excitable creative thinker

Writing is re-writing… Rocketboy is dusted off and prepped for relaunch!

Writing is re-writing… Rocketboy is dusted off and prepped for relaunch!

Are us Marketers ‘partly’ to blame for England’s poor performance at the World Cup

Like yourselves, I’ve been reading the football gossip columns, listening to the numerous World Cup podcasts and talking with mates over a beer or three…. but it struck me the other day - are us ‘marketers’ partly to blame for England’s pathetic performance during the World Cup? Now your probably thinking this guy has lost the plot, what the f**k is he on!

 

Now, answer yourself this question - was the Football Association’s decision to keep Mr ‘stubborn’ Fabio Capello on as Manager ‘financial’ or ‘football’ based? I firmly believe that it was financial. It would have been a massive PR faux pas sacking him having removed break clauses in his contract before the tournament - in fact it would cost as much as £12million to get rid of Mr Fabio now according to paper talk . Well done Sir David Richards!

 

We marketers in the UK are fantastic at creating a marketing power tool and this has clearly been shown with the English Premier League. Since its launch in 1991 we have helped to create this financial power house that is arguably unbreakable (at the moment) and powerful in its resources and attraction. The league is the most supported in the world. Many pundits and journalist say the ‘best league in the world’. I would personally say the best league in the world for excitement but not football. In my opinion the Spanish league has overtaken the English league in the last year. But this is simply a matter of opinion.

 

Money talks! Yaya Toure has just completed his move to Manchester City and is reportedly earning £221,000 p/week across 5 years which equates to £55.6 million. Quite staggering considering he barely got into the Barcelona team line-ups last season. Yet he still expresses his desire to return to Barcelona one day. Players move here for the money; certainly not the English weather! However, who can argue with Yaya. If someone waved those sorts of money in my face, I'd happily run round naked in front of millions of people just to get my hands on it.

 

The forthcoming A:3k football tournament at London’s 02 Arena has just been cancelled with Rooney and Gerrard both citing that they didn’t believe it was right following their abject performances at the World Cup. They are human after all! At £500k each for 2 hours work - A:3k Football have certainly got a ‘get out of jail’ free card here. We marketers throw far too much money at these footballers. Too many ego's and individuals! Do they believe they are untouchable?? The last month has clearly shown that:

 

• these footballers are not the world beaters we have hyped about in the press &
• there needs to be changes made, financially and structurally, from the Football Association and the Marketing industry that throws money at these high profile celebrity footballers as it simply goes to their heads.

Having said that - who can blame them. If I were in their situation, I’d be doing the exact same thing!

It’s certainly a very contentious subject and one we will never get the answer to, but at the sametime, I believe it’s a valid reason…

Engaging the viewers

Nowadays you see a vast amount of adverts that simply just don't engage the viewer. With ever decreasing budgets, it's NOW even more important that advertisers attract the attention of the viewers.

I came across these two very interesting platform, courtesy of our friends at Trendunter.
1. Create your own TV Commercials - Virgin wants to know 'what happens next?
Virgin have come up with a campaign to conincide with one of their campaigns that allows you to get your ad on TV. Deadline for submission is 31 August 08 so get creative.
&
2. Create your own games - Playcrafter.com
Playcrafter is a free site that allows the viewer to design, build and customise games.

MapJack

Came across this fantastic Google earth / map alternative earlier. Called MapJack you can immerse yourself in a city. Check it out here.

Eisenbahn Strong Golden Ale. When we say strong beer, we mean it

Fantastic idea... ads probably come to life when your pissed!

Thanks to ads of the world for the spot.
















Agency: CCZ Comunicação, Curitiba, Brazil
Creative Director: Gilson Genez
Art Director: Pericles M. Kwiatkowski
Copywriter: Thiago Bernardi
Released: January 2008

Diageo - drinking campaign

A nice campaign for Diageo by Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO that tries to get the point across of responsible drinking. There becomes a point that turns a fun night of drinking into a regrettable one. Hang on - what happens if you get laid?? I'll leave that one for the puriest.


























The tagline of “A Night to Remember ? Or One to Forget ?” uses scenarios of how drinking too much can ruin your night.

Read the article here.
Reminds me of a night out in Brighton.

Self-promotion (spec work)

There's nothing quite like a bit of self-promotion!

Please not this is just spec work. The photography comes courtesy of flickr. However, the copy and idea is all mine.































Excuse my art direction... that's not my strong point.

Olympikus Tube - Full Shock Absorption

Fantastic illustrative work here... very impressed.
















