Kid Robot & Swatch have been a favorites of mine for a while so I could not have been more delighted to see yet another collab as this take place. I had been longing for one of my own for a while … et voila

Its Frank Kozik‘s (his name by creating full-color silk screened posters for various legendary rock bands of the 90s) contribution to the collection. ”I wanted to make the designs as clean as possible,” he explains “I like Swatch for its plastic future sense.”

As Flava Flav‘s iconically states “What time is it?!”

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Went to my very first Brussels Girl Geek Dinner yesterday as sakoche for the ma’am (yes but no, our previous big day out did not count as a real BGGD I reckon). Something about cyberpads at Samsung’s dig I was said and so we head out to Vilvoorde.

Seems they’re launching a new tablet, a bigger one than their previous tab because size does matter in this case. What else did I remember about it all: it runs flash and basically does everything you expect it to do.

Girl geek dinners are awkward in a way, not because you are surrounded by cute girl geeks, but because just like at #youngscum and other online/offline gatherings you know certain people are there but you just can’t put a face to their name (although you really want to say “hello”) or you happen not to really bump into eachother.

Leaves me with an awkward feeling time and time again :s ans yes, I am no hero when it comes to strangers. Its one of the reasons I love living in the city, the anonymity.

As my mother always thought me to thank people: cheers Samsung and the other sponsors for a nice evening.

[Picture taken & sent with a Samsung 'Galaxy 10.1' Cyberpad]

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Last week I happened to hear see that Sneakerpedia (which we previously had mentioned) draw lots of attention as it finally got launched. Love the project & idea behind it as it finely illustrates the sneaker mania that is picking up momentum everyday. A great idea and way of documenting this phenomenon anyways.

Besides the authentic collector pur sang there are also a lot of sneaker addicts out there who will do just about anything to show off their love for sneakers. Having said so, over the past few weeks videos featuring sneakerheads doing some extraordinary things have emerged online. Amongst which this great example of sneaker street art in Paris.

It has been inspired by Foot Locker, who in order to celebrate the global Sneaker Movement and capture all of its enthusiasm, has set up www.itsasneakerthing.eu, a hub for passionate people to come and share their passion for sneakers! I have gone through some pretty awesome contributions/content and must say I favourited the Lace Street Art most until now.

Got sneaker mania? Join the sneaker movement.

This post was sponsored by

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“Heart over head. Inclusion over ego. United by passion, we go all in. Go all in.”

After having teased us for a while with a battery of short clips, Adidas dropped their latest worldwide campaign and we are digging the whole Gavras x Justice x Adidas collab. Just like their previous ones, Adidas calls in a couple of friends with Lionel Messi, B.o.B, Beckham, Katy p Perry, Ed Banger and Derrick Rose amongst many other.

Great to see mixed reactions amongst several mad men when it comes to the new Adidas campaign. Maybe they have got a different mindset as Adidas definitely slam-dunked this one in my opinion.

Soundtrack is “Civilization” from the new Justice album which should drop in April.

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Besides making great products they also make great content such as the following clip of an expedition this past September in which TNF Snowboarder’s Xavier De Le Rue , Lucas Debari , and David Porchron ventured down to Chile with the Transworld Snowboarding crew to shred some long forgotten lines inside a volcano.

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When you regularly read blogs and/or surf the web you usually have heard of the following fella: Scott Schumann, aka, the sartorialist who shares photos and experiences from his daily life with over 70,000 readers each day.

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We had mentioned the trailer for INFLUENCERS, a short documentary that explores what it means to be an influencer and how trends and creativity become contagious today in music, fashion and entertainment. a while back. Now the full length doc has been released. Written and Directed by Paul Rojanathara and Davis Johnson, the film is a Polaroid snapshot of New York influential creatives (advertising, design, fashion and entertainment) who are shaping today’s pop culture.

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Another couple of great mini docs. Now go out into the sun and don’t forget to wear some sunscreen.

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Always loved the Nike Air Max 90 and own a couple of pairs myself. Lots of prejudice when it comes to this model as in Belgium and the Netherlands it is mainly known as the shoe associated to harder dance styles. Yes, also know as the gabbershoe A pity, as it can be considered as a great piece of design.

As the Nike Air Max 90 Infrared has just been released, Primitive shoes asked Justene Jaro to show them off. Good choice Out.

Through IllegalAdvertising & also a high five 4 Appelogen. Thnx Mommy

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Now I am definitely not a Google hater and i don’t fear them either. I’m actually a huge fan of their services (although the search side of it all it starting to suck monkey balls). Gmail? Check. Google docs? Use it regularly. Google Wave? Been fiddling around with it. Blogger? Was the first platform I ever used to share my thoughts and stuff. YouTube? Has become a way of life for me really. Their calendar runs my life lately and I won’t get places without their maps.

