Well, we don’t like when people turn a blind eye to anything and that’s why we’ve come up with the B.A.D. Day campaign for our client, Consolidated Credit Counseling Services of Canada.

The Ask

Consolidated Credit came to us at the beginning of the year with an ask to generate awareness and drive people to their website to learn more about debt consolidation. This is a busy time in the personal finance industry as many consumers tend to overindulge on their credit cards over the holidays and this is the time when those bills start to roll in. All of those December shoppers might start to feel stressed if their finances are not in order, and people feel motivated to reform their finances and start the New Year off on the right foot.

The Strategy

We wanted to highlight the fact that people can feel overwhelmed and even ignore their holiday bills, which can lead to credit trouble beyond the holiday months. We decided to create something called Bill Avoidance Disorder and treat it as a serious condition with symptoms and remedies that resulted in giving Consolidated Credit a call.

The Execution

We ran a blogger outreach campaign that targeted bloggers who write about personal finance or family (or both), as the people most likely to go overboard during the holidays tend to be parents. We received a ton of responses and managed to generate both organic and sponsored links on websites with high monthly pageviews. The idea also gave our client exposure in traditional media outlets across the country and has helped raise awareness about this financially debilitating disorder that has the potential to spiral out of control.

I’m here to highlight some artists that I’ve stumbled across and followed over the last few years, whose work I really recommend checking out. Most of these accounts have gained popularity solely from showing off their stuff on Instagram. It’s time to branch out, people!

@muradosmann
A simple concept from this super-traveller and his girlfriend. Murad Osmann documents his journey around the world as he is “led” by his girlfriend. His project has captured the hearts and minds of Instagrammers everywhere. Can you say ~romance~!

Photo via muradosmann on Instagram

@kapstand
Another simple concept to document travels (maybe I’m suffering from wanderlust?) is the OneHandStand project. Kapstand is a breakdancer who recently moved to Paris and began posting shots of himself doing a one-handed handstand in front of notable places. Instant fame!

Photo via kapstand on Instagram

@idafrosk
I discovered Ida Frosk a few years ago and have always loved seeing her stuff pop up on my feed. She turns her food into art and shares it on Instagram before eating it – yes, that’s right, her claim to fame is that she actually does eat her creations! Kind of cutesy, but creative nonetheless.

Photo via idafrosk on Instagram

@mommasgonecity
Jessica Shyba had a baby, got a puppy, and the rest is history. She then began snapping bird’s-eye view shots of them both napping in hilarious positions together. Titling the project #TheoandBeau, she would post a new shot of the two cuddling almost every day. She recently had a second baby and has thrown her into the mix too. This one will make you feel all the feels, trust.
Photo via mommasgonecity on Instagram

@every_hey
This project came from Hey Studio, a graphic design company in Spain. They post a new graphic of some pop-culture character almost every single day. Again, a really fun and simple idea that breaks the norm on Instagram.
Photo via every_hey on Instagram

@ihavethisthingwithfloors
I discovered this account when I saw Reese Witherspoon post about it a week or so ago. They re-post shots of feet atop of some of the most beautiful floors you’ll ever see. This is one of the more visually-pleasing accounts of the bunch. I love it!  Photo via ihavethisthingwithfloors on Instagram

@cintascotch
This account is so unbelievably clever and funny. Javier Perez is an illustrator who uses everyday objects and draws around them to make an image. Brands such as Extra and Happy Socks have even taken to his talent for some of their ad campaigns.

Photo via cintascotch on Instagram

Have any must-follow accounts in your feed? Share them with me on Twitter!

Everyone will hashtag their first name in Tweets, turning Twitter into HARD TWITTER. Once it gets too easy to compile your thoughts into 140 characters, Twitter users will be looking for a challenge. Add your name as a hashtag and BOOM! Just like that you’re dealing with 134 characters. Or, start referring to yourself in the third person. I promise, you’ll be a trend-setter in no time.

Instagram, tiring of consistent visual content, will start exploring font treatments and adding fonts to our perfectly- filtered photos.Do you know what’s kind of getting old. Pictures of food. And realistically, who even reads the captions. What we want is CONTENT ABOVE THE FOLD.

