around a launch.

Back in May, a handful of horror enthusiasts received mysterious letters written in dead languages. The fans came together online to help each other decipher the letters, and eventually discovered a Web site guarded and run by a vampire. The site revealed that a synthetic blood, called Tru Blood, had been developed in Japan, and that it could finally give vampires a chance to live among humans. [ed: What? That sentence sounds weird. I didn't write it that way.]

While people swarmed to forums and debated the implications of humans and vampires coexisting for the first time in history, fans began to receive packages containing "samples" of Tru Blood in vials. Fake want-ads were placed, searching for the samples mailed to vampires around the world from its inventors in Japan. Ads for the beverage appeared in mass channels, vending machines of the stuff were constantly marked "Sold out," and a fake news story reported that a Tru Blood truck had overturned in Texas and flooded a highway.


Promotions for vampire-friendly products and services began to surface, too, including a dating site, Lovebitten, a bar in New Orleans called Fangtasia and a windowless motel containing minibars stocked with Tru Blood. Concurrently, ads calling for vampires' equal rights were run on behalf of the American Vampire League.

HBO and Campfire added an incredible amount of detail and countless layers of content to what could have been a simple promotional campaign. People can either immerse themselves in it, clicking on links that take them deeper into the story, or they can just see the work in mass channels - in some cases, for a fictional drink rather than the show itself - and look forward to True Blood. HBO has made itself into an entertainment brand, and guess what? People are very happy to play a game with them.

I still haven't seen the show, much to my chagrin. I don't have HBO and haven't tried hard enough yet to find a friend who does and also watches it. How is it?

New Next: Geotility

Thanks, Faris. He's the one who came up with that word just now upon reading the column. My title was originally The Journey is the Destination, not "The Journey's the Thing." Don't really know what happened there.

At the beginning of the summer, the third annual Come Out & Play Festival hit New York with a bang – people blanketed the city, turning themselves into game pieces and using space in a creative way to have a good time. From a New York City vs. London photo scavenger hunt to a multiplayer game in which GPS triggers from mobile devices reward teams with tools to help them win, Come Out & Play capitalizes on “city-size fun” by making a city the game board.

Games aren’t the only things that have made places the center of focus: over a year ago, we talked about Dodgeball and Helio's Buddy Beacon as location-themed examples of real time documentation. We’ve come a long way since then: combining geography with technology has progressed exponentially. And yet, our prediction is that it’s only a hint of what’s still to come.

Location-based services are nothing new to us: from package tracking to looking up driving directions, we’ve been using geographic information to help us do things for years. But the current wave of geographically aware technology that has the ability to literally know where we are adds a completely new dimension to our things.

Find a place
Mobile handsets like the iPhone and Nokia Nseries devices seem to be causing the biggest splash in mobile mapping, heightening services and behaviors that we are already familiar with. We use Yelp.com to find new restaurants, bars and boutiques, for example. Now when you’re in a new neighborhood and away from your computer, you can find out which restaurants are blocks away from where you’re standing, and how to get there (you can even add photos taken with your mobile device and write reviews while you’re still there).

Find your friends
Remember Twitter, the micro-blogging platform that let’s you know what your friends are doing? What about Dodgeball, where all of your friends registered on the site are notified on your whereabouts every time you text message? Picture these two services together and on steroids. A new Twitter client for the iPhone (and, probably by the time you read this, for other handsets as well) lets you to see all other users that are close by, so you can know what they’re doing and where they’re doing it.

Tag your photos
Geo-tagging is a behavior quickly becoming ingrained in our photo-uploading activity; now a GPS-enabled mobile device can tag your photos as you upload them directly from your phone so you don’t have to think about it. Handsets aren’t the only players in this space, either: Eye-Fi is a wireless memory card that automatically adds location labels to photos that are uploaded to the Internet, directly from your camera.

I had a ton of fun writing the October 2008 column I submitted last Friday; I'll be able to share at the end of next month.

I'll probably be cross-posting this on House of Naked in a few minutes...

People as corporations

Hello. I have scanned the column, so here it is.



