Well, that year is over. Let’s see how it went.

I talked about the power of the personal brands. If you look at last year, the Personal Brand was in full force. From the Kardashians to Steve Jobs, to Zuckerberg to you. Yes, you. Due to Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and blogs, you are out there as a brand whether you like it or not. Everything you do is being looked at and scrutinized, to a degree, by others. You are, in essence, forming a relationship with the world. Individuals are looked at as much as their companies are. Even with mass movements – individuals and their tweets and status updates stand out. YouTube has given millions the ability to become brands with nothing more than a video camera. And these brands are making money … lots of it. Take Randall and Honey Badger for instance. I happen to know he has an agent and a brand.

Another was the Power of the iPad. OK, so the iPad was an easy guess. But just how much of a game changer is it? Well, it’s now replacing airline flight manuals. It’s used in hospitals, restaurants and offices everywhere. It’s the new children’s book. It’s the new art gallery. It’s the new canvas. It’s every presentation. But more important, it’s what the next generation will grow up on and that is the real game changer. iPad kids will have a whole different perspective on what mobile is and will be in the future.

One of the things that will play this year as well is Real-time Interactive experiences that went past the computer and into the real world. Take a look at these wonderful examples of that. This year, the HYBRID of real and digital will continue to grow.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/18/sunday-review/the-internet-gets-physical.html

Then there was Crowdsourcing. It’s not just for advertising anymore. It is now helping us discover new products and help get them on the market. It’s also helping to publish books. But, best of all, it’s working toward discoveries in health care and science.

http://unbound.co.uk/

http://www.kickstarter.com/

I talked about how digital still wasn’t getting what TV has mastered. And that is still the case in my book.

Digital hasn’t figured out how to showcase its great content. And, in many ways, still isn’t providing great content to showcase. Digital needs to look at TV and learn some things. TV spends the money on content. TV promotes content. TV makes content an event even with TIVO. And TV still has more resources. But most of all, too many digital agencies spend their time talking about usability, wireframes, click-through metrics and half a dozen other digital buzzwords. That’s all well and good, but I am going to spend two minutes on your Web page if you are lucky. Meanwhile, I will spend more than four hours watching TV. Stop bullshitting me and put more on the Web that I need to see as much as I need to see the season finale of Homeland.

We were all wrong about Foursquare. I don’t use Foursquare much anymore and I don’t do a lot of checking in. I have also tired of watching my friends check in from different dive bars. So, from my perspective, I have lost interest in Foursquare discounts and I don’t want to be an imaginary mayor. Plus, my coffee place went to a frequency card.

It looks like Foursquare only figured out consumers and it didn’t even figure them out that well. It left companies to figure out the business portion.

And since the economy is getting better, the companies decided they don’t care about Foursquare as much either.

The consolidation battle between Facebook and Google rages on and on and on. Who will win your soul? Google. No, Facebook. No, Google. It’s hard to decide. Consumers seem locked in to Facebook. However, Google keeps throwing stuff against the wall hoping it will stick. Maybe something that helps individuals stand out more will be the key for Google along with all the customizable friend and privacy settings.

But the best prediction of last year was the Power of the Disenfranchised. The Occupy Wall Street set and whole countries decided they didn’t like the way things were going for them and moved on it. Social media was a conduit for these movements. This has empowered a great many to think they can cause the CHANGE that politicians have been inept at bringing. And if these movements get more organized with stronger leaders and missions, the sky is the limit. This may be the new system in 10 years. It’s pretty obvious the current political party system DOES NOT WORK (see Herman Cain and a host of Republican contenders).

However, the banks will never change. Greed wins over common sense the majority of the time.

All in all, not a bad year. So, what about 2012? Here are some thoughts on what will be more important in the coming year. (Not in any particular order.)

