There were several social media efforts in effect last week during the Cannes ad festival. Kudos to you over-achievers and fake URL makers. HUSH embarked on our own social media endeavor, not composed of 0s and 1s, mobile devices, roving cameras or GPS, but with good ol’ fashioned stickiness.
What happens when you bring thousands of stickers to the Riveria and pass them around to your fellow advertising brethren? A new social campaign emerges involving lots of alcohol, double-dares and waking up with stickers on your ass. Sorry if that was you, but you were just too temping…and it probably wasn’t our fault anyway. This took on a life of its own.
The Superbowl is coming to NJ – and no wonder brands are flocking to the new stadium to leave their mark in an indelible fashion. HUSH is currently engaged in a great project with SapientNitro NY to develop some great game play animation content for an 82″ (yeah, that’s huge, see the blue tape on our wall above) multi-touch gaming experience for installation in the stadium. Buy your tickets, if not for the Jets/Giants, then to play with this big screen yourself!
I watched this movie on the plane ride to #cannes. I should have slept instead knowing the week that lays ahead. Even so, it was a great reminder of the role technology plays in our cultural zeitgeist (I really wanted to use that word) but can also so quickly date us. It started me thinking about how we view technology at HUSH…
We don’t make it; we harness it. There’s a big difference. We’re constantly evolving, learning, and challenging ourselves to explore new platforms. We broke outside of the TV with our first job. But it’s a never-ending battle. Our passion is developing brands, visualizing ideas as designers, putting things in motion as lovers of narrative storytelling. These passions are technology agnostic – but absolutely, undeniably predicated on understanding the technological platform.
I have to say though, Gecko’s phone might have been a tough nut to swallow.
We are usually the first to nix the word “viral” from our vocabulary when talking with potential clients. Anything viral is only deemed so by the crowd, not by brand or agency behind its creation. And even those things appearing to “go viral” are nearly always manufactured – a complex system of seeding and syndication creates the appearance of virality to the uninitiated. But despite that word, when a good idea comes our way with a good technical platform to boot, we can’t help but jump at the opportunity.
We spent the last two weeks developing a project that mixes Dr. Strangelove with Airplane, all skinned in a paper craft world of our art directors and production designers. I think it’s a nice blend of satire, absurdity and craft. You can’t say that every day. Stay tuned for shameless self promotion over the interwebs in the hope that this thing goes “viral”
Tim: The One Show’s Creative Unconference, was for me, the intellectual highlight of the week. The format of this gathering is unique and encourages conversation, confrontation, and sharing, three things that I feel are essential to our industry. What I like is that there is no set structure but rather a rough outline, and the day is created on the fly. I hosted a discussion entitled “Y.R.U. Fucking me?” The title, although comedic, was a serious conversation on how traditional agencies, digital agencies of record and clients all get along and interface with one another when constructing a campaign, or when developing a brand platform for their clients. What I really liked is that 90% of those who attended my panel were vocal and had something to share. All in all it was two very exciting days of open dialog. Nick Law I am sorry I drew a penis on your submission.
David: I attended this event last year as well and was very impressed, hence our return. What I convey to people when they ask about the experience is the absence of hierarchy. Traditional conferences are so top-down…literally. Think about it: a group of industry leaders, chosen by an unidentifiable “God” curator, arrive on stage. The rest of the audience waits expectantly to hear pearls of wisdom roll off their tongues. It happens. Sometimes it doesn’t. After that, the mass of attendees scrambles to get a minute with said speakers during a coffee break. Cards dropped. Hands shaken. Insights lost in the shuffle. With the Unconference, the world is flat. Groups form organically around a subject matter not a around a name or title. You sit in a circle. You speak when you want. You makes the rules. To your right, an intern. To your left an ECD with the power to bankroll your company.