I mentioned this on Flickr, but I'm a small bit upset that For the Love of God wasn't included as a visual. It would have been great! It's a good shot of Jay-Z, but... well, here you go.


Finally got the text version, guys. Here you go.

People have been promoted as and acting like brands since the beginning of time, far before brands themselves even existed. From Napoleon’s empire to Martha Stewart’s, the most exciting corporations around are the actual people who started them.

Fortune favors the bold. We live in an ever-empowered world, where one day you can be writing a blog in a garage and the next you could be Nick Denton. You can go from rapping in Brooklyn to being a multi-faceted corporation courted by the UN. Or from young British artist to superstar and cultural influencer. Today’s creative class brings entrepreneurship to a new level: These people-as-corporations are selling their personas as much as anything.

>> Damien Hirst

This Bristol, England-born internationally renowned artist has helped democratize the art world as we know it today, bringing his often controversial works to the mainstream as few contemporary artists have been able to do. Hirst is now the most expensive living artist, having recently sold his diamond-encrusted platinum skull, “For the Love of God,” for $67 million (he played an active role in raising the price — and his own worth — by being a member of the investment group that purchased the skull). In addition to his art and co-running his restaurant on the coast of Devon, 11 The Quay, Hirst has also recently collaborated with Levi’s and designed a pair of 501s for the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.

>> Jay-Z

The Brooklyn native made his name with freestyle rapping. But adding to his net worth of nearly $550 million, Jay-Z served, until very recently, as president and CEO of Def Jam and Roc-A-Fella Records. He co-founded the clothing brand Rocawear, co-owns a sports bar, the 40/40 Club, and is a part-owner of the New Jersey Nets NBA franchise. He doesn’t just own companies either: he participates. He has recently opted for being
co-brand director for Budweiser Select. Jay-Z has teamed up with the UN to raise young people’s awareness of the global water crisis. He’s acquired a property in New York’s Chelsea neighborhood where he’ll build the flagship for his five-star J-Hotel chain.

>> Nick Denton

With a love of journalism and a good sense of timing, Brit Nick Denton realized the potential of blogs in the early 2000s. The former reporter for the Financial Timeslaunched Gizmodo in 2002 and it was an instant success, drawing tech heads and gadget lovers from all over. Gawker came next and became the go-to for anybody interested in celebrity and media gossip. Others followed, fueling his blogospheric rise. Denton’s methodology for Gawker Media is quite simple: If he can picture himself and others wanting to read it, it shall exist. He must be doing something right; Nick Denton’s wealth from his ventures is currently estimated at almost $290 million.

ta-da.

New Next 08 [on retail]

For some reason we haven't received the January issue of Media Magazine yet, so I haven't gotten the chance to show you that column. Well, they were very nice and just sent me the PDF, so here you guys go. It's about retail as an underutilized channel (more interesting than it sounds, actually; I was initially dreading writing it but then had a super time doing so!).



Here is the text, for those of you who want fewer (i.e. zero) clicks:

When you work in advertising and media circles, the thought of retail communications can be a dull one, bringing to mind uninspired point-of-sale displays and staff push tactics. Retail executions from the same said agencies are, for the most part, produced as an afterthought, often containing the same messaging as the rest of a campaign as though a consumer will behave with all touch points in the same way.

Often, the most creative we can be is with a shelf wobbler. When you consider the huge opportunity to give consumers an experience in which to physically immerse themselves; retail can be the missing link to establishing a full connection with your brand.

Apple got it right years ago: They transformed the torturously lackluster computer purchasing experience into a beautifully simple and service-focused one that truly matched the aesthetic of the rest of the brand. Today, some argue that the best ad Apple ever produced was its store.

Supreme is a NYC-based skate brand that keeps their consumers in mind: A few years ago they installed an immense plywood skate bowl into their multistoried Los Angeles store. Inspired by the empty swimming pools that were home to skateboarders in the 1970s, the formerly unused piece of retail space was transformed into something that helps customers interact with the brand.