I can continue this list endlessly. Google is here and its here to stay if you ask me. A company that has always tried to push itself forward innovation-wise (although lately some strange choices have been made and some stuff does not really deserve their stamp). Why this love letter about Google? Well, I came across this nice clip which in a couple of minutes time situates what Google is all about. The description is also great: Meet Google. The noun that became a verb. The world’s favorite search engine, and the company whose motto is “Don’t be evil…”. Out.

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Winter Olympics have just finished couple of days ago and I happened to stumble upon these older clips of Shaun White and Project X, which Redbull put up especially for him.

What follows is The Red Bull Project X crew talking about the challenges building this enormous half pipe in the middle of nowhere, namely a remote high altitude location somewhere in the Colorado mountains. To be successful the industries greatest minds where gathered together with a massive load of explosives. Their goal… to create controlled avalanches in order to have sufficient high quality snow.

One may wonder why they went to all these lengths for this guy. Well the reason is rather simple as you will see below. White is one the most talented guys out there and he needed the space to disappear in preparation of greatness and training for what would be the biggest winter of his life.

Rather annoyed *meh* now I just realised I will not be hitting the slopes this season. Out.

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The Bubble Project drew my attention once again today. Its been around for a while but thought I’d share it for those who have never seen. Over 50,000 bubble stickers have been printed. They have been continually placed on top of ads on the streets of New York. They are left blank, inviting passersby to fill them in. This project instantly transforms the intrusive and dull corporate monologues into a public dialogue. Our public spaces are returned back to the public. Since its launch in 2002, the Bubble Project has become a global project. Bubblers all around the globe are bubbling their own towns.

How to take part yourself is rather easy, as they have provided ready to use speech bubbles. So take to the streets and start adbusting away. Out.

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Ok, you saw the post title and taught ‘what the f***?!‘. Guess the stats will peak with this post. I’ve been meaning to share this feature, which goes deep into the porn industries strategies and recent changes/shifts, for a while. Its vanguard correspondent Christof Putzel who takes us on a behind the scenes look at the adult entertainment industry, examining its history and impact on the ever-changing face of new media.

From the impact piracy has, to the way porn is promoted through affiliated marketing. It all has its place in this documentary. Hell, they even have their own seminars/summits, where people discuss iPhone porn apps and stuff. I had never stood still to the fact that porn hit twitter for instance. Or how about the fact they are also building communities. Now let me sit back and see my stats go mad. Out.

(through the purveyor of cool)

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[through Ads of the World]

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So kids, pay attention during the following video visit to Burton’s snowboard manufacturing center and learn about their handmade process and prototyping techniques. Chris Doyle, the brand’s “mad scientist” who’s worked with founder Jake Burton since 1996, gives a behind-the-scenes tour explaining what makes their snowboards industry leaders.

I promise I’ll drop some other cool clips the coming weeks. Out.

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400 Pages,Hardcover,292 x 229 mm?,100 Illustrations,English
ISBN: 978-1-58423-348-0

“There used to be a time when you could spot fellow skateboarders by looking at their shoes. You knew it right away – the telltale ollie holes on the sides, the worn down soles, the frazzled laces. You made eye contact and exchanged a knowing nod or a quick what’s up. A little Fight Club moment at the corner store.”

Today skateboard footwear is almost a billion dollar-a-year market and everyone who fronts being anyone wears skate shoes without necessarily skating in them. Skateboarding turned into an industry and through the years it even gained a huge influence on fashion and vice versa. Much been written on this subject and documentaries/movies have been made, yet no-one has really given any attention to the most essential piece of apparel, the skate shoe.

MADE FOR SKATE does just that and brings us the stories behind the shoes that carried skateboarding to the next level. With over 300 illustrated pages, the book document the history of skate shoes and how this changed generations. It brings anecdotes and stories by some of the worlds current and passed leading skaters and designers, including Tony Hawk, Rodney Mullen and Paul Rodriguez to name the least.

A book which is a pleasure for the eye and covers every single aspect of the skate shoe. Out.

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A French ad agency/collective called H5 drew my attention yesterday evening with a trailer for a really interesting film they released called Logorama. Now, I previously had never heard of them but seems they’re the creatives behind several music vids, with Alex Gopher’s The Child & Röyksopps Remind Me being the most known.

