Kevin Cornell’s “Manda” | 2007©, Gouache on 300 lb. Cold Press

About the Interview

Yesterday we featured a fascinating website called, The Superest where A List Apart’s illustrator/designer Kevin Cornell wages an illustrious and ongoing battle of super heroic one-upmanship with animator/designer Matthew Sutter.

Kevin Cornell took time out of his busy schedule to talk to .think about The Superest site and his life as an illustrator.

.think | 1. What initially inspired you to create The Superest site?

Kevin Cornell: Well, Matt and I had come across Andy Haven’s post about the game “My Team, Your Team.” The game sounded really interesting, so we played it a couple of times. One particular game we posted to our websites; after which we realized it would probably be a fun site all its own, and a good proportion of other people agreed. So a couple months later we built The Superest site, and there ya go.

.think | 2. Although you and Matthew generally handle the majority of the illustration battles, if you could have anyone as a guest illustrator, who would it be?

Kevin Cornell: Hmmm… well, we both wanted to see the fellows from Wulffmorgenthaler do one. But their agent never wrote me back.

“The game itself is
just the perfect formula for
inspiring the next hero.”

.think | 3. How has the ubiquity of the web changed or challenged you as an illustrator?

Kevin Cornell: I think the web has made it much easier to get work in front of people than it is in print. But then, it also tends to pick up and spit out individual portfolio pieces quicker—one day you’ve got 5,000 people looking at your work, the next day 10. This aspect probably unconsciously led me—and other web illustrators—to change the way we promote and produce work.

Instead of disappearing down a hole and emerging a year later with a big portfolio piece, we take small projects that can quickly be put in a public forum or weblog, maintaining the frequency of exposure. Or, if one DID have a large, year-long project, they’d be more apt to give updates to an audience throughout the process.

.think | 4. What’s your favorite super hero creation and why?

Kevin Cornell: I think my favorite that I created was Figleif. I like the text, the hero is well-drafted and has good contrast, the reply itself was (from my perspective, at least) clever, and I was quite excited to have been able to add the runes that actually spell something.

It just all came together. What’s more, it came together without a huge amount of effort; some things you really have to sit and noodle with for hours before it gets right, and some things just miraculously happen right the first time.

Who doesn’t enjoy a bit of luck every now and then?

.think | 5. Describe your sense of humor; is it as well-developed as it seems or do you just muster one for the sake of The Superest site?

Kevin Cornell: Well, I couldn’t say whether it’s well-developed or not. I can’t stand political jokes or jokes about celebrities. I like jokes to be about universal things, things most everyone has experienced. Yet I can’t stand jokes about flatulence. I just don’t find it funny. I was actually pretty disappointed when I made Wind Breaker and everyone thought I was making a fart joke. And jokes about animals are pretty funny. But animals that are animated to sing, talk, and dance are NOT funny.

.think | 6. Has Pixar come calling, wanting to animate any of your super heroes, and what will you say when they do?

Kevin Cornell: Haha—no, no calls. And I expect if they DO call, it would be lawyers saying “Hey, stop ripping off our ideas.” Or to extend Matt’s restraining order another 30 feet.

.think | 7. You’ve created so many super heroes in such a short timeframe; where do you draw your inspiration from?

Kevin Cornell: Well, that’s what first excited Matt and I about creating the site; the game itself is just the perfect formula for inspiring the next hero. There have only been a handful of instances where I didn’t know how to beat the previous hero. Most of the time, the way to beat your opponent is just thinking about how that hero’s strength could also be a weakness.

.think | 8. Can you envision creating the ultimate super hero–one with such unparalleled powers–that it could end the series?

Kevin Cornell: Sure, it’s Chet The Commenter. That’s the guy who lists every possible hero reply in the comments before Sutter or I have a chance to draw it. When he strikes, we’re screwed.

.think | 9. Within arm’s length, what work-related item do you feel is most important to you and why?

Kevin Cornell: Probably this computer. I’d have a hell of a time getting the drawings online without it. Though the chair plays a big part in my day as well. Hmmm… this is a tough choice.

.think | 9-1/2. What’s your super power?

Kevin Cornell: I once went fishing with a bamboo pole and caught 5 fish, while the people next to me caught nothing. So I imagine it’s some sort of fishing power, which is a real shame because my weakness is handling bait.

Kevin’s wit and work can be viewed at his site, Bearskinrug.com. He is also the staff illustrator at A List Apart.

Check out The Superest’s ongoing battle here.

“If this isn’t a true definition of community,
I don’t know what is.”

-Bobbie Davis, Family Friend

The Scenario

Nineteen year old Michael Treinen is in the fight of his life. Suffering a relapse of Acute Myeloid Leukemia, he needs a $500,000 bone marrow transplant, but his $1M lifetime insurance limit has been exhausted.

With only a few days to raise money to cover the costs, the Treinan family turned to email, asking friends and family to donate $20 within three days and forward the email to 20 friends. By day 2, several people at Brainstorm had received the plea from the nearby community; some from up to 4 different sources.

More than Enough

The message quickly spread beyond the immediate community and donations came in from across the country. By day 3 the family had raised $175,000. By 3pm day 4, $355,000. By 7pm that day, over $400,000. And by day 5, the deadline, they had raised over $700,000. Today, a week later, the count is $856,000.

The media’s coverage of the grassroots campaign resulted in a state insurance program approving an expedited high-risk insurance policy that would cover 60 percent of the transplant cost.

More than Money

Social networking delivered something else, too. At last count Michael Treinen’s Caring Bridge blog showed 169,670 visits and 3,677 people had left messages via the guestbook. What better encouragement to lift Michael’s spirits?

