Fan of Chatroulette? Me neither but many excitable teenage boys enjoy nothing more than the thrill of searching through the hordes of other young men, to find an elusive pair of women’s breasts.
The viral campaign for “The Last Exorcism” takes advantage of these helpless souls. Enticing them in with the prospect of a young lady undressing and then scaring the living hell out of them, as she transforms into a demon possessed by the devil.
With already over 200,000 YouTube views, The Last Exorcism is receiving global recognition on a shoestring media budget.
There is seemingly a “technological revolution” released every second day in the digital industry, however every now and again something pops up which really makes people take note.
With the release of Facebook Places last night, it seems we are really entering the next phase of social media, a more diverse level of real-world interaction, as well as a completely new level of targeted marketing.
Places takes the existing concept of applications such as FourSquare and takes it to where people already are, Facebook.
While primarily aimed at iPhone users for now (Android and Blackberry versions are planned), Places introduces location-based services to the world’s most popular social network.
Places enables users to share their current location with friends, find out where their friends are, and discover new places of interest. Users can also add their own places of interest to the platform, whether it be a business or a residential address.
After attending The Future of Web Design conference in London recently I can safely say it is a pretty exciting time to be involved in the digital industry.
As was to be expected there was a lot of discussion about the capabilities (and limitations imposed by particular browser/s) of HTML5 and CSS3. Admittedly, it is very exciting to be able to utilise these tools when designing for the web, however a few of the speakers touched on some points which I think are of much greater importance when it comes to the real future of web design.
Paul Boag mentioned that we should forget about the new technologies for the time being and focus on improving our Marketing, Copywriting, Contextual Understanding, Strategy, and Psychology skills. This is very much in line with what I believe makes a good designer, so I thought I would use this as a basis for what I, personally, would like to see for the future of web designers.
Over the coming weeks I am going to discuss in detail the often overlooked attributes which I feel make a successful designer in the creative industry.
What I hope to achieve is an increased awareness of the design industry outside the specific “digital space” and a more considered approach to the use of the new technologies which are available to us. Ultimately I would like us all (as creatives) to work towards avoiding an era of over-used CSS3 effects and being faced with a repeat of the original Photoshop filter overload.
So, while it is easy to get excited and spend all of our time learning the new technologies, I urge you to hold back and concentrate on improving your foundations skills before anything else, and only utilise the new technologies when the right project comes along.
This little gem did the rounds a while ago, but I re-found it yesterday and so thought I’d re-share with you all.
A list of terms coined as ‘bullsh*t’ by the Local Government Association was issued to Councils stating they were no longer allowed to use these words/phrases….bluesky thinking, bottom-up and outside of the box being just a few.
It’s amazing how many of these terms we all use across marketing every day… but just how much bullsh*t do you talk?
Things have been a bit quiet on the blog lately as everyone has their heads down and are working hard. It’s a pretty exciting time here at We Love and I thought it would be a good time to have a look at what’s in store for the future, not of We Love, but for the Digital space as a whole.
It seems the majority of design bloggers have already formed their opinions of what 2010 and onwards has in store for web design, but I figure it’s time I throw my thoughts and learnings into the mix.
The importance of a company’s digital presence is becoming increasingly important. According to Forrester,* 67% of online customers said their opinion of a brand was affected by their ability to accomplish tasks on their website. Now is the time to re-assess how we are utilising the digital space and ensure we work harder to align it more with how people actually live, we need to make sure we can offer users a reason to visit our sites rather than just expecting them to want to.
In no particular order, it seems to me that in the following 12 months and beyond we will be seeing an increase in the use of the following –
Embracing the fact that the web is now totally portable and can be used almost anywhere, designing for mobile browsers is continuing to grow in importance and we will see more and more mobile specific design considerations in the future. According to Nielsen, 40% of iPhone/iTouch users access the internet more on their mobile than their desktop.
Geo-Mapping
Utlisation of geo-techonology to personalise, and in turn create more humanised, digital campaigns across all digital platforms to reach those who are most interested in what a brand has to say.
I have just discovered the Four Square application and I must say I am pretty excited about it!
For those that haven’t heard about FourSquare, you can check it out here.
Basically, it is a mobile application which enables you to “check-in” to destinations around your city, leave comments, offer suggestions, redeem discounts, earn points, unlock badges and even become the “mayor” of certain destinations.
After its Open day launch in May 2009 the Grand Ocean housing development has successfully sold all of it’s Phase 1 apartments and is now entering into the second part of it’s marketing push.
With over 20 apartments sold already, the response to this new development has been overwhelming. These positive figures highlight the obvious benefits of an engaging and highly targeted X-channel campaign.
Elements of the campaign include a concept driven website, social media mash-up, contextual outdoor advertising, and an array of local media activities and offline collateral – all of them strategically combined to create an overall story which prospective buyers can relate to and buy into…
So congratulations for Phase 1 and here’s to Phase 2…
Recently the government released a safer sex campaign aimed at teenagers, which has been branded as ‘gimmicky’ and a waste of taxpayers money! The ‘Want respect? Use a condom’ campaign (initiated by the NHS Leicester viral banned from YouTube) was based around a custom made drama series which cost over £250,000 to film and create… and when launched only 5,576 people signed up to the series (over the past 4 months) meaning so far it has cost £45 per subscriber…
According to the government the campaign has been a success so far, but tax payers argue that “too often the government engages with gimmicky marketing and advertising because they think they are going to reach a new audience”.
Now, in this instance, I don’t necessarily think the government are trying to be too ‘alternative’, hoping to reach a new audience, but instead they are taking a more obvious route, hoping to appeal to the desired target market through known (and tested) social media marketing, such as Facebook, YouTube, mobile phones, etc… which makes perfect sense. However, I wonder if these methods of marketing are becoming over saturated.
Where they may have fallen down in this instance is simply through lack of (or the wrong type of) exposure… although saying that, we’re talking about it now! Even though the campaign seems to have had a negative response amongst tax payers and critics, it could have all been part of a cunning plan to simply get some exposure… and it could be argued that any exposure is good exposure!
Marketing methods such as these can generate great results, especially if the campaign is seeded and pushed in the right direction – but if incorrectly deployed they can remain unseen in an ocean of campaigns, all fighting to get pushed through to your inbox or txt to your mobile phone! Besides, it’s obvious that tax payers aren’t happy with the government taking this ‘risky approach’ – so maybe they should stick to more conventional methods… or finish the job they started and make sure it’s effectively fulfilled.
As creatives, it’s our responsibility to ensure that creativity helps create change, define future thinking and help towards shaping the way people absorb, understand and interact with the information they’re given. That way we can ensure that our marketing & advertising solutions will continue to grow ever more inspirational, more engaging and most importantly of all… successful!
It would be good to hear some other opinions and let’s see if we can help boost those stats! Go and visit www.thmbnls.co.uk, sign up and watch the series… maybe you’ll learn something
Harley street specialist, Endocare commissioned We Love to develop their brand including their logo and offline collateral – creating a specialist marketing pack for distribution throughout the UK.
Through a structured layout and vibrant colour palette, the final solution was clean, elegant and distinctive, adding value to their brand and bringing life to an industry that is traditionally seen as dry.
Found this on the web… Good advice for those of the worrying disposition…
By Anita Campbell of Small Business Trend:
We can all use a little help every once in a while, especially in times like these. If your small business is searching for marketing and sales tips to not only survive, but thrive, during economic downturns, you’ve come to the right place.
We’ve created this roundup of 10 resources to help you market and sell, thrive and be successful during tight economic cycles.