Logorama is “a short film, which visualizes and explores the way that logos are increasingly embedded in our existence.” In it, you’ll see the Michelin Man, the Haribo kid, Bob’s Big Boy, Mr. Pringle and Ronald McDonald, but in some very unfamiliar roles playing classic movie archetypes of good and bad guys.

Thefilm earned the Best Short Film honor in the Cannes Critics’ Week Competition at this years film festival, which means that the embeded clip of the trailer is more than worthwhile. The second clip seems to be the opening scene btw. Enjoy. Out.

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I know we’re rather late with these clips, but we’re pickin’ up some speed after a deserved rest and the blog should be back at full force by the end of september and we just had to feature them Out.

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Seems the Australian Childhood Foundation (and their ad agency) has created a great street/guerilla marketing campaign for their Stop Child Abuse campaign. The campaign uses child size dolls (representing neglected children) which are placed in high traffic locations throughout cities. A huge billposter is then pasted over the dolls and people can read the words “Neglected Children are made to feel invisible.”

Once the dolls are removed the text “Thank you for seeing me” becomes visible. A lot of non-profit organisations don’t have the means for huge allround campaigns. Its this kind of low-cost thinking we like. Effective to a certain degree and worthwile even if only a couple of 100 people see it. It might just spark those couple of important conversations.

Btw, I might be wrong here, but I think they used Helvetica as font for the posters. As we’ve pulled a whole lot of new readers the passed days I suggest you also check our guestblogger Kenneth’s post on the fontation of life. Out.

(Through Wooster Collective)

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Yesterday I was at the Relationship Marketing Congres of the Belgian Foundation Marketing in cooperation with Proximity BBDO. I arrived at noon and was just in time for the Social Media Café with the students, who were invited through the Student Seats. The purpose of this café was to give some people from companies the opportunity to talk with some digital natives, as my generation is often called.

For me this chat was instructive, but soon it slided into a discussion between the most geeky ones and the less geek people, who were still interested. It seemed, it went over the head of the less tech-savvy people, but all to all it was instructive for me personally.

The discussion was pulled to other themes around social media, but a lot of people from the companies seemed overwhelmed by the theme.

Maybe it might be an option to work in a kind of speed-dating system. Here can maybe interact on a more personal level en address your questions more directly to students and youngsters. Then off course it is the challenge to find the digital natives who can think on a strategic level and are able to think out of the perspective from somebody else.

In the meanwhile keep thinking out of the blog.

Special thanks to @musx from @AdNerds and @grapplica

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The second clip I added is the ‘There can only be one’ vid for last years final. It’s already a classic clip if you ask me. So gear up for this years basketball frenzy and enjoy…

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UPDATE: over on vimeo you can check out all the keynotes of the day…

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In other cases some guys realised this is the time to make a statement and strengthen the message the product sends out to your own audience. But also to strengthen the image percieved by a greater audience. With the automotive industry in pieces there is suddenly one manufacturer who does something remarkable.

BMW states in this ad:
” It’s not about the economic situation, it’s about vision.
The new BMW 7. A statement.”

BMW took a risk, but in my opinion it pays off. To send out a message where you are true to the message your products always sends out, you strengthen the image percieved by the audience.

Driving a BMW 7 in times of a financial crisis is as much as saying: “F*** off financial crisis, can’t touch me!”.

I wish to congratulate the people who decided to run this ad in these times. They showed some real ‘cojones’ and that’s much aprreciated in times of crisis.

To the Brands: take a risk, make a statement and keep thinking… out of the blog.

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Yesterday wasn’t only the day after April fools’ day (know throughout the world as the 2nd of April) but also the Netlog Brand (& Developers) Day about their activitities and social media marketing through Netlog’s platform. It was held at Kinepolis in Brussels and all marketeers, web developers, geeks, tweebs, … where invited to join in on a what promised to be an interesting day.

Social Media Marketing, qué?

Before we go in on what we picked up yesterday I’d like to briefly situate social media marketing as the concept is often still new for a lot of people. This should not come as surprise since social media use has never been as widespread as it is nowadays. Now I’m quite sure that among the people who attended the Netlog event yesterday, everyone was more than aware of the concept. You couldn’t find a spot where there wasn’t someone connecting on to twitter or Netlog with their laptop or iPhone. Its part of the trade, n’est-ce pas?

In this day and age marketeers & advertising agencies now about the existence of it all, often have implemented it into their strategies but don’t realize the full potential of it all. The Netlogday would bring us some cases that show it works.

