t'Internet PR & Advertising2.0

The Bark Side: 2012 Volkswagen Game Day Commercial Teaser

2012-01-19T02:27:00.000-08:00

AMAZING!

John Lewis Christmas Advert 2011

2011-11-11T10:05:00.000-08:00

The Advert that sent twitter wild today from John Lewis - "For gifts you can't wait to give"

Ann Summers first ever TV advert

2011-11-09T15:51:00.000-08:00

Ann Summers first ever TV advert, shown in the TOWIE ad break.

Might as well JUMP

2011-10-14T10:02:00.000-07:00

I was lucky enough to go to JUMP 2011 on Wednesday, I attended 3 sessions which were all great. Here are a few bits of knowledge passed on by the excellent presentations.

1) Customer service in the social age, Warren Buckley, Managing Director, Customer Services, BT @wazzer_bt

BT been using social for 3 years for customer service.
Started when Mike Skinner (AKA the streets) tweeted about BT Vision, has since developed into a 25 man social team. 20 of those are Twitter focused on @BTCare. But, that compares to a 7000 man customer service team who are on the phone!
Warren convinced CFO of the ROI of social as a customer service channel.
They have a simple format: Receive complaint> Reply> Resolve> Get thanked
Social requires real-time response, Warren say 30mins - 1hr.
They have started a BTCare community forum that pulls in all the social stuff to a central hub.
His main message was 'Be brave' and keep things internal so you can control it easier, quicker and better

2) Optimising the opt-in opportunity: Email acquisition in a multichannel environment, Nick Fuller, Director of Strategy & Analytics, e-Dialog International

Email still outweighs social for how consumers get messages.
"Don't use a pull environment to send a push campaign"
"A ‘like’ is nice but an opt-in is better!"

3) Mobile: The final frontier for digital marketing, Kevin Cochrane, VP Marketing, Digital Enterprise (Adobe)

"Think mobile first".
Today's consumer is a multichannel social consumer.
Mobile and desktop experiences should be different, as they will be different demographics.
But there are barriers in mobile web - for example apps need approving by 3rd party (apple etc).
Geographic targeting is massive, mobile web can be easily utilized for that.

The song that was going around my head all day!

o2 RWC advert: Wake up call from the England team

2011-09-29T09:54:00.000-07:00

French Connection - I Am The Suit

2011-09-17T07:38:00.000-07:00

New very long advert French Connection UK.

Music from Chris Brown, Busta Rhymes and Lil Wayne makes you take notice.

Advert of the week

2010-12-11T07:09:00.000-08:00

New Argos Christmas advert. 3 wise men!

Advert of the week

2010-12-04T12:36:00.000-08:00

Lynx are pro's at adverts

Advert of the month

2010-11-27T12:37:00.000-08:00

Too tough to call, so joint honours:

John Lewis

Sainsbury's

Advert of the week

2010-11-20T04:07:00.000-08:00

There is only one way to get into a Terry's Chocolate Orange! "Smash it to pieces"

Advert of the week

2010-11-13T02:07:00.000-08:00

New Škoda Fabia vRS "Made of meaner stuff ", the follow on from the nice version!

Advert of the week

2010-11-06T07:43:00.000-07:00

Any use of C3PO and R2D2 is good in my books, nice work Currys.

Advert of the Month

2010-10-30T04:40:00.000-07:00

McCain Pride & Family TV Ad, though my wife said " what a waste of a good advert"

Advert of the week

2010-10-24T05:45:00.000-07:00

Yeo Valley, look out for the Owl!

Advert of the week

2010-10-17T15:04:00.000-07:00

Tetley Tea Folk come back! Don't like the tea, like the advert and the tea folk.

Homebase

2010-03-08T14:10:00.000-08:00

Video advert inside a print title

2009-09-17T12:00:00.000-07:00

Entertainment Weekly in the US has put the first video in a print magazine. The video player includes an advert for Pepsi Max and trailers The Big Bang Theory on CBS.

My favourite video on it:

Hat tip Justin Reid, via BBC

Online PR is all about Community

2009-09-03T11:41:00.000-07:00

Radio silence broken, we have been busy at RealWire of late!

Online PR is all about Community from RealWire on Vimeo.

Ultimate Recycling

2009-06-26T13:26:00.001-07:00

Retro ad from 1989 is back from Milky Way:

De Ja View

2009-05-19T11:55:00.000-07:00

So Sainsbury's is 140 and Marks & Spencer's is 125...and they both brought us the Avocado?!?!

It seems Rainey Kelly Campbell Roalfe/Y&R (M&S) and Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO (Sainsbury's) have all followed in MCBD (Hovis) very large footsteps!

Sainsbury's:

Something New From S..
Watch the ad...

Marks and Spencers:

125 Year Celebration..
Watch the ad...

Amazing Hovis advert from 2008:

1 out of 1

2009-05-14T13:28:00.000-07:00

So you make pressure cleaners, not the most exciting products...

But you celebrating 25 years in business, so you make an advert:

I give Kärcher the thumbs up - 1 advert, 1 successful one! In the same mould as Coke and Mentos.

Everyone loves magical Trevor

2009-03-24T13:36:00.000-07:00

I heard through the grapevine that the new 118 247 advert is to the theme of Magical Trevor, the legendary Weebls stuff creation.

Magical Trevor makes an appearance at the table waiting for curry:

Here is Magical Trevor in all his glory:

It has only taken 5 years for him to get on the big screen and 10,873,559 views on Weebls-stuff website!

Funny viral

2009-03-18T10:40:00.000-07:00

Funny viral from Samsung, saw this floating about Twitter:

Hat Tip to Bridey

Social Networking World Forum - Day 1

2009-03-15T12:45:00.000-07:00

Last Monday I headed over to Olympia with @AdParker for the Social Networking World Forum, Day 1. RealWire were one of the media partners for the event.

The day was littered with fantastic speaker, first up was Julie Meyer on how social media business can make money. She gave case studies on Ariadne capitals portfolio of social media clients who have had success.

Slicethepie - A financing platform for music, which has partnershiped with Bebo
Zopa - A well established social lending platform
Monitise - A mobile banking service with 10'000 customers a week
Lickerish - Celebrity image syndication with a clever business model
10Duke - Bringing offline communities online

Julie summarised the characteristics of these enterprises:
- Willingness to accept change
- Inspired Dullness
- Surf the Tsunami
- Attention to interface/design

Alex Halliday then impressed me, a 23 year old with a great business brain. Alex founded SocialGO which he described as the "Long tail of social networks" as they make bespoke networks.

Alex gave a great timeline of social networks:
2000 Disconnected > 2002 Friendster > 2005 Major Players > 2008 Connectivity

Other notes; 1 network cant cater to all people, Applications cannot capture niches, Ning has 800'000 networks, not everyone wants to join Facebook/MySpace. 50 cent's network has 600,000 members!

SocialGO can be white labeled and has integrated functions such as advertising and paypal which allow for good business opportunities.

