FRANKthoughts

pepsi, originally uploaded by FRANkVizeum.

Pepsi is trying to save the world and get some advertising at the same time. How? Well, they would like YOU to come up with an idea, promote it and win between 5k-250k to make it come true. It’s a great idea that finally has been picked up by a mega brand (although the name: “Refresheverything” is a bit try hard). Think about all the money that goes every year towards re-branding/ad production/Superbowl broadcasting – Pepsi is going to spend the same amount (around $1,300,000 per month) to sponsor people’s dreams. True, they’re not doing it because they’re really concerned, it’s more of a way to get piggybacked into people facebook profiles but hey, beggars cant be choosers. Maybe this can be a new way we do advertising? How about a company helping out in a tsunami? How about a tyre company sponsoring a road? How about an energy company sponsoring people who make energy?

Back in June we first spoke about Guvera . Well  it’s finally launching in a few weeks…15 December we’re told. The Guvera model is based on engagement in favour of the classic advertising-interruption model. From their eDM “Instead of advertising being perceived as disruptive or annoying, Guvera allows the advertiser to align their brand with their customers passions, allowing the brand to become the hero that provides new ways to find and get music, for free.”

If you think about your own experiences in meeting people you’re more likely to end up talking with someone who is approachable and listens rather than someone who just wants to talk about themselves.

 The Guvera approach allows brands to be able to fast-track engagement via an understanding of consumer preferences across a range of crieteria. Registering with Guvera is like speed dating for brands. To register you’ll be asked about your prefences on holidays, sport, music, gadgets & things, web activities, countries, books, films, food and charities. Just the kind of topics any one might ask in getting to know you.

I’m currently reading Mike Walsh’s excellent book, Futuretainment. In this he says “The challenge/opportunity for brands to benefit from an engagement-approach is to shift their brand strategy focus and to start behaving like media companies. Great brands engage consumers through telling stories. By learning more about the stories that surround a brand we can form our own impressions of their products/services and what they mean to our own lives and experiences. As audiences fragment one of the few ways for brands to achieve mass awareness is for their message to be compelling enough for consumers to do the distribution for you.”

It’ll be interesting to see how brands manage this opportunity with Guvera. In this emerging era of brand engagement it is clear that some brands (just like some people) are socially inept and there are likely to be degrees of sensitivity between the one-night stand approach and building longer term relationships.

As Mike says “the future of entertainment is not advertising- the future of advertising is entertainment.”

I’m in Singapore for a few days as one of the judges of the inaugural Nuffnang blog awards. Great result for the Aussies, we have about 1% of the bloggers that make up the 100,000 community and picked up 25% of the awards!

 Congratulations must go to everyone who was nominated and who made the event such a success.  More about the winners later.
On my strolls around Singapore i came across a new twist on reflexology which involves hundreds of fish nibbling your feet to remove the dead skin. Check this out 

It’s nearly that time of the year where facial hair plans its return across the country as the mo’nth formerly known as November, Movember, is soon to roll around again for a mo’mentous 2009. Things have kicked off very well this week with the new look 2009 Movember website.

Last year enthusiastic Mo Bros & Sista’s raised more than $20 million in Australia for Movember, supporting the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia and Beyondblue – The national depression initiative.

There has been great media support again this year which will include TV, radio, outdoor, street posters, cinema, online support and much more.  We look forward to seeing the campaign progression from the official kickoff on October 12th. Stay tuned…

Recently I was one of ten lucky recipients to win a $300 gift voucher to spend on the RedBalloon Days website.

If you’re not familiar with Redballoondays they provide gift ideas & certificates available online for over 2000 experiences. From the more extreme such as sky diving and rally car racing to the more subdued such as day spas and cooking classes. There were so many experiences to choose from I didn’t know where to begin.

Trawling through the categories I came a across a gift idea that caught my eye for all the wrong reasons.

Romantic Letter by post – The idea is simple. Have someone else craft an ‘unforgettable’ handwritten love letter to that special person in your life. Written onto the finest bond paper and complete with matching envelope, they will then post it to them all for the small price of $109!

I’m sorry, but when did the art of good old fashioned handwritten communication become so impersonal? I have never heard of anything more ridiculous in my life!

In the age of email, instant messenger, Facebook & Twitter are we losing our basic penmanship skills or is it that we just can’t be bothered? Like most of us I’m sure these days the only ‘letters’ I receive in the post are bills, bank statements and junk mail and I couldn’t tell you the last time I actually sat down and penned a handwritten letter. However, while the art of hand writing a letter should be encouraged, surely a ‘love’ letter should come from the heart and not over the counter. Or am I just an old fashioned romantic?

When I was growing up in Tel-Aviv Israel, I remember my mom asking me to go to the store and get “2 bags of milk”. I can imagine your face right now. Yes. We were buying milk in a blob like plastic bags. In order to pour this, you place the milk bag into a plastic jug, cut the top corner of the bag and pour.

