Beware of Content Aware

Adobe’s sneak peak of the upcoming CS5 just opened a potential Pandora’s box of trouble for the advertising industry (Pandora’s jar if we’re being historically correct according to Wikipedia). Okay, okay, I might sound a little emo but trouble’s a-brewing either way. Watch the video below of the new Content Aware Fill to see what I mean.

Photoshopping just became insanely easy. Plus, this is just one tool in the new suite to make things that much more productive. What used to take myself and all other graphic designers hours upon hours of work now can be done in a matter of seconds. We’re entering the ironically Fordist era of Photoshopping ladies and gentlemen, and I just can’t help but feel a bit cheated. Now anybody with an internet connection can learn how to become a graphic designer (term being used loosely) via YouTube videos to vie for desks at an agency.

This has great implications for all mad men, and ultimately the agency’s bottom line. If labour hours are decreased because of these new efficiencies for producing the same type of work, then billable hours will be decreased too. Clients will demand higher ROI’s, or worse off, cut their budgets as the deliverables simply don’t cost as much as they used to to produce. Margins are slimming, and so must the fat cats; this was not what Ford had in mind.

However, in true Fordist fashion (still Henry, not Tom), there’s still hope in this whole mess. Don’t fret yet, for all you art directors out there can still sit pretty. How? Because you can’t sit pretty without knowing what’s ugly first and vice versa.

This is how I see it. Website design and development went through the exact same industry disruption as graphic design is currently going through. Applications (both online and offline) such as iWeb, Dreamweaver, Tumblr, Blogger and even the now defunct Geocities wizard all played a part in the modest beginnings of “user-generated content.” And of course, it looked hideous. It was like a box of Crayola crayons mated with a Harajuku girl and gave birth to glittery diarrhea (think MySpace profiles). But that drew the indelible line between amateur and professional website designers, designers being the operative word.

I may come off sounding like a presumptuous cock when I say this, but not everybody is an artist. That’s why people get paid to be screenwriters, songwriters, stylists, etc., because it’s a creative skill that not everybody possesses. I mean if everybody really knew what good and bad art was, there would be no difference between a storyteller and a transcriptionist.

So although the term “graphic designer” has now been depleted of its meaning, kind of like the term “ordained minister” (since the advent of digital ordination), there’s still hope. There’s hope for the mad men to get a little madder, and start to make even better and more innovative art in order to re-assert themselves as true creatives. Take that same budget and put it towards increased production or media buys and get a cut that way. Think bigger. Because as it stands, anybody can learn the ropes, leaving art directors with their hands tied behind their backs. And all they have left, is their eye.

High end chocolate covered nuts.

I happily pitch to you another food product idea: high-end Glosettes. I’m thinking macadamia nuts, hazelnuts, pinolis, and so many more covered in the classic glossy chocolate coating, packaged in a cooler origami-style box (I really want to retain that classic shaking sound you get from a box of Glosettes). Now, I’m not sure exactly what the demo profile would be for the chocolate covered nuts market (there’s a joke in there somewhere), but I can only assume children are the main consumers. I mean it’s chocolate. And women, as the old saying goes.

So based on my target market assumptions, marketing strategies could operate on two ends. One way for high-end Glosettes, or as I have branded them “White Label” Glosettes (since current branding and packaging is based on solid colors and white always looks clean and ballin’), could be to market primarily to mothers as a “grown-up” version of their kid’s favourite treat (or as a upgrade of nostalgia if they’re my age and have already been preggers).

A second way to sell these high-end Glosettes is, well, to sell them as high-end Glosettes. To anybody really, but again mainly women. I believe that enhancing or premium-izing a brand can only improve its marketing equity (but only if executed well, unlike Jennifer Lopez’s Sweetface line). Think Black Label editions of anything (ironically one of the reasons why I chose White Label so the brand would stand out linguistically, and another is because I just love whitespace). Also, anything high-end is “fashion-y.” It’s fashionable to eat premium chocolates in attractive packaging rather than your plain ol’ Glosettes. It’s the difference between listening to an MP3 player you bought as an impulse purchase while waiting in line at Shoppers Drug Mart and an iPod Nano from the Apple store. ‘Cause hey, being fashion-y sells.

