It beats “The Twitter Band.”

Band self-promotion is a cold, desperate place. Without major label support, most acts are left to their own devices, and that usually means a shitty MySpace page. But what do you do when you don’t even have a name for the group yet? Fear not, because the innermets offer myriad possibilities. Ben Adley, Ryan Lewis and Kevin Russell from one new band in Seattle came up with a different approach with You Name Our Band. Actually it was the bass player Kevin who came up with. (It’s always the bass player that makes the most sense.)

Why not let a brand sponsor them for money, and in return, the band would be named after the brand?

Tell ’em Sally sent you.

Probably the nastiest job-a-thon site you will see this week ever. BUT THAT’S THE POINT. Philly’s own 160 over 90 unleashes on thee some of the earliest web design hell known to mankind, all in service of their current job opportunities. Starting February 10 at 6:00 am, ECD Jim Walls will conduct interviews non-stop for at least 24 hours via Skype, “until he collapses.” Yes, way too much of the web looked like this way back when – minus the Sally Struthers, though.

(Via.)

“We create birthday movements.“

“Below the line executions like the family dog.” Awesome self-promo effort from john st. using standard agency case study language as applied to the more special moments in life. The lesson: Kids go insane for pink ponies at birthday parties. A value add!

(Via.)

Flashdriving it forward.

A little simple promotion from Honest&Smile to regift it forward. Find a drive, take what you want off it, add something back, then pass it on. After of course you tell them about it on The Facebook™.

Santa’s brand promise: excellence, measurability, accountability and snow.

Nice little self-promo for UK’s Quietroom on the business side of Christmas.

(Via Ad Broad.)

Forget people, give to dogs.

Saw this over on Live and Uncensored! and couldn’t resist a chance to help the puppies. Luckie & Co. have some Kaish lying around – $6K – and want to give it to someone with Choose Your Charity. (That’s the good thing about holiday promos like this: You can’t hate any idea where giving is involved.) So cast your vote by December 31, and one of the three will get the cash they deserve. Faith in mankind reality check: 60% of you care more about dogs than kids.

Email still works.

At first I was like damn, messing with people like that, but okay, it worked. Photographer Arthur Mebius and agency New Message employed OLD SCHOOL email as part of a self-promotion to get him more clients. How? By indirectly playing up on the anticipation photographers have while awaiting word of inclusion in a REALLY important nominations book by the Art Director’s Club of Netherlands. He sent out an email to the same list as the ADCN membership would have around the same time they were to notify people of their decision, and thus jumped to the front of the mind line. Nice trick.

A going out of business rebranding party is the new...

Since it’s be nice to everyone week – just made that up – all I’ll say about Toronto shop Blammo Worldwide and their GJP makeover charity auction rebranding reveal is, nice self-promotional trick. Cheers!

A good Mutiny is hard to find.

I love promo films for small extreme sports brands. Usually, it’s the nature of the category to have a ton of tricks in public places thrown up on YouTube with deathcore soundtrack (or similar). This short by Mutiny Bikes called One Spring Day is one of a few they’ve put out, but is a cut above the typical stuff you see on YouTube. It’s got a lot of the usual bike tricks, sure, but the tilt-shift photography lends a nice toy feel to the story along with simple pans, high camera angles and nice editing throughout. (Canon should just buy Vimeo at this point because it’s true, most of their cameras are the unofficial weapons of choice there.) I also like that their films are warts and all compared to mainstream stuff that fits neatly inside a :30. Which means crashes and face plants are left in. (They’re also on Twitter et al. At this point, what brand isn’t, right?)

Funny self-promo.

I came across NWYH Stock Images. Just another stock site I thought. They appeared to be a cross between The Office (UK version) and typical Comstock business search results. The scenarios represent everything wrong in business and can be downloaded for free. But they’re also fake. They were created some time back by NOWWASHYOURHANDS, a British design firm. Lots of agencies do self-promo, from Flash games to microsites, but this is a twist on something we creatives use almost every day. Whacky Brits.

Tags: nowwashyourhands