When did Australian banks become the funny men?

It seems like the Australian Banks are all working off the same piece of insight. We all have to be the funny men. It is no longer about hitting people with the facts, it is about creating a inviting brand personality. Who would of thought 2 years ago that an advertising agency most interesting client would be a company in the banking industry?





At the moment my favourite ones are the ANZ Credit Card.


Lastly back in 1982 when the insight was for banks to be hip and cool

New Quit Smoking Campaign is powerful

I overheard people talking about this commercial at University the other day. It sounded quite powerful when they were talking about it. And boy did it live up to expectations! What a great angle to take to communicate the dangers of smoking.



Check out the youtube channel for the other ads.

Goodbye MSN, Hello Facebook IM Chat



One of the things that people loved about Facebook, when I was doing my research is the ability for asynchronous conversations (conversation where people can answer in their own time, think wall to wall comments, sms and hand written letters). This gave them time to think up their response aka more time to be witty and charming.. The Digital Native generation grew up with asynchronous conversations tools.

So with the introduction of Facebook IM, which is not a asynchronous conversation but rather a synchronous conversation (on the spot think phone calls, instant messenger, face to face) it will be interesting to see the response. My gut feeling is that it will be like the News Feed, a backlash at the start and then people will learn to love it.

The following is my POV on the strengths and weaknesses of the new application.

Strengths
All your friends are on there, unlike MSN
No longer have to have conversations back and forward on walls
Easy to use, do not have to install software

Weaknesses
Screen is hard to read
It is hard to hide yourself like on MSN (re: Busy)
Does not flash like MSN when I have new comments

Final Judgment
Goodbye MSN, Hello Facebook IM

Baracky - Storytelling to Gen Y

Is there any better way to inform a disinterested Generation Y than to inform through a cult classic movie? The Barack Obama camp have recontextualised the Rambo movie to tell the story of the last 12 months of fighting between Hilary and Barack.



Another great story telling campaign, is the History of AFL campaign that is running. A great ad and a real coup getting Bill Hunter involved.

Damn Microsoft Vista, I will show you! Change .DOCX to .DOC files


Are you nearly going mental with everyone now sending you attachments in Microsoft Vista (.docx),Which you cannot open?

Clever marketing? Maybe but it is still really really annoying. Anyway today I found a solution to the problem. Download the File Format Converter application from Microsoft Office Online

Don’t become another victim like this guy.

Lolcoaster: The Sequel to Kids say the darndest things

.....Kids do the Darndest things.

via Gavin Annand

and then this classic viral video. You have to watch this with sound. lolcoaster

Plinking revisited


The future for product placement looks bright for all parties involved.

I looked at bringing plinking out to Australia about a year ago. But after a little investigation, I realised the Australian Market is not big enough, this seems to be the problem with a lot of digital ideas coming to Australia. However it seems that the idea is going great guns in America. With another startup overlay.tv giving it a good go. There business model works better because they are asking the viewers to places the product placement within the videos rather than the advertisers having to sit through and put the placements in.

Thanks bigsecretpizzaparty for this find.

Biggest Leak of 2008, New VB Ad Canned by AAB!


CUB is now at a loss of nearly $1.5 million dollars, as the Australian Advertising Bureau have stopped CUB from going ahead with their latest VB TVC. The TVC was deemed to promote binge drinking. In one of the biggest leaks of 2008, I have found a website showing the TVC. Check out the video here to make up your mind.

In related news Diginative has written a cracking post on Youtube viral success. One of the best article that I have read this year. He suggests that advertisers should look at novel approaches to the Youtube platform rather than trying to crack novel content. I hadn't thought about it like that but now it makes so much sense. It also explains the leak above.

Cori Hodge on Erin McNaught's Ridge


Cori Hodge put me onto the recent backlash over Erin McNaught endorsements of Cockatoo Ridge. With the taglines of the outdoor campaigns being 'She loves a Cockatoo' Are consumers becoming to senstive torwards advertising?