More than Email

Success in social networking is inspired, launched and sustained by the trusted connections between people. The Treinen’s email pleas were sent from friend to friend; had they been sent from strangers or generated by faceless scripts, the Michael Treinen story wouldn’t have happened.

Whether you make widgets or offer something more philanthropic, social networking demands transparency and an ongoing investment in others. Then, when the time calls for it, your friends—and even people you don’t know—may respond when called upon.

Anticipate More

Under the circumstances, the Treinens couldn’t have dreamed of, much less considered what to do should they exceed their expectations. It’s being placed in a trust fund to cover Michael’s future medical needs and they’ve said any overage will be donated to charity.

The lesson being, be prepared and model outcomes to scale in proportion to the potential explosive power of online social campaigns.

[ Image: Kazze ]

White Castle’s conversation-inspiring promotion.

Dining on Slyders®
by candlelight

What’s Wrong with this Picture?

This street sign isn’t advertising a 4-star restaurant, it’s a 24-hour White Castle that serves miniature hamburgers called Slyders®. A regional player, they consistently rank among the Top 100 U.S. foodservice companies, serving over 500 million burgers a year.

White Castle is running a serious business, but not too serious.

Love is in the Ambiance

A kitsch castle motif and hamburger joint ambiance doesn’t register as a romantic destination for most couples. Nor does dining on steamy Slyders® in a stainless-steel and plastic-laminate setting on candlelit, linen-draped tables. Which is exactly why White Castle’s charming Valentine’s Day promotion works.

Not your typical White Castle experience: waiters, flowers, candlelight and tablecloths.

Embrace Yourself

From a strategic marketing standpoint, White Castle understands and embraces their market space and brand persona—and are willing to leverage it by poking fun at themselves. This promotion transcends a one-way communication, inviting consumers to interact with the brand—sharing a little levity with others at White Castle’s expense.

Instigating Viral-ability

The promotion’s self-effacing humor became an opportunity for consumer-generated online viral buzz. The Brainstorm employee who took the picture emailed it to 3 people; two within Brainstorm and one in Oregon. Several weeks later she received the image back in an email from a former co-worker, unrelated in any tangible way to the original recipients with the subject ‘Valentine’s Day dinner plans?’ Who knows how far it traveled or how many people saw it?

Share the Love

Socially shared experiences both on and offline begin with transparency, relevance, and often wit. Inspiring people to talk positively about your brand requires involvement and reaching out to engage.

[Restaurant interior photo: Girlieleep]

30 Rock, The Simpsons, SNL, The Office,
The Big Lebowski and more—free. Pass it on at Hulu.com

Watch your favorite TV shows and movies.
Anytime. Anywhere. Free.

Save the TiVo

After five months of Beta testing, today NBC Universal and Fox launched Hulu.com, mainstream media’s online answer to socially networked video sites like YouTube. Unlike YouTube, Hulu offers viewers online-anytime premium, recognized content with full production values that can be viewed full screen.

Feature Rich; Feature Friendly

Amid an understated interface and tastefully-sized and unobtrusively placed ads, a simple slider bar allows you to select snippets of any Hulu streamed media and clip it—to the second. You can preview the video clip, email it to friends, copy its embed code for blog insertion, or share it on Facebook, StumbleUpon, Digg, Del.icio.us, Reddit, Windows Live, or Google bookmarks.

It’s not exactly Consumer Generated Media (CGM), but it is a great first step toward engaging a post-conventional television audience anew.

Did We Mention Content?

The site offers free streaming video, ad-supported shows and feature films from NBC, Fox, E! Entertainment, the SciFi Network, USA Networks, Sony Pictures, MGM and others. Even the NBA, NHL and the NCAA are signing on. So far, CBS and Disney’s ABC are taking a wait and see approach before joining in.

A Step in the Right Conversation

Whether sites like Hulu can deliver mainstream media outlets from the bonds of one-way communication remains to be seen. But we Beta tested Hulu and think there’s a lot to like.

Snip a clip and send it to a friend on Hulu.

Joseph Jaffe’s Join the Conversation

If you’re a brand marketer
or have a brand, or a market to reach,
read this book.

A Marketing Dialog

The foundation of Join the Conversation, How to Engage Marketing-Weary Consumers with the Power of Community, Dialogue, and Partnership is author Joseph Jaffe’s distinction between communication and conversation. He describes communication as one-way and carefully controlled in its implementation, while conversation is organic, non-linear, unpredictable, and not initiated by any one person or organization.

Key Moments

As collective online conversations begin to spill into conversations offline, the book addresses the opportunities presented to brand marketers engaged in conversation with groups Jaffe identifies as producers, prosumers and consumers.

He presents many examples of what we here at Brainstorm refer to as key social media moments—moments when companies have either seized an opportunity or been seized by it.

If you’re not present at a key moment,
you can’t exploit that moment,
but it may exploit you.

Helpful Advice

The book provides a number of guidelines to consider when adopting conversational engagement over mere communication: The need to embrace consumer-generated content, the importance of honesty, an emphasis on product quality and service excellence—coupled with a balanced sense of transparency, as well as the benefits of partnering with today’s consumer, paired with cautionary advice.

About the Author

Joseph Jaffe, author of Join the Conversation and Life After the 30-Second Spot, is president and chief interrupter at new marketing company, Crayon. He’s a noted consultant and blogger and hosts Coffee with Crayon Thursdays at 9am EST on Crayonville Island in Second Life. This review is part of his UNM2PNM project.

Join In

Although it may take purists a while to get used to the conversational writing style, regardless of whether or not you’re already engaged in conversation, Join the Conversation is a read worth talking about.