Greetings from NYC, where apparently Facebook has some issues with inter-species paternity:
We've officially "closed Q3" as they say in the business world (ed note: no idea if they really say this), and we're pretty psyched about how our little shop continues to grow. We've added a bunch (OK, like 3) new clients, some very cool new team members, and we finally got our own office, even if it's just an excuse for us to indulge our latent nesting instincts. We're still waiting for Architectural Digest to show up for the photo shoot, but we can assure you that the new space has an overabundance of succulents.
On to the #content:
Ceros Originals
Ceros is a very exciting company, and we’re not just saying that because they’re our friends and former neighbors and have a pub built into their office. Their software allows brands to push the edges of visual storytelling, which, in the Insta-driven photo-first world in which we find ourselves, seems to be pretty important.
But we’re here to talk about their content marketing, which is embodied by the excellent Ceros Originals, a destination site which showcases some of the best visual storytelling out there—much (possibly all) of it made using Ceros’ software.
Originals is a sticky mix of alluring and disarming that keeps you clicking down the rabbit hole. From interactive maps and hacking how-tos to interactive quizzes to a formal visual analysis of Björk’s music videos, it runs the gamut in terms of subject and execution while also hewing to the two principals we always think about as key to good content: entertainment and insight.
Take, say, their piece “Current Office Mood,” which, in the wake of Elon Musk’s most recent indiscretions, tried to chart how public and internal perceptions of high-profile companies related to one another. The conceit was simple—they mapped 6 months of Glassdoor reviews of several companies onto standard Cartesian graphs, and then plotted major headlines along the timelines. But the simplicity is what makes this emblematic of the way data journalism is supposed to work: interpreting public data sets and displaying them in a way that makes intuitive sense to the reader.
As great content marketing should, Ceros Originals makes the case for the product as well as just being really, really cool in its own right.
Things are happening
Shaggy 2 Dope from Insane Clown Posse and Fred Durst got into a fight onstage and it’s every bit as sad, hilarious, weird, and amazing as you can imagine. We’ve watched the clip about 5,000 times and still can’t decide which is our favorite part but Fred Durst’s outfit is def near the top.
So many things to love about the Mailchimp rebrand, by SF agency Collins.
Rebrands are fun, and the latest version of the Uber logo is actually pretty good and has a v fancy website to go with it.
But also Uber’s CEO said this: “Eating is something people do three times a day and someone needs to be the orchestration layer” which like, maybe is not inaccurate but why do tech CEOs insist on sounding like people who have never had an interaction with another human before.
Some kid/hero has taken it upon himself to archive thousands of interactive banner ads from the early 2000s. If you’re looking to refinance your mortgage this might be a good place to start.
A iPhone with its own finger not OK.
And finally, from the department of longform comes this amazing story from Vanity Fair about a Colombian orphan who convinced everyone he was a Saudi prince.
What We're Listening To
As Beyoncé once asked of us, “Who run the world?” The answer was, and will forever be, girls. Check out this sweet playlist that a group of 18-year-olds—from all over the world—collaboratively made for The New York Times.