The Riff Raff attracts 47,156 Bebo fans

Quick update on The Riff Raff Bebo campaign launched by our friends at Hideous Productions. When I originally wrote about this (here), the guys had 5 fans..basically us, them + the band!

..but since then they've managed to attract an astonishing 47,156 Bebo fans with large numbers of them interacting with the page on a daily basis by leaving comments on the wall, posting pictures, responding to the polls + inviting their friends to join. Hideous is now looking for a brand to sponsor the full campaign which should roll out towards the end of the year. So watch this space..

The Reverend goes all green

Reverend + The Makers Guitarist, Tom Jarvis performed their last song on the John Peel tent at Glastonbury using a guitar made from recycled materials.

Endangered hardwood is often used to make guitars, but these bad boys, found at the Ethical Superstore are made from a variety of different recycled materials. You can choose from the ‘Espresso’ – made from vending machine coffee cups, the ‘Chilli’ – made from off-cuts from industrial pipes, the ‘Pirate’ – sparkling fragments of crushed CDs suspended in translucent blue from office water cooler bottles. There are loads of others to choose from too.

Round-up 30//07//08

GAMING
Update on Spore – over 1m creatures are being created each week // Got totally addicted to this, Astroflyer

WORLD WIDE WEB
Oooh, a potential contender to Google created by Google alumni, called Cuil has emerged! // More on customisation – the ultimate in car customisation from Volvo // Google’s launched a Second Life // U.S Chewing Gum brand Stride Gum sponsored this guy Matt to travel around the world and film himself dancing (badly) in each country.

CONTENT
One for…VAMPIRES – a really clever campaign launching in the states that takes product placement to a whole new level. More here // An update on Hideous Productions' Riff Raff Bebo campaign - they're currently at an astonishing 47k Bebo fans + are now looking for a brand sponsor // I was shocked to read that "some commissioners run a mile when they see a brand, even on a small channel where the money is tight." – an interesting article on how broadcasters view brands in the light of the recent demand for content and the popularity of ad-funded broadcasting.

TELECOMS
Met office offers weather service to mobile phones // Orange and Sony Ericsson-sponsored MobileAct Unsigned will be relaunched as "OrangeunsignedAct supported by Sony Ericsson" later this year. The show will launch on November 2 on Channel 4 and will be supported by an integrated marketing campaign // Google is launching an experiential activity to drive awareness of the Google services available on mobile phones, including Google Search + Google Maps. Google ‘lounging areas’ will be found in London’s commons and parks alongside interactive garden games + branded tricycles. And Google representatives will show consumers how to access the various Google services available using their own handsets.

GREEN + ETHICAL
EJF has linked with top designers including Katherine Hamnett + to create some v.cool t-shirts to raise awareness of environmental issues // And linking with designers seems to be the latest thing for getting the green message across..now Cath Kidston has designed a re-usable, recycled bag for Tesco – together they hope to raise £250k for Marie Curie Cancer + discourage the use of plastic bags // Pretty! Solar Powered Fairy Lights // Reverend + The Makers Guitarist, Tom Jarvis performed their last song on the John Peel tent at Glastonbury using a guitar made from recycled materials. More here.

JUST COOL
Brilliant – a food fight spoon // Kids Rock – your favourite bands singing kids songs..kinda // Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. This is a wordle for my blog, so it clearly shows what I talk about the most.

OLYMPICS
Pretty cool – a video created by Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett (the guys behind the Gorillaz) + based on the classical Chinese Novel ‘Journey to the West’. It’s to promote BBC Sport’s coverage of the Olympics + will be shown on TV, online, on the radio + on mobile // And while we’re on the subject of the Olympics, here’s Nike’s (U.S) effort. I read about it on Contagious, where they also mention Bill Bailey’s comment on The Killers ‘I got Soul’ track, used in the ad (at Latitude festival) - “I’ve got soul but I am not a soldier? You can’t say that - it’s like saying I’ve got ham but I am not a hamster... “ – that made me laugh, a lot.

YOOF
This months 23 things (..rules for brands wishing to attract youth) from Ruby Pseudo // And a nice research presentation here on how young people are using their mobile phones.

