Flickr turns 8

One of my earliest images ever uploaded to flickr.

I’ll never forget the day. In February 2004, my friend Morland told me about this photo sharing site called flickr. I signed up and uploaded a block of photos on February 10th. That was 8 years ago. For some reason I deleted those images and reuploaded them the next day (maybe because of resolution?). Read more about flickr’s birthday on their blog.

Anyhow, my earliest recorded image is #2375. To put that into perspective, there are currently 6.8 billion photos on flickr. The flickr of old is vastly different than what it currently is. When it was smaller, there was a sense of community that emerged.

They had an innovative flash-based chat and photo sharing area called FlickrLive that allowed you to connect with other users (based off a game they were trying to develop called Game NeverEnding – GNE). I have to say that I still have some really good friends out of those early days of flickr. I also learned a ton about how to successfully launch a product  from watching how the flickr team operated.

The instant I logged into FlickrLive I was greeted by a team of Ludicorp employees, including the CEO, Stewart Butterfield. He reached out to me directly and told me he was a big fan of Medeski Martin & Wood too (which meant he had read my profile before chatting me up). George Oates also was available to chat almost all the time, and we could discuss new feature requests, awesome photos, or even barbecuing. In fact, George & I even started a flickr group together called Bar-B-Q. We made aliases, I built a profile that was Abe Froman: The Sausage King of Chicago and she was The George Foreman Grill.

I learned from these early experiences how to develop a sense of community, which is the unifying force behind all social startups these days. They were lessons that I think about all the time even today. And now that flickr is sadly just a repository of photos that I can share online, I’ll never forget the profound impact it had on me and my career. I’ll post an interview I conducted with George Oates a few years ago next week about how they started building community.

Recent pro-bono work: Mi Camera, Mi Mundo

As you probably know, I started my own design/marketing/photography/video/social media business called Fermentable Sugar in 2010. One of the things I’m doing in my company is to have a pro-bono client going on at all times. I feel that as a designer/marketer/non-douchebag, I have a responsibility to the community and want to help non-profits that normally couldn’t afford my servicies to raise money for their causes.

My most recent pro-bono client is Empowerment International, a Colorado-based company that helps Nicaraguan children stay in school and out of places like Old Navy sweatshops. My good friends Kevin & Kelly worked with these kids in Nicaragua for the better part of a year, and I was lucky enough to get to visit them. Nicaragua is a beautiful country, but is also impoverished.

I wanted to help Empowerment International in the ways that I was best suited. I built the marketing materials for Empowerment International’s charitable fundraiser on October 8th (posters, postcards, and website). It’s called Mi Camera, Mi Mundo – it’s a photography show & auction. The 40 photos picked were all shot by Nicaraguan children who Empowerment International are working to educate.

Tickets are $35, and all proceeds from the event go directly to Empowerment International. I’d love it if you took a look at the site, and I’d love it even more if you bought a ticket to support a Colorado non-profit dedicated to helping the global community.

Help me win FREE GAS for Denver in the Ford F-150 EcoBoost Challenge!

Just a quick update to let you know that I’m a contestant in the Ford F-150 EcoBoost Challenge. The Social Media team at Ford is hooking me up with a free F-150 to drive next week as part of the promotion.

The contest has 3 sections, and luckily for me one of them isn’t a swimsuit portion (and probably luckier for you). The payoff is that if you help me win, DENVER WINS FREE SHELL GAS ON SEPTEMBER 3, in a series of flashmob giveaways.

If you want to check out the website I built that’s devoted to this contest, head over to FreeF150.com to learn more. Here are the quick details and info on how to help Denver win.

• Part 1 of the EcoBoost Challenge: The 2011 F-150 with EcoBoost that Ford is giving me averages 22MPG on the highway. I’m competing against 7 other contestants in 7 other markets to average the highest MPG from Monday August 22 through Friday August 26th. I aim to do mostly highway driving.

• Part 2 of the EcoBoost Challenge: Ford is letting people vote once a day on Facebook for their favorite contestant in the contest. Obviously this is me. So head over to the EcoBoost Challenge Facebook Page and vote for me. EVERY SINGLE DAY.

