Christmas parties, loyalty and a legend passes

We had our Christmas party a couple of days ago, which was great! We were running late, got stuck down a country road and lost a number of times, but overall a really fun night. Here are some pictures from the night: 

Loyalty tested

This campaign from Burger King, Norway is unusual, but really effective. They had an impressive number of followers on Facebook, but questioned how many were loyal customers. So, BK gave their followers a dilemma. Like the new Burger King Facebook page, or sign up for a free Big Mac. This allowed them to sift through the so called 'fake fans' to find the true loyal ones. Burger King Norway now have 8,000 dedicated fans, and for the sell outs, a goodbye letter banning them from the Facebook page for eternity. Genius!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGJzkwu7bik

A year on Twitter

This video has compiled statistics from Twitter during the past year, and displays them in a really powerful way. We all know the power of social media and how it is now part of our digital savvy lives, but some of the posts and figures shown are really fascinating. For example, a photo of Typhoon Haiyan was shared 230 miles away from Earth, from a spacecraft! Another amazing statistic is that 500 million tweets are sent everyday. Check this video out to be amazed:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcUHZb-E8Zs

Mandela

Last week, Nelson Mandela passed away. This has been a story that has captured the world, with constant news updates. The economist has released an incredibly moving advert, showing people making a collage, which at the end of the ad is revealed to be Mandela. A very simple idea, but extremely powerful.
http://www.campaignlive.co.uk/thework/1224249/the-economist-mandelas-walk-abbott-mead-vickers-bbdo/

Purple Christmas

This is a great idea from WestJet to brighten up Christmas for their passengers. An interactive screen was placed in the departure lounge and, what looked like a pre-recording message at first glance, turned into a real person to converse with, that even knew peoples names! It looked like everyone loved it, especially the tired travelling children! 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=zIEIvi2MuEk

The Christmas festivities start now!

This week we celebrated with our work Christmas party and although the festive songs in the office are driving me insane already, it's nice to get into the Christmas spirit. The venue was beautiful, the food was delicious and the proceedings were very entertaining. Everybody donned their glad rags and danced the night away, although there were a few sore heads on the office the next day!

The year of the selfie

This year has been the year of the selfie, and it looks like marketers are jumping on the bandwagon. This advert for Turkish Airlines shows sporting stars Kobe Bryant and Lionel Messi raging a selfie war with each other and trying to win with the best selfie. Kobe even goes as far as to take a snap next to a lion! (superimposed, of course). Take a look here:
http://www.thedrum.com/news/2013/12/04/turkish-airlines-unveils-ad-featuring-kobe-bryant-and-lionel-messi-selfie

Heston Wonka's Chocolate Factory

As a marketer, I love campaigns that really believe in a concept, and this is why I like this one. Waitrose has hidden Willy Wonka themed tickets in their Heston Blumenthal bars and the lucky winners get to spend the day with the chef. I love this idea, as it is such an iconic part of the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory story. 
http://www.marketingmagazine.co.uk/article/1223755/waitrose-hides-willy-wonka-style-tickets-heston-blumenthal-chocolates

Asos beats Amazon and John Lewis in Pinterest Christmas battle

I love Pinterest and I am a frequent user, so I'm glad that Asos has won the battle on Pinterest for the most
shared content. This isn't hard to believe, seeing as the platform has a huge fashion outreach. Here is the leader board of the top 10 retailers shared on Pinterest, although I am surprised that B&Q is on the list!

Retailer	Average pins per week	Total pins	Pinterest Followers
Asos	1,728	160,958	48,043
Amazon	1,233	90,375	81
John Lewis	791	88,858	3,937
New Look	602	48,188	5,447
Next	525	41,452	6,406
Debenhams	333	89,577	2,632
Marks and Spencer	267	16,063	8,909
Argos	256	10,481	1,628
Tesco	206	7,931	2,187
B&Q	4	782	2,233

http://www.marketingmagazine.co.uk/article/1223703/asos-beats-amazon-john-lewis-pinterest-christmas-battle

Bloody Santa's 

This campaign is great! To support blood donation, Santa's were lined up outside a blood donor centre, whilst
white suited Santa's emerged, drawing a parallel to giving blood. This uses the idea of Christmas to draw attention but for a good cause.  
http://www.thedrum.com/news/2013/12/05/santa-s-red-suits-turn-white-following-blood-donation-new-campaign

Top 10 viral videos

Watching these videos really made me laugh and gave me a great start to the day. My favourite is definitely the baby wrestling - The baby has the most adorable fluffy duck hair! http://metro.co.uk/2013/11/29/top-10-viral-videos-of-the-week-wrecking-ball-chatroulette-to-i-am-spartacus-at-starbucks-4207740/

Marketing ourselves and our business

Top 10 Marketing Moments (Courtesy of Marketing Magazine)

Marketing Magazine, a great resource for marketers has listed their top 10 marketing moments on 2013. The short-list is as follows:

Netflix turns heads with House of Cards release

The return of AG Lafley

Death of the mobile brand

Andy Murray's Wimbledon victory

Coke gets personal

BT vs Sky

Tesco quits US as profits fall for first time in decades

Facebook and Twitter square up to sexism

Royal-baby mania

The Oreo Super Bowl tweet

The stand out one for me in Coca-Cola's personalised bottles. A lover of all things with a personal touch, I really enjoyed this marketing/PR stunt and as I have a fairly uncommon name, I could never find mine, which made me search twice as hard! It was amusing to go into supermarkets and finding the shelves in a huge mess as someone has had to choose the bottle at the back because it had their name on! A way to tell more bottles? Without a doubt!

