303 Digital - news and stuff from the digital team

The Bark Side

2012-01-23T14:33:00.000-08:00

Little bit late posting this one, but just in case you haven't seen it yet. Here's our friends at Deutsch Lowe's teaser campaign for this years superbowl following up on the incredibly successful Star Wars campaign from last year. It's dogs barking the Imperial March, of course.

Looking forward to see what the guys come up with on the day. What do you think?

Cheers
Nic

Most Contagious 2011

2011-12-18T14:54:00.000-08:00

Contagious have completed their wrap up of the year, covering the key trends, technology trends and best campaigns from around the world. Well worth a read.CheersNic

Communications Council urges Australian mobile manufacturers to front NFC technology revolution

2011-09-26T19:05:00.000-07:00

The Communications Council believes Australia has a major opportunity to become a world class innovator in NFC (Near Field Communications) services – a technology becoming more omnipresent in Mobile phones and other swipe to pay systems. Despite some handset manufacturers holding back NFC technology in mobile phone models in Australia, the Communications Council believes the time is right for manufacturers to incorporate NFC in all future handsets.

Already integrated into some credit and debit cards, such as Visa payWave, the introduction of NFC ‘chips’ embedded into mobiles will be a revolution in how people pay for goods and services on the go.

50% of all Mobile handsets are predicted to have the technology enabled by 2014

with an anticipated value of mobile payment transactions in excess of $50bn worldwide.

In addition, given every NFC chip will be linked to an individual’s mobile phone, numerous other marketing opportunities will be created such as; accessing additional information from traditional and digital forms of advertising, delivering targeted offers to shoppers when they enter a store, or acting as contactless check-ins for social networks.

“We think there are numerous creative applications for NFC technology beyond transactional interactions. Marketing communications clients and agencies are eagerly awaiting critical mass of handsets in the marketplace so they can really start engaging consumers in these exciting new ways.” Iain McDonald, Chairman, Digital Committee.

With the Android powered Google Nexus S becoming the leading mass market NFC handset, and Samsung, Blackberry, Nokia, Windows, and Sony Ericsson all finalising plans, The Communications Council is looking to all manufacturers to accelerate release dates to propel this sector forward.

Australia is already a top 5 Mobile market due to the high penetration of smartphones, and an eager, early adopting consumer base. It is estimated that 60% of Australian Brands have rolled-out a mobile initiative to date, with over a quarter now having a web site optimised for Mobile. “The growth of Mobile marketing in Australia in the last 18 months has been rapid so we’re encouraging marketers to look at where NFC can fit into their Marketing and Customer programs, and take the connections they have with audiences to the next level” Graham Christie – Communications Council Digital committee member.

About the digital committee:

The Communications Council’s digital committee was formed to represent member agencies’ digital interests, drive digital industry leadership, and develop forward and innovative thinking in digital. Committee members include Heather Albrecht (Digital Connections), Kathryn Apte (Google), Charles Clapshaw (Tequila), Nic Chamberlain (303), Graham Christie (Big Mobile), Craig Galvin (The White Agency), Nic Hodges (Mediacom), Aden Hepburn (IdeaWorks) Simon Morgan (Publicis Mojo), Ruud Spierings (Facebook), Stephen Von Muenster (Von Muenster Solicitors), and Mike Zeederberg (Zuni), Joshua Frith (The Dubs), David Whittle (M&C Saatchi), Jenny Williams (Ideagarden).The Committee is chaired by Iain McDonald from Amnesia Razorfish.

About The Communications Council

The Communications Council is the peak body representing agencies in the marketing communications industry to media, government and the public. The Council creates a footprint across the increasingly integrated world of creative, digital, healthcare, design, direct marketing, promotion, PR, plus creative production companies and strategic planning consultancies. Based on the concept of ‘together stronger’ it champions a proactive and united industry approach. We help grow member businesses and develop individual careers through the provision of professional development services, advocacy and support.

For further information contact:

Linde Wolters

-0282973806

303 wins digital award at Create Awards for Perth Arts Festival ‘Totems’

2011-09-22T23:29:00.000-07:00

Our 2011 Perth Festival campaign continues to receive plaudits, after last night winning in the Digital and interactive Category of the Create Awards, from Desktop Magazine. Our personalized ‘Totems’ saw out competition from Guinness, British Airways and Schweppes to win.

The idea gave festival goers the opportunity to create their personalised festival image, unique to them – based on the events they chose to visit. This became their avatar, shareable in the Festival’s online art gallery and via social media, and even able to be purchased as a high-resolution print.

‘This was a perfect project for 303 - we’re a blend of technical and creative types who love to push the envelope. Like much of this year’s festival, ‘Totems’ was a balance of art and science. Now that we are live, its incredible to watch people play with it, obsess with it, and create unique forms with it.' says Richard Berney, Associate Creative Director.

Nic Chamberlain, Head of Digital commented, “we’re delighted with the award, credit to the creative team and my Technical guys for delivering this as well as we did. The ‘Totems’ played a huge part in the total festival design on and offline, and really engaged with audiences of all ages at Festival time”.

You can read more about Totems and this award in next months Desktop magazine.

Plans for the 2012 campaign are already well underway.

Optimise for mobile or lose out...

2011-09-22T16:58:00.000-07:00

19% of all emails are now read on mobile device, and Google reports that 14% of all searches are via Mobile – a 3000% increase in just 3 years. This is more than enough evidence for brands to ensure users on a mobile enjoy an experience that that befits their screen size.

As Google says, a poor mobile web experience can negatively shape a consumer’s opinion of a brand or company and make it hard for them to engage or make a purchase. In fact, 61% of users are unlikely to return to a website that they had trouble accessing from their phone.

Check out these two competing brands, you don’t need me to tell you which one is the better experience.

Google added to the importance yesterday, announcing that websites optimized for mobile will have a better quality score than those that aren’t. So the discussion is not merely about the user experience, not having a mobile enabled website will now impact on the success of your Google search budget.

At 303, we’re soon to launch our own mobile site, and we’re also developing some cost-effective development packages to take to clients that haven’t yet optimized for mobile, so watch this space.

More here:

10 inches not enough for you ?

2011-09-20T22:07:00.000-07:00

A new iPad accessory called Padzilla has been release that turns your 10 inch iPad into a 70-150 inch multitouch screen. While this is great for the people that love to see their Apple products super sized it brings a great opportunity to have large interactive screens outdoors.

Having this set up with in a public space or potentially installed as an AdShell gives us the opportunity to simply purchase an iPad build a game or application for our client which then provides the user a service or experience while they are out and about.

The cost I’m lead to believe is fairly ridiculous at the moment sitting at about 20K + however this should come down pretty quickly as most things (Remember all those people paying 20K for their plasma TVs ?)

For more information check out the link
http://crunchylogistics.com/portfolio/padzilla-70-inch-ipadiphone-case/

Google plus or a minus?

2011-08-31T00:45:00.000-07:00

2 months have passed since Google’s latest social media re-incarnation, so I thought it might be interesting to see where they’re at, and a look at what’s next.

Firstly, they’ve had quite a start, reaching 25m users quicker than their friends at Facebook and Twitter did. It’s taken 1 month to reach such mass, whereas it took Facebook almost 3 years. A false number perhaps as social media was at a very different stage in its lifecycle back then, but a positive for Google all the same.

The other key plus for me is around functionality, ‘Circles’ allow users to organize connections in to pots, so you can have ‘close friends’, ‘family’, ‘work’ and so on – which gives the service a lot of flexibility. This is crucial for Google+ on-going success as Facebook isn’t as flexible in this regard. Interestingly, Facebook have tweaked the site recently (you can manage privacy on individual posts now), and expect more to come as they track the progress of Google+ and manage privacy concerns over time.

On the negative side, that 25m+ audience is jam packed full of nerds… perhaps unsurprisingly it’s over-indexing on early adopter Engineers, Software professionals and most importantly – men. The site currently has 70% men, 30% women which is the total reverse of the rest of the social network sphere, where 60/40 women to men is far more commonplace (Twitter has the highest ratio of women to men with 64/36% women to men, Pew Research Study).

The key step now is how they take the service in to the public mainstream and your network of friends, celebrity, sport, news etc. Basically, Google+ needs to step in to the world of your average Joe on the street, who with 2-3 social profiles already may think they simply don’t need yet another service in their lives.

The most concerning stat for Google HQ from the first two months might just be the active user base, statistics show that 83% of the base are inactive, which is higher than Twitter (which is saying something). So they’ve seen a very high take up rate, but now people are inactive and deciding where this actually fits with their other networks.

Another factor is that they’ve not launched business profiles yet, which will inevitably have an impact in terms of buzz around the service – expect that to come in the next couple of months. However, I’m not convinced that’s going to see a new swathe of engaged users arrive and stay.

Google+ will need to find its place in the social world soon enough; but personally I fear that your regular Jane doesn’t have time for another social network, so there’s a lot more work to be done to change pretty entrenched behaviour amongst that group.

The other concern for me is that Google just doesn’t feel inherently social.... you go to them for something different – and social isn’t it. Only time will tell.

Thanks

Nic

*Bime Analytics Research

303 asks IKEA to pay rent in WA and SA

2011-08-31T00:30:00.000-07:00

303 and IKEA has launched the 2012 catalogue campaign in WA and SA, the catalogue is a key element in the brands armoury and 303 have taken a totally fresh approach to the launch.

The people of WA and SA can earn rent from IKEA just for keeping the catalogue in their home. By signing up, users are able to receive monthly rent cheques via email.

Nigel Richardson, Marketing Manager of IKEA (WA & SA): "The annual catalogue launch is the pivotal point in the year for IKEA and is key to our marketing program. Historically, the focus is on new products and the campaign runs for just a few weeks. We wanted to focus on the inspiration that comes from the catalogue and encourage people to use it throughout the year. The international theme for the 2012 catalogue is 'create space'. That was the brief for 303. We are excited by the concept and the collaborative process of developing this with 303 has been an open and rewarding one."

Sydney-based Simon Langley, ECD at 303: "The IKEA catalogue is an institution. People anticipate its arrival, get excited about it, read it and then it put it on the shelf. We want it to have pride of place. But, with living costs increasing we figured it only fair that IKEA should pay their way. This led us to the idea of IKEA paying people to keep the catalogue in their homes by renting the space it occupies"

To find out all about the campaign, and to start earning rent, go here!

Cheers

Making the New, Old Again

2011-08-01T21:22:00.000-07:00

We are all aware of how saturated the globe is now with new technology.
You are even likely to see grandma’s walking around typing an SMS these days.

The convenience that this technology offers us makes it an easy choice, hence its growth as the preferred means of communication.

It could be easily assumed, therefore, that we as consumers prefer everything to be on a screen.

But there is an opposing force, which is driving consumer desire. As technology changes so rapidly there is a longing for how things used to be.

Nostalgia for the more tangible, personal, and authentic ways of the old days reinvented in modern times

So we have a desire for convenience.
Clashing with a desire for engagement.

What if advertising could bring these two ideas together?
If our campaigns don’t just focus on the digital space, but use this as a platform for collaborative projects that the audience can then translate into their own world.

A nice example was executed for the Swedish postal service last Christmas.
The insight being that people still prefer to receive a traditional Christmas card, even though online e-cards were increasing in popularity for the givers.

