(Digital Choice Article: 26th October 2009)

Dunlop Volley (Volley Warehouse Campaign)

I recently came across this very cool and humorous digital execution from Dunlop Volley – a well known brand but one I hadn’t seen much from in many years. I am probably not the exact target market for this brand, but it really appealed to me.

The Volley brand has a 70 year history in tennis attire and has more recently developed into a sporty/fashion brand for the sub-twenty-people demography (or those still aspiring to be sub-twenty).

The campaign centres on mock-invention ‘As Seen on TV’-style videos contained in a warehouse-style website, all of which is a tongue-in-cheek poke at trashy slash-price advertising.

The mock-inventions solve core issues of the target audience’s life, such as the Dish Jockey that enables you to do the dishes as if you were still at the party the turntables, and the Gig Viewer which ensures you can see the band regardless of where you are in the mosh-pit. The TVCs are extremely well cast, and comments on YouTube show that some viewers thought they were for real products. This is a rather scary fact, but indicates that the ads have hit the mark.

A terrific addition to the site is the user generated content capability in the Warehouse Blog which has drawn some very funny uploads. The stand-out clip for me is ‘Kaboom’. Warning though, trawling through all these clips is addictive.

With a buying audience that is very marketing savvy, the site is sure to appeal for the humorous take of slash-price star-burst adverting commonly shown today. Best of all, it’s delivered in the place where this audience spends most of their time – the internet.

What I really like about this campaign is that it doesn’t have technology as the core feature; it has a simple and humorous idea which is delivered very effectively to the intended audience online.

The campaign also doesn’t take itself too seriously, and the brand is subtly woven into the themes of the mock-inventions and site content.

A real winner for me, this one should pick up some awards but also lift sales of Volley shoes.

Kudos to Marilyn & Sons, who came up with the idea, and a big hats off to the client for running with it.

Got in this morning and saw this on NineMSN by American Express…

Big #fail!

If you are going to get your agency to do some creative and place some media (let’s face it, NineMSN home page doesn’t come cheap!) make sure they actually know what they’re doing especially for an OPT.

Having one banner run over the top of another is, at best, amateurish.

**Update 10:55am: this problem is still there….helloooooo….anyone care about getting it right?**

Pulled this summary together for a good friend of mine that provides services to the digital marketing industry.

**Updated 17:46 29/10/09**
Boffswana added, Igloo/Reactive upgraded/moved, Eclipse/NextDigital drop a bit creatively, Clems drop a bit creatively.

**Updated 18:50  29/10/09**
The Furnace moved right to reflect technical team size.

*Updated 18:25 05/11/09**
Citrus raise up the rankings of Creative capability thanks to recent work in market.
Eclipse has been deleted as they apparently have been disbanded and now totally absorbed into “Deloitte One”…

(Click image to enlarge)

Only a rough cut, and my perspective/opinion of the lay of the land.

Probably got a few bits slightly out of place, interested in any feedback…keen to adjust it to be as reflective and accurate as possible…

New campaign site from our nearest and dearest in VJ Melbourne for Jetstar’s new Mastercard offering.

See it here

Credits:
The Jetstar marketing team, and from VJ super kudos to Abs for a great design, and to the whole campaign team including Hobbers, Steve, Tim M, Jason C, James, Vince, Sunny, Bonnie, Caroline, Tomma, Gav and Sammi….and last but not least the lovely Steph Webster!

I love this.

Its been around for quite a while now, but it’s an awesome feed of the nightly news.  I mean, who is really out of the office these days before 6pm?  I’m certainly not, and love the live feed.

Even more, I’ve started noticing midday Live updates by NineMSN News Desk….not Channel9 news either…perhaps a steady shift occurring?

Anyway, I think there is a lot of scope here for broadcasters to multicast their content online to reach their audiences who, let’s face it like me, are still stuck @ work!

Visual Jazz Sydney has launched a blog for BrandTube.

We will updated this from time to time with new client BrandTube executions and updates to the innovations we are currently working on to deliver best in class rich digital media capabilities for our clients and brands.

Check out some of the campaign executions here (note: none of these campaigns are currently live, and any offers/promotions contained within are now closed).

Visual Jazz has shown its creative strength in the international market, beating digital creative agencies from around the world to collect five Gold and seven Silver in the 2009 W3 Awards.

Judged by the International Academy of the Visual Arts, the W3 Awards recognise creative excellence in the digital sphere, including websites, videos and marketing programs. This year’s awards featured entrants from cities across the USA, Europe and Asia-Pacific.

VJ was recognised amongst 3000 entrants across various mediums and categories, including gaming, websites, newsletter, banner and integrated campaigns, reflecting the diversity and talent of our team.

Visual Jazz’s winning entries are for clients including Holden, the Australian Defence Force, Contiki and Visy.

Visual Jazz Sydney picked up 2 of the 5 Gold for work on Contiki and Twilight banner campaign.

Interesting social-networking mash-up site from Vodafone in the UK: tracks the #ukhols twitter tag live and maps to holiday destination of the senders…

http://www.ukholsmap.com/

Creative is critical

According to Eyeblaster’s “Global Benchmark Report 2009,” increasing ad size is not necessarily the best way to boost performance.

The company found that for banner ads, where size is the main component of ad visibility, bigger is generally better. But rich media ads such as expandable banners and floating ads saw improved results from different creative, rather than larger size.

Read the article in full on emarketer.com

Interesting search engine.

Get answers from real people.

Taps into the whole trend of the power of influence in product/service decision making from other users online.

Nice idea.

Uses your Facebook and IM and email to deliver the answers quickly.

Took less than 2min for someone to send me an accurate and relevant and useful answer.

**UPDATE 22/10/09**

This is a bit rubbish – gets very annoying with the MSN popping up all the time.  Time will tell on this one, pretty quickly I think.