Miwadi - Miwadifesto

Yesterday, Monday 22nd November, Miwadi launched its brand new packaging and branding. To celebrate the event, Miwadi is calling on Irish kids to tell them what they would do to make our island a more fun place to live in!

Miwadi wants kids to join in the “Miwadifesto”!

Through a brand new website kids can upload their suggestions for and ideas. Of course as being kids these ideas don't exactly need to be too grounded and anything goes...

• Little boys could be given super powers
• Girls provided with fairy wings to get to school
• Buses would be replaced with pretty pink carriages drawn by unicorns
• Trains would provide special areas for kids to host a Teddy’s Bear Picnic, and
• Every shopping list could include magic dust!

Miwadi is looking for all fascinating and magical suggestions to be collated into a Miwadifesto containing the most colourful suggestions - ideas that fill a dull moment with colour and make the mundane fantastic. With the help of their Mums or Dads, kids can enter their Miwadifesto, for the chance to ultimately see their own suggestions up on the site and perhaps win a family holiday or a host of other prizes.

Speaking about the Miwadifesto, Miwadi Marketing Manager, Christine Keohane said “We are delighted to introduce our new look Miwadi and what better way to celebrate then asking our biggest fans, kids, about their world. The aim of the the Miwadifesto is to tap into the imagination of children and to capture how our world might look if it were run by kids!”.

The campaign was launched with the help of Lucy Kennedy yesterday morning outside Government Buildings on Merrion Street. A rather fitting location considering everything going on right now.

The Pedal Project

DCTV’s new series, The Pedal Project, looks at the current thinking behind our city's transport system and is an absolute must for everyone who commutes to work. The series looks at the opinion and position of local authorities, universities and the residents of Dublin. The aim being to create a conversation both within and about the cycling movement.

The Pedal project is not a simple documentary or one sided analysis. This is an ongoing debate within the public view and an insight into the complexity and variety of opinion that currently exists. Foremost though, this is a collaborative endeavour and your opinion is wanted. Your contribution is wanted.

One Less Car

"When you go out onto the streets of Dublin looking for bikes, bring the footage you find back into the edit suite and re-mix it with some important words of advice from the past and good tunes this is what you get. Part snapshot of the zeitgeist part cycling agit-prop this is one of the best developed examples of Irish alternative television production."


Two Wheeled City

"As Dublin has grown wealthier we have become carcooned, basing our personal and city transport system on the car. We know this isn’t working – but what is the alternative and how do we get there. Speaking to academics and elected officials, council planners and staff, campaigners and cyclists – Two Wheeled City constructs a convincing case and viable plan to recast Dublin as a cyclable city."

CA.LL - California Calling

I'd be very surprised if you haven't seen the 'California - Find Yourself Here' ad that is part of the VisitCalifornia.co.uk. As far as ads go, this may have the most impressive array of stars packed into a mere 30 second ad.

But so what you ask?

Well, California Tourism’s latest campaign has gone live and it's taking that ad to the next level. Introducing a seriously cool prize through a user generated competition mechanic, the campaign looks set to follow in the foot steps of a number of recent UGC campaigns that have proved extremely engaging. So what is this one all about? Check out Adam Buxton explaining exactly what's going on...

So essentially members of the public are being invited to audition for a part in the commercial by uploading videos. All you have to do is explain why you should be chosen to appear in the ad and then it's all down to a public vote. A winner will be selected in March and flown out to California to experience full VIP treatment whilst filming their part in the ad, which will be aired next April.

As well as the microsite and YouTube channel, the campaign is also live on Facebook and Twitter.

What you're really wondering though, is what's the prize? Well, as I said, it's a whooper. Basically it's first-class everything with a full VIP treatment to boot. You and a friend will be given USD$1000 and sent on a whirlwind tour of the Golden State. Full details are here.

Finally then it's just a matter of checking out the competition, so to speak. Here's the videos already uploaded.

Whose View & The Best Pizza in Dublin

Last week I had the pleasure of sitting down with the guys behind the site whoseview.ie. Myself and a small group of bloggers and Tweeters were invited over to The Casting Couch to answer the question, what is the best pizza in Dublin?. The task was to blind taste test 6 different pizzas (each in plain cheese or peperoni), comment on all aspects on the pizza, and score them out of ten.

It was a tough job but I felt up to the challenge.

I should probably stop here and fully explain what any of this had to do with the internet.

