The Clinton campaign is struggling at the moment and is now losing the superdelegate battle. To help convince superdelegates to side with her, Hillary’s campaign has released this powerpoint presentation. And wow is it bad.
Garr at Presentation Zen (a must read), has a great review:
It’s slideuments like this that have given PowerPoint a bad name over the years. Nine slides, approximately 275 words, one table, three bar charts, and two pie charts.
Current TV takes a look at China’s economic growth by exploring Chongqing, a city of 12 Million we’ve never heard of.
This isn’t fair, but it’s pretty entertaining.
The US Air Guitar Championships are coming to The Bowery Ballroom on June 3rd. Get your tickets here. To get pumped up go ahead and netflix Air Guitar Nation.
The video above is of 2007 winner, William Ocean. This looks like a really good time. Lemme know if anyone wants to hit this up.
Back when Barack took Iowa and came in 2nd in New Hampshire, watching his speeches on election nights was truly must-see-TV.
‘They said this day would never come‘ and ‘Yes we can‘ were classics and sent Barack into the MLK echelon of oratory.
Since then I don’t think his speeches, except for ‘A more perfect union‘, were transcendent. They felt more dictated by polls and the petty twists and turns in the election.
But watching the N.C. victory speech last night felt like Obama circa early January 2008. He seemed to have his mojo back, his language was simple and powerful and his message was again sweeping and inspirational. It’s worth a watch if you haven’t caught it yet.
Nike makes some pretty cool ads.
This spot is in support of the upcoming Euro 2008 tournament and gives a first person perspective (almost video game-esque) of what it’s like to be on the pitch.
Engaging and inspiring, Nike knows how to tap into what drives fans and gets them pumped up. Most impressive is that while they do this consistently, the creative execution of this strategy continues to evolve with the times. Kudos.
Though it might be campy, cheesy, and a little too long, this video is still a good diversion for a few minutes if you’re into the election.
Fingers crossed that Indiana and North Carolina help us out today. Intrade is predicting a clear Clinton victory in Indiana and a clean Obama victory in North Carolina.
Also, if you’re seeking some straight-forward election coverage, check out electoral-vote.com.
A site for anyone who has ever wondered how zip codes work.
Through a collision of professional and personal interests, China has been on my mind a lot recently and the more I learn the more I’m fascinated. Some telling facts:
Taking all of this in, I’m quickly starting to buy into the fact that what’s going on over there these days is going to be studied and remembered for a very long time.
Helping me make sense of the region is a smart and well written book by Mark Leonard called What Does China Think. It presents a vision of what sort of future is envisioned by some of the influential Chinese thinkers who will steer the nation’s path over the next few decades. Here’s the premise of the book:
The story of China’s intellectual awakening is much less well documented than the now familiar tale of China’s econmoic revival. Although we obsessively study the ides of different factions in America’s intellectual life - the Neo-Cons, the assertive realists, the religions right - how many of us can name more than a handful of contemporary Chinese writers or thinkers.
This also got me thinking about Chinese brands - for all the manufacturing muscles that China flashes, it’s hard to name a handful of Chinese brands. A recent NYTimes article shed some light on why this is, taking the position that given China’s history of competing based on value propositions, it’s proving difficult (almost counter intuitive) for them to focus on actually building strong brands. These quote sums it up well:
There is a powerful sense among Chinese consumers that domestic brands are inferior — and a distinct lack of confidence among Chinese companies in the allure of their own brands.
As much as we fear China’s manufacturing prowess, Chinese companies fear the marketing abilities of the West. As the government allows more Western brands to break into the Chinese market in a big way, they inevitably take market share away from domestic companies. And if these same companies want to export their own branded goods, which is where the real profits lie, they’ll have to learn how to create distinct identities that appeal to consumers — in other words, brands.
As Chinese brands continue to take cues from successful western marketing tactics, they’ll inevitably start to carve out distinct identities and develop ongoing conversations with consumers through more sophisticated communications platforms. There’s no doubt in my mind that Chinese brands will be major players in the business of the 21st century.
So what brands will we be talking about in the next few decades? CNBC has 10 to watch.
The internet vs Tokyo subway map. By Information Architects.
The map pins down nearly 300 of the most successful and influential websites to the greater Tokyo area train map.
Different train lines correspond to different web trends such as innovation, news, social networks, and so on.
The bottom layer includes a rating of brand experience analogous to restaurant experience. It illustrates our perception of user experience and brand management of the main stations. We studied the usability, user value, and interface (simplicity, character, and feedback), and rated each site on a scale of eating at various types of Japanese restaurants.
Check out the clickable version and get a high-res PDF here.
My name is Tom, I'm 26, live in Brooklyn and work for Hall & Partners, a brand and communications consultancy in SoHo.
This blog is an outlet for my restless mind. I hope you're interested in what I'm interested in.
Events I'm attending:
