FedEx delivers the dominoes

FedEx has created its own spin on the classic chain effect message using its delivery boxes as dominoes to deliver an important package to a lovable puppy!

A soft execution of this common metaphor but a clever one all the same. What do you think?

Faber Castell viral is quite revealing

Faber Castell has created a really interesting viral video that demonstrates their markers to great effect. Very simple but very clever.

How the Italians do it

You should never be surprised at what the Italians get away with in their advertising and the new ad for the Fiat 500 Abarth is no exception.

Taking innuendo to another level this is just not something you find on a British TV during Coronation Street!

Love it or hate it, it certainly engages the audience. What do you think?

Click below to see the video

World's tallest LEGO Christmas tree unveiled at St Pancras

Built and installed by the UK’s only LEGO Certified Professional, Duncan Titmarsh of Bright Bricks, the tree stands at 10 metres high and is made entirely out of LEGO bricks making it the tallest LEGO tree ever made. This imposing Christmas tree is made with 600,000 LEGO bricks and 172 LEGO branches.

Of course, no Christmas tree is complete without Christmas baubles and LEGO sought the help of children from Edith Neville Primary School, Camden, and Copenhagen Primary School, Islington, as well as the Harpenden Explorer Scouts Unit to make the 1,200 LEGO baubles that will adorn the tree.

The tree is being built on the lower concorse next to the champagne bar, but is so tall, standing at 12m high that it stretches right up through and above the upper level of the station where the platforms are located. The tree branches were built by a team of Bright Bricks builders off-site and are being assembled with the trunk at the Station. Due to the location of the tree the build can only be done at night. Progress started on Wednesday the 9th November and  it is expected to be completed by the 24th November.

On the 24th a celebrity will be on hand to switch on the lights and officially complete the tree model. The tree will remain at the station until the 2nd of January.

To see more about the LEGO Christmas tree visit Demotix or the St Pancras website.

Choice should include offering the chance to say no thanks

Something that is increasingly occupying the minds of marketers recently is choice. Demanding customers want to consume what they want, when they want and how they want. The consumption of marketing communications is no different - consumers want to feel that they have some control.

The television industry has recognised this with ITV mulling a new ad format on its demand service ITV Player. The new format allows viewers to skip ads if they correctly answer questions based on the brand or product on the spot. Channel 4 is one of several broadcasters trialing an ad format that allows viewers to choose which ad they want to watch from multiple brands ahead of video-on-demand content. They will still have to watch the ads - broadcasters and brands need to make a living - but consumers who are offered choice feel empowered and more readily willing to engage with the advertiser offering the option.

Direct marketers have fewer options so are unable to replicate their counterparts from other channels. They can, however, make some efforts to offer consumers a choice of what they receive and when. Indeed, there is already a movement in that direction. The Green Preference Service, launched in June and attracting noteworthy interest, offers consumers a choice of whether they want to receive DM by physical or electronic mail.

DIrect marketing is continually dogged by accusations that it is unscrupulous in its approach - carpet bombing consumers with junk mail and spam email with little or no regard for those they are actually "targeting". One way of tackling this is offering choice. Not only how they receive DM but whether they receive it. Opt out should be proactively offered by brands in a very deliberate visible fashion. As counter-intuitive as that might seem, customers that do not take up a brands' offer of opting out will be more receptive.

To read the full article please visit Marketing Week.

The Think Tank heads off to Russia

Jana Pavelkova from The Think Tank's PR team is in Moscow this week to provide PR support and meeting journalists with Formica Group at the ZOW furniture show.

This prestigious show that is held in Russia, Germany and Turkey showcases products and services supplied to the furniture industry. The first ZOW Moscow show was held in 2004 and each year usually receives around 15,000 visitors.

Formica Group is exhibiting vibrant colourways, intriguing textures and unique designs from the TopLine and Doorline collections, which bring a complete offering to the kitchen and furniture segment. Delegates can visit stand D3, Pavilion 7, Hall 2 from 21st - 25th November 2011 can discover how the Formica Group continues to evolve.

