Talking pets viral campaign
Here’s a new campaign we’ve just launched for The Blue Cross charity. The campaign is designed to drive traffic to the animal charity’s new social network.
Our talking pets campaign allows users to create their own Talking Pet which they can then send to a friend or stick on their facebook page. Users can choose pre-defined pets, or can upload images of their own pets. We convert text to speech, animate the pet and bingo you’ve got a realistic talking pet.
We’re driving traffic to the microsite using email and digital advertising. One of the ad formats is a genuine world-first. The ad unit scrapes the page, identifies the H1 tag and then a talking pet in the ad unit reads the day’s headline from the news story on the page. The messaging kind of goes, “Didn’t know pets could read? Well they can talk to and you can create your own talking pet.” What’s more the ad unit also allows the user to enter their own message in the banner and have the pet read it out.
Try the site. If you’re a pet lover, you’ll really enjoy it.
Google gets into virtual worlds – with a difference
Google Labs have recently released an interesting little beta called Lively.
Lively is pretty much a browser based virtual world platform. Kind of instant messaging with 3-D environments and avatars thrown in. At the moment it looks pretty basic and it only works on PC with limited browser compatibility, but I think Lively could be the start of something very interesting.
First off, it’s browser based and once you’ve created an avatar and room, google gives you the embed code so you can plonk your virtual environment on any webpage or blog. Suddenly the previously walled garden of virtual worlds has gone social. True at the moment individual Lively rooms don’t feel linked together, but my bet is you’ll see that change over the coming months. I’d also wager that if the beta becomes a full release (and I reckon it will), then google will very rapidly embed video and text advertising in the environments.
On a more fanciful level, I can’t help but imagine what might happen if google links Lively up with Google maps/google earth. Suddenly the conenction between real and virtual worlds could become very interesting.
For my amateurish attempt at using Lively to create my own virtual environment, check out this link (if you’re on PC). Or, for a more accomplished room design, take a look at I Hate Ewoks.
Consumer health revolution
In 2007, 143 million adults in Europe searched for healthcare information. That’s just part of the dynamic that is changing the face of consumer healthcare marketing. John Perkins, the MD of our healthcare business, recently wrote an article for Pharmaceutical Marketing detailing the risks for marketers who haven’t yet woken up to the changes sweeping the industry.
You can download the article here.
Cannes 2008 – Direct winners
Shackleton Madrid agency of the year. One of the jurors told me that Shackleton made over a 100 entries to Cannes. That’s a serious amount of time, money and effort, but it seems to have paid off for them.
From the UK, JWT and The Communications both get golds.Ogilvy, CHI and JWT get bronzes. As does our freelance art director, Michael Jones.
In the Promo category McCann Erickson from the UK get a gold.
Cannes 2008 – Direct – Some shortlisted work
Here is some of the shortlisted direct work. This is from Castrol. It’s my favourite piece in the category. Wearing motorcycle helmets is seen as very uncool by Indian youth. This mailed t-shirt on receipt gives 10 reasons why you shouldn’t wear a helmet. But, when it’s washed the t-shirt has an awful accident in the washing machine. The red ink runs blood red and the message mostly disappears leaving only the stark warning ‘reason why you should wear a helmet’. Excellent.
During the Hollywood writer’s strike, TCM sent out this simple mailer. It features a very short letter claiming the channel is in full support of the strike, as after all the best movies have already been made. Such a clear dramatisation of the movie channel’s USP.
Mailpack for Toyota, selling the benefits of the built-in GPS system. Again a simple idea – the envelope has been redirected, but with GPS you’ll arrive without detours.
Lots of ideas playing with the mechanics of mail this year. Here a scale replica of the Land Rover Discovery is sent to prospects in packaging which appears to have been absolutely battered in the process of reaching you. However the ‘indestructible’ Land Rover Discovery is in pristine condition inside the ruined packaging.
Not very PC, but perfect for the target audience. This is the ‘last longer’ pillow.
Cannes 2008 – Cyber Lions shortlist
Wow. What an amazing year for the UK. After a few years of putting in a distinctly average digital performance at Cannes, this year UK agencies have been shortlisted everywhere (probably second most shortlisted country after the US) – and it’s interesting the mix of agencies represented; above-the-line, below-the-line, pure-play – everyone seems to be in on the digital act.
It’s good year for the network too with Rapp Collins Malaysia, DDB Stockholm (3), DDB Oslo, Rapp Digital Brazil, DDB Germany Hamburg and DDB Germany Berlin (2) all appearing on the shortlist.
Cannes 2008 – Direct shortlist
The big news on the direct shortlist is that Australia has done bloody well, the Germans gain many appearances also. Rapp Collins NY is there – on the B2B shortlist for the agency’s future garden website. The french office has also been shortlisted for some lovely viral work for stella photographic studios using a model, speed cameras and motorways!
Michael Jones who is in our london office has also been shortlisted in the direct and press categories for some work he did at M&C in Australia.
Interestingly the category that the UK is most represented in is integrated, with CHI, Elvis, JWT and The Communications agency making up more than 30% of the shortlisted agencies.
In the outdoor category Asia storms the shortlist, with plenty of work from Thailand and Malaysia. Even Vietnam making an appearance. It seems that the most interesting work in this category is coming from the East. As an aside the Cannes organisers are keen to have the Asian market embrace the event. There’s a lot of China events here and a delegation from China is visiting to decide whether to whole heartedly send a huge delegation to next year’s event.
In the promo category Momentum make an appearance for their ‘other lunch break’ campaign for Mini. I’m really chuffed this campaign has been recognised. I think it’s a marvellous example of how agencies should be thinking. Read more about the campaign here and here.
