The Walking Dead

Checked my emails this afternoon and was seriously happy to find out that I am the lucky winner of a signed copy of 'The Walking Dead' from Venntertainment.

Rob Cumiskey, the man behind Ventertainment and a regular at Culch.ie, did a ‘Fantasy Bazaar – The Walking Dead Week’ last week to celebrate the release of the latest volume of The Walking Dead, by Robert Kirkman and Charlie Adlard. As part of his zombie week, Rob was given a signed copy of the release by Sub City Comics (@SubCityComics).

A massive thanks to Rob for the great week of posts, and the brilliant competition. Cheers dude!

A Truely Ice Cold Beer!

Budweiser has launched what may be the coldest beer in the world, and we in Ireland are the first people in Europe to enjoy it. Budweiser's new Ice Cold Bottle is a new innovative aluminium bottle that keeps your Budweiser colder for 17 minutes longer then any other beer bottle. Chilled in special fridges, called "chillchambers", Budweiser's Ice Cold Bottle is dropped to a very chilly -5°C without the beer actually freezing.

The eye-catching striking red bottles can be found through out the country in all your favourite bars and clubs, and have enjoyed a great summer start with at a host of cool gigs including both the U2 and Take That concerts.

Budweiser Brand Manager, Sarah Spain said “ Budweiser Ice Cold bottle is a completely new way to experience the ultimate in cold beer. We know beer drinkers love their beer served really chilled so we wanted to offer them the coldest beer possible, in a slick new aluminium bottle”.

Social Media Round Up

I was doing a some research today, updating a Social Media presentation, and I came across a great post by Jake Hird over on eConsultancy.com. Jake scoured the web and collect 20 brilliant Social Media stats:

• Social networks and blogs are the 4th most popular online activities online, including beating personal email. 67% of global users visit member communities and 10% of all time spent on the internet is on social media sites.
• If Facebook were a country, it would be the fourth most populated place in the world. This means it easily beats the likes of Brazil, Russia and Japan in terms of size.
• 80% of companies use, (or are planning to use), LinkedIn as their primary tool to find employees during the course of this year. The site has just celebrated reaching its 45-millionth membership.
• Around 64% of marketers are using social media for 5 hours or more each week during campaigns, with 39% using it for 10 or more hours per week.
• It took radio 38 years to reach 50 million listeners. Terrestrial TV took 13 years to reach 50 million users. The internet took four years to reach 50 million people... In less than nine months, Facebook added 100 million users.
• Wikipedia currently has more than 13 million articles in more than 260 different languages. The site attracts over 60 million unique users a month and it’s often hotly debated that the information it contains is more reliable than any printed Encyclopaedia.
• The most recent figure of blogs being indexed by Technorati currently stands at 133 million. The same report into the Blogosphere also revealed that on average, 900,000 blog posts are created within a single 24-hour period.
• It’s been suggested that YouTube is likely to serve over 75 billion video streams to around 375 million unique visitors during this year.
• The top three people on Twitter (Ashton Kutcher, Ellen DeGeneres and Britney Spears) have more combined followers than the entire population of Austria.
• According to Socialnomics, if you were paid $1 for every time an article was posted on Wikipedia, you would earn $156.23 per hour.
• The online bookmarking service, Delicious, has more than five million users and over 150 million unique bookmarked URLs.
• Since April this year, Twitter has been receiving around 20 million unique visitors to the site each month, according to some analytical sources.
• Formed in 2004, Flickr now hosts more than 3.6 billion user images.
• Universal McCann reports that 77% of all active internet users regularly read blogs.

As Jake points out, these stats are extremely impressive but the simple fact is that in the time it's taken to collect them and report on them, they are probably already out of date.

Data Visualisation: SMS Messages

I've posted before about Data Visualisation and this is one of the best I've seen. This is a video by Aaron Koblin from Google Creative Lab, showing a visualisation of SMS messages in Amsterdam on New Years Eve.



Hat tip to Tony Effik

iBurgh

It seemed that for so long there were few practical, useful iPhone Apps available. iPhone users were stuck with gimmicky apps that did little except show off the iPhone's motion and graphic capabilities. Thankfully all that has changed and there are more and more really useful apps coming through the Apple iTunes Store.

iBurgh is a new app that not allows residents' of Pittsburgh (US) to lodge complaints straight through to the city with geo-tagged pictures of potholes, graffiti and other public maintenance issues. iBurgh is part of a new breed of app described by Pittsburgh councillors as "changing the democratic process", through "e-democracy".

The app utilises the iPhone's GPS functionality and lets users pinpoint their exact location on a map while also including a picture of what it is they want to notify about. Their complaint is then delivered directly to the city's 311, or helpline department, with a short description, and time and date.

iBurgh was developed by YinzCam, already famous in Pittsburgh for their impresses iPhone NHL applications, and is available for free download from iTunes.

