LIFE MOVES PRETTY FAST...

Crispin Porter Bogusky set the standards (again)

I sometimes get tired of singing the praises of CP+B,  but when they keep producing standout work and innovative creative ideas there's nothing else that I can do but carry on!

This is their latest piece of creative excellence - it's the beta version of their agency website. As Alex Bogusky says in the welcome video: "It's part agency website, part digital experiment..." He likens it to a fishing net, picking up what's current about their agency and their clients and bringing it together in one place.

I think it's great.

What's so great about it is that they actually just got and did it. What I mean by that is that most digital folks in creative agencies have probably spoken about re-developing their agency website into something more "social" like this. It's one thing to do about it, it's another to actually do it. It takes the Modernista site to a different and better level.

There I am on the real-time Twitter feed.

And that's really brave. In light of stuff like this on Skittles.com when people wrote horrible, horrible things about Skittles and it appeared on the Skittles brand website. My point about what I consider to be a failed Social Media experiment for Skittles was that there wasn't anything to talk about when it came to the brand. CP+B on the other hand are continually developing conversation catalysts - ads, stunts, websites. Their creative ideas get people talking, so to develop an agency site is a smart and brave (i could have written terrible things about the agency) thing to do and bang on-brand for them. In the words of Hugh Macleod even their agency website becomes a "social object" and after all "social objects are the future of marketing."

o2 Scrum On The Beach

I think that its a lovely piece of film that perfectly captures the spirit of messing around on the beach. Except that this time the (big) kids messing around with the rugby ball just happen to play for England. The reactions of the folks on the beach who had no idea that this was going to happen is lovely. Thom talks over on his blog about fake-ness in advertising that proports to be real (the example that he cites is T Mobile) I can tell you that none of this was faked in any way.

Find out where Scrum on the Beach will be in July and August. The first session will be held in Martello Bay, Clacton-on-Sea, Essex 4 July, 11-6pm and the last Lusty Glaze Beach, Newquay 29-30 August, 12-11pm

(FD: 02 are a VCCP client. I did not have anything to do with this campaign although I do sit next to Clem and Rich the creative team, who were also the team who devised Compare The Meerkat)

How Toby Young got Twitter

Sometime earlier this year in the immediate Twitter frenzy that followed Stephen Fry's live-tweeting from a broken lift, Toby Young (he of "How To Lose Friends and Alienate People" infamy) joined Twitter.

And he really annoyed me.

In his Spectator column he loudly berated Twitter, bemoaning the fact that being part of Twitter felt like a dull party where everyone talks loudly but no-one talks to you. I sent him a tweet that day in which I tried to point that he just hadn't started using the "@" sign in his tweets. Once you understand the etiquette of "@" then it suddenly becomes quite easy to join the conversation. I heard nothing back, which surprised me, most people when they recieve a direct tweet usually respond (unless of course you're trying to tweet with Ashton Kutcher or Oprah Winfrey!)

Toby seemed to be in the same Twitter-trap as a lot of journalists who on one hand deride Twitter as being the ultimate in boring self-promotion, but on the other hand write weekly columns talking about the minute details and daily in's and out's of their lives. It always stuck me as fairly hypocritical.

Which was why I enjoyed Toby's latest Spectator piece : "I would like to take this opportunity to apologise unreservedly to Twitter. Like many of my colleagues, I unfairly characterised it as a vacuous expression of our narcissistic age. In fact, it turns out to be the most effective tool for advancing freedom and democracy since the invention of the internet." It's a lovely piece of writing, very funny, a great example of volte-face and well worth reading and sharing with all those Twitter-deriders. And I have to say that I totally agree with him!

I spoke at a Unilever PR conference last week that Simon Clift was heading up. I was talking about Social Media and brands. One of the folks attending, Babs Rangaiah asked me for my views on Twitter. He wanted to know if I thought that Twitter was here to stay and would people still be using it next year or the year after. The quick and honest answer is "I have no idea". The longer and honest answer is that whether  or not Twitter remains as the active micro-blogging platform of choice is almost an irrelevance, what is more important are the behaviours that it has helped to foster. Twitter in and of itself is simple a platform of communications, I prefer to look at what Twitter users that have developed themselves such as the use of "@" replies which was started by users not by the founders, the use of hashtags "#" and essential applications like TweetDeck, Twitterfall and TwitPic.