Furthermore, right now couldn’t be a better time to launch something like this. The burgeoning high-end movie market (the theatres with reclining plush leather seats and waiters serving you) makes a perfect segue for this kind of product, especially since Glosettes already have such a strong connection to movie theatres all throughout Canada. Better chocolates for a better theatre. The right chocolate for right now.

If anybody knows how to get into contact with Hershey’s Canada’s product development department, that would be great, so we all can start popping premium nuts covered in chocolate (that’s what she said) at the movies.

Thanks for reading, and apologies for the Jackson Pollock-esque use of brackets in this post.

(Logo mockup made by @thehoshow using Photoshop CS4).

The OOH landscape in 30 years

I have a dream, and it’s a crazy one. But it’s not the Martin Luther King variety of dream, because I believe his dream was actually realistic while idealistic. Mine’s more of a 30/70 split between reality and ideality.

It all started with ScotiaBank’s Nuit Blanche 2009 last October in Toronto. D.A. Therrien’s FOUR-LETTER-WORD-MACHINE was shining brightly between the City Hall towers in Nathan Phillip Square. There’s something that happens to us when we see our written language in lights. Be it a name, a slogan, or a stock ticker – we always pay attention to flashing lights. And we also believe their words to be true, no matter what shape they take form. We want to see the light.

As a media space, the 4LWM is brilliant. Firstly, there’s no other media space like it so it’s inherently a pull-marketing strategy. Secondly, it’s fucking huge. There’s no way any consumer walking or driving along Bay or Queen would miss it. Thirdly, it opens up the imagination to other wide-scale installations such as this. Especially when you’ve indulged in your normal Saturday night activities.

So, I’ll be honest. In my drunken stupor on the night of Nuit Blanche, I actually had mistaken Therrien’s use of quartz lamp arrays as a hologram since I was, well, not sober. However, I have to credit my inebriation because it was what sparked my predictions of the advertising landscape. After leaving Nathan Phillip Square that night, images of Kate Moss and her holographic body floating in mid-air at Alexander McQueen’s fall 2006 show were swimming through my head. And then it hit me: holograms will be the next big media space.

Take a hologram like McQueen’s Moss creation, and scale it out to Therrien’s 4LWM. You basically have a massive 3D television screen that can broadcast anything at all: copy, TV commercials, and 3D movie trailers - all without 3D glasses. For example, say you’re CTV. What better way to show off your new fall line-up than having a scene play out in 3D in the middle of Dundas Square? I’d definitely stop and watch if I saw a 50 foot version of Blake Lively and Leighton Meester duking it out in the downtown core. Now you’re Tim Hortons. Imagine seeing a 50 foot 3D donut being glazed in sugar right before your eyes. Heaven.

The beauty of this technology is that it wouldn’t supplement any of the current OOH media spaces; it’s not a zero-sum game here. Because the technology requires a dark environment, the holographic ad units would be solar-powered during the day to minimize operating costs for powering the space at night. Therefore, standard billboards will still serve their purpose during the day and holograms will complement the day-time executions. Client’s ad spend dollars would increase, and the creatives will have an exciting new medium that employs three different kinds of media arts - TV, digital and OOH. If I were an art director, I’d have a field day. Cannes Lions, here I come.

Imagine, one day we may well be walking through a city laden with holographic ad units built atop and in between buildings. We’re already obsessed with everything 3D these days. It’s only a matter of time before every metropolis begins moving like a real-time version of Madonna’s Ray of Light video. Because, after all, we’re just trying to see the light.

HOBAGS: Because I want every girl to have one.

