The City Should Know Better

Recently, the City of Portland put out a call for creative firms to submit free ideas for the “the city’s online Web presence,” Portland online. This is a slap in the face of Portland’s design and creative community. Essentially, they are asking for free ideas without context, without strategy, without an overall goal of what the Web site wants to accomplish. The request makes the assumption that all they really need is a fresh new look and viola, they’ll have a pretty new website. The Web designers in town should be incensed. Web design is much more than a pretty skin over HTML code.

This originally appeared as an email letter circulated to PAF members and others associated with the Portand Creative Community.

Many of you have questioned why the PAF chose to disparage other cities in this year’s Rosey call to entries. The answer is that while some of us fervently believe that Portland is a creative hot spot, it is more in the nature of our creative culture to be humble and soft spoken about our talents.

So what if we suddenly awakened in this current competitive environment and showed a little more chutzpah and brio? What if we started bragging and ultimately, what if we started out and out trash talking like they do on the basketball court? That was the premise the PAF started with for the Rosey Awards; let’s let those other cities know who the heck we are.

And it worked, the campaign is being noticed by you, in Adweek and in other cities. Ironically, the execution seems to have bruised the sensibilities of a few of us in the community who would rather remain modest.

Personally I enjoyed the fun of the concept and know that at the end of the day, it isn’t the trash talking that matters, it’s that you win the game or in this case, a Rosey. So enter the Rosey Awards and show us what you got. The trash talking is optional.

Jerry Ketel
President
Portland Advertising Federation

Alcoa presents (sorry, that’s the beginning of a TV commercial of “The Catch” in the 1982 NFL NFC Championship flashback when Dwight Clark levitated to grab a perfect pass from Joe Montana to lift the 49ers over the Cowboys). But, I digress. My mind faded to the dramatic music to Monday Night Football, but it’s now back on the prize - bragging rights to the Third Annual PAF Battle of the Bands at Someday Lounge in Old Town / Chinatown, Portland, Oregon where the creatives show their true colors after dark.  If you want to take a look at videos from prior year’s Battle of the Band, now is your time to really soak in some entertaining video for 2008.  It’s going to be almost impossible for eROI to win it for yet a third year in a row, but we’re going to bring our “A” Game.  Check it (this is PAF’s main event email and all the info is below):

BATTLE OF THE BANDS

DATE:
Wednesday June 17, 2009

TIME:
6:00 pm

PLACE:
Someday Lounge
224 NW 5th Avenue
Portland, OR

COST:
$300 per band

Register your Band!
Contact Mike Terry at mterry@magnetoworks.com

(more…)

On Friday, March 20, a big group of us went to a PAF workshop with On Your Feet today. It focused on how to use improv theater techniques to help teams create fresh ideas. It also seemed really beneficial for anyone who needs to think quickly on their feet (presentations!)

One of their key points was that people doing improv need to be really good at going with the flow. It is detrimental to discourage ideas. When someone throws an idea out at you, instead of saying “no, that’s a bad idea” think how you can use it, play off of it, include it into the flow. They spoke about not being too attached to your “shadow story”, which is your pre-conceived notion of what something should be. Instead, be open to new interpretations of a concept. They talked a lot about turning off your “inner censor” and letting ideas flow regardless of whether you think they are good or not.

Another key idea was to look at things from a different angle than you usually do. If you are stuck, get someone who is not used to thinking about the issue to help you come up with solutions.

They taught us three games/techniques that were really fun, too!

1. Swedish Story (this game is good for two people)

First, you both look around your surroundings and find something that you never noticed before. (for example, I saw a hook in the wall, and Charles saw a vase that looked like a tree trunk) you then combine the two things that you noticed to form a simple title. “Tree Trunk Hook” was ours. The point of this is to get a starting place for your story.

Next, one person starts to tell a story based on the title that you came up with. (for example: “So I was walking in the woods, and I saw these trees with hooks in them”) While the first person tells a story, the second person throws out random words. “Octopus!” I yelled. The person telling the story has to work these random things into their story. “So I look up in one of the trees, and there is this tree octopus up there”

Continue in this manner for a couple minutes, and then switch sides, so that the person who was throwing out the random words becomes the story teller.

It’s really fun, and helps you think on your feet. We all thought that the story-telling part would be hard, but it turned out that it was harder to think of the random words. You’ll both be laughing a lot.

2. Object Storm (this game is good for a small group of people to do)

First, identify something that you want to think about differently/brainstorm solutions for. (for example, “How can I keep my employees engaged?”)