See more work of Olympikus by clicking here

Advertising Agency: DCS, Porto Alegre, Brazil
Creative Directors: Roberto Callage, Regis Montagna
Art Director: Rafael Bohrer
Copywriter: Tiago Mattos
Illustrator: Casulo
Photographer: Claudio Menghetti
Published: February 2008

Hovis soft bread - 'the softest thing since slice bread'

Simple but effective. Need I say anymore!











Advertising Agency: McCann-Erickson London, UK
Art Director: Ben Brazier
Copywriter: Johnny Skinner
Photographer: Kevin Summers
Published: May 2008

Nip Tuck - analyse beauty

Being a big fan of the programme, I was very excited about Nip Tuck's launch of goldenration on Facebook. A fantastic viral campaign! Launched to promote not only the programme but its new channel (FX). Golden Ration lets people evaluate how close they come to aesthetic perfection.

Golden Ration technology analysez uploaded photographs and calculates facial beauty.

I guess the idea is to uncover the most beautiful face on Facebook. High vanity but very clever - exactly Nip Tuck.

Check out the application here.

Fresh & Green

Well finally it's here. A whole year after originally shot, the client; Fresh & Green and their TV ad, that I worked on, has aired on our television screens. Doesn't it look great! Fresh & Green are a company going places!

Fashion industry boom

The fashion industry is constantly evolving, both in terms of seasonal trends and the advertising that sits beside it.

It just so happens I was reading an article in the Metro this morning about ‘debt build up’ of the middle class society, due to a burning need to fund their lavish lifestyles. An interesting article. Ok, this is partly fuelled by the credit crunch, which we know could/has serious repercussions on our economy, but for the fashion industry, this will NOT!

We live in a society where we perceive ourselves to be better than we are. We want to be seen wearing the latest celebrity look, hanging out in the trendiest bars (where a vodka and “water downed” coke, served by an arrogant waiter, costs £15), driving fast cars and lapping up the rays in Monaco.

For as long as there are magazines on our shelves, and websites showcasing the latest celebrity catwalk trends, there will always be millions of people prepared to go to any lengths (like maxing out their 4 credit cards), to get their hands on their prize possession; the new Gucci handbag.

Nose Knows Consulting - the nose knows where the nose goes

I came across a new form of marketing - scent marketing.  Everyday our senses capture different smells and according to research this makes smell the most effective to influence emotion. Which leads me onto Nose Knows Consulting - a Canadian company that takes the characteristics of a brand and produces a scent.

Courtesy of Trendhunter“Scent design is really simple – we create a scent that compliments the design principles! An average person smells over 10,000 aromas daily – Nose Knows Consulting offers a service that captures a specific smell for psychological, emotional and physical enjoyment,” Nose Knows explains.

The most sought after box on the planet

A new phenomena called sexvertising and quite possibly the best tag line I seen - The most sought after box on the planet. Great product placement. Just what the hell is it? Apparently it's a body building supplement called Gaspari Nutrition recently displayed inside Iron Man fitness magazine. But we don't care about that. Her name is Marzia Prince - a bikini clad famous fitness model and the 2007 Ms. “Bikini Universe” Wow!!

FREE love

This month’s new trend; FREE LOVE, is a really interesting trend. The trend is about the ongoing rise of ‘free stuff’, and brands already making the most of it.

FREE LOVE is fuelled by many reasons including:

• The consumer’s need for a bargain
• The online world
• Decreasing costs of products like Ryanair

Click here to view March’s latest trend. Whilst there are many free sites out there, the one that most struck me was FreeHand Advertising – a US company that distributes free notepaper to students on their way to classes. Every page of the notepad is branded with a banner ad at the to of the page. The best part is – your ad will be visible for at least the duration of a college lecture, and longer if students refer back to their notes (as they should). Simple ideas are always the best ideas!

Calvin Klein and Eva Eva

I'm shaking in my boots just thinking about Eva Eva Mendes. Wow... week at the knees, can't stand up, short of breath and sweating like a pig. What would I pay to be that CK top right now?

Anyway, enough of my drooling! She's just a stint in rehab... you would have thought this would have damaged her reputation, but it appears this is not the case. Eva's only been signed up by CK as the new face of their perfume.

Tom Murray, the president and CEO of Calvin Klein, "We are trying to get across that these new products are for fuller busted, shapelier kinds of women." Tom's obviously been watching Colleen's Real Women.

