My conversation with Ignited VP/Group Creative Director Jordan Atlas continues with more insights into the tech incubator Ignited has put into play to spur innovation.
Not only does the incubator, called Ignited Labs, help fund new businesses, but it rewards employees for generating hot new initiatives as well.
Areas of focus for Ignited Labs include social media, location-based services, neuromarketing, video, mobile/tablet computing and more.
Among some early efforts we'll hear about: MASS Canvas, a crowdsourced design application that teams up with celebrities to encourage people to design, vote on and purchase custom t-shirts, with a portion going to charity.
“Through persuasive arguments and Q&A's with the major players in advertising, Mathieson makes an excellent case for greater creativity and outside-the-box thinking backed up with solid ideas."
Jordan Atlas first hit my radar in a memorable way.
The then-VP and Group CD of Digitas New York, where he co-ran the American Express OPEN and Comcast accounts, Atlas sent me the photo shown below and the following note, just days after the launch of my new book, THE ON-DEMAND BRAND:
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Rick,
My name is Jordan Atlas and I am a group creative director at Digitas/NY.
I just finished The On-Demand Brand, it was incredibly inspiring and eye-opening.
I just sent out an email to my 23 member creative team saying "anyone interested in not sucking at their job should go out and buy this book!"
Thanks for writing it. I've attached a photo of what my copy looks like now. I think I may have stuck a post-it note on every page.
Thanks again, Jordan
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I didn't know Atlas, and his feedback was exactly the kind any marketing book author dreams of receiving. It was incredibly cool of him to send it to me, a complete stranger.
He has since moved on to become VP/Group CD at Los Angeles-based Ignited, a highly innovative transmedia shop founded about a decade ago by Eric Johnson.
Atlas and I have stayed in touch, and I recently invited him to take part in the Fall 2011 GEN WOW Mobile Marketing Roundtable, but a new business pitch kept him away.
We finally had the chance to connect this week, and I got the lowdown on a new launch for Konomi Pro Evolution Soccer 2012, which features some hilarious spots featuring fictional soccer ref Robert Roberto Roberto.
Over the next few days, Atlas - whose past includes seven years at Y&R working on Diet Dr. Pepper, Sony and Pepperidge Farm, and countless accolades from the New York Times, Cannes, The Effies and the USA Today Super Bowl Ad Meter - will provide some powerful insights into how he and Ignited are staying ahead of the change curve.
Among the agency's methods: It's own technology incubator, which funds startups in developing next-generation digital businesses, grown internally and externally, in areas such as social media, location-based services, neuromarketing, video, mobile/tablet computing and more.
It makes for some interesting listening for the digital age.
Q&A: JORDAN ATLAS, VP/GROUP CD IGNITED (PT 1): PUTTING INNOVATION IN PLAY
“Through persuasive arguments and Q&A's with the major players in advertising, Mathieson makes an excellent case for greater creativity and outside-the-box thinking backed up with solid ideas."
“Through persuasive arguments and Q&A's with the major players in advertising, Mathieson makes an excellent case for greater creativity and outside-the-box thinking backed up with solid ideas."
We don't normally cover gadgets here at GEN WOW, but just mentioning the Kindle Fire on Twitter today, and reporters started asking for our opinion of the new entrant in the tablet wars.
Here's the TV commercial. From this and everything I've read, Fire looks like a nice little device at a great price point.
Add in the Silk browser, and things get pretty interesting. Among other things, the browser tracks and even anticipates users' next moves, which could be a boon for behavioral targeting.
That's the primary reason I'm mentioning it here. That and because the device illustrates a key point I make in my new book, THE ON-DEMAND BRAND - that products are the new services.
As I mention in the book, Apple and Amazon get this. Your success lays less in the quality of your products, but the digital services that empower them. It's Amazon's content ecosystem that will burnish, or put out, Fire.
With Amazon as the backend, the brand can take a loss on the device (word is it's upward of $50 per unit) and still make a killing.
Will I buy one? Probably. Not for myself - I'm strictly iPad - but for the family.
But what's your take?
