Russell Athletic: 80s-izer

This week saw the launch of Russell Athletics "80s-izer" campaign in the UK. The campaign sees Russell Athletic thrusting itself back into the market with a pretty cool online advertising suite; including a campaign microsite and online advertising, all done in a retro 80's theme. The campaign aims to deliver a 'viral' effect by allowing users to 80's-ize themselves into a movie, through the campaign microsite. The movie can then be pushed out to Facebook and Twitter directly through the microsite.

The site ultimately aims too recapture the popularity that Russell Athletic once had within the college / university 'pep' crowd. The campaign draws on the return of the 80s in popular culture and plays up Russell Athletic's roots as a classic American college brand. This campaign marks a strategic return to the UK market for the Sportswear brand, following a fairly quiet time since the mid-90's.

The site was created by Frank PR and also hosts a company timeline and a selection of products, although users cannot purchase them from the site.

Augmented Reality: RSPCA Elephant

The latest RSPCA campaign has just launched with a pretty cool Augmented Reality element. The Big Stop Circus campaign is calling on the British Minister for Animal Welfare, Jim Fitzpatrick, to ban circuses from keeping wild animals. The Augmented Reality element allows users to print out a mask, which appears on camera as an elephant's head. Simple but pretty cool none-the-less.

The campaign is being primarily being seeded through Twitter, to drive users to a campaign microsite encouraging them to retweet the campaign and share the campaign through Facebook and other Social Media sites.

Applications Open For The Arthur Guinness Fund

As I said back in August when I first wrote about the Guinness 250 Years Celebrations, "Unless you've been hiding under a stone lately, you'll be well aware that this September 24th marks the first Arthur’s Day." So back in September on a Thursday evening the country took a break and celebrated the birth of Guinness (the signing of the Guinness lease at St. James’s Gate), and across Dublin hundreds of people enjoyed a spectacular evening's music. Arthur's Day wasn't just about music and pints though. To celebrate the birth of Guinness, Guinness announced the setting up of the Arthur Guinness Fund.

The fund represents up to €2.5m that will be made available to Social Entrepreneurs. The fund is seeking to find and support up to 25 Social Entrepreneurs over a two-year period within Ireland. These 25 Social Entrepreneurs will gain financial support (€100,000 per project) and practical support and advice from the Social Entrepreneurs Ireland Alumni network.

Sean Coughlan, CEO of Social Entrepreneurs Ireland said, "We were delighted to support Guinness believing, as we do, that this initiative could have a very significant impact for social entrepreneurs and the communities they support and have agreed to be their partner in the development of the fund."

The big news is that applications are now open for the Arthur Guinness Fund.

So what next? Well, for more information on the Arthur Guinness Fund and how to apply, click here.

Tweet Inspires New Air New Zealand Campaign

Following on from Air New Zealand's recent success with their 'Bare Essentialls' campaign, the airline has launched a new ad campaign inspired by a Tweet from one of their passenger.

Back in June Tim Benjamin was on a flight with Air New Zealand and tweeted the following message: "Just flown Air New Zealand from LHR to LAX. Best airline I've experienced. Food & IFE great. Staff allowed to have a personality."

Albion have said that it was during their research phase, that they came across the tweet. The particular comment "Staff allowed to have a personality", struck a chord and Air New Zealand's agency Albion immediately recognised that it was the perfect strapline for the new campaign. Air New Zealand runs a policy of trusting its crew members to uphold the company's brand and service values without forcing them to comply with rigorous rules, allowing them to "have a personality".

Benjamin's tweet now forms the basis of Air New Zealand's latest brand campaign, and appears on ads running across digital outdoor and online advertising placements. The online executions feature full rich video and are backed up with standard formats showing the crew's personal opinions of the onboard products and their personal recommendations for places to visit and things to do at the various Air New Zealand destinations. The video executions will appear on digital escalator panels and LCD digital screens at various tube stations across London and will run for four weeks. They will also appear on roadside LCD 48 sheet billboards.

Scott Carr, Air New Zealand General Manager, Europe, said, “This year, the campaign is 100% digital and online, allowing us to fully interact with our audience. By letting the crew shine through the use of video footage, the digital executions really enable us to demonstrate the personality of the airline. In addition we believe the creative executions are a breath of fresh air and break from the traditional style of airline advertising giving the campaign real stand-out and our world-class crew the recognition they deserve.”

This is the making of video for the new campaign:


Albion have been acting as Air New Zealand's lead agency since last April, following a four-way pitch against Adam & Eve, Publicis and Farm. The account was reported to be worth £2 million.

For those that missed it, this is the video for the 'Bare Essentials' campaign:

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.