WhoseView.ie is a review site based entirely on user generated review. You review whatever you want to review and you review it exactly as you want to. An excellent way to understand this is to look at one of WhoseView's most popular reviews todate: Luke's review of The Winding Stair. What you'll gather from this is that the site prides itself on the honesty and openness of its members. Unlike other Irish review sites, there is no moderation in relation to positivity or negativity of a review.

This makes WhoseView a real gem. For once you can be assured that someone's review hasn't been edited or curtailed to reflect more favourably then the member intended. The functionality of the site itself is also a real winner. The site is driven by a principle of user facilitation and user functionality. Members can use the site more like a social network. Add friends, comment on reviews and engage with people who have similar tastes/likes. In my mind this makes perfect sense. You actually get to communicate with other members and get can share your opinion - essential for a review service, and yet this is the first time someone has really done it.

Right, so back to the pizza issue.

I don't eat huge amounts if pizza but I know what I like and there's a big difference between good pizza and bad pizza. In this instant it became immediately clear that there is a kaleidoscope of areas a pizza can fall down, or excel. We considered the base, the sauce, the cheese, the peperoni, the cooking (ranging from burnt to undercooked) and how it all came together.

The results may surprise you... (in reverse order)
6. Godfather’s Leeson Street
5. Apache Pearse Street
4. Hell Wexford Street
3. Four Star Ranelagh
2. Domino’s Rathmines

and in first place: Bianconi’s in Ranelagh

All in all, it was a brilliant night and a lot of fun. The most important thing is that these guys have realised exactly what is needed on a review site. Real, honest, genuine reviews that come straight from people you can see and talk to. Hat tips to you guys, a job very well done.

Convergence Culture

A number of years back, Faris Yakob, then the Digital Ninja at Naked Communications (now he is EVP Chief Technology Strategist at McCann Erickson New York), presented at the Account Planning Group Battle of Big Thinking in London. Faris put forward the idea of Transmedia Planning. Transmedia Planning draws heavily from Henry Jenkins' book Convergence Culture. In it Jenkins discusses the how culture has drastically changed with the advent of technology, in paricular communications technology and the internet.

These may be the most clued in, important pieces of thinking I've come across in relation to utilisation, development and understanding of the modern digital world. Start thinking Creative Commons licensing, digital mash-ups, user-generated content, and just about every other online/digital phenomenon that has grown out of the last decade. Think about how your consumption of media, and your ability and desire to create it, has changed even in your own lifetime. As primitive people stories are told around campfires, passed from person to person with no sense of ownership or acquisition. But with the advent of one-way mass communications such as tv, cinema and radio, these stories became the property of large corporations and publishers. The internet, and the technology that powers it and innovates it, has changed all that. Now anyone can share their story, or any story for that matter. Don't get me wrong, I fully understand that copyrights still exist but consider how even these are starting to slowly change. Consider how people like Trent Reznor or bands like Radiohead are starting to distribute their music. Consider the latest Championship Manager 2010 game, which asks you to pay whatever you feel is appropriate. This is part of convergence culture.

In the following video Jenkins gives his thoughts on convergence culture:

Wispa Gold Where Have You Been?

Cadbury are bringing back Wispa Gold! That right folks, on the back of user-generated ad campaign, Cadbury are relaunching that oh so delicious caramel cousin of the Wispa. Having been off the market for so time now, Cadbury have teamed up with Fallon to bring Wispa Gold back in some serious style. Through the wispagoldmessages.com microsite, users have the chance to put messages up on billboards around the UK.

The campaign, which goes live on the 7th September, will give the public an opportunity to create custom messages that can be submitted for the chance to sit on one of hundreds of 48 sheets that have been specially purchased just for this campaign. The website itself boldly declares that "We've decided to give our advertising space to you guys as a thank you for all the love you've shown to Wispa. We have bought thousands of billboards all over the UK and Ireland so that you can share your special messages with the world. Yes, that's right, you let us know your special message and if it gets selected we will post it on a real billboard in the location of your choice. So if your mum lives in Birmingham you could post her a special message, say a poem, and we'll try to give you a site as near to her as possible."

The 48 sheets in question are located in London, Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow, Newcastle, Edinburgh, Leeds, Sheffield, Bristol, Cardiff, Nottingham, Belfast, Plymouth, Brighton and Norwich.

Fallon have said that the whole idea for the campaign stems from their 2008 social media campaign that brought back the Wispa. The campaign in question resulted in the following TV ad starring hundreds of Wispa fans:



For your message, Cadbury want you to do anything except hold back. As they put it "If you want to do the creative bit yourself, that’s great". However, even if you're not the arty type, they have a team of people ready to take messages and turn them into lovely posters.

