Ogilvy Dublin Scoop Coveted Lion at Cannes Lions for ISPCC

Pictured (L-R) Lloyd Byrne, Director of Fundraising at ISPCC, Dave Smyth,
managing director, Ogilvy Dublin and Michael Duffy, managing director, Blinder Films.

----- Press Release -----

Ogilvy Dublin’s work for ISPCC was recognised on a global scale at the Cannes Lions where the agency picked up a Bronze Film Craft Lion award for Direction at Cannes. This award was the highlight of a number of accolades bestowed on the ISPCC’s “I Can’t Wait” campaign, which has garnered widespread praise and recognition on a national and international level. The ad was a collaboration led by Ogilvy Dublin working with Blinder.

The International Festival of Creativity, known within the industry as the Cannes Lions, is the world’s leading celebration of creativity in communication. The awards, which have been running since 1954, take place every June in Cannes, France. This year over 28,000 entries were received from all over the world with awards handed out in 16 categories. Ogilvy Dublin was the only Irish agency to pick up an award and furthermore was the only Irish agency to have work shortlisted in the awards.

Speaking on the agency’s success, Dave Smyth, managing director at Ogilvy Dublin said, “This is an amazing achievement for Ogilvy Dublin. The win is a credit to the incredible hard work that our team has put in and I am delighted that our work here in Ireland is being recognized as some of the best in the world. The Cannes Lions were a tremendous success for the wider Ogilvy family, Ogilvy & Mather won the coveted Cannes Lions 2012 Network of the Year Award and we were delighted to be a part of that win.”

Smyth continued, “We have been working with the ISPCC since 2009 and it is an organisation we have the utmost respect for. The work they do is paramount and we are proud to work with them. From the beginning the main aim of the campaign was to create awareness for this important cause and we believe we have achieved that.” Globally, Ogilvy & Mather topped off an impressive year with the most successful Cannes Lions in the company’s history. In addition to winning Network of the Year, Ogilvy won a record 83 Lions in total. Some of the award winning work included Lions for brands including: Coke, Hellmann’s, IBM, Sprite, Forbes, Carling and the ISPCC.

Lloyd Byrne, director of fundraising at ISPCC said, “We are very honoured to have picked up this prestigious award. In the creative process for this campaign our main objective was clear; to make an advert that would attract attention and highlight the cruelty of child abuse. From the awards and recognition this campaign has attracted we believe we have met that objective.”

Richie Smyth of Dublin based Blinder picked up the bronze for Director’s craft at the annual awards, which are regarded as the ‘Oscars’ of the advertising industry. “We are delighted to have been awarded with a Cannes Lion, the most prestigious award in advertising” said Blinder managing director, Michael Duffy. “It is testimony to the courageous creative work of the Ogilvy team and the willingness of ISPCC to embrace challenging ideas which has made this commercial such a worldwide phenomenon.”

In addition to the recent win at Cannes, the campaign was also recognised by the D&AD Book which is one of the most respected creative judging forums in the world. This was the first time that an Irish agency had been honoured in over 7 years. Business Insider also voted the ad as the number one ad in the world for 2011. The campaign was also honoured at the CLIO awards held in May in New York where it picked up one of CLIO’s iconic statues which are the most widely recognized and coveted symbol of the industry’s creative accomplishments. Other awards bestowed on the campaign include; a Gold Award in the “Public Interest” category at this year’s EPICA Awards; a Gold Award at the “Global Best Digital Advertising Awards” in Bangkok, Thailand; a Bronze Award in “TV Cinema/Online Film Direction” at the London International Awards (LIA). It was also named “Advert of the Year” on tvads.ie, and listed as the “#1 Ad Worldwide”. In Ireland the campaign picked up 2 Golds and 3 Silvers at the ICAD Awards. ICAD is Ireland's preeminent creative body - and the annual awards are the greatest opportunity for Irish creatives to have their best work recognised and rewarded by their peers. It was also awarded a Silver at the Kinsale Sharks. This collection of awards makes the campaign one of the most awarded pieces of Irish advertising in history.