EXTRA-CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES
Sad to be missing the Innocent Village Fair this weekend // See the best views over London from the Stella Artois Star Over London - a Zeppelin airship which flies for 45 minutes // And this is a proper East End Old Time Music Hall featuring seven incredible quick-change artistes playing over 50 characters with magic, trapeze and everything. It's had mixed reviews, so...

Calling all vampire-loving, synthetic blood drinking bloggers!

Err, a slightly bizarre, but very clever campaign that takes product placement to a whole new level. A new show soon to air on HBO in the U.S sees vampires living among humans thanks to the creation of a synthetic blood substitute in Japan. And at the same time a new drink is to launch in the real world called True Blood..you guessed it, a blood substitute from Japan!

Entertainment agency, Campfire discovered that vampire enthusiasts (yes they do exist!) are no strangers to the internet + are in fact keen bloggers. So they shared sneak previews of the script with them to encourage comment + discussion in the various forums + blogs that they frequent - resulting in huge buzz online around the show. The next phase saw a second website launch, along with TV, online + print ads plus experiential activity communicating TruBeverage.com – making the explicit link between the show + the drink. The campaign was a huge success with stores + vending machines across New York + L.A selling out of True Blood. And now this week sees a full True Blood website launch containing episode guides + making the link between show + drink crystal clear. The show itself premiers on HBO on 7th September.

Round-up 08//07//08

ONE FOR SUZ
Have you seen The Flight of the Conchords? Well if me + my blog is like Bret + Jermaine, then you're Mel:

TELECOMS
Nokia has launched the next stage of its Music Almighty campaign - a roller disco tour of the UK visiting London, Manchester + Brum. You can sign up for a pair of tickets here to skate for an hour + be musically entertained by DJ sets from Norman Jay, Zero 7, Guilty Pleasures + more. The tour supports Nokia’s ‘Comes with music’ service which has been set up to take on iTunes + has been doing very well having signed up all the major labels bar 1 (EMI). And they’ve cleverly turned what would otherwise be a purely experiential activity into a traffic + sales-driver for their music store by offering everyone to sign up a free download.

Blackberry will be pleased. As demonstrated in its latest campaign, Blackberry is trying to position itself as more of a consumer device. And now it turns out it’s benefiting from iPhone hype as consumers look for a more affordable option. The Samsung Soul does pretty well too..

Sony Ericsson has linked with the Women’s Tennis Association + to support it is launching an ad campaign across 75 countries worth £75m. They’ve also linked with Maria Sharapova to launch a range of mobile phone accessories for women in the 3rd quarter of this year called the Design Collection. Consisting of phone cases, party bags and travel wallets made with Sharapova’s ‘style, fashion + glamour’.

Worth reading but very long. This report talks about the predicted growth in global entertainment + media driven by digital + mobile. Now, we've been talking about this for 8 months or so, but suddenly the whole world is talking about mobile advertising as the next big thing. Nokia has even created Ad Labs in London + Boston to educate + certify ad agency staff on the dark art of mobile advertising + the huge potential for their clients’ brands.

Disney has linked up with Sharp to launch a

Cinderella themed handset aimed at tweens.

Watch this space - thanks to the Nintendo Wii making gaming more accessible, men + women of all ages now consider themselves to be 'casual gamers'. Nokia’s UK Marketing Director, Will Harris reckons gaming will be bigger than music as an industry this year + have made it a top priority. After the modest success of the Nokia NGage, its gaming software now sits alongside it's music + mapping software. Sony Ericsson have launched a Wii-style motion-gaming enabled handset, the F305.

INTERNET + SOCIAL MEDIA
Jim came across this one – Skittle Yourself is a simple but clever microsite that allows kids to create their own characters, Skittles packets + more + then export them into their Bebo profiles + other social networks. A nice example of creating online groundswell - Spore is an EA Games endeavour, which is not to be officially released until September, when it will be released on platforms including the iPhone. But such is the pedigree of its creator the buzz starts now. Created by the guy behind The Sims and Sim City in this new game you get to play God starting at the beginning of evolution and extending all the way to dominating outer space. To build a community online + get people talking + interacting, EA has created a site where you can create + download your own Spore creature + keep up-to-date on Spore news. Some of us were talking yesterday about the likelihood of an application that tells you where in the world your friends are popping up soon. And then literally 30 mins later EI sent through a link to Loopt - a social compass that does just that.

