Do you form your opinions or does your routine do it for you?

How many of us vary our media consumption?

If you are a Marie Claire reader do you ever pick up The Deal?
If you watch Sunrise do you ever give SBS a go?
If you are a 2Day listener, do you ever switch to 2GB?

The reason I ask this is because I consider myself a pretty 'standard' media consumer. I'd be one of those people that lies squarely in the midddle of the bell curve when it comes to average media consumption and last night I recognised a massive problem with this.

My boyfriend Matt, is a night driver so he listens to a lot of night radio. He is also disloyal when it comes to his media consumption. He just acts as a bit of a sponge and consumes as much as possible from varied sources which results in him being able to participate in any conversation with a well informed point of view (this is incredibly frustrating for me).

Last night he made me sit in front of the computer and listen to an interview that Alan Jones had conducted yesterday morning. It was with an academic expert who talked about climate change and offered a completely different point of view (backed with research) than what I have heard through all of the media that I consume.

It highlighted how ignorant and easily influenced I am by what I hear/read in my 'routine' consumption. Its actually quite scary.

I wonder if we, as media advisors should be varying our routine a bit more. Maybe its somthing along the lines of '>Tim & Brad's 30 things in 30 days project to help us be better aware of whats happening around us and what other people are being influenced by.

Content isn't king - I agree.

I came across this blog post this morning and love it.

It speaks to the saying that "content is king".

This blogger argues that in fact content is not king, conversation is. I tend to agree.

The purpose of making good content is to spark conversation which is a much more valueable and influential connection than a one-to-many piece of broadcast content.

Its a bit chicken, before the egg but the end result should always be about sparking talkability because it drives ROI through the roof and also has the greatest impact on changing behaviour.

I love those crazy Japanese marketers; excellent example of experiential proof

This is amazing.

This campaign by Nikon was just highlighted as campaign of the week by CMD Global
It is for the launch of the world's first camera with a built in projector.

Nikon "wanted a high profile campaign to promote the technology" and this execution definitly delivers on that.

The camera's built-in projector allows you to project images on your camera onto any nearby surface.

The brand recruited the Helicopter Boyz, a popular Japanese pop duo to promote the launch. They strapped a heap of these cameras to the boys then had them dance in front of a screen whilst the images were projecting. Watch the video here to get the full picture.

What I love about this campaign is the use of the technology that they are actually promoting to communicate the product benefits.

The execution creates a memorbale experience for the consumer as well as solid proof that the product delivers on its promise.

I LOVE this xxx

Consumer Generated Product

How awesome is this technology?

Adidas and Reebok have both run campaigns that allowed consumers to design their own 'kicks' but here is a company based wholly on Consumer Generated Product.

You go to the website, design your own shoe and choose from many different combinations of materials to embellish them. VERY COOL.

What I love is that the site takes Consumer Genrated Content one step further and allows people to actually make their product.

The functionality that I think is missing at the moment, is the ability to post your designs elsewhere. I think it would help generate traffic to the site and also get people to start buying other people's designs.

I love this anonymous quote...

Sometimes media hurts

I'm a bit of a fan of the media competition (as regular readers would know).

I think that over and above the valuable work experience I gain from participating, the subject/challenge is usually a social cause that allows me to expand my knowledge about parts of society that I would usually be blind to.

Currently I am working on a piece to submit to APG Planning Idol.

The brief asks me to 'address' youth homelessness.

When I receive a brief from a client I typically immerse myself in the subject to try and gain an understanding of the world it operates in prior to coming up with a communications campaign that can solve some sort of problem. Needless to say, this is exactly what I've done with the APG Idol brief.

But.... it hurts.

One of the reasons I spent 12 months working as an Australian Youth Ambassador in Samoa was to give back. To do something a bit more altruistic than spend my rich client's money. This is also one of the reasons I enjoy answering competition briefs and giving my ideas away for free but for some reason, this brief is taking its toll.

I'm not clear why dealing with this issue is worse than having dealt with World Hunger or homelessness in general, but it is.

I think the underlying question I'm battling with at the moment is how I continue to 'help' without it wearing me down, because once I'm worn down, I'm of no help to anybody.

Brave clients = great campaigns

Who's seen the Toohey's Extra Dry (TED) 5Seeds campaign?

If you haven't and you drink alcohol on occasion then you must have been living under a rock.

They started with a facebook page.

Then launched a treasure hunt.

Now they're talking to the masses on TV, outdoor and radio and by prompting intrigue through a film-style ad have pushed people to YouTube for a 'choose your own adventure' journey.

I'm assuming that the agency were briefed on creating intrigue about this product to prompt trial and I think they're doing that job very well, although I do wonder if the ATL creative is too polarising to shift product.

Another interesting aspect of this campaign, is that they are one of the first Australian brands to replace a micro-site URL with a Facebook page. I applaud the client for a) being forward thinking enough to let the campaign have a life of its own and b) for behaving cost efficiently in a digital world where unique time-lasting assets are no longer a necessity.

p.s. has anybody tried one of these drinks?

Reassessing focus

Here is a really cool execution that would work well for a health based campaign.

Thefuntheory.com is an initiative from Volkswagon based on the belief that "the easiest way to change people's behaviour for the better is by making it fun to do".

I agree.

A lot of the time when we answer briefs we get too wound up in the category that the brand operates in and as such, clouded by their industry norms.

This execution is a really good example of a solution devised by focusing on the problem.

I'm making assumptions here, but I believe the creators would have arrived at this by starting from a macro viewpoint of the consumer rather than a more refined brand standpoint.