Dave goes to Sweden - foul mouthed reasons to visit Skane

Visit Sweden have reacted to the phenomenon of the British recession 'Staycation' by highlighting the proximity and relative benefits of going to Southern Sweden.

They've created a series of virals, all housed on the Visit Sweden website and the Visit Sweden You Tube Channel, featuring a typical Brit called Dave and his foul-mouthed reaction to the wonders of Skane. The idea is Dave is your classic obnoxious British holidaymaker, and you can avoid him by shunning Cornwall for Sweden.

But the campaign doesn't stop at the creative - it's all really well joined up using all your Social Media friends.

There's a Facebook page, showing Dave's a fan of West Ham and Andy McNab.



There's a Twitter profile, @DavegoestoSkane, which reveals he's Dave Smith, a taxi driver from Hackney (I think I know him), and rants about being in Sweden. It's funny, and he's engaging people as well. This is also the first example I've seen where Twitpic is being used to good effect as well. Brilliant.



There's even a Flickr page, which photos of Sweden featuring Dave, like the one below:



The ads themselves are pretty varied and pretty funny.

There's a video of Stenshuvud beach:



The Swedish countryside, in which Dave gives his opinion on the beguiling ancient stones at Ales Stenar:



An appreciation of the lines between Art and Architecture:



And finally Malmo, a captivating city of contrasts:

#NCFC - The Biggest Football Club on Twitter?

As I'm sure you know by now if you read this site site regularly, I support Norwich City. I keep it quiet at the moment given their relegation and the subsequent 7-1 home defeat by the might of Colchester United that signalled our arrival in Coca Cola League One.

However I have been delighted by the power of Twitter in uniting fans of the club. Led by Stephen Fry, a Canary himself, Norwich fans the world over have popped up, with 289 fans adding a 'Twibbon' to show their support for the club. Ipswich Town, to give you some context, have 11 Twibbon-declared fans, while of the 'big four', Manchester United and Chelsea currently have fewer fans thans little old Norwich.



Norwich also yesterday achieved something else pretty special in Twitter terms. Having sacked club legend Bryan Gunn in the wake of the opeing day humiliation, they appointed the very manager who inflicted that defeat, Colchester's Paul Lambert.

The news broke at a press conference, but the journalists present were straight on Twitter, as were Sky Sports News viewers. This ties in with the fact that I'm finding Twitter a more reliable and quicker source of up-to-date sports news from regular folk than any mobile applications - and I'm an iPhone owner.

Within minutes the news spread, discussion began and hopes were raised. And Paul Lambert became a top ten trending topic on Twitter. Yes, Norwich City's new manager was, at around 10:30 yesterday morning, one of the ten most discussed things on Twitter, ahead of Glasgow and behind New Moon and District 9.



Admittedly this time of day is pretty much owned by the UK in Twitter terms, but still. I was helpfully sent a Twitpic documenting the momentous occasion, surely never to be repeated. Thankfully our opening day humiliation was kept off the trending topics by England's Ashes capitulation on the same weekend.

Dudeism is a religion - Volkswagen See Films Differently Virals

I'm not alone in being a big fan of the cult Coen Brothers movie The Big Lebowski and its main character played by Jeff Bridges, The Dude.

Now Volkswagen are continuing their support of Independent Cinema with a new batch of idents in their Volkswagen - See Films Differently series.

The idents are backed up by several months of activity documented on a Guardian microsite, which includes news of film events and includes the rather excellent Film Map.

The Dudeism ident, which shows an individual who claims to have turned the ways of The Dude into a religion, and two others which follow relating to Willy Wonka and Rocky are the brainchild of DDB.



This young chap found inspiration for his magic from Willy Wonka:



And this big guy got a lot out of Rocky:



I had a look for more in the series and discovered an altogether more tongue-in-cheek set of Volkswagen film virals from 2007 which don't appear to have been given the audience they deserve. Some of them are very funny and they all relate to off-the-wall interpretations of popular films. I'll post them all individually during the week, just because.

