Bannerblog News

Top 10 Banners for September

Sat, 24 Oct 2009 17:39:30 +1000

Below are the rankings (by unique page views) for the last month on Bannerblog.I have also compared the previosu 3 year's banners as a retro look back. The only problem with this system is that it doesnt count views while on the homepage. Some banners were the 2nd banner after the homepage they got lots of individual views. Homepage views dont count. So it's not a perfect ranking system by any means but it is interesting. This would also explain why some of the more "sub standard" banners made it into the top list.

Top 10: September 2009

Top 10: September 2008

Top 10: September 2007

Top 10: September 2006

Shocking Barack

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 08:38:30 +1000

New from CP+B:

Brammo, maker of electric powerbikes, is trekking to Washington DC in an attempt to meet President Obama. The hope is to pitch their Enertia powercycle as a readymade solution to the transportation crisis.

The cool thing is, there's no opulent hotel budgets or corporate jets. The guys are doing it all via Couchsurfing and with the help of electrical outlets in people's homes across the country.

If you can help, with a couch, a charge, or if your best friend's cousin knows a guy who knows The Prez get in touch with the guys as they make their journey.

Elect The Jury

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 22:27:21 +1000

For this year's ANDY awards they have decided to let the jury be chosen by popular vote. I love this idea even though I don't stand a chance of getitng voted in (i'm 6th from the bottom). But considering the likes of Shepard Fairey, David Byrne, Josh Spear, Kevin Rose and even head speechwriter for the president Jon Favreau.

Even Australia's radio hosts Hamish and Andy are up for election. Although seriously if you want your work judged by Hamish & Andy then you are a tool.

Here's Michael and Ty talking about the Elect the Jury idea

Why Elect The Jury? from 2010 ANDY Awards on Vimeo.

With these eclectic names on the list why stop there? Why not include Charlie Sheen, Shaq, Ashton Kutcher, The "Will it Blend" Guy, Youtube's Fred, Bill Murray, Tron Guy or Movie Voice Over Guy...

Seriously though what about legends like Limmy or Rob Manuel they are less hyped and bound to show up more than Bansky. Also it's good to see someone from CP+B will make a jury as they seem to have been ignored lately from all the juries I've seen. Politics aside they should have been representing. (I owe them big for all the great banner content on this site)

I think this idea for the jury should result in a more varied jury, more interest in the ANDY awards and less complaining when the jury is picked. A triple win!

And just so I don't end up last on the list, throw a vote in for me while you're voting for more qualified jurors, celebs and fame whores.

Ashley Ringrose

Twadges: Twitter Achievements

Sun, 11 Oct 2009 15:11:37 +1000

With so many Twitter ranking sites out there I thought it would be nice if there was a service which awarded you points based on how you use Twitter rather than just how many followers you have. It was then that Twadges was born. This was my internal R&D project at Soap. Each team member has an R&D project and I was able to wrangle a developer, illustrator and a work experience kid to help me put this together.

Yes we know it sounds rude but we're not naming a national icon it's a bit of fun.

Twadges reviews your last 1000 tweets and awards you points and Twadges based on certain criteria. Mention coffee a few times and you'll get the coffee badge. Mention a film currently in the BO in America and you'll get a Twadge for that too. Joined Twitter in the first month? There's a Twadge for that. There are 60 Twadges all up.

We also tapped into Cursebird to get an accurate swear rating of users.

Twitter founder Evan is currently #1 and Marvel's Agent_M is #2 on the rankings. These guys don't even appear in the top of the other ranking sites such as Twitterank, Twitterholic and Twittercounter. I'm not even sure how to compare them on their Twitter Penis size.

We had plans to add many more but the CPU power of parsing through 1000 tweets and comparing for 50 or so keywords is quite intensive.

We also made the Twadges available as avatars., This includes many of the designs we couldn't code for like "tweeted on your birthday". As users don't enter their birth date we could not work this out.

Even though Twadges haven't taken the Twitternet by storm it was still fulfilling having an internal R&D project up and out there to share. As with most R&D projects the journey was more rewarding than the destination.

You should also follow me on Twitter here.

Also if you're into Twitter check out Dustin Curtis's article here.

And if you think Twitter follower counts are the best way to rank people read my Twitter Sheep Syndrome article here. I guess that's why they are called "followers".

Social Media Guru

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 16:41:40 +1000

Brilliant

Here's also Graphic Designer vs Client

Telstra's DigitalMum | Mum 2.0

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 22:34:09 +1000

Do dads use the internet? By looking at Telstra's new DigitalMum or Mum 2.0 campaign you'd think not. That's not to say it's a bad thing but it seems like Digital Dads are getting the rough end of the stick on the web from brands.

Sony with their digiDads community seems to be the only one acknowledging their existence. Although that's been going for a month already and managed just 3 posts. Seeing as the "The project is being spearheaded by uber dad blogger and social networking guru Chris Brogan of New Marketing Labs, Dad-O-Matic.com and Chrisbrogan.com."

I'd expect more. I also didn't expect Chris to buy a Panasonic Camera when really he should be right in the middle of testing Sony products.

