In a well-deserved tribute to the agency’s interactive team, Duncan/Channon is being honored in this year’s Communications Arts Interactive Annual for the Hard Rock Booth Interactive.

Judge Rachel Pasqua pretty much hit the nail on the head when she described the interface, created for the new generation of Hard Rock Cafes, as “an innovative combination of social and touchscreen technology with a tactile twist on the old restaurant booth jukebox that lets users thumb through the memorabilia and cast their vote for the next video.”

Also honored in the CA Annual is the Rock Wall™, a sister project designed and developed by Obscura Digital which, like the booth interface, builds on the D/C-created Hard Rock memorabilia website.

Big ups to them, to D/C’s development partners at Vertigo, and especially to Joe Tenczar and the Hard Rock team.

More Hard Rock interactive here.
The complete Hard Rock rebrand story here.

The once and future welterweight champion of the boxing world, Paul Nave, aka The Marin County Assassin, regaled a rapt crowd with tales of rails, jails and cornerman’s pails last week at the first Toast of the Tip of 2010. Paul, who retired from boxing almost a decade ago, hopes later this year to make good on his promise to become, at 49, not just the oldest boxer licensed in California, but the oldest champ ever.

Hard Rock runs a massive video system to coordinate the displays throughout its cafes, hotels, casinos and live venues worldwide. Duncan/Channon collaborated with artist Erik Natzke to create a series of trippy, dynamically-generated animations to display when music other than music videos is playing (live bands, a DJ, etc.). Animations are paired randomly with whatever music happens to be playing at the time and each resolves into a specific visual revelation. Here’s a six-minute sample (you’ll have to supply your own mushrooms).

Music: Yeah Yeah Yeahs, “Mysteries” / Cut Chemist, “(My 1st) Big Break” / Manchester Orchestra, “The Only One”

He has been to the top, as boxing’s World Welterweight Champion. And the bottom, as a convicted felon serving three years in San Quentin. Somewhere in the middle, he has run for governor, started several businesses, seen his daughter become a famous model in Paris, and partnered with a former Survivor producer to develop his own reality series. Above all, at the age of 49 – the oldest boxer ever licensed in California – after a decade away from the ring, Paul Nave says he is headed to the top again, having scored three improbable wins last year as part of a near-impossible bid to reclaim his championship belt. Needless to say, Paul has stories. And, odds are, they’re better than yours and mine. And he’s going to tell them as part of a knockout appearance at Duncan/Channon’s Toast of the Tip.

Friday, 19 February 2010
Drinks and hors d’oeuvres at 5:00
Interview at 6:00
More drinks at 7:00

Seating is limited. Please RSVP by Friday, 12 February to Marie Kerr.

Rarely do agencies get the opportunity to, literally, build a brand from the ground up – but for Sereno, The Center for Snoring Solutions, that’s exactly what Duncan/Channon did.

Over the last eight months, D/C implemented a comprehensive treatment plan for Sereno that included: naming, identity, outdoor, direct mail, television advertising (see the spot above), print, design, interactive, media planning and buying, strategy, and even interior design.

Needless to say, brand building like this is hard work, and it’s safe to assume the agency is in need of a good night’s sleep – almost as much as the patients that Sereno was designed to help.

If you’re in San Francisco and want to see Duncan/Channon’s prescription for a great brand, stop by Sereno in the Crocker Galleria – their doors opened on January 1st.

To show off its new Surface multi-touch, multi-user computer, Microsoft chose Duncan/Channon’s work for Hard Rock as one of its inaugural video case studies. Check out our own Mike Lemme as he waxes poetic about the amazing, hands-on memorabilia installations in Hard Rock’s new Vegas cafe. But the D/C love doesn’t stop there. Microsoft also gives us a shout-out in their video promo for the 2010 MIX Conference where we share the spotlight with other “up-and-comers” like Adobe, The Wall Street Journal and something or someone called Google. Congrats to Mike, his team and our esteemed dev partner, Vertigo, for the well-deserved exposure.

In case you didn’t read about it on NYTimes.com, we couldn’t be more proud to share the news that Esurance has selected D/C as their creative agency of record. The win came after a selection process involving many agencies across the US. The assignment includes comprehensive strategic and creative work, from brand positioning to advertising.

