Not only was he EOTY (employee of the year 2009) he’s also the only person from outside of the creative department to do his own white agency home page... Nice work MB.

That was 2009, sunshine.

But it kinda went by so quickly I missed most of it…

Too late, anyway we’re steaming on with 2010, Krubrick style.

C’mon just a recap?

Nup… listen every man and his social media NOOB has done a yearly wrap up and most have already pumped out a 2010 trends/predictions/tea leaf futurism piece…

Please?

Psssssffffff… OK just a quick one then let’s you’ll have to let go, it’s over.

First.

Banner Ads.
Banner ads are still alive! Yes of course they are and here’s a great article about the constraints they’re breaking out of… Beyond the banner And probably the most simple banner and “yet” most engaging banner ads of the year this little cracker for Pringles…

Right here, right now and in 3D.
Location based services and Augmented Reality… how many times did we hear those buzz words last year (and the year before that)? Well we did because they’re starting to make (or have well made) the leap from gimmick town to useful utility city… and we’re holding it in our hands Layar (now 3.0) probably being the leader on this front and the platform seems to be expanding… (see also: wikitude & twitter-360). Need to find a Stellar quickly… you might need this…

Then there was the foursquare too much info weirdness, which will make more sense when you’ll start getting free beers…

Plenty of brands had a dabble in the webcam augmented reality space with very few producing anything of real value… there were some exceptions such as… this

The Cloud brought to you the Googles.Realtime Search, Chrome, the Wave… next up the the android explosion and the OS. When do we wave the white flag? Maybe when their interfaces get a little prettier. Seriously the Cloud is a great thing and products/services such as Google Wave (although slightly over-hyped and a little lonely at first) are/will get us working as collaboratively as a finely tuned beehive… it’s like all my wildest hopes for yammer coming true… remember yammer? er… no…

Memes
These things power the internet… last year we had Kayne and “I’mma let you finnish” but the winner had to be… Keyboard Cat. What will the memerverse throw up this year?

Semi-Translucent Aggregation
Everything from anywhere, anytime for anyone overload. First we had skittles.com which was basically an overlay interface (where have we seen that before) on top of various social sites, so if your tweet contained “skittles” it would basically end up on the skittles home page. Which is great when people are saying nice things… to their credit Skittles let go of the fear and the site is still up. The never media shy Crispin Porter + Bogusky took the concept a little further and turned their own agency site into an aggregation portal. So if you were talking about the agency it would end up on their homepage etc… the neat thing they did though was to have a filter where you could select individual clients and then get a live social media snapshot of the buzz around that brand (buzz that they’re generating apparently).

A couple of weeks before they launched theirs tho’ we squeezed our own aggregation baby out of the coding test tube… and introduced Whitegoods

Here you can follow the twitter, delicious, flickr and blog feeds from le white agency… sweet.

Decks of the year (or presos that were worth while sitting through).

Or Aaron Koblin’s amazement.

The best by far… by a long shot… by a country mile was this WHY I LOVE THE INTERNET… there’s no pictures tho’

Campaigns N’ Stuff

This was a great simple one Shocking Barack (electric motorbikes) I wrote some words about it here.

Nikes Chalkbot got talked about (almost rhymes).

+ (nice pun) Although it was done a little while ago Adweehnamed this as “Digital Campaign of the Decade”

Now does that look like an ad to you?

Mos Def released an album as a Tshirt

RA DIOHEA_D and google made a film clip with LAZERS!

Something Something Twitter.

The White Stuff

I wore a the same t-shirts a lot.

So did some other people.

@kukestar produced a stellar performance for our Christmas Card…

Our peeps in Melbourne moved into a new Crib.

We cut a tralier… a first!

We made a showreel! woot!

B&T rated our site numero uno of digital agency sites… not bad if that the sort of business your in

We got all data vizzy for our super swell friends at The Commonwealth Bank (+ commbank.com.au won yet another round of awards)

We went hybrid in the pursuit of perfection for Team Lexus (+ we gave their site a super tune up)

We gave parents a helping hand when it comes to talking to their kids about drinking.