But back to Telstra's DigitalMum campaign. This seems to be the follow up to their Call Mum campaign from earlier. It launched yesterday so is still in that fetal stage. I find this new Facebook centric approach much stronger than their previous efforts. Where as the previous campaign all felt like a dead end this has some long term thinking involved.

Also the strategy of targetting mums who are new to online is much better than guilting kids to call their mum.

Nice to see a brand make use of the new Facebook Fan Box on their homepage. One click access to become a fan.

I was also impressed with the Digital makeover videos. They were better than I expected and this one made me laugh. One interesting thing is the swapping between Youtube videos and Facebook videos. I guess it's the little quirks of Facebook.

Rosso going solo on this one. I love this expression on his face. I imagine this is what he looked like when someone explained the idea to him.

And it changed to this when they said how much they would pay him.

The videos felt very top level however but they follow this up with a PDF booklet. I'd actually send this to my mum but then she might get the idea to join Facebook so I'll wait until she does.

The videos and guide must tread a thin line to not sound condescending but I think they do already. Although I'm not a mother.

There is also prizes on offer (a variety of mobile phones) for contributing to the profile/community.

It will be interesting to see how Telstra continue with the Digitalmum profile. They will need to keep the content fresh and I hope they haven't blown their load already with the 6 videos and a PDF booklet.

if I could offer any advice I think Telstra may have made a mistake by not connecting with already established mum bloggers. They also could have at least provided a list of online resources for mums. They shouldn't be afraid to share the link love.

What do you think about a telco targeting new to online mums?

On another mum centric facebook page I saw today was The Skinny Cow profile.

While Streets Magnum have been doing the ice cream and movie thing for three years now (Note: I work on Streets Magnum for Unilever at Soap so I have a vested interest in saying this), Skinny Cow have gone in with the Chick Flick Fan Club. They also partnered with Quickflix to offer free DVD rentals. Great incentive.

My only complaint with this are the videos (see below) seem too labored. Maybe women like being spoken to like this but to me it feels fake. Or maybe feels like a guy wrote it?
Also I'm still their only Youtube subscriber too which is a little sad.

That said the profile is getting some nice interactions and the posts are regular and centered around the topic well. This is another profile I'm watching to see how it evolves.

Top 10 Banners for June, July, August

Sun, 20 Sep 2009 22:55:46 +1000

Below are the rankings (by page views) for the last 3 months on Bannerblog. I've also included a combined total as a few snuck in. This is not a precise ranking as the page views will be affected by how long the banner stayed on the homepage as it doesn't track as a view for that banner. But needless to say it still shows the popularity. The Pringles banner was by far the most popular taking top stop for 2 months running.

Top 10: June 2009

Top 10: July 2009

Top 10: August 2009

Top 10: Overall

Vague Client Feedback

Sun, 20 Sep 2009 10:21:53 +1000

Has this ever happened to you?

Digital Movie Advertising Awards 2009

Sat, 19 Sep 2009 11:51:26 +1000

If you have been involved with a digital campaign for a movie lately then you should enter the DMACS awards.

There's even a Youtube award for the creative use of Youtube in the campaign. We have a few movie banner ads but there is more categories than just banners.

Click here to see how to submit and FAQs.

Entry is free and entries close Monday 21st.

Official press release is below

The 4th Annual Digital Movie Advertising Creative Showcase is now accepting entries. This is a Google-sponsored awards program dedicated to the best in digital movie marketing.
There are 4 awards categories this year:

1) Theatrical Release Rich Media Display Ad(s)
2) Home Entertainment Rich Media Display Ad(s)
3) Multi-Channel Cross Media Campaign for Theatrical or Home Video Movie Releases
4) YouTube Creative Award for Theatrical or Home Video Movie Releases (New this year!)

You are invited to submit up to three entries PER category.

The deadline has been extended until Monday, September 21, at 9pm PST (midnight EST). I hope you have some cool entertainment related creative that would be perfect for this year's awards. Enter here

Video Ads in Magazines

Thu, 27 Aug 2009 00:51:58 +1000

Looking foward to being bombarded with print based video ads now. Auto sound too!?

More details here.

Obama Girl promotes Final Destination

Thu, 27 Aug 2009 00:39:32 +1000

Don't just advertise on Youtube own the episode! Reminds of when Southern Comfort put their entire budget into online. You can't get this level of integration on TV.

Build Your Own 2010 Mustang

Thu, 06 Aug 2009 00:36:08 +1000

There is no greater feeling that seeing your work embraced by the audience. That's what Firstborn are seeing with the release of their "Community Customizer" for the new 2010 Ford Mustang.

It's only been a couple of days and the forums are already posting up their images. While it is much easier when working on an established brand with these forums and fan bases in place you have the added pressure of them being obsessed and ready to complain if it doesn't live up to their standards. Check out the conversation on these forums and fans sites here, here and here. This is only after 2 days. Much more conversation about this than the "branded content" videos featured on the homepage.

The site features a gallery in which you can rate and also get details on each car. I like the fact you can get details on each accessory even if not Ford owned.

