Come with me....

Pop-up store to test market potential

2011-03-04T17:02:00.000+11:00

Many advertisers choose to test new approaches to communications in smaller markets before they invest in a national campaign. This gives marketers the reassurance that they won’t be wasting their finite budgets and also allows planners to inject consumer learnings into the larger roll out. This is an example of a small business testing their market potential through the use of a pop-up store. Tokyo Bike is a shop all about bikes. They set up a store in an empty space and made the “office furniture” out of cardboard boxes.

Tokyo Bikes pop-up store has proven a cheap way to establish themselves within the community before investing in permanent assets. I like the authentic nature of this ‘test’. It allows the brand to get amongst the people who are ultimately likely to benefit from the product whilst raising awareness through buzz generation. The key to the success of pop-up stores is making them novel enough for people to take an interest whilst extending distribution in areas that the existing assets don’t cover.

Creating pop-up installations around new products before they hit the supermarket shelves could help beauty brands create demand for products via word-of-mouth. Further, beauty brands might take advantage of overseas success that filters into the Australian market via blogs & editorial, and make the products available via pop-up stores prior to launch.

Check out Tokyo Bike’s pop-up shop here

And Tokyo Bike’s blog here

Using their owned assets

2011-03-04T17:01:00.000+11:00

In case anyone didn’t notice, Valentine’s Day occurred earlier this week! Whether you’re a believer or not, it is easy to be entertained (and sometimes delighted) by the crazy things that people do for love. Telstra executed this great activation using the digital billboard on the outside of their building in Melbourne. They gave people a number to sms through their name and their Valentine’s name. The message of love then went up in lights on the billboard!

Tactical media activity always helps to demonstrate that a brand has some personality and ‘real’ people working behind it. What I love about this activation is that Telstra employed their owned assets, and technology to make it happen. The only downfall here was that once you had entered your names and been sent an MMS, the version that you could view online couldn’t be instantly shared. If they had allowed people to share the images in social media directly from their site they would have turned what was a nice engaging, tactical activation in Melbourne, into a broader reaching fun campaign that generated more buzz.

Once again, this demonstrates the importance of amplifying your most engaging activity.

See more here

Lee: Practising what they preach

2011-03-04T17:00:00.001+11:00

With the relevance of eco-friendly initiatives increasing every day, Lee wanted an innovative solution that would display their affiliation towards the same and also spread the message amongst their customers. To drive the message home in a fun and effective way, Lee went for something a bit more inventive than just a bag made of recycled paper. The ‘Never Wasted’ shopping bag – a bag that can be used and reused in one way or another. Some for fun, some for function, but nothing ever goes into the bin. Not only did this make the idea longer-lasting and interactive, but also conveyed the message in a fascinating manner.

This is a fantastic example of ‘practising what you preach’ it takes the ‘green’ message and delivers it in a new way whilst creating talk ability at the same time. The execution matches the brand’s fun & edgy personality and further, demonstrate a great use of owned media sets.

The internet is scary

2011-03-04T16:59:00.001+11:00

Whilst I’m sure we’re all tired of hearing about how ubiquitous the internet is, there are still times when the audience numbers that it produces, absolutely blow me away. This Counter is activated when you land on the website and it shows “how active & dynamic the Social Web, Mobile Industry and Game Business is”. It counts the number of interactions in various spaces that are occurring by the second.

More than ever this demonstrates that if you’re not active in this space, you’ll be left behind. Consumers are engaging in various platforms online and the speed at which emails are being distributed (shown in this counter) demonstrates that, the innate ability of the internet to afford creation.

CHECK OUT THE COUNTER ITS CRAZY NUMBERS...

The first tablet specific newspaper launched

2011-03-04T16:57:00.000+11:00

Rupert Murdoch & Steve Jobs announced a first of its kind partnership this week – The Daily. A tablet-specific newspaper that can be purchased through the app store for 99 cents per week or $39.99 for a year-long subscription. It is a general interest newspaper (US national) that will be updated daily with ‘short-bite’ content and lots of interactive features. It is an attempt by Murdoch to engage an audience - expected to be 50 million strong in the US by the end of the year - that has long abandoned traditional newspapers.

The implication for advertisers is greater pressure on agencies to produce engaging advertising. The temptation will be to replicate print advertising in apps but the reality is the audience who subscribe to content via this channel expect that it will provide a better experience for them, tailored to their desires.

For the beauty industry, consumers will demand instantaneous product information and instructions for replicating a celebrity’s look as soon as it hits the red carpet – the opportunity will be to harness m-commerce and close the loop between engagement and sales.

Private Label V Big Brands

2011-03-04T16:56:00.002+11:00

Future growth is expected amongst private label beauty products according to Euromonitor. We have already seen this trend start to emerge in Australia with Cole’s recent focus on ranging health & beauty products, and their launch of the Derma Q10 range which garnered huge popularity in the UK.

Given that many of the retail brands launching into this space have no prior beauty experience or credentials, they are primed to respond to consumer demand. This is evidenced by H&M’s organics range in the UK. Their ability to start from a clean slate will mean that ‘traditional’ beauty companies will need to innovate in response to consumer demand and localise to keep up with the emergence of new competitors. If they are unable to do this, consumers will be looking for added value to rationalise the higher price point of more traditional beauty brands.

See Euromonitor’s 3 minute video opinion here

Converting awareness to sales

2011-03-04T16:54:00.000+11:00

Estee Lauder have employed a unique digital technology in the U.S. that allows consumers to view a “how to” video and click directly through to purchase the product. As the video plays, the user can roll over the video where clickable tabs pop up and reveal more information about the product or allow for click through to purchase or more information.

With multiple screens from which to consume, people seem to have an insatiable appetite for content. This execution is a great way of driving consumers from the content they seek, through to more branded information. Given we’ve seen a huge increase in visitation to consumer generated how-to content, there is an opportunity for a brand to add value to the content by providing the ‘experts’ voice and connecting consumers through to point of purchase. An important feature of this technology is that it is user controlled and if the user rolls off the ad, the pop-ups disappear so to prevent a poor user experience.

Watch Video

Banner ads don’t need to be boring

2011-03-04T16:53:00.001+11:00

This ad for channel FOUR in NZ, is a great example of a simple interactive ad. It is designed to raise awareness of two of its programs, Next Top Model & The Biggest Loser, in a fun and engaging way. The user is prompted to slide the bar across the scale. As they do so, they see the model transform in a larger version of her. It is a nice take on fatbooth technology. The image is accompanied by the cheeky headline “There are only seven ice creams of separation between America's Next Top model and The Biggest Loser. Have fun.”

Interactive ads are proven to be more effective than standard display ads and this is great example of using cost efficient media space in an engaging way. This type of ad could easily be employed to demonstrate before & after effects of L’Oreal beauty products. It might make for an interesting use of our new Garnier spokes model when she transforms from her existing look to her new hair colour. It might also allow for consumers to see how applying different amounts of a coloured cosmetic can result in a different look. The idea could be extended one step further and allow users to upload their image & position themselves as the model.

See the example

P&G renew their focus on celeb endorsement

2011-03-04T16:51:00.000+11:00

P&G appear to have renewed their focus on celebrity endorsements, this week announcing that J-Lo will, alongside Jonny Wilkinson & Brian O’Driscoll, be endorsing the Gillette brand. P&G have signed J-Lo as the global ambassador for the Venus franchise and have taken an innovative approach to employing her. Rather than just use J-Lo’s ‘face’ P&G have had the artist remake the song “Venus” to drive the association between her and the brand. She will appear in all creative assets but the ‘spectacle’ of her singing makes her presence relevant.

There is nothing new about celebrity endorsement but the way P&G are engaging with their new ambassadors is admirable. Employing our L’Oreal ambassadors to advertise in the field that they’re known for would help to heighten relevance. For instance, if they’re an actress we might make a short film series or if they’re a sportsperson we may run a coaching clinic with them. People expect to be closer than ever to their celebrities thanks to perceived one-to-one communications formats such as twitter. So if a brand facilitated this connection, it would reflect very positively on brand health.

Read More Here

Reacting in realtime pays off: gobarbra.com

2011-03-04T16:39:00.002+11:00

Polish company Pixnet created this mini-site GoBarbra.com just for fun in less than 2 days!! Since last Friday it has collected over 68,000 Likes on facebook with too many comments for us to count! The mini-site is based on a simple premise; take a very popular song, use some existing text to voice technology and allow people to share their creations. Its brilliance is in its simplicity.

This is great example of how a brand can benefit from remaining flexible. Whilst this was built by some guys having some fun, it is a brilliant way to demonstrate the ivona technology in an engaging and fun way. I love that if this is indeed a promotion for the technology, the brand has put themselves second and the consumer interests first by identifying what’s popular and playing on that.

A word of warning before you try it – it is VERY addictive.

The Sheen Machine

2011-03-04T16:38:00.000+11:00

A few weeks ago I wrote about the site gobarbra.com that had taken advantage of popular culture to demonstrate the technical capabilities of some voice interpretation software. Here is another great example of people taking topical events & repurposing them for their own entertainment. Some, clever person has taken Charlie Sheen’s latest media faux-pas and created an entertaining website out of them. It is simple and employs social media sharing facilities to gain popularity. There is an option to share via twitter or facebook and to print the comments onto t-shirts.

For a brand, the important point to observe here is that popularity comes as a result of identifying cultural phenomena and taking advantage of it in a timely fashion. LiveTheSheen has over 300,000 likes on facebook and crashed due to high volumes of traffic visiting it over the last few days. It reinforces the need to remain flexible in light of the speed at which news and information get to market and then travel through it.

Check out the site here: http://www.livethesheendream.com/

The ultimate source of consumer-generated ideas

2011-03-04T12:58:00.000+11:00

In Melbourne, many of our clients are retail focussed and one major retail problem for communicators is; "How do you add value to the consumer experience in an increasingly commoditised and price sensitive world?"

So, when I landed on this website I felt like all my dreams had come true.

It basically aggregates comments from people who tweet along the lines of "I wish the internet..." or "I wish I had an app for..." It is a brilliant source of consumer generated desires just waiting for brands and developers to deliver the answers.

Everyday now... there is something new

2010-11-14T12:47:00.002+11:00

So now, my days seem too short to fit everything in.

One of the things that I find most difficult is fitting in time to be inspired. It sounds ridiculous that one should seek out inspiration but to stretch my thinking this is what I need to do.

I read a multitude of blogs, I look at what our competitors are up to and more than anything else, I bounce ideas off those around me including my fiance Matt.

Matt is A-for-Awesome - the polar opposite of me but a waelth of creativity and fun. He inspires me by thinking in an unrestricted way. He helps me solve problems everyday and his thughts - whilst some days are way too far out for my clients, help me to create new work and solve problems in my client's briefs.

Everyday brings something new and that's what I love about my job.

Until finally... UM - the start of something new

2010-11-14T11:26:00.005+11:00

In my first few weeks working with UM I won the opportunity to represent Australia as a Young Lion at the Cannes International Advertising Festival. It was the most incredible experience. Not only did I get to hear thoughts from some of the world's most creative thinkers but I also got to compete in an international competition.

My partner, Tristan Burrell & I won the competition! It was the start of big things for me. After returning to Australia I was asked to be a guest speaker at a number of events, was named in the top 40 under 40 list by Australia's leading trade publication and threw myself into working on a range of clients at UM.

