Community Involvement/Nike and Nedbank Podcast

I have been unable to write for the last few weeks because of the slow internet at hostels I have been staying at. However I did record a podcast with Peter Wagstaff on Marketing Today about some of the interesting advertising I have seen in South Africa and Argentina.

So click on the link and listen to the endless interruptions from doing an interview on a public phone on the streets of Buenos Aires.


Click here to listen to podcast

Here is a video of the Nike Barrio Bonito.

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Life on Pause

I will not be blogging as much over the next 3 months as I am on holidays. I am backpacking around South America (Argentina, Chile and Brazil). I will also be stopping off in South Africa for a week on the way over.

I guess the blog will be more about my learnings from these foreign places rather than new technology slant.

One of the most interesting things I have found with travelling is the feeling of yuor life being on pause. Because you are not having those day to day interactions or relationship building activities with people it feels like your life is being put on hold. It gives you time to step back and look at the where you are at and where you want to go.

Catch,
Jules

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Politicians mission to Cyber space

Peta Menzies interviewed me last week for an article on Politicians using Social Media. Here is the article.

Politicians mission to cyber space
By Peta Menzies

'Australian politicians are trying to win the vote of Generation Y this federal election through internet social spaces though the 18-29 age group are not convinced that the campaign websites are enough to engage young voters.


Both the major political parties have joined the campaign revolution through internet networks like Facebook Myspace and Youtube. The sites advocate party policy and are designed to promote political awareness amongst the younger generation. While it is seen as an attempt to bridge the generation gap it is being considered a fractional one.


22 year-old Julian Cole is a digital strategist for Naked Communications and says that political leaders need to be authentic when they are in these online spaces. “It rings a bit mass. I think there is a role for them there but if they are wanting to get a message out they have to access the right people, the opinion leaders,” Mr Cole said.


The Political sites act as a billboard rather than a two-way interaction that the social space intends.The sites are designed for networking and just like real-life opinionated participants emerge.“It’s a misnomer to think that everyone using this online space has an equal voice. We’ve found that some people have a louder voice and therefore have a bigger audience,” he said.


Labor candidate for Dobell Mr Craig Thomson says politicians are attempting to connect with the younger generation now more so than what has happened in the past.
“The Labor party is very much aware of the need to engage with Generation Y through the mediums that are better used to communicate with them like Youtube and Myspace,” Mr Thomson said.

Mr Thomson acknowledges the need for political parties to continually develop their use of web based social pages.“At the moment the campaign pages are not having a conversation with people, its talking at them rather than anything else,” he said.'


In other news concerning Politics and Facebook, here is a great stunt from the Chasers boys on Kevin Rudd’s Facebook Friend.

Kevin's Facebook Friends

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New VB Stubby Beer Symphony Commercial

Following on from The Big Ad and Flashbeer comes the next Big Fosters Idea, ‘VB Stubby Symphony’

Just like the past campaigns they have housed it on a main site, thank god someone ripped it on Youtube. I think they really let themselves down by not letting people view on Youtube and embed the video on blogs.

However there are some nice consumer involvement treats in this site. They have used SuperVirals as the host site for their ‘Create Music using VB Stubbies Competition’. However again (see past post) I think that Supervirals is such a narrow channel, this should really of been done through Youtube.

I think overall this is a great idea, and as was pointed out to me, it is capitalising on the most iconic part of the VB brand, the song.

George Patterson Y&R are behind this idea with Jim Ingram and Ben Couzen cracking this big idea. Well done boys!

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1st Birthday of Adspace-Pioneers and the story of how I got started

Happy 1 year and 11 days birthday Adspace-Pioneer.

I thought now was the right time to tell the story of how I started Adspace-Pioneers.

Last year I finished my degree and joined the other 5,312 recently graduated students applying for the 17 jobs in advertising.

I did all the things they suggested for getting a job; I got an internship/part time job at an agency, went to every university networking night and begged my parents to ring their long lost friends in the industry to hook me up with a job.

All I ended up with was a stack of business cards.

I dreaded the next step the awkward phone conversation; with the pleasantries aside I would get to business.

‘So any jobs on the radar “insert business card name here”?’

…….

‘No, Julian I will keep an eye out for you, Ah that’s a client on the other line. I will give you a call if I hear of anything.’

