Riots quickly had a counter effort from like minded artists and bloggers alike

Its no surprise that the recent riots have produced a wave of fury from the law abiding public, luckily some artists have reacted to counter their destruction and remind Londoners that there are plenty of nice people knocking about too. We saw the below gold post box pop up this week, its pretty god dam fantastic and carries the message of 'Be nicer to other Londoners'.

Aside from this scrumpious little example of guerilla smart city dressing there is an array of other examples to be found on the streets. Here are just a few...

Aside from that the bloggers and tweeters out there have been making themselves very useful. Especially a guy called Leon Piers who took to his bike in Bristol with his mates and posted accurate tweets about the riots. In doing so he helped restore order and calm in the community whilst helping police and other emergency services keep track of the goings on. Check the story here.

We look forward to seeing more nice guys to counter any more destruction!

Rambings of Machines of Love and Grace

So Adam Curtis chose to title his recent two BBC documentaries 'Machines of Loving Grace' not a surprise of course, computers are having a bigger effect on the world than the birth of the wheel!

I am a massive fan of Adam Curtis and his documentaries didn’t disappoint, although some may say that his theme was rather stretched at times anyway that’s another story.

Back to the point, Machines of Loving Grace seems a perfect name when put into context of Neda Iran. Last year we reported our heartfelt sense of dismay at her death, she was shot at a protest orchestrated and perpetuated by social media. Of course without the ‘machines’ and their networks there is little chance we would have known. Adam Curtis views twitter as a  "self aggrandising, smug pressure group" I think from a social perspective he may be right. However, we cannot deny its role in both the documentation and creation of uprisings across the world.

Is it a good thing? There is a philosophy that once information becomes so freely available, flowing through the world like the blood in the veins of an animal it (the world) becomes a self-regulating system, living breathing and not exhausting itself. This is because everyone and everything becomes more equal, nobody can hide their wealth or their atrocities, someone will always be there to documents them and show the world.

The people who are against such a free flowing system are the people who stand on the same side of the fence as the Chinese government and people against Julian Assange.

Anyway back to the reason I chose to write about the worild of social media, I found this article about a suitcase being developed by the US government that allows its holder to set up a temporary network to access the web in countries at war. Its aim is to allow its user to record and upload footage to social media platforms. Many countries have shut down their networks in times of unrest to stop rogue guerrilla reporters getting their story out, this will allow teams of people on the ground to continue to communicate any atrocity in real time.

 

Of course it also has a more sinister side in that it could be used to create phony anti government propaganda on social media platforms, which in-turn lead to uprisings and unrest through gatherings. This is of course something the USA has already been accused of.

All the same interesting to say how the 'Machines' are becoming the root of both good and evil in the world, how it all plays out remains to be seen. Until then I will keep the twitter alive and kicking, it is very good for our business you see.

 Thanks for reading my ramblings.

 Take a look at the below video of social media in our times, its not half bad.

Nice little video on trends, trend setters and influencers

INFLUENCERS TRAILER from R+I creative on Vimeo.

Guerrilla sticker bites back!

I have managed to reject and abstain from joining the i-phone fellowship for some time. Firstly as I loved my old white Erikson flip phone but also I have been turned to stone from people twittering on about how it is a must have for our industry, boring! However I was immediately tempted by the bigger, brighter, superdupar i-pad. Using the internet on my commute is fun and easy, this got me thinking (somewhat belatedly) that the often forgot about guerrilla sticker is worth a re-think.

The guerrilla sticker has humble roots as a quick and inexpensive way for a company to shout about its offering. Adopted generally by the likes of up and coming artists, growing companies and the chav who love just love to get their ‘tag’ out there! Stickers have been dwelling within The Undergound for years.

Why are they due a re-think? Well the problem with guerrilla stickers is that they must be small to ensure they do not get picked up by cleaners, this also has the somewhat unfortunate consequence of not leaving a lasting impression and leaving little space to explain your offering. Well, as I have discovered with mobile internet now being truly mobile nothing is to stop the i-phone/i-pad user checking your website as soon as they spot your sticker. This Solves two problems, the viewer does not need to remember a small sticker when they get home and by checking out the site straight away the explanation of your offering is easily accessed. So altergother a much more relevent medium.

All that is needed is a call to action. ‘If you have read this and it is 6pm take a picture of Big Ben as you go past, send it to us and recieve a whopping 20% discount’

Inexpensive guerrilla stickers may just be back in!

