We have a new client. A client we have a lot in common with: Bitchin Lifestyle.



More than a just a client, it was a meeting. Provokat working with a web tv... it makes all the sense in the world. In fact, this is more than a web tv, it's a website with a lot of content that tickles our pixelized brains. Glamour, trash, rebel, unhinged attitude, offbeat humour and yummy recipies, we couldn't ask for more. And, it's 100% made in Montreal. Cool.

So in a word (or a few words): 1 sexy site + sexy content + sexy videos, and all this homegrown (Are we chauvinistic? No. Do we have solidarity? Yeah!). If Provokat was to associate with a brand, it would probably be Bitchin Lifestyle.

So, we're really enthusiastic and wanted to share the excitment!

[translated from a post by Nathalie Goulevant]

Yeah, we kinda dropped the ball on Zoofest back in july.

Not with the name or the logo or the poster. With the site.

We put too much importance on creating a distinctive brand in the already chaotic Montreal summer festivals market. We also took the potential market (18-25 year olds) to be the only possible market.



Was it a catastrophy? No: among the 20 000 visitors, 7 000 got to the ticket site. No: the client wants to keep working with us. No: nobody died.

But I must admit the site was too 'intuitive' in this context. We rectified a few things along the way, but not quite enough and not quite fast enough.

PS: Once, a cleaning lady forgot to close the widows at the office. It was winter. The wind blew in, the pipes froze. Then they thawed and we were flooded. The plumber said: "You'll probably fire the cleaning lady after this...". "No", I said. "I'll never have another cleaning lady who'll be more careful with the windows."

[Translated from a post by Martin Ouellette]

Daniel Fortin has offered an opportunity to work in a different way.

In this vidéo, I talk about our collaboration with Daniel, Anouk Pennel from Feed and Ghassan Fayad from Kung Fu Numerik for a client we have in common: Moment Factory. I found the approach stimulating.

For those of you who speak French, here's the video



For the others, here's a translation

A little while ago I got a call from my friend Daniel Fortin, ex president and creative director at Epoxy communications (bought by Amen, in turn bought by BCP). Daniel is a sensitive man with a lot of qualities. He's a friend, I like him.

He called and said "Martin, I've got a crazy project: instead of being the owner of an idea, I'd like to share ideas and competence with a group of people when I work with a client. I got a mandate from Moment Factory, a really innovative Montreal event design agency that works with buildings, lights and interactivity. They want a rebranding. You wanna play?"

The idea of working with Dan I liked, since I like the guy. I did wonder who I'd be working with and who'd do what. Dan said I'd be planner/writer, that he'd be creative director, Anouk from Feed (a fantastic design shop, they do everything, logos, corporate ID...) will do the logo, Ghassan will do everything interactive or app related.

So I said "Yeah, sure". It's a fun project, the idea of putting 4 creative directors together and see what would come out of it appealed to me. It went FAST. We started exchanges and challenging each other's ideas really quickly, there was no intimidation or ego bruising. I think it's a really interesting concept.

This time around, the project was done somewhat outside Provokat. I'm in it, FEED, Kung Fu and Dan are in it, and it's not agency related. It's just people who came together to find a hot solution for a hot client, I liked it and I'd want to do it again. Well, if there's a client willing to try out this system, call Daniel Fortin or write to me and we'll put brains together.

[Translated from a vlog by Martin Ouellette]

Gesca-Power Corp say they might close La Presse (French Montreal newspaper). Since my thoughts about this were nothing short of bubbling, I thought I'd try my hand (face?) at vlogging. For those of you who speak French, here's the video.



For the others, here's a translation.

My first reaction was to tell myself to be positive. To remind myself it was important for democracy. Then I thought is was a strange thing to say that democracy depends on a publication that belongs to a huge corporation who is not famous for its respect for the freedom of the press.

A newspaper is necessarily colored by its objectives, political or financial. And those are legitimate objectives. But newspapers are not a social or state necessity. We tend to put press and democracy together because of the principle of diversity of opinions. However nowadays, I think we can say that the WWWeb has demonstrated that opinions are indeed diverse. Proof being that I can say this, right here, and not have to ask permission.

The other reason why press and democracy are so often smashed together, is that newspapers are said to be the most easily accessible information source. That's a very European vision of things. Here, people have many more TVs than anything else.

In fact, if I'm having such a strong reaction to this, it's because I'm afraid the government will intervene like it did with Formula 1 racing and declare it cultural property or something. That they'll take our tax money to save La Presse, a business owned by the humongous Gesca/Powercorp group. That would get on my nerves. Maybe I'm being paranoid, but I don't think so. After giving F1 50M a year, maybe the gov will say 'oh, you need 13M? Well, to save democracy, we'll give you 8M. 700 hundred employees represent the other 5M, and you'll last another year.'

