Splitscreen: A Love Story from JW Griffiths on Vimeo.
This beautiful video is being blogged all over the place at the moment, and for good reason. Splitscreen is the winner of the recent Nokia Shorts competition (disclaimer – 1000heads worked on this project for the big N) and, work associations aside, the video itself is gorgeous.
The winners (along with the other finalists) should be proud; it’s a great project and the output has been fantastic.
Well done to all involved.
Last week, after getting all excited about this past weekend’s BIG FIGHT, I tasked our hardcore team of crack word of mouth analysts with monitoring and tracking all the social media buzz leading up to, during and after the main event.
Working tirelessly through the weekend (along with our creative team here internally and our design team at Lethal), they’ve just produced this awesome Haye vs. Klitschko online/offline infographic, check it out —
What do you think?
As an FYI, WOMTrakâ„¢ is 1000heads’ own bespoke word of mouth and social media monitoring tool that uses both technology and human analysis to produce these kinds of results for our clients day in, day out.
Give us a call to find out more.
It is a bitter sweet pill that we swallow today as we proudly announce our placement in the Reputation Online Top 100 Agency rankings.
It’s great news that we came in ranked as the number one independent for our work in this space (and number two overall). But it is unfortunately tinged with sadness as we also say farewell to Reputation Online who announced its closure earlier this week.
Over the past two years Vikki Chowney and her team have consistently delivered the latest news, insights and industry perspectives that those who work in the social media space have often required to help stay abreast of the ever-changing digital landscape.
Not only has it been through their own contributions from all across the New Media Age team, but also with the addition of the ‘open post’ policy where anyone with a point of view (and a reasonable understanding of the basics of grammar) could submit their own story for publication.
Last year, for example, right when the Hyundai/ITV/World Cup debacle kicked off, we ourselves had an article featured discussing the merits of taking a potential PR nightmare for all involved and switching it to help boost sales.
And it is in this global-reaching area of marketing & communications [online reputation management], that professional teams across the globe are now learning to specialise in. Reputation Online’s work it seems, now more than ever, will be sorely missed.
We at 1000heads wish Vikki and her team the very best for the future and say thank you, once again, for the opportunity to appear in the Top 100.
Cannes Lions is well and truly over and, with the Young Lions celebrating their latest win (along with many, many others), it’s time to look back over some of the more leading and creative thoughts that fell out of such an important conference.
Back in part one I promised some thoughts on the Diageo session I attended as well as some overall thoughts and links post-event.
First, Andy Fennell, CMO, Diageo –
Key points and quotes –
Speaking of Africa, Andy gave an example of how Guinness arrived in the football-loving continent with their very own football-themed quiz show –
The whole idea, initiated by Guinness (one of Diageo’s sub-brands), started and ended with the drink in question and resulted in a significant jump in sales.
I personally hadn’t seen a brand invent its own TV show before, not least of all one that actually delivered on both an entertainment value (average episode views are upwards of 4m) as well as on a brand awareness and sales front too. Very impressive.
Overall, the Diageo session was interesting as it was a brand talking about their creative as opposed to an agency. Hearing the insights and ways of working behind such a huge, worldwide company inspired plenty of food for thought and served as a reminder at just how impactful television can be when harnessed correctly.
Thanks for reading.
Additional links of interest:
My unofficial Cannes recap – via The Brand Builder
Nokia @ Cannes – via Nseries
This is, apparently, what word of mouth is on in today’s world of global social media acceptance and growth.
The source of such a huge statement?
This latest video from best-selling author, Erik Qualman. Word of mouth commentary aside, if you need the latest social media stats, figures and growth patterns, then look no further.
Watch it. Take it in. Watch it again.
Hello from sunny Cannes!
[yes, I know you all hate me and that the weather in London is terrible BUT!] I come bearing gifts of news, insights, words and pictures!
1000heads are over supporting Nokia as part of their lead sponsorship of the Young Lions Competition* kicking off later today. However, before that all gets under way, I want to explore and share some of the findings from some of yesterday’s talks.
Consider the following notes as a monumental brain dump to be consumed, digested and used as talking points for further conversation –
PHD: Beyond the Horizon
PHD, a global media agency, came under fire earlier this year for their ‘We Are The Future‘ video and I was intrigued to see what kinds of thoughts and theories they wanted to put forward around future technologies.
Like I said; just a brain dump. But some starting points for sure. Tomorrow I’ll be back with notes from the Diageo session (who we’ve written about before) and what efforts they’ve been putting into extending their brands globally.
Any thoughts on the above? Dive into the comments below…
*Keep your eyes on the Nokia Nseries blog and Twitter feed for more details on this later today
Moleskine entry: April 14th, 2011
Within the train, we’re on Moscow time. The timetables, dining schedule and bar opening hours are all on Moscow time.