Netlog were one of the first social networks, Lorenz Bogaert noted that they are in 25 languages and have 40 million members.

David Jones from Friendster reminded us of emerging markets, as Friendster is number one in Asia. It is a top 10 site for traffic in the world, and top 5 site in the mobile internet world. m.friendster.com had 1.5 BILLION page views in a single month!

Michael Donnelly from Coca Cola commanded the stage, starting with virtual thirst and then going onto Cokes Facebook fan page. The fan page isn't run by coke it is run by fans! It is the number 2 fan page on Facebook. The two admins were asked to make a video for coke, which was fantastic!

Interesting Coke keep social media marketing in house, they feel it is important to have real relationships.

Dirk Singer from Cow PR gave tips on marketing in a recession. According to Marketing Sherpa social media budgets are up 28%.

Other notes; social bookmarking not being picked up by digital natives, companies not claiming usernames and UK housewives spend 47% of free time online!

Some great slides from Dirk:

The Air force blog assessment seems like a good way to interact and would work in any social media manual.

After watching the Panel I finally got the chance to speak to Will McInnes after seeing him speak on numerous occasions and communicating on Twitter.

2nd Annual Media Content World Summit, London

2009-03-03T11:28:00.000-08:00

Last Thursday I went to the 2nd Annual Media Content World Summit in London, run by Joseph De Villiers at TechnoSummits. I tried my best to live tweet!

Opening keynotes were by the very entertaining Rory Sutherland from Ogilvy, setting the scene with comedy and in-depth knowledge of digital advertising practice. Rory commented on 'Realtime' - preventing issues with information (E.G Radio's having roadwork updates), that advertisers are spending the proportionally the same as when there was less media channels and gave a case study for customer engagement using Fizzback as an example.

The industry review was provided by ACT (Association of commercial television) - Official research has discovered that mobile TV has been slow to pick up.

The first panel was "VOD and IPTV: Show me the money" among the panelist was Richard Gale from Playboy TV UK. A fellow Twitterer!
Notable comments:
- Playboy closing DVD division to sell direct in digital
- 'Portability' - highlighted well by Slingbox
- OnDemand replacing scheduling and Personalisation
- Content quality
- Tracking - VOD and IPTV allows for tracking

Geir Bjorndal from Conax then spoke on the future of digital media.
- Protecting revenues for content providers
- Encrypting content

The final part I went to was Jon Snow interviewing Pete Bazalgette a very interesting interview called "Straight Talking" about monetisation of digital media, summary:
- This is an age of disruption
- Gaming and gambling are generating revenues
- Where will the BBC raise funds?
- ITV advertising down 17%, Five down 30% and Channel4 down 11%
- Hulu will overtake YouTubes revenue in 2009
- Privacy, Piracy, Personalisation and Phorm
- Penny make pounds make lots of pounds!
- The Kangaroo saga
- Product placement on UK TV (currently illegal)
- Behavioural advertising (regulations and backlash)
- Traditional media are dinosaurs
- Jon Snow blogs!
- Digital Britain, how the governments short term will mean much wont be implemented

Twitter, Polls, PR and Tea

2009-02-27T09:38:00.000-08:00

So it looks like I am not alone on the sugar in tea front. Using Twitter, I setup a twtpoll for ask the UK PR twitter community about whether they have sugar in tea! Here are the results:

I am usually pretty healthy, but tea is my bad habit. Probably 3-10 cups a day, depending on where I am etc. So that is 3-10 tea spoons of sugar (not to mention the caffeine). Time for a change me thinks...so I am going to try cut sugar and maybe tea in general is favour of a glass of water...wish me luck.

Spotify

2009-02-23T12:01:00.000-08:00

Through Twitter I have heard of Spotify, a free programme for streaming music. After a simple download you can search and listen to a huge amount of music, about 90% of my searches have ended in success (Obviously you need an Internet connection). Spotify has numerous licences so many artist are covered!

You can then create playlists and share them with your friends. Jed shared his Electro mix earlier, and here is my Rock through the ages playlist.

Basically it is pretty awesome!

Oxford Twestival

2009-02-13T00:33:00.000-08:00

I went along to Oxford Twestival #oxtwestival last night at The Cape of Good Hope pub on Magdalen round about. Organised by @Jake, @colinmercer and @sylwiapresley.

I chipped in my donation to try and help raise the $1 million for Charity:Water that this Twitter organised meet-up is trying to achieve.

Scott Harrison, Founder of charity: water - Thanks the Twestival:

If you want to help this worthy cause, then donate via: http://twestival.com/

We had entertainment from the Funky Llamas, who were fantastic.

A little video clip from the night:

Well organised, good fun and a good cause. Well done to all at Twestival for sorting this, especially a very busy Jaz Cummins!

Twestival: Thursday 12th February 2009

2009-01-23T08:30:00.000-08:00

On February the 12th, 100+ cities will be hosting their own Twestival!

From the social media release:

"The global event, described as "a 'tweet-up' with a social conscience", will be raising money to support charity: water, a not-for-profit bringing clean and safe drinking water to people in developing nations."

As I am from the shire, I will be attending OxTwestival in Oxford. You can sign up here http://twtvite.com/lmkbt0

Remember, the main reason behind this is to raise money to give people in the less developed world clean drinking water!

The September Campaign Trailer - www.borninseptember.org from charity: water on Vimeo.

Life's for sharing

2009-01-19T08:04:00.000-08:00

The new advert from T-Mobile was shared with me on Twitter by Kryten from Red Dwarf...

Official blurb from T-Mobile Dance on the advert developed by Saatchi & Saatchi:

"At 11 o'clock on Thursday 15 January around 350 peoplebroke into a choreographed dance routine in London'sLiverpool Street Station for the shooting of a new advertising campaign by T-Mobile."

Life's for sharing has a cool YouTube page too - http://uk.youtube.com/user/lifesforsharing.

What have we been up to?

2009-01-11T13:12:00.000-08:00

New year, new name - webitpr is now RealWire. Everything else remains exactly the same!

O and we made a cool animation too :)

The Online Media from RealWire on Vimeo.

Compare the Meerkat

2009-01-04T08:19:00.000-08:00

Very funny TV advert from Comparethemarket.com , and they have even set up a nice website at Compare The Meerkat dot com!

With so many boring TV adverts in the price comparison space this is a clever idea. More at Seventy seven's blog.

'X-Men Origins: Wolverine' trailer

2008-12-16T04:39:00.000-08:00

Awesome

Brilliant Viral: 'Creative Juicing'

2008-12-09T09:30:00.000-08:00

Hat Tip Wadds

Currys not so good offer

2008-11-21T11:20:00.000-08:00

Currys Christmas: So the advert says get a £10 voucher when you buy a camera, ipod, sat nav or camcorder. You can even give it to someone you love this Christmas...

...so, what about the small print? Well it wasn't so small:

Redeemable from the 4th-24th of December!

Hmm, not much good opening that on Christmas day...FAIL.

