Damien Knowles / Award Winning Senior Creative / Digital Art Director / London

I LOVE Typography

2012-02-15T12:23:00.002Z

Been doing a bit of old fashion type design the last few days. Creating a lockup for a new loyalty scheme, but with a real hand done feel. Unfortunately we have merely hours to get it through design so fingers crossed it looks awesome when it's done.

A great place to get inspired is typographyserved.com Or custom lettering at LetterCult and their great Alphabattles

I also wish my friend Tom was doing this project with me. See his great typographical CV below.

More of TMA

YouTube hit FENTON! gets meme in new T-Mobile Ad

2012-02-06T21:43:00.000Z

The ad.

The original FENTON!

You can of search on YouTube for the countless meme videos.

Address is approximate - Google street view stop motion

2011-11-24T12:25:00.000Z

Address Is Approximate from The Theory on Vimeo.

Google Street View stop motion animation short made as a personal project by director Tom Jenkins.

Story: A lonely desk toy longs for escape from the dark confines of the office, so he takes a cross country road trip to the Pacific Coast in the only way he can – using a toy car and Google Maps Street View.

All screen imagery was animated - there are no screen replacements.

Produced, animated, filmed, lit, edited & graded by Tom Jenkins (theoryfilms.co.uk / facebook.com/theoryfilms - !NEW MAKING OF PICS ON FB PAGE! / @thetheoryUK / twitter.com/#!/thetheoryUK).

Shot using Canon 5d MkII, Dragonframe Stop Motion software and customised slider.

Music by the wonderful Cinematic Orchestra (cinematicorchestra.com) and the track is Arrival of the Birds

The Return of Epic TV Ads!

2011-10-11T15:25:00.001+01:00

Have you noticed the surreal and epic big budget ads appearing lately? The Müller - Wünderful Stuff one takes the cake but there are plenty more surfacing recently. Are brands back in business? Shrugging off the recession that slashed their budgets? Tired of ads that won't make them famous? I'm pretty pleased about the resurgence of EPIC!.

Müller - Wünderful Stuff
Kitt from Knight Rider, Mr Men characters, Mutley and Yogi Bear. This is an EPIC mashup of 80s goodness. Great for that target group that has hit their 30s and are starting to pay attention to what they eat. The big surprise is you have to really pay attentio to see they flash up a Facebook icon in the last second. So far they have nothing happening on the fanpage, I hope they do some "Wünderful Stuff" soon.

Kia Soul - Droids & Hamsters dancing to LMFAO
This came out of nowhere. I thought I was watching a new gaming trailer, then some hamsters turn up and bust out the party rock anthem. Love the endline "Soul - A new way to roll". This is a youtube sensation it ticks so many boxes and is so well executed.

PS3 - Long Live Play "Micheal"
Love this. Another great mashup of many different gaming characters coming together to thank Micheal the guy behind them in every battle.

Youtube - Space Lab
Epic ad and opportunity. Check it out - "We're asking you to come up with a science experiment for space and upload a video explaining it to YouTube. If your idea wins, it will be performed on the International Space Station and live streamed on YouTube to the world. And we'll throw in some out-of-this-world prizes, too."

Eurostar - Opening the Way
Imagination at work. Javis Cocker, Michel Gondry and Arno - planning the perfect ceremony for 2012 Olympics.

Adidas Basketball - D Rose
A famous basketballer acts as the bull takes on the fierce spanish matadors. Slam dunk Adidas.

British Airways - To Fly To Serve
An epic look back at BAs orgins. I saw this as a script months ago and thought is sounded fairly predictable and it is. I can see they tried to warm up a few scenes but it leaves me feeling cold. Still an impressive wee film but seems more educational than exciting.

Weetabix - Chocolate Spoonsize
No grand outdoor setting just a kids bedroom. But pretty down with the kids, it will be a hit them.

Johnnie Walker - Keep Walking Brazil
Moving mountains in Brazil.

Old Spice - Puss in Boots
The Old Spice ads were pretty epic. But I love this takeoff for the new Puss in Boots movie.

Ken Block - The Hollywood Megamercial
OK It's not a TVC but this is MEGA EPIC for DC shoes. You can't help keep watching the crazy "don't try this at home" driving stunts. Plenty of other sponsors like Ford also benefit from appearing in this great piece of content.

Channel 4 - Concrete Circus, Industrial Revolutions
Some more content much like the above but you'd be even more likely to kill yourself if you tried this at your local railway yard with your old bmx.

Westfield Stratford - 100 Years of East London Style
No explosions here but this would have been a helluva lot of work to put together. There must be 50 vintage outfits all sliced together in a evolution of dance style story. It just ends a little flat for me. Again it seems more educational than "Wow I got to get me to Westfield now!"

Apple - 1984
Lastly this is trending like crazy at the moment. The original epic TVC for the Mac.

Have I missed any, let me know!

PS Saw this in the comments for the PS3 ad. Clever.