A lack of CREATIVITY

I have long thought that the advertising industry is lacking creativity. Either creatives nowadays at ad agencies are going back to their mentors for advice or the retired are getting off their deathbeds to show the 21st century creatives a 'how to in creativity.' An article by Lucy Tesseras of MAD echoes this very point.

No ordinary Tony Montana aka. Scarfaca

Apologies... I've been rather slow on blogging recently. During my browsing this am I came across this fantastic poster of the one and only Tony Montana from Scarface. However, this is no ordinary poster. If you look closer you will notice this poster is created entirely with letters. This technique used to create the poster is called micrography and the poster was created using the film’s entire script from the 1983 film.
 

MyDeco - create your own interior

I came across this fantastic design application earlier today called MyDeco. A website that allows you to play virtual interior designer with your real home.

You can choose anything from tiles to carpets to wallpaper colours. Check it out here.

Montage-a-Google

Stumbled across this fantastic application earlier “Montage-a-Google” by Grant Robinson. Simply enter a search term and Google will grab twenty images ad arrange them in a montage grid. A twist is to play Guess the Google. See if you can guess the search term that created the montage.

How to... be CREATIVE

I came across this fantastic article from Jon Bentham of The Guardian on Monday 21 January 2008.

Creative people really do live in a crazy world. I’ve always said I think in a different way to other people – I guess this proves it.

Click here to read the full article.

Fat Belly - 2008scandinavia promotes new training and fitness center

2008 Scandinavia have created, perhaps the simplest ad I’ve ever seen for their client – Oxygo (a fitness and training centre for people). This ad first ran on 19 January. I’m not sure whether this ad is part of a campaign but its given me a great idea for a series of online banner creatives.

A nice spot by Frederik Samuel

Ronaldo vs Bugatti Veyron

Check out this viral for Nike Mercurial Vapors, Cristiano Ronaldo’s new football boot. It’s fitting that one of the world’s quickest football players should race arguable the ultimate road car in the world.

It’s a race of speed, agility and composure. Who do you think wins?

The Nike Mercurial Vapor IV won’t be released until February 1, but Ronaldo proudly showed them off this weekend in the Premier League match against Newcastle United at Old Trafford. I guess they work, he scored a second half hat trick.

Social networking sites ‘slow and inaccessible’

It’s official, although no surprise social networking sites like Facebook are failing to deliver efficiency to its users.

Netimperative reports “research from the website monitoring company has shown that web 2.0 sites are slow to open or fail to load properly. WatchMouse monitored the time it took the social networking sites to load.”

The worst offending site of 104 monitored was Facebook. However, given Facebook’s popularity, users still won’t be deterred. Their only weakness would be a new entrant in the marketplace or a new generation of media.

Click here to read the full article.

Jazz Radio

Jazz Radio ads sourced from Scaryideas. I like the black and white combination. It works so well - it's really good art direction. It does remind me of a certain 'Little Britain' sketch. Can you guess?

McDonald's serviette dispenser

A brilliant, yet simple guerrilla tactic for McDonald’s with this serviette dispenser idea – giant sized posters from DDB Stockholm. Hours… ok minutes of fun! Thanks to scaryideas for the spot.

Primary Flight: Graffiti Art at its finest!

Take a look at this fantastic installation of graffiti art, created in four days in early December during Art Basel in the Wynwood Art District in Miami, Florida, by more than 25 artists from around the world.

These fine pieces of art are cooperation between the Spinello Gallery, creative agency Blackbooks, New York-based creative-project think tank Landsea Ventures and paint maker Sabotaz.

Coolhunter contributed “Primary Flight’s purpose is to bring the essence of graffiti back by making concrete outdoor wall space available to artists and giving them free reign over it. This way, graffiti art can be viewed on the streets, in its most appealing format and in its original environment.”

Agent Provocateur Lingerie: mobile

Something to raise the heartbeat level and wake me up this am – especially given my last post on the dull PS3 ad.

Take a good look at this Agent Provocateur mobile office ad in Canada, Vancouver, to raise the awareness of its NEW location. Who said sex doesn’t sell!

I wonder if there’s a watershed to what time the mobile office can be paraded around… don’t want the young and restless getting too many ideas!

Thanks again to ScaryIdeas for the post.

Sony PS3: Human History

It’s number 9 from Print/Design on “Creativity Online Most Viewed countdown.” Why???

A 1950s shot that conveys the innocence of that era, but with subtly differences. Bet you can’t spot them?

