Advertising & Marketing

A brief history of marketing in Minnesota

Over at MinnPost John Renian has a post in tribute to Pat Fallon (who is about to be inducted in the Advertising Hall of Fame) and other Minnesota marketing greats. If you click over to the story you can read about Fallon, Carmichael Lynch, Campbell-Mithun, and a 1914 booklet printed by the UofM on how to plan an advertising campaign.

(and because it’s International Women’s Day, I have to tell you to make sure to read the comments)

1 Up: Gaming & Advertising, an Agency Primer

If you missed last week’s Agency Primer about gaming & advertising, there’s no need to worry you get an extra life right here. We’ve got video and the slide deck from our one-hour conversation with SnowOwl Studio, a game design company on the topic of gaming as advertising. Some of the things covered in the presentation include:

• 10 reasons gaming is good advertising
• Who’s playing: an overview of modern gamer demographics
• A survey of gaming platforms and their relative development costs

Agency Primer: Gaming and Advertising from The Nerdery on Vimeo.

Know your history: 38 years of Super Bowl Commercials

The Super Bowl is Sunday, and for those of us who don’t get into sports it can still be considered an event what with The Who playing the halftime show (though they do have big shoes to fill after The Boss’ performance last year), and, of course, the commercials. Before the big game, take a look at this archive featuring 38 years of Super Bowl Commercials. It’s a fun history lesson in pop culture, technology, and advertising.

Even if you don’t watch all the commercials even the thumbnails are pretty revealing. For instance, Michael J. Fox had quite a commercial run for Pepsi from 87-89 when in 90 he was usurped by Fred Savage.

Here’s the commercial for the Tandy computer, a steal at only $2,999 (1984):

Also running the same year (1984), the iconic Apple commercial:

I also loved this one for IBM Typewriters (1986):

Tech Tuesday: Development for (and getting our Nerdery hands on) the Apple iPad

By now, you’ve read all about the Apple’s new tablet, the iPad. You’ve watched the videos. You’ve maybe giggled about the product name; let’s be honest though, the Nintendo Wii’s name hasn’t hurt its popularity. You’ve either dismissed it as a big iPod Touch that won’t go anywhere, or, you’ve already smashed your piggy bank and have money in hand. Regardless, Apple has a pretty good track record with their latest products (iPod, iTunes, iPhone) and we don’t want our ad and marketing agency partners to be the last ones to the party.

First, the iPad debut doesn’t mean that our agency partners should stop making iPhone applications. All iPhone applications will work on the iPad out of the box.

But how does the iPad affect our agency partners who have already created applications for iPhone and now also want to take advantage of the bigger screen of the iPad? Unfortunately, it’s not as simple as hitting an Easy button (trust me, I have one) and magically all your applications are reformatted for the iPad. The user interface will have to be redesigned to support multiple resolutions. It’s also not just relaying out the design for the larger screen; it’s also understanding what the iPad is, and designing an amazing user interface to take advantage of the new user interface features.

When looking at creating a new iPad application, our agency partners really have two options: target just the iPad or target the iPhone and the iPad.  Targeting the only the iPad should have a similar development cycle and cost as developing an application just for the iPhone. If the choice is to target both devices, there will be some design layout changes, but the core of the application will stay the same. There will also be some additional time for our crack Quality Assurance team to make sure we release a great application.

If you don’t think the iPad is going anywhere, I present Steve Ballmer.

Then again, if you think Apple is infallible, I present the iPod Hi-Fi.

Either way, The Nerdery is ready to help you create great applications, no matter the platform.

Vintage Ad Browser

If you didn’t catch this yesterday, it will be the coolest thing you see on the Internet today. The Vintage Ad Browser has more than 120,000 ads from, “a variety of sources, including comic books, CD-Roms, websites, APIs, your submissions, book, magazine & comic book scans, and more.” The ads are categorized by topic (Celebrity, Coke, Future, Perfume, Office, etc.) and then within each topic categorized by decade.

The Ads go back to the 1800s all the way up the the 2000s. It’s an amazing collection. Be careful when clicking because once you start you might end up losing an hour or two. I just spent 45 minutes trying to an ad to demonstrate how awesome this collection is and got lost. . . It really is that cool.

Take a look at this one with Frank Zappa, easily my favorite so far. What’s your favorite?

Ads we hate

Slate’s got a piece on Ads We Hate and it features a few good ones including that creepy windup doll depression ad and the Charmin bears who get toilet paper stuck to their fur. However, it misses the ad I despised the most out of all the ads on TV this year. The Target Christmas commericals featuring all kinds of passive aggressive holiday behavior. Really, they were uncomfortable to even watch. Don’t you agree?

What ads did you hate this year? Let it all out, it’s a time of venting and then a time of healing. (and if you mention the adorable Talk to the Moose commercial, I might cry.)

Agency Primer Notes on Mobile Web Design

If you missed Tuesday’s Agency Primer on Mobile Friendly Web Design, don’t worry there’s still time to sign-up for tomorrow’s primer (that’s Thursday, December 18, at 3:15 p.m. CST). Still can’t make it? Well, we have the second best thing the slides from the primer as well as a video you can watch to go along with them. Sure you won’t be able to ask your own questions, but you know that you can always contact us if you want a live-action private session for your agency, right? Well you can.

The slide deck:

And the video:

The Nerdery’s Mobile Friendly Web Design Agency Primer from The Nerdery on Vimeo.

10 Top 10 Lists before ‘10 begins

1. Top 10 Agencies of the Decade
2. Top 10 Brands that will Disappear in 2010
3. Top 10 Astronomy Pictures of 2009
4. 10 Signs the Worst of 2009 Is Behind Us
5. Top 10 Viral Videos of 2009
6. Top 10 Ideas of the Decade
7. Top 10 Media/Marketing Innovations of the Decade
8. Top 10 Spec Ads That Went Viral Over the Past 10 Years
9. 10 Worst Marketing Blunders of 09
10. Top 10 Defunct Advertising Characters

Agency Primer: Mobile-friendly Web Design for Agencies

This week The Nerdery continuse its series of Agency Primers with Mobile-Friendly Web Design where you can learn what you need to get your clients’ big message to the small screens of millions of on-the-go web users.

RSVP for one of our public sessions held on Tuesday December 15th at 10:15 a.m. CST or Thursday December 17th at 3:15 p.m. CST. If you’re interested in a private session, the contact information is on the RSVP page.

This primer offers a one-hour tour of the things your agency needs to know about when it comes to making your web projects mobile-friendly. We’ll cover:

• Sizing up the mobile web market.
• Understanding the difference between mobile users and “normal” users.
• Technologies available to enhance the mobile web experience.
• Common mistakes brands make in the name of mobile-friendliness.
• Example implementations and cost estimates.

Sign-up today, it’s totally free!

Vote for the best advertising & marketing of the decade

The editors at AdweekMedia are slated to announce their picks for the best marketing, media, and agency performances of the 2000s in December. They’ll be pointing out stellar brands, commercials, agencies (large and small) and more in over 33 categories.

And because this is America, you too can vote on some of the best advertising, marketing, and branding of the decade. Get your vote on over at Best of the 2000s.

Even if you don’t want to vote go over there and take a look at the nominees in the 33 categories, and click view results at the bottom, right now it looks like Steve Jobs is going to be crowned king of the world.