A creative video for a great cause

I was sent this link this morning. It is an entry for the Young Lions YouTube Ad contest and I think it's so good you should see it too. The creator is a young, budding copywriter, Gavin Chimes from Sydney.

The brief:

In 48 hours create an ad for a charity. The charity is WaterAid - an organisation committed to providing clean water and sanitation for impoverished people around the world. And the way the competition works is like this: Quite simply the ad that receives the most views - wins.

I am a big advocate for supporting the new generation of young marketers and advertisers and I think this is a great effort by Gavin. Creativity needs to be recognised, nurtured and encouraged and thus competitions like this need to be supported by us - the marketing community.

Have a look and if you think it's worth it pass it on!

Women rule in social media

A colleague recently passed this (thanks Pinky) interesting article on by Brian Solis which shines an interesting spotlight on who is using social media.

Whilst YouTube and LinkedIn remain neutral in terms of an equal percentage of men and women using the site every month, other sites have a greater concentration of women plugging away every month.

Below is the % of each platform's population that females account for:

Facebook - 57%
Flickr - 55%
MySpace - 64%
Ning - 59%
Twitter - 57%

It is interesting to note that the sites above are all 'social networking sites' rather than professional networking and content viewing / uploading sites. I think it is this point that may shed some light on WHY more women use these sites. And this is where I might start to feel the wrath of the female population. Eh, I'm ready for it... Come and get me ladies!

So why is it that women are on social networks more than men? This is why..

1 - Women generally enjoy gossip more than men and therefore like to read what other people are doing on their week ends and who they are hanging out with.
2 - Women love to share their feelings and stuff. So they are naturally drawn to mediums that allow them to do this.
3 - Women get more jealous than men so naturally they want to see what their competition is up to
4 - As a result of this jealousy women always need to be on the look out for new friends!
5 - And most of all - there is no porn on these sites. Game, Set, Match.

Anyone else have any other thoughts?

Bloggers in the Marketing Mix

I was lucky enough to be asked to write a post for www.marketingmag.com.au.

Check it out..

http://marketingmag.com.au/blogs/view/bloggers-in-the-marketing-mix-2069

H&M Flash Mob

I've written before about what makes a successful flash mob from a marketing perspective and what does not.

And the latest stunt from H&M Kids has definitely ticked the boxes.

Clear signage at the beginning of the clip and a billboard at the clip gives the vid great branding. And whilst a dancing flash mob is nothing new to us I reckon there may be some great cut through with those mothers (who buy their kids clothes)who may not be as savvy to a flash mob as you or I.

Check it (Thanks Mashable)

Yeh Yeh Im iOver-Connected -

Yeh I work in Social media. And yeh that requires a computer and yeh that means I need to keep on top of things that are constantly evolving. So yeh I am connected to an internet source for much of my waking hours.

Yeh friends, I am on my laptop at home in front of the TV watching The Footy Show. And yeh boys, I do check my iPhone every half an hour to see if I have any new emails. And yeh I also use my iPhone for great new applications that help me sleep, get a daily dose of information and waste spare time. Sure I check Facebook often and you're not wrong, I check tweet deck a shitload.

But boys and girls I am not alone as The Courier Mail reported this month.

- the average Australian internet user invests more than two working days on the net every week.

- internet use jumped nine per cent from last year, or an extra 90 minutes each week, and the average Australian internet user now spends 17.6 hours online every week

- Men spent more time online than women, by an average of 3.1 hours, and those aged between 16 and 29 were the biggest internet users at 22 hours per week.

If none of you punks think you have added to this trend then I suggest you better stop reading this on your iPhone and ponder. Yeh Yeh I'm iOver-Connected but I reckon you kids may be heading that way too :)

The New Dork

This is a great new video from The Pantless Knights - A great tribute to "The New Dorks" - The Zukerbergs, Larry Pages and Sergy Brins of today's world. The boys who are young enough to still have great grandparents and who have changed the landscape in which we communicate and find information.

Is anyone else getting flashbacks to Revenge of The Nerds!

Happy 6th Birthday Facebook!

According to its info page, yesterday, on 4 Feb , Facebook celebrated its 6th birthday.

In what can only be described as one of the most revolutionary social movements in history Facebook has changed the way people young and old communicate.

On its info page it states that its mission is "to give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected, the stats below." And if the stats below (kindly without knowing it provided by Social Networker Dec 2009 and Nielsen March 2009 - thanks guys) are any indication I have a hunch that Mr Zuckerberg and co might just be on their way. Just..

- Over350,000 monthly users worldwide
- 10 billion minutes spent on the site every day
- 1.4 million photos uploaded to Facebook every second (more than 2.5 billion per month)
- More than 700,000 local business have actve pages on Facebook
- Pages have created more than 5.3 billion fans
- More than 35 million users update their statuses every day
- More than 3.5 billion pieces of content (web links, news, stories, blog posts, notes, photo albums shared each week)
-More than 250 applications have more than one million monthly active users
- In Australia, social networkers spent an average of nearly three hours per month on Facebook, which is up two hours from the previous year (Nielsen Mar 2009)

So happy birthday big boy! You are such a good friend that I don't know what I'd do without you (I actually mean that, it's sad..)!