Tips from the top

Another really interesting feature in the magazine is some top tips for building your career in business. These are as follows:

Be yourself

Be brave

Plan your ambition

Build relationships

Take positive action

Never stop learning

Personal resilience

This is great advice and we should always take these into consideration when it comes to work. Being proactive and positive will go a long way and teamed with the ambition to learn, you will go far!

empty13

On Tuesday, Bite held their third empty13 event at the IAB in London. It was my first event with the company and we did a lot of preparation for the day. It was all hands on deck, but we had a fantastic show of unity from Biters and the event was a great success. We had speakers from the Guardian, Telefonica Digital, Facebook and Mondelez, as well as a BAFTA award-winning playwright. Each one ran through their views on content and how brands and people can learn about bettering their content delivery. Tony Marchant was a stand out speaker. He showed us scenes from two of his TV dramas - The Mark of Cain and Garrow's Law. Each one aimed to show us the importance of character development and how "an audience needs to stay with you to go beyond the headline". He really had an effect on the audience and many commented on his talk being an eye opener. 

As it was my first event with Bite, I am extremely proud of the morning. Take a look at our website and Twitter feed for more information.

We have our Point of View that is being launched soon- To find out more, use the hashtag #stopthecontentpollution

Monkeys in space

I've almost been at Bite two months now, and this week has been all about event planning. We have an empty13 event next week, focussing on content. The preparation has slightly stressed me out, but I am looking forward to the day and seeing everything come together

The evolution of 3D printing

This weekend, I went to the Science Museum. I am quite fascinated with space, so their exhibition on planets, astronauts and the moon was my favourite part. We watched a simulation video of the Moon landing in a 4D cinema, so as well as wearing the glasses, there were effects on our chairs and bubbles blown into the air. There were a lot of children in the screening, so I guess it's more aimed at the younger generation, but I really enjoyed it!

There was also a wall of things made by 3D printing, and this phenomenon was unknown to me before i joined Bite, now the concept amazes me. Have a look at this article from Marketing Magazine all about the new crazes impact on Marketing
http://www.marketingmagazine.co.uk/article/1221964/does-evolution-3d-printing-mean-marketing

Animals!

On Thursday evening, I watched a programme on BBC called Animal Odd Couples. It was about different species of animals striking up unlikely friendships. It was so heart-warming and very funny. Two pairings that really struck me were a Great Dane and a Dear. The dog, having no litter of her own, took on the baby fawn and brought it up for six months, before it fled into the wild. However every year, the dear comes back to the garden where the dog lives, gives birth to it's fawns and plays and cuddles up to her doggy friend. It was amazing to see them playing with each other, and showing genuine affection. 

The other unusual friendship came in the form of an orang-outang and a dog. This part of the programme explored the unusual idea of animals having pets. The orang-outang fed the dog biscuits, and swam with her. It was just mind-boggling! This shows an amazing bond that animals have, and going against nature shows that there are exceptions to the rule. 
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b03jp47m/Animal_Odd_Couples_Episode_1/

Autumn finds winter

Remembrance 

On my way home on Sunday, I took a photo of a huge poppy at Kings Cross Station. The poppy is a big part of our heritage and a symbol that everyone recognises. I think that it was great to see this and shows that we will always remember those who have lost their lives in battle. 

Eerie tube time

James Cooke of The Kernal reviewed his experience of a tour around the abandoned Aldwych tube station. Some of the pictures were great as you really catch a glimpse of forgotten history, although there were a lot of tourists in the pictures, so you couldn't completely feel the sense of abandonment! It has been used in films such as Atonement, as well as the entrance to the station being hired out for parties and photo shoots. I love the fact that this eerie space has been left and forgotten, although the rest of the tube network is always brimming with people and noise. Although James felt the tour wasn't hugely insightful (he got most of his information from Google), it was interesting to see his little chunk of old London deep below our bustling streets. 

Read the full article here http://www.kernelmag.com/features/report/6737/we-went-to-a-haunted-tube-station/#

It's raining Cadburys

This is a new advert for the 'unwrap joy' campaign by Cadbury. Made by Fallon, that ad sees children unwrapping their houses and playing in the purple haze, and it looking like it is raining purple wrapping paper. Fun, on brand and just in time for Christmas 

http://www.campaignlive.co.uk/news/1220424/Cadbury-joins-Christmas-fray/?DCMP=ILC-SEARCH

The Christmas advert clash begins!

The Christmas adverts are back! Every year we anticipate (or not) these brilliant ads and each year the competition gets tougher. Here are some of the best I've seen this week

John Lewis

This video has a Winnie-the-Pooh vibe and will really attract the pester power of children. It's warming, cute and has a lovely story behind it. It's also different to their previous Christmas ads which is really refreshing.