Someone creates Smellstagram and the results will be exactly what you think they would be. #farts

BIG DATA becomes HUMONGOUS DATA As people want to go more macro to gain insights about the wider society that their customers live in. I have no idea what this means. Just call a sociologist at this point.

The US Government will impose sanctions on BuzzFeed for making quizzes.  JUST STOP ALREADY I KNOW HOW BASIC AND 90’S I AM.

SnapChat will finally get real and accept advertising money from the likes of Durex and Trojan because lets call a spade a spade – It’s a sexting app.

That one’s free, advertisers. Feel free to run with that idea.

Vine will become overloaded with “Bruh” vines and “My name is Jeff” that it will become all but obsolete in 2015

Someone will create a “Facebook, but for like marketers and advertisers” that is pay to play. It will be hugely successful as brands compete for advertising professionals, journalists, bloggers and other brands’ attentions for collaboration and synergistic opportunities. Think of it as a mix of Dragon’s Den and Real Housewives of New Jersey. It’s basically the antithesis to Ello and probably slightly less douchey.

Facebook will be overrun with grandparents.

Think about it, the demographic with the biggest growth on Facebook is easily 40+. Now that all of the cool teens are staying away from Facebook, it’s only a foregone conclusion that our parents will all overpower us with Candy Crush requests, retirement vacation property pictures, not-so-subtle reminders that you’re almost 30 and not married yet and posts that have tagged grandmaster flash in them.

Ello will experience a huge user base influx and rival Facebook.

Just kidding, this one is a joke.

Podcasting evolved right along with the internet, but for most of its existence the humble podcast has remained relegated to the world of nerds with niche interests. When you look at all the competition for one’s attention, it’s counterintuitive that what is essentially a radio show could become an international hit. Enter Serial.

 If you haven’t been following Serial yourself, chances are you’ve heard about it. You’ve seen it on Facebook, you’ve heard people talking about it on the bus, or for those residing under or near a rock, maybe the word just makes you want Cheerios.

In Serial, reporter Sarah Koenig follows one story over the course of a season. Season 1 concerns the 1999 murder of a Baltimore area high school student and her alleged killer who maintains his innocence as he serves out a life sentence for the murder.

Speculation about why Serial became so popular is abundant. Murder, mystery, intrigue, the thought of that poor guy spending almost fifteen years in jail for something he didn’t do - it’s definitely a compelling story. It has spawned fan clubs and discussion groups all over the world. The appeal is obvious, but at the same time it doesn’t sound so unique that you would expect it to become a phenomenon.

Serial is produced by the team behind This American Life, a podcast with about 2.2 million listeners. It’s definitely popular, but for the sake of comparison, Dateline NBC has 7 million viewers. For some reason, a podcast – even one of the most successful ones – just can’t seem to reach mass popularity. Now, as surprising as it is even to its own producers, Serial is changing that. People who never even thought about podcasts as a medium are now seeking them out, wondering what they’ve been missing.

Podcasts are a perfect medium if you think about it; you can listen to them while driving or making dinner, plus, the simplicity of using nothing but audio keeps production costs down. Maybe the lack of stimulating visuals is what kept podcasts under the radar. It took one going viral for people to realize that sometimes all you need is good, compelling storytelling that makes you think.

If you fell for Serial and now want to delve further into the world of podcasts, here are some favourites from me and the rest of the 88 Creative team:

This American Life
This is the obvious place to start. Ira Glass and his team, including Sarah Koenig, have been producing This American Life for years. Each episode brings you three completely different stories that relate to the same theme, usually featuring regular people.

Freakonomics
Economists Stephen J. Dubner and Steven D. Levitt are the authors of the bestselling Freakonomics book series. This podcast is all about challenging perception and rethinking the obvious answers about why the world is the way it is.

Radiolab
Radiolab podcasts cover topics in science, philosophy, technology, and culture. If you’re generally a curious person, you will be hooked.

Criminal
Another natural choice if you’re caught up on Serial and want more. Simply put, Criminal tells stories of people doing bad things. They look at strange and unusual crimes rather than your typical cheating spouse murders.

Slate
A slew of ongoing conversations about anything and everything you might be interested in, like politics, pop culture, and science.

