You don't get to 500 million downloads, without killing a few pigs

It hit me the other day like a bird hitting a wooden structure... "An app has soft plush toy's".


I could not believe that which had started as a relatively simple smart phone app had produced merchandise ranging from t-shirts to cups to plans for TV show's and a movie !
The app that became a movie... I never thought I would see the day.

Now don't get me wrong, Angry Birds deserves it's massive sprawling success but surely this IS the first app to get achieve such lofty heights? correct me if I'm wrong.


Following on from last weeks piece that mentioned "Angry Birds" I decided to investigate a little further into the absolute phenomenon that the game has become.  


Unfortunately/fortunately this meant helping sow the seeds of what is now a full blown addiction to the game. I know im not the first. Truth be told  I avoided playing the game properly for years. Now every spare second I have is spent launching those tiny winged kamikaze soldiers toward an uncertain fate. The game can no doubt be incredibly frustrating but has that game play x-factor know as " just one more go-ism". I cannot count the amount of times I have said that to myself as the "replay level" icon gets mashed by an impatient finger.


Developed by Finnish developer Rovio mobile and conceptualised from a single undeveloped screenshot of the legless birds, the game that has been purchased over 12 million times in Apples app store alone has branched out from smartphones to other devices such as appearing in Google chrome's app store and Sony's PSP.  


 (Amazing fact: Angry birds is the third most ported game behind Tetris and Pacman! Not bad for a game only 3 years old) 

With expansion packs and sequels such as "seasons" and "Rio" ( a blockbuster movie tie-in no less) Rovio gave fans more hours of catapult based destruction. One such fan being our current Prime minister. Although as with all of Mr Cameron's entertainment choices I am a little suspect that they are his own there is no doubting the mainstream appeal of the game. 


So launch high and true my feathered friends, further success awaits you!
... and chill out a bit..... you made it.

THE BEST & THE WORST

In the spirit of the thousands of "year in review 2011"  lists and various "what's hot and what's not" features that can be found at the moment I decided just to start what will hopefully become a regular post. One in which I highlight some of the best advertising work out there and pour some scorn on some of the campaigns I feel to be lacking something.  
The subjects in comparison may not have been produced in the same year or even found in  the same media genre. This is simply an exercise in highlighting when something excites me and makes the hairs on my arms stand up or something enrages me with its lack of thought process. 
Just to point out, these opinions are merely my own formed through my limited experiences. I'm hardly an expert but I do have a platform to speak from.  Like wise if there are spelling or grammar errors I put that down to the speed and excitement with which I type.


           So without further ado this editions considerations are...

THE BEST!  T-MOBILE'S REAL LIFE ANGRY BIRDS (Saatchi & Saatchi Italy)

                                  

THE BEST BECAUSE? 

Because it looks like it would be so much fun to play!. Imagine the suprise those first few people who tried it got. It took the easily  to comprehend game-play mechanics and applied it to the real world and some real world . As anyone who's played the game ( which is nearly 99% of the world apparently) will tell you, half the fun comes from the sheer destruction that one of our well aimed furious avian friend's can cause. Blow that up to a larger than life scale and you get the above result. Did it promote the game more than the phone? probably
 But is it memorable? you better believe it. The clip made several lists of viral video's greatest hits and is a prime example of guerilla marketing. I guess my only criticism would be aimed at the time it must have taken to set it up and that might have somewhat dampened the element of surprise. The sense of fun and celebration is heightened by the 12-piece brass brand playing a remix of the theme to Angry birds. The Barcelona setting is perfect not just for the camera happy tourist that would have captured the event but also for the fact that the people there seem to be committed to joining in on the fun. Put this campaign in drizzly London and I'm not so sure quite the same effect would have been achieved.  Check out the making of the commercial below. 


                                

 THE WORST! MULLER YOGHURT'S "WUNDERFUL STUFF" (TBWA LONDON)

THE WORST BECAUSE? 

Because In my humble opinion  its lazy...It's lazy to gobble up many childhood memories and throw them onto the screen in the hope that something sticks Rest assured this is what people remember about the advert. They remember seeing muttley and Yogi bear and that's fine but that's what's making the advert memorable? laziness. Reusing older cartoon and stop-motion characters is nothing new ( Specsavers used Postman pat, Drench used Brain's from Thunderbirds) but I fear it's merely exploiting feelings of Nostalgia in consumers and little else. Upon discussing this ad with some of my contemporaries  other's we all agreed that  the advert lacked a point or focus.  It's a mess and it's the worst.

