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Posts
- May 08, 13A "good campaign idea" in digital can be super subjective, and rightfully so, since there are so many variables for creatives and strategists to think about, such as who are we speaking to, where does it live, what's the user engagement, what's the key message we want users to takeaway, so on and so on. While concepting campaign ideas can be a complicated process, a "good campaign idea" shouldn't be. I continue to defend that the best campaign ideas are often the most straightforward, for example:These digital ideas are old, meaning six months to over three years ago, but to this day, I bet you and I can agree these ideas are "good". However, to be clear, "good" is not equivalent to "successful" as success relies heavily on the activation of the campaign across all media channels. I'm not going to get into campaign activation or how the best ideas are tied to consumer insights--although this is very important--instead I have created a simple formula above for creating good digital ideas that people want to engage with and (that all-mighty buzzword we all love) "share".My chicken-scratch above is nothing groundbreaking but often times as creative strategists we need to ask ourselves these simple questions like "why should consumers spend time with this experience?" or "what makes this idea different from everything else?". And if you have a strong answer, then great! Novel interaction refers to new technology or new uses of old tech/interaction, interesting content refers to images, video, copy and whether it resonates with the audience and compelling incentive mainly refers to prizes and promotions because some brands need to beef this piece if their product is not that compelling.Disagree with the criteria of a good digital idea above? I'd love to hear your thoughts, as my goal at the end of the day is for advertisers and agencies to stop creating shitty (excuse my language) digital campaigns.
- May 03, 13Sean and I typically aren't the photo-taking-type, and so, as you can imagine our engagement photo session was filled with wisecracks, awkward faces and too much silliness. But thank goodness Pat Furey Photography is an amazing photographer with Dumbledore-level wizardry skills because the photos came out beautifully. Thanks so much Pat! xx
- Apr 21, 13
Some terrible person stole my phone last night and I had to find a way to keep myself from dwelling on it, so I decided to disconnect myself (no really, I have no phone now) and visit the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens to see the cherry blossoms. It was Sean's and my first time there and we made sure to check the Cherry Blossom Tracker which tells you how many trees are in bloom. BBG was the best decision I could have made today. The sun was out and my mood instantly lifted after seeing a stretch of pink cherry blossom trees. Here are some photos I took of my favorite flowers and plants:
- Apr 21, 13
I have been slacking on the blogging front and thought I'd make it up with overdue photos from probably the best themed dinner party my friends and I have thrown (and you know it's tough to beat the homemade pizza or meatball party)--the OSCAR BEST PICTURE THEMED DINNER POTLUCK!
The dinner brief: Come with a dish inspired by any of the following 2013 Oscar best picture nominees
Amour
Argo
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Django Unchained
Les Misérables
Life of Pi
Lincoln
Silver Linings Playbook
Zero Dark Thirty
But what this actually means is: bring something you want to eat and we'll figure out the correlation to one of the Best Picture nominees. We ended up with a diverse 10-course meal that would have made Wolfgang Puck jealous. Everything was delicious and surprisingly we made every dish work with a movie. Enough talking, here's the pics:Silver Linings Playbook "Raisin Bran"Smitten Kitchen's Balsamic and Beer-braised Short Ribs with Parsnip PureeDjango UnchainedFried Chicken & (Eggo) WafflesArgoTony Mendez's Secret GuacLincoln LogsHomemade Hummus, Baba Ghanoush and VeggiesZero Dark Thirty30 White Stuffed MushroomsLife of PiVegetation Island Brussel SaladBeasts of the Southern WildHush PuppiesDjango UnchainedViolently Delicious Mac and CheeseAmour Red Velvet Cupcakes and, of course, Life of PiesResult? Food coma lasting as long as the awards show itself.My film expert friend Jason deserves all the credit for coming up with this theme two years ago and I'm glad we finally executed. Can't wait for next year! - Mar 31, 13
I haven't blogged about ice hockey in a very long time, a year to be exact, because it's tough to find BU hockey games on TV in New York and this shortened NHL season hasn't made it easy for me to catch a Bruins/Rangers game at the garden. Nevertheless, this has been a super eventful hockey season as BU's Coach Jack Parker announced his retirement after 40 years with the Terriers and in true BU fashion, the final games were an emotional roller coaster, beating archrival Boston College 6-3 to make it to the Hockey East Conference Final!
