Write the 'perfect' tweet

With the growing number of people using Twitter  it's no wonder that Gerry Morgan, of US-based blog Marketing Think, produced this great little infographic on how to write the perfect tweet.

The blueprint covers all the basic content - links, hashtags, and mentions, in terms of both the ideal placement within a tweet and their uses. Some of the more relevant tips to take away from this could be leaving 20 characters at the end of your tweet for people to comment when they retweet, the importance of formatting, like using headlines or calls to action, and finally passing the "perfect tweet filter".

This a great piece for anyone who uses twitter but the post was targeted at marketeers, advertisers and PR professionals, talking about engaging and informing audiences.

So regardless of what you use twitter for, have a read, take some notes and let us know if there is anything you feel he missed.

Read more about the perfect tweet here.

Zaha Hadid to Develop Plans for New London Airport

In the latest move forward for a new airport for London Boris Johnson has appointed Zaha Hadid Architects, along with aviation experts, to develop designs for a multi runway hub, to be built in the southeast.

Zaha Hadid will submit plans that will also help make recommendations on the location of the airport, which the Mayor of London sees as vital to rejuvenating the British economy and to solve the current aviation crisis.

Other organisations asked to prepare plans, as part of an airport design and infrastructure panel, were Atkins, a British design and engineering company, and Pascall & Watson architects, who worked on St. Pancras international and Heathrow Terminal 5.

Find out more via the full press release here.

Advert targeting Doctors can only be heard with stethoscope

Africa Health Placements and South African agency Boomtown collaborated on an innovative direct mailer, targeted specifically at doctors.

Africa is currently suffering from a lack of medical personnel, in particular doctors, so to encourage foreign doctors to work in Africa they sent a special mailer that could only be heard by doctors. The mailer had a pressure sensitive pad, with a label stating "place stethoscope here". Once the pad was activated the device played a low level MP3 that could only be heard with the help of the medical device.

The advertisement won a silver Clio Healthcare award, which rewards creative excellence in advertising in the medical industry. Check out the video below for more info about the campaign.

Superbrands of 2013

Superbrands UK has announced their annual league tables for brands in the UK.

The league tables are based upon many different factors from sector reports to blogs to public nominations, and are narrowed down to a preliminary shortlist of 1700.

Through ratings given by judges and then a public vote this number is whittled down to 500 'Superbrands'. These are then seeded in order of ratings, which results in the main 
B2C (business to customer) table and a B2B (business to business) table.

All those involved in the voting process are asked to bear in mind the following definition: ‘A Superbrand has established the finest reputation in its field. It offers customers significant emotional and/or tangible advantages over its competitors, which customers want and recognise.’

The judging panel gives each brand a rating from 1-10, but members are not allowed to vote on brands they work with, competitor brands or those they are unfamiliar with, and the lowest scoring brands are removed from the shortlist.

In addition, the voters are asked to judge brands against the following three factors: quality, reliability and distinction.

The league tables show that Google, Apple and British Airways are highly rated as both B2C and B2B brands; making the top 10 of both tables. Apple lost out to Rolex for the top spot in the consumer table, but was able to snatch it in the business table. The full tables are below, and you can read the full results here.

The B2C Superbrands are
1. Rolex
2. Apple
3. Microsoft
4. British Airways
5. Coca-Cola
6. Google
7. Hilton
8. Heathrow Airport
9. Kellogg’s
10. Mercedes-Benz
11. BMW
12. Heinz
13. BBC
14. Facebook
15. Lego
16. Disney
17. Marks & Spencer
18. BP
19. Dulux
20. Nescafé

Whilst the B2B Superbrands are:
1. Apple
2. British Airways
3. Google
4. Visa
5. Virgin Atlantic
6. IBM
7. Shell
8. Microsoft
9. London Stock Exchange Group
10. Mastercard
11. BP
12: BT
13. Bosch
14. Samsung
15. FedEx
16. Rolls-Royce Group
17. Royal Mail
18. PayPal
19. GlaxoSmithKline
20. DHL

Mustard ad wins at the Oscars

The Oscars are normally remembered for the winners, those who should have won and the dresses. Grey Poupon has added commercials to that list.

The mustard company released a trailer for a special 'mini movie' that follows on from its 1981 commercial titled "Pardon me".

In the original and well known ad that ran through the 80s and 90s, two cars pull up next to each other, and the occupant of one car asks the occupant of the other car for some mustard, to be handed a jar of Grey Poupon.

The follow on called "the Lost Footage" involves a 007-esqe car chase as a result of the mustard not being returned. The 30 second 'trailer' ran during the Oscars whilst the full length short was up on their website at the same time.

Clever and funny. Take a look at both adverts and the short movie below.

New Grande Stade announced

The French Rugby Federation (FFR) has unveiled the winning design for the new French national rugby stadium. 

The ‘Grande Stade’ will be built using the designs of Populous and Ateliers 2/3/4/, and will be much more than just a rugby stadium; as well as hosting all the French rugby home matches, it will accommodate conventions, shows and a broad range of other sporting events thanks to its multi-purpose design. 

The design boasts a retractable pitch, to ensure the best possible playing surface for matches, and a retractable roof, which will help to create an intense atmosphere for sporting fixtures as well as creating the largest roofed entertainment venue in Europe, with a planned seating capacity of 82,000.

The new venue will be built South of Paris, with the architecture alluding to the hospitality and shelter of a town, with solid white stone masses on the exterior resembling the rock quarries of the region, contrasted by the variety of thriving public spaces and multi-level lounges within the structure.

Stunning underground hotel planned for Shanghai

A new hotel is being built that will extend 328 feet underground, but fear not it will still have a view. 

The Shimao Intercontinental Hotel, is being built in an abandoned quarry near the base of Tianmashan Mountain in the Songjiang district of Shanghai.

The hotel will accommodate 380 rooms over 19 floors, with three of those being above ground, whilst the remainder are built against the face of the 100 meter deep quarry.

The concept is to mimic a waterfall with a glass atrium that will span from the ground-level all the way down into the quarry and was designed by the British engineering firm Atkins Global. It will also blend into the surrounding area via green roofs at the ground level, which will double up as insulation.

To increase the wow factor of the future 5-star resort there are no plans to drain the water from the bottom of the quarry. Instead they will use it as a man-made lake for water sports.

There will also be underwater public areas, including a 10-meter-deep aquarium, alongside the standard amenities you would expect from a luxury hotel; cafes, restaurants, swimming pools, shops and sporting facilities.

Whilst the hotel wont meet the original opening date of May 2009, it is scheduled to be open from late 2014 to early 2015.