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May 17th, 2011

Recycling Outdoor Advertising

posted by benjamin to Advertising, News 2 Comments

A few months ago I stumbled upon a company that takes outdoor advertising vinyl and recycles it into something useful. With so many reusable bags being made today from recycled materials, it’s been surprisingly difficult to find one that will withstand the test of time and be useful enough to carry your groceries in – or anything else you want to use the bags for.

Personally, I have tried many different bags and find that they only last for a few months. Some of the bags I have tried are made to be convenient, and fold up into a little pouch. But, when I unwrap these bags, they are pretty awkward to carry groceries in, which makes the less appealing to actually use

Given all this, I think what Gorilla Sacks is doing is amazing. They are taking advertising waste and transforming it into something that is good for the environment and stylish. The bags themselves are very sturdy and they make a great addition to your green shopping arsenal. Highly Recommended!

http://www.gorillasacks.com/

September 2nd, 2009

Creating a Culture to Increase Branding

posted by benjamin to Advertising 1 Comment

starbucksbranding.jpg

As with most Advertising agencies, coffee runs freely here at Laughing Samurai. For drip coffee, there isn’t anything better than Stardust in the mornings, but sometimes in the afternoons we take a run up to Starbucks to refuel our creativity fuel tanks. Despite the trouble they have had in the past few years, the brand that they have developed is truly a part of American culture. A big part of the experience, for people that go there frequently, is using the language of Starbucks to order their drinks. This language has helped them essentially brand the experience of ordering coffee — something that used to cost pennies is now over two dollars.

So we got to thinking, what is the most obnoxious thing you could order using the secret language of Starbucks:

Grande decaf iced triple shot 6 pump vanilla non fat one splenda caramel macchiato.

Maybe we should have a “Order the most annoying thing at Starbucks day?”

August 5th, 2009

The First Blog Post

posted by benjamin to Advertising No Comments

Blogs don’t just pop out of thin air. Someone, somewhere has to write a first blog post. It’s just a fact of life when you are working on a linear time-line, and this linear time-line just happens to be the awesome chronicles of the most awesome creative agency in the world: Laughing Samurai. You may already know who Laughing Samurai is, but for newcomers, we are a Creative Agency founded on two words: Expect Awesome. That’s it! That’s our approach to everything from Branding to Advertising Design, Creative Direction and Websites. Our mission, is to give your company the communication tools it needs to easily position itself in the marketplace as the brand of choice for whatever product or service you are selling. But seriously, what this first blog post is really about is first blog posts, and as first blog posts go, this could be the greatest first blog post ever written.


The Anatomy of a First Blog Post

When people decide to start a blog, a lot of things can happen. For starters, most people have a message or subject they want to talk about. Other people just want to talk about their lives. For some they just have a blog because a really intelligent creative or advertising agency told them it would be good for their business. Your reasons may weigh-in on what you say in your first blog post, but ultimately you can use any approach to get your blog going. We picked a few of our favorites, as observed in the wild.

The Announcement:

Some people start their blogs with a testimonial to all the things they plan to do with their blog in the future. You can recognize this types of posts because they usually start with phrases like “so I decided to start a blog” and go into things about the person or what they are interested in. This method is effective only if you follow through.


The Appearance:

There are others who just start writing and pretend like the blog has been there all along. This is acceptable if you plan on posting a lot, because after a few weeks or months, no one is going to go back and read your first post. Or are they…


The Random:

Finally, some people will just post something random. Like a picture of their uncle or a list of things that smell good but don’t taste good.

Have you observed other types of blog posts in the wild? Share them with us!