Kick someone, feel good.

I've just been having a look at some new work from Weiden + Kennedy Amsterdam, on behalf of the Burnout series of games by EA. The campaign is built around a fake Eastern philosophy called Kah Ra Shin, which promotes "Inner peace through outer violence".

First of all, I like the insight: Anyone who's played video games, particularly ones that involve smashing stuff to bits, knows their stress-busting qualities. And I imagine the Eastern philosophy treatment works well for the Kill Bill generation too. What's more, there's no arguing the site isn't beautifully crafted.

But that's not why I chose to write about it. The thing that interests me is the level of brand presence. The banner ads have none, there's a subtle logo on the website, and some of the content on the site and the YouTube channel of the movement's elders plugs the game.

Now, it's clear that over-branding Kah Ra Shin would've ruined my enjoyment of the piece (and I have no doubt W+K's creatives repeated this like one of their mantras). But, if it wasn't for a bit of perseverance on my part, there's a chance I would have missed the Burnout connection (where the game is mentioned in the content is done nicely, it's just not very up-front). And it's not as if the campaign relies on the intrigue of me not knowing where this mysterious organisation came from: its obviously a joke, and obviously done by a brand. And it's done so well that I reckon Burnout should take more of the credit. But is that just because I like EA?

I guess the trouble is there can't be any hard and fast rules about how prominent branding should be in pieces like this, because it's dependent on the context of the creative idea, the brand's reputation, and who's interacting at the time. (Royal Mail's stoplateness.com is another example that I liked, but was unsure about how branded/unbranded it should've been.)

So all I can say is, for me, EA got pretty close to getting it right for Burnout. What do you think? And have you seen any examples that raise the same issue?

"Surprise and delight."

Surprise and delight. I've lost count of the amount of times I've heard this phrase in relation to bits of marketing. Either as a requisite in a creative brief, or in some 'inventive' description of a piece of work for an awards entry (I'll be honest - I've been responsible for the latter).

Now, I'm all for creative work that gets that reaction, or at least aims to. My issue with the phrase is that it's been devalued by over use. Did the last high-volume DM piece I worked on really elicit such a reaction?!

The other day, I was surprised - and delighted - to see this:



It's a giant, fake, green plug socket stuck to a wall in Ganton St. in Soho. The building it's stuck to is horrible, but this bit of art makes it cool. And it provided me with a reminder of what it's like to be genuinely surprised and delighted.

So, from now on, I'll be giving my new concepts 'the green plug test'. If I can't realistically imagine my work getting the same reaction as I gave the Big Green Plug (which, by the way, used to be orange - as shown in the 3rd shot which I pillaged from Flickr), then I promise not to go round claiming it will!

[Anyone know any more about this installation? Who did it, for example? My googling has led me nowhere...]

Our New Business strategy.

When we set up Nonsense, Robbie and I drew up a list of dream clients. Unsurprisingly, Innocent Drinks came pretty high up. Actually, we didn't even dare put them on the list - so in the end it read "a brand like Innocent". Let's face it, two young creatives who've just jumped ship to start up a creative agency on their own might not be considered ideal candidates for a brand of their stature.

Then we saw an ad for a creative job at innocent. So we applied for it. As a team.

The idea being, that although they might not offer us half the job each, there's a chance they'd be up for a casual relationship with some creatives, for when they're all too busy pulping lychees with their toes. Besides, it would be a great ice breaker if we were ever to meet up with the residents of Fruit Towers.

Hopefully they'll be in touch - we'll keep you posted.