Selective Amnesia There was a point to this. But I forgot.

Sony Bravia, the third.

(High Res version on the official site – Bravia EU)

This one uses Play Doh and stop-motion, along with some generous sprinkling of NYC people, to deliver the message that Sony Bravia has ‘colour like no other’. As a single piece of communication this is a fantastic ad. I mean, imagine this playing on your TV, between all the “Hurry!”s and the “All new”s that we are bored of now.

But, this spot is the third installment in a series that began here.

and continued here

The first one, Balls, is so simple, yet so effective. Together with a soundtrack (Heartbeats by Jose Gonzales) that made me want to take up the acoustic guitar (among other things), it (the commercial) set so high a standard for a lot of us. (Well, yes, that’s a personal belief)

The second one, though it kinda lacked the spontaneity of the ‘Balls’, made it up on scale and fun. Therefore it was good.

This one, somehow, I got the feeling that the agency (Fallon, London - an agency I so want to work with) is trying a little too hard to top it. But then, I could be way off my mark and this is the best darn ad ever to come out of an advertising agency.

Update
Adrants informs me (not personally, no.) via the mailing list that this ad – the Play Doh rabbit on NYC streets – is a rip-off of a photo from a panorama. Flickr user Kozyndan writes that he/she had sent the production company, Passions, samples of their work a while back, and one of that has resulted in this new ad.

Judge for yourselves. The panorama. The ad – you’ve already seen it.

sony bravia | advertising | colour like no other

A conversation on branding, blogs, microsites and communities

I mentioned to a friend a little while ago that I am familiar with the world-wide web as both a tool for communication and as a platform/place to build and sustain communities. And that the latter is what I’d like to explore in my work.

What follows is my end of the conversation.

My blog, Selective Amnesia, is not the community I was talking about. I am the community, or rather, the community is around me. It is in my Orkut and Facebook profiles, around my LinkedIn answers. It’s crowded around my flickr photos. In my Gmail inbox. In more ways than one, it’s my email. The community is also on my delicious network, and in the feeds I read and the feeds that I share.

The blog, Selective Amnesia, is just the door to a gated community. You don’t know/understand the community by looking at its gate. You need to come in, and see for yourself why those people have decided to stick together as a unit. My blog is like the big flashing neon sign is to the strip club. It tells people who are looking for conversation, that hey, just up ahead is a place you can have conversation. And not just with one person.

That is, in my mind, what brands should do when they go online. A website that pulls members in, a place that advertises that Brand X offers customers Need Y. And those who need Need Y will come to the site, and if it is both engaging (short term) and relevant (long term), they will stick on. But the microsite cannot become the be all end all of the brand. For, in two years time, or even two weeks time, another site will kick in that is more engaging or more flashy (or even Ajaxy) and you risk consumers migrating there. Instead, just like the community I have (which goes beyond my blog and into my email inbox where all the conversation happens), the brand will need to talk to people. It will have to be funny and relevant, or sad and relevant or sarcastic and relevant or bitchy and relevant. But it needs to do this outside of just the microsite or viral video. If it involves creating a secret mailing list for a select few, then the email list has to be created. If it involves creating Yahoo messenger emoticons, then emoticons need to be created. If it involves customers asked to contribute their own photos and videos to keep the community alive, then that has to be done. But done because the community thinks it needs to be done. Not because Brand Z does it or the competing agency is doing.

Of course, everything I just said could be absolute bullshit, even by the standards of the advertising industry. In which case, make me the CEO.

[Related posts: 1, 2, 3 and 4]

advertising | branding | interactive marketing | communities | microsites

Virgin Atlantic saves you from the Grim Reaper

Well, the grim reaper in this commercial looks a tad, um, not grim. Also, gay. But we’ll not hold it against him. I did want to go flying around the world after I saw this commercial. Unfortunately VA wouldn’t let me pay with youtube page views.