May 2013
2 posts
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Shazam Moves to Identify TV Fashion
By: Eric Hamblett
Music identification company Shazam is growing their services in the direction of TV fashion identification. If accomplished successfully, Shazam is in position to challenge search engine middlemen and deliver content directly to viewers.
Currently, Shazam works by tagging audio content and informing users of its details. The new TV feature will build on this foundation and...
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Interviewee Turned Interviewer
By: Sarah Roach
There has been only 6 months in between the time that I have gone from an interviewee to an interviewer, and I can honestly tell you that the view from each side of the table is very different. With that being said, I remember how stressful the interview process is and I’d like to offer up a little, candid advice for those of you prepping for interviews.
Dad is sometimes...
April 2013
3 posts
5 tags
A Short History of Text in Film
By: Stephen Feinberg
Since the ‘80s, when computers began to enter everyday life, filmmakers have struggled with how to show the viewer what’s on that little screen.
Screen shot from the mid-80s: boring!
Part of the challenge is technical: computer monitors (and now, tablets and smartphone screens) refresh at a different rate than film or high-def video, so the screen either has to be specially...
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Memes and Distortion in Advertising
By: Joanna McNurlen
In the 1985 bestseller White Noise, author Don DeLillo describes a tourist site known as “the most photographed barn in America.” Multiple signs populate the highway leading up to the barn, trumpeting the upcoming landmark. Before incoming tourists see the barn, they encounter the site’s gift shop as well as exiting tourists who have recently visited the barn. As DeLillo’s...
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Beyonce on Top?
By: Jessica Chen
Queen Bey is simply unstoppable! As of March 21, H&M has confirmed that Beyonce is now the face of H&M’s summer ad campaign, and H&M is sponsoring Beyonce’s “Mrs. Carter” tour. Beyonce’s personal style guided her input into the designs of the line, which includes perfect bodycon dresses, flowing sundresses, and fringed bikinis. The clothing will be...
March 2013
6 posts
6 tags
Seiden and Sigils
By: Joanna McNurlen
Game of Thrones, the popular HBO series that brings George R.R. Martin’s stories of warring medieval families to life in rich (and occasionally nauseating) detail, will return for its third season this Sunday at 9:00 ET on HBO. The amount of advertising leading up to 03.31.13 has been extensive: adragon cast its shadow in one of this year’s best print ads, imposing...
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Marketing Through Playlists
By: Eric Hamblett
Music is an emotional force that has the ability to influence brand experiences and ultimately our purchasing decisions. It is not typically included in a pitch portfolio, however has definite positive potential. Think about the music you encounter in your daily life, the songs that wake you up, put you to sleep and make your mind wander.
Enter the world of marketing through...
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March Madness and Marketing
By: Joanna McNurlen
Maybe it’s because I went to a D3 university, or maybe it’s because I spent college basketball games inside a bulky mascot costume (go bears), but somehow I have never embraced the mania surrounding March Madness. I haven’t avoided it out of ignorance – I understand how brackets and seeds and point spreads all work – basketball just isn’t my particular cup of tea.
On the...
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A Peep For You and a Peep For Me!
By: Sarah Roach
Which came first, the chicken or the egg? Or in this case… the chick or the bunny? It’s that time of year again, when fluffy, multicolored chick and bunny Peeps will be lining the shelves pretty much everywhere you turn.
Growing up, it wasn’t Easter until the Peeps had been successfully exploded in the microwave, stuffed into plastic eggs and hidden throughout the house or...
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New Facebook Feed Learns From Mobile
By: Patrick Lupinski Facebook unveiled its latest revamp today, making it more consistent across different platforms. The biggest take away is that, overall, it’s a much cleaner and whitespace-friendly design.
Some major changes that you’ll notice:
The site will no longer have a three-column format. Instead, there will be two columns, giving the main news feed even more prominence. This format...
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AT&T Brings Online Targeting Tactics to TV...
By: Eric Hamblett AT&T is currently exploring how they can use best practices and learnings from online ad campaigns to create more effective TV targeting tactics. This is kind of a big deal because their technology could create better experiences for viewers while also making TV network’s smarter and more profitable as a result.
