Appreciation

Appreciation by CulturalOffering.com

Amazing Sydney sunset

Sent from my Windows Phone

50 word story: Soul searching

She knew she needed a vision. She was staring at the blank screen, trying to find the one thing she really liked doing and she was passionate about. She realised the answer wouldn’t pop out of her head. She needed to seriously take stock of her skills and her interests.

People Are So Outraged At Coca-Cola's Holiday Cans That It's Abandoning Them After Just One Month

Is it just me, or this is really that funny?? (and textbook material on ‘brand building, what not to do’)

Coke released this:

And got this:
picture source

I can almost see ‘the confused person’, opening the can, taking a much considered first sip, savouring it, savouring it, and finally concluding that ‘this stuff definitely doesn’t taste the same’…oh dear! Coke, bring back your signature brand colour.

Bring it back fast. And so they are doing exactly that after a month of the failed, silver polar bear packaging. Milk is white and coke is red (on the outside at least). And no more funny business please.

This is a brand we know and trust.

Yes. In (red) Coke we trust.

People Are So Outraged At Coca-Cola's Holiday Cans That It's Abandoning Them After Just One Month

Quote of the day

On the value of silence:

"It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt". (source)

The wonderful world of blogging

Pure, genuine and moving  thoughts with Cultural Offering.
daily. here.

He is life changing…

If there is anything better than his blog, than it’s Nicholas Bate himself, in person.

I spent one hour on his refresher course yesterday and now I’m ready to change the world. Well, at least mine. Starting today.

Read it. Daily. Here.

Sydney hot chocolate

To be exact, served at Bondi Beach

Sent from my Windows Phone

Sydney graffiti

Sent from my Windows Phone

Books & titles

Have you ever thought of a better title for a book, than what it received from its author? Well, people behind this site certainly have. Check it out for some (funny) alternatives.

Tuesday morning blogroll

Nicholas Bate on analysis paralysis and why simple is better and less is more.

Michael Wade and Kurt Harden make me miss a good Autumn morning.

Eclecticity for the love of blogging – and his sheer positive energy!

Seth Godin from Pacebo effect to Global warming and why you are only sometimes entitled to your opinion.

Guy Kawasaki is having a blast with Google+. Take note Facebook.

Lessons from the Wise Fool by Creative Think.

What do YOU want to do…

before you die?

Nicole Kenney, a Brooklyn-based artist took polaroid shots of people and asked them to write on the photo, what it is, that they’d like to do before they die. Check it out for inspiration, and a smile!

So do I, my dear…

Funny, because it’s true for every woman.

Operation smile

There are many good deeds in the world. This is one:

Weird interview question

"If you were shrunk to the size of a pencil and put in a blender, how would you get out?" (source)

Seriously…? They have got to joking, but then I stop and think about it: What would I say? Climb out. (What is a blender again?) No, maybe I’d lay low… (it’s a food processor, isn’t it?) Actually no, if I lay flat, it could still get me and there’d be blood… (and now I’m feeling sick). Or am I small enough to fit under the blades? Is it turned on? Ick, the blades, run… 

And this is the moment I look them in the eye, break a confident smile and ask for another question…

Superb ad

Why? because it’s subtle. it’s not in your face obvious that it’s for Vodafone. Because it works on any language, and because it’s gentle and funny…

Driven to Distraction (30 sec TVC)

One of the smoothest cross promotion examples I have recently seen. Vic Gundotra (previously from Microsoft, but since 2007) from Google (note nice big logo in the background) praising Mercedes S Class and coining the phrase ‘magical software’… Nicely done.

Space debris 'at tipping point'

More and more issues require multi-nation cooperation to solve. Is civilization mature enough to solve them?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/world-us-canada-14757926

Cheerios: that's for babies

I thought I’d share this fun TVC!

The reason... (and it's a good reason)

...why the blog has been getting little attention and I have been very quiet in general in the last few months...
My I present Mr and Mrs O'Connell.

Sydney this evening, 2

Sydney this evening

Sent from my Windows Phone

(not so sunny) Sydney

5 questions

5 questions to ask from someone in power to establish the objectivity of their status:

 

1.      What power have you got?

2.      Who did you get it from?

3.      In whose interest do you exercise it?

4.      To whom are you accountable?

5.      How could we get rid of you?

 

(questions for a dictator by Tony Benn)

 

How Media Buyers Should Approach Display Campaigns - eMarketer

"Today's display ad buyer must navigate hundreds of inventory providers, including ad exchanges, ad networks and publishers, to emerge with a successful media plan. By approaching the ad buying process objective-first, media buyers can pinpoint select sources to efficiently craft display campaigns."
Rest of the article at eMarketer here.