Twitter is conversation, a smart Search application, negates my need to visit Netvibes and check RSS feeds  and Twitter is a means of bringing events happening far away from me physically close at hand (be that #iranelection or #MasterChef) In essence Twitter is what you want it to be. It is becoming as important to me as Google.

Have a read of Toby's article. I'd love to know if you agree.

R.I.P. Scamp

I was genuinely saddened when I got an email from Simon aka Scamp from BBH saying that he had decided to call time on his blog.

Back in 2006 Scamp was one of those early ad-bloggers, alongside the likes of Russell and Iain, who inspired me to start blogging.

What I loved so much about Scamp's blog was that you were pretty much always guaranteed to have a really good read. He was witty, opinionated (sometime overly) and the site quickly became the digital centre of gravity for conversations about creativity.

While there were lots of Planner types blogging, Scamp seemed to be alone as a representative of the Creative department. I always knew where to go to find the newest creative work and the latest creative controversy. When I read Scamp it felt like I was sitting in a dark Soho pub surrounded by bitchy, funny creative teams. It often veered into car-crash territory, sometimes got too bitchy, too personal and probably sometimes illegal (it broke the Hate-Speak rules on occasion) and it annoyed me that the majority of people who posted hid behind an Anonymous moniker, but working life will be less fun without Scamp.

RIP Scamp and remember that you can always change your mind!

UPDATE: I have been emailed to remind people that Scamp is recommending If This Is a Blog... as the new digital space for disecting creative work. Happy to do that!

Talking to teens - binge drinking

It's bloody tough doing behaviour change creative work that is targeted to a teenaged audience. 

You can't preach, you can't tell them what to do or think.

Its hard to find the right tone of voice, hard to find the insight that will really, genuinely connect and prompt re-appraisal.

That's why I am so proud of VCCP's new work for the UK government (the COI)

How do you get young people to re-think their attitude towards binge drinking?

Our work on this campaign which started last year was about "the cold light of day...".

It's only in the cold light of day when you look back at what you did or what you said when you're pissed up that you start to appreciate quite how much of a prick you were. Behaviour change starts with the admission that maybe there is a problem. I hope that this film starts people thinking.

It was made by the brilliant Saul Dibb who directed Bullet Boy and The Duchess.

New T-Mobile "flash mob" ad in Trafalgar Sqaure

I didn't like the T-Mobile "flash mob" Dance ad at first.

I annoyed me that it was a blatant You Tube "Improv Everywhere" rip-off with less charm than the original. It felt forced and a little fake.  Everyone who I spoke to who worked in Advertising or Digital seemed to feel the same way.

And then something happened: I stopped asking people's opinion who worked in the industry and started to listening to people outside of the industry. Everytime that we went to the cinema and the T-Mobile ad came on the entire audience always seemed to be captivated, they laughed, in fact often there were little spatterings of applause. My mum loved it. My brother's girlfriend emailed it to me. My husband would stop what he was doing to watch when it came on TV.

There was a heated debate over at Scamp Blog which really got me thinking. It seems that this was a case of an ad that real people genuinely enjoyed, whereas the advertising media village didn't. 

This week Saatchis filmed their latest "flash-mob" ad in Trafalgar Square.  I actually didn't mean to go, I was on my way to She Says but I got caught up in the crowds of thousands who had turned up to be a part of the ad and the experience.

Hmmmm - the world is falling apart financially, everyone's fretting about swine flu so maybe what we need from our brands at the moment is a little light relief and a bit of fun.  Human beings are by nature sociable, we enjoying being a part of something, we enjoy enjoying ourselves. The filming of the T-Mobile ad was quite simply enjoyable.

And by the way, totally delivers on the brand thought "Life's for sharing."