How Web 2.0 is saving the WWE

<sup>WWE ( World wrestling entertainment) had traditionally been a closed book when it came to the business of revealing its inner-workings and backstage process. This was partly to do with keeping up the front of kayfabe ( reflecting scripted rivalries and storyline's in real-life) and partly to keep un-welcome eyes on what was really happening behind the scenes. Tales of back-stabbing, relentless politicking and even drug abuse are all topics that the WWE prefers to keep separate from its increasingly more family friendly demographic centred content. 

Of course there have always been "dirt-sheets" and trade magazines willing to share their insider knowledge but in these days of instantly sharing information with each other how does a industry like WWE that has always kept its cards close to its chest allow its product to evolve? How does it keep up with other industry leaders who have embraced soical media marketing? How to compromise between increasing the bond between viewers and product without giving up the details?. 

Simple really. Break the fourth wall, acknowledge your consumers in a more direct personal fashion. Have the characters we watch on TV every week tweet in character and out of it. Let the talent speak out for themselves and suddenly your not being given a scripted promo but an couple of lines straight from the horse's mouth. Let the talent post videos on youtube of what they have been up to or what they are planning to do....and that's exactly what the WWE did. The athletes that comprise the roster were suddenly let of a verbal leash and could ( within reason ) say whatever they wanted and how they felt. If what was said promoted a storyline or a upcoming pay-per-view even better. Case in point, next years Wrestlemania (the companies première event of the year). The headline match between massively popular wrestlers, and merchandise selling juggernauts, Dwayne " The Rock" Johnson and John Cena is being hyped over a year in advance. The hype however was not started on TV but rather through a war of words on twitter. Fans were excited to see the next blow in an increasing verbal joust. 

WWE television shows such as Raw or Smackdown are not the first shows to let fabricated characters tweet and even have conversations with each other but it is the first to do the same thing while distinguishing that these athletes are real people too. The tweets cross the line between real and storyline while getting your more involved with their weekly actions and just like any good episodic television show, the more you care the more you watch! 

One superstar who has used the web to increase his own self worth and importance to the company is Zack Ryder. The self proclaimed " Internet champion" has amassed a loyal twitter following while his youtube show " Z! true long island story" is hugely popular. Zack Ryder has found a way to promote himself, his character and sell-out his range of merchandise online in a way that was initially unlikely to have been sanctioned by the WWE. Mr Ryder has proved that even if your not in the spotlight on TV, thanks to websites like youtube, you can create your own spotlight. Internet champion indeed!.</sup> 

<sup>Recently WWE has relied more and more of real life knowledge that would only previously be known by half of its audience. The more hardcore or " smart" fans of wrestling will be informed more on the insider business due to the popularity of the "IWC" (internet wrestling community). The IWC will use insider terms when commentating on the WWE'S output and second guess upcoming story lines or predicted matches. This insider knowledge and terminology has been much alluded to during recent weeks on television by wrestlers and has brought a sense of the "real" to the story lines. Wrestlers being referred to by their real names and acknowledging real life events or happening's ( such as the commercial cinematic flops of certain WWE films ) were actions previously thought of as unthinkable and not for broadcast. Suddenly the line between fake and real gets a tiny little blurrier as fans see a crossover between a TV show and their online worlds. 




All this work promoting the product through social media and generating buzz on the internet has brought the WWE back into the mainstream. Superstars interviewed in G.Q US magazine? yep. Superstars appearing on massively popular late night talk shows such as Conan O'Brien or Jimmy Kimmel? you betcha. 


The WWE by embracing the internet is holding the fans attention for longer and bringing in new ones too. It's changing to keep up with its fans primary way of communicating and its brought a sense of realism to a sport that can sometimes be anything but. 
And that's the bottom line, because I said so.</sup>

WHY I HATE DEAL OR NO DEAL...GRRRR

I ask for box number six to be opened...my fellow contestant the ridiculously jolly and enthusiastic middle age "Jenny" wishes me good luck and I sneer deeply as I barely conceal my bubbling contempt and to the absolute surprise of no-one, inside is another hour or so of acute frustration and rage inducing "entertainment".


This is deal or no deal a world in which its supreme leader ,Noel Edmund , preaches the virtues of positive thinking, cosmic ordering (his words) and friendship until his puffy face explodes which is coincidentally the only way of distracting the viewers from his god-awful shirts that rape my eyes with all the subtlety of Mr Blobby carving a turkey. Noel Edmunds claims the new age faith "Cosmic ordering" landed the show in his lap. The basis of this faith is that if you ask the Cosmo's for something you will get it. In which case I shall shout until Im blue in the face at the universe until Deal or no deal is removed from the face of it. The nature of it seems selfish and asks basically nothing in return. But I digress. Then there's the contestants themselves who I know more about by the end of each episode than I do some of friends.

