At 9am Friday 30th of July, most of the agency have got on thier bikes at Clapham Junction and headed southwards towards Brighton on a all agency charity bike ride.

Wish us luck, by tweeting to us using #lwcbbike, sponsor us here and track those of us who are hooked up to the internet live here

We will publish some photos throughout the day, and maybe even some footage from the head cams!

Last week we wrote about Wieden + Kennedy (Portland)’s social media campaign for Old Spice – the phenomenal viral videos that had millions tuning in to see and receive personalised messages from “spokesperson” Isaiah Mustafa through social media channels YouTube and Twitter.

The cheeky campaign propelled Old Spice to the top of the Viral Video Chart, collecting over 90,000 Twitter followers, 700,000+ Facebook fans and smashing records to become the all-time most viewed sponsored YouTube channel, with a total of 35.7 million individual video views. Of the top 11 most popular YouTube videos on July 16, Old Spice had eight of them.

There is no doubt of the social media success of Old Spice, starring the “Most Interesting Man in the World 2.0”, but is Mustafa’s popularity translating into sales?

Warc figures show that sales of the Old Spice product Red Zone After Hours Body Wash, which is being promoted by the campaign, have fallen by 7% in the 52 weeks ending June 13, despite Mustafa’s beloved pecs appearing on TV screens since February.

However the campaign didn’t reach its social peak until 13-14 July, so it remains to be seen if Mustafa’s videos are driving people to the stores to buy Red Zone.

We know that high social exposure does not necessarily generate demand, as seen when Gatorade this year launched its Replay social campaign (also a Cannes winner), which tracked down members of two American high schools’ rival football teams – 15 years after their senior year – for a rematch.

The campaign generated a strong online following – with webisodes and Facebook pages about the players – and the 15,000 tickets to the rematch sold out in 90 minutes. However Gatorade’s sales for the year declined by 8.5% nationwide.

And while it remains impossible to prove any fluctuations in demand are caused by a social presence, what Old Spice has achieved is what it set out to – awareness and visibility. Mentions of Old Spice on Twitter exploded last week, with many celebrities such as Alyssa Milano, Ellen DeGeneres and Perez Hilton getting involved and spreading the word.

In the sense of raising awareness and bringing the brand to the top of our minds, Old Spice has certainly been a social success.

Written by Lauren Rayner, Account Executive

We quite like it that way though. Read article here

inferno won a place on the Keep Britain Tidy advertising roster as their lead creative agency in October last year and we were immediately energised by the great creative opportunity, fantastic clients and important cause! KBT briefed us in February on their main campaign for 2010: fighting the war on litter nationally.

The tongue in cheek ‘Bend over and think of England’ campaign – was intended for a larger, more holistic activation platform utilising PR, WOM, Ambient, Merchandising and a variety of ATL, however as the government changed over earlier on this year, so too did the rules and regulations (and budgets!) regarding government-funded communications.

To this particular campaign’s credit, it had already caught the interest of enough Local Authorities that they stood firm with their support of the campaign and generously allocated what they could of their own council budgets to fund the distribution of the creative throughout a range of local media including Bus Backs, 48-sheet sites, 6 sheet sites, postcards, T-shirts, bags, badges and A3 Posters, with a number of them also opting to have their own bespoke titles created including ‘Get Behind Essex’ and ‘Get Behind Northumberland’.

With the objective of expanding Auto Trader’s social media outreach, inferno created a Facebook-based competition whereby fans of Auto Trader could win an American road trip along Route 66.

Inferno developed the creative idea for the competition along with Facebook ads to complement other comms, such as an email sent to an existing opt-in database of 350k, promotion on AutoTrader.co.uk (which receives 600k unique daily hits), Facebook, Twitter and other social media such as blogs and forums.

Simply by ‘liking’ Auto Trader’s Facebook page and recommending it to friends, Facebook users were entered into the draw to win a two-week road trip for four people along Route 66 in America plus £1,000 spending money.

Auto Trader kept the momentum going on their Facebook page with regular interactive updates relating to the promotion, enlisting fans to discuss topics such as their ideal car for an American road trip, what their perfect track list would be, and random Route 66 facts.

These discussions showed a high level of engagement among fans, who commented on posts relating to the road trip and engaged in banter relating to the competition between each other.

This was necessary to the competition – running for just one week; it relied on viral sharability to accumulate fans. Facebook users spread the word – 5,000 fans were attained in just 2 days, and almost 12,000 fans were gained throughout the week.

The competition closed on Monday 9 July and winners will be notified by 23 July. There are plans for the winners to keep a video blog during their Route 66 road trip, which could produce further content for Auto Trader’s Facebook site. Watch this space…

Written by Lauren Rayner, Account Executive

The idea: ‘Anything is possible when your man smells like Old Spice’ rings true in this viral phenomenon.