Said Esurance CMO John Swigart (if we may immodestly quote): “We were deeply impressed with Duncan/Channon. Their presentation was on-brief, insightful and inventive. And the chemistry was right, too. We think D/C is the perfect partner to help take Esurance and Answer Financial, our affiliated insurance agency, to the next level in our second decade.”

Said D/C GM Andy Berkenfield: “Whooo-hooo.”

Founded in 1999 and now owned by White Mountains Insurance Group, Esurance has become one of the nation’s top names in direct auto insurance. Currently, Esurance is the third most recognized auto insurance brand among online consumers.

The fever dream of Tipmas has subsided. We need something to eat.

Ladies and gentlemen, EASYSTREET:

Apparently this happened last week. Thank you, Schroeder’s.

Why, yes. Yes, I did. The cashier at the coffee shop asked that with a note of disbelief. But it’s true. This year vacation took me to Tennessee, namely Nashville, Memphis and whatever towns happened to separate the two (I do remember seeing a sign to turn off for Oakland, and wondered momentarily whether it was all just a dream).

First stop was Music City. Nashville. Which more than lived up to its name, with live music everywhere, in bars and on streetcorners, and tons of music history, too. Mandatory stops were the Country Music Hall of Fame, RCA Studio B and the Ryman Auditorium (the original location of the Grand Ole Opry). I can’t say I’m the biggest fan of country, but the history would fascinate any music lover. The small, unassuming Studio B holds such history. So many people got their start and recorded so many well-known songs there. Elvis exclusively recorded there when in Nashville (more about him later). For me, the most remarkable thing about the studio was the way they recorded compared to modern studios: live musicians actually playing together, at the same time, in one room. So much more pure and simple. At the Ryman, we got treated to some unexpected live music as bands practiced for that evening’s International Bluegrass Awards. And all I can say to them is, I hope you all won; you did a great job, even at practice.

Hatch Show Print was a must-see. Being part of the print production section here at Duncan/Channon meant I couldn’t pass up the chance to see the oldest operating letterpress in the United States. These folks are keeping the ancient craft alive and continuing to make a name for themselves in the modern design world. And I must say, based on a browse through their poster portfolio, they deserve that name. We were lucky enough to get an impromptu tour from an employee, who showed us all around their printing presses, ink, blocks, stacks of in-progress posters and two resident cats. A stuffed poster tube then travelled home with me through three states and three modes of transportation, car, plane and BART.

While in Nashville, we also found out that hard-to-find places are often very worth the effort of finding, one seemingly leading to the next. These are places you feel cool just going to, like you’re on a VIP list. There seem to be lots of them in Nashville, a city being revitalized by people setting up shop in old buildings and producing unique and well-crafted, well, stuff. Just ask a local. Everyone seemed willing to point us towards something good. We had the best coffee, bbq, cupcakes, pizza, beer and cocktails that I could have ever wanted. (Thank you Crema, Dee’s Q, Cupcake Connection, City House, Yazoo and The Patterson House.)

Back to Elvis. Graceland. What else to say, except that I am a fan. So I had to see it at least once. The man and his music are the stuff of legend. And the amount of work he produced in his short life, between music and films, is really astounding. But so are his home, cars and airplanes – let’s just say Elvis had eclectic taste. In a nice coincidence, I also saw his trademark lightning logo everywhere at Graceland, which I had just finished retouching for our Hard Rock client.

Memphis also included trips to the Peabody Hotel and a tour at the Gibson Factory. Why the Peabody? They have marching ducks, of course. I’d heard of the place, and then, suddenly, there it was, directly in our path. Sure enough, there were ducks, there was a crowd, and they (the ducks) successfully found their way into the fountain, a Peabody ritual that’s been repeated daily for decades. The Gibson Factory tour was another eye-opener. I couldn’t believe the number of unassembled guitar pieces and the craftmanship that goes into every single instrument. It made me want to pick up my own set of strings again at home.

All in all, I’d go back again to see the things we missed and catch a favorite band playing at the Ryman. And who knows, maybe next time I’ll meet the King himself.

Single-item Hard Rock memorabilia “widgets” have been around almost since we first launched the site in 2008. Zoom in on any item in the collection, click SHARE on the right and grab the embed code. Badabing.