Berocca blogger relief - part 2

2008-11-04T15:18:00.000-08:00

Got my relief pack on the 2nd before the big day, so havent had a chance to catch up!

Here it is in all it's beauty:

USB panic button, Berocca glass, stress ball, dead fred pen holder, two pens and an electronic bubble wrap keyring:

They forgot the tube of Berocca!!! Ooops... The dead fred is awesome, so is the bubble wrap keyring. I have never tried Berocca and I still haven't!

Three for Three meme

2008-10-23T13:50:00.000-07:00

I have been tagged by Paul to join in the latest meme, started by Jed here, it is all a bit of fun. To quote Jed "Three for Three will consist of three top three selections then passed on to three people for them to each pass it on to three more people"

Top Three non-work websites
1. Facebook
2. WycombeWanderers.com (STILL unbeaten in L2)
3. BBC iPlayer

Top Three Karaoke Songs
1. It's Not Unusual
2. Mustang Sally
3. Scatman (Ski Ba Bop Ba Dop Bop)"...

Top Three Weekend Cocktails
1. Pina Colada
2. White Russain
3. Cheeky Vimto

And the three people I am tagging are:
1. Gill
2. Richard
3. Suz

Berocca blogger relief - part 1

2008-10-02T05:22:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Berocca for the pack...no time to blog in detail until I get back from Honeymoon so here is their latest viral instead:

Link love to Wario

2008-09-29T10:10:00.000-07:00

This is everywhere, but is worth a look!
http://www.youtube.com/experiencewii

Viral, viral marketing

2008-09-15T14:02:00.000-07:00

Hat tip to Todd Defren

YouTube video hits 100 million views!

2008-09-08T15:58:00.000-07:00

And the video is... "Avril Lavigne - Girlfriend"! Not the "Evolution of Dance"!!!!!!!!!!!!!

More on the 'cheat' here.

I can't embed it as it states "Embedding disabled by request", here is the link though - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQ25-glGRzI

Evolution of Dance deserves a play...

Cadbury's remixes

2008-09-07T02:08:00.000-07:00

Just witnessed my first playing of the remixes of cadbury's cult glass and a half full adverts:

Glass and a half full website is pretty cool...

Say Hello, Wave Goodbye

2008-09-02T13:50:00.000-07:00

A bit of link love to a very good friend, Mr Stephen Davies AKA PRBlogger has taken the plunge and gone freelance! At webitpr we have the privilege of being his first client! Best of luck mate, looking forward to catching up soon. Our CEO, Adam Parker, has launched a shiny new blog and has also said a big thanks to all the work Stephen has done for us so far - we will be even more demanding more now! :)

Lets hope he does more work than drinking...

It just deserves to be seen...

2008-08-24T12:32:00.000-07:00

Well done EA sports, awesome:

1 Million views in 2 days...wow

2008-08-23T14:15:00.000-07:00

Have you ever met Fred? He is a YouTube sensation, his latest video has got over 1 million views in 2 days = Wow.

His channel, www.youtube.com/user/Fred, has:
Subscribers: 429,688
Channel Views: 10,529,653

There is a commercial investor behind the man (boy - Lucas Cruikshank - 14!), a IM wireless device called Zipit. Guessing they are pretty chuffed with the total of 77 million viewers of all of the Fred videos!

More info:
"Lucas has also scored a five-figure sponsorship deal with the makers of a wireless messaging device called Zipit - so he's augmenting his virtual fame with some real cash."

The Zipit device doesn't get featured in the last 2 video's and neither does Fred's Zipit web link - www.fredonzipit.com. So maybe it has gone a bit pear shaped?

Personal favourite:

meme: Inspirational communicators

2008-08-08T09:27:00.000-07:00

Ged has tagged me on the latest meme to find inspirational communicators. So far names include; Steve Jobs, Muhammed Ali , Big Winston, Banksy and Wadds Grandad!

I thought I would take the literal route and go for the big 3; Telephone, Internet and Email.

Alexander Graham Bell for beating Elisha Gray to the patent office and starting the ball rolling for long distance (not initially mind) voice communications.

Sir Tim Berners-Lee the man behind the WWW, might not have been the same if it wasn't royalty-free!

'The Email' it actually pre-dates the Internet by 25 years! Now a staple of most of our lives, I have at least 4 email addresses!

On a personal note I would got with two teachers; Andy Corcoran, my inspirational advertising professor from Uni and Mr D'Angelo - I have never seen someone with such a passion for Maths!

I am going to tag Robin, Paul and a very quiet Daljit

Another award!

2008-07-28T09:39:00.000-07:00

Only two months after winning the 'North East Digital Awards' for 'Best Use of Emerging Technology' we have only gone and done it again in our birth place! This time we have won the innovation award at the Lincolnshire Echo Business Awards. Again it was the Social Media News Release that caught the judges eye.

Winners on the stage:

Davies and Shorthouse doing the 007 look:

Ooh aah Cantona

2008-06-18T13:32:00.000-07:00

He is back - he must have run out of Euros @ Partouche betting!

partouche-betting - ..
Watch the ad...

Also does the french version too:

Facecrook - You're nicked!

2008-06-17T14:04:00.000-07:00

Yorkshire police have started to use Facebook (and YouTube) to catch Graffiti 'artists'. They have started a group called 'Harrogate Safer Neighbourhood Team' that shows 'tags' from the artists in the hope that younger members of the community might know who has been vandalising local buildings.

It has already led to four arrests - Go Social Media crime fighters!

Not the best quality video from Harrogate Police:

webitpr's Social Media News Release service wins an award!

2008-05-16T05:57:00.000-07:00

A quick lunchtime post as our Social Media News Release won an award at last nights 'North East Digital Awards' for 'Best Use of Emerging Technology' in the Digital Innovators category. You can see our entry here.

Not only did we win the Best Use of Emerging Technology award, we also won the overall Digital Innovators Award too! Good times.

Here is the service in all its glory:

Who saw it?

2008-05-14T15:12:00.000-07:00

Possible new cult advert for 'Drench Spring Water', Brains from 'Thunderbirds' dancing to Snaps 'Rhythm is a dancer'

Bring on May 22nd!

2008-05-12T14:39:00.001-07:00

Been a bit busy of late, but can't wait for new Indiana Jones film! Cool widget that Lucas film made for sharing:

t'Internet World

2008-04-30T12:59:00.000-07:00

Popped over to Internet World today to say 'Hi' to Zuzanna from Huddle (Nice to finally meet you Suz!) as they are one of our channel partners.

While I was there I managed to finally meet Jonathan Hopkins from Shed and watch the 'Measuring Social Media' seminar in the 'Web 2.0 Experience' arena.

Can't say it was the most interesting seminar, in fact Will McInnes pretty much kept me awake. The full line up was:

Nielsen Online, European Internet Analyst, Alex Burmaster
1000heads, Client Services Director, Robin Grant
Nixon McInnes, MD, Will McInnes
Techlightenment, Co-founder, Ankur Shah
Last.fm SVP, European Advertising Sales, Miles Lewis
Behindthebuzz, Consultant, Rachel Clarke

Still too many cagey answers and only Will actually looks like he wants to get grips with setting standards and finding answers around measuring social media.

