John Winsor

Advertising, Past Tense

The Break Up
Uploaded by geertdesager

Kudos to Whilst Geert Desager, Trade Marketing Manager for Microsoft, who created this video and started the blog, Bring the Love Back.

Geert just made Microsorft way cooler, in my book.

Word is that Geert was inspired by David Armano's recent Businessweek article entitled, "It's the Conversation Economy, Stupid."

It's the Little Things...

That signal a changing culture. This morning, as I was getting coffee at the local coffee shop here in Sayulita, I noticed something different. Thinking back on it, it's been happening for a while. But today it was apparent. Change jumped up and slapped me in the face. What change, you ask?

There was a line of locals at the coffee shop. While this might not seem like a big change, it is. You see, a couple of years ago the average construction worker was making $1.50 an hour here in town. Today, they drive the same cars, wear the same clothes yet they're buying $2.50 lattes.

Pretty soon the cars and the clothes will change, as well.

The Influence of Technology

For awhile now Olympic sports has had to deal with technology in the form of drugs. Today, there is a new threat, an amputee. Oscar Pistorius of South Africa was born without a fibula bone in his legs resulting in both legs being amputated below the knee when he was 11 months old. Today, at age twenty, he is setting the track on fire with his specially made prosthetics. After easily winning the Paralympics World Cup 100 and 200-meter dashes, Oscar now dreams of running in the Olympics. Certainly, he has the speed to qualify, getting second in the 400 meters in the South African National Championships. There's only one problem, the I.A.A.F., running's governing body won't allow him to compete.

“With all due respect, we cannot accept something that provides advantages,” said Elio Locatelli of Italy, the director of development for the I.A.A.F., urging Pistorius to concentrate on the Paralympics that will follow the Olympics in Beijing. “It affects the purity of sport. Next will be another device where people can fly with something on their back.”

Is this really fair? Should the Olympics exclude runners not only when they are slower but even when they are faster? The Olympics, like any other event, is affected by technology. Either they accept technology as a natural human progression or they become irrelevant. Technology, where it be prosthetics or performance enhancing drugs, is a part of sports and will always be.

Heard on the Street

As we were talking about the religious right the other day, my dad said, "Their hypocricy is so delicious!"

I love that phrase.

Genius

I love the way these ads shift the conversation from just being about the product to talk about a service, as well.

Digital Couscous

Red Burns at The Interactive Telecommunications Program at New York University provides a good case in point how collaboration and co-creation exist best where the culture is right.

“Unlike most academic environments, the students’ course of study is not managed by the teachers,” Professor Gauthier said. “They create their own ‘digital couscous,’ using building blocks from several areas of digital media and from interactions with a diversity of teachers and professionals.”

Digital Couscous, mmmm....that sounds good!

The Adventure Continues

I’ve got some big news.

Crispin Porter + Bogusky (CP+B) has acquired Radar Communications. One of the things that attracted us to join forces with CP+B was not only their fearless approach to advertising and marketing but also the way they approach business itself.

CP+B shares our passion for bringing clients exceptionally close to current and potential customers. Radar will join CP+B’s very talented Cognitive and Cultural Studies (Cogs) department to form Cultural Radar. The Cogs department has become known for providing CP+B clients with a unique perspective on understanding culture and what drives and motivates consumers, by engaging leading minds from outside typical planning culture including cultural anthropologists, sociologists and other engaged people from all walks of live that had a spirit for cultural exploration.

All of us at Radar are thrilled about this unique opportunity and look forward to combining Radar’s research methodologies of ethnography, storytelling and the powerful hybrid of anthropological and journalistic practices.

The new Cultural Radar team will offer a powerful combination of Radar’s research tools with CP+B Cogs unique cultural insights. With this amplified depth, resources and skill sets we will now be able to offer more strategic direction and creative execution

Along with leveraging these combined Cultural Radar tools, I am also excited with the opportunity to put into practice more of the principles, like co-creation, that I explored in Beyond the Brand and Spark.

I’ll keep you posted as things evolve. It’s going to be a fun adventure!

The Power of Co-creation on Wikipedia

In the wake of the Virginia Tech tragedy it has been interesting to watch as Wikipedia has become a news source of some influence. Leave it to the amatuers to get it right.

“As the poplular joke goes, ‘The problem with Wikipedia only works in practice. In theory, it can never work.”

-Miika Ryokas, a 22-year-old computer science student from Finland.

Word of the Day

Visceral Realism - A movement started by poets in Mexico City bent on literary terrorism.

A Little Better?

Have you checked out the new BP "A Little Better" Ads? They're cool, fun and goofy. I still have a hard time understanding how British Petroleum can sell their environmental message, "Beyond Petroleum", with a straight face.

More troubling, however, was the news today of John Browne's retirement and the stories emphisis on other BP problems, including the Alaskan oil spill last year.

If you're marketing is going to talk the talk, the company better be able to walk the walk.