Virgin should have known better and was even warned by Rob Manual that a promotion on B3ta.com would not go to plan.

The promotion was an extention of their "Say Yes" campaign and they asked B3ta users to photoshop "What would happen if you said yes to everything." The best entries woudl win an XBOX360. Foolish earthlings :)

Here's a bit of the fallout on the B3ta boards and and article in the Guardian here.

And for those unfamilar with B3ta, here is just one person,s contributions to the site. Pure genious.

Posted by Ashley Ringrose at 06:30 PM | Link to this Article | Comments
Archived in: Interesting Articles

HOST have launched a new promotion for McKenna Bourbon touting two girls nicknamed Double Trouble.

As a flash guy I'm most interested in the ability to ring a phone number and have your voice recorded to a web application.

I would have liked to have seen more from this than just the ability to prank a mate with the fake radio video but I understand again time and budget restraints.

Posted by Ashley Ringrose at 06:20 PM | Link to this Article | 1 Comments
Archived in: Interesting Promotions

You have just a week to enter Creatives Hotshop award for 2007. Now with the Interactive category added. It'd look bad if we don't get many entries in the Interactive category after fighting for it to be added. So get your pens out and start entering. Also it's free!! so no need to budget for this one.

Also D&AD, New York Festivals, One Show , Clio and the Webbys are open for entry. Phew that's alot of entries fees.

If I've missed any other awards let me know. There's too many to keep track of.

Posted by Ashley Ringrose at 08:25 PM | Link to this Article | Comments
Archived in: Awards

Do Google and Youtube think I speak Mandarin? I'd had already logged into my account and entered all the relative geo location data and I still see ads like this. I guess this is why companies pay per click with Google.

Posted by Ashley Ringrose at 09:36 AM | Link to this Article | Comments
Archived in: Interesting Articles

To promote Saw 3 Lions Gate created a Youtube specific video. It also alludes to a code (ala LOST) but this one is a little easier to decipher. It's good to see people seeing Youtube videos as a whole new medium to utilize and not just plonk the standard trailer up there. It's sad the code didn't actually lead anywhere specific though.

Posted by Ashley Ringrose at 08:46 PM | Link to this Article | 1 Comments
Archived in: Interesting Promotions

It started with Starburst back in 2002 who had a hit song (top 50 in the ARIA charts) with Get Your Juicies Going.

Now we have LynxJet and the Dizzy Bananas and their song "Spin Spin Spin". This is the extension to the very successful LynxJet campaign. View the clip below.

I can't say I'm feeling the love on this clip. But I've been suprised when stuff I thought was crap goes nuts so I'll be interested in seeing how this clip goes "virally".

A better example on branded music would be Tea Partay from Smirnoff. I haven't read any press releases about how many countries it's been viewed by but Youtube seem to show 1.6M+ views on this video. And now annoying Vividas popups in sight!

You can view the Tea Partay campaign site here.

The Dizzy Bananas aside the Lynxjet Planet campaign site that really confuses and annoys me.

A lot of money was spent here but all in the wrong places. I'd love to deconstruct where it fails but it's obvious. It stinks of wasted opportunity and for that it annoys me.

Yes guys like girls and playing games but the two combined aren't always a winner. Especially when it feels as labored as this is.

We also like sport and seeing stuff explode. See below.

This is said to be a 100% online campaign so "hoo rahh" to Unilever for putting the money into online and "boo hiss" to Lowe Hunt for pissing it up the wall.

In contrast the interactive work done for Lynx/Axe worldwide (Game Killers, Feather, Alphabet Girls and my fav Ravenstoke) is of the highest quality and it's a shame that Australia has let down the team. The only solution I can see if for Unilever to give me complete access to the Lynxjet girls and the budget they spend on LynxJet Planet.

Posted by Ashley Ringrose at 08:04 PM | Link to this Article | 3 Comments
Archived in: Interesting Promotions

We'd added a couple of requested features to the site this weekend.

Search: You can now search the archives! You'll notice the little search box in the top left.

News Archives: The news section now has a proper archive. You can check it out here.

If you have any other suggestions on how to make the site better please email us.

Posted by Ashley Ringrose at 10:21 PM | Link to this Article | Comments
Archived in: BB News

The 2006 finalist for AWARD have been announced. See the full list here.

We trying to put together a list of the Interactive winners as it's a waste just getting the title of the job with no URL.

Hopefully one of the judges will slip me the URL's. Ashadi??

Posted by Ashley Ringrose at 05:59 PM | Link to this Article | Comments
Archived in: Awards

Even though Ad-Rag has pointed out this idea has been done the death lately, the M&M's Dark Movie hunt game is still really fun. You can even download the image at full res here.

It's always fun keeping track of the trends. We had Subservient Chicken, Then Trailer Crashers, 'aveaword and now this as idea thats are copied until peopel get sick of them. The annoying part is the ideas are too tempting to fall back on when brainstorming.

One nice adaption of the idea is this promotion for Viking Direct called Stationary Movies. It's a great way to make office stationary fun and for what seems like a boring client, it's quite a fresh idea. It's also gone one step further than the other brands by allowing peopel to submit their own Stationary movies.

Posted by Ashley Ringrose at 05:47 PM | Link to this Article | Comments
Archived in: Interesting Promotions

Campaign Brief had a link to this interesting idea.

From CB "World-first opportunity for a company to embed itself at the centre of a stand-up comedy routine to be posted on YouTube. Cummins & Partners Melbourne copywriter and stand-up comedian Jason Rose has launched a website – themassivejoke.com – that offers a unique opportunity for a company to promote itself on YouTube. The site will auction off the chance for a business to place itself at the centre of a stand-up comedy routine that Jason Rose will perform and record at a live comedy venue and then post on the video-sharing site."