In my opinion, access to information will not get better if the gov gives money to La Presse. To ensure that the population gets better access to information, the gov should finance Internet access. It's deplorable that so many regions are still 'in the dark'. A lot of people couldn't see this video, for example, simply because it's heavy. It doesn't make sense that so many large pieces of Quebec are still in a technological rut.

I think the gov should invest massively in freedom and information access, in access to democracy, and the best way to achieve that is to help Internet and computers be everywhere. Public machines, in every library, to not only enable people to receive content but to create it.

That way democracy would be present, whether La Presse and cyberpresse.ca close or not (presuming the employees will find another job, maybe even online). Of course it's not as easy for the printing employees, but they're specialized, I'm sure they'll find something.

It's sad, but it's a privately owned company and I don't think the government should meddle.

Thank you.

[translated from a vlog by Martin Ouellette]

We often work a bit outside, around mandates that are given to us.

Often, a client comes to us with a specific project: a site, a campaign, a blog, a viral thingamajig.

Often, we translate this project into a 'need', and things shift. The video becomes a micro-site, the blog becomes a facebook page and the campaign turns into a new logo.

In this case, Fondation Rivières had a huge heap of information to share. It was data about the state of our rivers. During our conversations with them, we came to the realization that a lot of organisms and associations gather info about the environment without knowing what to do with it once the flyer has been printed or the movie released.



That's how we came up with the idea of making a Green Wiki (in French). A place where anybody and everybody interested in the environment will be able to edit, write and help build the collective knowledge.

It's still growing. Please participate if you can.

Thanks to the Fondation team and kudos to Nathalie Goulevant, Véronique Champagne, Marie-Eve Boucher, François Morin, François Côté, Éric Clément & Benoît Favreault for their contribution.

[Translated from a post by Martin Ouellette]

Sometimes I decide to create a logo myself.

It's a good summarizing exercise.

This was an interesting case: Fondation Rivières.

The 'big idea' came and caught on fairly quicly. A blue line that spills out of the page.



You can see it on the blog/site (in French) we've created for them. It's an armband. It's a blue line on a stationary. A bleed logo. Cool.

The blue line is not negociable. Like our rivers.

Thanks to Jeff Clermont and Daniel Fortin who encouraged me to make this what it is.

[Translated from a post by Martin Ouellette]

Today a client of ours, Fondation Rivières, launched an awareness campaign about energy production. The essentials are on their site (in French).

We did the branding (name and logo), a poster/email campaign and we helped out with the screenwriting for the videos.



Thanks to the Fondation, Roy, Anne-Marie, Geneviève, Nicolas and Marie-Martine for their trust. Kudos to Marie-Eve, Jeff Clermont (freelancer), François, Benoît, Nathalie and Véronique for their work.

Yesterday I went to the first edition of the 'Rendez-vous des médias citoyens' (a meeting of citizen media) at the SAT. Great turnout for a first edition: 580 people RSVPed. I felt like telling you what shook my left brain cells.



Appetizers first. Véronique Marino had decided to set the table, and here is what I got out of her comparison between the social and cultural revolution launched by Web 2.0 and Copernicus' discovery: its a new way of seeing and thinking the world. A profound modification of social interaction that turns the Internet user into an active citizen. Both emitting and receiving information, the users now get to question those who were, up to now, the only owners and producers of info.

I couldn't help but think about Martin's conference (in French) about the end of the ad agencies, and the similarities between that and what's happening with newspapers and journalists these days.

Three examples of news sites were given, three relevant and inspiring experiences were shared. Citizen media has launched a new way of thinking, a social way of looking at news in brief and at the value of a diversity of sources. The magic word of the day was 'collaboration'. This term brings to an end the vertical movement that was dominant until web 2.0. A horizontal movement took its place, letting all of us put in our two cents. Web 2.0 has put written press in danger, but also let it review its image and innovate to find new ways of producing information. Also, it forced to innovate the way of making profits since, until now at least, free has been the way to go.

Citizen media brings change and initiatives, locally and globally, and this evolution seems to be permanent.

[Translated from a post by Nathalie Goulevant]

As promised, here are my recommendations for Zoofest.

First, let me remind you that the festival is on from July 10th to 26th




MC Gilles - music, album covers and artists that are... well unusual to say the least.
Ross Noble - Brit stand-up
Nikky Payne My Big Fat Donated Kidney - Theatre
Cognac & Sausages - Theatre and circus
The Facebook Show - Improvised interactive theatre
Silent Disco - Silent rave with special headphones.

And a brand new one that just got added to the program: Andy Dick. I hope they've got insurance because he's as crazy as a shithouse mouse. That being said, his unsettling Kaufman style comedy really is something.

Now please don't you dare take my word for it! There'll be something for everyone.

About the CyberLions awarded at the last Cannes festival.

The three Grand Prizes are, in my opinion, very relevant: they cover the three pillars of the interactive agencies' services.

1: the rumor

The first Grand Prize went to The best job in the World by Australia's Cumminsnitro. You've most probably heard of it, the idea was to offer a dream job. The lucky winner became the warden of an island in the Queensland archipelago. Minimum responsibilities, great pay. Yes there was a site to post application videos but this project had great buzz offline. The client was the local tourism agency.