Rooster Teeth
Rooster Teeth is a comedy podcast from a production company in Austin. They talk about internet culture, pop culture, gaming, and science.

Any of these podcasts will make you more interested in the world and people around you, and give you a glimpse into where we might be headed as science, technology, and human nature converge. Be curious, gather ’round the ol’ music box, and get ready to hear a good story. Happy listening!

Gabriella is a Creative Director at 88 Creative. Follow her on Twitter @gabriellainga.

I’m a shopaholic, and pretty much everyone knows it. The one person who knows this better than anyone in my life is my concierge who checks in all my packages. I knew I had a problem when one day I had ordered so much online that it all came at once and I needed to make two trips downstairs to get it all. He gave me a look, you know – a little disgusted, a little worried but mostly incredulous that one girl could do so much damage. Well, thanks to Instagram it’s become far too easy to do far too much damage.

I suppose I should clarify that my shopaholic tendencies only live online. I despise going into the mall to do any shopping whatsoever thanks to working in retail for many, many years of my life. Since I can’t blame the mall, really I can only blame Instagram and how it’s become the number one enabler in my life. I’ve written about how Instagram has become such a great platform to source the best finds, but over the past year, I’ve noticed how much Instagram has truly grown into more of an ecommerce platform and not just a way to share photos.

For example, before I was just following brands I love on Instagram – whether bigger mainstream brands like Zara, or smaller businesses selling bespoke jewelry pieces. Now, I notice that some of my favourite bloggers tell their followers to “tap to see the brands” or some use the LiketoKnow.it feature like my favourite Toronto blogger, Stephanie Sterjovski. Celebrities like Lauren Conrad also use the app, and so do big publications like Vogue.

The LiketoKnow.it app (powered by RewardStyle) has essentially taken over the “tap it” feature that many bloggers have been using for several months now – essentially they tag the piece of clothing/accessory with the store it’s from, so when you tap the photo you get a curated list of where you can buy the outfit. Some still use that method, but more are turning to LiketoKnow.it. For those unfamiliar with how LiketoKnow.itworks, it’s actually pretty simple. First, you sign up on LiketoKnow.it and then link your Instagram account to your LiketoKnow.it account. After that, whenever you scroll down your Instagram feed and like any photos tagged with Liketk.it (both bloggers and brands have been using the app), LiketoKnow.it will send you an email telling you which store the products are from with a link to purchase.

Genius. It saves the user (aka the shopaholic) time from going on Google and searching for the product, and it allows companies and individuals to monetize their Instagram followings.

And do they ever monetize. In 2013, RewardStyle drove $150 million in sales for retailers from 14,000 publishers. And those publishers (bloggers/magazine publications/celebrities) are raking it in, too – with up to 20% commission on each and every item purchased from their links.

The blogger and brand win, and the shopper wins  - our wallets lose, but that’s okay (right?).

Over Thanksgiving weekend, my ever diligent co-worker Danielle spotted an email from Buzzfeed that stated they were opening up the ability to create quizzes as a community post. Previously a sponsored quiz on Buzzfeed would run you about $20,000. Yikes.

That being said, I wanted an outlet to test out just how much fun I could have with a Buzzfeed quiz. We work with a lot of smaller outfits who don’t exactly have the $20,000 handy to drop on a custom quiz, so it’s nice of Buzzfeed to open up their functionality for the rest of us.

But what were we going to write a quiz about? We’ve talked a lot about how our company culture is tantamount to the way we work and how we all get along. It only seemed right that we could use this as an opportunity to showcase who we are and maybe get a couple of laughs out of it. We came up with “Would you fit in at 88 Creative?” quiz, which includes three possible outcomes (none in the least bit negative, it’s supposed to be all in good fun after all) and the options would be influenced by a lot of our own personal preferences.

For example, I am Skittles, #ThrowbackThursday, Indie music, Basic Bitch (long story), Twitter, XYIENCE, iOS, Hockey and Iron Man. It’s only if you’re really weird do you get a disapproving look from Erin as a result.

Innocent right?

So why is this getting a ton of attention from the media? It just so happens to be that we published the quiz while conducting a search for a new coordinator.

Before the quiz we had already received about 20 resumes based on us spreading the word over social (no Workopolis for us). After we launched the quiz we had about 30-40 more applications, they’re still coming in despite the position being filled (sorry!).