Still I managed to FINALLY meet Dom Whitehurst afterwards for a quick burger!

Budweiser do it again, excellent:

It really is all about Online

2008-04-20T05:10:00.001-07:00

You might have seen Autotraders current TV advert, it ends with this caption:

What comes first? 'Online', it is like Autotrader are ranking the different mediums on screen. Also they have included mobile this might be in part to the recent iPhone advert that shows someone doing price comparisons on the go.

The print publication began in 1977 so pre-dates the Internet, and now has net sales of 251,252* and readership of 1,376,754* and is well known brand and publication. But, according to ABC* between 1-31 March 2007 autotrader.co.uk had 525,954,855 page impressions, 70,605,394 searches and 8,006,910 individual users! (Those advertising spaces on Autotrader.co.uk must command a few quid!) So no wonder they are driving people online...

* from BRAD online

It also brings back that age old argument in many disciplines...measurement. Due to the nature of the beast online is easier to measure, so in turn easier to charge more for advertising! It really is all about MONEY...

Battle Royale?

2008-04-15T18:30:00.000-07:00

Just heard on Radio1 that Tesco's are going to launch a new part to their website to download and buy music, it is going to provide some real competition for iTunes.

This comes just a week or so after Myspace announcing that they are going to do the same and Amazon are joining the battle soon too!

With much competition between all the social networks for traffic and users I think MySpace's recent news of selling music on myspace is genius. They needed to specialise as all these social networks are becoming so similar. I personally only bother with Myspace for music, so that looks more of a natural fit than Tesco or Amazon. But, many people have Amazon accounts and trust Tesco as a retailer. So it looks like a hell of a fight, bring on the price war!

It's back; "juice loose aboot this hoose":

Piggy backing

2008-04-08T15:22:00.000-07:00

Saw this advert on TV today from Berocca that piggy backs on the YouTube success of the famous 'OK GO' music video. (Which has had 32 million views!)

Berocca:

OK GO:

What's the betting on someone trying to use the 'Evolution of dance' for a future advert...

Not a fan

2008-04-04T14:35:00.000-07:00

I am not a fan of the timely new advert from Cadbury's and Glass and a half full production...I have given it a week and it doesn't work on me like the Gorilla! (Apart from the music!)

There is a great remix available via this article inspired by the T5 fuck up.

For those who have missed it:

Everyone masticates...

2008-03-26T13:58:00.000-07:00

Richmond council is missing a trick if you ask me. These boards stuck to lampposts do a great job collecting gum, but why not sell the space for "consumer-generated street graffiti". Adidas have done it and the council could made some cash!

Slick Blyk

2008-03-12T14:12:00.000-07:00

I haven't been using my Blyk phone much, been busy plus I have two other phones! Of the messages I have had through this has been my favourite to date:

SMS:
T3's Hot 100. The world's greatest gadgets were revealed in April's T3 magazine. What do you think came out top? 1 - PS3; 2 - Wii; 3 - Ipod Touch 32GB?

My free SMS reply, answer: 2

MMS:
Apple's touch was already the best iPod ever, but the 16GB capacity seemed a bit tight. Now, with 32GB of storage, Wi-Fi and Apple widgets for email, mapping and weather reports, it's an incredibly alluring MP3 and video player, photo viewer and PDA, all powered by Apple's mouth watering multi-touch technology.

All the iPhone's good points without the expensive monthly contract or cacky camera. Go online to www.t3.com/feature/hot100-top10 for a chance to win T3's top 10 gadgets.

Loving the interaction, only problem is I can't find the competition entry page!

I have also had a Gif advert for 'Shine A Light', Martin Scorsese's film of the Rolling Stones in concert. But, even though Blyk know my phone type they tried to send me a video for Will Ferrell's new film 'Semi-Pro' that I couldn't receive!

My favourite advert on TV at the moment:

Advertising for PR

2008-03-02T09:18:00.000-08:00

You might have missed it as it isn't very eye-catching, but the inside page of last weeks PRWeek had this advert "Why it's time for a new kind of communications" for the Ledbury Group.

Well if worked on me! I read it from start to finish, maybe long copy ads work in the PR realm? It basically goes through how Ledbury are Thought Leadership advocates. "All businesses should aim to be Thought Leaders and market leaders" how true, as Ledbury say the two are interlinked.

PRWeek does have some interesting advertising...I will give it that! A clever idea for Ledbury to bypass the irony of advertising like everyone else!

Over to some thought leaders:

Blyk update

2008-02-28T13:54:00.000-08:00

Finally got my Blyk SIM working! Got it in a bit of a retro Nokia 7250i. Now awaiting my first MMS!

Blyk aren't getting the most positive media coverage at the moment as they aren't getting the amount of subscribers predicted.

UPDATE:

Got my first MMS from Blyk. From STA Travel...even though I am not a student!
Talking of (recent?) retro:

Social network for Gingers!

2008-02-19T11:46:00.000-08:00

One for Chris Reed here...spotted on five news of all places! Redhedd.com a social network for gingers!

Love the intro:
"Welcome to Redhedd.com, a new community devoted to cheerleading a beautiful noble rarified and dying breed.

Red headed or even just bearded? Enemy of the sun? "Freckleface" when you were a wee'n? Spend more on suncreen than you do on shampoo? Or maybe you're one of the "others" but just can't seem to squelch your undying affection for the copper-topped. Well then join up! Membership is free and the redhead love is overflowing."

Apparently red heads are dying out so they need to breed together to survive. It got some coverage on MTV Canada from their redhead presenter:

Blyk

2008-02-18T12:07:00.000-08:00

The joys of being 24...it means that I am young enough to sign up to Blyk. If you want to know more about Blyk then read Blyk Watch on SMSTextNews.

I have my SIM card now I need to wait for it to become active...soon I hope! Then bring on the adverts and the free texts and calls. Wooop

Gotta love Honda ads

2008-02-06T14:40:00.000-08:00

To go with it's new advert Honda has launched it's Problem Playground site it is accompanied by everyones favourite voice over man!

Take a look, solve the problems and learn something new about Honda.

Here is the advert if you missed it:

BBC and Super Bowl don't mix

2008-02-04T10:15:00.000-08:00

One of the main features of the BBC is that is funded by the British public and licence fee payers, IE there are no adverts. So of the 1 million people from the UK that tuned in, and the 400'000 that kept watching until 2am (Thanks to Radio1 for that stat) the advertising was some what void.

Apparently 90 million Americans go to the toilet at half time too, so the $2.7 million to spend on a 30 second ad" doesnt look so wisely spent now!

