FRANKthoughts

According to Joan Warner, CEO of Commercial Radio Australia the answer is yes, and it will be here sooner than you might think.

Digital Radio  (DR) is due to roll out in all 5 metro markets in Jan/Feb 2009. Yesterday morning I was amongst 30 industry professionals who got to hear it first hand. In just over the course of an hour, we were taken through how it will work and what it means for both the consumer and the advertiser.  As a consumer, I am very excited! No longer will I be subjected to the static interference that corrupts my ears every morning, as I try and listen to my favourite FM breakfast show while on the train into work.  One of the main advantages to DR will be the strong interference-free signal, especially within built up areas. AM listeners in particular, will be jumping for joy with news of this.  Not only will the sound quality surpass current standards, but it will open up more choices for listeners with extra channels and new digital features. New technology means we will have screens to display dynamic text, images, data & multimedia channels.

For Advertisers, radio will no longer be just an audio touch point. DR introduces a visual element to complement the offering. From product shots to animated logos, contact details and even down-loadable electronic coupons for redeemable promotions. Phones will have the fastest capability to embrace digital radio and for many features will be the most practical hardware (electronic coupons for example) Despite these features you will not be able to display moving pictures; don’t get digital radio confused with Mobile TV.

Although a free service to consumers, an initial investment in a digital receiver will be required. Despite the onslaught of negative press out there I believe that DR will win the consumer over in the end, even if it takes 10 years. Remember Digital TV didn’t happen over night.

On Sunday 31.08.08 myself and a million other runners in 25 countries participated in a 10k run organised by NIKE+. NIKE+ started with a product - A small chip in your shoe that talks to your ipod nano, tracking your distance, time, pace and calories burned. The product led itself to a community of runners with NIKE offers support, tools and coaching.

Nike plus is a business/product/marketing solution that proves you can achieve great results with an holistic cross business approach. NIKE is so good at that, building an experience that extends marketing buzz words, leaving you searching for new ones to describe it. All elements work seamlessly together supporting one strong mantra: help the participants kick ass.

This is how I felt and my feelings, memories and experience were brought to me by NIKE. How strong is this bond? Wondering how this whole thing came to life (going back to some behind the scenes boardroom) I find it hard to believe it started from a strategy line like: “we want to sell more shoes”. I believe the single thought that started this project was more in the line of: “how can we make our users happy?”. Nike proves that putting your users in front of the bottom line will pay dividends.

Being part of the human race made me think again about the power of brands.

This time Nike pulled off the world’s biggest race. What will they just do next? Here is one answer:

Finally got a chance to go through my favorite blogs and thought it will be nice to start sharing some links I’m deliciousing. I’ll try to do it every Friday and keep it short and sweet. So, here we go: Design, art & usability all play a part in designer Bas Groenendaal work. This designer has hit TED with his new kid focused camera. make sure to watch his Mars + Nietzsche vending machine! The school of life - A new cultural enterprise offering intelligent instruction on how to lead a fulfilled life and how Mozilla  figuring out our semantic lives with Ubiquity.
Have a great weekend!

Its time to remove the scarf and hang up the beanie as spring is only days away and we all know what this means…warmer weather, Spring fashion, racing and much more!
Among these many loves is Melbourne Spring Fashion Week (1-7 sept) which we will see showcase the latest looks for spring/summer with more than 100 events to choose from including runway shows, panel discussions, workshops, luncheons, film, exhibitions, racing and parties.

To celebrate Melbourne Spring Fashion Week, Melbourne’s GPO will be racing into spring with a fabulous promote of shopping offers and fashion shows.  To help showcase these exciting events, we thought it would be a good idea to have a dedicated event page. There are some cool things to check out like special offers, competitions and the option to book tickets to some events in advance.

On WEDNESDAY 3 September join the Melbourne’s GPO “Racing Into Spring Fashion” Shopping & Shows, including:
- GPO Trading til 9pm  - Exclusive Retailer Offers & Specials
- Complimentary bubbly - 3 champagne bars - DJ Sean Wise
- 12:30PM & 1:30PM @ Alto Event Space located on Level 3.

SHOW 1: WEDNESDAY 3 SEPTEMBER, 12:30PM
AG Clothing, Akira, Ben Sherman, Fat, Hussy & Madame Marie, im, Leona Edmiston, Lisa Ho, Nicolangela
SHOW 2: WEDNESDAY 3 SEPTEMBER, 13:30PM
AG Clothing, Christopher Chronis, Digbys, Georgiadis, Gorman, Karen Millen England, Lella Smith, Max & Co Rodd & Gunn, Veronika Maine.

