Samsung: Redneck Hunter

Check out this video created and produced by Cheil Worldwide to promote Samsung bluetooth headsets.

The State Of The Internet

Just watch...

The World of Socialnomics

Just watch, Social Media is definitely not a fad!

Vodafone Italy Domino Effect

A fantastic ad from Vodafone Italy to show their latest 'Smart' tariffs. Using a very elaborate Rube Goldberg Machine mechanic, the ad uses a brilliant domino effect to show a variety of cool apps interacting to bring the campaign tagline to life - 'piu smart conVodafone' (Smarter with Vodafone).

adidas 'Street Where Originality Lives'

For those of you who were at the cinema today, you may have been lucky enought to see the new adidas 'Street Where Originality Lives' ad. It just went live across Irish cinemas and features David Beckham, Snoop Dogg, Noel Gallagher, Ian Brown, Agyness Dean, Ciara, Whitney Port (The Hills)......and other celeb types. Check out the video below, or for loads of behind the scenes interviews and footage with the stars of the ad pop over to the adidas YouTube channel.

If you're interested, and I know I was as it's a banging tune, the ad is soundtracked to the Pilooski remix of Dee Edwards’ “Why Can’t there be love”.

Want To Work For Ogilvy?

Are you an advertising hack? Do you want to work for one of the largest, most recognised, well respected agencies in the world? Ogilvy are now hiring! Kinda ;)

Ogilvy have just launched a campaign to find the 'World's Greatest Sales Person'. So if you think you can peddle sand to Arabs or convince an Eskimo to buy snow, you may be in with a chance. Beware though, this is not a competition for your average 'Del Boy', Sunday market, car boot sale geeza. The challenge here is to sell a brick!


The common everyday brick can be found almost everywhere. The brick was invented during the height of the Sumer empire between the 4th and 6th Millennia BC. In the 7,000 years since, mankind has made literally billions of them. However, they are still one of the most important things ever invented; the bona fide building blocks (pardon the pun) of civilisation.

So we know what the product is, a common Red Brick. The challenge is to convince people to consider it, to use it, to buy it. You need to create a pitch to someone who can actually make the purchase for good reason. Obvious choice is construction, but who else might want to buy a brick? That's the real challenge. Make people think, “Wow, I didn’t think of the Red Brick in that way. Maybe I need it.”

So what's the measure of success? You have several options of how you want people to respond so long as it is measurable. This could be by phone call, SMS, email, website or joining of a social network.

Now the only question is: are you the world's greatest sales person? If you think you are then you need to make a 1-2 minute long video of your sales pitch and get it submitted to youtube.com/Ogilvy by May 16, 2010.

For more information, follow the fun on Twitter, join the Facebook Fan Page or email the guys here: greatest.salesperson@ogilvy.com

Alternatively, check out this video...

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.

VW PunchDub Ad

Sometimes I forget that if you don't work in Marketing, in one of it's many roles or functions, you may be completely unaware of some of the brilliantly creative work that is done every day. I say this because it was brought to my attention over the weekend that Volkwagen's recent Super Bowl ad and campaign went completely unnoticed by many Irish folk who are marketing types (or American Football fans). So for any of you who missed this excellent campaign, here you go...

For their 2010 Super Bowl ad, Volkswagen (US) reimagined the popular car game of “Punch Dub”. Most people will be familiar with the classic game of punching a friend's arm when you see a VW and for their campaign VW have updated the game to increase awareness and familiarity with the full 13 model range of Volkswagens now available. The “Punch Dub” campaign was launched with a 30 second commercial during the third quarter of the Super Bowl with cameo appearances by Tracy Morgan and Stevie Wonder...

Volkswagen also developed an online campaign about the creator of the game, Charlie “Sluggy” Patterson. As well as having a blog, Twitter stream and a series of videos on YouTube, the campaign was supported by an online game through the VW Facebook page. All elements went live on Super Bowl Sunday and encouraged people to explore the Volkswagen range with virtual slugs to friends and family. Essentially people were driven to hone their punching techniques and punch as many friends or family as possible. The more punches you got, the better your chances were of winning a weekly prize or the Grand Prize, a brand new Volkswagen. The campaign was developed by Deutsch, Los Angeles.

"Volkswagen is one of the most beloved brands in this country, but people have a misperception that it only sell cars for the young. We needed to find a way to let people know that Volkswagen makes thirteen different models, in a way that still felt right for the brand," said Eric Hirshberg, CEO/Chief Creative Officer of Deutsch LA. "Changing the game of ‘Punch Bug’ to the game of ‘Punch Dub’ and making it about all Volkswagen is the perfect way to do that. It tells you something nobody knows in a way that everyone can relate to."

"Punch Dub is a fun, engaging way to reintroduce Volkswagen and its growing product family to millions of Americans during one of the most watched television events of the year, the Super Bowl," said Tim Ellis, Vice President of Marketing, Volkswagen of America. "The campaign is a modern twist on a classic game that has been played on America’s highways for generations and will help consumers gain a new perspective on the breadth of our vehicle offerings, quality, performance and value."

As a taster, here is the first of Sluggy's videos...

