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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.

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?

A bi-weekly recap of the topics that have us talking at Denuo, related to our industry, our group, and our everyday.

Despite how poorly our teams may have performed, we at Denuo have always thought that fantasy sports stand out as one of the best examples of utilizing game mechanics to drive consumer behavior…also known as gamification.

When you boil it down to the most basic level, fantasy sports leverage mundane statistics from the real world games to create consistent engagement with all potential sport fans. The mechanics operate in such a way that participants remain invested in the coverage of the games throughout the entire season no matter their team allegiance. The numbers suggest it is working given over 32 million players in the US and Canada (of interesting note 20% are women).

As with all good case studies, there are lessons that can be observed and hopefully applied by those of us looking to execute an experience with gamification. The following themes bubbled up once I stopped licking my wounds of once again underperforming in my own fantasy leagues.