Seiden & Friends

Looking for some content? Wondering where we went? Have no fear!...

Thu, 07 Jun 2012 16:10:22 -0400

Looking for some content? Wondering where we went? Have no fear! Our new home is now over at Seiden Says.

Would you be more convinced to buy a piece of clothing just...

Mon, 07 May 2012 13:09:35 -0400

Would you be more convinced to buy a piece of clothing just because more people Like it on Facebook? C&A in Brazil is hoping you will with their latest social media strategy.

via theoatmeal.com

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 16:38:07 -0400

via theoatmeal.com

It was definitely a little weird to see a t.v. spot for America....

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 18:21:00 -0400

It was definitely a little weird to see a t.v. spot for America. Most of us are used to seeing other countries advertise themselves for tourism and perception reasons. The plan is to run the campaign within the U.S., the U.K. and Japan first with Brazil and South Korea to follow. An interesting media buy, for sure. How do you feel about this new campaign?

Photo

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 10:38:22 -0400

This past Wednesday marked the first meeting of the “Thinkers and Doers” initiative at Seiden...

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 16:48:00 -0400

This past Wednesday marked the first meeting of the “Thinkers and Doers” initiative at Seiden Advertising. With a goal to bring the NYC art & culture scene to and provide outside inspiration to members of the Seiden Team, Patrick Lupinski (Managing Director, Seiden & Friends) and Pharyl Weiner (Engagement Strategist, Seiden & Friends) drew a few of us into the conference room with the promise of free beer and deep conversation. This week’s guest: American playwright and novelist Chris Shinn.

With his back to a digital projection of a roaring fire, (what we consider to be the ambiance for the evening) Shinn humbly shed light into the life of a NYC playwright. He illustrated his creative process as one of deep meditation followed by a strict dedication of transcribing the thoughts onto paper, as if the script already existed on an abstract plane and he was simply the medium through which it got onto the paper. Though he paints a picture that plays or novels are simply waiting for us to pluck them out of thin air, if we only concentrate our imaginations, it was evident that there is also a great deal of skill and hard work behind a manuscript. Genius (or even great raw talent) alone will not suffice for success. To succeed as an artist, of course one needs the “it” factor, but that is only one piece of the puzzle. The life of a writer, just as the life of a banker, doctor, lawyer, and even—dare I say it—a Madison Avenue executive, is one of practice and patience.

In addition to his personal success as a writer, Shin also spends his time teaching and advising graduate students at The New School in Manhattan. We were curious, “How do you teach someone how to tell a story?” With the caveat that the art of writing is neither quantifiable nor are his methods provable, he outlined what (in his opinion) must be present for a compelling story: Internal conflict, a Clearly Defined Antagonist & Authenticity. These three elements (perhaps the “Tell Me Something I Don’t Knows” of the theatre world) seem evident. Placed side by side, it seems obvious that they would need to be there.

Internal Conflict: As human beings, and particularly as spectators, we are fascinated by the character who must choose between two conflicting desires—perhaps even two different lives. We are drawn to their struggle because conflict is present in all our lives, everyday. And while we crave the ultimate resolution, the journey to that end point compels us to remain engaged through the duration of the struggle.

A Villain: What’s life without a hero to root for or…more importantly, someone to Hate? The Villain offers us an “other”—someone who we can bond together against. We get a certain pleasure out of watching the hero struggle against this villain.

Authenticity: This might be the hardest element of the three to capture—one cannot affect authenticity. A writer must speak with a true, clear voice to express a human emotion, or range of emotions, that emanate from the manuscript with little effort. The real, essentially, will look effortless. We will feel the emotions of the characters because they speak to the primal, human instincts in each of us.

And so Chris Shinn concluded his crash course on the art of storytelling (15 weeks of teaching were reduced down to roughly 24 minutes of talking). The rest of the evening continued with a discussion about storytelling within the sphere of social media—particularly a brand’s ability to tell a story and involve the consumer. Like Shinn, we work to reach an audience through the means of storytelling, creating a narrative through copy, image & design.

- Yael

"The iPhone is the world’s #1 camera"

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 11:54:50 -0400

“The iPhone is the world’s #1 camera”

- geekaphone

mashable: The space shuttle Discovery flew for the last time...

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 11:51:30 -0400

mashable:

The space shuttle Discovery flew for the last time today from Florida to Washington, D.C., where it will be retired and displayed at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum.

We’ve collected some of the best pictures of the flyover from the social web, including the one above from Richard B. Almon.

theatlantic: theatlanticvideo: How Blind People Use the...

Mon, 16 Apr 2012 13:29:37 -0400

theatlantic:

theatlanticvideo:

How Blind People Use the iPhone 4S

Tommy Edison, aka the Blind Film Critic, has amassed over a million views on YouTube with his movie reviews. Blind since birth, he started a second YouTube channel, the Tommy Edison Experience, to talk about his life and answer questions from fans. Here, he demonstrates how he navigates his iPhone 4S to surf YouTube, check Twitter, and send messages.

Fascinating.

Make it count!

Mon, 16 Apr 2012 12:52:21 -0400

Make it count!

"Monologues do not invite surprises from others. Dialogues do."

Thu, 12 Apr 2012 16:52:50 -0400

“Monologues do not invite surprises from others. Dialogues do.”

- 55 Theses on the future

shortformblog: Great moments in meme history: Adam Smith and...

Thu, 12 Apr 2012 12:09:17 -0400

shortformblog:

Great moments in meme history: Adam Smith and Stacy Lambe, creators of “Texts from Hillary Clinton,” live on CNN talking about their creation with Soledad O’Brien. This ranks as among the greatest individual moments in Tumblr history.

Everyone has a story to tell. The challenge is to get people to...

Thu, 12 Apr 2012 11:51:00 -0400

Everyone has a story to tell. The challenge is to get people to stop and listen to it.

via PSFK: Gaming sites better matchmakers than online dating...

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 11:03:00 -0400

via PSFK: Gaming sites better matchmakers than online dating sites.

Photo

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 16:21:47 -0400

Is your content shareable?

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 17:40:00 -0400

There’s A LOT of content out there. And now brands and people are creating more each second. Check your content against these top 10 traits to find out if it’s shareable.

mashable: Interesting to see the difference between news...

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 17:38:59 -0400

mashable:

Interesting to see the difference between news organization’s Facebook pages and Twitter pages!

futurejournalismproject:

News Orgs: their Fans and Followers, March 2012

The Onion, holding its own.

What time is it? theatlantic: shoutsandmumbles: Well this is...

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 11:44:26 -0400

What time is it?

theatlantic:

shoutsandmumbles:

Well this is amazing.

vh1:

Many more, very legit GIFs in BestWeekEver’s Ultimate MC Hammer 50th Birthday GIF Wall.

Thanks, I forgot what time it was.

How did we use pop culture to get our agency excited about...

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 19:27:00 -0400

How did we use pop culture to get our agency excited about social media? The #SeidenHungerGames.

Instead of hosting a lecture, which the agency has grown to hate, we developed a social media competition that played off the agency’s beloved tween novel, The Hunger Games. A spoof, if you will, that required agency “tributes” to complete given tasks on Twitter during the week of March 19^th. Those who failed to complete the tasks were eliminated in what we can only call a social media fight to the death.

Though alliances were made and antagonistic tweets were tweeted, the Seiden Hunger Games got everyone on and comfortable with Twitter. Success.

"Facebook Timeline provides 46% lift in brand page engagement"

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 18:52:49 -0400

“Facebook Timeline provides 46% lift in brand page engagement”

- Mashable