Why????

First there was McCanns with that awful "Show me the way to integration" and now this from Publicis. Why do agencies feel the need to do this?

Get that B-Roll

The 2009 Bully Awards

Over on the supreme Ad Contrarian's blog, the votes have been counted and the stiff competition whittled down to one amazing piece of marketing bullshit. If you're unaware of the masterful piece of nonsense, that is the 'Pepsi Breathtaking Design Strategy take a look at it here.

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas.

The Christmas edition of Family Time, the magazine we bi-monthly produce for Colourful Tree went to print today. Last big Christmas themed job of the year (unless someone's got something i'm not yet aware of).

Cream Awards winners

Last night (25/11/09) saw the 2009 Cream Awards ceremony take place at the Jam House in Birmingham. We had a nomination in the 'best business to business' section and were kindly given a bronze for our ad "Web".
Although we're not going to get carried away with winning a bronze, it was nice to be collecting a Cream again after a few years in the wilderness.
The event took on a new format (well, times are tough at the moment for most agencies) and gone was the massive hall at the ICC, complete with black tie and dry chicken dinner. Now we were in a pub, wearing casual gear with no seats and miniature burgers to mop up the drink.
It was different but was it better?
Well, there were a lot of mixed feelings on the night depending on who you talked to but my two penneth, for what it's worth, is I thought it was a good night. The whole thing felt a lot younger, there was a lot more chance to catch up with colleagues and peers from years back and the room appeared to be almost 100% agency people rather than 40% client guests that needed looking after.
Maybe as I get older, the evening was more about the social catch up rather than the winning bit (I would say that, having not won much) but it was good to spend the majority of the night chatting to old mates rather than spending hours waiting for someone to travel 200 yards across a vast hall and climb the steps to a huge stage (repeat this 40 or so times and it becomes a tad drawn out).
A big congratulations must go to Golley Slater Cardiff for their excellent Army ads that picked up the Grand Prix - absolutely head and shoulders above anything else and deserved winners.

We've won a CIPR award...sort of.

Well done to the PR team at Sandwell MBC on picking up a silver at this year's CIPR awards. It was for the rogue trader campaign that we produced the Yee-Ha!! work for. You can see it here.

Please vote for us.

We've just received 'The Drum Power 100 2009', nomination list and Ross Riley & myself (Jon Harrison) are on it.
So, if you've got 30 seconds spare, please pop over to the site and click on our names (the list is first name alphabetical). We're not a big agency, so we don't have the power to instruct hundreds of employees to use their vote. So please, be a love and tick our boxes. Thanks.

New client - new ads

Read more about it here.

The Godfather

If you know anything about the history of advertising, you'll know only one man has had the title of 'Godfather' on his business card. This is his website showing some of the great thinking that earned him that title. As you'd expect, the copy is excellent and the arguments compelling but what surprised me was some of the art direction is quite simply divine. Why I should be surprised by the genius of the man, quite simply, well err, surprises me.
If you're interested in the slightest about how to converse with people in print, take a look.
Thanks to Steve's website for pointing out its existence.

Google, a short history.

Google has become such an integral part of all our lives but how did it happen?

Happy Birthday to the banner ad

Today (27th October) marks the 15th birthday of the banner ad. Read all about it here.
Scary to think how far this industry has come and how it has impacted on all our lives in a such a short period of time. I mean, in 1994, i'd just got my first job as a junior art director at an ad agency called Wallis Tomlinson and none of this could have possibly been imagined.
I didn't even get a computer until 1999 and even then, I had to share it with my copywriter (fellow Unsuitable and One Black Bear geezer, Rich Elwell), we got a laptop (blue clamshell mac, with the little handbag handle) so that we could pass it across the desk to each other. We took it in turns to take it home, not sure why as neither of us had a home internet connection until well into the new millennium.
How times change. To think, i've only had a laptop for ten years and I now watch more TV on it than the actual telly itself.

Burn your portfolio

Jon Harrison: Burn your portfolio from B-Hive Creative on Vimeo.

Here's some advice for wannabe ad creatives and designers. Recorded for the B-Hive site.

TV reel added to YouTube

Due to popular demand (okay, one potential client wanting to see our reel) we've finally got round to putting our reel on YouTube.
See it here.

Latest ad hits the press

Read about it here.

the local

i was having a mooch around more canals than venice when i found this image of our friday boozer, the old crown. the pic is from c.1857 but the pub dates back to 1368.
if you look closely though you'll see the fashions haven't changed much, especially when rich joins us down there.

WWF animation from Bostock & Pollitt

Our friends down at Covent Garden (who we worked with a couple of years back on the Bristol film we did) have produced this fine piece of animation for the WWF showing what difference people can make as individuals.

Wanna Viral? Try catching swine flu.

We often (okay once or twice) get asked by a client or potential client to solve all their marketing woes by producing a viral video. The conversation normally goes:
Client: "It's easy to get attention these days for no money isn't it?"
Us: "Well...."
Client: "No, it is. My brother's mates' cousin's auntie did a funny video in her kitchen for her homemade cakes in 1998 and she's selling loads now. I received it from three separate people on email and it's been viewed on YouTube by six times the population of Venezuala."
Us: "Think we just need to..."
Client: "Take that 'Compare the Meerkat' thing for instance, that started viral and got so popular that they could afford to put it on TV - I want one of them. [sings] Compare the Meerkat dot com."
Us: "I don't think it quite worked like that, they did have a sizeable budge...."
Client: "So let's just do something funny but on brand and send it out there, shouldn't cost more than what, a couple of hundred quid? Simples"

According to recent YouTube research, a video has:
a 3.1% chance of getting over 1000 views
0.3 percent chance of getting over 10,000 views.
0.001% of getting over 100,000 views
Average views for a YouTube clip is less than 50, with 65% of videos failing to get more than 50 views.
More than 20 hours of video is uploaded every minute.

Latest stats say that the average person has a one in five chance of catching swine flu. So, after you've been infected, had your course of Tamiflu and stopped coughing over everyone, come in and talk to us about virals, we'll even get the meerkats out and maybe introduce you to the world of Viral Ad Networks etc. But be warned, if you want to do it, take it seriously and throw a bit of dosh at it, not just what you can find down the back of the marketing budget sofa.

Cream Nomination

We just got a CREAM nomination for this ad. We've won a few over the years (80+) but it's the first time we've entered in a couple of years so we're quite excited all over again. Wish us luck, we're up against Big Communications for their WKD work in the best B2B category.

How do you make 600 black spots interesting?

Found it today on today and tomorrow

Pantone Swatches

Just seen these on wemadethis and I think they're brilliant. It's their idea and I hope Swatch put them into production. Only thing is, I don't wear a watch.

Classic games animated

If you're of a 'certain age', you'll love this. Originally seen on hellokinsella

2% Polar Bear Tears

Ad found on branddna to promote Tappening, an organisation promoting the use of tap water over bottled water.

if all else fails...blame the economy.

Got to admit, there's an element of truth to this

Thanks to Hey Okay for this.

Lego never seemed this much fun when i was a kid.

thanks to helen (@musictotheeyes) for pointing this out.

It's got HORNS!!!!

Continuing with the plug/socket theme (this is starting to turn into an unhealthy passion) how cool are these? Sockets with horns so you can hang stuff you're charging on there. Originally seen by me here.

Some days, some people make me feel like this

but today the sun is shining and I'm feeling happy...for now.
originally seen on ffffound!

Why can't more thought be put into these things?

originally seen at wemadethis

Reckon we've had to work with worse in our time

courtesy of yourlogomakesmebarf.com

About bloody time

Must have been bored in the office that day

Originally from here.

Best invention i've seen in years

As someone who carts my super slim mac, along with its annoying power lead complete with bulky plug around everywhere I go, this would be most welcome. A big hats off to Min Kyu Choi the inventor behind it all. Originally seen on We Heart Stuff and you can find out loads more there.

Finish each day

Found on FFFFOUND!

Keep Walking

An amazing, amazing ad from BBH - back to their very best with this.
Read an interview with the director here.

Sometimes it's better to just do nothing at all.

Found on FFFFOUND!

Subvertising

Don't they realise that what they do draws more attention to what is mostly wallpaper advertising. Most agencies (and I guess clients deep down) would love someone to paint 'LOOK AT ME, LOOK AT ME' all over it.
Originally seen on The Drum website.

Team bonding

Originally seen here.

I have nothing but the deepest respect and admiration for talent that is capable of this

courtesy of adchick.

How Ca$h Converters should advertise

Does your other half want a gun for Valentine's Day?

Genuine picture of a piglet squid

Originally seen here.

We'd like just the one percent if that's okay.

Originally nicked from here.

The Central Office of Information (COI) spent £40m on digital marketing in the year up to March 2009, up 84% year on year, according to its annual report and accounts.

The report showed government departments and public sector bodies spent a total of £540m on marketing and communications through COI during 2008/9, an increase of 43% on the previous year.
Over the period of 2008-2009, £211m was spent on advertising, a jump of 35%.
The report, published today, found the COI’s centralised buying position meant it was able to negotiate a 49.9% reducion in media costs, saving £241m.
Mark Lund, COI’s CEO, said, “The need for government to communicate with the public is greater than ever as society faces challenges such as obesity, climate change and the recession.
“Changing behaviour is difficult, but the benefits to the taxpayer and society can repay the investment many times over,” he added.
COI launched campaigns raising issues such as obesity, smoking, road safety and climate change.
Last August, COI created virtual teams to work across projects combining creative and media to help respond better to cross-platform briefs.

The early part of our careers

For those of you who have had the misfortune to know us for a good few years now, you'll know exactly what we mean. funny.

When your phone goes pop

Pop Corn téléphone portable micro-ondes
by sassiere

Sonic the Hedgehog is 18 today

Thanks to a tweet by @cybrum and a blog post by the Guardian, I've found out that the little blue spikemeister is 18 today. Makes you think, what were you doing on June 23rd 1991? I was putting the finishing touches to my BTEC ND in graphic design at Rotherham College of Arts and Technology, I think. The memory ain't quite what it used to be.

A pictoral history of Twitter

Courtesy of Manolith

Well I never...

Did You Know? from Amybeth on Vimeo.

What does a typeface subliminally say?

There's a whole load more here.

Unsuitable gets a bit of bling from bing

Following my post a couple of weeks back on the launch day of Microsoft's bling 'Don't have a fling with bing' can I quickly reassess my earlier thoughts. Just done a search today and we're now top, numero uno, the daddy when it comes to searching for 'unsuitable'. woohoo, didn't take them long to find us and you can now find us even quicker whether you use bing or auntie google.

Stand by your 'tuter.

Online advertising will account for over a third (36%) of all adspend by 2013, according to the PricewaterhouseCoopers Entertainment & Media Outlook. Group M, which predicts that online adspend (which, in 2008, accounted for 24.8%) will eclipse TV (26%) this year.

World's fattest book

Originally seen here.

Great pharmaceutical ads from yesteryear

Visited this site after a twitter from @si.

Scamp has scampered off

Sad day today as one of my favourite bloggers has decided to hang up his opinions to concentrate on writing a book. Good luck with it Simon.

Knuckleheads And Geniuses

Just read this from The Ad Contrarian. More or less sums up why I love and hate this job in equal measure. Well, maybe the love bit wins out. One thing, it's never dull.

Google Earth, Flickr and Twitter combine to show the world the smallest park in the UK

Prince's Park in Burntwood (round the corner from where I live) is tiny - three trees and a bench to be exact. Not very interesting I know. But I posted some pics on flickr and Google Sightseeing picked up on it. Hey presto, one tweet from them and views of the park rocket.

Boone Oakley

Steve found this and although it's not really in our nature to promote another agency, this is worth us breaking with protocol. Brilliant, just brilliant. Word of warning: if you're a male Marketing Director who looks like an egg, there's some disturbing scenes.

Don't have a fling with BING

Well, Microsoft have launched their rival to the mighty Google: BING (Because It's Not Google). Well, knowing that we come No.1 in the global search term for our agency name "Unsuitable" I thought I'd try out BING. Well, the results were disappointing to say the least. We didn't feature on the first 100 pages. So, although we should all welcome the millions of dollars that Microsoft are going to throw at this, I, for the time being, am sticking with Google.

Another quality furniture store ad from our friends over the pond.

Mmmmm, I'm saying nothing.

Jonathan from Spotify

Click here

The agony of the post pitch wait.

Don't know why (after all these years) I still struggle in the days and sometimes weeks after a pitch to settle down properly. Having taken part in what must be 200+ pitches in my career to date it's the bit of the job I hate. I love pitches, absolutely love 'em. The thrill of the chase, the interrogation of everything, the late nights, the arguments and not forgetting the pizza. But the waiting for the phone call (or more likely email in today's rude society) is agony and it's not getting any easier as I get older.
Take today, the day after a pitch that we'd really like to win (like nearly all of them). I'm on edge, tetchy and argumentative (even more than usual). I've got loads of work to do and at least two of the briefs on my desk are for new business, so it's not as if I haven't got anything to take my mind off it.
Does anyone else out there suffer post pitch blues or is it just me?
How do you switch off from what has gone and concentrate on what is to come?

Campaign Unframed

Andy Whitlock has livened up some of the serious mug shots from Campaign on his flickr page.

Are you watching DFS? THIS is how you do TV ads.

Yep, now i'm scared

Best film promo line...ever.

Cut out and keep Hoff, you know you want one.

Original available here.

If you love Apple, you'll love this.

http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/01/the-evolution-of-apple-design-between-1977-2008/

History of Apple design 1977 to present day.

Men Working Online

Men Working Online
Originally uploaded by Documentally

Gotta be a use for this. Ask though as it's not mine. c/o documentally on flickr.

Star Wars, in a nutshell

Star Wars: Retold (by someone who hasn't seen it) from Joe Nicolosi on Vimeo.

When experiential marketing goes bad

apparently she's still having nightmares when she sees something wobble.

FIRE!!!!!!