The creative execution, ‘Living Christmas Cards’, allowed personalised ‘one-off’ cards to be created and ordered online and then mailed to the recipients home as a hard-copy, similar to a post-card.

Another proof of the pudding is the campaign involving the use of iPhones to catch ‘invisible’ butterflies out in the ‘real world’.

Multi-dimensional campaigns that weave their way into peoples lives both on and off-line.

Thanks

Cassie

Excelbook from Diesel

2011-06-20T00:13:00.000-07:00

Another cute extension of Facebook's Be Stupid campaign, this time in the guise of an app, where full Facebook functionality sits in a (lookalike) Excel spreadsheet so your boss can't see you checking out what your mates are up to.

Ideas similar this have floated around before, but not quite to the extent of delivering all the functionality in to this format. It taps in to a great truth about our desire for endless social connection and people getting in to trouble when they should be working... so good on Diesel for that.

Check it out here, http://www.bestupidatwork.com/. Question marks remain over how often it'll get downloaded given stringent admin rights for some office users, and the execution could probably have been a little tighter to push it a little.

Good all the same. Thanks to @adenhepburn for the share.

Cheers Nic

Museum of Me

2011-06-02T00:59:00.000-07:00

Here’s a very clever Facebook app from Intel.

http://www.intel.com/museumofme/en_AU/r/index.htm

Called “Museum of Me” it appeals to everyone’s principle interest: themselves.

The app trawls through your Facebook photos, status updates, posts from friends and movie clips then, in astonishingly quick time, creates a video showing a museum exhibition based on your Facebook life. The whole thing is set to a poignant music track and people have been getting very emotion at seeing their life displayed this way.

The programming is astonishing as the camera tracks from room to room in the exhibition, panning past spectators interacting with your pictures and videos. There is even some performance art as a robot arm collects photos to build a montage mosaic that forms a giant version of your profile picture.

You can post the highlights of your Museum on your Facebook wall and it shows your 5 friends you most interact with and the word you use most in status updates.

There is no overt “sell” from Intel here. Presumably, the product demonstration of turning all the Facebook data into a museum movie so fast says something about Intel processing power, but I think Intel’s motivation is more about the love coming back to the company for building this experience.

Thanks

Malcolm

Memolane - Timeline your digital life

2011-05-31T20:52:00.000-07:00

New site has been released to help you rediscover great memories. You simply connect all your social network accounts to the site and it goes and scans all the sites and time-lines all your activity for you.

Another great tool for you and your friends to rediscover all the embarrassing moments stored on the net that you would just hope would disappear.

Check it out here

http://memolane.com/

View my page to see a working example without needing to sign up.

http://memolane.com/aaroncollyer

The Rich List of Social Media

2011-05-29T19:42:00.000-07:00

http://www.the-social-list.com/

Ever wondered where you stand in the world of social media networking?

The Sunday Times have created a site where you can work out your worth based on your networking activity so you can see who’s who in the world of social networking.

All your shares, tweets, likes, comments, updates, re-tweets, tag and mentions are all taken into account so you can see where you rate on the list. This is a great way to use social media to get your brand out there.

Thanks

Belinda

Stadsmission - Homeless banners

2011-05-26T22:07:00.000-07:00

Stadsmission is a small charity dedicated to helping the homeless in Stockholm. The “Homeless Banners” campaign was based around a blank, homeless banner with no website to live. Users are prompted to the micro site to copy the embedded code and paste it onto their own website, effectively giving the banner a place to live. The longer it was left up on a website and the more that it was interacted with, the brighter the banner became. When people interacted with it they were directed to the micro site to prompt donations and to host a banner of their own. After just 1 month there were over 400 websites hosting the homeless banners, generating 36 million impressions and tripling donations.

A very clever concept to generate interaction and achieve results with a very tiny budget! Pretty amazing.

Thanks

Jess

What were you doing on February 22nd?

2011-05-26T21:58:00.000-07:00

People in Christchurch, who had just been hit by the horror earthquake immediately began to Tweet and Facebook their urgent pleas for help, to find loved ones, offer their homes for refuge or just let people know that they were safe and well.

Fresh off the Haiti disaster Google created an App called the ‘Person Finder’ a missing persons database specifically for Christchurch, which people could use to spread or search for critical information. This App also supplied immediate satellite map updates of the destruction zone as it happened.

So who would you turn to if your life was torn apart… Social Media?

Its immediacy and convenience is highlighted in emergency cases like this. But its utility for surges of spontaneous and widespread social interaction also waits to be harnessed for brand emergencies… an exclusive event perhaps?
Or even better is for brands to join in and lend a helping hand in times of crisis by tracking any distress calls in social media.

http://gcn.com/articles/2011/02/24/social-media-role-in-new-zealand-rescue-effort.aspx

Thanks

Cassie

Selfridges - Project Ocean

2011-05-25T23:38:00.000-07:00

Selfridges as taken it upon themselves to try raise awareness of overfishing in our oceans. They have put together a diverse campaign utilising multiple channels to push the message out and try get people involved and donating.

The consistency and scale of the digital pieces for this project was quite impressive as well. Obviously the website and mobile apps were the main pieces of the project but I love the different outdoor digital executions that have been integrated with user activity on the site and apps.

Heineken - The Invite

2011-05-24T22:35:00.000-07:00

Tired of drinking by yourself ? You might have a problem. That's ok Heineken is here to help. They have created a bottle opener with Bluetooth that can connect to your Facebook and create an event each time you feel like a drink.

The event is created based on your location and then goes off and invites your friends in the same city. Friends are able to RSVP and the event with the most attendees win's a case of beer for the following week.

Another great example of a simple idea using social media to spread mass awareness of your brand. Plus everyone loves free beer.

Mini involve their fans once again in their advertising

2011-05-22T16:48:00.000-07:00

To celebrate customisation Mini, Berlin have set up a live photo booth and facebook page which enables people to have their photo taken with their choice of coloured earphones and car model. Let’s say you selected pink earphones, it would generate of photo of you sporting a pair of pink earphones alongside your favourite Mini featuring pink side mirrors.

The photos are sent to a live billboard on Berlin’s busiest intersection, online and on facebook. One participant wins their customised Mini.

Check out Mini It’s Personal Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/MINI?sk=app_191638194215171

Thanks
Emily

ROME and WebGL

2011-05-19T20:08:00.000-07:00

There was a new music video release recently that wasn't made for TV but rather for a web browser. It's quite an impressive visual display using code to render the 3D elements together with video and 2d graphics.

Check it out here. http://www.ro.me/ (view in chrome)

The technology they are using is WebGL. It is an extension of JavaScript to allow developers to generate 3D graphics within a web browser. Only issue with it currently is there are only a couple of browsers that are able to render it.

www.ro.me/tech is a page put together by the creators of ROME. It has a model viewer of some of the animals used in the clip and a great collection of some WebGL examples.

Also you can see the making of the clip here.

Axe Multiple Girlfriend Facebook App

2011-05-17T00:53:00.000-07:00

A simple yet clever use of Facebook. Mimicking relationship status updates on Facebook Axe has been able to create some buzz with their new Multiple Girlfriend app. Basically it allows guys to post to their wall the fact that they have 356 or so girlfriends.

Not sure how happy Facebook would be able this. But until they pull it down it will continue to spread.

Topshop brings AR and Kinect together

2011-05-10T18:37:00.000-07:00

A virtual change room has been created by Topshop using augmented reality and the Microsoft Kinect. What is a pretty good idea it is a shame that all the clothes look terrible over the top of existing clothes.Despite this issue it's another example of digital installations becoming more relevant in real world situations.

I would like to see it taken one step further and have the installations outside of the shops and the ability for the people to purchase the clothes and have it sent out to them.

Check out this article for more information.

Ben & Jerry's - Fair Tweets

2011-05-05T20:25:00.000-07:00

This is just an amazing yet simple idea for twitter. Using the fairtweets website or apps users can promote fair trade with their left over character limit on all their tweets.

Check out their site at http://www.fairtweets.com/ and start tweeting.

Google goes indoors

2011-05-05T20:13:00.000-07:00

Ignoring the obscurity of the video, this Google product kicking around that I haven't seen much of. It's called Google Business Photos. The purpose is to get streetview users off the streets and into businesses to check out what a place is like past the front door.

Currently there are photographers being sent out to selected cities to kick this off. Anyone can apply to have a free photography session and Google is keen to hear from anyone that is interested. Check it out.

http://maps.google.com/help/maps/businessphotos/

1 year of the Facebook 'like', now meet the 'send'

2011-04-27T18:25:00.000-07:00

Now we're all accustomed to using the Facebook like button, with more than 2.5million websites adopting it, Facebook are extending their functionality with the 'send' button, which allows for a more personalised share of content. Whilst the like allows us to tell our whole network, the share allows us to pinpoint particular friends.

This is what Facebook had to say:

"A year ago, we launched the Like button, which gives you a quick way to share the things you find on the web with all your friends. But there are times when you find something that you only want to share with a few specific people. Say you're on Orbitz and want to tell your roommates about a great idea for a summer vacation, or you come across a Huffington Post article that you only want to share with people at work. With the new Send button, now you can share things with any of your Groups or individual friends on Facebook."

Most users will be familiar with the functionality as it's exactly the same as the share functionality we use on Facebook, so in that regard it shouldn't confuse. Users can send to email, friends or any Facebook groups they may have set up. From a development perspective, it's terribly easy to implement, in the same way as Like is.

Take a look on Orbitz, they're one of the initial 50 partners adopting this, and then I'm sure we'll see it pop up as often as we have the like in the coming months.

Cheers
Nic

Finally a creative approach to LinkedIn

2011-04-26T18:04:00.000-07:00

There’s plenty of brands accessing Facebook profile information to feed into fun campaigns. Now VW are venturing into LinkedIn.

This new campaign taps into your LinkedIn profile so you can compare how big your head is compared with other people in your Linkedin network.

The actual outcome is pretty disappointing but it’s inspiring to consider how brands could tap into more professional information in LinkedIn.

Thanks
Emily

Facebook taking over the world - still

2011-04-10T23:50:00.000-07:00

Because you know we love a moving infographic, especially one about Facebook. Jokes aside, there's some quite interesting stats in here and for a minute or so of your time it's worth a look. 48% of people under 35 check Facebook as soon as they wake up, come on you know who you are.

Cheers
Nic

The World Is Obsessed With Facebook from Alex Trimpe on Vimeo.

Google launches its version of like, +1

2011-03-31T19:12:00.000-07:00

Google has added a new social element to its search with the launch of “+1”. The new button will appear next to search results and adverts. Clicking on it will allow users’ friends to see what they liked and add to public data.

This is Google's latest attempt at 'social', one that might actually work as in time it might be used to improve search ranking (doesn't for now). Video says it all.

Time we enjoyed the ride

2011-03-21T16:31:00.000-07:00

303 have created a new campaign, launching this week for Office of Road Safety.

The campaign is a shift in direction for Road Safety messages and is based on a number of new insights:

Shock, gore & emotional manipulation are increasingly less effective, as audiences are de-sensitised
The way we drive is a symptom of the way we live. Too fast*
Life is better when we slow down

The result is Enjoy the Ride. A campaign that acknowledges the frantic world we live in and takes a holistic approach to reducing speed. Culturally the campaign couldn’t have come at a better time. The ‘Slow Movement’ is gaining traction across the developed world.

