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Noonan @ SXSW: Day 3

Rachel Noonan — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 17:30:34 +0000

All about engagement and Apps baby. The day started with Mashable’s Geek Games. Team #Tigerblood (me and crew) got ready to kick some smarter than thou butt in physical and metal challenges. The room was filled with fun energy of programmers, bloggers and Mashable enthusiast ready to compete for charity. Twister ended up being our maker with a 30 minute round ending with me and a girl from team #hashtag pulling some origami moves out. I broke the record setting game by setting my knee down. Hashtag FAIL. Needing a break from the twister olympics, we headed to a private taping a Comedy Death Ray. A few special guests met us on stage. Paul Rubens and Thomas Lennon for a fireside style chat. I learned Paul Rubens auditioned for SnL many moons ago, got beat out by Gilbert Godfrey, then decided he needed to get his Pee Wee character off the ground or else his career would stall. His loss on SnL was the worlds gain. How happy am I to have been raised in the Pee Wee generation. Sidenote: He is working on a movie with Judd Apatow..YES! Next we hit the Crowdtap Launch party. The promo girls almost turned us away with their Jersey Shore styling. We decided not to judge a book by it’s cover and headed in. A nice girl from their NYC agency took the time to fill us in on what Crowdtap is. Pretty awesome. They threw an amazing party with event photos being immediately twitpic’d with everyone’s @’s, a massive Chocolate Tap and mini corndogs. Before leaving they did an official presentation of their product against a massive screen. Quick, succinct and educational. Congrats Crowdtap on a killer launch. Onto the Milyoni fete. What is Milyoni you say, well (http://www.milyoni.com). Party was quiet, conservative and the same venue as Syncapse. Thanks for the taco. Onwards to the Mashable Party. #mashhouse closed the night out with shuffle board, pool and a great space for creatives to connect. I end todays words with General Electric. They have a white on white neon lit Solar Powered Carousel running during SXSW. It was a beautiful display of harnessing the suns power to make people smile late at night. Like a white horse running through a dark night, it reminded me that all the people at this festival will shape our future. The way we communicate, how efficiently we use our energy resources and how much we invest in the future. Based on who I’ve met so far, looks like the future is going to be amazing.

Noonan @ SXSW: Day 2

Rachel Noonan — Sun, 13 Mar 2011 21:51:47 +0000

I start today’s SXSW blog with a musical reference. Day two was like the Beth Ditto song ”I wrote the Book“. Fast paced, interpretive and tons of fun. Highlights include an interactive session on Visual Storytelling for the Deaf. It was interesting to see how beautifully animated people can be with sign language and the use of visuals to tell a story. They went through some examples of deaf people jokes, the benefits of being deaf and a really cool music video. Check this out (http://d-pan.org/index.php/this-is-d-pan/who-are). Amazing content. My only challenge with the session was ALL of the stories in every form were about deaf issues. It would have been nice to see a story about families, love or teenage issues in an everyday life setting. Onto film; Pen to Paper – Creating Conceptual Marketing Campaigns . Charlie Loft from All City from the UK lead the charge. It was awesome. The whole room worked together to make two movie posters for a thriller. A conceptual poster and one for the hollywood market. We talked about Black Swan and their campaign using both conceptual (link conceptual poster to: http://www.designworklife.com/2010/12/06/black-swan-posters/ ) and mass market creative. Someone in the audience said ” we never saw the conceptual art in the US, I guess it’s because the UK is perceived as a more intelligent audience”. Wow, I wonder why that may be? Watching Loft go through his creative process was fun, unfortunately random people kept killing the flow with really junior league questions. Come on guys, ask those questions on blogs where you can be both lame and anonymous. Next: Keynote. SCVNGR inventor Seth Priebatsch (http://www.scvngr.com/about/team). He talked about how the foundations of gaming can rule the world. Think Groupon, Fab Find, Foursquare, etc. Using time mechanics, group participation. He is on point and quite entertaining with his ever present and unnecessary Oakley Glasses and cartoon like shiny face. Did I mention he is 21 and raised the first million in capital for SCVNGR on his own. Insane. Next was a little comedy repose. I”m not making this up. We saw Dave Foley, Kevin Pollack, Michael Ian Black, Howard Kramer and Brett Gelman all on one stage. INSANE and amazing. Geek jokes were flying! Ok, now party time. We hit a record number of parties, but will only mention two because they ruled. FROG DESIGN hit it out of the park…..OUT OF THE PARK and Syncapse took SXSW party sophistication to a new level with a killer photo booth, custom branded everything and an amazing drink menu. My eyes were bleeding by Syncapse, so I crawled home to grab a few hours before going back into the fray.

Have You Done It?