I kept thinking there must be an easier way than this. Then one day it just clicked for me. I was asking for so much and giving them nothing back.

I could understand it though, I was asking them for a massive break and then giving them nothing back.

Around this I was working at Sputnik Agency, I was working one day a week preparing a trend report which went out to all the employees. 4 or 5 new trends that people were talking about.

Then it just clicked.

I should be emailing this out to my contacts. This was valuable information; people are time poor and want condensed information. I sent an email out to my contacts telling them I have set up a trend report blog that I will email you every week with updates.

It just made so much sense. I was able to stay top of mind with all my contacts, they were receiving valuable information. I had something to talk to them about. No longer did I feel bad about asking for a job, I just put a note on the end of my email saying I am still looking for a job.

A year on the blog has become more of a tool to make sure that I am keeping up to date with what is happening in the digital environment.

It is great to see other students following this path as well, notably Zac Martin a Monash Student who has started the blog Making Marketing.

And another birthday card

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The Internet Stars are Viral

I think I have spent too much time online this year.

3 years of internet memes in a four minute video.

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Daddy, what was the Internet like in 1995?

Hilarious video of Eva Pascoe showing how entertaining the Internet was back in 95.

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Technology the nemesis of education?

An interesting video debate about the impact that technology plays on education.

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PM Down the YouTube, The Age, October 25th 2007

As my dad said 'You could not pay for this sort of PR'

Great Article by Katie Cincotta

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Santa Kidnap Inside Word

Inside word is that Tequila are behind this campaign and if their Tenacious D online campaign is anything to go by this should be a good campaign. Will be interesting to see what they do with this one. Cannot say it has grabbed me with the same anticipation of the Man Cans but I will look on with interest.

My guess is for Ebay or Playstation. They seem like the two brands that fit best from their current clients.

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The Curse of Knowledge, Social Media Guide

Do you often start explaining something that you are really passionate about and get blank looks from the people you are with?

You are probably suffering from the Curse of Knowledge.

I am reading a really cool book at the moment ‘Made to Stick’. It suggests why some ideas stick and other fail. Check out the videos for more information.

One of the interesting concepts that is brought up is the idea of ‘The Curse of Knowledge’. It suggests that your knowledge on a subject is a curse because you struggle to remember what it is like to not remember something. This happens with me with Social Media/Web2.0. My knowledge about the subject is a curse because I cannot remember what it is like to not know anything and assume everyone has the same knowledge as me.

Therefore I have found this good resource for myself. it is a Whitepaper on Advertising 2.0. and explains Social Media Advertising in a really simple way.

Good Bloggers Summary of main points of the book


Speech with Chip Heath from ForaTV


Interview on the Today Show with Chip and Dan Heath

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The Talented Mike Smith's Tour of Melbourne

Mike Smith from the soon to be World Renowned Smith Communications takes us on a tour of Naked Communications, Melbourne Office.



As Faris would say; Talent Imitates Genius Steals

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Tour of the Sydney Naked Office

I am up in Naked's Sydney office for the week. They have a really cool office space. Here is a video tour of the office.

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My vote is in New Media hands!

Consumer Generated Content - Axis of Awesome : Howard vs. Rudd, by mWboo6

Online is my future; I have invested a year studying the phenomena with my thesis on Online Social Networks and am going into a full time job working in it.

Therefore I have decided that my vote in the up coming Australian election will be based solely on the party that is best able to communicate with the Australian public online.

However I will not be passing judgement, I am leaving the choice up to the readers of Adspace-Pioneers. I will ask readers to vote for which party they believe joins the conversation, has the best grass roots online community and gives the best back to basic information needed to make the decision. As I am going away the decision will be made on November 11th.

The following are definitions of the three items that I want people to vote on and the information that they need to pass judgement on;

Joining the Conversation – Which party is best at joining the conversation, social media is giving politicians the chance to have a conversation with

Labor
Kevin Rudd’s Facebook Page

Australian Labor Youtube Channel

Kevin Rudd’s Myspace Page

Liberal
John Howards Facebook Page


John Howard 2007 Youtube Channel



Greens

Bob Brown’s Facebook Page

Senator Bob Brown Youtube Channel


Democrats
Lyn Allison Facebook Page

Lyn Allison Youtube Channel


Grass Roots Online Community – What party has got the best online community working for them, which groups has the most active facebook groups, bloggers, causing the most noise.

