Quick question for you...

Having worked within the realms of social media for a few years now, one of our key findings as to the behaviour of fans on corporate Facebook pages is that 'less is more'. Ask them to film content, travel to the factory where they make 'Brand X' or essentially do the agency's job of engagement and you instantly set yourself up for failure - get them to click 'like' or reply with a one word answer or similar and you'll get tens, if not hundreds of 'Impressions' and/or interactions.

Pretty obvious stuff really, although it still astounds me on what some brands think their fans will do for a voucher. There's always a smirk in our creative department when some corporation on FB/Twitter want fans to film themselves using the product. Even better is going to the gallery pages afterwards to see all 6 videos featuring the PR team pretending to be the 'public' - I know, we've done it ourselves...(cough) Cadbury Twisted 'Goo on the Loose'.

So when it came to our next Facebook app for McCain and their positioning 'The nations favourite chips', there was pretty much one simple answer - ask the fans if they were having chips tonight.

Click 'Yes' and a random clip of a cheering crowd, laughing goat, dancing air stewards etc. plays to illustrate that joyous feeling that chips are on the menu this evening. Click 'No' and a commiseration clip played - tears, tantrums and sadness fills the screen. There isn't anything more to it. 

Get there attention, get them to engage, entertain them and then leave. 

And so with that. Goodbye.

'Monkey Tennis?' we wispa'd.

Well it's taken over a decade to do, but finally I have managed to get a monkey in an Ad (kind of). And not just one; two and furthermore dressed in tennis whites and holding racquets. Shooting this was one of the most surreal moments in my career. Lets forgo the kick, bollock, scramble from nothing but George Lamb to shooting a final film in less than a week, and focus on the dreamlike events of the day.

Shot in an underground prison in Clerkenwell, you'd be forgiven for thinking we were about to embark on an episode of Most Haunted with Derek Acorah; apart from the fact that there was a 4ft high Dart board propped up against the wall and two Shoreditchonian extras getting into gorilla costumes.

Then George Lamb turned up. He didn't look happy that his boxfresh, Colgate white espadrilles were not the correct footwear for a damp, puddle strewn crypt but he seemed to get passed it. As the crew set-up, a bath arrived, fruit was being polished and inflatable chairs were being... er...inflated.

With water running down the walls and front doors being painted Cadbury Purple, we began turning over. A few shots down and the camera had to be moved. George was left to his own devices. Finding one of the gorilla's tennis balls he began knocking it about. Seizing the chance to play a spot of 'wall ball' with a celebrity?!?!? we struck up a furious competition drawing more and more male spectators eager to join in only to be brought to a stop when a rather ambitious volley of the now sodden and filthy tennis ball from myself left its mark on the shin of his pristine designer suit. For the sake of continuity we concluded our game.

After some great Basketball tricks with a melon and a pineapple, some javelin sized pub darts and a smoke machine filling the former correctional facility with purple fumes, we wrapped. For the pure insanity of it all, the tears and stress to get it in front of a camera and because we managed to get the client to sign off apes playing mixed-doubles, I don't think it's half bad.

Now edited together and turned into a Facebook App, it seems to be going down really well in social media circles. By adding our own Meme Generator people are picking up the idea and well and truly mis-spending some time on the app. As it stands, we're moderating all the Meme proposals ourselves, however at the moment there aren't enough hours in the day to get through them all, which can only be a good sign.

The Time Well Mis-Spent Foundation

Looking to move on?

As our digital scope broadens, it's been quite nice NOT to do a series of Facebook statuses and do something a bit more digitally substantial that didn't involve a LOL, o/\o or a ; ).

Enter into the frame our Michael Page Interview Technique films.

'Interview Technique films you say. Hell yeah! Let me just get a few more friends and colleagues to gather round so we can all laugh at this together. It's going to be brilliant.'

Alright, it's not the sexiest topic you've ever heard of, but that was part of the challenge. How do we make what is essentially one of the driest and potentially dullest films ever put on the internet, interesting? Fortunately, Michael Page also agreed with this statement - to a point. Yes, we want it to be fun, but also, we want to make sure all the points are made and people remember them - of course they do.

