In Case You Hadn't Noticed...

The One Show Festival is over and I'm back in Ithaca, nesting.

The ad ceremony/party posts:

- The student competition (SpOnSoReD By DoRiToS!!!). I did get links to the winning student work, which I have yet to incorporate in the post
- One Show Interactive (professional photos hither)

The speaker coverage:

- Jerry Della Femina
- Brian Collins

Highlights: meeting very cool people that I didn't want to spill drinks on and laugh at, seeing Della Femina and Collins at close range (although I think I put Collins off when I told him he had "neat glasses"), and seeing my favourite ads (IN GIGANTOR-VISION!) win well-deserved awards.

I didn't get that whole Halo 3 "Best in Show" thing, but apparently my 19-year-old sister Meia loves them. Her gushing went something like this: "They were amazing! They made the struggle" (struggle?!) "seem so real. Oh and all my friends bought the game."

Like they weren't gonna buy it anyway.

I did, however, think Projector's UNIQLOCK campaign totally deserved "Best in Show" for the Interactive ceremony. It blew me away. Then I spent, like, 15 minutes trying to show Benj why I thought it was so cool and he just wasn't sold.

His reaction: "Is that the time in Tokyo? Oh. All right, I've seen enough."

Halo 3 Won Best in Show, and Then I Had Epilepsy

As posted on Adrants:

The One Show ceremony took place last night and I Twittered like a woman on a suicide mission (or at least a "lose-all-my-followers" mission).

Highlights of the show: the ads were incredible! The King made a speech! Sometimes Tom Papa was funny!

The event kicked off with the first-ever One Show People's Choice award. If you loved BBDO's "Muffin Top" spot for Lifesavers, rest assured the rest of the world did too.

One Club president Mary Warlick approached the podium to honor the contributions of Hal Riney and Phil Dusenberry. Their tribute videos were reflections of my childhood: these men were behind so many of the ads I grew up with. It's a strange feeling to miss people you've never met.

Moving forward:

HBO/Voyeur won a butt-load of honors, repeating its victory streak from the One Show Design ceremony.

Whopper Freakout was also recognized, scoring gold for the Integrated Branding category. In total, BK got two Gold Pencils, one Silver and "Client of the Year." The King came up to absorb the accolades and broadcast his victory speech, an unexpected surprise that got me all excited and out-of-sorts.

See specifics for what Voyeur and Whopper Freakout won at MarketingVOX.

I got excited near the end, because stuff got really good for TV Spots under :30. Fallon's Bravia Bunnies and Cadbury Gorilla got Bronzes, as did the Coca-Cola Balloon ad that lit up the Super Bowl.

Silver winners were almost too awesome to stand: "Dangerous Liaisons" for Levi's (BBH), Skittles' "Touch" (TBWA\CHIAT\DAY), and that hilarious CareerBuilder self-help spot. I was like, What could top those?!

I don't have an easy answer for that. Because can you honestly say you're wild about "Believe"?

Let's hope so, because that same Microsoft Xbox Halo 3 campaign walked away with "Best in Show." And, well, I walked away with a bad case of WTF?!?!-face (which looks something like this).

Read about the judges and other Pencil recipients at the One Show website.

One Show: W+K's Kevin Proudfoot Talks Intimacy

One thing I love about the One Show speaker sessions: they're only an hour long. And because the speakers want to show off their advertising, they have to be brief where actual talking is concerned.

Between ESPN and Nike plugs, Wieden+Kennedy's Kevin Proudfoot shared five guidelines for establishing intimacy with users. Intimacy, he imparted, is key to brand success.

1. Let the person know you're thinking of them. This is a touchy-feely way of saying you should consider the user experience before launching something. How can you make their lives easier or get them to laugh?

2. Talk directly to them. Don't address people from on high.

3. Enable and encourage them to be themselves. A brand or product should let people reflect themselves. Examples include iGoogle's customizable layout, customized Nikes, flickr, blogging, Facebook, Starbucks (Proudfoot says it conceived the notion you could be a "grande vanilla latte" if you wanted to).

4. Avoid schizophrenia. "This should really be 'multiple personality disorder,' but 'schizophrenia' looks better on a slide!" Proudfoot joked. Polite titters. The moment passes.

It's hard to be intimate with a brand that's all over the place, so commit to who you are and what you represent. Not to suggest a brand can't say many things. Proudfoot says to consider GEICO, which runs disparate campaigns with success, but only because those efforts are true to GEICO's core persona.

Think of everything that leaves your walls -- and even the things that don't -- as an opportunity to reinforce. "Every PR that goes out is an expression of the brand," said Proudfoot.

5. Encourage the other person to participate. For client Nike, W+K distributed little boxes of street chalk -- in "Lance Armstrong" yellow -- to Tour de France spectators. Users were encouraged to write encouraging messages to Lance all over the streets.

Proudfoot said this was a good way to incorporate Nike in the Tour de France without paying sponsorship dollars.

---

Because these tips were inspired by Dr. Phil, Proudfoot closed his session by making the audience repeat a statement out loud: "Every relationship needs a hero!"

Grimace.

I left with that awkward feeling you get when somebody you don't like "that way" tries getting all personal with you.

Before Hanging Yourself with that Apple Extension Cord, Consider the Park Lane

I think I'm on suicide watch at Helmsley's Park Lane Hotel.

Somewhere around Madison and 28th St., I contemplated this while absorbing the sight of the NesQuik rabbit, whose gentle invitation to "come to your happy place" seemed to exist just for me.