The campaign suggests that we take a look at not only how fast we drive, but also how fast we live. When we slow them down they both become more rewarding and less stressful. We should treat our vehicles as a sanctuary from speed and enjoy the ride.

“We don’t want this to feel like an ad campaign, we wanted to help create a movement - in WA and even across the world, where people recognise that life is better enjoyed at a more natural pace, where we don’t feel the need to rush, both on and off the road”. Derry Simpson, Planning Director. 303

The message was launched via a 3-minute launch TV commercial, road-blocking commercial free-to-air TV. This will be followed by two 30-second TVCs, a dedicated lifestyle website featuring editorial and consumer content, radio, outdoor, community posters and a coffee-table book targeting opinion-leaders.

Carl Honore, the bestselling author of ‘In Praise of Slowness’ will officially launch the program. He’ll be supported by a team of industry leaders who will promote the benefits of slow in various aspects of life.

*70% of people with hectic lifestyles admit to speeding.

Only 40% of people with relaxed lifestyles admit to speeding.

Synovate Research 2010

Lovers of art become the creators of art...

2011-02-16T18:38:00.000-08:00

In 2011 the Perth International Arts Festival wanted to maximise online ticket sales, so the 303 Group conceived a unique digital device to entice patrons to participate in a unique online digital arts experiment.

303 created a series of generative artworks, called ‘totems’ - one for each event on the festival calendar.

Theatre totem

When a patron shortlists the events they plan to see, they bring together their respective event artworks to create their own festival image, as unique as a fingerprint - a personalised visual representation of their 2011 festival experience. This becomes their avatar, shareable in the Festival’s online art gallery and via social media, and even able to be purchased as a high-resolution print.

An individual totem

A heady array of totems has been created by the citizens of Western Australia, with site visits currently up 34%, and an artistic phenomenon has emerged from one of the most remote capital cities in the world.‘This was a perfect project for 303 - we’re a blend of technical and creative types who love to push the envelope. Like much of this year’s festival, ‘Totems’ was a balance of art and science. Now that we are live, its incredible to watch people play with it, obsess with it, and create unique forms with it.' says Richard Berney from 303 Perth’s Creative Department.

The bespoke animation was created by FutureDeluxe with cutting-edge programming by Zenbullets, both working out of Brighton, the UK’s current creative hotbed.

Experience the Totem art on the Perth International Arts Festival site.

New facebook ad unit - Sponsored Stories

2011-02-15T18:23:00.000-08:00

Hi

Facebook recently launched a new ad unit called Sponsored Stories. It turns peoples likes or checking in at a place into a branded ad. The ad will only appear on the right column of that persons facebook friends pages.

The controversial aspect of this new ad is that people can’t opt out. So, if a customer has liked a brand and this brand have bought Sponsored Stories they have no say whether this gets made into an ad to show their friends.

However, when people ‘like’ or check-in somewhere they are, in effect, advertising to their friends aren’t they? What do you think?

For more information see this Involver write up.

Thanks
Em

Predicting what Australian customers will want from brands in 2011

2011-01-23T16:43:00.000-08:00

PART 2 (GETTING MOBILE)

Australians are getting mobile in more ways than one. This year we’ll see an even bigger increase in smart phones and a wider choice of tablet devices at lower price points. With an increasing number of customers getting mobile they will be expecting location based information and deals and richer experiences.

Location Based Deals

Foursquare and it’s check-ins were certainly one of the digital darlings last year. With 9 million Australians on Facebook, Facebook Places and recently launched Facebook Deals are set to be the most widely used location based service this year. What’s likely to engage customers in 2011 are deals or rewards in exchange for checking in. Brands can layer location based rewards with existing loyalty programs and consider how to reward customers for checking in with time/location based deals.

Tactile and rich in media

If you own or have played with an iPhone, iPad or Kindle you’ll agree it’s a tactile experience. You navigate through content by stroking, pinching and tapping. Customers expect brands to design tactile tablet experiences. Brands need to design tablet experiences with the tactile experience in mind.

Customers want to play with ads on their iPads. Last year Neilson reported 39% of iPad owners consider ads on their devices as “new and interesting” and 35% saying they actually enjoyed viewing ads (especially multimedia ads). After viewing an ad they are also more likely to make a purchase. Brands should experiment with targetted iPad ads using multi-media and the tactile functionality.

Some examples...

Jimmy Choo Treasure Hunt

Safeway/Pepsico Loyalty Program

Predicting what Australian customers will want from brands in 2011

2011-01-20T11:32:00.000-08:00

There's a couple of areas we want to cover when looking at 2011, that of being social, and going mobile. I've split them in to two posts to keep these nice and short. Firstly, we take a look at the changes in social media we see in 2011.

Thanks

Emily

BE SOCIAL (don’t just do it)

Customers want brands to display social etiquette - listen, value opinions and remember information about your acquaintances and friends.

Show you are listening

This year customers will continue to share their frustrations and good experiences with their social networks. They’ll be asking questions in forums and the likes of Quora. They want brands to recognise and respond to their rants, raves and questions. Brands can set up social media monitoring and response guidelines to show they are listening.

Peer opinion rules

Before customers make a purchase decision they want to know what other people say about brands through peer reviews, forums, videos, photos, Facebook ‘likes’ and location based reviews through the likes of Foursquare, Facebook Places and Urbanspoon. To demonstrate how they value customer opinion brands can include social functionality in their websites, feature customer reviews and opinions alongside product information on their website and in-store

Get more personal as you get to know them - Social CRM

This year the brands who are jumping into social media monitoring will have access to a whole new world of ‘social data’. They will learn what their customers are saying, key themes of conversation, the kind of language being used and where conversations are happening. Customers are essentially telling brands what’s important to them. The brands who can translate this into their customer relationship management to tailor and improve the customer experience will have a real advantage.

Good examples of being Social

Totally cool banner for Go Airlines

2011-01-11T17:29:00.000-08:00

Great engagement piece this for an airline, integrating your mobile in to the website experience. Neat.

2010 Most Contagious

2010-12-14T13:35:00.000-08:00

If you don't know Contagious, you should as it's an excellent resource for all things Creative across the world. Their end of year wrap is excellent, and covers some of the best creative campaigns of the year, from social, viral, PR and brand experience, it also takes a look at technology and the brands themselves.

This shows what an incredibly creative year 2010 has been.

Cheers

Nic

Most Contagious 2010 / www.mostcontagious.com

THe cloud - according to 10 year olds

2010-12-07T20:46:00.000-08:00

Had to share this.

Wan't to know what the cloud is?

who do you ask?

A load of 10 year old's of course.

This will be part scary, part funny, part amazing for most. Enjoy.

Cheers

Nic

New Facebook profiles launched

2010-12-06T14:30:00.000-08:00

Facebook love to tinker with their pages on a reasonably regular basis, and they've done so again - announcing a new look, and new features last night. The video below gives you an outline of what they've done, as ever - designed to make us even more social than we are.

As expected, they've made Facebook Places more visible, showing your check in's, in their attempt to steal the location world of Foursquare and Gowalla. You'll see your recently tagged snaps at the top of the profile (don't worry you can change them...), a better navigation and the ability to group your friends in to 'best', 'work' etc which is to depict the depth of relationships, and give people the opportunity to filter out what they hear from whom.

To activate yours, simply go here http://www.facebook.com/about/profile/

Feels like an improvement, let me know what you think.

Cheers

Nic

The ultimate Facebook album

2010-11-22T14:28:00.000-08:00

We think this is cool.

Following on from A Life on Facebook (now removed due to copyright) last week, we also rather liked this Facebook app from Bouygues Telecom, France. Take your virtual social world, and create a coffee table book. Thanks to @adenhepburn for the find.

A great campaign to bring the digital and physical world's together. Enjoy.

Cheers

Nic

Facebook Places

2010-09-19T21:25:00.001-07:00

It's been quite a month or so in the digital world, with launches including:

- Facebook Places

- Google Instant Search

- A new much improved Twitter homepage

- Google's social strategy steps forward with the Google me announcement.

We'll endeavour to tell you about all in separate posts this week. Let's start with Facebook Places, which launched in the States last month. The UK and Japan have since followed and we are due pretty soon, possibly October (if you go to your Facebook app on the Iphone you'll see the button is ready and waiting)

It's hardly a surprise as Facebook's move in to location has been mooted for quite some time, it follows the likes of Gowalla and Foursquare in to location, who combined have around 4 million users globally. Facebook, with its 500m will immediately have a leg up in the game of course...

As ever with any Facebook functionality, it's seemingly hit by controversy - this time over minors sharing their location. Any 13-17 year olds using the service will have added security but it's still kicked up a wee bit of a storm.

What's it all about? making friend connections easier, find out recommendations on restaurants, bars - whatever, receive discounts, special offers, special event invites - all based around your personal location.

Anyway, check it out here, and watch this space for the Australian launch.

Old Spice Case Study in full

2010-09-05T17:16:00.001-07:00

Sorry, I'm a few weeks behind on this one, but I've been away - and this is worth noting anyway.

Some of you may well have seen the full case study by now, but if not - here it is in all its 4 minutes of glory. It's great to see the sales results back up the incredible buzz this campaign created on and offline - yes, advertising does work.

I fear we are all playing for second at the awards shows this year, and quite rightly too.

Cheers Nic

Can paid content work online?

2010-07-15T06:24:00.000-07:00

7.1m people (unique) visited The Times Online website in May 2010.

Rupert Murdoch then launched a paid model on June 1st 2010 and reports are that the site visitation has dropped around 95% to 355,000 (once the free trial was over) - all of whom are now paying either £1 a day or £2 a week to access the content.

Being a former Times and Sunday Times reader in the UK, I'm mildly tempted to pay for the content, I certainly would if I were still in the UK as I do value some (not all) of their content. And the some is very much the key to the debate about how paid news content online is going to develop over time.

Not everyone agrees with me of course, and the numbers and blog feedback speak for themselves in terms of the general public. These two tickled me in particular:

"That sound you hear is champagne corks popping at the Guardian and BBC"

"Murdoch may be right in principle but The Times doesn't live in a vacuum. The issue is not whether or not the Times content is worth paying for, it's whether it's worth more than the papers still giving their content away. You don't have to out-run the grizzly bear, you just have to out-run your mate"

Murdoch is no mug though, and whilst he might have to take a short (ok, medium) term hit on revenue and traffic (The Times is losing $16m a month anyway...) he knows that ultimately, paid journalistic content is the model that will prevail, it has to (we are already paying on the ipad!).

At the moment however, I don't believe News International have got the model quite right. But you have to start somewhere and that somewhere is either pay for the lot, or don't pay at all. Pleasingly, for Rupert and friends is independent research that found a combined 23 percent of Times Online users rated themselves variations of “likely” to pay in the long run.

My preference however, would be for a narrowcast approach to the content, where users can pick and choose which parts of the wider Times Online or News International content portfolio they want to pay for. This, incidentally is a model I'd love to see in the Television world, where I can pick and choose channels from around the globe - but that's one for another day.