1. The Need for Privacy

Simply put, we don’t have any. Facebook, Google, your iPhone and the nation’s security issues have taken most of it away. With Facebook’s suicide button, you can report a friend who seems too depressed. How far away is that from reporting a person who seems like they might commit a crime? With Facebook’s Timeline, you can look into the history of friends and coworkers. You can look at a relationship status. You can stalk. It’s a window that is always open. With Foursquare, everyone knows you are out while your valuables are home alone. Your iPhone is tracking your movements. Cameras are everywhere. Phones can take a picture and post it to numerous social networks in seconds, tagging you forever. What happens when local cameras are automatically linked to phones? Watch out, terrorists. And what about the social index that can map when large groups are happy, sad, hungry, etc., from their social interactions? Can’t the same be done searching the key words used by individuals? Maybe I want to be sad ALONE.

It seems nothing is sacred anymore. We recently put a campaign together within Vegas asking people to Protect their What Happens Here, Stays Here moments by tweeting and posting discretely when on vacation here. It’s just the beginning. In the next couple of years, the privacy issue will provide a host of apps and a ton of conversation.

2. Transcending YouTube

YouTube celebrities have been showing up in the mainstream for a long time. Someone gets a ton of hits and you see them on a talk show or they get a TV deal. This year, however, brands will hook on to them like fine cheese at the wine tasting. Because the sheer number of fans is so appetizing. From Randall for Emerald Nuts to DJ Dave for Hyundai, the brands are taking notice of the number of hits on their videos.

As well they should. The tie in to Web videos for the brand should be easier since that is the original home of the celebrities in the first place. And if you think there are only a few of them getting the really big numbers of viewers, think again. For instance, try Nice Peter’s Epic Rap Battles – millions and millions of views. Just one of the many.

3. Putting a Brand Worth on Friends/Followers

What are those 600,000 Facebook friends really worth? What kind of ROI can I put to them? How can I spur them into action? How can I turn then into Brand Ambassadors, Brand Evangelists and, eventually, Brand Instigators? Because, as we all know, the key is not those people, but the people they will eventually influence. As more companies start building these groups, they’ll want to know what they’re really getting for the money. They can look at sales, do surveys or follow an online promotion setup for that very measurement, but this is really a small part of the picture. A lot of this is on the “come” as they say. Your Brand Instigators could have already influenced someone to use your product or service – someone who will never become your brand’s friend or tell you how they were influenced on a survey. That’s the nature of social and why it is so successful. Social still feels like an authentic suggestion from a trusted friend. How often is that happening and converting to sales? It’s a big question that will be on more companies’ minds than ever before.

4. The Online Content vs. Risk Dilemma

As more companies get a digital knowledge base, they will take less risk online. The Web is becoming less new and ambitious and more usability and content-driven. This has been happening for the last few years. That isn’t to say there aren’t wonderful sites to see. There are. They just happen to look and feel like what already works. The new mentality is that we will work on original content instead of originality. This is not a bad thing as long as the content is great. If it isn’t, then you just have another site. What does this mean for next year and beyond? Two things: 1. Content is going to get more and more competitive. 2. True originality will stand out like a sore thumb for better or worse.

The bottom line is that originality moves things forward while content makes what is working watchable and engaging. Originality will take a back seat this year on the digital front.

5. Screen Integration

Putting the TV screen, iPad screen and smartphone screen together will be paramount this year. Apps like Yahoo’s IntoNow listen for the audio signature of the show you are watching on television and provide you a unique second-screen experience to go with it. Well, a somewhat unique experience. In other words, the experience could use more content. Content is the key again here.

First off, the app is 100 percent accurate when it listens to identify what you are watching. Better than Shazam by a mile. And if you like to watch TV in a social manner, nothing will beat this. You can discuss with others who are watching the show, watch tweets connected with the show, get information about the episode and season, even buy the show ION iTunes. It’s all on one screen. If you are watching a sporting event, the stats are right there along with a lot of other great information.

What the app lacks is extra original content from the network. However, this will come in the near future. Think of the extras that can be made available to someone watching a show like LOST.

And that’s just the beginning of shared-screen experience. There’s already an app where you can paint over what you’re seeing on your iPad’s camera screen. It’s called Composite.

