Category Archive

Carrot Clothing S/S 08

Artist: James Jean

James Jean website: jamesjean.com/
James Jean Blog: processrecess.com/

ICE PAK

Sense noun, verb, sensed, sens.ing.

1. any of the faculties, as sight, hearing, smell, taste, or touch, by which humans perceive stimuli originating from outside or inside the body.

Your five senses play an important role in your daily life. Every moment in your life, you use at least one of your five senses. You touch, hear, see, taste, and smell in order to adapt to a new environment.

ICE Factor is now appealing to those five senses by incorporating the ICE PAK! The ICE PAK brings all the different sights, smells, feelings, sounds, and tastes together in the form of a Backpack for your next corporate promotion!

ICE PAK is designed specifically for Street Teams to grab the attention of consumers and provide the ultimate “Innovative Consumer Experience!” The sleek and unique ICE PAK appeals to the five senses of each consumer as Street Teams promote, brand, and direct market your company!

“YOU DREAM IT - WE ICE PAK IT!” - contact me for your next campaign

Nathan Hewitt

nhewitt@icefactor.com

Street Teams in Chicago

Street Team Marketing in Chicago - Guerilla Marketing

If you’re a marketer and trying to find a reliable and effective Street Team in Chicago - I’m the contact you need (Segway Street Teams, Scooter Squads Campaigns, Classic Street Teams).

Nathan Hewitt

nhewitt@icefactor.com

http://www.icefactor.com/

Are you ready to take it to the street?

Make a lasting impression utilizing the Innovative Consumer Experience. Our ICE Street Team campaign will provide a unique and memorable experience by promoting, branding, and interacting directly with consumers.

The ICE Street Team is here to provide a personal touch to your targeted audience. ICE Street Teams can travel from destination to destination or remain in a heavy traffic area. The ICE street team is there to promote and brand the service and product at hand.

ICE street team can hand out products, interact with consumers, or even provide hands on experience with the Bluetooth® ICE ZONE campaign.

Tags: advertising, chicago, illinois, instant results, instant sales, marketing, product launch, promotion, street teams NYC, abstract, ad, ambush, ambush marketing, ambushchi, art, arts, branding, brands, campaign, chicago, culture, events, guerilla, illinois, innovation, la, launch, life, marketing, product launch, promotions, street, street team, team, viral

Chicago Scooter Squads - Ice Factor Street Teams

Interested in a campaign?

Please contact me:
Nathan Hewitt - nhewitt@icefactor.com

SCOOTER SQUADS
Are you ready for eye-catching media?

Make a lasting impression utilizing our Innovative Consumer Experience. Our Scooter Squad advertising campaigns will provide a unique and long lasting impression. Scooter Squads utilize scooters that trailer two-sided billboards. Clients can have ICE Factor’s Scooter Squads provide product samples, add impact to larger marketing campaigns, and provide an interactive and fun, eye catching experience. As scooters drive selected routes, they are sure to grab the attention of consumers and provide a memorable experience.

SEE THE SCOOTER SQUADS IN ACTION

“YOU DREAM IT - WE SCOOT IT!”

Chicago Segway ® Street Team - Ice Factor

SEGWAY® TEAMS

Interested in a campaign? - Please contact me

Nathan Hewitt
nhewitt@icefactor.com

SEE THE SEGWAY® TEAM IN ACTION

Bluetooth Proximity Marketing in Chicago - contact Nathan @ Ice Factor nhewitt@icefcator.com

BLUETOOTH® PROXIMITY MARKETING
What is Bluetooth® wireless technology?

Bluetooth® technology is how mobile phones, computers, and personal digital assistants (PDAs), not to mention a broad selection of other devices, can be easily interconnected using a short-range wireless connection. Using this technology, users can have all mobile and fixed computer devices be totally coordinated.

Why would a company want to utilize Bluetooth® wireless technology as a marketing campaign?

Imagine being able to automatically deliver an advertisment or a form of multimedia content , directly into a consumers mobile phone. Consumers can receive a variety of information as soon as they are near your store. Information can be sent as pictures, videos, coupons, ringtones, and business cards.