Labor

Facebook Group – I want to be Kevin Rudd’s friend too


Prominent Blogger
Polemica
Connect Through Values
Politc0
John Quiggin
Anonymous Lefty
Newz4world
Bolt Watch
Possum Comitatus
Fair news

Liberal
Facebook Group – Kevin Rudd Will Ruin Australia

Prominent Blogger
Auspundits
Andrew Norton
Oz Conservative
Catallaxy Files
Tim Blair

Greens
Facebook Group – Bob Brown for PM

Prominent Blogger
Greens Blog


Back to basic Information – What party gives the individual the information that they need, to make an informed decisions.

Labor
Home Site-
Kevin 07

Liberal
Home Site

Greens
Home Site


Democrats
Home Site

Please put your votes for the four categories in the comments below

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RSVP beat the odds this time but the death of Online Dating Sites is near

I really like this approach by RSVP.com.au, I think Love Communication (the agency behind it) has done a really neat job at communicating a cleaner image for the brand. As picked up by information aesthetics blog it is very similar to the opening of Stranger than Fiction.



However for me Online Dating Sites are on the way out with people now choosing Facebook over dating sites. There is more security, going on a date with a friend’s friend rather than a complete random.

As my research has shown people are more likely to portray an accurate image of the person they are offline in Facebook as there offline friend’s are viewing the material they put up and will ‘call them out’ if they start expanding the truth.

However on RSVP, I could of just done AIDS work in Africa for the last 5 years and now am going back to University to study Medicine/Law, even know I don’t have to because I am inheriting my parents multi billion dollar business. Enough rambling here is the male version for RSVP




And another clever ad by Love for Ricoh Printers.

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AktifMag Melbourne's No. 1 Magazine

From humble beginning being printed and handed out at Melbourne Music Stores, this e-Mag has gone onto have over 200,000 downloads of the latest edition. Hands down the best read of the year. Check it out here.

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What happens when the planning department take a long lunch! 3G Video Calling Ad

Why would you highlight in an ad the one reason why people don’t adopt your product?

3G video calling technology has been around for years and there is one main reason why people have not adopted the technology, they do not want other people prying into their private lives 24/7. If I am at the pub with my mates and my girlfriend rings me to see why I am not at home with her for our anniversary, I sure as hell do not want to take the call on video. I am stunned at this advertisement, good luck getting the Christian adoption rate up as well!

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'All he needs' Mockumentary Short Film on Rollerbladers

This short film is from a few years ago but is an absolute classic. Written by the same guy who writes the satirical website Aktifmag

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Pure Blonde, Pure Gold

Pure Blonde now have an ad that is up there with the rest of the Foster's alcohol contingent (Barry Dawson and Cougar, Carlton Draught and Big Ad, VB and Thirst).

I really like this ad, I think it takes a little too long to set the scene but is gold when the truckie gets involved.


Top 5 Fosters Alcohol Group Ads


1. All Around the World - Fosters


2.Big Ad Carlton Draught


3. The Tash - VB


4. Flashbeer- Carlton Draught


5. Barry Dawson - Cougar


And one from the Vault
1982 VB Ad

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History of Vegemite, Consumer Involvement Old Hat

Here is the first lesson from Symbols of Australia

As much as marketers like to think about Consumer Involvement as this new marketing technique it is not. The story of the Australian icon Vegemite is testament that this technique has been around for years.

‘In 1910, the popular English spread Marmite was registered in Australia. Made from beef extract, the product is still in exsistence today. In early 1923, Fred Walker, an enterprising general merchant produced a vegetable extract. To position it in direct compeititon with Marmite, he called it Parwill: ‘Marmite-mother might, Parwill- father will.

The brand didn’t take on and Walker assumed it may have had something to do with the name. Late 1923 he conducted a competition to rename it. The result was Vegemite, which Walker duly registered.’

A recent example that comes to mind of the food industry using this consumer involvement in the product naming is the Name It Burger competition from McDonalds. Link here.

In the picture above is a Vegemite ad from 1923 and a bottle from 1950 and one from the 1980’s.

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Australian Advertising History not much has changed!

As well as looking to the future of advertising I think it is also good to look back. Today I was at the Camberwell Market, it is local trash and treasure market in Melbourne which is well worth the journey on a Sunday Morning. I found this great book ‘Symbols of Australia’ by Mimmo Cozzolino. It is a story about the history of Australia studying brands and trademarks. I was surprised to see how many of the innovative campaigns of today are replica of older advertising campaigns.


