Well that’s Adomatica, a staple in the Austin (and national ad scene). He’s never ripped us before, but I felt obliged to stand up for our fellow ad men and women and give him a bit of the business.

Or he’s a good friend and super-smart online marketer who writes a snarky and helpful blog in his spare time. Grab the Adomatica RSS feed, it’s worth your attention. Unlike the GSD&M / McGarrah Jesse Austin Addy Awards.

Special image thanks to The Foto Booth – a great group to hire for your events.

If you live in the live music capital of the world, you may have seen these OOH and Banner ads:

A couple people we polled wondered if the Dallas Stars were moving to the ATX – keeping the same name as the NHL team will lead to that confusion. But this is an all new AHL team – the “farm” system for the big boys.

We immediately wondered about the campaign – who are they trying to attract – the rock concert crowd?  They do mix with true hockey fans – after all, we’re fans of both.

But would it be better to appeal to the people who love hockey, first? Generate a buzz with die hard fans of the sport by showing players scoring or blocking shots? Or even have the stick blade point in the same direction for the ads? (hockey fans/players notice these things)

Either way, glad The Texas Stars are coming to town. We might have to get some corporate seats (and maybe even make an appeal to the marketing director).

Joe: “Kurt, check this out, someone dropped a wallet.”

Kurt: “No way, is there an ID?”

Sure enough, there was an ID. And money. And a gift card. Not to mention a dry cleaning receipt, a business card and a map. All of which pointed straight to Burger King.

See the wallet was a guerilla tactic for the new Reverse Pickpocket Campaign. We actually found The King’s wallet.

We laughed and looked for a camera (like the Whopper Freakout campaign), then tucked the wallet in our pockets to show the clients. It was a very apropos find.

Kudos to you, Crispin Porter + Bogusky for turning the dial a little farther. And if you were one of the 5,000 wallet-finders in Chicago, be happy that you got to be part of a great experiment. Spend that cash and gift cards, so more marketers will take advantage of alternative media.

Some iPhone images:

One of our favorite partners frowarded this video to our attention. It was created by Geert Desager, a Marketing Manager with Microsoft.

All too often we only know our consumers as statistics on a spreadsheet. When, in fact, the new idealism found in pace-setting companies is all about communication.

When you think about advertising and direct marketing and even website building, every facet of your company could provoke comments and communication from your consumers. Choose to listen and adjust, and you set the pace.