Congrats Richard and team, I actually think it has the makings of a great and popular ad campaign.

OFFERED: Mini Planning Placements

It's always been hard to get into the advertising industry. I can only imagine that at financially diabolical times like this, it's even harder, at least it certainly seems that way from a lot of the students that i talk/tweet with. Recently we've been trialling Mini Planning Placements (putting a capital letter in front of the words make it feel more official...) at VCCP. The thinking behind these were that Creative Teams often get their foot in the door through work placements - having the opportunity to work on live briefs gives people a unique opportunity to gain experience and confidence - so maybe these could work for Planners or wanna-be Planners?

We have a third Planning placement starting on Monday and we have had 2 previously - one worked on the London 2012 Mascot pitch alongside me, the other did a a ton of varied stuff but mainly related to Social Media and strategy.

WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR:

• Intelligent, imaginative and articulate individuals with a thirst for understanding "stuff"
• Someone who finds something interesting in every single section of the Sunday papers regardless of whether they're bothered about Motoring or Personal Finance
• A self-starter, someone who is happy to be given guidance and direction but then just enjoys getting on with the task in hand
• Someone who totally "gets" and is immersed in Digital and Social Media

THIS IS NOT:

• A guarantee of a full-time Planning position with us (being honest, we are not looking for Planners at the moment)
• A placement that will make you rich (though we do pay and try not to take the piss)
• 9-5

THIS IS:

• A way of getting unique hands-on planning experience on brands such as o2, Compare The Market/Meerkat, COI, London 2012, Unilever and many more
• An opportunity to put theory into practice
• A chance to step up and be treated as a proper member of the brand team from the moment you walk in

If this sounds interesting, could you leave a comment here or email me on AmeliaT@VCCP.com

If you think it might be of interest to someone you know could you pass on this link.

Also happy to put you in touch with the guys that have been on Planning placements with us already

Planners Salaries 2009 - The Official Report

After Scamp posted The Talent Business's Creative Salaries info, I emailed him and he put me in touch with TTB and I have the equivalent for Planners (thank you BTW!)

Couple of thoughts:

Do ATL Planners exists anymore? Shouldn't every Planner be an Integrated Planner or are we not at the point?

Why is it that Heads of Planning ATL earn quite a bit more than Heads of Planning in Digital but interestingly a Digital Junior Planner earns a lot more than a Junior ATL Planner.

Hmmm.

Does this fit with your perspective of the Planning world?

Mind-blowing graffiti art time-lapsed video

Hat tip to the fabulous Mat from LeCool London 

(sign up for their weekly email tips - they are great...)

His question was, how long before this technique appears in ads?

It's fantastic.
MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

Two words to explain why Skittles Social Media Strategy maybe wasn't the best...

Sorry, its VERY VERY VERY rude....

If I was the Brand Manager of Skittles I really don't think that I would want this on my brand homepage.

Huge admiration to the team at Agency.com who sold the idea to the client. Pity that the brand is a totally wrong fit in my opinion. If Social Media is all about conversations, let's be honest there really isn't that much to say about Skittles. You're asking for trouble.

Witness the evil genius of Rob Manuel :

Where do brands fit financially in the Social Web?

I'm struggling to get my thoughts in order on this question.

Last week I got an email from a colleague in PR:

"This is a bit of a test email amongst some of the blogger folks that I know to see whether, in principle, you’d get involved in a client related project?

It would be for (I DELETED THE NAME OF THE CLIENT, BUT IT'S A LARGE TRAVEL BRAND) and we are looking at creating a series of themed travel guides co-created with bloggers.  The first is a guide to the best coffee shops around the major European cities.  On the basis that bloggers spend a LOT of time in coffee shops."

It sounded like an interesting idea and at first I was interested, but the more that I thought about it the more doubts started to creep in. 

"In return … you get a free copy of the book once it has been created: so you will know the best 100 coffee shops across the continent and have a handy guide to them"

I am a fully paid up, card-carrying member of the Web 2.0 world. I am a full-time participant in the conversation - I  create, I link,  I share,  I connect. And I don't do any of this for financial gain.  I do it because I feel that I am part of the "Gift Economy".

