Agency
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SXSW Part 1. Queues, queues and more queues.
After the longest 5 hour flight in history, Joey and I arrived in Austin, Texas at approximately 5pm local time.
It was clear that Austin was buzzing with excitement. There was live music playing in the airport as part of the SXSW festivities, and the chatter amongst everyone revolved around the next 10 days.
Our biggest shock happened the moment we stepped out of the airport. It was freezing. What made it worse was there was a 50m line for taxis.
Day 1 at SXSW started by being confronted with a line waiting for the registration booth to open. This line was literally wrapping its way around the building. Once the doors opened and we got into the booth there was another line to get your badges, then a line to get your swags.
Almost there...We checked out a session on what the sports fan will look like in 2015, got tips on how to design for CMS and saw an interview with Dennis Crowley (the co-founder on Foursquare) on making the real world easier to use.
Continue Reading14.03 20120 -
SXSW Preview
Joey and I are flying up to Austin, Texas today to attend the annual SXSW conference. What was once a one of the largest music festivals in the world, it has since become an interactive festival that focuses on emerging technologies and a breeding ground for new ideas and creativity.
So who's involved in this year's SXSW festival. Plenty.
The focus this year seems to be on mobile, mobile wallet (NFC) and interestingly the future sports audience and over the last few days and nights, I've been feverishly trying to organise my conference schedule. Who and what I'd like to see, and have come to the realisation that in every hour, I need to be in 4-5 places. I think it may be a case of just going with the flow and try to get to as many interesting presentations as possible.
In addition, there has an influx of emails, facebook messages, invites and snail mail from SXSW and the 500+ Aussies that have signed up to attend this festival. All uber geeky, all uber excited.
Continue Reading09.03 20120 -
Modern day protest
At the end of each year TIME magazine lend their cover to a portrait of who they deem ‘Person of the year’. This year, unlike its predecessors (almost every serving U.S. President, The Planet Earth and last year – Mark Zuckerberg), it was not a photograph, but an illustration. A representation of not one person but a title.The Protester.
This year, many parts of the world fell victim to unrest, destruction and an uprise of protest movements. TIME called it ‘The year people said ‘we’ve had enough’. From Occupy Wall Street (and its many offshoot locations) to civil war in Libya, the ‘disenfranchised youth’ in the London riots and the self-immolation of Tibetan monks. It seemed like it was everywhere. Because it was.
In today’s highly connected digital landscape, you cannot escape the news. Unlike earlier times where the reporting of such events were researched and reported by on location Journalists holding Bachelor Degrees and what was published was highly regulated by Government – today’s events are reported by you, or me, or ‘them’.
The way a protest is broadcast to the world has changed forever.
Continue Reading17.01 20120 -
New Coles ad keeping it REAL.
I could not help but be drawn into the debate about the merits of the new Coles ad, featuring Normie Rowe. The ad went to air on Sunday night, and within minutes negative sentiment toward the ad was trending on twitter. Not only negative, some tweets were downright nasty, “I am actually so ashamed to say I work at Coles due to this new ad”. And this; “Molly Meldrum asks to be put back into a coma after seeing Normie Rowe sing in Coles ad”. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_U-Qfn8eFRg
Of course everyone has their opinion, and social media gives everyone a chance to have theirs heard.
For me, this is a continuation of great work by Coles and their agency where the objective of the creative is to best communicate a proposition - then execute a strategy (funny that!). You might call it responsible advertising. Or keeping it REAL.
I have seen the new Coles ad once. I know it is about no-added hormones in their beef. Not a bad outcome with a frequency of 1.
The question is; when I next need to buy meat for a BBQ, will it make me or my wife more comfortable/likely to buy our meat from Coles? For sure.
Continue Reading11.01 20120 -
Boys of Summer
December 1 announced the arrival of summer and a new creative team at Fenton Stephens. Alex Little, copywriter, and Aaron Tyler, art director, teamed up at Award school and put a book together. The boys also showed great enthusiasm in response to a couple of briefs we sent their way, making the decision to hire them inevitable.
Alex is an advertising graduate from RMIT, he’s a bit keen on tennis and speaks Spanish por favor. Meanwhile, Aaron studied Communication Design at Swinburne, he played 150 games for St Damians football club and is into quantum mechanics. So if Alex decides to talk Spanish and Aaron talks quantum physics we won’t understand what either of them are saying.
We welcomed them aboard by throwing a barbie on the balcony and they showed themselves to be good sorts with impeccable manners by arriving with a home-made (so they claim) potato salad. Well done boys, your mothers should be proud of you, and we’re very glad to have you on the team.
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02.12 20110