Listen here: BeanCast 251 or directly in iTunes.

This week’s BeanCast opens up with a long-winded discussion of Native Advertising, Content Marketing and whether or not ad agencies are prepared to play a role in this important and growing segment of the business. I tried to remain calm during this segment, but I could not.

My friend Bob Hoffman — who I have beers with on a semi-regular occasion — says the only brands that ought to produce content are sports teams, bands and others with a real fan base. I understand that some companies are better suited to content marketing than others, but I reject the idea. Hoffman offers a pencil manufacturer as an example of a boring product that has no business in the content game. I point out that pencils are tools used by writers; therefore, the content possibilities are as rich as could be.

Later in the episode (about 38 minutes in), Knorpp, who is an excellent host, asks me about the garment factory fire and collapse that killed 1100 in Bangladesh. I am glad he asked. While marketing may not be the first place to turn for a good answer to this immense problem, I contend that marketing does have a role, and a significant one.

I say, “I don’t think the value shopper really cares about slave labor. I wish they did but I don’t think they do, so what is the answer from a marketing perspective? We’ve got to give them something that they care about. I think “Made in America” would be amazing, and Wal-Mart which wants to fly the freaking flag like the Republican Party would be an ideal candidate to say, ‘You know what, were going to raise prices a bit, we’re going to explain this to you and we’re going to create jobs in America.’”

You see, I am not a curmudgeon at all. I am a hopeless romantic who holds tightly to my youthful idealism. I believe in our ability to adapt and improve, as ad men and as people. I know it’s not easy to tell a client that their operations are shit, and if they want to protect brand value, they need to do the right thing right now. But what business are we in? Are in the business of keeping clients happy? Or are we in the business of creating brand value? I reckon it’s up to each one of us to decide.

The post Ad Curmudgeons Speak Up On The BeanCast This Week appeared first on AdPulp.

'Tis the season for male-grooming brand extensions. Old Spice introduced its shaving gel last week. And now, Axe has updated its range of hair products for men. It's advertising them with four new 20-second ads from BBH London that have launched in Europe and will reach North America this weekend. The creative idea is that well-styled hair is crucial when you meet someone for the first time. The spots present various quirky first-meeting scenarios—the most faux-provocative of which is probably the home-invasion scenario, in which burglar seduces buglee with his perfectly slicked 'do. "We wanted to capture a simple truth about guys and their grooming habits," says David Kolbusz, deputy executive creative director at BBH. "Whenever a man sees a woman he fancies, he tends to touch up his hair before making the initial approach. We dramatized this behavior by setting it in the most extreme of circumstances." More spots and credits below.

CREDITS
Client: Lynx/Axe
Agency: BBH London

BBH Creative Team: Matt Fitch & Mark Lewis and Harry Orton and Robin Warman
BBH Creative Director: David Kolbusz
BBH Producer: Charlie Dodd
BBH Strategic Business Lead: Ngaio Pardon
BBH Strategy Director: Dan Hauck
BBH Strategist: Tim Jones
BBH Team Director: Heather Cuss
BBH Team Manager: Cressida Holmes Smith

Production Company: Outsider and Station Films
Director: Harold Einstein
Executive Producer: Eric Liney
Producer: Jon Stopp/Richard Packer
DoP: Danny Cohen
Post Production: The Mill
Editor/Editing House: The Mill
Sound: Factory

Damn you, hot hunks of advertising! Damn you to hot, hunky hell! Your Grecian glutes mock me as I polish off another nacho platter, and your six-pack abs shame me as I knock back my six-pack of beer! Shirtless Josh Button is the latest addition to the ad-hunk trend, rising seductively from the sea in Deutsch L.A.'s new tongue-in-cheek commercial for Diet Dr Pepper. (They make diet soda now?) "Millions of guys are born good looking," Button's voiceover begins, as the number 70,611,600 flashes on screen. "But not many are really good looking." The number 64,891 appears. "Even fewer are really, really, really, really, really good looking. At least, that's what I'm told." The number 45 zips by. "I'm Josh Button, and I'm one of a kind." We then get a full-on view of his chiseled torso as the red number 1 appears, thrust like a dagger into my cholesterol-clogged heart. (Hey, I'm at least one of the 70 million fairly OK-looking dudes, right?!) "We're poking fun at ourselves and the trend of hot guys in advertising," Dr Pepper svp of marketing Jaxie Alt tells USA Today, alluding to hunk sightings in spots for brands like Kraft Zesty Italian dressing and Diet Coke. After decades of impossibly trim bikini babes making women feel insecure, I guess it's men's turn to suffer. At least one advertiser out there is providing a more realistic depiction of the male form. But when you consider the state of that beach bum's liver, and his life expectancy, it's cold comfort indeed. Credits below.

CREDITS
Client: Dr Pepper Snapple Group
Brand: Diet Dr Pepper

Agency: Deutsch, Los Angeles
Chief Creative Officer: Mark Hunter
Group Creative Director: Brett Craig
Creative Director: Xavier Teo
ACD, Art Director: Erick Mangali
ACD, Copywriter: Chris DiNinno, Lehr E. Ryan
Director of Integrated Production: Vic Palumbo
Executive Producer: Lisa K. Johnson
Director of Content Production: Victoria Guenier
Ken Rongey:  Senior Business Affairs Manager
Directors: Craig Brett/Mangali Erick
Director of Photography:  Greig Fraser
1st A.D.: Anthony Dimino

Editorial Company:
Spot Welders, Santa Monica, CA
Editor: Patrick Murphree
Executive Producer:  David Glean
Senior Producer: Carolina Wallace
Producer: J. Patrick McElroy