Couple that with augmented reality and who knows what will happen when you hold your iPad up to a television someday. Hidden characters? Hidden clues? Where to buy the outfits they’re wearing? Alternate endings? What’s to the right of picture where the screen ends? Games? Think of the possibilities.

6. The End of Talking to Anyone But Siri

Talking is out. It is a lost art. Texting allows you to interrupt at any moment. You don’t have to stop what you’re doing to do it (well, driving, finally – you have to stop driving – or you should stop driving). It allows you to put something out there with less risk of rejection. It’s casual even when it’s serious. It’s immediate. There are no awkward silences. When you text, you can attribute those silences to anything. Maybe they got hit by a bus or their phone went dead or they’re in a meeting on a bus that hit someone. No one ever has to believe that they are the reason for the silence. And, most of all, it’s just easier than talking.

Siri is perfect for the texting age. Siri is also immediate. Now you don’t even have to type. You can teach Siri to text someone. You can teach Siri who your wife is or who your best friend is.

And Siri is easy to talk to. She basically just does what you say. The only awkward silences are attributed to Siri not working. Which has happened to me a couple of times.

As Siri learns more and more apps learn to work with Siri, the dream of never having to talk to anyone real may become a reality. I look forward to the day when Siri starts to want stuff from me. Then I will know she is really learning.

7. Backstories

For those on the constant search for authenticity, this will be the year of backstories. In the world of art, the backstory is everything. The “provenance,” as it is called, should be able to trace the past of any great painting or sculpture. Companies and their products will start telling these stories more and more to today’s untrusting consumer. You will see the Web filled with videos showing how boots are made by hand; inspiration that led to that craft-brewed beer you like; the history of your jacket, and the individuals behind it all. It’s the year of pulling back the curtain. Even bankers will give it a shot, but who will believe?

8. The Gospel of Jobs and the Spread of Apple Innovation

The Steve Jobs love affair is just beginning. Pretty much everyone has read the Steve Jobs book (not me yet, but I have it on my iPad at the ready). They have seen his rules for innovation. They have felt his world-changing power. Now they all want to be a part of it. They like spreading the gospel of Jobs. They want to be Steve Jobs. For all the people who say there will never be another Steve Jobs, there are millions of inspired people and companies that will be trying to become the next Steve Jobs. And that will lead to Apple innovation and simplicity in a host of new and exciting products that cover a wide spectrum of our lives. Like the one below.

http://www.nest.com/blog/

I think there will be a number of Steve Jobs in our future. If not, at least some products he would be proud of.

9. Newsjacking

http://www.twistimage.com/blog/archives/newsjacking-turns-you-into-the-expert/

It’s not new, but it will become a bigger story this year. With search engines, blogs and the ability to target consumers like never before, the ability to make your brand part of breaking stories is easier than ever. Ad campaigns will follow closer to trends and often be built around them. In a world where “there’s an app for that,” marketers will have to move fast. These days, consumers have a thought and they want it taken care of. They want things that make sense for the times because they live current and interconnected. The river of information is in constant flow. It can’t hurt to jump on one of the big logs so that someone might notice you before the falls.

10. The Clouds

Consumers will discover the cloud this year. If you asked most of them last year, they would say, “What is that?” or “You mean the fluffy thing in the sky?” Most consumers look at the cloud as one, main place. This year, they’ll understand the cloud is Amazon, Dropbox, Facebook, Evernote, iCloud, Google and many more. The cloud is about as fragmented as it can be. As more consumers start to understand the cloud and what it means, they will look for ways to consolidate their information. This is the big hope of Google. Google has a place for all your stuff in the cloud under one account. Right now, it may be the easiest, but Apple is close behind with iCloud. And then there’s the personal cloud where you own the memory and the location of your personal server and access your information from there (R&R client Western Digital plug here).

If you’re using the cloud, get ready. Because the cloud wars are just heating up.

