February 5th 2014
From Dell to EdX, Columbia Sportswear to Red Bull — advertising is increasingly less about claiming value, and more about delivering it through memorable experiences. That’s the secret behind Zeno’s Paradox of Marketing.
February 3rd 2014
“What if there were no ads?” That was the question content marketers Robert Rose and Joe Pulizzi asked in an episode of their podcast, This Old Marketing. It sounds like the start of John Lennon’s Imagine, but for marketers. What if there were just no ads?
February 27th 2013
As the MBTA approaches an important political season, its Courtesy Critter campaign and other communications shows tone deafness when it comes to talking with customers as peers. Is this really how the Athens of America talks to its self?
February 3rd 2013
Bowl advertising is a tough mix to get right. Here are a few ads that I believe could have done better, and some ideas of how some different choices might have flown higher.
February 3rd 2013
Along the way to building brands and inspiring purchases, great ads can also propagate joy, mystery and wonder. That’s no small task, considering you have to grab an audience’s during the spectacle of the Super Bowl. Here are four I’d offer rise to the top.
January 31st 2013
A quick look at revenue growth over three years shows that companies loved by their clients grew more than twice as fast as Super Bowl advertisers.
November 6th 2012
A recent Ad Age article proclaimed that freelancers are a happy and well paid lot, and that they’re a hot new trend on Madison Avenue. However, when you scratch the surface of their research, it’s clear that permanent freelancing brings as much instability to agencies as those stepping-up for extended temporary work.
October 3rd 2012
Benjamin Banks, the unnerving spokes pig thing is back…standing on his hind legs and telling young people to start saving. But without the connection of saving to happiness, a pig telling me how to get cheaper smokes doesn’t make we want to save. It just makes me want to shower.
August 28th 2012
Lots of brands face challenges, but Microsoft’s recent work looks like what happens when marketers give up. Here are a few samples of their latest and a view of how much cooler this brand could be.
June 14th 2012
While its not the creepiest of TV ads, this 2011 Toyota Prius ad gets weird enough be noticed. Karolina Szynal asks if this is a creative way to break through the clutter – or a perplexing nightmare of an off brand experience?
The future of digital experiences will be built by strategists who grasp the full array of emerging business, social, and technical models. Specialties in user experience, branding, application design, and data science are laying the foundation for richer user experiences and business models breakthrough products and revenue based marketing.
UsefulArts is a soapbox to discuss the front line of digital experience, and the agencies and platforms that enable it. Digital business needs a cadre of leaders who can connect c-level enterprise thinking with the ways these new interaction models can help organizations to matter more to their most important stakeholders.