I don't necessarily find the Times Gardening news particularly interesting, so would rather not pay for it, I do however love their Sport coverage, and there are a couple of columnists in particular that I'd be willing to pay for - I just don't want to have to cover the rest of the content that I know I can get from the BBC (or whoever). The big challenge for News international, and whatever publisher goes next (New York Times will go paid in January 2011) is to work out what they are willing to give away (such as general news), and what is deemed as valuable (columnists, insight etc) and therefore paid. Once they do this, they'll have a working model that is the perfect mix of paid and free.

It's interesting to see what impact this shift has had on the Times social platforms in the last 2 months too. Whereas The Guardian in the UK, and all the papers in Australia use Twitter to announce news and drive traffic to their site, The Times twitter feed has turned in to aterribly drab, nothing affair pointing people at some blog content that remains free and archive news - yawn.

Again, they'll need to look at how they manage this over time as that's clearly not a working model for a social platform.

All credit to them however, the journey is underway, and I'm sure they never expected to get it right first time round.

Debate welcome.

Cheers Nic

Pilot Pen Cyber winner

2010-07-06T04:05:00.000-07:00

The great thing about Cannes (even if you haven't been...) is that you get to enjoy the incredible work, from TV to Digital, Radio to Print. This is the kind of work we want to be inspiring to so if you can, get yourself on to the Cannes site and watch some of the video entries - the videos don't stay online for long and there's some cracking work on there.

We'd like to book in a few internal and client sessions to showcase some of the best in class from the festival, but in the meantime it's worth showcasing some of our personal favourites over the coming weeks, to whet the appetite.

I just love the personalisation and creativity in this piece from Pilot Pen. The case study tells the full story.

Cheers Nic

Rich's first video blog from Cannes

2010-06-22T18:08:00.001-07:00

Hey, you'll most likely see this on Campaign Brief a little bit later today as Rich is cutting these little videos (partly) for them, but he wanted to share them with the 303 crowd first, ah special.

Looks like all is well, and he's cutting his teeth as an interviewer (he'll get better).

No sign of Cabbie Mckie or Disco Medalia yet.

Cheers

Rich (via Nic)

Augmented reality game banner

2010-06-21T23:10:00.001-07:00

Stunning augmented reality banner courtesy of @adenhepburn over at Digital Buzz today.

We've seen plenty of AR banners in the past, but few that step in to gaming. It's for AT and T and the World Cup. Very addictive I'm sure, and a huge amount of engagement time and talkability. Ace.

Cool thing is, Tatch could do this.

Cheers

Nic

On and offline worlds meet

2010-05-25T20:21:00.001-07:00

We rather liked this cute idea for a Men's aftershave. They've managed to create the world's first scented banner. Impressive stuff, and will have no doubt generated significant chatter.

Cheers

Nic

Happy birthday You Tube

2010-05-17T16:33:00.001-07:00

To celebrate their 5th birthday they've created this video to remind you of all the stuff you've been enjoying since 2005.

They've also created the Five year Channel, where You Tube encourages users to upload videos discussion how You Tube has affected or changed their lives. Check the channel out here which has a great 'gadget' for uploading videos (Bails will like it anyway).

Enjoy!

Nic

Google job experiment results in a job and awards

2010-05-16T17:34:00.001-07:00

Hopefully you had a look at last week's brilliantly simple digital idea from an Opticians in Israel (if you didn't - take a look here), and here's another - courtesy of @adenhepburn and the team at Digital Buzz. Loving these ridiculously simple and cheap ideas going around at the moment, just shows you don't have to have big budgets to do brilliant work.

This one cost $6 and earnt the guy a Gold Pencil. Pretty impressive stuff.

Cheers

Nic

Ideas on $500

2010-05-11T04:20:00.001-07:00

This is a few months old now, but I wanted to share it anyway as it's such a cracking little idea. And yes, all on a budget of $500.

I'll let the video do it justice.

Cheers

Nic

Social media gives the electorate a voice

2010-05-06T19:45:00.000-07:00

The UK election has proven the power of social media to give people a compelling voice. I think it’s a better example than the Obama ‘change’ campaign.

Facebook has shown itself to be the ideal platform for people to run personal political mini-campaigns and exchange views with people across the political spectrum. This election has been the first I can remember where people have been so open about their political allegiances. I’ve had interesting political discussions with some of my friends for the first time, and I’ve also discovered some friends to be more politically engaged than I could ever have imagined.

The quality and diversity of the content they’ve hosted has been nothing sort of astonishing. Articles, video, spoofs, audio of speeches, tweets, images has provided a view of the UK election to me in Sydney significantly better than the 2006 election when I was based in London.

The major parties have also risen to the challenge providing Twitter feeds that delivered the ammunition their supporters required to do their social media campaigning for them. It’s no accident that as a result, the UK experienced the largest turnout for a general election in recent memory.

For the first time since 1929 there was the feeling that the election was to be a genuine three horse race. The Liberal Democrats in particular showing their flair for presentation and using online channels to engage with the public. Cleggmania was very real and ignited the election.

The flip side is they was rather too good at the dissemination of information. Once the British public found out the finer points of their policies, the early fervour didn’t translate into votes. If you live by the social media sword you can also die by it.

Political apathy has been a talking point for years in political circles and 2010 has severely challenged this idea. It’s now clear UK citizens are politically engaged, they just needed to be provided with the right tools and content, delivered in the right manner, hence scenes of public disorder across the UK as polling stations failed to deal with the volume of voters.

The displeasure of those that didn’t get to vote is across social media for all to see. Especially hard to take for the Electoral Commission, who now look mildly ridiculous. Years of encouraging voting and when voters did turn up, they were found wanting.

The British sense of reserve means it’s unlikely someone would be prepared to walk into an office shouting “Gordon/David/Nick for Prime Minister” but a Facebook status update can have a similar, more viral effect to a more targeted audience.

The ‘like’ feature on Facebook has also provided an previously unseen insights with a quick ‘like’ on “David Cameron for Prime Minister” revealing previously unknown allegiances.

Unlike the US political election soap opera, the UK version is almost quaint in comparison with the entire campaign completed in four weeks. (The US takes the best part of two years). When you only have a matter of weeks to get your point across, social media is key to your campaign strategy. Speed and directness are a must.

The BBC, arguably the world leaders in political coverage have used every possible platform to ensure a truly interactive experience with live tweets, forum discussion and user-generated content seamlessly weaved into their flagship coverage. Their 2012 Olympic coverage will surely set a new benchmark for the interactive viewer experience.

Social commentators have been quick to question social media’s difficult relationship with privacy but democratic elections are clearly one forum where the openness, sharing and sense of community provided by social media is of real benefit to everybody.

Social media means that democracy is suddenly a much warmer and engaging experience.

Nigel

An award winning campaign in the making

2010-04-21T21:49:00.000-07:00

This is about a month old now, but deserves more airtime for those that might not have seen it. I don't want to tell you much about it, rather you involve yourself in the experience yourselves.

http://www.doyouchat.com/

Cheers, and happy birthday all

Nic

Apple iAds example

2010-04-18T17:53:00.000-07:00

I wanted to follow up on the Apple iAds discussion from last week, particularly with a demonstration of what these ads could look like on your phone.

The key difference between the ads currently running and the new iAd platform is how the ad is presented. At the moment, if you click on an ad you leave the app and go to the browser, from which you then need to go back in to the app and start whatever it was you were doing before. Basically - painful.

iAd is built in to the Operating System and therefore the ad runs in the app, and as such is less intrusive in terms of changing your browsing behaviour at a given time - at least that's what Apple hope.

Below is the ad platform section of Jobs' presentation, I've saved you the 'apps are everything, browsers are not' rhetoric and you'll just see some ad examples they've mocked up for Toy Story, Nike and Target - it's worth 2 mins out of your day. There's no doubt this example delivers on engagement, which is the push Apple are making for this platform.

Cheers

Nic

Augmented reality game

2010-04-13T22:16:00.000-07:00

Courtesy of Rene this one - the Augmented reality t-shirt paper, scissors, stone!

Augmented reality use continues to grow apace (if you didn't know we are in the midst of one of our own for LWP right now), and this is a brilliant example of how interactive you can get.

Great inspiration.

Cheers Nic

Two very different campaigns from "Tiger" Brands

2010-04-08T16:46:00.000-07:00

As many of you will have seen I'm sure, Nike launched their new "Tiger" ad yesterday - 1 day before the Masters.

I'm sure you can make your own conclusions about the Nike work... it's certainly different and will generate much debate around the world - which of course is the point, but its likely to generate a huge amount of negativity too. Brave execution.

I'm sure the ad industry will love it, but I doubt you can say the same for your average Hockey Mom in USA or family man in Australia.

At the same time we wanted to showcase some work from a former "Tiger brand" in Gatorade, in what is a far more engaging experience (the Sydney crowd have seen this). The idea is pretty simple, Gatorade are giving regular guys and girls the chance to replay classic sporting match ups they were involved in from 10-20 years ago, be that Hockey, Football - whatever.

In one example, a bunch of former College footballers get to replay a classic from 1993, beer guts and all. Brilliant content generation, brilliant brand experience for all involved. 10,000 people turned up for the replay in 2010!

Check it out here http://replaytheseries.com

Weirdos or Wonderful?

2010-03-08T14:17:00.000-08:00

We often get asked 'what's the next big thing'? The answer is often 'its not been created yet'.

Well, if you haven't been reading the trash magazines, chat shows or blogs in the past couple of months then let me introduce Chat Roulette. It's simple - turn on your web cam and 'speak' (or whatever you wanna do) to complete randoms across the web.

It's a bit of a phenomenon for now, but we are fearful for its longevity as it scores incredibly highly on the weirdometer.

FCUK have already launched a campaign using it, to much debate - you can read more about that here. Fair to say, its probably not one for Fujitsu just yet.

If you've got a few minutes, this video does a brilliant job of explaining what the fuss is all about, and does some funny audience demo testing too.

Cheers

chat roulette from Casey Neistat on Vimeo.

Standard banner sizes - let's not forget creativity

2010-02-28T22:48:00.000-08:00

"What can I do in 30 or 40k banners?"

We get this question a lot, usually with a pained expression and a sprinkling of negativity...

Well, the answer is plenty, and we wanted to showcase some of these to make it easier for you to reference some of the work. All of these can be found on Bannerblog (http://www.bannerblog.com.au/), which is a great resource for reviewing best practice and latest work online.

I've got Andrew Pascoe from the UK to thanks for coming up with this list of 30-40k banners that sing a bit... so thanks Andrew:

There are now no excuses for uninspiring banner work...

We'll be formalising a home for work across the digital spectrum that we have created in house, and also work from other people that we love, so watch this space.

Cheers

Nic

Cool new campaign - Adidas

2010-01-28T18:45:00.000-08:00

We've had a bit of a think about the content on the blog, and thought you might like to see regular updates on the best/latest digital campaigns around the world.

It's good in 2 ways:

1) helps understand new ideas and technology

2) it's less writing for me ;-)

See this latest idea from Adidas (http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/12/adidas-sneaker-augmented-reality/) - where they are using Augmented Reality and their new range of trainers to create a virtual world. The user needs to hold their trainer up against a web cam and they can experience a unique half reality world. Interesting to see how product and technology are coming together here. It's not a first of course as we saw Nike and APple do it with Nike+ (http://www.apple.com/ipod/nike/)

Thanks

Nic

2010 Glossary of digital terms

2010-01-14T15:20:00.000-08:00

Can't claim any of this, but thought it was very much worth sharing. Pete Blackshaw writing for Advertising Age, has written his 20 top digital glossary terms for 2010. Nice work Pete.

http://adage.com/cmostrategy/article?article_id=141450

SPURNED MEDIA: Just like it sounds, earned media that goes horribly negative, invades otherwise pristine search results or bleeds into traditional media. Bad customer service is a top driver of "spurned media."

