Welcome to Room 116

Hope this helps

Found on my friend's facebook page.  The font on this feels very Paul Arden.

perspective

heart.death.busy

Read on a friend's blog (http://www.linguitar.com/blog/). Thought it was interesting.

Effie Effectiveness Series

To remind people of their November 7th entry deadline, The Effies have launched The Effie Effectiveness Series. Web films they’re 86% sure you will find useful. To view the first one go to www.effie.org/effectiveness. The second and 3rd videos will be up in the coming weeks.

Cross-posted at polygamousweddings.com

Banksy:

I wanted to be an artist once. 

I used to think I could be one within my job. Now I feel my job lets me be one in life.

 

IHAI's Portfolio Night 5

http://www.portfolionight.com/

My advice: Sign up for this now because it'll sell out.

Creature

Last Wednesday, I went to check out this event where Creature, this agency in Seattle who is most notorious for putting Starbucks Red Cup  on cars, gave a presentation at the One Club.  Overall, it was cool to hear how they came up with their Starbucks idea (they did a lot of other creative stuff like the Starbucks snow globe and parking meters) and how much it goes into producing them.  The creative founders Matt & Jim (ex-weiden, ex-goodby) seem really cool and said how it was important in getting around the word "no".  Also, they stressed that we need to also become engineers and producers of our ideas.  Yeah it's all fun thinking of an idea but then you have to think through how to get it done.

I wish more people were there and wonder why it wasn't even mentioned on the One Club website. I'll post up their interesting events in the future.

p.s. They're looking for a mid-level CW, so if you're interested, check out www.creatureseattle.com and mention rm116!

Trumpet - Interview with Robbie Vitrano

One phrase to sum up New Orleans.  Southern Hospitality.

After traveling for the entire summer, I had a chance to visit the beautiful city of New Orleans in September.  The pulse of that city sent a wave of energy that I didn't feel anywhere else in the world.  Not in Thailand, Greece, Italy and not even in London right now.  It's something I can't explain, and something I encourage everyone to experience first hand.  While there, I got a chance to meet everyone at Trumpet Advertising and man, were they a passionate group of eclectic people.  The same energy I felt in the city was amplified in their office on St Charles Ave.

I decided to email Robbie Vitrano, one of the founding partners, to talk about New Orleans, trumpets and beads...

Where y'at?  As someone hailing from Virginia, I have no idea what that means.  Can you explain?  And since I'm from Virginia, I just have to apologize for Aaron Brooks performance in New Orleans...

In NOLA it literally means "hello, how are you?"  But it's really more of a secret handshake between people from the city.  It says we both breath the unique air of New Orleans.  Interesting note, post-K, it occurred to me, as more than a million people from the area were scattered to the ends of the earth, "where y'at?" took on a whole new meaning - no translation necessary.

Trumpet Advertising has come a long way since you opened its doors in 1997.  What are some of the exciting changes that you guys are going through?
 
First, it's just Trumpet - no "Advertising."  No worries - happens all the time.  Truth is, we struggled with the whole idea of "ad agency" in terms of the limiting definition.  We now refer to ourselves as a brand studio.  We like the concept of a studio as a place to study and solve problems. It is expressly media neutral.  It expressly takes you deeper into the clients business and far beyond what is traditionally thought of as advertising.  A studio dedicated to brand is more appropriate for Trumpet - maybe from the beginning. Especially now.  This last year has been transformative.  The hurricane focused a couple of years of scheming by an emerging group of our leaders and concentrated it into something powerful.  It was humbling and inspiring to see how this group of five key leaders in our organization, along with the partners, took responsibility for guiding the agency toward a more true communications planning model.  They say culture is how work gets done when you don't specify how the work should get done.  Strong culture. 

The coda:  Last year (the year after the hurricane) was a record year with revenue up 70% and our staff grew by about 30% - many of those new hires were from outside of New Orleans which was a surprise, but very cool.

What do you think holds for the future of Trumpet and for the future of advertising?

The foundation for the future was really built over the last couple of years.  We had pushed outside of the market winning clients like Fresh Direct, Gatorade, Turner, H-P, etc. , but got slapped down hard in the 9/11 and dot-com crash.  From there we started to build our more studio-based approach, refining our digital capabilities and planning process.  Again, nothing like a near-death experience to reveal your North Star.  We intensely challenged ourselves to put the conversations, the studying, the talent and the bitching to work.  We threw out everything that held us back.  We started with a core group, but quickly involved all members of the agency.  The twelve or so new people who've joined us over the last year jumped right in.  We quickly recognized that New Orleans, post-Katrina, was the perfect laboratory for our model.  The work had to go deeper.  It had to connect on multiple levels.  It had to move quickly, invite feedback and learn on the fly -  fail fast, recover fast.  It had to be authentic.  It had to go far beyond conventional advertising.

All of which feels right for where we are and what we can contribute to the world as a group of people who solve problems with insight, empathy and creativity.  I subscribe to Chris Riley's notion of brand as a business idea that achieves cultural influence.  More than ever, the size and quality of that influence will report to the bottom line.  Whether you address it on a purely clinical, capitalistic level or connect it somewhere deeper, the future of advertising hinges on truly understanding how businesses must behave in order to create valuable relationships with their customers. 

The million dollar question that everyone wants to know, how is New Orleans doing?

