Self-centred brand?

If anyone ever asks you what's the difference between brand centric and customer centric? Then this visual sums it up, genius

Beautiful Me - well maybe

What a beauty? No no not me this little beauty called BeauitfulMe, quite simply it taps into all the buzz around people's desire to discover more on their health and wellbeing. With this little app you almost feel you have your very own dermatologist or beautician to tell you how to take control of your skin issues everything from what colours and types of make-up to wear for your skin tone. The app can scan up to 500 photos from your Facebook profile and can analyze a ton of information from your face, skin tone, skin type. The interface is very user friendly too, very neat and useful for when you need to take those selfies.

Instagram Tree

Here's a wonderful campaign that is beautiful and unique that highlights the sad fact that the tropical rainforest is in real trouble, what happens there affects all of us. #TapForTrainers celebrates the amazing beauty of the Amazon, its wildlife and resources with a stunning installation in Instagram, supported by creative collaborations with some of the UK’s leading eco-fashion bloggers, designers and illustrators, such as Jean Jullien, AJ Odudu and the Boy from Dagbon. Simply by tapping the tiles on our virtual tree, the work of illustrator Sandra Dieckmann, visitors uncover stories about the Amazon, alongside narrative from Lily Cole, Veja and eco-fashion influencers. Tree tappers can also enter a competition to win a pair of limited edition trainers made from responsibly sourced rubber. Sky Rainforest Rescue ambassador Lily Cole has created and are giving away fabulous limited-edition shoe collection with Veja, the French eco fashion brand. The soles of the shoes are made from Amazonian wild rubber, tapped from the Sky Rainforest Rescue project. A great way to tell the story by harnessing tech. Happy tapping, as this tree is going to keep on growing.

A real caffeine hit

Love this, turning brands into functionality products - like Nescafe who've turned their cap into an alarm clock - I'm also loving the tactile design of the cap too. Nice connected thinking.

Beautifully Sad

Solidarités International et BDDP Unlimited veulent faire couler de l'encre from ici Barbès on Vimeo.

I came across this on my feed and as I started to watch this film I was immediately transfixed. The choice of music really set the scene and the pace of the film was spot on in telling the harrowing story of millions of children who die each year drinking dirty water. Very sad to watch as it unfolded but at the same time watching the art direction coming to life was something else. Award-winning art direction in my view but more importantly it was a very clever way to dramatise the story and draw attention in spreading the word, and hopefully for all of us to give aid to Solidarites International

Teachers Pet

Well well, look who's teacher's pet SapientNitro's end of year report - great effort from the whole team within the offices, till next year.

See the future of TV now.

Here's a whole new TV viewing experience, I know you've seen this in all those Hollywood films, but this is a reality now, it takes watching TV to whole new level. TV isn't dead it just evolved into something that I find bloody amazing.

This is your captain speaking - Delta 80's

This made me laugh, 80's styling for Delta Airlines, making a very watchable safety information video, loving the little touches; back combed hair and body popping along the aisles. It's these nice little touches that make this shareable, baseball hat tip to you Delta.

Best Conversion Rate by colour

I have worked at various digital campaigns from finance to fashion brands and have always looked at how best to optimize the performance of the campaign. One thing I have learned is that you never stop learning and tweaking. Take this infographic from Quicksprount around the use of colour, amazing how one change of the CTA (Call To Action) button from say green to red can make all the difference in the success of a campaign. I did a similar test for a campaign for one of the big banks in Australia 2 years ago - I was told time and time again that a green CTA gets higher click throughs - I asked where's the prove? No one had real concrete stats, just an assumption- as in; 'green is the colour for go!! an action colour some would say' Well, I said let's put it to the test, the outcome; red won hands down. It was one of the most successful campaigns the bank had ever ran. Now I know what some marketing directors are thinking, 'I'll apply the colour red to all my CTA's' well, that would be a mistake, and here's why; trends change, people's behaviour change on what gets an interaction. So next time you run a campaign, look at reference like this infographic but always test and learn along the way. Some more info here

Real people in ads please

Unknown Germany artist pasted photoshop toolbar on fashion posters for H&M - Genius - real people in real life I say

You're a senstive soul.

Interesting visual social experiment conducted on a group of people around their emotions, visually very insightful especially when you show it as a heat map of their body. The two that really stood out was sadness and happiness they couldn’t be poles apart, when you look at happiness it is the only emotion to show an increase in sensation pretty much across the body while the only one to show no increase in sensation anywhere is depression. So next time you are feeling blue or you say; overall I'm pretty happy, you might have described it to a tee. Happy NY

Here's the full story and links

Google - an amazing story

This has been around for a while but if you haven't seen it - it is a cracker - just watch the film unfold, great story, great spot. Hat tip Google.

