Presentations from the teams were really inspiring given we only had an hour and thirty mins to come up with a digital strategy and idea.

I guess the out take for me was have fun, learn to work differently and give solutions that are culturally relevant.

Now it’s about collaboration, let’s put account service with creative? let’s rip the brief up and start with a conversation with the client. Now is the time to change, if we are a big machine, it’s gonna take a long time or someone with a lot of balls to make it happen. What do you think?

A great first day on the island, lots of really interesting subjects and people.

The top 3 things: We are creating a new world – it’s people power! Customer need is the centre of the digital world. Search is king. keeping you SM platform down to one.

Also felt like we weren’t learning about how to market on the digital scene, we are learning about the new way of life.

Very collaborative approach… Looking forward to the next day!

BFV

Ok, this is it. I am preparing to set sail to Hyper Island… I will try and keep you updated via the BFV Blog. I am sure I will come back with a digital sun tan.

Not sure about you, but I think there are too many people asking for money right now.

I’ve received about 5 emails over the last couple of months from friends, colleagues and randoms asking for cash. Walk for this, ride for that!

Now I want to make this clear, I don’t mind giving the odd $20 – $100 here and there to the: Salvo’s, Cancer Research, the Children’s Hospital etc.. but I am getting over the huge amount of tin rattling that’s going on.

And there’s the guilt factor. Especially if its someone you know…

Oh, if i don’t pop him/her $20 they might think I am a bad person… or  I wonder what my other mates gave?

What can we do?

Charity Hub

I think we need to all (not compulsory) allocate a portion of our cash to a central hub online. Here you can click which charities you want to give your hard earned cash to in one go.

Simple, done for the year!

That way you can honestly tell those annoying folk that stop you in your stride to the shops, that you have donated this year. What’s more you’ll feel better for it!

Then again, this idea wont help our creative minds coming up with whacky charity ideas that are cunningly disguised as brand and career development vehicles.

There’s nothing better than going around Nanna’s house and getting a can of Solo. That’s what my 10 and 7 year old boys think anyway.

Only because we don’t let them rot their teeth on sweet fizzy drinks.

But now its worse. Schweppes are now actually provoking my kids to squash an empty can with their foot and proceed to kick it around with their “Kick the Can” campaign.

I saw it on the can a while back and thought (Dumb), now I’ve seen it on TV (Dumber).

Ok, don’t get on your high horse mate…. Well I bloody will.

In fact, this horse is so high I am going to use a crane to get me there, because I think this campaign should’ve been squashed with all those cans that will be lying around the bloody streets!

C’mon guys!

Maybe Dulux should have a campaign on paint your town red. That will give the kids something to do once they’ve finished with all the empty cans.

Are Schwepps redeeming themselves with a “pick up your can” campaign now?

Thoughts?

I love the fact that a client actually values what agencies do and stumps up the cash for a pitch. Wish a lot more clients could adopt the same mindset.

I also love the fact that this client is doing something a little different with this pitch.

But if this is a true social media campaign, why not throw this out to the wider community?

Isn’t the so called consumer contributing to valuable content these days?

Technorati did a recent study of bloggers Worldwide, it showed that 70% of people (mostly guys 18-44) talked about brands they loved or hated on their blog.

Also, research shows that young people are tweating more and more…

So instead of getting a bunch of agencies to out-stunt each other, why not let the consumer get hold of this first and tell Toyota what they think of the Yaris?

Yes, Saatchi asked the public to make an ad, but that’s so lame. Why ask them to be like us? “Oh Ad agencies are so cool, I would love to make an ad and be like them” Give me a break .  They should be themselves.

So how can we get the Yaris onto blog sites, twitter and all the other social network sites?

We do something that matters.

The Yaris is a smart car. It’s a city car, its a small car with big ideas… apparently…

The Responsible Yaris: What about providing a fleet to driving centers and get young drivers to learn how to control a car properly in wet conditions, high stress situations etc…. If they pass,  they keep the car?

The Yuletide Yaris: Christmas is coming up. Why not have courtesy Yaris’s available so you get across the city or from work to party free of charge. The catch is you drive there so you  can experience all the features.

You get the idea.

The point is, to be social, we need to be social… and that’s being a caring sharing community!

Isn’t that what we want?

So Toyota, stop looking for who’s who and start looking for who counts…

But the Bible Society have managed to get the followers of the Christian faith to do just that.

So what can we learn from this as marketers?

We need to engage our followers in a way that touches them deeply. Or as the Bible society says…. “People need to be touched – Jesus touched them.” Sounds a bit odd I agree.

So how can we touch or target market that compels them to strap a sign to their fence like some political campaign asking us to vote for a liberal candidate?

From what I can gather its about fear.
Fear that Jesus ‘the brand’ is struggling…. and if this brand starts to dip in followers, what will take its place? Paganism? Although running around naked in the bush sounds like fun to me, I am not sure it would have a big take up….

So as a brand we need to preach to our believers.
We need to preach about how we should act as human beings. We need to do the right thing, help people, create a belonging to our brand that runs deep. Deeper than the superficial crap that we are serving up to our young deomographic right now.

Instead of sponsoring new music, (Good cause but we have enough) Coke should think about  helping kids get a new start in life, add the fizz (the goodness) back into your life and do something that helps you, a fellow man or the environment.

Nike should sponsor homeless children instead of making them slaves in a factory? Just do it!

Even though the Jesus – All about life campaign didn’t ring my bell or even covert me, it certainly made me think about how brands should start acting.

By the way… I did feel like strapping a sign to my fence saying… Paganism – All about getting naked!

I guess this has come out of the frustration of  “I can’t o another car winding down the road spot”.

Would be good to take this to a social level. Pick up a random in your Subaru. Just imagine the stories…