The illustrious Henry Jenkins at MIT writes brilliantly about the Gift Economy.  In the Gift Economy "gifts depend on altruistic motivations; they circulate through acts of generosity and reciprocity. Their exchange is governed by social norms rather than contractual relations. The circulation of gifts is socially rather than economically motivated: Unlike the sale of a commodity, the giving of a gift tends to establish a relationship between the parties involved. Furthermore when gifts circulate within a group, their commerce leaves a series of interconnected relationships in its wake, and a kind of decentralized cohesiveness emerges. The circulation of goods is not simply symbolic of the social relations between participants; it helps to constitute them... (there are) three core obligations which are shared among those who participate in a gift economy: the obligation to give, the obligation to accept, and the obligation to reciprocate."

Trouble is when brands start to get involved and make money out of the Gift Economy then the balance breaks. 

It's really a question about value and worth. How much is my contribution of a coffee shop review worth? Not much you could argue. However get 100 bloggers to create European-wide reviews of cool coffee shops and then collate and publish them as a book for a well-known travel brand, well then you could say that this content was priceless. There's a great PR story for the travel brand involved, it demonstrates how "modern" and in touch they are with Social Media creators and it saves them money as they don't have to pay any staff to find the places, travel and do the reviews themselves. 

It's about understanding the motivation behind UGC. Walkers have done an interesting job when they annoucned that they would be sharing 1% of the profits with the winner of the Do Us A Flavour contest (as well as 50,000 GBP), but monetization doesn't always have to be of a financial nature. Bugaboo Day Trips doen't pay people to create content, but then they are not charging anything to download their Day Trip Guides, so they are not making a direct profit out of these creators. With Bugaboo its more to do with community augmentation and recognition.

Hmmm.

I'm not sure what the answer is.

But at least I feel that we are starting to ask the right questions and the truth is that we're all finding our way in the new media landscape so there probably aren't any answers anyway...

Most horrible Gmail ad?

Yuk.

What's more worrying is that this is supposed personally designed for me. 

Yuk.

I am trying to work out what key words I have been using in my emails recently.

Google ad-serving technology. FAIL

The Etiquette of Twitter - 3 tips to getting started

In terms of technology, 2009 has been the year of Twitter: Stephen Fry, Jonathan Ross, Phillip Schofield, Chris Moyles and many many more celebs have all started tweeting - the mind boggles. 

If you want a quick overview watch this BBC clip:

According to the lovely Hitwise UK people traffic has trebled in 2009 and in the top 100 of UK visited websites. And you can see why it's happened, Twitter has been all over the mainstream media: Radio 1, The One Show, Daily Mail, Telegraph, New York Times etc. You have to have been living under a rock for the last month not to have been tempted to sign up and find out what all the fuss is about!

Although the Twitter-celebs are fun to follow and its their stardust that has propelled Twitter into the digital stratosphere for me its the normal folks that are getting onto Twitter that I find so fascinating. Friends that I would never in a million years have thought would be interested are signing up in droves. And I think that's great. 

There have been many many article of the Etiquette of Twitter, this is a great one from David Pogue at the NY Times who advises "don't worry about the rules", so without wanting to simply repeat his smart write-up, here are some thoughts from a veteran Twitterer.

FYI, these are thoughts or tips rather than rules!

1. Write your Profile:
I can't stress how important that is. When someone Follows me, I click on their link and this is the first thing that I read. I enjoy following new people, but I want to follow people who I think will be interesting, funny and smart (not necessarily all at the same time, but you get my point) If there's no profile and I don't know you in real life then I am not going to follow you back. Just think of it like introducing yourself to someone new at a party, its the beginning of a conversation.

2. Find, Follow, Forward:
Its flattering when someone follows you back (and I am discounting all those Auto-Follow folks, this seems to be playing the old MySpace "how many friends can I build up as quickly as possible" game), so you should add people if they sound interesting. You can always un-follow them and they won't know. If you read a great Tweet and think that others will be interested forward it aka Re-Tweet  it (RT), always saying who you got it from.

