Our peel-away graffiti for Seicoat won an award for Advertising/Non-Traditional advertising in Applied Arts Magazine. With over two decades of awards experience, the Applied Arts Awards are one of the industry’s most prestigious national recognitions for the Canadian advertising and design community.

View Seicoat Work

The video was a created by using long exposures which captured the iPads movement through space creating three-dimensional forms in light.

The process started by creating software models of three-dimensional typography, objects and animations. These were then rendered into cross sections, making a series of outlines like a virtual CAT scan. The cross sections were then played back as movies on the iPad and captured in long exposure photographs as it was dragged through the air to extrude shapes.  Each long exposure still is a single image in a composite stop frame animation.

Each frame is a long exposure photograph of 3-6 seconds. 5,500 photographs were taken and only half of these were used in the final edit.

Yes, I’m talking about “that” campaign. The one with the spokesperson that we just refer to as the Old Spice Guy. On the bandwagon so far we have several heavy hitters. The Cannes Lions judges awarded it the Grand Prix earlier this summer, making this the industry’s pick as the most groundbreaking work in 2010. Oprah liked it so much she had the star of the ads, Isaiah Mustafa, on her show as a guest. And, the Old Spice YouTube channel is now also the most viewed sponsored channel in YouTube history.

My creative instinct motivated me to write this after I saw opinions that panned the campaign as an over-indulgent art piece without a true sales message. I then subsequently read some similar articles on Bnet and Yahoo, and I felt that this couldn’t be further from the truth. The ads themselves are transforming a category, and helping to convert many males from traditional bar soap to liquid shower gels that many have oft-perceived as being too feminine. The campaign uses an ingenious mix of masculinity, thanks to the use of an ex-NFL wide receiver and “manly” activities such as carpentry, horseback riding, and motorcycling. It also has feminine appeal with a well spoken, rugged, and handsome spokesperson. It’s positioning Old Spice as the product that guys will like, and women will want their guys to have. It’s definitely not my grandfather’s product anymore.

In my world, we are challenged every day with trying to take our clients’ budgets and leverage the hell out of them to gain every possible competitive advantage available to us (Chuck Porter refers to this as making your clients Famous). PR, viral video views, and social media chatter are channels that can be influenced, but not purchased outright. You need to have ingenuity, timing, and of course entertainment factor in order to be successful.

Speaking of successful, I generally hear that getting a million views on YouTube is pretty good for a viral campaign. When a campaign hits 100 million views such as Old Spice has, then we should really sit back and think about the significance of that. For example, I live in Canada, a technically advanced, industrialized nation. The population of Canada is approximately 33.3 million people. By that math, the Old Spice Man has been viewed by the equivalent of every man, woman and child in our entire freakin’ country three times each. Staggering.

Now, I know, I know, that’s all really great but it doesn’t mean that it was a good investment. Advertising is intended to sell product after all, not entertain people, right?

Well, to that I say “yes” we are here to sell products, but if we could sell people something AND provide consumers with a bit of an emotional connection, like say a smile or a laugh at the same time, wouldn’t we be building a better long-term relationship? All too often initial sales numbers get skewed by promotional activities such as coupons or price cuts. Promotions are great, and highly necessary, but we can’t let short-term numbers cloud the long-term success of a deeply seeded viral campaign. Whereas traditional marketing campaign results could be reasonably measured in blocking charts of weeks and months, a viral campaign with 100,000,000 (and growing) followers could take decades to effectively measure as it is so deeply rooted in Internet culture that it will continue to bounce around the “Interwebs” long after the media budget is pulled and the last SKU for that fiscal is measured.

Campaigns with the level of viral reach achieved by the Old Spice Man have already proved that they are effective at drawing viewers. Lots of them. The fact that those videos will continue to propagate is a given. What’s not yet understood is the long term ROI around such an online following.

Before anyone starts throwing sales numbers around, and I have read decent articles covering some campaign metrics here, and here. I’d also like to remind any naysayers that body wash is a product with a relatively long shelf life. Depending on how you purchase it (single bottle vs. multi-packs for example) you could go anywhere from two to six months between purchases. That would dictate that even a highly successful brand campaign is going to take a while to show results at the cash register. And, as I suggested earlier, a campaign like this will likely be providing huge volumes of highly valuable brand impressions for years to come as the viral momentum is simply too great to fade away anytime soon.

So, for anyone out there with a bad case of creative-phobia, hear this: you cannot measure the ROI of a successful viral campaign in weeks or months. This isn’t a TV campaign that has an off switch. Using traditional media measurements to map out the ROI of a viral campaign is like comparing an airplane to a spaceship. In traditional media (the airplane) you only got carried as far as your budget could take you and then you came in for a landing. In the online world (spaceship) you need enough budget to break the stratosphere, and seed the campaign in the community—once you do that, your concept is free from the gravitational pulls of a traditional budget, and it starts to build its own momentum.