Unfortunately BU's season ended to UMass Lowell (whaat, wouldn't have thought this would happen 5 years ago) in the Hockey East Final and Parker's career would not see another NCAA tourney. But if anything, this college hockey season has been a story of the unexpected. All four schools in the Frozen Four--Quinnipiac, St. Cloud St, UMass Lowell and Yale--have never won a National Championship. Yale is the only school that has made it to the Frozen Four. Once. SIX DECADES AGO in 1952.*
It's going to be a historic championship no matter which team wins, and I'm just super excited it won't be BC. I'll be cheering for Lowell all the way, go Hockey East!*Source: Wikipedia - Mar 11, 13This post is the inauguration of my blog's return (hooray!) and as the first post of 2013, I feel that it is incredibly fitting to talk about Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg's new book Lean In. Sandberg's memoir-slash-life advice book is about fostering environments for female leaders and driving all women to achieve their dreams. Sounds soft, fluffy and a drag doesn't it? I literally finished the book in one reading (avoiding meals), which is hugely momentous because I can't remember the last book I read to the end.
Every word of Lean In is relevant to my life (okay maybe not the pregnancy parts but it will be someday). I felt like a 20-something year old Sheryl Sandberg and what she writes is what I feel and what she says is what I need to hear. It's hard for me to explain the urgency of reading Sandberg's book without sounding like a bandwagon feminist but I'm being honest when I say this is probably the most important book I'll read of my career.
My life both professionally and personally has propelled forward in the last 6 months, requiring me to make a mass of decisions--what I recently realized is called growing up--and a big part of growing up means realizing your dreams, especially the dream to lead. Ten years ago, my dream was to create kick ass advertising campaigns that ended up in advertising annuals and won awards. And I'm here, doing that (the awards part is coming). The question is what's next? What's next for me is to do what so many clients, VPs, Directors and Strategists have done for me which is guide, teach and inspire girls and boys like me to push the boundaries of the industry.
The most memorable quote for me in the book actually didn't come from Sheryl but came from a reference to Harvard Business School's definition of leadership: "Leadership is about making others better as a result of your presence and making sure that impact lasts in your absence." This has been an unspoken mantra of mine and I find it most fulfilling to lead in this way.
I applaud Sheryl for attacking the topic of female leadership face on with a book referencing her own experiences, thought provoking research and an actionable plan. As a 20-something year old you often want to idolize your peers and amplify the voices of your generation, but after today, I feel Sheryl Sandberg's message is really important and this post is my way of getting it heard. - Dec 31, 12
In anticipation of my return to instagram (now that I've upgraded to a Galaxy SIII), I found some old pictures taken for my high school photography class using a manual SLR of Sean and my friend Mark skateboarding at Kaneohe Skate Park. Makes me miss shooting in film--having to manually focus the foreground, adjusting the aperture and not knowing exactly how the final picture will turn out. I haven't been on instagram for over a year now and am a bit hesitant fearing it will make me too lazy to shoot with my DSLR, but can I complain about a single filter making all my pictures look cool?
- Dec 27, 12The annual Huang holiday family photo session featuring yours truly, my (not so) little brothers Zachary, Zadrian and awesome sister Zoe!
- Dec 08, 12
I LOVE BABIES. And my good friend Greg (the first of my friends to get married) and his wife Erin are expecting! Now typically you find out the baby's gender through a phone call or text but nowadays the trend is to reveal the baby's gender in a form of dessert whether its cake or cupcake. We were asked to attend the 'gender reveal party' in the color of the baby's gender we think it is. I showed up in pink but the blue representation was really strong, outnumbering pink 2-to-1--and to everyone's delight, after biting into the cupcake we all found out it was a BOY! Congrats Greg & Erin on your baby boy!
- Nov 26, 12
I recently noticed that Louis Vuitton's first TV commercial L'Invitation Au Voyage featuring a hot air balloon in Paris and Burberry's holiday gift campaign of gold balloons carrying presents across London landmarks reminded me a lot of Cartier's L'Odyssée campaign which premiered earlier this year in March with an epic 3:30 TV spot during prime time television.