We helped people to “choose pink” for a good cause

And did we mention Whitegoods?

So kinda there it is…

Done.

This year tho’ is going to be another whole level of awesome… grrrr.

A few weeks back, white’s content division spent some time learning a thing or two about French kissing…with the result of scoring the #1 video on Fairfax’s THE VINE when it was posted on November 24.

Youtube views have been running pretty hotski.

It’s probably about now that we should mention the reason for all this French kissing business…white cut a kick-ass new trailer for Palace Films’ latest ‘The French Kissers’, the hit cult comedy at this year’s Cannes.

http://www.thefrenchkissers.com/trailer

You can catch ‘The French Kissers’ at Palace Verona and Palace Norton Street.

Lips are sealed on any further upcoming films white plans to get its sweaty hands on…..

It even has that new office smell.

Last weeks White Games… remote control sumos! With an Xbox on offer things got a little serious. The final was an enthralling stalemate between Phillip “Errol” Andrews and Henry “Dastardly” Hall… and the winner…

Hope.

Flight.

Fail.

Look who popped up in B&Ts recent poll on the Top Ten Digital CDs in the country.

Old what’s his name?

Well done mate.

As Jennings would say.

Public Hero.

Maybe not breaking news anymore but we came out on top in a B&T review of Australian digital agency websites.

So then another digital mob from Newcastle (didn’t quite make the B&T review unfortunately) ran their ANLYZR tool over the same candidates and we ranked a paltry 10^th based on the more reportable stuff like SEO and search scores.

Now I know which one I care about more but it raises an interesting question: Do Marketing Directors of switched on brands really google ‘digital agency’? The findablilty v experience is an old debate but for an agency site, surely it’s more about conveying your personality and your work, no?

San Diego.

As mentioned previously… here is our little aggregation experiment… ladies and gentlemen… whitegoods.

Sure it was announced a couple days ago… but good news is good news. Yes as mentioned a couple posts ago Australia.com was in the running for a People’s Voice (Tourism category) @ the digitally prestigious  Webby Awards. And guess what? It won. As the marvellous mUmBRELLA reported much closer to the announcement…

“The australia.com site – designed by The White Agency – was the People’s Voice Winner in the Tourism category of The Webbys, which were announced earlier today, Australian time.

The Webby Awards have run for more than a decade. One of their unique points is that when winners make acceptance speeches they are limited to just five words. In 2005, failed presidential candidate Al Gore’s was “Please don’t recount this vote.”

Tonight White Agency boss Miles Joyce said: “Had a taste? Come walkabout.”

Well done to all involved on this very high profile project that deserves the accolades. Go Team!

Very happy to announce that that our design for Tourism Australia’s consumer travel site, www.australia.com, has been nominated for a Webby Award in the Tourism category!

This also means that australia.com is eligible to win a Webby People’s Voice Award, which is relies on votes from the world wide community. Please feel free to jump over and vote any time up till April 30th at http://pv.webbyawards.com. Go on, get in there. You know you want to.

You can check it out, along with the other nominees here: http://www.webbyawards.com/webbys/current.php?season=13

(From Adnews March 13th 2009)

How is 2009 shaping up for digital agencies?

Bring it on!

More and more companies are now realising the power of digital as a key business driver. In this environment, can companies afford to choose a generalist over an expert?

Our promise to clients – Better, Faster, Cheaper, Flexible – has never been more on the money than right now.

What’s more, our ability to deliver against these pillars is in stark contrast to some of our larger integrated agency competitors.

We have seen from the fully integrated agencies’ claim after claim, restructure after restructure and senior hire after senior hire, that, if you scratch the surface, they are the same old mainstream agency with digital tacked on…..animating print ads, TVCs online.

Unless every ounce of your agency’s DNA is digital, you are behind the curve and subsequently your clients are chasing not leading.