I will admit that my first few months with UM were difficult. I had come from a less traditional agency where the view on responding to briefs was; 'the more creative the better'. At UM I needed to learn to balance investment opportunities with creative thinking. These difficulties were also what made me love working for UM. The people around me; Henry Tajer, Nathan Brown and Chris Okeefe worked with me to help me find the best balance. They gave me opportunities to shine including leading the pitch for $11 million account Panasonic which we subsequently won.

These same people have put the same faith in me to step up to a strategic leadership role and I have recently relocated to Melbourne as Director of Communicaions & Strategy for the Melbourne office. Given my relative inexperience (8 years) compared to others in the market, this demonstrates the belief that the company has in me and also my committment to succeed and drive execllence in everything that I do.

With this move came a transition off some of my existing clients. I was pleasantly suprised to recieve a number of emails thanking me for my contribution to their business. Nothing is more flattering than being recognised for your efforts by your clients.

Ikea makes me bi-polar

2010-10-13T10:44:00.001+11:00

I feel like my attitudes towards Ikea change with each new day. Lets be honest, its a hell-hole to shop at. I for one, go because I need something - like some cheap wine glasses or a roll out bed or something that will make my home look more like a home & less like the council rubbish collection out on the street.

I do know that there exists a cult-like group of people who go because they actually enjoy it..... I hear that most members of this cult enjoy frequenting mazes with hundreds of other cult members in their spare time.

Now despite the lack of enjoyment that I get from the Ikea real-life experience I can't help but love what they do from an engagement perspective.

Some time ago I wrote about this here awesome use of transit media in Japan and now, just a few days after my traumatic real-life experience I have come across another reason to admire Ikea's work.

Its called mykea and is a community of artists that have got together and found a way to personalise Ikea furniture. The standardisation of Ikea products globally makes this project work. It is basically a massive online plasterfunhouse but the community of artists, similar to those on threadless, ensure that you don't fuck up your furniture and end up with a piece looking like a big pile of poo.

Artists can join the community, submit their designs and average joes can come along and customise their Ikea purchases.

The major limitation is coming from the furniture giant themselves. You cannot buy Ikea products online!!!!

A tale of two cities. Observation #1: Melbournians wait at the traffic lights.

2010-10-11T09:33:00.002+11:00

Since I am now officially a resident of the southern state I've decided to record my observations about the differences between the cities.

This is NOT a ploy to start a Sydney V Melbourne debate (afterall I am a lover of both). It is more to demonstrate that without immersing oneself in a market, it is difficult to truly understand the nuances and as such make sound media buying decisions.

So onto my first observation.

Melbournians wait at the traffic lights.

I have garnered a number of strange looks on the street since last Tuesday when I started working in Melbourne and I'm pretty sure that its not the result of having my skirt tucked into my undies.

Its because at a set of traffic lights, where the little green and red men reside, I generally just wait for a break in traffic and scoot across the road.

Locals however don't. They stand and wait politely.

Jaywalking it seems, is a no-no.

The implications on media
Aside from this being the 'right' thing to do and also taking me back to Berlin where jaywalking is a fineable offence and thus never done, it also made me realise that outdoor, particularly transit outdoor, has much greater value here in Melbourne than in Sydney.

Dwell times are longer because people actually stop and look around rather than whip their head from side to side like a teenage shoplifter about to be caught.

In addition, the trams, whilst a faster mode of transport than buses due to less congestion, actually seem to run a bit slower or maybe its that they drive in a straight line. Either way, the advertising on them is much clearer and easier to read that that on a moving bus. Yet another point to increase the value of outdoor in this market.

So that's it fro observation #1.... await with baited breath (which actually is a disgusting term and I think would smell quite fishy) for installation #2 of The Tale of Two Cities.

A-for-Awesome Fun!

2010-08-25T14:27:00.004+10:00

This is one of the most fun executions I've ever seen. VW and their Fun Theory stuff is great but I love that most of the time its a pretty literal interpretation of a recognised consumer problem.

The executions here are aimed at people who like to speed things up.

Skate-Trolley is A-for-Awesome!

Hat-tip to Content Kids.

Here's a cool idea...

2010-08-18T15:07:00.001+10:00

For those that are into fashion this site (polyvore.com) will push you buttons.

Basically, it takes fashion inspiration, catalogues, creativity and e-commerce and mashes it altogether.

With basic drag and drop technology you can create your own mood boards - a dream for any aspiring fashionista or mag-hag.

Whilst the fashion space may not appeal to you, the applications for this type of technology are huge. I can see it working for music, automotive, luxury brands... anything really that has some aspirational appeal.

From a media point of view, its a pretty useful tool for creating a mood board or archetype when you don't have time to trawl through various sites for different pictures.

Due to popular demand....

2010-07-20T12:40:00.008+10:00

So.... on a personal note. Matt & I have just returned from an amazing month in Europe. We had many great adventures starting in Cannes (see below posts), travelling onto the Greek Islands and then finally to Paris.

Coincidentally, this time of travel marked four years since we had met and fallen in love (in fact revisit the meeting here). Now whilst many people have said to me "you must have known" I can't stress enough how much of a suprise it was when Matt asked me to marry him on the 14th of July.

Here's the story....

When we first met I had ben travelling alone for about 5 months. I had visited paris and 100% hated it. I thought it was a smelly, grey and unfriendly city. having recounted this experience to Matt he insisted that I join him there so he could show me the true beauty of the city. I accepted the invite and not only changed my opinion of Paris but also fell in love.

Part of the romance occurred when we stumbled upon and incredible room at the Avenir Hotel Montmarte. Room 39 has the most magical view with three balconies; the first framing the Scare Couer, the second showing the breadth of the city and the third framing the Eiffel Tower.

We've stayed here everytime that we've been to Paris since.

So on the day of our anniversary Matt suggested that we have a nice breakfast together then meet up with the rest of his family who were also visiting Paris. I agreed. On the moring Matt woke up and brought me a cup of tea in bed (exactly what I love) then asked me to have a shower and get ready. For those who don't know, Matt hates to be late. He is constantly rushing me out the door and to my dismay, we are constantly arriving at events before the start time. So even on this day when we had no appointments he was hovering around trying to rush me. I told him as much and asked him to stop stressing me out!!!

When I'd finished with the 'fluffing' Matt asked me to stand on the balcony where he was going to take a photo of us all dressed up. I went out to the balcony and Matt said "Oh look, dad & Louise are up at the Scare Couer waving".... I turned around and indeed they were waving but also holding an enormous sign that said "WILL YOU MARRY ME?". I read it out loud not quite comprehending until I turned back around and saw matt on on knee holding the most incredible engagement ring that I have ever seen.

From then, it turned into a bit of an emotional fireworks dispaly with both of us a bit lost for words, crying, shaking all of the above.

After a few photos we headed up to the Scare Couer for more photos with the sign close up (amid screaming American tourists.... people said things like "oh, my god, this has totally made my holiday...." - hello, I was being proposed to, not them!!!)

We spent the rest of the day celebrating with family and friends.

On top of that there are lots of people we need to thank....

Both of our families for keeping this enormous secret. I had no idea and if it weren't for all of your crafty work it wouldn't have been such a suprise.
Mum, Dad, Jo & Kane for saying yes when matt asked if he could marry me
Ken, Bernadette, Mrs H, Louise, Amanda & Shrek for organising the sign and celebrating with us.
Louise & her skydiving buddies for making the sign.
Henry, Chris, Trav for arranging an additional week's holiday so that Matt could propose on our special day.
Lyndelle, I hear you've been an unwavering rock for matt with his nerves and in the ring selection and making process - thank you.
Miss Sal and Jen Leonard for your sneaky arrangement of the fake itineraries and ensuring we got there and back safely.
Ara for hiding the ring and keeping it safe in Cannes.

I'm sure that there are people I've missed but Matt tells me that without you all this wouldn't have happened so thank you.

At this point we've made no plans but are just so appreciative of everyone's heartfelt messages and will let you know as soon as possible dates for celebrations!

Cannes 2010: A contagious conversation

2010-06-23T18:11:00.004+10:00

Yesterday I attended 'A Contagious Conversation' with Richard Pinder, Paul Kemp-Robertson and Jess Greenwood. It was one of the highlights of the festival so far. The guys spoke about the importance of creating tangible value and gave some great examples of creating conversation.

Durex Play – From protection to pleasure

Needed a fundamental shift in position.

High brand loyalty of 16-24yrs but as they got older they had no need for the brand anymore. So they created a whole new range of products that were all about pleasure.

They commissioned a survey all about sex and sexual behaviour. They wanted to liberate sexuality and make I mainstream – ie sit next to cosmetics on the supermarket shelf.

Women helped design products for women.

A zero base to $43million revenue in the first 4 years.

The case study from contagious.

Ways to change the conversation

Ignite the conversation
Own the conversation
Confront the conversation
Subvert the conversation

Ignite the conversation

Pepsi refresh project.

A consumer generated project that allowed Pepsi to create its own voice. People voted for funding against different community projects. The campaign prioritised engagement over reach and understood the brand rather than just sat there aware of it.

VW – the fun theory

They wanted to be less automotive and more about change and the great things in life. It was about changing the conversation around their brand from

Throw rubbish in the bin because its fun – noise was activated when the rubbish was put in the bin and 72kg of rubbish were collected on day 1 compared to 42kg in a nearby bin.

The outcome – fun can change behaviour for the better.

Check out the reel here.

Lurpak – Bake Club

Insight: British people do not cook at home like they used to

Pride never came out of a ready meal.

A communal cook off where people cook the same thing at the sme time and interact online about it.

Own the conversation

Advertisers felt they could own the conversation by yelling at people over and over again. The real way to own the conversation is to involve people in it.

Gatorade – Replay. No small games.

Gatorade flipped the tables and went for the cult of the amateur.

Insight: Everyone’s got one of those games where something went wrong.

Idea: Rivalry is scaleable. Provide what every athlete hopes for, a second chance.

Replayed old highschool football game to decide the real winner. Original coaches, cheerleaders, band members were there. Gatorade designed a training program strating 2 months out and the journey was recorded and broadcast throughout.

10K tickets sold out in 90mins.

No major injuries, broken bones or torn muscles – the ultimate product demonstration.

Hollywood has shown interest in creating a film out of the concept and the TV show will run again next year.

The no media engagement metric – without media, would people still choose to engage with your content. Gatorade took a product demonstration and turned it into a Hollywood movie.

Here's the summary.

Dulux – Let’s Colour – Own the concept

They wanted to own the concept of colour but take it a lot further. It was about transforming the look and feel of impoverished communities with different coloured paints.

A team of cultural bloggers followed the project and used the web as a global tv set.

www.letscolourproject.com

Nike/Livestrong – Chalkbot – post-digital thinking

People chalk messages on the side of the road during the tour de france to send messages of support to the cyclists.

Nike arranged for messages via twitter, sms or yellow.com told the chalkbot to spray the message on the road. It then took a photo and sent a message back to the messenger with gps coordinates so that they could see it.

It changed something digital into something physical whih makes it much more emotional and real. The way people react to something changes once it becomes physical/tangible.

Chalkbot video.

Confront the conversation

Domino’s – Pizza Turnaround – Transparent Takeway

Negativity around the brand heightened when a video of employees being disgusting went viral.

700k views on pizzaturnaround.com

80,000 more fans on facebook (1 fan = $3 of earned media)

Same store traffic increased by 14%

Marmite – The Marmarati

You either love it or you hate it. They realised they couldn’t get the haters to buy it but they could get the lovers to buy loads of it.

They used the top 20% of the lovers on facebook to become part of a marmite secret society and then use them to launch a limited edition product.

Subvert the conversation

Uniqlo – Lucky Switch – Digital hijack

You need to be brave and you need to do something that gives back to people.