Perhaps Louis Vuitton and Burberry hired Cartier's Creative Director, and that Creative Director had some spare time to work on a Martini & Rossi commercial as well (watch the last video in the post). Is the luxury and cheap champagne industry quickly losing its creative edge and identity by jumping on the latest and greatest shiny object of Golden Compass-like fantasy storytelling--a blend of old world with new attitude and lots of floating/levitation? I'll give Cartier credit for shattering the expectations of Luxury advertising and for throwing a ton of money against a very ambitious idea of creating a compelling mini-film commercial that's exciting and highlights the brand beautifully. Did Louis Vuitton achieved this with L'Invitation Au Voyage, I would say far from it. Did Martini & Rossi's golden balloons give me the sense of grandeur that Cartier's giant gold LOVE bracelets rolling in snow did? Not really. Did both of these commercials remind me of how mediocre they are compared to Cartier's epic journey through time and space, fantasy and reality? Yes. Moral of the story is 'go big or go home' and if you're going to copy a commercial make sure to include the panther.
It's clear just by looking at the websites for Louis Vuitton and Burberry that these efforts were influenced by Cartier's L'Odyssée: - Nov 23, 12This was my third Thanks(friends)giving in Brooklyn and the past two have been pretty amazing with homemade sweet potato fries and kabocha pie, so when I realized two days before Thanksgiving that I had not decided on what I would be cooking, let alone shopped for the ingredients, I PANICKED. Did I ruin Thanksgiving?! Thankfully, my friend and fiance told me not to worry (but naturally I worried) and took care of all the shopping, preparation and cooking. I'm a lucky girl. Our meal was colorful with lots of vegetables--parsnips, leeks, kabocha, chanterelles--and a lot of butter. Like Paula Dean would have been shocked at how much butter we used. But it was very necessary, as the over buttery, over garlicky, over eating is just how I like my Thanksgivings.
- Nov 20, 12
- Nov 08, 12I'm not complaining because it's miraculous the city was able to get all the lines running except one in such a short amount of time. I just find it kind of funny the "L" had to be the last...
[UPDATE] 11/8 4:04PM
Look! - Nov 07, 12
Here's a few reasons why:
Gum Election - http://gumelection.com/
Smack a Candidate - http://smackacandidate.com/
CNN's Empire State Building Results - http://www.cnn.com/2012/11/06/politics/empire-state-building-images/index.html
New York Times Instagramming The Election - http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/11/06/us/politics/instagramming-the-election.html
NBC's Rockefeller Rink Map - http://popwatch.ew.com/2012/11/06/election-2012-favorite-coverage-gimmick/
Facebook Stories Vote - http://www.facebookstories.com/vote
And the many election memes like this one (from @HeyVeronica):
And this one (from Hawaiian Memes BRAH)! Because President Obama has been reelected! - Oct 31, 12The Empire State Building glows bright orange tonight for Halloween, but it's the only thing glowing in the lower half of Manhattan. Lower East Side and East Village is completely dark from the power outage. Black. Not a single light shines through. The magnitude of the power outage became real when I saw how much of Manhattan was in darkness right now. My thoughts go out to everyone affected by it. Here are some photos of east Manhattan from the Williamsburg Waterfront; everything you see in black is true to life, as I did not darken or mess with the colors.
- Feb 14, 13
Something has been bothering me all day. The constant Facebook posts and tweets in my news feeds from brands and media outlets unrelated to Hurricane Sandy just doesn't sit right with me. Yes, I know there's a world outside of New York and the east coast area and life goes on, but selling me coffee or telling me how to use a shampoo in 3 different ways just doesn't feel right.
We live in a hyper-connected world, so brands need to be extra sensitive to what's going on in the world and how it affects their audience. This is what geo-targeting capabilities in Facebook are for, so brands can segment their messaging and post only what's most relevant to their audiences.
Don't ask your audience who might have lost their home what they are doing for Halloween. Don't tell your audience that just stayed up all night without power or water that they should be partying it up with your brand of beer. It's a fast way to lose brand credibility. Brands should think about whether what they are posting makes sense to someone like me who is living in a bizarre bubble of constant tragic news and unusual circumstances. If what they are saying doesn't make sense, then don't tweet it. Your business won't suffer from one less tweet, but you could lose a handful a followers with tweets like the above from @adage. Gap and American Apparel are guilty of the same.
I am not just talking about social sensitivity during natural disasters but also shootings, riots and large-scale accidents. Social media can be a very powerful tool to connect with your audience but it can also hurt your brand and business tremendously if you don't use common sense. Rule of thumb: if a friend dear to you would punch you in the face about what you are going to post, then don't post it. - Oct 27, 12For Saturday Sensation goers, here's a few things to know:
- There's a capacity on the floor, so if you want to be on the floor for the opening, which you do, arrive early or on time and head straight down to the bottom.