The Trans-Siberian Railway Desktop Journey

Have you ever dreamt of taking a trip on the Trans-Siberian Railway? This majestic train route travels the breadth of Russia, spans two continents and visits 87 cities. The following video is part of a joint project between Google and the Russian Railways to let people enjoy the journey, taking in Baikal, the Khekhtsirsky range, the Barguzin mountains, the Yenisei river and countless other beautiful Russian towns and landmarks, without leaving the comfort of your own armchair.

To also enjoy a customised Google Map of the trip, just visit here.

NCPC: Dolphin Boy

Stunning work by Saatchi & Saatchi (US), this is a YouTube video with a difference. Although this isn't the first "out-of-bounds" use of YouTube, it is definitely one of my favourite.


Check out 2008's Wario video that used the same concept of "out of bounds".

Facebook & YouTube - Instant Fads & Overnight Hits

In the last week there have been three Social Media phenomenon that have really grabbed my attention. Three "campaigns" that have, by all accounts, sprung up completely organically and engaged the public in a way that no one could have predicted.

Paul Cunningham's Winter Hat
The first is the Irish internet sensation that is Paul Cunningham's hat. For those who don't know who Paul is; Paul is RTÉ's Environment Correspondent. While doing a report as part of the Nine O'Clock News on RTE1 on 7th January, Paul wore a rather..... noticeable hat. What no one could have predicted was just how much the public would latch onto this little fashion misadventure.

The 'We love Paul Cunningham's winter hat' already has 3,420 fans. Just one of several YouTube videos of the news feature has 3,082 views. Admittedly these aren't huge figures but at the same time, it's a Christmas hat.

Facebook Status My Bra Colour
Finally we have this, non-video related, entry to my little list of three stand-out internet phenomenons of the last week. You may have noticed female friends or acquaintances updating their Facebook statuses recently with colours or patterns. These updates usually carried no information or explanation, and there didn't seem to be anyone offering any, anywhere. The trend or meme, which I haven't actually been able to verify, was seemingly started by a group of women in Chicago to help raise awareness of Breast Cancer. The campaign had a small level of uptake but then a girl named Kimberley Griffiths created a Facebook Page for the campaign.

The Page was founded on the 7th January and has exploded in activity with 60,196 fans already joined up. I think the number speaks for itself. That's just 4 days!


So what's next? What video or tv moment or charity activity will grab us and capture our attention? Who knows! (That's not a question!) The truth is, there's a 'little something' about each of these "campaigns" that can't be planned and can't be predicted. They're also three examples from an otherwise very short list when you consider exactly how many Facebook Pages and YouTube videos get uploaded and created every week. So is there a point? There is, and it's fairly simple. While I believe it's not massively difficult to create real campaigns that engage with your audience and create a greater public resonance beyond simple awareness, planning them is another matter. Budgets aside, there are various techniques to drive engagement. Competitions, free samples/trials/products or any number of other ways to get the public to hand over personal details. However, while it's easy to engage, or to at least create an appearance of engagement, it's not easy to create that public resonance.

My conclusion: the "viral effect" (a horrible term and one I don't really use) of a campaign can certainly be manipulated or augmented, but at the heart of it all you need something that simply can't be thought up. I can't tell you exactly what it is, because no one can. It's that thing that will drive people to pass it on to their friends. That thing that will make people become a fan or friend for no logical reason whatsoever. Most importantly, it's not something you can buy. Not every product or brand is even capable of it. Sometimes it requires huge amounts of money, and other times it's achieved by someone with a camera phone for nothing. Either way, beware of anyone that says they can get it for you through a planned approach. It just happens for you or it doesn't.

Specsavers: 'Spermsavers'

To celebrate their 25th anniversary, Specsavers has created a comedy ad about a blind sperm. The ad, 'Spermsavers', is currently being shown on the Specsavers YouTube channel and will also run on the brands Facebook Page between 11th and 14th January.

'Spermsavers' tells the story of a sperm swimming to be the first sperm to get to an egg. Unfortunately it swims straight past the egg. The blind sperm then turns around to give it one more try but again swims past and this time ends up trying to impregnate the Specsavers logo that has appeared.

While it is primarily being driven online, the ad will also be adapted for cinema and TV.

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.

Planet Hollywood 'Phamous' Flash Mob

At the end of Novemeber over the Thanksgiving weekend, the Planet Hollywood marketing department and Shay Carl got together at the Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino in Las Vegas to organise a flash mob. The flash mob was produced by Midi Mafia and based around a choreographed dance to their song "Phamous".

Vlogger and comedian Shay Carl, took part in the flash mob and was joined by YouTube celebrities KassemG, Lisa Nova, MysteryGuitarMan, Denise Vlogs, Rawn and a variety of other dancers and performers. None of the employees on duty at the time had any knowledge of the stunt.

This is the video...




Directed by: Justin Purser (website & twitter)
Produced by: Christian Heuer (website & twitter)
Choreogrophy by: Kris Mohfanz (website & twitter)

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.

