What do Hard Rock Café, REI, and the Cerritos Library have in common? They have all mastered the art of the experience – the notion that consumers are increasingly buying experiences rather than goods or commodities

Acclaimed author and speaker Joe Pine recently graced our halls as the May Innovation Series speaker, and spoke about his above-mentioned idea of the Experience Economy.

In The Experience Economy, Pine and his partner, Jim Gilmore, offer new models for an “insightfully different perspective for our digital age.” As growth occurs within the experience sector of the economy, there will be increased opportunity for innovation. It is here, that we create new ways for our clients to deliver brand experience to a next-gen target.

The experience IS the marketing. Starbucks gets this. So does the Geek Squad. Who will be next to capitalize on the Experience Economy?

To view Joe Pine’s TED Talk on “What Consumers Want,” click here.

Set in 1962 during the height of the Cold War, The Bureau: XCOM Declassified trailer tells the story of the covert XCOM organization’s first encounter with the enemy. While video game launches traditionally include a trailer, in addition to print and OOH, Team One is building anticipation for the launch of The Bureau through teaser videos and a trailer that contain more than 20 Easter eggs (hidden messages/clues) to allow the hunt to start early for dedicated gamers. Can you find them all?

Fans should expect more leaked cover ups and conspiracy leading up to the launch of the game, which will be available in stores on August 20, 2013.

The teasers, leaked ahead of trailer, can be viewed here: Teasers

Click through the photo for the full trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XyGvBzQ9nNI

Yesterday, Facebook revealed the first major redesign of Newsfeed in four years, emphasizing visual content and providing users with the options to filter what they see according to different categories, like Music, Photos, Games, and Close Friends. While users will be happy to exercise more control over their Facebook experience, the reaction from advertisers has been mixed. Marketers had anticipated improved target ads due to the content-specific feeds, but Mark Zuckerberg has yet to address how ads will be handled in this type of environment.

For social managers, this means two things: knowing content strategy and understanding Facebook ads is essential. The News Feed is expanding, and the left and right side panels will be subsequently narrowed, giving in-stream ads increased visibility. Mashable spoke with a Facebook rep who confirmed that Sponsored Posts will look the same, only “richer/bigger”. Content becomes much more vibrant in this new layout, including stories posted by Pages.

Historically, Facebook’s Edge Rank algorithm has given precedence to image posts, leading to a higher engagement than a text update. As Facebook continues to emphasize visual content like pictures and videos, brands have an even bigger opportunity to get creative with their social strategy. While there hasn’t been any official announcement made regarding video ads, rumors are circulating that it might not be too far off.

The majority of Facebook traffic comes from mobile, and in an attempt to increase desktop engagement, the new layout will now be identical across devices. Rather than seeing a different Facebook on your iPhone, app, or browser, the experience will now be identical. This is a huge win for advertisers, since it streamlines campaign planning, by ensuring a similar interface across platforms.

Facebook also suggested in their official announcement that brands and publishers will benefit from the new Following feed, as people will be able to easily see updates from Pages they like, and content from people they follow. Marketing experts have speculated that increased prominence of visual content will help Facebook raise their advertising rates, and become significantly more competitive in days ahead.

Needless to say, we look forward to what these changes will bring.

The Animated GIF, which was a big part of Web 1.0 and then went dormant for about a decade, has recently made a huge pop-cultural comeback—looping back into fashion much like the animated, looping sequence that it is. Two recent articles attempt to explain the resurgence of the Animated GIF: Wired magazine’s “The Animated GIF: Still Looping After All These Years” by Clive Thompson and the New York Times’ “Fresh From the Internet’s Attic,” by Alex Williams. Both authors explore why such a simple medium has returned, and how the latest iteration of the GIF has carved out a unique place in Internet culture.

The Animated GIF has been around for decades, but part of the reason for its rapid comeback can be attributed to its sheer simplicity; the GIF is a throwback to a simpler time, and in the video age serves as a particularly poignant contrast to the loud, in-your-face mediums that vie for our attention. As Thompson puts it, “In the age of YouTube and cameraphones and TiVo, we’re increasingly inundated with moving images. But the animated GIF lets us stop and ponder a single moment in the stream, to re-see something that otherwise would zip by unnoticed.” As the world gets faster and louder, the Animated GIF seems infinitely more intimate and relatable; it resonates because it allows us to focus on a particular moment, and contemplate that moment deeply, again and again.