• Part 3 of the EcoBoost Challenge: Planning and executing a successful social event that benefits a local charity. I’m planning a can drive on Saturday, August 27th outside the Rackhouse Pub in Denver, benefitting Denver’s Metro CareRing. Anyone who brings 5+ cans to donate will receive a voucher for a complimentary draft beverage of their choice at the Rackhouse. Ford is hooking me up with a $500 gift card which I’ll be using to purchase $500 in canned goods for Metro CareRing. Help me fill the bed of this F-150 with canned food for people less fortunate than us!

I’ll be posting more often on the FreeF150.com site, and promoting my efforts on Twitter. I would love to have you be a part of this awesome contest!

Gap’s new logo? Total Crap.

The Gap has a new logo. I think it looks like crap. Would have probably hated to be the creatives in this one. They probably came up with a lot of creative ideas, only to have the client say something like, “we’ve wasted too much time on this already. Let’s just use helvetica and use some idiotic blue gradient box that’s completely unrelated to everything behind the P. Because that definitely says something, that we care about our bottom line and make all our clothes in sweatshops in places like Nicaragua. There’s no possible way that this logo can be offensive to anyone – that is to say, except designers.”

click image for full resolution version

What do you think about it?

The custom YouTube video @oldspice wrote just for me!

So Old Spice paid to be the “sponsored trending topic” on Twitter yesterday, which coincided with their launch of a great new social media campaign. If you haven’t seen it, this campaign involves Old Spice monitoring the @oldspice account replies, writing some witty reply copy, and having their beloved spokesmodel Isiah Mustafa act it out for us. Here’s a good overview on Mashable. He got people with massive numbers of followers to tweet about it to their minions, and obviously this went viral really fast.

My friend George G. Smith Jr. sent a tweet to @oldspice on Tuesday. And I replied. And then George’s girlfriend Alana replied. And we tweeted back and forth about it:

George: Hey @oldspice, got any advice on how to impress my girlfriend who wishes that she could have a guy who smells like you?

Me: @GeorgeGSmithJr is “find a new boyfriend” an option?

Alana: @joshmishell that’s pretty harsh! Luckily for this one, she’s on twitter cc: @georgegsmithjr

Me: @amedmunds hehe – well, i figured you’d see it, and i just wanted to give mr. g smith jr a little crap. don’t really dump him.

Alana: @joshmishell thankfully I don’t take everything on twitter seriously cc: @georgegsmithjr

Me: @amedmunds i try not to take @georgegsmithjr too seriously, either.

Alana: George where’s the witty backlash? RT @joshmishell: @amedmunds i try not to take @georgegsmithjr too seriously, either.

George: @joshmishell I bet you would take me seriously if @oldspice made a video for me! #helpmeoldspiceguyyourmyonlyhope

Me: @GeorgeGSmithJr we’ll just have to wait and see. p.s.:this is not the @oldspice you are looking for.

Last night the Old Spice dude replied to us via YouTube video. As of writing this, they’ve posted 203 videos so far. Very cool to be one of the lucky ones! This video has more than 117,000 195,000 370,000 750,000 (!) views already. (if video error happens below, click here to watch it at YouTube).

It’s a pretty awesome thing for them to do. Even though I did point out that, as a Jew, we’re contractually obligated to God to say that we don’t care about bacon (even though it’s mighty tasty).

Canned replies are not a good idea in Social Media, and these short and sweet one-on-one “conversations” are the perfect recipe for getting people to conversate about their brand.

But the question begs to be asked: The next time these people go to Safeway to buy anti-smell stuff, are they going to choose Old Spice? Obviously that’s what they’re banking on, and I bet it will work.

Here’s what George had to say about it:

Any time you can combine Bacon, my ego, and hilarious jokes into one video – you obviously are doing something right…..

All in all this is a brilliant campaign, especially because it really has nothing to do with one of the most boring (but oft-used) things in the world – soap. But it’s got the entire social media community talking about them. The only thing I question is that they paid Twitter to be the sponsored trending topic because it definitely would have trended that way anyway. But it guaranteed that they’d be on that list.

I also love that these custom spots are directly connected to their other television spots. It’s important to have an integrated campaign that works across all their communication channels.

Will I buy Old Spice next time? Maybe, I’m not sure. But I can definitely tell you that I won’t pass right by them next time I need some body wash or deodorant. I can’t wait to see more stuff like this from big brands.