My basic research on this topic led me to the deal or no deal wikipedia page which had this to say under the topic headline "Criticism"

"Further criticism has come with the selection of candidates, a majority of whom have had traumatic experiences in their lives. This has led to a perception that contestants are 'vetted' in this respect some to attract audiences and make them relate to the contestants."

This might go some way into explaining some of their mental states and more televised mood swings than 24 hours of Big brother. They wish each other well and compliment and say lovely things about each other that does little but slow down the process of "Picky boxy lucky lucky". Or they make the poor cult members..sorry ..contestants dress in seasonal costumes which bring about as much joy to me as the news that Jedward being possible flatmates would. I suppose my real beef with d.o.n.d is the idea that there is some kind of strategy that can be applied. Each decision is half chance and blind, simple, pure luck. There is talk from Noel and company of playing a certain "game". THERE IS NO GAME!. You pick a box and you get lucky or you don't. The only judgement comes from the moment when they gamble or leave with what they have got. The smart one's take the money and go. The risk takers get laughed at hard by me as they weep and sob into their open boxes.


Oh how they cry as they are embraced by whichever contestant was unlucky enough to reveal a unfavourable amount of money. Sure sometimes they get lucky and everyone participates in a veritable orgy of backslapping and handshaking and congratulations that would shame a bunch of M.P's.  RING ..RING...who could that be? Its the banker, who is made out to be some unseen pantomime villain who's only goal in life is to stop the contestants taking more money out of his "bank". This is the opposite opinion of every other bank in the universe that would be glad to see us spiral into debt and not offer us some kind of halfway house settlement.


I realise that the show has a large following and its not shoved into my face in a prime time slot and I sound more bitter than a divorced pint of Guinness but they show has had a good run and it needs to go away now and bring back the harshness of a real game show, like the weakest link. Hell I would rather watch Bruce Forstyhe tap dance his way from 5-6pm everyday than witness another episode of Noels guide to cosmic ordering.


NO DEAL. 

[edit]

5 reasons why my Uni life is like the Apprentice

As I have pointed out to anyone who will listen, my colleagues and myself have all felt a certain effect at one time or another during our two years at Coventry University thus far. Something I have just this second dubbed.. 

"THE APPRENTICE EFFECT!" 

On more than one occasion I cant help but feel that in some ways my Particular course (Advertising and media, if you care) resembles a longer and slightly duller version of the BBC show . Now don't get me wrong I love the Apprentice and it still resembles one of the finest hour's of television you will ever see but its still a game show at heart. It strikes me how similar this game show can be to my actual life sometimes ...

1. On one particular day we were woken up at the crack of dawn, assigned to random groups, put on a bus going to a secret location where we spend the day performing a task then reflecting on our success or failure. Sound familiar?

2. Often throughout the term time we would be assigned to the aforementioned random groups and made to work together after shouting out our respective skills and abilities. These random groups required someone to step up (rather like a Project manager)

3. The sense of competitiveness and elation that comes with being part of  the"Winning group". Besting your peers and grabbing that elusive 1st or the silver medal of a 2-1.

4. The sense of failure that comes with receiving a lower grade than expected and immediately placing blame throughout the group.

5.  Although we have, on repeated occasions, been told that working in groups is beneficial and reflective of real life situations (which is true) we are also told repeatedly what a competitive business we are in and that we are fighting for places within the industry with our "team mates". Ultimately some of us will win and some of us will lose. 

PRESENTING "TALKING SNACK" STARRING IN " THE GREAT SAATCHI QUEST"

This year I entered the "Saatchi and Saatchi summer internship" for the first time for two reasons.


1. Its saatchi & saatchi!
2. The three rounds of the competition  and the content within each interested me.


I was very proud and surprised to make it to round three of the competition as the level of competition was high and the work being produced of a good creative standard.


The use of social media in round one and the differing skills required within each round excited me. To add to the intrigue each rounds instructions was only revealed at the close of the previous round. At the time I Likened the process to an average series of "The Apprentice".


ROUND ONE- TWITTER


Round one consisted of creating a Twitter account and generating as many followers, re-tweets,mentions and as much general buzz as possible.


This task was right up my alley as I have long been a advocate of twitter and am fascinated by social networking in general. I went about creating a twitter page/account that would be something I could enthusiastically tweet about and something that I felt others could relate to as well as participate with. Food is a subject that is close to my heart and I knew it would be a easy subject to get other followers to participate in debate about.