Next, pick a random object and list out a bunch of characteristics for it. For instance, you could pick a lamp and list off:

“it gives off light”    “it is pretty”      “it is blue”     “it sits on a table”      “it uses electricity”

The last step is to pick one of the characteristics to focus on, and then think about how that characteristic might apply to your original issue. So if you picked “It is pretty” you might come up with “You could help keep employees engaged by encouraging them to make their work spaces more attractive” or “you could bring in plants to the office, cause they are pretty”

It was surprising all the ideas we came up with based on the object characteristic. You can move on to different characteristics of the object for more ways to think about the original problem.

3. Category Die (this game is good for a large group of people)

Get a few people to stand in a row in front of the rest, and have one person be the the “pointer”. Pick a category that you want to generate ideas for. Our group’s category was “Portland.”

The pointer chooses one of the people who are standing in the row, and when they get chosen they have to say something that Portland has: (for example “rain”     “coffee”    “rose garden”). If they can’t think of something, say somethign that has already been said, or that wasn’t applicable, everyone in the audience would yell “DIE!” (I’m not sure why it is so harsh).

This game was fast paced, and didn’t allow people to censor themselves. You had to come up with something fast! You also had to listen to what everyone else was saying so that you didn’t repeat them.

I encourage you to think about using these games the next time you are stuck on something. Also, check out the Improv Encyclopedia, which is has a great list of more improv games to try.

Verity Kent

Anvil Media, Inc., a search engine marketing (SEM) services agency, announced today strong financial growth in 2008, continuing in 2009. The combination of a growing team, expanded services and new business led to an 20 percent increase in revenue over 2007. Anvil expects continued growth in 2009 through a new set of SEM audits and the trend to focus advertising dollars into more measurable marketing channels during a recession.

“Client demand for Anvil’s social media marketing services was greater than expected,” stated Kent Lewis, President of Anvil Media, Inc. “While we’ve seen early success with social media marketing efforts for clients like Animation Mentor and Hungry Man Entertainment, we believe it’s a long-term commitment and payoff. We’re bullish about the benefits of social media marketing moving forward.”

In addition to social media marketing, Anvil announced a new set of audit and planning services targeted at Fortune 1000 companies looking to evaluate or validate the effectiveness of their current SEM efforts. Current SEM audits include search engine optimization (SEO) audits, pay-per-click (PPC) audits and online reputation management (ORM) audits. Anvil will also offer strategic consulting retainers and staff training for companies with existing SEM resources interested in taking their SEM campaigns to the next level.

“Since a majority of Fortune 1000 companies already have SEM agencies or dedicated in-house teams, the audits are a cost-effective way to fine-tune SEM efforts,” stated Hallie Janssen, Vice President of Anvil Media, Inc. “We’re committed to providing our clients with valuable insights that will result in a measurable improvement on the return-on-investment for their SEM programs.”

In 2008, Anvil has helped more than 100 companies increase awareness, leads or sales through SEM. A partial list of new SEM clients includes: AboutUs, Animation Mentor, Daily Journal of Commerce, DoneRight, ExpressJet, gDiapers, Grand America Hotels & Resorts, HorsepowerFreaks, Nautilus, PeopleFinders, Point6, Sterling Trucks, Tea Collection, Travel Tacoma and World Class Driving.

Anvil also received local and industry recognition in 2008 for its financial performance and work with the local community. The Portland Business Journal ranked Anvil Media as the 10^th Fastest Growing Private Companies in 2007. Anvil also continues to take on pro bono charity client projects, most recently Ronald McDonald House Charities and FORGE. Lastly, Anvil continues to stay involved in the SEM community, through support of SEMpdx and helping incubate local SEM agency, Formic Media.

To help meet the growing demand for search engine marketing and social media marketing and optimization services, Anvil added seven new employees. Nick Herinckx, Eric King and Heather Schwartz were added as Account Coordinators; Kurtis Alward, Mike Nierengarten and John Robbins were added as Account Executives and Yael Livneh as Office Manager.

About Anvil Media

Headquartered in Portland, Oregon, Anvil Media, Inc. is a search engine marketing (SEM) consulting agency specializing in search engine optimization (SEO), pay-per-click (PPC) management, social media marketing (SMM), SEM PR and online reputation management (ORM) auditing and ongoing services. Anvil helps Fortune 1000 clients generate a return-on-investment (ROI) on their online marketing programs by auditing existing agencies, programs or managing SEM efforts. Current clients include Concordia University, Extensis, Flowerbud, GolfNow, Jive Software, Lucy, Oregon State University, PC World Magazine, Planar Systems, Provenance Hotels, Travel Portland, Tumbleweed and Yesmail. For more information, visit www.anvilmediainc.com.

