Tag Archives: creative

Leo Burnett Sydney, Diageo Australia paid internship on offer for graduates

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Leo Burnett Sydney and Diageo Australia are giving flight to ‘The Nest’, an industry-first  program offering ambitious, talented students and recent graduates a paid marketing and advertising internship spanning both businesses.

Looking to give students the premium opportunity to get a leg-up on the career ladder, the program allows students access to invaluable experience and networking opportunities working with some of the industry’s best creative, strategic and business minds.

Selected interns will undertake 12 weeks of paid work across both businesses, broken down to six in the account management team at Leo Burnett and six weeks as part of the brand marketing, planning or innovation teams at Diageo Australia. The Nest is set to run twice a year.

“We value the partnerships we have with our agencies and The Nest is a powerful way to build the next generation of marketing professionals to work seamlessly between client and agency,” says Matt Bruhn, Diageo Australia marketing and innovation director.

“For some, The Nest will be the ultimate platform to springboard their careers as they will get exposed to one of the most awarded client-agency partnerships in Asia Pacific,” agrees Pete Bosilkovski, client services director Leo Burnett Sydney.

Applications are now open for tertiary students in their last year of study, or those who have recently graduated, in a related field including advertising, marketing, business, design or communications. Check the facebook for all the details.

The top 20 shortlisted respondents will be invited for an interview with a panel of Leo Burnett and Diageo Australia representatives and four successful applicants will be offered internships.

Competition: We’re giving away three double passes to Vivid Sydney

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We have three double passes to give away to Vivid Ideas in Sydney. Tickets to this are selling fast, with some of the shows we have tickets for already sold out!

To win just tell us in 25 words or less:

If you had an unlimited marketing budget, what would you do?

Send your answers here with the subject line, ‘Vivid Ideas Comp’. We have a double pass to give away for each of the events featured below, so get in, be creative and best of luck!

Note: The event is held in Sydney, the competition is for event tickets only – flights and accommodation not included. Winners will be notified by Marketing magazine on Thursday May 23 and tickets will be available at the event.

About the events: 

Co-Create the Experience (Johnny Cupcakes) SOLD OUT

 

Johnny Cupcakes (Boston), a street wear entrepreneur named by Business Week as America’s #1 Young Entrepreneur, launched a brand from the boot of his car – a brand that now has so many passionate devotees that over 1000 people have Johnny Cupcake logo tattoos.

In an exclusive Australian keynote, Johnny will share the philosophy behind his retail environment, tightly-managed online experience, and the way he uses participation and surprise to thrill his fans and expand his brand. Johnny will then join a panel of Sydney experience engineers who will share their strategies for working with audiences, fans, online and real-world communities to co-create experiences.

Build a Movement (Ruby Pseudo) 

 

Do social networks and technology empower us to shape our world – or are they distractions, disconnecting us from a shared, local experience? Ruby Pseudo (London) has built a network of 1500 young people across the world who contribute to a global youth planning and research consultant, working with clients like Nike, Nokia and The Guardian.

In an exclusive Australian keynote, Ruby will share her perspective on the ideas, channels and movements that unite this truly global generation. Ruby will then join musician and activist Jello Biafra (San Francisco) and artist Karen Therese (Sydney) to discuss how today’s tools and trends compare to the past, and to explore how we use creativity and technology for expression, and to transform our communities.

Where have all the Rebels Gone? 

 

Is Australia the ‘too lucky’ country? Are we seeing a generation growing up that dodged the real effects of the GFC, have never known war or hardship, and have been raised on positive reinforcement?

The results of a massive new research study into thousands of 18 to 29 year old Australians will be presented as part of Vivid Ideas. Have our youth lost the art of rebellion, dissent, passion and creativity? Or have we found the formula for socially connected, stress-free living?

About Vivid Sydney: 

Sydney will once again be transformed into a spectacular canvas of light, music and ideas when Vivid Sydney takes over the city after dark from 24 May – 10 June 2013. Colouring the city with creativity and inspiration, Vivid Sydney highlights include the hugely popular immersive light installations and projections, performances from local and international musicians at Vivid LIVE at Sydney Opera House, and the Vivid Ideas Exchange featuring public talks and debates from leading global creative thinkers.