- There ARE bathrooms on the floor. The line may look insane but moves quicker than you'd expect. You want to wait in the left side because that is the "in" entrance while the other is for people to come out.
- There are NO bars on the floor but occasionally a man with a chest of beer will be walking around
- Bring cash because the beer boys and bars in the deluxe/VIP sections near the floor don't take credit cards
- Drinks are expensive (duh.):
- Bud Light Platinums is $10
- Red Bull Vodka is $18
- Food stands are open the entire time. You know you'll get hungry from all that dancing.
- The show and sound from the seats is actually pretty awesome. If you need to take a break from the floor its worth sitting up on the seats because the show looks entirely different from up there.
Dressing up is also half the fun so make sure you look nice in white! - Oct 18, 12
When asked to partake in an elaborate surprise art gallery proposal for one of your closest friends in Austin, Texas, you go. And that is what I did this past weekend. It's hard to believe my good friend Ruchy who I experienced my first summer in NYC as interns together was getting engaged, as I'm still processing my own engagement. The reality is we're no longer interns, far from it, and these years ahead are going to be the most exciting years of our lives. I felt honored to be a part of the proposal (thanks Shawn!) and couldn't be happier for the couple. I cried at the proposal, twice.
But not so secretly, I was also super excited to VISIT AUSTIN! Many people have told me repeatedly that I would love Austin, since I love Brooklyn and Boston and Austin is a small, very 'hip' city. Well I can say after two days of heavy queso consumption and warm weather, I wasn't disappointed. Non-stop Tex-Mex, outdoor drinking spots, SIXTH STREET and late night food trucks was everything I could have imagined--Austin was like a real-life Disneyland. I didn't get to explore everything but saw enough that I look forward to going back, perhaps for SXSW. - Oct 10, 12My fiancé who works at Random House told me about Lena Dunham's book right before the press pounced upon the $3.5 million dollar book deal. Everyone seems to have an opinion on whether she deserves the high price tag and whether she's worth the hype (acclaimed movie, HBO show, Emmy nomination, now, book deal!)--my simple opinion: I think she deserves her success. Because she, I'm sure, worked very hard for it.
I re-watched a couple episodes of GIRLS, the one where Marnie breaks up with her boyfriend and the finale, and it occurs to me as I'm watching that no other show about 20-somethings is able to feel as raw, authentic and complex and at the same time look easy than Dunham's portrayal of four girls surviving the city. Lena sees the humor and subtle meaning in the everyday. She understands the universal feeling of having to (and being scared to) grow-up, prioritizing relationships and finding fulfillment in a job. She's not afraid to admit that girls can be a "tease", "users" and stereotypically insecure. She's not afraid to be naked. She literally gives it her all in her work.
Some people may not understand her humor or look past her background or look past her use of an all-white cast (has anyone seen a Tyler Perry movie?), but what I see is a talented, brave girl that is working hard and deserves to have her cake and eat it too. - Oct 07, 12
By placing a "Pin it" button in their banner ad featured on the NY Mag homepage, Gucci made a statement to other high-end luxury brands that maybe social media is really important after-all and running only passive advertising isn't going to sell expensive handbags.
This is the first time I've seen a standard banner with a "Pin it" call-to-action, so I clicked on the button to see what would happen. A pop-up opened up with three items for me to pin--all of which the model is wearing in the banner. I find it so interesting that additional imagery was hidden behind this banner, when there was no mention of it through copy in the banner.While I think the "Pin it" button does cheapen the aesthetics of the banner, it does what it needs to do--get people's attention. I don't think this was the best use of the new "Pin it" ad format, but I'll be interested to see how other brands use it and whether people are willing to pin from banners. - Feb 14, 13TypePop.com
Instantly make pretty GIFs of all the things you think are "supercute"or "so wrong"
gifctrl.com
You just have to try this site to see why it is so awesomeThanks to my coworkers Kaity and Richard for sharing these links! - Sep 25, 12
Last Saturday, I walked across the Williamsburg Bridge into the Lower East Side to check out the "Imagining the Lowline" exhibit (http://thelowline.org/exhibit) because I wanted to see what this underground public park space would look like. Seeing the success and thoughtful design of the Highline on the west side, I'm pretty excited for another public park cool enough to take my family or friends to visit. The exhibit was in a warehouse on Essex and Broome and included a nice history lesson on the Williamsburg Trolley Terminal beneath Delancey Street where the park is to be built and a cool installation of the sunlight-capture contraption that allows plants to grown underground. That was a terrible explanation, but you can read more about it here.
