When I was at Uni in Australia I so clearly remember a friend saying to me “The Most important thing about life is building relationships”.  That moment and phrase have stuck with me in everything I have done since. (It was 2004 so, in Internet years, that’s ages!).  That’s the thing I feel people really MISS about social media, it’s all about building relationships. I scrolled though a presentation earlier about not NOT to fail as a brand which talked about how brands build relationships. And how they are not great at it. Brand relationships are not the same as human relationships. Some of my fav slides below followed by the 110 page presentation.  You might enjoy clicking through over lunch today 🙂 How to (not) Fail from Martin Weigel

We did a funny blog post at the office about condom advertising and Valentines Day 🙂 Read it here.

Handsome. What do you think of this?

Check this out! I had no idea, mega agency, Viktor & Spoils made a case study about this. Most of this video was shot by my sister and the whole thing was put together by Sean Evans from 1188 Films. Pretty neat! 1188 just WON for Post Production Of The Year for Down With Webster “Big Wheels” video at the MMVAs tonight. If you like/love Nintendo you will <3 this. CONGRATS to 1188 & DWW! Read a good article about advertising & content on SAY MEDIA’s blog this week. Goes back to what I was saying last week about transmedia storytelling. I love their VENN diagrams.  

Get out and do something. Next week is Advertising Week in Canada and there is a bunch of cool things happening.  This time of year can be kinda depressing spending a day or few hours at a conference is a good way to escape the winter woes and hopefully stimulate your brain. Two things I love most about conferences are scoping out well branded booths and good wifi. The later can be a challenge sometimes. The Detroit Autoshow had totally massive displays with lights, sound, art, fashion and cars. It was crazy how bright the lights were. CES was really, really, huge the conference floor 1.6 million net square feet of exhibit space. In partnership with Advertising Week launches Dx3 Canada, a new interactive trade show with sessions and exhibitors related to advertising, marketing and retail. My girl Amber Mac will be onsite filming her show and there’s a bunch of sponsors/exhbitors friends/partners of mine from over the years including Say Media, Trendhunter, Techvibes, Jaunt.ca. Some more details include: 100 of Canada’s top digital solution providers engaging free seminars Amber Mac’s Technology Spotlight Interviews show floor  etc I’ve always loved advertising. Started a creative ad agency in high school entrepreneur class, was the youngest but got the highest mark. BOOM! Each week the Say Media blog posts ‘this week in venn‘ a diagram that relates to culture & advertising. This was last week’s one and it went along with an awesome post by the CEO titled ‘This is why you work in advertising.’ It’s a good read about the art & romance of good advertising, making conversations human and creating passion. Better advertising for a better world. The DX3 Canada event is on Wednesday & Thursday next week. The trade show is FREE but if you want to attend the sessions you have to pay. There’s over 3o and lots of interesting stuff. I’ll be there…