Bluetooth proximity marketing can also be known as “viral marketing.” Viral marketing is a marketing tecnique that facilitates and encourages people to pass along a marketing message voluntarily. A satisfied customer can tell a friend about a product or service from their experience and transfer the received Bluetooth content that could reach an unlimited amount of consumers.

• 100% Free Bluetooth® transfers for all of your customers
• Market pictures, videos, and store coupons
• Provide innovative and fun advertising to your target market

Do you have a visual example to help me understand this new media?

SHOW ME AN EXAMPLE

VIEW A PUBLISHED ARTICLE IN THE MEETING PROFESSIONAL

Interested in a campaign?

Please contact me:
Nathan Hewitt
nhewitt@icefactor.com

IceFactor.com

Brand Awarness & Product Launch Campaigns in Chicago

Are you looking to do a product launch or aggressive brand awareness campaign? Look no further…
Nathan Hewitt - nhewitt@icefactor.com

ICE Factor provides eye catching, high impact, memorable marketing solutions through the use of Scooter Squads, Segway® Teams, Bluetooth® Proximity Marketing and Street Teams. We make the consumer take notice of your company and leave them with a lasting impression of your promotion.

ICE Factor’s Innovative Consumer Experience provides unique services
that integrate brand advertising, promotions, and direct marketing.

spotted

>> Just outside the Bryant Park tents, a DKNY bike standing out like a bright orange beacon among the rain-strewn everything.  Apparently they’re being set up all around New York starting yesterday — the first of many attention grabbing tricks to come this week, I’m sure.

P

Brad Pitt Advertising Edwin Jeans via Denimology

Here is the new ad campaign for Edwin Jeans featuring Brad Pitt.

continued (with more photos) this way…

Permalink

Anyone know how to add Adsense into WordPress?

I’ve read you can’ t w/a free acount but can w/a paid account.  Anyone know is this true?

Thank you,

ambushchi@gmail.com

Rock & Republic and Diesel Open Online Stores via Denimology

This month both Rock & Republic and Diesel have opened online stores. The Rock & Republic store is pretty straight-forward displaying the jeans, clothing and accessories is an easy to browse way. Diesel on the other hand take their usual bonkers approach to web design by displaying their range in a “Liquid Space Style Lounge” which turns out to be an underwater “Matrix” style environment where browsing through the range is frustratingly difficult.

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Iron Army Spring/Summer 2008 Campaign via Denimology

Here’s a first look at the new Spring/Summer 2008 campaign photos from the Iron Army. This denim label was started a couple of years ago by two Canadians who were buying thrift store jeans and then taking them apart and remaking them into something they liked. Soon the started manufacturing their own jeans and now they are based in LA and their jeans are stocked by Barney’s and Ron Herman. Anyone that has bought a pair of Iron Army jeans is invited to send in their photos and they will be featured on their website as part of the ever-expanding Iron Army.

Permalink

Kate Moss was photographed for a Donna Karan campaign — for the first time ever.  The images were shot in LA last week by Mert and Marcus and will feature Donna’s Spring “Nueva York”-themed collection.  Lucky for us, a pesky paparazzo was on set, take a gander this-a-way to see Kate in action…or inaction, whichever may be the case.

If you’re a marketer and trying to find a reliable and effective Street Team in Chicago.

I’m the contact you need (Segway Street Teams, Scooter with Billboard Campaigns, Classic Street Teams).

Nathan Hewitt

nhewitt@icefactor.com

http://chicagostreetteams.blogspot.com/

gracenote music map

a popularity map showing snapshots of current top artists & album charts by geographical location. based on Gracenote’s “Media Database” (the database that provides the album information for ripped CDs), the interactive map illustrates the latest artists & album lookups in states, regions, countries & continents around the world.

