our MoMA project has been nominated for a WEBBY!

Heyho. I am thrilled and honored to tell you that POKE has been nominated in the Mobile and Experiences category of this year’s Webby Awards. We want to win and we need your vote!

Vote here.

The Webby Awards is the leading international award honoring excellence on the Internet. The online community, determine the winners of The People’s Voice by voting for the nominated work that you believe to be the best in each category. That’s where you come in. Thanks for all your tweets, shares and votes!

if I can dream on the road

Great synopsis of If I Can Dream by the housemates themselves. Just days to go! You can read more about If I Can Dream here.

if I can dream (big)

Yay! The folks at Mashable covered If I Can Dream again today. Pretty sweet since we’re so close to launch. (It’s set to premiere on March 2 on Hulu and IfICanDream.com.) See the latest teaser video below. 

For those that haven’t gotten the low-down yet, If I Can Dream is a live, made-for-web TV experiment — that will use Hulu as the “Television Network”, will be broadast live 24/7 at IfICanDream.com, and follow the lives of five young people – a musician, an actor, two actresses and a model – as they leave their hometowns and live together high up in Hollywood Hills – and go on their journey to stardom as their journey is documented across the Internet via Twitter, MySpace Hulu, etc.

Full disclosure this little labor of love is the baby of my little nerd tank POKE.

some great comments from mashable below

The show — with new episodes released every week — will take a reality-esque look at the lives of five aspiring artists who are trying to make it in Hollywood. A sneak peek of the episode can be seen below.

What’s especially interesting about If I Can Dream is not just the fact that it sprung from Hulu (a website) and Simon Fuller (of traditional TV fame), but that the content and format seem much more broadcast-like than typical web/TV shows.

Essentially the series has all the ingredients of a network television show, but an entirely different and experimental distribution model. It appears as if the basic premise being tested is whether or not the web as a platform can syndicate and distribute highly produced content and churn out a hit show without broadcast as a medium. Although we’ve seen web TV shows make their marks in the entertainment industry — The Guild comes to mind — we’ve yet to see this exact formula tested online. So the real question is: Can this formula pump out a hit show on the same level as a hit TV show?

Good question Jennifer. I confidently say from everyone back at POKE, we sure hope so. In a world where Hulu and Boxee are about to explode…it seems like a great wager to make. Wouldn’t you say? 

Readers, what say you?

POKE is lookin' for a few good Peeps.

Heyho.  POKE is expanding its internship program. If you’re looking for a way in the door in 2010, this is the way to do it.  

Who is POKE?
POKE is this little thing down in TriBeCa that’s been keeping me busy for a few years now. But we’re a bit difficult to define. Maybe you should take a peek?

Difficult one to define…or at least we’re afraid to label ourselves! We’re a creative and technology company first - that’s for sure. If you ask my partners, they’ll tell you:

“POKE is a leading branding, digital strategy, content, marketing, and business development company that blends creativity and technology to deliver impact and results for brands/clients and partners in a wide variety of categories and industries.”

I have no idea what that means.

We’re one of those companies that doesn’t do exactly what we “do”. Some define us as an advertising agency - but we’re scared of the “agency” stigma. We’ve been called everything from “Social Media Strategists” to “Design Firm” to “Product Development Company”. We’re none of those. But we’re all of them just the same.

The truth is we’re more about the type of people that work with us than the type of things we imagine and create. Most of us are refugees from more traditional advertising, design, branding and technology roles. Most of us also have difficulty defining ourselves as individuals. And, most of us believe we’re actually going to change the world one day. 

Does any of this sound familiar? POKE might be the place for you, and PUSH is the way to find out.

What is PUSH?
The program is all about learning through hands on experience and instruction. Finding just the right people to join our table has proven to be a daunting task to say the least. PUSH intensely focuses on rapidly and accurately identifying people who understand our approach and share our mindset. 

We’ve decided to further expand the instruction element of our PUSH program and limit the number of interns that can enroll. Just four people can now attend our program. So if you want in, you better get our attention fast.  Good luck!

my slides from clickNY 2009

Heyho.  As promised, here are my slides from yesterday’s ClickNY 2009 presentation.  It was a great day choc-full-o so many humbling visionary people and ideas, my head is still spinning.

Onward and upward.

/ t 

The Art Of Creating Simple, Smaller And Smarter.

The Art Of Creating Simple, Smaller And Smarter.
Or… Mommy, how I learned to stop making advertisements and start making things that advertise.

This is a little session description I wrote recently for POKE’s 2009 Cannes Workshop. I thought I’d share - mainly because I’m particularly angry today.

This session was designed to explore the value of execution over “big” ideas in a hands-on session. People broke into groups where, under a series of realistic constraints, they were forced to focus on being nimble, among other things…

U like? U hate?

The Art Of Creating Simple, Smaller And Smarter.
Or… Mommy, how I learned to stop making advertisements and start making things that advertise.

Blech! Recession. Advertising agencies and brands are running scared. “Digital” agencies are renouncing sight, sound and motion. They’re being forced to seek out alternative means of engaging consumers because their excessive marketing habits of the past have been rendered obsolete, both by technology and by lack of consumer interest. Face it, no one wants to be advertised to, online or otherwise.

Do you?

But for many, this movement isn’t just some new fad to control costs during troubled times. Hasn’t the best marketing has always come from creating something entertaining, valuable and useful? I believe people gravitate towards, and like talking about, simple and valuable interactions, and are willing to forgive (and even embrace) branded messages that come with them.

Forget thinking big.

It’s time to think small. It’s time to embrace the art of simple, smart and social. It’s time to stop creating advertisements and start creating useful things that advertise. Your communications can be executed more efficiently and with greater impact than the clutter that’s prevalent today. Let’s explore how.

In other words:

@CannesLions: The “Big Idea” is dead. Learn to embrace small: Simple. Smart and Social. Otherwise, don’t bother. When? Tuesday 23 June • 17:00-19:00 • Where? Debussy Theater

♥,POKE

RE-Tweeterz unite!

Yay! Another fun lil’ project from your friends at POKE.

Meet TweetToad. Your little “yes-man” on the interwebz. :) TweetToad.com is a simple service that helps you (re)Tweet just the way the pros do—over and over again!

Know someone who always has the BEST Tweets?! Give them the incessant reassurance they need with all-new TweetToad. Pick ONE friend and TweetToad will give them a Twitter high-five every time they tap a great Tweet.

Or maybe it’s you that needs the love? Get the (re)Tweets you deserve! Set up your own Toady Account and have turn him into your own personal Yes-Man! He’ll tell you how great you are one Tweet at at time. (You ARE great you know.)

Join the (re)Tweet revolution. Before it gets hit by a massive burning truck.

update!

I’m now blogging on the POKE blog too! Thanks Charles

Yay!