We Are Magnetic

In their new US advertising campaign, Palm have elected to focus their creative drive solely on their products web operating system. A not so subtle nod to the now sales critical mobile web experience.

The ad shows a woman walking down the street taking advantage of her phone’s multitasking, messaging, wayfinding and phone call making ability. The tagline is “life moves fast” and not to “miss a thing.”

One thing this ad points to is the increasing importance of the operating system or ‘user experience’ in the product sales process. How you interact with the device is becoming much more important that what the device is. Step into a Carphone Warehouse store and you’re more likely to hear “I want an Android” than “I want a Sony Ericsson“.

With the obvious success of the iPhone and the recent release of the Windows phone as well as Google getting into the market, the big device manufacturers are having to keep up with the consumers demands for interaction design (and brand) over product design (and brand).

It’s not often, if ever, that I feel the need to pop a post about the holding company of a bunch of creative agencies. But the new site for MDC Partners is just a little bit different – it’s pretty good!

But why should this be the case? Why shouldn’t the creativity that oozes from a connected set of creative companies, making the ‘magic happen’, filter up to their holding company? That’s an interesting question, and one I really don’t know the answer to.

That is the reality through. When you look around at some of the other big creative holding companies such as: Omnicom, WPP, Interpublic and Publicis you find they’re not exactly ‘inspiring’, and certainly don’t live up to the creativity of the agencies making up their life blood.

MDC Partners is different though. And with agencies such a CP+B and Hello Design under their belt they should be. The MDC site is great for its pure simplicity. The site takes a global view of its agencies and puts a real focus on its people. The site doesn’t tell (like most of its competition) it shows. It shows how its people work, and uses their experiences to show its story. With this pure and simple thinking – MDC shows it really ‘gets’ the digitally connected world, and business of making this world buzz.

All in all, it’s a pretty creative experience that’s as much a profile of a group of creative people as it is a profile of a business empire.

To launch it’s new Dairy Milk Roll Pack, Cadbury Australia has engaged Saatchi & Saatchi to create a ‘fully rounded’ campaign on YouTube. The campaign puts a new ‘spin’ on the the standard YouTube player, and uses it to display the usual Cadbury craziness!