I had dinner with Andy Berlin in New Orleans recently and he said that the humanity in New Orleans is more powerful than any place he had ever been.  On that level, New Orleans is doing okay.  The thing that gets lost about New Orleans is how the city is all about stimulation and the resulting creativity.  The city is inherently creative in its approach to life be it music, food, architecture, literature, or visual arts.  This is a product of our diversity, the strength of traditions and the relative ease of access we have to one another - New Orleans is village-like, close knit so we just bump off or one another more and that creates interesting friction.  Living like this has taught us to find inspiration in our challenges.  If you look at New Orleans' history in context stretching back from the founding in 1718 to the present you'll see that our city has endured fires, wars, epidemics, and natural disasters and turned it all into unique expression.  Understanding this puts Katrina into a more accurate context.   

Which is why, if you walk around New Orleans the first thing you'll notice is the explosion of art and expression.  Art is literally everywhere.  As is new music, a whole new level of culinary style.  The complexity of the rebuild has brought the most talented and respected urban planners in the world to the city - Frank Gehry, Thom Mayne, and Andres Duany for instance.  Big brains like Bruce Mau are involved in projects as are think tanks and foundations such as Ford, ULI, RAND, and PEW contributing to everything from education reform and cultural preservation to government integrity and entrepreneurship.  Brad Pitt, who's filming in New Orleans has been to the city frequently, leading the charge on sustainable building and is rumored to have bought a place down from us on St. Charles Avenue.  The city is still battling through the immense complexity of the recovery and large sections of the city remain in ruins, but I believe the greatest legacy of the storm will be the emergence of a forceful civic and political will.  The downside of New Orleans' famous tolerance and conviviality was an apathetic electorate.  No more.

Trumpet recruits with the quote below, have people in the industry stepped up to take the challenge?

"Men (and women) wanted for hazardous journey. Small wages. Bitter
cold. Long months of complete darkness. Constant danger. Safe return
doubtful. Honour and recognition in case of success."

Yes.  Thousands in fact have applied.  We've hired twelve.  True believers.  Incredibly motivated, entrepreneurial, curious and courageous.  Fresh legs that have made us better.

What has Trumpet been doing to help build the new New Orleans?

We've been working at the center of the recovery touching economic development, urban planning, public health, public safety,  and government integrity.  Since the storm we've worked to reposition the Louisiana business climate in light of massive incentives provided by the federal government to the region.  We positioned the State - through circumstance and strategy - as one of the most entrepreneurial places in North America.  We used a similar approach in challenging local businesses to better utilized incentives and resources to diversify and expand their businesses.  As part of a team that included some of the world's foremost urban planners and social scientists we're working with United Neighborhood Planning process - a messy, but fascinating process of engaging the community in envisioning its future.  The process has been referred to as the "Super Bowl of Planning."  We've also helped to attract major visionaries such as Bruce Mau and Frank Gehry to help to plan for the   reinvention of the New Orleans river front for the first time since the founding of the city.  Another key area is tourism.  New Orleans tourism rises and falls on the authenticity of the cultural experience in the city.  So in essence, people come here for the same reason people live here.  As a result, we're expanding the marketing efforts of tourism to encompass a more comprehensive place branding effort.  Part of that effort includes elevating the contextual understanding, thus value of New Orleans unique cultural assets and assuring people that they are intact.  The truth is, New Orleans culture us flourishing. 

What have been some of the bigger challenges in rebuilding the city?

Decisively charting a course for the city while making sure the less powerful are not forgotten.  While I'm convinced that at this stage, people would rather hear bad news than no news, we still must give everyone the opportunity to come home and find adequate housing.  It just may not be in your old neighborhood.    The reality is that the city had some problems that we now have a chance to address.  It will take courage to move the city forward while protecting our cultural heritage - preservationists and progressives can easily find themselves in conflict.  We need to be bigger than that.  But ultimately, the only way New Orleans survives is if we wisely optimize our cultural assets to attract smart, young creative classers - either to stay, or to come.  To let them turn the inspiration of New Orleans into a viable creative economy like our flourishing film industry.  We're primed for that.  Trumpet is betting on that.

It's a huge task, what do you see for the city a couple of years down the road?

I tend to see our future in places like Montreal or Amsterdam.  Places that have retained their iconoclastic, creative ethic while also translating it into viable, authentic commercial ventures.

Favourite authentic New Orleans dish?

Too many when you grow up full-blooded Sicilian in this town.  Maybe Charbroiled oysters - in season, with a bit of garlic butter, Romano cheese.  Just hit it with the heat until the cheese melts. 

Louie Armstrong painting from Nosaj Authentics

Favourite Louie Armstrong song?
Saint James Infirmary and Back O'Town

One word to describe your relationship with the Saints. 

Hypocritical - I'm the first one to scream about the bullshit of professional sports and how Benson plays the town.  And the first one to lose his voice at the game.

Mardi Gras or Jazz Festival? 

The Fest is Best.

And if any of our readers were to come to the beautiful city of New Orleans, could you guide them with some wonderful recommendations?

Don't miss Vaughn's on Thursday night for Kermit cooking - on the trumpet and the barbecue between sets.  Donna's on Monday for Brass and free red beans and fried chicken. Willie Mae's Scotch House will be open by Christmas.  Stella's and August are burning up the food scene. The Republic has brought cool big city hip to the city.  One-Eyed Jacks always surprises.  Stroll Frenchman, dip into the Bywater at Mimi's and make the late night freak scene at the Circle Bar.  That should do you for a few hours.

Robbie Vitrano goes to work everyday to help build the world's next and first great brand studio from New Orleans.  You can reach him at [email protected]
If you would like to be interviewed for future posts, please contact Michael Karnjanaprakorn at [email protected]

The Way I See It #182

Does anyone else collect these cups?  I had started a collection on my desk at the office but then one night the janitor thought my collection was trash and threw it away.  I can't blame him since I only had one cup.  But no worries, I've now started to hide them in the office.

In Perspective

Have a great Labor Day Weekend.

ps. This comes out next Tuesday!