Three Expands Free Bitbuzz Wi-Fi To All Smartphones

Pippa O’Connor revealing Ireland’s biggest Wi-Fi hotspots this spring

Today, Three announced that they will be expanding their partnership with Bitbuzz to provide free Wi-Fi to all their Smartphone customers. Since July 2010, all Three’s iPhone customers have been able to avail of free Wi-Fi through Bitbuzz, but today's news means that Three’s Android users can also avail of Bitbuzz Wi-Fi. The agreement marks the most significant data offload deal to-date in Ireland.

Elaine Carey, Sales and Marketing Director at Three commented: “Three are delighted to expand our partnership with Bitbuzz, offering free Wi-Fi connectivity to all our smartphone customers. Three is committed to leading the smartphone marketplace forward and see this enhanced offering as not only offering our customers more choice but also continuing to deliver on this promise.”

“Following our success with the initial offering for iPhones, we are confident that the demand for free Wi-Fi will increase with our expansion across Three’s other smartphone customers,” said Shane Deasy, Managing Director, Bitbuzz. “It is very clear that Three has a real belief in Wi-Fi, and this agreement underscores that. It is also a fact that handhelds are a significant force in the explosion in demand for Wi-Fi.”

The partnership, which features hotspots nationwide, including all Three’s thirty retail stores, is open to both Three prepay and bill pay customers. This also means that on top of Three’s iPhone Bitbuzz Wi-Fi App, Three will now also offer a Bitbuzz App in the Android Marketplace. Both these developments represent a significant strengthening of the strategic partnership between Three Ireland and Bitbuzz.

Click here for a full list of Bitbuzz hotspots in the Republic of Ireland.

The Interest Graph

A great piece here from Gary Vaynerchuk discussing the explosion of Pinterest, something Gary predicted at the start of the year. While Facebook may be king of the Social Graph, Gary sets out his belief on how Pinterest, and indeed Tumblr, are both offering users interest driven experiences. Well worth a watch...

Irish Consumer's Digital Behaviour

A nice infographic video from the chaps at Cybercom:

The Carphone Warehouse 2010 Appy Awards

Last night saw the inaugural Appy Awards take place at the Gibson Hotel at the Point Village in Dublin. The awards celebrate innovation and creativity in the app development industry, rewarding its best practitioners for their hard work and business achievements. The Appys are the only dedicated awards programme in Ireland for app development and design, and are open to anyone who developed or paid for the development of a mobile app, on any platform (iOS, Android, Bada, Symbian, Ovi, etc.). The awards featured 17 categories ranging from Best Branded App to Best Travel/Tourism App, as well as a Grand Prix to the best overall app from the last year.

The first ever Grand Prix winner from last night was the RTÉ News Now iPhone app. RTÉ, who were up against a host of innovative and creative apps, were judged to be the best app out of 170 entries.

“I’d like to congratulate RTÉ and the agency that developed the News Now app, DRG, on the Grand Prix win,” said Stephen Conmy, editor of Digital Times and co-founder of the Appys. “The competition for the top prize was quite fierce, there were some great apps entered and most of the apps that made the shortlist show the creativity and utility now abundant in the Irish app sector. I’d also like to thank all our judges for the hard work they put in.”

The full breakdown of category winners was as follows:

Category App name Company Best Augmented Reality / Location Services app Daft.ie iPhone/iPad App Daft Media Ltd Best Branded app Paddy Power Mobile Paddy Power Best Business Solutions app Smartgrid Redwind Software Best Consumer Experience / Retail app Betfair for iPhone Betfair Best Entertainment / Gaming app Movie Challenge Redwind Software Best Media app RTÉ News Now DRG Best Medical/ Healthcare app Pocket Heart eMedia Interactive Ltd. Best Social Networking app Absolut Fringe eightytwenty/interactive Best Sports app RTÉ GAA Furious Tribe Best Tourism/Travel app Ireland's Blue Book Ireland's Blue Book Best Education / Learning App FIS Training Furious Tribe Best use of the Irish Language in an App Greann Gaeilge Miranda Corp Best Developer Daft - Ciaran Maher Daft Best Andriod app Today FM Communicorp Digital Best Bada app Munster Rugby iMobile Best OVI app Mowbli's Halloween Axonista Best Apple app RTÉ News Now DRG GRAND PRIX RTÉ News Now DRG

