Friday, October 31, 2008

De-Branding the pack

I was sent this article today by a friend. Really interesting stuff. It's a bit old but it suggests that the UK Department of Health is considering plans to make tobacco manufacturers sell their products in completely unbranded packets.

Thursday, October 30, 2008

Ghost Robot

Sweet video - had to share...


Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Second Life goes election crazy


You'd need to be living under a rock not to know that the US elections are nearly upon us. Magazines, newspapers and tv are all packed full. Numerous news sites, opinion polls and political blogs (and other blogs) are just as busy covering the comings and goings of all those involved in getting America's next leader elected. So perhaps it's not to surprising to learn that Capitol Hill in Second Life is drawing huge numbers of visitors, from all over the world, with an interest in the politics at hand.

Combining a twitter display and electoral map (showing the most recent polling on a state-by-state basis) the site is a good place to keep in touch with your candidates progress.

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Google Earth for the iPhone

Google Earth has found a new home!

The fantastic world map program can now be found travelling the globe in the pockets of iPhone and iPod touch users. The program, which has had over 400 million unique downloads, is now available as a free download from the iTunes App Store. Nifty!

Sunday, October 26, 2008

Who are the global bloggers?

Technorati have conducted the most in-depth study of the state of blogging. Their State of the Blogosphere report provides an interesting overview of who is blogging and what they are blogging about. A must read for everyone.

* Two-thirds are male
* 50% are 18-34
* More affluent and educated than the general population
* 70% have college degrees
* Four in ten have an annual household income of $75K+
* One in four have an annual household income of $100K+
* 44% are parents


Saturday, October 25, 2008

Goodbye Bush

The Elevator, Ireland's newest satirical digital portal, brings us a great video to start your weekend. Enjoy folks!

Friday, October 24, 2008

7-Eleven uses the Election to Engage Customers

7-Eleven are engaging their customers this election season. by letting you show your support with....... a coffee cup. Seariously, a coffee cup.

Whenever you buy a cup of coffee at any 7-Eleven, you choose either a blue Obama cup or a red McCain cup. With every cup counted as a vote, you just pop along to the microsite and check out who's winning. Bare in mind that that 7-Eleven sells one million cups of coffee a day.

This isn't a new campaign idea however. 7-Eleven have used the system to fairly accurately guage the election results.

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Web Surfing Stimulates Your Brain

A survey by the University of California has revealed that the effects of Googling, on brain activity, are extremely positive. Aimed at dismissing the idea that Internet use leads to shorter attention spans, the survey tested twenty-four volunteers between the ages of 55 and 76, giving them various Web searching tasks and book reading tasks. The users were also broken down according to their level of web experience. The subjects were given MRI scans while participating in the activities, to determin the level of, and extent, of brain activity.

The results clearly indicated that both groups showed similar levels of brain activity during activities such as book reading tasks, but it was the experienced Googlers who showed significantly higher levels of brain activity while performing Internet searches. Interestingly, their brain activity was also much higher when searching the web, then when reading a book.

So what can we garner from these results? Well, there is certainly an implication that use of the web, and in particular serch, triggers brain centers that control decision making and complex reasoning, which can actually help older people fight senility. "Just a simple, everyday computer task seems to be activating neural circuits," said study author Dr. Gary W. Small, director of the University of California, Los Angeles, Center on Aging. "It's possible that this is something that strengthens our brains as we do it."

All-in-all, extremely interesting stuff. Hopefully in years to come, the 6 to 8 hours a day I spent on a computer will pay off!

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Cybercom win Best Digital Promotion in the World!

Fantastic news yesterday morning - Cybercom's Powerade 'Never Give Up' campaign has won the Best Digital Promotion in the World at the 2008 MAA Globes in Toronto. Against tough competition from Vietnam and Australia, this may be the crowning achievement in an already merit studded piece of marketing. The MAA award makes a total of seven awards to date for the campaign, icluding a Coca-Cola Worldwide Marketing Award, Grand Prix at the APMC and Best Digital Campaign at the DMAs.