Right now TV advertising requires too much human capital to...
February 2013
7 posts
5 tags
E-Commerce is So 140 Characters Ago
By: Brent Heindl American Express wants to woo consumers with T-Commerce. That’s right, T-Commerce. Starting last Monday, AmEx customers who sync their cards via the AmEx Sync Program could start buying items by simply using a hashtag.
The first item available for purchase was a $25 AmEx gift card, which sold for $15 if you tweet #BuyAmexGiftCard25. Other offers to be available for t-purchase...
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FDA Approves Autonomous Robots for Hospitals
By: Eric Hamblett
The first human-interacting autonomous robot has been approved by the FDA for use in hospitals. It is made by iRobot, the same company that created the Roomba, and has potential to change the face of healthcare (pun intended). The human sized machine is named RP-VITA and will function as a resource for doctors to remotely interact with patients. With this “telepresence,”...
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Help Remedies: Minimalist Design, Maximum Impact
By: Jessica Chen
It’s Friday night and you’re on your way to the East Village to meet some friends at your favorite bar. You’re already late, but you have the worst headache in the world, possibly from the lack of ventilation in the subway station, but more likely from dehydration. On top of that, your stilettos are rubbing the back of your heel and you’re 99% sure a blister has formed. What to...
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Facebook Mobile a Major Success
By: Eric Hamblett
Up 57% from last year, Facebook now has 680 million mobile active users. For the first time, it has seen higher growth on mobile than desktop and their $305 million ad purchases in Q4 supports this claim. People want a Facebook presence and they want it badly.
Many have been skeptical over Facebook’s ability to monetize mobile, yet as their user base grows it is only...
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Girl Scout Cookies and The Scarcity Principle
By: Joanna McNurlen
“Cookies are here” – three beautiful words that send mouths watering and sweet tooths buzzing. From the days of impatiently nagging my parents to buy Thin Mints from the neighbors to downloading the Girl Scout Cookie Locator app in January and refreshing it daily to find a cookie-selling Girl Scout in my vicinity, I have been a staunch supporter (and consumer) of Girl Scout...
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Obama Rebrands His Campaign Database as an Action...
By: Eric Hamblett
Since winning the 2012 election, President Obama has begun leveraging his most loyal supporters by rebranding his campaign database from “Rallying for America” to “Rallying for Action.”
Several marketing tactics from the election remain, though this campaign specifically rallies supporters past the voting booth. Obama claims his efforts to ignite the American people via...
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Seiden's Top Super Bowl Ads
By: Joanna McNurlen Here are some of our favorite t.v. ads from yesterday…
Ram Trucks, “Farmer” A beautifully static contrast to the action-filled, gimmick-heavy spots that populated most of the commercial breaks.
Budweiser, “Brotherhood” Classic and heartwarming. May or may not have caused some of us to tear up.
Taco Bell, “Viva Young” Sometimes Super Bowl advertisers try to be zany...
January 2013
6 posts
4 tags
Facebook Graph Search
By: Patrick Lupinski
If the most powerful form of marketing is word of mouth, or WOM as some like to refer to it in our industry, then consider Facebook’s Graph Search feature the closest thing to WOM. It has yet to launch and will be in beta for a bit longer but it already has some marketers thinking about its implications and possibilities.
Facebook’s search bar has always been considered...
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Here’s An Ad, There’s An Ad, Every Where There’s...
By: Sarah Roach
In case you were worried about missing out on a few ads this year, don’t fret, there is now talk of bringing you a few more via Twitter. In this New Year, publishers are working hard to make social media outlets more profitable by adding advertisements.
In last year’s failed attempt to sell various things like magazine subscriptions via Facebook and Twitter, brands are beginning to...
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Treat Your Body Like Your Car?
By: Eric Hamblett
Auto companies Ford and GM are allowing software developers to create applications that run on their car infotainment systems. The reasoning for exploring the new onboard technology is marketing driven. Ford and GM want to attract younger buyers, and bleeding the ‘app’ experience into cars allows their product to be an extension of already popular tools. In response to this...
