Fred Wilsons keynote from the Ad Age digital conference today.
Bogusky B-Cycle’s to B-Bros.
Monday, February 23rd, 2009Alex Bogusky is an ad man of some renown. That’s all well and good if you’ve got a product to sell. But he’s up to something more than interrupting and selling gypsy wares. He’s also interrupting and attempting to shift a behavior that has an enormously negative impact on the planet – driving. He isn’t doing it with a Truth style campaign though. He, along with Humana and Trek bicycles, are doing it with B-Cycle. It’s an uber dialed bike sharing plan. He is coming to Austin on 13 March to share the vision with SXSW interactive conference attendees.
We are gathering a group of Austinites that can help him see this vision to fruition. As a bike friendly office with two full time bike commuters rolling in and out each day we’d love to see it go. If you want Austin on the B-Cycle map get off your Facebook and get over here. If you have any great ideas for how to drive grassroots awareness of this mission drop us a comment, tweet it, or just launch it into the universe in your own special way.
Independent Companies’ Company Party
Friday, January 9th, 2009
Instead of indulging in our own company holiday bash, The Butler Bros. along with Beef and Pie Productions, Mac & Cheez, Brainfield Productions, Stuck On On, Shiny Object, Tequila Mockingbird, Stiles Design, JDunten.com, Team Bonzai, were inspired to organize a benefit concert with 100% of proceeds directly benefitting the Austin Children’s Shelter. Read More…
Things I will Miss about Butler Bros:
Tuesday, May 27th, 2008Marty’s sunglasses on a string. Even on rainy days.
Using the “Got caught by the train” excuse for tardiness.
Trying to get a coffee at Hot Mama’s without hearing a ten-minute “high-atribe” from one hot mama or another.
The smell of the hand soap.
Free Sweet Leaf Tea.
AB in spandex.
D always tricking B. Every time.
Makeshift ping-pong and how it changed us all.
Getting to see my cheesy words: “Liber-tea and Homemade Taste For All” plastered all over the Sweet Leaf Office. Wrote home about it.
Hidden marshmallows.
Thinking up interactive treasure hunts for every campaign since I read an article in WIRED, passed to me by a giddy Marty, about NIN’s take on the Alternative Reality Game. An i-port ARG? Anyone?
T-shirts. (ie: more time between laundry dates)
Mr. Natural’s right down the street.
So is The Peacock.
“It’s four-o-clock, Friday. Beer. Sunshine. Done.”
Black. Eyed. Pea. And a trip with the one and only: Roly.
Working for family-oriented folks on campaigns they believe in, on projects fueled by risk-taking creativity.
Being able to say I started my advertising career with an orange plant …
Jack Butler. Father to all Butlers here and the world’s most consistent blog commenter.
So much Awesome.
Thus. My time as a blogger/writer/tagliner for the Butlers is done. Tides. Ebbs. Flows. Thank you for everything, Butlers. You guys rock.
Nine Inch Nails Interactive Marketing
Monday, January 7th, 2008Send people on wild goose chases, drop mp3′s in bathrooms with unreleased tracks ending with secret messages encoded into cricket sounds (only to be deciphered through a spectrograph!), and the game is on. Beautiful. The game of immersion marketing. Alternative Reality Games, or ARGs for short.
This article, sent around the office with a wily smile of an excited Marty Butler, gave goosebumps, and a glance at where we (as advertisers) can take the level of interactivity; planting clues, and creating a treasure map of secret mazes, websites, and codes for the consumer to follow, excitedly! They become an integrated player, hungry for clues,
Trent Reznor? Nice work. It’s brilliant. And. It’s the future.
A First Night To Remember
Thursday, January 3rd, 2008Two years ago, The Butler Bros. created a cumbersome homage to good luck for the new year: a massive foam black eyed pea. Displayed from the back of a truck for the past First Night parades, Adam and Marty knew this year it needed more exposure and easier, instant accessibility to the masses.
And, of course, some spandex. So, ouila! To the back of Adam’s bike, we strapped it.
With help, of course. One special trailer from Bikes at Work, in Ames, Iowa, put together by the fellas at Jack and Adam’s (who also added two new brakes to the towing two-wheeler to ensure no whippersnappers were harmed in the transport of the pea). Special thanks to these creative souls, and those at Blue Genie for making this parade the best yet.
Our pea was a hit. Kids loved rubbing it for good luck, and parents welcomed the new year in with a pat and a chuckle. We even made the news. Auld. Lang. Syne.
Jeff Nichols makes us Proud
Tuesday, November 27th, 2007
Congrats, pats on backs and clink-clinks of glass – all in order for the ever-talented writer/director/producer Jeff Nichols. His film, to be released this spring, “Shotgun Stories” has just been nominated for the John Cassavetes Award at the Indie Spirit Awards. (A hear-hear for fellow producers David Gordon Green and Lisa Muskat, as well.)
Quite an honor, and some deserved exposure to the local talent. Good luck to all involved.
Check the teaser.
The chilling drama of southern half-brothers fighting. With accents. And guns. Shotguns. Like the Hatfield-McCoy scuttle but these boys have all got the same daddy. Feauturing Michael Shannon and a soundtrack by Ben Nichols of Lucero.
Texas Wants to Cure Cancer
Friday, November 9th, 2007
Despite a surprising last-minute Travis County push in opposition of Proposition 15, a steady stream of supportive early voters, high-profile backing, and maybe (we like to think) some exposure from well-designed yard signs, bus tours, shirts, hats, and cocktail napkins, helped give the proposition the edge, marking Tuesday as a celebration for what is to come in Texas’ fight against cancer.
With this victory, the Lone Star State will create The Cancer Research and Prevention Institute of Texas which will distribute $300 million in grants every year, for ten years. (That’s a lot of money). The funds will go to public and private research facilities or educational institutions. This bold proposition puts Texas at the forefront of the battle against the disease and the search for the cure.
And we are so proud to have been a part of the campaign.
Big (Beautiful) Bus Rolls Over Cancer
Monday, October 15th, 2007
Perhaps you saw this slick bus rolling through your Texas town this week, a whisk of blue and white, cleanly designed with a clear message: Vote for Prop 15. Help cure cancer. That bus was just about all our creative team was thinking about the week prior, back and forths, growing this design’s concept. What resulted was this eye-catching, interesting layout, which grabbed the viewer’s attention, but was still able to maintain a traditional strength and seriousness, allowing the vital message to be heard.
This past weekend, 4,500 Austinites (including our own Adam Butler) participated in the LIVESTRONG challenge, raising over $3.7-million dollars for cancer research and prevention. The event acted as the jumping-off point for the statewide TCC (Texans to Cure Cancer) bus tour in support of Proposition 15, the proposed constitutional amendment which would issue over $3-billion in state revenue bonds to go toward cancer prevention and research. Though national funding for cancer research is not top-priority, this high-profile bus tour and November 6th vote can help change that, at least in Texas, marking the Lone Star State as the leader in the fight against the disease.
And we, at Butler Bros, love being a part of this important movement. You, too, can do your part. Don’t forget to come out on November 6th. Every vote counts. Every life matters.
