john st. unignorable - Blog the book of john

The premise is so ridiculously simple it can be summed up in two words: it’s Pictionary. I draw a word and send it to you. You guess it, and send me a drawing in return. And so it goes.

What I love most about Draw Something, and why I think it helps make us better communicators, is that it forces us to drastically simplify an idea down to something that can be rendered on a mobile screen, with only 4 pen sizes and limited colours.

Beers on a patio, baseball games with an open dome and weekends at the cottage. These are all indications that summer has finally arrived. At agencies across the country, the surest sign of the season is the fresh batch of bright-eyed interns arriving for their first taste of advertising. Coming from a former john st. intern, here are some tips to help 2012’s group make the most of the next 4 months.

IMAGE SRC: BCG

On Wednesday May 2, I attended a session hosted by the ICA titled: 21^st Century Integrated Marketing – How Agencies Can Overcome the Digital Divide. This is part 2 of a blog post where I summarize Niall McKinney’s 10 Ways to Tell if Your Agency is Integrated. Part 1 can be found here.

This morning I attended a session hosted by the ICA titled: 21^st Century Integrated Marketing – How Agencies Can Overcome the Digital Divide.

The session was hosted by Niall McKinney, CEO of The Knowledge Engineers who broke down the 10 ways you can tell if your agency is truly integrated. I’ve divided this list into a two-part blog series, in which I will summarize his thoughts on each of these points.

Madison Papple, Account Executive at john st. summarizes points made in Dave Kerpen’s "Likeable Book". How brands can be likeable in social media.

There are more vibrant conversations going on in these 3 categories than any other: drugs, health and wellness; money and investing; eating, drinking and cooking. Brands can attach themselves to and involve themselves in these conversations.

The majority of the thoughts contained within this presentation were crafted by much smarter people than myself. I think this all makes sense, but if nothing else I hope it will be a fun journey into the world of big data.

Mavis Huntley, Director, Digital Innovation at john st. recounts what she learned around display advertising and Google’s Project Re:Brief at SXSW 201

Facebook bought Instagram for a cool billion last week, and the announcement was met with the usual industry speculation, hubbub and general waste of energy that accompanies this type of thing. A billion dollars is a lot of money. Plus, it’s much more entertaining to think and talk about astronomical sums of money than Courtney Love or Justin Bieber.

There were over 2500 panels in five days at SXSWi, making it impossible for one person to see anything more than a fraction of what was being offered. However, there were definitely trending topics and common themes that we can take away from the conference. These themes offer valuable lessons for marketers.

In the last 24hrs, news of P&G’s virtual store in Toronto has spread through the social media sphere, with the Globe & Mail writing a particularly well-researched article. Instead of continuing to read about it, I decided to go and experience it myself. I’m happy to report that not only was the story newsworthy - it worked!