Interactive fly traps, McDonald’s graffiti menu: creative European billboards

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There has been plenty of innovative uses of billboard campaigns of late. This new billboard in Milan, Italy for an insect spray also serves as a huge pest strip, thanks to a few layers of aerosol glue.

The glue follows the arc pattern of the Orphea spray and is a clever way to show off both brand and creative. Check out the making of it.

Meanwhile, McDonald’s in Warsaw, Poland are changing up a billboard-sized menu that is hand-drawn in multicolored chalk twice daily by graffiti artist Stefan Szwed-Stronzynski.

It’s all a part of a campaign devised by the local Warsaw office of DDB, art studio Good Looking and Krewcy Krawcy Productions with the goal of the campaign to “capture the freshness of McDonald’s food” according to Magdalena Drozdowska and Mateusz Ksiazek, the creative team behind the project.

“We wanted to show the freshness of McDonald’s food. Hand-written menus gave us a flexibility to change and show new offers on the daily basis,” the say.

Create Design Awards: outstanding creative projects wanted

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Design submissions for the 9th annual Create Design Awards are now open. The event celebrates Australia’s world class creative industry, awarding exceptional talent over an array of creative fields. The Awards are presented by desktop magazine, sister publication to Marketing, and this year the Awards night is taking place in Sydney for the first time.

Have you been involved in a creative project that deserves to be recognised? The categories most applicable to marketing-related work include:

  • Identity/branding
  • Interactive
  • Packaging
  • Print – commercial
  • Signage and display
  • Website

Pictured: The 2012 winner of the Identity/Branding category, Qube Konstrukt’s identity for KUBIK Melbourne, for client Marksthespot.

Entries for the 2013 Awards close at midnight on 31 May. Click here for the full list of categories. Entrants must be based in Australia and work entered must have been completed between 1 January 2012 and 31 May 2013.

Winners are determined by a panel of some of Australia’s most prominent and respected design industry figures and will be announced at the prestigious 600+ people Gala Awards Night in November 2013 in Sydney. In addition, winning projects and designers will be published online and profiled in a special Create Design Awards issue of desktop magazine.

Click here for more details on how to enter.

Click here to see the winners from 2012.

 

Comms Council responds to ASB ruling on Facebook comments

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The Communications Councils has verified that the Advertising Standards Board’s (ASB) controversial ruling of last month that third-party comments on Facebook pages be deemed ads do in fact make them subject to the industry’s codes of ethics.

The Council says the classification of branded Facebook pages as ‘a marketing communication tool’ which falls under self-regulatory codes, including the AANA Code of Ethics, provides clarity for agencies and their clients as to their responsibilities to moderate comments posted by the public.

Margaret Zabel, CEO of the Communications Council confirmed that the ASB can rule on whether the content is in breach of the codes, irrespective of whether the posts are authored by the brand owner or by members of the public.

“The Board noted that the Facebook site of an advertiser is one over which the advertiser ‘has a reasonable degree of control’ and therefore requires monitoring ‘to ensure that offensive material is removed within a reasonable timeframe’,” Zabel says. “The Board’s determination suggests it realises the challenges posed by this medium are greater than traditional advertising mediums and the fact that total control is beyond the scope of advertisers. We have initiated discussion with the AANA and the Board to establish what constitutes a reasonable timeframe so that we have clarity and certainty on this issue.”

According to the Council, the ASB’s ruling is consistent with the premise that advertisers and agencies should operate in the spirit of the self-regulatory codes in a way that is platform neutral.

As the landscape continues to shift, the Council predicts more cases of self-regulation adapting to continually reflect community standards will emerge.

The Communications Council provides training for members in the area of social media legal and ethical issues.

 

Great creative matters online – 6 examples

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Better creative, better results 

A good piece of creative might be the single most important thing that affects the outcome of your digital advertising campaign. This has been well-known for many years, but research now backs this up and shows that ads with good creative perform significantly better.