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Instagram

2011-10-11T12:56:00.001+01:00

The rise of Instagram. I've pitched a few Instagram ideas this year, one for a booze brand that I really liked, but the ATL agency asked if it could be an augmented reality app! Apparently they understand those now and they had never made one for a client. Way to be like 3 years too late.

My favourite uses are non brand like the awesome Instacat which then had many crazy spinoffs. This was the genius work of @adverplanner and his brilliant searchinstagram.com

#vaccinesvideo
This uses Vaccines fans pictures from summer gigs and festivals and turns it in to a music video. I love crowd sourced stuff when it is done properly. The the fisrt video is the CTA to their fans. The second is the video they made from the pictures submitted using #vaccinesvideo.

CTA

The Music Video - Wetsuit

#Fiestagram
My friends at Blue Hive (@adverplanner) are doing this simple but effective campaign for Ford Fiesta. There are several challenges, the first being to snap pics using the theme #starting. They are giving away weekly prizes and even a new car. Judges include well known photographers like James Day.

#bmibabyinstameet
bmibaby are launching the Instameet Exchange. The Instameet will see members of Instagrammer's groups from all bmibaby destination countries and the UK flown to visit each others countries and partake in a local Instameet.

Gamification

2011-10-10T09:50:00.004+01:00

So hot right now. Gaming mentality to encourage interaction.

From Mashable article on Gamification

The five most commonly used game mechanics:

Points: Points are everywhere, and they’re often used in non-game apps as a way to denote achievement. Points also measure the user’s achievements in relation to others and work to keep the user motivated for the next reward or level. They can even double as action-related currency. Health Month, for instance, uses points in an interesting fashion. The site asks users to set up weekly health-related goals and stick to them for an entire month. Each person starts with 10 “life points” and the goal is to end the month with at least 1 life point. The player loses a point every time he breaks a rule, but friends can help the player “heal” and earn back points.
Badges: While badges have their origins in the physical world, Foursquare popularized the digital variety with its oh-so-clever set of real-life merit badges that range from easy (Newbie badges are awarded to users on their first checkin) to nearly-impossible to unlock (it takes 10 movie theater checkins to earn the Zoetrope badge).
Levels: Zynga uses levels to make the seemingly mundane task of tending to crops all the more enticing, and LevelUp encourages mobile users to level up and get better discounts for becoming more loyal patrons.
Leaderboards: Leaderboards rank users and work to motivate and encourage them to become players. Foursquare started with city-centric leaderboards, but now places the emphasis on ranking users against their friends. Earn a few points for a checkin, and Foursquare will show you which of your friends you’ve flown by on the leaderboard.
Challenges: These range from the simple to complex and often involve communal activity or group play. Priebatsch gamified his South by Southwest Interactive keynote with a group challenge that required all attendees to work together in rows. A proffered $10,000 donation to the National Wildlife Foundation was used to sweeten the deal.

Great Example

Speeding in Sweden

Idea: Reward the good drivers with a lottery.

Can we get more people to obey the speed limit by making it fun to do? The idea here is capture on camera the people who keep to the speed limit. They would have their photos taken and registration numbers recorded and entered into a lottery. Winners would recieve cash prizes and be notified by post. Better still, the winning pot would come from the people who were caught speeding.

Dentsu and iPads

2011-10-10T09:48:00.000+01:00

I came across the hidden Dentsu awards video channel on Vimeo and picked out a few of the goodies. Some vids are long and cheesy so do skip ahead now and then but otherwise Dentsu appear to be doing interactive screen ideas that I see briefed and never made in many agencies in London.

Chinese AR Showroom
Interact with Yazaki employees using augmented reality

Aji Pad
Cooking App for kids that won't burn their hands off

Dentsu London Exhibition
Throw Ninja Stars with an iPhone

Cannes 2011 - Stuff I like

2011-10-10T09:44:00.000+01:00

Sour Japan
This is an interactive music video for the Japanese band SOUR. Their new song 'Mirror' sings about the fact that everyone around you is a mirror that reflects who you are. This lyric gave us an idea of a journey to find yourself through your connections with the people online. By connecting to your Facebook, Twitter, and the webcam, every viewing experience will be personalized based on your social network status.

Awards Site www.sour-mirror.jp/_award/en/

Make your music video www.sour-mirror.jp/index.html

Uniqlo
BRIEF To set the mood for the next UNIQLO special sale and to lead people from the web to stores. SOLUTION Let people make a waiting line: “UNIQLO LUCKY LINE” on the UNIQLO website using Twitter and Facebook. If people made tweets, they could join the line and get discount coupons for real stores. RESULT The world’s first waiting line on the website created a big buzz. More than 2.2million people joined the line. People also made a line in front of the real stores, and UNIQLO set a single day sales record in Japan of more than 10billion yen.

Awards Site http://interactive-salaryman.com/pieces/luckyline_e/cyber.html

Google Art Project
The Art Project is a collaboration with some of the world's most acclaimed art museums. Powered by a suite of technologies, the world's great museums and works of art and are now within reach to an unprecedented global audience. By virtually moving through the museum’s galleries and navigating interactive floor plans with Street View technology, viewers discover featured artworks at high resolution. Using the custom viewer to zoom into paintings, these great works can be seen in extraordinary detail. Viewers can also save specific views of any of the 1000+ artworks and build their own personalised collections

Awards Site http://www.google.com/events/cyberentries/art_project.html

The site www.googleartproject.com

The experience is not quite as slick as they made it look on the awards vid and you need the latest Safari and Chrome too. But still the hi res is amazing!