Technology is no longer just that guy in the corner playing Dungeons and Dragons, it is the gateway between business, marketing, customers and prospects. Your agency must live and breathe technology, developing the best solutions, aware of all innovations and, equally, the limitations. This is the pedigree of digital agencies, minimising risk, saving time and money, creating innovative solutions and improving speed to market.

Digital creates rivers of data, and you can sink or swim in this data. It comes in real time, wave after wave of information. Digital agencies are accustomed to this immediacy of information, turning on the taps, filtering and optimising the work. Data sits across all departments. It is no longer about post analysis – it provides insight, it informs and it enlightens.

Interaction is so much more than just a click or a person voting on their favourite viral piece. Interaction is a way of thinking beyond the traditional; broadcast/reaction, cause/effect – it is about capture and engagement. Digital agencies grab the interaction possibilities; taking a great idea and making it live and breathe online.

As digital finally lives up to the promises extolled for years, clients should expect more than just window dressing. 2009 could well prove the year that truly steels the future of digital agencies, the year that sets the direction for years to come.

As I said at the outset, 2009 bring it on!!

For more information contact:
Craig Galvin – Executive Director, Partner, the white agency

My bad, this post got lost in pending purgatory (that’s what pitch madness will do to a blog). About a month old but it still is NEWS.

“the White Agency, has appointed Mat Medcalf into the position of General Manager in its Melbourne office.

Medcalf’s role will be focused on further building the business and consolidating its strong position within the digital arena in Melbourne.

Medcalf joins White from Spin Communications where he was most recently Commercial Director and Head of its Melbourne office. Here he worked with clients such as BigPond, Disney, Nintendo and Kia Motors. Prior to this, Medcalf was Head of Innovation at Naked Communications during which time he was in charge of developing new ways to communicate a brand message working with leading brands including Coke, eBay, Nokia and ninemsn.

Medcalf said he was really excited about working with one of the premier digital agencies in Australia and was looking forward to making inroads into the Melbourne market where he feels there is a big opportunity for digital specialists.

“In this climate, clients are increasingly looking for powerful yet cost effective ways to gain market share and customer engagement and I feel this offers an amazing amount of opportunities for digital to leverage,” he said.

White’s CEO, Miles Joyce said Medcalf will bring extensive experience in delivering successful, innovative and result-driven solutions to clients. This, coupled with his strong management and business development skills, make him a great addition to White and further strengthens the highly talented team we already have in Melbourne.”

“Melbourne is a very important market for us so this appointment is crucial to ensure we continue to deliver our high standard of work while growing the business and the Melbourne digital marketplace overall.

The White Agency is part of STW Communications Group, Australia’s leading marketing content and communications services group.”

End serious bit.

]]> http://ffffff.com.au/2009/03/13/hola-mat-new-gm-appointed-white-mexico-melbourne/feed/ 0 http://ffffff.com.au/2009/02/10/please/ http://ffffff.com.au/2009/02/10/please/#comments Tue, 10 Feb 2009 01:31:34 +0000 Paul Jeffress http://ffffff.com.au/?p=339

The 2009 Victorian Bushfire Fund

Weekends, holidays, late nights… Pitches do funny things to people (mainly Cerns it seems).

Also makes you proud to work with such hard working talented peeps.

Woot.

Yep, we got one last night @award for the Sprite Truth Hunters Campaign. Nice work team. Head hurtz now.

That would be Australia.com… for Tourism Australia. As in the site people all around the world go to when thinking about popping down under for a little poke around or that massive transforming voyage of self discovery to experience the vast majestic beauty that is Terra Australis, New Holland… Oz

Or you may have come across it searching for some little movie that may have just come out starring that little red headed girl from BMX bandits and that Wolverine dude. Anyway…

Continuing our theme of undertaking some of the biggest site launches in the country this year (trumpet blown) we have another high profile project that should leave everyone involved with it, walking a little taller this week. And if that wasn’t enough how about throwing in the design and build of Tourism Australia’s media site as well. Are these people robots?

