Last week’s story about Steven Salter, the fed-up flight attendant who resigned from JetBlue in spectacular style, reminded us that there is an airline that does have a unique sense of humour in South Africa.

Kulula is a low-cost airline that expresses itself in a very different way in everything from their livery (see photos at bottom of article) to the way the staff talk to their passengers, here are some examples:

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On a flight with a very “senior” flight attendant crew, the pilot said, “Ladies and gentlemen, we’ve reached cruising altitude and will be turning down the cabin lights. This is for your comfort and to enhance the appearance of your flight attendants.”

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On landing, the stewardess said, “Please be sure to take all of your belongings.. If you’re going to leave anything, please make sure it’s something we’d like to have.”

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After a particularly rough landing during thunderstorms in the Karoo , a flight attendant on a flight announced, “Please take care when opening the overhead compartments because, after a landing like that, sure as hell everything has shifted.”

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From a Kulula employee: ” Welcome aboard Kulula 271 to Port Elizabeth …
To operate your seat belt, insert the metal tab into the buckle, and pull tight. It works just like every other seat belt; and, if you don’t know how to operate one, you probably shouldn’t be out in public unsupervised.”

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“In the event of a sudden loss of cabin pressure, masks will descend from the ceiling. Stop screaming, grab the mask, and pull it over your face. If you have a small child travelling with you, secure your mask before assisting with theirs. If you are travelling with more than one small child, pick your favourite.”

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“Your seats cushions can be used for flotation; and in the event of an emergency water landing, please paddle to shore and take them with our  compliments.”

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And from the pilot during his welcome message: “Kulula Airlines is pleased to announce that we have some of the best flight attendants in the industry. Unfortunately, none of them are on this flight!”

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Heard on Kulula 255 just after a very hard landing in Cape Town : The flight attendant came on the intercom and said, “That was quite a bump and I know what y’all are thinking. I’m here to tell you it wasn’t the airline’s fault, it wasn’t the pilot’s fault, it wasn’t the flight attendant’s fault, it was the asphalt.”

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The best outdoor is from a New York agency for Diesel jeans. What we love about this apart from the fact that it’s funny is that it doesn’t rely on a big budget. It’s “just” a terrific idea.

Clemenger BBDO Adelaide is very pleased to again be involved in this year’s Marketing Week conference as a principal and digital sponsor – and we highly recommend this year’s event.

This year’s theme is ‘Fans Build Brands’ and speakers will explore what motivates customers to become advocates for a brand. How is it that brands such as Apple, Nike, Twitter and Harley Davidson provoke fanatical allegiance and obsession while others fail? What will motivate your market to help build your brand and build sales?

The Marketing Week committee have begged, badgered and bribed some of the marketing, media and communications industries biggest names to share their wisdom and reveal their secrets. They include:

Russel Howcroft
National CEO George Patterson Y&R, and star of The Gruen Transfer

Harold Mitchell AC
Executive Chairman, Mitchell Communication Group

Jonathan Kneebone
Writer/Director, The Glue Society

David Gyngell
Chief Executive Officer, Nine Network Australia

Sudeep Gohil
Strategic Planning Director/Partner, Droga5

Ian Elliot
Chairman, Elliot Enterprises

Simon Hammond
Director, Bastion Brands

Amy Smith
Managing Director, Jenny Craig Australia/New Zealand

Click here to visit the Marketing Week 2010 website for a full speaker line-up, session details, Twitter feeds and more. http://www.marketingweek.com.au

We were chuffed that a television commercial we recently made for Netball Australia made Peter Goers’ ‘What’s Hot’ list in the Sunday Mail.

What do you think?

Netball Australia from Clemenger BBDO Adelaide on Vimeo.

In the last week we have seen two research studies telling us that shoppers are now more cost and value conscious than ever. Australiascan’s latest study showed that behaviours that developed during the GFC have become permanent and this study from our sister company MARC research looks at the way US shoppers are finding value and making decisions with coupons (it’s a 12 page PDF, allow about 5 minutes).

We are being asked more and more by clients to advise them on how they can can encourage people to become fans of their brand on Facebook or follow them on Twitter.

In our opinion, the best way to get people to become a fan is through engagement and, more importantly, through user initiation. In other words, if your customer likes you enough, they don’t need a reason or an incentive to become a fan – they will look for you.

In a way, it’s no different to the way you might make friends on Facebook. If you want to be friends with someone, you will look him or her up yourself. If someone sends you a friend request, you have the option to accept or ignore that person. It’s pretty simple really.

So, the question becomes – if we start offering money or other incentives for people to become one of our Brand’s fans, who are we kidding? Sure, you may get a few fans, but chances are the way that friendship was initiated won’t reflect a “true” relationship nor necessarily a positive disposition towards your brand.

It’s a bit like playschool children offering their lunch or toys to other children in order to be liked and make friends. But when push comes to shove, there is no true friendship.

So before you set out to entice or incentivise people to become fans of your brand on Facebook, remember that the “fan base” you create may not have done it because they like or even love your brand.  And at the end of the day, isn’t that the real reason why we would someone want to be our fan?

But we’ve recently spotted a couple of really interesting billboard ideas.

Nikon took its cue from our celebrity-obsessed paparazzi culture to launch the brand’s D700 model in Korea.

At a busy Seoul subway station, Nikon mounted a huge interactive, light-box billboard displaying life-like images of paparazzi.  Huddled together as if at a premiere, the “paps” appeared to be jostling and competing for the best celebrity snap.  The celebrities in this case were the passersby, who automatically triggered a deluge of flashing camera lights as they walked past the billboard.  The accidental superstars then followed the red carpet all the way out of the station and into a mall – directly into the store where they could purchase the new D700.  Mission accomplished.

In this campaign for an insurance company in Holland, they built several LIVE accidents and placed them all around the country.  Anyone could step into these accidents.  And that generated thousands of unique photographs.  At the “Just call us” LIVE website, people could download their own photo and vote for their favourite photos.  The 80 photos that got the most votes were eventually used as outdoor posters.  In this way, the Dutch people themselves determined what the new “Just call us” campaign looked like.

Are you sick of this topic yet?

There’s certainly no shortage of hype – and in many cases hyperbole – around this topic.  And the relevance of digital to you depends on your category, your product and your consumer.

But in the mass of information available, we found this report from US Digital agency Razorfish to be an interesting and easy 10 minute read.

You can download the report here.

Click here to view the embedded video.

This new campaign for the Motor Accident Commission was created to encourage motorcyclists to stop and think about the obstacles they face on the road. The campaign sets out to empathise with motorcyclists rather than telling them off or labeling them as reckless.

The ad is proving popular on YouTube, with over 200,000 hits in just 2 weeks. Coincidentally, our Pocket Rocket commercial is still growing in popularity with over 400,000 YouTube hits to date.

Click here to view the embedded video.

You’ve already seen clips like this talking about the media revolution, but here’s one that’s been uploaded and updated recently.  Scary, but good.