Bill Peduto, a Pittsburgh city councilman, told the Pittsburgh Business Times: "We want to establish Pittsburgh as the home of e-democracy. Since the invention of the printing press, there really hasn't been a development that gives us the ability to change the democratic process. This is a way for government to be directly responsive to people, instead of waiting for complaints to pile up."

Lance Armstrong Organises a Twitter-Cycle

Lance Armstrong, well known for his love of Twitter, surprised a lot of followers with a tweet last Sunday:

"Hey Glasgow, Scotland!! I'm coming your way tomorrow. Who wants to go for a bike ride??"

And with that the seven-time Tour de France winner invited his fans for an afternoon cycle in Paisley in Scotland. Little did Armstrong realise that his follow up tweet on Monday, "Hey Glasgow - ride's at 12 noon. Location tbd. Stay tuned! Still dialling it in. And yes, I have my raincoat!", would see over 200 fans turn up in Paisley outside the Ashtree House hotel (as well as a huge following on foot!).

Armstrong admitted he hadn't planned a route and just ended up cycling around the town for a couple of hours. After the tour, Armstrong thanked everyone there, saying "Thanks to everyone who turned up to ride in Paisley! I figured we'd have a nice ride for a dozen or so. But 100's came. Haha! Awesome!", adding, "And hope great was it that the Flying Scotsman Graeme Obree came out?? Legend."

Armstrong is a prolific Tweeterer and even went as as far during this year's Tour de France as to cut out all journalists and use Twitter for all his public addresses.

Samsung: Master the Power of the Angles

The latest Samsung online campaign for their ST550 and TL 225 cameras is definitely worth a look. Created by the folks at The Viral Factory, the campaign aims to highjlight Samsung's latest camera models, specifically targeted to the digital savvy, online youth market. Recent research conducted by Samsung showed that a huge percentage of photos are now ‘self-shots’ that people are uploading to their various online / Social Media profiles. With this in mind the camera incorporates an image screen on the front of the camera as well as the back.

The Viral Factory's film is directly inspired by the internet meme , which was all about revealing the truth behind people’s overly flattering profile pictures. Through a cool 'Hot Spot' YouTube video, users can view six different scenarios and characters, each of whom first showing their ‘good’ angle and then reveals the ugly truth. The six characters in question are a troupe of aliens and ghouls, all disguising their true identities for their Social Media profiles.

“The Samsung research revealed that a surprisingly high percentage of photos are ‘self-shots’, so it’s brilliantly obvious to have a screen on the front of the camera as well as the back,” said, Viral Factory founder, Ed Robinson. “These photos are mostly taken to be shared through social media, so our task was to find a relevant idea which spoke to this audience. The ‘Beware The Angles’ meme felt relevant to us, and we thought we could take it a bit further". He added, “Hopefully we demonstrate how even the most grotesque-looking of us can look sexy and cool by using the angles…And offer a couple of tips on how to make the most of the cheats yourself.”

Check out the videos here...


You can also see a video of the phone and its features here...

Rocket Fuel Ad Network Arrives

Today saw the launch of Rocket Fuel, a new hybrid ad network founded by veterans from Yahoo!, DoubleClick, NetGravity, Epiphany and salesforce.com. Unlike existing ad networks, Rocket Fuel bills itself as "the first intelligent ad serving technology platform that combines demographic, lifestyle, purchase intent and social data with its own suite of targeting algorithms, blended analytics and expert analysis to find active customers". The system automatically leverages internal and third-party data using its real-time Progressive Optimisation technique, allowing it to serve a suite of impressions with specific context to each advertiser's individual marketing objectives.

“We saw how important it was to let the data tell you which ad to show, so we let the data tell us what works and what is important. Instead of inflicting on customers thousands of targeting options, we figure out which options are working well and move inventory in that way.” says CEO George John. "Rocket Fuel was founded to disrupt online display advertising with a superior computational approach that blends smart decision making, creativity and science to predict consumer behavior. We understand the last thing the industry needs is just another ad network. It needs a smarter one."

"We believe there is a profound difference between reaching audiences and activating customers," said Richard Frankel, president and co-founder of Rocket Fuel Inc. "For us, it's about marrying many different types of data with advanced technology to create intelligent and dynamic campaigns that reach the people who will buy, blog, tweet or tell their friends about your product or brand. Our goal is to turn passive audiences into active consumers."

Frankel, shows how it works:



Although Rocket Fuel only launched today, it has undergone extensive testing during the last year and already boosts an impressive client list including major brands like Nike, Dell, Microsoft, and American Express. This combined with the capability of reaching 40 million people through 100 million ads per month, are sure to make it an attractive offering to advertisers. So the only question left to ask is do advertisers want another ad network? In my own experience I would say that it all comes down to one simple question; will Rocket Fuel out-perform other networks? If it does it will succeed.

