The Mr Youth Creative team was in good company Friday night. As guests at the One Show Interactive Awards at New York’s Terminal 5, we were both surrounded and inspired by an eclectic and talented crew of colleagues. Each year, the One Club recognizes the agency teams behind the most innovative and buzz-worthy advertising of the last 12 months.

Here’s our personal compilation of the “wow”-worthy winners that made us applaud hardest:
 
Kindling a community of composers…

“Sounds of Hamburg” | Client: Philharmoniker Hamburg
Agency: Jung von Matt, Hamburg
Award: Gold Pencil, Websites and Microsites: Services

Because at the end of the day “it’s just advertising”…

“Pink Ponies” | Client: john st.
Agency: john st. advertising, Toronto
Award: Gold Pencil, Online Films and Video: Self-Promotion – Single

An awareness-builder of a different kind…

“The Girl Store” | Client: Nanhi Kali (K.C. Mahindra Education Trust)
Agency: StrawberryFrog, New York
Award: Bronze Pencil, Websites and Microsites: E-Commerce

Comedic gold for the cause…

“Devin & Glenn” | Client: Overturn Prop 8
Agency: Furlined, Santa Monica
Award: Silver Pencil, Online Films and Video: Public Service/Non-Profit – Single

Crowdsourcing creativity to honor the Man in Black…

“The Johnny Cash Project” | Client: American Recordings/Lost Highway
Agency: @radical.media, New York
Award: Gold Pencil, Websites and Microsites: Social Networks/Community

Some other favorites:

“Fastball” | Client: Google | Agency: BBH, New York

“UNIQLO Lucky Counter” | Client: UNIQLO | Agency: Dentsu, Tokyo

“Pay With A Tweet” | Client: Innovative Thunder | Agency: R/GA, New York

“I Am Not An Artist” | Client: Elisava | Agency: Soon in Tokyo

“Nike+ GPS” | Client: Nike | Agency: R/GA, New York

“The Fun Theory Winner – The Speed Camera Lottery” | Client: VW Sweden | Agency: DDB, Stockholm
 
A hearty high-five to all of this year’s winners. Keep our seats warm.

If 3,029,062 people “Like” Mark Zuckerberg on Facebook, could 18,976,457 people “Like” New York City? Rumor has it Mayor Michael Bloomberg just had a powwow with the world’s most popular dweeb to discuss pushing the Big Apple into the social realm (which is really the least Zuckerberg could do to redeem himself for that painful SNL cameo.)

The NY Daily News reports that while Big Mike has been somewhat vague about the details of the meeting, he believes “there’s a lot of potential” in NYC having its own Facebook page. Bloomberg’s even gone so far as to hire a Millennial to man the helm as Chief Digital Officer – 27-year-old Rachel Sterne (<< follow her!) There has been some criticism that Sterne doesn’t have enough experience for the position or its reported $115,000 salary, but I beg to differ.

What does her resume look like? Our new CDO is founder and CEO of citizen journalism site GroundReport, and was named one of America’s most promising social entrepreneurs by Businessweek, at age 25. Rachel’s also an adjunct professor at Columbia Business School, despite the absence of her own graduate degree. AdWeek even claims she’s “a bit of a darling in New York’s digital scene“. So, what else do you want? Social and digital is a relatively new space for city government to play, and I believe it takes a fresh and eager mind to understand, embrace, and stay on top of it all.

Equipping the Big Apple with a social media presence will do more than give New Yorkers a greater sense of city pride, it could be an efficient way for NYC to both communicate and collaborate with those of us who live here. I’m curious to learn more about Zuckerberg’s plan for how New York can use Facebook, and what our new CDO will bring to the table. What’s your social media strategy for your city?

I came across a box of Barnum’s Animal Crackers the other week at a train station in Delaware and immediately noticed the packaging overhaul. To celebrate the Year of the Tiger, Lilly Pulitzer has teamed up with Nabisco Barnum’s Animal Crackers, to create special packaging to support the WWF with a goal to raise $100K to save the Sumatra Tigers.

Why is this interesting? For one, its an older brand that is getting a fashionable face lift. Through partnering with a modern, nationally known fashion brand they are definitely appealing to moms, but also making a cause connection between their animal crackers and real world animals, which can be a great education element for young kids. In short, the product has a real educational effect on young children and can teach them about endangered species causes. Furthermore, they are issuing one million of these limited edition boxes, so the campaign has some decent scale to it.

On top of all that, it’s an unexpected collaboration, which is what makes it great. I love seeing brands like this partner up for the purpose of a common cause. Overall it feels genuine. Lilly Pulitzer is issuing animal prints as part of their line this season to support Wildlife, so the elements all tie in well without feeling forced or like a sell out.

We need to encourage more mass-brands to step out of their comfort zones and predictable patterns. They should be entering new spaces, initiating unlikely collaborations and using their reach for the greater good. I’d love to see these boxes make their way down the runway of Fashion Week. Who knows? They may even make good upcylced purses for cell phones and essentials.

So what unexpected brand collaborations have caught your eye these days? Leave a comment and let us know.

]]> http://www.grownupthinking.com/index.php/2010/07/15/animal-crackers-get-fashionable-for-cause/feed/ 1 http://www.grownupthinking.com/index.php/2010/05/11/what-will-your-company-look-like-when-millennials-call-the-shots/ http://www.grownupthinking.com/index.php/2010/05/11/what-will-your-company-look-like-when-millennials-call-the-shots/#comments Tue, 11 May 2010 14:30:54 +0000 Brandon E, Managing Partner & Chief Strategy Officer http://www.grownupthinking.com/?p=1609

Find out in our just-launched white paper in partnership with Intrepid, titled Millennial Inc. Following a six-month joint international research study, the paper explores what the Millennial-led company will look like when Millennials take charge.

Closely observing the way Millennials would run an organization and develop and market products brings to light the challenges marketers are currently having in reaching this demographic. By taking note of how Millennials would reach and impact themselves, the white paper is a much needed how-to guide for making the changes necessary to survive and thrive in the new socially-connected, fully transparent world.

Millennial Inc explores nine core themes across three main areas of the business and concludes with the 10 Core Principles that the Millennial Led Business Will Follow. What are they? Download the whitepaper at millennialinc.com and find out.

In the continuing saga of Facebook’s effort to formalize its Terms of Use policy, the social network today launched an app that will allow users to vote on which version of the governing document they prefer.

The central debate here revolves largely around the issue of privacy and content ownership, and previous efforts to announce a final resolution on the topic were met with a huge public outcry.  Wronged users complained that Facebook should not have the right to own or even use user-posted content at their own discretion, whether or not that was Facebook’s intention.  In response, Facebook turned to users to provide feedback and inform a new version of the terms.

Where has this netted out? The revised rules state:

“You own all of the content and information you post on Facebook, and you can control how we share your content through your privacy and application settings.”

However, the same section goes on to say:

“You grant us a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use any IP content that you post on or in connection with Facebook.”

Will this provision satisfy users who were aghast at the previous version?  Facebook took a great step by embracing user collaboration to revise the rules, but have they gone far enough? The social media world will wait with bated breath to see how the vote pans out on April 23rd.  Something tells this user that the revised rules will prevail. Regardless, the revised version is sure to spark some serious debate.

I’ve lived in the same apt going on 3 years. It’s been nice, but I’ve never been able to get reception on my phone.  It’s always been one of those “dead zones” everyone is talking about. I’ve been through 4 phones in these 3 years–0 bars the whole time.

The other day while surfing the app store on iTunes I came across Fring, an app that among other things allows you to connect your phone to a WiFi network to make free VOIP calls.  ”Wow!” I said to myself, “What a find. I can totally use this in my apt!” I downloaded the free app, but quickly ran into a roadblock. I didn’t want to pay for skype, but the app says “free calls”–was this just another disappointment in the legally ambiguous 2.0 world?

I went to the Fring section on iTunes–no help. I went to the Fring website–no help. WTF. I then googled “free calls fring iPhone.”  Lo and behold–a consumer tutorial on YouTube gave me the exact step by step instructions I needed to solve my problem–legally and easily.

I think we’re seeing now with our plug-and-play, ADD, instrant gratfication culture, people want to solve probelms as they arrive, and look for the authentic voice of fellow consumers to answer their questions. No one is reading instruction manuals anymore–the connectivity of 2.0 world has alowed consumers to reach out and collaborate to solve problems.