This brilliant example of a social media campaign by Wieden + Kennedy Portland proves that ads can actually talk to you. Bloggers and fans were name-checked in personalised videos tweeted by Old Spice Guy himself; ex American footballer Isaiah Mustafa. He’s now an internet sensation racking up over 55 million views, making his channel the most viewed sponsored channel in history.

The Old Spice Guy made hilarious videos for well-known Internet folk,  including Ellen Degeneres, Alyssa Milano and celebrity blogger Perez Hilton. Anonymous people who had blogged, tweeted or commented about him in the past were also targeted.

The Old Spice Guy was even able to help Twitter user @Jsbeals with his marriage proposal. @Jsbeals tweeted this request to Old Spice Guy: “Can U Ask my girlfriend to marry me? Her name is Angela A. Hutt-Chamberlin.” Less than three hours later, Mustafa was holding a ring in the glow of candlelight and asking Angela to “make @Jsbeals the happiest man in the world and marry him in real life.”

The campaign is perfect for becoming huge virally. It taps into specific bloggers who have access to many followers allowing it to grow and grow. It creates an exciting platform that people are willing and excited to engage with as they are creating it themselves.

The first ad, ‘The Man Your Man Could Smell Like’, has racked up over 12 million views alone and went on to win the Grand Prix award in the film category at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival.

Article by Dani Brown & Paul Mann, Junior Creative Art Director and Copy Writer

Clay Shirky, lecturer at NYU, columnist and author of “Here Comes Everybody”, appeared at the RSA last week to promote his new book “Cognitive Surplus”. Like many new media commentators, the focus of his talk was the internet as the beginning of a major cultural shift of great advantage to mankind. I was one of the ones lucky enough to secure tickets to the event and so here is my summary and some thoughts packed into a blog post.

Firstly a brief explanation of the term: cognitive surplus refers to the cumulative attention/talent that is being pooled into collaborative projects enabled by new technology and the web. Not that interesting a concept in itself but is the momentum behind the shift away from pure consumption to production and sharing; a small shift that is having some quite dramatic effects. Where these effects are manifested in a negative way (Shirky gives the example of lol cats), there is a tendency to blame the tools. However, the cause of these effects lies in ancient motivations that are simply being channelled in new ways. This all seems a bit of a given to me but then I understand that this is still not something that is accepted by many of our distinguished tabloid journalists and other “guns kill people” type

The most interesting part of his thinking however was the idea that levels are participation are on a scale and that even the most stupid creative act is still, ultimately, a creative act. The big divide he says, is between participation and non-participation and I guess this is where new media makes a complete departure from the old.

Within participation, he draws a distinction between communal, public and civic value. Communal being entirely for personal amusement and gain (such as lol cats); public value being in a service such as Wikipedia that sees a small percentage of contributors but many users. Civic value on the other hand is the rather utopian idea of everyone contributing equally for a higher purpose of which he cites the example of PatientsLikeMe; a site where people with diseases and other long term health conditions can share information about their conditions, the drugs they are on and the effects that they experience in order to capture cumulative data and share this data with other patients/healthcare professionals

This idea raises a lot of interesting debates - how do we encourage more people to participate in civic activity? When they do, are they really doing it for the greater good or for personal gain? How do we know that this technology will be used for good and not evil? Shirky is very optimistic, he thinks that we are just at the beginning of things and that it will take a long time before we will see the real benefits to society but ultimately, while the negative effects are inevitable, he believes that bad will outweigh good. He also thinks that there is lots that we can do to break tasks down into achievable chunks and leverage the more involved in order to remove barriers to involvement for others.

But we are in a commercial line of work so what does all this mean to brands? Well, I think that successful civic projects, just like successful brands have a powerful idea at their heart that people just want to be a part of. Brands seeking to leverage new technology to the dramatic effects that Shirky describes can do lots to build a framework for participation and incentivise people to join in. What they shouldn’t do is build these frameworks purely for the sake of taking advantage of new technology (which is often the case).There is a great opportunity for brands that want to further their existing missions by identifying a fundamental personal, political or social motivation and use this to create something of real relevance and value for people. In the time of information overload and greater consumer control plus involvement this is more important than ever.

A full audio version of the talk is up on the RSA and the animate will be up in the next couple of days.