Did this quiz have any relevance to who we hired? Absolutely not.

Did Erin force these poor applicants to take the quiz during their interview? Nope.

Was it some goofy fun meant to promote our agency and culture? Totally.

Did we include a call to action to apply to work here? No, because it’s less of an actual recruitment tool and more of a goofy idea we had.

The key learnings from this are similar to previous marketing stunts (yes I’m referring to them as stunts, as it is neither part of a campaign or long-term strategies) we’ve pulled.

1. If you have an idea, run with it. Don’t let “The Man” tell you what to do.
2. Simplicity is key. We had about 10-15 questions that I had to pare down. Some of them got eerily specific.
3. Don’t be afraid to go where no one has gone before. Do you really think someone would get hired from completing a 1-minute quiz on major content site that specializes in 90’s nostalgia and GIFs? Come on.

Check out the press we received in Digiday,  Marketing Directo, Marketing Mag and oh, The front page of the Toronto Star. No big deal. 

I don’t know about you, but the digital marketer in me gets really excited when I see a brand make use of social tools in a really unique way.

The overarching concept for a social campaign is a no brainer: use a platform that your target audience already uses to reach them and reel them in. Having a Facebook, Twitter and Instagram account is an expectation for most brands these days, but using them in a way that doesn’t get lost in the chaos is the trick to success. Developing a creative, never-been-done-before marketing campaign that actually blows up (in the good way) is somewhat of a rarity, but when it’s executed right it is unforgettable.

Instagram speaks to users in a completely different way because it is entirely visual and that is, I think, the way us Gen Y folks prefer to consume information. Why tell someone how great your meal is when you can snap a photo with the hashtag #NOM? Brands are no strangers to Instagram, but in the past year or so there have been a few campaigns that have stuck in my brain like glue (I think that’s what the companies wanted).

One note before I get into this: all of these campaigns have been designed for the Instagram app and not the web, so if you’re going to check ‘em out, use your smartphone as you read.

1)  The IKEA Catalogue Website
Check out the campaign on your smartphone by following @Ikea_PS_2014 on Instagram.

IKEA went somewhere no brand has gone before. Their team in Russia enlisted the help of Instinct, an advertising agency based in Moscow, to develop an interactive catalogue on Instagram to showcase their new designer collection. The bulk of the catalogue relies on the tag function of the platform. When users tap once on the images, the relevant tags pop up so they can then choose a product to look at, which leads them to a new “page” of the catalogue. I know, it’s mindblowing. An explanation can’t really do the project justice, so I highly suggest checking the account out yourself so you get the full experience.

2) Heineken’s US Open Scavenger Hunt
Check out the campaign on your smartphone by following @Crack_the_US_Open on Instagram.

This campaign called on golf and beer fans alike to play a digital version of “Where’s Waldo?” on their Instagram accounts. Followers had to flip their smartphone sideways and scroll through the mosaic panorama of the “crowd” to find images with clues on them. Heineken started the contest off with a clue and codeword which led users through a series of clues (in the captions) and eventually ended with 7 pairs of tickets to the US Open awarded to the winners. The overall goal was to raise awareness of Heineken’s sponsorship of the event, and with a 20% increase in Instagram followers I would say that goal was met.

3) Toronto Silent Film Festival
Check out the campaign on your smartphone by following @tsff2014 or @tsff_1 on Instagram.

The Toronto Silent Film Festival is the smallest brand of the bunch, and has used Instagram to market the event for the past two years in two completely different and innovative ways. Last year, they created short trailers of the films being shown at the festival by asking users to quickly scroll through their Instagram page in Slideshow mode to see the still images come to life – kind of like a flipbook. This year they featured an interactive timeline celebrating 100 years of Charlie Chaplin’s career in film. Scrolling through the super eye-pleasing timeline in Grid mode gave users a glimpse of different years in Chaplin’s life through various short videos and text.

4) Mazda Canada’s The Long Drive Home
Check out the campaign on your smartphone by following @mazdacanada on Instagram.