Congratulation to all the folks in the office who worked on the campaign. A very, very well done!

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Everyone has a bad day sometimes...


YouTube Premieres Full-Length Film

The internet may have just seen one of the most pivitol moves in content sharing yet. For the first time ever YouTube will feature the full-length, feature work of established filmmaker. On top of this, the film is completely avoiding an official cinema premiere; last Friday, director Wayne Wang's The Princess of Nebraska had its public debut on YouTube's Screening Room.

The film has since received over 150,000 views.

Unfortunately folks, it isn't viewable in Ireland. For those in authorised countries, the film can be found here.

Monday, October 20, 2008

31 on Saturday

A good campaign is well targeted. Some campaigns, however, go a little bit further.

In what is certainly the most targeted campaign I've ever seen, Hello Viking launched a microsite dedicated to anyone turning 31 last Saturday, Oct. 18. If you knew anyone with their birthday on Saturday, you could go one and make a dedication.

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Web 3.0 Advertising - Targeting the right audience


I was lucky enough to StumbleUpon a keynote speech given by Amiad Solomon, from Peer39, from the Web 3.0 Conference in Santa Clara. Amiad, and Peer39, specialise in Semantic Advertising solutions, and he addresses the idea of how the semantic web can be applied to improve advertising targeting accuracy.

Essentially the increasing availability of data and information lends itself to a more complete online identity of each user. By allowing the 'net' to 'know' more about you, you allow your interactive experience to be more personalised. However, when it comes to advertising the overriding issue is not actually about getting the “right product to the right person at the right time”. At least not anymore.

Nowadays online advertising isn’t having trouble with targeting, it’s simply a case of getting people to see your advertising. Generally speaking, all in all targeting works, and so the reason that online media consumption and ad spend differ so much across brands, is that advertisers have not cracked an effective model to create demand for products that people don’t know they want.

So, put very simply, if people don’t see your ad, it doesn’t matter how good or bad your targeting effectiveness is.

Saturday, October 18, 2008

Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds at Radio City Music Hall

Here's a sneak preview of the recording of Dave Matthews And Tim Reynolds playing at Radio City Music Hall in April 2007. The full feature will air on HDNet on Sunday, October 19th at 8:00 p.m.

Check out the DMB Facebook page.

Friday, October 17, 2008

Sony Bravia Dominos

After a long wait we finally get a look at the new Sony Bravia commercial. Flying to us from New Zealand, where the ad was just released, it follows the same quirkiness of Balls, Paint and Bunnies. Basically it's giant dominos falling over across India.

To be honest, I expected more. The first ad, balls, was fantastic. Paint was ok, but Bunnies was brilliant. Epic in fact. This, however, is not as impressive. Do bare in mind though, this is a local ad, like Pyramids, and made by a different agency (BATES Singapore).

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Banksy's Back


Banksy's back with his latest endeavour, The Village Pet Store and Charcoal Grill. The odd titled site gives a strange insite into the underground artist. Among the oddities are a pair of fish fingers in a fish-bowl and a rabbit putting on make up.

The show can be seen at no 89, Seventh Avenue South, Greenwich Village, New York until 31 October.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Nike - 'fate'

Check out the latest Nike commercial. Entitled 'Fate', it is the story of the of the life-long rivalry of American Football players LaDainian Tomlinson and Troy Polamalu. Directed by David Fincher, to the an Ennio Morricone soundtrack (a remix of “L’estasi Dell’oro”) and produced by W+K Portland; this is a must see. Really nice stuff.

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Mail Goggles

Most of us have been there. It's late, your tired, and maybe, just maybe, you've had one or two too many. You go to your computer and a brainwave sweeps over you. Now would be the perfect time to email your ex, or that person you like, or that co-worker you completely dislike. 30 seconds later and email is off into the ether, like an unstoppable forcce of nature.

Oh course it wasn't a good idea. In fact, it could very easily be one on the worst ideas you ever have.

Thankfully the good people at Google have recognised the problem and are lending a heand to stamp out this late night tomfoolery. The latest addition to their already impressive arsenal is Mail Goggles.

In a nutshell, you set the time that you want it to come on at and if during that time you try to send an email, you will first have to solve a series of crafty math problems.

Genius!

Monday, October 13, 2008

It's amazing what a little lime can do!

I StumbledUpon this at the weekend and was surprised because I'd never seen it before and knew nothing about the campaign. Check out the microsite and the tv spot below...

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Eye Candy


So much to look at. Spend some time and go through all of them!

Saturday, October 11, 2008

You know there are hard financial times ahead when...

With two financial institutions for clients this brought a very uneasy laugh.


Friday, October 10, 2008

Go to Australia - Baz Luhrmann said so

Romeo and Juliet was very good. Moulin Rouge! was stunning. There's no question that Baz Luhrmann is a man with talent. So where will he go next? What epic will he lay upon us?

As it turns out, his latest work is not quite what you'd expect. As part of a tourism campaign for the Australian Tourist Board, Lurhmann has created this short:

Thursday, October 9, 2008

Quote of the Year


While this has no reference to anything digital, I had to share it with you. Some colleagues and I were sitting have lunch in work yesterday. Not having seen the new signage addition across the river, one of guys leans forward and say, "The O2 sign they put on top of The Point is horrible".

What can I say - brilliant. A firm reassurance that Dublin will only ever call The Point, The Point.

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

A-ha it's a Mash-up

I saw this and had to share, just wait for the band montagé - brilliant

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Doritos - Only The Good Stuff

It's bold - very bold. Advertise by killing the competition. In fact don't stop there, it's advertising genocide. Kill everything else. Genius I say. Check this out.

Monday, October 6, 2008

Watch a movie on your phone?

Technology is moving at ever faster speeds to allow us to do once house-bound activities while we are on the move. Games consoles have miniaturised themselves to fit in your pocket. Portable DVD players can be found in a car. Your phone can be used to watch movies.

You have to wonder though, when is convenience detracting from the experience that the film maker wanted you to experience?

Sunday, October 5, 2008

The Great Schlep

Following on from my post yesterday, I thought I'd do another US election post. This time it's The Great Schlep. The Great Schlep is Sarah Silverman's campaign to get Jewish grandchildren to convince their not-so-liberal Jewish grandparents to vote for Obama. If nothing else, it's pretty funny.

Saturday, October 4, 2008

Don't Vote

A host of US celebrities telling you why not to vote. A solid and creative viral that draws on much of the individual humour of those participating. Whether you're american or not, this is worth watching.

Friday, October 3, 2008

The Adobe CS4 Tour comes to Dublin

This November 6 sessions will take place to demonstrate Adobe's new Creative Suite 4. Geared towards designers and creative types, the sessions will show you all the latest advances for designing and developing through each of the Adobe suite applications, whether for print, web, interactive, rich internet applications, video or mobile.

Who should attend?
Adobe suggests these sessions are for graphic designers, print professionals, artists, web designers / developers, interactive designers, application developers, post-production professionals, videographers and independent filmmakers.

Thursday, October 2, 2008

Ted Talks about TV & Computers

This may be from the EG 2007 Conference but non-the-less it's a must see video on the relationship of TV and Computers, from the TedPartner Series.

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Seth MacFarlane’s Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy


A few months ago Google announced a new initiative set to increase its video revenue with a push for more professional content. The vehicle to do this would be Seth MacFarlane’s Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy, which promised 50 mini-webisodes specifically designed for Google’s Content Network and AdSense distribution. Not only has the series launched, but it also has it's own site, sethcomedy.com.

The idea isn't complicated. MacFarlane creates 50 shows for Google with illustrated pre-play ads in his own signature animation style. These are currently two episodes available, both of which advertise Burger King.