They took banners – the most common and ubiquitous digital advertising platform and made them interesting and useful. They created a never seen before banner ad campaign. I don't know the technical details but basically you downloaded a plugin that was activated when you licked on a uniqlo banner. It then replaced all other advertising with uniqlo ads. The motivation to do this was essentially a treasure hunt/promotion where people could win items of clothing.

Essentially, it turned the banner ad into a piece of content that people wanted to interact with. Clicking on the banner didn't take you away from the site it just added value to the site you were on.

Charmin – sit or squat – public services

They wanted to subvert the conversation about going to the toilet. If parents are out and about with kids, kids give no warning at all, they just look for the nearest toilet.

Sit or Squat App. Essentially a toilet locator using gps tracking and consumer reviewed star ratings.

1600 downloads prior to the partnership and afterwards a 1million.

The reel.

Love Jozi – Luv Jozi – Problem/Solution

This is an example of what happens when you focus on the problem not on the spend.

No awareness issues – everyone in the know knew about jozi but what about the other people that couldn’t afford jozi.

They faked their own brand. Sold them in flea markets, street vendors & distributed to more ‘mainstream’ wearers.

The fakes were then faked.

After two years of running the campaign, they brand revealed that they were behind the fakes.

Luv Jozi now makes up 75% of the brands revenue and they successfully made a cheaper derivative of the brand without cheapening the brand.

Check out more at www.publiciscontagiousconversations.com

Cannes 2010: EA Games & the next frontier

2010-06-21T22:20:00.002+10:00

A few stats & facts

In the US $1 in every $4 spent in entertainment is on games.
Consumers see value in entertainment, spending 100+ hours per week. Think parents interacting and teaching their kids via video games.
75% of Apple’s app revenue comes from gaming. Mobile is the fastest growing area.
43% of gamers are women and a third of gamers are parents.

EA Sports

EA Sports “experiences that unite the emotions of sport”. The closest you can get to being one of your heroes is participating in an electronic game as your hero. E.g. Being Tiger Woods and winning the Ryder Cup (coming out next year).

For FIFA 2011, player images will be photo-like. EA have also created personalities in the players. So players on screen will start to play just like they do in real life e.g. a shorter player might have greater speed/acceleration and when the players interact, they will respond like they would in real life.

Time spent on the FIFA platform is 36 million game sessions = 217 million minutes = 414 years (as an aside Tristan hates these numbers… “they don’t mean anything he says”, I agree…. The gamer is engaged in the ‘experience’ not the brand in the background.)

How EA is selling in-game advertising onto brands

EA = Experience Affinity

Top entertainment
Relevant reach
Engaged audiences
Integration expertise

It seems most brands (Dr Pepper, Unilever, Doritos) all use the platform as a means for giving consumers access to exclusive content or a deeper engagement/more positive experience than they would get through purchasing the product alone. It is a means for adding value to an audience who has common interests in the advertising brand and gaming.

The case of Renault & SIMs

Renault is overcoming the challenge of ‘young people not buying new cars’ by integrating into SIMs. They’ve experienced 250,000 downloads of Twizy ZE to date and over 8,000 comments about the partnership on European blogs etc. It is teaching gamers (and younger generations) about electric cars as well as improves the user’s SIMs experience.

Renault has used the integration to learn a lot about their customers and build their database. They say that being pushed out of their comfort zone has helped them learn how to sell better and recognize bigger opportunities.

Measurement

EA games now has a partnership with Nielsen allowing brands to measure interactions and purchase lift in households exposed to interactive advertising.

The measurement will be comparable to other channels and will plug into people meter-style facility.

My opinion….

Still not convinced. Its all very interesting and certainly ticks the boxes on reaching a very passionate audience but at the end of the day, its still just a very passionate, segment of the entire potential population.

This is a channel that needs to be considered right from the outset and at the point of content and creative development.

Cannes 2010: OgivlyOne's Search for the World's Greatest Salesperson

2010-06-21T19:40:00.005+10:00

Ogilvy One ran the search for the world’s greatest salesperson.

The seminar opened with a statement “you can create saleability without creating sales”.

Its not enough to create desire & brand attraction on its own unless it translates into action. Take the environment for example, there is a clear gap between the lives people want to live in theory, and the lives they live in practise.

A good sales pitch requires change of mind and actual behavioural change.

We saw a live context between the three finalists in the search. They were to sell a Motorola Phone…. (I think it’s a bit of a problem that post all three pitches I still can’t tell you the name of the product). Irrespective, here’s my short wrap up….

Felt polished and businesslike. She was wearing a suit and red shoes which gave me something to remember her by! Her pitch was well rehearsed but seemed to lack a little personality.

Judges comments: “I want to start with you” was nicer than focusing on ‘me’.

2. TODD

2. Todd a great ‘boy next door’ presence but I was a little disappointed in the delivery. Again, its seemed a little mundane. A small slip up mid pitch but he recovered admirably.

He’s opening line “If you were to design a smartphone what would you want? Speed.” I thought this was clever as it is an appealing angle that transcends various audiences.

Todd used humour up front to pull me in and then used the features of the phone to show how the phone worked.

Judges comments: good call to action – I’ve got more to tell you but come and see me later.

3. ERIC

Eric had me from the start. He was entertaining, gimmicky and told a story rather than ‘sold’ a phone.

He made me smile which meant he was memorable and he forced me to be engaged by throwing things (free t-shirts I think) at me.

Judges comments: A single idea through a character - mobility

_________________________________

My vote was for Eric but Todd won the challenge. He then closed out the seminar with a really clean and charismatic speech so maybe I just got distracted by his nerves during the pitch because I ended liking the guy!

Shaving Bieber.... why is none else doing it?

2010-05-27T11:24:00.002+10:00

A BIG thanks to Briar for bringing this to my attention.

It is a brilliant little app built to plug into firefox. Basically...

* 1 - Go to Shaved Bieber
* 2 - Download or bookmark
* 3 - Enjoy Bieber-free browsing!

It's funny because well... there is an audience who wants to escape Bieber Fever BUT it is clever because to my knowledge, there are no brands using this type of functionality yet.

I think that there is a great opportunity to think about 'browser' apps rather than just the traditional (I can't believe I'm saying that) i-phone app. The greatest opportunity would be to add utility in terms of consumption filtering but you could also create some entertainment value.

Imagine an app that highlighted all the rude words on a page or even combinations of words to make funny sentences. It could completely change the user experience of written content consumption.

Does anyone know why brands haven't broadly entered into this space?
What opportunities can you see for thsi type of filtering application?

Becoming street wise online

2010-05-26T09:06:00.002+10:00

Yesterday afternoon something funny happened. I retweeted a message that one of my 'real life' friends had tweeted.

The tweet said something along the lines of "this guy is awesome & looking for a job in SEO".I sent it onto another friend who I knew was recruiting for an SEO job.

It didn't take long for the original friend to start poking fun at the fact that I hadn't clicked on his link to see that he was in fact, recommending Rick Astley for the job....

Ha. Ha. Ha. The joke is on me. However, in light of this personal experience and yesterday's fake BP twitter account, it got me thinking about what trust means and how it operates differently between the on and offline worlds.

There are some people in my life (ie grandparents) who wouldn't trust the internet for a second. There's no way that they'd make purchases online or believe that once they pressed 'send', an email would safely arrive at its destination. These are also the same people whose words of advice to me as a child were 'don't believe everything you read'.

So, it raises the question 'why do I seem to trust the internet and what I read on it, more so than traditional broadcast media?'

And, I think its due to the personal factor. I have a higher degree of trust in those that I interract with online and whom I also know in real life BUT, these lines are easily blurred.

Take twitter for example, I have started following people (and trust the links that they post plus, I value their opinions) but simply because they are part of the network of other people that I trust.

Its somewhat of a viscious circle.

Having now experienced an unharmful yet eye-opening breach of trust online by an offline friend, I'll be aiming to limit my levels of trust. I don't expect this to be easy though given that I expect people to trust what I endorse or post online. I guess its just about being more thorough & having what would be akin to street-sense when navigating the web.

The beauty of simplicity

2010-05-17T08:54:00.002+10:00

I am going to start simplifying my work.

I've been inspired by the wonderful Mark Pollard who manages to clearly articulate most of his arguments (here's an example).

I find myself struggling to demonstrate the volume of thinking that goes into an end product without putting a whole heap of physical evidence on the table. This is possibly due to an element of immaturity and a desire to prove my worth.

Irrespective, what I've learnt from Mark is that a clear articualtion that people just 'get' is much more powerful than a detail laden document that demonstrates one's 'smarts'.

This is just a bit awesome

2010-04-22T12:39:00.003+10:00

I just stumbled across this awesome execution from Jay Jays (thanks bannerblog).

Jay Jays, whilst primarily a retail brand have found a creative way to engage with their consumers whilst communicating the core benefit of their offering "inexpensive wearable fashion".

The brand have mashed up music, dance and fashion (and they tell you this when you jump on their site) to provide an entertaining, interactive catalogue.

I do have a few questions for them though.

1. Why launch it AFTER So You Think You Can Dance has finished? Or if it was launched previosuly why haven't I seen it anywhere except on an industry blog?

2. You filmed it in 3D and are driving people in-store to get their glasses - have you harnessed any other 3D-ready platforms like cinema or TV to generate further awareness?

I guess the point here is that it will be a great shame if this little piece of awesomness, like so many other great digital ideas, goes missed by many because the balance between production and distribution budgets is not... well... balanced. There isn't even any SEM against it!

Is there any point doing something great if no-one gets to see it?

What's the value of integration?

2010-03-22T08:51:00.001+11:00

A few months ago I was having a conversation with a colleague about integration. It was sparked due to me having been exposed to hours upon hours of fishing programs thanks to my other half. What I noticed was that while the producers had done an awesome job of integrating a 4WD brand into the program they obviously had a template.

I only noticed this because the episodes were running back to back but essentially Episode 1 (probably from the current series) featured Ford and the second featured Mitsubishi. For me, the viewing experience didn’t differ from episode to episode.

It made me realise that while the level of integration was likely deemed excellent by the marketers of each brand, it was probably of little value in terms of its impact on the consumer.

I remember at the time, stating that if the brand doesn’t have a truly unique role to play in-program then this cookie-cutter approach to integration is probably more harmful than of value – I’m guessing it is most damaging in terms of misattribution and differentiation.

Operating with this principle in mind, I wanted to recognise the awesomeness of Steggles current involvement in the NRL. The brand has carved out a sponsorship with the Roosters (funnily enough) but seemingly, not the NRL.

Some smart cookie has come up with a specific role for Steggles to play in their sponsorship which not only adds value to the brand but also to the viewer experience.

“For every point the Sydney Roosters beat their opposition by in the 2010 season, Steggles will donate $1,000 to a Charity Nest, while the Sydney Roosters will also contribute $250 per point.”
I would argue that more so than the brands that have paid for broadcast sponsorships Steggles is cutting through the clutter and emerging as a highly recognised brand. Further, I assume Steggles would not have been able to secure a broadcast sponsorship due to KFC’s involvement – nice one Steggles you’ve trumped the fast food joint in terms of exposure and meaningful involvement.

Steggles’ cause-marketing effort has received ample coverage during the live broadcasts without the regular 4 x 30sec spot content of other advertisers. The ‘Charity Nest’ program has put skin in the game, even for those matches that aren’t highly anticipated. They’ve capped the contribution at $250,000 (although I haven’t heard the commentators talk about this) which means its much cheaper than the rate card NRL sponsorship.

