Cambodia the brand

I have just come back from an amazing two weeks in Cambodia. I was with Jake my son (13) We travelled from the tourist hot spot of Siem Reap  through the country to the far north east corner bordering Laos, before leaving via  a few days in Phnom Penh. It is an amazing place, The Khemers we met proved to be fantastically warm, honest hosts. The place has so much to recommend it. When I have a moment I'll write up our learnings/recommendations on Trip Advisor.

One thing that did strike me is that Cambodia is not unlike Mazda car brand. Mazda had a worldwide sales hit with the MX5 sports car, unfortunately so iconic did this model become but pretty much the whole of the rest of the range became over looked by the buying public. The subsequent advertising then lacked confidence as it became an endless string of 'look there is more' messages rather than strong individual model statements.

Visitors to Cambodia on average stay only three days, see the Temples at Ankor Wat and then fly on to Vietnam / Thailand. There is a huge debate amongst the fledging tourist authority as to how to get visitors to 'stay another day' The whole of Cambodia is pretty unique and unless they have the confidence to say so I feel they will always be saddled with the image of 'like the neighbours but with bigger Temples' i.e. only worth a few days excursion rather than a dedicated holiday.

Prince Caspian says no to crack

Saw Bigga Than Ben at a charity preview last night. This is the film written and directed by Suzie Halewood.
Based on a Russian best seller about two young guns scamming London for all its worth. Gritty, funny and very good to look at. Starring Ben Barnes (yes, Prince Caspian himself) and Andrei ChadovI.

The soundtrack features Joe Strummer, Pete Doherty and The Rifles, the latters 'Lost in London' fits so well. really hope the film gets a wider audience than just its current art house run.


Suzie is the charming lady who directed our Fresh & Green commercial last year, pic from shoot with Mr AWT. There is an outside chance this will have another outing on TV. Previously with a media budget the square root of feck all, next to no one saw it.

Hovis past and present

 

The new Hovis ad is rather good. Big, on brand message. I did like the mixing of cliche warm nostalgia with more slightly edgy miners strike images. However picky it sounds I did feel that it was missing the wow cinematography of past Hovis campaigns plus they were proberbly missing a paper wrapper/plastic bag/paper bag packaging through the ages joke. But its a minor point on an effective ad with what must have been a interesting first script meeting!

Very cool speaker

GLA-55 speakers from harman / kardon

I was in Berlin last week at the consumer electronic show IFA. Huge, huge event, way too much to see in the day I had (especially as I was there to show Amplified Journeys to the world) These speakers (GLA-55) on the Harman Kardon stand were really tactile and I am sure will be a hit. There are some shapes you just have to feel and pick up. The only shame is that they are not actually glass, I just wanted them to be heavier and cold to the touch - that would have been cool.

Which brand??Many brands had stands covered in flat screen TV's. The trouble with such plenty was a real lack of brand individuality. Much like the Sat Nav hall which featured 1000's of oblong grey box's showing maps. Both sectors need an 'Apple' moment to break out of such comformaty.

Actually Becker systems did have some neat rubber coated Sat Nav units (Z 100, review features excellent reader comments!) aimed at bikers which would look great in cars. Especially if coated in other textures.

There is a Flickr set HERE of the things I did get to see at the show.

Deezer a geezer of a site

Just starting to use the music discovery site Deezer. A bit like Last.fm but Deezer finds whole albums rather than just single tracks. You lose some of the whimsical choices of Last.fm but gain the ability to have Guns & Roses afternoons. The site also  has a clean interface with some neat controls. The ad positions are a bit clunky but you can't have everything.

I have been a big fan of Last.fm over the last year, Check my stats! but I feel very warm towards Deezer at the moment

Amplified Journeys in action

The music discovery / navigation online mash-up I designed is now live and running! Commissioned by Harman Kardon in the UK. This site acts as a living piece of brand advertising. Due to grow and be added too over the coming months. Its all really rather exciting. Do try it out. amplifiedjourneys.hk

Burger King and a cavity search

While McDonalds walks very slowly away from global campaigns (The UK is not getting the full  McD'Olympic package in case it upsets us liberals) It would appear Burger King is moving a bit quicker in culturally specific campaigns. The guys at Idea Sandbox highlighted an amusing German BK campaign which included a very worried onion about to get the rubber glove treatment from a member of the village people. More of the Campaign HERE. plus coverage HERE

It would appear to fit the profile of BK's German young male audience. Done by .Start in Munich.