While each app was judged on seven different attributes including design, relevance to target market, utility and innovation, Des Doris, founder/organiser of the Appys and MD of Alchemy Events said, “We’ve been really impressed with the standard of entries for such a young media sector, and the app sector is a media sector in its own right now. While this year we’ve concentrated on mobile apps, next year we'd like to see tablet apps, social media apps and even Web TV apps entered. The app sector is changing the media landscape and the way many companies do business and the Appys with The Carphone Warehouse aim to showcase the best Irish apps and their developers.”

Edward Conmy, event director and co-founder, commented: “We’re extremely happy with the response, not just from all those who entered but also from our sponsors and the general digital media/marketing community. The app sector in Ireland is thriving and we hope the Appys will shine a bright light on this creative and energetic media sector. Well done to all those who made the shortlist, who won their categories and of course well done to the Grand Prix winner. For those who are a little disappointed on the night, there’s always next year.”

A huge congratulations to all those who were nominated and especially to all those who won.

Kamchatka: Twitter As Your Website

I would have assumed that folks had seen this (or at least heard about it) but following a conversation with some people on Friday on the options for doing a 'website that's not a website', I found out that not everyone has.

Below is the promo vid for Argentinian digital agency Kamchatka's new website which is based entirely around Twitter. The company setup different profiles to represent different sections of their site and Tweets as the content. It's a brilliant idea and definitely way 'out there'. However, from a practicality point of view I'm just not convinced - especially when you consider Twitter's 4 Day Search Window.

Anyway, have a gander and judge for yourself...

The World Is Full Of Interesting Things...

I spotted this over on Neil Perkin's blog Only Dead Fish. It got a lot of Twitter love last Friday but just in case you missed it, and because I think it's pretty special, here it is for you.

This is the updated 119 slide version of the Google Creative Labs presentation all about recent creative ideas and web campaigns covering everything from advertising to art, and politics to literature. This was put together by Tom Uglow and while it is viewable right here, just as Neil suggested, you should have a look at it on Google Docs for the full effect. This is simply brilliant.

Where Good Ideas Come From

Watch first, then I'll do some rambling...

I absolutely love this video. Not only is the whole style compelling and engaging, but it's simple. There's no difficulty understanding the concept that Steven Johnson is discussing. And it's a concept that I firmly believe in. I've always considered myself an ideas person - I'm good at thinking on my feet and I don't have difficulty with creative solutions. The thing is, I'm also a firm believer in team work and the power of the group, and it's this part of Steven Johnson's video that grabbed me. I suddenly realised just how many times I've had an idea that has sat simmering in the back of my mind until I've shared it with someone and they've added to it to take it that next step. I also then realised that this has almost always been in private discussions with friends over a drink or some food.

What if there was a place such as the 'Age of Enlightenment's Coffee Houses' or the 'Parisian Salons of Modernism' that people could go to specifically to share ideas with a group and get some input and feedback and possible collaboration? Not just a physical place as such but an actual regular 'event'. As far as I am aware nothing like this exists in Dublin, certainly not within the fields I am interested. I'm not even sure how to describe what this would be similar to, perhaps a think tank of sorts?? All I know is that I think I've found myself a new project. Stay tuned :)

The State Of The Internet

Just watch...