When we get off the train however (at various stations and stops along the way), we’re suddenly on local time, which could be anything upwards of +2/3/4hrs more.
Time travel.
“It is our failure to achieve our perceived ideal that ultimately defines us and makes us unique”
– Conan O’Brien, June 12th 20011
I’ve already shared this both on Twitter and on Facebook, but it was happening upon an old article that I’d read a while ago did I then decide to post this video up here. It’s 20mins long, but worth every second; take some time out and appreciate Conan O’Brien.
If you’re done here read these excerpts from ‘The War for Late Night‘ by Bill Carter, c/o Vanity Fair. It tells you everything about why this speech means so much.
Then, once you’ve done that, check out this ‘kinetic typography’ video (a mere 2mins 45secs) of Conan’s farewell monologue from The Tonight Show.
The man is an inspiration.
On my morning trawl of the internet this morning (on the search for awesome content to share over the newly awesome 1000heads Twitter feed), I came across this awesome video from HBO.
[contains mild swearing]
You’re forgiven if you don’t stick around for the whole thing; although compelling, if you’re no boxing fan then I doubt you’ll be that intrigued.
But, what amazes me is that HBO managed to get these two men in the same room for that amount of time. The ‘Face Off’ series is – to my surprise – nothing new. HBO have been pulling this off for some time now, but the best part is they’ve been posting them up on YouTube.
Yes!
At the time of writing the video only has 302 views but, with the world lining up to watch potentially the biggest fight of the year (and in spite of it weighing in at a hefty 12minutes), there is huge huge viral potential here. HBO have, unlike many other US-based media owners, allowed the clip to not only be embedded but also to be seen outside of the United States. With two weeks to go between now and the first ring of that bell, the build up is only just beginning and this video will fly.
“You don’t make a viral video, you can merely set the conditions and hope that something goes viral.”
HBO have a history of being fairly savvy online, their Twitter presences stretch far and wide and happily interact. One quick glance at the @HBOBoxing stream and you can see not only conversations with the fans, but also RTs of their content as well as that of their other flagship shows such as Game of Thrones.
This kind of social media integration cross-channel and cross-platform is exactly the kind of thing media producers, globally, should be implementing right now. HBO are clearly leading the way and one can only wonder what they might have lined up on Fight Night to help manage the huge global audience tuning in to watch Haye take on Klitschko.
Like X-Factor here in the UK and the Superbowl over in the US, this fight has the potential to create massive impact through social media both from an action/blow-by-blow standpoint but also from the perspective of potential advertisers.
It may seem silly to point it out, if you’re reading this you may even think that it goes without saying but – just in case – if you’re seriously lining up something for that ad space – like Yeo Valley before – do yourself a favour and think about social.
Big hat tip to Luca Massaro for finding the video first.
Right, watch [the first 30secs of] this:
See that there? At around the 23second mark? Hang on, here’s a screen grab –
See that? That’ll be an iPhone 4 and, just to the right, a pair of Beats by Dre in-ear headphones. IN A VIDEO GAME TRAILER.
While in-game advertising is nothing new, in-game product placement is. However brazen, it does – in a weird way – kind of work. I spotted it, admittedly, as my marketing/advertising eyes and brains are trained to spot this stuff a mile away. However, it wasn’t exactly in your face per se, in fact it was quite subtle.
Best of all, if Lara Croft was a real person then I bet she probably would be an iPhone4 user (and would no doubt be rocking the Beats by Dre also).
So it kind of works. Ish.
The question I have is whether or not this placement is purely for payment/sponsorship purposes or will the game developers (completely blind-side us all and) make the handset itself integral to the progression of the game?
My money is obviously on the former. As I’ve already made clear, game development is costly and any kind of media partnership like this has to be sold in pretty quickly so as to capitalise on the opportunity to its full potential.
As a side thought, Apple ‘famously’ don’t pay for product placement*, but I wonder if Dre did? And if so, how much does eight seconds in a close-to-a-million views YouTube video cost?
The question doesn’t need to be asked – this is the start of a new trend and, as new home systems and games start rolling out to the masses, more and more placements will be occurring before our very eyes. Some subtle, some not. We could be verging into James Bond territory here, hell – we may even end up like The Greatest Movie Ever Sold.
Be certain of one thing, ever since Modern Warfare 2 had an ‘opening week’ bigger than Harry Potter, hunting season has been declared on this marketplace.
Watch closely, it’s coming.
*I can’t remember where I read it, but the word is ‘payment’ refers to an actual exchange of money. No mention at all of equipping every man, woman and child in the office with brand new iPods/iPhones/iPads/MacBook Pros etc…
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