[link: gracenote.com|via boingboing.net]

What you can learn from the primaries via Seth Godin (guru Marketer)

This year, the presidential candidates in the US are going to spend a fortune (or perhaps two or three fortunes) marketing themselves in the primaries. Any product or service that is being launched has to deal with its own ‘primary.’ Here are a few universal lessons any marketer can take away:

• Primary voters pay attention. They need far less yelling than the typical consumer, and many of them will go out of their way to poke around. Go where they are, and they’ll listen.
• Primary voters are not everyone. They have different needs and beliefs than the mass market.
• Primary voters want a candidate that will offend other primary voters.
• Primary voters want authentic, direct communication.
• Primary voters are still people. They are often fooled by great haircuts, well presented speeches or the paint job on the tour bus. (Not for long, though–it wears off).
• Primary voters don’t care a bit about how your candidate is doing in another state.
• Primary voters establish the stories that last long after the primaries are over. When Hillary Clinton has to deal with accusations of triangulation, she knows that they will stick with her for a while.
• Primary voters are far more likely to talk to each other about candidates than other people are.
• Primary voters are far less likely to need to know who is going to win before they ‘waste’ a vote. Witness Ron Paul’s legions.
• Primary voters, like all human beings, have a limit. They are not insatiable. They can be spammed to excess.
• Primary voters want to be heard, not just led.
• Primary voters make unreasonable demands.
• Primary voters want to be treated with respect.

TV Viewing, 1952-2007

Nielsen: Historical TV viewing activity among households, from about 4hr 48min a day in 1952-53 to 8.14 in 2006-07.
– TV by the numbers

*Check out this company: ICE FactorInnovative Marketing Company - Ice Factor

Everything from Bluetooth Proximity Marketing & Segway Street Teams

BLUETOOTH® MARKETING ICE Factor provides direct Bluetooth® proximity marketing and services. 100% FREE for end users. - ICE ZONES - APPLICATIONS

SCOOTER CAMPAIGNS Advertise to consumers with excitement via scooters towing billboard trailers.

STREET TEAMS Hand out product samples, interact with your target audience, mobilize a Bluetooth® campaign and provide a personal touch.

MORE MARKETING SERVICES Find out how to integrate other services for marketing and adv

Update: I’m very excited to be working with Ice Factor - please contact me with any questions or for more information on your next campaign: nhewitt@icefactor.com

SETH’S PHILOSOPHY (SHORT VERSION, VIA HIS BOOKS)

1. For fifty years, advertising (and the pre-packaged, one-way stories that make good advertising] drove our economy. Then media exploded. We went from three channels to 500 hundred, from no web pages to a billion. At the same time, the number of choices mushroomed. There are more than 100 brands of nationally advertised water. There are dozens of car companies, selling thousands of combinations. Starbucks offers 19,000,000 different ways to order a beverage, and Oreo cookies come in more than nineteen flavors.

   In the face of all this choice and clutter, consumers realized that they have quite a bit of power. So advertising stopped working.

2. One insight is that marketing with permission works better than spam. In other words, delivering anticipated, personal and relevant ads to the people who want to get them is always more effective than yelling loudly at strangers. PERMISSION MARKETING addresses this issue.
3. Once an idea is in the hands of people who care about its success, it may be lucky enough to benefit from digitally augmented word of mouth. I call this an ideavirus. Modern ideas spread online and off, and this is faster and more effective than the old-fashioned centralized way of selling. UNLEASHING THE IDEAVIRUS is the most successful ebook of all time and you can buy the paperback for about $10. Feel free to look for the ebook online as well. It’s free.
4. It’s remarkable products that get remarked on. That seems obvious, but it flies in the face of the way most goods and services and business items are created and marketed. Boring is invisible. PURPLE COW is all about this.
5. The thing that makes something remarkable isn’t usually directly related to the original purpose of the product or service. It’s the FREE PRIZE INSIDE, the extra stuff, the stylish bonus, the design or the remarkable service or pricing that makes people talk about it and spread the word.
6. The controversial ALL MARKETERS ARE LIARS isn’t about lying at all. It’s about telling stories that people want to believe. It’s about the fact that people want bottled water, not tap, iPod Nanos, not Rios, and politicians who talk straight, regardless of the consequences… But most of all, it’s about authenticity.
7. Most of all, Godin believes that it’s possible to enjoy your job, to do the right thing, to be transparent, to give more than you get and to be successful, all at the same time. In fact, that’s sort of the definition of success, isn’t it?

