Tired of not knowing the faces and stories of those of you who spend precious time reading this blog, and having realized that Google has turned public their Friend Connect service, i’ve placed the gadget on the sidebar (and a review/rate on single pages).

It’s right above my tweets, one of the best places i could get, as readers are the main reason that push me to find fresh inspirations. So, again, thanks for all your attention and let’s connect.

This October 29th, the new book Age Of Conversation 2 is released, a unique collaboration with bloggers from 29 US States and from 14 other nations from Australia to the Ukraine.

Book cover by David Armano

I am fortunate of being part of this conversation as a co-author, doing my best to promote this initiative (expect a podcast next week), as proceeds of the book, available in hardcover, softcover an a downloadable e-book, will be donated to Variety, the international children’s charity.

Each author contributed with one essay, with mine entitled “A new brand of creative: Things fall apart”. To know more about AOC2, you can check out the site at The Age Of Conversation.

If you appreciate my writings or any of the other authors, you can buy AOC2 at Lulu.com.

Welcome to the conversation, Michael, Miguel and Chris, the resident authors of my company’s corporate blog.

While i try to keep this blog mostly personal, it’s great to know that DraftFCB launched a corporate blog (i knew about it a few weeks ago, but now it’s official). On a effort to remain impartial as a blogger, my main critic goes to their decision of not choosing a true blogging platform. These days, any teenager knows how to setup Wordpress.

If you’re interested in our thoughts, insights and opinions about the ad industry, give it a push and subscribe to the RSS feed.

Keeping the geek spirit of the latest post, here’s another nerd themed entry, that will get me some low quality hits for using dirty words and references to naked people. How’s that for a post about a nerd ?

Ok, it’s not actually a nerd, but rather N.E.R.D. (standing for No One Ever Really Dies), headed by the small genius Pharrell Williams. He and his team release this June the 10th their new album “Seeing Sounds“, on what promises to be a summer hit. Have yourself some voyeuristic sexy footage for the advance track Everyone Nose … All The Girls Standing In Line For The Bathroom:

So, anyway, they’ve put up the really lascivious promo site Everyone Nose. Lots of booze, hot women and the advance track playing on the background .
On a great partnership with a blog, they plugged in Last Night’s Party and rolled their own party gallery. Or so they thought, since with great fame comes great responsability and (probably) people asked to remove their pictures (altough i still managed to see quite a few).

I guess the Internet is a different party.

My favorite Brazilian agency revamped their website with some (not) serious shit, on a fullscreen video where we’re all invited to teach and learn vocabulary. It’s like a speed course on swear words, that are collaboratively shared amongst the visitors.

The thing gets really nasty, so get your camera ready and help Gringo to grow their vocabulary. If you understand Portuguese, they also have a blog, with some interesting behind-the-scenes stories.

They really get their audience, not being afraid to push the language, even on a semi-corporate website (they were probably expecting some nsfw uses of the video experience). And most important of all is their overall message: it’s ok to fail.

It’s not always about the visuals. Once in a while there comes a campaign that reminds us that we have more senses to be delighted. While audio advertising had his glory days with radio, it now is starting to fade, increasingly becoming an underrated medium.

The Internet is now offering a new stage for audio experiences, and following the previous post on Arcade Fire’s music video, we now have the latest work from Fantasy Interactive: Porsche Bloodlines, a countdown site for the new Cayenne GTS.

The site is largely based on the concept of the commercial (click video above to play), highlighting the remarkable sounds produced by the historic Porsche models. The 3 week project developed in Flash, has also inner sections including downloads, wallpapers an a audio challenge.

Enjoy the site. With headphones, please.

Shame on you Portuguese readers, for nominating this blog on the Internet category. I just can’t understand how 300 lazy posts managed to grab your attention. Is it the source ? Is it the inspiration ? Oh, i know, it’s those Shameless PromoTions and you feel like thanking me. No need, your projects are that good.

It’s been a hell of a ride since September 2006, talking to readers, deleting more than 30000 spam comments, digging some breaking news, becoming a screener, being listed at AdAge150, guest blogging, and the hardest part, writing regular content.

Thanks.

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.

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.