@jerryketel can you weigh in on the whopper virgins campaign? http://www.whoppervirgins.com/

Dear @Ibautist,

The Whopper Virgins campaign is pure artful propaganda. The filmmaking—as seen on the microsite—is as good as any of the best documentaries I’ve ever seen. It was nicely photographed, the choice of music propelled the story, the subjects were treated with warmth and dignity. The story itself had an element of suspense to it and it rewarded the viewer by being both surprising and intelligent. It made me think. And that is where the piece failed. Because it made me think how manipulative the pseudo-documentary was. It made me think how unscientific the survey was and how the tasters were being polite hosts when asked how they liked the Whopper being grilled in their homeland before their eyes. Of course they said it was good! But most of all it made me think of how the documentary has been used recently as propaganda, thanks to the likes of Michael Moore and Errol Morris. And now, the documentary, a category unto itself in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is being used to shill an industrial American hamburger. How far the art form has fallen.

It is really good propaganda. It just made me think too much.

Jerry Ketel

I had the pleasure of speaking to Ms. Oppenheimer (new to our “beat” for the Oregonian) about current market conditions.  We discussed the many positive opportunities that avail themselves in a down market.  Businesses that don’t respond quickly may be at a disadvantage – not extinction, a BIG difference. Granted, “disadvantage” doesn’t have the drama of “extinction” but it’s accurate.  What do you think? -Jamie Sexton, ED, PAF

http://www.oregonlive.com/business/index.ss f?/base/business/1228879520171190.xml&coll=7

Do you support changing this to say University of Oregon?

First of all, I am not against the University of Oregon. It is a fine school and it is likely that my son will be going there next fall. But changing the old White Stag sign to say University of Oregon is crass, over-the-top advertising that kicks the rest of the University system right in the zipper. PSU is a few blocks away for criminey sakes! Why are we advertising a school that already has more than enough Nike money, exposure and clout with one of our most visible and well-liked signs? It’s pretty obvious that the grandfathered sign was part of the appeal to refurbishing the old White Stag building. I was all for the sign on the Burnside Bridge when it said “Made in Oregon” (even though it advertised the Made in Oregon stores) because it seemed like a boost to all products made in Oregon. Now the red nosed reindeer leaping over the outline of the state—one of the biggest signs in the city—will be advertising a school in a way that obscures the other fine schools in our state. And that ain’t right.

Besides that, graphically the proposed design just doesn’t work. But that’s another story.

Jerry Ketel

Once again we had a amazing Rosey Awards night. Thank you to all the agencies that submitted great work, all of those that volunteered to help put it on, the glorious and sadly now missed Livengood/Nowack for producing the media and collateral, the Newmark Theater for having us, Comedy Sportz for the showmanship, Jamie Sexton for pulling it all together and of course all of you that attended the show.

Here is the list of winners. Congrats to all.

I was able to shoot some video from my seat of some of the Awards, highlights, and out takes to share with all of you. They are not “Rosey” worth but none the less for those of you that did not make it this year, have never been but want to know what it is all about, or some of you that put that the term “happy hour” to the test and are having trouble remembering where you were last night, these videos are for you.

I have also found that there are some photos already posted up for you to view.

I look forward to hearing from all of you how you felt about the format this year (we tried to shorten the length of the overall program… happy hour was longer than the event) as well as hear what you might like to see next year. We would love your feedback. I see that we already have some props on the event blogged out there.

And to all of you that continue to support the Portland Advertising Federation and make it a great organization to belong to… Thank you.

By the way, please make sure to watch Part Five, it is a classic.

From Jerry Ketel, the PAF President, comes his first decree:

The Sexton Law

Whilst sitting on the Couch on Couch, Dylan Boyd’s (of eROI) den of emarketing excellence*, Jamie Sexton blurted out what was, at the time, a seemingly innocuous comment. She said, “Brands need to reinvent themselves every 18 months or so, don’t you think?”.  At the time, I remember Dylan and I looking at each other and nodding in approval. But later, the phrase stuck with me because it had a burning truth to it. And now I believe it to be a singular reality that needs to be called out as a genuine law of marketing, here forever to be known as the Sexton Law. That All brands, to be relevant, must reinvent themselves at least every 18 months, in many cases, sooner. Amen.

*Not to mention Ryan Buchanan and Maureen Pimley and if I’ve forgotten any others, my apologies.