So I used to play this game as a kid, as did many others I bet. Check out this fantastic video of the grown-up version over at xbox.com

As I’m sure my fellow coffee addicts and friends will attest, Starbucks has entered an interesting new area with the support of their first movie, “akeelah and the bee“.  For the last month or so, every Starbucks I’ve been to has been littered with paraphernalia related to the movie.  

This is an interesting move for Starbucks.  The way I understand it, Starbucks is actually taking a percentage of the box office in return for marketing the movie in their retail stores nationwide.  Starbucks has long been working on becoming the ‘third place’ in peoples’ lives, and now they are going to attempt to use that influence to generate profits for themselves at the box office.  

I must say, I’m impressed with Starbuck management on this one.  They are taking it upon themselves to generate returns for a movie that otherwise might have flown under the radar and gone unnoticed.  This is a nice example of how I think advertising partnerships should work – a big guy getting on the bandwagon of a little guy and promoting the little guy to the profit of both.  Wouldn’t it be nice if the rest of the world always worked that way?

To make up for my post yesterday about the Firefox ad, I wanted to point out some entertaining advertising from Microsoft. They have launched a new viral campaign for their product OneNote 2003 called stationaryisbad. Here’s just one ad from the campaign and view more below to see some others.

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In what seems to be emerging as a trend (see Chevy Tahoe post), another company is letting users create their own ads for the company’s product. The Firefox Foundation is letting users create and submit their own ads for the Firefox browser. The contest is called Firefox Flicks, has some great prizes for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd places, and has resulted in some great (read: hilarious) ads already. Check out the one below for an example, and check out firefoxflicks.com for more.

If you ever owned a blackberry, you will know there are tons of ways to accessorize your crackberry. Ever wonder how people walk and type at the same time? They cheat! Most of the time they aren’t looking for the obstacles that exist in front of them! Check out this useful accessory that Rick Mercer from the CBC put out. I sure hope they start making one of these for Palm Treo, iPods, PSP, and a kids version for the Nintendo DS. These days kids need something like this!

via Steffen Nork from Frankfurt, Germany

Here’s another great ad… kind of. Reported over on Coolz0r, it’s an ad for something running/exercise/energy related. Too bad they didn’t make the logo bigger on the ad. My guess is that it is for Nike. Whatever company or product it is advertising, this is great because instead of big flashy lights to divert your attention away from the natural surroundings (like much of Time Square), the optical illusion that this advertisement creates in conjunction with its surroundings grabs you and makes you pause for a moment to think about it.

Could that really happen? You’d have to be strong. Maybe a super hero could do that… These were all the thoughts (yes childish) that flew through my head when I first saw this picture. What do you think of first?

Chevy has launched a new “viral” online advertising campaign that lets you create your own video advertising the Chevy Tahoe. This is both a great idea and a bad idea. It is a great idea because it turns the brand over to the public and not only draws on the creative talent of… anyone, but also gets people engaged with the brand.

To see why this is possibly a bad idea, check out the ad I made.

And here is another one among many others on YouTube.

Chevy has taken a big risk in doing this, but I think in the end it will be a good thing. Either way, it has already created TONS of buzz for them.

Scoble has a very interesting post on why myspace is successful.Secrets of Myspace

Among the reasons, get influential’s using your product, let your customers guide your actions, innovate quickly and frequently and finally make start up easy and friendly. While these all seem pretty basic, it is amazing how many companies either don’t buy into this thinking or simply loose this focus along the way. I would add one additional item to this list, and that is market creatively. In some ways myspace is the anti apple, their site is UGLY, however it has a massive following. By allowing for easy creation, easy sharing of music and the addictive addition of friends myspace has created a powerful network. For them the question is where do you go from here, how do you continue the growth while remaining hip and cool, something that is often not possible.

For the rest of us Scoble’s post is a good reminder of how important customer focus is, it is amazing how simple it sounds but listening to your customers really is a great path for success. One question facing much of the internet industry is how do you balance customer requests against monetization. I think the answer lies in changing the advertising game, for all the talk internet advertising has changed very little since it first blew up in 1996. I challenge all of the major online companies, MSN, Google, Yahoo, and who ever else to truly create innovation in advertising, then and only then do I think we will solve the challenge of Customer Focus v Advertising Focus online.  What about you? Any ideas for how to improve internet advertising?

This week Red Bull purchased the Metrostars of Major League Soccer and changed their name to Redbull New York. Red Bull is well known for their creative marketing, which includes air races, sky diving, F1, Nascar, Raves and now soccer. While certainly not the first company to self brand a sports team, this is one of the first in the US and the first in the media capital of the world. The question is will fans embrace the new team or will they see this as corporate marketing gone too far? For my money Red Bull is a fantastic brand, that certainly follows through on its events, crazy ideas and marketing plans. If that energy extents to the soccer team then I am sure it will eventually a smashing success, I still can’t seem my self cheering Lets go Redbull, here we go redbull…some how it just doesn’t seem right.

Red Bull New York

Apple is a brilliant designer and marketer, one area where this really shines through is their packaging. In this brilliant spoof, take a look at what the package would look like if Microsoft designed it. If Microsoft really wants to play in the consumer electronics space they need to rethink their design and marketing, and do it quick.