Frankel and John, along with CTO Abhinav Gupta, are ex-Yahoo emplyees.

4320:SYD

Following the huge success of V Australia and Virgin Atlantic's 4320:LA competition that I posted about in July, V Australia, with their agency Droga5, are throwing down a similar challenge to their American customers. In a bid to promote Australia as the ideal and affordable short break destination for Americans, V Australia are seeking 3 Americans to take a trip down-under and experience Sydney, while sending a Tweet every single minute of the 4320 minutes they are there!

In a similar fashion to the 4320:LA contest, there will be 2 stages. The first stage is a basic entry registration of entrant’s email address, full name, date of birth, and, most importantly, an answer to the question “Why should we choose you and two of your mates to take the ultimate challenge in Sydney?” in 140 characters or less (obviously). 3 preliminary winners will then be chosen by a panel of Virgin Blue judges to progress to the second stage based upon literary and creative merit of their answers.

The stage 2 will then see each of the preliminary winners select 2 friends to form their 'Team'. At that point each Team will be interviewed and evaluated on the following criteria:

• the outgoing nature and personality of the Team Members
• the number of Twitter followers each Team member has (if applicable)
• how frequently each Team Member uses Twitter (if applicable)

From their, 1 Team will be selected to participate in the “4320 Minutes in Sydney” Challenge.

This kind of social media challenge is one of the first of its kind to be run in the US, being specifically driven through Twitter. The winners will be expected to undertake a once in a lifetime non-stop three day adventure swimming with sharks, enjoying beers at the Sydney Opera House and, of course, throwing a few shrimp on the 'barbie'. All the time Tweeting every minute of the adventure. Don't forget though, that's not even the prize. The prize, should the Team successfully complete their challenge each team member wins a 'Round the World' ticket with V Australia and Virgin Atlantic.

Jodi McKay, Minister for Tourism for New South Wales said "Recently NSW has had success using social media to entice technology savvy travellers to the State through targeted MySpace and Facebook campaigns. V Australia is moving with the times and seeking out new ways to communicate with travellers that will showcase our great City and State to potential visitors. It's great to partner with an industry provider that is thinking outside the box and embracing creativity and new media in their promotional activity."


The “4320 Minutes in Sydney” Challenge
The Team will take a trip to from Los Angeles to Sydney; including return flights from Sydney to Los Angeles, 3 nights full board accomodation at a 5-star accommodation, leaving Los Angeles on September 8, 2009 and return home on September 13, 2009.

While in Sydney, the Team will be required to send 1 Tweet per minute for a period of 72 hours. To do this they will be provided with a mobile phone capable of sending Twitter messages for the duration of the challenge.

If the Team completes the “4320 Minutes in Sydney” Challenge to the satisfaction of the Promoter and sends 1 Tweet per minute for a period of 72 hours, each Team Member will receive an ‘around the world’ economy airfare.

The Team will be filmed at all times while completing the “4320 Minutes in Sydney” Challenge.

Social Media Blues

"Here's a fun little hoedown about twitter, facebook, youtube, digg... and unrequited love."

Hey, it's Sunday!

Twitter And The NHS (#welovetheNHS)

I've read countless articles and listened to numerous people insist that Twitter is nothing more then a fad and, more importantly, that it has no real value to offer. As a Twitterer myself I am fairly aware of exactly what place Twitter holds and exactly how it can be effectively used by public and commercial endevours. In the past week Graham Linehan, writer and creater of Father Ted and The IT Crowd, may have done more than any other person to prove exactly what Twitter is capable of, and how one person can use it to really achieve something.

At the beginning of the week the 'We love the NHS' campaign burst onto Twitter. Linehan created the movement as a stand against recent claims about the NHS made by right wing supporters in the US, such as Glenn Beck of Fox News, hoping to stall and hinder Barack Obama's healthcare plans. The campaign has already attracted tens of thousands of users to pledge their support for the British health system, and received individual acknowledgement and support from Gordon Brown.

Brown tweeted "[the] NHS often makes the difference between pain and comfort, despair and hope, life and death".

Sarah Brown, his wife, and a host of prolific Twitter users such as Stephen Fry and Dara O'Briain has also given their own support, reinforcing the place that national healthcare systems have. Linehan himself said "[that] One of the benefits of the internet in general and Twitter specifically is that, for the first time in history, humanity is able to have a global conversation. People like Beck used to be able to spout lies about other countries without any fear of people outside the USA listening in and correcting him. But everything's different now, and I thought that if we got ‘We love the NHS’ to become a trending topic, it might act as a counterweight against the lies of the American right, who are being particularly obnoxious at the moment."

