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21.01.2010 by Zoltan 
Make your own Cameron poster
Very funny little Cameron mash-up from Andy Barefoot that allows you to make your own campaign poster for the upcoming UK general election. I especially like the fact that you have full control over the logo – some much needed respite for Cameron’s unashamed re-hashing of Obama’s ‘hope’ message which I simply can’t stand!
Whether you love or loathe the Tories, this provides endless fun.
via @mattyboomboom
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21.01.2010 by Zoltan the UK open the doors to public data (finally)
Following both the USA and London, the UK government has just released data.gov.uk – a whole tranche of public data free to all, and importantly including commercial applications. A great move in the right direction! Can’t wait to see the output generated from this…
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19.01.2010 by Zoltan Superbowl goes social via the Pepsi Refresh Project
Really interesting Pepsi initiative called the Pepsi Refresh Project. Not a new idea, but the sheer scale of it should turn more than a few heads. Not to mention the fact that they’ve redirected their entire Superbowl spend to this ’social media’ idea.
Is this the beginning of the end for adland’s biggest institution? Will be interesting to see how it shakes out and whether or not it lives up to the rhetoric of making the world a better place? Thoughts anyone?
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18.01.2010 by Zoltan Creative Handbook goes free(mium)
In a somewhat unusual move, CR has just waived the annual fee for the Creative Handbook. Any and all flavours of creative can now use the site gratis as a proxy-folio, presumably with the hope that a fair portion renew their membership come the following year after.
I guess that gives you a year to see the value (or lack thereof). Either way, the barriers to entry have been removed, and you’d be nuts to let it slip.
via CR Blog
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18.01.2010 by Zoltan You can’t script this shit
or can you… i would love to know if this is pure unadulterated fan-art or if it’s got something to do with the reported USD$200 million marketing budget of what was a predictable rip-off of pocahontas, even if it was set in space (which automatically makes it awesome)? Any thoughts?
via @benshaw
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16.01.2010 by Zoltan Laptop Friendly Cafes goes all-iPhone on us
Back in June we blogged about a (then-new) service called Laptop Friendly Cafes, which basically wants to formalise what the global creative nomads amongst us already know – that offices are soooooooooooo 20th Century.
Well, they’ve just released an iPhone app which has saved me on more than one occasion during the past few weeks as i was waiting for broadband to be re-connected after moving. Using the inbuilt GPS, the app finds your location and within moment is pointing you towards the nearest free wifi via google maps.
With an ever-expanding database of cities such as New York, London, Melbourne and Sydney, its USD$0.99 well spent IMHO.
The only drawback is the lack of the ‘add new cafe’ functionality. It seems a no brainer that the fastest way to build this database is through on-the-spot UGC, sitting in a cafe and feeling inspired rather than having to go online and do it via the website. But i’m sure its coming soon…
Get your local free wifi on with Laptop Friendly Cafes.
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16.01.2010 by Zoltan Interactive baubles
AnalogFolk gets all interactive for Xmas. Nice idea, nicely executed. They could’ve thrown in a few smiles though, looks like the band master was a real task master!!!
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05.11.2009 by Zoltan Silence…
I’ve been awfully silent of late, apologies.
But it has been for good reason. I quit my job at R/GA to pursue an idea I have for a webapp. Its called mooooodle and is going to radically change the way creative people present and sell ideas. And if you’re reading this there’s a good chance you’re in the creative industries yourself, so please go and register for the beta after the jump.
Unfortunately I was immediately offered a freelance opportunity too good to refuse, so have not had a second to scratch myself over the last few months. Not for mooooodle, nor for this blog. But that’s all going to change next week once this freelance gig is over…
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05.11.2009 by Zoltan Cassette Boy strikes again
Cassette Boy brings some much needed clarity to Britain’s political landscape. Amen. -
06.08.2009 by Zoltan Visible Tweets
Visible Tweets is one of the better Twitter visualisations I’ve seen. It is a very soft, very gentle presentation of data. There are 3 different views or animation styles, but to be honest the only one the matters is the rotate one.
