Most of us are familiar with the outdoor campaign that Mini Cooper did back in 2007. The campaign was centered on the idea of customization. Mini owners often like to customize their vehicles as much as they can – down to the color of the racing stripe or the seat cushions. So why not deliver personalized messages that they receive as they are passing by their local billboard? Mini requested participation from owners around the country and eventually chose four cities to test this idea. Owners simply filled out a form with questions about themselves – the answers of which were then loaded onto a RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) enabled key fob they carried around with them. As the participants cruised around and passed by a specific billboard, a reader within the board would identify that person by their key fob, and a statement that was relevant only to them would be posted on the board. Pretty cool.

Now, in 2010, IBM UK is taking this idea a step further and working on a technology that would turn ordinary digital billboards into RFID readers. They are capitalizing on the fact that most of our credit cards and mobile phones now have built-in RFID chips that house all of your personal information – whether you like it or not. The idea is similar to Mini’s; a reader inside the board will identify you, potentially even by name, and deliver you a personalized advertisement. IBM says that this technology will prevent consumers from being bombarded by messages that are irrelevant to them and in turn will benefit the consumer.

As marketers, there is nothing more exciting than the premise of picking your target audience out of a crowd and speaking directly to them. For example, Stop & Shop could use this technology to serve up ads for the products that you most frequently purchase or showcase the deals at the store where you frequently shop. Or a brand like JetBlue could serve communication to a specific consumer who makes frequent trips to one particular city, touting their rates vs. their competitors.

This concept has three key implications: 1) less waste in a medium that is known for inefficiency, 2) media planners should have an easier time selling outdoor as part of the media mix if we can demonstrate its communication precision and 3) in the end, 1 to 1 messaging should equate to a higher ROI. Who wouldn’t want this, right?

There is some concern, however, that this technology is even being considered for advertising purposes. Some initial thoughts from critics are that this is an invasion of privacy at the highest level. The Mini campaign was a bit different because owners were able to opt in – and they were ultimately intrigued enough to want to participate. But do consumers really want brands to have the ability to see what type of toilet paper they buy and then have that posted on a digital billboard?

At the current time, there are myriad questions for brands and agencies to consider:

• Will using this technology actually hurt our relationship with loyal consumers given its invasive nature?
• Will our clients be flexible enough and willing to adapt to the idea of changing messages out as quickly as we need to – and by location?
• Will the cost to participate outweigh the benefits?
• Could the system ever be hacked to deliver phony messages?

It may be a while before we see this roll out in a form that is accessible to any and all brands. Overall, I think there will be a way for brands to use this technology without being overly invasive. But what do you think, advertising profession aside? How do you feel about this new form of outdoor?

Kevin Grady will lead Mullen's Superfine design group (photo: Bethany Acheson)

Kevin Grady, whose creative credits include the Emmy-nominated “Singing Cowboy” from the anti-smoking Truth campaign, and the award-winning pop-culture publications Lemon and Gum, has joined Mullen to lead the agency’s newly branded Superfine design group. Grady comes to Mullen as senior vice president, director of design, from Crispin Porter + Bogusky, where he was head of design and a key contributor to the agency’s creative work for Gap.

Grady has designed for a wide array of global brands, including Converse, Reebok, Scion, Puma, AT&T and MTV, among others. In addition to “Singing Cowboy,” Grady has won numerous creative industry awards, including D&AD, One Show and Cannes. His work has been published in The Design of Dissent: Socially and Politically Driven Graphics (by Milton Glaser, Mirko Llic and Tony Kushner), as well as We Make Magazines: 100 of the World’s Most Innovative Publications (by Colophon and more).

Mullen’s Superfine design group is a nod to the agency’s original name — Superfine Productions — a name itself inspired by Mae West’s appearance in Go West Young Man, in which she played a movie star working for a film studio called Superfine Pictures.

“Kevin’s design knowledge transcends all media types — environmental, product, digital and brand,” said Mark Wenneker, executive creative director at Mullen. “He’s the long-awaited design voice that we’ve been searching for. Kevin and Superfine will attract a new type of client and inspire a new type of work.”

“There seems to be a critical mass of creative energy building here at Mullen, and I’m really excited to see where we can take it,” added Grady.