Fabio Abreu — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 23:07:32 +0000

Oh we, we’ve done it! Tasked with the challenge of NOT creating another unimaginative, beautiful faces and places, smile-filled travel ad, SPOKE moved forward on a brilliant tagline and collaborated with director, Trevor Francis, to craft the Big Idea and further solidify the collective creative vision. Surely, the correct mixture of so many creative talents and copious beverages in the same room is sure to bear fruit, isn’t it? We’d like to think so. The result: the new Contiki Holidays Campaign that successfully captures the imagination of its target market by asking the enticing question: Have you done it? Playing with the notion of those loud and crazy nights held fondly by the target market when recounting past holiday experiences, Contiki produces an inducing video spot alongside its clever tagline, prompting peers to uncover new holiday experiences. The Call-to-Action leads to an immersive microsite experience (HaveYouDoneIt.com) to promote the sharing of stories, ideas and the Campaign message itself. To reach the target audience, the overarching strategy predicts the behavioural context of lifestyle websites, upon which various media tactics are implemented. Wild Posters Facebook CTA Presence on Lifestyle Websites

Puzzle EP Cover Art by Shingo Shimizu

Karen Lo — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 16:05:49 +0000

The illustration above was slightly reappropriated from Shingo’s personal work “Full Circle” for Puzzle’s new EP, “Polysnacks”. You can listen and purchase the EP here. Shingo Shimizu has been somewhat of a “resident artist” here at SPOKE since September 2010. Shingo is a graduate of the OCAD’s Communication and Design program and has been nurturing his illustration skills from an early age under the influence of his father who is a graphic designer. While Pop Art and Manga has a significant influence on his style, music is inevitably a major driving force for his visual language as Shingo is a member of the DJ trio at Hot Sauce. Currently the Art Director for Scion Canada Magazine, his work has also been featured in Mixmag, Business 2.0 and Popular Mechanics. Shingo has been recognized by The Advertising and Design Club of Canada and American Illustration and also been profiled in Vektorika’s ‘Greatest Hits’ issue. Watch out for our follow-up on his latest collaboration with Toronto photographer, Jalani Morgan.

FanXchange & theScore Team Up

Karen Lo — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 18:22:28 +0000

FanXchange and theScore announced their newest offering to simplify the hunt for the best tickets. The new alliance enables users to quickly search for seats contextually via theScore.com to buy their sports tickets in real-time, safely and securely. After three years of working with FanXchange, SPOKE Agency continues to lead the strategy, creative and technology development for the ongoing partnership. We spent months on this thing! The FanXchange ticket search engine features an interactive seating chart which facilitates the ticket selection process by showing the user exactly where their seat is positioned from the stage. Now you can find your seats faster with the new dynamic seating feature with interactive maps and real seat view. To help you find the perfect seats and make the right purchase, take a virtual look from your seats with real view and see exactly where they are in the interactive map of the venue. In a recent shift for the secondary ticket marketplace, fans look to FanXchange.com as an alternative to guarantee a legitimate and safe transaction. They currently maintain the country’s largest ticket inventory, averaging 5.5 million available seats. The link with theScore confirms what sports fans in-the-know have long awaited as the next step in the site’s increasingly valuable branded utilities. Their mobile phone application, ScoreMobile, is consistently rated as the top sports app in both downloads and quality of engagement. Daily, tens of thousands use the website to read exclusive articles, check scores and research stats on their favourite players. The launch phase is supported with an integrated campaign for digital, TV and editorial advertising.

The New Coffee Culture

Karen Lo — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 22:13:00 +0000

One Capsule + One Smart Coffee Machine encapsulates The New Coffee Culture – Nespresso’s latest integrated campaign to secure their throne as the industry’s top tastemaker. The New Coffee Culture is defined by the following characteristics: Alluring, Unique, Refined, and Precise. With these touchpoints, we’ve created a series of Rich Media expandable ads placed on highly-esteemed news sites like as Harper’s Bazaar (Alluring), Huffpost Food (Unique), Esquire (Precise), and the Wall Street Journal (Refined), amongst others. These ads work in tandem with their billboard and print counterparts to drive US consumers to The New Coffee Culture microsite. The intermediary microsite acts as a quick portal to the Nespresso machines with value-add features like the Gift Guide and gourmet coffee dessert recipes for the holiday season. View the full campaign here or experience The New Coffee Culture here. Richmedia Ads Print Ads

SPOKE to Sponsor nextMEDIA

Karen Lo — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 22:07:25 +0000

nextMEDIA is just around the corner and SPOKE is an official sponsor as a “Friend of the Event“. Our Director, Brand Strategy — Rachel Noonan, also joined the Jury for this year’s Awards. Since its inception in 2007, nextMEDIA has been the launching pad for the newest products in the digital media industry and the top networking and business development platform for the next-generation marketplace. Click here for more details. SPOKE’s Founding Partners, Kai Exos and Jeff Greenspoon will present onstage for a Best-of Award! See you on the carpet! UPDATE: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nextmediaevents/5227102715/in/set-72157625521910000/

Help Ethan Find His Dog

Karen Lo — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 15:51:38 +0000

Follow the “Poo Clues” and you’ll have the chance to *win a prize pack from the major motion picture, DUE DATE. It’s from the Director of Old School and The Hangover and it’s IN THEATRES NOVEMBER 5. Ethan (Zach Galifanakis) will be in downtown Toronto on the hunt for his beloved French bulldog, Sonny. POO CLUE #9: One day in Autumn this came from my bottom.

We Crapped our Logo

Karen Lo — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 16:02:17 +0000

A square is still a square, with our without gradient. This is what happens when Gap tries to think outside the box. Despite the logo being tragically unsuccessful as a design, it is successful, beyond a doubt, as a tool to raise brand awareness. Thus earning an online app completely dedicated to this short-lived logo.

To crap your logo, click on the button below:

LIVE: Planet People Community

Karen Lo — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 16:25:16 +0000

Keep yourself up-to-date with Planet People’s latest news with their brand new blog realized by SPOKE!