As stated by it’s creator The Man In Blue, “[Twitter's] beauty is the cacophony of the masses – a sea of voices that gently washes over you and allows you to savour the zeitgeist in 140 character canapes.” Indeed…
With all the constant buzz about the service, its strikes me as strange that no one has created the ultimate Twitter-viz. No doubt its in the works as we speak, maybe even by yours truly… Anyone want to help?
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04.08.2009 by Zoltan Tru Blood Is Much More Than a TV Show
Until now, Tru Blood was nothing more than a good idea on an addictive TV show called True Blood. In case you’ve been stuck under a rock recently, Tru Blood, the drink, is the central conceit of HBO’s wildly popular series: a synthetic blood-drink invented by Japanese scientists that allows vampires to enter mainstream society without fear of them gorging on hapless humans.
But all that changed last week at Comic-Con, when Tru Blood was launched as a real product – a bona fide drink made of blood orange (naturally) though sans haemoglobin, for the non-vampires of this world. Available from September 10 in your local bar and for pre-order online now, although only in the USA.
Obviously the fanboys and girls went wild at the chance to mark their allegiance. But when you consider that HBO is not historically in the drinks business, Tru Blood the drink suddenly stands as a watershed moment in the advertising and marketing industries.
It is a stroke of marketing genius mixed with a healthy dollop of business acumen. It inverts the traditional notion of product placement, and becomes all the more coveted because of its previous non-existence. Dare I say it: Tru Blood the drink represents the very future of advertising – unpaid media.
Imagine all the fake vampirism this drink will spawn: Facebook pictures, Youtube videos, and endless blog posts. Why buy media space when you can sell something that people will willing create content around, all the while turning a tidy profit for HBO?
Now this strategy is obviously not going to work for every fictitious product ever invented for TV and cinema. But it does prove that HBO realises that they are no longer confined to the screen. Creating culture in today’s world means being present in people’s lives in whatever way you can, even if it means entering the drinks business.
Pasted from the original article penned for blogcritics.org
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04.08.2009 by Zoltan Yours truly joins the “sinister cabal” at blogcritics.org
I never actually thought of myself as a ‘writer’ – although I have always enjoyed it since my convoluted dissertation at university titled ‘The Narrative Nexus: Photography, Time and Identiy’.
Well anyway, I guess that all changed today when I was accepted as one of the “sinister cabal” of 2,500 writers on blogcritics.org. Head on over there to check it out. There’s lots of interesting stuff, and very little about the advertising microcosm although I hope to change that very soon!
My first article is going up today, so stay tuned…
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23.07.2009 by Zoltan Sueños de Papel by Cristina Guitian
The wonderfully talented Cristina Guitian has just finished a new mural behind her studio in Dalston, London. Poetic and irreverent as ever, its called ‘Sueños de Papel’ or ‘Paper Dreams’ in English.
Apologies for the shitty low-res camera phone shots, it’s all I had on me! Anyway I’m always amazed at how naturally her style transfers between the radically different scales of paper and wall. Something which is much more difficult than it sounds.
And if you’re interested in learning more about her process, she was recently interviewed by Don’t Panic
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19.07.2009 by Zoltan Babel With Me
BabelWithMe is freakin’ amazing, and although its not a fish that lives in your ear, would make Douglas Adams himself proud!
“Communicate with anyone, anywhere in up to 45 languages. BabelWith.me is a simple, free group chat that automatically translates your conversation as you type.”
Welcome to the future!
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17.07.2009 by Zoltan Looking for more interesting work?
Aren’t we all? And especially with clients who are willing to put their nuts on the line for a change. Well so is IMC2 Dallas, and they’re doing something really really smart about it.
They’ve essentially created their own grant/fund that is open to clients. There’s USD$500,000 of their money in the pot – available in 50k chunks – which is certainly nothing to be sniffed at. The only condition is that said clients grow some balls before applying.
What a brilliant way to drum up the kind of new business that we’re all looking for. Now if they only applied the same creative thinking to changing their agency name…
via AdAge
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