Airwalk Invisible AR Pop Up Shops
When Airwalk decided to do a limited edition re-launch of their classic sneaker, the Airwalk Jim, we came up with an entirely new way to do it. We made the world’s first ever Invisible Pop Up Stores. Coupling together cell phones, GPS technology, and Augmented Reality, customers could only buy the Jim if they downloaded the app, went to a pre-determined location, held up their phones, and took a photo of the AR Jim floating there. That allowed them to purchase the sneaker there and then. An exclusive product sold to an exclusive audience for an entirely new retail experience.

Awards site http://205.247.222.80/Awards2010/airwalk/

Ikea Lullabies
IKEA has a long running claim for their bed offer, ”Better Sleep for Everyone”. They wanted to revitalise the claim in a campaign that would engage every man, woman and child in Sweden, regardless of age, size or if they were in the market for a new bed. It seemed like a tough task, until we thought of something everyone, young or old, has a relationship to. Lullabies! Not lullabies produced in the traditional way, but in a new, modern way. Lullabies you’d be happy to pay for in a record store (if record stores still existed).

Awards Site http://entries.se/e/ikea/lullabies/site/

Mondeo Teaser Film

2010-10-11T15:41:00.001+01:00

Wow 4 months have past since I shot this film and now the teaser part has just broken. Good things take time. Take a peek. Below this post you can see the process we went through.

Ford Mondeo Shoot with Ridley Scott and Associates

2010-07-04T22:38:00.004+01:00

My final 3 days at Blue Hive was on a very premium car shoot with RSA around London. We were shooting what we call an IDF, an Interactive Digital Film that sits on all Fords websites across Europe. Shooting with a Red Cam (with the Mysterium X upgrade) for the first time was very exciting. Seeing HD footage as it happens on a big screen is definitely the fastest way to work. I did have to slum with a clam shell on the tracking vehicle at the end but even that comes out much clearer.

The Director was Dean Thrussell a highly energetic car nut and talented director. He himself owns 2 Red Cams with a 3rd on order and more equipment and lenses than you can imagine. The DOP was Adam Hall. My Senior Designer Ivan Pinto Bravo was also on set taking these great photos. He is also building the microsite and getting involved in the post work.

Day 1- We shot inside a very gritty warehouse space where we set up a bunch of controlled lighting shots. I wanted a very European premium look and it come out amazing. Lovely contrast of the car and the warehouse and juxtaposition of chrome highlights and dark moody spaces.

Hows that for contrasty. Sexy.

Day 2 - We shot the opening and closing scenes with involved actors and extras. One location was near Stamford Hill and is where they shot the first two seasons of Dragons Den. The place is littered with props for you to use too.

Day 3 - A tough day. Shooting on a Saturday on public roads was a real mission. What made it even harder was shooting for a European market so the car had to look like it was driving on the right instead of left. Quite complicated when you need to 'overtake' vehicles which meant we needed to 'undertake'. We also used chase vehicles to slow down an A road which the police were very unimpressed with and gave us a good ticking off.

Hello there I'm wearing 4 different hoodies and jackets because its bloody freezing!

The tracking vehicle was rare in that the camera operator also operates the crane, both vertical and horizontally while strapped on to the back of the truck. Which saved time than 3 guys trying to co-ordinate their movements to capture the complicated shots. Shot a above has the camera just roof mounted though.

So now we move on to edit, sound, grade and a few months of post. Of course I can only dip in and out of the project now that I'm FREELANCE! I trust my Creative Director and Senior Designer will make sure it becomes a fantastic looking film and microsite.

Res 72 / Creative Surveillance System

2010-06-07T00:21:00.001+01:00

A new way to find creative inspiration can be found at res72.com a collection of ideas, that founder Peter Hvid, myself and other adland contributors find in our day to day web crawling. Which means if I find something cool chances are it ends up there than here! Like the Ice House Detroit.

Ford S-Max Infinite Zoom Website

2010-05-12T23:18:00.001+01:00

Ford S-Max is all about adventure and unlimited possibilities. We used this idea to create an infinite adventure through a variety of landscapes. With a nod to the TVC we also have adventure sports projected on to the S-Max at key points. Use the dial in the top left to speed your way through the different landscapes. Instead of Silverlight we used Flash with several layers of images on different plains. See the site here.

Waitangi Day at Wunderman

2010-03-20T21:34:00.003Z

Just downloaded 640 photos of my iPhone and found our Waitangi Day party at Wunderman. For the second year the kiwis banded together and put on a spread, beers and posters of our homeland Aoteroa. Well the ladies were on the tucker the art director lads on posters. This year we also had RKCR/Y&R join the knees-up in our shared reception.

