The sharing of success

Regular visitors to the world of Brand DNA will remember my ramble the other day about all the things I'd packed onto my iPhone for my trip to Sydney.

As you can imagine my iPhone got quite a workout while I was there.

What I didn't realise was how much I was going to use it on a rainy Friday night at Luna Park.

You see my main reason for the trip was to attend the ADMA awards where I had somehow managed to have six finalists.

When I say I of course I should be saying we. Wunderman Melbourne.

None of what I am about to write about would have been possible without my good friends from the Wunderteam.

Anyway let's get back to meeee!

Over the course of an incredible night all six finalists went on to pick up a Bronze Award.

And each time this happened I posted it onto my Facebook using the iPhone.

What I never expected was to get comments on these award updates.


This meant we were able to share the excitement with friends and colleagues all over the world. In what the tech heads call real time.

So a special thank you to everyone who sent comments via Facebook.

And for all those people who have followed the story of the Origin Recycled Mail Pack you'll be pleased to know that the little envelope that could picked up 3 gongs on the night.

How to spot an SMS

I had a wonderful time at the Sydney coffee morning on Friday.

Big thanx to Gavin and his gang for making me feel so welcome.

Whilst at the coffee morning there was a rare sighting of a Social Media Specialist.

Luckily I had my iPhone with me so I was able to get a photo.

The so called SMS wearing the unicorn T-shirt has laid claim to being one of my children.

So I asked my kids Max and Ruby what they thought of the T-shirt their wannabe brother was wearing.

They both rolled their eyebrows and went back to what they were doing.

Photographing history

I'm in Sydney today where I'm telling everyone I meet to get down to Melbourne to see the Rennie Ellis retrospective at the NGV in Fed Square.

Some absolutely classic pics by one of Australia's best photo documentarians.

Sadly Rennie is no longer with us but he left behind an amazing body of work.

There's Bon Scott era AC/DC at the Moorabbin Town Hall.

Classic dance party decadence from the seventies and eighties.

Footballers having a smoke after the Grand Final.

Plus the best picture of Derryn Hinch you'll ever see.

Click here for info and times.

Are you an SMS?

I'm thinking about making this into a badge to wear at the Sydney coffee morning tomorrow.

Then again maybe not...

Thanx Hugh

Snip snip burst

The boys at Junior have an interview with Jack Hutchings the oh so talented editor of the much loved Schweppes Burst ad.

Click here to check it out.

Pocket sized miracle

I'm heading up to Sydney in the morning for a couple of days.

Apart from clothes and toiletries I had a few other things I needed to take with me.

But rather than packing them in a bag I have them on my iPhone.

Episodes of Conchords and Entourage to watch at the airport.

Not to mention a couple of time killing games.

Full contact details of people I need to meet up with.

GPS so I can find my way to the famous Sydney coffee morning at Single Origin on Friday.

Up to date weather report for Sydney.

Internet and email.

Photos of my kids to show my friend I haven't seen in ages.

Camera.

Brian Eno's Oblique Strategies.

And of course a phone.

Who'd have thought any of this was possible when mobile phones looked like this:

Freddie Wong kicks Droga's ass

Yet another cracking viral video thing from Droga 5. This time for Guitar Hero.

And in classic social media style, some hip young gun slinger's gone and grabbed his handi-cam and beaten them at their own game.

As Mr Spock once said - It's advertising Jim, but not as we know it.

Make mine a double espresso

Lavazza seems to have taken over the calendar market once owned by Pirelli.

What is it with those Italians and their sexy calendars?

The pics are by Annie Liebowitz and this one is, I think, an homage to the Capitoline She-Wolf.

Thing is, as much as I love the Lavazza calendar, I can't help wondering what women think of it.

Female coffee drinkers feel free to comment.

Photography lovers can click the pic for a much better look.

Search meets Social

You don’t need to attend a digital marketing summit to know that search and social media are hot properties right now.

Which is why I’m so pleased that someone from Melbourne has brought them together.

Launched just a few weeks ago, Rowdii is a whole new breed of search engine.