A recent study by comScore shows that creative execution had four times the impact of the media plan on overall campaign results. The research firm analysed the results of 396 online campaigns and found that creative execution accounted for 52 percent of the results, while the media plan was responsible for 13 percent and other contributors accounted for 35 percent.  

Bad creative can also have an adverse effect on the results of a branding campaign. A new mobile study by Dynamic Logic found that the best creative can boost brand favourability and intent to purchase, while bad creative has the opposite effect.

Dynamic Logic surveyed users who viewed mobile ads and compared their results to a control group of users who were not exposed to these ads. According to the analysis, the brand favourability of users who were exposed to an average creative execution was 3.9% higher than for users who were exposed to none. Brand favourability was 14.5% higher with the best creative executions. However, the worst creative execution actually reduced brand favorability by 4.9%. For intent to purchase, results were similar. The average creative execution boosted intent to purchase by 4.7%, the best creative boosted it by 16.3%, and worst creative decreased intent to purchase by 4%.

These two studies lend weight to the notion that when launching a new campaign, significant resources, energy and attention should be given to the creative execution to achieve best results. Here are six examples of advertisers and agencies that have done just that. They have focused on creative execution to deliver ads that have shaken the known boundaries of display advertising.

 

Inception glider

Launching a successful home entertainment DVD campaign can be challenging. Much of your target audience has already seen the movie or the movie trailer. Therefore, DVD launch campaigns need to emphasise the DVD’s extra features, such as cut scenes or interviews with the creators and actors. This will not only further entice viewers and fans but also create a powerful experience and generate interest for the DVD release, given the right promotional ad.

Warner Brothers Home Video did this for the launch of the Blu-ray and DVD release of Inception. It wanted a high-impact stunt to drive awareness so challenged CBS Interactive to produce an ad experience that mimicked the movie’s fast pace and space and time manipulations. The ad ran on GameSpot’s homepage. Using the glider ad format, the site falls back toward the user to reveal a user-initiated video.

Concurring with the Nielsen and comScore studies that great creative delivers great results, this ad exceeded the benchmarks. Dwell rate, a metric linked to high brand effectiveness and measures mouse movement over an ad, was 268% above the benchmark. Click-through rate was 247% above the benchmark.

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Specsavers ad and takeover

Since users are already used to the location of the mid-page unit in relation to the publisher’s content, advertisers are presented with the challenge of breaking the standard mould and delivering a message outside the typical banner that grabs immediate attention. Therefore, advertisers need to apply out-of-the-box thinking – literally.

Specsavers’ latest ad does just that. The astronaut featured on the ad loses his glasses in the spaceship, and they start floating all over the homepage while he tries to catch them. It’s an instant attention grabber, immediately luring the user’s eyes toward the ad (and the Specsaver glasses).

Once you follow the call to action and click on the ad, as higher numbers of users do given the quality of the creative, it opens to a full homepage takeover designed as the control room of a spaceship. In the middle of the spaceship’s dashboard the Specsavers ad video features.

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Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood video

Interactive video takes engagement a step further by enticing users to participate. The combination of touch and video can significantly increase retention.

This ad for Ubisoft’s game Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood provides a great example. A YouTube homepage takeover that takes video to another level, the ad starts as the assassin runs through the constantly changing YouTube homepage. The scene focuses on various parts of the homepage, as the assassin races through. When the video stops, the user has to click on an item inside the movie that the assassin can use to fight its rival. This all happens at a rapid pace, almost immersing the user within the game. It’s exactly what any advertiser wants from a fast-paced, engaging video.

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White Collar iPad demo

Tablets are snatching more market share of users’ browsing time, opening up great opportunities for advertisers. Specifically, the ability to touch an ad with your fingertips rather than the mouse creates added intimacy and a significantly better user experience.

This ad for a popular USA Network show White Collar lets users help solve crime and take part in the show. This interactive iPad demo lets you scan The New York Times for clues on how to break the criminal cypher to unlock bonus video footage from the upcoming season. Users simply move the iPad image with their fingertips.This ad used HTML5 to deliver a highly engaging and interactive ad that proved a match to any Flash-based ad.

