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Last week we (Artistic Hub) launched a Fan Photo Contest for the OAKLAND RAIDERS. We know the Raiders have fanatical fans and we were excited to allow them to post their own photos and vote on their favorites. They have truly shown their support for the team because the traffic and submissions have been through the roof! GO RAIDER FANS!

Do you know someone that’s a part of the Raider Nation? Tell them about the contest.

HOW IT WORKS:

1. Submit a photo of you in all of your Raider glory.

2. Vote! The winner is based on public votes, so tweet, post and promote.

3. WIN – new winners announced every Wednesday so get started…
The team offers great prizes including a game football signed by Shane Lechler, tickets to the games and RAIDERS Gear. New Prizes every week. Check it out!

WHY IT WORKS:

The first 24 hours: 180 Photos Submitted / 100,000 votes

Today – Day 11:  915 Photos Submitted / 555,000 Votes

Fan Engagement… it works! Go Team Hub!

OH, also check out this interesting post from Patrick Dillon about Why Most Contests Don’t Work.

WE HUB:

WHO IS IGLU & HARTLY: Colorado transplants to California’s Echo Park, Iglu & Hartly have hit the ground running with their new album, “& Then Boom.” Their sound is Tom Petty meets The Pointer Sisters in a neon karaoke bar in Tokyo singing Tina Turner. The music is super fun with a mix of pop and hip-hop that will keep you dancing all night.

WHY WE HUB THEM: These guys are good! They know how to put on an awesome live show and these days that is what really matters in the music industry. At Artistic Hub, we love to support bands and live music. Their high-energy shows are enough to make anyone love them. We were lucky enough to see them last Friday at 710 Beach Club in Pacific Beach. One word: amazing.

HOW WE ARE HELPING: Artistic Hub and Iglu & Hartly have joined forces to create a custom design competition for the next Iglu & Hartly t-shirt.
Prizes include: free tickets to concert of your choice, chance to become the official tour t-shirt, copy of  “& Then Boom,”  limited edition 7″ vinyl of “Violent & Young,” and a signed poster from Iglu & Hartly. The contest starts today and a new winner will be announced each week until August 30th. Get your submissions in today and win! Download the template here. Not a designer? We still need your help! Show your support for Iglu & Hartly by voting for your favorite designs to help pick the next winner. You can buy all designs on-demand through their sweet on-demand storefront.

Iglu & Hartly call their music, “not pop music as a one-night stand. This is pop music you marry. Feel good, but take it home with you.” Their high-energy, genre blending tunes and amazing live shows is why WE HUB THEM! Keep up with Iglu & Hartly on myspace, facebook, twitter and igluandhartly.com!

-Mel & Michelle
@dailydesignfix
artistichub

WE HUB: TOMS Shoes!!!

WHAT ARE TOMS? TOMS Shoes were founded on a simple premise: For every pair you purchase, TOMS will give a pair of shoes to a child in need. One for One. Using the purchasing power of individuals to benefit the greater good is what they’re all about.

WHY WE HUB THEM: It’s great to see people with great products helping communities in need. We love Blake Mycoskie, TOMS chief shoe-giver and founder. He has made it his mission to give over 300,000 pairs of shoes to children in need around the world in 2009. TOMS are not only the cutest thing on the block but also engages it’s consumers, letting them become part of the cause. Their eco-friendly “vegan” TOMS are a hit using 35% hemp+65% post-consumer plastic bottles, recycled rubber soles and contain no animal by-products.

HOW WE CAN HELP: TOMS supports so many communities worldwide, Artistic Hub would love to partner up and run a worldwide design competition supporting TOMS message, “One for One.” It would be awesome to engage artists from around the globe and let them creatively express this message on fun different products. The public would vote for their favorite design and the one with the most votes would be the official t-shirt/shoe design for the month. An added bonus, all of the designs in voting would be available on-demand, so anyone could purchase their design instantly on a tank-top, t-shirt, hoodie, hats, etc.

Check out AT&T’s latest ad campaign featuring TOMS Shoes:

Their dedication to helping the greater good is why WE HUB THEM! Read and watch more about Blake’s great story.  Follow them on twitter @TOMSshoes

-Mel & Michelle
@dailydesignfix
artistichub.com

WHAT IS AUSTIN CITY LIMITS? Austin City Limits is a 3-day Music Festival in Austin, TX featuring 130 bands on 8 stages. Get the complete festival experience with local food, art and organized events for the kids. See music by Pearl Jam, The Dave Matthews Band, Beastie Boys, Kings of Leon, John Legend, Lilly Allen, Thievery Corporation, The Decemberists, Brett Dennen and more! See complete lineup.