Grady comes to Mullen as part of a wave of creative talent brought on board by Wenneker. Last week, the agency announced that Brian Tierney, the mastermind behind famous work for Garmin, Burger King and MINI Cooper, had joined as svp, creative director. Earlier this year, Wenneker brought on group creative directors Dave Weist and Tim Vaccarino, the pair responsible for some of the most iconic recent advertising from Volkswagen, Cadillac, Hummer and Palm. Mullen is in the midst of a run of business and creative success having recently won assignments from JetBlue, Zappos and Olympus, among others.

Edward Boches @ BDW

Boulder Digital Works this week named Mullen’s Edward Boches to its board of directors. Boches joins the likes of Mike Geiger of Goodby Silverstein and Partners, Ben Malbon of BBH Labs,  Scott Witt of Apple, and Chuck Porter of Crispin Porter + Bogusky helping to guide the program in its effort to train the next generation of digital talent.

In the last couple of years, Boulder Digital Works has emerged as one of the more highly regarded educational institutions dedicated to training students and professionals alike in the new digital skills that will power the future of advertising and marketing.

“One of our essential roles is to provide opportunities for people to interact and network with some of the most original minds in digital,” said Executive Director David Slayden.  “Edward brings tremendous insight to questions about how we can adapt to and thrive in the digital space, both personally and professionally.  He understands that involvement from industry leaders in BDW is critical to the success of our mission.”

“We clearly need more digital talent across all disciplines, from design to user experience to production. It only makes sense that as an industry we contribute to the very programs upon which we all depend,” added Boches.

In addition to serving on the board, Boches lectures at Boulder Digital Works in its Executive Workshops and is helping the program expand its geographic reach beyond Boulder.

It’s that time of year again. When we start thinking about Austin and ribs and digital friends and panel nerd badges. But first, we have to take care of business and do our job influencing, or at least commenting on, the submitted panels and talks.

Granted there is no shortage of great panels up at SxSW this voting season. In fact there are more than I’ve had the time to plow through. So, just in case you’re in the same over extended situation, I thought I’d share a few that Mullen colleagues and I have either submitted or been invited to join in hopes that they meet with your approval and ultimate vote. Of course, in the spirit of honest engagement, don’t vote for anything you wouldn’t actually want to attend. I’m not a big fan of the popularity contest approach to anything.

Ad Agencies Need A New Mindset To Survive

Submitted by Edward Boches:  read more and vote

If the advertising agency is to survive in an era when the reigns of media have been transferred from a few professionals to 2 billion individuals, it will have to revamp its entire way of thinking. The mindset will have to shift from thinking about target audiences to communities. Strategy will require more insight about a consumer’s relationship to media and technology rather than just how she feels about the brand. The team will change entirely to include production, mobile, and experience design in addition to art and copy. And the consumer will play an active, rather than passive role, in the creation and sharing of everything. What does an ad agency have to do to survive? What are the practices it must unlearn? What new skills will it require? This panel, comprised of agency leaders, each in a different stage of evolution, will explore the challenges and offer ideas.

Radian6 and Mullen Hijack the Superbowl

Submitted by Christian Madden: read more and vote

In 2010 (and again in 2011) Mullen and Radian 6 turned the Superbowl, an old media event, into a new media event. With a simple website, a hashtag, and real time sentiment analysis, Brandbowl2010.com analyzed Twitter conversation to rate the game’s commercials in real time.  Find out how sentiment analysis can fuel a creative idea and how an analog event can be converted into a digital experience. It’s a model that anyone can replicate.

Augmented Reality and the Launch of the Olympus Pen

Submitted by Michael Bourne: read more and vote

Augmented reality usually sucks. But this example is pretty good, (note it was done by Mullen). The agency, Total Immersion and Wired collaborated to create and run the first ever augmented reality camera demo.

What were the challenges in creating a fully functional “digital” digital camera that shot videos and still images using a computer webcam and what did WIRED learn in the process of activating the creative in its first iPad edition? Interested?  Give this panel a vote.

To see the rest of this post and some other panels we all agree are noteworthy, click here.

Because we all need more mountains and less plateaus of creativity, Boulder Digital Works and the assembled group of participants from the recent August two day session set out to inspire both people and ideas that blur the lines between the real world and an augmented one found online.  And to create “stuff” that connects the two, leaving the old formulas of talk-at persuasion behind.