The spread. Chups n dips. Lolly-cake and Afghans.

Me and the kiwi celebs.

Neil and more celebs.

My favourite guest appearance was the life size Xena Warrior Princess who now sits high above my desk.

Ford Plasma Ball on Cool Hunter!

2010-01-26T22:22:00.003Z

I'm officially cool, making the homepage of Cool Hunter with my Ford Focus Plasma Ball website. They appear to have found the German version.

damienknowles.com

2010-01-17T20:15:00.002Z

My very own .com is now live. At damienknowles.com you can see all my great work past and present. It's been real fun to put all my work in one place and build it myself. In fact I still have truckloads that did not make the cut but what is there is only stuff I enjoyed doing and I'm proud of.

www.damienknowles.com

Ford Find It VS Nike True City

2010-01-17T19:54:00.007Z

Early last year we launched Go Find It a web portal where you could 'discover hidden content' that fell within our four core areas of Street Art, Social, Design and Music. This was to accompany the Go Find It campaign for the new Ford Ka. The vehicle while having a cult following had become almost 'invisible' so it was all about discovering the world around you and the new Ford Ka at the same time.

Our content portal gofindit.net went live last February and we are currently rolling out the iPhone app, Germany is the first market to go live with UK to hopefully follow soon.

So this is where Nike True City has got the jump on us. Their content seems to be iPhone only and was launched a few days ago. The content is for only 6 cities, not as ambitious as our every city in Western Europe approach of course. My iPhone is in pieces at the mo, so I have not had a go yet.

The video they have created feels very familiar to our campaign. It's about 'making the hidden visible' using mapped content like us here and even some speed up footage around Shoreditch which we did here and the use of QR codes which we did here. I'm not surprised Nike have made this app, when we were developing our portal we were surprised they hadn't already! In fact we always said that what is amazing about our content portal is the fact Ford a big automotive brand is behind it. When its a brand like Nike it is not unexpected.

But well done to AKQA they did integrate the product and I imagine it shows you where to find Nike stockists. They also made a sweet video to promote it which is how I came across it. I'm a bit worried because I'll be in the same categories as them for awards and their slick video is going to cause me trouble. At least I've already won a few awards for Go Find It which you can see here.

In summary I do think content is the way forward, especially content relevant to where you live/work/play that you can access online or out and about on your mobile. The key is getting it to grow organically by getting people to contribute, that's why I have fought to get Go Find It on mobile as it is much easier to snap a picture and upload it much like people do with Facebook and Twitter.

You can see more of my campaign at damienknowles.com

Go Find It Campaign

Nike True City

Creative Directors suck at SEO

2010-01-10T22:26:00.000Z

I have started to look around at how other creatives and particulary CDs establish their own presence on the web. I go through phases of being manic on my own SEO and what networks I am apart of. Many CDs are rubbish, even digital ones at making their presence online. I often flick through Campaign or awards juries for names and search them out only to hit dead ends.

Finally a good one. After looking at the D&AD judging panel I came across Laura Jordan Bambach, ECD at LBi. She has a fantastic LinkedIn profile, up to date blog and a pretty good twitter with nearly 500 followers. Maybe its the unique name but she still has great hits and ranking on google (even on images).

Mother Xmas SPAM

2009-12-23T16:11:00.000Z

Send out an email to the Christmas card list and ask for their bank details. First to do so gets US $10,000. Very different but mixed response around the office here. I like it alot. The Nigeria thing seems to far to conveniently fit the creative though...

Mo Bros Wunder-Weigh-In

2009-12-18T10:28:00.000Z

Sadly I was away this day but the lads did a precision mo weigh in with the Kern scales. Hilarious.

BIMA Award for Best Use Of Mobile!

2009-11-20T12:42:00.002Z

My Augmented Reality app for Ford Ka picked up a BIMA last night at Koko in Camden. The mobile app got a lot of attention at the time (late 2008) but adland subsequently become swamped with desktop AR, especially by car makers so it took the shine of our app as a great idea and good use of technology on our part. So I'm very happy that BIMA recognised the idea and awarded it. Thanks.

Heres a vid with some wunderpeeps showing off the app.

Heres the purty BIMA award. We were also up for Best Content but missed out on that one, still nice to be a finalist though.

I'm in Campaign today!

2009-11-19T17:11:00.005Z

Here we are in The Work in Campaign for our Ford Focus Plasma Ball work. See pg 28 of your 20/11/2009 edition today (plasma ball not included). See the site here or the youtube vid here.

Ford Focus Barcelona shoot

2009-11-08T21:58:00.005Z

Just 6 weeks ago I shot in Barcelona for the new Ford Focus website and now its up and running! www.discoverfordfocus.co.uk Working with Ridley Scott & Associates with director Alex Smith we brought the brief of "Ford Focus energises you" to life.

We also made this great wee Plasma Ball film.

To illustrate the idea of being energised, our idea was to create a giant plasma ball in the heart of gothic Barcelona and put a Ford Focus inside it. Unfortunately 6 weeks was not much time to do it for real so we filmed the car and people in situ and did the rest in post with Lumiere Studios.