A couple of fun ones below for you to enjoy...

Createlondon On Tour - Dive School - Case Study

Createlondon worked alongside Island Dive Club Ko Tao in raising its profile and customer base in this extremely competitive environment.

Tourism is a key part of the Thai economy accounting for a whole 6% of GDP. With such a large market, tourist focused advertising at both a local and national level is very competitive, however largely dated in its approach. For many businesses their belief is that the more banners and flyers they put out the more customers they will receive. This may be true to an extent, however a more organized approach (Marketing Plan!) along with some solid theory and discipline can make a world of difference.

Ko Tao is a saturated market. However it does constantly have a high footfall of travelers who stay for 3/4 days and move on. The key is to get these customers to stay/sign up with you before anyone else.

Firstly we looked at the decision factors:

-Friends recommendation

-Random (look and feel of place/sold to face to face)

Building on word of mouth recommendation we decided to create a peer to peer marketing platform. Simply, the Island Dive School would pass on discount cards to customers they thought would bring them business. Decision factors of who to pass the card onto are:

-Sociable/socialites

-Traveling for at least another month

-Customers who had a great time and we could see would be telling their stories

-Customers from high disposable income groups

Alongside this the key was high quality (plastic) cards with a discount which was worth something (up to 5 customers 10% off). This was coupled with a Facebook group, twitter and blog (details on card) which enabled customers to keep in touch with what was going on back at the club. Secondary, the card was passed over at the right time in the right way with a string bracelet as a present. This gave the card much more intrinsic value and therefore increased the likelihood of it being saved and passed on.

In a nutshell, this plan ensures each customer that gets a card will go on to tell a new group of friends about their diving adventure as they continue their travels. In doing so they will pass over the card, the card will allow prospective customers to look into the club via Twitter, Facebook and Blog before they arrive. In doing so making their decision to dive at The Island Dive Club as opposed to anywhere else.

Createlondon on tour - Peer to Peer Marketing Asia

Elephant Village - Laos

An exciting project for createlondon arose recently for an Elephant Sanctuary in Laos.

Background: Elephant Village rescues logging elephants from Laos and Thailand. Logging elephants are generally badly treated, malnutritioned and have to work very long hours. One elephant rescued at this village was fed MDMA (ecstasy) to make her work harder.

Elephants are extremely costly to keep eating 200kg a day and generally have to be leased from logging camps (forever) as the camps will not give them up, this raises the cost further.

createlondon were recruited as rainy season begins in 2 months time and this sees a huge percent of their market dwindle, producing hard times for the elephants and surrounding villages/communities that it helps to support.

Brief:

Our brief was to find a way to attract more customers in this season to keep the cash flow steady.

Background/Research:

This was new turf for createlondon, things move very slowly in Laos and the simplest of tasks from laminating 3 pieces of paper to setting up a new communication structure from the camp to head office can take weeks.

As Laos thrives off tourism, it is cluttered and over-populated with above the line advertisements. The key was to cut through this clutter.

Result:

createlondon produced a peer to peer marketing platform which utilised discounts and other perks in the form of high quality discount cards that can only be passed on from one traveler to the next. This worked alongside an updated website and the development of Twitter, facebook and blog mediums. These mediums also opened doors to other Elephant organisations, allowing knowledge to be shared and reviews such as from the 'Guardian' to be published and linked to.

The struggle was training Loas guides in the process and the use of social media with the language barrier being an obvious hinderence.

Elephant Village has already begun to see a return on their investment with cards bringing new guests to camp this week.

Please click here for an insight

CREATELONDON - BRAND DEVELOPMENT

Brand Development - Stress Management Class (01/10/09)

-Brand development
-Brand Identity/ethos
-Collateral
-Website design
-Business streamlining

Brief: To create a brand identity for a contemporary stress management business developed by a leading practitioner from 'The Priory' clinic London.

The key points during development were to produce an identity which reached ABC1 demographics on a mutual level whilst remaining smart and sophisticated. Aesthetically, it was important from the beginning not to head down the conventional route of similar organizations with the use of curvaceous fonts, water, stones, Buddhas etc....

As this organization is cutting edge in its contrasting use of old and contemporary stress management techniques, it was also important to communicate this throughout its identity and to set it apart from more conventional classes.

It was decided that Flash and dreamweaver were not necessary to develop the site. Clean, simple and easy to navigate were the priorities.


Finally it was highly important that the brand and associated imagery gave off a feeling of calm.

Please feel free to check the website for an insight.