There are other factors that have contributed to the resurgence of the Animated GIF as well. Like many current cultural trends, the rapid, recent rise of the Animated GIF is being driven by the generation of individuals who were raised on the Internet and are now its most ardent users. Per Williams, the GIF is a “relic of childhood,” so it makes sense that it is returning to our culture as a “fashion statement,” in the same way that 90’s music and clothing are back in style. Furthermore, this generation has developed a growing number of tools to help categorize and search through the endlessly looping treasures. The GIF database giphy.com, and GIF aggregator blogs are abundant, and have aided the steady ascent of the medium.

What’s interesting about the resurgence of the Animated GIF is that it’s evolved beyond the kitschy animations of the 90’s—a “one-note joke,” as Thompson calls it—to actually become a new means of expression. GIFs have always been visually interesting or entertaining, but Thompson notes they are now being used as a “rhetorical style.” Williams agrees: “[GIFs are a] visual way to drive home a written point.” In a time when text-messaging and social media wreak havoc on our ability to make sustained, cohesive arguments through written word, GIFs offer a succinct and attainable means of communicating complex feelings. In other words, from the Thompson article, “Meryl Streep’s eye roll is the emotion I’m trying to convey here.” To take this notion of self-expression even further, the Animated GIF has also been used for the very complex expression of art. Art can do more than convey an existing emotion; it can actually provoke new thoughts and feelings in others. GIFs offer artists an additional medium for sharing their visual design, through motion and through time, in ways that traditional static methods could not possibly convey.

It remains to be seen if the Animated GIF will solidify its niche in our cultural language, or is just the “digital accessory of the moment” (Williams), and will fade away like so many other Internet fads. But for the time being, the trend definitely feels more like this:

than like this:

Of course, I’ll probably look back on this post in a year or two, having totally misunderstood the trend, and be like this:

* * *

Also of note, Team One has been way ahead of the trend on this one. Take for example our 2010 Holiday Card, The GIF That Keeps on Giving, which has been tirelessly, endlessly looping our Christmas wishes for the last few years.

In only two short weeks since launch, Vine, the new social video service from Twitter, has received considerable accolades and has been an impressive new platform for social creativity. Despite some early skepticism, Vine is positioned to take the top spot in the social video realm due to its surprising simplicity and potential for creativity, giving both individuals and brands a new medium for communication and self-expression.

The idea behind Vine is notably simple: a six second live action or animated short movie, created and shared in real time. No art direction or film school experience is required to post, so the barrier to entry is low. No fancy editing options or filters are currently available so the users are on a more level-playing field and challenged to tell their story directly, efficiently, and in a single take.

The simplicity of Vine becomes apparent as soon as you open the app: it’s just two touches and you are Vining it up! Touch to record, release to stop. Simple. Once you have recorded your movie, you add a caption, tag the location using Foursquare, and share with your social networks instantly. The simple interface makes Vine a true utility to the user—recording and sharing amateur movies is seamless. Furthermore, as a fledgling app, Vine is able to leverage the pre-existing (and active) Twitter user base, initially by sharing login credentials and then by featuring new video posts prominently within a user’s Twitter Feed. The app is both self-sufficient and self-promoting.

Just as Twitter represented a major shift in the way individuals and brands could communicate to and with their social networks, Vine also represents a shift in the way individuals and brands can communicate and express themselves. Unlike Twitter, Vine is more of a one-way communication, and the six second videos allow for much richer creativity and narratives than 140 characters of text.

There are countless ways that brands will be able to use Vine to share their messages and connect with consumers, and several have already started (link). Certainly paid media will play a part, with in-app placements like banners, trending hashtags, and sponsored content.  But brands can also use Vine in more creative ways to engage fans and tell interesting stories. For example, brands can challenge Vine users to come up with creative videos in support of a launch (User-Generated Content), allow a sneak peak at a new product release, stage unique scavenger hunts, show brief product tutorials or share behind-the-scenes content about the company culture.

Using the six-second Vine videos for long-form storytelling, ironically, may prove to be the most intriguing territory for brands. Some Vine users have already begun creating narratives by stitching together dozens of separate short movies, united by a single theme. The videos are all brief and physically fragmented, yet they are connected through a single narrative, like a serial show where each successive video serves as a cliffhanger for the next installment. A brand could leverage this formally by planning a story line—think six second BMW Films—or informally by creating a visual look and feel and videos that address general brand themes or motifs. The creative options are vast, and video is a powerful tool for helping to communicate brand messages in a creative, engaging way.

The full potential of Vine is still unknown, and future updates to the app may drastically shift the direction that Vine is heading, but right now Vine represents the easiest way for individuals and brands to get into social video and to start creating content immediately for a rapidly growing audience. Through Vine, Twitter has once again shown us the power of brevity, and given us a simple new platform for creative expression.