Entires can be submitted via email or online, but all entries must be in by 19th October.

Cadbury Wispa are also on Facebook and YouTube

Peperami Crowd Sourcing

In what may be seen as one of the biggest ad upsets of recent times, Unilever, the people behind Peperami, have made the decision to drop their Advertising Agency of 15 years, Lowe. Instead of using the traditional model of having an agency create your creative works, Unilever are handing over creative thinking to.... crowd sourcing.

So what is crowd sourcing I hear you ask?

Crowd Sourcing is not a new concept, either to adverting or Unilever, but it is a bold move to remove your agency of 15 years altogether. Crowd Sourcing is the concept of asking your fans / viewers / audience / customers to suggest or create you ads for you. Previous brands to use this approach have been Pringles and Doritos (Doritos Tribe). Both of which did so exceptionally well; both saving money and getting ads that ultimately blew everyone away.

In this instance, Peperami are launching a global search for their nexy big advertising concept through Ideabounty.com. Ideabounty.com is an online creative community, that invites the public to submit ideas for the next press and television ads. In return the brand is putting up $10,000 (£6,000) for the best idea.

Noam Buchalter, marketing manager at Peperami, says: “We believe Peperami is a brand that deserves radical creative solutions and are confident taking our brief out to thousands rather than a small team of creatives will provide us with the best possible idea and take our advertising to the next level. It’s a test to see if it works for the brand with a long-term view to using it in future advertising. We are extremely thankful to Lowe for the brilliant work they achieved over the last two decades and are looking forward to seeing the ideas to take Lowe's legacy forward into the next era of Animal."

The one caveat is that the brand wants to retain their iconic Peperami Animal character. So with that point satisfied, the winning entry will be produced by Smartworks. Going forward Unilever have said that they have no plans to retain a full-time ad agency for the Peperami account in future.

The campaign went live last Friday (28th August) and will close on 23rd October.

Doritos Tribe


This user-created ad was produced by two 25-year-olds for the reported sum of £6.50.

The Pererami Animal

What's In Your Handbag? (or Manbag!)

The styles may vary but it doesn't matter if you're a girl with a Gucci or a dude with a record bag, the benefits of having a bag to dump all you gear into are unquestionable. It may surprise you, however, to find out that if the right person has a look in your bag of choice, they could tell you all about yourself. Debbie Percy is just such a person. Following an extensive career in corporate HR, Debbie has spent the last four years developing a technique to introduce her clients to the concept of personal change and life coaching, through, what she calls, Handbag Therapy.

I was lucky enough to speak with Debbie yesterday evening for the launch of the Kildare Village Outlet Shopping ‘What’s in your handbag?’ digital campaign. Debbie had the opportunity to go through my 'manbag' and give her analysis of who I am and what I'm all about. Here's the funny thing - she was 100% right on everything she said. Seriously, I can't even begin to explain the detail that she went into but totally correct in everything she told me.

The 'manbag' in question

So what exactly is all this about? Well, as I said, yesterday was the launch of the Kildare Village Outlet Shopping ‘What’s in your handbag?’ digital campaign. Through the dedicated campaign microsite, users are invited to register and upload a photo of their handbag and its contents. For one lucky winner there is a €1,000 shopping spree up for grabs at Kildare Village, as well as a similar handbag therapy analysis.

What makes the campaign really interesting is that there is a public vote on all photos uploaded (check out the current uploads here). The top five handbags with the most votes then go through into the final and go head-to-head against eachother under the expert review of the Kildare Village panel. From there an ultimate winner is chosen. Of course, that's where the campaign also jumps in to benefit the voters. Everyone who registers (both those uploading pictures and voting) will be given a VIP Day Card that gets you 10%-off for your next trip to Kildare Village Outlet Shopping. Pretty cool, especially considering the current economic climate. I for one am always on the look-out to save a few quid and still treat myself to a few nice things ;)

The competition closes on 6 September 2009 so don't waste any time. Get yourself over to the site and upload your handbag/manbag, and ask your mates to vote! You can also become a fan of Kildare Village on Facebook.



For those of you who haven't popped out to Kildare Village, I recommend a trip for sure. Similar to Woodbury Common in New York or The Outlet up in Banbridge, Kildare Village offers over 55 designer brands, offering last seasons’ ranges at up to 60% off.

Budweiser Lyrics Competition

At the beginning of the month I attended the launch of the new Budweiser ad - Lyrics. Budweiser's latest ad was released to coincide with the 4th July and was based around The Beatles song ‘All together now’. The ad was shot entirely from a moving train around the Chicago L.