Benjy's, one of the biggest sandwich retailers in the UK, unveiled their "Delivered" service in 2003. They drive to business parks with "vanchised" vans that unfold into fully functional coffee and sandwich shops. (Think the poshest roach coach ever.) This was both good for the consumers and also gave Benjy's the opportunity to enter into areas where they previously had no presence.

Uniqlo remains consistent in its theme of accessible simplicity: Before it opened its doors in New York's SoHo, the retailer moved crate-like pop-up stores around the city to show that the affordable and label-free clothing was shipped straight from Tokyo and made accessible to us. Their Japanese design philosophy translated perfectly to the store, neatly stacking and lining up brightly-colored clothes - a retail design style that is usually reserved for high-priced fashion houses and boutiques in the United States. Uniqlo also opened a concept store called UT that celebrates the democratization of the T-shirt. When the store opened, the four-story space was stocked with nothing but T-shirts in clear plastic canisters and at affordable prices, designed by avant artists like Terry Richardson and Gareth Pugh.

When retail is needed in the marketing mix, look at it as an exciting opportunity instead of a burden. Make the move beyond the window clings.

The next one will be published in about two weeks, which was even more fun to write because I got to do a ton of research on Damien Hirst. And that's all the teaser you get for now. Have a great weekend everyone.

[x-posted to House of Naked]

New Next: It's not business as usual

Here's the October New Next. It's not up on Mediapost yet so I'm posting the text of the draft I submitted - I don't think too much has changed, except they removed the link for the Connection Planning Conference. I'm not sure why, because people who read this and find our discipline remotely interesting might want to know where to go for more information (instead of having to go through the extra step of Googling it).

This month's article was born out of and built around the section I underlined below. I wrote that part first; it was inspired by someone I spoke with briefly at Likemind last month. I can't remember his name, but he is studying copywriting at a portfolio school and asked me about job hunting in New York. He was finding it very competitive and said something like "But it must be easier for you strategists, right? I mean, all you guys do is do research and report it back to us." I politely tried to explain what it was that we actually do, but inside I was seething. I was so furious by the time I got to Naked that I immediately wrote that paragraph and structured my entire column around it. The whole thing really worried me. There are only a few ad schools out there, and if this is what some of them are teaching their students - the supposed young minds that will some day run our industry - how are things ever going to change?

Anyway, here you go guys. My frustration yielded this column, so I guess I should thank that guy I met and spoke with at Likemind.

---

"Last month I wrote about how exciting and dynamic our industry is right now. Much of the excitement is due to the rapid blurring of lines within the field of communications. Lines and silos are disappearing and titles are vanishing. Those who are realizing this change aren't drawing distinctions or referring to the people they work with as Suits and Creatives anymore. The fields of account and media planning are merging with creativity and moving into a new, more strategic and smarter direction.

Account planning as we once knew it isn’t enough. It needs more than the traditional process of doing research, unearthing an insight and reporting it to a creative team in the form of a one page brief. Media planning needs a change as well: it's becoming increasingly difficult to rely on mathematic projections that are based on old assumptions of behavior. Media and people's environments are constantly evolving, and therefore so are the ways they interact with their surroundings. It's easy to use statistical data to justify expenditures, but it's getting harder to feel safe about using outdated algorithms that might be unrepresentative of today's reality of ever-changing media consumption.

Somewhere along the line, people realized that the model was broken. They got forward-thinking minds from various disciplines together and started to work with each other's strengths to form communications planning. They don't just focus on people and media; they observe the relationships between people and media as they interact with each other. For instance, communications planners realize that people behave differently with an opt-in e-mail than they do with a television commercial, a pod cast, a piece of direct mail or a billboard. A single brand message cannot be slapped onto each of these media channels and be expected to reach people in the same way. Three or four years ago, everyone was talking about Integrated Marketing Communications; that isn't enough either anymore. It's about adapting brand messages to work together seamlessly and reach people in the most strategic way possible, throughout the different stages of their journey with your brand.