It goes to demonstrate that unique thinking and finding an actual role for the brand as opposed to tacking it onto a pre-existing template is what we should be striving for. I wish I was the one writing the effectiveness award for this idea at the end of the campaign!

Practise what you preach

2010-02-04T12:30:00.001+11:00

This is brilliant. An Aussie creative agency, BCM have just launched the first Twebsite (according to mumbrella).

The profile in it itself has all you need to know about the agency, but what is really clever is that it demonstrates a willingness to practise what they preach in terms of social media and, also encourages clients and prospective clients to understand this emerging space.

This is not dissimilar to what American agency booneoakley did last year when launching their website as an interactive youtube video.

I think there is something to be said for agencies that use their own 'brand' indentity to tout their skills at promoting the identities of their clients. Not only does it generate positive PR within the industry but also demonstrates confidence in their own abilities.

Is this the first Twitter-com?

2010-01-06T15:38:00.001+11:00

Today I have started following @needygirlfriend and @aloofboyfriend who's banal banter to each other has me cringing with thoughts of "OMG I've done that" and has me laughing with thoughts of "thank god I never said that out loud".

The 'couple' are new on Twitter and I'm not sure who they are, if they are actually a couple or if they have been planted by an advertiser.

In her bio @needygirlfriend states "I just think this relationship could use more holding." Whilst @aloofboyfriend aptly says "What's up? I'm just chillin'. Whatever."

Irrespective of who they are or where they came from, they are entertaining. It is like working at home with Gossip Girl on the TV (yes, guilty as charged).

What I find interesting about this pair is that if they have NOT been planted by an advertiser it is a brilliant way for a client to jump on board the Twitter bandwagon - by launching a Twitter 'TV' program.

It reminds me a little of the old school radio sitcoms where you were privy to the conversation but not to the body language or appearance of the actors.

The benefit is, that once you have recruited the followers you can speak to them at set times of the day and start to build up a routine. I wonder if this will happen with @aloofboyfriend and @needygirlfriend resulting in 'appointment to watch/hear Tweeting'.

How cool is this?

2010-01-05T08:59:00.000+11:00

Its been awhile since I've posted because well... sadly work got in the way of curiosity. Anyway the new year has brought with it some breathing space and time to be curious again.

So - how cool is this?

I found it on Katie Chatfield's blog Get Shouty

It is a poster that requires interaction to complete. The back of the poster is covered with ink which you need to rub on the front side to reveal the image.

I think it gives a new meaning to print as an interactive medium.

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

2009-10-28T08:47:00.001+11:00

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.

2009-10-28T08:22:00.001+11:00

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

2009-10-20T15:42:00.003+11:00

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

2009-10-20T12:12:00.000+11:00

Consumer Generated Product

2009-10-19T15:40:00.001+11:00

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...

2009-10-17T14:05:00.003+11:00

Sometimes media hurts

2009-10-14T13:20:00.000+11:00

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

2009-10-12T15:57:00.000+11:00

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

2009-10-12T12:41:00.005+11:00

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.

Mark Fennell V TV Station idents - a nice piece of Australian TV nostalgia

2009-09-29T15:14:00.003+10:00

Thanks to my friend Rosey for pointing me to this nice review on TV station promos.

I love it.

Social media measurement... for FREE

2009-09-29T09:56:00.001+10:00

Here is a very cool tool.

If your social media expert is too busy to help you out or, if your client is too poor to pay for buzzmetrics or radian6 dazzle them with a quick run on Social Mention.

It is a very simple tool that allows you to type in a brand name and search in real time across a range of social media for where it has been mentioned.

This is what they say about themselves:

Social Mention is a social media search platform that aggregates user generated content from across the universe into a single stream of information.

It allows you to easily track what people are saying about you, your company, a new product, or any topic across the web's social media landscape in real-time. Social Mention monitors 80+ social media properties directly including: Twitter, Facebook, FriendFeed, YouTube, Digg, Google etc.

Social Mention currently provides a point-in-time social media search and analysis service, daily social media alerts, and a third-party API.

Of course, being free the tool does have some limitations. The first time I used it, it worked pretty quickly but since has seemed a little slow. Also, currently you can only search 'universally' not by region.

This said, I still think it useful for showing clients the volume of chatter that is occurring about their brand and also to track trends on specific subjects.

OMG: a conversation starter!

2009-09-29T08:43:00.004+10:00

Last week I read the review of this ad on Campaign Brief but for whatever reason, I didn't watch it. Last night after a long day at work I sat down to watch a bit of TV before heading to bed, and was pleasantly suprised viewing it.

I caught it about 4 seconds in, which meant I missed the "Hey Jesus" voicover at the start but was engaged for the remaining 26 seconds by of the playful music and pace at which the images were flashing up on screen.

The visuals made me somewhat nostaligic for the first days of the school year when I would lovingly collage my new folder with snippets of pop-culture that inspired me.

I do wonder though if this ad is a case of over promising, under delivering. I find it very hard to believe that if I actually followed through on what the ad is asking me to do and search for more about Jesus, that I would be met with the upbeat, youthful environ that the ad portrays.

Irresepective, I do believe that in an era where Jesus equals Madonna's latests squeeze, the well rounded campaign (I've seen grassroots activity EVERYWHERE) does a good job of getting people to reconsider faith and the things that are important in life.

Even if it doesn't succeed in getting people to reinvent their beliefs, it is a nice conversation starter.

The Incomplete Ad

2009-09-28T09:23:00.004+10:00

Here is a really cool print execution for the Uruguay Lynx equivelant, Axe.

As you can see, the ad appeared in print with white squares over the girl's 'naughty bits'. The aesthetics of the ad make it eye-catching enough to engage the reader to search for why it appears the way it does.

Upon searching the reader finds copy pointing the reader to text AXE to 2345 after 9 pm. After doing so the reader recieves a bounceback with an image to be placed over the existing ad. This completes the experience.

It is a really simple but smart way to intrigue the reader and create an experience memorable enough to share.

Pimp by colour

2009-09-28T09:00:00.002+10:00

This is a really cool tool that allows you to search for images based on colour.

You click the colour on the left-hand panel and it searches flickr for matching images. You can add colours for combination images.

Simple but smart.

Being grateful

2009-09-21T10:59:00.000+10:00

I started today feeling glum.

Not for any reason in particular but just very close to snapping for no reason at all.

Its now the end of the day and i have thought of a list of things for which I'm grateful.

I'm grateful for having found the ying to my yang.
I'm grateful that I don't have to compete in the dating world with the lithe, eagerly fashionable, young things that surround me.
I'm grateful that I am working in a job that allows for both brilliance & balance.
I am grateful that I have never been & never will be dumped via some form of digital technology.
I am grateful that despite having gone through my fair share the lonliness, hurt & false bravado of a break-up it will never haunt me again.
I am grateful for the 3pm smile that I brought to the face of a stressed co-worker upon delivery of some free Gelatissimo.
I am grateful to the guy who gave me his copy of Cleo because I missed out.
I'm grateful that I don't have a squeakily annoying voice or a booming aggressive one.
I'm grateful that the sun stayed up long enough for me to leave work in the light.
I'm grateful for being able to share these thoughts.

I obviously have a bit of a theme going on here and I think it is about growing up.

As much as it still pains me to think of all the lonley & sad times I had during my teens & early 20's maybe all the self-help books are right - you can't truly appreciate how good things are until you've experienced the bad.

I just want to put it out there & thank the universe for bringing me Matt & also for helping me to see the wood from the trees.

Quick Thinking = Smart Thinking

2009-09-16T14:28:00.001+10:00

I love it when brands take advantage of topical issues.

We all saw Veet do it perfectly when President Bush was voted out of the hot seat in America but here is an example of a relatively 'boring' brand taking advantage of today's hot-topic, Kanye West's outburst at the MTV VMAs. It demonstrates how a brand can easily inject contextual relevance into a pre-planned media placement.

Multi-purpose toilet paper

2009-09-10T14:55:00.003+10:00

I saw this on the Today Show this morning (which I now can't find online so you have to go by my written description) and found it both funny and interesting.

Apparently yesterday, due to its unique date 09.09.09, was a popular day for people to get married. I wasn't aware of this fact but someone at an Israeli toilet paper company was.

They commissioned local designers to make a series of wedding gowns from toilet paper.

As a topical stunt, I like this idea and am assuming that since it made the news in Australia, the client would be happy with the results but still, I wonder what the campaign was trying to communicate; strength? absorbancy? softness?

Maybe it was just to create awareness of the brand (locally I hope, as I can't actually can't find what brand it was for anywhere).

Either way, I'm impressed with the designs and the spectacle the promotion has created!

DWC: view as to how we mere mortals operate in your digital world

2009-09-10T09:34:00.001+10:00

When the girls from DWC asked me to speak tonight I was initially daunted by the prospect.

I wondered why a group of digital experts would want to hear from someone who is less than an expert in the digital space.

But as I started to think about digital and how it affects my life I realised that perhaps what I had to offer you tonight, was a view as to how we mere mortals, operate in your digital world.

So for the next 10 minutes or so I’m going to offer my opinion on digital media wrapped up in the best experience of my career to date – winning a gold media lion in Cannes.

So first, a bit about me.

I started working in media in 2003. At the time I was studying International Communications at Macquarie Uni and had an overly ambitious boyfriend with both a medical and law degree earning the big bucks at Clayton Utz. It wouldn’t be a lie to say that the relationship was a tad too competitive and I entered into full time study and full time work to prove a point more than anything else.

Irrespective of how it began, I soon found that it was the right decision. Entry level positions in media are less than underwhelming in their scope and at best mundane in their job description. But what this completely packed year did, teach me good time management skills and how to multitask.

I stayed in my first job for 3 and a half years before realising that as a 25 year old, 50 hour working weeks and a $40K salary was not only unhealthy but somewhat of an insult so I packed up and headed to Europe backpacking.

When the year was up I applied for a position as an Australian Youth Ambassador for Development in Samoa. This position was described as a role that encouraged the sharing of skills between young professionals and local counterparts. The reality was it was incredibly tough.

At the end of the year I returned to Australia and joined bellamyhayden as a strategist. The people, particularly the women, who I met whilst working at bellamyhayden are some of the most influential and inspirational people in my working life. They constantly strive to be better than their best, are steady in their approach to work and above all are strong.

I now work at Universal McCann and am tasked with driving strategy at every stage of the communications process both within the agency and for a broad range of clients.

I am NOT a digital specialist but digital is part of everything I do. In fact this is the first key subject I want to address tonight; that in the communications industry, digital is all too often used as a noun rather than as an adjective.

Despite digital technologies proliferating almost every aspect of our lives, marketing and advertising people alike insist on referring to online communications as digital. Personally, I disagree with this use of the word. In fact, I see it as an insult to the opportunities that digital technology avails.

Digital technologies have unarguably changed the way we live our lives both as communications professionals and as consumers. I suggest that we would be hard pressed to find any person in the developed world who is not touched by a digital technology in some way or another each day.
What has been difficult for the communications industry is the speed at which digital technologies and thus online communications have progressed and availed themselves to consumers.

The result has been an array of specialist agencies employed to prop-up those ‘traditional’ agencies overwhelmed by advances in the online space.

This would be fine if digital was contained to online activity, but its not. We now have digital TV, digital radio, digital outdoor, digital mobile handsets… the list goes on. The point is that the necessary separation of online from offline during the nineties means that very few people are now geared up to deal with true cross platform campaigns that harness the power of digital both on and offline.