Now I'm not saying they will have you LOL-ing in the aisles, but I'm really rather happy with them considering the topic/budget and I'd go as far as saying they're 'Entertaining'. The chemistry between the two pundits was great and I'd love to have done more stuff with just the two of them. Plus, on personal note, a major coup for us was getting the one and only David Schneider - 'Tony Hayes BBC Controller from Alan Partridge' and of course the Eurostar Train Driver at the end of Mission Impossible - to direct them for us. 

Watch them, but make sure you get a few friends and colleagues to gather round first - they won't want to miss this.

Refreshes the parts digital can't reach

It's been a while since I posted any work. That's not because I haven't been doing anything for the past couple of months or that what I have done is of any less quality. No, I've still been ploughing away in the digital fields sowing Facebook apps and emails to the masses. One thing that did however get sent our way was a single 4pp post card/mailpack to announce the launch of the recently face lifted Citroen C1*.

Direct Mail in the age of the digital banner - OK, let's just get this done shall we! However, once the brief was 'briefed' and we dusted off the magic idea markers and layout pads it was actually quite nice to get old style creative on ourselves. Yes it was only a post card, but there was something nice about having to put an idea on something that people were going to pick up off their door mats again. I'm not saying we don't do that with the digital process but it was somehow new and exciting, like when it was the other way round and we were itching to do the digital stuff.

It won't win any awards and it'll probably end up in most people's recycling (if they're doing it properly) but I really enjoyed this little project and i'm quite happy to say it's one of the best bits I've done this year.

Of course the client should see the genius in the idea and stump up the cash for some 6-sheets and role out a nationwide campaign on this thought - but I would think that wouldn't I?

Anyway, have read of the stats - we had fun finding them.

*If you've seen my work, you'll already know that I've done a similar piece for the then updated Peugeot 207 that played on the plastic surgery facelift thought - bandages included. I even won an award for it (Trumpet blown). That does however mean I can't use it again for a few years.

Wandering down memory lane near the Alps

I'll be blatantly honest and tell you I robbed these from an old Art Directors Facebook photo album. Ever since we went our separate ways nearly 7 years ago, I never got a copy of these. Well, as we did them together, I think it only fair I should at least take half the credit (He, on the other hand makes no reference to my existence or any of the other work there we did 'together'). So, Ben, if you're reading this, it'd be super-wicked if you could send me these and a few others, high res if you have them.

 P.S. There's a typo in the Co-op ad - proof it's my work if ever it was needed.

Krave goes mobile - the relentless pursuit goes outside

An article and YouTube video about our latest bit of work, where we created a Smartphone app to compliment the Krave Krusader Facebook game.

Mmmmm - another piece of my work

The Big Bus Challenge 2011

Campaign/Marketing magazine recently ran a competition within the industry to help promote the media hub that is the humble bus side. The competition could be for any existing client regional or national - the prize being 200k worth of free bus-vertising. Having worked with Paddy Power we've just entered our idea to promote their poker site with our own intepretation 'Bus Poker' which uses it's passengers as the cards. Here's our entry and an explanation of the idea. Who knows if it'll win, but it's nice to do a bit of spec/comp stuff. I think off the back of it, we'll look to do a lot more of it.

The idea



Paddy Power Bus Poker is an idea that adds a touch of poker fun to waiting for a bus.

The bus panels act as both our ‘Card Table’ and direct viewers to a website/Facebook page that explains how to play ‘Bus Poker’ in a series of films and guides and subsequently promotes the wide range of poker games available at PPP.com.

How to Play
The main premise is that people sat within a designated section on the bus are the 'Cards' and players (between 2 and 4) use them in an interpretation of Poker. After deciding who starts (the big blind), the first bus to arrive will act as his/her 'hand'.

* On the bus, a section of a row of five seats acts as a hand of cards.
* The first player can play or fold.
* The remaining player/s wait for subsequent buses to receive their hands. The winner is (like poker) the one with the best hand.
* Players can add a cash incentive but all players must agree this beforehand.