Social Media Roles

It seems that almost every week a new Social Media Expert or Guru springs up to offer us their superior knowledge and ability. They selflessly put themselves forward to fix all our Social Media woes, and ask for nothing in return except a giant fee. Thankfully these charlatans and would be hucksters are invariably easy to spot and quickly outed as what they truly are. The most annoying thing about these "Twitter Kings" and "Dr.s of Social Media" is that they tear down the good work being done by people across the digital landscape.

So what of the folk out there that aren't pushing themselves as an Expert or Guru? What of the people who offer their advice or genuine expertise to those who want it. These people do exist, and they can help your business, but the difficulty is realising who they are and what they can do for you. I started considering some of the people that I know personally and what they are great at, what they can offer businesses. I realised quickly that there are several different distinct roles that exist within the Social Media Sphere, and while a person may cross over several of these roles, there is ultimately no such thing as a single Social Media Expert who can single handedly tick all boxes and requirements. So here's an initial list of Social Media Roles:

Social Media Instructor
This is the person who has the ability to sit down with anyone; explain what Social Media is, why they should be using it, how to best use it and what the benefits are. This person knows how to use the various different Social Media tools on the market and keeps abreast of all the latest developments in the Social Media Sphere. As with any teacher or lecturer, however, this is the role that is the hardest to learn - teaching comes naturally and the best instructors have an ability that can't be learned or faked.

Conference Speaker
In my opinion the Conference Speaker is essentially the same as the Instructor but where the Instructor may not have the ability to stand up and speak in front of large crowds, the Conference Speaker does. Similarly, the Conference Speaker may find themselves unable to sit down and create meaningful one-to-one communications. Beyond this though, both roles are almost identical with the Conference Speaker being just as versed in the cutting edge of Social Media as their counterpart. They know what Social Media can do and how to use it best. Most importantly they can also put this into captivating and engaging presentations.

Content Manager
At the heart of all Social Media is content. Fresh, engaging and unique content. The Content Manager both creates and curates, and ultimately drives Social Media. They may have the most important social media role of all, and with an ever escalating amount of new data and content being created everyday, their role will become ever more important. They will be the people who streamline online content into manageable categories for user consumption. They will be essential to the prevention of data overload.

Event Organiser
Summits, Seminars, Streetups, Tweetups and Conferences; the Event Organiser provides the key role of facilitating the offline interactions that create the content for our various Social Media channels.

Community Manager
In the last 12 months every major Social Media Platform has created Community Manager roles. These are the people who drive conversation and interaction between brands/businesses and the public. They provide the voice of these organisations and will most likely be a natural networker and "people person". They understand how to communicate personally with their users and facilitate the organic development of brand ambassadors - users who will promote the brand/business on their own.

Marketing Consultant
Finally there's the Marketing Consultant. This is the person who understands what Social Media can do for an integrated marketing programme, and how to use it effectively to achieve strategic marketing objectives. A Marketing Consultant will understand how to use Social Media in coordination with the full modern digital marketing mix; driving heighten interaction and engagement rates with online display advertising, Social Media advertising, Search Engine Optimisation, Digital PR and Pay Per Click Advertising.

These are the 6 Social Media roles that I see in the Social Media Sphere, but it is very much an initial list and I would envision it changing and possibly growing as Social Media matures and develops. If there are any glaring absences here please feel free to let me know. I'd be very interested to know what roles other people see.

Chat Roulette

When it comes to fads, memes, virals and trends, the internet has given us some real crazy stuff over the last decade. In my humble opinion though, this may just be the craziest so far. Chat Roulette is a new internet fad that put you in touch with a random stranger for videochat. You can click "next" any time, or stay with the person that was randomly selected. Be warned, however, this is a realm of completely unfiltered, unmonitored human nature. Anything goes!

This could be as inoffensive as people in masks dancing around, Chinese users giving virtual high fives or a puppet psychotherapist who will sit with you for hours and help you solve all your problems.

Unfortunately you may also find yourself looking at a man holding up a sign that reads "Assroll?". To immediately become a naked man rolling over backwards. In many ways this is YouTube with a whole heap more nudity and exhibitionism.