This was an idea I had brewing for an international business class I took in grade twelve that I decided to bring back from the dead. It’s a Hobag, because I want every girl to have one.

Would you buy one?

I would.

(Mockup made by @thehoshow using Photoshop CS4; leather image via asifthebes).

GL-ADs: Saatchi & Saatchi for Papa John’s Peru

Found this nugget while sifting through my old bookmarks. I love[mark] the WTF moment that comes with this guerilla campaign and its cleverness, too.

Activating with collateral: virtual test drives

During the time between getting my degrees and my first full-time job (a.k.a. a time of emotional eating and pants-shopping), I had interviewed at numerous firms, one of them being TBWA Toronto as a suit for the Infiniti account (no, I didn’t get the job, BUT instead ended up getting an offer for another group account). And yes, I love using brackets in my vernacular writing.

TBWA told me to pitch an idea for getting prospective buyers to book test drives at the Infiniti dealerships as part of the interview process. My idea, a virtual test drive that’s distributed digitally (of course) and in the form of collateral (branded USB keys that look like Infiniti car keys), didn’t come to me until midnight the night before my 9AM morning interview. Sketching, scanning, and writing on the spot ‘til the sunrise? Talk about Taco Bell Hell, and I didn’t even eat my beloved combo #7 (one hard, one soft) that night. Finally though, I ended up with something I’m quite proud of. I’ve re-blogged the one-page microsite (click on Read More below) I created with no edits at all; what you see is what I wrote verbatim for that assignment (but I’ve optimized the images for tumblr).

Since it was only a writing exercise, TBWA Toronto didn’t buy the concept seriously. But hey, I still think it’s a good idea. So if @TBWA/@DigitalArtists or any other mad men enjoy the following idea, let’s talk, why not. Click below to read now and let me know what you think!…

Read More

JAPANCakes: The red velvet pancakes.

Since this is the first official entry to the blog, I thought I’d break the proverbial (but non-denominational) bread with ye potential reader and follower with a food offering I concocted in my head. For any meet-and-greet, food always eases the initial awkwardness, ya know?

So I happily pitch to you, JAPANCakes. They’re microwaveable frozen red velvet pancakes, but with a punny name. Considering the only incremental cost over regular pancakes is for red food colouring, this product could easily be priced at the average market price for frozen boxed pancakes (approx. $1.99 CDN per 280-360g, after recouping initial investments and reaching economies of scale). Initial traction targets would be Asian Canadian distributors such as T&T (purely based on marketing aesthetics and the name), but also has major crossover appeal to mainstream brands such as Loblaw since the taste is pretty Western. Yeah yeah, I know what you’re thinking, JAPANCakes has nothing to do with Japan. But Kellogg’s Apple Jacks never really tasted like apples either.

Possible brand extensions for JAPANCakes could include frozen crêpes, waffles and even a dry-mix boxed powder format. Revenue streams could also diversify through restaurant licensing or co-branded products in franchised chains. Marketing promotions should ramp up before the Valentine’s Day season with cross promotion in the cooking hardware market (e.g. heart-shaped molds for cooking pancakes).

Oh, and also imagine if you made funnel cakes out of the red velvet JAPANCake batter, then lightly powdered with lemon-scented icing sugar. Perhaps a dollop of whipped cream as well to top it off. Are you wet in the mouth yet?

Evident from this post, I have an interest in anything art & commerce-related, which I’ll be covering on the blog. Thanks for being my Dragons’ Den.

(Logo made by @thehoshow using Photoshop CS4 [although I should’ve been using AI]).

“THEHOSHOW” by GENE HO

S Y N O P S I S

One man named @thehoshow, a 20-something Torontonian with Coke-bottle glasses and rockabilly hair, montages the things he sees inside and out of his mind.

L O G L I N E

This is a blog about one man’s lifestyle, written in the style of a magazine.

T A G L I N E

This is not a men’s lifestyle magazine.