Team One creative team continues to grow with the addition of Creative Director Jesse Blatz.

Blatz hails from Mullen Boston, where he was an integral part of the creative leadership. He was instrumental in winning the Zappos.com account during a highly competitive review that included over a hundred agencies. He also led jetBlue’s colorful You Above All campaign, for which he set the overall look using his own illustrations. He created the award winning and fan favorite Bruins Hockey Rules campaign for the Boston Bruins, as well as notable campaigns for iRobot (maker of the Roomba), Fage Greek Yogurt, and most recently, a global TV effort for Google’s Nexus 10 tablet.

Jesse’s work has been recognized at Cannes, One Show, and Communication Arts, among others.

He will be teamed up with Associate Creative Director Eric Arnold.

“We’re always looking for remarkable thinking. Jesse has the combination of integrated creative leadership and branding skills that any agency would covet. His talents fit perfectly with where we’re going as an agency,” said Chris Graves, Chief Creative Officer, Team One.

Let me preface what I’m about to type by saying that I’m a huge believer in Facebook’s freedom to monetize its platform and appease its shareholders. For better or worse, the internet is an icon of capitalism. The problem for Facebook is that most of its users don’t see it that way, which is why its new Graph Search product is going to create perhaps the biggest privacy firestorm we’ve ever seen when it launches publically.

We received our first glimpse into Graph Search last week. It’s impressive. Very impressive. It accomplishes something Facebook’s stakeholders should be very proud of: it compiles the platform’s one billion connections into an easy-to-use database of personal search unlike anything the web has ever seen before.

As a user-centric tool, countless stories have already been written about Graph Search’s potential utility – from talent recruitment to finding your next online stalking victim. All kidding aside, this is insanely frightening. Here’s a real-life scenario: my wife is a theatre actress. She and her cast perform daily in front of thousands of people, several of whom have a history of reaching out to my wife on Facebook after discovering her name through offline research. With Graph Search, regardless of privacy settings, if my wife lists her employer on her Facebook profile, any of these fans could find and attempt to message her with a few simple keystrokes. Yikes.

From an advertiser perspective, the implications are obvious, as well. One of the biggest knocks on Facebook’s ad products is that they don’t benefit from user intent. Facebook believes Graph Search should solve this problem, and I agree but with one HUGE caveat:

Using my Activity Log, I dug up my last ten Facebook searches, and nine out of ten of them are for people. We don’t search for products or services on Facebook. So unless Facebook expects its users to advertise their own profiles, exactly what intent will advertisers be able to harness through sponsored listings on Graph Search? Twitter has already monetized its search product, and inventory is incredibly low because people just don’t use search like that.

The obvious next step for Facebook is to introduce its own browser, much like Google has done with Chrome. I don’t see much of a future for Facebook and Microsoft/Bing.

Whatever Facebook chooses to do, I am rooting for them. As both a user and an advertiser, I see value in Graph Search. There are some major privacy loopholes that need closing and ecosystem stimulation issues that need to be addressed, but overall this is a win.

Cartabiano has had a “dangerous addiction to cars” since childhood. Even at the early age of 8, he was drawing cars on flashcards—and quite well at that [see above].

Luckily, coming from a family of car lovers and artists, his passion was not stiffened. Cartabiano has worked at Calty since he graduated from the Art Center College of Design and over the past fifteen years, he has contributed to the design of the Toyota Avalon, Sienna, Prius C, and most notably, the Lexus LF-LC.

Through these designs, Cartabiano and his team aim to prove that designers do more than draw with crayons. They have the power to change a company/brand.

Given that the Lexus LF-LC won the Best Concept Award at the 2012 Detroit Auto Show, we’d say they proved that notion.

A cheerleader, a duck and Bruce walk into a bar....

The NHL Anaheim Ducks partnered with Team One to create an awareness campaign for the Premium Seating Experience, which includes a year-round entertainment selection in Orange County, with the Ducks at the core of the offering.

For the last 25 years, Team One has monitored the trends and development of the affluent consumer, which provides a deep level of expertise for any brand looking to promote a premium product today. A division of Saatchi & Saatchi, Team One is a full-service marketing communications agency and responsible for one of the most successful brand launches in history. Launching remarkable ideas, brands, products and careers is the agency’s hallmark.