In one sentence: Social media marketing is an engagement with online communities to generate exposure, opportunity and eventually sales. It occurs when brands or organisation spread their message through various social technologies. Common social media marketing tools nowadays include Twitter, Blogs, Facebook, YouTube and Netlog.

SMM still remains a “failed” concept because brands are limited in their capabilities and they often engage in practices that are alienating to the users. Its all about knowing how to communicate through social media and getting the feel of it. Often marketers and brands violate basic rules of social media. Also SMM is often not funded properly and there is the misconception of it being cheap. One often forgets that they have to invest time into making it effective.

Anyhow we won’t go further into this matter as where sidetracking here, but if you want to learn more about this all you’ll find a lot of do’s & don’ts list through a simple google search and you can always drop us a line.  What we are certain of is that SMM has changed a lot throughout the passed years. It has shifted the balance of power between marketers and consumers. Nowadays it is often said that consumers have the power and this has lead to development of  new marketing concepts. SMM has brought on a whole new philosophy and range of practices. Netlog as a platform is one of the drivers in these concepts.

A brief history and introduction

Netlog is one of the leading social platform across Europe and the globe with over 42 million members. It is a popular platform through which youngsters (and older segments also) are connecting with their friends and peers. They meet new people, share photos and videos, create blogs, join groups, and generally have fun.

The Netlog story started way back in 2000. The name might have been different but is was the basis for what they state is “One of The Fastest Growing Social Networks in the World”. I’ll give a quick rundown of some facts I picked up:

- Netlog is available in 28 languages across the globe.

- Netlog has 42 million plus user accounts.

- Netlog has over 50 million unique visitors a month.

- Netlog’s key concepts are “fun” & “connect with friends”.

- Netlog anticipated the expansion of mobile internet and salesboost of smartphones. That is why they developed a state of the art iPhone application. “Iphone, iphone? Not my phone!” one might say as young people often can’t afford one. Well that is why they’ve also created a mobile platform for lower end devices.

- Applications get translated for different langauage groups.

- Netlog introduced their own games platform about a month ago. The results are impressive, as they had 5 million plays within the first week where they had only expected a couple thousands.

- Netlog will be changing the “clans” into “groups”.

User content  will always remain the core of Netlog. Netlogers upload pics to their profile, add video through the integrated YouTube or upload these directly from their HD. Besides video through YouTube they’ve partnered up with Joost (movies, music videos…) This has resulted in 500.000 plus plays in the first month. The streaming of events, such as Humo’s Pop Poll Deluxe, will also become a part of this all.

What I’d like to add to this is all (and wasn’t really mentioned yesterday) is “customisation” as another driver in Netlogs popularity. Contrary to (sorry, but I have to mention them) Facebook, Netlog users are able to customise their own profile. They can develop their own look and feel and its easy as f***. You’ll often find kids using skins provided by brands and that what lead us to a next chapter: brandpages.

Power of the brandpage

Brand pages are an integral part of Netlog. They create brand ambassadors who are passionate. Companies can offer skins for users’ own profile but also share other content such as videos & pics,  organise contests, … It was nice to see a quick rundown of how one comes to create and work with Netlog as a brand. Netlog currently has over 6 million brand ambassadors or friends of brands as you will. All the following cases illustrate the possibilities of starting dialogue with your young segment.

Like a champagne supernova…

After the Netlog overview and introduction is was These Days & Nokia’s turn to showcase their Supernova case which is a nice example of opening up conversation with your demograph. I’m not gonna go in to this as there’s a nice overview here.

Applications, games & a credit economy

After a brief coffee break, Folke & another guy from Netlog brought us a brief presentation on their employers future. The company will continue to develop their application & gaming platform and at the centre of this all is a credit economy which is being established as we speak. Applications, like Buddy Poke, are together with this gaming platform the future for Netlog. They want to establish a credit economy driven by so-called micropayments for revenues.

Credits are paid for directly by users or brands, but their will also be different ways through which one can earn credits. (To give you an idea, one credit equals one eurocent). In order to make this more interesting for everyone, Netlog will have to continue developing more ways for users to spend this credits. In the future earned credits will even be convertable into mobile phone credits or stone-hard cash on ones personal bankaccount and this as reward for loyalty towards certain brands.

The presentation on all this matter can be found on slideshare btw.

I pity the fools

Next up was the famous Snickers case. Proximity BBDO was the agency snickers contacted to target the 14 to 35 year olds. Research had shown they were no longer making the long list of candybars. They were simply becoming less popular amoungst that segment so they set out to become top of mind once again on theshort term and to create engagement between the brand and users through time. The only thing they had to do was incorporate the current campaign involving Mr T.