WHY WE HUB THEM: We hub music. ACL is famous for headlining some major mainstream musicians as well as some up-and-coming bands you SHOULD know. Not only are they creating a whole weekend of fun in the sun, they also do it the green way. The festival is 100% carbon neutral and they are doing their part by banning styrofoam, plastic bags and more. You can also help off-set your carbon footprint by picking up a Be Green Fan Tag for $3. Learn more here.

HOW WE CAN HELP: Musicians and Artists go together like peanut butter and jelly. Artistic Hub would love to team up with Austin City Limits to run a t-shirt design contest for the festival coming this October. Why not let artists from around the world create and submit their t-shirt designs for the event? The public would vote for their favorites on the ACL website and the one with the most votes would be the official t-shirt of the event. Plus, all of the designs in voting are available on-demand, so anyone could go online a purchase a design on a hoodie, t-shirt, tank top and more. This would be a fun way to get artists involved in the event and to get some really killer t-shirts that everyone would rock for years to come!

-Mel & Michelle

WHO IS ABSOLUT?
Every bottle of Absolut Vodka is created in Ahus Sweden and it’s rich, smooth taste has given it global recognition. Absolut was introduced in the US in 1979 and their bold, yet simple advertising campaigns have won them numerous awards – including a rank in the “Top 10 Campaigns” by Advertising Age in 1999.

WHY WE HUB THEM.
Positivity, creativity, simplicity and community involvement. Their commercials are positive and funny! No 1/2 naked girls riding a bar bull here. No way… OH and their vodka isn’t bad either!

What if we used kindness instead of money? I love this commercial.
See how they are turning the idea into a movement: Absolutkindess.com

They also just launched a new campaign promoting responsible drinking habits called “Recognize the Moment.” Stay classy Absolut.

HOW WE CAN HELP.
Absolut has run a few campaigns calling for community involvement and we would love help out with our voting application. Their “100 Absolutes” competition reportedly brought in 330,000 votes but with our voting application, we could knock it off the charts! (We have had over 839,000 votes for the Eteamz Photo competition in only 23 days.)

We could run a design competition for a limited edition bottle for their favorite charity, event or cause. “Absolut Art.” Their bottles have already become collectors’ items and having a bottle designed by someone in the art community would be a unique addition. See the limited edition “Summer” bottle they created for the UK and the “green” bottle they launched in Greece in 2008. Absolut has also released a limited edition bottle supporting the LGBT community. CA loves Absolut.

We could have the public creating, and voting on their favorite bottle designs. All of the designs in voting, can go directly into an online store to be purchased on-demand as posters. The Absolut website is already interactive and fun and our quick and simple application would integrate seamlessly as a great way to help them break into the interactive marketing sphere.

Don’t want to do bottles? How about posters only?

Their Absolut World campaign is hilarious and it would be fun to open it up to the public to create and vote on their own. These could also be purchased on-demand during the campaign. They have a similar contest running on Absolut World where you can create your own commercial and submit it onto their YouTube site.

Their witty and unique campaigns have a positive vibe which is WHY WE HUB THEM!

-M&M – Design Duo @ ArtisticHub.com

WE HUB: Ashton Kutcher aka @aplusk

WHO IS ASHTON KUTCHER? The hilarious actor from “That ’70s Show“, “Punk’d” and the best movie from 2000,”Dude, Where’s my Car.”

WHY WE HUB HIM: Ashton knows how to gather the troops!! Last Thursday, April 16th, Ashton became the first twitter millionaire. He declared he could beat out CNN’s twitter to be the first person to have a million followers. Kutcher had challenged CNN to the Twitter race, saying he would donate 10,000 mosquito bed nets to charity for World Malaria Day in late April if he beat CNN, and 1,000 if he lost. CNN agreed to do the same. Kutcher crossed the 1 million mark on Twitter at 2:13 am on Friday morning. We love that the “tweet off” was about proving that one person can have a voice. We like that he’s always pushing the envelope and challenging the media. We are such fans and supporters of everything social media that it’s great to see celebrities learning to use these tools as an effective way to connect with the public. Ashton proved that you can use twitter for more than telling the world what you had for breakfast and that you can transform that into something that’s positive and can effectively change that world.

