LagrangePoint - Brad Howarth

Bracket Boys update

Some time back now I first wrote about Sydney-based creative director Chris Simon's idea for a user-generated content/brand experience based around the concept of a user-generated band - The Bracket Boys. The idea stemmed from Chris outlining a general creative collaborative idea and then attracting consumers to build it out. While the Bracket Boys would not actually exist, they would serve as a central hub for the creative ideas of others, who could make them into whatever they wanted them to be. Whereas the Gorillaz is a virtual band for actual musicians such as Damon Albarn of Blur fame, the Brackets could be a front for anyone who wanted to particiapte.

Since then Chris has been evolving the concept in various directions, including a tie-up with the Malaysian games developer Macera Technology for a mobile phone-based game with a climate change theme (Bracket Gilr's E-Mission), and more recently has teamed up with a DJ, TAMPS (who has worked with The Presets) on a new series of clips, the latest celebrating the accomplishments of US swimmer Michael Phelps.

Chris recently posted a new show-reel of Brackets activities, and tells me that there is a lot more waiting in the wings. Or you can check out the archive of Chris' Brackets related content at his YouTube channel by clicking here.

Sometimes you just need to vent ...

I've come across a couple of interesting sites of late that should appeal to folk in the media and marketing industries. Thanks firstly to Simon de Bruyn over at Inside Film for pointing out Angry Journalist. Yes, this is what some of us really think ...The second was sent to me by Paull Young (whom I was lucky to just catch up with in New York last week - more on that soon) - the Bad Pitch Blog also has a touch of reality to it ...

Story in development – New voices for ethnic media

One of the great benefits of new media formats is they provide additional channels or niche content providers. This is certainly the case for ethnic media, with the internet and other digital channels are providing new distribution models. This trend should only continue as digital radio, IPTV and other online conduits grow in strength.

If anyone out there is aware of any good examples of ethnic media making use of these new channels, please contact me off-list.

SmartCompany - Marketing's video revolution

Have no doubt about it - video is swiftly moving from being a novelty to a mainstay of the internet. The decreasing cost of video production has combined with the increasing penetration of broadband to make the internet a legitimate and rapidly growing delivery channel for the moving image, and it's not just amateurs and cutting-edge professionals that are taking note. The internet has made video a viable marketing medium for a much broader range of companies, and many are now dipping their toes in the water. You can read more in this story at SmartCompany here, then check out some of the emerging providers, such as BizTube.tv, Viocorp, Insomnia and Bullseye.

B&T - How agencies solve the digital puzzle

A good part of the start of this month was spent calling around to a range of marketing agencies to ask the basic question of how they have responded to the challenge of digital marketing. Most so-called 'offline' or 'traditional' agencies clearly pre-date the rise of the internet and interactive marketing, but with so much of total advertising spend moving through this channel, the internet has become something that no agency can ignore (although it can be argued that a few have been trying for a while). While I've made no judgement call as to how well the agencies surveyed in this article are adapting the online challenge, what was impressive was the number of people that are now dedicated to online activity within their ranks. The average complement of digital staff seems to average to around 10 percent of the total workforce - up in most cases from less than 5 percent 12 months ago. Which does beg the question of where are they all coming from.

Unfortunately the text of the article is not up on the website, but you can have a look at the uncorrected draft version here: Download doing_digital_draft.rtf

B&T - New age, but old school

Nicholas Davie was one of the first heads of a major advertising agency that I met when I became marketing editor at BRW some years back. Davie is the head of Publicis Mojo in, and I've always appreciated his passion and openness when discussing an industry that no doubt p***ed him off as much as it invigorated him. In Davie's view, creativity and risk-taking in the industry has been crushed by political correctness and market research, resulting in bland campaigns that bore and at times insult consumers. Hence it was great to have to opportunity to chat to Davie at length for this profile for B&T to get an update on his views. While the story is not up on the website, you can check out this un-subbed draft version here: Download nicholas_davie_edit.rtf

B&T - Wake up, the future's here

A few weeks back I mentioned that I had the pleasure of speaking to Advertising Age columnist and industry maverick Bob Garfield, in anticipation of his gig speaking at the ADMA conference as a guest of the interactive development group HotHouse Interactive. That story made it into the most recent edition of B&T, and while it didn't make it onto the website, I've posted the draft version of the story here: Download bob_garfield_draft.rtf

Bob is very probably one of the most articulate people I have ever spoken to regarding the changes that are (and will continue) sweeping the global marketing industry, as web-driven fragmentation continues to pull apart existing models. It is that thinking that I hope I've captured at least in part in this profile.

B&T - How to make the right call on mobile ads

I've been following the development of Australia's mobile content industry for some time. Unfortunately, there hasn't always been that much to write about. High data rates and restrictive content hosting policies from the telcos have held back the development of services, while advertisers have been reticent to leap into using the mobile phone as a media channel. That means that it's been up to the consumer to pay for content. Unfortunately, it's been a case of consumers mostly being unaware of what they are missing out on.

In other media, such as television and radio, consumers had the chance to get used to the service before advertising ever appeared. Usually the commercial models evolved only after a government subsidised content channel had been established. This isn't the case with mobile phones, where consumers have to get used to the concept of receiving content over their phone at the same time as seeing it subsidised by advertising revenue.

Hence, the development of mobile advertising in Australia has been a slow burn. But there are signs that things are turning around, which was the subject of this feature from B&T. The full story is not up on the web site, but you can check out the un-subbed draft version here: Download mobile_ad_draft.rtf

.

Chaos 2.0

Had a brilliant discussion yesterday with Bob Garfield. Bob is better known for his columns that critique television advertising for the US-based publication Advertising Age, But he shot to prominence a couple of years ago when he published a column on what he describes as his media Chaos Theory. You can read the whole thing here. Bob was one of the first to realise just how far new media technologies could shake up existing scenarios. His column is a fascinating read, and in no way suffers for being two years old - a rare achievement in these fast-moving times. Anyway, Bob is coming to Australia this month as a guest of HotHouse to speak at the ADMA conference, and I hope to include segments from the conversation into a feature in B&T some time before then.

Search Engine Room 2007

Anyone interested in updating their knowledge on search engine marketing may want to get along to Search Engine Room, to be held in Sydney on March 20-21. Organiser Martin Kelly has just posted the program for the two day event, covering a wide range of topics in the search realm. So why am I plugging this and not any of the million other marketing-meets-the internet events that are coming up? Well, I also happen to be moderating this one. That being said, I am also hoping to use this blog to point out a few of the more interesting events that are coming up in 007.