Smirnoff - BE THERE

I wrote recently about the Smirnoff Masquerade Ball, which was the first Dublin event in Smirnoff's 'BE THERE' calender. 'BE THERE' is Smirnoff's mission to inspire, facilitate and enable people to create more one-of-a-kind experiences. To create those experiences that you just have to be there.

To kickstart the whole initiative, the Smirnoff have launched two really cool ways for you to become part of Smirnoff 'BE THERE'; the new Smirnoff Creative Grants Initiative and the Smirnoff Consumer Competition. Both these activities are looking to engage the public, find out what we want and, ultimately, to ask for our advice on what Smirnoff should be doing next.

The Smirnoff Creative Grants Initiative enables creatives and promoters to make there vision and idea of an original, one-of-a-kind experience become reality. Smirnoff will be awarding a grant of €10,000 to one lucky person for the most unique proposal for a one-of-a-kind experience/event. The grant is open to applications from Ireland, USA, Canada and Brazil, and is as simple as pie. Just submit a 100-word proposal to the Smirnoff Facebook page. The winner will be handpicked by the Smirnoff global panel of experts, also including Brazil’s Bonde do Rolê, Canada’s Ryan Kruger (DAMN! Management, founder Cutting Edge Music Festival), USA’s Damon DeGraff (dGi Management).

Don't sit around just thinking about it though - the closing date for entries is 18th December. Winners will then be announced on 20th January, with the event taking taking place in March.

This is a seriously cool promotion and definitely worth entering if you are in any way creative. Just think of an event. It's that easy.


The second 'BE THERE' activity that has launched, the Smirnoff Consumer Competition, is equally as cool. Essentially, Smirnoff is challenging people across the world to get creative and answer the question “How would you create a New Year’s Eve revolution?” This is the first in a series of monthly competitions that will be run through the Smirnoff Brand Site and their Facebook Page. All you need to do is give a tweet-sized 140 characters describing how you would overturn New Year’s Eve convention to create a revolutionary end-of-the-year event. Smirnoff will be giving one lucky person US$1,000 and a Flip Mino HD video camcorder.

Again this is going to require some quick moving, but again it's well worth it. The closing date for the first competition is next Thursday 17th December, and it is open to Ireland, Australia, Brazil, Canada, US and Venezuela. The top five entries for a one-of-a-kind, New Year’s Eve experience will be selected by Smirnoff's esteemed global panel of entertainment industry experts, including Ireland’s very own Declan Forde (Pod Entertainment and The Electric Picnic) and Australia’s Brett Robinson (Future Promotions, Summadayze).

The best thing here is that even if you're not lucky enough to win the top prize, no one goes away empty handed. For everyone who enters there is a free download of the Simian Mobile Disco track “Turn up the Dial” featuring Young Fathers (Stankonia Mix). So remember to enter before the 17th December and then get yourself over to the Smirnoff Facebook Page between the 23rd and 29th December to vote on which of the top five entries should win.


About the Smirnoff BE THERE campaign
Most of us have been a part of experiences that are truly unforgettable and extraordinary. We talk about these experiences for years to come and revel in the fact that ‘we were there’. The word ‘there’ is often used to talk about amazing events or happenings. How many times have you heard someone say: I was there!? / Were you there? / I can’t believe you weren’t there! / Are you going there? / You’ve got to be there?!

Smirnoff’s global campaign is all about inspiring and enabling consumers to seek and create these unforgettable and extraordinary experiences – to BE THERE.

Advertising In The Noughties

If you work in advertising or marketing, or simply have an interest in the industries, Brand Republic just covered a great article by Campaign, which should be essential reading!

Campaign put it that due to the massive leaps that technology has made in the last 10 years, in comparison to the 40 before them, the communication of marketing messages have also drastically changed at the same speed. With that in mind, Campaign have created a fantastic overview of 'Advertising in the Noughties'. So, without any needless stalling, here are the lists:

• Advertising in the noughties - Top 10 posters
• Advertising in the Noughties - Top 10 virals
• Advertising in the Noughties - Top 10 TV and cinema ads
• Advertising in the noughties - Top 10 press ads
• Advertising in the noughties - Top 10 regional press ads
• Advertising in the noughties - Top 10 DM campaigns
• Advertising in the Noughties - Top 10 digital ads
• Advertising in the noughties - Advertising agency of the decade - Mother London

The big news here is obviously Mother's winning of the prestigious accolade of Campaign's Agency of the Decade. Serious congratulations to everyone in Mother.

Here are the reels for Mother and the two shortlisted agencies, BBH and Fallon London:
Watch the Mother London reel
Watch the Fallon London reel
Watch the Bartle Bogle Hegarty reel

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.

Specsavers: Christmas Viral

Following on from Specsavers highly popular Postman Pat viral, this is there Christmas offering for 2009.




Agency: Specsavers Creative
Advertiser: Specsavers

Project name: Xmas Viral 2009
Client: Richard Holmes, Marketing Director
Brief: Seasonal fun
Copywriter: Simon Bougourd / Neil Brush
Art director: Simon Bougourd / Neil Brush
Planner: In-House
Production company: In-House
Director: Chris Denton
Post-production company: In-House
Editor: Chris Denton
Audio post-production company: In-House

Google's Real Time Search

There's been talk and speculation for quite some time now, and various blogs and news services have "leaked" information about Google's next 'big thing', Real Time Search. For those of you perched on the edges of your seat for the last year or so, good news, you can now sit back and relax. Not only is it solid news but it is coming straight from the horses mouth.

Google has launched Real Time Search integrated into its search results pages. Now you can use Google to see real-time updates of various things happening around the Web, including tweets, Yahoo Answers, news articles and Web pages. What's also pretty cool is that this will also work mobiles (well, iPhone and Android anyway).

For many, however, the real use of Real Time Search comes through in Social Media. Thankfully Google has confirmed that deals have been signed with Facebook and MySpace to allow Google to pull in live data. For Facebook this will be limited to public Facebook Pages (though that's still excellent news for businesses and brands using the platform). For MySpace it will cover any data stream that is publicly available.

All of this is of course on top of the partnership that Google went into in October with Twitter.

For an example of Google Real Time Search just click here. Alternatively Google have also created this video to show how it will all work.