So what happend in the online world, here are two of the best atricles I have read:
Advertising age
Searchviews

This is may favourite from the ads that i have seen:

Super Bowl Sunday

2008-01-29T23:18:00.000-08:00

Today's news might be dominated by Ryanair and them sticking two fingers us at the ASA but Sunday is Super Bowl XLII - New York Giants Vs New England Patriots in Arizona.

What does the mean? The most expensive ad space of the year. "$2.7 million to spend on a 30 second ad"

There is loads of noise about this, check out some here, here, here, here and here.

I haven't got my head fully around the use of Twitter yet, but lots of people will "Twitter the ads live",

Lets hope the Giants are well enough to play. Not that I will be watching at stupid o'clock GMT!

Here is a Video from Firebrand about the Super Bowl advertising slot, thanks to Rohit for the link:

R.I.P Sir Ulrich von Liechtenstein

2008-01-27T08:49:00.000-08:00

I have to say that A Knight's Tale is one of my favourite films...think that might make me a bit of a sado! So even though the new Batman film was meant to be Heath's big break I was already a fan.

I spotted Melanie's post the other day about how the "blogosphere leaked the story before everyone else". Facebook seems to be an outlet for fans to gather as lots of groups have appeared. E.G. here, here and here. His memorabilia flooded eBay and various forums have been created. A shame that he didnt cause that much of a buzz during his life, lets hope that Batman does him credit!

The film is due for release in the UK on 25th June, so that clears up some of the speculation that it wasn't finished!

Rest in peace Sir William:

Floody hell

2008-01-15T12:17:00.001-08:00

The news is dominated by the flood warnings today, most stations pointing people to - www.environment-agency.gov.uk/subjects/flood/floodwarning/.

Google is pointing people the same way - Searching: Flood warning, Flood, Floods - the environment agency and BBC weather come out top! Regional and national news pages have followed suit - Google News.

Good reaction making online resources available, plus a floodline phone number (0845 988 1188)...I am glad I live up a hill now and on the 3rd floor!

Lets hope that the floods in January are only this type:

A bit of playground fun

2008-01-10T14:20:00.001-08:00

I have to admit this made me laugh...chants on the playground, jumpers for goalposts:

My Week in Media

2008-01-03T14:06:00.000-08:00

Happy new year, may 2008 be fruitful!

I have been tagged by Daljit to jump on the 'My Week in Media' bandwagon. You can catch up with it all the goings on here.

I have to say it has not been an average week, so my answers might make you laugh!

What I've watched

Not a lot! Some festive television (Extras and Dr Who) and a few bargain DVDs (Miami Vice and X-men 3) from the sales!
The trailer to the new Jack Black film (Looks amazing!)
Going to be using the new BBC iPlayer loads, as now bookmarked!

What I've read

Again not a lot. No books, the odd sport page of newspapers and trying to avoid the gossip/fashion/bridal magazines that the Mrs has lying around. Mainly been catching up on my Bloglines and reading other peoples week in media! (O...and the TV Guide!)

What I've listened to

Radio1 - Mills in for Moyles
Jools Holland's Hootenanny (Seasick Steve rocks)
The Joseph soundtrack at the future In-laws house!

What I've surfed

Football sites, as it is Transfer time! Latest from BBC.
Fantasyfootball, Facebook and Hotmail
Again caught up with Bloglines too!

I told you it was an odd week!

Who I am tagging?
My friend Nathan Cook at Cheeze, Lloyd Gofton and Simon Collister.

Classic advert as a bonus:

A year in PR

2007-12-20T01:29:00.000-08:00

Wadds has started the 2007 'A year in PR' reviewing session, he was followed swiftly by Ged. As a newbie to PR and only touching one specific part of the genre (online) I will do a micro version!

(1) Most important development in social media
webitpr's Social Media News Release?...it has got to be the development of Facebook.

(2) Biggest disappointment
MySpace's response to FaceBook - Maybe that will change soon!

(3) High
Cadbury's Gorilla and the Wonderbra follow up!

(4) Low
Limited in depth responses at the NMK Beers and Innovation event (Great event otherwise)

(5) Biggest cock up (in 2007 in general)
Steve McClaren - Joke list here...

(6) Predictions for 2008
Social networks being banned at work and home for steeling peoples lives...and some faddy sites/tools that will simply bob above the water and then sink without a trace. Plus more personalised and targeted advertising in 2.0 ways.

(7) Next big thing?
More and more specific social networks such as vbmaNETWORK and meandmybicycle.

(8) Most important tech development
'Mobility' the ease of going online wherever/whenever - nicely advertised here by Vodafone.

Some great Advertising methods from the year to date:
Handvertising, Shadow(vertising), On Police Cars, In 'the can', On Toast and Using Hills.

Over to Daljit and Dom for their thoughts.

Happy Christmas: A great Christmasy advert to end the year:

A social media social network

2007-12-19T10:21:00.001-08:00

If you are "...involved in bottom up approaches to marketing (viral, buzz, word of mouth, social media, etc), business (co-creation, open innovation, etc) and social policy (participation, collaborative governance, etc)" then this social network is for you, pop along to vbmaNETWORK and sign up.

2007 the year of Facebook

2007-12-13T22:50:00.001-08:00

How much media coverage has FACEBOOK got the last few weeks, let alone this year! Following the Facebook Beacon PR disaster, are they loosing out with selling ad space?

I have only seen blank adverts:

Wadds feels that the advertisers are trying to get him to have a hair transplant, maybe they will make me get a new shirt?

Apparently with Facebook ads you can:

"Advanced Targeting -Target by age, gender, location, interests, and more.
Content Integration -Get noticed, not skipped.
Flexible Pricing -Buy clicks (CPC) or impressions (CPM).
Trusted Referrals - Attach friend-to-friend interactions about your business to your ads."

Looking at another part of the Facebook promotion machine - The Stereophonics have managed to miss a trick and not link their application with there band profile page!

Quiz; how many Celebrities can you get in one advert:

Can Facebook work for PR? – Part 2 – Guest Post

2007-12-04T14:03:00.000-08:00

As I previously mentioned I would be keeping an eye on uses of PR within Facebook.

I got in contact with Lee Henshaw, founder of 'Silence' a London based online advertising agency that were hired by Alicia Keys to boost her online profile. Silence created the “As I Am” application for Facebook as part of the brief.

Lee recently commented on Brandrepublic:
'Social media are a challenge for publicists,'...'There are no editors, so to reach this community you have to act like a friend, rather than as an advertiser.'

Lee had this to say:

'Of all the social networks, Facebook represents the biggest challenge for publicists.

You Tube, for example, has Featured Videos, and My Space has Featured Artists. These are editorial slots that a publicist can negotiate.

Facebook doesn't offer similar opportunities. You can set up a Facebook group, of course, but doing that well requires a flare for a rarer PR skill, the publicity stunt. Looking at groups my friends are joining and leaving today, I see that the group for the Manchester band Red Vinyl Fur has less than 200 members, while the “I Secretly Want To Punch Slow Walking People In The Back Of The Head” group has nearly 750,000 members.