“We are at our best when we apply our deep knowledge of connecting premium products and services with contemporary affluent values. So, it is with tremendous enthusiasm that we now get to apply our area of expertise to the sports entertainment marketing arena,” said Mark Miller, Chief Strategy Officer, Team One. “It is our aim to show how the Premium Seating Experience offers a return on engagement for Affluents looking to find the worth, even more than value, in the purchases they make.”

The Premium Seating Experience allows for the facility to provide not only the best seats for fans looking for a fuller entertainment immersion, but also other amenities, ultimately creating a uniquely different relationship for fans of the Anaheim Ducks.

“We are excited about the prospects of working with Team One and their creative staff,” said Ducks Chief Marketing Officer Aaron Teats. “This is a terrific opportunity for both parties and we are looking forward to a successful venture together.”

“When Wild Wing and Bruce Springsteen (of dubious authenticity) showed up in our agency lobby with a customized Team One hockey jersey, we were surprised and honored. These clients know how to do it right,” said Julie Michael, Executive Director at Team One. “This is a relationships business, and we felt an instant connection to these ambitious clients and their open style of working.  It will be fun to succeed in this effort together with them.  They have a great product to sell — a year round entertainment experience.”
 

Everything is a Presentation

After a brief hiatus, the Innovation Speaker Series is back in action at Team One. And what better way to start than with a visit from Peter Coughter—VCU Brandcenter professor and author of The Art of the Pitch.

Coughter spent over an hour walking through a number of best practices delivering presentations with real impact, and yet, it hardly felt like a presentation (I guess that’s why he’s the best in the biz…)

Based predominantly on the idea that you must be authentic when presenting, Coughter outlined a number of tips that will help us all become masters of the art of the pitch. Including:

1. People do not respond to the empirical, they respond to the emotional

2. Knowing your material is different from memorizing—spontaneity is the product

     of practice

3. Relax and be personable

4. When you’re confident, people assume competency

5. Defy convention and create the exception(al)

6. Make an ad for your ad (presentation)

In short, it doesn’t matter how good your idea is because it’s worth nothing if you can’t sell it.

Monday morning, Instagram introduced web profiles, its first ever desktop presence for the insanely popular mobile app. Essentially it’s your Instagram profile page, complete with bio and photos, laid out in a simple, slick, and eerily familiar format. The familiarity, of course, is due to the aesthetic resemblance to Facebook Timeline – it’s a little disconcerting, yet not at all surprising, as we get our first tangible glimpse of a Facebook-owned Instagram.

Photo uploads still happen on the mobile app, and the newsfeed and search functions are not available here, ensuring that Instagram remains a mobile platform first (not to mention it helps avoid stepping into the territory of Facebook photos, for now).

Web profiles are not likely to be in and of them selves a game changer (it’s easy to imagine web profiles as an addition to, not a replacement for the app experience – a place for casual browsing and exploring).

What’s more interesting is that this is a foreshadowing of the kind of integration that could be coming down the road. I was lucky enough to catch the highly clairvoyant Jeremiah Knight at lunch today as he posited over a turkey wrap, “An Instagram tab on your Facebook profile maybe, that’s the kind of integration we could see in the future…The challenge will be as they continue to integrate, to make sure Instagram doesn’t lose what made it successful in the first place.”

For those who believe that Instagram and Facebook will maintain separation, as both companies have promised, make sure to take a close look at your most recent Facebook mobile app update. Are those Instagram-like photo filters under the photo tool? And why was there no mention of them by Facebook in the “what’s new” bullet points? “The convergence may be happening faster than we think” whispered conspiracy theorist and all-around genius Joe Hall, with one eyebrow cocked. I think he may be on to something. Given that Instagram now lives at Facebook headquarters, it seems the progression is only natural, like it or not.

The opportunity here may be more for brands than users, at least Instagram seems to be suggesting as much (it’s no accident that instagram.com/nike is one of the first profiles rolled out). “We believe this is a big step in allowing brands to have an Instagram home on the web where they can share recent shots with just about anyone,” said Instagram chief, Kevin Systrom. There is definitely potential in having an Instagram URL that brands can use to point people (both followers and non-followers) to their Instagram profile.

In a world where everyone is optimizing desktop for mobile, it’s interesting to see a mobile-only platform extending to desktop. And while skeptics may describe it as going backwards, it’s very possible that it will fill a gap we didn’t know we were missing with a whole new opportunity for engagement with both users and brands.

I, for one, will be typing in my URL every five seconds, anxiously awaiting my profile to be active. Then I’ll play with it for an hour ‘til the novelty wears off. What happens after that, we’ll just have to wait and see.