3. Be Useful, Be Interesting, Be Engaging:
Its the same rules that I often talk about for digital planning. Twitter is a community or rather hundreds of thousands of small personalized micro-communities. Don't over-tweet, some people at the start seem to tweet every 3 minutes. But when you find something genuinely interesting or funny, tweet it - add the URL. If someone tweets a question that you can help with, tweet back and answer. Its a conversation.

And that's it really.

Like all technology it takes a bit of time to get your head round it, so give it a go. Stick with it. Follow my tips (or don't) and see how you find it. Personally I agree with David Pogue, I think that Twitter is "powerful, useful, addictive and fascinating."

Have fun!

Come and say hello: www.twitter.com/Amelia_Torode

Compare the Market / Meerkat - when Social Media takes off

When the third most followed Twitter-celeb Stephen Fry got stuck in a lift last night coming back from the Paramount Club (see his Twitter feed if you have not already) it caused quite a bit of news.

What you might not have known was that our lovely Aleks was stuck with him (not looking too amused as you can see...)

This was uploaded (not by anyone related to the campaign I hasten to add) to Aleksandr Orlov's Facebook group first thing this morning. It's now on TwitPic (have a read of the comments, especially about the man in the blue tie front-left...) Not only did it made me chuckle over my toast and marmite, it also brought home to me that interesting creative ideas take on a life of their own when they emerge in the Social Media world.

Aleksandr has over 80,000 fans on Facebook after 4 weeks and over 2,000 followers on Twitter, but our Aleks Social Media success metric is not just about scale but more about the depth of engagement. We were interested in tending an active community of participants, not passive observers. Have a look at the Twitter and Facebook communities and you will find a joined-up conversation occuring. People tweet their questions to Aleks and get into conversations not only with him but also with other meetkat-friends. It is genuinely funny. On Facebook fans are uploading their own customized pictures of Mr Orlov and starting petitions to get cuddly toys made. But above all the quirky, opininated character of Aleks and his love for all things Shania Twain, Titanic (the movie, not the boat) and his bespoke smoking jacket shines through.

And of course from a business perspective, what is it doing for the business of Compare The Market. These web trend stats speak for themselves, the blue line is Comparethemarket.com and the red comparethemeerkat.com
These are stats from the clever folks at Hitwise UK: Since Aleksandr the Meerkat and founder of comparethemeerkat.com televised that his site was not the ‘cheap car insurance’ website comparethemarket.com visits to both sites have increased significantly. According to Hitwise UK visits to Compare the Market have increased by 86% since the week ending the 27th December, as the chart reveals this corresponds with the traffic to Compare the Meerkat’s traffic. 21% of the people visiting Compare the Meerkat went directly to Compare the Market.

I have always said that Social Media is not a replacement for a great creative idea or for a TV commercial. TV adds mass awareness and acts as a catalyst for the Social Media activity, but its on the likes of Twitter, YouTube and Facebook that in my opinion the real fun and conversations are occurring.

This is Alek's latest ad (which was launched to all of his friends Twitter and Facebook before anyone else) in case you have not seen it yet, enjoy!

Simples.

Good Ideas Salon London, PSFK

I spoke at the PSFK session last year and really enjoyed the day. Unlike a lot of other conferences where you can feel part of a cattle-herd of attendees, this is always a bit smaller, a bit more interactive (in the types of conversations and debates that are sparked) and always a bit cheaper (in terms of ticket prices!)
In Pier's own words:

"On 30th January 2009, PSFK will host a day long Good Ideas Salon in London in association with The Guardian newspaper. For the event, PSFK will curate a collection of their favourite forward-focused innovators and thought leaders to discuss ideas in the fields of arts & culture, collaboration, design, digital, marketing, mobile and youth."

There are still a couple of days to go, badger your work and get them to pay for a ticket. Remember in a recession a brain still needs to be fed as well as a body...