This is fantastic, and silly, and not an ad.
A chick in Vancouver has painted a giant mural of Wally from ‘Where’s Wally?’ (or ‘Where’s Waldo?’ if you’re in America), and has invited people around the world to find him using Google Maps.
Read about it here
Sydney hosted it’s first Red Bull Flugtag today. The even was a huge success with 50,000+ people cramming into Mrs Macquarie’s Point. 45,000 of them in front of me which meant I saw the back of a lot of people’s heads. Compared to the Sony Tropfest this on equal par but as Red Bull own this event 100% I think Red Bull got much better value for money. I think we’ll see this as a regular event.
There was a few corporate entries with Myspace, Mortein (Louie the Fly), LG, Footy Show, Dirt Magazine
Here’s a quick snapshot of the crowd. The entire area was packed with a huge mix of people young and old.
Red Bull now have this event and the Red Bull Air Race both of which encapsulate the brand really well. It also makes Coca-Cola’s sponsorship efforts (um what are they?) seem insignificant.
We reported earlier here about the music industry and their “pay what you feel” releases. I also remarked that Trent Reznor didn’t seem all that happy with the results.
We’ll it seems Trent learns from his mistakes and his latest venture Ghosts I-IV has paid off in spades. A $300 limited edition sold out in two days. That’s $750,000 mo money in 2 days. There’s still a smaller $75 version, a free sample and a $5 and $10 option for punters.
It goes to show people will pay for things that they see has real value and that this new way of releasing music might be here to stay.
Here’s an angry customer’s letter complaining about being spammed in his home mailbox.
All brand managers take note are your customers thinking this but can’t be arsed to write a funny, snarky letter to your boss?
Click here to see bigger version
I found these internal Atarti memo’s from Atarigames.com. Very interesting, both from a gamers point of view and from an advertising perspective.
I love the highlighted findings that “Centipede” is in the top 10% of characters in terms of appeal. It was slim pickings back in 1984 as who could really love 8 pixels or this friendly cabinet decal.
There’s strategy documents about game tournaments being held in 1991 and design documents for classic games like Marble Madness dating back to to the early 80’s and earlier.
Your brand + artist = cred.
Absolut have been doing it for a long time and we posted about this back in April 07.
Levi’s latest effort with their Back Pocket Gallery is interesting. I would have liked to be able to purchase them as actual jeans.
It also got my thinking why don’t jean brands offer customizable back pockets. The jeans could be sold with no pockets and this is the last step in the products purchase. With jeans now running at a price tag of over $300 you can hardly say price is an issue.
Mini do this with the roof of your mini, along with hundreds of other tiny tweaks and it really make you feel like the Mini you own is unique.
I’m loving this infographics on campaign contributions based on creative careers from Notchcode.
It’s pretty clear that the creative community support the Democrats. What’s with photographers though, the donate alot and donate big. Read the full article here for a breakdown on the info.
What Americans found interesting was that voting is compulsory in Australia. You’re legally bound to vote and will be fined if you don’t. We also don’t really donate cash to candidates.
B&T reports that Facebook has overtaken Myspace as the most popular social network. This is from a survey of over 35,000 people. This is the opposite of a similar survey conducted with the same group of people last year.
People have never been so intune with technology. Mobile phones, MP3 players, digital cameras and computers are now central parts of everyones lives. And the race to innovate and be different has always been the easiest way to gain market share. Look at the iPhone as a prime example.
This year the race to “one up” other camera manufacturers has taken a another step forward at the recent PMA conference with the announcement of the Casio EX-F1. It’s the first time I’ve ever been excited by a Casio camera.
2007 was the year of anti-dust sensors and image stabilization and face detection. 2006 was all about Mega pixels with 5,6,8 then 10 becoming the norm.
Now it’s high speed recording (up to 1200fps) and high speed burst modes (60 fps) and HD recording 1920×1080 all in a prosumer digital camera for less than $1000 USD.
Check the rest of the demo videos and tell me this won’t make your average camera buyer excited.