Client: Sony PS3
Agency: TBWA/Chiat/Day, Los Angeles
Creative Director: Brett Craig
Art Director: Jamin Duncan
Copywriter: Allan Manaysay
Retoucher: Saddington & Baynes

Vodafone Live Music Awards: Heaven for Ears

A nice piece of advertising for the ticket barriers at Earl's Court station promoting Vodafone Live Music Awards. Aimed at building awareness - it certainly brings music to my ears. Created by the brilliant John O'Keeffe and his talented team at BBH London, the ad shows inventiveness and  simplicity. Thanks to adsoftheworld for the spot. Simple ideas always prevail!

Advertising Agency: BBH London, UK
Executive Creative Director: John O'Keeffe
Creative Director: Mick Mahoney
Art Director: Chris Felstead
Illustrator: Jonathan Tran
Copywriter: Gary McNulty
Agency Producer: Stuart Hayburn

Release your inner design - Steve Madden

Watch out all "Stella McCartney" wannabes that want to release the inner design in you. Steve Madden gives you the opportunity to design/customise your very own fashion collection – ranging from shoes to handbags.

Trendhunter say, “It’s all done online in a fun, easy and interactive way. If nothing else, it’s fun to play with designing your own footwear on the site.

Best of all, the shoes are regular prices, ranging up to $200.”

For some women, the credit crunch couldn’t come sooner – there maybe some empty pockets in the near future!

Leo Burnett & human trafficking

Leo Burnett have teamed up with The Salvation Army, Johannesburg to raise the awareness of human trafficking by putting kids up for sale in a shopping mall window.

The installation, currently displayed in a range of South African malls, features several children, between the ages of 4 and 13, of varying nationalities enclosed in a window display draped with "For Sale" signs.

Creativity Online says “The children were asked to stand in the window display for 30-minute intervals—an impressive feat considering most of the kids were under the age of ten. The creatives are currently pursuing two other stores in different areas to help spread awareness. "We plan to run this campaign for as long as our client is open to it," says Marks. "The issue of human trafficking is an ongoing problem, and so wherever we can show this idea, the better, no matter where in the world. The great thing about the Salvation Army is that they are so open to 'out there,' punchy and provocative ideas that it has definitely made us think sharper, clearer and more creatively. As for what's next on the horizon, well, we hope the whole world sees this idea."”

A very serious advert that can’t fail to hit the heart – I like it very much. Will it prove as controversial as the Benetton ads?

I would insert the image, but again, TYPEPAD seems to be freezing so please click the link below to see the image.

Thanks to Pete Pellizzi and Creativity Online for the spot. Read the full article here.

Nokia: Music Almighty

I came across 2 different advertisements this morning on Creativity Online, both of which I share different views but must blog about.

1. Nokia’s 5310 and 5610 XpressMusic phone campaign created by W+K, London is a beautifully crafted visual, but I can’t help but think the idea will be lost on the consumers. W+K agency have aimed a set of illustrated ear phones to represent different genres of music – from pop to rock to jazz???

What’s this one I ask?

Client: Nokia
Agency: Wieden + Kennedy, London
Creative Director: Matt Gooden,
Ben Walker
Creative: Fabian Berglund,
Ida Gronblom

Burger King attacks the Drink cravers

Finally, an agency goes after the binge-drinking cravings: FOOD and naturally Burger King. I love its simplicity; the relationship between drink and food cravings. Although my only negative point would be the capital letters. Clarity wise - it was quite difficult to read. Can't believe I just wrote that - I must be drunk too! Thanks to ScaryIdeas for the spot. I would insert an ad below but having problems so I'm NOT! Click here to view the rest of Burger Kings campaign.

Advertising Agency: Bleublancrouge, Montreal, Canada
Creative Director: Gaetan Namouric
Art Director: Sebastien Deland
Copywriter: Jonathan Rosman
Published: November 2007

The Wrapping Project – Fine Dining

Coolhunter is a great website for looking at different cultures, aspects of design and generally cool things. I came across The Wrapping Project – a strange one but I’m strangely hooked!

The Wapping Project, based in the east end, is the brainchild of acclaimed theatre director, Jules Wright. The premises, back in the day, generated hydraulic power for Central London.

As Brendan McKnight writes on Coolhunter:
“To achieve a perfect combination between art and food, much like it's hand picked art's programme, the Chefs are also commissioned by Wright, propping this to be one of London's most novel and exceptional restaurants.

With a menu that changes daily, an in-house butchery and a quirky, internationally applauded art's agenda, a visit to both Wapping Food and The Wapping Project is always going to be a memorable affair.”