This is not to say that the work being produced at the moment is not fantastic, far from it, but unless communications professionals start to see digital as an adjective rather than a noun, moving forward they are likely to miss digital opportunities in offline media.

So, this is where my role as a strategist becomes important. I serve to bridge the gap between specialist online agencies and traditional agencies whilst trying to ensure everyone is across digital developments in both on and offline. But what complicates my job is the speed factor.

A good idea is no good to anyone if the competition executes it first and this is the problem with the speed of innovation in the digital world.

Speed to market and speed of response have become powerful competitive advantages for agencies and clients alike and for the person that links all of this together – the strategist – the ability to make quick but educated decisions has never been more important. As such we’ve started to see a trend towards fast strategy.

Richard Huntington who writes the blog adliterate put this well when he said;
“The days of the stereotypical strategist are over. The business world has little time for the desperately bright, painfully academic, socially inept and ponderous planner.”

And this became abundantly clear to me when I recently competed in the Young Lions competition in Cannes.

For those who aren’t aware, the Young Lions competition is part of the International Advertising Festival in Cannes. The festival celebrates the best creative work from around the globe and fittingly, the Young Lions competition is designed to unearth young, yet creative minds.

After being selected via a rigorous and competitive process in their home nation, pairs from each country are briefed by a charity to solve a communications problem. The teams are then given 24 hours to respond to the brief with less than ten slides in a maximum of five minutes.

There were three firm and fast things I took from this process and that I think are essential for effective fast strategy;
1- Play to your strengths
2- A big idea can come from anywhere
3- The best solution is a brave solution

Playing to your strengths is exactly what it sounds like and is something that creative teams have been doing for years in their art director/copywriter relationship.

Fast work requires confidence in your abilities and a very candid approach to working in a team. There is no room for egos and the ability to let go and trust your colleagues is essential.

For the Young Lions competition I was partnered with someone who had less than half of my professional experience, who had never actually written a strategy but who had a creative mind, natural charisma and artistic ability. With such a short amount of time to construct and sell in a strategy we had to concentrate on what we were individually good at. So I acted out the business role while Tristan was the trustworthy guy next door. It worked well for us and ensured I didn’t have to worry about Tristan skipping key structural elements and Tristan didn’t have to worry about me presenting an ugly slide.

The next major learning I took from Cannes was that a big idea can come from anywhere. This notion was mentioned in almost every seminar that I attended in Cannes but it was mentioned in the context of working collaboratively with all of a client’s rostered agencies.

However in responding to our 24 hour brief what I discovered was that we communications folk, often become so engrossed in research and theoretical information that when answering a brief we forget to look to the people who have the greatest insights – the consumers.

Our winning idea in Cannes was actually inspired by my boyfriend. An admittedly artistically and musically talented person, but still, a bus driver who has never worked in the communications industry.

As a strategist I have been guilty of overcomplicating ‘big ideas’ but having to deliver a response in 24 hours forces you to be decisive and have clarity in your thinking as there is no alternative. I am also a firm believer that if the strategy is too complex for the communications professionals to understand then it will almost certainly be misinterpretated by the consumer. So entering into a fast strategy situation with an open mind is key to success.

The third key learning from my Cannes experience was that the best communications solutions are brave. This doesn’t necessarily mean employing the latest technology or bucking the trends in your category but it means pushing the boundaries.

So when we were briefed by the World Food Programme to raise enough awareness and funds to feed 59 million hungry people by 2015 we didn’t want to present a solution that encompassed new technology just because we could. We wanted the idea to push the boundaries and to write the execution itself.

We looked for a real insight that made us feel slightly uncomfortable and from there put an idea in front of the client that was so big that in a real life situation many clients would have shied away from it.

What we learned was that bravely standing by your idea and truly believing that it is the best solution shines through during the sell. It wasn’t about supporting our idea with reams of numbers or theory and it wasn’t about second guessing ourselves to deliver what the client wants to hear. It was about putting our best thinking forward even if it initially seemed too big to handle.

So in keeping with the purpose of tonight’s launch to start to shape the DWC community I would ask you to bear in mind my opinions and experiences from a non-online perspective. Consider digital as an adjective and how it may travel across all consumer touch points, consider the death of the stereotypical strategist and consider how fast strategy might benefit your business.

Thank you for your time tonight and please contact me to continue the conversation.

Solutions beyond communications

2009-09-08T12:28:00.003+10:00

I have recently been fighting the strategist's battle of getting 'traditional' media people to realise the potential of communications channels, outside of the stock standard TV, Radio, Press ilk.

In the past, this resistance was somewhat warranted given media commission was the primary revenue stream for agencies, but more and more we are trading on the strength of our ideas and how well they solve a problem. In fact, my job solely relies on this. So it was nice to come across this tidbit whilst reading Feeding Kat.

"So, Mos Def is launching his new record The Ecstatic on a t-shirt - album cover on front, track list on back, and a hang tag with URL and unique code to download the tracks."

It demonstrates the creative thought process that the music industry have been forced into given the rise of 'free' content and a generation who expect, rather insist, content be free.

I would argue that instead of waiting to be forced into creative thinking, adopting a channel neutral, commercially orientated approach to communications would secure your relationship with a client moving forward. So rather than present an idea that simply solves a problem (ie a 5% increase in awareness YOY) why not present a solution that delivers over and above the communications objectives and stretches into other parts of the client's business?

Many would argue that this isn't the role of the media agency but with a trend toward greater transparency and joint ventures amongst traditional advertisers perhaps down the track, if they can't add value over and above 'manpower', the media agency will become unnecessary and advertisers will just bring the smart thinkers in house.

How to avoid this? A channel neutral apporoach that thinks beyond communications goals towards commercial benefit for the client.

CityGT & 40 foot driving

2009-09-07T10:29:00.002+10:00

I just came across this very cool project by JWT Melbourne.

They've created a mobile app called CityGT that launched yesterday in Federation Square. Basically you download the app then head to Fed Square where you can play it on the 40 foot big screen.

The app has been launched to educated teens about the dangers of using a mobile phone when driving. It is "the only driving game you play on the street! Play CityGT on your iPhone or watch it become a virtual steering wheel as you connect and play on the bigscreen at Melbourne's Federation Square! Generate points with precision driving while taking in the massive 3D architecture of the CityGT metropolis."

I love the simplicity of this project. It is on the mark with this audience and in their engagement with the communication, creates a specatcle for the peripheral audience.

I would have liked to have seen a greater link to mainstream PR though particularly given the timeliness of the launch with the story Driven to Distraction run by 60 Minutes last night.

Video in print

2009-09-03T14:13:00.001+10:00

I love this new innovation coming out of the US. It gives a new lease of life to those corny 'singing' cards that you've probably received from your grandma at some point in time.

The technology allows you to imbed a wafer-thin video screen into a magazine or insert. With a screen roughly two inches wide, the inserts will use technology similar to the sound-recorders placed within greeting cards and will automatically start to play when the magazine is opened. Controls on a FPC then allow you to skip to certain sections or interact with the video.

Pepsi and CBS in America have been employed to laucnh the innovation in Entertainment Weekly (which has a distribution of over 1.8 million (not all copies will include the video player).

http://bit.ly/1AqvdA

Experiential proof for advocating advocacy

2009-09-03T07:45:00.003+10:00

I have long been an advocate of employing influencers both on and offline to help promote your cause.

Typically I am recommending the use of influencers for my client's commercial needs but I have also seen successful use of influencers for less commercially orientated purposes.

This morning on my way to work I was checking Twitter on my phone and couldn't understand why overnight I had picked up 30 new followers. These aren't followers of the spam-esque type but people who are interested in the same things as me and also who I've never had previous contact with. It struck me as a bit strange until I sat down at my computer and had a better look at why this had happened.

It appears that my friend Mark Pollard had tweeted about my recent blog post.

Not only is this flattering as Mark is someone that I admire but it is also experiential proof that my advocacy for employing influencers is warranted. Mark is obviously an influencer in the communications strategy space and due to his promotion of my blog, my profile in the same circle has suddenly risen.

Now I need to think like I do for my clients and understand how best to harness this opportunity!

Abolish the Penny: a communications strategy for the WFP

2009-09-02T13:41:00.004+10:00

I've had lots of people ask me about our Gold winning response to the 24hr brief in Cannes. Here is the transcript, enjoy.

Challenge
Raising enough awareness and funds to feed 59 million people is no mean feat. In fact, with $500,000 it is near impossible.

A traditional media solution is a) not affordable and b) not the answer. We are operating in an extremely cluttered sector. One that has exponentially grown since the mid nineties so much so, that compassion fatigue has swept amongst our target audience.

As such, in driving awareness and funding, our real challenge is not to shout louder than our competitors but to breathe new life into a tired cause.

As sad as this is, compassion fatigue has led to a desentisation of the world hunger crisis. Whilst advertising with malnourished, sad, sub-Saharan children was once so shocking it drove people to change channels, it is now part and parcel of our media consumption.

The opportunity for us is to reframe our communications and make world hunger relevant to people in the developed world. We need to reframe our communications because people whose daily lives are being affected by the global financial crisis are going to be harder to appeal to than ever.

This leads to our key strategic insight that:
People (especially families) don’t have money to spare but everyone has spare change…. Spare change that they can’t even use.

We’re not talking about the 5 or 6 euro in your pocket, we’re talking about the jar of 1 cent coins you have on your kitchen bench.

Due to the widespread economic downturn, acute monetary awareness has become a pastime for many people. It has led to a diminished consumer confidence and as such a downturn in spending and a trend towards ‘nesting’.

People have gone back to basics and are looking after themselves first and foremost. They don’t have enough money to make large contributions to the greater good.

Further, coupled with rising inflation rates, there has been a devaluing of currency in most developed nations. Indeed, even prior the GFC, the smallest unit of currency in many nations was practically worthless.

The US hold onto their pennies, Australia still has five cent coins and the British are stowing away their pence – but what’s the point? You can’t actually buy anything with this money. In fact our youth have never known a life where they could spend their small change on anything. It goes to waste accumulating in jars and dishes around the world never to be used – until now.

Strategy
We intend to create a movement to abolish the penny.

We will take something that is essentially useless scrap metal and turn it into something of real value. Food for the hungry.

Using the Fill the Cup creative concept we will rally excitement amongst schools and in turn communities to ‘fill a cup’ with their useless coins to benefit those who need it most.

Once again, we’re not talking about the 5 or 6 euro in your pocket, we’re talking about the jar of 1 cent coins you have on your kitchen bench. The ones that you can’t use for anything.

The strategy is simple – we actually want to abolish the lowest value coin in a currency. Rid people of the annoying copper collecting dust, alleviate retailers from hours of counting and give the coins a purpose in life, to feed the hungry.

Kids are best positioned to understand why we would abolish these coins. In their lifetime they’ve known no use for them. As such schools will act as the heartbeat of the campaign. They will be used as a point from which to disseminate information and the point at which we’ll collect the coins.

Execution
The strategy will span one year and will be single-minded about abolishing the penny to ‘fill a cup’. It will come to life across three phases (1. seeding, 2. spreading the word, 3. maintaining groundswell) allowing us to inject new news at each point so to generate awareness via PR and chatter. Our budget will be allocated primarily to the hard costs associated with the collection of money.

A hardworking TVC

2009-08-30T18:25:00.004+10:00

I first saw this ad a few weeks ago and flagged it to blog about... unfortunately time got away from me and its not so new anymore. Nevertheless, my thoughts about it are still relevant.