Please click here to see more about the new collections.

New Old Spice Advert tells men to "Smell Better Than Yourself"

Old Spice is back with another unique advertisement. This time the scents of Old Spice turn embarrassingly normal guys into face model champions who smell like adventure and fine cutlery, encouraging men across the world to "Smell Better Than Yourself." See the video below or click here.

Can discounting serve to bring back consumer trust after a crisis?

The Marketing Society Forum, published in Marketing Week and Campaign Live, has looked at the theme “Can discounting serve to bring back consumer trust after a crisis?”, referencing airline Qantas’s offer of free travel to passengers affected by its recent industrial dispute which grounded its entire fleet.  And that got the Think Tank’s PR team revisiting discussions about issue management.

It’s a fascinating theme in that it runs right to the heart of brand experience and corporate reputation.  In terms of PR, how you handle an issue makes all the difference, and ultimately as one of the commentators in the Forum points out; “we all mess up sometimes… apologizing and accepting responsibility for [one’s] failings often diffuses the situation”.

How you attract people back is another matter. Discounting or offering a free replacement of some sort is often the accepted short-term response to help ameliorate the immediate frustration that your customers have felt.  But the tone of that communication is also key, as is the way your employees/staff handle the situation.  If the whole process is felt to have been handled swiftly, in a straightforward and fair way, then most people will give you the benefit of the doubt.

Ultimately though, as the Forum respondents agree, this activity also needs to be part of a broader series of responses too to re-establish trust in a brand and ultimately as part of more regular, strategic reputation and risk management planning that the Board or senior management need to undertake.

See the full article here

Benetton's controversial UNHATE campaign

A new campaign from Benetton is recalling the brand's controversial heyday. A series of posters features world leaders with lips locked to launch the UNHATE project.

Benetton, says the accompanying press material, is inviting "the leaders and citizens of the world to combat the 'culture of hatred'". The UNHATE campaign is the first initiative from a new Benetton foundation of the same name, launched by Alessandro Benetton, executive deputy chairman of the Benetton Group.

The posters, created by Benetton's 'research communication centre' Fabrica in cooperation with 72andSunny, feature political and spiritual leaders kissing. According to Benetton "These are symbolic images of reconciliation - with a touch of ironic hope and constructive provocation - to stimulate reflection on how politics, faith and ideas, even when they are divergent and mutually opposed, must still lead to dialogue and mediation."

The campaign also includes social media activity in the name of the Kiss Wall, where users can upload images of themselves kissing.

Following outrage and pressure from the Vatican, Benetton has reportedly withdrawn the poster featuring the Pope kissing Ahmed Mohamed el-Tayeb. Vatican spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi has been quoted in various sources criticising the company for exploiting the Pope's image.

To read more visit Creative Review.

Tiger & Turtle – Magic Mountain

German artists Heike Mutter and Ulrich Genth have completed designs for “Tiger & Turtle – Magic Mountain” in Duisburg, Germany.

The walkable, large outdoor sculpture Tiger & Turtle – Magic Mountain is currently in construction on the Heinrich Hildebrand Höhe in Duisburg Wanheim (D). It overtops the plateau with the artificially heaped-up mountain by 21 metres so the visitor can rise by more than 45metres above the level of the landscape and enjoy an impressive view over the Rhine.

The curved flight of stairs inscribes like a signature on the landscape and plays upon the iconic nimbus of the classical roller coaster. Visitors climb the roller-coaster-sculpture on foot via differently steep steps. So the sculpture subtly and ironically plays with the feelings of promise and disappointment, mobility and standstill, just like a real roller coaster. Visitors happen to briefly meet with oncoming visitors on the steep 1 metre wide corridors. LED-lights are integrated in the handrails and highlight the flight of stairs so the sculpture is accessible at night, too.

To read more visit Contemporist. Photography by Eichental.

Tesco launch augmented reality programme

British retailer Tesco is launching an ambitious augmented reality programme today that will let consumers see 3D images of more than 40 products online.

