The Ocean Agency

The Internet has brought us so much good: instant communication across the globe, a new way to do business, a new way to converse and a plethora of new ways to procrastinate. I mean, before the advent of the Internet, was anyone able to spend hours looking at cats? Or hipsters? Or people at Wal-Mart? (Now I feel like anyone who reads this thinks I spend hours looking at cats, hipsters and people at Wal-Mart … and, umm … well, what do you do that’s so interesting?)

It has also given us the ability to have our questions answered by total strangers, anywhere, at any time. Any question. Taking a quick glance at Wiki Answers gives us a few ideas of how far we’ve progressed with the most magnificent tool of the this past century.

Here are some of the best unanswered questions.

The offhanded elegance of this question is what strikes me the most.

Social Media is a fascinating thing. With a computer at your fingertips, you have the opportunity to be a praised poet, filmmaker, journalist, musician, designer, lobbyist, thinker; a creator of any kind. Essentially, technology offers us the chance to try on any identity. Your creative monster gets the go ahead to rise from within and speak out to an endless anonymous audience. It can call out in any voice, at any time, in any medium. Your thoughts are heard, processed, communicated, and practiced by fellow creators and media magicians, and a new understanding of community is formed. The world is simultaneously a bigger and smaller place.

And so, in honor of being whatever you want to be, let us celebrate the holiday of disguise with some festive videos. Be warned though, some creative monsters are scarier than others.

Happy Halloween!

We  know that you absolutely never procrastinate at work– Neither do we. We found these entertaining viral apps at home on our own time, we swear. And we are only sharing them with you so that you can understand how to make your own apps viral– not so you can while away the last few hours til the weekend. Check these links out:

Leah had some great thoughts on online quizzes and how to utilize them. Check them out below!

Quizzes: Tools for Building a Community Around Your Website

I am a bit of a procrastinator. I also really like answering questions about myself. (Yea, I’m honest!) And, guess what, I’m not the only sometimes-distracted narcissist on the web. When used properly, online quizzes are rewarding marketing tools that will increase your site’s interactivity and traffic.

In a recent post on Publishing Executive ,Rex Hammock dispels a few myths about blogs and magazines. Rex was both a magazine editor and blogger, so he actually knows what he’s talking about. Refreshing in it’s own right.

In any case, in the piece he stresses that blogs are actually the perfect compliment to magazines. Magazines generally come out once a month, and in his words:

“Blogs can break stories; magazines can explain stories. Magazines can survey and analyze issues; blogs can archive as much data as necessary to back up your analysis. A blog can fill in many gaps that a magazine schedule leaves wide open.”

To prepare ourselves for the liveblog, we’ve been doing a little research on Season 3 . I would have to say that this piece in Vanity Fair, by Bruce Handy, is the perfect way to get prepared for season 3.

Today is Day 2 of Mad Men week here at the Ocean Agency. We are counting down to our Liveblog of the season premiere Sunday at 9 PM CST.

If Don Draper was both a real person and alive today (just go with me here people) I feel like he would be fascinated by the evolution of the advertising world. Most of all, he might salivate, in a very cool and debonair manner of course, at the integration of so many forms of mass media.

You read it everyday: Brands need to become more interactive online, but many times, brands don’t know where to start. This is where companies like the Ocean Agency jump in, giving mostly good advice on how brands can be more interactive and successful in today’s marketplace.

While many agencies are great at telling their clients how to succeed in a world of social and interactive media, their own presence is lacking.

At the Ocean Agency, we’ve had a lot of success building interactive web campaigns for clients, but now it’s time to practice what we preach.

Nike marketing is arguably the best in the world, with  hundreds of memorable advertising campaigns. With the rise of the social web they have had fantastic success integrating both online and offline content– with everything from Nike Basketball to the Livestrong campaign.

Their latest integrated campaign is for the release of the P Rod III, a new skateboarding shoe. In an extremely smart move they are generating buzz for both the product and commercial online before it airs on television. Many online marketing companies forget the power of integration–most well known sites and viral hits explode first online and then hit their tipping point because of mainstream  media coverage.