MOBILENECKING: The alarming tendency to have our necks titled down or shifted sideways -- ever glued to our mobile device. This anywhere, anyplace epidemic is increasingly common in cars, airplanes and crosswalks. Closely related to term "Eyevoidance," where no one looks at anyone anymore.

JACK RIPPER: The device warriors who hog outlets anywhere they can find them -- in the airport, via the USB port of a colleague's computer, even a restaurant reservation desk. They get a charge from a charge.

WIKI WART: A bad piece of news or an embarrassing brand episode (e.g., an activist protest or a social-media campaign that backfired) that just won't go away in a brand's Wikipedia description. PR pros often give false hope to brands of removing the warts, but relentless Wikipedia editors put them right back.

OEDIPOST COMPLEX: The curious neurosis that compels folks to sleep with their Blackberry or iPhone. The afflicted can't stop checking -- even in late hours -- for responses to tweets or blog and Facebook posts.

DECIPROCITY: When everything you post actually decreases your friend and follower count. Even when you friend or follow others, the rules of reciprocity just don't apply. Soul searching is typically in order here.

FAUX POST: When you are talking to someone on the phone and they notice an unrelated tweet or Facebook status update from you showing up in real-time. Bad form -- don't do it. (Trust me!)

APPFUSION: An inevitable outcome of app overload. Very common among iPhone users who download so many apps they can't find their address book. Appfusion can lead to as many problems as the apps solve.

BRAND TEASE: A consumer who "friends" or "fans" a brand, only to never return for a second date. Brands feed the cycle by forgetting to court the consumer with engaging, interesting or sustaining content or value.

CONVERSATIONAL DIVIDE: The huge gap between what marketers preach about social-media "conversations" and the brand's actual customer-service or call-center operations. Stems from cost vs. profit-center tension.

SHELF STORM: When organic search results suddenly go haywire, or shift to the dark side, thanks to the link-love logic of social media. Consider Tiger Woods' search-result shift from 95% positive to 60% hostile (in a matter of days). Or how brands with highly publicized service failures quickly acquire shelf-venom.

APPTOSTERONE: The mojo that fuels intense "mine's bigger/better" conversation about mobile apps. "Dude, you got Bump, but I've got FourSquare." Marketing techies are loaded with Apptosterone.

BUCK SUCKED: The condition that typically slaps you in the face when reading your credit card bill and you see dozens of "dollar" charges for music and "what the heck" iPhone or mobile apps. Expect much more of this as it gets worlds easier and more convenient to pay for online content. (Good news for publishers!)

TRUST LAPSE: The frighteningly popular tendency we have to "open up" our friend network to a cool, unknown social-media service or app. Ego, vanity and impatience often collide with rationality here.

RUNWAY REBEL: That guy (or gal) who keeps the "electronic device" going well past the airline warnings and prohibitions. We see them everywhere, and no one is innocent here.

BLOG DODGER: Someone who has abandoned his or her blog for Twitter or some other lower-hassle social-media substitute. This was big in 2009, and we'll likely see much more of it in 2010.

QUAD STALKERS: Folks from your past who "friend" you (e.g., folks you marginally knew from the high-school quad) and who seem to comment on everything you post on Facebook. Mostly benign, but a tad curious.

TWEET-SHIFTING: Delaying or mixing Twitter posts so axe murderers don't know you're miles from home. Increasingly common as a spousal and family covenant among folks who travel with high frequency.

CURBCASTING: The almost unstoppable cacophony of loud voices barking all manner of silliness into the airwaves thanks to Bluetooth devices. You see this on every street corner and curb.

TWITSTOP: A bathroom detour from a meeting or conversation in order to check e-mail, Twitter or the latest and greatest via an app. (Swear on the Bible, I don't do this ... but I'm told lots of others do.)

DIGITAL DETOX: What we all need -- at least in doses. As we've learned, total digital immersion has side effects. Let's all pursue a roadmap for balance in 2010. (This is likely the topic of my next book, so send feedback.)

The top 5 digital stories of 2009

2009-12-19T18:19:00.000-08:00

Before we head in to 2010 and look at some of the potential trends for the year, I wanted to look back and review the top 5 digital stories of 2009. All of which have had a major impact on how we plan and use digital channels and technology, and all of which will undoubtedly form a significant part of the landscape and our thinking for next year. So in no particular order:

1. Facebook’s remarkable growth

Ah how predictable, but 2009 has been a quite phenomenal year for Mark Zuckerburg and team. They started the year with on-going negative press over the beacon debacle, and with 'only' 150m users worldwide. They end the year with over 300m and are still growing; despite the rise and rise of Twitter. The launch of Facebook Connect has further embedded Facebook in to the landscape, and that has over 60m users across over 10,000 websites.

We’ve also seen Facebook really take off as a branding and marketing tool, with Facebook pages replacing traditional websites, streamed live events, advertising explosion and perhaps most excitingly, the launch of a couple of ecommerce pages. The ecommerce opportunity in particular, could well be Facebook’s major revenue opportunity in years to come, as they take a % of the sales for brands selling on their platform.

2. Digital media $ overtakes Television in the UK

Ooh I couldn’t resist sneaking this one in, yes in July this year the advertising money spent online in the UK surpassed that on Television for the first time, the first market in the world for this to happen (the vast majority of the money was spent on Search - 60%). The UK market is particularly unique of course, you can’t advertise on the most popular Television channel, and super fast unlimited broadband for all.

All roads point to this occurring in Australia around 2012/2013, as Search grows ever stronger, our advertising continues to get more sophisticated in the digital space and KRudd rolls out the Broadband network.

3. Twitter bursts in to the mainstream

Wow! 25billion tweets sent a day this month, from around 5 billion in January tells us enough about Twitter's growth this year.

But it's the impact the service has had on customer service, journalism and real-time searching that I see as most significant. Many brands are now actively embraced Twitter to manage customer service (Optus has a team of 80 managing tweet complaints/comments). Today’s news is now breaking from the hands of the consumer who are at major events (e.g. Hudson river crash) and the Iran election was a seminal moment in Twitter moving from technology focused to mainstream news. But it is Twitter's ability to deliver real-time search that is most exciting, something that had led to a scramble from Google, Yahoo and Microsoft to deliver real-time search from the likes of Twitter. Watch out for the real-time battle hotting up in 2010.

4. The iPhone

You only need to look round the 303 office to see the impact the iPhone has had on the mobile market this year. From 0 mobile sales in early 2007, to 30m+ in 2009 and a 17% share of the market, and rising - fast. Almost more important than the handset share is the remarkable difference in data usage between iPhone users and other handsets. We are now chewing 7x more data than standard phone users, and twice as much as the BlackBerry crowd.

The app store is a major part of the revolution, with over 90,000 apps and 2 billion downloads (and a tidy profit for Apple thanks very much). Apps range from the quite ridiculous (playing the flute) to the quite remarkable (the Tom Tom sat nav, photoshop and many more). All roads point to even more success for Apple with the iPhone in 2010, despite significant pressure from the Android.

5. The arrival of Bing

Finally! A proper threat to Google's utter dominance of the search market, and certainly something the industry needs. Bing 'the decision engine' has got some reasonable traction in the market since the launch in June, and some excellent reviews from people in the know.

Before we get ahead of ourselves, they’ve not eaten away at Google’s dominance just yet, but there is at least a platform to launch from, and with the deal with Yahoo struck – where Bing powers Yahoo search, Microsoft will have a 30% share of the Search market. A platform for which to try and eat away at Google’s phenomenal power.

So, there it is – some of the big stories in Digital in 2009. There were plenty more, notably Social Gaming, Augmented Reality, Susan Boyle, Android and online video - some of which form a significant part of the landscape for 2010 and beyond.

We’ll be back in the New Year, firstly with a look at some of the key trends for 2010.

Thanks for all your support this year.

Nic and team

The runaway train

2009-12-02T15:13:00.000-08:00

Yes I know this Facebook stuff can get a little boring sometimes, but put that to one side for a moment and look at the graph below. Facebook has now reached 350m users worldwide.

It is the speed at the growth that is particularly staggering about this figure, they have scooped up 200m new users worldwide in 11 months. That is a phenomenal 600,000 signing up A DAY.

There is, as ever another side of the argument, as many observers claim it is hard, almost impossible to leave Facebook, and that actual unique visitors isn't a patch on the 350m number, but you wouldn't expect it to be. And 130m unique daily visitors isn't half bad is it? Further to this, Australia has now topped 8m active accounts, more than half the internet population.

And there is little sign of this abating in the coming months. All more fuel that us creative and media agencies need to better equip ourselves to integrate Facebook (and other social channels) in to our thinking.

Cheers

Nic

What is a real journo?

2009-11-25T21:56:00.000-08:00

Jeff in 303’s Digital team used the phrase “Real Journo” in an recent email to me and it got me thinking...What is a “Real Journo?”

It would be safe to assume he was referring to a staff writer or freelancer for a major news corporation. No problem with that.

What I found interesting is that even cutting edge Gen Y’ers like Jeff still hold the traditional media hacks in some sort of mythical esteem = “Real Journos”

From a PR perspective I’ve always had a slightly more sceptical view of what constitutes ‘real journalism’ especially in Australia, “land of the free, home of the media cartel fighting for advertising dollar.”

Approx 60%- 80% of everything that appears out of major news corporations in Australia is written, sourced, researched by a PR person. It lands on news desks as a pre-packaged product. The media clip, cut and post it with their name attached to it. Job done. The media release is the original user-generated content.

When you add into the mix syndicated stories from overseas and the growing number of opinion pieces from the public and you begin to get a picture of how ‘real’ local journalism actually is.

Over the last few years, very quietly the citizen journalist has begun to surpass ‘real journos’ in one area. Sports reporting. Yes, really.

Try being the Herald Sun in Melbourne and reporting objectively on the AFL when access to players and administrators form 90% of your entire sports coverage and your readership is interested in little else. Write an investigative piece on the AFL, see how far it gets past editorial and business management. You need them more that they need you.

Add the complication of advertising dollars from the AFL and If you are a serious sports fan, bloggers and online community are your only source of genuine opinion or unbiased analysis. The same goes for all of the major football codes. The Sydney media has the same devils contract with the NRL.

However the resistance is gaining ground with sites like www.theroar.com.au using content from frustrated major corporation writers and citizen journos and providing them with equal billing. Opinion egalitarianism of sorts. As a result the quality of user-generated content posted is far beyond anything you are likely to see from News Corp or Fairfax anytime soon. Opinion egalitarianism seems to raise everybody’s game.

So what is a ‘Real Journo?” - I would say one with the freedom to write without looking over his/her shoulder.

The digital age is producing plenty of these – You.

Nigel

IKEA and Facebook

2009-11-25T15:15:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to share this piece of work from Sweden for IKEA. A wonderfully simple idea, utilising one of Facebook's most popular features - photo tagging.