The technology requires a browser plugin then, after that consumers have to use a “marker” like a Tesco catalog or club card to active the augmented reality (AR). Users can then hold up images from the catalogue to their computer’s webcam to see a floating 3D version of the product.

For instance, an image of a TV set in the catalogue can be expanded onscreen so you can see its actual size and what it looks like on the back. The AR also lets you play with onscreen LEGO sets. Tesco worked with British tech firm Kishino on the project.

Tesco’s foray into AR comes as the technology recently made some serious inroads in the U.S. In one of the most high-profile AR pushes yet, Starbucks launched a Christmas programme this month that uses an iOS-based app to make its red holiday coffee cups project images of animated characters.

To use the programme click here, or to read more visit Mashable.

Photography in abundance

Dutch artist Erik Kessels has printed out and placed one million photographs from Flickr in a room for his unusual installation Photography in Abundance.

He created the mountain of pictures to illustrate how many we share over the internet in only 24 hours.The million uploads are a mere drop in the ocean compared to the estimated total of 6billion images on Flickr, which is the same suspected number added to Facebook every two months.

‘We’re exposed to an overload of images nowadays," The Dutchman explained. "This glut is in large part the result of image-sharing sites like Flickr, networking sites like Facebook and picture-based search engines. Their content mingles public and private, with the very personal being openly and not self-consciously displayed. By printing all the images uploaded in a 24-hour period, I visualise the feeling of drowning in representations of other people’s experiences."

The Photography In Abundance installation is part of the What’s Next display at Foam Amsterdam throughout November 2011.

To read more about Kessels Installation or to see more of the Foam photography visit Metro Online or Foam.

Behind the Tweets: New Twitter Site Reveals Users’ Stories

Last week Twitter unveiled a collection of Twitter Stories designed to remind users “of the humanity behind Tweets that make the world smaller.” There are currently just under 20 short vignettes gathered at stories.twitter.com. And these vignettes are indeed short: between 100 and 150 words in most cases, fitting for a service known for imposing a 140-character limit on all posts.

There are some truly heart warming tales, from the man who saved his mother’s bookstore to movie critic Roger Ebert’s creative use of the service after he lost his voice. Visitors to the site can even read the first Tweet send from space. The tales demonstrate the power of social media and just how life-chaging it can be. At just 140 characters they are definitely worth a read!

To read more visit Twitter Stories.

Interview: Clet Abraham

British born Frenchman Clet Abraham is a plastic artistic who is transforming the traffic signs across the world with a political, religious and philosophic understanding. Flo'N the GO found out some more about Abraham and his work - to read the full interview click here.

When did you begin to do this kind of art?
One year ago. I was crossing the city driving my car and started to think how stupid and primitive were the traffic signs that were ruling me. They told us: you can’t go there, you must turn left or right and nothing more. I decided to give them another meaning, a reading grade  was what they lacked.

Where around the world is your work visable today?
 Florence, Torino, London and Valencia. Next year, I expect to work in more European countries.

What was the first sign you 'adapted'?
The Jesus Christ, but it was stolen from the Piazza Michelangelo and I did the other about Virgin Mary and Maria Madalena.

Where do you draw your influences from?
 I was influenced by Classicism and Surrealism. Maybe the artist that most influenced me was Pieter Buegel. Besides he didn’t have a perfect manual capacity, his work told something to people.

What is your opinion on urban art?
 I think that general rules are wrong, we shouldn’t say that all is forbidden but that some things are and others not. Urban art always there was and always there will be. Also the David sculpture, of Michelangelo, is urban art.

To read the full article visit Flo'N the Go.

Young Designers Competition - Conceptual Experiential Structure

To tie in with their arrival to the North West and to build on their continued support of Salford University, Whitecircle are announcing a student design competition. More information about the will be posted on Whitecircle's Facebook and Twitter pages in the coming weeks.

To find about other projects Whitecircle are involved in or to learn more about their solutions, services and exhibitions visit www.whitecircleltd.com.

Starbucks Christmas Augmented Reality App

Starbucks is launching its first major augmented reality app this Chrsitmas that will let customers animate their coffee cups with their smartphones.

