Pretty Persuasion

Pretty Persuasion chats with filmmaker Evan Mather about his film premiere at SXSW.

TED has announced the winners of the Ads Worth Spreading Contest, an open challenge to the global ad community to present submissions that were infectiously compelling, contained social good and/or industry impact.

Thanksgiving is a feast of the senses - a time of school crafts and stuffing. It’s also a time for appreciation even if it is only for the bounty on the plate. In honor of the holiday, I wanted to post a list of small & large things for which I am thankful.

I’ve already professed an interest in industry conferences, and often wish that I could have more time with featured speakers at events I attend. So when the team at Wiredrive said they were creating a custom microsite (http://promaxbdatheconference2010.com,)for PromaxBDA with interviews featuring design, marketing and branding luminaries I was excited.

Award shows are an important element of a company’s marketing plan; the top tier shows are judged by some of the highest ranking members of our industry and provide opportunity for ongoing peer and client recognition. As with film festivals, the selection process for any award show is subjective and secretive, so entering is a gamble. But for a few hundred dollars a year, your company and work could receive exposure easily worth tenfold.

Philips and ad agency DDB approached RSA Films to commission five films under the banner Parallel Lines. 45 RSA Directors submitted concepts surrounding a single script supplied by the agency. From those, five diverse concepts were chosen for production; the result is a testament to both directorial interpretation and social media promotion.

When I was a kid, I loved going to visit my cousins in Seattle. They were avid comic collectors and I would spend hours carefully thumbing through issues of Spiderman, Fantastic Four and other plastic-sleeved titles. Perhaps this is why I enjoy the trend of motion comics as promotion. It speaks to childhood nostalgia while cutting through the clutter.

Clever marketing campaigns engage audiences in unexpected ways that connect, often with a nod and a wink, to the property’s intrinsic nature. Or to poorly paraphrase Marshall McLuhen; the medium can be a major part of the message. Motion comics are a great way of exciting prospective viewers about an upcoming film or television show, even if the property is not animated. And they provide increased opportunities for graphic designers, artists to collaborate with studios and directors.