Is it me - or is Twitter shit?

Sorry everyone. I'm finding it hard to get excited about it. Perhaps I need an iPhone. Perhaps I'm happy not to spew my every thought out to the world in text form.

I can't decide if I'm being closed minded or honest.

Today - I'm honest.

Incredible advertising

Imagine hosting the best house party ever. Adidas have done it with their new Originals campaign.
Bang on brand, and absolutely magical. Shame the website was a bit limp really. Watch it.

British Gas Home Care my arse

British Gas are rubbish. I've just had to shell out £220 to get my boiler fixed even with my Home Care insurance policy in place because they were going to take 2 weeks to find the replacement part. Sitting in my house withour heat or hot water is OK apparently.

They are'nt responsible for supplying the parts therefore they seem to absolve themselves from any responsibility.

I'm cancelling my insurance.

Very very angry :-(

Sublime to the ridiculous

The new 'glass half full productions' ad for Cadbury is... a miss for me I think.

The monkey suit was a classic piece of disruptive advertising which is near impossible to surpass.

The kids with the eyebrows is good (and in isolation brilliant) but is a poor second cousin.

It could be simply because they have humanised the concept using people rather than left field mechanics like gorillas and tow-trucks.

They have an interesting addition to the website though. Register and you could be the face of the new TV ad. Sweet.

They even collect mobile and dob by default - plus the opt-ins are preselected for you to be contacted by both SMS and e-mail. Naughty. I've registered in the name of all things digital. Watch this space.

Oh... did I mention that some b@stard stole my bike wheel? B@stards.

IPA done and done (I hope)

After months of toil and study (i.e. online learning done in my pants on a Sunday) my IPA Advanced Certification exams were yesterday.

The 2nd 3 hour exam on the principals and application of all media to a variety of problems.

It's been 12 years since I last sat an exam (eek) but thought I needed to continue my CPD and keep the learning ball rolling.

I feel good for doing it... but won't rush back to exam conditions though...

B@stards!

Some b@stard has stolen the front wheel from my bike. My bike cost me £99 in 1994. I've never replaced the wheels and its in a generally shabby state.

It has old style nut and bolt fixings (not quick release) so someone has clocked it and decided to come back with his tool kit!

What has the world come to!?

Very disappointed :-(

Vision Express Boob

I've just watched a 30 second TV ad for Vision Express. They have a campaign about putting your eyes through their paces, using 2 guys in a gym in a quirky, off-the-wall style.

Sadly until the end frame i though I was watching a 118 118 ad.

Oops!

The adman's revenge

Sick of clients telling you what's best for THEIR brand? Criticising YOUR creative? Then you need this.

Creativity just because

Love have developed this site which I find intriguing. Its an environmental message using Santa's melting runway as the story.

I'm interested to see how this grows. They are partnering with a video company and sharing the investment - i'm really interested to see what it becomes.

If nothing else this is a great idea, well executed, nice use of e-mail (so far) and intriguing. What all creative agencies should be doung frankly.

More power to you boys.

Elf Yourself properly this time

It's back! Last year this was the viral marketing phenomenon - everyone was elfed. The trick that the originators missed last year however was brand recall. Ask 10 people and 9 would have no idea who was behind the project.

This year OfficeMax have branded the living daylights out of it. For months leading up to December they had a holding position with a countdown clock on the URL, adding intrigue and reinforcing the brand.

Goes to show that using technology/marketing in a new/interesting/ground-breaking way acheives lasting stand-out - even when there is no lasting brand association. There is no reason why this campaign can't live on and on with the odd brush-up - OfficeMax struck gold.

(yule) log

I saw this login prompt today. Made me chuckle (well, not really), but it instantly gave me a good feeling for the site - its personality and how I wanted to interact with it.

Now this approach isnt for all sites (and some may call it corny) but it's the page with the hightest drop-off rates of most sites and anything that can be done to minimise this can only be a good thing.

I say bring on the log! :-)

Note:
Brightkite is a location-based social network. In real time you can see where your friends are and what they're up to. Depending on your privacy settings you can also meet others nearby.