The people behind the “I Secretly Want To Punch Slow Walking People In The Back Of The Head” group are publicising a Facebook app called Sekret Gifts. A good PR stunt? Yes and no. If they'd chosen to advertise their app and paid an £8 CPM, for example, it would have cost £6,000 to generate 750,000 page impressions. How much did it cost them to conceive this group? A few rounds in the pub, you'd guess. Their Sekret Gifts app though has only been added 4,000 times (representing a modest 0.005% click through rate), and wherever this wonderfully titled group is written about online, the app is never mentioned. There's no connection between the group and the product in the same way that Cadbury, for example, had one for its Bring Back Wispa groups.

As for Red Vinyl Fur, maybe their Facebook group would be more popular if its title reflected something they stood for - Girls With Guitars Rock Harder Than Boys, say. London's Heaven nightclub, for example, has a group that will donate 1p to a cancer charity for every member it attracts. They currently have 25,000 members, leaving them with a £250 donation to make. Their £10 CPM is arguably more cost-effective than paying for a website to serve 1,000 page impressions because they're paying for 1,000 people to respond to a call-to-action, and, of course, they're supporting a good cause rather than lining an online publisher's pocket.

The Facebook group, therefore, should be the publicist's responsibility. The right stunt can reach 1000's and if you make it newsworthy, maybe millions. The Facebook app, however, can't be the publicist's alone, because, as with most products, you can't make a Facebook app popular without advertising it.

There are 10,000 Facebook apps but only 4 of them - Super Wall, Funwall, Top Friends and Video - have over 1m active users. Publicists can conceive apps, manage their build, and contributing to their popularity by ensuring they're written about, but that approach alone will never bother the most popular apps. Parlaphone, for example, got plenty of publicity for Kylie's Kylierobotics app, but it only has 169 active users (Which Spice Girl are You? has 10,000). To break through the clutter you need a budget to advertise the app on Facebook, and Facebook will only start talking to you when you have a minimum of $50,000 to spend, which, while PR remains the thin end of the wedge, eclipses most publicity budgets.'

Instead of a advert, this week I am going for a video of my guest blogger:

Viral works!

2007-11-29T11:10:00.000-08:00

I am trying hard to get people to talk to me about PR within Facebook, no success yet. But viral marketing got a big thumbs up today!

"McCain Foods' first viral ad has been viewed by more than 100,000 people in 124 countries in its first week"

The McCain Potato parade is the viral ad to reach this impressive number, add another 1 to that I think it's great.

Happy birthday Stephen for tomorrow!

See for yourself:

Can Facebook work for PR?

2007-11-21T13:32:00.000-08:00

One of the main questions asked at last nights NMK event was:

"Can you show me an example of where a planned Facebook campaign has worked for an online PR ?"

Yesterday NMA announce that Kylie's new album 'X' will be available to download first (today) on Nokia's music store before the general release. This ties in nicely with the Facebook application kylierobotics.

Application description:

Send your Friends your favourite Kylie Robotic or even create your own! You can either look through the archives of Kylie robotics based on her different outfits over the years or send the new album 'X' Kylie to your friends.

The campaign is being handled by Parlophone, and follows Kylie's launch of her own social network http://www.blogger.com/www.KylieKonnect.com. Kylie is busy online!

The application currently only has 883 daily active users (1 is now me)! Some way behind Wispa, HSBC and Cadburys Gorilla groups. But maybe an application is the way to go? - More interactive?

Definitely one to keep an eye on!

Better finish with a Kylie advert:

"The Power"

2007-11-19T15:22:00.000-08:00

No this isn't a blog post about darts, and Phil Taylor. But, the shear influence that YouTube has, check out these stats from 19/11/2007 at 23:24pm:

Most viewed video of all time - Views: 65,158,919 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMH0bHeiRNg

Most linked proper* video of all time - Links: 4,013,639 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPOOWvP_dd8

Most commented on video of all time - Comments: 230,489 -http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wPglHZQf-0

*Some spam type videos have more links

Mind blowing numbers, funny how a Google maps video is the most linked video...the power of Google?

One video/story generating 230,489 comments shows what impact the social media can have and how the public can have their say. (New comments are being added as I write this). A real tool in online communication.

As this is a topical news video and nothing to do with PR perhaps the Wonderbra Cadburys spoof is a better example - http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=wonderbra+cadbury&search=Search

21 different related videos, over 400'000+ views, 200+ comments and even I have linked to it, all in 1 week! Amazing use of Internet video for guerrilla marketing (The advert wont be used on TV).

I will leave you with the highest ranked 'advert' video:

Hammer of the gods

2007-11-17T02:57:00.000-08:00

Saw this on the old Viralmonitor, to promote Led Zeppelin's new album the "The Mothership" NetDisaster.com are helping Led fans to take over the net and do what they call "Zeppelise the net".

Check out PRvert.blogspot.com under attack to the sound of the immigrant song!

You can visit the campaign blog here, cool little application and online PR stunt...what site do you want to Zeppelise?

After Pudsey's version of this last night, here is a better spoof:

Is that a gun in your pocket...

2007-11-11T12:15:00.000-08:00

...or are you just pleased to serve and protect me.

Just saw this on Top Gear, an unfortunate piece of bus advertising by Hampshire police. If you still haven't spotted it check out where the exhaust pipe is...no that's not his trunction!

Good things come to those who wait

2007-11-08T10:50:00.000-08:00

Emily at work spotted this advert courtesy of anotherflaminblog another classic from Guinness created by Abbott Mead Vickers.BBDO. Digital.

The advert was directed by Nicolai Fuglsig of Sony Bravia bouncing balls fame

Here are some great 'Facts and figures' from the Dail Mail article:

• The advert was shot on location in a remote side village called Iruya, in the Salta region of northern Argentina, with a population of around 1,000 people.
• The cast is made up of locals from the village and surrounding area, none of whom had ever appeared in front of a camera before.
• The tipping scenes were created by world record breaking domino tipping experts, Domino Domain.
• Setting the domino's on the table from the start of the advert took a team of three experts two days, but took just 14 seconds to topple.
• Toppling items included: 6,000 dominoes, 10,000 books, 400 tyres, 75 mirrors, 50 fridges, 45 wardrobes and 6 cars.
• 24 hours of footage was captured.
• The car toppling sequence was successfully shot in just one take.

Don't forget:

Computer problems!

2007-11-03T07:26:00.000-07:00

After going on Holiday WC 22nd October, I came home to computer problems = Lack of blogging!

Bear with me! Here is something to keep you going:

Best advert on TV at the moment Sony Walkman project you can see it here - http://www.visit4info.com/preview-flash.cfm?vm=0&type=3&adid=51961

Almost on par with:

Spice up your underwear?

2007-10-17T11:33:00.000-07:00

The ladies' bras, the ladies' bras, the ladies' knickers and the ladies' bras!