Starbucks Cup Magic launches for iPhone and Android devices in the US next Tuesday and it is hoped if successful the app will be made available in the UK. As demonstrated in the video, the app works by pointing your phone’s camera at the company’s red festive coffee cups and 47 additional objects, such as bags of coffee, on display at Starbucks retail locations.

Doing so will produce animations involving five characters — an ice skater, a squirrel, a boy and a dog sledding and a fox — on your screen. You can also interact with the characters. For instance, if you tap the boy on the sled he does a somersault. Those who activate all five characters can qualify to win an as-yet-unnamed prize.

Cup Magic, created by Blast Radius, caps off a year of successful mobile implementations by Starbucks. The brand launched a mobile payment app in January that has been used in more than 20 million transactions and a QR code program designed, like Starbucks Cup Magic, to enhance the in-store brand experience.

To see more please visit Mashable.

So what are Google+ Pages all about?

Google+ has recently launched 'company' and 'brand' pages, expanding its infant social networking platform designed to challenge Facebook.   This is all very new and it is difficult to gauge how it will develop however if anyone is going to challenge Facebook then Google certainly has the online presence and profile to do so.

To understand what it is all about and how it is going to work The Think Tank has been looking at Google+ Pages and testing out their viability for network and social marketing.   The system is certainly in its infancy and we assume that many features are to be added however below we summarise some of the pros and cons we have found so far:

Google+ Page

The 'Plus' Points

1. Simple to Set Up
Google+ Pages are quick and easy to set up but somewhat limited at present in certain areas which we cover below.

2. Circles of Influence
Google+ is based upon creating a network of contacts which you add to 'Circles'. These can be friends, colleagues, clients, acquaintances, media or any other category that you wish to create. The great thing is that you can select who to share your content with so that if you only want to share with one or many of your circles you can or you alternatively you can share publicly.

Google+ Circles

This is great for sharing with customers, staff or specific groups that you may be marketing to and engaging with.  It is simple and quick to add to your circles when searching within the network.

This organisation of contacts is a significant benefit over Facebook and offers many opportunities to businesses looking to engage with a range of stakeholders.

3. Tracking your Impact   

Google+ Ripples

Google+ had introduced 'Ripples'. This is a very graphical way of demonstrating the impact of one of your posts as the community share it across the network. In a simple to understand format you can instantly see who has shared your content, how many people they have shared it with and whether they in turn have passed it on.

If shared publicly you can see biogs of those that share and add them to your circles. You can also view other stats including influencers, chain lengths and languages.                

4. Spreading the Word   
Sharing content is simple, fast and not limited by the number of characters, as far as we can tell. You can add images, video, links, locations and graphics such as animated gifs that can certainly enhance your message.

These can be shared publically or just to the circles that you choose.

5. Get Face to Face
A very useful tool is the 'Hangout'. This is simple video conferencing between your circles.

Hangouts can be created quickly and you can invite those in your circles, individually or in groups to join in a video conference as long as they are online.

This is going to be a great tool for getting face to face with contacts and just think of the opportunities it offers in marketing terms.

6. Google+ Direct
This is an added function that will allow those using Google to add the + sign after a search term, taking users directly to the Google+ page for the brand they are looking for.

Apparently this is going to be based upon 'algorithms' so we will have to wait and see what is required for your page to start to work with Google+ Direct.  

Now for some of the not so great bits:  

The 'Negative' Bits

1. Limited Function
The integration of Google+ does not seem to be quite there when compared to Facebook and other platforms. We are sure that this functionality will come however at the moment there are certain areas that are lacking.

2.  Set Up   
You would expect Google+ to link and import directly from your YouTube and Picasa streams for video and images but at present you have to load all of your content individually, one image or video at a time. It would be much more useful if you could link to your YouTube channel and pull across your videos.

Profiles are also limited in content that you can add and link to and offer minimal functionality and flexibility.