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Where the FUK are you going?
By: Jessica Chiulli
There are over 9,000 airports worldwide and each has its own 3-letter IATA code. Traditionally, IATA codes are used to determine the destination of one’s luggage. However, in a new print campaign for Expedia by Ogilvy London, these 3-letter codes are being used to create brilliant and authentic copy. I could go on a tangent about how the medium serves the message or the...
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A Glimpse Into Life at Seiden
By: Patrick Lupinski
A few weeks back we had the pleasure of having Shantanu of the Pixel Trade come in and photograph our space—while we were all hard at work. Check out the photos to catch a glimpse into a typical day at Seiden.
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December 2012
12 posts
4 tags
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Outdoor Advertising Done Right In the Name of...
By: Matt Dahlmeier
Science world in Vancouver, Canada has been running a campaign called “We can explain.” One of the most eye-catching ones was probably the billboard covered in $6000 worth of pure gold with the words “2 oz. of gold can cover a billboard”. Science World hired two guards to guard 24/7. That’s just one example of the clever science promotion campaign. The OOH ads...
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Largest Online Secret Santa. Ever.
By: Matt Dahlmeier
This past August community website Reddit.com was awarded a Guinness World Record for the Largest Online Secret Santa with 30,250 participants from 115 countries in 2011. Well it might be time to update the record books because this year they have nearly doubled the number of participants. In all, 59,745 people from 124 countries are participating this year.
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Ad People Voted Among the Least Trustworthy In the...
By: Allie Altholz
A recent Gallup Poll asked people to rate 22 different types of professionals on trustworthiness, and “Advertising Practitioners” were ranked the 3rd-least-trustworthy! The only groups considered to be less trustworthy than we? Members of Congress and car salespeople. Senators, stockbrokers, bankers, lawyers, business executives, and insurance salespeople,...
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Public Display of Affection
By: Alyssa Birnbaum
It’s that time of year again. The season of chestnuts, snowflakes and “Ho Ho Hos,” holiday shops and tourist swarms, deep pockets and indulgent delicacies.
Most importantly, tis the season of the ultimate holiday window displays.
The holiday window display first developed by R.H. Macy in 1870 flaunted the merchandise in the NYC department store. Now, the merchandise is...
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Advertising Disconnect
By: Derek Rush
It’s great when websites find a way to monetize their free content with ads, and in theory, even cooler when those ads are targeted to the interests of the person viewing them. But there comes a point when the disconnect between the viewer’s interests and the product is so wide that it makes no sense.
Yes, I happen to love Metal (both the substance and the music). But...
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Workplace Morale
By: Jessica Chiulli
You overslept. You stepped in dog poop. You saw that ex with someone new….or maybe all three. Whatever the reason, today is a particularly no-good, very-bad day. On days like this the cure is simple: grab some ice cream and your favorite movie …who am I kidding? It’s only 9am and you’ll be in the office until after it’s dark out. Now here’s a workable...
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The Seiden Guide to Holiday Markets
By: Shayna Makaron
Here at Seiden, we love a good holiday market. Don’t get us wrong – we did Black Friday (…and Small Business Saturday…and Cyber Monday) with the rest of ‘em, but one of the best things about living in New York City is the abundance of pop-ups, especially around this time of year. It’s like being on Etsy, but IRL, and often with killer food and a paper cup of mulled...
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Tell Me Something I Don’t Know: Americans Spend...
By: Shayna Makaron
A recent Nielsen study shows that time spent on social media has increased by 37% in the past year. 63% of that growth was driven by mobile usage.
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The Media Is the Creative
By: Brent Heindl
Anyone who works in advertising would be well-served to take a look at the December 3rd issue of Time magazine–the newsstand version, not the electronic version. Turn it over and on the back cover you’ll find an ad for the iPad mini. And on the iPad screen? The front cover of the same magazine. The front cover on the mini is obviously much smaller than the actual front cover–a...
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Hurricane Sandy & Social Media
By: Joanna McNurlen
Three weeks ago I was holed up in my room in Bed-Stuy, surveying the wreckage left by Hurricane Sandy from my computer screen. My area of Brooklyn was relatively unscathed, and I quickly realized just how lucky I was. Power was out in lower Manhattan, homes were destroyed in Jersey, and much of the New York subway system was underwater. What I had assumed would be no more than...
