The event showcased our “Cut the Cord” campaign for Plugless Power as well as our “Thank You for Not Sitting” internal campaign. The Plugless Power launch promoted a product designed to enable totally hands-free charging for electric vehicles (EVs): no more plugging in a dirty, industrial-strength power cord in the garage every time you pull in and park. We launched the “Cut the Cord” message at the London Home Show with posters, displays, and graphics that got everyone paying attention to the power of simplicity.

The “Thank You for Not Sitting” campaign used language such as “no butts about it” to foster greater communication during a “no internal emails or phone calls day” among the Burns Marketing crew. Office insurgents left No Butts about It cards, candy cigarettes, and email reduction patches on everyone’s desks to make the point. Today, “no butts about it” is code for “come talk to me.”

The two campaigns were featured in The Fifty, a print book distributed at the January 26 Ad Club event and in an online gallery. Our very own art director Jennifer Hohn swore off sleep to concept, design, and produce The Fifty’s promotional materials; designer Erica McCary and senior copywriter Joellen Sarmast assisted with design and copyediting.

Photos below by Wes Ferguson

Event creative direction and design by Burns Marketing

Ad Club Denver and Fifty committee members Steve Miller, Jennifer Hohn, and Jay Weise

Gregg Lulofs, Greg Knoll, and Adrian Hanft check out the winning work

Here’s how it works: When you kiss your phone, LipTricks detects your lip position and movement (if you’re really brave, your tongue is tracked, too) and gives you feedback in the form of badges that you earn for different kiss achievements. Unlock the granny badge with a quick peck, or the newlywed badge with an extra-passionate smooch. You can imagine what it takes to unlock the pup badge. Some kisses need a little bit of planning, like the Cinderella, which requires your lips to be touching the phone at the stroke of midnight. There are 20 badges in all – and a few hidden ones to reward those of you who are extraordinarily gifted.

LipTricks is available for the iPhone and Android devices; download it today. Happy Valentine’s Day from your friendly engagement marketing experts at Burns Marketing.

With our digital publishing system, we can take a simple PDF file (a brochure,  newsletter, annual report, etc.) and add rich assets including video and document links. After publishing, the document is available for viewing on desktops, laptops, and mobile devices. The publishing system automatically takes care of formatting the document so it can be correctly viewed on the iPhone, iPad, and Android OS phones and tablets – eliminating the need to have multiple versions and removing compatibility issues.

Watch our digital content publishing demo for an overview of how the system works from an end-customer prospective.

Give us 5 to 10 minutes of your time to take the 2012 Digital Marketing Trend Benchmark Study, and Burns Marketing will return the favor. We’ll share the survey results to give you valuable insight into what your peers are doing to shape the evolution of digital marketing.

Take the survey before Friday, February 10 to make sure your opinions are counted. And by participating you’ll be sent a copy of the study results.

Click here to get started.

9. Pampers – Everybody poops. That’s a fact of life – and a best-selling children’s book. Anyway, this Pampers spot rises above the potty humor and focuses instead on the miracle of life without crossing the line from poignant to maudlin.

8. iPad – Apple has given the world incredible technology, but that’s not what they’re selling here. It’s all about the experience. The why. And nobody delivers the why like Apple. What other brand elicits a religious reaction in fans’ brains?

7. Johnson & Johnson’s Campaign for Nursing’s Future – Showing always trumps telling, and this spot is a case in point. From the pace that shifts from the emergency room frenzy to the more subdued scene when the nurse returns to give the patient his good-luck charm, the video captures both the mundane and the meaningful in the world of nursing.

6. Travelers Insurance – A strong concept? Check. Catchy background music? Check. Adorable mutts that inject personality into the exciting world of … insurance? Check. If these ads were about people meeting, falling in love, moving in together, and having babies, I’d have gone to the kitchen for a snack. But dogs (and puppies = BONUS!) keep me in my seat.

5. Jim Beam – Willem Dafoe stars in a liquor ad that looks nothing like a liquor ad. Steeped in deep philosophical thoughts and challenges to make “bold choices,” the spot showcases Dafoe in a number of different careers, from chess player to fashion designer to sumo wrestler. The voiceover notes, “All choices lead you somewhere; bold choices lead you where you are supposed to be.” The implication: those who want to live a bold life choose Jim Beam.

4. Nissan Leaf – What if everything ran on gas? If this ad were any better at depicting a world powered by gas, you’d smell it.

