Tuesday, September 22, 2009

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PARK(ing) Day is a worldwide celebration of open space, people and community. We've been fans since we first posted on the event on Brand Flakes For Breakfast, but this year, we decided to get in on the fun.

We set up our own Plaid Park. We thought the most perfect park would encompass comfy chairs, wifi, and a place to relax and get some tweets out. Welcome to Plaid Park. Have a seat, and tweet.

See the video, local news coverage and the Flickr photo set for all of the Plaid PARK action!

Labels: selfpromotion, space

posted by darryl ohrt @ 2:07 PM   0 comments

Thursday, August 6, 2009

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So awesome, that they published an entire story about what we like to call our "attraction engine." Read the whole deal at Advertising Age. Look for us on the cover of Tabloids, next.

Labels: plaid summertour, selfpromotion

posted by darryl ohrt @ 8:07 AM   0 comments

Monday, July 13, 2009

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The PlaidNation tour is featured on The Ford Story, as one of the In the Spotlight stories!

The Ford Story is one of Ford's most awesome sites (even more awesome now), and serves as sort of a hub that shares the hot stories and conversations all about Ford, their products, their technologies and history. And now they're showing their Plaid love.

We're sure that before our tour is complete, we'll be featured on the front page of every Ford site, quoted by the CEO, and have a car designed after us. But perhaps we're getting just a step ahead of ourselves...in the meantime, send the link to everyone you know and tell your friends that Plaid says Ford is HOT.

Labels: plaid summertour, selfpromotion

posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:32 PM   0 comments

Monday, April 27, 2009

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Current TV needs a new agency. Rather than go through the antiquated agency review process, they tweeted their review, in the world's first ever TwitteRFP. Naturally, plenty of agencies quickly dusted off their Twitter accounts and began pitching away. Plaid got straight to showing Current some hot ideas. Because Plaid invented social media.

Labels: plaid, selfpromotion

posted by darryl ohrt @ 5:15 PM   0 comments

Thursday, April 23, 2009

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This year's Plaid tour will be bigger and better than ever before. Starting with the Plaid ride. Thanks to the Ford Motor Company, we'll be riding in a sweet Ford Flex from Detroit to New Orleans!

Ford Motors has agreed to become the official vehicle sponsor for the PlaidNation tour. That means comfy seating. Ford Sync technology. Built in GPS. And countless other luxuries that the Plaid crew don't typically deserve.

While in Austin attending the SXSW Conference, Ford's own Scott Monty took Dave and Darryl on a nice test drive, while previewing some of the car's awesome features. We're already dreaming up super hot vehicle graphics, and thinking this will be the most Awesome Plaid ride, ever.

Labels: plaid summertour, selfpromotion

posted by darryl ohrt @ 1:58 PM   0 comments

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

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This is big.

We're taking over. Like a gaggle of pirates and ninjas banding together for the creative workers of America, we've taken over the Denver Egotist.

In fact, we believe that the takeover will be so easy that we'd like to take it one step further: We're taking over Denver, too.

As of today, we declare that we are now the hottest creative agency in Denver. We've prepared a video message that alerts the Denver population of this development. We'll post it on the Denver Egotist first thing this morning.

Check the Egotist (soon known as the Danbury Egotist) all day for our fresh content.

(Keep in mind that if you're reading this in the AM on Eastern time, that people in Denver are lazy. They sleep two hours later than we do. We can't actually take over until they drag their lazy asses out of bed and get into their offices.)

Denver residents: We'll need to change your town's name to Danbury. And our Mayor will likely need to take charge, too. We have a feeling that you're really going to like this. Welcome to the PlaidNation.

** This may only be a 24 hour takeover, as we don't really have offices in Denver and would probably find it difficult to breath their weak air on a regular basis.

Labels: plaid, selfpromotion

posted by darryl ohrt @ 6:58 AM   0 comments

Wednesday, December 31, 2008

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Billboard Magazine and Reuters wrote a really nice piece on the promotion that we produced with legendary band Umphrey's McGee.

Technically, they didn't mention Plaid in the article, and instead focused on what's important - Umphrey's, and how this site has revolutionized the music sales process. But if they did mention Plaid, they would have said that this is clearly the work of the greatest agency in all of the land, and that the world should pause for a second to reflect on this greatness. (Pretty sure that's how it would have went.)

Labels: plaid, selfpromotion

posted by darryl ohrt @ 9:46 AM   0 comments

Sunday, November 30, 2008

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Now in it's third year, the Brand Flakes For Breakfast Gift Guide has become a holiday tradition more popular than the tree at Rockefeller Center.

Check out the BrandFlakes gift guide for cool, creative and fun gift ideas for your friends, family and coworkers. We'll dig through the bowels of the internet to find the coolest stuff ever, so that you can sit on you butt and shop from the comforts of your computer.