It was never an official feature, but you could always roll your own multi-item widgets, too. Just add as many 6-digit item numbers as you like (with spaces in between) after [value="item=] to create something like this.

As of today’s release – you can also create filter-based collections. Round up all items from a given artist, year, genre, Hard Rock location, memorabilia type, or whatever search keyword you like.

Here’s how you do it, in three, um, “easy” steps:

 
////////// 01 //////////

Change:
value="item= … "
to:
value="filter=[ filter type ]=[ search terms ]"

For example (as seen above):
value="filter=artist=buddy holly"

Filter types:
• artist
• location (search city names, regions, etc)
• year (must be a 4-digit number)
• type (see types listed on the left side of the site)
• genre (see genres listed on the site)
• video (use video=yes)

Or, for a simple keyword search across all fields, use:
value="filter=[ search terms ]"

For example:
value="filter=autograph"

 
////////// 02 //////////

Change:
…/Ping.gif?type=install&item= … "
to:
…/Ping.gif?type=install&item=multi"

 
////////// 03 //////////

Change:
url(http://content.memorabilia.hardrock.com/Assets/ … .jpg)
to:
url(http://memorabilia.hardrock.com/chrome/multi.jpg)
 

And you’re not allowed to say Clay Aiken, Miley Cyrus or something silly like that. Even Vanilla Ice. Those guys don’t count. They’re awful. But they’re not really music. They’re just hula hoops. Some unholy combo of popcult ephemera and music-biz corruption. No, a worst band ever has to be something someone else thinks is meaningful. They have to be part of the actual musico-historical conversation. Gotta have, well, gravitas, even if they suck.

My son, a music scribe in his own right (and inspirer of this idea), nominates the Red Hot Chili Peppers, just to start the fire (speaking of good candidates for worst – Billy Joel). Even if I don’t entirely agree, the Peppers seem like an exemplary choice: a band that many revere, that are credited with innovation and with chops and cool and that seem to have ascended to the rock ’n’ roll canon, if not yet the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame (a goldmine, I would submit, of worstness – especially in 2010) (and, late-breaking news, now including the Chili Peppers!).

But that doesn’t mean your pick has to be an old band – though you’re going to have a hard time making a case for an artist with less than ten years of output, because some of these guys wind up redeeming youthful excrescence with breakthrough work in their maturity (Justin Timberlake, anyone?). And it’s not enough to name the name, you also have to make the case. Give us a sentence or two. Help us fully grok their true awfulness.

So, nominate your all-time worst band, email your pick to worstband@duncanchannon.com before November 1, 2009. We’ll publish the top ten disses and send each winning correspondent a FREE, USED CD of Celine Dion’s My Love – Ultimate Essential Collection!!! Now for mine – except it’s too damn hard to pick just one:

1. Pink Floyd
Something authentically cool about Syd Barrett, I’ll grant you. But let’s get serious for a second and recognize that the Floyd – especially sans Syd – is, for the most part, synthetic, stoner-stroking strum[sic]-and-drang that’s playing at being profound social criticism, penetrating mysticism or – yikes – philosophy. (Bonus deductions for being so all-fired influential.)

2. Kiss
Just want to re-start the conversation with the band I love to hate, now that they’re on tour again (and also up for the R&RHOF!). Kiss is mock rock. Heavy lite. Hula hoops that, by sheer dint of hula-hoop will, have managed to transcend their essential ephemerality. Or at least endure long enough that it seems so. Sure, they’re goofy and funny and wound up inspiring a surprising number of actually good bands. But still. Someday some genius will want to re-issue the crypto-biography I wrote about them back in the ’80s. Until then, let me reiterate here: sometimes crap is just crap.

3. Phish
This’ll get me run out of Fairfax, but they’re such thin gruel they make the Dead seem like Black Sabbath (well, at least like we imagine Sabbath were) (yes, I harbor doubts).

–––––
Are those too easy? Too obvious? Too you-can’t-say-that-about-Pink-Floyd-you-fat-fuck? Your move. Again, you could win your very own FREE, USED CELINE DION CD AND GET PUBLISHED ON THE D/C SITE!?! Email your worst band ever by November 1 to worstband@duncanchannon.com.