Check to see if your profile is up at instagram.com/[username]

Some that are up already:

• Instagram CEO, Kevin Systrom
• Instagram community manager, Jessica Zollman
• Nike
• Oh, and of course, Team One.

The final countdown to Election Day 2012 has begun, and our nation once again prepares to elect the individual who will lead us through the next 4 years.  Of course, as seems to be the case with every major election in modern times, our media channels and information sources have seen a flood of politically focused efforts over the last year or so.  This year however, more than ever before, digital media solutions have been tapped to extend campaign influence, connect communities, raise money and inform potential voters. And frankly, it’s about time.

Both candidates have cultivated extensive digital media presences with mobile apps, websites, fundraising platforms and informative fact-checking systems working in sync to better fuel their supporters and promote their campaigns.

It’s impossible at this point to truly know what impact the rise of digital media in the political landscape will have on this year’s election. However, one thing is clear, things are changing.  For better or for worse, we now have unprecedented access to information and candidates with the power to globally broadcast our opinions and ideas with the click of a button – this is exciting, power in the hands of the people.

What can we expect of our candidates in the next elections?

A quick look at some of our favorite digital efforts from the 2012 Presidential Election:

Presidential Election 2012

Politico

Politifact Mobile

Barack:

Website

Tumblr

Obama on Reddit

Obama for America iPhone App

Mitt:

Website

Tumblr

With Mitt iPhone App

While many believe you have to be on the first base line to capture the money shot, Fine is a firm believer that good pictures can be taken anywhere. He feels that photos give the viewer a sense of place—the feeling that they were there, in the moment, experiencing sporting history firsthand.

And believe me, after the visceral feeling I got from seeing the top 150 “heavily-emotional-often cringe-worthy” photos from the London Olympics, he’s mastered this technique.

Working closely with the children shelter’s new Executive Director, Christie Smith, Team One Atlanta was tasked to decorate the Holiday House, gather in-kind donations and invited to be personal shoppers for the families on their assigned shopping day. We spent two weeks gathering donations and brainstorming for the Gingerbread-themed decorating. On the Monday of the week-long event, the decorating began with gingerbread-man garland, gigantic gift-wrapped presents with Lexus’ iconic “red bow,” a gingerbread wonderland that greeted families in the reception area and a stocking stuffer station.

The shelter’s Board of Directors toured the Holiday House that evening and claimed it was the best-decorated house to-date. They were thoroughly impressed with the creativity and thoughtfulness displayed through the decorations.

Thursday brought the opportunity for Team One associates to participate in the shopping experience with the families. We worked the family check-in station, assigning nametags, shopping bags and shopping guidelines for families. A few associates had the honored task of being a “personal shopper” for the families and spent the fully assigned hour assisting parents with selecting each gift based on their children’s likes, personalities and style. Clothing was also chosen for family members based on their age.

We were inspired by the entire “Holiday House” experience and by our ability to give back to those less fortunate. We look forward to volunteering for next year’s event and making the 2012 holidays a season to remember for all of us.

We are extremely proud to share that Team One is featured in the February/March issue of Southbay magazine. In a cover featured titled “The Real Mad Men and Women of the South Bay,” members of our Ritz-Carlton team are featured for their recent work on the brand’s Let Us Stay With You platform launch.

The article also features a fantastic, locally flavored recap of the career of Chiat/Day frontman Lee Clow, as well as spotlights on our friends at Saatchi LA and Paolucci Communication Arts.

As it turns out, Madison Avenue’s got nothing on the South Bay!

Read the full feature here and see the online version here.

Brands and publishers have until March 1 to switch their channels over to the new design, at which point YouTube’s transformation will be complete. Here are five reasons we love the new changes, along with some guesses about how they will affect the web’s video ecosystem.