Entrance is free and seating is limited, so to secure your place please go to the events page and use the “Book Tickets” button on the right menu.

It’s a war out there. Brands are throwing themselves at our feet vying for attention and money investing $Billions each month. The thing is though brands are only as ‘good’ or ‘bad’ as we perceive them, despite their best efforts to shape our views.

Brandwars is designed to elicit our innate opinions towards brands in the form of a tag cloud–a format in which the size of the word corresponds to its frequency among responses. Frequently submitted words are shown in giant type, while rarely-submitted ones look tiny on the screen. Brands rotate on a random basis to minimise competitor-abuse.

We have taken the concept of brands beyond the norm and have included personalities (politicians, media personalities, sportspeople etc.) media (tv networks, newspapers, radio stations etc.) sports clubs (AFL, NRL, A-league etc.)

Brandlove allows us to track overall brand sentiments along the scale from ‘love’, ‘good’, ‘neutral’ or ‘bad’ to ‘hate.’

In a climate where the impact of every dollar tries to be accountable the tried and tested brand awareness (aided and unaided) & brand preference continue to be viable benchmarks. Brandwars adds another dimension after all just because we’re aware of a brand it doesn’t mean we necessarily ‘like’ it.

If you become aware of this then how does this change your perception of Coca Cola? Has your attitude towards the Olympics become just a little more cynical?

The current list of quintessentially Australian brands can be found here. If you would like any brands added just let us know.

Brandwars was inspired by a similar initiative in the US called brandtags created by Noah Brier for which we are thankful.

We spend a lot of time discussing how brands can create ‘buzz’ online; SO, as the newest member of the FRANk Crew I thought I’d use my ‘blog-power’ to create a little buzz of my own.

If you haven’t heard of The Bamboos you’re missing out on a Melbourne band whose album, Rawville,was described as the best funk album of the modern era. I recently had the pleasure of spending a day with The Bamboos and feature vocalist Megan Washington at the filming of their debut video-clip “King of the Rodeo” (cover of the Kings of Leon original).

The day was rainy, the light was moody, the sounds were soulful and a few stars were born. Check it out and and tell your friends!

“King of the Rodeo” was directed by James Teh and produced by Beat Production. The video coincides with the release of The Bamboos third album, Side-Stepper, out September 1.

You all probably get Adrants but I couldn’t resist posting this beast here. This has to be one of the coolest vehicles ever created.

From Adrants: “To call attention to Nike’s sponsorship of the AST Dew Tour, Hub Strategy, which put together a concepting team consisting of an architect, an industrial designer, a planner, a graphic designer and a copywriter. The result? A tricked out extreme vehicle complete with skate ramp, wake board tower, sirk rack, skateboard rails, BMX racks, a camper and, of course, iPod goodness.”

This ticks so many marketing buzz word boxes: it’s guerrilla, brand utility, sponsorship, branded entertainment and a mashup. Whatever we decide to call it - it delivers a unique and unforgettable experience. Even if you’re just looking at it.

Hot on the heels since the launch of Cuil, there is a new search engine in the market called Viewzi.

When different users search for certain keywords, they may be after the same information for different reasons.  They could be images, news, history, videos, etc.

Viewzi aggregates different search engine (google, yahoo, youtube, etc) and visually displays it based on what you’re after.  Eg. a timeline of news events, celebrity images, site screenshots, down to your simple text results.

Will this be a Google beater?  I doubt so… it’s more complex and Google is still the best in giving me what I want - FAST.  But I don’t really care who is better… it’s just another great tool to help improve my searching experience online.  I can already see how this will benefit me when I need greater depth in my search where Google does not offer.

From the youtube profile: “Carnegie Mellon Professor Randy Pausch (Oct. 23, 1960 - July 25, 2008) gave his last lecture at the university Sept. 18, 2007, before a packed McConomy Auditorium. In his moving presentation, “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams,” Pausch talked about his lessons learned and gave advice to students on how to achieve their own career and personal goals. More about Randy here.”

The FRANk team is totally amazed by this superb work from The Hallway & Happy soldiers, Sydney based agencies for online travel goru Zuji. Starting with the concept: “We want people to take more holidays”, They decided that instead of just advertsing/shouting they can help people save for these extra holidays. Clever user centric idea, excellent execution and a brave client make this piece of work much more than advertising.

No more words are needed. just click play and enjoy: