http://www.ideamill.com IdeaMill is an advertising agency managed by a group of idea junkies. Wed, 21 May 2008 16:58:44 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en [video width="480" height="360"]http://www.ideamill.com/webvideo/metaphoria.mp4[/video] Famed market researcher AND friend of IdeaMill, Lindsay Zaltman, stopped by the shop to talk about his new book, Marketing Metaphoria. Check out the the interview (above), but more importantly, read the book and learn about deep metaphors and their guiding role in decision making. http://www.ideamill.com/2008/05/21/marketing-metaphoria/ Product placement is a touchy subject for marketers. After all, it's not just the the size of the audience that counts. The audience must be the right audience. And the context must be the right context; one that is brand positive. I'd say the three (possibly four) A&F shirts flanking ... http://www.ideamill.com/2008/04/23/obama-and-fitch/ [youtube width="339" height="260"]nj1-ZZRajDU[/youtube] Kudos to the Milk Processing Board of California and Goodby for laying some White Gold on us. The campaign was just launched to court the teen audience. It's intergalactical. http://www.ideamill.com/2008/04/17/its-milktastical/ photo credit: DCCXLIX The New York Times published an article about the human tendency to keep all options open despite the cost. The implications of this are significant for any marketer. The marketplace has repeatedly proven that great companies must forgo many smaller opportunities in order to grasp the one opportunity ... http://www.ideamill.com/2008/02/27/to-be-and-not-to-be/ The Post-It® tagline is "Remarkably simple solutions", we couldn't agree more with this wonderfully crafted animation using Post-It® Notes via Russia. Our Russian is a little rusty so we couldn't properly credit the creators, but we dig their choice of distribution method, YouTube, a common outlet of new media enthusiasts. http://www.ideamill.com/2008/02/18/post-it%c2%ae-on-youtube%c2%ae/ illustration by: Wired So you're a blogger. Ever wonder how that little micro-cybercreation you just published finds its way around the world wide web? Matthew Hurst, an artificial intelligence researcher who studies the internet ecosystem at Microsoft Live Labs will let you know with this nifty graphic from Wired: Check it. http://www.ideamill.com/2008/02/13/the-lifespan-of-a-blog-post/ photo credit: rbieber Howard Schultz is back at Starbucks. Any marketer who is interested in using a brand strategy in their business should study Mr. Schultz, his business philosophy, and the performance of Starbucks under his watch. The picture above is the Green Apron book. Walk into any Starbucks and ask ... http://www.ideamill.com/2008/01/21/rolling-out-the-green-apron/ photo credit: Merideth Farmer Here's a great article from the NYT about one of the biggest pitfalls in marketing: talking to yourself. Many very intelligent people and innovative businesses have been found guilty of the offense. The author points the finger at the "Curse of Knowledge." Chip Heath (author of Made ... http://www.ideamill.com/2008/01/10/talking-to-yourself/ Logos can reflect the the state of branding at the time of their creation. Many inferences about humanity and how we communicate to each other can be seen in a logo sampling from a particular year. Logo Lounge has produced a yearly review of logos and logo trends since 2003, ... http://www.ideamill.com/2008/01/01/2007-in-logos/ [youtube width="339" height="260"]mMOPj6-4nDU[/youtube] Since 2003 Burger King has been fighting its way back from the dead with a consistent flow of marketing ideas. The Whopper Freakout is the latest. Rather than tell us how great the Whopper is, the King's ad agency (CP+B) pulled the burger off a store's menu and ... http://www.ideamill.com/2007/12/19/freakin-huge-idea/