It lets you comment on your search results.

It also lets you engage in conversations with other people about the sites listed in your search results.

So if you do a search for Brian Eno and your top rated results are for Eno’s fruit salts then you can voice your opinion about the link in question.

And if the hotel you’re searching for sounds too good to be true, check the Rowdii comments or their forum and see what other people have to say.

Don’t just take my word for it. Click here to go get Rowdii.

Say cheese!

Believe it or not there are now over 3 billion photos on Flickr.

3 billion!

I of course have only posted 250 because that's all you're allowed unless you pay a yearly fee.

Surely there must be a way for Flickr to offset the annual charge with advertising or some other sort of revenue stream?

I also reckon there'd probably be close to 5 billion pics on Flickr by now if Facebook hadn't come along.

Thought for the day

Ain't no one lives life to the quite full like Lemmy from Motorhead.

Daddy what's a blog?

I suspect Cold Call Carl may have had more luck flogging tickets for his webinar if he'd called it a web summit.

Click pic to enlarge the genius work of Mr Jetpack.

Sabrina and her projectors

What better way to celebrate post number 1,250 on DNA than with a classic piece of borrowed interest advertising courtesy of glamorous OC girl Marcy.

Creative Kindling

Melbourne based Nina O'Brien may not be a household name but her brand Kindling should be.

Kindling have kooky accessories, lovely T-shirts and art works as well.

Nina shares a great deal of her product development and thinking on her blog.

This week she launched the Kindling website which you can ckeck out here.

For a great insight into her creative process go here to read her blog.

Did I mention she has a terrific free postage offer too!?

Before and after

As you know I love a good product demonstration.

And this is a beauty.

Can't believe it hasn't been done before. Especially by Sharpie.

Nice work by JWT in Tunisia.

Has Vespa changed its spots?

I wonder if the guys from Colenso in New Zealand who created this ad have ever ridden a Vespa?

No disrespect but they're really not that fast. Cool yes but far from fast.

In fact the top speed on the new GTS 300 is probably not much more than 130kms an hour.

So whilst the leopard idea might seem like a great way to highlight the fact that this is the fastest Vespa ever, it would be better suited to a Japanese two wheeler like a Suzuki or Kawasaki.

Well that's my opinon anyway. What do you think?

A look at Land

During the recent Melbourne Festival I went to a photographic exhibition by Patti Smith.

All the photos on display had been taken with a Polaroid Land camera.

Sad to think this technology will not be with us very soon.

Hope you enjoy this charming short film. It's from the office of Charles and Ray Eames.

The future is here

I wonder what Pablo Picasso would make of the digitally enhanced world of today?

No doubt he'd have a blog. Probably with videos of him at work in his studio.

He'd be a Twitterer too I reckon.

I was a little kid when he died but I do remember it. Kinda.

He was 92 I think. And still painting as well.

One of the great minds of the 20th century. I reckon he'd have loved the 21st.

Pic by Senor X.

Go walk a dog

If you thought the guy who made the Ad Song video had too much time on his hands take a look at this:

Sure they're cute. But why are so many people sitting in front of a computer watching these puppies?

No so flash thinking

I think I might be turning into Jakob Nielsen.

In the early days of the web we used to laugh at old Jakob and his stringent usability ideas.

Not any more. Well not me anyway.

Seems like every time I click through to a flash website I find myself wishing they would just get to the point.

I blame blogs.

You see most of my time online is spent on blogs or straightforward info sites like newspapers etc.

So I get what I want with a minimum of fuss. I can also print the information if I want to.

Much better/easier than those flashy flash sites where I have to 'interact' to find what I want.

Web monkeys will tell you this makes for a rich and engaging experience. I say it's a pain in the bum and a waste of my time.

Worse of all flash makes it hard to print what you see.

All of which has me got wondering if the web of the future will be composed primarily of two types of sites: Text & picture or video.

The futuristic equivalent of newsprint and TV. But delivered through the same medium.

Advertising rocks

Fantastic piece of research and editing has produced The Ad Song.

