The Gap is rolling out their new marketing campaign just in time for back-to-school in a style that’s more back-to-the-future. The campaign is the first major marketing push by Gap Inc. since a management shake-up in February ended with a new brand president, chief marketing offer, and ad agency.

“1969: L.A. and Beyond” is composed of 30- to 90-second online documentary-style videos centered around the goings on at its denim design studio in Los Angeles. Print ads support the urban fashion mashup as well. Taking the show on the road, “Pico de Gap” vintage taco trucks with celebrity chefs will hit New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and San Francisco, tweeting locations for each.

While food trucks have become a coast-to-coast craze, boasting everything from sushi and dumplings to street sweets and schnitzel, Gap is sticking with the “original” food truck that started the now nationwide trend. “The idea of Pico de Gap — and the taco truck used in our fall campaign 1969: L.A. and Beyond — came about one night when I was having dinner with our 1969 design team in downtown L.A.,” said Seth Farbman, Gap’s Chief Marketing Officer. “It’s these types of everyday moments that shape who we are as people and inspire the product we design for our customers. We thought it would be an unexpected, engaging way to share a little more about ourselves and the experience we had that night.”

To create an authentic aesthetic, each Pico de Gap truck was hand-painted and includes a replica of a vintage Gap ad and neon sign from the ’70s. Customers can check out the latest 1969 fall denim styles on display while enjoying tacos for a $1.69. With proof of a same-day Gap denim purchase, the meal is free.

Gap’s campaign launches in a back-to-school season in which consumers are expected to cut back spending because of economic woes and rising prices. Not good odds for a brand struggling to regain position — and profits. The once-leading brand is up against a half-decade of shrinking sales and shrinking stature.

Seth Farbman, CMO since 1Q 2011, says the campaign is not a quick fix, but an effort to drive sales and revive Gap’s image, which he says has “lost a bit of relevance.” Farbman says the focus of the campaign — jeans — is appropriate because they have been one of Gap’s strengths, accounting for about a quarter of the Gap brands revenue.

“This is the start; one step. This campaign begins to put us on the right course,” Farbman said. “Longer term, it starts a conversation about the brand.”

Rob Gatto, CEO of Pointroll (provider of digital marketing services for interactive advertising), recently posted an article on Ad Age’s Digital Next titled “It’s Not the Size, It’s How You Use It.” Provocative title? Yes, but perhaps not in the way that first comes to mind. If you’ve been tasked with creating effective online display ads you know that it’s not easy to break through the on-page chaos of content, advertising, lists of “relevant” links and enough visual noise to make even the most driven user to click off and away. How you use the space you’ve been “given” is the ultimate challenge.

Or is it?

Gatto goes on to support his title with this bold statement: “Putting the Creativity Back Into Online Display Advertising.” He asks us to consider that it’s not the size at all, but the stuff inside the IAB approved pixel width and height. Maybe you’ve been schooled to believe — and to create toward — the concept that online display and disruption don’t play well together. Studies have shown that synergy between on-page content and display ad content, and by that I’m referring to look-and-feel or “creative,” increases the click-through of these ads. So what are we to do when challenged with injecting our work with creativity? Well, the author’s got an answer for that too.

He suggests that new ad formats might be well and good in engaging users and improving the user experience but size is not the solution. He insists on “a resurgence of creative.” And in his insistence he indicates what that might look like, using four broad categories where creativity can, and must, have a place in redefining what is possible with online display advertising. See if you don’t agree.

Redefine Creative for Digital Advertising
As the digital landscape evolves from a small number of circumscribed touchpoints to a more fluid experience across devices, locations, and activities, campaigns must shift their focus from platforms and formats to people: finding the right audience wherever it may be, and delivering creative that audiences will respond to.

Engage Consumers with Dynamic, Interactive Creative
Invite consumers into an ongoing brand relationship that both fits their current context and experience, and actually adds value to one or both.

Measure, Optimize, Repeat
As campaigns span platforms, so must our approach to marrying creativity with analytics. Constant technological and creative innovation is key.

Make an Impression
With so many ways to understand and target audiences, so many ways to reach them, and so many ways to channel our creative energy from mobile and tablet to social to out-of-home, we have an unprecedented opportunity to put our creativity to use in service of the brands we represent.

If you haven’t heard about the stolen laptop and the deadbeat dude that boosted it, you’ve been asleep at the wheel, my friend. There’s a Tumblr page with blow-by-blow descriptions of the theft, the lack of help from the local cops and — wait for it — images of the thief taken with the on-board camera by an installed app built to identify just such an evil-doer.

Such Astroturf marketing is becoming more common at the same time it’s becoming less distinguishable. And to those in the biz who make it their work to blur those lines, we salute you. Who hasn’t had the client request for a “sure thing viral campaign”? Who hasn’t hoped that a bit of creative “magic” will take off and rack up hits in 6-digits and then some? To all of us, here are some stealthy contenders aggregated by Todd Wasserman and Mark Book. Can you tell which is which?

Evan Longoria’s Crazy Bare Hand Catch (Gillette)
 
 
How To Hack Video Screens On Times Square (Limitless)
 
 
Walk On Water (Hi-Tec)
 
 
Kevin Durant Is Moving In Right Now (Nike)
 
 
Bike Hero (Guitar Hero)
 
 
Are You My Man In The Jacket? (Witchery)
 
 
Rear View Girls (Levi’s)
 

Butterfly Attack (Qualcomm)
 
 
Danish One-Night Stand (VisitDenmark)

If you are about to embark on a strategic redesign or you’re creating a visual identity from zero, this work will show you where others have gone — and sometimes many others — and what solutions hit the mark and which fall short. Bookmark the Logo Lounge site. Join and become a contributing member. Check out the catalog of books for sale. Enjoy.

Gradation

Juvi

Vibrate

O

Earth

Monoline

Series

Brown

Dandruff

Concentric

Loopys

Banded

Comma

Buckys

Fruit

If you’ve ventured into Facebook as an advertiser — social marketer, I should say — you know the hell that awaits as platform changes fly out from nowhere, guidelines vaporize before they can be found and apps that promise relief do little but confound your efforts. Well, you can rest now, weary Creative, for the fine folks at Facebook (actually a new crew brought in to create this new initiative) have brought you Facebook Studio.

This community site is “a place to celebrate the agencies and marketers who are creating and innovating with Facebook.” Actually, it’s an online space where agency creatives can submit work on behalf of their clients, comment on and “like” the work submitted by others, and with enough positive feedback make it to the “Spotlight” position and then on to the “Awards” area. For a publisher/portal that’s pretty much stayed hands-off when it comes to giving guidance and forewarning on rules and redesigns this would appear to be a welcome — and much needed — change.

“We need to do a better job of engaging with agencies,” said Blake Chandlee, head of Facebook’s newly formed agency relations team, adding that the site will focus on best practices and highlight quality campaigns uploaded by the creators.

One quick read, however, of the comments on a recent post shows that Facebook will need to do much more than throw up a creative “contest” and stroke those agencies that stuff the ballot box, so to speak. I pulled up the “Most Liked” and “Most Shared” tabs on my first tour of the site and was not surprised to see a Coke campaign sitting in the number one position. The beverage brand seems to have cracked the code early on and typically appears in how-to resources for “Build Your Brand on FB” along with other brands with enough firepower to make the social network “work” for them.

If your client does business in a highly regulated industry you may be charmed by the display of love and appreciation for “good” creative. Aren’t we all? But it’s something altogether different when you’ve finally convinced your financial services or pharma client to dip a toe into social and you’re on your own in navigating the space. It has not been uncommon for those of us adventuring out to be “on hold” indefinitely, given conflicting instructions or none at all, or surprised to find (just when we thought we had it down) that wholesale changes had upended our efforts. Made for quite a rocky ride.

It’s been a week and already there are plenty of submissions to review and remark on. Time will tell if this becomes the resource that is so sorely needed or if it’s just another creative cul de sac for self-reflection and snarky comments. Facebook’s continued involvement, pro-active engagement, assistance, and active listening will be the first hints that this might be real help and not hype.

I’ve found myself gravitating toward the work of UK agencies of late—they’re doing great work in both pixels and print—and perhaps missed something in the work done by other firms in other locales. Regardless, I now have a deeper roster of go-to reels for a much-needed break, a laugh or thought-provoking pause, and maybe most important, inspirational storytelling.

Enjoy. Then share what’s inspired you in the last year, last week, or just this morning. Sharing stories is universal. And brands need us to tell their stories now more than ever.

Swimming Pool | Frolic Dog Biscuits | CLM BBDO, France

Miss Penny | ING Direct | Euro RSCG, Brussels

International Shipping | Federal Express | DDB, Brazil

Planemob | Germanwings | Lukas Lindemann Rosinski, Germany

The World’s Biggest Signpost | Nokia | Farfar, Sweden

Middle England | Dixons Group | M&C Saatchi, London

Greedy Grandma | Spies Travel Agency | Robert/Boisen & Like-Minded, Denmark

For the last decade, Threadless has been printing t-shirts. And creating community. And tossing the standard small business model on its head. Oh, and inspiring others with a passion to build on that dream, make it real, and introduce brands that matter.

The history of this business and brand—called “the most innovative small business in America” by Inc. magazine—has been captured in Abrams Images perfect-bound book, titled Threadless. Written by co-founder Jake Nickell, this colorful and graphic time capsule is as much a chronicle of the brand’s growth as it is a witness to the growth of the community that defines and invigorates the brand and the artists and designers that are its lifeblood. Big, bold, and beautiful, tee by tee, the author guides us along on an amazing journey, from the prototypical “office in a bedroom” to a warehouse that requires go-karts to get around.

If you’ve never visited the threadless.com site, you may not know that this industry-altering company—a multimedia case study for Harvard Business School, no less—is based on a crowd-sourcing model. Designers submit designs. Community members provide feedback and vote on their favorite design. And the top vote-getters are printed and sold, weekly and worldwide through the site’s online store. This book brings that all to life and showcases the art and artists that have come to define the brand.

So, while gurus have been tapped to contribute and their “think pieces” add a certain heft to the book, what stands out are the profiles of the individual designers and artists who have found a welcoming community and nurturing home in the online space that Threadless has carved out and claimed. Going beyond what one might assume crowd-sourcing to be, the submit-critique-vote process that’s at work affords real-time feedback on an artist’s work and enables those who hope to “win” (top vote-getters are printed each week) a real shot at the title.

The visuals—t-shirts designs, original artwork, point-and-shot photos of the people and places that are Threadless—turn this from a history book to an art book. If you know printing, particularly screen-printing, you’ll delight in the designs and processes that this company has brought to market over the last ten years.

Inspiration and innovation are on every page, proof positive that a brand built with passion, trust and transparency can not only thrive but chart a completely new course.

(In the interest of full disclosure, I am a threadless.com fan and customer, and my “Ninjas vs. Luchadores” t-shirt is one of my prized possessions.)

Imagine you’re sitting around with a group of colleagues, taking a break and talking about what you’re working on, what you wish you were working on. The conversation is more freeform jam than academic discourse and one topic taps and turns into another. Your thoughts are going a mile a minute and there you are without something to jot down the gems that are whizzing by.

I recently found myself having a similar experience with a small, inexpensive paperback book entitled, Digital Advertising: Past, Present, and Future. The collection of essays charts the past and predicts the future of “what we used to call the advertising industry.” Asking and answering questions like “What did we learn from the 12KB banner?” and “What does the agency of the future look like?” the contributors offer insights and ideas on what we’ve built and what we might be in the process of creating — if we’re creating at all.

More a survey and overview than in-depth and technical piece, this book reminds those of us in the industry just how far we’ve come in the last couple of decades. If you were there building ads in the beginning, you’ll appreciate Matt Powell’s “When the 12 KB GIF Banner Was King.” Patrick Gardner’s “When Sweden Rules the World” lays out the seven values that make that country’s digital advertising (and quality of life in general) successful, enviable in most cases. And wrapping up the collection is Daniele Fiandaca’s “Agency of the Future” which details the ten characteristics common to all successful agencies in the decade to come.

Creative Social is a collective founded by Fiandaca and Mark Chalmers and dedicated to inspiring the industry, promoting the industry, educating the industry, and having fun doing while doing so. With twice yearly meetings at different worldwide locales, a small group of pioneers in creative and business collaborate and catalyze movement and change. With the publication of Digital Advertising: Past, Present, and Future—with related blogs and social media events—we all have the opportunity to sit down and listen to these thinkers and makers. We can begin to think about things anew and, quite possibly, take those thoughts into our lunch rooms, lounges, studios, and offices and spark up more conversation. Pick up a great read and start creating your agency of the future now.

Creative Social San Francisco from Daniele Fiandaca on Vimeo.

Challenging the creative community to create and submit “Ads Worth Spreading,” the TED organization hopes to raise the bar for online ads with its first call for entries. Online campaigns created during 2010, specifically January 2010 to January 2011, are eligible, but organizers have asked for never-before-seen work and are looking for video in particular.

Chris Anderson, TED Conferences curator, expressed the mission this way: “We want to encourage development of ads-with-a-difference. Ads that engage our audience authentically, intelligently, delightfully. Ads that people will want to share because, like the rest of TED, they encapsulate ideas worth spreading.”

TED, an annual four-day conference in Long Beach, CA, originally focused on technology, entertainment and design. Since 1984, the event has evolved into a global initiative with speakers and exhibits playing to exclusive attendee rosters, smaller salon-style video playback and discussion sessions, and a treasure trove of online content that is available for consumption at any time. Now a resource for innovative thinking in all fields, the organization has set its sights on changing the way we think about and create online messages.

“We’re not advertising experts but we know that the relationship between the consumer and online advertising needs to change,” says Ronda Carnegie, TED Global Partnership Director. “Because Ted is so open we think we can put this challenge out there and not have it be about our own self promotion.” She also states that this challenge was created as “a celebration of great creative,” adding that the venture is “not another awards opportunity.”

Like most awards shows and competitions, this one has rules and judging criteria. But unlike most, the TED group is clear on those points and details them quite explicitly:

• Tells a captivating story
• Offers an idea that makes the world a better place
• Humanizes the company/creator
• Uses technology in ways we’ve never seen
• Engages the audience in solving a problem or answering a question
• Hilariously funny, ingeniously clever, highly engaging
• Delights the audience with visual wonder
• Amplifies passion rather than ambushes it
• Speaks authentically
• Elevates the craft to improve online advertising
• Features a moving call to action
• Deserves the passionate attention of the world’s online community
• Serves a fundamental purpose of promoting a company, cause or idea

What I found striking is the implied relationship between engagement and results. True to their online content strategy, TED is encouraging contestants to submit 30-second to 5-minute videos. It’s no surprise that these facilitators see the future of online engagement in compelling and animated storytelling. And while they do require a “moving” call to action, it appears that entertainment will trump enterprise.

Perhaps what I find most striking is the complete lack of connection to measurable results. Time and again we have seen the most engaging (and shared) online campaigns do little or nothing at all to effect the bottom line. 2010’s most viral campaign—a series of video ads for Old Spice—has made no measurable uptick on the accounting ledger, according to those managing the brand.

So, could this competition change the way we think about creating online ads and engaging online consumers? Could we see a paradigm shift in what plays out on our screens, large and small? Or will this call for entries encourage us to examine the user experience in total and sharpen our focus on the measurement as well as the making?

Ad campaigns are not content creation, but could we see the blurring of that line in the winning submissions for TED’s first online ad competition? This could be one very interesting contest. Stay tuned.