Crowley Webb Blog

Flash mobs go mainstream.

by Zack Schneider

Flash mobs, if you are not familiar, are large underground groups who organize huge public pranks. One of the most notorious was the Grand Central Station mob, which organized 207 “agents” to freeze for 5 minutes and then go on with their day as if nothing has happened. Check it out here if you’re not familiar.

It was only a matter of time before flash mobs found their place in adverting. Most recently, T-Mobile in the UK organized an impressive flash mob of 300 at the Liverpool street station. The difference here is the advertising message associated with the prank. The reaction of the stunned public was filmed, along with their participation. Cells phones were out everywhere helping to illustrate the T-Mobile tagline, “Life’s for Sharing.”

The results are the impressive part of the whole campaign. The film generated 1.7 million views on YouTube, within two minutes of being featured on newscasts. The nice thing about this viral technique is that the video actually links back to the brand. Beyond the online viral, the ad created buzz in the media. AdWeek and AdAge picked up the story, along with WheresTheSausage.com, just to name a few.

What’s clever here is the insight into how we react when we see something amazing. What do we do? We break out our mobiles to call, text, and send email to everyone we know. Congrats to T-Mobile and their advertising team for picking up on current trends and making the best use of them for their brand.

Change comes to whitehouse.gov.

by Zack Schneider

Just as Obama’s people have used the web to bring great design to political campaigns, they have now brought great web design to the White House. Under no pressure, moments before Obama was sworn in, his people pushed the new whitehouse.gov live to the worldwide web. This moment was a huge leap forward for whitehouse.gov. And seemed like the perfect opportunity to take a look back at how far we have come in the last 13 years.

In 1996, the site was built with basic HTML and allowed the visitor to search for press releases and other presidential documents. It has a very clean look, similar to Google. 

By 1997, whitehouse.gov scratched the search functionality for page filled with hyperlinks. These called out features of importance, such as news, the Constitution, and the Declaration of Independence. 

Starting in 1998, things got cutting-edge with animated waving flags and an early Yahoo! look and feel. The site also became more of an information source for citizens with sections such as “Commonly Requested Federal Services,” “Citizens’ Handbook,” and breaking news. Not to mention “White House for Kids,” a section explaining the presidency to the youth of America. 

As George W. Bush moved in (2001), the site began to show a bit more design and structure. The first navigation bar was put in place. There was also the first stab at accessibility, allowing users to skip the images for a full text based site.

After September 11, 2001, whitehouse.gov underwent a full redesign. The focus moved from education to safety. The attention to news feeds and threat levels increased within a day. It also occurred to the Bush administration that there might be some non-English speaking people visiting the site. So the next iteration was optimized for Spanish-speaking users. “Submit your questions to the Bush administration officials” and a newfangled RSS feed were also added. Other than that, the site remained relatively unchanged throughout 2006. 

In 2007, the site underwent one last facelift while Bush was on his way out. It was yet another great leap forward. The site was more aesthetically pleasing, abandoning the portal look and feel. The navigation got major attention, as did the information architecture. The RSS feed was moved to a more prominent home on the top of the page, where podcasts were added. Design-wise, the site had come a very long way. But type treatment and formating could have used a bit more love.

Finally in 2009, Obama brought change to the White House and to whitehouse.gov as well. Macon Phillips, the newly appointed New Media Director for the Obama administration introduced the all new – and my personal favorite iteration of – whitehouse.gov.

With a tip of the hat to communication methods and the hottest trends in design, the new site offers RSS feeds, a blog, historic information, video, and it validates to XHTML 1.0. Boy, have we ever come along way, and it only took three presidents.

Let’s keep our eyes and laptops open to see what the executive branch has in store for us next.

If you’re interested in seeing all the versions of whitehouse.gov, just visit the Wayback Machine [http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://whitehouse.gov].

And be sure to leave a comment below and let me know what you think.

My Parents Went to Washington DC and All I Got Was a New President.

By Pete Reiling

When I took my son Max to Washington DC, last week, I knew I'd see lots of inaugural souvenirs. But I was amazed to find that our nation's capitol had become one big Barack Obama flea market. The staggering variety and volume of merchandise demonstrates what happens when a person is a rock star, a high-end consumer brand, a civil rights icon, and President of the United States all at the same time.

There was Obama water.

And wine.

And neckwear.

The 44th president's face appeared on Metro tickets.

And on t-shirts.

And on slightly disconcerting hoodies.

Believe me, this was just the tip of the Obamamerch iceberg. And this button, bought the day of the inauguration, would seem to indicate that his status as as a one-man economic stimulus package for the souvenir industry is safe for the foreseeable future.