Having said all this, what Linehan did was not without risk. Linehan said "I was a little bit worried that, because no health care system on earth is absolutely perfect, the trend might fill up with lots of negative stories. But to my amazement, the response was almost 100 per cent positive. There were, of course, people who weren't happy with their experiences, but there were so few that I was able to reply to those people and remind them that I wasn't saying the NHS was perfect, just that it was better than the US system."

The whole campaign was kick started with a pretty simple tweet: "http://bit.ly/5AP9P #welovetheNHS". The link he posted sent his followers to an article that attempted to link Stephen Hawking to the failings of the NHS. The article #FAILED hugely when Hawking himself responded: "I wouldn't be here today if it were not for the NHS". Linehan followed up with another simple tweet, a request to "Please retweet all your NHS love using the hashtag #welovetheNHS".

As the campaign grew and grew, Conservative MEP Daniel Hannan went on Glenn Beck's Fox News show to giving his support to Glen's attack on the NHS. Linehan retorted, saying "People in the UK are fiercely proud and protective of the NHS, and however much they moan and gripe about it, you attack it at your peril. I have a feeling that Daniel Hannan is about to find this out the hard way."

He followed this up, telling Channel 4 News, "The healthcare debate in the America has been hi-jacked by some very loud and obnoxious people who have a financial interest in keeping the status quo. They are being helped by some of the worst blow-hards you can imagine – Glenn Beck and Bill O'Reilly. There are raising the temperature of the debate to a dangerous level. Glenn Beck thinks he can spread lies and no-one will notice but it is a very connected world now. I think this show of support can provide ammunition for those people who are fighting back against the scare stories in America. Everyone has a story about the NHS helping them in some way. It's important to us, we may slag it off a lot but it's ours. The lesson for any future government who might want to mess with things is to step carefully – attack the NHS at your peril. If the American Right had not used such ridiculous arguments to get their point across it wouldn't have taken off like it did – but by saying things like Stephen Hawking wouldn't have lived under the NHS…it's like if you criticise your parents. You can do it – but if someone else does it you will murder them. There are a lot more shades to this subject than Fox News would have you believe. The most important thing to remember about the Right in America is that they hate Obama more than anything, the idea that he could be successful on his healthcare plans is not acceptable to them."

So where has all this led? What exactly has been achieved?

As it turns out the desire of the British public to defend the NHS against politically motivated criticism from the US is very strong. Tens of thousands of supportive tweets later, the full implication of what Linehan started have reached well beyond cyberspace. Tory leader David Cameron and the shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley have openly and publically criticised Conservative MEP Daniel Hannan. Cameron has called Hannan an "eccentric" whose views do not hold true with the party as a whole. Timothy Kirkhope, the leader of the Conservative group in Europe and Hannan's boss, has said that he would like to see Hannan disciplined for his comments of the NHS. Kirkhope confirmed that the chief whip in Brussels would give Hannan a "stern talking-to".

Ultimately Linehan has summed up the whole experience best, saying "[I think] Twitter is a useful tool for this kind of action. I very much enjoy debunking the opinions of Luddite broadsheet columnists such as Jackie Ashley [who attacked Twitter in the Guardian] who see fit to disparage the service even though they obviously have absolutely no idea what it is. Though I can sympathise with people like Jackie - it must be terrifying to see the world changing so quickly and have no idea what exactly those changes mean, especially when it's supposedly your job to be on top of things!"

He added: "With Twitter everyone is a broadcaster, in terms of their own life. A lot of people have criticised it for being superficial, but the more interesting the people on Twitter are, the more interesting the service is. Twitter stepped up to the plate over the NHS. Like in Iran, where it provided a human face for the protests there. I have been getting annoyed by think pieces in newspapers who criticised the service but don't really know how it works – they use their laptops predominantly as a light."

Sources:
source 1
source 2
source 3
source 4

Facebook To Become Twitter

A number of high profile campaigns, including the recent Tory Election App, have made clever use of Facebook Status Updates by asking supporters to 'donate' them to the cause. By joining the campaign in question or installing their application, users would allow the campaign to insert its own message into their Status Update. However, it seems now that this loophole in Facebook's usage policy which allows users effectively donate or sell their status updates to brands, will be shut down.

The proposed changes to Facebook's Statement of Rights and Responsibilities, will ban users from any sort of commercial gain through their status updates or profiles. This will see the banning of a number of pyramid schemes that have started up, denial of service attacks that have become more common, and ultimately all users will now be made directly responsible for the content that is published through their profile.