Below are five learnings from BDW that are actionable for any agency or client – helping amplify our own approach to creative ideas, what we call unbound thinking.

1. Blurring definitions of media
Paid media, earned media and user media are all highly influential in changing consumer behavior – forcing marketers to redefine past architecture of ideas in a new social landscape. Be useful, mobile and part of the conversation.

2.  Re-brief
The brief needs to evolve in an increasingly digital, social world – inspiring the stuff we are trying to create, not say.  To quote Gareth Kay of Goodby, “It’s not what we do, it’s what people do with what we do.” A brief should inspire ways to create space, not just use space.

3. T-shaping
A new breed of T-shaped people is emerging with knowledge of all disciplines at the top and core discipline expertise pointed upward. Ultimately, it is up to every employee, not a department, to become digiraditional. Learn it, live it, tweet it.

4. Ideas that redefine ideas
Some of the best examples of new creative work from clients and agencies connects the participatory and social aspects of digital with an offline idea. Small is the new big. New creative thinking requires an understanding of how to create interesting content and utility – but in a new, complex way. An idea that can be advertised, not an advertisement. It’s best explained by looking at some of these examples below.

• Brammo
• Uniqlo
• Rapha rides and short films
• Sponsafier from Toyota Racing
• Old Spice
• Diesel Cam

5.  Expanding creatives
Ideas that redefine ideas require new faces to join teams, eliminating 40-year-old silos of job function. Including UX, digital strategists, social expertise and PR into the creative process early to shape platform ideas for the new social landscape. Opening up creativity beyond the traditional art director/copywriter model.

And one final parting thought. New strategies and ideas can’t replace the intense, lengthy and thought-provoking conversations had over the alluring assortment of IPA local microbrews after the sessions end. When you get that many brilliantly smart, interesting and “ready to climb mountains” people together, the dialogue itself becomes just as much of a reason to find time for a trip to Boulder.

IPG Women's Leadership Network @ Mullen

Agency life is tough. Long hours, frequent travel and an overabundance of food. We often wind up taking better care of our clients than we do of ourselves. To battle the bulge, Mullen and the Interpublic Group’s Women’s Leadership Network hosted “Juggling without Jiggling,” an event that attracted 45 powerful agency women, keen to learn how to balance an intense career with health and wellness. Tips from fitness guru Judy Gettner, Equinox Fitness Center’s Personal Training Manager, kicked our motivation into high gear:  “You have to commit. If you can’t, you won’t change anything”, she told the crowded café full of Mullen, Weber Shandwick, Hill Holliday and Jack Morton VIPs. We didn’t dare tell her that to set up for her presentation, we had to clear out a dozen specialty cupcakes, a platter of cheese and ham sandwiches, and wipe off the foam latte from the coffee bar. It’s close to impossible to not run into some sort of temptation here.

Mara Sansevero, MS, RD, LDN, CDE of the American Diabetes Association debunked a few myths around caloric intake and led a great discussion around healthy eating. She also gave us a great reason to snack throughout the day, as more frequent smaller meals can help boost metabolism.  Throughout the evening, we drew tickets and raffled off some amazing prizes donated by Google, Saucony, and Equinox Fitness, with proceeds to benefit the American Diabetes Association’s “Step Out: Walk to Fight Diabetes” fundraiser.  The most popular part of the event? 10-minute chair massages provided by Equinox gurus – they rubbed our worries away.

Brenna Hanly, Mobile Catalyst

It’s been a little over a week since mediahub from Mullen officially launched a new dedicated mobile practice and now we’re starting to roll-out content from the group. Mobile Catalyst Brenna Hanly has a story posted on Mobile Marketer with guidance on how to maximize mobile app downloads. Please have a look and let us know your thoughts. Thanks to Mickey Alam Khan at Mobile Marketer for being such a strong advocate for the mobile channel.

Also, please have a look at Kunur Patel’s story in Ad Age today about how various agencies are working on where to locate mobile in their organizational structures. The question is whether to orient mobile with media, creative or both? We prefer the latter approach.

The Olympus Stylus Tough is virtually indestructible, but we decided to try anyway by bringing it to mountains, rivers, ocean bottoms, laundromats and even bowling alleys to see what the camera could actually withstand.