Another music PR stunt today. But, this time it's the mother of all girl groups the Spice girls. They have signed a £5 million deal with US lingerie firm Victoria's Secret which means that the forthcoming 'Greatest Hits' album will be initial only be sold through Victoria's Secret stores across the US from November the 13th.

There have been so many changes in the music industry recently, Madonna and Nine Inch Nails to name a few more since Radiohead, Prince and the Charlatans, it seems that you need a novel promotion idea or big hitting PR to sell albums! What ever next? Lets see some more 2.0 ideas people.

So girls, can we expect a bit more of this (I hope not!):

ITS CHRISTMAS!

2007-10-15T10:34:00.000-07:00

October 15th 2007, 8.16am (BST) Channel 4...my first spot of a consumer Christmas advert!

Disneyland resort Paris trying get school kids to bug their parents before work and book up for this Christmas.

Here it is in all its glory - http://visit4info.com/preview-flash.cfm?vm=0&type=3&adid=50705

Lets be honest, it doesn't come near the classic Coca Cola advert:

Football fever

2007-10-12T14:25:00.001-07:00

Good luck to England tomorrow, do they have 11 fit players?

Spotted this piece on Brand Republic about Fulham and their sponsor LG electronics. (They have sponsorship on static in-stadia hoarding, LED screens and primary shirt sponsorship)LG has commissioned Comperio Research to evaluate the the sponsorship of Fulhan for the next 3 years.

From Comperio's website:
Comperio’s research agenda will be to measure the extent to which the sponsorship programme has influenced:

Brand perceptions and positioning

Brand awareness

Product range awareness

Brand image

Brand consumption

Something that interests me and I even wrote my dissertation on! I will be keeping a close eye on this, and keeping everyone up to date.

If only they were UK citizens...

Couldn't help myself...

2007-10-09T10:25:00.000-07:00

Toyota has got a great advert doing the viral rounds. It made me laugh so much I had to put it up.

I'm not a World of Warcraft player, but thanks to Hollie (at work) I already know about the Leroy Jenkins saga.

It is even pretty funny without even knowing about that so take a look:

Going deeper underground

2007-10-08T10:58:00.000-07:00

A development on a previous post, CBS Outdoor have announced a new development in the underground world. They are testing a cross-track projection system (XTP) at Euston at the moment.

The HD moving image advertising should be in place at the start of 2008! You can run, but you cant hide...

I like the idea as; you can never hear anyway, travelling is boring and it isn't some tatty old poster. I wonder what happens when the train comes? Could be annoying if you are interested in what is being advertised!

On another note check out this advertising..."the ads will be about five acres each"! - Mahooosive

Advert of the moment, spotted it on altogether digital and on New Media Curious already:

Are Radiohead leaving themselves 'High and Dry'?

2007-10-02T11:08:00.000-07:00

Radiohead have announced that you can choose how much you pay for there next album, this comes after they split from EMI a while back. They will directly pocket any money that they make - apparently you can pick from between 0-99 quid!

You can visit the page for the new album "In Rainbows" and pre-order the download or discbox now. (Available on the 10th).

With a huge worldwide fan base and die hard fans maybe only Radiohead can get away with this distribution method? Time will tell...maybe we will see Thom Yorke at Eurovision when he needs to pay the bills?

Prince and more recently the Charlatans started the trend, I say bring on the free stuff!

Hell of a PR stunt, amazing way of doing it...Radiohead I salute you.

Going with a related song today - In my top ten of all time:

London baby

2007-09-19T11:26:00.000-07:00

You might have seen my recent post about bluetooth that said "Lincoln let me down, bring on the bright lights of a real city!" in my hunt for a bluetooth advert.

Last night I was optimistic about receiving an advert in London. I was at the Y Design Awards with work (webitpr) in the Royal Festival Hal l in the Southbank Centre. We were at the event as sponsors, and Adam even got to present an award!

Couple of snap shots from the camera phone:

I had my bluetooth armed and ready (in fact I have had it on the last week now), Emily reminded me to keep checking it.

The Royal festival hall seemed like a suitable place to be transmitting a bluetooth advert. The whole building would be covered by a 100m transmission radius, and the Y Design Award is for digital design! But alas no joy...

We made our way back to Kings cross (often above ground) but still nothing! I have to admit i had forgotten about my bluetooth by the time we got to Kings cross. While we were waiting for the train I felt a buzz from my phone, thinking it was a text I calmly got my phone out to see. Bluetooth file: 'Transvision'! Bare in mind this was 11.20 and our train left at 11.30 - spooky timing or what! (I have to admit i was a bit excited - sad I know)

Here is the advert from the brilliant o2 (well done on using the bluetooth technology 02):

I think we deserve as absolute classic advert to finish on today - beat this:

Blue2ooth

2007-09-17T11:28:00.000-07:00

My second bluetooth advertising post in a few days, big thanks to Bluepod media CEO, Stefan Hohmann for getting in touch!

The content that you can get across is pretty amazing, obviously the phone you have will have some say in what you can receive - check out this video for the Genesis 'turn it on again' tour.

Remember this is an 'opt in' service, so you can say 'No'. This helps the advertiser as they know who receive the content and who turned it down.

The 100m radius is large enough, especially in an enclosed area like a cinema. Unless you are like Asafa Powell in the cinema or you have a crappy old handset get that bluetooth on and enjoy your mobile and then advertising!

Going to London tomorrow, bluetooth is switched on and ready to rock 'n' roll. Lincoln let me down, bring on the bright lights of a real city!

This would be good to get on your iPhone:

OT - Buy a new hat

2007-09-16T03:44:00.001-07:00

After dating for over 4 years (I know, I am slow!), yesterday I asked my lady, Rachel, to marry me and she said 'Yes'! :)

No date set yet, but I am sure I will see bride and wedding magazines appearing soon!

A glass and a half full of joy?

2007-09-14T11:40:00.000-07:00

With almost as big facebook following as Spiderpig, the Cadburys Gorilla is pretty cool. (Or is that an unshaven Phil Collins?). PRWeek had the advert up for 'Hit or Miss', they went for the same outcome I would have = HIT!!! Apparently it is linked into the sponsorship of the 7km 'Great Gorilla Run' on 22nd September, I would have liked it anyway...

There is a fantastic piece of in depth discussion relating to the advert on 'altogether digital', it goes into what brands are having to do to make an advert stand out in a crowd.

The moment you have all been waiting for:

K810i

2007-09-13T13:04:00.000-07:00

Spotted a cool advertising tool today thanks to Brand Republic. Bluepod has launched a bluetooth marketing network in some UK cinema's. (Vue and Cineworld).

"Bluepod Media has developed hardware that can communicate with Bluetooth-enabled handsets over a radius of 100m"

This is the type of advert you might receive:

I am going to have to go to sunny Scunthorpe to see if they have it at Vue...Trek!

I will be seeing how much bluetooth advertising is going on by leaving my bluetooth on all the time. (I am usually afraid that a drunk person in a pub will send me a picture of their dog...stranger things have happened!) I don't have high hopes for Lincoln, maybe London can make me proud on Tuesday.