People are attracted to the plasma ball and, when they touch it, orange light waves flow to their hands on the glass. This emotional connection combining the senses of sight and touch taps in to the human attribute of desire and is a pure realisation of Ford’s “Feel the difference” brand line.

Spotify now invite only

2009-10-15T23:04:00.000+01:00

Sorry lads where are all full up is the word from Spotify. With massive demand for free music, Spotify is now only available to paid up Premium Subscribers or if you know someone who is on a premium subscription they get 2 invites a year (or month) depending how they pay for it. I feel so privileged now.

What I didn't realise is every song I play, music labels are sending Spotify the bill. With huge demand and only 10% of the 2M UK subscribers paying for the service, its a bill too big for Spotify to sustain. Some think they will be out of business in a year.

Calvin Harris's Humanthesizer

2009-10-15T22:19:00.000+01:00

Great way for Calvin Harris to get 20 girls in bikinis on stage for his upcoming tour. He is going to use them as his instruments. Besides that it is also a very interesting idea to wire people up and make music.

Busy working and traveling

2009-10-06T22:40:00.002+01:00

Slovenia, Paris, Barcelona, Oktoberfest in Munich, Bath and Essex. These great and varied lands explain my lack of blogging lately.

Slovenia Lake Bled

Oktoberfest in Munich

Music video shot with webcams

2009-08-14T12:13:00.002+01:00

This music video was shot for Sour's 'Hibi no Neiro' (Tone of everyday) from their first mini album 'Water Flavor EP'. The cast were selected from the actual Sour fan base, from all over the world. Each person and scene was filmed purely via webcam. I have no idea how they managed to choreograph it though. Brilliant effect and a great track too.

If Twitter were 100 people - 20 of them would be dead

2009-08-11T10:23:00.004+01:00

Reaserach by Sysomos discovered shows that 75% of the tweet traffic is done by 5% of the community. Among the things that they discovered about the most active Twitter users are that:

Of the most active Twitter users updating more than 150 times/day, nearly all of them are bots operated by sources such as hotels offering deals, regional and national news services, regional weather services, the top news within Digg, games, anim services, tags within del.icio.us and financial aggregators. These very active bots account for one-quarter of all tweets.

Among the most active Twitter users with more than 50,000 followers, we find singer Tyrese (@tyrese4real), actress Alyssa Milano (@alyssa_milano), celebrity Tila Tequila (@officialtila), tv host Jonathan Ross (@wossy) and evangelist Guy Kawasaki (@guykawasaki).

60.6% of the most active Twitter users live in the United States, while 6.9% are located in the U.K, 4.7% in Japan, and 4.3% in Canada.

The split between genders among the most active Twitter users is fairly balanced with 54% male, 46% female.

88% of the most active Twitter users have never missed a day without making at least one update, while another 2.1% have only been inactive for one day.

48% have more than 100 followers, compared with 6.3% for overall Twitter users.

33.7% of the most active Twitter users have joined Twitter this year, compared with 72.5% of overall Twitter users who have signed up this year

The most popular keywords within bios are Internet marketing, music lover, Web designer, video games, and husband/father.

See the full report here.

Monday Inspiration

2009-08-10T17:52:00.004+01:00

Every Monday morning at Wunderman the creatives have a meeting where one of us shows something inspiration or thought provoking. Kristina Matovic gave a talk on Immersive Environments and these guys UVA do some great stuff. I found these images they did for IDN Magazines 15th birthday on their blog. They created them by using a 3D camera to capture multiple 3D snapshots of their office, and created a custom piece of software that allowed them to stitch and position them

handmadefont.com

2009-08-04T13:27:00.003+01:00

These guys from Estonia do some amazing fonts. Truly original and done with love from what I can see. They also have a blog of their other design and ad work.

Jackie Chan fights Cyber Virus

2009-07-29T22:36:00.002+01:00

Wow is this a piss take or what? It appears not. Kaspersky Security have made this crazy ad featuring Jackie Chan where he fights cyberworld viruses whilst on a segway. Shamelss celebrity endorsement "Everyone needs to enjoy safe time on the internet. For the best protection I choose Kaspersky".

Mad Men Yourself

2009-07-29T14:09:00.005+01:00

Great idea to create buzz around Season 3 coming out in the US next month. Create your own Mad Men avatar and put yourself in various scenes. From the office to the bedroom. How do I look with whiskey and newspaper in hand? A convincing 1960s Art Director? Mad Men Yourself here.

MoMa recommendations with Facebook Connect

2009-07-28T14:58:00.003+01:00

Check out the MoMA summer planner that uses Facebook Connect to recommend exhibitions. Worked well for me.

Boone Oakley Youtube Home Page

2009-07-27T13:02:00.002+01:00

Very clever to use YouTube to host your agency website. This is the same agency who did that very clever PR stunt for the job recruitment website by having a billboard of Bush with the slogan "Gore 2000" on it.

