Posts tagged advertising

Portland’s own Mad Man

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Portland-area fans of the AMC cult-favorite drama Mad Men take heart.  Due to the Mad Men Casting Call contest (a partnership between AMC and Banana Republic), you can get a shot at a guest appearance on the show.  All it takes is some creativity, a camera and a devotion to 1960s-era coolness bordering on the fanatical.

The rules are simple:  visit a Banana Republic to get a ‘Mad About Style Guide’, register, and then submit a photo showing a scene and characters that could fit right into the set of the TV show.   The photo with the highest number of votes when the contest ends on September 6 gets a walk-on appearance and a small shot at being a star.

Dan Routh is creative director of Burgess Advertising & Marketing, one of Maine’s largest ad firms.  He’s also a huge fan of the show, which depicts the life and times of Manhattan ad men in the 1960s.  Having cut his teeth as a New York City advertising art director, Routh knows the subject well.  He also happens to have a trove of period items–from desks to lamps to clunky black telephones–ready to serve as props.   Add to this the desire to take advantage of an opportunity to do a little social media marketing, and this contest was a no-brainer for Routh.

The only thing he had to buy was an $8 pack of Lucky Strikes cigarettes.

Check out Routh’s Mad Men photo and add your vote.

Below, see some of the shoot outtakes, including some wide scenes that include his entire office and the lights we used on the impromptu shoot.    Yes, that’s real cigarette smoke.

Microstock: why it’s good (and bad)

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Many professional photographers complain about the growth of microstock in the past few years–inexpensive stock images (costing as little as one to five dollars) from companies like istockphoto, shutterstock and BigStockPhoto. These images on average cost pennies to dozens of dollars to use and have become standard for businesses and web designers who don’t want to commission original work for hundreds of dollars.

I don’t blame them.

Microstock has its place. Why spend a ton of money on something that you may want to change frequently, or that is part of a simple Powerpoint? Some of my business customers go through a process that starts with them doing their own photography, purchasing microstock and finally hiring a pro—that’s me— when they get busy or large enough that it makes sense to do so. I tell my clients that they should do what they can to save their money, and bring me in only when they have a big, tricky or big-splash campaign that needs to be done right. I’m part of the mix, and my client is being prudent. I like that.

Microstock is useful but it has its drawbacks too. That image of a bunch of business types interacting might be nice looking and may perfectly illustrate an ad for your conference room space rentals. But you have no control of who else uses that image. It might also perfectly illustrate the meeting space of your competitor, who decides they want to use it as well. Or it may illustrate the types of clientele an upscale escort service wants to attract and show up in some places you don’t want to associate with your brand.

My suggestion? When you decide to use a piece of stock for your primary web or marketing materials, do a search to see who else is using it. An exciting service is called www.tineye.com and if you upload an image it’ll scour the web to find where else that image is published.

The image above, sold on istockphoto for less than $10, is being used for 236 different sites around the world (see screenshots below). Interesting to note that a dozen or more companies use this same image on their “about us” pages. Wouldn’t it be better to actually show your people?

Another alternative is to hire a professional to do your work. It may cost a bit more, but the image will be totally unique—the highest value in a world of cheap copies—just like your brand. It’s yours. It’ll feature your work or your team.

Whichever way you go, it’s worth your time to go in with eyes wide open.

Reach for branding success

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“Branding” is one of those words that seem to be applied to everything, and with good reason. Every bit of text, every graphic, every image that conveys both positive and negative information about your company or your person is affecting your ‘brand’.

Are you still using that two-year-old portrait to represent you or your business? Worse, are you a brand fanatic when it comes to your website and printed materials but have a Facebook page featuring you holding a beer at last July’s block party?

Now more than ever, brands need to be professional and consistently applied. You need to look your best wherever on the Internet that Google directs your potential clients–and competitors.

Any business or individual wanting to have an immediate, positive impact to their branding should analyze their brand’s visual footprint around the internet and then devise a plan to prop up the places where their brand might show some wear. This process can be as simple as getting an updated portrait or other images that gets systematically applied.

Several of our clients update their portraits up to six times a year, keeping things fresh, professional and always new.  While that may not be your cup of tea,  revisiting your visuals annually or every other year is a good idea.