I'd be interested in how this goes. Youtube is a wierd beast, the cream does rise to the top on many occasions, Little Superstar being one good example, but there's also many pieces of questionable content (read: stupid videos) that get half a million views that leave you scratching your head as to why.

I hate to fill up the news with Youtube videos but here's another killer vid from India. Bollywood doesn't get much better than this.

Posted by Ashley Ringrose at 01:21 PM | Link to this Article | 2 Comments
Archived in: Interesting Promotions

Australian Creative have launched their new site and the Hotshop competition for 2007.

The site is a nice start to a magazines site but I hope they adopt the learnings that CR use with their website by providing the interactive content that compliments the print version of the mag. CR's blog is also being edited quite well too.

I do have a large crit and that's to do with the Hotshop competition. It seems quite silly to ignore interactive as a category. I've asked Barbara Messer, the editor, why this was omitted for a second time (I complained last year too) and she responded...

"I haven't included an interactive section in Hotshop b/c I actually expected interactive agencies to choose either the design or advertising categories to enter, as most interactive agencies operate in these areas. "

I feel interactive is big enough to stand on it's own. Advertising & design both don't seem like the right place to enter.

So consider this the official petition for interactive agencies to get their own category. Hey while we're at it lets petition Campaign Brief to also cover interactive. These mags can't ignore us for long enough.

So please add your comments to this post in your support. I would post the email addresses but that might not be the best idea.

UPDATE: Australian Creative will be adding Interactive as a category and are drafting up the entry form now. Wow things move fast. Thanks Barbara for looking into this so fast.

Now, lets see who else we can lean on :)

Posted by Ashley Ringrose at 12:58 PM | Link to this Article | 4 Comments
Archived in: Industry News

Commarts mentions us in their "Web Watch" page in the September/October Issue - which also happens to be the Interactive Annual. Lots of other good stuff in there too

Check it out at http://www.commarts.com/ca/interactive/cai06/

and Commarts - Thanks for the Props!

Posted by phil at 05:59 AM | Link to this Article | Comments
Archived in: Blatant Self Promotion

What banner caught the eye of our editors lately?

White Rabbit by Profero was an universal winner this issue voted by all the judges as the stand out banner. Its like extending the banner format and going on a cultural journey across the web. Take a journey

This week saw Bannerblog supply the first of many creative features for B&T magazine's Creative Eye. Here is the article for those who reside outside of Australia. We have been busy searching the web for the best banners out there. There have been some classics but overall on our internet travels it has been slow. With all the web 2.0 talk we are on the search for banners that use AJAX, so if you know of any send them to us. Top Tip: 26k is fine for a video banners just check out Citroen spin to see how its done.

We've finally posted our 500th banner. The event was likened to the landing on the moon with the entries team highflying each other while wearing party hats and drinking non alcoholic champagne.

Renault Clio: Fingerprints Adidas a3 Adidas: Impossible Field Emirates: Time will fly Nokia N-Gage: Grenade Coca- Cola: Colors Adidas: Beckham Melbourne: Lose Yourself Dolby: Light up the night sky SBAB: Shutdown Gothenburg Opera - "Cats" Save the Koalas Trident: Smile Simpsons: Premiere Toshiba: Don't even go there! Apple: iPod Nano Coke Zero: Beach Itv 1: Prehistoric Park Fruit Loops: Pirate

B&T Top 5: September Toboggan Escape Nike: One Time Only Little Dancer Fart button Let Tekken Decide Enter the Copywriter Protect the Human Soul glo* Many of you may not have noticed (we've checked the stats) that we have a thriving news section. This is where everything non banner related goes. We were one of the first to bring you Little Dancer, who has since gone onto to take over the world. So if you have any industry related news or more likely a campaign your agency have launched please submit it to us.

Sent this email from a friend? Subscribe here. You can also unsubscribe if you feel like too.

Posted by Ashley Ringrose at 06:18 PM | Link to this Article | Comments
Archived in: Newsletter

We've been having a bit of a discussion lately on the BannerBlog editors' listserv around the issue of form fields in banners... okay, the discussion was about dropdown menus, but adding in other form items seems to make sense.


In regards to drop downs, the general consensus amongst us is that they have been abused to date (functioning primarily as auto click thru triggers.) That said, we can see situations where they might work.


So the question here is: Can anyone out there provide us with some stats? Have a campaign that used drop-downs (or any other form component) that worked or didn't? Able to share some stats?


Looking to foster a little discussion here, and hopefully collect some more evidence to backup or refute our general gut instincts: Drop-Downs are a bad idea in banners, unless custom developed as a panel...


Along the same lines - any stats on Forms and Data-Collection, such as e-newsletter signups in-banner?

Posted by phil at 03:19 PM | Link to this Article | 2 Comments
Archived in:

As reported last week in B&T and Adnews (and gossiped about for a while before that) Chris James has left The Farm to join BMF's digital department as their creative director. With Chris James a 50% owner in The Farm and BMF is one of The Farm's biggest clients the move is quite a big deal for both parties involved.

Neither agency site has acknowledged the fact.

The hardest part about running a digital agency is obtaining and keeping good talent. Chris James has made his job an uphill battle by starting from scratch with the relativly new BMF venture. One wonders why BMF didn't opt to buy The Farm outright. Of if they did what went wrong?

There is already a fierce battle for good people within the digital agencies in Sydney and Melbourne and CJ will have to work some magic to establish his team and start popping out the good work.

One positive side for Chris would be the increase creative nature of his role with less hassling with the business side of things that come with owning and running a business. And the fact he'd be using BMF'smoney to get things done not his own :)

Good luck to all parties involved.

Posted by Ashley Ringrose at 07:08 PM | Link to this Article | 1 Comments
Archived in: Industry News