1. It just looks better. Analysis doesn’t always have to be complex, and in this case, it’s certainly not. The new “Channels 3.5” design is a simple aesthetic upgrade, reflecting a sharper, more UX-driven YouTube. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said, “Accessible design is good design,” and – in this writer’s opinion – the new YouTube makes it easier and more pleasant to find relevant content. 
2. Channels are now “destinations.” Click here. Now click here. Which page would you rather re-visit and actually spend time with. (I’m assuming the latter.) As advertisers, it’s important for us to create branded environments that stimulate and genuinely pique curiosity.  The design changes – including channel-wide branding areas like header and side banners, tabbed browsing environments and native links to connected channels – allow advertisers to break the mold of carelessly placed playlists and uploads, replacing it with thoughtfully conceived layouts and user flows.
3. Analytics, Yay! Following in the footsteps of Google Analytics and Facebook Insights, YouTube realized that marketers would be less inclined to invest resources into a platform that could not be heavily monitored. Enter YouTube Analytics, a new and robust set of metrics that allow channel admins to measure everything from views, demographics, playback locations and traffic sources to Likes & Dislikes, comments and shares. Most of these numbers were previously accessible, but it wasn’t chronologically searchable (nor was it prepared as neatly). Less visible but also important, Friends and Subscriptions are now one and the same (who pays attention to that stuff anyway) and Channel Views are no longer publically visible.
4. Tabbed Browsing. We mentioned it in No. 2 above, but it deserves its own discussion. The new design partitions YouTube channels into three (or more) tabbed browsing environments, including Featured, Feed, Videos and Custom. Perhaps most importantly, this change alleviates the “paralysis by analysis” problem many users face with YouTube. Without scaling back its platform, YouTube has simplified its interface, creating compartmentalized pages for featured/new content, activity streams, video archives and custom content (just like a website… hmmm, imagine that).
5. Google+ Integration. While this doesn’t technically relate to the design changes coming to YouTube, it’s part of the site’s long-term content and search plan, which makes it relevant for this story. Along with the launch of Google+ and now Google Search Plus Your World, the YouTube (Google owns YouTube) platform has become infinitely more powerful as a search engine and content-finder. And since content on YouTube should now be more accessible and enjoyable to discover (for the reasons discussed above), Google’s stranglehold on organic and paid search just took a Barry Bonds-size dose of performance-enhancing drugs. If Google+ is able to stay alive and continue generating +1s across the web, Google will soon begin aggregating those +1s onto branded Google+ and YouTube Channels, creating a veritable shrine of user- and context-specific endorsements.

Ah, the future.

Chicago is a sporting town, no doubt about it, so when one of our Lexus clients asked me to help them out with a recent request from an employee, I knew it would be for NHL or NFL tickets.

Turns out, it was one of the most important ticket requests of my 20+ years in automotive advertising. Dave grew up with his cousin Mark and they have remained best friends throughout their adulthood. When Mark told Dave he was leaving for his fourth deployment to Afghanistan in mid-December, Mark knew he had to have something big planned for their next visit. Since Team One Chicago enjoys a spectacular media relationship with WGN-AM radio, I went to them for help.

My station rep, Jon Greene, gave me four Chicago Blackhawks tickets on the glass for Dave, Mark and their fathers! Just like life, advertising is all about relationships and good faith. Thanks, Jon and WGN-AM radio for making this soldier’s first hockey game an unforgettable experience!

Dave sent us a breathtaking, hand-mailed letter sharing with us the gravity of the experience with his cousin. If you don’t mind a few goose bumps, read it here.

Happy Holidays, from our teams to yours!

Every now and then, a project comes around that truly excites an agency. It may be a one-of-a-kind creative idea, it may be a cross department production. The Lexus Fashion Workshop was just such an undertaking: a unique concept that would require true integration by the agency to create a cohesive program. Let’s start with the idea.

The Lexus CT Hybrid is 90% recyclable (based on ISO 22628 standards, of course). Why not recycle it, we asked. We enlisted four CFDA finalist fashion designers to recycle parts from a dismantled Lexus CT Hybrid into wearable fashion: Eddie Borgo, John Patrick, Moss Lippow, and Alejandro Ingelmo. Sounds simple enough, but let’s explore what it took to get there.

A car prep company spent five days disassembling a Lexus CT and packaging all pieces (over 2,000!) for shipment. It took a man named Gator six days to drive a trailer full of car parts from Los Angeles to New York City. A team in New York spent three days in an air conditioning-less studio warehouse (in an August heat wave) meticulously laying out each piece on the floor to compose a giant array, which was then photographed using a 30 foot tall cherry picker to simulate an aerial photograph. The four designers selected their parts, and then spent the next month creating their individual fashion items, all while a film crew documented the process. Then, it was back to a studio to photograph the final designs on a model. The pieces were then shipped to Miami, where they were put on display in the Vogue Lounge at the Sagamore Hotel, as part of Art Basel. Last but not least, the pieces were auctioned off to benefit the CFDA Vogue Fashion fund. Oh, and Gator drove the trailer truck back to Los Angeles.

The result of this manic production? A 6-page spread in the January 2012 issue of Vogue, exclusive behind-the-scenes videos, and some truly amazing fashion items.

