Essential reading

Every now and again I find myself stumped for advice to use in the colum I write for Junior.

When this happens I turn to the thoughts of the legendary Mr Dave Trott or the long defunct blog of Simon Veksner.

Rather annoyingly both of them have now published their thoughts in a book. Which means I'll no longer be able to "borrow" inspiration from them.

You can get Dave Trott's book here. And pre-order Simon Veksner's here. I guarantee you'll love them both.

Does football need its own tyre?

No disrespect intended to The Richards Group (who do some sterling creative work) but do we really need a poster to advertise Bridgestone as the official tyre of the NFL?

I think not. Although award juries may disagree. ;-)

Click pic for a better look.

Burger King error messages

Burger King in the US is running an inovative campaign on Digg - they're sponsoring error messages.

Mistype a term into the Digg search feed and it returns a cheeky message promoting Burger King.

Click the pic for a better look at the message I got which reads "Looks like your search had a typo. Maybe you've got tiny hands. The beefy $1 Burger King Double Cheeseburger is so big and beefy it's not for the tiny handed."

Obviously this is hardly well targeted advertising. But it is clever. And unexpected.

Which is exactly what good advertising should be. Shouldn't it?

Would you click this?

Most people who visit music blogs are music fans looking for downloads. Which makes me think there is very little chance that anyone has ever ( and I do mean ever) clicked on this banner ad that's been appearing on the music blogs that I visit.

Look closely

It would appear that agency creatives setting up ambient ideas to enter into award shows is nothing new.

In fact if this pic is anything to go by it was happening way back in the 1930's!

The MoviePeg

I have so gotta get me one of these - The MoviePeg.

Such a simple idea. Yet it solves the problem that has plagued iPhone users for years.

Actually that's not strictly true. But it sure does make watching video on the iPhone easy.

Comes in a great range of colours too.

Click here to get yours.

Funny but true

Read. Learn. Act.

This excellent advice came my way via Jason Lonsdale. Might I suggest you read it, absorb it and live by it.

Social media blah blah

Much chatter in the blogosphere of late about Nestle and their use of social media.

I joined their Facebook group and was shocked to see a post threatening to delete any posts made by peope with versions of the Nestle logo as their avatar pic.

Me thinks the Nestle people (and anyone else who wants to dabble in social media) should watch this very helpful little preso by Dave Birrs of OgilvyOne in London.

Typographic Dogs

Honestly what's not to love?

Via

Mapping web trends

Great interview with the man who created the Web Trend Map. Thanx to Mona for the video.

Support the kids

Those enterprising young folks from Junior are hosting a screening of the film Art & Copy next month. Great to see the kids getting out doing this sort of stuff.

The film had a blink and you've missed it screening during last year's Melbourne Film Festival. And from what I understand it's headed straight to dvd in Australia.

So this is a very rare chance to see seminal adland figures like Lee Clow and Dan Weiden talk about their amazing work up on the big screen.

Tix are a paltry $17 and you can find out more over on the Junior website.

It's a Slankie!

The Snuggie is surely a great example of cult clothing.

Actually I'm not even sure if it is actually clothing.

But there is definitely a cult around the Snuggie.

Hell even Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin wore them during the Oscars telecast.

So what's better than a Snuggie?

How about a Slankie!

Half Snuuggie. Half tracksuit. Kinda.

And available now online.

Well you may laugh my friends. But if Bonds advertised this product I reckon they'd sell like hot cakes.

Hopefully they won't though.

Designing a great iPhone app

Click here to get a great insight into the design and creation of The Guardian iPhone app.

I particularly love the seriously loose layout scamps. Of course this may well be because they are done in a style quite similar to my own.

If however you want help producing more professional looking iPhone scamps then you need to click here and get yourself an iPhone Stencil Kit as pictured below.

Social media overload?

Despite what the people I work with might think I'm often a bit of a late adopter when it comes to new types of social media.

I avoided MySpace mainly because most of the pages I saw were so damn messy.

I resisted Facebook and Twitter for sometime before falling for their charms.

And even LinkedIn didn't appeal to me when I first discovered it.

So there's every possibility that this time next year I'll be addicted to Blippy.

But somehow I doubt it.

I mean really. Who cares what you're spending your money on?

Or how much or how often you're spending for that matter.

Certainly not me that's for sure.

Well not at the moment anyway! ;-)

Kicking goals with green

One of the clients I work with is Origin a leading green energy provider.

So I'm always on the lookout for interesting green initiatives.

Today I discovered a really clever one. Especially for use in developing countries.

It's called s0ccket.

In essense it's a soccer ball that generates energy as people play with it.

Genius!

The people behind s0ccket describe it as a "fun, portable energy-harvesting energy source in the form of a soccer ball".

And for every 15 minutes of play it generates enough energy to power an LED light for three hours.