Skate Ballet

Love this as always when you get one thing and pair with something completely unconnected - you create something pretty special, this dude can pull some tricks. Nicely shot too, great storytelling.

Sport tech tracking clothing

As with all fitness nuts - we love data, obsessed with our performance and to see where you can make even minor adjustments in your training, there's a plethora of gadgets from Nike Fuel Band to a whole host of running apps. But more recently more and more start up companies are looking at ways of incorporating tracking technology into our clothing, still at early stages but here are two examples that I found that interests me; one is called Athos The Athos workout gear has sensors throughout that pick up on muscle exertion from the chest, shoulders, arms, back, quads, hamstrings and glutes, plus heart rate and breathing. The module insert transmits that info over Bluetooth to iPhones and iPads pretty cool and useful for fitness freaks, one slight snag is the price, still pretty heavy but I'm sure over time will come down. The other one I like which is less 'wearable' but more of an attachment almost like a cufflink is a Kickstarter project for a company called Notch currently they are aiming to produce $50 sensors with snap-on mounts, along with athletic and street clothing to hold it. So far, the campaign has raised $10,000 of its $100,000 goal. So they have the price nailed, not as tech advanced as Athos clothing, but as always there's a balance to be struck, in cost over utility. I would out of the two put my money on Athos to win this tech clothing race. Watch this space

Keep up with an elite Marathon runner

Ever wondered how long you could keep up the same pace as an elite Marathon runner? Well wonder no more, one of my favourite brands #Asics puts you through your paces with the Asics Treadmill Challenge.

Fav work to date

I love this solves so many problems on so many levels. So, what do we get when we buy a smartphone? Large touchscreen, OS with many apps on it, eventually a camera and a battery that have to be recharged every day or two. And, as we stated above, in a year or two arrives “better”, improved version, so you might be seduced to throw away your old smartphone and buy the latest one. But what if… your smartphone is fully customizable and you’re able to choose which component to upgrade or replace a broken component? Such concept called Phoneblok, I salute the inventors Dave Hakken

Click, click, click

This is a lovely piece from Goodby Sliverstein, highlights how you track your ROI when it comes to display, how many marketing managers really know how well their comms are doing.

ADOBE "CLICK BABY CLICK" from Isaiah Seret on Vimeo.

StoryScaping

Doodle Project

THE DOODLE PROJECT from podoboo on Vimeo.

Copywriting at its best

Says it all; wonderful copywriting, someone understands their audience perfectly -mixed with wit and skilful writing.

Surf at the end OMG

L'Oreal an amazing transformation

Now here is a piece of content from L'Oreal, where they avoid the run of the mill model and plump for a less conventional model AKA Zombie Boy, Dermablend takes you behind the scenes with 'Go Beyond The Cover' this is an old school great demo for the product called Dermablend. (Dave Trott I'm sure would approve). Very watchable, and watching it unfold, dare I say; it's flawless.

Robots and Motorhead

Ace of Spades - this is ace- too good

Best time to tweet

A Twitter infographic by Fusework Studios Source Buddymedia published a report of user-engagement from over 320 Twitter profiles managed by various brands, that data was then produced into a digestible infographic by Fuseworks Studios Being a Twitter addict I thought this was a really insightful read and some new data I wasn't aware of. Woot, woot.

Twitter Blueprint - The Perfect Tweet

Infographic via @gordonmacmillan

#ShowTheAmazonSomeLove

Show the Amazon some love For the last 3 months Glassmill SapientNitro have been working on a digital corporate social responsibility campaign for Sky and WWF called Sky Rainforest Rescue.The aim? To help save one billion trees in the Amazon rainforest (see attached pdf for more info). We kicked it off yesterday with – ‘Show the Amazon some love’ – and by re-launching all of Sky Rainforest Rescue’s digital destinations: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube, as well as their website. As it was Valentine’s Day and love is still in the air, we’ll be introducing our campaign on Twitter and Facebook, and asking people to show their ongoing love for the Amazon by adding a green heart to their profile. We’re aiming for 10,000 Twibbon supporters over the next six months and we’d love your help to get the ball rolling. So please share this with friends and family, like all the social pages and add a green heart to you profile pic. · Add a green heart to your profile: http://twibbon.com/SkyRainforestRescue · Sign up and join the cause: http://rainforestrescue.sky.com · Like the Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/skyrainforestrescue · Follow our chatter on Twitter: https://twitter.com/SkyRainforest · Follow our amazing pictures on Instagram: · http://instagram.com/skyrainforestrescue/ · Subscribe to our videos on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/skyrainforestrescue