Now came the fun part: cohesive integration. How do you create a seamless communication platform that provides users with a branded entertainment experience? You involve everyone. Media, Strategy, PR, Events, Production, UX, Interactive, Social, Creative, and Legal – there must be true collaboration throughout the agency to create an integrated approach to sharing content. The Lexus Fashion Workshop content can be seen in print, online on a custom microsite, on YouTube, on social brand channels, and at live events. Each placement shared the same voice, the same look and feel, and laddered up to one strategy. It takes a village to raise an idea like this, and in our case, every department had a hand in its creation.

The media has started to take notice as well. In the first few weeks of the content breaking online, we’ve seen millions of media impressions, thousands of video views, and requests coming in from all corners of the globe. Here’s a quick sampling of press coverage:

Couture from Car Parts? -  WSJ.com
Toyota Pumping Passion into Lexus -  MSNBC.com
Hybrid Parts into Haute Couture – ECouterre.com

Out of the 50 top ski hotels ranked in the December issue of Conde Nast Traveler, The Ritz-Carlton, Lake Tahoe was the only one to achieve a perfect score of 100 for it’s mid mountain, ski-in-ski-out location on North Star California. Voting was by Conde Nast Traveler readers, and the hotel placed 5th overall.

The slope-side spa, cuisine from James Beard award-winning chef Traci Des Jardins and a unique, relaxed rustic feel are sure to “stay with you” longer after your visit. Time to hit the slopes!

I had never met fellow Publicis employee Rishad Tobaccowalla (according to his bio–Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer of Publicis Groupe’s VivaKi) but clearly he had found a way to see inside my brain and was kind enough to answer some of my most pressing concerns about life, and more specifically marketing, in the digital age. The only bummer was that he did this in front of ThinkLA at a breakfast a couple weeks ago. Which will make these insights much tougher to pass off as my own.

Seriously, this was an amazing talk from an engaging and unassuming speaker. It offered a framework for considering the changes hurtling toward us hourly, at ridiculous speeds.

Here are some of the points that struck me as either comforting or insightful or both. He started with a truth that I know many of us struggle with–

You can’t keep up with new information. This creates insecurity.

Ironically, in light of this, the more you want things to stay the same, the more you will have to change.

Thus, it’s wise to embrace the state of having incomplete knowledge, and–

Decide what the world looks like and get on with it.

So what does the world look like these days? He pointed out a few striking macro characteristics–

We are in a ”connection engine age”. This is what allows everything to happen.

There are different types of connection engines: sharing engines (Twitter), transaction engines (Amazon), discovery engines (Google).

The internal combustion engine was a connection engine. Cars, trucks, planes connect people. The Middle Ages? Not a connection engine age.

The internet is the biggest connection engine yet.

People are analog

We connect in order to share, discover, express. This is not about IT, at least not as much as it is about understanding humans.

Emotion is analog. People don’t think with data.

We are right in the middle of the most amazing period in marketing history.

Textbooks define marketing as “understanding and meeting customer requirements.” This wasn’t what companies did the last three decades (or more). Now they have to, or their customers will expose them.

Marketing is about understanding culture. Thus, it’s a growth industry.

This is good news for thinkers. It’s a lot harder to outsource people with understanding than it is people with skillsets (sorry lawyers, programmers and CPAs).

Digital doesn’t respect boundaries. We are in an age of “digital leakage”. The above mentioned connection engines bleed into one another. And there will be blood.

Facebook vs. Google. Apple vs. Android. Amazon vs. Kindle.

Apple is no longer Apple Computers. Apple technology has cut into Nikon’s camera business, as well as Nintendo’s gaming business (Angry Birds).

Content and Contact. There are no boundaries between them.

All things analog are becoming digital.

All things digital are becoming mobile.

Thanks to location, all things mobile are becoming analog.

Two things our clients want to know:

Do we know what we’re talking about?

Why aren’t we collaborating better?

Our clients are making us reinvent ourselves. And re-inventing means experimenting. And having a tolerance for risk. And a comfort level with fear.

You get more by being an apprentice than a scholar.

Rishad explains many of these points in more detail in the various blogs he writes (after getting up every day at 4:30 am). He’s a sorely needed source of clarity and simplicity in a world of hype and hoopla. If you can hear him, do, and if you can’t, read him. http://rishadt.wordpress.com/about/

Team One has been hired by Icelandic Glacial Natural Spring Water to overhaul the brand’s creative identity, global packaging designs and to amplify its 2012 North American expansion. Founded in 2004 as the world’s first certified CarbonNeutral® bottled water, Icelandic Glacial provides consumers around the world with exceptionally pure premium water from Iceland’s legendary Ölfus Spring.

