Don't Stop Believing - Sam Tsui

You probably already saw Sam's Michael Jackson medley/remix which has been doing the internet rounds during the last couple of weeks, but it's worth checking out his other stuff. There's quite a few videos that I've come across on YouTube and they're all pretty good.

This is his version of Don't Stop Believing by Journey, with his customary approach of providing all vocals and musical accompaniment.

The Arthur's Day Petition

I wrote on Thursday about Arthur's Day and one of the things I mentioned was an on-line petition that is currently running on the Guinness 250 Facebook page. The petition is calling on the public to help make Arthur’s Day a national holiday!

Following a number of different pushes on Thursday, Friday was jam packed with coverage. All in there were no less then 6 high profile mentions of the petition; including The Irish Times, Ireland.com, BreakingNews.ie, The Evening Echo, The Irish Examiner, and Sunday Business Post


But what effect did any of this have on the campaign? As of 17.59 on Thursday there were:

• 26,795 fans on Facebook
• 6,618 signatures on the online petition

As of today at 12noon, it looked like this:

• 35,089 fans on Facebook
• 8,804 signatures on the online petition

That's an increase of 8,294 fans and 2,186 petition signatures in less then 66 hours! That is absolutely amazing. My only question, as it was on Thursday, is why have only a quarter of fans signed the petition? Seriously folks, all you have to do is click on the tab that says 'Petition' and enter your name. There's no other details required - just a name.

Arthur's Day is only four days away now - lets break the 10,000 mark on the petition. Tell your friends. Tell your family. Tell your co-workers. This is a big deal people - SIGN UP NOW!

Display Advertising: Utilising Twitter

This is an example of an that pulls in two customised Twitter feeds, based on keyword searches of the micro-blog. It was created by Weapon7 for the charity FAS Aware.

The banner aims to increase awareness of Foetal Alcohol Syndrome. It pulls in live tweets that includ the phrases ‘I need alcohol’ and ‘I am pregnant’. The call to action is: Block Alcohol. When clicked, the message "When alcohol is removed, so is the risk of Foetal Alcohol Syndrome" is displayed.

What's really interesting about the ad is that you are accessing content that has actually been generated by the general public, and is always updating and refreshing itself. From a technical point of view it was necessary to create a tool that would search Twitter for tweets containing the phrases required.

Weapon7 describe the digital strategy as creating connections with young women, and, as Twitter has got sa large and continuously increasing usage, they thought it would be a powerful tool to tap into to make the point. They started with it in mind to find a way to use authentic tweets, as they have stand-out and authenticity.

Creative Director at Weapon7, Jeremy Garner, said "[The campaign] was about real people and how alcohol and pregnancy fits into their lives. We wanted to create an ad that made people think, and allowed them to draw their own conclusions".

Avast Ye Scurvy Doggs!

Ahoy lan'lubbers, unless ye be sailing the murky waters of the underworld, it shud be known to ye that this day, Saturday the 19th day in September, be International Talk Like A Pirate Day. Gar. What'ever business ye be carryin' on with be sure to remember that ye must do it in proper tone and language.

All the words that'd be there to explain it all can be found here, me hearties. Or if ye be not with the smarts to read, listen to Cap'in who be responsible for dis gran' day.



Aaarrrrrr for those first mates what be on the Book o' Faces, listen to me words carefully. Go to the bottum o yer page and look for the secret clicker that be marked with words 'English (UK)'. Press yer cursor over these strange words and a pop-up will appear there right before yer eyes. Find the place that be sayin' 'English (Pirate)' and press it. Then ye be seeing yer Book o' Faces in a whole new light. Good luck ye scurvy doggs. Garrrr.

Interbrand's Top 100 Global Brands 2009

When it comes to the world's biggest brands, the interesting stuff usually never involves the top 5. It's far more interesting to look at midtable battles. The ribvalries and one-up-manships that go on between 50th and 20th places. This year it looks like Google have scored the biggest rise in brand value, with a 25% increase on 2008 estimated brand value. Google now sit at 7th place with a value of nearly $32bn. Not far off them, Amazon grew an wxtremely healthy 22% to almost $8bn.

As has been the trend over the last decade, technology companies have seen huge growth, however it may be the retail brands such as Zara and H&M that are the biggest surprises, both increasing their brand value despite the recession. That said, the recession has had a negative effect on many brands; including Morgan Stanley, HSBC and American Express, who all saw major drops.

