Tag Archive for 'uk'

Where Else than in England would they Create a Social Network to Connect Bartenders, Brands and Pub Owners?

08
Jun
09

be

One thing that always strikes me when I go to London is the importance of the after-work team gatherings at the local pub near the office. And British FullSIXers were no exception. For years, the Freemasons Arms pub in Covent Garden hosted their decadent Friday night parties.

And during one of those boozy nights, two former Fullsix employees, Simon Blezard & Thomas Vansteen came up with the idea to create a virtual bar network, or more specifically to launch the world’s first global social networking site dedicated purely to the drinks and hospitality sectors: barexchange.com

More and more employers turn to social networking sites to help them with their recruitment needs (we, at FullSIX NY found our PR agency via LinkedIn and hire our designers and developers on Facebook!). So are job hunters.

BarExchange is also a great tool for spirit/drinks brands to target barmen and barmaids and share with them professional content and offers. Almost 800 profiles were created in the two weeks following the launch, and the site has already signed an impressive number of pub, bar and restaurant chains as partners.

We wish you guys all the best luck!

More info about BarExchange:
Bar Exchange is a social networking forum for the bar & hospitality industry. A place to find work, recruit staff and share knowledge. Find a bar job in a pub, club, bar, restaurant, hotel or event local to you. Follow the Bar Exchange training videos; learn basic bartending skills or discover how to make a new cocktail with the latest drinks brands. Match your skills with employer vacancies who will come to you with their latest bar jobs. Bar Owners – recruit trained and skilled bar staff. Brands – connect with bar staff who will promote your brand. Community – meet with fellow bar staff in your area, attend events and parties, join in with competitions and groups.

Online TV killed the traditional TV star? Or not?

19
Sep
07

Blinkx

As you can see from the title this post will be about another hot topic (besides mobile marketing and social networking) – online TV. To start off, here’s a few stats that will convince you how big this online TV is becoming. A single, video sharing site, YouTube, currently claims around 65,000 new video uploads a day!!! In August 2006, 110m users in the US watched video online, streaming approximately 7bn videos a month. Some other interesting stats from the US market show that referral percentage is very high – 76% of users tell a friend about the video they have seen. And what is even better is that 66% of video viewers have watched online video ads and 44% have taken action on what they have seen.

The way online TV appears on the net is in various “distribution channels”. Some brands, i.e. Budweiser have integrated video players and their own content on their websites or microsites – good way of engaging consumers but not that easy to keep the content fresh and interesting.

Then, there are many links where consumers upload content and share it amongst each other. For example, you can even watch the latest Matt Deamon’s Bourne Ultimatum which is still in cinemas in the UK. The problem with these links is that the quality of video stream can be low, or with subtitles in another language. But hey, its FREE!

Before I move onto a brief overview of the three major players on the internet TV scene, I would also like to mention Youtube channels. Some brave brands such as Chelsea football club, have already dared to enter this very cluttered, but high reach platform. The FC fans are probably delighted, still, the question is how will they hear about it? The imperative for making this successful is to ensure that traffic drivers will bring enough visitors to your Youtube channel.

Finally, some of the major competitors such as Blinkx, Babelgum and Joost, are still far from becoming mainstream. How do they actually work?

Bubelgum collects internet television content in one place to make it easy for viewers to access. Has focused on independent production companies and niche content that does not get screened on normal television. It’s a free on-demand TV over the Internet that lets you watch whatever you want, whenever you want as often as you want. You can also create your own ’smart channels’ of programmes that reflect your interests and tastes.

babelgum

Blinkx allows users to search easily for film and TV clips on the internet, with so far some 7m hours of video indexed. Blinkx gets a share of advertising revenues, or a fee for directing traffic to the content site. Besides Blinkx, AOL Video and Yahoo! Video Search work on the similar principle. These video search engines implement various technologies, from traditional metadata indexing to more recent, advanced speech and & video analysis techniques.

Joost collects internet TV programmes into one place, with a focus on signing up mainstream content such as Viacom properties MTV and Comedy Central. It also shows more niche content. The cool thing about it is that viewers can interact amongst each other while watching the programmes, make comments, etc. Unfortunately, Joost is still in beta testing stages and not everyone is able to subscribe to it yet.

joost.jpg

Considering that the traditional TV is also changing its shape I don’t believe that online TV will overtake completely. For example, I doubt that watching big football matches on internet will replace good old telly in the local pub :-). But its definitely worth start talking about it with clients.

Glass and a Half Full

10
Sep
07

It’s Monday, it sucks, i know. I’m gonna help you start the week right with 1 minute and 30 seconds of pure pleasure. The new Cadbury “commercial”, featuring a really moving gorilla playing… oh wait, just watch:

So what’s the link between this hilarious movie and chocolate i hear you say? Because, as you noticed, there is no chocolate shown in the commercial. But we can assume that the guys in the white and purple brand’s marketing department knew what they did when they wrote a £9m cheque, the biggest spend on chocolate in many years. Especially when you know that the client behind this, Phil Rumbol, is responsible for the amazing Stella Artois campaign, and that it was written by the guy who made the Sony Bravia ads (Balls and Paint).

I invite you to read this article in today’s Independent, allowing you to take a break from my poor English. Feeling lazy? I understand, you’re still hangover from the weekend. The quoted paragraphs below make a pretty good job at summarizing it:

People don’t want advertisers droning on and on about their products any more; they want to be entertained. “Cadbury traditionally did well-built ads for the interruption age when consumers had an implicit media deal with advertisers. In exchange for free TV they would allow us to interrupt their programmes with commercials,” says Green. “The nation has a massive soft spot for CDM and it is deeply embedded in the national psyche. For a brand that is so well known, it’s arguable whether the old style interruption advertising model is the best model for the future. So we are trying to engage more genuinely with our audience.”

But there is a product message in there too. In fact, the entire commercial is a product metaphor. “Chocolate is about joy and pleasure. For years Cadbury has told us that it was generous, through the glass and a half strap line. We thought, don’t tell us how generous you are; show us. Don’t tell us about joy; show us joy.”

That’s just what the campaign tries to do. “We’ve created a branded space in which Cadbury’s can be generous in bringing joy,” says Green. That may sound like adman’s blather, but it a sign of an important philosophical shift in the way that advertising agencies are beginning to approach their work.

Oh and since being remixed is a pretty good form of flattery, especially on the web, don’t miss this one, it’s almost funnier than the original! Now let me grab some more chocolate before going to bed.




The TrendWatch:


The TrendWatch is the collective postings of some of the FullSIX Group’s designers, strategists, and consultants on new media and marketing trends. It is meant to be an impromptu think-tank, and is a way for us to share theories and beliefs about how we think communication and connectivity is evolving.

We work for The FullSIX Group; a leading full service marketing agency with digital DNA. From our 15 international offices with over 600 employees, we constantly embrace and encourage innovation to make integrated marketing and communication campaigns that are more accountable and efficient for our clients.