However I must give credit to Faris who showed me some examples of how he recreated the stories from The Shocking History of Advertising.

Over the next month I will be taking extracts from the book and showing how they are still relevant today.

Lesson 1: History of Vegemite, Consumer Involvement Old Hat

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No more fat kids playing computer games in dark rooms : Mscape

Mscape is taking computer games outdoors. People are now playing computer games on mobile devices, with the outdoor environment acting as the playing field. Mscape is an extension of the popular Alternative Reality Games. There is so much opportunity here for brands and companies; they could set up offline treasure hunts or whole games for people to play in.


Here is a making of a Mscape game - Timehole

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New Sony Bravia Ad - Play Doh Bunnies

The final ad in the amazing trilogy for Sony Bravia. First balls, then paint and now bunnies. The Ad is made up of 100,000 still images. The ad aired in the UK last night. Once again the advertisement is as much about the final product as it is the making of the ads which seems to be of interest to the audience.

Balls: Did they really roll that many balls down a street?
Paint: Did they really blow up a building with paint?
Play Doh: Did they really make those bunnies?



Here is the official website Sony Bravia

and the past two commercials

Paint



Balls

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E-Cultrual Hijacking: Crackbook Part Five

Click here to see site

For the promotion of David McCandless’ internet spoof book The internet Now In Handy Bookform another Facebook e-cultural hijacking.

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Dove Onslaught the next Dove Evolution

Following the popular Dove Evolution comes the new campaign ‘Dove Onslaught’

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Advertising Young Minds

After arriving back from AUG on Friday, I was surprised when I got a google alert telling me I was mentioned in the Advertising Young Minds Rank. Adstructure came up with idea which is a ranking of the top 27 blogs of people under 27. I was surprised to make the list at number 25.

Interesting to see a lot of other Naked employee hovering around the top with Noah Brier (1) and Heron Preston (4) both working at Naked New York. As far as I can tell I am the only Australian representative, so it is quite an honour to be in this list.

For all the details go to the Adstructure blog.

1

Noah Brier

6

188

167

85

446

2

Jack Cheng

5

50

32

140

227

3

What if they did

3

28

78

90

199

4

Heron Preston

4

20

53

74

151

5

AdStructure

4

23

45

76

148

6

Cellar Door

5

36

52

35

128

7

Confessions of a Wannabe Adman

4

18

72

24

118

8

Exit Creative

5

40

37

27

109

9

Serial Thoughts

5

24

42

18

89

10

The-Ad-Pit

5

21

38

25

89

11

Organic Frog

5

15

37

32

89

12

Dead Insect

3

11

34

35

83

13

Vincent Thome´s Blog

5

20

43

11

79

14

Do.palicio.us

4

14

26

25

69

15

Adlads

3

12

38

10

63

16

Nicola Davies

4

10

27

22

63

17

Big Secret Pizza Party

4

9

25

12

50

18

A Closet

5

9

30

4

48

19

Junior Planner I Am

0

5

27

12

44

20

Nil Desperandum

4

9

20

5

38

21

Michael Karnjanaprakorn

4

11

21

1

37

22

Creative in London

4

6

24

0

34

23

Wowee, wow

2

3

17

5

27

24

Diginative

2

7

0

17

26

25

Adspace Pioneers

0

4

4

17

25

26

Channel 8000

4

2

13

5

24

27

Breaking & Entering

4

1

11

3

19

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Summer Heights High Fandom (Word of Mouth)

‘I didn’t touch his fucking dick’
‘Puck You Miss’
‘That so random!’

Have you heard any of these saying in the last week?

Summer Heights High is everywhere, it has even started to infect the lexicon of many Young Australians.

In the 1960’s, Ernest Dichter the ‘father of motivational research’ changed the way we look at word of mouth with his seminal article ‘How Word of Mouth Advertising Works’. He came up with four motivations for people to pass on commercial messages. They were Product involvement, Self involvement, Other involvement (altruism) and Message involvement.

Message Involvement involved a thing called ‘verbal play’; this is when an aspect of an advertisement campaign is repeated between friends, it may range from a catchy tune to certain behaviour. This behaviour is then repeated in a number of times in differing environments.