It's examples like this and Whopper Sacrifice that really display the opportunity for creativity in Social Media channels.

Cheers

Nic

Social media ROI

2009-11-16T14:09:00.000-08:00

From the people (Socialnomics) who brought you the last 'amazing digital and social media statistics set to a piece of music' video, here's their latest version.

There are actually some excellent stats in here, and an important point of view in terms of the measurement of Social Media, so it is well worth a few minutes. Share on with clients and colleagues if you can.

Enjoy.

Nic

More Google Wave...

2009-10-21T13:29:00.000-07:00

If you missed the outline I sent on Google Wave a couple of weeks ago,

you might prefer this one.

Google Wave Pulp Fiction style.

Cheers Nic

Nowism

2009-10-13T14:26:00.000-07:00

Many of you will know Trendwatching, so apologies if this is old news, but I thought it was worth sharing their latest briefing called "Nowism" which focuses on today's society, the need for instant gratification, leaving feedback, comments and opinions.

Considerably fuelled by the interwebby and Social Media of course, but they include some interesting references offline too.

http://trendwatching.com/briefing/

Enjoy. Sign up for future ones and they'll pop straight in to your inbox.

Cheers

Nic

Ride the Wave?

2009-10-12T18:39:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago Google invited tens of thousands of people to test Google’s new big thing “Wave”, much to PB’s disgust we didn’t make it on the list.

Anyway, if Google get their way it’ll be a major development in communications so we thought a quick outline of it would be useful. Here’s what Google say:

"A Google Wave is an online tool for real-time communication and collaboration. A wave can be both a conversation and a document where people can discuss and work together using richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more."

Basically it is a platform that combines all of the good things from email, instant messenger, Social Media, wikis and blogging to aid collaboration. Essentially it allows multiple people to join a conversation (social or business) at any given time and see all of the information from the start of the conversation, add their comments and content in real-time to make communication an all round easier prospect. Simple.

Mashable provide a far more expansive outline for you to read http://mashable.com/2009/05/28/google-wave-guide/

And this video nails one small (but important) part of it in just 2 minutes.

Opinion on whether it’s an over-hyped red herring or the next big thing is somewhat mixed so we’ll just have to wait and see… Personally, I'm a fan and when you think of the thousands of emails you get in a week - you can only see this will help.

Enjoy

Nic

2009-09-23T16:48:00.001-07:00

Hey, it's all a bit crazy right now, but we haven't posted for a little while which isn't cool.

So to make things easy I wanted to post a video.

We liked this video on Twitter and monetisation from Gary Veynerchuk who is probably the most animated faces talking digital right now. It's only a couple of minutes long.

Enjoy.

Nic

Is Twitter just for the techies?

2009-08-31T00:48:00.000-07:00

It's a question we get posed a fair bit, and probably fairly, because with any new technology or social network the initial core audience will always be full of early adopters. We only need to review Facebook phenomenal growth in the last 12 months to see that (there are now over 700,000 Australians over 50 on Facebook each month, many of whom have signed up during 2009).

Thankfully, and perhaps surprisingly for some it seems that Twitter is following Facebook in to the mainstream. We know this part through the celebrity craze that has long been publicized (Kutcher is up over 2m followers now) but more so through Twitters Trending Topics, which is basically the most talked about words and subjects on Twitter at any one time. And with c.18m tweets in a day it’s not inconsequential.

A quick look at todays shows that it is mainstream news, entertainment and culture that is forging the main content:

True Blood (TV series)
Iran Election
‘Music Monday’
Vegas
LA Station Fire

And whilst I don’t have the trending topics from a year or so ago I think it’s a fair assumption to say these will have had a far more technological and digital marketing feel to them. Definitely good news as it is further confirmation that Twitter is a valid channel for many brands, and dare I say it – here to stay (for a while at least).

Mind you, as more and more Aussies jump on board we should remember to practice safe social networking. A study in the UK has shown that many Facebook and Twitter users are telling the world they are going on holiday, giving burglars easy pickings. You have been warned.

Cheers

Nic

The question is, why does Facebook want Friendfeed?

2009-08-12T16:28:00.000-07:00

Facebook bought Friendfeed for an undisclosed amount of money. Mountain View, Calif.-based FriendFeed was started by co-founders Paul Buchheit, Bret Taylor and Sanjeev Singh, all ex-Googlers, and raised $5 million in Series A funding from Benchmark Capital and its founders. Facebook is said to have paid up to $50 million for the company – $20 million in cash and rest in stock.

The question is, why does Facebook want Friendfeed?

No, this deal is not about Twitter. It is about Google — to be more precise: Google vs. Facebook.

The reason behind the deal is twofold: ability to publish more and more information in real time and the resulting explosion of data on the web. These two trends will soon make it nearly impossible to deal with the resulting information overload. As a result, the current seek-search-consume popularized by Google will eventually hit its outer limits — and when that happens…

In 303’s last blog (http://303digital.blogspot.com/2009/08/content-is-king-but-who-is-going-to-pay.html), content creation, distribution and consumption are amid a sea change. Whether it’s photos, videos, tweets, status updates or whatever…the content is getting constantly atomized. In order to consume it all, we need to find smarter tools for content consumption. FriendFeed is one of them.

If you look at the rapidity with which many of us are uploading information on Facebook — 1 billion photos a month, a billion pieces of content shared every week, 30 status updates a day — you know that the problem of plenty is only going to get worse.

The good news is that Facebook bought a solid team to solve this problem.
The FriendFeed team — ex-Google programming rock stars — just out-executed Facebook and kept launching new features at a breathtaking pace.

FriendFeed’s unique ability is to foster conversations — not a massive user base. If Facebook can take this capacity to “converse” and marry it to its mobile clients, what the company will have on its hands is a true interaction platform, befitting today’s always-connected life. This will give it a further boost against Twitter, a small, but fast-growing, micro-messaging company.

FriendFeed has built a real-time information aggregation platform that is impressive, to say the least. Facebook’s news stream will benefit from FriendFeed’s real-time expertise.

Facebook, after having copied so many of FriendFeed’s features, buying it was the right thing to do.

The history of the web in Australia

2009-08-12T01:17:00.000-07:00

I wanted to share with you a stunning representation of the history of the web in Australia, courtesy of Nielsen and AIMIA. It shows the development of user numbers online since 2001. Check out the video or for a richer experience go here http://avant.interactionconsortium.com/australian_internet/#

It shows how quickly our web habits have changed in terms of the most popular sites. Take Ebay for example, it leaps from 700,000 unique monthly visitors in 2001 up to a peak of over 6m in 2006 before dipping off to today's 3m. This compares to Facebook which didn't even register as late as the end of 2006, then had 400,000 monthly uniques in early 2007. and now, 2 years later has over 6m uniques! That's 48% of the total online population, and 28% of the country as a whole. Staggering.

Spare a thought for sites like Alta Vista (remember them?), over 1m uniques in 2001, gone by 2003.

Anyway, that's enough excitement for me for one day.

Take a look and have a play for yourselves - there are multiple axis to play with.

This is a great one to share with clients.

Cheers

Nic

Content is king, but who is going to pay for it?

2009-08-11T02:17:00.000-07:00

Rupert Murdoch made big headlines this week with the announcement that he plans to charge for content across his digital portfolio by mid 2010.

“Quality journalism is not cheap,” said Murdoch. “The digital revolution has opened many new and inexpensive distribution channels but it has not made content free. We intend to charge for all our news websites.”

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/08/07/2648972.htm?section=entertainment

Ultimately, Murdoch is spot on with his assessment here, he and news organizations around the world are providing daily and immediate content for every man, woman and dog; people who can simply elect not to pay for it by going online. Not only do you not have to pay for it, but the experience you have with that news is more engaging, more involved (through video, comments and forums) and most importantly of all – real-time. Ironically, you only have to look at this story itself to prove this point - it has generated over 5,000 stories online and 15,000 blog posts in the past few days. Hard for a newspaper to deliver that!

It is this web 3.0 (sorry) thirst for real-time information that is driving more and more people online for their news, and why the likes of Murdoch have seen a 30% drop in revenue for their offline properties.

At some point in time, users will have to pay for content online because the advertising model doesn’t support the investment the publishers are making. But it takes a brave man (And I think we can say Rupert is that) to lead publishers in to a new pay revolution because there’s little doubt it’d be easier if they all did it together…

The flaw in his argument is that the news he is presenting isn’t particularly specialist, so we could all simply get our news feeds from the good old ABC and BBC. Rupert references the Wall Street Journal who has been charging for content for years, but news.com.au is hardly on the same page as them. Financial comment and political news from the Economist or Fin Review - yes, Rugby League player naked in a hotel or Paris Hilton breaks a nail – no.

The great ‘pay for music’ debate is a good guide too, no-one pays for music anymore – over 95% of all music downloads are illegal, which shows the uphill battle Murdoch and peers face with todays online audience.

Please post your comments, it'd be interesting to hear your views.

Nic

Gadgets

2009-07-15T20:31:00.000-07:00

I was watching some coverage from past British Golf Open's (80's-90's) last night and was amazed to see how they were updating the scores on the course. Up until as recently as the late nineties they were still using scraps of paper and runners to update the main leaderboard...

Anyway, there's little doubt technology continues to move forward at an electric pace, you only have to look at the iPhone to see that. Here's a couple more fun products that display this too, both of which have been around for quite a while now.

The wireless umbrella - the umbrella is linked to your home's wireless network and takes weather feeds from the web. If it's going to rain then the handle will pulse to tell you to pick it up. Cool, but it does mean relying on a forecast which is hardly the most reliable, but good for those (men) who never pick a brolly up until it is thumping with rain.

The second one is the Surfers pillow, which works in exactly the same way - through your wireless connection. After you pick your favorite surf spot, the software monitors the conditions at that location and, at a designated time in the morning, send a signal to the pillow.

If the waves are high, the pillow will vibrate strongly, jolting you out of bed; if they're low, the vibrations are a little softer. The pillow can even communicate the frequency of the waves: long, regular intervals between vibrations mean good waves, while fast, irregular intervals signal fewer waves. Mercifully, if the surf is too low, the pillow doesn’t activate at all--ensuring that dreams of perfect ground swells and radical curls continue uninterrupted. Might be one for you Murph.

Cheers

Nic

What is a browser?

2009-06-22T01:32:00.000-07:00

Before you read on, ask yourself the question in the title of this post, agree on an answer and then you can carry on.

Google recently conducted some research on web browsers, which has delivered some pretty interesting results in the video below. They were doing this research as part of the marketing push for their new web browser - Chrome. They went out to locations across the States - in this example Time Square, to ask people what a browser was, which browser they used and so on.

You might be surprised (or not - depending on your answer to the question) to find out that fewer than 8% of the people questioned knew what a browser is.

It acts as a reminder that your average Joe Bloggs probably thinks about this stuff a little bit less than us...

Cheers

Nic

Will Bing change the way you think?

2009-06-01T16:48:00.000-07:00

Image from Don't touch my moleskin.

Are you excited about Bing too?

There is a lot of chat about Bing this week.

If you haven't already heard of it...

Bing is a new product designed by the Microsoft team.

