Couture Book on Fox News

This morning our friends from Couture Book were on Fox 10 News in Arizona to show how easy it is to create high-end coffee table books with your own images. If you are not familiar with Couture Books already, they are fully customizable photo albums you can create directly from their website. Terralever built the revolutionary application on couturebook.com that takes photo albums and portfolios to another level of luxury.

Couture Books are designed with high quality materials and construction, so they resemble what you would find in a museum book store. The variety of customizable options available as you go through the process of creating a book will make the finished product as unique as the pictures themselves. You truly are the art director of your own personalized photo album.

Perfect for photographers and artist to display their work, or anyone who wants to showcase their memorable events in a stunning way. Wedding photo albums, baby pictures, vacations or any special event can now be displayed in the most alluring format. As part of any purchase, Couture Book also donates to your choice of the hand-picked charities they support.

Check out the video footage from this mornings broadcast to see for yourself how amazing Couture Books are, or visit couturebook.com.

Justine, It's over babe

Watch live video and chat on Justin.tv


Well, well, well,... Look what we've got here. It's that girl who did that iphone bill viral thingy (see below), and she's at it again. Because now we can watch her 24/7 with this new phenomenon called "Life Casting". I had a crush on her after I saw that iphone deal, but now I'm kind of getting sick of her.

Listen Justine, don't take it personal, but you're a little too web savvy for me. A little too attention starved. I don't think we can see each other any more.

Wow, that was harder than I thought. Bennatar was right.... Love is a battlefield.

Oh Snap!

Was I moved by this? Not really. I get it, some girl got a 300 page phone bill. It seems authentic, but who knows, it could of been made by T-Mobile for all we know. It may of been 300 letters from guys who want to take her out for sushi. The point is, companies have to keep their heads on a swivel these days because consumers have power like never before. Her complaint about a 300 page bill may have never even reached customer service a few years ago, but now it reached millions of people.

BTW - I still want an iphone.

Hey Buttercup!

Direct TV has rolled out a wicked awesome interactive campaign.

It all revolves around Marv, the original Super Fan who doesn't need all that fancy shmancy high def coverage you get with the NFL Sunday ticket. He prefers to keep it real by watching whatever game that his local channels provide. The character of Marv is brilliant as he constantly spits out hilarious old school lingo that may not even be PC these days (Can you call someone a "Pansy" still?). And he brings up many important points about the modern day football fan and their excessive needs. I mean, "What do you need 8 games on 1 screen for? Do you have 16 eyes in your head?"
The interactive site blends flawlessly with their traditional Ad campaign, so nothing seems forced at all. You can send personalized e-cards and have Marv talk smack for you, play his techmo bowl style online football game, or just wait patiently for Marv to belittle you for not clicking on anything. Very easy to navigate with many hidden treasures to stumble upon.

This is good as it gets in my opinion.

So hey Buttercup, why don't you go meet Marv.

http://www.heybuttercup.com/

Great Video

Save Bennett!

Our amazing staff at Terralever created a classic game called "Zero Gravity". It's a mind-bending adventure that follows the tales of the lovable and lost astronaut, Lieutenant Bennett. It's basically one of those games that hurts your brain a little, but you like the pain and keep playing. And Lieutenant Bennett has quite a personality. I mean, his favorite band is Air Supply! Not sure if it's because he's lost in deep space, or he just loves soft rock. But he has quite an interesting profile

To build this game, we used Silverlight Technology with the Microsoft Expression Suite, along with a few other tools. The result is an addictive fun game that has it all.

So please! Help bring Bennett home! http://www.ltbennett.com/

Apple Announces the iPhone Quattro

8 Gigs, 4 Blades!

I believe in Godin

Recently a few co-workers and I went to see Seth Godin. Held at the Tempe Improv, it was an interesting venue for a marketing seminar. Maybe this is what all comedy clubs do at 9AM. Before Seth came out I had one of those thoughts you just kind of keep to yourself. I imagined Gallagher coming out on stage and smashing a watermelon with a sledgehammer, shocking the entire room of marketers. Like there was some kind of scheduling error.

