Schupp Company Blog

The Past, Present, and Future of Advertising

Friday, August 13th, 2010

I’m often not compelled to compile links throughout the week, but for some reason this past week has felt a little different.  With an influx of information coming through at all angles, sorting through the good and the bad can often be an agonizing issue, but this week the good just kept getting better and the bad decided not to show.  Below you’ll find some of the most well written articles I’ve read in the past few weeks.  What’s the common thread?  They all focus on the new, the old, and the in-between of the advertising industry.  Interested yet?  Read on.

This week we take a look at the past, present, and future of advertising.   We witness the end of a cultural revolution as Alex Bogusky continues to confess why he left the ad world to pursue a new life of fearless and sustainable creativity.  We read about what’s keeping advertising alive, and why those that say it’s practically six feet under are dead wrong.  We learn how to leverage social media and how to restructure the typical agency model to cater to a new type of consumer and more importantly, a new type of client.  Lastly, we’re given access to some of the most inspiring thinkers in the biz, offering ideas and insights on the future of digital and links to the most important books, blogs, and people leading the way.

And so it begins…

Advertising is Undead

When radio came out, print was supposed to die. When TV came out, radio was supposed to die. When the inter-webs were born, TV was supposed to die. The reality is that with every new medium, or adjustment to a medium, new tools become available to advertisers.  Those that claim “advertising will fail” are grossly misinformed.

Three Key Lessons to Learning Social

These are challenging times for corporations and ad agencies alike but they’re also exciting. The future is characterized by accelerated change and we all must respond accordingly.  You don’t sell to a community, you support it.  Business isn’t changing, it’s changed.  You want social media success?  Quit resisting the demands of becoming social.

Alex Bogusky Tells All:  Why He Left the World’s Hottest Agency

Over the past two decades, the ad business has changed utterly, with digital imploding linear 30-second spots, earned media usurping paid media, and consumers co-opting brand conversations.  Bogusky’s insatiable appetite – and foresight – for change kept him ahead and on top.  Find out how he got there, how he stayed there, how he defied those around him, and how business will change now that he’s gone.

Books, Blogs and People to Follow

The digital community is extremely open and collaborative when it comes to offering advice, recommendations, and insights on what is and isn’t working in the industry.  There are inspiring ideas floating around the Internet, but oftentimes you’ve got to know of the right people and the right places to look before you can truly benefit from the free-flowing influences of the community.  Edward Boches takes the guesswork out of the process.   Happy (un)hunting.

Tags: Advertising, facebook, marketing, news, schupp company, social media, trends, work
Posted in Advertising, Culture, Online, Water Cooler | No Comments »

All-Time Backfire?

Friday, February 26th, 2010

All Sprite wanted to do was harbor a little goodwill in the African-American community. Award a scholarship. Throw a freaking badass show with cool musical guests that featured some of the top stepping talent from colleges across the country. It was not only the perfect opportunity to appeal to their target consumer; it was the perfect chance to create a ton of viable online content (i.e. The Step Off could be a sweet multi-channel promotion with tons of legs.)

Stop. Rewind. Do you even know what stepping is? I’ve seen it live once in my life, and it’s pretty amazing.  I would never attempt even trying this because: a) I have negative rhythm, and b) I would walk away looking like I got in a slap fight with a ninja.

Most commonly found in the houses of historically African American fraternities and sororities, it draws inspiration from a ton of different places including traditional African foot dances and popular R&B groups like the Temptations and The Four Tops. Wiki defines stepping as a form of percussive dance in which the participant’s entire body is used as an instrument to produce complex rhythms and sounds through a mixture of footsteps, spoken word and handclaps.

Ok. Now that we’re all up to speed on stepping, let’s return to Sprite.

The campaign was called The Sprite Step Off. To be eligible you have to have at least three steppers from the same chapter and school, one team per chapter.  You must be 18 or over. Then there are tons of rules about what you can and can’t do and can and can’t wear. Oh, and you have to qualify in a regional qualifying round. Capiche?

The top three finishers win scholarships. Sprite wins a little piece of the hearts and minds of their consumers. Wonderful. On paper it sounds like the perfect promotion.

