JC Penney earns own spot in the doghouse

JC Penney this week rolled out just what the world needs: another Flash microsite for the holidays. I have to look at so many microsites that my expectations are never high. Still, some do stand out—the ones that make me wonder why anyone in their right mind would spend time there. "Beware of the Doghouse" is one of those sites. First, upon arriving at the site, it tells me my browser isn't good enough. You know what, JC Penney, it is. Next, there's an intro video to sit through—nearly five minutes of painful setup to the site's "idea." Which is: Men are doofuses—shocking that advertising would portray them that way—and get women dumb holiday gifts, even vacuum cleaners. They are then banished to a mythical doghouse until they buy their way out. Get it? Hey, it worked for Kobe. JC Penney employs an eye-rolling user-generated approach by letting visitors put men in the doghouse. (There's a techie twist with one of the earliest uses of Facebook Connect, which lets visitors check if their friends are in the doghouse. None of mine are, it seems.) How to get out? Diamonds! Men simply need to buy their ladies the three-stone ring, journey pendant or diamond studs—from JC Penney, conveniently enough. Saatchi & Saatchi and Razorfish boldly take credit for this.

—Posted by Brian Morrissey

Published on December 5, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (11)
Filed under Digital, JC Penney, Razorfish, Saatchi & Saatchi

Will designers rev their engines for Intel?

Everyone wants to get in on the social thing nowadays, and tech companies are often ahead of the pack, for obvious reasons. Here's Intel's new effort: To promote the company's Core i7 Extreme Edition microprocessor, Web shop Razorfish is looking for digital designers to build short videos in an hour, using the same materials, around one of the brand themes of speed, power or innovation. The so-called Digital Drag Race has the necessary microsite, blog, live event in San Francisco and YouTube channel. Razorfish told me the campaign would make microprocessors sexy. Maybe. What I wonder is: Who participates in this kind of thing? I imagine lots of students. Two finalists get a trip to Vegas during the Consumer Electronics Show to face off, along with an Intel-powered computer with Adobe Creative Suite software. In its first couple days, Intel's gotten only a trickle of entries. 

—Posted by Brian Morrissey

Published on November 19, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (2)
Filed under Intel, Morrissey, Razorfish

New Razorfish site awash in sound effects

Yesterday, Avenue A/Razorfish sent word that it's dropping the Avenue A brand. This makes sense, since most people already referred to the agency as simply Razorfish. Ah, but there's more: a "new all-Flash Web site." Awesome. I'm obsessed with cataloging the latest agency Web sites. Razorfish does the usual with its new offering, adding in links to company blogs and position papers. As promised, it also brings the Flash big time. What stands out to me are the sounds. There are lots of them. Every link seems to have its own sound effect. I spent a little time on the blog list trying to compose a sweet rendition of "Old McDonald" by mousing over the different options. (Somewhere, an editor is wondering why I haven't filed my story yet.) More to the point, what does this do for the user experience? Are people clamoring for a noisier Web?

—Posted by Brian Morrissey

Published on October 21, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (6)
Filed under Agency web sites, Morrissey, Razorfish

Have you trademarked your shop's slogan?

This digital stuff moves fast, even the catchphrases. That's why it's important to stake your claims. I got an e-mail from R/GA that included something unusual. Its standard phrase introducing the shop as "R/GA, the agency for the digital age" suddenly­ included a trademark symbol on the end of it. It turns out R/GA trademarked the phrase "the agency for the digital age" earlier this year. In fact, I was wondering which agency was the one for the digital age. Just to be sure, I asked Google. R/GA doesn't show up in the first few pages of results in searches for "agency for the digital age." Alas. R/GA's not the only one looking to grab futurey catchphrases. Avenue A/Razorfish has trademarked the phrase "social influence marketing." I can't help but wonder if this kind of stuff is really worth the time and effort. One Twitter user under the moniker MrT_TheAngel has his doubts: "'T' thinks those suckas should have a trademark on dumbass."

—Posted by Brian Morrissey

Published on September 30, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (6)
Filed under Morrissey, R/GA, Razorfish

Razorfish shames its timesheet laggards

For those who bill by the hour, timesheets are the bane of their existence. While the Anomaly and Crispin dudes work out a new industry compensation model, for now agency folks are doomed to continue tracking their time. Considering this is a profession filled with creative types, it stands to reason there are some tardy people. Avenue A/Razorfish is going all Hester Prynne 2.0 on them. Its HR department in New York has set up a flat-screen TV that flashes offenders’ photos with a message that reads, for example, “I haven’t done my timesheet in 3 weeks.” An agency rep said the tactic is paying off, with some more diligence on the part of the offenders.

—Posted by Brian Morrissey

Published on June 24, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (30)
Filed under Morrissey, Razorfish

Avenue A/Razorfish adopts the snowman

Every agency wants to prove its green credentials nowadays, whether it's by getting Al Gore to come to Cannes or including those “Think before you print” footer messages on e-mails. Avenue A/Razorfish’s New York office is no different. The agency claims to be “almost entirely paperless” and boasts that it has sensors that turn out the lights in unused conference rooms. (Didn’t people used to turn off the lights when they left a room?) Now, it’s putting its digital skills to use to save the world with a cutesy animated “documentary” on the plight of the snowman. See, snowmen are endangered because of global warming. The story might be a little hokey for some tastes, but the animation is pretty cool.

—Posted by Brian Morrissey

Published on February 20, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (2)
Filed under Morrissey, Razorfish