Written By Jo Weston

Bridging the Gap (BTG) is a club night, podcast series and music / design website run by a London-based collective of djs, producers and designers (including myself, an account executive here at Inferno). Surviving in the fiercely competitive London underground music scene is not easy, and building a meaningful brand is certainly key to that survival. It was decided from the very inception of BTG that the night / blog / music policy needed to stand for something, a way of differentiating itself from the sea of competition hungry for people’s attention. So how was the BTG brand identity decided? Here is some of the thinking behind it:

Technology has changed the way we consume and listen to music. The digital revolution seems to have turned us into a ‘playlist generation’. It’s becoming far more uncommon to sit down and listen to a whole album sequentially from start to finish, people would rather build a playlist complied of their favorite tracks. Another emerging pattern from the playlist generation is their reluctance to be defined by one specific genre. People seem to get bored very quickly (particularly in London) music scenes pop up left right and centre (Fidget House, Grindy, Big Beat, 2.2 Step, Surf Revival, Wonky, Donk) only to die before they’ve had a chance to make any kind of significant impact. This attitude also seems to have had a direct impact on the way music is produced, with many underground electronic musicians throwing elements of techno, hip hop, dub, and house into their productions, feeling bored with the same old formats.

Bearing all of this in mind it was decided that instead of representing one specific genre or scene, running the risk of becoming old hat at any given moment, the BTG brand wouldn’t adhere to any specific genre or time-span. BTG is known for supporting and playing music across a whole spectrum of genres, while still staying relevant to ever evolving music trends. This idea / identity is reflected in the name, logo, design and website content, all mirroring the BTG ethos and music policy.

The next BTG live event is at the Alibi in Dalston (3^rd July) featuring Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs as headliner, known for fusing styles such as jungle, electro, 80s boogie funk and techno.

Written by Rob Waite

Ahh the almighty Facebook, its reach on the internet seemingly knows no bounds. It’s how we find out what’s going on at the weekend, invite people to parties, conduct informal qualitative research, express our love for music, show off our holiday, share current events, jokes, games and occasionally catch up with friends. And whilst weaving its way into so many aspects of our lives it managed to simplify the two way communication between brands and their consumers; who wouldn’t want a piece of that? However, there have however been a fair few negative repercussions in the wake of the social media honeymoon.

The Daily Mail published an article claiming that “Facebook could increase your risk of serious health problems by reducing levels of face-to-face contact” (Based on an article by psychologist Dr Aric Sigman who is concerned that the lack of face to face contact could lead to an increased risk of heart disease, stroke and dementia). These claims are certainly to be taken with a pinch of salt; the amount of carcinogenic risks according to the daily mail are too many too keep track of. However many observers are convinced that using social networking sites can lead to social isolation and loneliness which can in turn cause further health complications.

Another reason people are questioning / rejecting Facebook is the ever unfolding privacy settings issue. Facebook claims to have revamped their privacy settings by essentially making them simpler. In actual fact, the new settings are intended to encourage people to open up more of their personal information to the world. This issue has lead to a serious amount of bad press for Facebook and has resulted in a backlash from Facebook users and the wider social media community. Various web applications have started popping up in retaliation to Facebook’s disregard for people’s privacy, applications such as Facebook Suicide which can kill your entire social presence on the internet in less than one hour.

So what does this all mean for brands investing serious money into Facebook and social media strategy? A huge potential problem for brands, as a result of the new privacy settings policy, will be the implementation of Facebook’s new “Community Page” concept; by aggregating content from Facebook user wall posts and combining it with information from Wikipedia users are able to talk about topics of mutual interest in one place. This will have a sizable effect on official brand information released by corporations as information released will be lost amongst a sea of potentially damaging user generated content (UCG) which will in turn lead to consumer confusion.

Brands interacting with Facebook should be aware that privacy issues as well as serious health concerns are a risk to their credibility and customer trust. Brands also need to understand that even the most popular social media platforms can quickly find themselves losing subscribers fast if they annoy their members one too many times. Interacting with Facebook should no longer be a pre-requisite to a digital campaign. The Starbucks or Toyota campaigns are excellent examples of how it can go terribly wrong. This is certainly not to say social media brand presence should be completely avoided, Facebook usage still currently makes up a significantly large percentage of peoples online behavior. Facebook consequently still presents many exciting opportunities for creativity and brand exposure, but should only be approached when fully understanding Facebook’s ever evolving formats and trends and how these could either benefit or damage a brand.

Written by Rob Waite

A recent study conducted by IPA and Thinkbox has proven that award winning creative does deliver better results. It found that overall the campaigns that had been rewarded with the greatest number of accolades for their creative work were 11 times more successful in delivering positive results, in terms of both effectiveness and efficiency.

The report also pointed out that the majority of successful campaigns were emotional rather than rationally based. Which is often something that marketers tend to forget. We’re always striving to give consumers a rational reason to buy into our brand, forgetting that a large proportion of consumer’s decision making is based on emotional reactions to brands.

So long live creativity!

Written by Andrea Phillips.

Data sourced from IPA; additional content by Warc staff, 17 June 2010
http://www.warc.com/News/TopNews.asp?ID=26851&Origin=WARCNewsEmail