This is what is occurring with Summer Heights High at the moment. My week at Australian Uni Games made it interesting to see ‘message involvement’ play out. Words had been intertwined into a lot of the conversations I was having. It seems each week the audience is given a new lexicon of terms to use. People who did not watch the show felt left out of the joke, when it came around to Wednesday night, we had a few SHH virgins watching for the first time. Through the fear of being on the outer, people watched the show to make sure they were in on the joke the next time around. The original audience is acting as the salesmen for the shows future episodes.

SHH has gone beyond verbal play outs as well, the other day while checking a friends facebook I had seen that someone had used the graffiti function which allows others to draw on friends walls and they had done the ‘dicktation’ symbol from the first episode.



Dictation - Jonah Takalua - Summer Heights High

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Here is my first article on Summer Heights High Fandom (Social Media Integration)

Update
I took of the comments on this post because it was getting filled with Spam. If you have something to add feel free to comment it on the other post. Damn SPAMMERS!

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In the name of research!

I will be taking a week off from the blog. I am going to the Australian University Games on the Gold Coast to do a indepth immersion into ‘Generation Y and consumption culture’. Wish me luck, as on these ethnographic studies you often put your body on the line in the name of science.

If you were wondering I will be playing on the Monash Mini Golf Team (MGT) so look out in the local papers for our results. Or if you are on the Gold Coast feel free to come along to one of our games starting around 8:30PM on Cavill Ave.

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Political Marketing: Vote Grilld’

Melbourne Healthy Burger franchise ‘Grilld’ is the first to have a stab at the riding the coat tails of the upcoming Australian election. With the national election looming it seems that there will be a number of brands jumping on the political band wagon.

Grilld have set up the Vote Grilld, the reason behind it is to help decide the three new burgers for the range and to get a larger Customer database. There are three parties the Green party, Republican United Meats Party and Right Wings Party.

The video is a little weak, don’t know what they are trying to do with the voice. The instore promotion is very strong with ballot boxes, political posters and the staff wearing Vote 1 badges. I will try to get some photos up soon.

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Technorati Link

Technorati Profile

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E-Cultural Hijacking Part Four Arsebook

Here is another E-Cultrual Hijacking for you;



Arsebook parodies the Online Social Network giant Facebook.

Check out some past E-Cultural Hijackings

Zune Balmer
Error Message for Ad Agency
Youtube and Spanish Blood Bank

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Summer Heights High Fandom (Social Media Integration)

At least in one conversation a day I will hear some reference to Summer Heights High. The ABC show has reached tipping point. SHH is a comedy mockumentary about two students (Jonah Takalua and Ja’mie King) and a drama teacher (Mr. G) at a Public School in Melbourne.

The show is a run away success but there are a number of other interesting phenomena happening around the show. The support online for the show is phenomenal. I think this is so important for television shows because people can immerse themselves to a deeper level and interact with the content at different times. For instance I had some friends over for dinner last night and we went on youtube and watched the Jonah Montage from last episode.

The following is a documentation of the support from Social Media for the television show.

1. Vodcast
They have decided to release it on vodcast. It is now the highest rating Podcast in Australia after only 2 episodes. Following the success of the ABC’s The Chaser War on Everything and Media Watch vodcasts.

2. Online Social Networks
They have also set up Myspace Pages for the characters. The reason the Myspace page works so well is the constant information stream, people have something new to say every week after the episodes are released. Ja’mie King currently has 24,000 plus friends.

There are a number of facebook groups in their name two of the most popular

Summer Heights High Appreciation Society
500 members

Fans of Jonah Takalua and Polynesian Pathways
820 members

Youtube

They have also released video montages of the specific characters, my favourite being Jonah has had 150,000 hits for his first play and 23,000 for his second.

Homesite
They home site leaves a lot to the imagination with a dress up game which is an email to a friend. Would of worked better if it was an application on Facebook which people could send to friends.

I haven’t finished with this beast called Summer Heights High in future weeks I will be posting on SHH and;

Word of Mouth/ Social Currency

Consumer Insights

New audience for the ABC

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Chris Crocker; Leave Britney alone

Well if you haven’t seen it yet, Chris Crocker (internet celebrity of Youtube and Myspace blogging fame) empathetic claim to stop picking on Britney.