3. Monitoring, Moderating and Notifications
There is little functionality for the above at present. Firstly you cannot restrict people posting comments on your public posts and secondly there is no email notification to warn you that they have done so. This means that you have to constantly check online to ensure that your stream is not being attacked or having a negative impact. Privacy settings are very limited.

4. Building your Circles   
There is limited integration with email clients at present. For example, if you want to add your Outlook contacts to your circles you have to firstly export them to a .csv file and then upload into Google+. Inviting these individuals to join your circles is equally laborious. Oh, and by the way, there is currently no way of inviting people to join your page, as far as we could see, only for an individual's profile.

5. Monitoring Activity
There currently appears to be a couple of glitches with viewing Circles and those that add your page. When in Circles you can select to see all your contact or those that have 'Added' you however when you select to filter it does not work, you are left with the same list of all contacts.

Also, as far as we can see you can be notified by email if someone interacts with your personal page however notifications are not sent for people interacting with your company page - you have to keep checking back to see if there is any activity.

6. Showing your Circles
Finally, and really only of interest to those starting out, you can decide to show or not show your circles publically. This is great when you are starting out and only have a few followers as you do not want the world to know that you are not that popular. However, the downside is that if you decide to hide your circles your profile tells the world that you have '0' people in your circles - GREAT!  


We are sure that this is just a first stage in the introduction of Pages in Google+ and that in due course many of the points above will be addressed. It is going to be interesting to see whether Google can challenge Facebook and whether those that are comfortable with Facebook will want to switch over and start building their networks again. What Google has in its favour is its reach and influence online. We wait with baited breath.

If you have found this interesting give us a thumbs up and +1 our Google+ Page. Click here to view or get started.

‘From Off to On’ Installation

holdUp have shared their latest installation, ‘FROM OFF TO ON’, exhibited at the international KOBE ART BIENNALE in Japan during the ART IN A CONTAINER exhibition. Selected among 289 proposals, ‘FROM OFF TO ON’ received the honorable mention by the jury. In this interactive artwork, visitors are transformed in to explorers observing their environment, chasing marvels of unknown lands: nothing is taken for granted, everything is extraordinary.

Like a blank canvas, the container embodies a receptacle for artists and art amateurs’ creativity as they print their emotions on a surprising table settled inside. Trapped in the dark and with a UV pen for only equipment, the visitor is expected to feel his way along. He eventually notices the presence of a massive volume settled in the center of the space. When he approaches that mass, he notices that UV-lights are progressively switching on, reaching their maximum intensity when he touches it. Getting eyesight back, he is eventually able to tell the volume is a large drawing table.

The visitor is assimilated to a speleologist discovering a primitive cave with prehistoric drawings painted on the rock, except that drawings are not relics from past ages. Simply put, the whole space is dark until he draws on the table. Drawing is the only way to be involved and visualize the self-made exhibition: to see you must do!

To read more please visit ArchDaily.

Visit Norway on your daily commute

Visitnorway.com has come up with a way to make the daily commute more interesting with a fantastic ad idea. Using in-tunnel advertising, visitnorway.com presents Norway’s landscape as an alternative to riding the underground subway. In-tunnel advertising is an innovative outdoor medium, where multiple LED screens mounted on tunnel walls create an animation that is perfectly aligned to each passenger window. A simple sticker on the train delivers a message that reaches out to millions of passengers daily.

Watch the video below or visit adgoodness to read more.

Paper v. Digital PR - An Article for RIBA Insight

The Think Tank was recently asked to comment upon the importance of the use of paper v. digital media in PR by RIBA Insight as part of the regular advice and guidance that RIBA CPD Providers Network provides to its customers.

Liam Bateman, Director at The Think Tank, commented, “Both paper and digital are still equally important however within certain markets there is a more emphasised move towards digital.
Traditional PR, which would have included securing articles in publications and raising brand awareness through events and activities, has rapidly been expanded into the digital arena, firstly, through publishers taking their magazines online, then through e-direct marketing and latterly social media."

Click the on the link to see the full article.

Paper v. Digital Article.pdf (467 kb)

Article originally published by RIBA Insight