Mazda changed up their usual Instagram game with this campaign that launched last December. For three months they gradually uploaded pieces of the “road” their Mazda was driving along. On the ride, Mazda Canada highlighted aspects of the car’s performance of course, but also touched on cultural anecdotes like the Super Bowl, Toronto Auto Show, Mardi Gras, various sponsored events and even made personal shoutouts to some of their followers. You could tell that they customized the campaign as it went along which was refreshing, even though the concept was clearly well thought out beforehand. They surprised their followers by giving away a car at the very end, which is a nice thank you gift since their follower count increased by 302%. That’s huge.

So do these brilliantly executed ideas leave you intimidated, or just inspired? I think seeing creativity flourish in the market is super cool, and it’s something to which everyone in this industry should aspire.

Take note and spread your creative wings, people!

Despite knowing better, I am one of those schlubs.

It started innocently enough: someone in our shared office sent through a link for a computer at almost 80% off. It seemed too good to be true but the marketing materials and the math added up so it had to be legit, right? Within the hour, our office had purchased a total of 28 computers.

Then came the questions about the legitimacy of the deal, and if this ridiculous deal actually did turn out to be too good to be true, how likely was it that Lenovo would honour the pricing? There were rumors and rumblings of “friends of friends” and “according to the internet” (which, I should say, is a source to be trusted 100% of the time) that Lenovo was aware of the error and we weren’t getting our awesome (read: cheap) computers, but we wanted to wait for the official word from Lenovo. To add to the confusion, everyone who purchased the computer received a cryptic email sent immediately after the order confirmation that essentially wipes Lenovo’s hands clean of any legal ramifications should they cancel your order.

All that email did was anger up the social community (myself included) and it started a barrage of tweets and Facebook posts to Lenovo’s global Twitter account, as well as several major media outlets. There was no indication on Lenovo’s accounts that they were aware of the price discrepancy or any promise to fix their mistake. They just kept on with their normal, everyday content.

If you smell fire, do you just turn around and stick your fingers in your ear and hope it puts itself out? That’s exactly what Lenovo did. They ignored the (social) fire until they had to respond. We even saw the #lenovosucks hashtag trending in Canada, and it’s still being used as I write this. They ultimately did address the pricing error, emailing everyone who purchased to let them know the sale price wouldn’t be honoured, which only led to more negativity (especially because the incorrect price was still listed on the website even hours after they sent that email).

Sure, selling thousands of computers at or slightly below cost would have been a (minor) blow to their bottom line, any good business mind can recognize that. What’s more troubling is the amount of irreparable damage to their brand this “social apocalypse” (their words, not mine) has caused by leading the customer along and then ultimately cancelling the sale. In a market where consumer research is fundamental to the sales funnel, Lenovo has essentially tarnished their brand in Canada by choosing to remain silent and deflect the blame to the sales and web team. Where do you think people look first for computer recommendations (hint: it’s not your website).

Here’s how they could have avoided a full-fledged social media crisis – or at least dealt with disgruntled customers in a more effective way:

1. Monitor:  It isn’t hard to set up alerts and follow keywords on social media. If you’re not doing this for your own brands, I strongly recommend you go back and rethink your social media strategy and its place in your marketing mix. Keeping on top of keywords allows you to recognize the issue before it turns into a big deal and hopefully will allow you to get your message out ahead of the firestorm.

2. Fess up: Acknowledge the situation and get in touch with as many people as possible as fast as possible to report that the situation is being handled. Nothing infuriates people more than straight up ignorance. To their credit, the Lenovo Canada account has been re-activated and the team is replying people now. In spite of this, it’s been clear to see that a quick response would have been key. Instead, Lenovo is stuck with a day’s worth of hearsay and rumor that’s been blasted on social media.

3. Communicate (broadly): Part of the reason that this firestorm was kicked up was because Lenovo started replying to individual tweets instead of putting out a concise PR message. Social Media 101: individual responses are seen only by people who follow both parties in the conversation. Replying to each tweet individually is just spinning your tires without getting anywhere.

4. Honour the mistake, or at least offer an alternative: The thing that got everybody up in arms was not simply that they refused to honour the mistaken discount, but the fact that they refused to acknowledge it altogether.

