Milk-bottle grafitti

The Banksy of the milk bottle world.

Frances

Divine Inspiration?

A little chocolate quarry. From Al

PERKONOMICS

Consumer infatuation with perks and privileges isn't new. For years, airlines, hotels, credit card companies and private banks have been cleverly rewarding their most valuable customers with surprises, status symbols and convenience.

But as we move towards a consumer society that’s based more on experiences, on status stories, on the ephemeral—and in which, for many, time is now the only true scarcity— should we expect perks and privileges to become an integral part of every B2C industry and sector?

PERKONOMICS: A new breed of perks and privileges, added to brands' regular offerings, is satisfying consumers’ ever-growing desire for novel forms of status and/or convenience, across all industries. The benefits for brands are equally promising: from escaping commoditization, to showing empathy in turbulent times. One we should have on our radar in 2009?

Nimi

Space NK windows

At the end of the summer Space NK decided to transform their shop windows. To help them do this they enlisted our help.

Over the last couple of months we have designed windows for every beauty product imaginable, from magical undereye concealer, to hand cream, to moisturiser.

Space NK have been delighted with the result. They have seen a significant uplift sales when the posters ran, and have received alot of interest - Tatler magazine even contacted us to see if they could borrow our Khiel's artwork for one of their features.

If you haven't managed to see them in store yet, here they are.

Greenvertising

You can keep your chalk men, or cleanvertising. The latest large scale craze for getting a message out there is very green. Topiary is a thing of the past as ornate gardens are being decorated by large scale images created out of the grass. In a similar vein, McDonald's have already cashed-in on the trend by using the world's largest corn maze field to promote their coffee. Think crop-circles with a message.

Frances

fantastic Viral from Diesel

Dakka Marrakesh

Hello Cultured people of St Lukes's! Please check out my friend Hassan Hajjaj's first solo exhibition "Dakka Marrakesh" (Marrakesh Beat) at Leighton House Museum. Hassan is a designer, photographer and artist and his work tends to draw on street culture, music and fashion, playing with the idea of western culture through Moroccon eyes. His work is totally cool and you really need to check it out! His website will give you a little taste of his style. He also has a fabulous guest house in Morocco that I would dearly love to stay in here's a link: http://www.hassanhajjaj.com/riad_yima/yima1.html

Shukrun!

Diagonal Thinking – Are you destined to be an “Advertising Great”.

The short version

This research is the culmination of a 5 year project between the IPA and Agency People. It was founded on the hypothesis that  "the most successful individuals working in adland are both linear AND lateral thinkers - they are diagonal thinkers".

The research carried out so far is proving the hypothesis correct, and now you can test yourself and see if you are destined to be an advertising great.   www.diagonalthinking.co.uk.

The longer version

More details of the research and how it has been conducted is on the website - very interesting over 100 agencies have been involved.

p.s.  The Times has picked up on the research and is encouraging people to self test, which is exactly what new grads are doing.  They are self testing and taking the results with them to interviews to prove how great they will be in coming years.

Have a go.

Angela

Blog 2 Blog

ibelieveinadv.com is a blog which comments on any eye-catching, or effective advertising from around the world. The picture above is one of my favourites - it's a bus shelter with a clear panel into which any rubbish collected from in and around the shelter in the past week is put. What an effective way of showing people exactly how rubbish (ha!) they are being by littering.

This is a great resource for inspiration on how other countries and advertising agencies are approaching advertising campaigns across different media. Well worth a look.

Frances

The new old monster munch are back

Apparently as a result of conversations going on online by crisp lovers, monster munch have re-introduced their old style packets and reverted to the larger crisp that we all apparently used to know and love. Another perfect example of the power of consumer conversation...

Tim R

le cool magazine

One of my favourite ways of keeping up to date on all things brilliant occurring in London, le cool is a weekly 'magazine' emailed straight to your inbox. I particularly like the way they keep the format as though you were flicking through a magazine, getting you to scroll left and right rather than up or down.

Throw in beautiful pictures and witty writing, and you've got your week planned out for you.

nigel peake

sadly won't inspire the animated debate of timmy boy's post, but have a look at nigel peake's work - beautiful!

kathryn

Sorry Andrew Botterill and Phil Teer

Am I the only one to think that the new band out of Glasgow, GlasVEGAS, are complete turd? Not only do they have a shocking name but their music is about as creative and inspiring as my no frills tesco ham sandwiches that ive got for lunch.

