Raafi wrote an article for Ad Age about YouTube representation and content creation – and how this dovetails with the marketplace of race, still not understood by advertising.
Month: January 2009
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Muslim Ad Network and Desedo FTW!
As Agency Spy teased last week, we’re working with LA-based Muslim Ad Network (MAN) to launch the first ever US advertising agency that will focus on the American-Muslim consumer demographic.
MAN has aggregated the Muslim new media space for ad placement, providing vertical access to +10 million page views each month. BFD? Well, yes. This is an ignored demo with $170 Billion of spending power. And in this recession, brands are aiming to engage ‘new’, niche consumers.
We’re now meeting with larger agencies to introduce them to this space, and we’ll keep you posted as the work comes out. Give a shout if you want to learn more.
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Sexy Time
We are pleased to announce that our dude Derek Lo
aka The Big Asian has been dubbed 2009’s Sexiest Man in Advertising. Should you wanna grab his chain, he spins them records round and round every Friday night at Happy Endings. And he might be wearing a crown. -
(we like) Soap In Our Eyes
We’re drafting a GLBT transmedia narrative with the Emmy-winning sudser Peter Brash. So in order to smarten up on soaps, I’ve been reading the writings of our pal Sam Ford.
While at MIT, Sam’s studies focused on the worlds of soap operas and professional wrestling – two highly sophisticated narrative structures that are all too often looked at askance.
These two worlds provide an unparalleled on/offline space for fan immersion into narrative. One of the best examples I’ve ever seen is described below, cribbed from his thesis As The World Turns in a Convergence Culture
The most interesting of these interactive extensions…launched in late March 2007. Brad and Katie, two characters on As The World Turns who host a (within text) show called Oakdale Now, decided to have a contest where viewers would write in explaining why Brad and Katie should come to their home and help them complete their least favorite household chore….
Brad and Katie then choose one of the entries for a cash prize and would also go to their home to do the chore, with the cameras rolling. The twist, though, is that the contest was actually opened to ATWT viewers, with the winning essay getting a $5,000 cash prize and a visit from Brad and Katie to do the promised chore, with the actors actually coming out to the winning fan’s home in character.
The show aired them doing the chore as a segment filmed for their Oakdale Now show, making one of the fansâ€â€and their homeâ€â€part of the narrative world. As opposed to the other interactive forms of content, this Oakdale Now contest [actually] invited viewers to become part of the narrative.
a7eRzOLP1gE content gets relevant @1:47Fiction intermixing with Game Show, Reality and News Magazine structures. Note that Brad says they got 25,000 entries. Pure Genius.
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Mimic Drink
Our pal Sorry I Missed Your Party tipped us to the fact that:
MillerCoors is discontinuing Sparks due to government concerns that it was too popular with teenagers and its energy and booze combination was dangerous…
I guess I understand that it’s important to protect our impressionable youth; they are our future, after all. [But] lets be honest – has anyone ever actually enjoyed a Sparks “responsibly”?
Drinking Sparks created the Fun Dipesque byproduct of an orange tongue. Such markings of use are an advertisers dream. Alas it’s the U21 set who derived the most pleasure from it.
No surprise that the bev was the brainchild of a marketing firm – McKenzie River. These are the same folks who hired rappers in the way back to shill for St. Ides – one of the first marketing moves into the rugged hip-hop space, presaging 50 and Vitamin Water. Impressionable lad that I was, the Crooked I was my first 40.
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The Year of the Elephant
Happy 09 to our friends and lovers.
Been off in the nether regions of narnia.
Now back in our fighting chairs.
We Will Win.