At this point, it seems like Lenovo thinks it can get through this social media disaster if it just buries its metaphorical head in the sand and lets the issue run out of steam, but I know one thing for certain: a good percentage of people who bought the laptop (and who were subsequently sent a “whoops, sorry” email) will never buy a Lenovo product again. Considering many of these almost-customers play and very often work online, that’s a lot of computers not purchased due to shoddy customer service and shady “pricing errors.”

Lose $800 off of a laptop one time, or lose a lifetime of brand loyalty. That’s some opportunity cost.

Jason is a Digital Strategist at 88 Creative. Follow him on Twitter @Jasegiles.

So those Rob Ford missing posters you saw in the media and on a pole near you? That was us.

Earlier this year one of our digital strategists Jason Giles wrote about the importance of turning off your filters, and why blurting out ideas and encouraging creativity are important at an agency like ours. One of those crazy ideas was blurted out by Matt Slutsky, 88 Creative’s founder, this past Tuesday morning: “No one can find Rob Ford – why don’t we create a Rob Ford missing poster?”

It was simple and genius, and within 15 minutes Jason had a mockup on the whiteboard and our team put it together (purposely taking design inspiration from hastily assembled missing pet posters).

The whiteboard mockup

We purposely left the 88 Creative brand off the poster, wanting to see how the content would spread organically both offline and offline. We stuck them up around the neighbourhood and sent a few tweets & Instagram photos, and then went back to our daily work.

Jason with his creation

What happened next and the lessons we learned are outlined in this Marketing Magazine article, “what we learned from the missing Rob Ford poster.” (Hint: we made it onto Jimmy Kimmel!)

The experiment taught us that regardless of how well thought-out your content is, or how much budget you’ve put into it, sometimes all you need to make content worth spreading is something timely, relevant, and funny.

From Gabriella’s purposely simplistic design to Jason’s hilarious copy (“spherical body, alarmingly sweaty”) to Matt’s initial idea, this was the result of turning off our filters.

Stay tuned for more of our crazy ideas!

Erin is the Managing Director at 88 Creative. Follow her on Twitter @erinbury.

I’ve been using Instagram for the better part of two and a half years, and the only time I go to the Explore page is when I want to search and add someone (read: creep). I have never once cared about the litany of posts with thousands of likes that are on it.

Well, until now that is.

Last week Instagram quietly rolled out its new and improved Explore section. Instead of seeing a bunch of posts about some crap you don’t care about miles away from where you live, you get – and stop me if this is too much for you – custom curated content.

Now that you’ve picked your jaw up off the floor, the new and improved explore section is really cool. It’s based off of an algorithm that takes things that you have liked, your geographic location, your friends, and trends you follow and pulls in content just for you. Boy, they sure do know how to make a guy feel special.

Custom tailored content has had a bit of a weird shelf life on social media. From Facebook’s “pages you might like” to its own wacky news feed algorithm, their interpretation of what I might like feels a little…off.

Twitter keeps getting me to follow celebrities like Miley Cyrus and I could not be less interested in that, so keep trying pal. You’ll get it one day.

This is where Instagram comes in and actually impresses me. As an, um, discerning ‘liker’ on Instagram, the ability to hyper-target content that I would find cool has got me breaking out of my usual cycle of the rare like here and there.

Raptors in the playoffs? Hell yeah I’m liking that. A funny gym meme I haven’t seen before? That’s a likin’. The other side of this is it’s another great way to connect with people you don’t already know. Friends of friends that I probably wouldn’t directly add to Instagram show up in that feed, and it’s a perfect excuse to be lazy and follow them right then and there.

It’s also a great opportunity for us as marketers – prior to this update it was pretty much impossible to get your photo featured on the Explore page unless you’re posting a selfie with Justin Bieber, or a bikini picture (pretty tough for a brand or guy). Now there’s a good chance that your client’s photo could end up as one of the curated recommendations, exposing your content to more people, and ultimately helping to grow your followers.

Instagram has finally got the equation right when it comes to tailored content. It’s not what a computer thinks you want to see based on a law of averages of everything else. It’s a simple social theory: you’re more likely to be interested in the same things your social circle is interested in.

Now if you excuse me, I’m going to go creep what my friends are liking and dish out ALL THE LIKES.

Jason is a Digital Strategist at 88 Creative. Follow him on Twitter @Jasegiles.