golddigga, Bebo and a very pink car

Q7_in_pink.jpgAs well as spending far too long on Bebo tracking our golddigga campaign. last week saw the launch of the first golddigga/Bebo branded car. (there is another bigger monster coming in the autumn) This very pink Q7 hit the Radio1 Big Weekend In Maidstone at the weekend. Luckily (!) I am one of the insured drivers on the thing and am looking forward to my turn behind the wheel. Fiona at t7F London was stopped by The Highway Patrol when she was driving it down, the patrolman commenting '..what a fantastic vehicle you have...'  going on to say it was normally only crappy first drives that normally get the pink treatment.

Cans Festival Waterloo

786072-1552027-thumbnail.jpgMy favorite piece of street art at this stencil fest was the Scalextric track snaking up the pavement. My Flickr set HERE. (loads of other Flickr users have uploaded as well.)

Out-sized Scalextric cars were also seen using the double yellow lines as pick-ups. There was one huge new Banksy image in the middle of the tunnel exhibition space. This was quite symbolic of the mans image/brand that pervaded the whole event - certainly most of the visitor comments i overheard were concerning capturing this image on there camera phones. Quite a weird experiance being at an exhibition where at least 80% of those viewing were doing so via a view finder.

Retail is not boring! (neither are the Dutch)

It must be said most retail stores web sites are pretty pony. While some like IKEA do interest most are dull at best. This site for Dutch retailer HEMA is inspired. It really rewards the wait for the whole thing to load. My current fav pure retail site is the online only Mydeco the work of very talented communicators. I spoke last week to a group of representatives of shopping centers across the UK. I was trying to enthuse them into the idea of making there online advertising more engaging. Part of the presentation HERE.

Hug My Dog


OOh go on, you know you want to. We launched a fab set of sites today for our client Merial.

Hug Your Dog
Hug Your Cat

Its all a bit of a cute overload - as well as being rather a neat way to talk about a dull subject (flea and tick prevention)
We based the whole thing on doing the one thing you can't do if you don't look after your pets coat - give it a great big hug.
We Added a photo competition and other links for stickiness. The photo gallery features the puppy that I'm thinking of getting (my first ever dog!)

TV spot what I wrote

Finally a whole year after we shot it my Fresh and Green commercial is on air. The brand is having a big push at the Natural & Organic show at Olympia this week as well.

The very lush look of the Fresh and Green TV spot is all down to Suzie Halewood. A very top lady who came with both an amazing camera team and lighting guys. She has just finished a feature called Bigga Than Ben starring Ben Barnes** and Andrei Chadov. A jolly tale of how to rip off London. Based on the infamous book of the same name.

** = Yes Prince Caspian himself. Loads more stuff here

MCCA awards - top night had by all.

woooooah that was good. Dave Gorman is a real star, talented and a good bloke. Not something i have experienced before. Event review have video coverage of the event. DG was just excellent during the awards but the thing that really stood out was he took the time to talk with all the attendees at the aftershow party - which included a ramble by myself on why TV is not funny any more, very little i can now remember other than the glazed look on DG's face as i passionately explained my view point. Other point of note was I got to see a huge bunch of souls i haven't seen for ages including Andrew Marsden, a true calm genius. The evening ended rather shakerly on the roof of Shoreditch House. mmm - yes i'm a bit old for that sort of thing.

Smells like Dave Gorman

As part of the MCCA Best awards. The host Dave Gorman has set all the agencies the chance to pitch to him for the launch of Dave Gorman the perfume. Really great idea, unfortunately due to time pressures we couldn't give it the full force, so had a lateral look instead. Not having NDA'a or a financial stake in the out come its refreshing to be able to share the fruits of our (short) labours HERE. The original brief is HERE.

Most industry award ceremonies feature a big name act doing there standard 40 minute set before handing out the gongs with a few quips thrown in. Last year Dave Gorman wrote a specific set critiquing the often pompous and/or confusing web sites of the agency's present in a hilariously unflattering light. With the result a couple of agency's took down there sites the following day. He really is a top chap.