As a Communications Strategist I am often briefed on developing campaigns that will cut-through the clutter. I am always slightly amused when tasked with this objective, as almost every brief I have ever addressed has asked for cut-through. How can I keep recommending tactics to cut-through when everybody's doing it? This issue of cut-through is what struck me about the Daylesford "Live a double life" campaign. It completes its task very well.

What I like about the ad is that the sheer nature of it makes you stop and pay attention. I actually thought I had missed the start of a movie when I saw it come on.

It is well shot; and may be easily mistaken for a movie. This is a nice relief for the viewer overwhelmed by the plethora of TVC's that pound them over the head with a message about 50% off and an extra fries with the purchase of every bbq chicken wing.

It is well cast; with the use of a celebrity that people know, but don't know too well. Isabelle Lucas purveys a sense of intrigue that could not be achieved by using an overexposed sportsperson who may hold similar brand values as the product but leave little to the imagination when it comes to their personality.

It has an original soundtrack; that is haunting to the point of recognition. Its originality creates an immediate link with the visual content and thus allows for non-visual extensions of the ad.

It is provocative; which means the advertiser is reaping a whole heap of free promotion through organic word-of mouth activity. When people like the ad r not, it is doing a good job of putting little-known Daylesford on the map.

"Lead a double life" is a great example of how TV can still be used to grab the attention of a mass audience.

Digital as an adjective NOT as a noun

2009-08-25T15:18:00.002+10:00

I read an interesting article today by Nigel Walley, MD of UK media strategy consultancy, Decipher. His article focuses on advancements in digital technologies that have expanded advertiser's capabilities in many 'traditional' media channels.

He argues that many media agencies have turned the word digital into a noun rather than allowing it to remain as it was originally intended, as an adjective. I think he makes a good point.
Digital technologies have pervaded almost every aspect of our lives and certainly EVERY traditional media channel so referring to online activity as digital is a disservice to the capabilities of our industry.

As consumers become more and more used to receiving content tailored to their needs, their expectations around how they interact with this chosen content increase and it is digital technologies that will allow advertisers to rise to these expectations.

I would argue that whilst it may seem scary recommending a little-used digital feature to a client, it is a disservice not to because if we don't recommend it, one of their pro-active consumers will.

Check out Nigel Walley's article here.

I love where I work & this makes me feel even better about it

2009-08-13T10:25:00.003+10:00

History of the Australian web

2009-08-12T14:44:00.003+10:00

A group of clever digital types have put together this interactive
timline that shows the history of the web. It shows trends that can
be cut different ways according to time spent with site, visitors
to sites etc etc.

Check it out here.

Fiat planter boxes??

2009-08-12T14:41:00.002+10:00

This is a really cool execution by Fiat in Milan.

It has been positioned as an art exhibition to show 'two elements always vying for urban space, as a symbol of a new way of living"'.

Personally, I think it would be a really interesting way to demonstrate a brand's sustainable thinking. Perhaps it would have had more consumer appeal if they had have used actual, old Fiat shells.

Either way - a nice idea.

Relief & the three things we learnt

2009-08-12T13:21:00.000+10:00

This post is somewhat belated but was a piece that I wrote on behalf of Tristan & myself for News Limited. It recounts our experience competing in the Cannes International Advertising Festival.

Sitting waiting to be presented with the award that made years of ticking confirmations worth it and all we could think was “PLEASE, don’t let us trip over whilst walking on stage....”

Retrospect is a funny thing. As we look back to competing in the Cannes Young Media Lions competition we can’t remember all that much. It was such an overwhelming experience that the months of preparation, events in Cannes and whirlwind of emotions have blurred into one very messy memory.

When we were announced the winners of the international competition, for a split second in time we became minor celebrities. And during this time we were repeatedly asked how we felt about winning. As mundane as it sounds, the answer was relieved.

Relief for many reasons.

We had been given the opportunity to represent our company, our youthful peers and above all, the Australian media industry. A big responsibility and one that if performed well, would have positive ramifications for all involved. Whilst our trusted advisors assured us that having won the Australian leg of the race was an achievement in itself, for us, it wasn’t enough. We had been presented with this rare opportunity and we weren’t going to let it pass without giving winning our best shot.
35 hours of travelling, seven hours in a hotel room, a dodgy pizza and three hours sleep down, we sat at breakfast barely speaking. In fact, from the outside we must have looked like a couple amidst a lover’s tiff characterised by silence, poor appetite and enormous dark circles under the eyes. Far from a lovers tiff, we simply hadn’t cracked our idea in response to the passionate brief the World Food Program had delivered us the night before. We were clutching at straws trying to turn some mediocre ideas into something we’d be proud to present to the internationally esteemed judging panel, 24hours later.

Little did we know but we were about to learn one of our most important lessons from the Cannes experience - a BIG idea can come from anywhere.

Sitting in the foyer of our hotel we discussed our frustrations with our very patient other halves. Lauren’s boyfriend was ranting about the uselessness of one cent coins and light bulbs went off. We had our idea.

In the current economic climate people don’t have money to spare, but everyone has spare change. Spare change that they can’t even use. We would propose to abolish the penny and give the lowest unit of currency in each developed nation a real value, by redirecting the funds from jars and dishes on top of people’s fridges to those who need it most via the World Food Program.

Armed with an idea big enough to do the brief justice, we split up. Lauren to concentrate on what she was good at - constructing the argument, and Tristan to produce the presentation that would aid us to cut through the other 24 big ideas in the competition. This method of working was something we learnt during the previous round of competition in Australia – play to your strengths and trust your partner.

Having put our best thinking on the table, roaming Cannes for nine hours waiting for a decision to be made, then following the announcement, hurriedly making calls back home, at 7pm sharp on Tuesday 23rd June we found ourselves seated close to the front of the famous Debussy Theatre in the Palais des Festival amid advertising celebrity. It was here, as we sat with a sense of relief that we learned our third most important lesson from Cannes. Good advertising is brave advertising. It is about challenging the norms and putting out-of-the box ideas in front of the client, even if it means the less easy road to success.

So, what did we feel when we won the 56th International Advertising Festival Media Gold Young Lion? A sense of comfort that we’d done a good job. A sense of happiness that the long hours and hard work in our short careers had begun to pay off. A sense of excitement that our futures would be underpinned by this early success.

Relief.

Nice work Nissan

2009-08-11T14:18:00.001+10:00

So we've heard alot about brands jumping on the Twitter bandwagon but other than ispylevis I haven't seen any campaigns by which I've been wowoed.

This however, is a nice concept from Nissan.

Its a site that profiles your 'Twitter' personality. Check it out.

The reason it works is because it is not obviously branded. I clicked on the link because one of the people I follow said it was cool and then before I knew it, I had been profiled & tweeted it on for all of my followers to see!

Its a nice way to leverage a social platform that is relatively new to the masses.

A literal interpretation

2009-08-11T09:01:00.001+10:00

This is very cool.

A new plugin that allows you to update your facebook/twitter status upside down. It is a very simple and clever way to get attention.

From a comms perspective is demonstrates that a literal interpretation of a brief can very well, work.

Check it out here.

My friend Nic

2009-08-09T18:12:00.004+10:00

My friend Nic is the best.

I have oft described my boyfriend Matt as akin to alcohol. He's a social lubricant. Put him into any situation and he makes it better. He has this way of making people feel special and he gives every person his full attention when he is speaking to them. It is an incredible thing to watch.

And, it amazes me that only today, have I realised that Nic is very similar.

She is absolutely gorgeous so attracts people irrespective of her personality but then when she opens her mouth she is so entertaining that you can help but love her. She organises these outings with all of her friends irrespective of which part of her life they come from and she manages to engage everyone and make sure they have a great time whilst she does too. She always looks polished without spending a fortune. She's there to listen when you need it and she is REALLY good at calling just to catch up whenever the time is right.

I just wanted to out there that I have two of the most naturally amazing people in my life and that I don't appreciate them enough.

Neither of them read this blog but I need the world to know that people this amazing DO exist and that somehow I've struck the jackpot in having two of them in my life.

In a creative rutt? Unplug your mind...

2009-08-05T10:59:00.001+10:00

I've been feeling like I'm in a bit of a creative rutt over the last week or so. I've just finished working on two briefs that were almost identical and now I'm working two other briefs that are.... lets just say.... challenging. The problem is I can't come up with a cracker of an idea.

I keep thinking back to times when the creative juices have flowed easily but these moments are difficult to recreate.

It seems I'm not the only one who gets stuck. I came across this article on Fuel Your Creativity and it makes sense.

The crux of the article is in its final paragraph:

The bottom line is, you are blocked and you need to undergo a mental reset. Your brain needs to decompress and get refreshed by whatever means works for you. You cannot force the flow, but with a little help from your friends, you can find a way to get it back in motion once more! Just unplug your mind?or you could just always go and have a movement!

Check it out as a start and let me know what gets your creative juices flowing.... I'm thinking I'll makeover my desk today!

Addictive advertising

2009-08-04T09:38:00.002+10:00

Check out this banner from Pringles. So simple yet so smart. Once you click you can't stop. It is a perfect interepretation of their tagline. The only real challenge is getting people to make the first click but once they have, then they're hooked.

Get the basics right first.... my Real Insurance experience continued

2009-07-22T13:57:00.001+10:00

I'm not sure how many of you read my rant about Real Insurance a few days ago but I thought I'd update you on an interesting development.

Shock horror: I recieved a response... via my blog!

I find this interesting for a number of reasons;
1. They are reactive.... but only when the threat extends beyond the loss of an individual consumer
2. They responded.... but only in the public sphere (I am still to recieve a response to my three most recent emails but I must admit, my partner did recieve a phone call)
3. I have connections with a number of people who work at Real Insurance's media agency and have a sneaking suspicion that the action has been a result of their prompting

I am really happy that it seems that finally someone has taken an interest in sorting out this drama but it does raise a few questions for me from a communications perspective.

It was only after my ordeal entered the public space that I started to recieve a seminiance of customer service. In fact, I had even emailed customer service on two previous occassions to alert them of the problems I was having and didn't even recieve an automated response let alone a 'human' response.

So where does this leave other people who are insured by Real Insurance but don't have a blog, facebook account, LinkdIn profile or Twitter account by which to express their disdain? And what happens to those people who don't have the right connections in the right places (albeit digital connections) who can bring problems to the attention of those who may rectify them?

I think this is a perfect example of a company geared up with a smart marketing team who are making themselves present in all the right places (perhaps even with a listening strategy in place) but who don't have the established resources to follow up with the promises that their 'social personality' implies.

It is also a good exmaple of where the marketing team should take a step back and consider that the best marketing solution is not always an advertising or media solution. Surely, the social media budget wold have been better spent on employing people who can actually deliver the service they promise?

In this age of authenticity, it is a major oversight that a company would enter the social space without ensuring they can deliver on their promise and in my opinion a greater crime than not joining the conversation in the first place.

Pop a Soother at your next rave

2009-07-22T08:55:00.004+10:00

I came across this campaign yesterday and was little disturbed by it.

It is a pop-up concert series that appears to be a collaboration between Nova & Soothers.

Now, I understand that Soothers must be trying to appeal to a younger audience and that they've found a need amongst this target for the product BUT, I also think there is a disconnect between the product and the space they are playing in.

I feel like Soothers are taking too big a leap of faith in jumping into the music space. My opinion on brands employing music as a communications territory and then social media as a comms channel is that they need to do it properley or they shouldn't do it at all. It feels like a stretch to be putting a brand that is all about coughs & colds into a youth oriented space.

I would actually argue that this will diminish the brands credibility as a medicated lozenger and their appeal amongst the younger generation will be as a confectionary not as a solution to sore throats.