That was until the ladies of Zeta Tau Alpha, Epsilon chapter stepped on stage during the finals last week and stepped away with the title.

Notice anything different about this particular sorority? It’s not the sunglasses. If Captain Obvious said, ”They’re white.” You would be correct. These chicks rocked the place. The crowd loved them (can you hear the commentary of the guys who recorded the performance? They were loving it.) Who cares if they’re white?

Apparently, lots of people do.

The Sprite Facebook page has been blowing up over the past week with some colorful remarks regarding the winners. Comments run the gambit – from racial to technical critiques of the ladies’ performance.  It’s a PR NIGHTMARE for Sprite.

In an interesting turn of events, Sprite posted the following statement yesterday on the official The Step Off site. Apparently, they felt they needed to “resolve” something.

“After the competition, we conducted a post-competition review and discovered a scoring discrepancy. There is no conclusive interpretation, nor definitive resolution for the discrepancy.

Sprite is committed to upholding the honesty and integrity of the competition. Because the scoring discrepancy cannot be resolved and due to the extremely narrow margin between the first and second place winning sororities, we believe that the appropriate course of action is to name both Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., Tau Chapter and Zeta Tau Alpha, Epsilon Chapter, co-first place winners of the Sprite Step Off. Accordingly, we will increase Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., Tau Chapter’s scholarship prize to $100,000, consistent with first prize winnings.

Sprite Step Off was created for the primary purpose of awarding scholarships and supporting talented college students in their quest for higher education.”

Hmmm…if that isn’t a make good, I don’t know what is. Thoughts? Does Sprite think that this band-aid is going to fix this? Is awarding a second “winner” really going to appease anyone? Do I even need to mention that Zeta Tau Alpha was the only white sorority in the competition? I didn’t, did I?

Personally, I agree with The Step Off host Ryan Cameron – If you can step, YOU CAN STEP.  So, step off Zeta Tau. (Yeah … I’m not tough. I just blog like I am.)

Tags: Debacle, facebook, music videos, news, popular, Sorority, Sprite, Stepping, trends
Posted in Miscellaneous | 4 Comments »

YouTube and Vimeo Build HTML 5 Prototype Player

Wednesday, January 27th, 2010

Online video is constantly evolving. Not only will Vimeo join YouTube in offering 1080p HD video this week, but they have also jumped on the HTML 5 bandwagon. What does this mean for Flash video? Is it dead? Not likely.

There are definitely some limitations at this point. HTML 5 is still in its infancy. HTML 5 does not yet support videos with ads, captions, annotations or full screen video, and the browser support is limited as well.

YouTube HTML 5 Video Player

Last week I was interviewing an Interactive Art Director. When I asked where he was with his Flash skills, his response was that “Flash is dead.” Take note web designers and developers … this is not true. This landscape is not going to change overnight. Clients are going to pay for Flash banner ads and slick, custom Flash sites for the next many years. Don’t let a prototype in technology give you the excuse to keep a toolset out of your toolbox.

Tags: interactive, news, Television, trends
Posted in Advertising, Culture, Online | No Comments »

Lady GaGa: Polaroid’s new Creative Director

Thursday, January 14th, 2010

The 5 grammy nominee, Pop star Lady GaGa becomes Polaroid’s new Creative Director. How bizarre is this. What does this 23 year old singer actually know about technology? So far, she apparently has designed a set of “heartbeat” headphones that evoke more fashion than technology for the company. The basis of the partnership is to help Polaroid to appeal to younger demographic. Good luck.

Watch the video press release here:

Lady Gaga – New Polaroid Creative Director

Tags: interactive, marketing, news, products, trends
Posted in Advertising, Art, Culture, Style | No Comments »

Starbucks Goes Micro?