No they’re not, just a swell bunch of talented, hard working clever people.

Hat Tip to: Fiona, Heath, Daniel, Duncan Pete V, Cearns, Mr David Carson esq and Mike Barry*

The photo below sums up the whole “vibe” of the project.

* I’m sure more peeps were on this… tell me…

A little while ago we completed a small project called “CBA Webolution Phase 1″which meant we did a quick refresh of the personal banking section of a new up and coming bank who you may of heard of before, The Commonwealth Bank of Australia, anyone? No? Didn’t think so. Anyway they seemed to like the pixel polishing we did for them so they asked us to work on another project called “CBA Webolution Phase 2″ No problems, easy, should knock that one off on a Monday morning before lunchtime. Right?

(Puts joke aside)

Seriously now. Wow. 12 months later and several lifetimes of work have been lovingly poured into the redevelopment of CBA’s Business and Corporate banking sections. And it shows. Top, top work from all those in the agency who touched this project with extra hat tips to Matt, Kathleen, Ellie, Mike, Fabulous, Luke, Jamie, Penn… and (thank god for blogs as I will have to update this list several times). I hope everyone involved feels all warm and tingly, because it really is a massive achievement. Well done guys!

Is that our Fab “Head of Production’s” head on the latest cover of Australian Creative?

Erm, no. Almost.

Online Divas – Online Business Networking Group

At last, somewhere where entrepreneurial women can come together, and share a common vision – running an online business.

I have just watched a local TV news report on this site, and was pleased to discover that The White Agency’s Kate Chatfield is already there making her mark as one of the Diva’s. What a great way of sharing online knowledge with like minded women eager to succeed in the digital world.

So many times we tell ourselves, if only I had done that. It seems with the Diva’s help your idea could be creating the next ground breaking, money making sites.

Buckle up, get your stilettos on and get ready for digital dance floor.

Where: onlinedivas.com.au

So you may have been watching the tube (the telly one) lately and come across two tongues with geezer accents and a hoity-toity eyeball with stalk legs. Well if you did, chances are you were watching Coke Zero’s new campaign. In a nutshell it’s about two tongues who think they are drinking Coke but in reality are drinking Coke Zero, they just can’t tell the difference because they have no eyeballs. Just taste buds. And their taste buds tell them they’re drinking regular Coke… and I think you get the picture.
So to enhance the lives of these pink slimy dudes we’ve created some online adventures where they’re on the hunt for that bottle of Coke (really Coke Zero, but you knew that). Trust Your Buds

It’s been an amazing job with some truly inspirational effort poured into it, so instead of me rabbiting on about it as I have already… we now get part of the team who worked on it to give us a little background into it. So introducing Alister McCann (Copywriter) and Fabian Hupfauf (Art Director) to take us on a little journey.

Open on a street scene in Balmain café.

Two ruggedly handsome gentlemen sit opposite each other. Both stare blankly at the Coke Zero brief that lays limp and lifeless between them. Al, the copywriter, was premiering his new t-shirt. Disappointment etched across his face as Fabs the art director had not bothered to mention it or, worse, hadn’t even noticed. Idly they stirred the milky froth of their decaf macadamia, half soy half regular milk lattes.

Al: What if we do a game starring two slimy tongues, with weird little rhino feet, on a relentless mission to snatch a bottle of Coke from the other side of the kitchen?

Fabs: Sorry what? The waitress just bent over to pick up something. (Grown-ups note: Al & Fab spend so much time trying to think like young males 18-25 that parts of their brains are permanently 18-25.)

Al: I said, ahh forget it.

Fabs: Wait, I’ve got it! Let’s do a game starring two slimy tongues, with weird little rhino feet, on a relentless mission to snatch a bottle of Coke from the other side of the kitchen. But here is the kicker – the tongues don’t know it’s Coke Zero. They’re totally blind so they think it’s real Coke. And they need this eyeball dude to help them reach the Coke, I mean Coke Zero.

