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Attention People of Austin: Pack up the breakables and swaddle the children, Campfire is coming to town.

Specifically I’ve been invited to speak at this years SXSW Interactive Shindig. Course, speaking is so 2005, I thought we’d amp it up a bit and do something a little more in our gear. Kick out the jams so to speak.

The panel (and I use that term ever so loosely) is titled “You’re Living in Your Own Private Branded Entertainment Experience” It’s scheduled to all go down on March 16.

What’s it all about? I can’t tell you. Your mind would melt. But here’s a hint, I’m pretty sure Gorillas and madness fit in.

Who else is making this happen? Oh baby, I got the stellar cast lined up.
Brian Clark
Steve Peters
Lance Weiler
Dee Cook
and special guest appearances by others who’s names shall remain unspoken cause just knowing would BLOW YOUR EVER LOVING MIND!

So get your ass to Austin in March for this here thing. I promise a good surreal time shall be had by all.

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This year at Campfire, we’re forgoing our annual company team-building offsite in favor of a bowling outing. BOWLING. That’s high-level BS, I say. We have a wonderful history of corporate retreats here at Campfire. How are we ever going to bond, to grow as a family and unite as a single-minded corporate entity if we don’t drill down into our problems and get on the same page for 2009. What better way to address lingering interpersonal issues than in a public forum in front of your peers? How do you think the founders created the Constitution? (I watched John Adams, so I’m pretty much an expert.)

In the spirit of continuity, I want to show you all a surprisingly funny video from the Worldwide Leader, ESPN, and it’s new episodic series, Mayne Street. Enjoy!

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MSNBC on True Blood, and HBO & Campfire’s highly successful marketing project:

“Catching the wave of a public fascination with vampires, HBO’s “True Blood” has steadily increased in stature to become the cable network’s most popular series since “The Sopranos” and “Sex and the City.”

… The series averages 6.8 million viewers each week. As is typical for HBO, the viewership is scattered around in-demand viewing and reruns aired at different times during the week. But Lombardo [Michael Lombardo, HBO's chief of West Coast operations] said he’s noticed that more people are tuning in for the Sunday episode premieres, a sign of anticipation among fans.

HBO usually spends a big promotion budget to get people to watch the first episode of a new series, and hope enough viewers are satisfied to come back is subsequent weeks. The “True Blood” promotion included some approaches unusual for the network, including setting up fake Web sites and advertising a fake drink called ‘Tru Blood.”"

Read the rest of the article here

Technorati Tags: Campfire, HBO, Marketing News, social media, True Blood

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By Tor Myren, Don McKinney, Rob Baiocco, and Chris Brunt of Grey Advertising

Technorati Tags: advertising, Advertising Agencies, conversation, marketing, Obama, McCain

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As you can see from the post preceding this one, early in the week I set out with the mission of ensuring that every banana was given the opportunity to fulfill its given purpose of providing nutrition. As I am sure you would all agree, there is nothing sadder than a banana without purpose. As soon as they realize that their existence was for naught, they quickly brown, whither and die. Sure, a small percentage of these dying bananas are miraculously saved via osmosis with bread but most aren’t afforded that luxury.*

ANYWAY, to try and curb the dangerous epidemic of dead bananas that was becoming all-too-commonplace within the Campfire walls, I highlighted four banana benefits, or bananafits, and posted them in sign form above the bananas in our kitchen. As you can see from the image above, MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!! Now, someone needs to do something about those lonely, lonely apples.

*I used to bag groceries at a supermarket in Weymouth, MA as a youngin called Johnny Foodmaster (I swear, that was the real name.) One day, a sagely woman came in and bought up all of the dying bananas. GREAT! Tons of deliscious banana bread, right? Wrong. You would be wrong to think this. In fact, she was buying them all to feed the local raccoons in her neighborhood. Apparently, raccoons have an affinity for bananas as well. Clearly, this animal is blessed with a dangerouly high intellect.

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Back in college, I worked as a barista for a local coffee shop. One afternoon, a co-worker who also worked part-time at a slaughterhouse, came on shift particularly frazzled and stressed out. When we asked why, she explained how earlier that morning, she stunned and slaughtered her first cow. We all had our reactions of course, and the slaughterhouse girl said matter-of-factly, “Where do you think your meat comes from?” Another co-worker replied, “We just get our meat from the supermarket.”

Yesterday, Mike, Steve, Sean and I went to Banksy’s new installation show in the West Village, The Village Petstore and Charcoal Grill. Unless you are a die-hard Banksy fan, it is almost impossible to know that the work has been done by Banksy. There wasn’t a single painting or graffiti piece in the entire show. The only indications of a Banksy show taking place were these huge rat billboards that had been put up around the city a few weeks earlier. An employee of the petstore was nice enough to write out a list of all the locations around the city where the billboards can be found.

Banksy’s use of animatronics were subtle; clearly the animals in the window displays are fake, but instead of spinning in circles or waving at you like a santa on crack, the movements are slight and insignificant, much in the same way a caged animal would behave. My favorite of the window displays was the pretty little bunny rabbit wearing a pearl necklace, filing her nails and staring into a vanity mirror with globs of blush and lipstick on. I couldn’t think of a better way to demonstrate the blatant disconnect between people and understanding where the products they consume on a daily basis actually come from.

Inside the pet store were more animals on display, including a caged chimp watching two chimps go at it on the Discovery channel, an old and weathered Tweety bird swinging pathetically in his bird cage and various meats in reptile tanks.

One spectator remarked how “disgusting” the wiggling, sweating and worm-like sausages were but I found the actual packages of sliced cold cuts hanging next to the aquariums much more disgusting.

The show was entertaining and easy to digest, so to speak. The best part for me was standing outside and watching people’s reactions. Since the show is still fairly new, most happen upon it by chance and are curious as to why there are seemingly real chickens feeding next to little “chick” chicken nuggets. Hey, at least now I know where my meat comes from.

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Campfire’s My Home 2.0 campaign won 3 Mixx Awards!

Find out more about the Mixx Awards along with a complete list of winners here.

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Vote in the comment section below for your favorite. Winner will be announced tomorrow, end of day.

What is going on below? Winner gets a Nano.

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I always knew there was something fishy about Julia Child. For years, I thought it was the oddly-intoned voice. However, according to the AP and ABC News, documents released this morning name Child as part of the first organized intelligence operation in US History. During WWII, Child was recruited by the OSS (a pre-cursor to the CIA) to stir up trouble against Hitler.

Lord knows what havoc Child wrought on the schnitzel.

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