Dan Fietsam, Chief Creative Officer of EnergyBBDO, talked about how Creative Marketing is taking the place of Advertising. It’s all about an open dialogue and we took that sentiment to heart. During his talk there was a live twitter feed using #cpstalk so people could respond. Their comments and questions were displayed on a monitor. Dan shared the Red Cube work Energy & Proximity did for the Art Institute of Chicago as an example of creative marketing. They created a city wide art project and got thousands of people actively engaged by placing 500 cubes around the city each with it’s own art project. There is a site dedicated to documenting the finders of a cube. People used twitter to locate cubes, there were traveling cubes, friends passing cubes to friends on facebook, a radio station responded by creating “500 songs of modern” playlist there’s even one on ebay as we speak. In fact I’ve placed a bid on it.
Congrats to Brent Fagerburg, Tiffany Zimmerman and Matt Cohen for their concept for Force Factor, an all natural body building supplement, on behalf of Hungry Fish Media. Team CoZimmBurg won them over with their idea of the raised arm as the symbol of victory and a branding device used throughout all the pieces of communication; a logo, apparel and digital executions. The next Royale Rumble is around the corner, start training.
To Rick Valicenti of Thirst, it’s all about designing your life so your day work and night work are one in the same. He surrounds himself with inspiring posters from living and dead designers and challenges himself to imagine new ways to communicate. As Rick walked us through numerous projects which include journaling with syringes, converting the book of Genesis into binary code using Pepsi and Coke cans to represent “1s” and “0s”, and translating speech patterns into a light piece it became clear his work transcends design. Rick emphasized the importance of real human presence. At the end of the day it’s human to human. He challenged the room by asking, “How are you going to make your presence reach another?” To see his full talk please visit youtube.com/chiport.
The latest Royale Rumble assignment came from Hungry Fish Media out of Boston. The school was divided into three person teams; Designer, Art Director and Copywriter. They were asked to come up with an integrated campaign that included a secondary mark, advertising and apparel design. 12 teams made it past the first round of presentations and went on to present their ideas for Force Factor, an all-natural workout supplement to the client. The winners will be announced shortly.
Kota Kobayashi and James Kinney went to the Imbibe trade show to see their winning Royale Rumble entry make its debut in the beverage world. The design was so well received, they made a creme soda version as well. Get ready to flex those muscles, the next Royale Rumble is around the corner!
Lisa Landsman from Google shared amazing case studies on how ad agencies are utilizing Youtube (Google owns Youtube) to facilitate dynamic relationships between brand and consumer including EA Sport’s response to the “glitch” in the Tiger Woods game, Boone Oakley’s use of Youtube for their entire website and how people from all over the world can make music together in real time.
That’s some of the advice you can find in CPS alum Chris Anderson and Tucker Loosbrock’s article in the latest CMYK magazine. They’ve written a job hunting survival guide for hitting the road in search of that first job. Other advice includes renting a Uhaul -it can act as a studio apartment that you can drive cross country in. If you plan to take this route (pun intended) make sure to sign up for a free four day pass at the local YMCA so you show up to interviews smelling like success.
Jane Ackerson entered a script and won the first annual Optimus One Shot contest sponsored by Optimus, a post-production house here in Chicago. Winning the contest meant that her and her partner’s script would get produced by the team at Optimus. They beat the odds again when they were awarded an Emmy for it. Andre Chahine, a CPS instructor, has won this years One Shot competition.
That’s the billion dollar question Jeff Hoffman, CEO of ubid.com and Dave Gardner of Color Jar ask themselves everyday. Our latest guest speakers delivered an empowering message to the room: the old rules are gone forever and the big companies aren’t running the show anymore. The new game changer could be YOU. After all, google was started by two guys with an idea and a college kid was behind Facebook. Jeff and Dave suggest observing the world around you, analyzing the data points, then innovate (this is where the billion dollar question comes in) and adjust. And the most important piece of advice they gave, don’t be afraid to fail because the opposite of success is not failure, it’s not trying. So get off that couch and follow your dream!
James Kinney and Kota Kobayashi for their amazing concept and package design for the latest Royale Rumble project Tate’s Root Beer sponsored by Imbibe. They were blown away with all the work they saw but in the end picked their execution to move forward with. Their logo and packaging will be produced just in time for the big beverage trade show next month as well as their display idea. Look out for Tate’s on store shelves soon. Cheers!
After winning the Spring Royale Rumble with an animated video of beat boxing dolls (see earlier post) for Anomaly’s client Converse, they offered him an internship. Tucker made himself indispensible and the internship turned into a full time job. He mostly works on Converse but gets a crack at other projects too. According to Tucker it’s a laid back environment which is great for being creative but you have to be super proactive to seek out projects.
During Advertising Week, Anna Lippert, a recent grad, was one of eight finalists from around the country who competed for jobs at Atmosphere Proximity, Crispin Porter + Bogusky, Ogilvy, and Saatchi and Saatchi Wellness. In the American Idol-like competition they presented their campaign ideas during the live event. Four winners get “30 days of briefs, branding and Benjamins” at the participating agencies. Anna made the cut. On her first day at Atmosphere Proximity New York she received a survival kit which included an Xbox 360, and a Snuggy for all those late nights at the office.
While the advertising world frolicked on La Croisette at the Cannes Lions Festival, New York ad agency Woods, Witt, Dealy & Sons http://www.woodswittdealy.com/ held the third annual Wrath of Cannes http://wrathofcannes.com/ “award” show in Brooklyn. Beer was savored, the state of the industry was discussed, leading to more beer being savored, and dozens of juniors and students displayed their wares in hopes of winning the Grand Coney, the highest honor at Wrath of Cannes. When the night was through, Chicago Portfolio School alum Alan Kwon took home the esteemed Grand Coney for his print ad for Crunch Gyms.
Every year, the Design & Art Directors Club of London, England sponsor an international student competition. Thousands enter but only 20 win a first place pencil, and only one winning team is from the U.S. So, when you see Meghan Fredrich and Adam St. John congratulate them and ask to see their bright, shiny new pencils for their winning website design. Please thank instructors Brent Everleth from Tribal DDB and Natalie Taylor from Zig, too. It’s what happens when you know how to use a Sharpie.
Tucker Loosbrock, recent copywriter graduate of Chicago Portfolio and winner of last quarters Royale Rumble, was not only awarded a cash prize but was offered an internship at Anomaly in New York. Creative Director Mike Byrne said the agency loved the video created on behalf of their client Converse (even though there’s no mention of Converse in the video) and said they loved Tucker’s book, too. No mention if the dolls went with Tucker to New York.