Post Facility – Color Only:
Company 3, Santa Monica, CA
Colorist:  Dave Hussey

Visual Effects:
Arsenal FX, Santa Monica, CA
Post Production Company: Arsenal F/X
Executive Producer: Ashley Hydrick
VFX Supervisor/Design: Lauren Mayer-Beug
Flame: Mark Leiss and Terry Silberman
Designers/Animators: Andrew Schreiber
Post Producer: Pravina Sippy
Production Coordinators:

Music/Composer:
Elias Arts, Santa Monica, CA
Creative Director-Dave Gold
Executive Producer-Ann Haugen
Composer-David Wittman
Producer-Kiki Martinez

Audio Post Company/City/State:
Play Studios, Los Angeles, CA

Mixer:John Bolen
Executive Producer: Lauren Cascio

Others:
Mnemonic and End Tag
Wood Shop, Culver City, CA
CD/Product Director: Trevor Shephard
DP: Tom Lazarevich
Live Action Producer: Christy Lindgren
Post Producer: Sabrina Elizondo
Nuke Compositors: John Weckworth, Forbes Hill, Jon Lorenz, Ned Wilson, Thomas Horne
3D Artist: Forbes Hill, Cody Smith CD

Client Credits
Director of Creative: Shaun Nichols
Brand Manager – Diet Dr Pepper: Angela Snellings
Director of Marketing: Leslie Vesper
SVP, Director of Brand Marketing and Sponsorships: Jaxie Alt
SVP, Marketing: Andrew Springate
EVP, Marketing: Jim Trebilcock
Advertising Manager: Sharon Leath

Additional Deutsch Credits:
Mike Sheldon, CEO
Account Management Credits:
David Dreyer, Group Account Director
Helen Murray, VP Account Director
Andrew DuBois, Account Supervisor
Kate DeMallie, Assistant Account Executive
Account Planners:
Jeffrey Blish, Chief Strategic Officer
Aileen Russell, Group Planning Director
Business Affairs
Abilino Guillermo: Director of Integrated Business Affairs

Author information

Jason Corrigan

Jason Corrigan is an Organic Search Manager for Catalyst in Boston, MA, who oversees the planning and execution of custom SEO and social strategies for Fortune 500 brands. He is a published author on Social SEO and has extensive marketing experience that ranges from journalism and content development to blog management and building out extensive search strategies.

TwitterGoogle+LinkedIn

The post PPC Tracking and Goals – You May Be Getting Them Wrong by @JCorriganSEO appeared first on Search Engine Journal.

Robohand has already provided an inexpensive, open source substitute for those who can’t afford commercial prosthetics, but what about amputees who want to remain stylish? The UK’s Alternative Limb Project is catering for just that audience, with its fashionable, unconventional prosthetics.

Founded by Sophie de Oliveira Barata, a graduate of the London Arts University who specialized in special effects for film and television, the project aims to enable amputation patients to creatively customize the prosthetics they use. Rather than accepting dull and practical prosthetics, customers can create their own bespoke limbs that convey aspects of their personality, while also helping them to remain fashionable. So far, the startup has built a ‘stereo leg’ with built-in speakers for a songwriter, a modular anatomical design for a former soldier and a floral prosthetic for a young mother. The studio also produces realistic-looking limbs for those who want to reconstruct their previous appearance.

Losing a limb can be a distressing event for patients, affecting their body image, and therefore self esteem. The Alternative Limb Project helps amputees to better express themselves and regain a body they feel is a part of them. Are there other health products that could be customized to make patients more likely to use them?

Website: www.thealternativelimbproject.com
Contact: info@altlimbpro.com

Spotted by: Murray Orange

In February, Sony Computer Entertainment revealed its PlayStation 4 — only it didn’t reveal the actual hardware. Now, the company is teasing the console design in a new video where it promises to finally lift the curtain at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in early June.

Sony’s PlayStation YouTube channel just launched the following video which shows a fuzzy black monolith intercut with less fuzzy images that show the PlayStation logo, some exhaust vents, and the number 4:

Sony will present its E3 event on June 10 at 6 p.m. Pacific time. At that point, we will likely see the PlayStation 4 in the flesh along with some new games and features.

As for the hardware, it’s impossible to make any final judgments about the aesthetic design from this video, but the teaser images sure do look like a gaming console.

GamesBeat is attending the June 10 press event, and we’ll have more information and images at that time.

Filed under: Games

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You’ll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Sept. 9 – 10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

“Video is the new audio”, we often hear from startup founders who are setting their sights on large businesses.

The latest startup in the video collaboration category is Weemo, a company that was founded by French entrepreneur and telecom exec Thomas Cottereau (pictured, below).

Today, Weemo has raised $3 million investment from European private equity firm Idinvest Partners, bringing its total funding to $5 million. With the infusion of capital, Cottereau intends to expand to the U.S., and add more talent to the team so it can compete with established vendors like Vidyo, Avaya, Cisco and Microsoft.

Formerly known as “Wimo,” Weemo has made headway with customers who believe that Microsoft-owned Skype doesn’t integrate well with existing professional tools.

Weemo’s team claims its unique approach will give it an edge over the competition. The company has also developed a set of APIs, which can be leveraged by developers to add live video tools to any application or environment.

Just connect to the Weemo REST API, cut and paste a few lines of code in a web or mobile app, et voila, video calls. Companies are charged on a per user basis, which makes it more affordable than the legacy players in the space.

Cottereau said the goal is to make video a “de facto extension” of employee workflow. Companies don’t need to install any additional hardware (and pay for those expensive upgrades), as Weemo is purely a cloud service.

Weemo was founded in 2007, and currently has offices in Paris and San Francisco.

Filed under: Business