November 2012
12 posts
4 tags
Missing: The Crazy Target Lady
By: Kati Schultheis
While the Black Friday commercials were back in full force this Thanksgiving season, one character was noticeably absent: The Christmas Champ (a.k.a. The Crazy Target Lady, or comedian Maria Bamford). After three years of shopping-basket bicep curls and other intense Black Friday sale preparations, she has been replaced by a host of new ads, including the “Deal Duet.”
During...
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Dear Retweeter, You’ve Been Served
By: Brent Heindl
Recently, the BBC alleged that a former Tory politician was a child molester. The report, which didn’t actually name the man, was untrue. But speculation on Twitter led to thousands of people tweeting, or retweeting, the accusation and pointing to Alistair McAlpine as the politician in question. The BBC has since apologized for sloppy reporting and coughed up $294,000 in...
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Make A New Mistake Today
By: Shari Bronson
This morning I was visiting a nursery school for my son and saw this on a sign in one of the classrooms. I thought, what a great message for little kids, so many messages packed inside these 5 simple words. Don’t be afraid to take a risk. Don’t be afraid to make a mistake. Make sure we learn from our mistakes. And then I thought, this isn’t just a great message...
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What I Am Really Thankful For & Why
By: Alaina Paciulli
I am thankful for the same things that most people are thankful for, my kids, my health, my family, food on the table – blah blah blah. But I am also thankful for a few other things that will not get a “shot out” at the Thanksgiving table this year. I would like to give them their due credit, because seriously I am thankful for these things:
iPhone/Smart...
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Sincerely Yours
By: Stephen Feinberg One of the things we pride ourselves on at Seiden—and something we believe is in short supply at many agencies—is the ability to be sincere without being boring.
Sincerity is not a comfortable place for many young, urban, sophisticated people (in other words, most of the people in the advertising business). Sarcasm, irony, and self-aware cultural riffs are more the norm. Just...
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Black Friday Week
By: Susan Small Weil
Black Friday originally meant the day of the year that so much shopping was done, the stores balance sheets moved from red to black. The advertising came to symbolize the rite of passage to kick off the Christmas buying season. It accomplished many objectives- not only officially starting the season, but also pushing up sales so they don’t all end up the week before...
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Indoor GPS—It's Here!
By: Carina Liebmann Imagine walking into a large store and knowing exactly where to go to find what you’re looking for. In addition, you know any deals and offers available in the section of the store you are in. Macy’s flagship store in New York has an iPhone app that does just that. With the help of Meridian, a software startup, the app uses GPS to give turn-by-turn directions to...
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Google Googling It For You
By: Carina Liebmann How many times does a meal time discussion involve the solution “Google it”? I’m guessing this has happened to you most of you. In fact, research shows trivia questions are most often googled at meal times on smartphones, involving Google in social settings. This reminds me of a less technology driven version, dinner time discussions started at my...
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MetroCards - Going All Out
By: Carina Liebmann
The MTA has been selling the space on backs of MetroCards for advertising, but now the front is fair game too. Gap was the first to try out this new offer from the MTA, adding their design into the mix of traditional yellow MetroCards. The cards caused brief confusion among some on how to swipe it or even what it was. These cards mark the opening of Gap’s flagship store,...
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Marketing-Resistant
By: Derek Rush I come from what the marketing and advertising industries once referred to as “Generation X”. Like most amorphous demographics, this was saddled with the three M’s: misnamed, misunderstood, and maligned. I won’t go into depth correcting the common fallacies about “my generation” except to suggest an excellent series of articles that redraws the...
October 2012
28 posts
4 tags
Amex To the Rescue
By: Shari Bronson It’s nice when corporations show a little humanity in their often one-size fits all marketing communications, and does so in a timely fashion. Which is why I thought it was interesting and promising to receive the following email from American Express in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy:
As one of our Cardmembers living in the area impacted by Hurricane Sandy, we hope...
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