Behind the ad there is a larger digital campaign running through the Alltogethernow.ie Website. Users are asked to create their own video or photo of themselves holding up a number, letter or word. This video is without doubt the best example I've seen...



A massive thanks to Darragh for sharing this.

When I first looked at this just after 6pm there were 13 views - an hour later it was on 114!

The 2010 Mustang

In 1990 Roger Keeney was involved in a farming accident. A piece of metal struck him in the head and when he regained consciousness he was unable to see anything. He had completely lost his sight. It might seem odd then to hear that Roger was given the chance to take the newest Ford Mustang convertible on an amazing ride; reaching speeds of up to 90mph and pulling doughnuts.

The 62 year old won the chance to do this by participating in Mustang's '10 Unleashed' promotion. The promotion asked people to describe their ultimate Mustang experience in 250 words or less. Sounds simple.

For anyone who likes cars (especially Mustangs!), watch Roger's entire video diary here.



If you have any interest in performance cars or drifting, check this out...

Bloggers Report Robot Sightings

A digital campaign has launched to promote 'Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen', which is based around two 'blogs' carrying stories of sightings of giant robots around the globe. The two blogs, The Real Effing Deal and Giant Effing Robots, are both conspiracy style sites, informing the public of the hidden truth about these strange giant robots. The sites feature regular blog posts, imagery and video footage of "transforming" robot sightings across the world.

The videos are really well done and show a host of locations such as Tokyo, Berlin, Barcelona and the UK. There is also one brilliant video of a robot sighting at the Champion's League final in Rome.

The campaign has been produced by Rubber Republic for Paramount Pictures and is being promoted worldwide. The blogs are supposedly run by characters from the film. Rubber Republic say that "the overall objective of the campaign is to allow fans to get more involved in the film's back story and find out what has happened since the first instalment".

Heath Tyldesley, marketing director for Paramount Pictures International, said: "Extending the narrative of the film into the real world prior to a film's release is a great way of building buzz and awareness among fans and viewers, rewarding them for their engagement with the first film. Directors are really embracing broadening the platforms of the films narrative to include the web and Michael Bay is no exception."

Matt Golding, creative director at Rubber Republic, said: "These clips not only take the world of the film into new spaces where fans can engage online, but also provide additional content around the film driving awareness of the release."

Microsoft $10k Give-Away

It seems that Microsoft Australia have really decided to go after Firefox's growing marketshare. In a rather intering online campaign, MS are offering (AUS)$10,000 to one lucky person who finds where the cash is "buried" on the internet.

The campaign has been activated from Microsoft's own site (http://www.microsoft.com/australia/ie8/competition/) but users have to follow Microsoft on Twitter (@tengrand_IE8) for clues to find the money. However, they have to do it with Internet Explorer 8! The site states:

"But you'll never find it using old Firefox.
(So get rid of it, or get lost.)"

Interestingly there is a dialogue box on the Microsoft site that is not viewable through Firefox, so users are forced to use Internet Explorer 8 to see any content there. Obviously Twitter works perfectly through Firefox, leading me to question their use of the micro-blogging site. Obviously it makes sense to "fish where the fishes are" (as someone I greatlty respect often says) but at the same time, if the entire campaign is driven to use Internet Explorer 8 instead of Firefox, surely they could have based everything through the Microsoft site?

Cheers to Gav for passing this on to me.


- - - - - Update - - - - -

Lukasz in work directed me to this site...

It's from a Mozilla Linguist and Coder, Mitcho. Clever! Check him out here or follow him on Twitter.

Win a House on Twitter

Back in 2007, Channel 4's 'Grand Designs' featured a house in Cheltenham owned by Tim Bawtree. Tim's £800,000 house failed to sell and soon after the airing property prices in the UK started falling. Faced with no certain turn-around on the current market, Tim decided to give the house away. Honestly.

Tim's plan is to link a microsite for the house to a Twitter account and generate enough traffic to sell ads on the site to raise £820,000 to cover the price of the house (and all costs) and allow a donation to 'Help for Heroes'.

Ads on his site are being sold for £100 a block, and Tim needs 90% of the blocks to be bought for the give-away to be activated.

The winner will be chosen at random from Tim's Twitter followers

Tim said: "Similar things have been done, but there was no hook. The hook here is that people can win a house for free, which will drive traffic from Twitter to the home page."

Tampax: ZackJohnson16

This is an odd one for sure. In fact it's beyond odd, I'm surprised that Proctor & Gamble were able to be convinced that this was a good idea. Don't get me wrong though, I'm not saying it is a bad idea. I'm just surprised that the Brand Manager on this campaign was willing to go down this route. Seriously good move on thier part - forward thinking, risky and definitely leading edge!

