At the end of every creative brief?

"The only way to discover the limits of the possible, is to go beyond them, into the impossible"-Sir Arthur C. Clarke

Posted via email from Show Some Hustle

We're Moving to Posterous

Dear The 10 People That Follow This Blog,

We love you and want you to continue to follow RTH at our other blog, "Show Some Hustle."
As of May 1st, we're closing the doors on this blog like an inner city Chuck E. Cheese.

So follow us now at:

http://johnmills.posterous.com/


Lot's of exciting things to come this summer...

NACS Show in Vegas

We helped our client, Alternative Beverage Innovations, launch their new "relaxation" drinks Liquid RelaxX and Liquid Smoking at the National Association of Convenient Stores show. Both drinks are made in Amsterdam, so we recreated a street scene from the Red Light District. It was so much fun and the response was great.



Professional photos coming soon...in the meantime, you can check more out here.

The Sound of Collaboration

Friends and clients of Release The Hounds probably get a bit tired of me talking about the power of collaboration. Come to think of it, I get tired of hearing myself talk about it. But, by including people in your process (whether it's product development, customer support, sales, etc) you give them ownership in the brand. Or in this case, ownership in the band. And ownership paves the way to loyalty and innovation.

Recently my friend, Mickey, turned me on to this really inspirational video for "I've seen enough" by the Cold War Kids (directed by Sam Jones of Tool). I love the way fans can interact with the song by clicking on the colored tabs above each member to control the instrument he's playing or even mute it. For example, if you click on the blue tab above the guy on the far left, he switches from guitar to xylophone in real time.

Shot in a recording studio against a simple black background, the band played 4 different versions of the song. And as a result, fans can remix the track a ton of different ways.

It would be really cool if fans could record their remix somehow, and send it to friends - or even post it on the band's website to be rated by other fans. That would be a great way to increase portability and community. But, it would also be a lot more expensive, and I'm just happy they pushed it this far.

Check it out and make sure to let it preload.

Wear the new Mos Def record

As smooth and creative as his style, Mos Def is promoting and selling his new record, The Ecstatic, on the same format. A tee shirt.

The front of the shirt features the cover art, the song titles are printed on the back and a URL and download code are on the hang tag.

You gotta love an artist (and label) who will take a chance and push the boundaries of conventional marketing and distribution channels.

The shirt drops July 7th or buy the record on iTunes now.

Check out some of the new tracks and watch the video for "Casa Bey".



(via PSFK/ Via Paste)

Ahmadinejad Can't Stop a Twitter Revolution

On the eve of the recent and corrupt Iranian election, the government cut off all mobile and internet connections to the outside world. But, they made a huge mistake by underestimating The People's desire for change. Hope is alive in the streets of Tehran, and Twitter helped broadcast it.

The video above shows the inspiring protest and support of opposition leader, Moussavi. As The Daily Dish reported, a tweet from one of his supporters urged protesters to shout from the rooftops. It's incredible to watch.

There was also a fantastic example of Twitter being used as a media watchdog in the election coverage (via Mashable), as users accused CNN of burying the story. The hastag #CNNfail was used and, since its trending peak on Sunday, CNN has increased their coverage.

For our currently out-of-work marketing comrades...it sounds like Ahmadinejad will soon be needing a new Communications Director. Just don't tweet your resume.

Passion Pit and Harlem Shakes

Last night Noel, Russ, Holly, Anya and I went to the National Theater to see Passion Pit. The show was fantastic. And seeing the opener, Harlem Shakes, was one of the best surprises of the year. Both bands put on an incredible live show.

I also purchased this cool tour poster.






Here's the animated video that we did with Nooka and Passion Pit in case you missed it.

Twitter - Cut the Courtesy

There was an interesting online debate yesterday about whether or not to use autofollow. For those who don't know what it is, autofollow is a tool offered by services like TweetLater that automatically follow back people who follow you. The debate centered around whether or not using this tool is a social courtesy.

It seems to me that at its core, Twitter is entirely based on gain. And I don’t like to fool myself and pretend that it exists under a social umbrella of sincerity. The gain benefits everyday people, personal brands, business brands, government, public services, etc. And it's defined by increasing friendships, establishing thought leadership, cultivating brand ambassadors, increasing revenue, tapping information (education and news outlets), etc.

Please understand that I'm not using the word "gain" in a negative sense. I'm using it as Descartes or Kant would have in that we are all first and foremost ego-driven. We may talk about Twitter as "joining the conversation" (or other touchy-feely social phrases), but the reality is that we all have something to gain from it. AND THAT'S FINE.

Personally, I feel autofollowing is less a courtesy and more about racking-up numbers. Increasing the people you follow is one of ways to build followers because it more deeply embeds you into the Twitter community. Some people believe that you should have close to the same number of followers as people you're following. It's spoken about as some arbitrary Twitter cred.
Who cares? Why worry about other people's motivations or numbers? I digress.

"Courtesy" to me is participation - responding to your blog's comments, answering peoples' questions on Twitter and sharing your bookmarks (knowledge), for example. Helping one another. But by banking thousands of people in your Twitter account, your availability for intimacy is obviously diluted.

For the record, I used autofollow as I was learning about Twitter – and I paid for it in tons of spammy tweets. Thank goodness for Seesmic and Tweetdeck that allow us to filter out the noise we created and bring us back to the core value of the service...however you define it.