Looking to impress or create an imprint in anyone’s minds – then mix fine dining with fine arts of…. eeeerrrrr mechanical engineering.

I need to check this place out... I'm off to lunch!

IFAW - The Animal Welfare Association spills its guts.

Usually I would write my thoughts to accompany advertising I see. I clearly don't need to with this! Good spot Creativity Online

Agency: Republic of Everyone/Happy Soldiers
Client: IFAW
Creative Director: John Kane
Art Director: Happy Soldiers
Copywriter: Happy Soldiers
Retouching: Electric Art
Photography: Adrian Lander
Producer: Annabelle Peacock

Death Proof - guerrilla marketing

To think I blogged earlier about 2007 being a year of creative brainblocks. What was I thinking… take a look at this Guerrilla Marketing promotion of Quentin Tarantino’s new Death Proof DVD. The severed limb was found outside Tuschinski, one of the biggest cinemas in Amsterdam. Thanks to Miel Van Opstal (nickname is Coolz0r) for the spot.

Agency: New Message
Creatives: Lennart Wienecke, Hugo Rütter
Production/FX: UNREAL
Account: Catherine Dijkstra, Jan Has
Client: Stefan Agus, Roos Schregardus, Fulko Kuindersma (A-Film)

Superman is strong!

Scrolling through Advertolog website earlier and stumbled upon SKY Television ads, created by DDB New Zealand. Superman is strong! It’s brilliant – idea so simple and art direction a delight. It’s shame we don’t see ads like this in the UK more often.

Released: December 2007
Prize: Young Guns 2007 Winners

Client: SKY Television
Agency: DDB New Zealand
Eligible Creatives: Mike Felix

“Brainblock” ideas of 2007

Adrants, courtesy of Adland and David Jones have dubbed 2007, “The Year We Finally Ran Out of Ideas.” Take a look at David’s cartoon – unfortunately he has a case!

I urge my fellow creative starlets – let’s make 2008 a year to remember.

Dills: Digestive Tablets

If you have no idea what Dills are – you are gonna be clueless to this advertisement but I’m going to let you know. Dills are digestive mints from Belgium and below you will see print ads. Thanks to copyranter and scaryideas for the spot. I love copyranters take on the ads – a joy to read!

I can’t say I brimming with bubbles over the execution but the idea has been well thought out so I applaud that!

Advertising Agency: MortierBrigade, Brussels, Belgium

Arrive Alive: drink driving

Courtesy of a fantastic blog (I believe in Advertising), I stumbled upon a highly visible campaign that always get large press at this time of year – and yes it’s “Drinking Driving.” The campaign by Arrive Alive shows a range of ambient advertisements in public bathrooms with taglines such as:

• “I sober up when I’m behind the wheel” “
• “Just give me 5min and I’ll be fine to drive.”

The idea and art direction is very different to traditional drink driving campaigns but nonetheless, it’s extremely thought provoking.

Advertising Agency: The Jupiter Drawing Room, South Africa
Creative Directors: Graham Warsop, Michael Blore, Tom Cullinan
Art Directors: Frank Van Rooijen, Chantelle Dos Santos
Copywriter: Gavin Stradi
Photographer: Graham Kietzmann

Caught on Camera - Vodafone

Have you ever had that feeling where you laugh so much you actually start crying, or in some female cases, wet themselves - and I mean literally! Well, take a look at this French Vodafone ad I found on dialaphone website posted by Nick. To view Nick's top 10 funniest mobile phone TV ads, click here.

“Who What Wear TV”

Trendhunter seems to be the theme for today and I thank you for the great insight in tomorrow’s new ideas. This one’s called “Who What Wear TV.”

If you’re tired of waiting for the new weekly gossip magazine with the HOT celebrity trends, then help is here, in the shape of Katherine Power and Hillary Kerr. Each episode covers a specific trend, shows what celebrities are wearing it, and then offers tips on how to make the look work for you.

A bribe or a business card

I’m on my way to another country, and in mid flight remember I’ve left my business cards at home. What do I do – I know, I’ll stamp my business details on 100 10-cent bearer cheques. You’d either think this was incredible stupid, a bribe or a great marketing tool that will attract attention.

Well, this actually event occurred last month at a tourism fair with Zimbabwe businessman Dennis Paul. Unfortunately, he got arrested. Read the full article here – you’ve got to love it! Thanks to Trendhunter and Reuters for the spot.