This of course depends on whether or not they hit some decent numbers. At the moment, they've only got 92 friends on MySpace.

Creativity: Rad to the Power of Sick

2009-07-17T11:50:00.003+10:00

I saw this showcased when we were in Cannes.

Basically a couple of creatives from Y&R decided to get creative in their description of a BMX listed on ebay. The results speak for themselves with the bike achieving 5 times its original price upon re-sale. Imagine how much the client would love you if you could drive 500% incremental growth on an existing product?!

It is a nice case study to reinforce Henry's statement last week that we need to be brave with our clients. It demonstrates that no matter how small the brief, how boring the product/topic may be, creativity rules in the end.

Customer service - a forgotten art

2009-07-17T09:25:00.001+10:00

If you've had a conversation with me over the last six weeks it is likely that you will know that I have been struggling to deal with Real Insurance following an accident where my car was written off.

The circumstances are quite unbelievable. My boyfriend was stopped at a red light when another two cars were involved in a collision which spun out and involved our car to cause over $10K worth of damage. The result: 15 days of car hire (for which Real Insurance have reimbursed only 10 days), ongoing physiotherapy, a car that has been repaired but now deemed unsafe to drive because the repairs are so dodgy and six weeks of battling with Real Insurance to get any straight answers.... let me tell you, its not priceless.

Now, poor customer service has always been a pet hate of mine. Like many of us, I worked in retail whilst at school and uni and quickly learnt that the nicer you are to people the more favourable the response. So its got me wondering, why wouldn't the "real" people at Real Insurance also have learnt this?

I found this article about a country band whose instruments were damaged during a United Airlines flight. After battling to get any straight answers from the ailrine (much like me with Real Insurance), they posted a video that went viral. What most of the comments demonstrate is that this one incidence of bad service has now resulted in a huge number of people (over 3 million) who now have negative sentiments toward United Airlines and thus, are less likely to travel with them. Check it out here.

Now, my question to all of you - what can I do to achieve the following:

- Get Real Insurance to call me back or answer my emails

- Get Real Insurance to reimburse me for the out-of-pocket expense I've incurred

- Prevent anyone else from going through what I've had to go through

I need an executable idea that will cost me nothing and will damage this company's opportunity to put anyone else through the same traumatic experience. Obviously a video of my rant on YouTube isn't going to work!

Nat's perspective on returning to Cannes

2009-06-26T23:50:00.000+10:00

Nat's B&T article

Tristan's perspective on winning Gold

2009-06-26T23:48:00.000+10:00

Tristan's B&T article

Yes we Cannes!

2009-06-25T06:40:00.011+10:00

The last few days have been some of the most intense in my career to date.

We arrived in Cannes on Saturday afternoon after 30 hours of travelling. Needless to say we were pretty tired. After a small mishap with Matt & Ara's share room (mishap = 1 bed) we ventured off to the old town for dinner.

On Sunday afternoon we were briefed for our Young Lions Media competition. Caroline Hurford from the United Nations World Food Programme delivered the brief, which was to use the current "Fill The Cup" creative concept to drive awareness of the WFP and to raise money to help feed 59 million hungry people throughout the world.

Caroline's delivery of the brief was amazing. It was so passionate and inspiring that we left the room with an ambition over and above winning the competition but to deliver something that would truly help the client achieve their goals.

Answering the brief wasn't easy. We spent six hours generating ideas, researching the client and crafting a core thought.... only to go to bed unsatisfied and stressed. We woke up early and over breakfast hardly spoke. The atmosphere was one of greyness. While we had a decent, very safe idea ready to work up, we knew that it wasn't a winner.

We wandered downstairs and met Matt & Ara. As we were discussing our dilemma, Matt started ranting on about how much he hates five cent coins. His diatribe led us to our Big Idea.

We realised that given the tough economic times people don't have spare money to give to charities but everyone does have spare change. Not change that you might use for the parking meter or Coke machine but change so small it is practically worthless. It sits in a jar on the top of your fridge collecting dust - it has no purpose.

So the strategy: Abolish the Penny. It was all about people forming a movement to eradicate the smallest unit of currency in their country and donate it to the WFP.

We were really proud of our idea. We knew it was strong but we also knew that there was tough competition in our category.

After presenting at 9.30am we had to wait six and a half hours for the announcement of the winner. As we waited we were told that the judges were still deliberating which delayed the announcement by an hour and a half. It was incredibly nerve wracking.

When we were finally let into the screening room for the announcement, Bronze (USA) and Silver (Belarus) were announced. As Bonnie (one of the judges) started to describe the winning strategy I knew it was ours but hearing her officially announce it was amazing.

As we made our way to the front of the room we felt like celebrities. We were pounced on by journalists and had around ten cameras shoved in our faces. It was just incredible.

Following the 'hollywood style' mayhem we raced back to our hotel and quickly got ready for the presentation. Matt & Ara were snuck in the back door and were able to share our special moment with us. Everything just fell into place.

The rest of the night is a bit of a blur. I had complete strangers approaching me to say how proud they were and happy for us. Dave Droga (of Droga 5) said he wanted me to come and work for him. Henry, my CEO was bursting with pride and presented us with a nice stimulus package. It was just completely overwhelming.

When I finally sat down at 3am my body involuntarily shutdown. I couldn't keep my eyes open which signalled it was time for bed.

A night's rest didn't do much to make this amazing experience anymore real though. I am still trying to come to terms with what this all means and can't wait to get home and share it with everyone..... well not get home too quick!

Twitterexia

2009-06-21T07:36:00.000+10:00

When you are traveling for 30+ hours you have a lot of time to think. Now I've done this long-distance, moisture sucking, patience deteriorating kind of trip before but I've never noticed a very unique thing that occurred to me this time around.

I came down with a bout of twitterexia. I found myself observing my surroundings and feeling distraught by the fact that from 30,000 miles high, I couldn't micro-blog about it. It made me realise that twitter has filled a gap in my life that I didn't even realise I had - it makes me feel like I'm being heard.

What I mean by this is that of the modest 100 or so people following me, while they may or may not consistently read my tweets and therein pay varying levels of attention to them, I do feel like I have a voice. And moreover, a voice that can say whatever it wants with the buffer of 'real life' distance staying in tact.

For instance, on the KL to Amsterdam leg of my trip Cannes, I was sat next to a women whom I now hold anything but fond memories of. She invaded my space for some 12 hours, huffed & puffed everytime I needed to scoot past her and did not let me use the shared armrest once! Small grievances I admit but on a 12 hour flight, grievances that became increasingly irritating.

So there I was thinking about all the things one may implement to make their long haul trip more enjoyable (assuming they're like me and the business class option is out of reach). The problem with arriving at such genius mid flight was that I couldn't easily share my ideas. I kept whispering into my boyfriend's ear but with real fear that initial said woman would hear what I was saying and sock me one. It was also annoying for my boyfriend because as my tired brain spewed out more words of wisdom, I kept interrupting what he was doing.

The beauty of twitter is that you can expel your thoughts in real-time and receive instant gratification for 'getting them off your chest' but people can choose to digest them in their time.

I don't remember the first time I felt naked without my mobile phone but this new feeling of nakedness sans-twitter will be memorable (if only for the fact that I'm blogging about it) and it opens up a whole new list of questions about the application - what is correct twitter ettiquette? Should I log all of my missed tweets at once or will this needlessly clog up my followers' feeds... but then what about the fact that they've missed out on my tweets for the last 24hrs? So much confusion and so few rules to guide me along the way.

Twikini in my eye!

2009-06-17T09:53:00.002+10:00

At Christmas my beautiful boyfriend Matt gave me a HTC-Touch Pro windows mobile. Unfortunately, I am crap at using it. I spend ages seraching for cool apps and I don't understand why I can't find them more easily.

About 3 weeks ago I downloaded Twikini. It is a very user friendly Twitter application that sits exactly where I want it on my phone and looks just like the desktop twitter interface that I am used to.

I loved using it... then the trial expired. Since then, I have been searching for a replacement and haven't been able to find anything that I like as much. I jumped back on to the twikini site and found an option that made the app even more appealing..... the ability to access it for free if I blogged about it - very cool.

A sign of the times

2009-06-17T09:15:00.001+10:00

If you haven't seen the coverage of the Iran elections then you've either been under a rock or working too late to see the news.

Over night, something evry interesting happened. The US Government asked Twitter to move sechedulled maintenance so as to not interrupt real-time coverage of the election. Given that many journalists and media outlets have been banned from the nation, international news bureaus are now turning to social media tools to keep the rest of the world informed on the events.

This is a clear sign of the times. Full credit to the US Government for recognising the value of social media and its applications outside of 'social networking'.

Anybody looking for a living, breathing billboard?

2009-06-16T16:29:00.002+10:00

This is a really cool execution that could work for many brands.

It is a year long fundraising project for the Akanksha Foundation where a girl had pledged to wear the same dress for 365 days. Whilst raising funds for her chosen charity, she is dually promoting sustainable fashion.

Here?s how it works: There are 7 identical dresses, one for each day of the week. Every day she will reinvent the dress with layers, accessories and all kinds of accouterments, the majority of which will be vintage, hand-made, or hand-me-down goodies.

The opportunities for brands are inumerable.

FMCG - over 12 months fabric will be subjected to wear and tear. What if a washing powder sponsored her to demonstrate their clothing preservation abilities?

Fashion - the subject is looking for accessories, other clothing items, shoes, and inspiration to 'dress up' the dress. Donations are accepted. What if she was used as a model to launch a new season's range?

Technology - she's blogging, tweeting and flickering. Why not jump on board as a service provider and give her free access or the technology to be social?

I think this concept is brilliant and I'll be interested to see if anybody does jump on her bandwagon and exploit the endless possibilities that she as a living, breathing billboard (complete with CSR initiative) has to offer.

Netizens with a God complex

2009-06-14T10:44:00.005+10:00

A few days ago I posted a blog about netizens positioning themselves as god. Then just this morning, I came across an article about "Search &(Destroy) Engines". It is really scary.

The article talks about what I was discussing a few days ago - the broader public taking justice into their own hands. Whilst there are references in the article to some entirely immoral, unethical and frankly inhumane acts that, in retribution, have suffered at the hands (or clicks??) of the global society, I still have an issue with justifying this new millenium version of lynch mobs.

My issue is not with justice being brought to these people. Their actions are inexcusable and they deserve to be punished. However, punishment decided by and brought about via the masses reeks of uncontrollable hysteria.

Unlike the lynch mobs of yesteryear, the result of this cyber-retaliation is not necessarily death. That is, by the hands of others. I would argue that public retaliation on these individuals will drive them to take their own lives and this brings me back to my original point - who died and made the netizens God?

I am all for the borderless society that the Internet affords us but I am now wondering who should be controlling the uncontrolled? And further, is it the instant fame or notoriety that motivates people to do the unspeakable and then post videos online?

As you can tell I'm somewhat baffled by this trend and I don't know what the answer is. What I do know is that the future is clearer in the rearview mirror and we should be looking back to the 18th Century to see where this current bout of God-complexes is going to lead us.

Smashingly Simple

2009-06-12T16:48:00.001+10:00

This is a really cool literal interpretation of a brand.

It is for the launch of a new video game, Red Faction, in which smashing things with a sledgehammer accounts for a vast majority of the fun to be had.

The agency took this and literally interpretated it by placing a car full of the game and a sledgehammer on the street then let nature take its course.

Goes to show that simple works.

Check it out here.

Do unto others...

