TMW Ideas

Hola, amigos. I know it's been a long time since I rapped at ya, but I got a lot on my plate these days, as theonion's Jim Anchower used to say.

Apparently a lot of folks went to Cannes last week and had a rare old time. In between the drinking, they handed out some awards.

In the digital (Cyber Lions - it already sounds a bit dated, doesn't it?) category Diesel, Nike+ and Dove won Grands Prix. Three great campaigns, very different, but all with interesting things to tell us.

Diesel
I blogged about Heidies before, and still think it is one of the best campaigns I have seen in a long time. The great thing about it was the low-fi feel of the site - minimum “design” no flash, content pulled in from flickr, youtube, myspace etc. It clearly demonstrated how your site can be a hub for much more interesting work in social media, and can be a lot more dynamic because of it. The level of interaction was awesome, as was the randomness (people suggested ideas for photoshoots, which led to the “Panda Head” shots.) You could also enter comments that would then appear on a screen in their hotel room. 50/50 whether they would notice or not. Which in itself was great fun.

It reminded of a conversation I was having with a friend about constructing and managing social media strategies. He said “The thing is, I've got mates in bands who just do this. They don't have an idea of why it works or what they'll get out of it - they just do it”

Nike+
Yes, clever technology. Yes, Nike and Apple combine in a kind of Brangelina for geeks way. Yes, beautiful design and execution. But, they genius of Nike Plus for me is the social aspect. This is a great example of NOT doing what Joshua calls “An Over-Focus on Social Value”. Instead of attempting to build an entire social networking site and building a community around it, Nike concentrated on running (which is the essence of Nike - loving sports, not as a consultant once told me “Owning street sports”. Whatever that meant.) They allowed you to track your time, distance etc so you could see improvement. And they added a few things to the site that allowed people to compete at running and share their routes. Competition and cooperation - the two great things about sport.

However, logging on today I see that as a result of the TV push (Share your Addiction) they have stuck a clunky User-Generated-Content thing on the front, which doesn't seem necessary. So I take back what I said, for the time being.

Dove.
Two things. First, if this had been a TV ad, would it have caused the stir that it did as a viral? If it appeared in the background as you were arguing about Big Brother, would so many people have been so blown away by it?
Secondly, what a great example of a consistent global positioning delivering great value. A viral idea made in Canada goes worldwide, beyond the control of agency/client, and does exactly the same job in every market? Genius. It also spawned some great spoofs.