The high speed feature is also easy to explain. Just show stuff exploding in slow motion. Anti-dust and image stabilization is a harder sell and face detection is hardly exciting.
Sony’s 2008 innovation is a live preview system on their Alpha DSLR range. Which means you get the ability of a DSLR but with freedom of a standard digital camera’s LCD preview. While a great feature it’s hardly going to excite your general consumer like the high speed videos will. Sony also did the full sensor 24.8MP thing to try and blow Canon out of the MP race once and for all but people seem to have lost interest in MP lately.
This need for speed was first started by LG with their Viewty (photo. Capable of capturing 120fps video on your phone.
Here’s the viral clip for the phone which I think over estimates what 12-fps video looks like but is very well done
And here’s clip of what you can do with the humble mobile phone.
If automotive technology was advancing as fast as cameras (or even toothbrush technology) then we’ve all driving around “Back to the Future 2” style.
Automotive in 2007 saw fuel economy become a main selling point for cars. I wonder what 2010 will hold for automotive advertising?
There are logo’s that are iconic, and there are logo’s that are forgettable. The new Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) logo is definitely the latter.
The station’s ‘Exercise your imagination’ tag line was obviously not an objective in the design brief.
Here was an an iconic symbol, just like that of the American networks NBC, CBS or ABC identities, replaced by a generic typeface.
And the very least it’s a total waste of tax payer money.
There is further debate over at TVTonight.com.au along with screenshots of the on air ident package.
With the new Gooby Commbank ad now out and everyone talking about the ad, I thought I might focus on the new tag line “Determined to be Different”.
I would have preferred “Determined to be better” as I don’t want my bank to be “different” I just want them to be better.
Check out the website for the campaign. It hardly goes into explaining how “different” the bank will be and has me thinking that nothing much has changed. The section titled “Determined to be Different in action is hardly going to make the CBA stand out.
It seems CBA is just repackaging the same old shit. Which is sad, as for me all the big banks in Australia are essentially the same and they could have really made an effort to be “different”. In addition to hiring Gooby they could have also had a cold hard look at themselves and launched a new ad campaign and a new direction for the bank. Instead it’s just like Coca-Cola launching with a new summer campaign. Same brown fizzy drink only this time it’s all about love.
Pops on Expert Hat
I’m no expert and also have no idea on the financial implications but here’s a few ideas that would have made the CBA different from every other bank in Australia.
Open All Branches 7 days a week 8-7pm.
It’s a crazy notion but people who work full time jobs don’t have time to go to the bank. So why do banks require you to take a long lunch break just to sort out your banking? The CBA is opening up their “busiest” branches on weekends but they are still limited hours and open from 9.30-1pm.
Reward Customer Loyalty
Banks seem to focus on attracting new customers and forget the ones they have. I’ve been with my bank 12 years and receive nothing more than a customer who signed up last week. Why not offer incentives and rewards for customers who stay with your bank every year. It could be as simple as extra free transactions or increase in repayment times.
No ATM fees
Crazy as it sounds I doubt the ATM fees the banks charge really go to help their $3B profits.
Go Green
While other banks have made gestures towards going green or carbon neutral by a certain date why not get on top and be the most green bank in Australia?
They can start by reviewing their paper policy which in my experience with a home loan with them is outrageous.
Below is all the junk I received when I got my home loan, including multiple copies of the same brochures 3 times.
Lastly here’s one idea I saw in the USA, a hot pot a coffee in the branch! You wait in line 15 minutes why not get a free coffee while you wait.
I hope that the CBA has more in store for us with their campaign and it starts a real competition between the banks in Australia to really lift their game instead of just lifting their profits.
Radiohead got great coverage of their “In Rainbows” album that you could download and pay what you feel like.
Funny that 2008 saw the album was released in record stores around the world and you can no longer download it. Early adopters only thanks! Record labels rejoice as we all realize there still more money to be made with physical CD’s.