Strangely Volkswagen don't appear to have put the videos online themselves, they're on Creative Review's Channel. Similarly the 2007 virals are on two different channels, both of which only feature this content, but neither of which appear to be official. There are numerous Volkswagen You Tube channels and one dedicated to the See Films Differently campaign and branded as such would show a considered commitment.

Calvin Harris goes heavy on Social Media

Calvin Harris hit upon a potential You Tube smash yesterday when he created a 'Humanthesizer' to promote his new single, Ready for the Weekend. He followed up his Social Media smash with an expletive-laden rant on Twitter about a poor review from the Guardian's Alexis Petridis.

The 'Humanthesizer' used gratuitously sexy models and technology devised by what the tabloids would call 'boffins' to create a human synthesizer - a top idea.



There's also a 'Making of' video, which has been less popular but is worth a look.



However Calvin, or @calvinharris has gone a bit Lily Allen (rule 1 of 2009 reporting - mention Lily Allen in every context possible) and had a massive rant across a number of tweets this morning about Petridis' Guardian review, which he sees as unfair.



I salute his honesty, and this is the sort of thing guaranteed to be picked up by the papers, probably The Guardian itself, as symbolic of the self-indulgence of celebrities on Twitter.

However, this is the sort of episode, along with the numerous sportsmen faux-pas in the last couple of weeks, which I will go into further in another post, which will see the use of Twitter by celebrities on the wane. I firmly believe Twitter will revert to being used predominantly by those that found it geuninely useful in the first place, and that the mainstream media's constant search for the 'point' of Twitter will not be found in reporting what the likes of Calvin Harris and Bianca Gascoigne have to say on it. It may continue to be used by the likes of the News of the World as an 'overheard' gossip source (as was the case with Lily Allen fancying Andrew Flintoff - she has over a million followers - they all heard it!), but indulgence will only go on as far as it is useful or at the very least entertaining.

If, in the meantime, Harris manages to get more buzz around his single, fair enough, but he is actually creating more buzz around a bad review for his single, which is foolish at best. He seems to be a bit more contrite about it now, however:

Social Media Addicts Association by Sony Vaio - Stop writing on my wall!

A great way to get Social Media types to talk about and share something is to lampoon their own ways, so they can share it and be all postmodern and ironic. I say they, I should say we.

This idea from Sony Vaio is a great one, even more so because they've followed it through.



It is based around the Social Media Addicts Association You Tube Channel, which houses a number of videos, and the website www.stopwritingonmywall.com . Here's the mission statement.

Just say no to social media!

Are you one of the millions of people whose lives have been ruined by a never-ending torrent of tweets, friend requests and ‘Which kind of pasta are you?' quizzes? Then it's time you joined the Social Media Addicts Association.

SMAA is run by reformed social media addicts who all had the courage to stand up and admit to their problem. Will you stop poking people you haven't seen since college, and join us?

And the petition you can sign:



You can even, and this where I get excited, buy a range of t-shirts. I like this one:



On the You Tube Channel, there's an appeal from Jerry, the founder:



An appeal from Frank, a Social Media Addict:



I have also found Frank, I think, on Twitter as @frankSMAA. I'm his first non-spam follower.



There's also Gemma:



And this goon:



These are in the Confessions section, which encourages you to upload your own confession. I can't wait to see some of those. A great idea again.

The whole Sony Vaio thing is very subtly pushed. There's an ad on the site promoting the use of the Vaio for Social Media, and it is the laptop used in the main ad for covert use of Social Media.



The whole thing is very slick, and hopefully this is just the start. Having all the characters on Twitter makes sense, a Facebook group would be a great idea (I can't find one) and, if they could get away with it, profiles of the characters on Facebook (I suspect Facebook would take these down if alerted to them), and a whole joined-up approach for the addicts with things like Blogs and maybe even Linked In profiles, particularly for Frank, who seems to be the star. The only issue is that Frank is also the anti-drugs campaign, 'Talk to Frank', which could get confusing.