Whether they call this new discipline communications planning, connection planning, creative media planning or anything else, people are taking notice and actually starting to do something about it. October 26th will mark the first Connection Planning Conference in New Orleans. Framed as a polygamous wedding (www.polygamousweddings.com), it plans to celebrate the marriage of the Planning, Media and Creative disciplines that lead to smarter and more strategic communications. Following in the same vein, the conference will draw visionary thinkers from a range of communications backgrounds – ad agency partners, planning directors, heads of media, independent consultants and writers – rather than only appealing to people from a single discipline and preaching to the choir.

What appears to be a great example of fresh thinking in this direction lies in what was one of the biggest movie events of the summer: The Simpsons Movie. Everyone from newbies to decades-old fans was able to interact with the brand from a variety of different touch points. In addition to one-way media channels like billboards and trailers, people could take an interactive tour of Springfield’s landmarks on the film’s web site. They were able to experience the brand in person when 7Eleven converted stores all around the country into Kwik-E-Marts (complete with branded uniforms and merchandise). The “Simpsonizer” added a viral personalization element by allowing fans to make a Simpsons character in their likeness to post online and pass around to friends. The movie’s campaign not only understood where its fans were spending their time, but also how they behaved with and consumed different media channels. The movie ended up grossing over $74 million during its opening weekend, putting The Simpsons Movie in the top five selling films of the summer.

The success of this and other such campaigns will hopefully serve as an example of how to effectively speak to consumers at a time when the communications lines are blurring more and more. This joining together of disciplines will succeed in pushing the discipline further, encouraging the proliferation of smarter communications and helping to move businesses into the future."

A slight love letter to New York.

The September New Next just came out. I very slightly edited this because they didn't capitalize Naked Communications or New Next in the first sentence. But other than that, here you go. We didn't get the issue in our office yet, otherwise I would have adorned this entry with a .pdf scan (fixed!). Oh also, I don't think I knew when I wrote this a couple of months ago that McCarren Pool parties were not going to be happening anymore :(

"It's been exactly one year since I moved to New York, started at Naked Communications and wrote my first New Next column. After some reflection, I realized that New York is actually the New Next — the most exciting place to be right now for this business that we're in. Not only is this city naturally bursting with cultural opportunities, but brands are also beginning to add to this culture in smarter and more strategically complete ways. There are so many different kinds of agencies forming here all the time that do a variety of fascinating things, ranging from digital strategy shops to design and innovation startups.

Ten years ago, the mass communications industry in New York was far from exciting. Global brands worked with monolithic agencies, nobody wanted to take risks and there seemed to be a predictable formula for all campaigns. The Madison Avenue giants that dominated the ad world were as corporate as banks, and clients themselves were conservative. So much has changed since then though, and now this industry matches New York as a city.

New York has always been anti-establishment — and about opportunities, taking risks and being unafraid of change. It could never be the capital of this great country because New York is not so much about historical tradition and preservation as it is about tearing things down, reinventing and starting over with the next exciting thing. For example, McCarren Park Pool in Brooklyn, built by the WPA during the Depression, was once one of the biggest swimming pools in the country. Closed for years, it's now used for a weekly summer indie rock "pool party." The High Line, a former elevated freight railroad in Chelsea, was abandoned and left to rust in 1980. By next summer, it will have been converted into a floating park for New Yorkers to enjoy.

People were always telling my class at the VCU Adcenter that we were coming into this business at the most exciting time in the history of advertising and media. We didn't understand what that meant until we got to jump in and live it. Whereas there were a small handful of general media channels in which to buy and place communications years ago, there are dozens today. From digital peer-to-peer to experiential out-of-home and SMS response, media channels have been fragmented and broken down enough to allow for virtually infinite ways of communicating with people. We can finally be more strategically creative about things.

For example, Nike Vintage Running didn't stop at its beautifully crafted and designed Web site — they had several of the shoe models displayed in a beat-up van right in front of the weekly party at McCarren Pool this summer.