3. Volkswagen Passat – Yes, it’s about the debut of the 2012 Passat, but Mini-Darth steals the show as he tries to exert his powers over an exercise bike, the family dog, and an uncooperative old-school baby doll. Eventually he wins, using the force (and Dad’s stealth remote starter) to fire up the engine. Did I remember the 2012 Passat? Not really. But revisiting an age when dressing up didn’t involve a business suit was fun.

2. Chrysler – Meet the underdog with swagger. This campaign validated Detroit’s flaws and yet, thanks to the puff-up-your-chest undertones of Eminem, made us proud to support a car company vowing to fight its way back to the top of the American manufacturing landscape.

1. Allstate Mayhem – The insurance industry has always been touchy-feely and the Allstate Mayhem ads turn this common approach on its head. Allstate is letting us know that they’ll be here for us when something bad happens. We love that the campaign focuses on the bad and makes us laugh. Chances are you can relate to at least one of the incidents they’ve shown.

Think we missed one? Let us know which ones resonated for you.

Caution: Don’t try this at home. Your smoke detector could go off – or worse, the cat might forever smell like bacon (unless you’re into that kind of stuff).

The Recipe
1. Order the Bacon Explosion: Click here.
2. Enjoy the Bacon Explosion, with your fingers and a beach-towel sized napkin to dry those shiny fingers after you’re done lickin’ em. This stuff really is a Fourth of July-caliber meat party.

And so, all good things come to an end. The Twelve Days of Bacon draw to a rather anticlimactic close. Bad for us… good for pigs.

This salty delicious treat has the easiest recipe yet:

1. Open an Internet browser on your computer.

2. Go here.

3. Select the size of the bag you’d like your bacon brittle to come in.

4. Checkout.

5. Wait patiently for delicousness to arrive in a box on your front porch.

6. Rip open package and devour.

Trust us. These fancy little Mexican quichelet things are delicious AND nutritious. As someone in the creative department proclaimed: “These are good for you. They have beans in them.”

A can of mixed vegetables is hiding somewhere in there, too – neatly tucked in under a blanket of bacon.

Ingredients
2 cups of Mexican rice (recipe follows)
1 cup of cooked pinto beans
4 large eggs
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup cheddar cheese
Spices (dashes of oregano, cumin, Herbs de Provence)
Salt and pepper to taste
18 slices of smoked bacon

Preparation
1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Coat cupcake trays with nonstick oil.
3. Place a bacon strip inside each cup, making a circle.
4. Mix remaining ingredients very thoroughly in a large bowl.
5. Spoon rice and bean mixture into each cup.
6. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes until bacon is fully cooked.

For the Mexican rice
Sure you could probably use a couple packets of ready-made Mexican rice, but beware your daily sodium intake. You will wrap the rice in bacon, after all.

Ingredients
3 tablespoons of vegetable oil
1 ½ cups of rice
2-3 Roma tomatoes
½ small onion
2 garlic cloves
1 cube chicken bullion
1 small can of mixed vegetables
Salt to taste

Preparation
1. In a blender, mix tomatoes, onion, garlic, and bullion until well blended. Add water. (Since we were cooking in Colorado, we used approximately 4 cups of liquid. At lower altitudes, 3 cups should suffice.)
2. In a deep saucepan, heat oil on medium.
3. Add the rice and sauté for a few minutes until it’s evenly browned. Stir constantly to keep the rice from sticking.
4. When the rice is light brown, mix it with canned vegetables, tomato mix, and salt. Stir and bring it to a boil.
5. Reduce heat to low and cover. Let it cook for about 25 minutes or until all water is absorbed.
6. Stir gently every 5 minutes or so to prevent rice from sticking to the bottom. When water is nearly absorbed, stir more frequently.

“Party Pork is in the howwwwssseeeee tonight…”

BBQ Baked Bean & Apple with Bacon Casserole

Ingredients
1 cup diced onion
2 (15-ounce) cans Boston-style baked beans
1 cup diced Granny Smith apple
1 tablespoon prepared mustard
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
5 strips of bacon

Preparation
1. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
2. Coat a 2-quart baking dish with nonstick cooking spray.
3. In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients except the bacon and mix well.
4. Pour into the baking dish and lay the raw strips of bacon on top.
5. Cover and bake for approximately 45 minutes, or until thick and bubbly.
6. Uncover and bake for 5 more minutes.

This dish is best enjoyed on the side of a bacon cheeseburger – although some of the hippies here insist that it works well with a veggie burger, too. (But if you watched closely, you could almost see the veggie burger recoil with horror.)

Rest up. There are three more glorious days of bacon to come.