Facebook is widely lauded as one of the most successful websites of our time. It has approximately 500,000,000 stated users. For a campaign to reach an estimated 20% of those people online in under a year is amazing. To do it for a campaign selling soap is even more amazing. My hat is off to the team at W+K and the Old Spice Man for the amazing job they’ve done to date. Keep it up.

And hey, @oldspice, feel free to drop us a line at @HotTomali. Canadians like body wash too.

So it’s safe to say that we’re super clever. But we don’t want all the spotlight. Besides, our eyes are sensitive to light.

Hopefully yours aren’t. And hopefully, you’re not against the idea of winning $5,000, Slurpees for a year, and potential TV stardom to go along with that spotlight. If you don’t, well, you’re just lying to yourself and you will go to hell. Oh, there is a hell. We’ve been there. There’s no soap there. And if there’s anything worse than a liar, it’s a stinker. So be true to yourself and get involved. Visit slurpee.ca for the who, what, where, when, how, and sometimes why of our FREEZE THE MOMENT contest. (Like we said, we’re super duper clever — why else would we throw a duper in there?)

In the meantime, watch out for all things Slurpee, as Hot Tomali recently launched the Big Gulp of Slurpee campaigns through TV, three radio spots (Ricardo – Seeeeeeeven, Steven Wright – Priiiizes, and Kip – Mooooooment), CITY-TV IDs, guerrilla stunts, BT Television live stunts, a website and contest, Live 7/11 Remotes, this blog, that blog, and everything in between.

Chatroulette, being another one of these mediums, offers a truly unique experience.

By simply clicking the “new game” button on Chatroulette, you’re instantly placed in a face-to-face conversation with a random stranger who could be your next door neighbour, or someone on the opposite side of the world.

The website, which was developed by a 17-year-old high school student in Russia, has raised significant controversy, as much of the site’s content displays nudity, drug usage, and vulgar language. However, this hasn’t stopped both individuals and brands from engaging with the social media platform.

Take French Connection, which recently held a competition where they challenged men to “seduce a women” on Chatroulette for a chance to win a voucher for 250 pounds.

Or Ben Folds, who recently performed on the website during one of his shows in front of 2,000 people.

Note that over the course of only a couple days, this YouTube video went from 6,000 views to now over 600,000 views (update -> now over 1,300,000 views).

The social power in websites like Chatroulette is huge, and with future advances to the site, don’t be surprised to see added features like Facebook connect, geographic filters, dating services, and much, much more that will add value to the site.

But for now, if you can get past the constant cursing, unsubtle nudity, and the random individuals holding up their bongs saying “Wanna smoke?”, then I’d say Chatroulette is great tool to help individuals connect with each other, and help brands connect with their customers.

‘New Game’

Halloween is on its way, and we’ve been relentlessly searching the web for some great costume inspiration.

So far, we’ve found stuff like transformers.

TIE Fighters.

Crayons, if you have a horse.

iPhones!

Glow in the dark stickpeople.

Disabled superheroes.

Birth.

Controversial illegal aliens.

And animal cruelty.

But what about costumes designed for those in the marketing industry? Costumes for the social media enthusiasts, the account execs, and the web designers?

Don’t worry. We’ve decided to share some of our own ideas with you.

Anyone have any more suggestions? Let us know.

On Friday afternoon, as part of Hot Tomali’s commitment to United Way, we all took a break from work for an hour and converged as a team in the boardroom for some home-cooked chili. This, of course, meant that on Thursday night, while my husband cooked hot dogs for our dinner, I was up to my eyeballs in beans, peppers and sirloin.

The Before Shot

This is what my tiny kitchen counter looked like before I started prepping everything. That’s two cans of red kidney beans and one can of white; garbanzo beans, plum tomatoes and black-eyed peas; two onions and a whole head of garlic; two jalapeños; one poblano pepper and two bell peppers, as well as a can of chipotles; a 2 lb sirloin roast with an extra pound of lean ground; and a plethora of spices. One and a bit of the two bottles of chocolate stout made it into the pot, as did two cups of freshly brewed coffee and two squares of unsweetened baker’s chocolate. There’s a reason the base for this recipe (which I have modified greatly over the years), is known online as “The Best Chili You Will Ever Taste”. (For the record, the glass of wine on the edge of the shot didn’t go into the chili. That was just for me.)

The After Shot

I pulled everything together into the crock pot and started its cycle around 11:30 pm. When I woke in the morning, I had a perfect pot of goodness on my counter. Getting said perfect pot of goodness from the counter to the office across the city… this was going to be fun. MacGyver style, I taped the lid on, wrapped the whole thing in a bath towel, secured it all with heavy duty elastic bands, and away we went.

It didn’t take long for the smell to permeate the whole office. By lunchtime, all of us were tortured by the aroma calling to us from the kitchen. I knew the boys in the office had some mean appetites, but I honestly believed that I’d be packing up “to go” containers to get rid of the leftovers. Not so. I think just about everyone went back for seconds, and all I had to carry home was an empty crock pot.