With new posts nearly every day, you'll be buried in sweet holiday goodness. Need even more? Dig through the old posts from the 2007 and 2008 BrandFlakes Gift Guides.

Plaid. It's the hottest color for the holiday season!

Labels: plaid, selfpromotion

posted by darryl ohrt @ 5:58 PM   0 comments

Monday, August 4, 2008

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Phew. Another year on the road has screamed past faster than a Plaid van at 85MPH.

If you haven't had a chance to check in, or missed some key moments, now's a great time to catch up on the most glorious tour ever to hit the highways. PlaidNation 2008.

See all of the daily wrap up videos here. It's the next best thing to being there.

See the interviews and extra footage here. The interviews with Robert Scoble, Biz Stone and Cathy Brooks (coming later this week) are extra remarkable.

Read the Twitter stream. If you're new to Twitter (or just bored at work), this is a great way to see it's value. An entire tour has been documented (and archived) moment by moment, as it was happening. Reading the stream is like re-living the tour.

Watch the 11:40 shows. These vidcasts were recorded live at 11:40, wherever the van happened to be at that moment. You'll see additional discussion about what happened on tour, with extra detail brought to the show by the people on the tour. The most popular episode: Plaid gets kicked out of a popular celebrity cemetery in Hollywood, California.

Check out the Flickr photo stream. Better than your Aunt Lucie's vacation to the Galapagos Islands, you'll see other workplaces, cool locations and Plaid employees mostly avoiding trouble.

We've put all of this and more together for you, on the tour dashboard at PlaidNation.com

Thanks to everyone who wrote about it, talked about it, or became a part of it. We're already in planning mode for next year's tour, and have some incredible surprises. Just wait until 2009!

Labels: plaid, plaid summertour, selfpromotion

posted by darryl ohrt @ 8:38 PM   0 comments

Sunday, July 27, 2008

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If you're not already glued to your computer watching every detail, be sure to check in on the second annual Plaid Summer Tour - now in its second week, on the west coast. This week Plaid will be spending time in San Francisco, San Louis Obispo, Los Angeles, San Diego and Las Vegas.

We'll be meeting brands, creative people and interesting characters along the way. Watch it all live on the van cams, video, Twitter stream and more - all on the tour's dashboard at PlaidNation.com

Labels: plaid, plaid summertour, selfpromotion

posted by darryl ohrt @ 9:11 PM   2 comments

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

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Our second annual Plaid summer tour is just days away from kicking into high gear! Be sure to bookmark the tour dashboard and watch the tour live all day, every day starting July 21!

Tell your boss that you're not being unproductive - but that you're busy researching how to put the latest social media tools into action. And then get back to watching the live webcams, as the Plaid van gets pulled over by the California Highway Patrol. Or whatever the crew might be up to.

Labels: plaid, plaid summertour, selfpromotion

posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:11 AM   0 comments

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

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Maybe you've heard a little something about Sarah. Or her interview with Mark Zuckerberg. We caught up with her at a party while at SXSW, and asked her the most important question of all....does she love Plaid?

Labels: plaid, selfpromotion

posted by darryl ohrt @ 2:36 AM   0 comments

Sunday, December 9, 2007

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We've prepared our annual Plaid holiday cards, and dropped them at the post office for delivery. The post office hates us.

This year's card is especially special. Like an after school Christmas special. Read whatever you want into that.

If you're on our list, keep an eye on your mailbox this week, and be sure that your mailman is extremely careful with our delicate and important package.

Labels: plaid, selfpromotion

posted by darryl ohrt @ 8:22 AM   1 comments

Monday, November 12, 2007

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A couple of us got the opportunity to meet Ze Frank last week, while attending a Core 77 event. And he proclaimed that "Ze loves Plaid." We think that if we gave him the opportunity to elaborate, he would have added quotes like "Plaid is the absolute best agency in all of the land," and "Any brand with any relevance should be hiring Plaid now," and "Darryl Ohrt is a god." But since he didn't have time, he didn't get to say those things. Next time, for sure.

Labels: plaid, selfpromotion

posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:25 AM   0 comments

Tuesday, July 3, 2007

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The first ever Plaid Summer Tour is now just days away.

Today we launched PlaidNation, which is the dashboard for everything related to the tour. From this site, you can check in on the tour blog, Twitter log or Flickr photo set. You'll also be able to see the van's actual location, and watch its progress, with our Google GPS map.

Want more? While we're in the van, we'll be streaming a live webcam, so that you can watch us picking our noses. Or whatever we do while on the road for hours on end. We'll also videotape all of our adventures - and will upload regular Brand Aid webisodes to YouTube.

On Monday, we GET THE VAN. Look for exciting pics and video as we wrap a van in Plaid!