Chester Cheetah finally grew up.

by matt low

No longer the smart-mouthed, fast-talking, in-your-face, cooler-than-cool, oh-my-I-wish-I-was-a-cartoon-so-could-beat-this-thing-senseless pitchman that only the late 80s could have bore, Chester Cheetah has recently undergone a makeover. He’s now far more sophisticated (glasses vs. sunglasses), going by the moniker “Papa Chester,” and encouraging poor behavior. Okay, I guess he isn’t completely devoid of his former self.

Best Thing I Found On A Monday.

by Liz Maimone

This is the only thing that can make me feel smart after playing Trivial Pursuit with Matt and Pete. Thank you, dumb dumbs.

Best of Show: Primanti’s.

By Jeff Pappalardo

 

I just got back from Pittsburgh, where I was a judge for their local ADDY competition. I saw a lot of great work, especially the print. It’s always interesting to see that, for the most part, all smaller markets are pretty much alike. We all enter our bank and healthcare ads. There’s always cultural work. And there’s always that poster campaign that has you wondering whether it’s for an actual client or not.

But enough about the work – that’s not the only reason I like to judge shows. The people are always super cool. You get to meet other judges from other cities (in this case Seattle, Providence, Jacksonville, and Milwaukee) who, just like you, face the same challenges and have the same gripes about clients and budgets. And our hosts, this time the Pittsburghers (Pittsburghians?), couldn’t have been more hospitable. They were very proud of their city and their Steelers (or “Stillers,” as they pronounce it).

Oh yeah, and then there’s the food. On Friday night, I was taken to one of the local favorites for dinner. I had seen this place featured on the Food Network, on one of those shows which features local diner-ish spots around the country. And there it was – Primanti’s. Home of a cheese steak, topped with a handful of fries, a load of slaw, a slice of tomato, on two slices of fresh Italian bread, all washed down with a cold Yuengling. Nice work, Pittsburgh.

It’s all changing again. As if anyone’s surprised.

by Erin Haskell

Every morning when I open my Outlook inbox I’m faced with information overload. Literally. I subscribe to dozens of industry newsletters, each bursting with new information that I need to know to help me do my job better, and to help our agency work harder and smarter for our clients.

Two articles in particular caught my attention this morning. They both spoke of major shifts in mass communication culture – shifts we as an agency have been witnessing as well over the last several months. While demographics affect who’s leading the change online, there is a real trend of change. (For instance, my mom is on Facebook)

The way people view, use, and engage in content on the web is changing. It’s old news to say that “the internet changes every day” in terms of technological capabilities.  We all know that, and we’ve accepted it. The new shift is coming in the form of a power shift – in the way people choose to view and interact with their choice of content. For example, the proliferation of RSS feeds is allowing internet users to spend time with their choice of content in their choice of context. That means people reading an online article posted by a major newspaper may very well be viewing it through an RSS feed, and not in its originally posted place. So if someone is viewing major newspaper content in this way, they’re not seeing the contextually placed advertising purchased on the original site. You get it, as you may be reading this blog post through the News Feed on your Facebook page. 

Content is now viewable in more places, and in more customized spaces. And within these customized spaces, there is a greater ability for connected users (such as Facebook friends) to begin a conversation. The conversation might be about an article they read, a new product they bought, or an experience (good or bad) they had with a brand.

Furthermore, the control over content once held by traditional mass media has also shifted online. It’s the CNN.coms and WashingtonPost.coms, high- and low- profile blogs, message boards and social network sites. News isn’t always broken by the “media” anymore. Recently, the story surrounding the Motrin/Twitter controversy was picked up first by bloggers who came across it on Twitter.

On a personal note, one of my colleagues caved to the mounting pressure of becoming a Facebooker this morning. He completed his profile and we showed him how to add the Crowley Webb blog feed to his News Feeds. Since this morning, he’s already gotten a few wall posts and is quickly connecting in new ways.

What’s it all mean? It’s important that we accept and understand these changes, and then determine how we can leverage them to better serve our clients in their communications efforts.

(In case you’re in interested, here are the articles that started this whole thing: 1, 2)

I don't think you can get a better position in the paper than this.

by Felicia Iggulden

Best Thing I Found On A Monday.

by Liz Maimone

This is sweet. (Pun completely intended.)

Women in their 30s/40s trying to watch their figures get all the good stuff.

by matt low

Suddenly, the candy bar I loved as a child (when I was five, my uncle, unaware of my spazzability, bought me one and then regretted it for the next six hours as I bounced off the walls) is strictly for middle-aged, weight-conscious ladies.

We're #1 (on designcharts.com).

by Zack Schneider

Every week, www.designcharts.com scans the traffic generated from their network of websites that award website design. Then, using this data, they publish their Top 40 chart every Monday. This week, CWA was on top. 

 

Thank you all for your support.  

Would you like to watch college basketball in my basement?

by matt low

Does anyone else find Bob Knight breaking down college basketball from a leather chair in what appears to be his creepy basement at all disturbing? Maybe it's just me, since I find Bob Knight disturbing.