The war on fashion

Every fortnight, like-minded Wunderman colleagues get together to indulge our passion and appetite for all things digital. We swap links, engage in 'wide-ranging' discussion and vote on the best online content. We call it Digital Jam and everyone is welcome.

This week’s Digital Jam proved to be something of a three horse race. In third was a digital recruitment campaign from the Swedish armed forces. While the campaign isn’t particularly visually stunning, it allows users to input their attributes (role, environment, tasks) from which a list of suggested roles in the Swedish army is generated. It’s a neat way of highlighting the fact that the Armed Forces aren’t simply boys with guns and an interesting alternative to the British Army’s Start Thinking Soldier campaign.

T-Shirt War provides an arresting and entertaining way of selling t-shirts. With stop motion photography providing engaging visuals without the use of Avatar like tricks. T-shirts used in the campaign can be purchased online providing viewers with a reminder of happy times spent in front of YouTube.

A rather different approach to the problem of selling cotton is Wrangler’s Blue Bell campaign, which confirms that Flash is most definitely not dead (despite reports to the contrary). The campaign provides users with the ability to control characters on screen in an amusing manner whist quite by chance, showing off Wrangler’s clothing range.

Mobile Digest #03#

David Murphy, editor of Mobile Marketing Magazine, examines the recent spate of acquisitions, asks whether we’re ever going to see the fabled “year of mobile”, and opts in to a new advertising model.

Buying frenzy

The first month of 2010 in mobile marketing was dominated by one theme: acquisitions.

Google kicked the whole thing off late last year with the announcement of its plans to buy mobile advertising network AdMob. Fast forward a few weeks to January, and we found Apple buying rival network Quattro Wireless, another mobile ad firm, Amobee Media Systems snapping up mobile media planning and buying agency RingRing Media, and browser company Opera Software getting in on the act with the purchase of another mobile advertising firm, AdMarvel.

Tipping point

Why the buying frenzy? Well, people in the mobile marketing business, who are used to feeding off the scraps that fall from the TV, print and online advertising tables, are sick and tired of hearing every year that this could be the year of mobile. But when you see this much activity, involving players of the stature of Google and Apple, you do have to wonder if some sort of tipping point has finally been reached.

Mobile agencies responsible for eking budgets out of their clients have been saying for a while that the time for testing is at an end. The tests have been done, the lessons learned, and now is the time to dip more than just a toe in the water. With the likes of Apple and Google pushing things forward, maybe the brands actually will.

Opt-in advertising

There’s more evidence too, from a more unlikely source, that mobile marketing may finally be stepping out of the limelight. Yes, even the network operators are beginning to take it seriously.

Late last year, O2 launched its O2 More offering. This is an opted-in list of O2 subscribers who have agreed to receive advertising messages on their mobile phone. Last month, Orange launched its own version, Orange Shots, which began life with 100,000 subscribers that brands can target on their mobiles.

Both O2 and Orange have no doubt been inspired by the example of the Turkish operator, Turkcell, which launched its opt-in database in 2005, and which had recruited 9m – yes 9m – people to it, at the last count.

It may have taken Orange and O2 four years to make their own moves, but if even the mobile operators are beginning to take mobile marketing seriously, there’s hope for us all.

The very best and worst of British

You know you’re at Wunderman’s ‘Best and Worst of British’ party when…

“You get talking to Vicky Pollard about strategies for getting home by tube without getting beaten up, or worse.”
“You’re asked for the third time, ‘you want chilli sauce with that, boss?’”
“You’re strangely attracted to the dirty old man who just flashed you.”
“You see Geoff Boycott part the dance floor, like Moses parted the Red Sea, and hit a perfect cover drive.”
“You see five Amy Winehouses in less than a minute.”
“You’re dressed as a six foot carrot.”
“You still can’t work out who the Stig is.”
“You realise the Stig is a woman.”
“You’re dancing with a jar of Bovril and bottle of HP sauce.”
“Your CEO is trying to sell you stuff out the back of his three-wheeled van.”
“The fake Scary Spice is scarier than the real one.”
“Fish and Chips are eating fish and chips.”
“The Beatles are mobbed by the Spice Girls.”
“Chavs and punks dance arm in arm.”
“The worst seems to outweigh the best.”
“Everywhere you turn there is a chav.”
“Even at a company party you still get a guy holding a golf sale sign and another telling you not to be a sinner.”
“There’s a samurai armed with a camera.”
“You’re comparing dodgy tattoos with a sunburnt, string-vest-wearing Brit Abroad.”
“Two oversized British bulldogs are prettier than many of the party guests.”
“You spend 15 minutes comparing kebab-making techniques with Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.”
“You’re mad that another Robin Hood showed up.”
“You see a massive Yorkshire pudding trying to fit through the toilet door.”
“Your colleagues are playing, ‘How many people can you fit in a telephone box?’”
“Your tube ride to get there smelt of onions and tomato sauce.”
“You see people popping sprouts on the dance floor.”
“You’re asked to look after a giant kebab.”

Tweets, robots and beer

Every fortnight, like-minded Wunderman colleagues get together to indulge our passion and appetite for all things digital. We swap links, engage in 'wide-ranging' discussion and vote on the best online content. We call it Digital Jam and everyone is welcome.

First up we saw some amazing Twitter visualisations coded all in HTML5. Globes of colour representing tweets whizz around and flow over your mouse pointer. Being HTML5 it works in any modern browser, even on mobile devices, and uses no Flash!

Next up; Verbatim have released a promo for their line of solid state memory. Create fighting robots from USB sticks and rewritable CDs then battle with others.

The winner this week was a PR stunt for Andes Beer. Andes have created the ‘Teletransporter’ – a cubicle which plays ambient sounds while you call your spouse to explain why you’re not home yet. A brilliant, if slightly immoral, idea which will appeal to the target audience.