Graham Fink @ Typographic Circle

2009-07-26T22:28:00.005+01:00

The Typographic Circle invited Graham Fink the CD of M+C Saatchi London to speak the other night at JWT. I had never been before but spotted it on the CR Blog. Luckily for most of us there Graham admitted not knowing much about type so talked for almost 2 hours about ideas and inspiration. I have heard many stories about, well his style should I say. So starting by making everyone stand up and hum in tune together in C flat was a great way to start. But he was right we did all feel better after doing it.

From there he took us on a roller coaster of inspiration of people he believed were "on their path", like ad men Paul Arden and Dave Trott to director Francis Ford Coppola who directed Finks favourite film Apocalypse Now. Fink believes the greatest and most original ideas come from deep inside ourselves, whilst most ideas are not original, they are merely things we have picked up along the way. He used David Lynch's quote to illustrate "ideas are like fish. If you want to catch little fish, you can stay in the shallow water. But if you want to catch the big fish, you've got to go deeper." Going deeper and finding our true-selves seems to be the Nirvana that Fink is looking for. He talked about how we all have different selves, work guy, family man, lad at the pub, but if we can tap in to our true "I" then we are on to a winner and will discover truly original thinking.

Of course like most people Fink is still trying to figure out exactly how to do that. He talked about the "quiet moments" that we have. You know when you think so hard about something then decide to go make a cup of tea or wonder what's for lunch and boom the idea hits you. Why does this clarity happen in a second? Why the hell does it not happen earlier? How can we find those moments all the time? I'm not sure Fink knows any better than the rest of us but he does open his mind to many different sources of information and thinking. The breadth of people, subjects and genres he covered to talk through was impressive. Unlike many talks you go to I was probably familiar with only 10% of the content he was on about. I just hope someone from Cannes Lions was there because he should definitely get a spot on stage next year.

A final quote that has stuck with me was "The brighter the light, the darker the shadow". Think about it.

See more at http://www.thefinktank.com

USB Mixa Tape

2009-07-26T22:19:00.004+01:00

Very cool USB drive that is housed in a tape. They even send it out in a plastic case with cover artwork you can design. MIXA is made by interactive design house magneticNorth.

Flight of the Conchords Widget

2009-07-22T21:59:00.002+01:00

I'm a fan. How could I not be fan of this great Kiwi folk duo.

Listen

2009-07-20T16:48:00.001+01:00

A great wee vid about how we (advertisers) need to listen more. Courtesy of David Sables weekly ramble.

MONITOR YOUR TOAST WITH VIGILANCE

2009-07-14T16:30:00.006+01:00

We had a fire alarm yesterday all due to someone well and truly burning their toast. After the building was declared safe we got a gem of an email. I have not laughed so hard in a while. Part of it read:

"Can all staff that use the toasters be more vigilant when using them, so we don’t have a repeat of today’s alarm otherwise we’ll have to remove all toasters."

VIGILANT reminded me of WWII posters about looking out for the enemy. I found an interesting chinese commy poster and lead me to illustrate these posters for the office which I stuck up before I left last night.

Small print reads. FAILURE TO COMPLY WILL RESULT IN FACILITIES FUCKING YOU RIGHT UP. Facilities being the building monitors as such. Nice change to do something fun like this and fingers crossed we won't have our toasters confiscated.

Cannes - Gravitational Media

2009-07-08T22:37:00.002+01:00

Brian Monahan, Global Lead of Social Media - Universal McCann opened with this great vid as the setup for Gravitational Media. The insight being that bodies attract bodies. People like to feel they are part of something and they belong. This seminar encouraged "Dense Gravitational Media" (store that one for your next client preso) not mass media.

Examples included the Facebook group "No Mas Farc" that went from one guy against the FARC (Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces)into a worldwide event with marches in 133 different cities around the world.

Naked Models on Youtube

2009-07-08T12:26:00.002+01:00

How do you get naked French models on youtube you ask? Like this! It has just over 400,000 hits but will get in to the millions easily.

Cannes - Future TV

2009-07-07T22:51:00.005+01:00

Both Schematic and Razorfish talked about the future of TV. Where programming will be all on demand but the TV will also know when and what you want to watch. It will mix, TV programs with web content, branded content and even feature you and your friends content in the mix as well or a new racing game to play. For example if on a Tuesday you often watch a nature program for an hour it will suggest that to you when you next slump in front of the box on a Tuesday. Except maybe the TV knows you got home late and need cheering up so throws up a single Simpsons episode to keep you happy. It thinks you'll like it because one of your friends recommended it to you. As you watch you can see other friends and what they are watching. You could text chat about your day or decide to watch something together and talk to each other like your on the same couch watching your favourite movie.

Its not so crazy really. How often to you watch TV while surfing the web, chatting on any number of text, voice, video platforms or via mobile. You also sort photos from the weekend and upload to a number of platforms. One day these places will all be one. You'll be connected to them all but with out all the hassle.