It is branded and designed as a decision making engine, not just a content aggregator based on content relevance which is essentially what search engines do... find the most appropriate info you queried by scanning all corners of the web and if people refer to your pages on the info your ranking will also be higher on the search results (proven credibility).

The Bing Teaser video has not gotten a whole lot of views, but it still illustrates how the product can be used to make your search on the web a little more intuitive and social (referral marketing at work).

What does this mean for the future of Google?

At this stage, probably not a lot since the technology is still at its infancy and there are question marks over whether the product is suitably different (one doubts it is)

It would be interesting to see how the users from different countries adopt Bing and whether the design of the search algorithm will continue to evolve into a social phenomenon like Google had in the 90s but only time will tell.

There is a lot of heat from the business community on what Microsoft's search engine prospects are despite its attempt to aggressively advertise and differentiate its market position.

Personally I do not want to be dismissive about Bing, I am excited that there is something that can move the attention from Google for a little while. Hopefully Bing will make search more dynamic and socially inspired to help us make better decisions about what others think of the content we are looking at.

Bing is also supposed to be localised for the Au market soon as well, so keep an eye out and give it a go.

- jeff

Being eaten by our own statistics

2009-06-01T15:39:00.000-07:00

I thought we’d have some fun with a few stats. Ok I admit, we’re busy and this is kind of easy to send ;-)

Cheers

Nic

20 hours of video are uploaded to You Tube every single minute.

The word Google is Googled on average 68 million times every month

It would take you over 457 years to watch all of the content on You Tube.

346 million people read blogs across the world.

Over 11 million Tweets are sent a day. Check out this counter for the live counter… if you really want to. http://popacular.com/gigatweet/

700 million photos are added to Facebook every month.

The average Australian Facebook user has 107 friends.

40 billion songs were downloaded illegally in 2008, and 95% of all music downloaded is illegal.

Talking is all good as long as it is purposeful

2009-05-19T00:23:00.000-07:00

Photo by Pong

My friend Ash constantly talks about social media and human interaction which inspired me to write about the impact Twitter has on our lives (not just GEN-Y) and beyond the TV talk show's coverage on the technology...

I am not the most hardcore fan of the technology but I do acknowledge it is very much part of my life as it is Facebook and Myspace for totall different reasons. Social tools have become part of my way of connecting with different friends...

On Myspace I still find heaps of unknown bands which is hugely important to me.

Facebook is technically my secondary email, arguably my first.

Twitter has become my recreational newsfeed and a place for me to share my current interest to friends... and the beauty of it is, it won't let me write more than 140 characters!

First of all I would like to dispute the idea the more followers you have the better you are. This is simply misguided and not true. It is worthwhile to inspect how one uses their Twitter account. For me @jefske it is just an extension of me to my friends and people I have met thru work, and it is just a small update service on what I find interesting and to stay in touch with a subgroup of friends who have also embraced Twitter. I think people follow others for social curiosity at a very basic level of interest, for the more serious Twitters, it literally is a new source of information from people they find valuable to know.

A lot of people still don't see the value in Twitter and it is perfectly normal, because a lot of tweets are inspired bya lot of nothing really but some people/brands have used the technology to really engage their audience to become more loyal followers/customers. The food outlets are a good example, they can really use this as a killer App as this AdAge piece has suggested.

The ability to tweet has revolutionalised the way to distribute info and essentially sharing content. Like the video below, normally it might take a few scans on my RSS reader to find some new obscure music for kicks. Now I am just a tweet away thanks to my music loving friends.

One thing to take away from this brief shout on Twitter is.... don't discard it if you haven't tried it and if you have tried it but don't really get it, there are LOADS of info on Twitter and how brands and Joe blogger are using it... people never seem to be bored of writing about it (at least yet). There are also some really useful applications that integrate Twitter as a greater communication channel, you can usually find a load of them on Mashable. So don't be shy.... give it a go and see whether you still want to sit in front of TV for news stories...

- jeff

Twaddle?

2009-05-05T22:21:00.000-07:00

The Apple rumour mill was hot again this morning as word spread the ‘blogosphere’ and the ‘Twitterati’ that Apple had lodged a $700m bid to acquire Twitter.

Twitter, the media ‘darling’ of the digital world has rejected previous bids, most notably a $500m bid from Facebook last year, and another tickle from Google .

Few people are actually expecting a deal to go through however. Twitter is in a pretty strong position right now with traffic going through the roof globally, with thanks to Oprah and gang (although I recognize that it could peak), and the reasons for Apple to buy aren’t blindingly obvious (as opposed to say, a Facebook or a Google).

It might be that they want to beef up their web development expertise, in much the same way they have mobile but that’s not particularly convincing. Maybe they want to get even cooler? (is that possible?) Who knows.

The clearest reason why this won’t happen is that Apple are always involved in some of the most ridiculous buy out rumours. In the last few years Apple have been “at advanced stages” with no other than: Adobe, EA, Disney, Nintendo and now Twitter.

This one will pass like the rest of them I’m sure. Twaddle.

Nic

My, we love an Internet phenomenon

2009-04-16T19:14:00.000-07:00

This is all rather old news now and it’s only 5 days old...

Anyway, if you’ve not been on the planet since Saturday, you won’t know that a 40 something single woman from deepest, darkest Scotland called Susan Boyle appeared on UK show Britain’s got Talent’ at the weekend.

And much to the judges and audience surprise she pulled off the performance of a lifetime. Take a look at the video if you haven't already seen it, it's worth watching right to the end.

Her 15 minutes of fame beckon, and boy she deserves it after an emotional and performance for the true underdog, 'battler' to use the local parlance.

It’s the speed at which the Susan Boyle story has erupted that is interesting to us, and shows how news – good or bad can spread in an instant online. Susan has to date:

- 20m views on You Tube, traffic to the ITV website that broadcast the show has risen 300% since it aired.

- Had interviews with the BBC, ITV, Fox America, CNN, CBS. And an invite to appear on Oprah.

- Has a fan website at www.susan-boyle.com, which is already serving advertising. Oh and it had the small matter of 500,000 page views on Wednesday alone.

- T-shirts and badges being sold on eBay “I might be ugly, but I can sing like Susan Boyle”. Pleasant stuff.

- Demi Moore "oh it was so emotional"... and millions of other tweeters talking about her on Twitter. Her name is being mentioned in approximately 30 tweets a minute this morning, that’ll be 43,000 today alone. A Twitter account in her name is underway too, not that she'll be behind it.

In a marketing sense, it shows what we already know – that social and digital media, with the help of broadcast can bring tens of millions of eyeballs to rich content in an instant.

Cheers

Nic

Smartphones changing the game

2009-04-08T00:01:00.000-07:00

If you didn't think Smartphones (led by the iPhone, but soon followed by Android and Blackberry) were changing business then think again. And it is applications that is the real game changer.

There are now over 30m iPhones in use across the world, and over 25,000 applications available to download, a mere 18 months since launch. Developers across the world are spying big income if they can get the product right... As an example, I have a free GPS store locater app for a Canadian coffee chain (Tim Hortons), and on that app the developer is advertising the same app for Starbucks (works across the world). He’s selling that for $1 so it won’t take him long to earn some big dollars there.

The iPhone has seemingly has its sights firmly set on the handheld gaming market, with new gaming titles being introduced by the day. Over 60% of the top 100 applications are games, and this is bound to rise as software companies rush to create iphone versions from traditional gaming platforms. iPhone sales are far outweighing sales of handheld devices DS and PSP so it is inevitable that it has quickly become a major player. Nintendo and Sony have recently opened up their platform to game operators in a direct response to the iPhone threat...

The long running battle about music, copyright and digital is old news but smartphone applications could change the game again. US band - The Presidents of the USA have created an app for $3 that has 4 of their albums on it (4 albums, $3!). Users can download the app and enjoy the albums and access new unheard content from the band. If you want to buy a song and add it to another MP3 player you can do so. Incidentally, they give Apple 30%, which is the same deal as selling through iTunes.

Pink has recently launched a free app with previews from her upcoming album, and Snow Patrol, Nine Inch Nails are reported to be doing the same thing. Users will then be directed back to the iTunes music store to buy – winner.

The beauty of the app route is that the band can update users with new content so they have a totally captive audience for the next album/tour/promotion/whatever. The next stage of course, is for users pay top dollar for brand new music, photos and news – straight to their handheld. Interesting developments.

Thanks for reading.

Nic

Are you still talking and hanging?

2009-03-30T16:37:00.000-07:00

This post is dedicated to my sentiment to this article which Nic had shared with me and a few work mates today aptly titled: OMG! Twitter is, like, so 2008.

A little over a few weeks ago, I had embarassedly admitted I was feeling idle on a Sunday night while ROVE came up interviewing Lily Allen. It was rather an awkward interview with little insights about Ms Allen, then to my horror ROVE had brought up the rise of Twitter.... like a huge majority of the poplulation who is not aware of the technology... This was a perfect sound bite for ROVE and the rise of curiosity has inevitable emerged across many mainstream media channels. It certainly seems like everyone is Tweeting but the question remain why bother at all?

In reference to the Twitter is so 2008 article “It wasn't too long ago that Facebook represented a semi-secret world that belonged largely to those in their teens and twenties. Today, however, the demographic has widened, and it is undeniably part of the mainstream. For better or worse, the space that was once the province of the young has been eagerly colonised by their parents and teachers, not to mention the marketing men with their slogans and special offers.”

I don’t know about the early adopter theory, I mean I am a little over Twitter now because it is largely irrelevant to me, but that's not to say it isn't relevant to millions of others. Also since when does cool or early adoption rule over functionality? Isn't that a bit misleading with the most popular social network.... it is fair to say if the network is decent in functionality and your friends are on it, you will probably not abandone it to join the next "it" thing.

As for my indifference.... I don’t use facebook status for the very reason I don’t want to let everyone suddenly become aware of what I had for lunch or what I am reading…. Will my friends really find it interesting/valuable to know my dietary habits or what I want to buy…? From a corporate point of view, sure it can be a form of PR channel or special DM Channel – perhaps even to organise flash mobs etc. Would be great to use twitter as an illegal party organiser – where profile is obviously set to private for legal reasons, and invitees are subscribed to get updates on the next party (value comes from exclusive info that you can actually use)

For the survival of social networks, as there are so many popping up now, it is probably a good time for networks to really think about what their offering can be of value to their community – like the spotify idea – with music sharing, that is pretty common and there are existing sites that offer similar functions… they should think about partnering with record labels and offer unreleased tracks to the most streamed users as an incentive to use the service more and additional usage means more consumer intelligence the site can offer to the labels. The ultimate problem comes down to revenue or the potential of future revenues....The music industry is constantly battling the online adoption of Music and even major sites such as Youtube and Warner can't get along anymore....

I guess we all just need to be a little patient and see how social media will actually impact our lives before leaving it for the next Twitter.

- jeff

Why do we still assume about the over 50's?

2009-03-19T19:08:00.000-07:00

Picture a middle management type, 55 years old, worked in an office all his working life. Commutes to his office on George St Sydney from Ryde.

Uses email everyday, reads a couple of blogs relating to his industry and his Blackberry very rarely leaves his side. He's been using email and the web for 10 years, he's had a mobile phone for just as long.

A quick profile of one of millions of over 40's and 50's working across Australia and the world.

