Boston AdClub The Edge

Yesterday I attended The Edge, a creative event thrown by Boston's AdClub. The slogan of the event was "It's Where you go to get Inspired" and I know it might sounds cheesy but that's exactly what happened.

The day was packed full of thoughtful and extremely honest presentations, by Brian Collins (COLLINS,) Lance Jensen (Modernista!,) Frank Moss (MIT Media Lab,) and more. Though I'd like to regurgitate the whole thing for you, I won't but I want to share some of the projects and ideas that stood put as highlights to me.

Brian Collins, Chief Creative Officer and Chairman of COLLINS, started the day out discussing the creative process and the of idea community and collaboration to maximize ideas- a theme of the day. Some of the projects he explored in detail were the BP Helio House, a greener gas station, and my favorite new organization we (wecansolveit.org) which Collins so poetically opened and closed with...beginning with "me"...and flipping to add an exclaimation point to the power of "we" and his presentation. (update - one of the things Collins mentioned has stuck with me for more than a week now, I keep thinking about it. I can't fully explain it as elequently or visually as he did - but he made this connection between JFK and the Space Race; which led to futuristic - optomistic themed media, advertising, and televsion shows and therefore way of American life; and George W. and the declaration of revenge post 911; and the rugged military based and fear based media and lifestyle that has resulted. The one direct correlation was Batman. In the early 60's the Batmobile was futuristic, open to the world and new ideas, and the newest Batmobile is practically a tank, completely closed off and shut in from the surroundings. Not sure if that makes sense but man, I keep coming back to it - thanks so much Brian!)



















The next presentation I want to mention was from YouTube Director of Sales and Marketing Suzie Reider. Unfortunately her presentation was DURING lunch, (AdClub maybe rethink this next time?) but she offered a lot of good case studies to demonstrate the value of User Generated Content to propel a marketing campaign beyond its initial intended means.



The next item Suzie showed was a response to this video...




I love that EA sports is so in tune with their direct audience that they tailored a commercial directly to them, for this specific intended medium. Amazing.

The final presenter I want to tell you about is Frank Moss from The Media Lab, but I have so much to say I think I am going to do a separate entry. Say Tuned!