The Basement

[If you work for Organic, please email me to let me know how you heard about this post. You guys are showing up in droves and I'm terribly curious. BTW, I'm very impressed with your stuff. Great work on the Charger campaign! Very cool. Oh, and if you see him, tell Troy I said "howdy"! Thanks for coming and please check out the rest of my blog. -Matt]

Of all the presenters at WOMMA, only one asked for the business of the audience. I thought that was really cool – because it is exactly what we're talking about. Transparency. Honesty. Integrity. Disclosure. Sure the presentation was interesting and informative (and funny and entertaining) – that's what I get for my attention. In exchange, I listened to the appropriate commercial marketing message. Permission Marketing 101. All the presenters are selling something – that's why they're presenting, but only one asked me to talk about him, so I'm gonna...

Troy Young, EVP, Chief Experience Architect for Organic had one of the most entertaining presentations of the day. Troy and his team at Organic were responsible for the recent Dodge Charger launch promotion. They did some amazing, creative, brilliant and effective things. Organic seems to mold the web experience like putty. They "hid" images of Charger key chains all over the web though partnerships with sites like ESPN and had people "collect" them for the opportunity to win a new Charger. They created branded adult toys (no, not that kind of adult toy), clothing, and sunglasses. They did all kinds of stuff.

Troy even shared this overview of the Charger campaign...

One of the points that Troy made that I thought was particularly good, was that everyone used to talk about how the internet made time and geography irrelevant and now we are swinging back. With particular respect to WOMM campaigns, Troy encourages us to think about "online events" – make things temporal, set deadlines. Troy says that events aggregate attention and create the critical mass necessary to stimulate buzz. This reminds me of Moore's Chasm Crossing theories. I think this is a brilliant point, and for me, a completely new perspective.

And no discussion of Troy's presentation would be complete without mentioning his hairy belly. Troy juxtaposes images from the infamous Carl's Jr. Paris Hilton ad with his own homemade version (photo credits to his wife). His point was something about connecting the marketing message with the actual product, but who really cares. I just think it was hilarious that he showed a picture of his belly. So here it is...

Troy was super cool and super hip but he also really, really got it. If you have a big campaign and want some really smart and capable folks, I'd call Troy at Organic. But right now, you should email this URL (http://www.thebasement.com) to folks so they can talk about Troy and his belly.

All WOMMA presentations available in PDF here. Here's Troy's.

Almost forgot, Troy's blog is here.