BUT check out the comments posted after this story appeared - its just staggering how many people would appear to think Burger King should have a holy than thou Americanised approach where ever it trades. One of the great benefits of multi & digital channel advertising is that you CAN speak in sympathy to many different groups at the same time, rather than sticking to some bland nonsense from the '90s.

Just back from The Big Chill

This summer has seen almost 400 'festival' events planned (according to RPM) while some fell at the last hurdle with low ticket sales (Wild in the Country, WaxOn) others showed a lack of planning (zoo8 plus others) a very few sold out (Leeds & Reading / CampBestival) I think this year will be the turning point for the   festival market. A bit more solid audience research needs to be done by organisiers before event planning. The smaller niche events appear to have done the best.  Normally associated with quality services -NOT luke warm Carlsberg and random noodles. After all there are only so many 17 year olds willing to put up with the joy of Readings  'environment' (wow that makes me sound old)

Well, I took myself and kids off to The Big Chill, Very middle class, very safe, and mostly very relaxing, some neat brand activity and the surprisingly good Leonard Cohen I really am hitting that age! -still looking forward to seeing Iggy Pop at Get Loaded

After 18 months, Amplified Journeys makes its debut

Despite still feeling a little jaded from The Big Chill, last night was the press launch for Harman Kardon's amplified journeys . A fun event in The Bluebird Dining Rooms, lots of press turned up, most things worked as planned, food was fab and the wine flowed (rather to) freely.
Tony Harberman from Harman hosted the event. Alex James (he of Blur) spoke of music and cheese and I got to show off amplifiedjourneys.hk
Focus are doing the PR and to quote "...The magic of online music discovery has now been merged with the practicalities of route navigation for the very first time in a new, unique and totally ingenious web mash-up...amplifiedjourneys.hk marks the first time music and journey planning web applications have been brought together to provide web users with bespoke music playlists, which can be intrinsically linked to personal musical tastes and a planned trip..."

Chewy pen nibs and a new phone.

Bic Mobile just seen via Springwise BIC have launched a really neat ready to go mobile phone, charged, sim'd and credited -all out the box for about £40. Its a great idea but misses a few key BIC brand attributes, It would have been fab to have a biro attachment hidden in the case like a stylus, or even better have the casing made from soft (blue) chewable plastic. The really key reason so many thinkers use BIC's, they are some of the best pens to chew!

iphone & free beer

iBeer video.  'Just because you can build it, does not mean people will want it' current hot topic on the iphone app forums. The fun to be had with beer and movement sensors may be a flash in the pan (hand) but fun none the less, the key question is whether you would pay ($3) for it or not. Award winning Carling iPint HERE.

The iphone apps are not unlike Lego, there is always another bit to add, Not always useful but pleasing to play with all the same.  These two apps compared on the excellent Bannerblog. 

Youporn takes a festive (f)tumble



Oh the joys of analytics! while the new Googletrends has invaluable use for measuring effectiveness of your campaign it also is a fab way of livening up a dull Wednesday.

Witness this screen shot showing an alarming drop in Youporn visitors over the Christmas holiday - The workers of the world (well loads of: Americas, Germans, Italians and a few Brits) obviously prefer there porn during office hours rather than interrupting carols round the log fire.
Note also the dip at Easter and 'schools effect' in the first two weeks of September.

A side note is that youporn** appears to be one of the few web2.0 adult sites - notwithstanding its gratuitous use of reflections.
(**so I am told by my hard working researchers on the subject- Craig & Nick from AW Media )

The joy of evesdropping - Summize.com

summize.jpgVery sweet Twitter hack / build / add-on. Summize allows you to see everyone talking on Twitter about a single subject, even allows a degree of location specific search. Currently using it to stay on top of the 2gether08 Conference while at the same time trying to  write a new business pitch.

The last point is that my summer will now be spent 'kissing frogs' as opposed to larking about at festivals. The upshot of  a client going into administration last week -which meant the cancellation of there experiential campaign -boo. (oh yeah and we loose a bunch of cash)