Card values
Cards are denoted by age and sex:
* OAPs = Aces
* Men = Kings
* Women = Queens
* Teenagers = Jacks
* Children =10s

E.G: 2 women, 2 men and an OAP = Poker hand of 2 pairs (Kings & Queens)

A spoonful of Krave - How the campaign worked out.

Kelloggs Krave Wash Up film

After a few tears, a lot of sugar and a baby in the middle of it, you can view the fruits of our labour on Kelloggs Krave - this was initially the pitch winning work that they ended up buying and running. Of course Facebook and it's revolving policy changes to corporate pages would've meant we couldn't do it now.

Back then it was so much easier to get people to 'Like' you.

Parody is the sincerest form of flattery

I love a good old-fashioned piss take and quite proud that our campaign was worthy of one. Having read the ABL executions (not our work) i'm inclined to prefer this alternative execution too.

McCain Rustics Facebook app '11

Bit of an odd one. This initially started off as the winning work myself and Dan did to secure the McCain digital pitch. After winning it, the client then presented this to their peers and subsequently it was decided they wanted to actually run the work - this meant any work BMB were doing was halted and they were told to follow our creative lead and produce an ATL poster/press campaign to mirror our creative. High praise indeed.

Anyway, the idea came about that because Rustics were only 3% fat we came to the conclusion that these were the only chips that were guilt free - 100% in fact. So on the guilt angle, we came up with the idea that if we could take the guilt of chips, what else could we take the guilt out of? Rustics are targeted at women (20-35) so we wanted some eye-candy, who would be able to absolve them of any of their guilty secrets with a glint in his eye -thus Ben was born - our rustic handsome farmer.

Fans of Rustics would log in to the app, write a confession and then send it to Ben. We had filmed over 35 responses that we tailored to keywords within peoples confession. i.e. Boyfriend, Crash, Broke, Bought, Lied, Killed or Hid (to name a few), once sent to our database, our response generator would send the appropriate reply so it would seem like Ben had a private response to the user.

Designed as a Facebook app, it was McCain's first foray into social media so we were particularly attentive to their requirements while still managing to maintain a lightness of touch and slight tongue-in-cheeky-ness. The real fun (it has to be said) is reading all the confessions which we have on database (i'll post some up a bit later).

From normal to festive in 7 minutes

This year has been prety hectic, especially in the run up to Christmas, so the last thing on my mind was coming up with the agency Christmas Card. So getting the brief 'We need to do a Christmas Card' on a Friday lunchtime, we came up with this idea (a popular meme of 2010) in just over 7 minutes.
We then gave the viewer the option of being able to print out our Keep Calm posters as well as inviting them to create their own.
I think it pretty much sums up the entire year really. Anyway, I have two exciting projects going through atm which should kick off '11 in the right way, fingers-crossed.

Merry Christmas Mo-Fo's

Gold, well gold looking anyway.

Well with things being a bit slow today, why not a bit of self-appreciation then? The results are in for the IAAA (eh?) and I've won a Gold and two Silvers. That's right, the judging in Chicago has concluded and they've announced that my Lotus Mailpack has won a Gold at the 'International Automotive Advertising Awards'.







I must say i'm quite chuffed, it probably means very little, but the trophy looks like a 1920's Chrysler hood ornament and an award is an award and a nice addition to the CV. I also got a Silver for the Peugeot 'Bandages' pack, which is further down this blog and another Silver for the Lotus pack again - which I don't understand, but i'll take it. So what does this 'Gold' standard of automotive creative genius look like?

Well, the idea was to dramatise that the new Lotus Evora was a desirable sports coupe that was for drivers who want to drive a sports car and who knew what driving a sports car actually meant. Unlike other 'Sportscars' that are for city boys and the image concious wannabe's, the Evora was pitched as a proper sports car.

Also, with just a limited run of 400 being made a year, we wanted to dramatise that only a few would ever get to drive one, let alone own one.