There are people out there, however, who are doing some cool things with the service. The most famous is self thought piano player Merton with his
awesome improv piano sessions with random chatters...

---- Update ----

Unfortunately Merton's video was removed by YouTube “due to terms of use violation.” Thankfully he did an edit and got it back up...

BBC: The Virtual Revolution

This is the introduction to The Virtual Revolution, a new BBC four part series about how the web is changing the world. The show's presenter, Dr. Aleks Krotoski, has already created quite a buzz throughout the Twittersphere with the shows conclusions and comments, and while I wouldn't agree with all of them, I think there's a lot of food for thought. The first episode was on BBC2 on Saturday and there is a repeat this evening. For full details, visit the BBC Virtual Revolution website.

Thanks to Damien for reminding me to blog this :)

Where Do You Go

Where Do You Go is a cool mash-up by Steven Lehrburger that creates a heat map of your Foursquare check-ins.

This is my 'Where Do You Go' map of Foursquare activity...


The app runs on the Google App Engine and was created for the Mashups: Remixing the Web class on New York University's Interactive Telecommunications Program.

Besides his blog, Stephen can also be found on Twitter.

I Am A Geek - The Society for Geek Advancement

I blogged this about 6 months ago but in the spirit of the New Year I thought I'd share it again. This is a collaborative video project by The Society for Geek Advancement, all about embracing your geekiness. The funny thing is, this is exactly how every geek I know would describe themself.

Society For Geek Advancement
The Society for Geek Advancement (SGA) was founded upon the principles that we should all embrace our inner and outer geek and have fun while doing it. As individuals who love learning, innovating and believe in possibility as well as change, the second step of responsibility is to be the geek that keeps on giving. As a member of SGA, we work together as a global community to help others realize their true potential too!

You can also find the society on Twitter.

A Day In The Internet

This is a really cool visualisation by Søren over on RoBoilr.dk, showing a day in the internet and exactly how much data we move and create (via the always excellent Nick Burcher).

Guinness Storehouse: Weather Cam

This week saw the launch of Guinness Storehouse's brand new 360 degree, online, live streaming weather cam. The newest addition to Ireland's number one visitor attraction, offer a stunning view from the highest viewpoint in Dublin City - The Gravity Bar. Now people from all over the world can enjoy a bird’s eye view of Dublin city in real time.

Speaking about the weather cam, Valentina Doorly, Guinness Storehouse Marketing and Sales Manager, said, “The Guinness Storehouse is known all around the world for the panoramic views available from the Gravity Bar. With the introduction of this new, innovative technology we are delighted to be able to bring this view to everyone in Ireland and throughout the world.”


Beyond just a simple view, as stunning as it is, the weather cam also provides a real time weather report. Fitted alongside the 360 degree cam is a host of weather instruments showing current weather conditions, temperature and wind speed. What makes the weather cam truly special, however, is the unique features that the weather cam is equipped with - such as an automated wiper that detects levels of rainfall and the 360 degree rotation that covers the entire city of Dublin.

A big hat tip to my colleagues in Cybercom who worked on the project. A great idea and a really nice addition to Dublin's best tourist spot. All that's left to do now is to pop over and check it out!

In related news, Guinness Storehouse has also introduced an “Interactive Dublin City Tour” on their website, which allows you to get even closer to the city and its treasured landmarks. The virtual tour features 24 city landmarks, viewable from the webcam including Christchurch Cathedral, Aviva Stadium, the Wellington Monument, Croke Park and the Spire. The City Tour also shows views of the St. James’s Gate Brewery, Wicklow Mountains, the Sugar Loaf Mountain and Howth Head.


