Huxley Quayle von Blog

Just One Project - Day 2

It's been mad over the past 24 hours since we launched Just One Project. We've had hundreds of people go to the site, including lots of potential clients, and over a hundred resumes submitted from account people, creatives, production, designers nd photographers.

Media support has been generous as well, with Marketing, Strategy, Media in Canada and the Globe and Mail all featuring the story.

And I'm happy to report that we hav had two clients come forward. But we need more if we're going to help the now more than a hundred ad professionals who need help.

So if you're an advertiser, please check it out at www.justoneproject.ca

Update on OCAD "Formula Ad"

The response to this ad has been great. Only appearing once on the back cover of One Magazine, our new ad for the Ontario College of Art & Design has been featured on AdRants, Creativity and was pick of the day on AdCritic, adding tens of thousands of views to a very targeted advertising audience.

See the ad at www.creativty-online.com

www.justoneproject.ca goes live

Today we launched an initiative called Just One Project. We're asking major advertisers to each give us Just One Project. We will then staff these projects with people who have lost their jobs over the past while, and will continue to do so.

It's a way for the industry to look after its own and help some good people when they really need it. In turn, advertisers will get quality work, done by experienced people, for much less than standard agency rates.

To learn more, go to www.justoneproject.ca

Canadians are consuming media in new ways. Maybe it's time to create advertising in new ways too.

This is good bit of info published in Marketing Magazine. It shows how many people today are consuming media in a mutli-taking fashion. Knowing this, we need to create ideas that cross traditional and digital media seemlessly, using traditional media not to sell, but to point to an online experience where they can get involved with the brand.

This new thinking is what's pointing us at HQvB in the direction of transmedia story telling.

[ MANY CANADIANS CONSUME MANY MEDIA ]
January 26, 2009 | By Kristin Laird
Advertisers and media companies need to look at multi-channel strategies to reach multi-tasking Canadians, according to a study by Ipsos Reid.

The study, entitled “Online Media: All Change,” found that nearly half of Canadians (44%) are watching TV or listening to the radio while surfing the net.

On average, online Canadians spend almost equal amounts of time watching TV and surfing the net—approximately 15 hours each week.

Advertisers and media companies must develop multi-channel strategies and standout creative to capture consumer attention, said Mark Laver, study author and associate vice-president of Ipsos Reid.

“When we’ve got people multi-tasking, I have to question if the advertising message is getting through at all,” he said. “From an ad perspective, you’ve really got to come through with some creative, unique advertising to capture people’s attention if they’re doing two things at once.”

Online Canadians spend an additional 10 hours each week listening to the radio, while only three hours—or less than 30 minutes a day—reading the newspaper.

The “net generation”—those who have grown up with technology—should be of particular concern to advertisers when considering traditional media, noted the study.

This demographic is spending more time online and less time watching television than the older demos. The study found those 18 to 34 spend 18.4 hours online each week, compared to 13.6 hours for those 35 to 54, and 14.2 hours for individuals over 55.

“Companies need to understand how the Internet is affecting their business and build strategies on how to deal with this change,” said Laver. “In today’s world it’s no longer a one channel strategy, that’s evidently clear... you can’t put all of your advertising dollars in one place.”

The study also found that traditional media vehicles may be in trouble, with 40% of online Canadians saying they don’t read magazines, 19% don’t read a newspaper and 15% don’t listen to the radio.

“A lot of people are getting their news online as it is,” said Laver. “So suddenly I no longer need to subscribe to the newspaper.”

Originally published in Marketing Magazine, January 2009

Thought of the day - January 20

Today on January 20, 2009, Barack Obama, the man, the brand, officially becomes the leader of the free world. It's a big day for African Americans. A big day for Americans, who not only want change, but to have the respect of the world again.

I think it's also a day that clearly marks the coming of age of the new school of advertising. It's a day to celebrate how a person, using new thinking, embracing new technology and media, can become a cause, a movement, that stirred the planet.

Everyone in our industry should stand up and take notice. Barack Obama has shown us that the new 2.0 world everyone banters about in new business meetings isn't just rhetoric, it's fully upon us. He has shown us all that the brands that embrace the new thinking and respect the way today's audiences consume media are the ones that win.

At HQvB, this makes us smile quietly inside.

Thought of the day - January 19

Bullshit isn't recession-proof. When times are good and everyone is spending, bullshitting people into thinking your silo laden agency is really integrated can work. Bullshiting people into thinking that those award show freebies are a way of showing real, paying clients what your shop is capable of, can work.

But when times get tough, and people look hard, really hard, at what they're paying for and what they're getting, bullshit is just that.

We think the recession is a good thing. It'll help the industry get back to focusing on what our real job is - helping real clients sell real products. This will be a time when the better agencies look at every part of their business for ways to be better and add more value.

You know, what they should have been doing all along.

Thought of the day - January 16

So a Toronto-based agency, whom shall remain nameless, can't afford to keep 15-20 people during this economy but they can afford to put money and resources behind doing an ad industry "Apprentice" rip-off?

Just what the world needs, another bad reality show? Or, would the world be better served with 15-20 people who can still pay their mortgages and bills to support their families?

New Creative for OntarioCollege of Art & Design

Here's a look at our new ad for OCAD's Executive Master Degree of Design in Advertising. A great program for anyone considering a Master's and certainly for any agency or marketer looking at making good people even better.

Thought of the day - January 12

How much time and money do we spend researching things we already know. How often have you heard "the research just confirmed what we knew". Too often, if you ask me.

When are we going to learn that advertising is a business that requires a gut feeling? And then going with that gut feeling. It requires that one take a leap of faith that we can create ideas that people will get involved with.

There's nothing wrong with finding out about your audience, or looking a trends in the industry. But today, more than ever, success requires real innovation. New ideas rarely research well. Because if the idea is new, people tend not to know what to say.

So why waste time and money with this? Why not just do it. Hey there's a slogan. One which wasn't researched before it launched.

Why design is important, and not just for artsies.