This will be a major differentiator between Facebook and Twitter, who allow users to use their account in basically anyway they like. Already there are a number of third-party applications that exist to allow users to make money from their Tweets. But this change in Facebook's Statement of Rights and Responsibilities probably isn't as big a change as it actually seems. Two really interesting things have happened with Facebook in the last couple of weeks; first there was Facebook's acquisition of FriendFeed and the launch of its beefed up search function, and, secondly there have also been a number of reports of users being sent invitations to beta test Facebook's new 'Lite' service, which appears to be a direct stab to Twitter. (the URL - http://lite.facebook.com/ - already pops up in Google but redirects back to regular Facebook)

Facebook released a statement saying "We are currently testing a simplified alternative to Facebook.com that loads a specific set of features quickly and efficiently similar to the Facebook experience you get on your mobile phones. Facebook 'Lite' is a fast-loading, simplified version of Facebook that enables people to make comments, accept Friend requests, write on people's Walls, and look at photos and Status updates."

A screengrab of Facebook 'Lite' that is doing the rounds shows huge similarities with Twitter, with a stream down the centre and options to post pictures or videos on the right. Beyond this there is also one prominent theme coming through in Facebook 'Lite' - it will be a completely real-time application. This will demonstrate yet another subtle change made by Facebook to its service, to move it more towards a fully real-time service, which is exactly what Twitter currently represents. The most notable changes were those made to the Facebook homepage in March. The new hybrid page works almost exactly like a cross between Twitter and FriendFeed.



Following the March changes, Facebook also opened up to allow third party developers to create applications directly utilising its news feed, which is exactly what has helped drive Twitter growth with clients like Tweetdeck. Then June saw further changes with users being granted full control over their privacy options. This has allowed Facebook Status Updates to be broadcast out of Facebook and into the larger web, again directly emulating Twitter. Finally we have this weeks new change to Facebook - the new search function. This allows users to now search Facebook exactly as do with Twitter, being able to view trending topics as they happen.

So what does all of this mean? Well, for one it strengthens Facebook's position as being the progressive and dynamic Social Media service. Twitter on the other hand may still be struggling to generate a basic revenue model. This is just a basic overview though, in reality all these changes may do little more then add additional levels of usage to Facebook that many users will simply fail to uptake. Twitter offers a service that is unique in its simplicity and range. Twitter should not try to become Facebook, and, similarly, Facebook shouldn't try to become Twitter. In my opinion Facebook would be better served trying to improve its current offering, speed up its overall service, and allow developers/marketers more freedom to enhance their use of Facebook.

Guinness 250 Years Celebrations: Update

I posted about the Guinness 250 Years Celebrations back in July. The celebrations take place on September 24th and mark 'Arthur’s Day', the annual celebration of the founding of Guinness. The main thrust of the day's celebrations will revolve around gigs at 4 venues and 28 pubs, who are playing host to a host of international superstars.

Today, however, Guinness have confirmed that the days celebrations will be pinnacled with performances from Sir Tom Jones, Kasabian and Estelle at Guinness's own Hopstore 13, at St James’s Gate Brewery. Hopstore 13 will be transformed into a live music venue to allow more than 2,000 visitors to enjoy this remarkable milestone in the legacy of Arthur Guinness.

Tickets for the Hopstore 13 gig will be available through Guinness consumer promotions.

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.

Impromtu Public Singing

I was watching Doctor Horrible's Sing-Along Blog again at lunch and I remembered that someone had done a musical/singing viral recently but I couldn't for the life of me remember who. So a little bit of Googling later and I remembered that it was a LastMinute.com viral from last year for their 50%-Off theatre ticket campaign.

I absolutely love this, and even though it's over a year old, I thought it was worth a re-share...



RubberRepublic were tasked with seeding out the campaign on behalf of Steel London.

Johnnie Walker: The Man Who Walked Around The World

One of my favourite actors, without a doubt, has to be Robert Carlyle. From Trainspotting to The Full Monty to The 51st State, Carlyle always delivers shocking believable performances. Although Carlyle rejects the term 'method actor' he always seeks out a level of emotional identification with a role aiming to find a core of humanity. This is what ultimately makes him so memorable and convincing. With all that said (and not to mention Carlyle's Scottish heritage), it should come as no surprise that Carlyle was the first choice when it came to casting for Johnnie Walker's new ad.

The ad, created by Bartle Bogle Hegarty, was shot in Scotland in a single continuous take, which sees Carlyle tell the story of how Johnnie Walker whiskey developed from the grocery shop blending of a 14 year old shopkeeper to the international brand that it is today. Between a classic Scottish bagpipe intro and the random appearance of visual cues along the highland that Carlyle is walking, the ad is certainly captivating and engaging. Carlyle delivers a pitch-perfect and charismatic narrative that turns this into more of a short film then an ad.

The copy is from BBH's Juston Moore, and while the ad is delivered as a single continuous shot, according to the production company it did take 40 takes to achieve a successfully result. Shots has a great interview with the ad's director, Jamie Rafn of HLA.

So without further delay, here it is...

MercuryGirl: The World’s First Augmented Reality Browser

A huge congratulations to Tim and everyone at MercuryGirl, who announced that they were awarded a Layar developer account. This means that MercuryGirl will be developing datasets for Layar, the world’s first Augmented Reality browser.