I first came into contact with these miserable whiny five some, who all look as theyve had one too many deep fried mars bars on the JUles Holland show, during which they were completely overshadowed by the likes of The Raconteurs. Thinking theyd never grace the airwaves ever again, they have since been dubbed as the new Oasis! rubbish.

Another case of effective music marketing and PR forcing crap tunes into our ears. Thoughts, comments, feelings would be welcome .

ANIMATED GRAFFITTI

Remember the St.Luke's Youtube competition year before last? My team got the artist INSA to create a graffited pair of pink high-heels and animate them strutting up our alley. It was cool but in terms of wall animation art, this stuff kicks our effort into touch. Al

ART FILM TWIN STUNT

Have you seen the human mirror experiment yet? If not click on the link.

Terry Tate office line backer

Fallon's creative juices running dry?

Saw this ad by Fallon in an advertising book I'm re-reading at the moment. strangely like the current orange campaign?!

Tim Rog

Advertiser vs Consumer

old fashioned fun!

A BIG thank you to everyone for the effort put into the Marchmont Street Fair on Saturday. For anyone who doesn't know, St. Luke's had a stall at the fair where we sold handmade cakes, and had a large canvas featuring the St. Luke's bull for members of the community to colour in. The canvas still needs to be completed so please take over a square and doodle away - it's currently propped up in the lobby.

We raised an impressive £50 for RNIB and met lots of nice people who live in the area.


A special thank you to Tim, Delphina, Nimi, Roy, Frances, Liz and Dan L for either baking cakes, helping organise the stall, or helping out on the day. We couldn't have done it without you.

And finally, congratulations to Frances, whose fairy cakes sold the fastest and now holds the Cake-Off Champion title!

HUMBLE RAPPER

Click on the link for an ego-free rap. 

"They're not pets, Susan."

Slinkachu is an anonymous street artist who leaves little people around cities to fend for themselves. It reminded me of the School of Life's experts in jars. His blog is brilliant!

"Policeman: Excuse me, sir. Would you mind telling me what you're doing?

Slinkachu: Oh. Er. . .I was just gluing down this little plastic person.

Policeman: Eh?

Slinkachu: Here, look. It's an. . .er. . .an art thing. Kind of. I take photos of these little people. Then I leave them.

Policeman: Oh, ha! Cute! Sorry, I though you were sniffing glue, what with that superglue. We get a lot of that around here.

Slinkachu: Yeah. Ha. . .

Policeman: Yeah, this is cute. Ha, a little car too! Sweet. My kids would love this!

Slinkachu: Yeah. . .It's, er. . .a little prostitute. And a punter. In the car.

Policeman: Oh. . .well, er. . .carry on.

Slinkachu: Er, yeah. Thanks."

Frances

Distill

Distill is a new magazine that has just been launched which looks at every fashion and style publication across the world and pulls them all together in this bi-monthly magazine. The aim is to bring the most esoteric and household names together in one place for all to take inspiration from.

From the 'about' section on the website, "Each issue will contain Distill's selection - made by top creatives from all over the world - of the most beautiful and challenging fashion and style images to appear in print. The international Distill team not only includes those involved in the fashion business but creatives from a wide range of disciplines - all of whom have been chosen for the openness to new ideas and their sensitive understanding of the best visual approaches."

This is similar to the link I posted a few days ago for fashion-ation but in magazine form. I for one am planning to make the most of the 25% off subscription!

Frances

Illumini Event

This evening there is an evening of free entertainment being held in the London Crypt (just around the corner).

Described as "An electrifying new exhibition with a difference, opening with a full evening of free entertainment, fire performers, jugglers, stilt walkers and performance artists, working with illumination taking place throughout the crypt. This is no PV night, this is an evening where everybody is welcome. Illumini will not just showcase art it will entertain, introducing all communities that may not normally visit the arts to a different approach."

I would have sent an email but mine has broken. Sounds brilliant though - especially as it's in an old crypt. The idea of oh-so-old and brand new, coming together, pleases me.

If anyone fancies a gander sometime, let me know.

Frances

Marchmont Street Fair Website

Marchmont Street Association sadly don't have the capacity to use this at the moment but this is a quick website I knocked up to advertise the Fair on Saturday.