First pillar: being able to generate a rumor. A simple, highly sharable idea (the virus), insemination to launch the campaign (from traditional ads to social media) and management of the conversation (follow-ups, stats, reajustments).

2: product amelioration

The second Grand Prize went to AKQA London for Fiat's Eco:drive. Essentially it's the release of apps to enhance your Fiat driving experience. An USB key lets you put your car's driving data in the website. Tutorials are then launched to explain how to reduce your gas consumption, shows the money you've saved, etc. The experience is completed by a Fiat driver community.



Second pillar: product amelioration. Market analysis (measure, online surveys, technological watch, social and marketing) and product modification (optimized website, complementary applications, technological enhancement of an existing product).

3: transmedia

The third Grand Prize was awarded to 42 Entertainment for the Why so serious? ARG they created to promote the new Batman movie. A viral campaign that spilled into reality, cell phone activities, flash mobs and surprise cakes, No less tahn 31 sites supported the experience.



Third pillar: transmedia narration. Channel architecture (paid messages, mobility, social media, events), conception of the tales in tree structures (user variable, experience variable, technological variable), management of the public's implication (follow-ups, measure, ajustments).

Everybody, by now, knows about user generated content

In this case 9 Astronauts have created a little gem.

The lyrics of Billie Jean by Michael Jackson are linked in real time to Twitter messages containing the same words. A crowd effect is created without any effort from the participants.



With Facebook announcing this week that all member messages were to become public by default, who knows what the future of content recycling will hold.

[Translated from a post by Martin Ouellette]

It will come to no surprise that Provokat thinks culture should be shared.

No doubt, then, that you will understand our excitement at the news that Culture pour tous have chosen us to become their official ad agency. We will start by making a site for the 'Journées de la culture'.



Who knows to what heights defending culture will bring us?

[Source of the image of Gundam.]

[Translated from a post by Martin Ouellette]

An ARG (augmented reality game) has just been analyzed by the fine people at Video Games Republic, a site that specializes in video games on all platforms.

The player looks at a map through a phone equipped with a camera. He sees a city in 3D and zombies that are just asking to get killed. Watch this video to get a clearer mental picture.



If you put Skittles™ on the board, they turn into massive zombie damage inducing bombs. Usually I'm not too keen on product placement, but I have to admit this one is pretty cool. The user places the product, it is not sprung on him. Smart & sexy.

[Translated from a post by Martin Ouellette]

I few weeks ago, I blogged about the characteristics a new product name must have. I insisted on the fact that a brand also becomes a tag for search engines like Google. Consequently, I think new names are better than appropriations.

In the comments made about that post, some people worried about the creation of abstract, even absurd names.

Let me share a secret: all our clients are part of our R&D, whether they know so or want to, or not.



Here are the first results of this new approach. We created 'Zoofest'. It isn't abstract, but it is a word made of two existing ones. It already 'made sense'.

'Zoofest' existed on the Web already, it's the name of an event for children in a San Francisco zoo. We decided to use the name anyway, both because the lawyers gave it the thumbs up and because of our regional intuition.

So with its pre-made sense and its relative originality, look at these results on Google.ca - the name was launched on June 9th.

On Google.com (you have to force it if you're in Canada), our Zoofest doesn't do too bad.

Being on the first result page and having a simple URL (zoofest.ca) has its advantages.

Maybe a unique word would have been better.

[Translated from a post by Martin Ouellette]

Montreal is known as the city with a hundred churches. Well today, it's more like the city with a hundred festivals. The most recent one is Zoofest, and we're real proud to be the moms and dads of its first ad campaign.



All this started with the search for the ideal name. As Shakespeare says, "What's in a name?". Well, a lot. It had to be unique googlewise. It had to be bilingual. It had to say variety and discovery. And everyone involved had to like it. Not easy. Not easy at all. In the end, Zoofest won.

The site itself contains everything you need to know about the festival: shows, venues, tickets, etc. To find out more about the performers however, you have to get out! We thought that using a collection of external links would accentuate the uniqueness and the variety in the Zoofest program (circus, music, theatre, and more).

Aiming to say: "a little of everything to please everyone and the tickets aren't too expensive" (no, it wasn't written that way in the brief) the posters and the website were created with a collage of knick-knacks from the dollar store. Real doohickeys, assembled for real and photographed. The printed programs have a poster on one side and the show descriptions on the other, and they'll fit in you pocket thanks to very artistic folds.

So come see the site, (easter eggs will be online soon, the thingamajigs inspired us).

Kudos to Martin Ouellette who played AD on this, Véronique Champagne, François Côté, Benoît Favreault, Éric Clément. Nathalie Goulevant and François Morin. And Victor Bertrand-Ouellette who did the collage with his dad.

PS : I promise you a post with my suggestions a week before the festival!