The "community mode" of the site is interesting. I like the idea of multiple users deciding on a car but for me I like to wade through the options and pick slowly. I don't actually like the idea of someone changing my choice. If I want a British Racing green car then that's what I want. I don't car everyone else wants red. The way it's handled here is quite clever. Each selection is locked out for 30 seconds.

Another "build a product" site recently launched was this one by Big Spaceship for Lands' End called Packland. A much simpler interface but aimed at kids and with a level of polish that makes you want to cry. Check the activity on their Facebook page after this tool launched.

These types of tools or games are very popular. I know first hand as the Create Your Own Toy tool I worked on a couple of years ago saw over 1,000,000 toys get created in less than 6 months. We also made a design your own car tool back in 2005 and it still receives over 30,000 uniques a month over 4 years later. Sadly we didn't make our car tool as easily shareable back then.

These are even separate to the recent uptake in "avatar" creation tools which I'll do a round up of next week.

The community activity around these projects reminded me that you need to make the creations shareable. The image export is a huge must as it allows people to put it anywhere. Flickr, Facebook, forums or just keep and print. I've seen many of these "build your creations" that have only given a unique URL to share. Even worse is when it doesn't even have that.

You don't need to over engineer the sharing side of things. A simple image export in a variety of sizes is all most people need. Don't worry about send to friend forms as people don't use them. They already have their IM and email programs open or they are logged onto a variety of sites that your send to friend form wont send to. Just give them their creation and let them spread the word on their own.

Also don't feel you have to bribe people with the offer of prizes to use your tool. If you make something useful and fun they will use it. The toy creator we made had no offer to win or reason to play. It was just a tool to let people be creative. I think offering a prize would have just attracted the wrong type of people and the results were good enough already.

It's user generated content but a much lower barrier for entry. You can also build the tool to remove the need for moderation and you can use the content generated to create more content with "editors picks" and other initiatives.

If you have seen any other examples of "build my ?" tools please comment below.

Naked Girls Get Interrupted for GH5

Sat, 01 Aug 2009 16:17:31 +1000

I've been waiting for a reason to post this clip and the time has come. It also related to the previous post about ads taking inspiration from music clips and viral videos.

This clip for French band Make The Girl Dance below

Has been adapted as a viral for Guitar Hero 5.

Well according to Adrants. Music Steve's Facebook profile seems like a set-up.

I guess we wait for this to pan out as we get closer to GH5's September release. CP+B is the agency responsible for the Guitar Hero franchise. However Droga5 did the previous viral campaign Bike Hero for Guitar Hero 4. So right now unsure who is responsible. The use of the stero on the shoulder has me wondering if even the same directors were used.

Update: I have confirmation, from my sources, that this is officially for Guitar Hero 5.

Update 2: Bill O'Reilly also discussed this "ad" as did the LA Times.

Stop Motion People: Meme watch

Sat, 01 Aug 2009 14:43:14 +1000

After seeing this post on Mumbrella I thought I'd collect all the people on the ground videos that I've seen lately.

The problem with advertising is once you see a good idea worth "adapting" it takes 6 months or more to sell it in. So by that time someone else might have already adapted the idea. To the general public who isn't on YouTube every day the "adapted" ad will feel fresh and original. Even better when you wrap it around a boring brand.

Here they are in the order I saw them

Nike SB: Chalk

The making off

Her Morning Elegance: Oren Lavie

Chasing Pavements: Adele (embedded disabled grrr)

Sorry I'm Late Short Film

Strawberry Swing: Coldplay

Target ad by The Campaign Palace

We also had a few trampoline ads which aren't exactly the same but the whole ad wants to me Michel Gondry

zZz is playing: Grip

Fiat: Grande Punto Note: this ad was commissioned by the agency with the original directors. Hence the same song.

PS. Grande Punto rounds rude to my ears.

Then you have the side tangent of chalk stop motion. No people on the ground with false perspective

Stop Motion Chalk fight

Snickers China

So now that ads with crowds has definitely run it's course (I don't even want to get started on flash mob) I guess stop motion is back in vogue.

Here's my play list of 30+ ads all featuring crowds of people. I can't help but like the majority of them too.

My tip is to keep an eye out on Vimeo and the other smaller video portals where lost of quality creative stuff gets uploaded and falls under the radar. Oh and if possible get the original producers to make your ad. That way you're giving back to the creative community.

Check out http://copycunts.blogspot.com/ for more examples of this happening

Choose a Different Ending

Sat, 01 Aug 2009 03:56:26 +1000

This is great stuff. AMV BBDO UK has created an interactive YouTube campaign that lets people see the consequences of taking/not taking a knife out in public:

The scenarios are executed really well. The youths act realistically. And there are some pretty grim outcomes. I can definitely see young folk playing around with this. My only beef with this is that the comments seem to be full of things like this:

If he didn't have a weapon, he would have got beat the fuck up, chest stab - win

if you didnt have the knife and he did then its game over, its better to at least have a chance..

lol they basicly just told us to twat him or we get shanked!

There's always going to be young males who want to act brave though. No matter what the consequences are. But I really like the way this campaign actually lets people be in the shoes of someone. And the interactive element works well for this kind of pacing and story-telling.