brand-e » agencies

A sparkling radio Christmas

admin — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 08:05:01 +0000

SapientNitro has launched the world’s first Tesla Coil-powered radio station, Sparkleradio.fm, which enables users to send personalised Christmas greetings via a musical card. SapientNitro London says it ‘Ideas Engineers’ got their hands on the two biggest musical Tesla Coils – resonant transformer circuits – in Europe and sent them, along with a film crew, into the ‘North Frigid Zone’ from where Sparkleradio.fm is streaming personalised messages within video.

Listeners can choose from a number of Christmas favourites, including Jingle Bells and Deck The Halls. Sparkleradio.fm cards can be sent to friends and family by e-mail, and there are links to Twitter and Facebook. The hashtag is #sparkleradio

“SapientNitro’s Idea Engineers surpassed themselves by harnessing the technological and aesthetic qualities of Europe’s largest Tesla Coils to power Sparkleradio.fm,” says Malcolm Poynton, CCO, Europe, at SapientNitro. “The team overcame mental, mechanical and meteorological hardships to deliver an online radio experience from beyond the Arctic Circle, and I take a dim view of any scurrilous allegations that Sparkleradio.fm, elves, Mr. Klaus and other Christmas experiences are a figment of one’s imagination.”

The agency anatomised

admin — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 17:00:19 +0000

Looking to see just what goes on inside an ad agency? You need The Anatomy Of An Agency infographic from Big Orange Slide. You’ll get the lowdown on the drawer contents of copywriters, art directors, developers et al, the various functions’ spirit animals – such as account’s parrot which repeats things back to clients – and the numerous bad habits. And more.

Here comes TED

admin — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 14:07:08 +0000

TED has announced that five agencies entering the Ads Worth Spreading initiative will be randomly selected for a visit, with the TED team curating a special session and meeting one-on-one with each agency. These visits – slated the first half of 2012 – are designed to spark deeper conversations between TED and the global advertising and marketing community.

Seasonal Elvish love

admin — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 14:06:42 +0000

It’s Christmas, it’s time for the Elf Love Project. What is it? It’s an online initiative which enables Twitter users to nominate up to five of their favourite followers to be on the receiving end of seasonal special treatment from a group of festive elves, courtesy of Euro RSCG Worldwide, Socialistic and the Philter Phactory, writes Maria Stadtmueller.

Nominees get a tweet from a human greeter elf letting them know that they have been selected to receive VIP treatment for a day, then the rest of the elves – among them Dazzle, Crankle, and Dots – come out to play. They get together to dig deeply in the participant’s social media profile and work hard to deliver customised content based on all clever kinds of Elvish technology.

It being the season of good will, they’ll also make charitable donations on the behalf of nominees.

“Whilst the Elf Love Project is fun and playful on the surface, it’s the amazing digital technology behind it all which is groundbreaking,” says Lee Garfinkel, co-chairman of Euro RSCG New York and CCO of global brands Euro RSCG Worldwide. “The capability of the digital companions to interact with users is quite simply extraordinary, and points to the near-future of social marketing.”

Mother London: Twitter illustrated

admin — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 09:27:57 +0000

War artist Matthew Cook has launched a week-long takeover of Mother London’s Twitter feed, using his illustrations to depict life inside the ad agency. Over 20 images created by Cook will be tweeted until 18 November. The works will also be hosted on a separate Tumblr blog, and there will be an exhibition at Downstairs at Mother in the New Year.

“We wanted to invite Matthew in to draw what he saw at the Mother offices, not only because he’s an amazing draughtsman with a beautiful and unique style, but because he’s witnessed the extremity of battle,” says Mark Waites, creative partner at Mother. “After his work in Afghanistan we thought it would be interesting for him to turn his gaze on the on the inconsequential bullshit that happens at Mother.”

Cook’s artworks of the current conflict in Afghanistan have been exhibited in the Imperial War Museum and the National Army Museum.

Music in the Playground

admin — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 14:00:29 +0000

Ad agency BBH and its brand invention unit ZAG have launched Playground Sessions, an initiative comprising downloadable learning software which aims to revolutionise the traditional piano lesson by incorporating gaming, pop music and social networking elements, says Maria Stadtmueller.

“Playground Sessions is essentially Rosetta Stone meets Guitar Hero,” said Chris Vance, md of ZAG US. “Starting with the keyboard, our technology merges learning and gaming in a way that has never been done. The resulting software makes learning more fun, engaging and in touch with what works best in this day and age.”

“Playground Sessions is a carefully thought out product innovation targeting a void in the music landscape,” says BBH NY CEO Greg Andersen.

The art of social listening

admin — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 10:15:08 +0000

Brands like Gatorade and Dell have built internal social listening command centers as a means of identifying and addressing the needs of their customers – and potential customers – in real time. Others, like Xerox and Kodak, have built out their listening capabilities to drive specific business objectives like acquisition and product development research, all by paying attention to what their customers are saying on social media sites, writes Annicka Campbell, associate, marketing strategy and analysis at SapientNitro Chicago, in the marketing/design/tech agency’s Insights 2012 report.

And SapientNitro’s Research + Insights team has been busy conducting social listening research specific to a wide range of industry verticals, and has begun to identify a number of conversation patterns that are industry-unique.

One of the most consistent themes emerging from financial services listening is the (unsurprisingly) high volume of negative sentiment, particularly on Twitter and web forums.

“Listening to the concerns and questions expressed by customers on these forums is an integral step toward rebuilding the trust lost between bank and customer over the past five years,” says Campbell.

In the case of automotive brands, SapientNitro finds that social listening is a great way to inform creative messaging. Cars and car brands have a clear emotional connotation, and for fans, social media is a great way to connect with like-minded enthusiasts and discuss what they love the most about their vehicles.

As for consumer packaged goods, Campbell says that social listening enables traditional brands to uncover innovative uses and applications of their product that would otherwise go undetected by traditional research methods. It can also help identify new demographic targets and messaging opportunities, specific to season, day of the week, region, and more.

“In addition to qualitative analysis, the tracking of sentiment, volume, and topical reaction to both traditional and digital messaging can provide granular information on brand perception before, during, and after a campaign or new product launch,” says Campbell.

Kantar turns emotional

admin — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 08:10:37 +0000

WPP’s insight and consultancy unit Kantar has made a $3 million strategic investment in Affectiva, a provider of tech which measures consumers’ emotional responses. Affectiva has two key technologies – Q Sensor, a wearable biometric device measuring emotional states such as excitement, attention, anxiety and relaxation, and Affdex, which interprets facial expressions.

Kantar and Affectiva will form a strategic and commercial partnership to ‘leverage the combination of survey-based and technology enabled observational data’.