Al: My frontal lobe just melted.

Inspiration goosed Fabs’ brain into a creative flurry, while Al made a beeline for the little boys’ room.
Fabs began sketching out the images that would make up the three levels of the game, while Al scribbled his thoughts on two and a half scrolls of bog roll. When they reconvened both had completely different ideas on how the game should play out. Compromises were made over a slight variation of scissors, paper, rock involving a rusty bike chain, a can of Rexona and a lighter.

Cut to four months in the future. Al and Fabian in a dingy café in Ultimo

Al: Wow, Trust your Buds goes live today, I hope the kiddies like it.

Fabs: I’m already working on the sequel. It turns out that the tongues are actually from a post apocalyptic future and they were sent back to warn us about an army of sexy killer robots that are going to enslave mankind.

Al: I’m sorry what? The waitress just bent over to pick up something.

Err… thanks guys.

So, to help with the boys’ in-depth analysis of the work I thought I’d show some of their initial scamps and then a couple of screens of the final product after our digital alchemists have worked their magic. Speaking of which, big ups to the blood, sweat and tears Aiden and (he’ll hate this) Jennings put into this project. There was a cast of thousands working on this project but these two practically passed kidney stones of love on this puppy. Anyway go play, go play.

Trust Your Buds

>>>>>Large Kittens Below<<<<<

UNIQLOCK

By PROJECTOR For UNIQLO
It’s a fusion of dance video routines, time signal music and clock utility, so the description on the entry says. But it’s more than that. It’s a brand and it’s collective agencies who have for the last little while produced some amazing work with such an articulate digital focus. If the GAP was born a decade or two later and had some imagination this is who they could be. But won’t. They also have a solid grip on the widgetisation of your brand and where it can take you, or more importantly where people can take you.

NON-STOP FERNANDO

By LEAN MEAN FIGHTING MACHINE For EMIRATES
Audacious idea. Have this Brazil nut gabber on for the time it takes to fly from Dubai to Sao Paulo. Lean Mean Fighting Machine also takes out Interactive Agency of the Year beating out Crispin Porter + Bogusky, all this with a staff of only 20 proves that they really are.

PET SHOP BOYS – INTEGRAL

QR codes, QR codes, QR codes… Now even a Pet Shop Boys film clip has got em’ but with a little twist. The QR codes appear throughout the clip embedded in a pixel animation. So when you pause on a frame (there are over 100 of them in the clip) and point your phone at them you’ll be taken to civil liberties/social rights sites that provide more information on the songs moral message. Neat.

ORANGE UNLIMITED

By POKE For Orange
Good things should never end. Just like the site. Which didn’t, the more you scrolled it just kept on going. Full of whimsy (break out the toffee) and instantly embeddable sized bits and pieces to take away for later not to mention FREE THINGS hidden in the site. The awards for this thing seen to be unlimited as well so far…Cannes Cyber Lion Silver > Webby Awards – People’s Voice Award > Art Directors Club of New York – Silver > One Show Interactive – Silver > The Clio Awards – Bronze > IAB Creative Showcase – Grand Prix > IAB Creative Showcase December 07 > FWA – Site of the Month > D&AD – Nomination > Design Week – Commendation > Creative Circle Certificate… enough.
Yet it doesn’t seem to be enough for these guys, their latest effort play balloonacy looks set to capture the collective attention of the internet again. The results they must have for some of their sites must be staggering. BTW check out the interior designed toilets from the London office.

BFD BUILDER

By CRISPIN PORTER + BOGUSKY For DOMINOS
You build the pizza, you save the pizza, you order the pizza and then you track it all the way to your front door (almost). Now I’m glad this won, because it’s a utility. You know, something you can use, and through its usefulness it becomes a really good ad/brand promise. Smells like the olden days.