But don’t let Radiohead’s PR train fool you into thinking they were the only ones. It wasn’t just Radiohead doing this there were other examples all with seemingly positive results.
Steal This Film part I & Part II asked the P2P users to pay a small donation and it seems to have worked out OK.
Revolution let people into theaters for free and had them pay at the end. In the Fox interview below the producer says “we’ve made over $5 million” which is great for a independent film.
Even comedians are getting in on the act with Steve Hofsetter making triple his normal royalty if he released he latest album on a label. This article quotes “In the first two days of sales, Hofstetter says he has made more money than he did in the first two weeks of his last album.”
Trent Reznor and his pet project “Niggy Tardust” had 28,000 people pay $5 for the new album. That equated to 18% of the total downloads.
After reading Trent’s quite honest report on his site he seems disappointed. Sounds like he spent quite a bit of money actually producing the album. Also he set the price $5. All the other efforts asked people to pay what they felt. So people may have paid more. Also he could have brought in more smaller donations.
These successes show you don’t have to be one of the biggest bands on the world to make this work. In fact the gimmick might even expand your brand beyond your initial fan base.
Will any major brands trial this idea in 2008. Pay what you want for a pair of Nike’s? I guess it’s easy for digital distribution. You not actually at a lose if 1,000,000 people take you up on your offer and don’t pay. But with psychical products there is a production cost.
I guess the Hare Krishna’s have been doing this for a long time with their free food in exchange for a donation of some kid. And I know there have been many “Pay what you feel” restaurants in the past that get by the same way.
With just 244 days (Aug 08, 2008) to go until the Beijing Olympics it’s probably a good time to flag any Olympic promotions with your client. It’s like the last minute Xmas cards they they forgot to brief you on.
Cashing In:
Just like The Ashes companies officially sponsoring the event will be there in full force but so will sidelined companies with no sponsorship dollars in the pot. Oh and the portals will be there in full force too capitalizing on increased traffic and page impressions that the event should generate.
Good news for Australian broadcasters is China shares a similar time zone with Australia so the events won’t take place at 3am. Hazaah! for TV spends.
I checked out the official Beijing Olympics site and found a funny mistake in the first section I clicked on. They have a section to help people learn other languages. All the audio files are provided in an annoying Windows Media format but the English one I tested was wrong.
There is going to be a lot of people asking for their passport when they really want to change rooms. This section must have seemed like a good idea but the way it’s presented online is useless. I could dissect it further but the mistakes are obvious.
You can also check out the Official Australian site for the 2008 games. In all it’s blue and confusing hierarchy glory.
Mascots:
You can also check out the official mascots called FUWA, which are cute pandas.
Although not as cool as the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Mascots.
How long until we get pixel mascots?
Here’s a site that has archived the Olympic mascots although hasn’t updated for a while.
I’m looking forward to the Olympics next year(for both sporting and business reasons) as Australia just doesn’t cut the mustard in the Winter games and in the Commonwealth Games we dominate too heavily. (Sorry England and Canada we kicked your asses.) With the Olympic games it’s a real competition.
It’s December which means that all the universities and colleges will be hosting their graduating exhibition. In the hope that the students will get a good job somewhere.
You would expect this part of the course to be the most important. The entire 2-4 years of study is wasted unless you get a job. Theory, attendance, attitude are all meaningless it all comes down to how good your book it. Does your work stand out from the pack? But how do you stand out when ou’r work is shoved into a corner of a room somewhere.
With that in mind why don’t the uni’s make more of an effort to sell their students to prospective companies. Why isn’t there a special screening of students just for potential employers? Why doesn’t every uni have an online database of students with their work samples?
Hyperisland seem to do this well but no uni (well none that I have seen) even come close to having a way to access a list of students and their work online.
There’s talented people all around Australia but there’s no way I’m going to Canberra on the chance I can see someone. Let alone Perth, Adelaide or any of those states.
What this does create is a way for the determined students to get a leg up on other students, but sadly the most determined students aren’t always the best.
Does anyone else have the same experience? or am I expecting too much?
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