I've just spoken to Milena from the Association about the possibility of working with them in the future. They're obviously a very small association so hardly big business but I think keeping involved in the community is very important, and being involved in a charitable organisation looks great on the St. Luke's profile! Milena didn't even know St. Luke's was here, never mind that we'd been here for about 15 years - of course that'll all change once they taste our amazing cakes!

I've had to host the site on a website I made at Uni just so that people could see it but it's got details of the entertainment going on at the Fair (including Chinese Dragon Dancers and live bands) so if anyone happens to be in the area, do stop by!

Frances

This week's news round-up (The pic has nothing to do with it - I just think it's brilliant!)

E4 are launching a mobile push ahead of the launch of the second Fonejacker series. Planned promotion includes the use of an online widget, and a mass Bluetooth campaign using Cineworld and Vue cinemas.
E4 have apparently been using Bluetooth for sometime now, deeming it to be effective.
Page 4 NMA 04.09.08

Dynamic Logic’s study into brand awareness have found that mobile advertising can raise brand awareness by 23.9%. The study focused on 21 campaigns including alcohol, Automotive, consumer electronics, FMCG, entertainment, financial services, retail, telecoms and travel. Mobile ads increased awareness in every sector.
Purchase intent also increased by 4.7% and brand favourability by 5.4%.
Page 11 NMA 04.09.08

Research conducted by digital consultancy Rawnet has revealed that 78% of consumers are put off by poor websites. The study looked at habits of more than 1,962 consumers finding that 86% researched a company online before deciding o use it, and 74% of the 1,962 were more likely to deal with a company if they had the relevant information on a single page.
Page 11 NMA 04.09.08

Virgin Mobile’s collaboration with Strongbow to give subscribers access to the VIP area at V-festival using a mobile barcode delivered by SMS was a success with the service use 6,000 times over the two-day festival.
Page 3 NMA 04.09.08

A softer touch is being taken in the advertising world with brands realizing they must treat women as part of their core marketing. Nintendo are beating Sony PlayStation as market leaders thanks to their approach of always including women in its core audience. They have focused on self-improvement, fitness, and nurturing rather than just the traditional competition based games.

This is a far cleverer approach to including women in their branding than the half-arsed efforts of brands simply offering fruit beers, pink packaging, or flowery sells. Nintendo are not alienating their male targets, merely shifting focus to include women as well.
Page 26 Marketing Magazine 03.09.08

Marketing Magazine (03.09.08) have a supplement focused on giving the “lowdown on experiential marketing from the leading players in the industry.” Well worth a gander.

Frances

smoking hell

For the first time since the smoking ban came into place I've been experiencing life as a non-smoker and I must say, what the hell? As a smoker I found the ban mildly annoying but as a non-smoker it is mental. Now all you non-smokers know this but I never realised the extent to which exposure to cigarette smoke has increased since the ban. Every time you go out you are running a gauntlet on the street outside every pub, cafe, restaurant, shop, tube station, doctor's surgery, office block and in all the bloody parks. Far from reducing the risk of passive smoking, the ban seems to have increased it. People actually take their kids out in this? What were we all thinking?

Surely a more sensible option would have been to ban smoking outdoors. People can choose whether they want to go into a bar or cafe, but you can't really choose whether or not to walk down a street.

Actually, I think that is what they did in Tokyo.


Phil

Worldmapper

Worldmapper is a collection of world maps, where territories are re-sized on each map according to the subject of interest.

The above map resizes territories based on their fuel consumption, the UK is almost the same size as South America... we're bad

NEW STEPS

steps made out of skateboards... can we get them?

Fashion-ation

Fashion-ation describes itself as "an alternative fashion universe where fashionistas, photographers and creatives can get their weekly fix of the best fashion editorial from around world."

The people behind the website search through magazine coverage of editorial shoots around the world, picking out any which are innovative or striking in some way. Updated each day, this is a really inspirational resource for thinking about creating striking images by looking at shape and texture in a fresh way.

Frances

Construction

my photo entry

my photo entry

Sarah

Construction

Construction

This is one of our clients - can you guess which?

Deconstruction /Construction

yeah baby -i did that

Photo Competition - ready for demolition!

Photo Comp: Construction

Here's my entry

... it's more like under construction.

Jamil