So why do we assume that their not online? Why do we assume that the Internet is the domain of the under 30's? It is totally flawed.

In the UK in 2008 I conducted research with over 400 baby boomers, 85% of which were active online, and the level of frustration about their perceived digital understanding was incredible.

We've been running display and search campaigns for Travel brands targeting over 50's for the last 6 months, with incredible results - both in ROI and brand engagement terms. And as recently as this month drove 35,000 unique 50somethings to a travel website. Plenty of proof close to home...

Further afield, recent statistics from the US (Emarketer) show that 78% of over 50s are active online in some form, up from 68% in 2005.

If we wanted any more evidence, Nigel's 84 year old Dad just bought an iphone, to back up the Ipod and Macbook he bought last year. Oh and my 63 year old Mum texted me yesterday "our wireless modem is broken so no Internet for 3 days. NIGHTMARE".

Tell us your views.

Nic

There's no such thing as a slow burn online

2009-03-11T17:45:00.000-07:00

I was at the Acer Arena last night with 18,000 others for the Coldplay gig. I'm not a massive fan but it was a very polished performance all the same.

What struck me during the gig (and all others) was the volume of cameras and mobiles being used for pictures and videos throughout (all of which will be terribly dark photos, but people still persist - see example posted). In fact at one point Chris Martin asked everyone to get theirs out and wave them around - an impressive 5 minute mobile phone light show ensued.

Because of these images and videos this event will now not only be talked about, but it will be viewed, used and rated online by hundreds of thousands of people within the next 48 hours, which is very much a social media phenomenon. Same gig 10 years ago, you either heard it was good from a friend of a friend or you read the review in SMH weekend.

I've done a little back of fag packet (front of iPhone) to work out how quickly the events from last night will be seeded out.

18,000 people attended so 18,000 mobile phones
Let's say a further 4,000 digital cameras for good measure
Conservatively let's say 10,000 took pictures or captured video
An average of 5 photos per person should do it.
Let's then asssume that in the next 2 days 70% of these will post to a social networking site (or two)
And that 10% of the audience will tweet and/or write about it on a blog
Asssuming each uploader has 60 online friends (conservative given the bullseye coldplay age is 25-35), and the bloggers/tweeeters have 25.

That means that in 48 hours over 500,000 people will have seen or discussed something about last nights gig. That's not taking in to account all the non friend views on you tube, blogs etc...

What it displays in a totally unscientific way is the immediacy of todays media, and that digital doesn't really do slow burn. And as marketers we should look on that as an opportunity to generate immediate action and conversation. Now.

Nic

Breathing new life in to old things

2009-03-01T21:21:00.000-08:00

I must admit watching Guinness book of records on TV is a guilty pleasure, it requires a little to none real concentration, something you can truely veg out to after a hearty meal.

The Guinness world records franchise brand was acquired by the Jim Pattinson Group (Parent of Ripley Entertainment) in early 2008. Since then with the help of modern marketing and some sweet co-branding ideas, there is a whole new lease on the products including interactive gaming and 3-D photography in special editions and now Wii and DS versions of the records are available in game form! The trailer is pretty wii fun looking, I think it is a perfect fit to reach the whole family with a bit of wholesome fun.

Not a bad stint of rebranding considering the franchise is 54 years old.

Jeff

303 Digital

Insights into allocating digital dollars

2009-02-23T20:47:00.000-08:00

The penultimate question:
How do brands determine how much to spend on digital?

Why the question? Because throughout the course of my digital media career, no two clients I have worked on have allocated digital budgets in the same way.

Why does this matter? Individual marketing and advertising programs can live or die depending on the process of how budgets are allocated, approved, and modified over the course of the year. The subtleties of how a particular company allocates budgets ultimately have tremendous influence over strategies, tactics, and roles for particular marketing partners.

Unless you're a part of the budget allocation process, seeing what gets approved and what gets cut can seem strange or even schizophrenic. Digital programs can be funded from several budget areas within a marketing organization, some with their own predetermined roles for digital media and marketing. Where the money is coming from can be quite influential over the objectives, strategies, and tactics of a proposed program.

Some companies have a tough time putting a stake in the ground with respect to dollar amounts, so they first develop placeholder budgets by performing basic calculations that many of us might consider to be "back of the napkin." For instance, if a marketer wants to acquire a million new customers via digital channels over the course of a year, he'll try to get to an "all in" cost-per-acquisition number that includes all media costs, productions costs, agency fees and anything else he can think of. It will provide a starting point for the process.
Other companies will ask their agency partners for help in order to get to a starting point. However, some of the people I talked to expressed concern that agency numbers have to be taken down significantly, owing to any built-in biases they might have (commission-based compensation, discipline bias, etc.)
The most dreaded part of the process for most marketers involves taking the numbers to finance for approval. I heard a lot about difficulties communicating the subtleties of the marketing side of the business to people within finance or procurement.
Another problematic part of the process involved specific tactics coming up in the mainstream media, which may cause finance or executive management to question tactics without having a clear view of the objectives and strategies specific to digital. We spent some time talking about the dreaded "GMOOT Syndrome." (Get Me One Of Those) There was some frustration expressed around the notion that the best tactics aren't always the uber-trends discussed on the front page of The Wall Street Journal.
Several departments or marketing disciplines may be contributing to the overall digital budget, depending on how many roles digital can fulfill. Thus, money might be coming from direct marketing, brand advertising, ecommerce, or even IT. Sometimes that money comes with specific baggage, like preferred strategies and tactics. This can influence what the specific programs look like in the end.

Old school, yeah!

2009-02-23T14:30:00.000-08:00

A recent study in the states found that 80% of marketers ranked email as their best performing channel. Whilst 57% said search, 33% said TV and 32% Direct Mail.

Whilst the marketing world is being whipped into a frenzy about mobile, social media, widgets and emerging channels we'd all do well to remember how successful the digital 'old timer' email can be.

Whether it is buying cold email data or contacting your customers and prospects it shouldn't be overlooked. A recent acquisition email we created for Visit London got 25,000 clicks (forecast 3,000). I've seen emails payback 30x over through actual sales.

As a channel it is also valuable in terms of 'keep warm', Sainsbury's in the UK wish you a happy birthday via email, and even follow it up in the post with a bar of chocolate. Cold Stone Ice Creamery in the US email people on their birthday with a coupon for some free ice-cream - how good is that?!

There has been a significant increase in email use in the US in the last 6 months, partly because email is so cheap to create and send. Brands need to be careful not to over use though, don't bombard people...

It can also be used to drive a conversation across other social media platforms, more on that here.

One of the common complaints I get is the inability to be that creative. True it can't work like a website and there are multiple email platforms to be wary of, but things are starting to change.

We've recently trialled video in email for the western force, as a teaser to view the rest of the video content online. Open rates were excellent and we'll continue to push this new technology forward.

If you've got any clients out there sitting on an email database, let's start thinking about how we can speak to them in a relevant and targeted manner and make the most of a chance to contact our customers/prospects.

Because there’s nothing wrong with old school.

Nic

Social Media where is it all going?

2009-02-16T21:31:00.000-08:00

I got the chance to go a social media conference/showcase last week.

It was sponsored by Adknowledge, it was quite a stellar turn out and I wasn't sure what to expect but I was excited by the prospect of hearing discussion around the topic nonetheless.

It was refreshing to see a wholesome level of people from publishers to agencies turning up to spend the afternoon together listening to speakers discuss the power and future of social media. I really enjoy witnessing the change in the media landscape and that is pretty much what Brett Brewer from Adknowledge had emphasised the importance of utilising this social media space because that is where people are going when they are online and interacting with each other.

I don't disagree with this unavoidable trend however, after hearing a few presentations including the case study of V-raw, I can't help but wonder where will the future of social media go? Sure things are social and the web technologies are by nature social.... the metaphor of a network is made up of people, just like cavemen but now gone virtual. The question remains, how do you really monetarise on the social relationships without annoying or bombarding users with branded messages? Can advertisers really do content for free in the hope that it will go viral or even be consumed by social groups....

More interestingly, the recent changes of Facebook's terms of use.... basically you are never really gone once you leave the social sphere on the web.... There are lots of new signs on the social movement on the web and how will this affect advertisers who have so openly embraced this new trend?

Any thoughts.....

-Jeff

full list of social networking sites globally

2009-02-10T17:25:00.000-08:00

http://traffikd.com/social-media-websites/

Useful list, thanks Michelle M

Nic

Digital Touchdown?

2009-02-08T13:36:00.000-08:00

We saw one of the most thrilling finishes in Super Bowl history but how was it from a marketing perspective?

The us ad agencies as ever, delved deep in to their creative heart for this years superbowl ads - the most expensive media spot in the world. 3m dollars for 30 seconds sounds even more expensive during the GEC doesn't it?

What interests us the most this Superbowl is the channel extension into digital that brands are pushing. In such uncertain times, a 30 second tv ad for 3m seems hard to justify, but if you build in a mobile element, social marketing, search, user generated content and datacapture then it somehow seeems a little more palatable.

Whilst many media observers review the ads on creativity, we have looked at those campaigns that have stretched the dollar value online.

E-Trade (share trading and investing) released outtakes of its SuperBowl ads online before the game to drive interest, and they unified the campaign through search, social media and the TV spots. Frosted Flakes, whilst not the most creative spot got the most from the campaign driving people online to nominate a sports playing area that needed renovation courtesy of Kellogs.

And the loser? Denny's ran a free breakfast promotion but failed to put a URL on the TV ad... shame.

One frustration we have in digital is spending so much money on TV spots but not backing the campaign up with something as simple as search. Brands must make it as easy as possible for consumers to find their campaign online in the days following the TV - even if brands spend money on campaign terms alone (for the Fujitsu guys out there, this means buying "Economatch" terms in search), more on that issue for Superbowl brands here

As for our favourite TV ad? Doritos Snowglobe user content ad wins it (again) for us. Incidentally, you can watch them all on the Ad Blitz on You Tube: http://www.youtube.com/adblitz

Tell us your favourite.

Cheers

Nic

Think stories not banners

2009-01-27T14:24:00.001-08:00

This article is so good, I just have to share it.

For those who do not really understand the whole banner vs video content/rich media content debate, this is a perfect breakdown on why rich media banners are often better than standard 30k flash banners.

Also it is worthwhile to think about producing engaging content about your brand rather than focusing on the latest features about product releases. Think of brands like Apple vs. PC, Wii vs PS3... each respective brands holds a different emotional value that will probably something different to you because of their brand position.

A really good idea for producing original content was the partnership between Burger King and Seth MacFarlane (creator of Family guy). The channel has been up for a while now, they have now added an extra Dub function to allow other youtube subscribers to muck around with the bk content, a pretty clever way to inject some more life into the channel.

- jeff yiu

Closer than you think..

2009-01-26T14:00:00.000-08:00

Sony Japan had recently launched a microsite to promote their handy cam.

The premise of the website, watch your kids grow with the help of a Sony handy cam.

Why is it so good? Considering the target demo of the campaign being young parents/adults, the content is not only interesting but also entertaining/educational.

The other beautiful feature of the website is, the web content can be customised (make your own fav bits of the pre-recorded footage and also you can embedded the entire site functionality on your own blog (how is that for viral potential?)

Sometimes engaging a user might be simpler than you might think.....

Enjoy.

- jeff yiu