I'm dry

Like a prune.
I think I've basically had a few things i wanted to say pile up and now that I've blogged them I have nothing.
Should I be worried. or will I get interesting?
Or am I screwed?...
Oh - I changed my mind a bit about twitter today.
I found out that if you want you can read what Stephen Fry is doing.
Today he went to the lawyers.
Great.

Better than Google?

Have you seen this?

Its a new search engine.

Apparently, this was created by two ex-Google employees and they are allegedly the “world’s biggest search engine”. It claims to monitor more pages (three times more…) than Google and (ten times more….) than MSN.

I can't help but think about the betamax vs VHS battle that raged in the 80s.

Betamax was the better technology - it should have won the video tape race.

But VHS had massive marketing and technology partners behind it (and was quicker to market). So it won the race.

Another reason was thet you couldnt get porn on Betamax...

I have a sneaking feeling that Cuil may go the same way... appart from the porn bit...

Obama

He's everywhere. A software company jump on the bandwaggon with this beauty... Really, really blatent sponsorship prompt at the top of this game featuring everything including Nokia and UPS to Casino gaming vendors.

I don't like it (its a bit club-footed for me). Sponsorship in this manner is un-targetted and non-relevent (and frankly p1sses me off).

I'm a fan of sponsorship and there are some really good/obvious/relevent marriages.

Obama, 1983 arcade games and UPS ain't one. Sorry.

Twitter

Am I allowed not to like Twitter? I'm a fan of Facebook (I get it) - but Twitter has skipped past me merrily. Though on Twitters homepage they have a testimonial that reads:

''If you aren't familiar with Twitter, it is one of those things, like MySpace, that sounds totally ridiculous and stupid when you first hear about it. But once you start using it, you realize how much fun it is.''

Some people... (tut)

Just right?

.

I'm currently eating Kellogg's 'Just Right' cereal (excited yet?). Its the cheapest healthy choice down at Saino's at the mo (gotta watch the figure!).

It got me thinking about product naming (my mate works for Kellogg and spends a great deal of planning time looking at this very thing).

I can't help thinking that my box of 'Just right' needs to be straddled on the shelf by a box of 'Really sh1t' to its left and 'Absolutely Brilliant!' to the right.

Gives the thing some context non? Goldilocks needed some!

Have Argos gone mad?

Have you seen the new Argos Xmas TV ads? Sadly I cant point you to them online, however the proposition seems to be 'Why go to a nice department store and get your gifts beautifully wrapped this year when you can come to Argos and we'll give them to you ..... in a brown box!'. Brilliant.

Code Computerlove are Digital Agency of the Year

According to the Dadi Awards. And who are we to argue? :-)

We didnt win for our work on Crown or HMV sadly :-(.

Looking forward to seeing how our new Original Source site performs at the Big Chips. We love it.

PS: I'm not the 'awards type' to be honest - but its a great reminder of how lucky we are to work in the digital creative sector.

Cactus Boy

I think I like what Oasis did with Cactus Kid. Fully integrated with TV and offline, the user gets to choose the final TV cut.

Plus they've released lots of off-cuts and 'mystery sightings' of cactus boy - plus video blogs from the girl he's with.

They developed minisites - like the holding page for the motel they stayed in.

Lots of nice immersive touches - but key to its success is that all agencies were shown the brief at the start.

Often a brand will try and shoe-horn a digital mechanic into their brand planning after the direction has been made (and often after the TV has been shot). Try making THAT work hard online!

Have a look around You Tube and the other sites linking from the brand site - nice campaign.

Innocently brilliant

Innocent Smoothie's website (blog) is about as good as a brand gets to openning its doors to its consumers. It works because it's real. There are tens of staff members contributing - all of which would have 'innocent' written across their middles were you to take an axe to their midriff.

The content is interesting, honest, transparent, quirky, non-corporate - also focusses on 'giving something back' including charitable and environmental messages - just like the brand.

This is a brand that social media suits really well. You believe it.

I think its important to understand this in any social media strategy.

Choose your fights and choose what to have an opinion on. You'll have to sustain it and be credible, otherwise it can do more harm than good.

Oh and check out the hot healthcare/doctor Shilpee character. Yum.