Cockatoo Ridge is the name of the brand, it is the centre of their identity. What else are they meant to do?

I say good on them for getting the free publicity for the campaign and I think this whole debacle just stregthens the brand personality of being naughty and cheeky brand.

A thesis in the waiting: Blackberry Addiction


I am going to come back to this when I know more about the subject. But I plan to write a thesis about the subject of social etiquette and how Blackberries have changed the way people approach work and social life.

Blackberrys – The good and the ugly
Friday, 4 April 2008

Marko Barosevic

High powered employees are seeing real benefits from their Blackberry
addictions as they work longer, faster and more often.

New research from the University of NSW Australian School of Business
and from the University of Sydney shows that Blackberry use has
tangible benefits for fast paced professionals such as lawyers and
investment bankers.

One of the researchers Judith MacCormick told The Australian Financial
Review that the Blackberry device if used correctly allowed employees
to work more efficiently and be more accessible to clients and
colleagues.

The joint research from the Australian universities also showed an
uglier side to the Blackberry. Firms found that Blackberrys were the
most damage-prone piece of work equipment, often requiring
replacement. It seems that partners and family frustrated at a lack of
face time with Blackberry addicts are lashing out on the device.

“One organization said they go through a lot of handsets, suggesting
that they are actually damaged, flushed down the toilet or thrown at
the wall more frequently than one would expect,” MacCormick said.

The Blackberry – Indispensable work device or antisocial tech
titillation? Send us your feedback.


via Jeremy Smart

Happy 39th birthday the Internet!

The internet turns 39 today.

As a treat here is a hilarious video talking about the new revolution of ………the internet.


More greatness The Internet is really really great

via Katie

JBs Underwear Girls Part 2

Here is the follow up print campaign for JBs mens underwear. With the great insight as their tagline 'Men don't want to look at other naked men.'

Past Campaign



Best god damn Flow Chart in the world!


via Get Shouty via Experience Curve

Vantage Point explains eWOM and Transmedia Planning.



This blog was going to just be about the increase in word of mouth through the Facebook status bar. It has increased dramatically since I did my research last year. I noticed that there were not many examples into Negative Word of Mouth especially. In this example my mate Janosh Biczok warned me about the movie Vantage Point.



Which after watching the trailer would probably be the best way of explaining Transmedia Planning to a non marketer. Everyone has some information about the killing of the president but not the whole picture. Together they can build the whole picture of the campaign.

I think I might have to go and see this movie now? So much for Negative WOM!

Revision - April Fooled Virgle - Virgin and Google to Mars



What a great brand fit between Google and Virgin! I had never thought about these two brands together but seeing Virgle just makes so much sense.

Pity they chose Sergey and Larry to promote this trip, as they are two of the most uninspiring people I have ever listened too. It would be a real barrel of laugh living with those two comedians; I am still trying to understand the one way ticket joke????
This just shows how much the Virgin brand relies on Branson and how much Google needs to leave their visionary leaders in the computer programming department.

Revision thanks to Zac

Another Tom Cruise Spoof

This one is for the Superhero Movie


But nothing is better than the original

Skipharder Part 1 - Watermark



SkipHarder is a campaign for Curios a breakfast replacement bar done by thebrandshop. It is mockumentary webisodes based around Tommy Fox a pro skater who turned to the art of skipping.

I really like an Australian company having a go at branded content. I am going to talk about this campaign over a number of posts because there are a number of things I really like about it and ways I think they could have made it better.

Watermarking letting social media flow

One of the great parts of this campaign is the use of watermarks in their videos. In all videos they have a watermark of the campaign sites URL. This is a simple but an important feature when creating links through social media channels. It is very easy for traffic to be guided towards Youtube videos (through embedding on Myspace, Blogs and Campaign sites) but I think that making traffic flow back to other sources from Youtube has always been a problem. This unobtrusive watermark is a great example of traffic making a Youtube clip flow on.