It was so strategically placed and branded that partygoers had a hard time figuring out if it was a Nike-sponsored stunt or just a bunch of hippies trying to beat the heat in their van. Scholastic recently shut down an entire street in SoHo and converted it into "Harry Potter Place" in anticipation of the midnight release of the final volume. They brought in wizards, artifacts from the books and a giant countdown clock to entertain fans who had waited in line for hours to get the first copies.

This refreshing change in our industry is not going unnoticed, either. Global brands with billions of dollars in ad spend are pulling out static, one-way communications ideas and starting to take risks. Big agencies are re-evaluating and trying to reinvent themselves. Smaller agencies are growing because they were willing to take huge risks that are now paying off. And not just risks, but strategically smart ones.

The renaissance of the creative inspiration that was present in the early days has slowly been making its way back into our industry for a little while. Now it's in full swing. They were right — this is the most exciting time to be here, and I'm thankful for that. I'm able to watch and contribute to the energy that surrounds the thinking in our industry. We might not be the capital of the country here in New York City, but we are the capital of the creative and entrepreneurial spirit."

Written by Johanna Beyenbach, associate strategist, and curated by Paul Woolmington, Naked Communications.

Not sure how much I'll be updating in the next week, as I'm going to Brazil and Colombia for work-related things. I'll try though! xx

both ways

I have been on a tiny hiatus, although I'm thinking nobody might have noticed, since my blogging is erratic anyway.

So, I'm on holiday on the West Coast. Right now I'm in a coffee shop called Simple Pleasures somewhere in San Francisco.

Yesterday I met up with my former professor, Charlie, who now teaches at the Academy of Art advertising school here. It was really spur of the moment, and I was a little nervous. I wondered what I could possibly say that was interesting, and what a room full of students could possibly learn from me.

So I just talked about what I knew. I told my story. How I found planning, what I went through at the Adcenter, my meeting with two Naked offices, etc. I talked about what Naked does, what I do there, some random plannery stuff, etc.

About a quarter of the way through talking, I noticed something. People were giggling at some things I said. They were intently listening. They started asking questions. Towards the end, they REALLY started asking questions. They were genuinely interested (I think), really wanting to know things. They seemed like sponges. This was no huge surprise, since they're young, curious, and at an art school that provokes thought and encourages ideas. But I was not used to this kind of energy being directed at me. I am like this, but am used to looking to other people and places. People I look up to and consider smarter and greater than I. This was different. It was disorienting and gives me optimism. It reassures me that perhaps I'm doing the right thing in my life. Man, I love young minds. Oh! Speaking of, here is my most recent New Next article. I interviewed Heron, who is brilliant and inspiring.

If any of Charlie's current students happen to come across this silly blog: Hello, thank you, and you truly made my entire trip.

EDIT | I was just alerted to the fact that you need a login to read the article. Here is the body, until I can scan a PDF.

We’ve probably all experienced life as an intern so that we could gain more practical knowledge of our industries. Depending on where you worked, though, your experience was either richly rewarding or very deeply tedious. If you are an employer and relish internship season, ask yourself why that is. Is it because you are finally approaching that time of year when you can pay somebody next to nothing to get your dry cleaning picked up, articles scanned and copies made?

If yes, then shame on you. You should relish it because you would be tapping into the minds of an emerging generation of potential employees. Interns and first-time hires (although they may lack experience) often know more about culture, trends and the new digital world than the corner-office suit - because they viscerally live it. To show this, I have interviewed Heron Preston, one of our part-time collaborators. He hails from San Francisco and currently studies design and management at Parsons.

>>Heron, how did you get into this industry?

When I first moved to New York City, I was a curious sponge. New to the design and management field, I attended lectures given by industry leaders. My tipping point was one given by Darrel Rhea, CEO of market research/consulting firm Cheskin. He was describing the different roles of CEOs in the innovation process. What really did me in was when he described a job he was working on that involved redesigning Australia’s tax system. My prior knowledge of design disciplines was typical: graphics, interiors, fashion. I never knew design could be considered a form of organization, a way of thinking, or a process.

>>What changes in this industry are you most excited about?