So I chuckled to myself at this ridiculous scenario, then I started to really think about the legendary Gallagher. To refresh your memory, he was a comedian from the eighties who has made a career of smashing watermelons on stage. Yeah, that's supposed to be funny. And doing it for over 2 decades is the polar opposite of funny. They explode when struck with a sledgehammer, we get it. But somewhere along the line that was accepted as being hilarious, and took off. But hey, it took some chutzpah for him to try that gimmick, and it worked. I guess you can't bash the guy completely.

So anyway, Seth comes out and he's got one of those eccentric personalities that instantly grabs you. He didn't smash any large fruit on stage, but the guy delivered his marketing expertise in a very entertaining way.

Discussing subjects from his new book called "The Dip", he seemed to strike a nerve with everything he said. We all get that high off coming up with a good idea. Once we decide to execute it, you are in for 'the dip' before any success comes out of it. It’s going to get difficult, because anything worth doing is. If that 'dip' seems too hard, then we'll switch our focus to an easier idea. In essence, we give up.

‘The Dip’ is not just something for entrepreneurs to get through. In my experience in advertising and now in the interactive world, ideas I present have to get through the dips. The idea has to be worth the time and effort, and most importantly, the money. And if it’s a little out there, clients seldom go for it. The safe concepts usually get picked. There is comfort in mimicking others and being safe. Less dips.

When it comes to interactive executions, the public craves the different idea. They want something new. I will admit, it does depend on the client, the product and the situation. But if you are trying to build brand awareness, the safe approach might be the biggest waste of time and money. Personally, I think the safe ideas are what we should fear in interactive marketing.

What if Gallagher played it safe?

Myspace, can we still be friends?

I remember my first social network, 'Friendster'. We hung out a little back in 2003 and parts of 2004. I was pretty into it, then a friend introduced me to 'MySpace'. MySpace pretty much knocked my socks off, and for the first time in my life I had a serious social network. I pretty much saw MySpace everyday.
Thinking I was going to be with MySpace forever, I declined opportunities to log into this hot new network named 'Facebook'. I had some buddies tell me that Facebook was smarter and better looking, but I didn't give into the temptation and decided to be faithful to MySpace.
Well, I cheated on MySpace the other day, and got on Facebook. And I have to admit, I enjoyed it. Facebook has a beautiful interface and doesn't nag me all day with annoying requests like MySpace does. I don't think MySpace knows I have been seeing Facebook for the last week, but it's just a matter of time. We already have about 12 mutual friends. I know it’s early, but I think Facebook may be my soul network.

Ray Ban Gets Their Viral On

There's a good chance you've seen this. That video of a guy catching a pair of sunglasses perfectly with his face. You can tell it's fake with special effects, but it's still fun to watch. So is this just another bunch of you-tubers soaking up their 15 minutes, or is a clever ad agency behind it? If it's PG enough and has a brand attached to it in some way, you have to question it. In this case, a classic pair of Ray Ban sunglasses happen to be used in this piece.

Cue eye brow raise and rubbing of chin.

Well not surprisingly, Ray Ban is behind this viral video. And kudos to whoever put this together. Something that can get this much positive exposure is the holy grail of interactive marketing, and every company would do it if they could.

So are we at the point where we are annoyed by these attempts? This is a new form of advertising that we are getting used to, and it usually involves fooling people in order to make it spread. So it is different in that aspect, but I think it triggers the same emotions that any form of advertising would. If it's good, you don't mind it. If it's not good, you loathe it. The good thing about viral marketing is the poor executions most likely won’t land in your inbox.

So now do you see a video of a guy catching sunglasses with his face, or a group of Ray Ban execs high-fiving each other?

Mascot Roommate

I don't know if this is real or a viral campaign for Coffee Bean, but it's genius!

Boo YEAH!!!!! (echo, echo, echo)

That's the sound of my blog being born. The powerful shockwaves just sent ripples throughout cyberspace. Welcome. You are witnessing the infant stage of a blog. Well, not in real time of course, because that would mean you are looking over my shoulder as I type this. But you are looking back in time, which I'm sure is fascinating. And like our universe 15 billion years ago, things are hot right now, expanding rapidly, and um, .. I have no idea where I'm going with this. But stay tuned, because this sucker may eventually form into something magnificient. Kind of like our universe. Bingo! I knew I was going somewhere with that!