Today Proximity did an interesting seminar on the lost generation (born 1966-1972). This generation is currently entering leadership positions. Proximity rather than labelling this generation as gen x have attempted to understand them in more depth by dividing them into three categories: cruiser, nesters and super breeders. It’s complicated if you want to know more leave a comment or email me.
tomorrow I’ll post some jpegs of some of the shortlisted direct work that really excited me.
Cannes 2008 – Rapp Collins seminar
My global creative director, Ian Haworth, is presenting a seminar (you can see the slides above) around how we build value based relationships now, rather than one dimensional communications. A parallel theme is how great a time it is to be a creative and how technological change is taking many of the traditional restrictions away.
Hopefully I’ll be able to give you more details, but as Ian talks my battery is quickly running down.
As a starting point Ian takes us through a whirlwind tour of excellent but simple comms, before starting to make the point that great creative comms work is no longer enough, we now need to make more emotional connections that are deeper than simply working towards brand affinity.
The journey Ian describes is from creative that focuses on a USP to work that focuses on ESP (emotional selling points) to BBSP (belief based selling points) to VBSP (Values based selling points). Communications that develop from belief and values based selling points tend to a have a real, human truth embedded deep within them. They also seem to ignite peer to peer based activity simply because the messages really resonate with the target audience. Ian illustrates this with some work from Merck, around a cervical cancer vacine, Gardasil. Here’s a video of the case study:
The other side to this is how BBSP and VBSP comms lead to debate, eg The Dove work though well received has had it’s online detractors arguing that the brand is hypocritical. A recent NSPCC online advertising campaign (disclaimer: I was involved in this work) led to a huge debate on a Weight Watchers forum. The NSPCC ads were banners shouting abuse at the user and asking ‘click to stop the abuse’. When served on the weight watchers site these ads alienated some of the users (self-esteem issues meant many weren’t happy to have the banner shout abuse at them). However on the forums the work had many defenders. Ian’s point? Because the work was belief based it caused deep seated reactions in its audience and led the work to take on a life of i’s own.
Whoops battery about to go – so I’ll blog this later (after stealing Ian’s presentation and recharging the laptop).
…It’s now later and here’s some of the video case studies from Ian’s presentation (I’ll upload them over the next day or so). You can also see Ian’s presentation here.
Cannes 2008 – FEDMA Seminar
Here we go. Blog report from the Debussy Theatre at Cannes 2008. Over the next few days I’ll blog each of the seminars and workshops I go to. I’ll also report on the award winners and ceremony. Do bear with any typo’s – I’m blogging live so there will be mistakes (I’ll edit later, promise).
The first seminar is from FEDMA (Federation of European Direct and Interactive Marketing). Patrick Collister is presenting some thinking about how DM is sexy, and how increasingly above the line agencies are utilising dm techniques.
For instance, in talking about the sony foam ad, patrick points out that the ad was based on an event, an event where camera users shot the ad as it was filmed, those images are on a website where users can explore the camera and buy it. Patrick asks what awards the ad might win. Probably TV. Maybe media. But in fact it could be more usefully be considered as a winner in the direct awards because it’s ultimate aim is to drive people to a transactional environment.
In fact Patrick points out that the ad is both brand and direct. And five minutes into the presentation, this seems likely to be the core theme – ie the old categories are irrelevant. DM is doing brand (as evidenced by a lovely wooden mailer for a karate magazine) and brand is doing DM.
Patrick argues that one of this first instances of brands advertising moving beyond the ad was the bmw films work from 2002. BMW commissioned a series of films and placed online. In the US the work got 20 million hits, 2 million signed up online, and in a single year BMW’s brand took 12% more share in North America. Unbelievably when a new marketing director joined a year later he fired Fallon – the agency that had given BMW a massive commercial boost. Go figure.
More no-line thinking is evidenced by a campaign for Jim Beam, Press ads placed in women’s magazines spoke to male readers suggesting that if the where reading the female magazine they were a wuss and needed help. Driven to a website, the men could sign-up for a sample of Jim Beam, It was brand, it was dm, it was sales promotion. The line had disappeared.
Interestingly Patrick claims there is still a line, but it isn’t horizontal. There is no longer an above or below. The line is vertical. It runs through everything, and the very best work does just that. And it is this permission for dm to sell but also to do brand, that is making dm work increasingly sexy. A chocolate mailing from the royal mail is used to demonstrate this – an emotional communication that also as a response purpose.
On response Patrick points out that in the past the average response rate is 2%. Not good enough claims Patrick. If DM can now work brand magic, then it’s not good enough to be potentially alienating 98% of your audience. You’v got to aim higher. Leo Burnett in Oz last year ran some work for WWF encouraging people to turn off their lights for an hour. 2% wouldn’t have been good enough. Leo Burnett aimed at 100%, During the targetted hour 2.2 million households turned their lights off for an hour. The equivalent of taking 48,000 cars off the road – reducing Sydney’s daily energy consumption by 10%.
In aiming for higher response, you can’t just measure traditional scores. You have to measure other things. Expanding on his vertical line theme, Patrick claims that it slides along an axis from pre-decision (emotional) effects to transactional (rational) effects. New, sexy DM should aim to create responses along the entire axis.
Interestingly a lot of the really interesting sexy DM work is comng from brand advertising agency. Patrick ends his seminar by making a call for DM agencies to step up to the challenge and start creating more of this work themselves.
Here’s a similar presentation Patrick’s done previously. Some of the work featured was shown in his Cannes seminar.
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