Introducing the Google+ project: Real-life sharing, rethought for the web

Clever idea, straight from the Google blog:

Commoditisation of online advertising

Digital advertising is big business. In Australia it reached $2.2bn last year and is forecast to be the largest in terms of ad spend by 2014 reaching as high as $3.4bn (according to neo@Ogilvy). It’s equally a big industry elsewhere in the World, in the US for example, digital advertising generated $7.3bn in Q1 of ‘11, representing a 23% YOY increase. And it’s expected to grow still.

Much of this growth is predicted to come from video and mobile. And because these are still relatively new platforms in the digital mix, publisher will have an opportunity to correct some of the catastrophic pricing mistakes of the past.

Anyone working in the industry knows that from the beginning, online advertising had fixed CPM (cost per thousand) rates, based on showing a particular ad unit a 1000 times. However, while all audience metrics (time spent online, unique visitors, page views, etc.) exponentially grew over the last ~10 years, ad dollars failed to follow, creating a huge discrepancy between supply and demand. To make at least some money of the millions and billions page impressions, publishers started ‘flogging’ their unsold inventory via ad networks, achieving on average less than a dollar for a thousand page views.

But as time went by, supply continued to grow and advertisers continued to press for more by paying less. Soon publishers yielded under the pressure and started offering CPC (cost per click) or a CPA (cost per acquisition) models, receiving revenue only, when the advertising banners were clicked upon. This was great for advertisers, as it enabled measuring every dollar spent online and reduced their risk to almost none. At the same time it also created a perception that online media is of little value unless it generates user action (click or acquisition). Awareness, Interest, Desire to purchase (first 3 letters of the AIDA acronym that describes the traditional purchase funnel, that ends in Acquisition, standing for the 4th letter), became unnecessary accessories of a digital campaign, as did brand awareness and recall.

Digital is soon to be commoditised further still, through online ad exchanges, which enable real time buying and selling of online inventory, based on price alone.

So, why are video and mobile well placed to break the cycle of performance driven buys in Australia? Mobile is set to overtake online media (debated, but seems completely conceivable), and video is set to see a boost from the current 1bn streams per month, once the new fibre optic cable is rolled out in the not so distant future.

Publishers have a real opportunity to position these platforms in a way that will see the premium ad dollars migrate to these channels. The audience is consuming it, its effectiveness has been proven, the only thing left is to determine and stick to pricing based on true value.
(Matt Berriman: how to devalue one of your own key propositions, Australian, page 27.)

Oh, so easy to forget

what Fridays should be about.

Thanks for the reminder:

If There Is Just One Thing You Do Today 12 - Nicholas Bate

Quote of the day

Anyone who claims: "I have toiled and not found success" - don't believe him

Anyone who claims: "I have not toiled but found success" - don't believe him

Anyone who claims: "I have toiled and found success" -believe him

(The Talmud)

Consolidation of Online Ad Market Continues as Google Grabs More Share - eMarketer

Around 70% of the online ad revenues is going to only 5 companies in the US in ‘11, with Google continuing to take a massive 41% of every ad dollar spent (wow), Yahoo 11%, Facebook a healthy 7%, Microsoft 6.1% and finally AOL 2.7%.

The good news for Microsoft on the search revenue front is, that they are forecasting to be growing their search revenues even quicker than Google – something that’s easier achieved, coming from a weaker position. “Microsoft’s solid growth rates are due to the overall efficiency of the Bing search engine in delivering relevant results to searchers, as well as the company’s marketing of Bing to encourage more usage,” (David Hallerman, eMarketer principal analyst)

However, so far it looks like Bing’s gain isn't Google's loss, but AOL’s and Yahoo’s. And while I agree, 2 is better than one (go Bing, give Google a run for their money), are two enough to have a good ‘honest’ competition? Although I may be getting ahead of myself with that, as according to emarketer.com, Google is forecasting to write 77.7% of the search ad revenue in 2012, versus Microsoft, who is forecasting 10%... well, give them a run for their money – eventually.

This will change you perspective

on job security: No Job Security – Hugh MacLeod | Andrew Munro's Blog

Good News! Super Smart Nelson Biagio Jr. - Nicholas Bate

I had to post it so that I will always have the link to this… Mastering Project Management. Thanks to Nicholas Bate for posting it.

Hit the road Jack...

Ash cloud hit Melbourne yesterday, no flights, how does one (and the other 22 in the hen party) get to Sydney?
Drive. That's how...

your chances visualised

 

http://thefuturebuzz.com/pics/viral-images-5/image-33.png

Most creative and interesting ads | Pokkisam blog

They are fun, shocking, different. Enjoy. (source)

---

what is it all about?

love (it)

20 creative guerrilla marketing campaigns

This one of 'Folgers Coffee' from New York.

More here: 20 creative guerrilla marketing campaigns