Weather cam facts:
The Guinness Storehouse weather station can operate from -10 degrees C to +50 degrees C.
The weight of the weather cam is 7kg.
The weather cam is a Ganz C-AllView equipped with a low light level CCD sensor.
The weather cam has a 36x optical zoom facility

About Guinness Storehouse
Guinness Storehouse welcomed over 1 million visitors in 2008 from over 25 countries making it Ireland’s number one visitor attraction.
Guinness Storehouse spans across seven floors shaped around a giant pint, which, if filled would contain 14.3 million pints of Guinness.
The highlight for many visitors is the Gravity Bar, symbolically the ‘Head of the Pint’, where visitors can enjoy unparalleled panoramic views
of Dublin city.

The Web In 5 Years, According To Google

Revolution Magazine carried a great article last Friday about an interview that Eric Schmidt, Google's CEO, gave at the Gartner Symposium/ITxpo Orlando 2009.

While the interview is initially about Google, where it's come from and where it's going, Eric Schmidt also gives an overview of how Google sees the web changing in the next five years time. Schmidt outlines a 'radically different' internet that will be dominated by the Chinese language and Social Media content, and delivered to us by super-fast broadband.

By far one of the most interesting points that Schmidt raises is that brands should be listening to youth consumers when planning their marketing strategies. He simply points out, "Talk to a teenager about how they consume media and remember in five years they'll be your employee".

This is an overview of Schmidt's vision compiled by ReadWriteWeb:

1. Five years from now the internet will be dominated by Chinese-language content.
2. Five years is a factor of ten in Moore's Law, meaning that computers will be capable of far more by that time than they are today.
3. Within five years there will be broadband well above 100MB in performance - and distribution distinctions between TV, radio and the web will go away.
4. "We're starting to make significant money off of Youtube", content will move towards more video.
5. "Real time information is just as valuable as all the other information, we want it included in our search results."
6. "We can index real-time info now - but how do we rank it?"
7. It's because of this fundamental shift towards user-generated information that people will listen more to other people than to traditional sources. Learning how to rank that "is the great challenge of the age." Schmidt believes Google can solve that problem.

This is the interview:

iPhone Halloween Custome

It's pretty common place to see Supermen, Doctors, Witches, Vampires and a huge assortment of celebrities and movie characters wandering around on Halloween night, but it takes someone with real creativity to do something really cool. In recent years a lot of people have chosen to dress up as internet memes or personalities, mimicking some of the various stupid things that people have done that have made them internet viral hits.

So what's left out there for people to be truly original this Halloween?

I spotted this over on Mashable, and it's definitely one of the coolest costumes I've seen. At least it's a costume that takes a lot of time, money and commitment on the night.



The costumes apparently took 3 weeks to build and each of them weighs 85lbs. Most of this comes from the 42″ LCD screen and car battery that form the guts of the costume. The visuals are powered by an iPhone 3GS which is attached to a LCD.

Co-creator John Savio writes, "This all started two years ago Reko Rivera and Bobby Hartman created a wearable large iPhone costume with a real 37″ lcd tv. An iPod was attached with a looping video of a real iphones screen in normal use. This time with the help of John Savio and John Matthews the team created yet another amazing rendition of the new iPhone 3GS…The team has about $2000 into the two costumes and has no regrets!"

This originally appeared on MacRumours.

87 Cool Things

I found the following presentation over on If Only We'd Thought of That and I had to share it. It's a collection of cool things, put together by Google Creative Lab, that are just extremely inspiring and creative. Basically it's fairly comprehensive list of the most recent mashups, location-based games, video annotation, augmented reality, digital light displays, photomosaics and collaborative projects.

If the below SlideShare is too small to view, check out the full presentation on Google Docs.

Tim Berners-Lee Apologises

I wasn't going to post about this as I thought most people had seen it but a few friends last night hadn't so here you go....

Tim Berners-Lee, the man who effectively invented the internet, made a tongue-in-cheek apology for the forward slashes at the beginning of internet addresses. The forward slashes have long been an annoyance to web users and Tim finally confessed that the // in a web address is actually "unnecessary".

The Times newspaper was told in an interview that in hindsight internet URLs could have also worked without the forward slashes.

"There you go, it seemed like a good idea at the time," he said.