YOOF...+ A BIT OF TELECOMS
Everyone’s been talking about social media, buzz marketing, branded content blah blah blah as the favoured methods of creating a deeper interaction + 2-way conversations between brands + consumers. No longer do consumers just react to what a brand is telling them..they now have control + influence like never before. And while some brands have (to some extent) enabled their customers to even influence the design of products for a while now, I have a feeling this will become even more common - especially among the youth audience to whom expressing individuality is absolutely essential. Nike has been doing the customisation thing for a while, but has now stepped it up a notch by tapping into the mobile world. With Nike PhotoID, consumers can MMS a picture from the real world to inspire their footwear design. Nike will take the 2 main colours from the image to create a personalised pair of trainers. The user is then sent a link to view the trainers on the Nike PhotoID mobile site where they can use the image as wallpaper, send it to a friend + buy the trainers. They’ve timed it pretty well because as people are getting more + more dependant on the internet, social networks, email etc, they’re less averse to paying the connection charges to access the internet on their mobiles (the main barrier before). However, my thinking is that while the youth audience should demonstrate the biggest opportunity for this kind of campaign, they also have the least disposable income..to pay the connection charges + for the trainers themselves?!

..however, Blyk might just solve this problem. Blyk is an advertiser-funded free mobile phone service for 16-24 year olds. In exchange for agreeing to receive up to 6 commercial messages a day (MMS + SMS), users are given 43 minutes of talk + 217 texts free each month. Potentially freeing up cash for mobile internet (?), hmm. Blyk rents space on Orange’s network + has been around for 7 months now – they’ve reached 100k users ahead of schedule and hope to reach 250k users by Christmas.

And just to support the above…here’s another interesting presentation from Mobile Youth discussing what’s next in media for youth. And here are some great stats + graphs + things on the whole customisation thing.

ONE FOR TOM
Puma has created i-cycle – a site that explores + celebrates the culture of cycling through a series of films following cyclists in New York. While I do think the films go some way to capture what’s great about cycling, they’re just slightly too long + not quite engaging enough. However, I do think Puma is onto something + could do more with this…what with the whole green thing + because cycling IS fun, liberating, adventurous + should be shared. In fact I think they’d do well to get me + Tom involved.

GREEN + ETHICAL
Really liking Tonic – they make lovely ethical + organic clothes + bags..altho they are lacking in the female department at the moment. I do think it would be a crime if a certain Art Director of ours lived much longer without this. Camping, learning + entertainment – amazing. The Howies ‘Do’ lectures are taking place in September + they’re looking for applicants with causes they’re passionate about to learn how to actively make a difference. I’m pretty sure you have to write a handwritten letter to apply - find out more here. This is great - Time Out's A-Z of Green.

JUST PLAIN WEIRD
I think Alex + co. should wear these interesting Xbox trousers to their next client meeting…(g)eeeek! Weird – Open Please is a website selling ‘distinctive gifts for the dentist profession’ (WHAT?) – tho I have to say I do quite like the Dentist watch. This reminds me of the Family Guy episode where Peter wishes for his own personal soundtrack – this t-shirt plays different soundtracks selected by you based on your mood, including ‘sexy time’ and ‘sad accident’ themes. I’d love it for maybe 10 minutes.

Samsung gets viral

I just noticed a post on the blog of one of our CC bloggers, Rachel Clarke talking about a viral created by Samsung to support the launch of the Samsung Soul. The video shows 10 optical illusions in 2 minutes to support the handset's 'magic touch' function and 'imagination lives' tagline. It's been hugely successful achieving approx. 1m views and over 500 comments on YouTube to date.

It was clear from the comments that the dragon was particularly popular, so Samsung responded by taking him on a tour of England on the back of a truck and filming it:



Both videos take you through to a really nice, really interactive + tactile microsite featuring loads of gorgeous animations and illustrations.

I'm sure I saw somewhere that sales for Soul were strong (I'll find out), but aside from that it's certainly generated a huge amount of awareness, given the handset some personality + created a fun + interesting brand experience. And I think it's great that Samsung was able to react + respond to the buzz generated with the second video - maximising the overall impact.