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Gas Natural Fenosa interactive game

Who said that utilities ads have to be boring? Just sprinkle a little imagination, whisk in some creativity, add an interactive game, and voilà — a fun ad. This is what Gas Natural Fenosa, a utilities provider in Spain, did when it wanted to promote its brand.

The ad is an interactive game in which users have to flip an omelet without letting it splat on the floor. The game increases engagement and lets users explore the brand in a creative way by cleverly using natural gas as a necessary means to fry an omelet. Better still, no one has to clean up afterwards.

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Mass Effect 2 interactive video

Another good use of interactive video is to allow users to explore huge quantities of information about a product. Users can touch different parts of the video and get additional explanations on them. This way, all users can watch the standard video, while users who show more interest can view more content and information.

This is what Electronic Arts did with the launch of the game Mass Effect 2. Once the user expands the banner, he views a 10-second introduction video. Once this introduction video ends, the user can click on each of the characters and hear quick introductions about them and their roles in the game. In addition, using a mouse, users can switch between videos and areas in the game. This ad is a fun game by itself.

These ad examples show how effective digital advertising can be when advertisers let creativity take centre stage in the banner. It makes a strong argument for any advertiser embarking on a new digital campaign to spend time thinking through their creative as better creative delivers better results. As all of these advertisers know.

Dont shoot the messenger

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One benefit of ticking over a new year (beyond the chance to make a heap of resolutions which invariably are abandoned before February!) is a chance to reflect on the previous year – what happened, what we learned, what points of view different people had on particular hot topics and so on. With the continuing momentum around digital marketing, 2009 was in many ways a year for genuinely ‘new’ news.

However, in many ways 2009 was also a bit of a groundhog day, in particular when it came to criticism of market research and the accused ‘overuse’ of it. Every few years the same old points of view get wheeled out… it kills good ideas’, ‘it takes too long’, ‘its too expensive’, ‘consumers can’t evaluate creative’, ‘we should rely on our gut more’ and so on.

Typically these views are offered by ad agencies or sometimes clients – maybe the research isn’t telling them what they want to hear, an idea they were keen on might not have resonated with respondents, or maybe they’ve been exposed to poor quality research or the inappropriate use of particular approaches.

Sure, I’m a researcher at heart so I’m going to be a little biased, but I wanted to use my blog to respond to a couple of the points raised.

Firstly, lets start with the fundamental role research plays in the marketing cycle. People have different views on what this is, but I always see it as ‘reducing risk’ – marketers can be responsible for multi-million dollar decisions and a researcher’s role is to minimise any risk in the business decision through evidence-based advice.

Which brings me onto the first criticism of research, ‘its too expensive.’ Consider what a typical TV campaign may cost – say $1m would be a reasonable average for a typical major brand or product campaign. Launching such a campaign having not researched it properly beforehand would be like playing roulette with shareholder money. A robust pre-test picks up any issues with a campaign prior to launch and can offer improvements to both the execution and media plan to ensure the campaign is as effective as possible. Sometimes it might mean going back to the drawing board but it would’ve saved the company a million bucks and the potential fallout from a bad campaign. Not bad considering a pre-test would typically cost less than 5% of the media bill. Research should be considered an investment in optimising the campaign rather than an expensive gatekeeping process.

A second argument is that research ‘kills good ideas’. A good idea, a good campaign, will survive any well structured research process. The issue is that it sometimes kills the ideas that the marketing team likes. The ideas that people have slaved away on for weeks, months or even years. You can understand the hurt and rejection this might create – believe me, we sympathise – but ultimately the idea needs to resonate amongst the target audience for it to be deemed successful. I’ve seen ads win awards from the advertising industry, yet when you look at the tracking data, they do absolutely nothing for the brand. What is more important?

A third argument is that research is ‘not predictive’ of what happens in the real world. In some cases, this might be true – but that’s because the wrong approach or technique is being used. A couple of quick focus groups is not a reliable prediction of how an entire population will react or behave, but that is not what qualitative research should be used for. Researching new product launches, pre-testing of campaigns and political polling are just a few examples of how predictive research can and should be. As an example, we’re able to predict the exact sales volumes and profitability of new product launches from a few simple questions before they enter the market, to within an accuracy of +/- 5% in most cases. We’re even able to model the effect of word of mouth from social media campaigns on sales volumes. If this research is not predictive of what happens in the real world, show me a better approach!

Research shouldn’t be just considered as a stop-go process, rather a process of improvement and refinement. Advertisers and marketers can learn a lot from the insights derived out of testing and build these learnings into their knowledge bank.

One thought I would subscribe to though is that research should not be used as the sole source for any decision. It should be considered a piece of evidence to help inform a decision; a piece of the puzzle that a skilled marketer uses to inform campaign development. Rejecting research is rejecting the voice of the consumer – do so at own risk.

New campaign for Bupa

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Bupa Australia has launched a new campaign.

The campaign seeks to relaunch the three retail brands under Bupa’s umbrella on a single creative platform. Bupa hopes the campaign will consolidate its marketing to create a consistent offering.

“This innovative approach is markedly different to the bulk of our competitors, who traditionally focus on price and offer based campaigns,” said Mark Engel, Bupa’s marketing director.

“And while we remain committed to being price competitive, we decided the creative focus should centre around the millions of unique ways we help customers’ lead longer, healthier and happier lives.”

The campaign was developed by the Sydney Clemenger BBDO team responsible for Vodafone’s ‘Someday’ execution. Richard Maddocks, executive creative director, explained the creative response:

“The thing is that consumers tend to see most health insurance advertising as a little dull, so our challenge was to do something that felt fresh and new but still remained relevant. I think the thing we’re most excited about is a new tone of voice for the brand that’s positive but at the same time let’s us have a bit of fun and talk to consumers in a way they can relate to.”

Bupa Australia overarches three retail brands: HBA, MBF and MutualCommunity.

Great creative salves media budget cuts

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A Millward Brown survey has found alarming consumer sentiment toward discretionary spending.

The survey revealed 67% of Australians are being more careful or actively reducing their spending. Also, 53% of men were more likely to simply buy less, while only 37% of women considered this option. Women were more likely to maintain brand loyalty and wait for price promotions, with 52% describing this behaviour versus only 35% of men.

Less than a third of consumers are switching to cheaper brands or stores’ own brands.

Ben Dixon, managing director of Millward Brown Australia, said the survey illustrates the power of strong brands, as it demonstrates consumers would prefer to wait for their favourite brand to offer ‘specials’.

“Meat and Livestock Australia’s Sam Kekovich Australia Day executions perfectly illustrate the benefit of impactful creative. These ads deliver three times the punch of the average Australian advert and consequently triple the MLA’s effective media spend through great, memorable creative,” Dixon said.

Of the 33% of respondents not actively reducing their spending or being more careful, 30% say the economy has little impact on their spending. However, only 3% feel comfortable increasing their spending.

The GFC has impacted most households, irrespective of income with 71% of low income and 61% of middle income earners being more careful or reducing their spending. Of high income earners, 57% report the same.

Those in their forties were most likely to buy less and those in their thirties were most likely to buy their favourite brands but wait for price promotions. Under thirties were most likely to simply buy cheaper branded products.

Feel like a creative misfit? The latest from V Raw

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I have followed V Energy Drink’s V Raw campaign over the last few years as they used MySpace to offer dream jobs to young people.

This year I have been impressed with the blog-style site, with lots of content and resources, which drives traffic. The site is built for the particular audience needs – news, podcasts, music exclusives, film, advice, and interaction.

The focus of the campaign is heavily on releasing creativity and I am impressed that this year as V Raw is offering more creative jobs in hard-to-get-in industries, such as music, film, fashion and so on. With the economic climate this is a great initiative.

I have got involved with the team that has brought this together to help them with their blog outreach and advocacy aspects of the campaign. As a result I have noted that a program like this takes a lot of work from key partners from the client, OMD Fuse, The Glue Society and Modular Ideas to launch and keep momentum going over a lengthy campaign period. That was refreshing and personally it has been good to be part of that team.

It has opened up my eyes to the fact that a brand like V Energy and a mainstream agency can build multiple agency and specialist relationships, with no ego to get to the end game. They have demonstrated a total commitment to offer a chance to young creative people in industries hard to break into at any time, even harder today.