Funny ha? well, yes. 20 years ago that was the way it was done. In Australia I believe there were milk bottles. Maybe even a milkman. OK, the point is that it took us 20 years to go from a milk bag/glass bottles to the carton we buy today. TWENTY YEARS to make that simple, logic move.

Here’s another example: We buy juice in cartons too. And we started with the small screw top. Do you remember what it was like pouring from this thing? I had to stop every three seconds because it was splashing everywhere. Finally, a few months ago I saw the new bigger screw top which is so much easier to use. It was a no fuss quiet innovation.  I haven’t seen a “campaign” around it. It’s a shame cause I think it’s worth one. A campaign celebrating the fact it took us around FOUR YEARS TO MAKE THE HOLE BIGGER.

We’re so used to think about ourselves (humans) as technology advanced and so smart we forget that we’re only a hundred years away from the start of the industrial revolution and now embarking on a different revolution. Laws, education and governance made to support an industrial revolution will soon be out of date. We need to rethink our processes. In every field.

Can you improve on the way you do things? how can we quicken the process? If you have a few minutes please watch this amazing talk on TED: William McDonough on cradle to cradle design. It is about what we need to change and how to do it:

To celebrate Melbourne Spring Fashion Week, Melbourne’s GPO is holding their ‘Fashion at Altitude’ runway parades next Wednesday 2nd September.
There will also be special offers and designer in store appearances on the Wednesday at Melbourne’s GPO shopping day from 10am – 8pm.
The Melbourne’s GPO media launch took place yesterday and got great coverage including home page of The Age online.
A great way to kick of the new website launch which is all about fresh, good, fashionable content!

Now i’m the first to admit i find the whole professional swimsuit debate incredible. To my understanding world records are being broken because of the advantage for those swimmers not under contract by wearing full polyurethane suits. A couple of weeks ago FINA, the sport’s international governing body, announced that it would have a full set of rules in place by January 1 2010. FINA has muted that among other things it will outlaw most of these suits, the very suits that have set the majority of the 35 world records at last month’s World Championships in Rome.
So now we have Polyurethane World Records and non-polyurethane world records? Could ‘PB’ morph from Personal Best to become Polyurethane Best?
Can you imagine the climate at Speedo as headlines such as this appear? “Outdated swim suit delivers bronze.” Here’s a case of brand strategy backfiring. From their site The world’s leading swimwear brand, Speedo® is passionate about life in and around the water, creating revolutionary new technologies, designs and innovations.
Speedo has been synonymous with swimming for decades and i’m sure will continue to be. When world class, massively high profile, swimmers such as Michael Phelps and Libby Trickett are deemed to be disadvantaged by wearing Speedo suits however it must like a smack in the face with a wet fish. Brand strategy gone wrong.

Despite losing some of its gloss in recent years due to various drug scandals, no world cycling event captures the imagination of the public like the Tour de France.

Fans urge heroes like Lance Armstrong (who is tweeting between stages) up lung-busting hillclimbs, spill onto almost every inch of the road with banners and flags, watch fierce rivalries play out,  and throughout the stages write messages of support (and self promotion) on the pavement.

In a big step for media innovation, Nike have integrated a number of elements (Armstrong, the Livestrong charity, the event, and their  brand) through social media strategy to bring ‘The Road Is Your Canvas’ campaign to life.  Consumers can get their own 40 character message of hope, inspiration or encouragement sprayed on the Tour route by a ‘Chalkbot‘ via the Nike Website or tweeting Chalkbot on Twitter,  and view the results in the Photo Gallery.

It’s a fantastic idea, and really demonstrates how marketing communications are at their strongest when fully integrated – although it doesn’t hurt having assets like Lance and Nike to play with!

Round 14 of the AFL season saw one of the most eagerly awaited AFL matches explode on to our TV screens, the mighty Saints vs Geelong. Great match, healthy ratings (up approx 25% on regular Sunday afternoon matches) and a top result.
The Saints surged ahead with Geelong closing the margin as the match unfolded climaxing in a finger chewing final quarter which came down to one kick separating the teams. So you get the picture…very edge of seat and involving.
Enter the fray ….two ads with mind-numbing repetitiveness: Pierce Brosman with his wrinkle/jowl-solution L’oreal cream and the RACV.
To really drive home the repetitive torture these ads popped up immediately after a goal. So we swang from enthrallment to annoyance and as the afternoon wore on annoyance morphed into mild anger and ultimately outright negativity.
No one is at fault here, its just the system. The old interruption system. In this instance the definition of interruption has been taken to the nth degree and unfortunately for the brands that undoubtably paid a premium for the ‘post-goal’ placement it may have worked to their disadvantage.
The solution maybe to limit the post-goal interjects or to reduce them from 30s to 15s or to have some creative variations.
I began this post 8 days ago but for various reasons never completed and posted. It was only seeing these ads again the following week that made me recount.
It makes me think twice about watching AFL on free-to-air TV…for the BIG matches in favour of Pay TV.