Thursday, July 23rd, 2009

It looks like Starbucks is rolling out a new coffee shop concept that is being presented as the anti-Starbucks. The Fifteenth Avenue East coffee store is being test marketed in Starbuck’s hometown of Seattle. (The Seattle Times Article)

What are the main differences you ask? Well first of all, the stores are being named after the neighborhood intersections on which they’re placed. It gives off that local vibe that so many Starbucks-haters are searching for in their gourmet-coffee-to-go. They’ve also applied for a liquor license. It looks like these coffee shops will be serving beer and wine in the evenings. Now this is truly brilliant. Starbucks has taken one of the single advantages independent coffee houses have used to attract customers away from the coffee behemoth and is using it against them. They’re also adding mild entertainment like poetry readings and small bands to add to the quaint homeliness. Now coffee shop patrons can feel like they’re supporting a neighborhood start-up while dumping their money into the corporate coffee monster. Good luck, ma and pa, you never stood a chance.

Now I for one am not a Starbucks-hater. As a matter of fact, I hit a Starbucks at least four times a week. But the beauty of launching this new coffee shop concept is that now I have the illusion of choice. Instead of deciding how far I want to walk to a Starbucks in the morning (across the street, around the block, down two blocks or driving through on my way to work), I can decide whether or not I want to support a “local” or “national” décor … even though we know they’re both national chains. Ultimately the money goes to the same place. But it doesn’t look as bad seeing two green mermaids staring each other down from opposite sides of the street.

When it’s all said and done, I’m still going to need that cup of joe to get my brain moving in the morning. It’s nice to know that I’ll be able to stop in the same place for a cold beer to slow things down in the evening. Maybe they’ll even offer a nice cheese plate or hummus? That’d be nice.

Tags: food, marketing, news
Posted in Culture, Miscellaneous, Water Cooler | 5 Comments »

For the Spatially Impaired…

Tuesday, July 21st, 2009

Last year, IKEA Frankfurt launched a new outdoor ad campaign all about “Bigger Storage Ideas,” and they didn’t wait for space savvy Frankfurt apartment dwellers to come to them.  Instead, IKEA took over an apartment building on a busy Frankfurt street where 12,000 pedestrians, cyclists and motorists pass through the street on an average day.  There they built several oversized, 3-dimensional, eye-catching replicas of the storage products they offer.

Not only do they manage to grab the attention of thousands with the displays, three words and an IKEA logo, but they quite literally link themselves to the very place they are trying to impact.  Brilliant.  IKEA storage products, meet Frankfurt apartment dwellers.  Frankfurt apartment dwellers, meet IKEA storage products. It’s really that easy.

Tags: Advertising, marketing, news
Posted in Advertising, Culture | No Comments »

Schupp Co. Honored as One of the Best Places to Work in St. Louis

Wednesday, July 15th, 2009

From the January 2009 issue of St. Louis Magizine

Envision the typical corporate retreat: dry erase boards and stale bagels, trust exercises and the dissection of company goals. Compare that to Schupp Co. In 2004, the award-winning creative marketing firm flew its employees to Napa Valley, where they played bocce ball and sipped fine wine. Since then, they’ve played in the sand in south Beach and cheered on the Cards at Wrigley Field.

Photos taped to president Mark Schupp’s computer look more like social snapshots than pictures of work. “We don’t create widgets,” says senior vice president Donna MacDonald. “What we create is great thinking.”

To encourage that type of thinking, Schupp created a fun environment inside a historic building at the corner of Fourth and Pine. Step inside the grand lobby, and you immediately see signs that Schupp Co. isn’t your typical office. There are comfy couches for informal brainstorming, a pool table and an arcade machine with Pac-Man and Asteroids. Inside colorful offices that were once medical exam rooms – “cubes on crack,” as Schupp calls them – employees dream up ad and marketing campaigns like “Bleed Blue” for the St. Louis Blues and the “Redbird heist,” in which a dozen 12-foot Cardinals cutouts went missing from local billboards. Schupp gives new hires $50 to decorate their offices to match their personalities.

A meeting room on the second floor feels more like a spa than Office Space, with glass walls and a massage chair. On the third floor, employees can gather in a cool blue gym with views of the Arch for a boot-camp workout led by a visiting instructor. And when the stretching and sweating are done, employees can crack a cold one from the firm’s own beer-vending machine.

“The thing that struck me was, obviously they do good work here,” says copywriter Kate Sinnwell. “But they have fun while doing it.”

Tags: news
Posted in Schupp News | No Comments »