Ceremony takes place at The Brewery, EC1, March 4th. Updates then.

mmm rather busy

Just like last weeks tax return and the impending VAT farce. Everything runs to the last possible day, that includes getting round to putting a new post on the blog.

t7F London is very busy pitching like crazy to replace the MAXjet business. Who rather impolitely went bust on Christmas eve. My consultancy work with KB49 and IATA in Geneva just rolls on, albeit with a rather spiffing new design.

MCCA duties are a bit hectic this time of year with the awards coming up March 4. Best bit is Dave Gorman has agreed to present again. Member agencies are being asked to pitch to him for the launch of a new Dave Gorman perfume.

I am also spending a couple of days judging the APMC awards in Dublin at the end of the month. 

Very interesting personalised music magazine online concept IDIO built using your behaviour on last.fm or facebook. etc. Contents not all there yet, but its a great idea for a new ME brand. 

What is life if not to be full of stuff. 

The oldest .com?

At this time of festive quizzes here is a fab question: 'What is the oldest .com?'

1.      15-Mar-1985    SYMBOLICS.COM
2.      24-Apr-1985    BBN.COM
3.      24-May-1985    THINK.COM
4.      11-Jul-1985    MCC.COM
5.      30-Sep-1985    DEC.COM
6.      07-Nov-1985    NORTHROP.COM
7.      09-Jan-1986    XEROX.COM
8.      17-Jan-1986    SRI.COM
9.      03-Mar-1986    HP.COM
10.      05-Mar-1986    BELLCORE.COM

The thing that really sticks out for me is that it took 12 months for the first 10 URL's to be registered. Apple.com was 19 Feb 1987 by the way. Info from the ever useful Stumble via jottings.com 

Nabstock

 
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 Nabs a charity few outside of Advertising understand (six figure salery's, stonking cars, stacks of drugs - and you want us to raise money for your welfare?!?!!)

Anyway Nabs held its annual fund raising bash last week. Called Nabstock hosted in the club Heaven. Much like the IPA these days it was left to the integrated agencies to fly the flag. RPM won battle of the bands and as this picture shows the main dance floor was awash with the great and the good of Advertising (not) The picture was taken at 11pm -never let anyone say this is an industry of late nights!

ooooh new fonts

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I do still get a excited by new typefaces and the possibilities they create. So many fonts pass you by simply by being ambient, that it's really fun to get pulled up by someone's work that you can't really explain why you like it. its just there and you want to use it.  Jason Walcott's done a really sweet wiggly thing called 'Giggle' as featured in Veer's top 10 fonts of the year. Makes a change from the ever useful but deeply frustrating Dafont.

Not a normal day

8.45 a.m. Late to the MCCA board meeting due to a person under the tube at Tooting -nice. Had to leave the board meeting early to attend an old colleagues funeral,(same age as me-agh!) skipped the wake to head back to the office and plate spin before diving into an hour long rather sticky conference call with clients in Geneva. This then made me late to meet The Fish at the rather grand Goring Hotel in Victoria. -she didn't seem that cross, as she was being plied with GnT's by the rather eager staff. 7 p.m first meeting of the day I made on time. An RSA reception at Buckingham Palace to view the Italian Renaissance collection, not a style I normally seek out but the royal family have amassed a quite spectacular group of large canvas's. The restored works feature vivid colours and alot of large women with no clothes on. This most extraordinary day ended in a blizzard of cocktails at Lost Society in Clapham.

No links in this yet, typing on someone else's machine running Safari which seems to despise this blog with a vengeance

Lovely illustrations -but who?

While searching for illustrations styles came across these that I screen grabbed BUT like a pillock forgot to make a note of the persons name or web address - aaagghh. they are really cool but who did them? suddenly you miss old fashion book thumbing.

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