Featuring great ads from home and abroad.

I love it!

Especially the 'Not happy Jan' voiceover at the end.

Enough already

It doesn't take much effort to spot the print ads that were 'created' to enter into award shows.

You know the type of thing - Big visual. Tiny logo. Maybe a small tagline.

I've even got a few of these kind of ads in my own folio.

Thing is they seem to be coming almost a standardised format.

Just take a look the the big winners at Cannes and similar shows.

Today I came across a comment on the Campaign Brief blog.

Sadly it sums up the situation perfectly.

"There is only one style.

My style. The one my friends do. The one that wins at Cannes.

That's advertising. That's what my CD says.

That's what the guys in Campaign Brief with the cool t-shirts say.

It's the only way. Deviating from it proves you're an idiot."

Obviously this was written by someone with their tongue wedged firmly in their cheek.

But they make a very good point. Don't you think?

It's official (I think)

Bob Isherwood is leaving Saatchi & Saatchi.

So what's next for Bob?

He's undoubtably one of Australia's greatest ideas men.

An RMIT graduate and former next door neighbour of my old friend Frank.

He leaves a rich legacy at Saatchi. Not to mention Droga 5 which he helped get off the ground.

Keep an eye on the news feeds as I'm sure he'll be up to something very interesting very soon.

Meet someone interesting

Couple of fun events happening in Melbourne this week for all you blogging and creative types.

The Melbourne leg of the global Beershpere is on Thursday 13th from 6.30pm at Hummingbird, 246 Russell Street. For more info click here.


The boys from Junior are hosting their first evening get together on Wednesday 12th at Seamstress, 113 Lonsdale St. Beers begin flowing at 6pm with an inspirational speaker at 7pm.

Zuckerberg's Law

Speaking at a conference last week Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg had this to say:

"I would expect that next year, people will share twice as much information as they share this year, and next year, they will be sharing twice as much as they did the year before.

That means that people are using Facebook, and the applications and the ecosystem, more and more."

New York Times columnist Saul Hansell has dubbed this Zuckerberg's Law.

My question is will this doubling of information sharing continue infinitely?

Surely tough economic times will see people being a little more selective with what they post to Facebook to make themselves seem more serious and hence more employable.

But then again maybe not.

Old skool adman

Adweek has just posted a fascinating interview with 57 year advertising executive Steven Stein.

Steven who? - You're probably thinking.

Perhaps you may know him better as his alter ego Steinski.

For those of you not familiar with Steinski blame the complex laws of copyright.

Back in the early 80's Steven Stein worked at DDB where he created campaigns for the likes of VW, Polaroid and Atari.

At home however Stein spent his time cutting up tape loops and sound bites and creating music so innovative it stills sounds fresh today.

Sadly much of his work as Steinski has gone un-heralded due to a million and one copyright infringement notices.

Click here for the Steven Stein interview.

To get what I consider to be Steinski's finest 4 1/2 minutes for your iPod click here.

Copyright be dammed!

Playing it safe

This dialog box pops up from time to time when I'm checking my RSS feeds.

What the hell is a 'potentially unsafe operation'?

I know what unsafe is - but potentially unsafe?

Sounds like something my friends in the legal dept might have come up with.

Winner for best copy is....

Sitting here in Melbourne watching the US election on CNN I honestly felt like I was watching history being made.

This cracking ad from Mother NY sums it up exactly.

An outstanding piece copywriting.

If you're in need of glasses click the pic for a better look.

Hat tip to Mike.

Old time rock 'n roll?

Some might say it's sexist.

Some may call it borrowed interest.

But I reckon your average teenage boy would probably say this is the best product demonstration he's ever seen.

Ever.

New tricks from old men

When I worked on the recent launch of the Ford Falcon we created a series of emails designed to get around corporate firewalls and image blocking software.

We built images of the car out of text using an Ascii program.

Now AC/DC have taken the Ascii email concept a step further.

They've created a firewall busting video for their new album using an Excel spreadsheet.