Nordpack Cable Railway by Zaha Hadid Architects

Psfk offers great insight into today’s trends, inspirations and ideas. Thanks to a spot by Piers Fawkes, Dezeen have got their hands on photos of the new snow-train skyway designed by Zaha Hadid Architects we have a sneak preview of fantastic architecture. Zaha Hadid have designed four stations on the Nordpack Cable Railway in Innsbruck, Austria and I’m sure they will be greatly received there. Take a look at some snips below and then click here for more.

One thing for sure, England fans won’t be gracing this remarkable design next summer.

Kite Marketing Bizarreness

There are some truly, brilliant and innovative products launched everyday of the week but I’ve came across this very unusual marketing ploy by Shopping Kite. Trendhunter say, “After fulfilling their function is a package for delivery, the plastic bags can be transformed into kites to serve as a unique visibility tool for brand exposure.”

What’s to stop me ravelling through the utility room for a Tesco carrier bag? Isn’t that too marketing?

Please check out their video on their website… windy stuff! It must be spook.

DEXTER Viral

I came across the Dexter viral yesterday, courtesy of Creativity-Online. For all those who don’t know, Dexter is an American TV show. The show stars Michael C. Hall (Six Feet Under) as the title character Dexter Morgan, a Miami-based serial killer who works for the Miami Metro Police Department as a blood spatter analyst. I’m sure by the viral example below, you’d gather Dexter was a serial killer!

I blogged about the importance of virals and the impact they can have and this really does prove my point. They are brilliant.

"We're very happy with the campaign," says Ralph co-founder Jay Armitage. "The ability to genuinely prank and scare someone was critical and this made people want to send it on to their friends. We're always trying to push out the boundaries in clever and interesting ways and the personalised nature of the campaign demonstrates this."

You can even enter your friend’s information (name, age, job), which generates a fake video about yourself. According to numbers from Ralph, the Dexter viral spawned 300,000 unique emails and 750,000 page views since its launch, and even roused Scotland Yard in the process.

The FUTURE of ADVERTISING

I guess you could say this is the million-dollar question? No one knows the answer but many have added their two bob and had a punt. Well today, it’s my turn. Firstly I don’t believe interactive TV is the way forward. I’ve seen research (not to hand I'm afraid) that shows less people are actually watching TV nowadays so this route is down the toilet.

I see so many ads, whether it be on the box, internet or in the press that have absolutely no relevance what so ever to the products in question. The ads are simply a push for the agency rather than the client and this is so wrong or they are simply asking way too much of the audience. You only ever get seconds to engage and it appears that on occasions, ads that are created aren’t focused on this point.

This is why the key words I associate with the future of advertising is ‘tailored’ and ‘unique.’ We live in a society where the consumer has become more knowledgeable than ever before through the likes of Internet and we the agencies will need to re-invent to adapt.

The challenges and methods of communications that agencies and clients will become even more dependant on than ever before will be new media through social networks and new technological developments and virals which I firmly believe are key due to their limit cost inputs. We also need to pay particular attention to everyday life situations i.e. regular routines that stimulate the mind (subliminal advertising) – socialising, playing computer games, shopping, going to the gym etc... There is a massive gap here for marketers to utilise. I’m talking about advertising on pint glasses, arcade games like Pro Evolution, the lavatories etc…  anything that stimulates the mind and soul. Whether we like it or not (I’m one of those who does like), advertising is there in every shape and form and it’s up to us, the marketers, to make the most of it.

In summary, agencies need to listen and interact with consumers more than ever before!

We need to be more personal through ‘tailoring’ and be more ‘unique’ with what we do than ever before to stand out from the rest.

Magazine covers with your PHOTO

Courtesy of Trend Hunter, I came across magmypic – fake magazine covers with your photo on. It’s the one and only site on the web where you can upload a picture and turn it into a magazine cover!

It’s a very novel idea that is bound to appeal to myspace, facebook and bebo users as you can grab the embed codes for your blog – rather like I’ve done. Hhmmm.

Options include People, Rolling Stone, Playboy, Time, Vogue, National Geographic, Fortune and Sports Illustrated.

Expect the magmypic trend to pick up once a teen facebook fanatic gets wind of it.

Create Fake Magazine Covers with your own picture at MagMyPic.com
  Subscribe to Fortune Magazine at a 76% discount!

SectionSeven - Fantastic Navigation

I came across this fantastic animated and navigational website earlier through Plastic Pilots. Called SectionSeven, they are a creative design and development office with a passion for the interactive and static visual disciplines. I love the illustrations. The aesthetics of the site remind me of the apple website.

It takes a while to get used to, but after that it really is a joy to scroll and explore through.