Adding the $10 bowls to the other fundraising we did during our 2009 campaign, Hot Tomali raised more than $1,600 for United Way of the Lower Mainland. Knowing that such a small effort from me could make such a difference was heartwarming. Wait, maybe that warm feeling was just from the chili. At any rate, I’m currently trying to come up with excuses reasons to feed the team more often. Any ideas?

www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuGaqLT-gO4

“MUTO is a short film by Blu. It is an animation in stop-motion painted on public walls. The movie was made in Buenos Aires and in Baden. Here the paintings are alive and invade the city. Blu’s characters are half human, half machine, half beast, and human elements such as limbs (tooth, hands, etc.) can live freely their autonomous life, a bit like insects.”

Think about this… every frame required Blu to cover the previous frame in white, repaint the entire character a few inches over in its next pose, go back to the camera, snap a picture, then repeat. Amazing.

The dish is categorized as “Central American”. I was married in the small Central American country of Belize. The dish is also categorized as “Caribbean”. Our Account Director, David, was raised in the small Caribbean nation of Dominica. This is a nicey-spicy meatball. Part of Hot Tomali’s name comes from the owners’ (Tom & Ali) love for spicy food. It’s a pork tenderloin recipe. I’m willing to bet that 92% of Hot Tomali’s staff will giggle at the mention of the word “tenderloin”. I’m also fairly certain that 92% of Hot Tomali’s staff would not be able to walk into a vegetable store and knowingly purchase a napa cabbage. Look at the photo and ingredients list. Playful, creative, a little bit edgy and curious, delivered with perfect execution. Sounds familiar.

I’ve long trolled Epicurious.com, among other sites, for new recipes and inspirations. Only once have I ever produced a meal that required a phone call for pizza delivery (sad but true). But about two weeks ago, I stumbled across this recipe for an Island Pork Tenderloin Salad that was out-of-this-world amazing. Even my little sister, who has just begun culinary school yet never cooked with a jalapeno pepper, was blown away.

I recommend that you make the pork and the vinaigrette as written first, and then adjust as you see fit when (because you will!) make it again. Tonight I cut back on the cinnamon because I found it a bit overpowering the first time I made this. The salad itself is pretty versatile and you can mix and match to your heart’s content. I used an herbed spring mix instead of spinach and cabbage because I had a huge bag of it. I skipped avocados because neither my husband nor I really like them, and I tossed in slivered almonds because they’re nutritious and delicious. The vinaigrette is amazing and I’m planning to keep a batch in my fridge always because it’s just that good.

Bottom line: Try this dish. Try it now.

Generic Condo HQ. I can't even tell where in Vancouver this is...Where are the landmarks?

Having recently returned from Barcelona, I found it felt somewhat like a time warp stepping off the plane back onto North American soil. That may sound strange out of context, given that Vancouver is of course a much younger city than Barcelona, but what I mean is that the Barcelona environment feels like 2009, while Vancouver feels more like 1989. Now, I’m not usually one to bad-mouth the place I live, but I think Vancouver gets more than enough positive attention, what with being voted “the most livable city” and all.

Below are a series of shots from Barcelona (and not even one Gaudi is shown).

Vila Olympia (Olympic Village) Barcelona

I’m not sure whether it’s a general lack of interest in design that plagues us here, or if it’s simply a lack of quality architects, but I found myself thinking how I have come to accept the sub-par architecture as the norm. What do we have here in Vancouver that we have to be proud of? (And don’t say the mountains, cuz we didn’t make those!) The Harbour Centre? The Steam Clock? The Vancouver Specials? There seems to be a whole lot of kinda old or kinda average, but nothing really old or really cool (besides our office). Sure, the really old we can’t do much about, so that’s out, but the really cool, we can do something about. It’s not like good design has to cost more. It just has to be good design.

You say why? I say why not?

As I sat on the Barcelona hop on hop off bus, I couldn’t help but feel sorry for the hoards of people who jump on Vancouver’s hop on hop off bus to do the city tour, only to find themselves overwhelmed by wall to wall cookie cutter leaky condos. Science World is perhaps the only deviation from blah we have, and even that isn’t great. Is it that we are so preoccupied with nature in Vancouver that we forget to create new things? Barcelona is a coastal city surrounded by nature, and yet it manages to decorate the coastline with brilliant man-made structures bridging the worlds of style and functionality. Yes, it has a rich history, and amazing classical architecture too, but works of the last 20 years alone are stunning.

Drassanes Metro Station freshly renovated

Side note: Not everyone knows this, but the beaches right in the city are actually man-made. As in they cover the ground in some kind of carpet and then dump thousands of tonnes of sand on the shores. It sure fooled me.

The city is like an art gallery; the attention to detail is a real pleasure.

The first Monday back at work from my holiday, I walked by the two Barcelona chairs we have adorning the second floor landing of the office, and caught myself wondering, “What would a Vancouver chair look like?”