Build a Social Story

I was reading a great piece this morning by Dave Armano entitled “Kill Your Website.” He writes about how his blog has become a much more valuable (and cheaper) tool in connecting with his audience. So, he shut his website down.

It’s important to keep in mind that Dave is a well-respected leader in the design world, and his audience is highly interactive. So, a blog is the perfect platform for his communication channel. But it's obviously not necessarily right for every brand.

It made me think of how many of the small to midsized businesses that we work with don’t have the same audience engagement level as a personal brand like Dave or a passion-crazed company like Apple. But that’s okay. The important thing is that we evaluate our brand’s aptitude and commitment level to the “conversation,” as well as their customers’ social behavior. That way, we can make grounded recommendations. Too often I’ve seen agencies suggest building social communities or high commitment platforms without any research or foresight. Sure, gut instincts are still important. But with all the research that’s easily available, it’s not solely the responsible approach.

As a strategically-grounded shop, we try to educate our clients on focusing on plans not platforms or tools. Engagement not websites. Interaction not blogs. Communication not Twitter. Community not Facebook. We try to steer them away from getting caught-up in all of “the latest and greatest” social media whiz-bang and focus on their Social Story as a whole. It starts by defining goals and then figuring out the best way to facilitate the relationship with their customers.

Like-minded Animals

As I sat in a coffee shop this morning exchanging emails with Porky Hefer, owner of Animal Farm, I was uncomfortably caffeinated but mighty inspired. Like Release The Hounds, they are setting out to create client relationships and brand experiences that are creatively uncommon.

On their website, he explains:

"Creativity has always had huge value. You can't buy it by the yard. Or make it fill in timesheets. But if you use it wisely, it can change the world."

Located in Cape Town, South Africa, Animal Farm is built on a collaborative foundation. After reading his site's "Farm Freedoms" and "Philosophy" pages, I wanted to slap on some overalls, strap on my shit-kickers and join him down on the Farm. [I tried a Bo and Luke Duke analogy here but it felt a little weird.]

Animal Farm is also focusing on product development. Check out some of their unbelievably cool stuff here.

We look forward to hearing more from Porky and his team in the near future. That's all now, ya hear?





(Learned about Animal Farm via Cherryflava)

Re-evaluating My Ratio

With so many new social platforms/tools released everyday, it’s becoming a full-time job to try to keep up with them. But, it's my job to maintain a keen eye on how the communication landscape is changing. Matt Williams, Group Planning Director at The Martin Agency, and I were having lunch a while back, and he had a great line: “My job is keeping me from doing my job”.

We do have an obligation to understand the shifts and growths in the media landscape, but at what sacrifice? It’s important to have discipline. I could literally spend all day, everyday reading about social media because there is so much chatter and coverage. But I don’t.

As a strategist, I can’t afford to sacrifice the “why” for the “how”. In other words, I have to find a balance between education and motivation in these explosive times.

I recently realized that I was feeling as if I had to read every blog post, tweet, Facebook update, etc. to “stay on top of it.” My head was about to explode. I was anxious. And, I was experiencing a certain information paralysis.

So, I've cranked up Seesmic for Twitter and Facebook, cut my Google Reader subscriptions to 20, started using IM more and encouraged people to call me to cut back on emails - and generally tried to cut back on my information in-take.

For someone who loves to read and discover all of these fascinating, new tools that are empowering people and brands to extend and focus at the same time, it's hard to step back a bit.

I'll let you know how this works out...

It's Raining Nookas

Just got our mail and looky looky what arrived. Matthew graciously sent our whole design team nookas. Super cool. Thanks, Matthew.

Apologies for my poor photog skills.

Passion Pit - Refreshing on many levels

Passion Pit was one of my new, favorite bands before we asked them to let us use "Sleepyhead" for the nooka video. When they agreed, I loved them even more. For the record, their "people" were amazing to work with too. And as a guy who used to work in the music industry, that's saying a lot.

On May 19th, they drop their new record, Manners. You can pre-order it at Insound and check out their Myspace page.

Bold Moving Pictures

On the first Friday of the month, we have an art show block party called First Fridays. People swarm Broad Street and duck in and out of galleries to check out what’s new in the Richmond art scene. It’s really inspirational to see people of all ages and backgrounds coming together in the name of creative expression.

One of the recent highlights was an exhibition at Corporate and Museum Frame by photographer Shaun Irving. (In full disclosure, Shaun and I went to school together at Hampden-Sydney College.) What’s cool about his method is that he uses a truck as his camera.



This is a great example of disrupting convention. He didn’t just choose to be “different” or shocking in his subject matter. He chose to change the technique all together on a large scale. And, in doing so, he generates built-in intrigue about his work. The best part is that the giant photographs are beautiful.

His work is a great reminder that we should always look for the opportunity to change the game and, more importantly, have the guts to go for it.

Hounds Love Dust

We want to take the first post to say thanks again to Mark Graham, Jodie Silsby and Johnny Winslade at the brilliant design studio in England, I Love Dust for helping us conceptualize and design an identity that truly represents us.

Why wouldn't we design our own logo, you might ask?

Three reasons:

1. We love their work
2. When you trustingly hand over the reins, you can more quickly/clearly get to your essence.
3. It's good to be reminded of what it's like to be a client

Here's a pic of their mascot, Hesky, wearing a little "thank you" bling.