My friends over at a relatively new Portland, interactive agency, Substance, launched this site a few weeks ago. I asked founder Stephen Landau about his inspiration to do the site. He responded, “We figured if we’ve been talking about beliefs and change for the last 15 months, we should support the candidate who says the same stuff. Plus, it was a fun little project to work on. Not sure why we set the donation goal so high ($5,000) but then again, what’s the point in shooting for a small, attainable goal when you can aim for a bigger, more audacious goal.”

I especially like the way the logo you create can map into Flickr automatically and can be ported at any size into Flickr and a dozen other social networking sites. Nice work.

Here’s my quick, uncreative creation using the site:

killROI is cool.
He kills spam. (Check out KillSpammer.com to see what I’m talking about).

If you are in the email marketing world at all, you have an obligation to kill as much spam as possible at KillSpammer.com. Watch out for the Viagra – it’s lethal.

I guess this video reflects the wacky culture of the ultra-individualist who has defined Web 2.0 and “the long tail” of quirky interests. If you think this video is just plain annoying, please comment below, and I’ll remove it from the blog. In my eyes, it’s clever, makes its point, but is borderline gratingly-annoying. Let me know your thoughts. Thx.

I just finished his book “Small is the New Big” which is a compilation of hundreds of his blog posts over the past 4 years. On a local level, I find that I learn from some small, entrepreneurial companies that specialize in a certain niche and share their learning with the world through their blog and with me at lunch or happy hour. Stephen Landau with Substance is one of those people. He and his business partner David have one of the best blogs I’ve seen on Flash and user experiences. Their idealism in truly changing the world is infectious and they are already making a difference. Check out their blog >>

Another blog that provides some creative inspiration as one of the smallest of the “big guys” (although they are the largest independent advertising agency in the country) is Wieden + Kennedy’s Portland blog and their London blog. Both of these blogs are either inspiring or so insanely obscure that it’s pretty funny.

The only strand of relevance of the movie “300″ and online marketing is the advanced motion Graphics applied in the movie are finding their way quickly into the videogame, advergame, and web worlds. Also, I saw it with a co-worker in Hollywood, CA at the Online Marketing Media and Advertising 2007 event. And, I couldn’t stop thinking about it the whole show. I am in awe of my Spartan ancestors (my family traces its roots to Scotland, but I’ve got to believe that a noble Spartan entered the family tree somewhere).

But, the real reason why I’m blogging about the movie “300″ is the sheer primal force that seared into my soul after watching it. I’m sharpening my wood spear in my office right now so that I can go into the wild and kill the evil, dark wolf that lies within. Sparta!

Check it out: http://300themovie.warnerbros.com/

When I see a good viral marketing campaign, especially from a major brand like P&G, I have a hard time NOT telling people about it. It’s only good etiquette in the online world to at least tell your closest friends and family (if it’s clean enough). The crazy thing about this viral campaign is that it got 13 million visitors and I wasn’t one of them until I was recently asked by iMediaConnection to write a Creative Review. So here it is:

I’m shocked. Procter & Gamble actually takes a risk with their “Men with Cramps” online viral campaign site. And, it’s really engaging and funny on top of it all. Another shocker– there have been 13 million visitors to this site since it launched in September, but a P&G emarketing exec and I didn’t know about it when asked about viral campaigns at a panel event at the Email Insiders Summit in Utah two weeks ago. At that event, I asked him “a lot of the campaigns you showed are good but safe, what is P&G doing to compete with the caliber of viral sites like favorite Philips’ ShaveEverywhere site?” His response was that P&G has taken risks before with viral sites targeted in Europe, but plays it safe in the U.S.

After reviewing the site, MenwithCramps.com is now among my Top 5 favorite viral sites for 2006. To see the entire creative review, go to http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/13011.asp

This goes to show that when P&G gets in the game, they do it right. So, what makes this campaign site so good? First, the concept is brilliant. It’s really challenging to break the mold and gain attention, authenticity and loyalty when discussing an uncomfortable subject like menstrual cramps. To make it an easier conversation, P&G created a site that shows just how wimpy men would be if they had to deal with this kind of pain on a monthly basis. Second, the primary call-to-action on the site immediately draws the viewer into a series of hilarious video clips starring the fictional Dr. Fardel, who is on a mission to cure four different men with cramps with a unique remedy for each man. The tone of each video clip (15 in total) is playful in nature and opens our minds to how sensitive men can really be.

Lastly, the storyline is consistent and the content keeps coming. There is so much depth to this site– it has captured my attention for at least half an hour, viewing all of the Dr. Fardel video clips and the Seven-Part Video Documentary of the “History of Men with Cramps.” I have been profoundly informed that my forefathers had this very serious disease known as “Cyclical Non-Uterine Dismenorrhea.” My only critique is that my eye was never drawn to the viral aspect of sending it to friends until I stumbled upon the “Educate your Friends” link. Kudos to P&G for creating such a sticky online campaign that holds the viewer’s attention and laughter for far longer than any other viral site I’ve seen.
– Ryan Buchanan, president & CEO, eROI

Read the full MediaPost article

In his presentation, Porter brought up examples of how the world is moving so fast that a big news story hits for a few hours and then that person / story is forgotten about. This is often true of ”memorable” ad campaigns. The lifespan of great ad campaigns has gotten shorter and shorter with so much noise out there, especially with user-generated content. In fact, one panelist on ”The Creative Panel” pointed out that 90% of big box-office Hollywood films fail, so why expect all TV advertising to succeed? Coming up with and executing upon a big idea is exceedingly difficult and there needs to be a tolerance around how to define success.

The Secret of Viral Marketing

Case Study: Burger King’s Subservient Chicken
www.subservientchicken.com
This site launched 3 years ago and within 12 days, there were 100 million hits to the site and the average amount of time spent on the site per user was 7 minutes. 3 years later, there have been a total of 460 million hits and it completely resonates with the 16-25 year old male demographic who are powereaters at Burger King.

More Chuck Porter advice:

To see the video clips of Chuck Porter’s presentation AND to see his entire presentation via video, go to OMMA’s specific webpage here to check it out>>