Sad Day.

Mello cello

Amazing stuff...can't stop listening to it. Check Nick out here:

http://www.myspace.com/takenobu

Ich komme mit dem auto!

Considering they created The People's Car (Volkswagon to you non-Eurotrash) and bratwurt, you knew it wouldn't take long for them to get into the pop-up retail game. While I'm not thrilled about about the weight of this "cylindar of selling" it's upside for customization and heavy lifting (includes options for refridgerators, ovens, etc.) makes it unique.

www.bboxx.de

(i'll post pics when blogger gets their shyt together)

My kind of town

Puma City. I'd live there.

PSFK Meeting

Not sure how the meeting went...but look at the size of that croissant!! That thing is bigger than that girls head...

28 Minutes Later...

....from the guys over at Contagious.

Promoting the new Mercedes GLK...
www.mercedes-glk.com

A new take on the sexy car wash from Subie
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vasc8ghyulg or http://sexysubaru.ca

Cool Hunted

Saw this over on Coolhunting.com...very cool indeed.

Stackable Bottles

A cool concept...however keep reading the article and see the note about developing product packaging that can then be used for construction.

The idea isn't new (obviously as this article points out)...but in recent times it's be left to artists to muse over.

The whole "shipping container" trend is very similar right now...however this is on a much smaller scale, and honestly, allows much greater flexibility. Interesting...

http://www.vestaldesign.com/blog/2006/07/heineken-beer-bricks.html

CIA World Fact Book

Anyone else find this extremely ironic?

SPB

Fly Over Skiing

This is how we do it in the fly-over States...

Chapter 13

..."I don't know how it will be in the years to come. There are monstrous changes taking place in the world, forces shaping a future whose face we do not know. Some of these forces seem evil to us, perhaps not in themselves but because their tendency is to eliminate other things we hold good. It is true that two men can lift a bigger stone than one man. A group can build automobiles quicker and better than one man, and bread from a huge factory is cheaper and more uniform. When our food and clothing and housing are all born in the complication of mass production, mass methon is bound to get into our thinking and to eliminate all other thinking. In our time mass or colletive production has entered our economics, our politics, and even our religon, so that some nations have substituted the idea collective for the idea God. This in my time is the danger. There is great tension in the world, tension toward a breaking point, and men are unhappy and confused.

At such a time it seems natural and good to me to ask myself these questions. What do I believe in? What must I fight for and what must I fight against?

Our species is the only creative species, and it has only one crative instrument, the individual mind and spirit of a man. Nothing was ever created by two men. There are no good collaborations, whether in music, in art, in poetry, in mathmatics, in philosophy. Once the miracle of creation has taken place, the group can build and extend it, but the group never invents anything. The preciousness lies in the lonely mind of a man.

And now the forces marshaled around the concept of the grouup have declared a war of extermination on that preciousness, the mind of man. By disparagement, by starvation, by repressions, forced direction, and the stunning hammerblows of conditioning, the free, roving mind is being pursued, roped, blunted, drugged. It is a sad suicidal course our species seems to have taken.

And this I believe: that the free, exploring mind of the individual human is the most valuable thing in the world. And this I would fight for: the freedom of the mind to take any direction it wishes, undirected. And this I must fight against: any idea, religion, or govnernment which limits or destroys the individual. This is what I am and what I am about. I can understand why a system built on a patter must try to destroy the free mind, for that is the one thing which can by inspection destroy such a system. Surely I can understand this, and I hate it and I will fight against it to presever the one thing that separates us from the uncreative beasts. If the glory can be killed, we are all lost.

John Steinbeck, East of Eden (1952)

Brand Sliders

Just read a great white paper from HUB Magazine that you can pull off their site (www.hubmagazine.com) written by Martin Bishop of Landor Associates (www.Landor.com).

As Brands look to grow, via new services or acquisitions, they must decide that new brand or service falls into their existing brand architecture.

The paper looks at two sides: one umbrella brand or many? It also offers an innovative tool that can help you evaluate which side of the fence you should land on.

SpB

Designboom!

Yet another great site forwarded on to me by an AD downstaits...

www.designboom.com/eng/

Viva Detroit

Some great sneak peaks from the Detroit Auto Show from around the Web are out there. This concept vehicle from Jeep caught my eye on the front page of Chicagotribune.com...

I love it when designers make sense.

So much of our current design culture is design for design sake...or making sexier gadgets so the gadgets we have end up in a landfill on Africa's West Coast. But having spent six and a half years in Chicago, I find this brilliant.

http://www.totes-isotoner.com/category/rain+products/senz+umbrellas.do

Kudos to Urbandaddy for the scoop.