 Within one day I had set up the "Talking Snack" page and set about promoting it the best way I knew how. "Talking Snack" would focus on new, existing and more important foodstuffs and would not take itself too seriously (unlike some other food pages). I felt it more of a challenge and almost fairer to set up a new twitter page instead of using my own personal one which had a significant number of existing followers. The title came from a play on the phrase "Talking smack" and the fact that as anyone of my friends or family would tell you, talking enthusiastically about food is something I did to almost to an annoying degree.


The icon or profile picture for the page was equally if not more important than the name and description. Everyone knows a picture can say a thousand words but if that picture is cute, ironic and colourful then half the battle for awareness was already done.


Next was best deciding how to promote the page in order to generate followers within the time-limit, (each round was a couple of weeks). I created what was essentially a feedback loop by making a facebook event page ( which could run for months) with a synopsis and a link to the twitter page. Conversely I had created a link to the facebook page from the twitter one. This created the aforementioned loop and meant that whichever way you approached talking snack you could either join as a follower or read about joining on facebook. The other benefit to heavily promoting it on the world's most visited website is obvious, viral marketing. I'm obsessed with the power and ease of use of viral marketing, the brand encourages the user to pull instead of being pushed too and in my opinion your always more likely to trust the opinion of a friend or at least be encouraged to support a brand if you are introduced to it via a colleague. For example If I had encouraged you to post a link to either the twitter or facebook pages, and ten people on your friend network see it and share it with ten of their friends before you know it, you've got interest coming in from people you have never met and maybe never will. Fortunately this strategy worked and I gained enough support and interest to impress the Saatchi Judges and qualify onto round two.


ROUND 2- MULTIPLE CHOICE


The next rounds format was vastly different in terms of time-scale and scope. It took the form of a (45min?, I cant remember the exact details) multiple choice. The main skill to be tested was one's ability to gather information quickly and efficiently. The answers to the question's were not common knowledge and could only be answered correctly through blind guesswork or more accurately a quick Google search in order to track down the relevant information. A typical question would run something like this..


"What were the total number of Twitter user's in the U.K as of March 2010?"


Exactly the kind of information that could be found out but rarely known.  I enjoyed the quiz and even the pressure on me to rapidly gather information.


Like the previous round the only way to find out if you were still in the competition was to check if you were still included in Julia's ( a Saatchi employee ) facebook friend list. A rather brutal and modern way to be dumped out of the competition  I'm sure.


ROUND 3- RECREATE YOUR FAVOURITE ADVERT


Round three was were I came unstuck and where I failed to progress as I didn't provide an entry to be judged on this round. The brief was simple enough, "recreate your favourite advert in 90 seconds and also tell us why you liked it". But with mounting university work and through not being able to pick a easy re-creatable  advert that I liked enough I decided to leave the competition here. One Stirling entry that I did see however was a nice recreation of the most recent lurpak advert by a female advertising graduate from the USA, nice work whoever you were!.


Looking back maybe I should have made more of an effort to provide and entry but the a sharp deadlines left me with little time to consider what I would even produce let alone how I would go about producing it.

Saatchi run FAQ and advice page for potential applicants. Even I was sucked in and flattered by the responses and advice I got from what I thought was a Saatchi employee. Of course the trick worked and Tong and his fake page gathered followers. Then followed a lot of feedback on the facebook page about having Mr Tong removed from the process. Others admired his cunning and suggested that purely on merit he should be given an interview. I fell somewhere between the two camps and despite a begrudging respect for his methods what he has previously done in his quest for fame leave me with a dislike for him. You can read about some of Ken's exploits here

.http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/lostinshowbiz/2011/jan/13/kenneth-tong-twitter-anorexia-big-brother

Regardless, I personally look forward to entering again next year as It was a thoroughly interesting and  enjoyable process that called upon a variety of skills and offered a potential a taste of the big time.

Oasis Campaign: "It'll go with anything"

 There is no set formula for what makes a successful advert, One mans "meerkat" is another's "we buy any car".
The latest Oasis campaign however ticks some of the key boxes when considering what I think can make an campaign successful.


The campaign created by VCCP and currently visible on TV, You tube ,and outdoor relies on a cheeky British sense of humour and some clever innuendo to get its point across. The brand is now approaching it's consumers with a humour led proposition that is suggestive and clever enough to win over a hardened cynic such as myself.


The strap line of "It'll go with anything" is a fantastic way to encourage regular Oasis purchases for all types of lunches and snacks. See the "Scotch egg" version of the ad here.
http://www.youtube.com/Oasisdrinks#p/c/75AF75BDA1176488/1/IBvv9pw3exg