What I am most excited about right now are the creatively-thinking youth (DIYs) and the platforms that foster their inspiration, and crowdsourcing. What’s so cool about these two changes in the market occurring at the same time is that when they work together, they can produce some meaningful value.

Web 2.0-supported Web sites such as YouTube, Flickr and Wikipedia continue to inspire kids everywhere to create content for themselves in hopes that their content will reach an audience. We show off our lives and work, and now we can network and share. At the same time, we have Web sites like psfk.com that keep us in touch with marketing and business.

Tapping into the talents of the world is a pretty hot concept to me. Could this threaten traditional models? When you look at sites like Opened.net and Coroflot.com, you have to think about what this means for the future of the business. Our industry is moving so quickly that it’s created a culture of experimentation.

>>What do you want to do when you graduate from Parsons?

I want to focus on how I can turn my passions for people and culture, creativity, networking, travel and skateboarding into a lucrative service. I’d love to continue learning from Naked because of the entrepreneurial spirit it has, and the different talents on the team.

The hiring is very strategic here - Naked celebrates diversity of experience in a calculated way. Another intern is from Luxembourg and speaks six languages; we have youth culture and entertainment marketing experts; we have digital jacks-of-all-trades; we have management and research veterans; we have creative strategists, and lots more. With all of us coming from interesting places and having strengths in interlinked areas, we can pool resources to develop more well-rounded (and less generic) solutions to our clients’ business issues.

Whether you’re hiring an intern, a junior or anybody else, always keep your eyes open for the brilliant misfits. You might find them straight out of school, breaking out of a traditional agency or at a recording studio. The key is to look for good people rather than a skill set. Young people are eager to consume and produce stimuli; they have unrestrained and untainted views on the changes that happen every day in our industry. This new generation has fast-forward futures ahead. If you ignore them, you surely will have a future behind you.

creative altruism

Well, I guess since other people are posting about it, I shall too. My most recent Media column is out today, so there you go! For those click-lazy (and I'll put a .pdf here as soon as my editor sends me one):

We have noticed a resurgence of creative altruism in our industry of late: Selfless communications aiming to make a difference and help others. The highlighted campaigns - by their very participatory nature - are inspiring us to become more engaged in issues they are passionate about. The campaigns raise awareness on diverse topics and leverage the online medium to ignite people to want to change the world.

>> Make a Big Noise for Make Trade Fair. The Rumpus Room has partnered with Young Guns for this year's competition, which is aiming to generate awareness for Oxfam's The Big Noise campaign, a petition for fair international trade rules. The winning idea will be brought to life globally, getting people to sign and pass along the petition and live more conscious lifestyles. http://makeabignoise.org

>> (PRODUCT)RED. The largest and most salient example of creative altruism today is (PRODUCT)RED, which is an altered business model rather than a charity. Brands from Apple to GAP to Motorola donate portions of all profits to The Global Fund to help Africans with the HIV virus and AIDS. Influential brands are now nobly using their power to work with us to change the world. joinred.com

>> My Dream. Lincoln, the automaker, has provided a chance for people to share dreams and goals and motivate each other. Similar to 43things.com, the social networking site acts like a graphic tag cloud that is richly interactive and promotes discussion and inspiration. Videos of people who have achieved their own goals are posted, and those with shared ambitions are able to interact with each other.

It doesn't stop there: Strategically-placed links pointing to Amazon.com guide people toward the tools they may need to help realize their dreams. mydream.tv

>> Turn on TV. Aiming to educate youth about HIV and AIDS, MTV's global Staying Alive initiative has partnered with brilliant creative shops like 180Amsterdam and WK12 to bring you Turn On TV. The rights-free television campaign is designed to be virally passed around and picked up by third-party broadcasters, raising HIV/AIDS awareness. staying-alive.org/turnontv

>> One (RED) Day. Graphic-design students in the UK have created a series of 18 viral videos meant to raise awareness of and build support for (PRODUCT)RED, which gives money to The Global Fund. The fund helps women and children with HIV/AIDS in Africa. youtube.com/profile?user=OneREDday