TOP 7 ‘SETH’S BLOG’ POSTS OF ALL TIME

Small is the new big

How the net turns the advantage of the mighty upside down.

Don’t shave that yak!

How to get things done.

What makes an idea viral?

How ideas spread. The short version

Beware the CEO Blog

Well, beware the bad ones, anyway.

The new digital divide

It’s about attitude, not bandwidth

Two kinds of writing

For strangers and for friends, of course.

Death plus a fine

Just a photo

www.jcreport.com/current/

Brands, Bags, Books, and Blogs

Paris Fashion Week provided inspiration for this entire Brands, Bags, Books, and Blogs issue. Though our review of the breakthrough shows rounds out our runway coverage of the season, we also discovered the fabulous collections of Celestina and Bea Valdes — two Manila-based accessories lines that define Filipino chic — at the Vendôme luxury tradeshow. Meanwhile, at the 6267 showroom, we ran into Alissa Emerson filing her order for Edit, a just-opened Carnegie Hill, New York store selling brands that are sure to excite the uptown neighborhood. Since books were on the minds of many editors and buyers that we spoke to — particularly at a chance meeting at Colette — Fall Bookings profiles the must-read selections of the season. Blogs, meanwhile, represented the other reading material of choice for show attendees this season. While we lent our services to Style.com’s Style File, we also spoke with Imran Ahmed about his own blog, The Business of Fashion, as well as the general blogosphere.

New Books by Seth Godin

The Houdini Solution

Surrounded by Geniuses

I liked them both.

Also, comic book fans, if you haven’t seen this yet, it’s something that will thrill you.

And I just read Scott Adams new book, which he certainly doesn’t need my link to promote, and it’s exactly what you’d expect if you read his blog. He can write.

I’ve been reading a lot of Max Barry lately. Sort of what happens if an accessible Kurt Vonnegut starts writing about marketing.

And lastly, Fred has a challenge going on at Donor’s Choose. A very cool idea.

CSS

Seth Godin, Sep 28, 2007 15:49:22 GMT

Three simple letters.

Sit down with your web team, pretend you know what you’re talking about (it worked for me) and say them with authority.

It’s not the next big thing. It’s the current big thing. Your site can’t help but get better if you start now. Inspiration: Unmatchedstyle.com. If you’re puzzled, try this site. Click on some of the examples in the right side bar.

For a nickel

Seth Godin, Sep 29, 2007 18:09:08 GMT

The current Fast Company reports that when Ikea started charging a nickel for shopping bags, consumption went down by 50% (95% in the UK).

Clearly, it’s not the nickel.

The way you charge for something changes the way people perceive it. If the dinner special includes dessert, people get dessert because it’s ‘free’. Of course, it’s not free. You paid extra for the special, remember?

A la carte pricing focuses your consumer. It forces them to make a choice in a spot where they didn’t use to make a choice. It can highlight features that might have gone unnoticed (underbody salt removal treatment at the car wash, for example).

If you want people to notice a bit of consumption, charge for it. Even a penny.
If you want people to take something they had been leaving behind, give it away with purchase. Otherwise, they’re wasting.

Here’s one practical application. If you make something with low marginal cost like a CD, consider offering a second one (same title) for a nickel or a dollar. Why? Because if a customer buys a second as a gift, they’ve just helped you spread the word…

Yellow Pages in your Pocket

Rumors are swirling around that there will be a gPhone soon (the Google Phone).

Google is turning into an operating system company. Apple = = > Apple, while Microsoft = = > Google.

My non-inside prediction of what the third-generation phone they ship will be like:
(Relatively) free
(Relatively) open
Ad supported

So, any carrier can offer it (hence the free part), any developer can easily modify it/enhance it, and the thing is paid for by location-aware permission marketing. Anticipated, personal and relevant ads based on who you are, what you do and where you are. GPS-coded photographs from all over the world automatically appended to Google Maps. Free calls if you’re on a wifi network. And it won’t be nearly as design-wonderful as an iPhone. But it will be addictive and in many ways, better.