But what I find interesting about it is a blogging story is producing enough attention to be picked up and run in the traditional media channels. Another sign of the times that blogging is becoming a powerful medium.

A piss take by Seth Green


And here is another funny video mash up of Tyra Banks and Britney.

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Elle MacPherson Intimates- Interactive Store Front

They are doing great stuff globally, quite an innovative campaign for a brand that you would presume to be pushing the new media boundaries. Here is my previous post on Elle Mac Intimates Youtube appearance.

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Triumph Boats Back Again through Divine Intervention

I blogged about their great viral campaign last year and Triumph have come back again with another clever way to communicate the toughness of their boats. Check out the previous campaign ToughBoats here.

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Man Cans = Solo 440ml Large Can

Yesterday I solved the teaser mystery of Man Cans. I found out because my mate showed me the new Solo cans and then it just clicked. This is a great example of social currency. Social Currency is giving the consumer something to be able to talk about, some valuable information.

There is also a raging forum debate going over at Whirlpool where they are trying to crack the mystery as well. This has hints of the communities formed around Alternate Reality Games as well.

On the whole I love this idea of launching the product before the general population makes the official connection with the Man Cans Campaign. They are giving the consumer the chance to solve the teaser before they launch. This is the best example of Australian Transmedia Planning that I have seen. To read more on this planning read what Faris, FOI and Influx have to say about it.

The agency behind this gem is The Furnace, I think they have got a Cannes winner on their hands.

The Furnace is also behind the winner of the 2007 AFA Effectiveness Awards Skins Campaign. However it appears that Skins may be in hot water with a legal suit arising over misleading claims that they don't sponsor elite athletes. Read the full story here.

Here is the winning campaign TVC


And click here to see the new campaign


Here is my previous post on Man Cans

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Great Insight and hot woman: JBs Underwear Girls

Great simple insight that changes Men Underwear Advertising.

Check out more their latest campaign here

JB's Underwear 'Men don't want to look at other naked men'

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Marton Merton and Connex on track!

Connex new campaign is out and I am a big fan. Leo Burnett have created the fictional character of Dr.Martin Merton, who has a PHD in Train Etiquette. He is in Melbourne, Australia to help commuters with train etiquette.

This reminds me of the campaign that Naked Communication did with setting up the fake company for Hypnomarketing. Creating a rich story around a communications idea. The campaign is a great example of Intergrated Marketing Communication.

With intergration being launched around the hub of the website www.martinmerton.com. But then there is free book signings at diffrerent stations. I have seen outdoor media for the campaign and also banners on Myspace. The content (consisting on tutorial videos) of the site was suprisngly funny and risque in terms of advertising for public transport.

Leo Burnett have carried on from their Cannes Shortlisted work for Connex 'TXT whatever the delay'

Photos sourced from Duncan's Print

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DRAFT FCB: Secondlife in First Life

DRAFTFCB is on Second Life. Picked up on Adverlab

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Elle Macpherson Intimates

Clearly this is great they have made the action just off the product on the people but have been able to intergrate the Elle Mac line in through having the girls dressed in the clothes. You dont need to give men many reason to look at the Elle Mac new line but if the girls are blowing bubbles out their mouth, well that makes for rivoting watching. Great complement and itergration into Online Social Networks with all the girls having Myspace profiles.

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Man Cans a winner

Update:
Man Cans the site has been registered by Cadbury Schweppes. I have got no idea what product it could be for.



You may have seen on television the recent Man Can ads. The ad shows men in different scenario's growing Man Cans. Have a look at the videos. This has all the qualities that I talk about over at Musing from Julian Cole of a good campaign.

1. Great integration
The TVC are witty and sharp. There is a slick integration to online with the website flashing up in the last scene. Giving people enough interest to investigate further onto the website.


2. Suspense
I actually have never thought of it this way but i think it is better to set up the joke and then hit them with the brand/product/company. Lynx is currently doing a campaign for Lynx Soap Amnesty which is asking all male soap users everywhere to drop the soap and pick up Lynx Showergel but they have made it clear from the start that it is for Lynx. I still have no idea who is behind Man Cans.

3. Great online support
They do not only have one site but they have 2 other side sites that complement the major site (Celebrity Man Tape and Bra Bro). This has also already got a great bit of publicity around the Blogosphere.