Cheers,
SpB

CES

I just returned from CES in Las Vegas and will have a full report with pictures up shortly. It will be a fairly topline review, and unfortunately will focus on gadgets, as being short on time I was only able to skim the show floor.

Stay tuned...

New NikeID from CP+B

doing advertising for mega brands is tough...how many times can you say "just do it" or "this bud's for you" and keep it fresh, exciting, original...and have it reach audiences in different ways?

so it's with a bit of understanding that I trash the new NikeID stuff from Crispin. A lavishly produced spot that, to me, says very little.

Sure, I grasp their position that music fills the motivation need that has been lost through gentrification of society.

But music provides so many different things for different runners and different times or types of runs that I feel the spot is off target...or at least falls short.

cheers. spb.

Really back this time...

...again, not like anyone is dying to hear what i have to say...but i'm recommitted to posting. Stay tuned...

Cheers,

SPB

I'm Back!

I haven't posted in nearly seven months...not that anyone out there has missed me.

An insane work schedule, along with getting married left little time for blogging. I have a few things on my mind to share...including how we know if marketing on the Internet is working.

Speaking with my aunt this weekend in Chicago, she told me about a speach the CEO of AOL or Yahoo or something gave to a room full of media buyers and sellers.

He noted that Tide (the laundry detergent) recently had a great experience with the Internet on accident. AOL/Yahoo/whatever's ad programming had placed a banner ad of theirs on a vet site knowing, as most do, that Mom's buy the pet food along with their detergent. Anyway, the site became the Internet hub for information on the contaminated pet food issue a few months back. This person giving the speech noted how many "hits" and "visits" Tide got from the pairing of banner ads and Web sites.

What he didn't mention was if Tide sold any detergent because of it. If if Tide was now viewed more favorably (which doesn't mean shit if people don't buy it).

And I've come to start asking these questions of my interactive peers: cool site, awesome interface, good information...are you selling anything because of it? A Web site has become table legs...but what info do we have that links great Web-based activities with sales?

I've always thought some of the big package good companies (General Mills, P&G) have done some good things regarding receipe sharing...but I still don't know if people then purchase the product, or just take the receipe and do their own thing?

Anyone have some info?

Cheers.

A-B Trades Up for Wholesalers

Anheuser-Busch's exclusive wholesaler network raised their collective Budweiser last night and saluted an overseas adversary, InBev, for granting their Christmas wish.

Elsewhere, wholesalers left to peddle Miller, Coors and anything else they can get their hands on must have felt like taking the lump of coal they were just dealt and shoving it up a Clydesdale's arse.

In a move that has been rumored and discussed at length, Belgian brewing giant InBev agreed to allow Anheuser-Busch to distribute their brands in the United States. And while the added volume is but a drop in the leading domestic brewer's overall glass, the move further strengthens their ability to provide a wider spectrum of beverage choices for a wider spectrum of beverage occasions. From Natty in the Carolinas to Stella in Manhattan, Anheuser-Busch can answer your call for suds.

There are some challenges...which will discuss in a moment. But on the positive side, the wholesalers must be ecstatic! Higher margin imports...and a competitive 'green bottle' to challenge Heineken...mean happy days ahead. Take a look at what an A-B wholesaler will be able to offer an account in the coming months: Stella, Becks, Bass, Tiger, Harbin, Kirin, Rolling Rock, Widmer, Goose Island, Grolsch, Red Hook and Kona...not to mention the giant roster of domestic beers, including the Budweiser, Michelob & Busch brand families. Couple this with their Innovation Group, which is has recently introduced two organic beers (Stone Mill Pale Ale, Wild Hop Lager), launched a seasonal program (currently featuring Winter's Bourbon Cask Ale), and a number of malt-based beverages like Spykes & Peels and you're witnessing the revolution of an American company from brewer to global beverage company.

All this is great from a volume stand point, but there are still a few issues. One, we're still living in a spirits culture. August Busch IV has hinted that he's willing to take the spirits and wine manufacturers head-on, either through acquisitions or the development of their own wine & spirits brands. After all...brewing and distilling aren't that different, well, at least the process isn't.

Another issue is managing all these brands and keeping them all top of mind amongst wholesalers. InBev didn't ink this deal so A-B's wholesalers could fall in love with Stella and disregard the others. Much like Busch, Budweiser and Michelob, who have have been in decline since the rise of light beers, InBev's premium beers like Beck's & Bass could suffer from overwhelmed wholesalers and limited funds to market these brands correctly at the local level.

All in all, it's a very impressive move and could elevate A-B to a true global player. AABIV has made his first big splash...lets see if he can keep up the momentum.

Cheers. SPB