The new Proctor & Gamble Tampax campaign is based around 16 year old Zack Johnson. Zack has the mis-fortune to wake up one morning missing his 'boy parts'. Instead Zack has 'girl-parts' and doesn't know what to do. Things get even worse for poor Zack when 9 days later he gets his period.

The campaign utilises online short video interviews with Zacks family and friends, a video-blog, a blog and a micro-blogging feed, all brought through a dedicated microsite. The campaign is not branded with P&G or Tampax but does feature regular mentions of Tampax products from the point that Zack gets his period.

The first episode of Zack's blog already has 6,036 views on YouTube, and his Twitter profile has 973 followers.

Vodafone Twitter-Google Maps Mashup

Vodafone UK have launched a great Twitter and Google Maps mashup that lets users tweet where they’re going on holiday and have it automatically appear on their microsite map. The site also gives a trend analysis of what users are talking about in relation to their holidays.

Users just have to drop the '#ukhols' hashtag, their age, the first half of their postcode and where they're going into a tweet. All of this comes from the same guy that developed the #uksnow hashtag system that allowed users to tweet their post code and amount of snow, to create a truely accurate snowfall map, Ben Marsh.

The whole campaign is designed to promote Vodafone's drop in roaming charges this summer.

Pix.ie Photo Upload Record

Pix.ie is one of those services that works in every way. With a clean, fast and easy to operate interface, combined with an excellent backend system, Pix.ie proves that not only are there alternatives to Flickr, ImageShack and Photobucket, but they're Irish! To cement their position as the best photo hosting service around, Pix.ie recently set itself the daunting task of achieving the fastest upload of any amount of photos to a single website. The event was developed in conjunction with the WDC-sponsored (Western Development Commission) competition being run on the site. The competition called for users to upload photos taken during the Galway Volvo Ocean Race Festival.

Although the competition doesn't close until this Thursday, 11th June, Pix.ie have already smashed the record for uploads with 10,140 photos from the Volvo Ocean Race Festival already uploaded to the site. The overall photo competition offers users the chance to win a host of prizes, including top-of-the-range digital camera equipment worth €1,500.

Pix.ie has run the record attempt in conjunction with the WDC to promote the West of Ireland internationally.

Mad Avenue Blues

An absolutely hilarious 'must watch' video for anyone involved in marketing, media or advertising. Brilliant work!

Facebook + Election Canditate = Problems

This was covered fairly extensively in some of the National press but a lot of people seemed to miss the story entirely. Don't get me wrong, if this was an ordinary Joe Public I'd be the last to republish the story, but they're not, and I feel that this is a prime example of the pitfalls that the unsuspecting can encounter when it comes to Social Media.

Emma Kiernan, one of Fine Gael's rising young stars found herself in a spot of bother when a photo of Ms. Kiernan out with some friends hit the press. I don't think there's much to say, it's all fairly obvious. If you're running for election, at any level, bear in mind who is taking your photo, and what you're doing in that photo.





The stupid thing is, that in the grand scheme of things, this is a completely harmless and innocent picture. In my honest opinion all it does is show that she's twenty-something girl who goes out and has a bit of fun with her mates. She's not obviously drunk. She's not smoking or doing anything illegal. Seriously, I don't really see an problems. In fact if this was the worst picture that anyone had of you, I'd be pretty happy!

D-Day 65 Online

The Royal British Legion has enveiled their new site, www.dday65.org.uk, created by The Gate. The site is geared towards this Saturday's D-Day remembrance activities, and allows visitors to plant a virtual flag on a Google map of the Normandy beaches, with an accompanying message. The online activity will mirror the offline activities that will take place on the beaches themselves. Interestingly, users that plant a flag will recieve an email with the necessary link/embed code to add 'their flag' to a number of different social networking profiles.

Eminem's Relapse Augmented Reality

Last week I posted about the launch of Eminem's new album and the massive Social Media drive behind its promotion and launch. Some seriously cool stuff.

I was doing some early morning surfing today and I came across this new Augmented Reality addition to the campaign by the guys over at Outside Line. Basically, in a new section of the site, users can partake in an online AR talent competition. What the heck is that I hear you ask. Just pop over, log in, create a 3D “E”, and spray paint with your personal design. Then enter your design into the running for some really sweet prizes.

Last week they gave away a trip to Detroit. Round two is now open and they're promising an equally slick prize to the best design.

Check out this video to see exactly what you need to do...