Initially MercuryGirl will be focusing on developing travel orientated layers.



Layar is a free Augmented Reality application for mobile phones. Layar is currently available for Android handsets and will be available on the iPhone in the near future.

Current layers:

• Funda, realty site, providing information for a layer with houses for sale and rent
• Tempo Team, temp agency, providing information for a layer with available jobs
• ING, bank, providing information for a layer with all ATM’s
• Zekur.nl, heath insurer, providing information for a layer with participating health care providers

Wieden + Kennedy 12: Fail Harder

This definitely has to be one of my favourite things that I've seen from Wieden + Kennedy 12.

The project was to create a mural, which they did with over 100,000 thumbtacks and over 351 hours (in the process they bought out all available clear push pins on the west coast of the US). The mural spells out Fail Harder. W+K12 runs by the philosophy of the importance of failure during the creative process to ultimately create stunning and impactful creatives.



Wieden + Kennedy 12 is an experimental advertising school run by Portland ad agency W+K

What is Social Media

I posted at the beginning of the month about a great presentation that Paul Isakson, Head of Strategy with Space 150, gave at the Marketing 2.0:unfiltered event put on by Espresso. Following on from that there is a must-see presentation by Marta Kagan, Managing Director at Espresso: 'What The F**K is Social Media?'

Here Marta takes a look at exactly where Social Media is within the modern (digital) marketing mix, how brands / businesses should be utilising Social Media, and what the important points are to consider (remember) when making the move into Soicial Media. Although this is written from an American perspective, almost all stats are international and all learnings are universal.



Marta's presentation is a follow on from her first 'What The F**K is Social Media?'

Follow Marta at...
Bonafide Marketing Genius
LinkedIn
Marta's Blog
Twitter
Facebook

Lemonade: The Movie

In the US more than 70,000 advertising professionals have lost their jobs so far in the "current economic climate". Lemonade tells the story of what those people, who were once creative in advertising, get creative with their own lives. Lemonade has been put together by Please Feed The Animals, an online community for advertising professionals who have been made unemployed.



Writer: Erik Proulx
Director: Marc Colucci
Directors of Photography: Peter Nelson, Will van Hazel, Todd Heater, Neal Morrell, Mark Harmel
Production Company: Picture Park
Executive Producers: Jennifer McKenzie, Erik Proulx
Producers: Carrie Jacobson, Scott Burtnett
Post Production: Finish/Boston
Editor: Pete Warren
Sound Post Production: Soundtrack/Boston
Mixer: Brian Heidebrecht
Music: Caspian

Ruby Card on Pix.ie

I was out taking photos this morning in Sandymount and I remembered that Pix.ie were running a great competition with Ruby Card. There's €2,500 up for grabs and entering is incredibly simply. Basically all you need to do is either upload your photos directly to the Ruby Card group, or just join the Ruby Card group and tag your photos with "rubycard" and the county that you took the photo in (these will then appear in the group).

The aim of the competition is "to capture the beauty of Ireland for the next Ruby Card". The competition is based across the 26 counties of the Republic or Ireland and is calling on the public to showcase their county. One lucky winner will then get their photo used on the front of the new Ruby Card prepaid credit card, and €2,500.

RightMove.co.uk iPhone App

As readers of my blog will probably already know, there are two technology areas that particularly interest me at the moment: Augmented Reality and Mobile Applications. More importantly, I'm really interested to see how businesses and agencies push these technologies through meaningful and useful application. Obviously it's difficult to refute the popularity of the iPhone Lightsaber application simple through total download, however it's easy to agree that this application doesn't actually serve a useful purpose. One of the most useful iPhone apps I've seen in a long time is the RightMove app.

RightMove, the UK property search and listings website, has just teamed up with Mobile Marketing firm 2ergo, and developed an iPhone app that allows you to use your iPhone's GPS functionality to find properties near your current location that are available to buy or rent. The app is free to download and gives the same full functionality as the website in an easy to use mobile aplication. You can search by address, price, number of rooms etc. and you can view all the uploaded picture as usual. Two additional pieces of functionality that have been added are the the ability to forward the details of properties to other people simply by pressing a button, and a straight forward "Call Me" function that puts you straight through to the letting agent or property owner.

Rightmove already has over 40,000 users accessing its website through the iPhone's, which represents 95% of its mobile traffic.

Miles Shipside of Rightmove, said: "Offering an app was a natural progression and we're delighted to be the first major property company to provide a service of this nature. 2ergo was the natural choice for us due to their mobile marketing and app development expertise."