Tesco

This ad has nostalgia written all over it. It takes the family aspect of Christmas, which resonates with us all and really gives a personal feel. 

Morrisons

This Christmas ad uses celebrity endorsement from household names Ant and Dec and although it is cheesy, it gets you into the Christmas spirit.

Having said that, Sainsbury's tops them all! The campaign, entitled ‘Christmas in a day’ is an hour length feature film for You-Tube, made up of home videos from over the Christmas period. Made my AMV and directed by Oscar award winning director Kevin MacDonald, the video uses 360 hours of footage sent in by Sainsbury’s consumers and the result is an amazing piece of film. The video has been shortened to a three minute feature for TV.

The video contains no product advertising, but aims to grab the viewer’s attention by showing that Sainsbury’s understands Christmas better than anyone else. It’s full of funny and quirky things that most can associate with at Christmas time, as well as some really emotional bits (I cried twice!). It’s a fantastic way of connecting with the audience by pulling on their heartstrings, and is incredibly engaging.

Storms and pumpkins

This week saw strong winds, rainy scenes and a busy office! I'm glad that everyone got in the Halloween spirit, and I now have a week off to unwind!

Subjective symbols

This story caught my eye over the weekend. There has been a backlash over a Swastika-style logo that features on the Manchester United club email. At first I didn't see the problem, but looking closer, you can see why there has been complaints over it. When you are managing a brand and its marketing, it is vital that you see things from every angle, and understand that one person may think something is inoffensive, but it could be a different case in someone else's eyes. Overall this is an example of  how you must think of everything!

The great storm!

Monday saw a huge storm sweep across the south of the UK and Wales, causing havoc in its wake. It came to Sunday and I really thought that it was just an excuse for the news stations to overreact, but seeing train services completely cancelling their morning services, it made me think that it could be a little more serious. I woke up to a mass of leaves and branches everywhere, and part of our fence knocked down, but nothing major. It took some extra time to get to work but all was OK. It did make me think about how news stations portray nature events such as this, as our British nature is to overreact! However I guess this time it was justified!

I love when brands do this!
A Belgian ad agency thought up this amazingly clever idea for Pepsi, to dress it up in a coke costume! They have acknowledged their competition, and made this cheeky ad. Brilliant!
http://designtaxi.com/news/361884/In-Its-Halloween-Ad-Pepsi-Dresses-Up-As-Coca-Cola/#!





Bite does Halloween!

We had a really fun day on Thursday. It began with decorating the office, then pumpkin carving! Although I had never done tried it before, it was really fun! Here are some of the pumpkins and the winning entry, Kiss!

Students, baking and tech!

Back to student life

This week, I went down to the Bournemouth University Careers Fair. Bite has a stand, that we filled with red sweets with a Bite theme (teeth and lips to be precise!) and a canvas that we got the students to cover with their Twitter handles. From there we tweeted them a link to an info pack all about us and our services. The idea went down really well and we a few of the students really stood out. Overall a really successful day and it was great to go back to a university environment but being on the other side of the careers table! 

Bake Off has finished!

The Great British Bake Off came to an end on Tuesday night. What will I do with my evenings from now on? I loved it, even though I can't bake myself, I got so involved with it and watch religiously every week. Towards the end I was rooting for Kimberley,but it was Frances who 'took the biscuit' =/. I've heard that more men watched last weeks episode than the football, so it just shows you how people get obsessed with it!

iPad Air

This week, Apple showed the world the brand new iPad Air. I love it. It is only a pound in weight, and looks really attractive. I have been looking for an iPad for ages, so I am glad that this one has just come out. Check out this promotional video from Apple:

Strange animals

So it's now coming up to a month at Bite and I can safely say I've settled in. This week has been busy with more tasks to do, but I'm keen to get stuck in with as much as possible. Apart from the horrendous rain this week which has put a dampener on things (literally) it's finally getting colder and I can see winter coming. Yay!

What is your secure question?

I love this video from Google Analytics. We've all had that chore of online shopping- The constant security questions like 'what's your cat's maiden name?' Ermmmmmm- what? By showing  the virtual experience in real time, it is a real winner.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Sk7cOqB9Dk

Facebook

I absolutely love infographics, and I especially like this one. Originally posted by The Drum, is put all those pet peevs of Facebook into a number system but in my opinion, all annoying as each other. Everyone has been bothered by the candy crusher, everyone has been bored to death with other peoples babies, and the loved-up couple speaks for itself!  

Furby Boom

I have adopted the office Furby- Gary. I used to love Furbies when I was younger, and i'm so glad they are back! They are a lot more up to date tech-wise than the old ones, as they have a corresponding app, which I am keen to try out. Here he is sleeping (thank goodness, he makes quite a racket when he is awake!)

 

So long, Longleat!

I found this video on Mashable on Friday, and was completely fascinated with it. I wondered how long it would be before we scrapped the idea of caging animals and replacing them with robots, and it's now happened in France. These tentacles interact with humans as animals would, it looks amazing! The robotic petting zoo, I support you!

http://mashable.com/2013/10/17/robotic-petting-zoo/