SEE SOMETHING. FEEL SOMETHING

By SOAP CREATIVE for FOXTEL
You know the one, where you’re inside the telly, watching people watching you. Getting all emotional.
Nice work from the local Soaperheros.

GET OUT AND PLAY

By FARFAR for NOKIA
Great simple game play, wonderful stop motion and superlative production values.

THE KEY TO RESERVA

By JWT SPAIN For FREIXENET CARTA NEVADA RESERVA
Really it’s a long form TVC featuring Martin Scorsese. Beautifully produced tho’

SIMPSONIZEME

By CRISPIN PORTER + BOGUSKY For DOMINOS
40 million people had a go of this thing. Brilliant take away content.

GET IT STRAIGHT

By JUNG VON MATT for BOSCH
One of the many motion sensor entries. I think this one was the best as it’s useful to boot. The others weren’t bad though.

READ A BOOK AT WORK

By COLENSO BBDO for NEW ZEALAND BOOK COUNCIL
Beautifully simple idea. The fullscreen site looks like the generic windows desktop, yet it’s not, it’s the minisite for the New Zealand Book Council where you can read books (short stories, poetry etc) at work as the content appears as wonderfully terrible powerpoint slides.

TITANIUM

MILLION

By DROGA5 for THE NEW YORK CITY DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
Now this is really something, a program whereby kids in New York High schools are given specially built phones that function as learning devices during school hours (teachers can send out assignments etc) and all the normal distracting features are turned off. After school hours all the calling/txting features are turned back on and it’s just a regular phone again, other than that the credits etc are then linked to student performance, so it’s incentive based as well. Sure there are brands involved in this but it really is for the greater good. It’s these type of ideas that really belong in the Titanium category, not just campaigns that don’t fit in any category because they defy the genre, but for ideas that rise above advertising itself.

It reminds me of this idea and that’s not a bad thing.

Ahhh…

That said, this is advertising and it’s hard to go past a good beer ad. Really you have to see this, it’s amazing.
It’s what this whole content thing should be about. The Speights Great Beer Delivery.

Just when we thought it was safe to write about something else other than our new office or our new logo, along comes this… the new rug for our reception. Neat.

Not only have we got a wonderful new building, a brand spanking new logo (sorry) but if all that wasn’t enough… how about a freshly pixelaphonic new site straight out of the coding oven. Just smell the aroma.

In the words of Mr Matthew Grogan CD, Esq etc “the theory goes something like this. Any successful agency is always busy and any busy agency puts their clients’ work as a priority over their own website. Knowing that, it could be another 3 years before we have the time to focus on the next instalment. So we decided to stay away from a crazy flash site that’ll go out of date in a week and create something that is simple and 80% about the great work we do for our clients and 20% about us.”

The navigation is minimal letting the work speak for itself. Simplicity. Is. Good.

And it comes in six different collectors editions.

The Cerns.

The Eliana.

The Fabian

The Jennings

The Mike.

And The Pablo.

Now that’s about the size of it (above). I think about a billion people were involved in this one, and all involved deserve a massive, massive backslap and one breath’s rest before jumping back to it. In the meantime get in there and have a go.

Yep you sure can. Now this has been slowly introduced rather than a grand A-lister mega launch, but along with our brand shiny new office, we have a hot new visual ID. Years of development and a cast of thousands have been involved with this project and now it’s starting to appear everywhere and in every format. Even a new roll of stickers can cause normally sedate people to start woo-hooing.

The old and the new.

mmm new office smell, more pics as we unpack

So long, farewell, Auf wiedersehen, adieu, Adieu, adieu, to yieu and yieu and yieu. Well just to to building really. We’re moving to our new abode in Ultimo today. Yeah! See ya Balmain catch ya for beer soon, yeah? Above we have the creative department being covered in yellow moving stickers and below that some guy with a big bum writing the last blog post from 70 Mullins street, oh wait I’ve gone cross-eyed.