The agency has taken an interested view of using social channels to promote this campaign with only two exclusive promotional channel deals, the first much focused on MySpace and the second also working with Channel V.

The key points for me that points to a successful campaign outcome for V Energy and their agency groups are:

  • They listened
  • They learned
  • They have a collaborative model of specialists and people who have brought this together with their various expertise
  • The have provided content, but not controlled the distribution of content
  • They are being useful, and
  • They are enablers: providing rich resources to help people to do what they want to do.

V Raw has provided opportunities for 80 people so far and that number is set to increase this year as the campaign will offer at least a dream job a week, as well as an international placement. You can check it out here www.itallstartswithv.com.au.

Download the mp3 here.

Monsieurs mellow moments…

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Yet another interesting week for the Monsieur – from 3D baseball cards to skiing toilets, it has been a gold mine for the weird and wonderful.

When I was a child back in the old country, we would collect cigarette cards: 2cm x 2cm, they were emblazoned with pictures of our sporting heroes on them. These were our most treasured possessions, which we would trade, discuss and wage child-like wars over.

Oh how the simple ‘pictures on paper’ format has changed… welcome to the 21st century.

Topps has created a 3D interactive baseball card that will allow users to see miniature digital representations of their favourite players through webcams or mobile phone handsets.

Pressing selected keys will allow the user to make their player pitch a ball or complete some other kind of sporting action. Gone are the days of imagining your hero doing heroic things – now he can do them in front of you.

Apparently the next step is to include video content as well. Blade Runner anyone?

Campaigns can always be built around interesting creative and might determine the fate of the campaign. For some brilliant photographic art, check out the work of frank, a Melbourne based photographer with the ability to get the right look for the right moment.

Imagery that will make your mouth water, was one description I heard in the office.

Finally, have you ever wanted to make your bathroom trip more like a… well a trip? Next time you’re in Japan, check out the Georgia Max Coffee house toilets – a ski expedition without leaving the lightning box.

The toilet is fitted with an armrest control panel, with ski protruding from the bottom of the lavatory base. The walls are wrapped with a scenic skiing motif, to ad to the user experience.

Hopefully the seats aren’t as cold as a real ski trip – I couldn’t imagine how hard it would be to remove your arse from a frozen one!

mX creative challenge lets brands go wild

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The soon-to-be-released July issue of Marketing magazine (check it out at the newsstands from 25th June) includes an article bemoaning the state of much advertising creative, which the author argues, often do little more than wallpaper our environment. In an industry that churns out thousands of creative pieces weekly, its hardly surprising that it doesnt all light up our lives. And if youre a regular reader of Campaign Brief, you might also conclude that the industry likes nothing more than to sit around bitching about each others work.

So its pretty refreshing when a brief goes out that actively encourages creatives in the industry to let their hair down and go to town on a brand. mX newspaper challenged creative agencies to send in their wildest newspaper advertising ideas, with the promise the best ads – however risqué – would run for free in mX. To encourage creatives to go wild, the mX created its own video to promote the contest. So if youve ever wondered what a world would look like if a giant packet of Crispy Flakes hijacked Jonas Akerlunds Smack My Bitch Up video, then head over to www.brandsgonewild.com.au and marvel at the debauchery of cereal.

In total, 18 separate creative agencies responded to the call, submitting a total of 28 different advertising concepts to the mX judges. You can check out the top five entries as chosen by the judges below, and the creatives responsible for each of the designs will be dropping by over the next few days to chat about each others work, so feel free to tell us what you think of the winning pieces.

The winning entry was Benjamin Gays egg-cellent [Ed - groan!] piece for Sunny Queens Farms, but there were also four runners-up:

  • Annie Price from The Foundry for BBQs Galore
  • Jakub Szymanski from DDB for OSO Food Wrap
  • Darren Coombes from Design Nucleus for Twistie
  • Dave Johnson from Lowe & Rivet for Lynx

All five shortlisted advertisements will run in mX for free over the coming months. The five creative agencies behind these ad concepts have between them won over $100,000’s worth of free media space for their clients, so its smiles all round.

View the creative below and let us know what you think.