Part 2 / Creative UnConference, Day Two
Tim: The gem of day two for me was a discussion hosted by Richard Schatzberger, of BBH New York. Richard is the Director of Creative Technology and walked us through what he does all day. The one sound bite that stuck with me was “Make, Make Make!” He reminded me why I started creating content for the Web, and I have really tried to apply this thinking to my everyday. Prototyping and building out demos in Flash, trying out things in HTML 5 or Javascript has been filling my free time and I must say, it has really re-charged me. Thanks @Schatz
David: While Tim was discussing why everyone is simultaneously fucking and getting fucked, I was listening to Nick Law of R/GA as he drew graphs on a white board. He drew a graph that was butter – it told the entire history of the advertising process and the DNA of creativity as it’s developed to date. It’s got two axes. It’s got a bunch of points. And best of all, he scribbles all over the damn thing as the crescendo to his talk. (I saw him in DUMBO this week, introduced him to one of our business advisors, then proceeded to draw Nick’s graph on a napkin. The discussion became the basis for the remainder of our meeting.
Tim: The evening was capped off with a few hours of debauchery provided by McCann New York’s creative duo, Matt & Ale. The Fucking Party, was an attempt to collect the industry’s largest profanity filter and build out an API for it. The party turned into a tightly packed sardine can full of drunkards. Go Advertising.
Part 3 / One Show Interactive Gala
Tim: We closed out the week in classic Mad Men fashion… well Digital Mad Men fashion at least. The One Show Interactive showcased some of this years biggest and best digital campaigns. The theme this year was Brazilian, unfortunately the cuisine did not translate as well as previous years. I truly enjoyed watching great projects like The AXE Dirty Balls web video, Lego Photo iPhone App, and The Nike Livestrong ChalkBot take home awards. Next year will prove to be an innovative one.
In our latest edition of KBIT we mourn the loss of an idea so vibrant and full of life that it is difficult to keep the tears from our eyes. We were asked by the wonderful agency Sub Rosa to “visualize flavor” to promote the new Hennessy mixer flavors featured at the events. They are now our brothers in mourning.
This pitch had an incredibly bright future – as always seems the case with lives cut short. She had hopes of being projected on installation walls of Hennessy “Artistry” events around the world. Flavored light. Dan Flavin-inspired neon fruit sculptures. No one knew Lemon/Lime could look like that.
But before the pitch could ever bring light into the lives of event-goers everywhere, she was tragically torn from this world by an inebriated voice (too much Hennessy, perhaps?) on the other end of the phone…A devastating car accident leaves only a the memory of what could have been.
Thanks again to all the organizers, sponsors and attendees to the HUSH-sponsored Digital Dumbo event @ Galapagos Art Space. While our comments were brief (in favor of the open bar) we wanted to emphasize our desire to help bring together a cross-discipline digital community. I’ve never seen a better mix of talents – directors, designers, digital strategist, producers of many feathers, and even a finance guy.
We are amazed at how this event has grown. From day one Digital Dumbo has been about the community. It has been By Dumbo For Dumbo, and as our budding community has grown so has Digital Dumbo flourished. As professionals all pushing the limits of our industry, and putting in an astonishing amount of time and effort into client projects, pitches (uggh) and maintaining our own businesses, it is totally awesome how we can peel off some time and dedicate it to the idea of giving back to the place we all love, live, and work in.
Of course, in typical HUSH fashion, we shot a ton of photos and video. Lots still coming and will be disseminated over the Twitterness in the following days. For now, check the Flickr set:
It seems like just yesterday we we’re crammed into the tiny room at Rebar for Digital Dumbo number one. A lot has changed, now I work in that very same building, and the Digital Dumbo event has flourished. Kudos to all for making this thing happen. What a differencea year makes. read up on last night here
Here at HUSH we are always looking for new platforms to explore storytelling, design and strategic thinking. By far one of the more compelling new technologies in the consumer marketplace are devices that employ multi-touch interfaces. Working with friends and dev team Uncommon Projects, we built a robust experience that allows users to interact in realtime with HD Quality content, in a 1:1, tactile manner. While we only included baseline functionality in this release, the goal was to create an impossible-to-break, customized experience that can be tailored to any brand. And of course, it wouldn’t be complete if it wasn’t iPhone controllable.
Feb 8 @ 10 PM on PBS. Director Aaron Woolf’s documentary on Detroit and the plight of American infrastructure. This is a must watch – not only because it’s an important topic, but also because HUSH did the design and animation helping to bring to life the collective vision of The Future. Props to the RPA (Regional Planning Association) as well who heavily contributed to this effort.
