Well, i guess i’m on a re-blogging week, this time with a few words for Adverblog’s advent calendar.

Adverblog was one of my inspirations to start blogging last year, authored by Martina Zavagno, an Italian interactive marketer and one of the masterminds behind the Diesel Heidies campaign.

So, here’s my 2 cents on it:

1) Which is the digital project that impressed you more this year and why?
Orange Unlimited, for reminding us that simple is beautiful, and building a successful integrated campaign. Other notable projects include the Heidies by Diesel or the recent one by Rexona Power, Spain, “Quien Es Fermin“. As for agencies, Northkingdom and FarFar still amaze us with outstanding work, with some great work coming from Eastern Europe, like ParkStudio’s work for Fanta or Nokia.

2) In your job, which is the most important thing you learnt this year?
I’ve learned to quit looking at my own bellybutton, and start looking to what regular users are doing online. Call it interactive etnography or something like that, but the truth is that we professionals are so much self-absorbed that it all feels like a big echo chamber. For instance, it amazes me the tons of people that don’t have a clue what twitter is, but instead use regular email to keep their friends updated.

(Reposted from Osocio.org)

From Canada, an update on the workplace safety campaign by WSIB (Workplace Safety and Insurance Board of Ontario).

The ad invites us to visit the website prevent-it.ca, where users can learn more about workplace safety.

The recent addition on the website uses the desktop metaphor as a quick access to many resources on workplace safety, such as rights and responsibilities, downloads or WSIB videos.  Or you could play the prevent-it challenge, a linear narrative where we must spot the hazards on the workplace, with helpful tips on safety.

If you’ve enjoyed the site, there’s plenty of sharing tools to spread the message.

Advertiser:
WSIB

Agency:

DraftFCB Toronto

Great advertising is back, with the cream of the crop of social advertising, on a fantastic relaunch by Marc van Gurp and his new team (where i’m now proudly included).

Osocio features a new branding and a complete redesign, with several additions such as NGO’s profiles, latest news and agenda or a dictionary on social advertising terms, wraps the previous outstanding content, with advertising that inspires us all.

Whenever you find a great campaign, contact me or post a link to my del.icio.us (for:thedlab) so we could keep Outlust the best website on social advertising (not the Zuckerberg kind). Or join us on Twitter or at Facebook groups Social Advertising and Osocio.

So here’s what Osocio is all about:

Osocio is dedicated to social advertising and non-profit campaigns. It’s the place where marketing and activism collide. Formerly known as the Houtlust Blog, Osocio is the central online hub for advertisers, ad agencies, grassroots, activists, social entrepreneurs, and good Samaritans from around the globe.

Despite there being hundreds of other ad blogs on the web, Houtlust stood out by focusing exclusively on social advertising. Unlike commercial advertising, which only attempts to influence purchase decisions, non-profit ads seeks to connect us with other human beings. Social advertising has an uncanny power to make us stop, think and then take action to help a person, or a group of people, who we don’t even know, who might be from a foreign culture, living thousands of miles away. And for that reason we celebrate these ads, study them and discuss them at length. We hope you will too.

Created by Marc van Gurp in October 2005, Houtlust began as a personal collection of non-profit ads. Originally the site was only written in Dutch, with no thoughts of a wider audience. But the demand for an English version quickly grew. The tiny niche blog got bigger and bigger. And it wasn’t long before Houtlust became known as the authoritative reference of non-profit advertising for the ad industry and socially minded people everywhere.

In the spring of 2007 discussions started on how to take Houtlust to the next level. Interactive agency Onstuimig and branding agency Alef de Jong were quick to volunteer their services to help with the re-brand and re-launch of new website. The result of this cooperation is where you are now: Osocio.

Osocio is more then a blog. It’s a complete resource for all things in the world of non-profit and social messaging. It’s a platform for global and local social issues, both large and small. It’s a community of social thinkers and marketing do-gooders.

While Houtlust was curated by one person (Marc van Gurp), Osocio has several contributors, each of whom are specialists in a specific field of the diverse non-profit sector. We are glad to welcome these experts to the Osocio team (see below).

Of course, we have our own ideas on how to make the world a better place. However, Osocio promises to never push any political agenda of its own. The campaigns we publish in no way directly express our personal stance on a specific issue. Our focus is solely on the communication of social messages.

If you feel you can collaborate in any shape or form, please contact us. We’re always keen on new social campaigns. So please send us the non-profit marketing you’ve been working on, or the work of your agency, along with news, links or tips.

Steve Lambert and Evan Harper developed AddArt, a AdBlock-like extension for Firefox, which replaces advertising images on web pages with art images from a curated database.



The extension, commissioned by Eyebeam, intends to replace ads and turn ad space into an art gallery, bringing contemporary art to your browser.

Cheap online advertising is getting a bad reputation, so let this be a warning to ad agencies. It’s time to invest more in creative display advertising and improve text-ads relevance.

Support No!Spec. Or at least, think about it.

We, the undersigned, are against speculative work and presentations for the following reasons:

Spec work does not guarantee compensation for the designer or an appropriate solution for the client. It is an unprofessional practice because it takes away from a designer’s time and billable projects.

The very nature of spec work virtually ensures that clients will not get well-researched or executed solutions.

Spec work does not contribute to the overall image or branding of a client because it is often sought out for one-off pieces - it actually serves to dilute the brand, which can be extremely harmful to the client.

In addition, spec work devalues the communication design profession. It reduces communication design to a commodity, rather than to a specialized service.