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New York Fashion Week wrapped up this weekend, and through all the sponsored events, product placements, and in-your-face advertising, one brand really stood out: Cole Haan.  They stole the show (marketing-wise) with their #SubwayStyle campaign.  It all started last spring when Cole Haan introduced their new collection known as “CQLE HAAN” using NYC subway lines (C, Q, A, etc.) to designate each line of clothing in the spring collection.  Almost a year later, Cole Haan revived this NYC-centric strategy to really capitalize on the marketing opportunities of New York Fashion Week.

This is the first of two installments about how agency work is evolving to become part of the IP conversation. Part 1 will be a basic overview of the relevant legal terrain, while Part 2 will address why we should care.

After the recent squabble between social product development company Quirky and OXO, I’ve been pretty fascinated by intellectual property issues and, well, patents. I find this dispute much more interesting than the ongoing Apple vs. Samsung battle because it has played out in the real world, rather than behind closed courtroom doors, and the conversation has been (largely) in laymen’s terms not legalese. Also some of the language used reminds of Mean Girls! But hopefully I am not alone in my dorky fascination, nor in my realization that – crap! – there’s a lot about the current state of intellectual property that I don’t exactly understand…especially as more and more of these disputes center around the very technology that we as agencies are not only using but starting to create.

Ah, Instagram. The perfect app? It checks all the boxes of success: explosive growth out of the gate with near universal praise plus a quick acquisition for a ridiculous sticker price. And, it’s still growing.

What makes Instagram, Instagram? Why was this the app that turned us all into photographers and not Hipstamatic or another of the countless filter apps that came onto the scene at the same time? Why did Instagram’s now cliche aesthetic (heavy filters + square photos) catch on?

The hype around native ads only gets louder. BuzzFeed secured another round of funding on the back of their native focus while everyone from to to Tumblr to Forbes is moving it to the center of their monetization strategy. There are those proclaiming it’s the future of digital advertising and others dismissing it as the latest fad that will disappear as quickly as it got here. So who’s right?

Three things about 2012:

First, this year’s list has way more songs that got heavy airplay than any other list I’ve ever done. By airplay, I don’t just mean radio. I mean YouTube, Pandora, TV shows, commercials, you name it. It felt like the same 10 songs were absolutely everywhere this year. The very good news is that 5 or 6 of those songs were actually good. Can’t remember the last time that was the case (early 90’s?). The bad news is those songs got pummeled into the ground as if nothing else was being released. I tried to be as objective as possible, not penalizing a song for being overplayed while also not rewarding it for merely being stuck in my head from being on repeat.