Non-Branded Branding Activity

I wrote a post last Friday about the new Coca-Cola 'Open Happiness' "adver-tainment" piece that was directed by Alan Ferguson. One of the most unique things about it is that during the entire ad there is no branding what-so-ever except during the final 2 seconds. Considering the ad is 4 minutes and 25 seconds long, that's a bit of a big deal. And although the ad doesn't contain anything in it that says Coca-Cola or utilises the logo or brand iconography, the ad screams Coa-Cola in every way. As a piece of branding work it is definitely an indication of Coca-Cola's security with their own position and brand strength.

Following on from this, I've been keeping an eye out for anyone else doing similar 'non-branded' brand work. Nick Burcher wrote an excellent post on the recent Scandinavian Airlines TV ads. Nick describes how in the latest of the ads, there is no mention of Scandinavian Airlines or display of their logo until the final 4 seconds of a 60 second ad. Created by Wibroe Duckert & Partners, the ad is entirely in French (with English subtitles) and uses "Les deux pigeons" by Charles Aznavour as its soundtrack.

Is this the direction that brands will start to go in general? Is there any correlation between this and the continued growth of Social Media? I have had quite a few people suggest to me that the mind shift that corporate entities have had to undertake to fully realise the intimate and personal nature of Social Media will possibly drive a greater change in how all facets of marketing are approached. I think this is an interesting thought but by no means something that we can yet judge. Though I for one would not be disappointed to see a general move in all corporate communication channels towards a more socially orientated approach.


[click video to play]

Producer: Gitte Saloman
Creative: Peter Boye; Henrik Tvilling
Director: Martin Werner
Production: Bacon
Producer: Malene Dyhring
Director of Photography: Lasse Frank
Post Production: Duckling
Editor: Peter Brandt
Music: Charles Aznavour

A big cheers to Nick for posting this video :)

As You Wish - A Princess Bride Event

Damien mentioned this to me about a month ago and as soon as he said it I thought, awesome! Next Thursday (13th August) is the ‘Princess Bride Twitter evening’. Basically the concept is simple; put on one of the the greatest action/adventure/romance/comedy movies of all time, get a bunch of friends, and tweet the night away in a discussion about the movie on Twitter.

Early reports suggest that much of the Irish Twitter-sphere have not seen the movie (blasphemous!!) so this will be a first for many people. Ah to be able to relive your first time ;)

Damien got the inspiration for the night from Graham Linehan’s Bad Movie night with the major exception that this is of course an awesome movie night.

The hashtag for the event is #asyouwish



The movie is directed by Rob Reiner and stars Cary Elwes, Robin Wright, Fred Savage, Peter Falk, Billy Crystal and Mel Smith (among others!).

Check out IAmSteph, Mulley's Blog and Culch.ie (who I also owe a thanks to for the trailer above) for more info on the evening.

Malibu: Radio Maliboom Boom

Malibu is set to launch its latest global digital campaign. Malibu's Radio Maliboom Boom will become a content broadcast platform for all things Malibu during the coming 12 months. Great Works have created an online radio station that will provide 24/7 upbeat music and humorous conversations between DJ Bernhard and MC Wonder Full, Malibu's Caribbean Radio DJs. The site will be continually refreshed with exciting content including exclusive music tracks, music videos and clips as DJ Bernhard and MC Wonder Full’s crusade to spread their Caribbean vibe around the globe.The site essentially provides a streaming music player featuring top Universal music artists, however there are also a number of downloads planned such as e-cards, ringtones and other fun digital applications.

The campaign launched in the US on August 3 and is rolling out to Canada, Spain, the Netherlands and other markets during the coming months. The campaign is supported by television and online advertising, as well as numerous offline activations. There will be four thirty second tv spots: "Maliboom Boom," "Sunshine," "Shake it" and "Social Responsibility." The spots are all based around the radio personalities, DJ Bernhard and MC Wonder Full, who broadcast an upbeat and vibrant music show to the world from the rugged Radio Maliboom Boom studio on a beach in Barbados.

The campaign's opening tv ad, "Sunshine," shows DJ Bernhard and MC Wonder Full giving a worldwide weather report. First MC Wonder Full calls out a city name, then DJ Bernhard exclaims, "Sunshine!" as he throws a magnetic sun symbol over his shoulder to a world map behind him. Unfortunately each time the sun lands on the board, the city can be seen to be covered in rain. Finally, MC Wonder Full asks "Tokyo?", to which DJ Bernhard yells, "Sunshine!" and MC Wonder Full quickly replies, "But it is 1 a.m. in Tokyo, Bernhard." The ad closes out to reveal a rooftop party in Tokyo where people are dancing to upbeat and lively Caribbean music while enjoying Malibu cocktails. Despite the late hour, the sun is shining for the partygoers thanks to Radio Maliboom Boom.

Ozlem Citci, Malibu Global Brand Director, says "Radio Maliboom Boom takes our existing advertising initiative in an exciting new direction. Through a fully integrated experience, we're inviting our consumers to become a part of the 'Get Your Island On' crusade - infusing light-hearted fun and vibrant energy into the every day."