Proximity quickly came up with the idea for a cool competition which only ran on social platforms. People could ‘win a tank adventure weekend’ by simply registering and playing an online game in which one had to show off his tank skills. The campaign worked for them and they shared some thoughts on working with social media. As always it is important according to the to draw attention to your campaign. Let users know you exist and in some cases even target a specific group of them through friend invites. Second element they pointed out was ‘going out together’. It is important you start to communicatie with the users. As mentioned before you should offer them a skin which they can share, use the shout feed, create other content and manage it all. Snickers was able to keep everything alive through another contest in which people could win a meet and greet with Mr T himself. Videos and pics of this where uploaded.

In many other cases you’ll see that if users feel connected to brands they’ll start creating their own extra content. Another way of interacting is the launching of polls and if you really want to go all the way, the introduction of an application/game which intergrates this all just as snickers did. All you have to bare in mind here is that is its fun, users will invite peers and create extra buzz.

In the end the results for snickers are simple: snickers now holds the no° 1 position amongst candy brands on Netlog with over 11.000 fans/users connected, the skin was widely used and viewed  over 4,5 million times.

KaHo case: a brief demonstration in effective simplicity

The final case was presented by Helena Van Eykeren (or Imke Dielen if you want) from Markee. She presented her KaHo case. Back in 2007 KaHo (Katholiek Hogeschool) had assigned Markee with the task of boosting their popularity amongst student finishing high school.

Their main goal was to improve their image and increase new student subscriptions. A simple strategy was implemented which resulted in an overall increase of literally everything. After this succesfull campaign they had advised to continue the campaign online throughout 2008. Goal here was to create an interactive community and Netlog was the platform of choice. Visuals and other elements of the previuous campaign where recycled and used again, together with contests they held. They posted videos, … and only basic information. If someons wanted more specific info they where redirected to the school’s own website. After a succesfull campaign in 2007 the follow-up in 2008 also proved to be succesfull!

This is the end… an overview

The day ended with some cocktails and the mandatory networking session. During the coffee break I had been surprised to see Bué enter the room and during the last case presentations he had started work on yet another unique Toykyo piece. He had been asked to show of his skills yet again after having made a piece at Netlog HQ a while back. Anyways our man Bué from Toykyo was laying the final hand on the work as we all enjoyed a refreshing beverage and the curtain closed over the Netlogday.

Overall I must admit that we probably didn’t learn a whole lot of new stuff about Netlog but that’s probably mainly due to the fact that within Trendwolves we can be found on the platformalmost every day for research purposes. I regret that I don’t know a whole lot about code, html, CSS… otherwise I would have attended the developers side of the Netlogday also. It seems that was also more than worth the while and some dude from Google must have given one hell of a talk as everyone was on about it. But for now I’ll stick to the social marketing side of the story for a while before I cross over to the geek side.

To summarize it all we just simply have to state: Netlog is all about fun, games and connecting with peers. That’s why it works…

If you’re interested in seeing some pics off the event head on over to Pietel’s Flickr account and check out the nice set op photos he shot throughout the day.

If you’re interested in learning more on working and advertising with Netlog I suggest you check out their advertisers section and their mediakit.

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Now these are just a couple of examples off course and you’ll find a lot more logo design histories overhere.

In the mean time back to Campbells and their logo. I’m sitting at their reception and start to ponder about original logos. Often they’ve been used for decades and are known worldwide. They’re often also connected to a company, brand and/or product that has turned out to become a widespread household name. This only made me think even harder and that’s when the recession kicked in. As always nowadays, the current financial crisis just has to get mentioned. What I started to wonder was if authentic looking logos have an impact on sales during economical recession. Do they trigger thoughts of security and certainty within peoples minds or not? If anyone knows the answer feel free to drop us a line. All I know is that I like em right know.

Now one might still be wondering where I’m going to with all this. Well, I really wanted to get at this: I’ve received a bunch of concepts for  our logo and would like your thoughts on them. As you might already know our blog here is still totally under construction and one of the things we’d like to see fixed in the next couple of days is our logo. Gert and myself had set the 1st of april as goal to get everything up and running but time has tought us that it will take a hell of a lot longer for us to finish the design and start blogging on a daily basis. In the mean time we’ll do our best.

Anyways, our bro K.N.T. designed the concepts for the logo’s. We’ve already narrowed em down to four and would really like you all to share your opininions with us and give us an idea of which one you favor. Also take the time to check some of K.N.T.’s other work overhere.

"Dogattack"

"Dog"

"Eyes"

"Dude"

"Glass"

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