The challenges we set up were wide ranging from placing the camera inside a wash cycle to putting it in a lobster trap in Maine to placing it inside a set of bowling pins to running it over with a snow grooming machine. Each test could have proved fatal for the camera, but it easily made it through all of the challenges. Stylus Tough is a great, easy-to-use camera for taking both photos and video on the go or for extreme sports or for pretty much anything that has some rugged shooting conditions involved.

We found some pretty interesting ways of bringing the campaign to life. For instance, it’s running as pre-roll units on Transworld surrounding X-Games content. They can also be found on the video network Yume as well as Smart Clip. We’re leveraging a lot of expandable banners where you can view all the videos. The videos are also currently living together on the Olympus website.

Brenna Hanly, Mobile Catalyst, mediahub from Mullen

Earlier this week, mediahub from Mullen formally announced the creation of a new mobile media practice that closely aligns our resident emerging media specialists with the agency’s integrated creative teams. This new mobile unit is the latest manifestation of a fast-growing capability. We’ve developed and implemented several successful mobile media and creative campaigns, and are seeing an increasing allocation of client resources into this fast-growing channel. To date, Mullen has produced integrated mobile campaigns for Timberland, Timberland PRO, Ernst & Young and Foxwoods Resort Casino, among others. The agency’s mobile app and tablet computer creative portfolio includes work for Olympus, Stanley, Century 21, Victorinox Swiss Army and MassMutual.

The mobile media-creative fusion effort will be led by Brenna Hanly, who takes on the newly created role of Mobile Catalyst. Hanly was originally an Emerging Media Specialist at Mullen and more recently operated in a hybrid role as a media planner with cross-channel expertise in both online and offline media.

“With mobile ad spend expected to increase by 10 times over the next 3–5 years, this is the right time to create a dedicated mobile practice,” said John Moore, Chief Media Officer at Mullen. “Brenna’s background in emerging media, coupled with her metrics-focused digital experience, is critical to success in the mobile space. And, by embedding our mobile practice in Mullen’s creative group, we will have a significant impact on the content we create in this exciting channel.”

“Within five years more users will be accessing the Web through mobile phones than PCs,” said Hanly. “While in many ways mobile is the new Web, we believe that mobile requires special, dedicated thinking because of the unique nuances of location and personalization that are endemic to this medium.”

Mullen’s mobile media practice will be focused on the creation and distribution of mobile apps, banners and tablet creative, as well as mobile commerce, campaign metrics, activating offline campaigns and working with the creative group in order to inspire and ideate within this new and exploding universe.

We’ve had some great response to the announcement from mobile, media, advertising publications and blogs. Mobile is clearly the new frontier and we look forward to sharing future news about new campaigns and inventions from this team.

Mayor Tom Menino (right) with Galen Moore from Mass High Tech

The Mullen Cafe′ was alive with activity this week as Boston Mayor Tom Menino, the Boston World Partnerships (BWP) Connectors, Boston area press and numerous other “influencers” gathered to hear BWP announce new funding partnerships and results from its first 18-months of activity. BWP is an innovative economic development initiative using the power of social media to connect Boston-area business leaders with their counterparts across the globe. It is run by former Boston Redevelopment Authority executives and is chaired by the Mayor himself. BWP has helped companies like State Street navigate into the Brazilian financial services market and RueLaLa.com maintain their presence in the Boston market.

At this week’s event, BWP announced nearly $200,000 in new private-sector funding to sustain the organization. Mullen has become a BWP partner, investing in two “Connectors,” people from across industries who are media savvy, well connected in business and serve as advocates for Boston companies. Our President/CEO Joe Grimaldi spoke at the BWP event and said, “Extraordinary talent, innovation and creativity are the global resources fueling economic vitality and growth. BWP helps infuse the best of all of these into Boston, which brings a direct benefit to our company and the creative economy in which we operate.”

BWP Exec. Director Dave McLaughlin (left) dancing with joy

We first met BWP executive director Dave McLaughlin a year ago when Mullen was building-out our new space in downtown Boston as part of a major transition in the identity of the agency. We were intrigued by the concept of social media as economic development engine and are happy a year later to be formal partners with these guys and able to say that both of our “experiments” are paying off. The biggest applause line of the event was when Joe announced that Mullen has hired 100 people since the beginning of the year, a result of the new energy that has developed since we got more “connected” to the creative talent in this city.