I hope some of this has been interesting to you. I certainly don’t know everything, but I would like to. So if you want to tell me what I’ve missed, argue one of these points or just call me an idiot, feel free. I am @arnied on Twitter.

Have a great 2012.

I was listening to the jazz channel on XM radio and I thought about how much jazz is like marketing. They were playing “Someday My Prince Will Come,” by Dave Brubeck (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSGm2×7DEB8). Of course, this is the jazz version of the song from Snow White (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0niwn2pOEno). The original is really a signature of the Disney brand. It has been done in different styles by a number of jazz and popular musicians because of the incredibly strong melody written by Frank Churchill. I like to think of it as a strong musical brand of sorts.   

Dave Brubeck’s version of “Someday My Prince Will Come.”

The Snow White rendition.

The Brubeck version is especially fascinating. The signature melody begins the song with a simple piano. This is the melody we all easily recognize – the core melody. It’s the familiar emotional territory we have lived with since we were kids. It takes us back to all the good feelings we had with Snow White and Disney and the youthful nature of our imagination. It makes me feel young and at the beginning of life, even though I am a little past the middle. Then the horns come in and it is the beginning of a journey. It leaps along that familiar melody jumping forward while dancing around the core ever so lightly, touching outside of it and coming back. It’s teasing us as to what is to come. It’s getting us ready for something. It’s telling us that this is not your childhood melody anymore. It’s alive. It’s free. And that freedom becomes more pronounced as it starts to keep smaller and smaller portions of the core until we are moving along and dancing with something familiar and also something brand new. They are living together as one. The core is still there, inside, but the new free-form world built around it takes us to new places emotionally. Eventually the piano comes back in to take us full circle where we hear more of that familiar core. And we think we are going to come all the way back to that same familiar melody. And for a second we do. But it’s not the same. And it shouldn’t be. It’s alive and changing. And it’s reflecting not only the changes in our lives, but the changes brought by those that interpret it.

A strong brand is very much like this. It has core values that make it what it is. Fans of strong brands are emotionally attached to that brand by the way it talks and feels to them. They recognize the core of a brand just like they would recognize the core of a song. And brands often need to reach people on different levels and in different places. Whether that is on a social level through Facebook or Twitter, or a new strategy that needs to be addressed within the brand structure, the core should always come through. Building and protecting a brand requires strengthening the core of a brand, while giving it the flexibility to stretch. And that is what jazz is like. 

Here is what someone reviewing the Miles Davis version of “Someday My Prince Will Come” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBq87dbKyHQ) said. … “This is what jazz is all about, it takes you out there and brings you back, nothing goes astray, everything is tight without feeling controlled, and is loose enough to slide the top down and find some back roads to roll through … or better yet, a back road where you can pull off to the side and turn up the volume as the afternoon sun sinks low, giving way to the purple skies of evening.”

Miles Davis’ version of “Someday My Prince Will Come.”

Miles Davis puts it this way … “Oh, you have some kind of form. You have to start somewhere. I mean, otherwise we’d all be living outdoors. You have walls and stuff, but you still come in a room and act kinda free. There’s a framework, but it’s just – we don’t want to overdo it, you know. It’s hard to balance. Sometimes you don’t even know if people like it or not.” That is what branding people do every day. They play with a strategy but make it feel free. And they find out if people like it by the results but sometimes not right when they are doing it.

Of course, he’s got creativity in spades. And he uses the same language when he talks about creating that advertising/marketing creatives do when he says, “That isn’t comfortable, either. I mean, the beat might be here, and he might be playing way up on top of it. You have to fix yourself sort of a point of balance – anywhere. That’s what I mean by not being comfortable. You should never be comfortable, man. Being comfortable fouled up a lot of musicians.”

Brands are complicated. They have life. They have ups and downs. They touch different people in different ways. They are affected by the things that happen around them and the passing of time. A brand that can stay timeless and still stay with the times is a great brand. Building a brand and protecting a brand is very much like jazz. You have to have a great strategic framework and put some incredible musicians to work on performing the daylights out of it.