I don't know who's responsible for the campaign but, so far, well done them.

UPDATE: The agency responsible is Nascom in Belgium, and the campaign is produced by Caviar Brussels, and directed by Frank Devos, which would explain why the guy is called Frank!

District 9 QR Codes - Snap 'em quick!

I saw this on PSFK and have mixed feelings about it. It's a great piece of Guerilla advertising for upcoming Sci-Fi film District 9, and it features a QR Code, which is generally 'a good thing' if it leads to good and useful content (this is unconfirmed). However there are two concerns:



1) You are, as SFK's Francisco Hui points out, going to break your neck trying to snap the code in order to access the content. However engaging and valuable it is, it is unlikely to keep you amused while you're in traction having gone headfirst down a flight of stone Subway steps.

2) A QR Code, like anyone who has had to scan a barcode will tell you, works best when it is clear. Sticky tape like this absolutely fits in with the feel of the movie, and gives you an excuse to place the ad in a strange place (although I would be interested to see if permission was sought). However, I'd question whether the creases evident in the QR Code itself will allow you to actually capture the code properly and access the content.

Pavement/Sidewalk ads have been used well recently, notably for the launch of Wired Magazine, but has anyone sued a QR Code in pavement advertising (I am betting yes they have in Japan)? Or is it a recipe for people bumpijg into you as you bend over to take a picture of the pavement?

Just a thought.

My Blog got a Google PlusBox!

I've done some work with Google's Product PlusBox, which allows you to advertise several products within the same paid search listing, for example a number of Nokia phones available on O2, or a range of several beds. I did not, however, expect to see one for my very own Blog.

As I do occasionally out of interest (and mainly to check that I am still above Rick Lamb - America's Premier Horse Racing DJ), I Googled myself this morning. The results were surprising not because I'm top, although that never ceases to amaze me, but because there is a second listing that is indented and incorporates a PlusBox.



The PlusBox expands to show five additional posts, thankfully all of the type that make me look intelligent and like I know what I'm talking about. I'd like to think they reinforce the sort of subjects I talk about, from an apparaisal of Berocca's Blogger Outreach programme (I never got my Berocca Blogger Relief Pack incidentally, despite being told it had been sent) a year ago, to my French Wikipedia-referenced post about Google's Street View Astronaut, and the post which saw me followed on Twitter by a number of new Tweeters who only followed celebrities.



I'm not the only one either. If you search, as I'm sure a lot more people do than search for me, for Nick Burcher, you get a similar range of his wisdom, from Facebook User Statistics to Waitrose Pinatas and Eurovision predictors.



On initial tests of the Beta version, this will not be a feature of Google Caffeine. I'll also fall behind 'the other Rick Lamb'. I definitely prefer the De-Caff version of Google.

Aleksandr the Meerkat starts Facebook Petition to get 'Simples' into the Dictionary

Not content with being quoted by everyone from Davina McCall and Ant and Dec to the Arsenal squad, Aleksandr the Meerkat is campaigning to get the word 'Simples' into the Oxford English Dictionary.

The campaign is on Facebook and has a few signees already, but is sure to gain momentum. It's also exactly the kind of publicity that new editions of dictionaries like, knowing that when they ad words like 'ming' it will generate publicity.



Uptake is sure to be huge given Aleks' tweet to his over 22,000 Twitter followers about the campaign. The petition was prompted by Aleksandr's dispute with Sergei the IT meerkat over a game of Scrabble, another Facebook staple.



A great idea, and I'm off to sign the petition. Simples.

Your brand is no stronger than your reputation...

...and will increasingly depend on what comes up when you are Googled. A quote by Allan Jenkins from Paul Isakson's excellent What's Next In Marketing And Advertising 2009.

What's Next In Marketing And Advertising (2009)

View more documents from Paul Isakson.

A Party Theory of Twitter

@Iaintait explains why you should like Twitter.

A Party Theory of Twitter

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