The combined effort of the blog community harnessed to raise money for students. More info on this here on DonorsChoose.org

We're a little late to participate and I'd prefer to donate money to local or international charities rather than US based ones. But it is still a nice idea. These ideas always go better the second year as people capitalise on what worked last year and also last years late comers are on equal footing.

As of writing sport blogs have raised only $155. That's pretty sad.

Clemenger BBDO, Melbourne have launched a new campaign for Four N' Twenty pies called Magic Salad Plate. I actually hear about this on the radio first. (This is your basic food when at the footy. The aussie version of a hot dog at the baseball.)

Guys can pick up the plate for free by entering the unique codes on supermarket frozen packs.

Update: It's actually $5 + $5.65 postage and you have to buy two packs to get the codes. This seems a bit steep.

The website could use some help and why they embedded a video player instead of the Youtube link is a mystery. But it's all about the plate not the site.

While not as fun or collectable as the VB Boony Doll i think this is still a great promotion. You can see these at the next BBQ providing some laughs and more importantly a reason to choose Four N' Twenty over other frozen pies.
I eat Sergeants but will grab a pack to get my free plate this week.

You can read the 122 comments on the Campaign Brief blog about this campaign. Well maybe 20 comments are about the campaign and the rest are childish comments and name calling.

Burger King just fits this so well.

Branded content based around small business doesn't exactly sound that exciting. Optus have begun a 12 week "reality" type show called the "Yes Coach" that will see 3 businesses get proper coaching and we'll watch them as they progress their business. The 3 chosen finalists all hit different segments, professional, tradies and family business.

This idea has been promoted quite heavily for the last few weeks with the first episode live and the 2nd to hit Sept 17th.

While the strategy seems sound, the execution is a little flat. Check the first episode. It's tiny! Like watching video on a postage stamp. I can't comment on the episode or embed it anywhere. The videos aren't even on Youtube. Hopefully by episode 2 they'll regig a few things. Optus branding is kept very low. This is one case where I don't think it would have mattered if it was overally branded. But kudos for not shoving the Optus logo in our face.

There's blogs and forums as well as business tips but right now it all seems like noones home. The forum is the only place with some community activity. And yes it's a business site so it's blue with a shite loa of text. Is there a rule that business people don't like images and love to read large amounts of text?

As far as branded TV shows go I much prefered the Football Superstar from Nutrigrain but that's probably due to the subject matter.

I really like the simplicity of this new Spring Valley campaign Save Your Sensible. The "Hitchhikers Guide" intro is spot on and the Papervision 3D character is very well done. I would have liked to seen more customization of my sensible but at least it is random.

This is by GP Y&R in Melbourne and like the Snickers Ugly Wrestling the SEO ofr this is terrible but it's well executed and quite humorous.

The integration with Facebook is spot on. It posts updates from your sensible and everytime another friend interacts with your sensible it posts this aswell. Thus creating a constant stream of alerts to check out the app. Currently there';s 455 active monthly users which isnt bad for a branded app that's just started.

The image above shows a sensible after I slapped it around a bit and after I fed it with some Spring Valley juice.

Here's the TVC campaign. The first one is the intro to the site which I feel has the most impact. Full credits for ads on the Youtube channel.