Channel 4 on YouTube

Channel 4 have confirmed that they are in the final stages of signing a deal with YouTube to allow YouTube to host most of the channel 4's content in full. An initial deal has already seen Channel 4 securing the right to sell the advertising that appears around its content, in a profit=share arrangement with YouTube. Channel 4's chairman, Luke Johnson, spoke at last week's Association of Online Publishers Digital Publishing Summit saying that traditional broadcasters needed to 'seize opportunities' to profit from online video.

To date Channel 4 has attracted 25,500 subscribers and a total of 700,000 views to its main YouTube channel, but it also has several other channels including E4, T4 and Hollyoaks. It recent months however, Channel 4 has also been populating its website with a back catalogue of programmes, all of which have utilised pre-roll ads from Nina Ricci's Ricci Ricci and Nokia among others.

Channel 4 sources have indicated that their internal planning believes that the market is approaching a 'tipping point', and a greater number of people will watch its programming online than on TV. This is in direct correlation to a recent survey carried out in Ireland.

Gary's Social Media Counter

A friend in work, Stephen, pointed me towards this post from Gary Hayes. Gary has used a series of industry stats (see below) to create a "real-time" Social Media counter. OK, we can all agree that this is based on statistics and obviously not an actual counter, but none the less I would say that if anything it's only getting less accurate by under-estimating figures as Social Media adoption grows.

Gary used the following data sources for the counter:

• 20 hours of video uploaded every minute onto YouTube (source YouTube blog Aug 09)
• Facebook 600k new members per day, and photos, videos per month, 700mill & 4 mill respectively (source Inside Facebook Feb 09)
• Twitter 18 million new users per year & 4 million tweets sent daily (source TechCrunch Apr 09)
• iPolicy UK – SMS messaging has a bright future (Aug 09)
• 900 000 blogs posts put up every day (source Technorati State of the Blogosphere 2008)
• YouTube daily, 96 million videos watched, $1mill bandwidth costs (source Comscore Jul 06 !)
• UPDATE: YouTube 1Billion watched per day SMH (2009)- counter updated!
• Second Life 250k virtual goods made daily, text messages 1250 per second (source Linden Lab release Sep 09)
• Money – $5.5 billion on virtual goods (casual & game worlds) even Facebooks gifts make $70 million annually (source Viximo Aug 09)
• Flickr has 73 million visitors a month who upload 700 million photos (source Yahoo Mar 09)
• Mobile social network subscribers – 92.5 million at the end of 2008, by end of 2013 rising to between 641.6-873.1 million or 132 mill annually (source Informa PDF)
• SMS – Over 2.3 trillion messages will be sent across major markets worldwide in 2008 (source Everysingleoneofus sms statistics)

He has also created two downloadable version of the counter (righ click and save as):

• The raw flash movie 82k
• A windows executable app 4.4MB

Gary can be found at the following places:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• MySpace
• YouTube
• Flickr
• LinkedIn

Swedish Fish: A Friend You Can Eat

Advertising may be strange, even a little odd, but every now and again you come across something that is just so far out there, you wonder who and how on earth anyone ever sold the concept in.

In 2008 when Swedish Fish went looking for an advertising campaign to market its line of chewy winegums, JWT New York developed a campaign so wacky it was brilliant. The integrated campaign was intended to revamp the sweet's image and connect with the 18 to 24 year old market.

The campaign was simple overall, and asked just a single question with two possible answers, “Nej” and “Ja”. Their tag line: “A Friend You Can Eat”.

The campaign utilised print, outdoor, TV, radio and online, to show customers which of their friends they could eat, and which they could not. The above print ad and below TV commercial show the campaign's Kitten Burger execution (my favourite). Overall the look and feel of both are designed to be reminiscent of 1970s Swedish art direction, as a homage to the cultural history of the brand.

In JWT's Titanium entry at the Cannes International Advertising Festival, it was pointed out that not only was the campaign a success, driving huge awareness and sales within the 18 to 24 year old market, but the campaign ultimately went viral on a number of levels. People began trading plates and T-shirts on craigslist and other sites, and the words ‘Nej” and ‘Ja’ entered into the online chatter vernacular as part of a subversive pop culture movement. The TV commercials were so well received that people began imitating on YouTube with their own versions.

Obama's Digital Marketing

It may be tough to imagine Barack Obama not getting elected, but only 4 years ago he was virtually unknown both domestically and certainly internationally. So how did this unknown Junior Senator from Illinois get elected as the 44th President of the United States?

The folks behind Obama's Digital Marketing Strategy were Blue State Digital. They were responsible for designing and running all online marketing, and ultimately in charge of directing the technology and digital elements behind the campaign. Baring in mind, it was a campaign that generated record-breaking fund-raising and drove 13 million followers.

Here, Blue State Digital's Managing Partner, Thomas Gensemer, discusses the digital tactics behind the success of Obama's marketing campaign. All four clips come from Silicon Valley Insider as part of their Innovation video series, sponsored by Mercedes-Benz.

How Was E-Mail The Most Successful Tool Of The Obama Campaign?


How Did The Obama Campaign's Marketing System Work?


What Were The Three Keys To Success In Marketing The Obama Campaign?


Are Republicans Catching Up With The Obama Campaign's Marketing Tactics?