AdSponge

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Happy Memorial Day to everyone. Lets remember those who fought to keep this country safe.

Check out my personal site, brandonzeman.com. It’s more focused on my life outside of marketing and online space. You can expect to find posts related to what kind of music I’m digging, a new restaurant I tried, or some crazy story from a night out. You just never know what might show up…cause I don’t know either!

Haven’t put up much creative lately, so here’s a little something.

Unique advertising from Red Bull in Spain, sure to make you take a look. Reinforces the ‘Wiiings’ in Red Bull’s branding efforts. I like ads like these that command attention from consumers, even if they don’t directly drive sales. This comes from Adverbox, click on the picture to take you to the post.

I don’t have a job that requires me to be online all day or to write blogs or browse social networks (in fact, I have no job whatsoever!), but I do all of these things anyways. Most of my online time is probably spent learning, which comes from reading blogs and news and seeing what people are talking about on Twitter. A big chunk of time is spent job searching on job boards and agency sites. Then of course I spend some time working on AdSponge and Facebook. Oh, and I am connected all the time through my internet friendly iPhone. Becoming disconnected for me can be a difficult task.

Larissa Fair from the Buzz Bin offers a list of ways to achieve balance between your online life and the rest of your life. Most of her tips are pretty obvious, like leaving your laptop at work and avoiding Twitter. I guess for me, it depends who I am with that changes my online habits. If I’m with friends or family or in a social setting, then the iPhone will stay in my pocket. Also, I try to save at least one day a week to be completely disconnected, usually Sunday.

Most of my friends will say I’m online more than anyone they know, but isn’t that a good thing?

Just installed this new app on Facebook called Blog It. Basically, it allows you to update several of your blogs and social networking sites at one time. For me, I can update my Facebook status and Twitter account in one attempt. Also, I can post to my Wordpress account, which I’m doing now. It’s a little limited, still figuring out how to add pics and video.

Seth Godin is a marketing guru with a great blog. He knows his stuff, and what I like most is he often questions conventional marketing theory. I find his recent post to be inspiring and comforting:

Publishing your ideas… in books, or on a blog, or in little twits on Twitter… and doing it with patience, over time, is the best way I can think of to lay a foundation for whatever it is you hope to do next.

That is one of the premises of this blog. I created AdSponge in part to document my thoughts and ideas as I learn and grow and develop a career. Its good to know someone like Seth Godin agrees and even advocates this.

Although a few days old, I felt like adding my two-cents to the Absolut Mexico Map ad fiasco. Absolut is a global brand, and despite the ad only running in Mexico, did they really think Americans wouldn’t get wind of this ad, let alone be angered by it? Granted, a ton of people are blogging and talking about it (including me), but most American’s will undoubtedly be upset.

My first reaction to seeing the ad was surprise; did they REALLY do that? Immediately following I was also angered. Maybe for Mexico that would be wonderful, but I’m pretty content with California, Texas and all the other states in question. But after letting it stew and thinking about it for a little bit, I’m becoming OK with the ad. For one, the PR Absolut is getting out of this is invaluable. Sure, most of it is negative, but how many people will actually boycott Absolut or stop purchasing their products? Not many I would guess.

I think we’ll need to see an ad from Absolut with the US extended north through Canada to make up for this. Stinkin’ Canadians.

Check out this spoof of the ad via The News Buckit.