Best of all not only does it generate energy it also help kids burn theirs. Which surely has to be a good thing.

To find out more click here.

Excess baggage

For some unexplainable reason the humble tote bag is huge right now.

Although nowhere near as huge as this seriously huge tote developed by new Melbourne agence Jane.

Kinda cute don't you think?

Although I have no idea what you'd do with a bag that big.

Jane does though. So click here to go find out.

My ad of the week

OK it may not be your idea of a great ad.
But it's certainly is mine. Go Sainters!

And the winner is...

Judging at an award show last year I came to the conclusion that some agencies put more work and imagination into their 90 second promo videos than they put into the work itself.

Seems I wasn't the only one, as this fun video spoof by students from a Brazilian adschool confirms.

Backwards vs Forwards

The launch of the App Store helped cement the success of Apple’s iPhone. So much so that other phone makers have since introduced their own variations of it.

Today I learnt that when Microsoft introduce their latest Windows Phone operating system later this year it will not be compatible with any of the apps they currently have available.

Is it just me or is that a seriously dumb move?

Apparently Microsoft are not that keen on backwards compatibility. Or as Microsoft’s Charlie Kindel puts it, “For us the cost of going from good to great is a clean break from the past.”

Which is all good and well but what about all those people who don’t want to upgrade their phone this year?

And what about all those people who have invested in a number of apps already. How will they feel about having to buy new versions of what they already have?

Windows has its loyalists. And many people are still hesitant to switch to Apple. But surely a move like this is going to encourage people to move away from Microsoft?

More crazy Japanese stuff

No idea what this ad is about. But ya gotta love the crazy ideas that Japanese agencies are able to get their clients to approve.

Propaganda with a twist

Love these social media meets WW2 propaganda posters by Brian Moore. You can even get one for your home or office. Click here for more info.

Social media anyone?

Chat up on Chatroulette

Chatroulette took the internet by storm a couple of weeks ago. And those smart kids at Poke London see an opportunity and grabbed it.

They developed a promotion for French Connection.

In essense you had to seduce a woman via Chatroulette then send evidence to French Connection for your chance to win $250.

Word spread fast. The promo also annoyed a few women as only men were allowed to enter.

So Poke and French Connection changed the rules and let the ladies get involved too.


Click here for more info on the promotion from the French Connection blog.

Blow job for birthday

Sometimes the most obvious ideas is actually the best idea.

This party blower to celebrate the 11th birthday of the launch of Viagra is a great example of that.

Although why they chose to celebrate the 11th birthday rather than the 10th is a bit of a mystery.

Nice idea though. By Canadian agency Taxi.

What about listeners?

The radio station Nova started broadcasting around the time I returned to Melbourne after working in the UK.

I chanced upon it in my brother in-law's car and was instantly struck by how few ads they ran.

This was a big deal to me as I can't stand radio ads. I really can't.

Not long after I went to Nova's first birthday bash where they made a big fuss out of the fact that they only played two ads in a row in an ad break.

Which I'm sure you can appreciate is about 5 less than the average FM station.

Today I learnt that Nova are dropping their two ad policy.

Why?

According to station executive Cathy O'Connor, "The move introduces flexibility," and it "will allow us to collaborate with advertisers and agencies in new ways."

But what about the listeners Cathy?

Did you ask them if they want more ads? I doubt it.

But then again since when did listeners ever really matter to radio stations?

Put them away Pammy

When I see ads like this I have to pinch myself to ensure that I haven't gone back in time.

Honestly what on earth were the people from Crazy Domains thinking!?

And as much as I am a defender of freedom of speech I am more than happy to hear that the Australian Advertising Standards Bureau has banned this ad from our televisions.

Although I suspect it will now spread like wildfire across the internet.

As you can imagine the boss of Crazy Domains can't understand all the fuss and has pointed an accusatory finger at ‘feminist bloggers’. Classic!

State of the internet

The beard tamer

Love this campaign for the Panasonic beard trimmer by BBDO Berlin.

I've always been a fan of illustration and these are particularly good.

And the homage to circus posters is totally unexpected.

Click the pics for a better look.

Digital Cash

The iTunes Store registered its 10 Billionth song download last week.

That's a lot of songs. Especially when you consider that the music industry is supposed to be in decline.

So what was the 10 Billionth song you're wondering?

Well it wasn't a hip-hop track. Or even a dance tune. And it wasn't anything that had appeared in the top ten in recent times.

In fact it was a song that I would never associate with digital downloading by an artist who is no longer with us.

It was Guess Things Happen That Way - a song recorded in 1959 by the late Johnny Cash.

Doubt anyone saw that coming!

Latest from the Blogosphere

The new issue of Marketing magazine is out now and as usual it features my regular Around The Blogosphere column. My column from last month has just been posted online. Click here to go take a look.