NE Creative

Retro Design Trend in Alcohol Ads?

Here is an interesting look at three different alcohol brands Jim Beam, Canadian Club and Miller High Life that all have similar retro design style. The Jim Beam and Canadian Club, both Fortune Brands brands, work were both done by Energy BBDO, Chicago while the Miller High Life was done by Saatchi and Saatchi, NY. I won't lie, I like the throw back look. I can enjoy bringing back the long copy ads.

Check Out Micah Schmiedeskamp

Recently laid off designer Micah Schmiedeskamp has launched his website www.micahmax.com to promote his work. He is currently freelancing but is still looking for something consistent.

Below is example of Micah's work. This was a logo designed for Omahype, which was a local music review site.

ConAgra Work from Good Twin Design

Good Twin, in  collaboration with Bailey Lauerman, created 30+ illustrations for an internal campaign for ConAgra. The illustrations were used for posters and video. Check out the full body of work for ConAgra at baileylauerman.com/conagra. Check out more Good Twin ConAgra illustrations on Good Twin's Facebook page.

Secret Sherry Society Website Getting Lots of Attention

On Monday, Archrival posted on their Facebook page that they had launched a website, www.secretsherrysociety.com, for the Sherry Council of America. Now the SCA's agency that came up with the idea for the Secret Sherry Society is Creature based out of Seattle. To support the launch of the website several publications including AdAge, Mediapost, and Reuters have writes ups on the website and its purpose. All three articles focused on the new campaign for the SCA whose agency Creature came up with but all three fail to mention who designed and developed the key component of the interactive marketing campaign, the website. Reuters mentioned that Creature was responsible for was the "Web site design" and the Mediapost article went a step further saying that Creature "handled the Web site design."

I am sure Archrival won't say anything because they aren't a bunch of whiners, but I am hoping people who are interested in Nebraska work getting proper credit will make polite comments to these articles pointing out that actually Archrival designed and built the website...not Creature.

Archrival Launches Secret Sherry Society Website

Archrival was approached by Creature, Seattle to work on the website for the Sherry Council of America. Creature came up with an idea of a "Secret Sherry Society" where users can become a member of a very secretive and exclusive club. The site allows users to explore the  details of sherry in an elite manner.  Archrival created the website's strategy and execution including design and programming. (www.secretsherrysociety.com)

Branding: Pepsi vs. Coke

Here is a great visual of the Pepsi identity next to Coke identity throughout the years. There is one question, if the role were reversed and Pepsi was the top dog would Coke have changed it's look to try and gain attention and marketing share? (Image via TheDenverEgotist)

A Dose Of Reality from Gareth Kay

Gareth Kay, formerly Head of Planning at Modernista! and soon to be Director of Digital Strategy at Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, spoke recently at a New Denver Ad Club speaking event. Gareth spoke about his opinion of the current state of advertising. Below is a write up from an attendee who touches upon a few of the many points he raised. I tried to summarize but it is much better to just read the whole thing. (Via TheDenverEgotist)

First up was how ineffective advertising has become. In the last 10 years, the biggest recorded shift to one brand from another was just 6%, despite the millions of dollars thrown at advertising and marketing. And Kay was scratching his head over “successful” 4% response rates in direct mail. That, in his opinion, is not successful.

Kay pointed out how far removed we have all become from the customer. Indeed, as customers ourselves most of us hate intrusive advertising and the constant bombardment of selling messages. Guerilla advertising came under the gun as Urban Spam. It’s something most of us love to do, but how effective is it?

That’s not to say that you can’t have guerrilla ideas, but having ads wrapped around coffee cups or toilets is not working. One idea he showed that was genius from Poke, London was for a bakery. Using modern technology, you could select the freshly baked product you were interested in and it would alert you when it was coming out of the oven via Twitter. Terrific. It may not be advertising in the traditional sense, but it gets the word out. It’s an evolution of advertising that we need to take note of.

Social media was another Kay bugbear. He is more interested in social ideas; interacting with people in a way that truly understands the technology AND the use of that technology. (Whopper Sacrifice was a perfect example.)

And then there was the attack on the BIG idea, something we have all grown up with. He compared it to seeing a movie – no-one comes out of a great film like The Usual Suspects and says “that was great, it was so simple and easy to grasp.” Times have changed. We can handle complexities as people. We love twists and turns. And yet, most advertising is based around one big, simple idea. As Kay pointed out, big ideas become little, but little ideas become big (again, Whopper Sacrifice was a small idea that went ballistic).

At one point during the Q&A session someone stood up and asked Kay a ballsy question considering the surroundings – “would advertising get better if we just scrapped all of the awards?” His answer was a solid yes. And considering the work that’s winning awards these days, including the awful Wrangler Animals work, we couldn’t agree more. Gareth Kay opened our eyes. If you ever get the chance to hear him speak, do so. He is a breath of fresh air in an industry hell bent on producing self-serving and ultimately self-destructive work.

ACE (ACI Customer Exchange) Identity System by June

ACI Worldwide's customer exhange community, ACE is a community of people who use ACI software products and services. Originally they had no brand identity or standards and each regional ACE Community had been creating their own graphic identities and marketing materials. June created a logo system to help unify their members and bring consistency to their messaging.

James Arthur Vineyard Poster from Thought District

Thought District was commissioned by the James Arthur Vineyard to design a series of five posters that would appeal from the casual to connoisseur wine drinker. Each of the limited posters (100) feature a popular JAV offering and are meant to connect with each wine. The posters are 18" x 24" and printed on thick poster stock. They are only available at James Arthur Vineyards so you will have to head out to the vineyard to pick them up and you might as well pick up a bottle or two of wine will you are at it.

Thought District Launches Website, Wins Client

Green Plant Group, a publicly traded company that creates products and services for the green economy recently underwent a name change and a rebranding. They needed a website to communicate their unique message to shareholders. Together with Vipa Solutions on the development side, Thought District mapped out and designed a web presence that was meant to excite and inform existing and potential shareholders. Check out the website at www.greenplanetgroup.com.

In other Thought District news, Agri-Products, a York-based manufacturer of farm machinery and equipment has selected TD as their marketing agency. I can only assume but TD's roles for Agri-Products could involve website design, marketing and collateral materials and possibly a logo and identity redesign.