FRANKthoughts

Tomorrow never comes, nor will the agency of the future. However after a great couple of months a bunch of businesses have decided they’d like to work with us and we’re delighted to introduce David Lee as our new FRANkophile. David joins us from Mindshare Interactive and his enthusiasm knows no bounds.

Welcome David

If you always wanted to broadcast yourself live on the web, your dream just came true. Operator11 is a new TV style application allowing users to broadcast their own shows. It even gets better – viewers can join the conversation using IM or join with their own webcams and be part of the show. Sure, at the moment most shows get an average of 5 viewers and are basically a conference call with complete strangers, but there are a few pearls out there.
Will this be the next youtube? Maybe if they’ll get a viral piece of content like Lonely Girl 15.

FRANk is this month’s speaker for the Inspired Media session at the Australian Center for the Moving Image, presented by the Portable Film Festival and Adobe. 6-8pm on Wednesday 28th November. We say stuff, take questions, try to provide answers and move into socialising and networking mode in the bar.
You’re most welcome

Cool!

On Friday, October 19, 2007, Philter Group was awarded Outstanding Achievement for excellence in the design, development and implementation of the Frank Media Website. The honor, granted by the Interactive Media Awards, recognizes that the project met and surpassed the standards of excellence that comprise the
web’s most professional work. The judging consisted of various criteria, including design, usability, innovation in technical features, standards compliance and content. In order to win this award level, the site had to meet strict guidelines in each area - an achievement only a fraction of sites in the IMA competition earn each year.

Nice work guys - We salute you!

Every now and then we see, hear or experience something that really makes us stop and think. Often these experiences are chosen to be kept to ourselves, however when I attended a very heartfelt and inspiring charity event early this week, I was so moved and inspired that I see no better way of sharing this with you.

Shoestrings came from the experiences of Emma Gee, who is currently going through rehabilitation post-stroke after being diagnosed with a congenital AVM (arteriovenous malformation).
“(Shoestrings definition of AVM: Em’s brain was like a heap of shoelaces…one just had a knot in it! All the blood pumped into that…instead of flowing through her normal laces…and the pressure of all that blood going into the one knot meant that surgeons had to clamp it to avoid it bursting!)”

The event I attended last week was to raise money for the stroke foundation who is backing shoestrings 100%. Photo’s were displayed of several people’s shoes & feet, and attached to these were their comments on how stroke has affected them, sometime and somehow – whether this be from their own experiences or of those around them. It was amazing to read of some people as young as seven years of age who have suffered from stroke. A silent auction of donated products was also included to raise additional money for this amazing cause.

It wasn’t until Emma Gee spoke so passionately & positively about her experience that really hit the spot. Not a dry eye in the room, but not for sympathy…for admiration. Overcoming challenges, seeing that the glass if half-full and embracing the fact that life is not ruined, just adjusted accordingly.

“like the trillions of ways one can tie their laces, our journeys have been made up of our individual ways of jumping different hurdles and however we learn to tie them we all end up laced-up and shoestring tight! And shoestrings, are the brilliant way of keeping shoes together”

Keep an eye out for Emma’s book – will be on sale at end of this year.

Simon and Andrew from The Portable Film Festival are friends from way back (FRANk was supporting the first PFF) and in the last few months they’ve been trail-blazing into digital media with new initiatives supported by ACMI and AIMIA.
They’re doing so many cool things it’s worth getting their portable informer straight into your inbox (excuse me for the blunt promotion but it’s really good stuff).
This November, as part of The Portable Symposium Series 2007, they bring us the creators of LonelyGirl15. It will be interesting to see if they can duplicate the mass hysteria with their new venture “KateModern” , a series they developed for UK’s leading social network Bebo.

“The Portable Symposium Series 2007″ will present members of creative team behind the world’s most infamous and celebrated online serials lonelyGirl15 and KateModern. Created by Miles Beckett who serves as Co-Creator and Executive Producer, lonelygirl15 and KateModern , lonelyGirl15 received international attention in 2006 when fans discovered that the popular online serial was in fact a well-executed online drama. Bree, the 16-year old girl who presented the cult video blog, was revealed to be a trained and scripted actor cast by the talented team of creative producers. Now in its second season, the show has over 70 million combined views.
KateModern’s Creator and Executive Producer Beckett will be joined by Head Writer Luke Hyams in their presentation. The interactive online serial is the story of a hip, British University student and her group of friends as they endeavor into the types of mysteries, adventures and interactive elements that have made lonelygirl15 an international success with almost 17 million views since its launch this summer. The show is a collaboration with Bebo, which offers an attractive alternative to traditional TV. Learn about the ground-breaking online entertainment trend, as “The Portable Symposium Series” brings these innovative international practitioners to the Australian creative community.

See you there.

FRANk’s core mantra is that advertising is only interesting when it’s relevant, in turn generating advocacy and positive word of mouth.
Well we’re claiming a world first here by advertising on ice cream vans for kidspot targeting predominantly mums with pre- teen children.
With this intent we discovered the Chief Scooper community scoops, courtesy of google, and after a visit to an industrial warehouse in Melbourne’s suburbs we agreed on a couple of panel sizes placed just to the right of the window where all and sundry queue up.
The stickers arrived today and we’ll be up and running on a number of “high-profile” vans by Nov1.
We’ll post some photos of stickers in situ soonest.

One of the privileges of working in communications is being part of the change. The iconic Australian brand of Moonlight cinema is launching moonlight tv with the Becker relationship paying dividends in sourcing the broadband rights to great content.
On demand web TV is at an embryonic stage (think joost & babelgum) and it’s great to be able to help launch this Australian initiative in December.

Katie Chatfield From bellamyhayden was lucky enough to sit at the iMedia Agency Summit, watching Peter Williams, the Chairman of the Deloitte Innovation Council and the CEO of Deloitte Digital. (You can read the original post on their bhlog)
His talk is called “innovation in advertising” but I guess it can be called “innovation in business”.
It is fully packed with a few big (and small) ideas from Deloitte experience and delivers the good stuff in spades.
For example, Peter mentions something called “three horizons” which is a methodology for driving business innovation.
It was first published in a book called: “The Alchemy of Growth: Practical Insights for Building the Enduring Enterprise”, that talks about planning your business based on three “horizons”:
First horizon: what you’re doing now to bring the “bread and butter” – assuming this horizon works well we can now think about horizon two.
Second horizon: what should your next move be? For Deloitte (like many other media/advertising agencies) it was going digital a few years ago. This has definitely paid off.
Horizon number three is more speculative but the most interesting.
What will happen to your organization in the future? Can you try and predict other revenue models based on trends? This is where you explore unfamiliar territories, knowing that even if you fail, you will gain valuable experience and stay at the forefront of innovation.
I’d say this talk is compulsory for anyone with a pulse.
So take an hour off and watch it. It will probably be the best thing you’ve done this week.
Thank you Katie.