Sounds easy, right? …

But if you want to know the one thing that makes brands most like jazz – it’s a quote from Louis Armstrong. When asked what jazz was he said, “If you don’t know, don’t mess with it.”

 The iPad has caused the rest of the world to make pads. Big pads, small pads, cheap copycat pads, pads with keyboards, pads that are also laptops, pads that work with other stuff and pads that defy description. From what I can tell, none of them are any better than the iPad, but a lot of them are just plain bad pads. This Dell spins the pad part around to become a laptop. That would be fine if it didn’t make it so fat. There were two Italian gentlemen looking at this Dell and I’m pretty sure they kept saying whatever “fat” is in Italian. 

And the Galaxy tablet from Samsung is only slightly bigger than the iPhone. It’s amazing how many people say to me, “Isn’t the iPad just a bigger version of the iPhone?” And I guess I would answer back, “At least it’s bigger.” My advice to anyone looking to buy a tablet is to buy an iPad. And to anyone looking to get a keyboard for their iPad, buy a 15-inch Mac Air. Getting a keyboard for your iPad just makes you look like you can’t afford a real computer. 

The Good – Televisions with Apps

Everything should have apps. They’re smaller than applications. They have cool icons. They’re cheap. And they’re useful. I think they used to be called widgets, but don’t worry about that. Apps are in and widgets are out. This LG television has all kinds of apps. Doesn’t it look fun? If the cable goes down, I can play with whatever these apps are. Most likely one of them will be Angry Birds.

It will be hard to drive my car and play Angry Birds at the same time, but at least I’ll get to try it someday once my computer, television, fridge, robot and car all have apps. And that is good.

The Ugly – The Rydis

This thing rolls around your home puffing out aromatherapy, playing mood music, has a screen that connects to the Internet and monitors your vital signs via a bracelet. For one thing, if you need your vitals monitored by this poor-man’s R2D2, it’s going to be very hard for you to chase it around trying to see the screen with the Internet even if it’s fairly slow. But should you have a heart attack while doing so, it will alert the authorities and puff out a soothing smell and mood music while you go toward the light.

The Good – Mobile 3-D

Although there doesn’t seem to be that many folks with 3-D TV, there are already small devices where you can shoot in 3-D. They were everywhere at CES. But more fascinating were all of the things they created to show off this technology at CES. Like a 3-D town; giant sand sculpture; this woman in a yellow dress who keeps twirling the umbrella toward you for 3-D effect; and a number of cars, including the car from the Green Hornet, in 3-D. I have to say, these 3-D cameras worked well and I loved all the weird stuff to demonstrate the effect.

The Bad – Weird Stuff

This is a paper shredder. It’s not ugly, but why is it good that a paper shredder looks like a megaphone? Is it because federal agents won’t know it’s a paper shredder? So you can stand right next to it and shred sensitive documents while they search for said documents? Anyway, it looks like a megaphone. Maybe if it was both and you could announce you were shredding documents and then shred them with the same device – that would be interesting.

There were so many different flash drives at CES. These are little miniature penguin flash drives. There were also Swiss Army flash drives, little wooden tree flash drives, flash drives that look like cassette tapes, flash drives that look like keys. There’s a whole world of crazy flash drives out there. It will come full circle to where there is a flash drive disguised as a flash drive. Then we will be done.

The Good – Simple Stuff

Simple things like this cheap plastic cover so you can take your iPhone under water. You don’t need to take your iPhone under water. You shouldn’t take your iPhone under water. But if you are on a boat with your iPhone, this might be a good idea.

The Ugly – Well, Bill Walton Was Never Very Attractive Even for a Basketball Player

I don’t know if it is ugly or just plain weird to have Bill Walton trying to sell Haier televisions at CES. I have never seen a Haier television in the store. It’s not at Costco. It’s not at Best Buy. It’s at Target, but I don’t remember ever seeing one there. So unless Bill Walton is going to drive me to the secret part of Target that has a Haier TV, I don’t know how he can help. I know they are using him to get the attention of distributors. I get that. I’m just hoping for their sake that the people who run Best Buy really like basketball.

The Gaga – Enough Said

Lady Gaga has now become all the rage of CES. She is the creative director of Polaroid. No one thought this was a good idea. But she commands so much attention it might be a good idea just for that. The throng at CES was huddled around the Polaroid area waiting to get a glimpse of the Gaga. They all kept trying to get as close as possible. I think so that some Gaga magic might rub off on them. I had to watch her on a big screen because I couldn’t get close enough. So nothing rubbed off on me. She announced the usual array of Polaroid mini picture printers and cameras with mini picture printers. She calls the new ones the Grey Line. The biggest idea from Gaga is these camera glasses that take a picture and then display the picture to everyone on the front of the lenses. It is a fun literal translation of Polaroid done in a cool way. That’s what people do with Polaroid pictures. They take them then show them. I have to say, this is one of those things that is either genius or not genius. As a creative director myself, I understand that great risk often brings great reward. So I will be rooting for her. Here’s looking at you Gaga and taking a picture at the same time and subsequently showing you that same picture.

There is no barier to the iPad. It's a game-changer.

2. The iPad – I have an iPad. My friend Mike has a Galaxy Pad. I feel bad for him, but I’m sure he’ll survive. When the iPad first came out, everyone viewed it as a big iPhone. Big mistake. I realized the iPad was much more when the owner of my company was carrying one around. He is not a tech person. But he is living on his iPad. That alone makes it a game changer. It’s something a computer couldn’t do. It couldn’t even level the playing field for someone like him. The iPad does. There’s no barrier to iPad. The iPad is for everyone. It’s just simple great. And simple great will take over the world.

3. Real-Time Interactive – It’s one thing to offer a website that allows you interaction. But how does that interaction change the real world? This will become more and more important as individuals start to look for a world outside the computer. They won’t let go of the computer, but they will want more real-world connections because of it. They will want to control or affect things that live in real time. They will want to be a part of more things that live in real time. Putting the Web world and real-time world together will be an even bigger deal than it was in 2010.

4. The Consolidation Battle – Facebook wants you to spend the majority of your time on Facebook, including your e-mail time. Foursquare wants you to check in on Foursquare and talk about things on Foursquare. Google wants you to turn into some sort of Google creature that can’t function without Google. Meanwhile, there are multitudes of other check-in sites including Foodspotting, Get Glue, Philo, etc. Many of these sites/apps are linked and many are not. The battle for the majority of your time is ongoing and well, pretty insane. Who will win? Will anyone? I don’t know but I know it will be a fight to the death.

5. Crowdsourcing – Using the Cloud to do all the work is in vogue. Although it’s not necessarily new, the execution of it has gotten far more sophisticated. Agencies like Victors and Spoils have taken it to a new level.  They have legitimized it to big advertisers like Harley-Davidson, WD-40 and others. Doritos and Converse have been doing it with their TV and Web films for years now. The trend will continue until it isn’t fascinating to advertisers anymore. That could happen soon or keep on indefinitely as more and more advertisers try it. It’s such a cost-effective way to go, that the trend is very appetizing and could remain so.

Foursquare checks in at No. 6 on our list -- as rewards and discounts for people who use it become more a prevalent business practice.

6. Coupon Gaming – Foursquare, Facebook, Yelp and a host of others are or will be rewarding people for checking in at their establishments with discounts and freebies. When I was at my coffee place (Sambalatte in Vegas), the Foursquare mayor was asking the owner why he wasn’t giving him a discount for being the mayor of Sambalatte. When the early adopters start demanding it, the regular folks will follow. It will be fun to watch the developments once everyone is in the game. And you thought seniors got all the discounts.

7. The Power of the Disenfranchised – Yes, they have power. And they are the multitudes. I’m not including myself because I have a job and can pay my bills. But I probably should add myself to the list. Why? Because I think there are a great many Americans who are figuring out that they are one bad Friday away from being disenfranchised. And that’s a frightening prospect that’s motivating people like never before. It’s also one of the reasons a Palin could become the Republican nominee for president. I didn’t say the disenfranchised made wise decisions. But they do have power. And that power will manifest itself outside the world of politics as they realize just how much they can effect. When roving mobs with pitchforks and torches come back, I will tweet about it.

8. New-Fangled Television Advertising – This is going to sound crazy, but I’ll say it. Television advertising is still important. The drive to spend more money online is hurting television advertising budgets and leveling out the mix but not making television obsolete. With Hulu, Netflix, Hi-Def DVRs, 3-D television, Google TV and about a zillion Web videos, you will need a good mix to have a chance at reaching anyone. Right now most digital shops don’t get the magic of television. They don’t understand what Web videos can be. They treat them more like content and not the branding vehicles they should be. When it’s done right, what you see on the computer is a perfect complement to what you see on television. I sit and watch television with my computer on my lap. I have learned to watch whichever one has the best stuff on it that particular minute. Try it.

9. Things That Have Nothing to Do with Technology – The wired world has already hit a kind of critical mass. Hipsters are looking for ways to let go of technology. That same need will get past the cool hunters and become a need for the rest of us this year. Like I mentioned above – computers are too entrenched for us to lose them completely. But we will start to look for things that can give us a well-needed break. But not exercise. That’s where I draw the line.

10. More and More Ways to Make You Part of the Entertainment You Watch Every Night – If you watch The Colbert Report, you know that he had an art episode with Steve Martin where he had Shepard Fairey and others work on a picture of him to make it collectable. Then he continued that online where you could participate and change the picture as well. Then those pictures that you created end up on the show. Conan has taken to involving the audience in making films for his show that live on the Web and on air. This is what the smarter shows will do – make you feel like a part of them.

The Gap's new logo lasted a week before social media backlash led the company to scrapping it in favor of its predecessor.

My favorite T-shirt is from the Gap and I’ve been wearing it proudly for about 15 years. It’s pretty ratty now, but the logo is in excellent shape and is as much a part of the fabric of our community.

For a company that wants to be cool and sexy, you’d think the executives at Gap would know enough to engage their customers in a thoughtful social media discussion about the evolution of the brand. Well, looks like that social media discussion occurred a week too late.

Inception inspired ad for Shaun White Skateboarding.  Really well done.

GE’s incredible interactive program centers on hospitals first then more.  This is what other brands should shoot for.

If Adidas made a camera this should be it.

Some great outdoor work.  And fun too.

Little Melting Men make a point about global warming.

Frank Miller goes Gucci.

Groupon kills it with Gap.  Is this the new way?  For now it seems, it is.

Banksy’s Exit Through the Gift Shop is genius.  Here is some of his work, also genius.

This seems like a waste of money to me.  Lady Java.  Not a ton of imagination.

Flash mobs want you to boycott Target.  I didn’t think Target could do any wrong.  But they can.

Zubi.  A site that you must see.

I think Joaquin Phoenix’s movie will be great.  Or at least different.  

Puma glorifies the lifestyle athlete.

Chat Roulette is scary anyways.  Now even more scary.  

A great website to explore.  Watch out for oil.

Rolling Stone thanks the big fat record execs.  Long live rock and roll.

Avoiding the idea generation trap.  Good advice.

My interview on whohub.  It doesn’t make me special — you can have one too.  Let me know.  I will read it.

See you next time.

Solar Fun

Bring home the prehistoric bacon

Interactive Twitter-Based Murals in the U.S. Promote Canada:

Ladies like a guy with facial hair. Or not…Or yes.

Big Bang Big Boom

Creatives doing what creatives do best

Creatives writing books and more books

Everyone (especially ad people) should have digital presence

Book Sculptures

Space Invaders Scavenger Hunt

Vintage Kids Art

Visualize your thinking

And a BIG stunt from Ad Goodness as well:

Fantastic business card

Paint it white

This is stupid. But I love it. 

Web Prank Tries to Send Justin Bieber to North Korea. I wish it wasn’t a prank.