What does this mean for brands? We'll probably have to create interesting and relevant content that can fit comfortably amongst this melting pot of content. I think that segmenting will become infinite but of course targeting would be much more accurate. This would lead to advertising content be useful/informative/entertaining ecause it's aimed directly at who would enjoy it. If not you'll be quickly ignored and I don't think we will be able to actively broadcast at people but really will be forced to engage with them just as digital is striving to do now. Search will still be huge, as you meander thru content sponsored links will continue to try give us relevant shopping results and services, sadly I don't see it getting very exciting do you?

Cannes - Schematic Touchwall

2009-07-07T22:16:00.007+01:00

This was one of the very cool pieces of Tec on display at Cannes. Schematic's giant touchscreen interface that multiple people can interact with.

They are at the forefront of the fancy hardware but write their own software too. This type of thing would work in so many places. It does feel a little Minority Report especially when Dale Herigstad, Chief Creative Officer at Schematic started his seminar by saying he was one of the concepters behind Tom Cruises future thinking interfaces we see in the movie.

Basically this one is a giant iPhone, but gesture recognition is right around the corner. What I do love is the way people swarmed around the display. It would make a great shop window or interactive billboard. I imagine someone very soon will do just that.

Cannes - I'm back

2009-06-30T20:16:00.004+01:00

I will try put up more posts about various things I saw over the next few weeks. It was a lot to take in. Not just the work but the people the parties and the beach!

Cannes - Can't keep up! & Future Thinking

2009-06-24T10:30:00.005+01:00

Well it's my last day as a paid up delegate. Been going to so many things its hard to keep up with my thoughts. One of the best seminars was by Razorfish. They gave what many have come for, a look in to the future. Check it out here.

Cannes – Coke and Sapient

2009-06-22T12:37:00.005+01:00

I always think Coke have it easy. Established household brand, no complicated product or service to explain just a fizzy drink. But maybe that’s just it. Last time I bought coke it went flat and we used it to clean out our drain. Yet moments after hearing about their new interactive U-Vend coke machine I was in a queue wanting some coke love. Since the happiness factory success Coke have been continuing the feel good factor. Getting people in China and India who have never tasted coke to try it and tell their friends how great it was. In India you got free mobile mins when you bought a coke. In China you gave a friend a coke for Christmas. The uptake sounds staggering with 100s of millions of people getting involved.

The U-Vend

The U-Vend is a revoloution for coke and the industry. With over 3 million machines world wide they clicked that they should use this precious real estate. Partnering with Samsung these giant silver (not red) machines sport 46in interactive touch screens, The screens bring the feel good factor to life. The one we have here has different artist aluminium bottles and you can pick a design and learn about the artist. Not that with 20 people behind me I had time to really try this out. The usual wallpapers, ringtones are available to download to your phone. In Japan consumers already use their phones to buy coke which is where the rest of us should get to soon. They realise they are sitting on something quite amazing that they have barely scrapped the surface with its potential and I agree.

What does this all mean? Coke have made a true brand experience in what was once just a functional transaction. The machines cost 3 times as much but are proving 10 times more profitable. They have not disrupted but enhanced their brand interactions.

Coke iPhone app. Clever buggers made a fun game that uses Facebook connect so you can challenge friends to do better. Very clever, making it far more sticky than other apps.

Fact: We consume 1.5 Billion servings of Coke a day!

The future? Mobile. Japan is leading the way, Coke wants other providers elsewhere to catch up!

LBi - Death of the Creative Director

2009-06-21T21:46:00.005+01:00

A Brazilian planner and I have differing views on this preso. I liked it, he thought it was stuff he'd heard all before. I think we are both right.

From what I understand LBi were saying:
Collaborate with consumers
Add value, don't create metaphors
Be believable

Chris Clarkes examples included Streetcar (where I was Head of Creative for 9 months) and Innocent Smoothies. Companies that work closely with their consumers and follow all the above points. Those are easier said than done for the small companies that are growing from nothing but what about the bigger brands? He showed a film they made for Vodafone for internal use. It was an explanation of "Make the most of now". That Vodafone needed to express that by creating valuable services like apps. Trying to make their customers lives easier to "MTMON". Also some work for Electrolux where they created a tiny trendy restaurant in Paris, that could seat only 12 people a night. You have to book your spot online. This of course led to some PR and got people talking. I'm not sure what the actual relevance was (Electolux are more than just vacuum cleaners in France I assume, homewares etc), but again in was about making something of value that people would engage with.

They also noted that when brands see culture engaging with them, they should get amongst it. Like the revival of Lego shown here in this funny clip by Eddie Izard thats a few years old now. But all this type of activity lead to a Lego Star Wars Movie and Harry Potter tie ups.

In summary, LBi are not saying new things they are reminding you to actually do them though. Because hardly anyone is listening and good on LBi for actually trying to make things happen!

Cannes Lions - Sunday - Day 1

2009-06-21T21:31:00.002+01:00

For some reason I had it in my head that the first seminar kicked off at 08:30. So after a rubbish nights sleep (I'm so centrally located I practically have a DJ playing next to my head) I got up early to register etc. The day actually starts at 10:00, how advertising is that. Its made for the creative timetable I tell you! Will sleep in tomorrow.

