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Best Of the Internal Deep Focus Blog: Poor Microsoft!

Check out this post on Deep Focus' internal blog by Associate Creative Director Nick Braccia:

So you've probably all seen this student-made spot from the UK for iPod Touch, featuring Cansei de ser Sexy's "Music is my Hot, Hot Sex.

It's a fine piece of editing, but when I saw it, I thought, heck, all he REALLY did was pick an awesome song and time some animations. Big deal, right?

Here's the irony: a year ago, Microsoft had a ZUNE spot running with the SAME SONG.

What's the moral of this story? Well, the amateur kid kept it simple: Music = HERO. Interface = Easiest way ever to hang with HERO. In the Zune spot, the song is part of a schizophrenic execution that's trying to: a) be irreverent with stylized, anthropomorphized illustrated animals b) cycle through a list features (music, wireless, tuner, community) c) bring it all back to music and "social" by building a narrative.

Wow, that's a lot. Just listening to a Brazilian girl sing "Music is my Boyfriend, Music is my Girlfriend" seems to sum all that up, with like, 1/1000th of the work. It's just an ironic slap in the face that they had the perfect weapon (the song) and didn't know how to use it properly.

Just found more assessments of the two spots.

Exactly right, Nick. Consumers realize that a better product is a better product -- and if you believe in your product, simply showing its points of differentiation can help someone (consciously or subconsciously) make their purchasing decision. And including your biggest fans in the creation of your advertising -- NOT through solicitation, but discovery -- is priceless.

Best of the Internal Deep Focus Blog: Kanye West

This is a new feature, where I will be periodically posting the best of Deep Focus' internal blog. At the blog, we are always sharing criticisms, thoughts, and insights on the world of marketing and advertising. It's internal so we can keep it informal. But some things I will just have to share with everyone, like this:

yeah, it's just (an awesome) kanye west music video. but there are several reasons why i think it's a super important one. it signals a cultural paradigm shift:

1) kanye is the only pop star left to take himself seriously as a pop star (other than bono). it's a full time job for him when he's not making music. he's loud, annoying, has a big head, and isn't scared to pose on the cover of rolling stone as jesus or say bush hates black people. 2) he has trumped nigo (of a bathing ape) as the de facto urban/street fashion icon in the western world. 3) he's the first hip hop artist to realize that the suburbs don't care about hip hop anymore. the suburb kids have moved on to indie rock.

his new audience? hipsters. hipsters still buy hip hop, if only to be ironic. hence the sampling of daft punk in this video, tailor made for his "urban independent" audience. and where kanye goes, other artists will follow.