Everything that happened leading up to Park Lane death watch:

I woke up early today, had breakfast and plugged in my computer. One cannot eat if one does not work; and one cannot work if one does not Twitter.

That's when -- heavens above! -- my trackpad and its clicky button thing stopped working. There was a quiet moment of panic. Then I swallowed what remained of my Belgian waffle, packed my things and hauled ass to the Apple Store.

Some backstory: After attending the OneClub student exhibition last night (to be covered in one of my next posts), I returned to my hotel via subway and noticed with vague interest that I'm right across the street from the Apple Store.

"Neat," I said mildly, even though -- having spent about a quarter of my soul's value on a Macbook Pro last year -- I never planned to walk into an Apple Store again.

"Hmm," said the guy on the other end of the Genius Bar, who blew a little air between the buttons and examined the computer with friendly apathy.* "I'm not really sure what's wrong with it. You're gonna have to turn it in for repairs."

"TURN IT IN!" I exclaimed (ALL CAPS!). "I CAN'T TURN IT IN. I'M ON A DEADLINE!"

He cocked an eyebrow at me. We tried plugging in a mouse; no dice. If I get Pro Care, he said, maybe I can get my computer back in 24 hours.

We stood there while I contemplated the end of my career. I thought of all the news slipping by me, all that typing I'm not doing, and felt myself get all clammy.

"So..." I said. "What if I turn this in and get, like ... a Macbook Air?" For the time being it seemed to be the only solution, plus I kind of wanted to try one anyway.

The suggestion turned the Genius into an veritable faucet of Macbook Air laud. "I love mine!" he gushed. "I bring it everywhere."

"Do you pack it in an envelope?" I quipped, to which he immediately shouted, "GENIUS! THAT. AD. WAS. GENIUS.

"Every time an envelope is placed anywhere near a computer, there goes more brand recognition for Apple," he bragged. "And you know what else? Now OTHER companies are trying to stuff computers into envelopes. They're all saying, 'Mine fits in an envelope too!' but what they're really saying is, 'I can be just as good as Apple!'

"Apple IS THE STANDARD!" he bellowed.

I thought it might be best to grab a computer and GTFO. So I did. And I tried to be casual about it, but the thought of how much time I was losing (10 minutes until the newsletter deadline!) made me all panicky again. And I hated how, so soon after getting my Macbook Pro, I was once again dropping another two grand on some Apple "necessity."

It was kind of an emotional catastrophe.

On the way home, some other lame stuff happened involving my Verizon wireless card, which I don't really want to get into but which felt really last-straw-on-the-camel's-backish.

I got to the hallway of my hotel when my electronic key card stopped working and then something weird happened: big, deer-sized clown tears started rolling down my cheeks. I felt like a leukemia poster child who'd lost her puppy.

That's when the maid came.

"Oh my," she said. "Oh my."

She dashed over, grabbed my head and buried it in her big maternal bosom, which smelled like carnations and fresh linen.

"Let it out, sweetheart, let it out," she said in thickly accented English. Other guests inched by us, looking awkward.

"He hurt you, didn't he," she crooned, lifting my face toward hers. "You've been hurt."

"Uh-huh," I whimpered, because the actual story seemed too complicated. (In retrospect, senior copywriter Edward Herda observed that I had, in fact, been hurt by a man.)

"You don't cry anymore. You go in and lay down and don't cry," the maid said.

Oddly, the waterworks stopped the second I shut the door behind me. I powered up my swanky new laptop, got to work, and fielded a call from the Park Lane's head of security ("Just checking up!"), as well as a personal visit from the head of housekeeping, both of which gave me their names and numbers and asked me to call if I need "anything, just anything at all."

I later related this story to Diane Stefani of The Rosen Group, which does PR for the One Show Festival. She gave me something between a disturbed and amused look, then introduced me to the OneClub people and other news writers -- two girls that flew in from India and Germany, respectively.

We all shook hands and smiled, then I went back to my hotel where I found my room had been cleaned -- again. A small pyramid of chocolate mints sat resting by the bed.

What thoughtful people.

I'm tempted to ask for free wi-fi, but I don't want to seem pushy.

---

* I am actually being really rough on this guy. He spent a lot of time on my issue, trying different tactics and consulting with other Geniuses, and he truly couldn't work out why the trackpad had gotten all late-bloomer on me. I feel grateful, despite that contrasting totally-broke feeling.

One Show Events Calendar Goes Live

Ning, the platform we used to build AdGabber, has this new Events feature that lets you post happenings and solicit RSVPs.

I spent most of the morning posting the major One Show stuff I'll be attending next week. Take a look.

Hopefully I did it all properly, but to the untrained eye it looks like spam central. Also, I made no differentiation between cocktails, ceremonies and after parties. Just kind of mashed it all together so an obscure event like "One Show Interactive" appears to last from 6pm to the wee hours.

Will probably fix it sometime before next week, but right now the prospect terrifies me. Steve is planning to put a link to it on Adrants so others can either Plan Accordingly, or just Observe the Lame.

Here We are Now, Entertain Us

One Show wants a little interactive spice in its life.

To help out, Adrants is sending me to the Festival next week. We'll be doing ceremony coverage and afterparty stuff. I am a goo pile of happy.

If you happen to be in Manhattan, we can arrange meet-ups via Twitter. Follow me on Twitter anyway for real-time news and whatnot.

Hope my ad:tech SF cough goes away in time. =\