The Icelandic Glacial Water account marks the eighth new brand to join the Team One roster in the last 24 months, a notable shift for an agency primarily recognized for its work on the Lexus automotive brand. The expansion into new categories – hotel & hospitality, consumer packaged goods and electronics – is part of the agency’s deliberate strategy to diversify its roster and launch more ideas for a broader range of clients.

In addition to its anchor clients Lexus and The Ritz-Carlton, over the past two years Team One has performed work for American Express; Marriott’s Autograph Collection, JW Marriott, Edition Hotels and Renaissance Hotels; Belkin; Häagen-Dazs; and the Northern Trust Open.

“This project represents a mutual investment and is the first step in laying foundational brand work upon which Icelandic Glacial Water will build for years to come,” said Julie Michael, Executive Director for Team One. “As we selectively grow our own business, we’ve had our eyes on Icelandic Glacial Water for a couple years, and we believe the time is right to magnify its presence within North America.”

“Icelandic Glacial is delighted to partner with Team One, and we are looking forward to the expansion of our brand through new and creative advertising channels,” said Jon Olafsson, Chairman and Co-Founder of Icelandic Glacial Water. “As the world’s first carbon-neutral bottled water brand, our company’s mission, process and product is as fresh and pure as Iceland itself. We are enthusiastic about working with Team One to spread this message to consumers across North America and the world.”

Work will begin immediately. New logo and packaging updates are expected to begin rolling out in spring 2012. A second phase of work is expected to include high-impact print and out-of-home advertising and point-of-sale displays, complementing a U.S.-based event activation schedule.

“Next year will mark a critical time for marketing our brand and significantly bolstering our market share,” said David Casey, Senior Marketing Director for Icelandic Glacial Water. “We hired Team One because they have a definable history of launching brands for success, and we have great confidence in their ability support our business.”

Headquartered in Ölfus, Iceland, Icelandic Glacial Water is currently exported to the U.S., Canada, Russia, Germany, France, U.K. and China. For more information, please visit www.IcelandicGlacial.com. High-resolution product images can be downloaded here.

Yesterday was a proud day for our little team at Team One. Within hours, we were able to get up and running a pretty slick brand Google+ page for Lexus. Kudos to ALL involved in the project.

It’s funny, when we look at “new technology”, the knee jerk reflex is to dismiss and push to the wayside. Things like Google Wave and Buzz all linger in our collective psyche and we think, “bah, here we go, talking to ourselves again” (marketing folks to marketing folks). But we have to sit back and think about what *really* is going on here.

From a marketing perspective, we always have to be mindful of these subtle shifts in behavior to truly unlock and appreciate the depth of new technology – its less about loving or hating “Google Plus” as a platform. If you’re to look at today’s events from a high level — you see a couple things. First, the ability to use Hangouts could be SUPER interesting as evidenced by the Muppets hangout promoting their upcoming movie. Yes, it was filled with glitches and ultimately could be viewed as a bit of a failure, but it was a chance, an experiment. And the reality is there were SO many people who wanted to join that it crashed the system. I still think that counts for a little #winning. And the Dali Lama joining the proverbial conversation with people and disciples around the world is also beyond fascinating.

Secondly, the way the platform is structured, it forces consumers to figure out “how” brands play out in their lives (ask the ever-important question: “what circle do they go in?”) We had a similar ask of consumers when Facebook asked brands to be “friends”, which evolved in nomenclature to “like” (again, it’s the beauty of beta–stuff changes). Again, subtle behavior changes that then become vernacular of everyday life before you know it – “liking” a brand is not a weird thing anymore is it?

Yes, we all know the realities of what Google+ may or may not be long-term. That’s the beautiful thing about “stuff of the internet”–we don’t know yet. But what we can do is experiment, play and make a few missteps. And then make some massive leaps forward. Make small bets and the payoff could surprise you.

Last month, we had the good fortune of visiting with Mark Barden, partner with eatbigfish, one of the world’s smartest brand and design consultancies. Here’s his attempt at summarizing his fantastic one hour presentation into 90 seconds.

Barden explains his five principles for challenging a major brand competitor:

1. Build something people can believe in
2. Slay monsters for them
3. Practice seeing opportunity yourself… don’t delegate it
4. Always seek to change the criteria for choosing
5. If it won’t start a conversation, why bother?

Visit www.eatbigfish.com for information.

Today marked perhaps the finest display of Halloween showmanship any of us have ever seen.

From our inaugural T1 Punkin’ Chunkin’ Throwdown (video above) to our massively attended pie-eating contest and costume contest (Facebook photo album), the spirits have been spooky all day here at Team One.

More photos and videos to come!