Will this new Kindle catch you-know-what? Or is it the next fill-in-the-totally-ignorable-table-name-here?
“Through persuasive arguments and Q&A's with the major players in advertising, Mathieson makes an excellent case for greater creativity and outside-the-box thinking backed up with solid ideas."
“Through persuasive arguments and Q&A's with the major players in advertising, Mathieson makes an excellent case for greater creativity and outside-the-box thinking backed up with solid ideas."
Is the Kodak Carousel scene from Mad Men the new "Hitler Does-" video?
We can only hope not - but it sure works in this mashup, which does a pretty good job of actually making Timeline seem interesting, while offering plenty of fun for Mad Men fans.
“Through persuasive arguments and Q&A's with the major players in advertising, Mathieson makes an excellent case for greater creativity and outside-the-box thinking backed up with solid ideas."
Cheech & Chong are back - and they're pushing some magic brownies on their way to the Flaming Hole festival.
Let that line sink in for a sec and we'll resume.
See, this trailer is part of a branded entertainment campaign in which a certain consumer brand helps Cheech, Chong and everyone else to get high - on fiber.
Let's just say the "magic" in these brownies is good for your health, even if the smoke you're giving off later might clear the room.
This effort, from FiberOne, includes a series of comedic YouTube videos, and a new website called Cheech & Chong's Magic Brownie Adventure that chronicles the guys' trek to Flaming Hole, and behind-the-scenes footage from the "movie." Along the way, they'll pitch Fiber One's new Magic Brownies, which, if you're interested, contain 20% of your daily recommended allowance of fiber.
“Through persuasive arguments and Q&A's with the major players in advertising, Mathieson makes an excellent case for greater creativity and outside-the-box thinking backed up with solid ideas."
FREE Webinar: Mobile Marketing for the Hospitality Industry Date: Sept 29, 11 am PST
This Webinar will cover mobile marketing strategies and tactics for the hospitality industry.
Learn how SMS promotional campaigns, SMS alert groups, mobile coupons, POS redemption of mobile coupons, mobile sites and other mobile marketing initiatives are deployed to increase key marketing objectives for the hotels and resorts.
It's already one of the world's preeminent payment companies.
With its entry into m-commerce, does American Express - its merchant partnerships and its massive database of customer preferences and purchase behavior - become the ultimate mobile marketing platform?
In the conclusion of our Fall 2011 Mobile Marketing Roundtable, our panelists - Julie Fajgenbaum, vice president of brand marketing and social media for American Express, Jeff Hasen, CMO of mobile marketing firm HipCricket, and Adam Broitman, CEO of digital ad agency Circ.us - talk QR codes and Near Field Communications (NFC) and their (to some, questionable) value to marketing and advertising.
And I ask them to consider the place payment companies like AMEX might hold in the future of mobile marketing.
FALL 2011 MOBILE MARKETING ROUNDTABLE (CONCL): AMEX: the Ultimate Mobile Marketing Platform?
PLUS: Don't miss the other installments from this exclusive roundtable:
In Part 1 of our Fall Mobile Marketing Roundtable, we talk to Julie Fajgenbaum, VP of Brand Marketing & Social Media for American Express about how AMEX is going social+mobile+commerce.
In Part 2, we talk to Adam Broitman, CEO of Circus about ways this equation will play out over the next five to 10 years (Let's just say the conversation includes NFC embedded in our skin) - and what it means to the world of advertising.
In Part 3, Jeff Hasen, CMO of Seattle-based HipCricket, illustrates the power of this dynamic in campaigns for Ford and Arby's.
In Part 4, Our panelists talk mobile marketing's role in Super Bowl 2012.
You'll be impressed with the results generated - and you'll see how social+mobile+commerce can work seamlessly within fully integrated communications campaigns.
“Through persuasive arguments and Q&A's with the major players in advertising, Mathieson makes an excellent case for greater creativity and outside-the-box thinking backed up with solid ideas."
“Through persuasive arguments and Q&A's with the major players in advertising, Mathieson makes an excellent case for greater creativity and outside-the-box thinking backed up with solid ideas."