Cannes first impressions

2009-06-21T21:23:00.002+01:00

Its hot as fuk. Only a short flight from Luton straight in to 30 degrees! The beach is crammed and not very clean but still inviting. The shops, cars and super yachts are BLING. Plenty of rich old dudes in Ferraris with girls younger than me hanging on their arms. The town is covered in Cannes Lions advertising and feels packed by French tourists as opposed to adwankers just yet.

Cannes Lions Festival 2009

2009-06-21T21:08:00.002+01:00

I've always wanted to go to Cannes. Being so close now, it seemed crazy not to take advantage, especially since it was my last year to go cheap as a Young Lion. So I have paid my own way on a 4 day pass (It goes for 7). I am still staying all week though. So I can still mingle during the wee hours at Gutter Bar...

What do I hope to achieve? Well for one, be inspired. I love working in advertising, I get to creatively problem solve everyday. So I think Cannes will be like throwing petrol on my creative fire and hopefully get me thinking about attacking problems in new ways. This year digital and social responsibility are also featuring heavily. Digital is an exciting space to be so I want to hear from the leaders of the pack where they think it's going. On a personal note I am concerned about our planet, so how can we market products and services responsibly? I'm not sure yet, I hope to find out.

Our world. Your move. "Simple gestures"

2009-04-22T16:08:00.003+01:00

This is a vid for the - "International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement are commemorating the 150 year anniversary of the battle of Solferino. It was there that a young Swiss businessman, Henry Dunant, did not look away but took action and moved quickly to organize civilians to help thousands of unassisted wounded soldiers"

by Saatchis in Geneva. I found this courtesy of Fraser Grant a creative workinig on the campaign. Its sends you to a site where you can make your move.

Dizzie Rascal

2009-04-19T23:13:00.001+01:00

Dizzee Rascal - Bonkers

Love this tune. Only just found the vid hiding one the Radio 1 site. Simple yet funky vid too. A bit of a Daft Punk skeletons in there even. UPDATED: Now on MySpace Video.

Stop motion with wolf and pig

2009-04-18T00:26:00.000+01:00

More fantastic dedication from the Japanese. Who'll be the first to rip this in to an ad? Love it, espcially when they get to the kitchen sink.

Peter Kogler’s Computronic Installation

2009-04-18T00:04:00.000+01:00

Peter Kogler’s Computronic (is that a word? It should be) Installation at the MUMOK in Vienna. My favourite bit is 5mins in.

Japanese Daughter - Raindance Film Festival

2009-04-17T23:25:00.000+01:00

Quite cool vid for the 14th Raindance Film Fest. Found via The Young Creative Council, London

Title: "Daughter"
Original Title: "Japanese"
Agency: The Directors Network
City: Minatoku
Production Company: Hat Company, Ltd.
Advertiser: Raindance Film Festival
Tagline: It's a movie. You should do something.

Fake Street Art

2009-04-14T12:03:00.000+01:00

Most street art never lasts on the street but can live on online. So why not just fake it online to start with. Brilliant.

Pamplona - Running of the Bulls

2008-07-20T22:16:00.000+01:00

Last week I got back from the maddest trip in Pamplona. I have always wanted to run with the bulls and this year I got my chance. We started with a colossal 26 hour bus ride from London, through France and in to Spain. We arrived to a tent city of about 1500 Aussies and Kiwis on the outskirts of town. The Sunday we joined all of San Fermin as we squeezed in the tiny town square. Spraying champagne and sangria all over each other. But we all knew we were going to be up at 5am to get a spot in the same place to face the bulls. Monday was opening day and was absolutely packed as we stood like sardines for over an hour watching the minutes tick by. At 7:52am the collective fear of how the hell is this going to end was spreading. 7:57 a quick man hug and good luck to the 2 mates I was still next to. 8:00 the clock stikes and the first rocket goes BANG. Within seconds the road was running and I was on my own. I kept to the right hand side so as not to get caught on the wrong side of dead mans corner. I probably got only 50-60 metres and the bulls were on us. The sea of people parted and I was right on dead mans corner as the bulls rampaged through. I was squased so hard up against the wall by others avoiding a goring. A man only a few metres away was trampled badly as medics struggled to jump the fence he started bleeding out the back of his head. Then as the bulls went passed an Aussie yelled "run mother fuckers! run!" and we did. I pushed off the wall and took the 90 degree corner up the main street running to catch the bulls and get in the stadium. Sadly the sheer volume in front of me made it too hard. But the rush of adrenaline was amazing! The atmosphere of joy, excitement and relief was intense. Would I do it again? Well the whole thing makes much more sense once you've done it. I'm glad we scoped it out and had a plan. But there is still so much that is unpredictable. Like the 12 6-700KG beasts behind you. So no I won't run again. But I will damn sure be back for a fiesta!

Digi Damo

2008-07-20T14:26:00.000+01:00

This blog has been a longtime coming. I started one 2 years ago and never got past the first post, so lets hope I do this time. The main influencer's include my girlfriend who religiously keeps a diary much to my amazement and the fact I now work in a pure play digital outfit called Wunderman. So it's about time I got down wit it.