Another classic - Levis know how to advertise!

It's in the game

2007-09-04T12:40:00.000-07:00

Spotted an interesting story on mad.co.uk about In-game advertising the other day.

Research has shown that 87 per cent of gamers remember integrated brand messages in computer games, demonstrating the opportunities for marketers.

it went onto say:

...a recent UK survey that found 82 per cent of nine to 19-year-olds have at least one games console and 70 per cent play computer games online.

This was followed up by an article today on 'gi' about another poll of gamers:

Overall, of those respondents who said they had seen adverts in a game, 64 per cent reported that they felt positively towards the brand.

Now just to find who plays what and you have a willing audience!

Some games have implemented product placement for along time. The Fifa series has had realistic stadiums since I can remember, and the advertising hoarding has tended to be game manufactures and sponsors. But this has started to change with the obvious attraction of this ever growing new medium for advertisers.

Spotted these brands at a real game before?

They even manage to get adverts in games that you would expect like Splinter Cell, subtle 'ey?

This links nicely to a Social Media Release that Coke created earlier in the year for a Second Life competition called Virtual Thirst. Check out the YouTube page for some of the entries - hmmm more advertising for coke. They certainly don't need any more brand recognition, even in the most remote parts of the world I have seen Coke imprinted on the landscape.

I need a new PC so I can have a go on Second Life!!!

I'm confused...I am I in the real world or the World of Warcraf t:

Everything's happy underground

2007-09-03T13:09:00.000-07:00

My first glimpse of the CBS Outdoor digital underground advertising today on the London underground. Unfortunately, Stephen and I were going too fast (avoiding the strike!) for me to grab a video going up the escalator!

There was a fantastic flowing advert for 'The Mousetrap' that I wanted to get on video, but to get the idea take a look at this picture and quick video or go have a look for yourself sometime.

The new O2 arena advert:

Sony Bravia underground advert:

After Stephen's comment that its getting like the Minority Report, I was half expecting the digital boards to say "Hello Mr Shorthouse" or even "Mr Yakamoto"! Maybe that's due on the next round of underground upgrades...

Anyway - It's back! The amazing Skoda Fabia advert on TV:

Football.com

2007-08-28T13:14:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned in a previous post "More and more brands are giving out direct web links at every opportunity", this was the case in the half time adverts of tonight champions league game on ITV. Nikefootball.com have launched a new series of adverts to accompany their fancy new site and 'T90' gear, plus they have got the Dirty Sanchez boys on board to feature in the "Put it where you want it tour" where "precision meets punishment" the adverts feature Rooney, Malouda, Frings and Gattuso trying to prove who is most accurate in their T90 lasers.

Good follow up to the cage series of adverts from a few years back. But what did those adverts advertise? Answers on a postcard.

You can see Rooney's efforts on target better via Youtube:

Work, work and more work

2007-08-28T11:41:00.000-07:00

...only kidding boss! For those of you who don't know, here is a bit about what we have been up to at work.

At webitpr we have been very busy, you might already know from Stephens blog that we have developed and launched a new part to our service - our Social Media News Release (SMNR). Obviously I am biased, but the SMNR is damn cool. The functionality of the concept is perfect for a variety of online press releases and benefits enormously from our monitoring prowess. Take a look at our latest news if you haven't seen Todd Defrens original template in action. (I told you we have been busy!).

In a few months we have hired Stephen, partnered with a translation service, commissioned an online PR survey and who could forget our 'kickit' table football event (Videos here)! Busy bees.

Personal Favourite: "Hello to you"

Facebook again

2007-08-23T12:38:00.001-07:00

A few posts in, and another Facebook mention! They better start paying me soon...especially when the advertising kicks in.

Brand republic today highlighted the news that facebook is going to start 'targeted' advertising. Using details from you favourite music, films, books and activities but not personal details, they will allow advertisers to put targeted adverts on your personal mini-feed.

Commenting on Brand Republic - Dean Donaldson from digital marketing company Eyeblaster isn't a fan, can't say I am either. Ironically Dean has used facebook to vert his frustration, I wander if big brother is watching? I appreciate that Facebook have to make money, but an 'opt in' option would be nice Mr Zuckerberg - we get some adverts already that we can cope with NO MORE PLEASE!. You have the edge on Myspace, don't blow it...Facebook has grown 366% since the start of the year and attracted an audience of 7.6 million unique visitors.

Great use of 2.30mins of you life, great advert, great song...better in the cinema:

England beat Germany...

2007-08-22T15:03:00.000-07:00

...with the amount of UK Advertisers on hoarding: 4-0! (+1 for Denmark)

Clutching at straws I know, but we are useless! Quick footie rant - we lost, we didn't play that well, we underachieved, Germany put out a weak side, Carrick was useless, Robinson is fat, Hanson/Shearer and Wright are wrong we didn't need to play well - we needed to win!

Back to the Advertising: Umbro continued to advertise their 'onelove' brand with Umbro.com digi-banners, to show it's "100% dedicated to football in all its forms". Nicely leading to the SX boots that hit you on the Umbro homepage (Gold studs?). More and more brands are giving out direct web links at every opportunity, looks like Vodafone have hit the nail on the head with a fantastic advert about mobile Internet - we can access the Internet whenever we want!

Nationwide introduced a cool initiative 'Sponsored by you' , where 6 members of the crowd get their name on the hoarding. I spotted "Joy Vickers" (Geek I know), better than watching England miss a hat full. The 'Blog: Add A Player' bit is very bare...where is David Healy on the list? See if you can beat my 9 out of 10 on the quiz too. Not the worlds best website but still got some good content.

A bit of a classic for you today...yes I am old enough to remember it!

Starter for 10

2007-08-20T11:41:00.000-07:00

What better place to start than with facebook! I am a facebook fan, perfect for keeping in contact with friends (especially those that are abroad), setting up events and wasting time...Fair enough facebook has security flaws and so does Myspace, but I have found a 2.0 'friend'/marketer making the most of it all - Tom.

I am 'friends' with Tom, but so are 1312 others! That makes a mockery of the 198 friends I have. He is an event manager for Londonparties.co.uk and his facebook is an extension of his work. I get regular updates on 'events' @ Chinawhite and so do the 1312 others. With 34 yes' and 74 maybes I guess that's not a bad return for his guest list.

Good use of technology Tom, not quite sure on your choice of recipients (IE me!)...

"Most table bookings normally have a minimum spend of around £500 - £1000" See you there?!?!

Great advert from across the pond:

What's in a name

2007-08-19T10:48:00.000-07:00

My best friends first comment, "doesn't that say pervert?!?" Well almost...

There is method to my madness:

1) PR
2) Ad-vert-ising
3) Pervert - "...a deviation from what is considered to be orthodox or normal"

Hopefully that will encompass what this blog is all about.

Now I bet your wondering what you name means!

http://www.whatsinaname.net
Giles - English, from Greek "young goat".