Labels: plaid, plaid summertour, selfpromotion

posted by darryl ohrt @ 4:24 PM   0 comments

Friday, June 8, 2007

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We're officially doing it. The first ever road tour by an agency. With a tour van. And agency employees. And lots of energy drinks. The tour will kick off on July 16, and end (in Atlanta, we think) on August 4.

Anyway - we're looking for sponsors to help ease the pain of financial costs, or to make life more enjoyable for those on the road.

Have a brand that wouldn't mind being seen on our 2400 mile trek across the U.S? Or on the tour's internet dashboard? Or on the tour blog? Or the tour Twitter? Or included on the YouTube videos? We're poor, We're whores, and we're not ashamed. There are opportunities that range from product placement to cash deals. Limited only by your imagination.

Anyway - you can learn more at PlaidNation - which for now, is something better than a PowerPoint deck about sponsorship. Eventually, this site will become the dashboard for everything related to BrandAid 2007.

Stay off the roads. Lock your doors. Plaid is coming.

Labels: plaid, plaid summertour, selfpromotion

posted by darryl ohrt @ 10:43 AM   0 comments

Wednesday, May 30, 2007

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The Plaid summer branding tour that we've been brainstorming on is coming closer to reality. Giuli's been putting together budgets, and so far, there are no surprises. It's looking pretty reasonable.

A good friend has a friend who sells tour sponsorships, and thinks it's not out of the question to get a tour sponsor. That would help offset some costs, and maybe give us a little more budget to work with. I'm very close to giving the whole project the green light. I'd say I'm about 90% there. Just some additional budgeting and logistics to finally confirm that it's a go.

We're brainstorming on tour names. And putting together possible cities, clients, and prospects that we want to visit. I'm meeting with PR later this week, to begin building our publicity strategy for the tour.

Meanwhile, additional tour ideas are flying fast and furious. If this happens, this is going to be a blast. We're getting more stoked by the minute, and ready to paint the nation Plaid!

Labels: plaid summertour, selfpromotion

posted by darryl ohrt @ 9:36 PM   1 comments

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

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What a night. We probably would have been perfectly happy with just a plate of chicken cordon bleu - but the ad club decided to give us FIVE ad club awards tonight. And that's not all...we also won the show's GOLD PEN Award for Santa Hunters, our holiday greeting card. We're totally stoked. You can see the crew juggling trophies on our Flickr page.

Here's what we came home with:

GOLD PEN: Santa Hunters self promotion
Gold award: Spherion Meeting Bingo
Gold award: Santa Hunters direct mail
Gold award: Santa Hunters website
Silver award: Mohawk Mountain outdoor
Bronze award: Flambeau River Papers swatch book

Lots of love and kisses to all who helped us bring home wood: Paul Reilly, Brent Meyer, Chris Dornfeld, Chip Simons and of course Eliza Sweet. (A gold pen!)

Oh yeah - I guess we couldn't have done any of this without the most wonderful clients....lovin' you too!

(And - special nod to my son, who won an Ad Club scholarship. Nice job, Devon. Good night for all.)

Labels: plaid, plaidteam, selfpromotion

posted by darryl ohrt @ 11:31 PM   3 comments

Friday, May 11, 2007

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We've been talking a LOT about the concept of a Plaid Summer Tour, as a part of our self-promotional campaign.

The more we talk about it, the more we're falling in love with the concept. Currently, we're looking at two potential options:

+ Buy and remodel a bitchin' custom van as a Plaid van. Tour the hottest brands in the nation and spread Plaid love and cheer.

+ Rent a rock star tour bus and wrap it in Plaid. While likely more expensive, this would allow actual Plaid employees to travel along on the tour (while working on the road of course) and see the Plaid nation. Could be a real adventure. Leigh found the Paul Frank bus above, as inspiration.

Giuli's pricing each of them out, and then we'll likely need to scale down to reality. Know anyone who rents buses? Or any cool drivers?

Labels: plaid, selfpromotion

posted by darryl ohrt @ 8:43 PM   1 comments

Tuesday, May 8, 2007

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This is pretty awesome. The first test of our new integrated Plaid team was for ourselves. We've had a few brainstorms on self promotional concepts. With our in-house crew at our studio in Connecticut, AND the extended team - spread across the country. A virtual brainstorm using our favorite web 2.0 tools.

Anyway, there's one concept that we're all universally in love with. We'll call it the Plaid Summer Tour for now. (Although we'll have to work quickly to get this off the ground in time for summer.)

Here's the basics of the concept: A custom Plaid van (oh, soooo cool), touring some of our existing clients, as well as some brands that could use the power of Plaid. We'd be spreading Plaid love and cheer across the Plaid nation.

Waddya think?

Labels: plaid, selfpromotion

posted by darryl ohrt @ 10:38 PM   6 comments

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