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Lowe+Rivet kicking goals

I have been really impressed with Lowe+Rivet work lately. It seems I am not the only one who thinks this either with the agency picking up two AFA Advertising Effectiveness Awards on Thursday night.

The campaigns that have grabbed my attention is their work they have done for Stella Artois Screen. They have launched two direct campaigns for two of the big movie screenings Fight Club and The Shining.



For Fight Club they painted up bar tenders to look like they had been in a massive fight and they left the customers to ask what happened. The barmen would then slide a napkin across the table that had the url www.fight-club.co.nz written on it. Customers registered on the website and were invited to the screening.






For The Shining Groups of passers by were invited into the depths of The Stella Artois Gold Room by pale strangers dressed in coat and tails. Guests then followed the sound of 1920s ballroom music anticipating the buzz of a crowded bar only to be confronted by the lone bartender, Lloyd.



The visitors were then directed to another room located down a dark corridor where they’d find other scary cues from the film. On entering room 237, another stranger would ask them to write their details in the guest register so they could be contacted.

The Brisbane locals that didn’t run out screaming left the bar with a mysterious invitation and code to enter a website – stellagoldroom.com

Other great work they are currently behind include;

Another great campaign they have running at the moment is MTV Vote for Snoop.

Which is a group of viral videos with rapper Snoop Dogg trying to get people to vote for Snoop Dogg to get citizenship in Australia. Very clever.

Save Snoop - Episode 1

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Check out all 15 videos here

And

The A League ads which picked up a Gold at the effectiveness awards.

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Social Bookmarking explained in plain english

The folks at Common Craft who are behind Wiki in Plain English came up with a new video which explains social bookmarking for the not so techie audience.

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Web 3.0 Explanation

Google CEO Eric Schmidt was recently at the Seoul Digital Forum where he was asked to define Web 3.0 by an audience member.

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Ideas factory

A clever idea. An ideas factory, The Ides of March is a one man company (Marcus) that has set up a business where he sells ideas to companies. You pay how much you think the idea is worth and if you dont pay for the idea he will blog about it. Check out the website here

Here is what he has done for The Age of Conversation.

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Technorati Rating

Technorati Profile

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E-Cultural Hiacking 3: Zune Balmer

It seems to be a CEO of a tech company these days, you have to have had a lobotomy. This cultural hijacking comes from Microsoft's answer to the iPod the 'Zune', the new unofficial ad jakcs the famous iPod imagery. Great little mash-up and the original is even funnier.

Ad for Zune


Steve Balmer CEO of Microsoft a little crazy

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Mapping the Online Social Network Landscape

If you are struggling to keep up with all the new Online Social Network trends here is a map.



Someone has made a map based on the new digital landscape. The map is based on the population of the different sites. The map is a little old with updates of the likes of Twitter and the growth of Facebook but it is still very interesting.

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Smirnoff Tea Partay sequel a real fizzer!

This is the sequel to the Gold Cannes Viral Winning Tea Partay. It is a great laugh but I struggle to see how this won a Gold Cannes.

Sure it is very funny, but what is it communicating about the product. To me the people who are drinking it are the people who are being laughed at. To the target market it communicates 'If i drink this, I will just be like one of those idiots from the video.'

However it has once again generated alot of hype being one of the most viewed clips on Youtube.



And the original

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Affluenza Melbourne's Digital Viral Success.

I often put down the digital material that comes out of Melbourne but World Vision has helped to restore some faith. There latest clip for the 40 hour famine is a winner. I think this maybe the work of Sputnik Advertising Agency. With over 600,000 views it is kicking goals for a great cause. Check it out.

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Podcast is out, Just like Little Johnny

What do Peter Wagstaff and John Howard have in common?

They both use super cool web 2.0 application to talk to people.

In the latest episode of Marketing Today Podcast, I sit on the couch and talk to Peter about John Howard msierable attempt at Youtube and my new favourite topic of 'hijacking e-cultural icons'

Here is the John Howard clip



and the Consumer Generated Mash Up

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Faris and Iain on the Web

One of my favourite bloggers going around at the moment is Faris Yakob, he writes Talent Imitates, Genuis Steals. This is a thought provoking blog, well worth reading. He sat down and talked about the web with Iain Tait at Ideas Forum in Romania.