BP the board game.

Fantastic art made of books. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

A friend will do anything for you, but it will cost extra.

NYTimes: You Say God Is Dead? There’s an App for That.

Design a Swatch and win a trip.

Adaptive Path’s Creative Culture Blueprint:

Mountain Dew can design contest.

Incredible site with a number of cool artist’s sketchbooks. Explore.

Sick, wonderful, and on your local grocery shelf.

Flickr Sensation.

The New High Life.

Write the Future. Here. Or Here.

Booze house.

“My Friends Are Cooler Than Your Friends” Contest.

Animation Fascination. 

But have you ever changed INTO your avatar? Or better yet, have you ever changed into an avatar from Avatar? In April, a company in L.A. gave people a chance to see what that would be like to do just that — to have their face morphed in real time. Pretty cool execution.

I hate award shows because of the mystery. The fact that I have been a judge in award shows and have seen what happens during the process makes it even worse. Judges will dismiss things that took months to produce in a matter of seconds. They say the work is derivative. They say it didn’t grab them. They say that it wasn’t polished. They want to award things with nice varnish over ideas because they know about different varnishes. They could see the strategy too much. The strategy was oozing from the work and obscuring anything that could possibly be of any value. It didn’t connect with them on an emotional level. It sucked.

Once a judge said to me that if it didn’t grab her, she immediately gave it a 0. Which means there weren’t any points for effort. I always give points for effort. I also know that giving points for effort will curse me someday. Knock on wood.

Here is what goes through my mind –

A spicy Thai salad can easily distract someone from judging excellent creative work. Admit it. Just the picture of one is almost luring you away from reading the rest of this post.

“Did they just take our money and the work never made it to the show? Did our DVD or Quicktime function properly? I know that they will try really hard to get it working, but that will frustrate the judges as well. A frustrated judge will not like our subtle genius. Is our work canceling our other work out? (That work can’t possibly be good because they also did that other awful work.) Did they see our work just before lunch when they were super hungry and thinking about a delicious Thai BBQ salad at spice level #7? I know it would be hard for me to concentrate while thinking about a delicious Thai salad at spice level #7. They all know each other. Are they just looking at each other’s work right there in the judging and slapping each other on the back and giving each other 100s? Why don’t I try and talk to more of them when I am at events? I can be social if I try really hard. They might like me. Of course that one magazine editor really doesn’t like me at all. Is she secretly running everything? Is it a conspiracy? Or is the work just derivative.”

Then I come back to my senses and realize that there is really good work out there and we do really good work ourselves. And judging isn’t an exact science. And maybe we should limit our entries. And that editor doesn’t hate me. She doesn’t necessarily like me either. She hasn’t taken out a restraining order and that is good.

But that’s what the mystery of award shows does to you. If I could watch and make sure the judges were looking at the work, I would feel better. I would also pick up some tips for next time. Maybe I would infuse some donut smell in the print pieces or subliminal pictures of kittens in the TV. Then, of course, I think, “Ad people don’t like kittens.”

And oh, I probably shouldn’t say anything about anyone else’s work on Twitter. Knock on wood.

We are competitive here. We want to win for our clients. We want to win for our agency. We want to win. And agencies that do well in award shows are doing great work. I have to like them.

We have done well this year. And I think one of the reasons is we don’t really just think advertising. Like any good agency, we think of work that will get attention by the way we run media, the PR factor and results. Vegas Bound, the program where we brought a small town in Texas to Vegas, has won a number of PR, media and interactive awards including the Gold Sabre and OMMA. We also won Mediaweek’s Media Plan of the Year for our Wynn client. And we’ve gotten a lot of recognition for our creative work as well, especially on our biggest client, LVCVA. So I am not unhappy. I just always feel like we should do much better.

I can’t tell you the perfect way to enter these award shows. I don’t know it. What I can tell you is that great work does win. And if you do great work, it won’t get past the judges. Unless, of course, they see it right before a really spicy Thai salad.