I love these new commercials by Dodge.
Why do I love them so much? Because they are different. Simple visuals, awesome script.
Here is the list of things typically found in car ads that drive me insane. None of which you will find in these ads:
These are the others I like in the series:
Are you ready for the Winter Olympic games? You may have noticed that Coca-Cola® has been gearing up.
You might have seen the Coca-Cola®
snowball commercial or the collectible cans…but have you checked out the
website? You can get into your own snowball fight or go snowboarding. Pretty
cool.
Here's a shout out to Insight's hard-working web team. Ben, Jill and Brandon launched three new websites this week.
Have you ever wanted to "Ask the Big Question," but didn't know who to ask? Well, consider OMG: Center for Theological Conversation, the creation of Anna Madsen, an ordained pastor. She's inviting people of all beliefs and life experiences to ask the tough questions. She'll help you explore possible answers and options.
Something more recreational? Get the picture -- get your picture -- at Prime Time Photo Booth. Remember those photo boxes that spit out a photo strip of you and your best friend making funny faces? Well, Prime Time Photo Booth brings the fun to your special event or party.
Finally, a new look for an old friend: Sioux Empire Community Theatre. Insight has been working with SECT for several years, creating marketing materials for each season's performances. The new website launches just as tickets go on sale for On Golden Pond.
I wonder what they'll do next week?
This year, Insight's gift to our clients was a board game.
Called Launch: A Classic Christmas Campaign, the game is all about putting together an ad campaign.
Players move around the board collecting cards to show they've launched various media components, interact with Santa's capricious reindeer, and race to the finish.
Working on this project was fun. Of course, repeated testing was necessary in order to refine game action and instructions. In other words, we spent a lot of time playing games in the conference room.
We've also made an online version, so everyone can play! Check it out here.
Several years ago Insight staff adopted their first families through the HELP!Line Center's Holiday Clearing House. Each year since, we've continued this tradition -- buying gifts and necessities for families in our community who would not otherwise have a Merry Christmas.
Last Wednesday we took time to go shopping for our families. It was fun to buy the baby dolls, blocks, trucks and cars. But we also bought basic necessities, such as coats, mittens and boots for the children, along with blankets, clothing, laundry detergent and grocery staples.
Thanks to the generosity of Insight staff, we were able to make a difference for two Sioux Falls families. But many more families still need to be adopted. There's still time. Call the HELP!Line Center at 211. It's the best Christmas present you can give yourself.
Starting with the
logo, Office Peeps has also rolled out the new look on their website,
storefront signage, and print materials. A teaser newspaper campaign slowly
revealed the company’s new identity during the week of the unveiling.
Insight Marketing
Design was excited to rebrand the 50-year old office sales and service
business. We created a complete array of integrated campaign components.
"We learned
that the company’s greatest value and strength was its employees,” said Insight
Principal, Candy Van Dam. “The rebranding puts the emphasis on people, rather
than products.”
Not that products
aren’t important. Office Peeps carries over 50,000 products, and offers them at
competitive, low prices. “By being part of buying groups, Office Peeps’
purchasing power rivals that of any mass merchandiser,” said Van Dam.
“But because the
staff is so experienced, many with 20 or 30 years at the company, they really
know the products – and the customers – inside and out,” she said.
After waiting in storage for a whole year, Insight's Little Red Stocking campaign window became a Parade of Lights float for this year's parade.
This year's project didn't take nearly as long as last year, but we did have to re-think the entire display. It's one thing to figure out how to make 8' pieces of cardboard stand in an enclosed window...quite a different thing to figure out how to keep them from being blown over on a moving trailer.
There were some great floats out there and we were just thankful we made it through the entire parade without a problem. We tip our hats to the other float builders with whom we now share a common bond of float construction and all its labors.
For me it was my first time a.) attending the Parade of Lights and b.) building a float. I was amazed by not only the number and scale of the entries but also by the awesome creative and engineering thought that went into them. I may have found a new calling. Who needs a float built next year? I'm ready to begin construction.
It was also the largest crowd that I have ever seen in Sioux Falls. People filling the sidewalks, looking from the tops of parking garages, and from the 6th floor balcony at the Holiday Inn. I definitely plan on attending next year.
Did you know that "unfriend" has been named the Word of the Year by the New Oxford American Dictionary?
Unfriend. It's a verb meaning "To remove someone as a 'friend' on a social networking site such as Facebook." And Crispin Porter+Bogusky created an entire campaign for Burger King around the concept. The Burger King Sacrifice created a flurry of unfriended friends. I didn't do it, of course.
Out with the old? Last week we were developing copy for a project, and one of the sentences included the phrase "on the blink." No one under 30 years old knew what it meant. (OK, Mel knew.) We experimented with their young minds: "Have you heard the phrase 'on the fritz'?" That was just plain funny.
Apparently "on the blink" and "on the fritz" have been pushed out of our vocabulary to make room for "unfriend," "intexicated," and "freemium."
Insight was just notified that we won 11 MarCom Awards for 2009 (loud applause)!
Just for the record -- no, we didn't send in 50 entries. Just 16. And yes, we had competition, with nearly 5,000 entries.
Also, for the record, we like the little statuettes MarCom Awards bring.
Here's how we did:
• Four Platinum Awards -- the highest honor -- for
• Four Gold Awards for the “DSU 2.0 Invitation” for Dakota State University Foundation; the “Chicago TV Spot” for the Sioux Empire Community Theatre; the “Does it Hurt When You?” advertising campaign for Open Upright MRI of South Dakota and a television campaign, “It’s Turkey Time,” for the South Dakota Poultry Industry Association.
• Three Honorable Mentions, for the “Enjoy the Scenery” Season Poster and the Season
Illustration for the Sioux Empire Community Theatre; and the logo, letterhead
and business cards for Chicagoland Community Church.
The MarCom Awards is an international creative competition that recognizes outstanding achievement by marketing and communications professionals. It is administered and judged by the Association of Marketing and Communications Professionals.
Yes, Insight has been published. Not in an artsy little zine that three people in San Francisco read. Not in a brochure of Addy® winners. Not in a book we created ourselves (good idea, though).
In fact, Insight's work now appears in two books so legit you can find them at your local big box bookstore, or order them from your favorite local independent bookstore. Or online.
They're big books. The kind you'd find on a coffee table in a really cool house. Or in the art department of an ad agency.
The Big Book of Green Design, 2009, Collins Design, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishing, New York, includes four pieces created by Insight.
Edited by Suzanna Stephens and Anthony Stephens, The Big Book of Green Design features top green design materials created worldwide.
Another title in the "Big Book" design series, The Big Book of Self-Promotion from the same publisher, also hot off the press, contains several pieces from Insight. These include holiday books A Classic Christmas Tail and A Classic Christmas Tail 2.
The Big Book of Self-Promotion contains work from more than 500 design firms worldwide, showcasing the freshest, most inventive ideas used by these companies to promote themselves.