"The new campaign goes beyond the traditional television spots by creating an experience where consumers can connect with the irreverent, vibrant spirit of the Malibu brand through the engaging personalities of the DJs," said Paul Campbell, Vice President of Marketing for Malibu at Pernod Ricard USA. "We want people to be able to embrace the fun of Malibu in their everyday lives and Radio Maliboom Boom is a perfect way to do this."

Keep an eye out on Digitology and I'll let you know as soon as there's live content to explore.

What's Happening With Twitter

It seems so many headlines of late have been about Twitter. Twitter's new homepage. Twittering getting someone sued. The Value of Twitter. So I thought I'd do a little round up of four of the most interesting things happening in the Twitter-sphere.

The Growth of Twitter
Twitter traffic has increased to 44.5m unique users worldwide (in June) - up 19% month-on-month. Users rose from 37.3m in May which represented a jump of over 7m. All-in-all that's an increased of 1,460% from June 2008, when Twitter's worldwide audience was only 2.9m.

An important point to note about these figures is that they only count traffic to the Twitter.com site and don't register traffic to any of the numerous Twitter apps, such as TweetDeck, that are used by many users.

The above data comes from ComScore but Nielsen NetRatings has also released an interesting stat that adults use Twitter twice as much as teenagers do. Only 16% of Twitter users are under 25, and a mere 6.6% of teens have a Twitter account.


Twitter's Skinni Popcorn
MagneticNorth have just launched a really cool movie barometer called Skinni Popcorn. The site provides an insight into real people's opinions about the latest movies within a real-time environment. By analysing Twitter feeds and any comments about films, the site gives a real-time feed on what Twitter users are saying about movies. The site also gives a synopsis of the films, a web link to The New York Times review of the movie, and links to trailers of the movies.

The initial release targets Twitter as a feed but there are already plans to utilise other social media sites and pull in any comments from them to help grow and develop a broader community.


American Footballer Fined For Tweeting
An American Football player has been fined $2,500 for tweeting about his team. Antonio Cromartie was fined by the NFL for commenting about the team's nutrition, saying that "nasty food" was to blame for the Chargers' poor performance last year. His tweet last Friday said "Man we have 2 have the most nasty food of any team. Damn can we upgrade 4 str8 years the same ish maybe that's y we can't we the SB we need."

The NFL is presently formulating a broad policy to ban players from using social media platforms, including Twitter, during games.


Save The Observer, On Twitter
The news is official, The Observer newspaper is facing possible closure by the Guardian Media Group. In a bid to try and boast support for the newspaper a campaign has been launched on Twitter. In just two days the profile has gained over 2,000 followers. The campaign is being spear-headed by opywriter and digital marketer, Callum Saunders. The Savetheobserver Twitter Profile has been posting details of the story.

A Facebook Save the Observer group has also been launched and this has signed up more than 2,300 supporters.

Google in 5 Years

Scott Kurnit, a New York-based tech investor and founder of About.com, talks about the future of Google and his view on how Google stock can triple in the next 5 years. Scott discusses the three major services that he believes will drive this growth:

• Google Voice (GrandCentral)


• Google Wave


• Google Android

Summer at MoMA

The New York Museum of Modern Art have just launched an excellent campaign to promote the museum. The redeveloped website helps visitors plan their visit to the museum through connecting with your Facebook profile. Using Facebook Connect, the site scans your Facebook profile, analyses all your details and matches your social network preference and likes/dislikes to show you which of the current museum experiences would be of most interest to you. You will be given personal recommendations that you can add to your profile and send to friends.

This is an excellent example for every exhibition and event on how to provide a unique and tailored experience to all your guests and visitors.

Sony EyePet

In the latest addition to the fast growing range of applications that Sony are developing to utilise their PlayStation Eye, we see the introduction of Sony EyePet. This family orientated application brings a 3D virtual pet into your home through an Augmented Reality style interface and interaction. As well as being able to play with your pet with real world hand gestures, you can also create objects in his virtual world through 2D drawn objects that then pop to life on-screen.

This is just another example of how Augmented Reality is being brought into our lives. I expect that we'll see a lot more applications being developed for gaming platforms such as the PS3.

CG 3D Animation

I was doing a bit of digging, looking for someone to do a bit of 3D work for a small project that I was asked to lend a hand on, and I found these guys, C4Real. This is their showcase work and it has to be seen to be believed.



Basically this was just done as an example of C4Real's CG capabilities. The process involved storyboarding, previzzing, animation and rendering, which were all done in house. Total production took 4 weeks and rendering was done on an 8 core MacPro taking 4 months. As you can see the quality is absolutely impecable but it's no wonder, every single frame was rendered at a maximum of 1 frame per hour, with some frames taking up to 24 hours each.