The idea therefore was to send an Evora brochure to potential customers and owners of similar kinds of sports cars. On the front envelope was a fairly innocuous message that read:

'Be one of only 400 people to own a Lotus Evora'

On opening, you would discover the brochure had a white contrasting bellyband around it with the second part of the line:

'However, if you're too late to get one, there are 1000's of cars available at www.porsche.com.

Once opened, we then designed and wrote an elegant and concise brochure just showing off the car and it's key attributes. Apparently this tone of voice (understated arrogance) resonated with our key demographic and all the cars we're sold within a matter of weeks.

Job done and a Gold to boot.

Krave - Doing the social media right

This is what it actually looks like...













We've actually given away some pretty amazing prizes too! DVD Projectors, USB Drumkits and VW Camper/Surfer trips to Cornwall. This run then culminated in a massive big summer giveaway of two tickets to see the Kings of Leon in LA, which went for 1.7 Million Choc Chunks. We also had special 4ft boxes of Krave commissioned as prizes which held over 60 boxes which people went Krave-y for.



Keep your eyes peeled for the Autumn when the Choc Exchange returns...as soon as I've finished this, I'm writing the copy for the new prizes which are pretty damn good, if I do say so myself.

I am a very proud father of the Creme Egg Facebook page today.

Yesterday, all our blood, sweat and tears finally paid off in cultivating the Facebook page for the last 2 years as we surpassed 1,000,000 fans/likes. I feel quite honoured/powerful that so many people have passed through our social media shop...

FlashForward Yourself

This is the work we've just done for Channel FIVE promoting the return of FlashForward to our screens. The brief was to produce a social media campaign to promote this so we came up with the idea of a FlashForward generator on Facebook. By clicking on the FlashForward Yourself button it will tell you what you'll be doing 6 months in the future (just like the premise of the show) and post it in your FB Status. This would then appear in all your friends news feeds and help promote the show.

From the banal to the extreme, I had to write over 1000 of these flashforwards so there would be a large variety of events - although it felt like a very dark trip into my psyche once we'd done the ordinary ones. The aim is to recruit 50,000 fans, so far we have 15,725 - fingers crossed we reach it.

My favourite FF I wrote?
Easy.

'In my FlashForward I was putting bricks into a pillowcase'

Creme Egg iPhone Splat-plication

As part of the Creme Egg 2010 Campaign we also did CMW's and Cadbury's first ever iPhone app. Consisting of two different games, once you downloaded it from the App store you could either 'Scramble' an Egg or play 'Egg marks the Spot'.

'Scramble' the egg uses the iPhones acceleromter so you can shake the egg and get it to release its goo. Once the egg has splatted you can then play with the goo and rub it all over the screen.

'Egg marks the Spot' uses LAYAR type technology whereby we can overlay images onto the real world using the iPhones camera - taking this technology we placed Creme Eggs around the country at various famous landmarks incl: The BT Tower, Stonehenge, The Angel of the North and Land's End to name a few.

By going to these landmarks and opening the application, you can then see the egg at the location. Pressing on the egg then gets it to goo and links to the 'Your Country needs Goo' game where you can win a gooey prize.

The App went live on the 12th March and by the 13th it had become the #1 Free Download in the country. At this time, it's still at the top spot (15th) and we've had over 7000 comments so far.

Never had a number 1 before, but I could get used to it.

Update: 16/03/2010
So far it's been downloaded 221,894 times and has 10,858 reviews

Update: 29/03/2010
Downloads - 380,478, Reviews - 20,884

Update: 07/04/2010
Downloads - 513,047, Reviews - 26,611

Egg-Mented Reality - AR Creme Egg 2010

As part of this year's Creme Egg campaign and 'Your country needs Goo' game we have produced our (and Cadbury's) very first augmented reality experience - 'Egg-memted Reality'.

By going to the ER page on the Creme Egg website, there are set of instructions showing you how you can release the Creme Egg that's trapped inside the AR card. By printing out the special marker card and placing it infront of your web cam, it projects a 3D image of a Creme Egg messing about with the classic office toy the 'Newton's Cradle'. It then plays out until once again a Creme Egg comes to a very sticky end.