hey you, what's that sound?

The most popular download this week on Nokia's download site mosh...

...a ringtone that makes your sweet n95 sound like an even sweeter iphone

puffy shirt

there's  lots of talk about the seinfeld / bill gates campaign for microsoft by cp+b launching in september... 

(and the $10 million they paid a guy who spent 8 years on tv using a mac...)

hard to have a constructive comment about the creative as no one we know has seen it...

but from a strategic standpoint...

there are many reasons why it will struggle... some funny... some obvious...

(in fact we think the whole thing sounds like a seinfeld episode... with peterman playing bill gates...)

but in reality... you have to look at the objective... 

what is it? 

looking at the hiring of seinfeld, his age and the demo he will work hardest against... 

the best we could figure the goal seems to be appealing to 30-something and 40-something vista resisters...

...in some combination that brings mac down while boosting vista up...

we think both are going to be challenging in the real world of apple v msft product.

microsoft needs to deal with the fact that it's operating system is under-delivering to the same people who were seemingly happy, loyal customers of xp.... 

as opposed to trying to convince everyone it's just some crazy mis-understanding...

microsoft leadership needs to take some personal inventory and focus on the future of their os... make real changes/fixes... 

assuming people don't outright hate you... if you make things better..people will come (or comeback)... it's a fact.

xp customers with little ill-will don't suddenly turn on you because justin long says so...

just like we seriously doubt a talented funny man from the 90's is going to bring them back...

this is bigger than some perceived pr war engineered by steve jobs and tbwa... 

there are real issues... and our guess is it's better to blame msft central marketing than the engineering culture in redmond.

all that said, the ironic thing is... this has happened before... 

when mac "got bad" (remember os 8?) in the 90's people left... 

people that had been seemingly happy, loyal customers left for something they perceived was better... windows.

what did apple do?

plan a advertising response to microsoft's rolling stones powered "start me up" campaign for windows 95!?!?

no... 

they re-embraced design delivering the imac... developed os x... the os at the core of everything they are today.

it's not like apple didn't advertise during this period... 

but more importantly they learned from their mistakes and responded with products that beat the competition... moved the bar forward in a way the consumer could see and feel...

if we were microsoft right now we would be a bit more concerned with getting cp+b involved with windows 7 development and launch than crying over the spilled milk that is vista...

it's not a mis-understanding... a pr bumle... or those poor bastards at mccann... 

the customer has spoken... and they're just not that into you... (or vista)

i must be in the front row!

if you know what that means you were born before the 80's...

as reported in all the ad rags, (after flirting with it a bit) miller lite will return to its most famous (and best) campaign format with the line "taste great, less filling".

we think this is a really smart, long over due, move.... 

and not just because we remember laughing out loud at spots like this and this years ago... and we can all imagine updating the format with current sports icons as well as the cameo opportunities for madden...

we think today, in the connected world we live in, "taste great, less filling" as huge potential for consumer involvement and ownership delivering real time spent with the brand...

or specifically farm believes this has the potential, if enabled, to be bigger than the total sum of the television ads.

many of us have worked on sports brands....

and have used these brands to present a position or an option of positions to consumers in a forum where they can act...

and whether it's "do something like this" or "pick a side -  you're either for this product or that product"...

consumers take the idea and run with it... 

a lot of the time making it their own... making it bigger than the advertising...

so the point of this post is... 

whoever is working on this... please...

think about "taste great, less filling" as an idea first... and then make the funny ads to promote the idea... 

if you do that, it will be larger than advertising and have longevity long after your media money runs out...

my phone is now sick!

a barabarian turned me onto this...

we are farm and we approve this message

check out saysme.tv.

they have canned messages (political television spots) from candidates that you can buy, tag with your support message ("we are farm and we support this message") and put on tv.

yes, real live, your mother can see it, tv.

basically it looks like they have a cost-per-spot deal worked on the back end with the cable soft systems (like spotrunner) so you can buy just one spot... which is cool.

look for the farm obama ad coming soon.

right in anyone's @#$%

i was pulling together a nice farm club mix on muxtape....

you don't present as well as this guy

a lot of my fellow farmers think they are pretty good in the front of the room...

but you're not as good as dick hardt.

the content of this presentation on identity portability, open id, identity 2.0, etc is cool... and has obvious relevance to the overall consumer-centric marketing conversation on farm club...

but the reason for posting this is the presentation... specifically the style and delivery...

check it out.

research as advertising?

this site for uniqlo is interesting because of something that bores the hell out of a lot of cd's i know... research.

this idea is great for many reasons around consumer transparency, social reinforcement, etc... but one of the coolest things to us is it uses the research budget to produce content...

we are guessing uniqlo was going to spend the money to do the research anyway... 

why not shoot the answers on a simple seamless background and produce hundreds of talking head pieces of content?

why not indeed?

this begs the question - hey ebay u.s., why aren't you doing this?

great idea... a bigger than advertising idea from euro and ebay france.

what is farm club?

historically big marketing ideas have been based on advertising...

but in this digital age of connectivity and consumer control farm believes big marketing ideas have to be bigger than advertising...

this is a space for like minded conspirators.

what's interesting?

http://interestingnewyork.com/