Beautiful day for a walk across the Williamsburg Bridge - Sep 17, 12In the last few years, the animated image format GIF (Graphics Interchange Format in nerd terms) has found its way into mainstream publications like Buzzfeed, The Atlantic and V Magazine and more recently in launch campaigns for MTV Mobile and Nina Ricci's "La Rue" bag. These GIF campaigns raise the artistic potential of the basic animated image with more stylized photography and interactivity. There's no sign of the GIF trend slowing down, especially with mobile apps like Cinemagram--the instagram for GIFs--that makes it easy for anyone to snap a photo and turn it into a GIF to share on their social networks.MTV Mobile's "Gif Me More Party" Interactive Music VideoTo launch its mobile platform and app MTV Mobile, MTV created an interactive music video for Sacramento musical group Death Grip and their track "I've seen footage". Shot in the pixelated GIF style, the video has a choose-your-own-adventure aspect where you can relive an epic party through the perspective of each partygoer. The shaky video makes me a bit motion-sick, the navigation or switching of characters is a bit clunky and I'm not sure the GIF-theme is strong enough to warrant the name 'Gif Me More Party'; however, it's apparent the Paris creative agency Buzzman, which created the campaign, understood who their target audience was as the experience is fun, fresh and very "MTV". Experience the party here.
Nina Ricci "La Rue" handbag launch with GIF Art Campaign by Jo Ratcliffe
My favorite campaigns are often the most simple, and designer Nina Ricci's GIF Art Campaign for her new handbag "La Rue" falls into this simply brilliant category. English artist Jo Ratcliffe created a set of animated GIFs showing off the chic "La Rue" purse in vibrant, whimsical GIFs that pumps youth into the Parisan brand but maintains high-fashion sophistication through styling. The best part about the website is you can retrieve the code to embed the GIFs or instantly share them on to your social networks. See all the GIFs here. - Sep 10, 12
An unfortunate thing happened today, Kia Motors managed to ruin a once favorite song of mine "In My Mind" by Ivan Gough and Feenixpawl featuring Georgi Kay and mixed by Swedish House Mafia member Axwell. I watched in pain as a Marie Antoinette look-a-like slaughtered the song, only to allow urban-dressed hamsters to breakdance through the carnage. Alright fine, the dancing hamsters worked for LMFAO's "Party Rock", but I'm sorry Kia, this loose interpretation of electronic dance culture in an 18th century opera house makes no sense to me and I find the hamsters fashion choices offensive.
Not to mention, did the ad agency just use this Cosmic Opera teaser as their creative brief? Seriously, the song "In My Mind" was used to promote Axwell as the headliner of the theatrical EDM show at New York's Hammerstein Ballroom. I took photos from the event here.I don't think the general public agrees with my sentiment about the commercial, as the spot received 9x more likes than dislikes, but this doesn't change my deep disappointment. A mistake a lot of brands make is centering a campaign around a single song--often a song that has little relevance to the brand or product--and forcing it into every campaign execution. What happens is the campaign becomes less about the brand and product and relies heavily on the popularity of the track.
For example, this "In My Mind" user-generated music video contest doesn't make me think about the Kia car featured in the spot but instead wonder if Katy Perry was in charge of the design:
In my mind, maybe I'm just bitter that corporate brands are taking decent music tracks at will and plugging them into mindless, meaningless, terrible ads (I'm talking about you Buick!). However, Kia isn't the only brand to recently make a song the focal point of its commercial. I also can't stand those Internet Explorer commercials using Alex Clare's "Too Close" and Samsung Galaxy Note's "Moves Like Jagger" to emphasize that really important looking pie graph.
I'm not trying to blame Apple for this music trend, but I am going to. Apple was able to highlight product aesthetics and functionality with music in a way that complement both visual and sound where the music wasn't detracting from the product but helped to make the commercial memorable. Now somehow, brands have taken that to mean crowd surfing hamsters.