Sitting in the revered top five sector, Coca-Cola remains the world's most valuable brand for the 9th year in a row, at $69bn.

Rank	Brand	2009 Value $m	%change 08	Country
1	Coca-Cola	68734	3%	US
2	IBM	60211	2%	US
3	Microsoft	56647	-4%	US
4	GE	47777	-10%	US
5	Nokia	34864	-3%	Finland
6	McDonald's	32275	4%	US
7	Google	31980	25%	US
8	Toyota	31330	-8%	Japan
9	Intel	30636	-2%	US
10	Disney	28447	-3%	US
11	Hewlett-Packard	2496	2%	US
12	Mercedes-Benz	23867	-7%	Germany
13	Gillette	22841	4%	US
14	Cisco	2230	3%	US
15	BMW	21671	-7%	Germany
16	Louis Vuitton	21120	-2%	France
17	Marlboro	1910	-11%	US
18	Honda	17803	-7%	Japan
19	Samsung	17518	-1%	S. Korea
20	Apple	15443	12%	US
21	H&M	15375	11%	Sweden
22	American Express	14971	-32%	US
23	Pepsi	13706	3%	US
24	Oracle	13699	-1%	US
25	Nescafe	13317	2%	Switzerland
26	Nike	13179	4%	US
27	SAP	12106	-1%	Germany
28	Ikea	124	10%	Sweden
29	Sony	11953	-12%	Japan
30	Budweiser	11833	3%	US
31	UPS	11594	-8%	US
32	HSBC	10510	-20%	Britain
33	Canon	10441	-4%	Japan
34	Kellogg's	10428	7%	US
35	Dell	10291	-12%	US
36	Citi	10254	49%	US
37	J.P. Morgan	9550	-11%	US
38	Goldman Sachs	9248	-10%	US
39	Nintendo	9210	5%	Japan
40	Thomson Reuters	8434	1%	Canada
41	Gucci	8182	-1%	Italy
42	Philips	8121	-2%	Netherlands
43	Amazon	7858	22%	US
44	L'Oreal	7748	3%	France
45	Accenture	7710	-3%	US
46	eBay	7350	-8%	US
47	Siemens	7308	-8%	Germany
48	Heinz	7244	9%	US
49	Ford	75	-11%	US
50	Zara	6789	14%	Spain
51	Wrigley	6731	10%	US
52	Colgate	6550	2%	US
53	AXA	6525	-7%	France
54	MTV	6523	-9%	US
55	Volkswagen	6484	-8%	Germany
56	Xerox	6431	1%	US
57	Morgan Stanley	6399	-26%	US
58	Nestle	6319	13%	Switzerland
59	Chanel	640	-5%	France
60	Danone	5960	10%	France
61	KFC	5722	3%	US
62	Adidas	5397	6%	Germany
63	Blackberry	5138	7%	Canada
64	Yahoo!	5111	-7%	US
65	Audi	510	-7%	Germany
66	Caterpillar	54	-5%	US
67	Avon	4917	-7%	US
68	Rolex	4609	-7%	Switzerland
69	Hyundai	4604	-5%	S. Korea
70	Hermes	498	1%	France
71	Kleenex	4404	-5%	US
72	UBS	4370	-50%	Switzerland
73	Harley-Davidson	4337	-43%	US
74	Porsche	4234	-8%	Germany
75	Panasonic	4225	-1%	Japan
76	Tiffany & Co.	40	-5%	US
77	Cartier	3968	-6%	France
78	Gap	3922	-10%	US
79	Pizza Hut	3876	-5%	US
80	Johnson&Johnson	3847	7%	US
81	Allianz	3831	-5%	Germany
82	Moet & Chandon	3754	-5%	France
83	BP	3716	-5%	Britain
84	Smirnoff	3698	3%	Britain
85	Duracell	3563	-3%	US
86	Nivea	3557	5%	Germany
87	Prada	3530	-2%	Italy
88	Ferrari	3527	0%	Italy
89	Armani	3303	-6%	Italy
90	Starbucks	3263	-16%	US
91	Lancome	3235	N/A	France
92	Shell	3228	-7%	Netherlands
93	Burger King	3223	N/A	US
94	Visa	3170	-5%	US
95	Adobe	3161	N/A	US
96	Lexus	3158	-12%	Japan
97	Puma	3154	N/A	Germany
98	Burberry	395	N/A	Britain
99	PoloRalphLauren	394	N/A	US
100	Campbell's	381	N/A	US