I’ve been wrong before, but my guess is that this is a huge sweet spot and an even bigger market than most people imagine.

Saturday, September 01, 2007

For-profits planning events for cause, exposure

By Sarah Bzdega
Staff Writer

Saturday, September 01, 2007

The SWINE festival attracted about 1,000 people for an afternoon of sampling wine and pork creations. Co-host Melinda Toyne, owner of In Any Event, said the event did not bring in a lot of money, but provided exposure for her work. Photo Submitted

In the midst of a downtown revitalization and rapid suburban growth, Greater Des Moines is experiencing another phenomenon: an increase in events. Whereas Greater Des Moines residents used to find a few festivals a year sponsored by nonprofit organizations focused on bolstering community activity, calendars are now filled with multiple offerings.

Leading this trend are a number of for-profit businesses that are creating events as a way to add vibrancy to Greater Des Moines and often to support a charitable cause, in addition to generating exposure for their business and bringing in a small financial stream.

“I think we’ve been entertainment consumers for years, and a lot of us are building businesses around that experience in Des Moines,” said Kathryn Dickel, co-owner of Swaelu Media, who is working on a citywide festival for 2008. “It’s an evolution like everything else, an evolution of the entertainment industry.”

The effect is an increase in diverse cultural offerings, which enhances the quality of life and draws people to the area, said Greg Edwards, president and CEO of the Greater Des Moines Convention and Visitors Bureau.

“What we’re doing is changing people’s attitudes and behaviors and patterns,” said Melinda Toyne, owner of In Any Event, who started this year’s SWINE festival. “It’s not once a month you have an event or festival to go to. It’s perhaps every weekend or every other weekend.”

Small firms, big events

In collaboration with Doug Bakker, a former colleague who now runs a vineyard and is director of the Iowa Wine Growers Association, Toyne introduced the SWINE festival this summer. The one-day event featuring Iowa wines and pork creations from Iowa chefs on Des Moines Area Community College’s Ankeny campus drew 1,000 participants and raised $1,000 for DMACC’s new viticulture and enology program.

“The goal in the first year was to break even and then make a donation back to DMACC, which we were able to do,” Toyne said. “I recognize that as being a success.”

Though the money Toyne pocketed from the event was not enough to make up for the amount of time she invested in it, she said it gave her valuable exposure. At least one person has contacted her about a potential project after attending the event.

“They enjoyed the experience,” she said, “and therefore saw that as a reflection on In Any Event’s work.”

Though running an event can become a profitable business venture over a few years, Toyne points out that the risk can sometimes be greater. For SWINE, she and Bakker provided most of the financial backing and had to handle details ranging from insurance policies to lighting and marketing.

“[Attendees] purchase a beverage for four dollars and think it’s pure profit,” she said. “That’s very much not the case. That’s why you don’t see more larger-scale events or only see them one time.”

Like Toyne, much of Nathan Hewitt’s work is for the cause, which often is to showcase fashion, art and other talent in Greater Des Moines.

Hewitt, who provides marketing and runway fashion show and event planning services through his business, Ambush, has worked on several events, including LoveStruck, featuring Des Moines’ most eligible singles, which drew 1,000 people and raised $16,000, $6,000 of which went to Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Iowa. He also produced Glamour Girl Charm School, an edgy runway fashion show, which attracted 400 people, and Big Hair Ball through the Des Moines Art Center’s Art Noir program, which last year drew 1,000 people. Though he is moving to Chicago in a few weeks, he also is involved with planning Catalyst State: Iowa Design Weekend, which will showcase design in fashion, architecture and graphics on Nov. 16 and 17.

Most of Hewitt’s work is pro bono or for a small profit, but he said, “It definitely generates awareness for my company and for my creative input.” Even if clients are not looking for an event planner, he often acts as a consultant. Through connections from doing these events, he also has found ways to cut costs and collaborate with other people.

Still, he said, “it takes a lot of passion and a lot of energy. I don’t know if it’s my personality or if it’s just what I’m doing, but I don’t find a lot of financial reward in it.”

Companies want in

Thanks to the exposure they receive, many of these event-planning operations have found opportunities to work with larger companies interested in hosting major events.

Hewitt relates this to a lecture he attended at Iowa State University, where the guest speakers from Harvard University talked about the “experience economy” and how the service industry has evolved into needing to create memorable events so that consumers remember and connect with a product or service.

“I think you’re going to see more and more events and festivals hopefully sponsored by bigger companies and brands as they come to see more and more value from producing these events,” he said.

Hewitt is in the process of planning an event for a friend, artist Lee Ann Conlan, which in addition to having a band that does video installations and instrumental rock/hip-hop, could also feature Conlan drawing a portrait of a nude model at the event to connect people to her work, which often features nude female figure drawings.

Edwards agrees that more companies are looking at hosting events as a way to connect consumers to their brand.

“If you look at the trends across corporate America, probably in the last decade, all of these companies are now putting their names on things, from the big football bowl games to locally, like the Principal Charity Classic and Hy-Vee Triathlon,” he said. “I think corporations want to get their name out in front of the public in a different way and it shows they’re giving back to the community.”

Over the past four years, Toyne has helped organize and evolve Oktoberfest into a major event for Full Court Press Co., owners of Hessen Haus and many other bars and restaurants downtown. What started as a party in the bar parking lot has now evolved into a weekend event that expands into Fourth Street. Last year, 12,000 people attended, up from 8,000 the year before.

Though the Full Court Press owners assumed all the expense and liability and endured a couple of years before they realized a financial gain from the event, Toyne said, “it shows they have a broader goal for downtown Des Moines. Yes, they want to bring unique restaurants and bars to the area, but they also want to extend that in a natural way to a few special marquee-type events.”

However, a few other clients Toyne has worked with have decided not to pursue an event after she took them through a cost analysis and what they needed to do to make it happen. “At a glance, it may seem like a short-term investment for immediate return on a large scale,” she said, “but that’s not always the case.”

Future festivities

To lessen the risks associated with hosting an event, many event planners have collaborated with several partners, along with developing relationships with restaurant owners, musicians and other small businesses. Many also rely on sponsorships to cover a large portion of the expense.

When Dickel and her business partner, Heather Hansen, began conceiving of the FAMA festival (acronym for food, art, music and awareness), they decided to hold it the same time as the World Food Prize Harvest Festival and the Des Moines Marathon in October, so that the events could combine marketing efforts and draw more people to each event.

“It’s a trifecta that’s going to bring in an international crowd and a lot of people who are into nutrition and health. It has a lot of implications for food and the whole political dynamic,” Dickel said, pointing to how Iowa will be in the spotlight during the presidential election campaign.

The event, which has been put on hold until 2008 to allow more time for planning, will involve more than 50 locations throughout Greater Des Moines, featuring aspects of international culture, from world cuisine to international art and music. With an overall focus on world hunger, the event will also strive to raise awareness about that issue.

“There really hasn’t been a festival geared toward driving traffic into the businesses,” Dickel said. “Usually it brings everyone to a location.”

In addition to working with venues, Swaelu Media also has been working with many small businesses to receive services, such as printing and advertising, in exchange for sponsorships. The event also gives Swaelu an opportunity to integrate its work with several industries, including entrepreneurs, nonprofits and entertainment groups, into one effort, while creating a new product that the company can build upon and eventually use to generate money.

With so many people planning events of this scale, Toyne worries that competition for drawing people to an event could heat up. “If you’re the sole event, that’s more the exception to the rule,” she said.

However, Edwards believes the diversity of events will encourage people to attend several in one day. And as the city continues to grow, he expects the number of events to grow with it.

“I think we’ll continue to see some moderate growth,” he said, “I think as other new things happen around Des Moines, especially as the Principal Riverwalk is completed, I think you’ll see more events happening down there. All of the booming suburb areas are going to continue to see event growth, too, because it helps keep residents happy and enhances the quality of life.”

Des Moines Business Record - Saturday, September 01, 2007