HOW WE CAN HELP: Ashton has already proved the power of twitter and communication. Artistic Hub would love to team up with Ashton to run a trucker-hat design competition to benefit one of the many charities he supports. It would be awesome to use that power to pull the design community together to help those in need. Kids and adults could design a trucker hat, t-shirt, shoes, etc. for the charity of Ashton’s choice and the public could vote for their favorite design. It would be a really fun way to get the community involved and aware of world issues, while still letting the people decide on the final design. The winning t-shirt could be sold and worn at all the events – awesome for fundraising and a great way to get people involved. How does it work? See the Sports Illustrated KIDS t-shirt contest going on now! (this requires a log-in) Or see the Interactive Day San Diego Design contest.

We love that Ashton is using his fame for good, showing that one person’s voice can be heard. His high energy, hilarious and positive attitude is why WE HUB HIM!

-Mel & Michelle

www.artistichub.com
@dailydesignfix

WHO IS LIFE IS GOOD? Life is Good is a New England based brand that stays close to its roots, with an emphasis on simplicity, humor and humility. They share their message of optimism through positive products, festivals and more.
They began in 1989 selling t-shirts door-to-door and sleeping in their van, as they traveled around the East Coast.  Little did they know, their success was based on their smiles. In 1994 the “Jack smile” was printed on a tee and they went like wild fire! Suddenly, people got it.

Since then, Life is Good has expanded their product line to everything from t-shirts, to hats, to bags, umbrella’s, coolers, candles, mugs… you get the picture. I don’t know another site that has such a complete product line. Watch the story on NBC’s The Today Show.

WHY WE HUB THEM? Their message of optimism kicks butt. We love working with like-minded people and we can relate to their t-shirt company trials because we just launched Collar Free last year. Life is Good is a major sponsor of Project Joy, an organization that believes play is the single most important activity in the life of a child. Its mission is to ensure that nothing, including poverty, trauma or any other societal injustice, stands in the way of healthy play for young children. They will be putting on major events across the US to help raise money for the Life is Good Kids Foundation and kids in need. Look out people, it’s a company with heart!

We love these:

HOW WE CAN HELP: Artistic Hub could team up with Life is Good to run a t-shirt design competition for the Life is Good Kids Foundation. Kids and adults could design a t-shirt for the foundation and the public could vote for their favorite right on lifeisgood.com. Art is a positive outlet for kids of all ages and it would be so fun to let THEM decide which t-shirt they want to wear at the next event! The winning t-shirt could be sold and worn at all the events – awesome for fundraising and a great way to get people involved. How does it work? See the Sports Illustrated KIDS t-shirt contest going on now! (this requires a log-in) Or see the Interactive Day San Diego Design contest.

Their quality products and message of optimism reminds us all that life IS good and this is why we hub them!

-mel & michelle
www.artistichub.com

Our new weekly feature will focus on people/companies we hub (hub meaning love). We don’t want to freak anybody out by saying we hub you. It’s nothing weird, we promise.

THIS WEEK , WE HUB: Wexley School for Girls!

WHO IS WEXLEY? Don’t be fooled by the name. Wexley is not a school. Wexley School for Girls is an advertising agency based in Seattle founded by Ian Cohen and Cal McAllister.

WHY WE HUB THEM: basically because they’re awesome! They are ridiculous and smart rolled into a ball of wacky and offbeat. We love their non-traditional approach to advertising that extends far beyond print and tv ads. They look beyond the obvious, preserve a little mystery in their work without plastering their clients name all over but still creating interest (check out the huge pushpins placed all over Seattle for Microsoft). We love that they focus on a small core audience and engage their audience on and off the streets (“Hey Genius” campaign for Microsoft).

Take a look at their short films, “Winner Take Steve” for example which was made for Nike. This spot featured a couple of nerdy kids at summer camp and has spread over the Internet and was shown at more than 20 film festivals.  It doesn’t show one bit of Nike’s brand in the ad, which is so intriguing.  “People are spending more time getting branding messages than ever before,” says Cal McAllister, Wexley’s co-founder. “To reach them, it just takes a marketing department to think entirely differently.”

WHAT WE CAN DO FOR THEM: Artistic Hub would love to be part of the Wexley madness. We think a t-shirt design contest would be a perfect fit for Wexley and their fun interactive website. I could sit and play on Wexley’s site all day but if there were a design competition on their site I would never leave. It would be hilarious. I would love to rock a sweet tee with a ‘sexley wexley’ saying or my personalized pirate horoscope. Or even better partner with the Hub to help and show your clients even more fun keeping in sync with the Wexley way!

Their outrageous approach has landed them clients like Nike, Microsoft, Sprite and T Mobile. The fun, high energy, offbeat creativity and use of threats in obtaining clients is why WE HUB THEM!

-mel & michelle
www.artistichub.com

*read the entire article from Inc here.