2009-06-11T12:40:00.001+10:00

People who have "public" jobs must expect that their personal lives will be thrust into the limelight at some point. Whether this is right or wrong is not to be contested (at least without a bottle of wine and a chairman to oversee proceedings). We must just accept that it is a fact of life in this new borderless world we live in.

What I do think is interesting is the effect it seems to be having on higher moral ground. The fact that people think they have permission to persecute those that they, in their personal opinion, consider to have done something wrong.

This week we've seen a couple of cases of people taking advantage of their media nouce for personal gain.
1. Gordon Ramsey V Tracey Grimshaw
2. Woman's Day V Therese Rein

Now everyone has a different opinion on both cases. What I think is most interesting is the third party that has entered into this battle. The blogger.

Today Crickey posted a blog challenging people to "out" Woman's Day editor Fiona Connelly.

By posting this blog, Crickey have basically given their readers permission to right a wrong... well in their opinion anyway.

Who died and made Crikey God?

Why should they be the ones controlling retribution for Therese Rein? And, didn't anybody stop and think that this blog and its associated sites have political undertones that could benefit from a glowing report from Ms Rein's influential hubby?

When bloggers start to assume positions as moral gatekeepers, who reigns (pardons the pun) them back in? Is this, like the private turning public, just a fact of life or are we seeing the fourth estate actaully rear its head and take a position of marshall law?

Personally, I think it's really scary. That someone (an influential blogger at that) would persecute someone else for just doing their job seems a bit archaic to me. Grow up and do unto others is my opinion....

Borrowed credibility gone too far

2009-06-10T13:10:00.001+10:00

I was away sick yesterday which meant that between bouts of coughing and the consumption of antibiotics as big as horse tranquilisers, I dozed in front of the TV for most of the day.

This also meant I was privy to a lot of daytime advertising.... and I observed something interesting.

We are all familiar with Brand Power and Zoot Review. These 'endorsement' style interstitials have been around for a long time and have proven quite successful for many FMCG brands. What I noticed yesterday thoguh is that the Australian Women's Weekly now broadcast similar ads on not just Nine, but also Channel 7 and Ten. In fact with only one ad in between, I saw an AWW endorsed spot followed by an Infocus Segment (Ch7's version) and both of these were within the New Idea program.

This posed a few questions for me:
1. Were the drugs making me dellusional? (a quick referral to the EPG proved no)
2. Why were SMG Red and Ten allowing AWW to endorse products on their channels? Are they desperate for ad revenue?
3. Don't the traffic team notice that such clashes exist and that clients may not be happy about it?
4. What does this mean for the credibility of the 'endorsed' interstitial? Will their cut-through diminish? Will their trustworthiness decline?

It all seems a bit odd to me. The beauty of borrowed credibility is that it is usually somewhat exclusive. What I saw yesterday was a slap in the face for both advertisers and consumers. The endorsement seemed obviously paid for and entirely fake given the proximity to similar ads.

Whilst in the past I have been an advocate of this style of ad for my clients after yesterday's experience, I won't be recommending 'endorsed' interstitials for my clients anytime soon.

iSpyLevis being even smarter

2009-06-05T13:18:00.004+10:00

A few weeks ago I blogged about the iSpyLevis campaign currently running on Twitter. I just wanted to update my opinions on this campaign.

It is brilliant.

The comms team are capitalizing on the fact that their follower base has multiplied by 400% in a matter of weeks and that people are going to great lengths to interract with the brand.

Their latest Tweet: iSpyLevis: PEOPLE! We've got 501 followers. Follower number 568 will get a pair of 568® SKINNYS IN RESIN SEALED. Tell your friends! Demonstrates how they are taking this campaign even further. I guarntee that they are hitting all client objectives.

I am still trying my hardest to get a pair (after securing a pair for my friend last week). The 'game' is completely addictive. I can only hope that I can produce a piece of similar brilliance for one of my clients!

Yes he can

2009-06-04T08:45:00.003+10:00

President Obama is rewriting the rules for marketing. The brand that he has built himself is solid, approachable and desireable.

Yes, he is lucky to be so attractive. Yes, he has his communication skills down pat and Yes, he has an army of staff behind him to help him reach great heights. The truly admirable thing that he does however, is reach out to people and make it easy for them to join a conversation with him.

Let's be clear, it is unlikely that Barrack is the one responding to tweets, facebook messages, myspace posts or emails but, the image he porjects is one of accessibility. He makes people feel like he is within their reach and that he will act upon their suggestions. He listens to what people want to hear and then tells them what they want to hear.

So with all of this in mind, it is unsurprising that the speech he will deliver on bridging the gap between the U.S. and the Muslim world in Cairo will be accesible via all of his previous touchpoints but also via SMS.

What this means is that he has even further broken down the barriers between himself and the wider world. He is making himself available to not only American voters but global citizens who may or may not be living in nations with restrictions on the information they can access.

President Obama should be applauded for his brand building efforts and his consistency. If other brands operated in a similar fashion to him - remained on-strategy and single minded about their image - I would argue that they could feel more confident about entering a conversation with consumers and as such would have greater success in winning over consumers and building brand loyalty.

Sex still sells

2009-06-03T17:31:00.002+10:00

Sometimes it feels like the world is moving really quickly.

In the media-sphere it is difficult to keep up with the latest advancements and to think of ways they will fit into your client's marketing plans, particualrly when many clients are still addicted to TV and think that tweet is a sound that birds make.

One trend that I have noticed lately though, is that no matter what the medium, sex still sells.

Check out this Tweet from earlier today:

The goodsex hashtag is currently trending #1.

I find this really interesting because just last week, hashtag 3words (aftre sex) was incredibly popular.

If i were in the business of selling sex, safe sex or sex-related products (ie condoms, lubricant.. let your imagination run wild) I would be harnessing the information coming from these tags.

Given the popularity of these two organic tags, as a sex brand, why wouldn't you initiate a new trending topic equally as topical but backed by your brand? It would generate a significant amount of online chatter and also serve as a rich source of information for NPD.

So perhaps this can work for other brands too or even just as a source of ideas for us to take to clients. By tracking trends on social networks that are related to our brands we can beat the client to the next idea and even start to predict the outcomes of qual research.

Now the next challenge, who do we conivince others to believe in the power of this?

And because of that came my steepest learning curve since the age of 0-3....

2009-06-01T11:04:00.002+10:00

Upon joining bellamyhayden I had no idea how much I was about to learn. I was surrounded by brilliant people, in a hardworking office and seemed to learn by osmosis.

It confirmed to me that it actually didn't matter where I worked because it was the calibre of people that I surrounded myself with that would impact the qaulity of my output.

During my time at bellamyhayden I made lifelong friends, won my first media award and was inspired to never do less than my best.

It was at this point in my life that UM approached me with an interesting job offer.

And becasue of that... iSpyLevis being VERY smart

2009-05-27T16:23:00.006+10:00

So a group of us at bh have just had the BEST brand experience thanks to Levis.

The brand has "released hundreds of pairs of Levis on the streets of key cities across Australia & New Zealand. If you think you see someone wearing a pair ask them "Are they Levis?". If you get it right, they'll drop their pants & give them to you on the spot."

This is such a smart strategy. It taps into our voeuyeristic nature and harnesses the power of follow on twitter (literally) in a fun and rewarding way.

I have been following @iSpyLevis for the last few days and have become totally addicted. When their profile started to show some life after lunch today I was determined to find the jeans on the street.

I tweeted with the guy and an hour later he was posting pics of his location right outside our office! Chris ran downstairs to meet him and 5 minutes later is the proud owner of a pair of GUYS 568® SKINNYS IN RESIN SEALED.

This concept would work well for many products and is allowing Levis to have very rich consumer interaction as well as promote their style range.

Here's to me finding the female over the next few days!

Is discrimination relative?

2009-05-26T16:17:00.003+10:00

We've just had a debate here at work that has really angered me.

It started because somebody sent an email around the agency asking about our opinions on the 'Chk chk boom' news report.

For the record, my opinion is as follows;

There are some commonalities in all media stories that get traction with young girls as the face of the story – the girls are all hot.

Other examples in history -

1995 when Anna Wood died of taking ecstasy
2006 LonleyGirl15 work for the New York Times
2009 Heidi and The Man in the Jacket

The only reason this has taken off is that Claire is good looking. Sure she’s made some semi-racist comments, exposed the real exploits of young girls to worried parents across the nation and epitomized the ‘bogan’ but who has she really offended? AND, I also think that in general fat/skinny wogs have probably made enough cat-calls at her (ala “hey baby wanna root”) to justify her colloquial description of them.

I would argue that the people who are kicking up a stink - the middle-upper class white people - have taken offence to the ‘fat wog/skinny wog’ statements because they don’t want the world’s impression of Australia to be Claire.

Moral of the story is we have a winning formula – innocence + pretty girl = immediate publicity.

There was a bit of backlash to my opinion from an English guy. He insinuated that all Australian's are racist and that it is the fault of our media.

So this got me thinking - are Australian's racist or is it simply a question of relativity?

I, being half Maltese, have been called a wog many a time and take no offense to it. In fact, I am quite proud of my heritage. Even public opinion says that wog is not always a racist term. On top of this when you look at some of our pop-culture - Fat Pizza, Wog Boy - you realize that even the 'wogs' themselves embrace this stereotype.

So here I am left feeling insulted that this English guy has called Australian's discriminatory and I think, "We don't have a naked girl on page 3 of our national tabloid...." and if we did, there would be uproar. But in the UK, there is no hesitation to sell The Sun (with naked page 3 girl) to dirty men, kids or women who may all be subjected to an overt act of discrimination.

So my conclusion - discrimination is relative and if you can't adapt or take on the nuances of the place in which you are living then choose somewhere else where you can.

Primped on target

2009-05-25T16:02:00.002+10:00

I love this concept from PRIMPED.

The smart girls over at 'the go-to in how-to in beauty' website are turning the tried & tested 'gift with purchase' subscription driver into a very useful tool to;

1. Drive quality user-generated-content
2. Recruit new employees
3. Refresh their site with relevant opinions & perspectives without actually having to pay people to do it

Overall, they are empowering their most engaged users to contribute to their site over & above regular commentary. It is an appealing promotion for their current users but also a great opportunity for brands to road-test their products and get rich consumer feedback.

This concept has been in place for a long time, driven by agencies such as The Soup and T-Garage's Vibe Village. The difference here is that audience are already engaged, they're well defined and they are motivated to share their opinions because they know they'll be heard (as the site is a source of beauty information not just an aggregator of opinions from panel based triallists).

If I represented a beauty client, I'd be on the phone to Ms Foster to strike a deal before my competitor beat me to it.

A brand that should know better

2009-05-22T08:49:00.002+10:00

I received this eDM yesterday which in itself is not unusual. What I do find interesting is that for a "bank" that has built itself online, their digital communication was somewhat lacking.

The purpose of the eDM was to recruit me to save more money, under the guise of extra rewards. This is all well and good but they didn't make it very easy for me.

I had skimmed over the eDM (who actually reads ALL the words anymore - communication via 160 characters would have been more effective) then proceeded to click, and click, and click (you get it...) until I re-read the eDM and realised I had to copy & paste the URL into my browser.

Seriously, how old school is that? I would suggest that if the eDM allowed the recipient to click-thru, recruitment levels would have been greater and over and above this the consumer experience would have vastly improved.

Why do brands still make these errors? Surely an online brand like this has enough experience to know better? Or perhaps I'm just not privy to the reasons why you wouldn't enable the eDM with click-thru technology.... Please enlighten me if you have an insight into this.