Other than claimimg my expenses I don't even know how to use Excel!

Check out the video here.

You can also get a preview on YouTube.

Great tagline for the email too:

"AC/DC smashes through your firewall with real rock ‘n’ roll! Download the spreadsheet to watch the Rock N Roll Train video in all it’s Low Definition glory!"

Yet more talented kids

Just what Melbourne needs - Another bunch of talented young people looking for a job in adland.

The RMIT advertising graduate exhibition is happening this Friday from 6.30pm at ACMI in Fed Square.

Rumour has it there's going to be some serious talent on show.

For more info click here.

Watch those Juniors

This is my last plug for Junior. Honest!

Those kids must owe me a coupla dozen alchoholic beverages by now.

Anyway I just read their freshly posted interview with Melbournian culture maven Penny Modra.

It's a must read me thinks.

Go check it out here.

Be sure and sign up while you're there.

Voting made easy - Not

I'm sure I'm not alone in saying that US politics fascinates me.

The money. The flag waving. The banners.

Not to mention all the razzamataz.

All of which comes finally to a close within a matter of hours.

The internet has given people like myself outside the US unprecedented access to information and coverage of the election.

One site that didn't help my understanding of the issues though is this one.

I have never seen anything like it in my life.

Kinda like the website equivalent of those shouty clearance ads we get on Aussie TV during the summer.

Click here to take a look.

Leaving a comment ain't easy

Last week Jules was wondering why 90% of the people who comment on his blog have a blog of their own.

There are I'm sure a variety of reasons many of which were discussed by commenters.

One reason that never really came up in his discussion was just how difficult it is to leave a comment.

Of course it's not that hard for regular blog readers and commenters. But it sure ain't easy for newbies.

Consider this - Last week I sent a link to a blog post around the office.

One of my colleagues took umbrage with the post and wanted to leave a comment.

And yet they didn't.

Why?

Because they were faced with this bewildering array of options:


Now I'm no expert in usability but to the uninitiated that looks incredibly complex.

When leaving a comment you're told you can use some HTML tags. It then lists some examples.

Surely this is confusing to a first time commenter?

Next up comes the word verification. This is quite common on websites these days but that doesn't mean it's not off putting to first time commenters.

For some obscure reason there is an icon of someone in a wheel chair next to the entry field. Why?

Having found their way through that minefield a person who has never made a blog comment is now asked to choose an identity.

Not only that but they get to choose from some very confusing options:

Google/Blogger. No Google account? Sign up here. What the!?

Open ID followed by some teeny weeny icons that you may or may not be familiar with.

Then my personal favourite - Name/URL. How many people have a URL? Not many I'd say.

The easy option is to click anonymous. Which is probably why anonymous comments are so common.

After all that you then get to publish your comment. That's publish your comment not leave it. Again confusing to the inexperienced.

Of course once you get the hang of it becoming a part of the online social conversation is pretty easy.

But I'm sure you'd have to agree that it really doesn't seem that easy for someone doing it for the very first time.

This is interesting

I used to think mobile internet was over priced and over hyped.

Obviously I've changed my tune since i got an iPhone.

For those of you who don't have access to your favourite sites on the go HP have come up with Tabbloid.

This is a very clever idea.

You simply enter the urls of sites you like and regular as clockwork you're emailed a print ready pdf of your internet faves.

It's the closest thing to an internet mag I've come across.

If you give it a go be sure and let me know what you think.

It's a social thing

This month's Marketing magazine is out now.

In my regular Around The Blogosphere column I take a look at online thoughts and chatter around social networking.

Click here to check it out. If you want to get social then feel free to leave a comment.

Best of British

When was the last time you saw a financial services ad as good as this in Australia?

Classic big budget, I'd never have thought of that, British advertising from BBH.

Great music track too. Bellamy Brothers I think?

Work better

Some good advice spotted at The Tate by Neil.

Video Blogs

'He has a good head for radio' is a classic Aussie expression.

Same kinda thing applies to blogging me thinks.

Which is why I'm running this poll: