The second annual Global Media Festival just wrapped up Tuesday night. It was 2 days of focus on the future of media. The organizers are C Squared the group behind Cream Magazine , which is dedicated to regularly celebrating the best of global media achievement. And although the organizers opted not to name this conference, for me the resounding theme was one of juxtaposition.

From the outset I was struck by the juxtaposition of a conference dedicated to the digital future of communications being held in the ancient city of Venice. There was plenty of juxtaposition of old and new. From featured speakers like advertising legend Sir John Hegarty to dot come millionaire and MySpace co-founder Brett Brewer… Venice was often a study in contradictions.

There was the juxtaposition of the shortage of natural and human resources and a healthy discussion about the industry need to address both. On Day 2, Peter Seligmann, the CEO of Conservation International addressed the conference on the issue of sustainability. He implored all of us in the communications business to use our considerable influence to make a difference. It was certainly a proud moment for PHD when the efforts behind PHD Sustain were recognized. I also learned that PHD has just recently entered into a pro bono relationship to work with Conservation International, which is great and inspiring news.

Other interesting juxtapositions that became apparent in Venice:

With the juxtaposition of the old mass communication model of one-to-many migrating quickly to become one-to-one (with the rise of social media and peer-to-peer communication) there was a very interesting observation that suggests … in the heyday of mass communication, brands used to tell stories to consumers. In the new digital age of communications, consumers will tell stories about brands.

There was the juxtaposition that Sir John Hegarty alluded to that revolves around experience. His thought for the new age is that we all come from a world where we learn and then do. He believes that we need to alter our behaviour for the new reality to “do and then learn”… and hey … who wants to argue with a man who has achieved knighthood?

There was also the juxtaposition of content and context. For years we have heard the mantra that “content is king”, but in an age where technology is enabling smart messaging to receptive audiences, we are quickly moving to an era where context is king. This is a major leadership challenge for us as media practitioners and there was certainly a resounding spirit of readiness from the media throng in attendance.

One final note on Venice … it was truly great to see PHD so dominant on the world media stage. Beyond the aforementioned sustainability initiatives, our ETNA planning interface was featured in one of the breakout sessions on Media Creativity, and our Global CEO, Mike Cooper, addressed the conference most eloquently on the future of the media business.

Like Venice once proved, it is quite possible for a culturally significant (albeit small) body to make a big and lasting impression on the world… we should all be very proud.

“More and more companies are putting employee fitness and wellness higher on their agendas in an effort to cut health-care costs, increase productivity, reduce absenteeism and offer more incentives to attract and retain talent.”

Today began PHD Physique’s inaugural walking group!  We went for 35 minutes from Elm street to the U of T arc.  Stay tuned for pics!  And, we couldn’t have asked for better walking weather…20 degrees!

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080416.CAFITNESS16/EmailTPStory

Wal-Mart, Sony and McDonalds have all tried to deceive the unsuspecting blog reader in recent months.  In the UK, they have decided enough is enough.

Specifically, the law would ban the use of ‘fake consumer blogs’ which mislead real consumers. Called the “Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008”.

Several examples have been observed in the past, including the following:
- Wal-Mart created a fake blog called ‘Wal-Marting Across America’
- Sony created a fake “All I Want for Christmas” blog about a boy who only wanted a PS3 for Christmas. 
- McDonald’s created a blog called ‘4Railways’ where ‘someone’ wrote about their desire to get all four railway cards in the McDonald’s monopoly game.

Rest assured readers, this is not a fake blog entry.

Magazines Canada’s third annual Best on Page event, an exhibition of award-winning magazine ad creative from around the world.

Best on Page featured 170 award winning concepts from the Cannes Lions Festival, Epica Awards, Canada ’s own Marketing Awards, Créa Awards and Anvil Awards.

Attendees had the opportunity to vote on the creative execution most deserving of Best of Show honours. The competition was fierce as 143 of the 170 ads captured votes.

And the winner is: Sony PlayStation from TBWA\Madrid in Spain.

Second place honours go to Bazooka Bubble Gum from Duval Guillaume Brussels in Belgium and third place is an ad for the Breast Cancer Welfare Association from Saatchi and Saatchi, Petaling Jaya in Malaysia .

Best of Show winners are a testament to the creative potential of the magazine medium. These ads stop, engage and influence readers in powerful ways.

For your own personal exhibition of each of the winning 170 creative concepts from Best on Page, click here. Enjoy the show!

Other things you could be doing with your time if you choose not to participate in Toronto’s :20 minute makeover this Friday at 2pm:

• Shutdown and restart your computer (average time :20 minutes - 1 hour)
• Sing “99 bottles of beer on the wall.”
• Calculate your age in days
• Re-write your to-do list (again)
• Try to fit your to-do list on one post-it note
• Eat your lunch with chopsticks
• Reprogram this week’s PVR schedule
• Do the :20 minute workout at your desk (just getting the leg warmers on could take :13)

Join us this Friday, April 18th at 2pm for 100% participation in our community cleanup.

For more information on this important initiative:

http://www.toronto.ca/litter/clean-up/20minute.htm

I can relate to that visual image…

Tired of only being able to get 500 songs on your Ipod Nano?  Apparently so were the researchers at the University of Rochester who have come up with a way to reproduce music into a computer file that’s 1,000 times smaller than a comparable high-quality MP3 file.

Thanks to Alan Cross, program director at Corus radio station CFNY, the math is now evident - a 160 GB Ipod can now carry over 40 million songs.  It would take you over 450 years to listen to all songs before hearing a repeat!

Its really quite staggering when you think about it - the MP3 file has changed forever how people will share music files across the Internet.  Imagine what will happen when the MPEG goes next?

Full article on Yahoo.

Simple insights can lead to BIG ideas that resonate.  For inspiration check out Lander’s blog.

Stuff White People Like.  This makes me laugh.  Just when I felt special that I had read about the blog in The Globe on my way to Vancouver, the blog makes FUN OF ME: “White people love feeling special & thinking they are unique.”  The fact that I was reading the paper on a plane is likely telling too…

Another highlight:  “white people really love FAIR TRADE coffee, because paying the extra $2 means they are making a difference.”

Chris Lander is a Canadian living in L.A.  He never expected more than 100 of his closest friends to read the blog & now more than 18MM have.  His book will be out in August via a new book deal with Random House.  His blog has also spawned copycat websites like: Stuff Brown People Like.  enjoy.

Its been around forever…

To see how other people see objects from a different perspective, look at these modern products in vintage advertising .