2009 - The year of social/viral/content video...

Here's great mash-up of all the best of the social/viral/content that was created in 2009, see how many of them you recognise!

Why our Online and Offline personalities are converging

I have just finished my first post for the Naked Sydney blog - The Flasher - entitled 'Why our Online and Offline personalities are converging'...

Check it out here

GiffGaff

This is fantastic example of an 'action' orientated campaign by GiffGaff Mobile in the UK...

Adopting the ethos of the 'challenger brand' in a heavily saturated category, ruled by the big boys (Vodafone, Orange, O2 and T-Mobile), GiffGaff decided to do something utterly random and different and developed the 'Tool Hire' campaign.

It is a digitally based campaign hosted on the giffgaff website and YouTube.
Users can sign up to hire a series of props which they then need to use in a short film competition. Every entrant will receive two V.I.G. SIM cards including free UK calls, texts, internet for a year. There are also five £5,000 prizes for the very best submissions.

By asking people to 'act', providing simple, entertaining content and incentivising people with a fantastic prize just for entering, they've pretty much guaranteed the talkability factor and endeared themselves to their audience.

Brilliant job by Albion and Splendid Communications in London.

Turning the traditional advertising model on it's head...

The advertising world's obsession with creating awareness and emotional connections is an outdated model which needs a serious overhaul as Adam Ferrier so eloquently articulates in his recent post "Action Advertising Over Emotional Advertising" which is a must read...

In basic terms, he suggests that the point of advertising is not to create an emotional response via a passive medium, but rather to get people to DO something, take action and experience a brand first hand. Following this, a person will normally post-rationalise their actions to make sense of their behaviour (which is where the emotional connection and awareness comes in)...

So try turning your advertising model upside down from funnel to pyramid - I assure you it works.

...and just in case you don't trust Adam, try out this guy:

“A large body of psychological research shows that social and physical environments affect thoughts at an unconscious level. People are nicer, for instance, when they are outside a bakery with the smell of fresh bread in the air or after they have just found a dime in the slot of a pay phone. In addition, our happiness is affected by what we do, not just what we think. Successful therapy for depression isn't just a matter of shifting perspectives; it's getting the sufferer to change his or her behavior. Even something as superficial as coaxing a person to smile more can have real, positive effects”.

Paul Bloom, Professor of psychology at Yale University

Ye Olde Map Of Social Communities...

Just came across this, it's pretty old but it's also pretty awesome...