Check it out here

I seem to have this habit of creating an image in my head of what radio presenters look like. It always shocks me when I actually see them in real life and they look nothing like what I had imagined. This happened with Faris, the ideas that he comes up with made me think he was some wise old man.

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Drawcard = Christopher Walken cooking a roast

For Internet start ups it is getting harder and harder to make an impact with the fickle computer savvy consumer. You really need something to make you stick out, you need a 'draw card'.

My best mates dad used to love a good garage sale. He said the key to a good garage sale was to make sure you had the 'draw card', then the punters would come in droves. One year it was the Bob Hawke Memorial Yard Glass, the next year it was fake Ivory Elephant Tusks.

Well Web2.0 start up Imcooked (a youtube for cooking enthusiasts to upload themselves cooking there favourite dish) got their 'draw card' with Christopher Walken cooking up a roast chicken. Check it out, this has definitely helped to drive traffic to the website. Check it out. Slow server speed is disappointing.

Check it out here

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E-Cultural Hijacking Part 2

Here is another e-cultural jacking that I came across today for Advertising Agency West Wayne. Make sure you read the whole page.

http://www.westwayne.com/

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Power 150 Aussie Bloggers on the sidelines

They have just released the 150 most influential blogger in marketing and advertising. Unfortunately i did not make the list however there were a number of Australian bloggers who got in the top 150 and top 350. At 63 was Servant of Chaos written by Sydneysider Gavin Heaton, at 111 Better Communication Results written by Lee Hopkins freelance Communication Business Consultant, at 262 Media Hunter the blog for Sticky Advertising about Media in the Hunter Valley, at 290 PR Disasterswritten by Gerry McCusker author of the Public Relations Disaster, at 312 Young PR at 327 written by Paull Young an Account Exec at Converseon, The http://jasonrecliner.blogspot.com/ one of my favourite blogs written by Vando, at 346 The Marketer, at 350 Insight which is Jim Antonopoulos who runs a the startegy brand insights company Igloo.

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Rolling Rock beer gets boob bottle feedback

Rolling Rock have got some really good little ideas. Here is another funny viral.

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Did someone say Gold Cannes?

I have found my new early Gold Cannes favourite. Hieneken Rugby World Cup Ad. It has hints of the Big Ad and a really shitty tie into the product. But boy do i get excited when i see a war-esque ad with a huge wad of cash thrown behind it.

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E-Cultural Hijacking Youtube and Spanish Bloodbank

This is a nice steal of a e-cultural icon (yeah i just made that word up) of the youtube skin. Spansish Blood Band have done really well with attaching their message to an item that is looked at several times a day by me and now for at least the next couple of days I will think of the Spanish Give Blood Ad.

Click here to see that Ad

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Now easier to comment

I found this widget on a the blog The Amber Theatre. Very interesting blog about audio branding. Back to the widget, this widget now makes it easier to leave a comment about my posts. All you have to do is choose one of the icons.

Watch this video for more info.

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100 Posts!

Well, I finally reached 100 posts. Thank you to everyone who has commented back to me about the blog. I really do enjoy writing this blog, I feel it helps me proactively stay on top of the latest trends. I hope it is enjoyable for you too and if there is any suggestion please feel free to email me.

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Viral Carlsberg and Mentos

This is a great viral, capitalising on the success of the viral coke and mentos youtube videos of last year.

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Quoted in Digital Media B&T

The latest edition of Digital B&T features an article that I was quoted in for Online Social Networks. 'Social Networks' Page 12 Katie Cincotta

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Head-cams for Planners

This from MIT Adverlab "Police officers in the UK are to be given head-mouted video cameras to film incidents and arrests, the footage of which can then be used in evidence. The 'head-cams' can store up to 400 hours of footage with soundtrack on their hard drive." Looks like something marketing ethnographers and planners could use, no?

Couldn't agree more!

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Update: Blendtec

Update
Blendtec have been able to climb up the Youtube ratings again with their latest stunt of blending a iPhone. I commented on Blendtec in a post last year here

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The future consumer

Another interesting Video on the changing consumer, highlighting the rate of technology adoption and the effect this has.

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Marketing Today Podcast; Issue Consumer Involvement

You can hear me on the Peter Wagstaff Marketing Today Podcast, In this Podcast I chat with Wags about the new trend of Consumer Involvement, which links quite nicely with what I have been talking about with the Myfootballclub.co.uk and also the Durex Sexecutive Position.

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