Wunderings

Pin your interest on Pinterest

2012-02-01T10:20:00.003+11:00

There are lots of social networks that come and go without the average Joe even batting an eyelid, but there is one in the vast digital frontier that is bound to pin down your interest.

Taken out of beta (testing) only 10 months ago, Pinterest has grown from strength to strength (Unique visitors increased by 429 percent in two months!). It is described as a ‘vision board-styled photo sharing website where users can create and manage theme-based image collections’.

Now we’ve all heard of an image sharing social networks before such as Flickr but Pinterest has segregated itself from the rest.

For starters Pinterest requires you to register your interest before you’re allowed to join, and all you have to do is to look at the initial interest generated by Google+ to see that Pinterest has the right formula.

After registering you are bound to feel slightly overwhelmed. You’re immediately presented with an abundance of images with 33 categories to choose from, and as the same as Twitter, the terminology seems alien.

Then again, that’s what is just so good about Pinterest. There are such a variety of images that it’s impossible to get bored and in a similar fashion to Retweeting, Pinterest gives users the option to ‘Repin’ onto their own custom boards.

Of course depending on how interesting your choice of photos in your board and the regularity of updates, people that are also interested can follow your board.

Wait a minute that’s only the picture section. Pinterest also allows people to ‘Repin’ Videos and Gifts.

Gifts are a simple concept where ‘Pins’ are given a price taken from the description. This is simply another form of a wishlist where people can directly link to the items that they desire.

Some big brands such as Martha Stewart, Better Homes & Gardens and the Travel Channel have already started creating a powerful presence that lets users repost or ‘Repin’ to their followers. With links to individual products and clear online branding, Pinterest is certainly one to watch.

Do you use Pinterest? What are your thoughts so far?

SOAP (Stop Online Piracy Act) aftermath

2012-01-27T11:32:00.001+11:00

Our last blog post ‘Trying to clean up the internet with SOPA’ gave our readers a general overview on the Stop Online Piracy Act and the protests from mainstream websites such as Wikipedia and even the search engine giant Google.

With 2.4 million tweets in 16 hours, an astonishing 10 million protest signatures and a whopping 115,000 websites taking part in the blackout, voiced their opinion that SOPA represents an outdated draconian solution to a modern problem.

Now congress has decided to delay SOPA and it’s twin, PIPA (Protect IP Act).

Although the delay has been put in place, this didn’t stop the takedown of the website Megaupload. The website now shows a single image stating that it has been seized due to it’s piracy infringement.

Many now believe that the highly controversial act with repackaged and maybe even attached or ‘added on’ to a more popular act.

One thing is certain - piracy is an issue that won’t go away anytime soon.

Trying to clean up the Internet with SOPA

2012-01-19T16:26:00.004+11:00

News agencies are awash with SOPA at the moment.

No it’s not the Sydney Olympic Park Archers, SOPA (also known as the Stop Online Privacy Act) is a bill proposed by congress to combat “rogue” websites. This is an amicable move but there has been a backlash from tech experts and industry insiders saying that the bill is badly written and too broad. They say that instead of protecting copyright holders it is censoring freedom of speech on the Internet.

If passed it will give powers to copyright holders and the U.S. government to give court orders to websites that they deem criminal or associated with privacy. Both parties can also force U.S. based Internet Service Providers, payment processors, advertisers and even search engines to stop cooperating with these “rogue” websites.

Today the White House have released this post in reaction to the anti-SOPA movement. In the article they outline the purpose of the bill, define its role and who it will be protecting.

To combat this unpopular bill, Reddit, Wikipedia and a blog called Boing Boing have staged protests where they have ‘blacked out’ to voice their opposition to SOPA. Today Google interestingly waded in to voice their concerns saying that they’ll be staging a protest.

Luckily for over 90% of Australians that use Google.com.au, it has been reported that Google will continue their services and will simply “raise awareness.” For example, today Google released this page on ‘End Piracy, Not Liberty’.

The staff here at Wunderman seem to be split down the middle. Clearly privacy is a serious issue that needs addressing, but should it be at the cost of free speech? We’d love to hear your comments!

Sydney Harbour Light Show

2012-01-05T13:48:00.008+11:00

Forget about that little fireworks display that pops off over Sydney Harbour every new year's eve. Here's a far better light show using two office towers that overlook the main ferry port at Sydney Harbour.

Some have wondered how the cleaners ran up and down the stairwells to flick all the switches on and off. Others have just wondered.

Test your tonsils to the tune of ten G

2011-12-13T18:12:00.003+11:00

The new Dell XPS14z is such a beautiful laptop you'll want to serenade it. And if you do, you could score yourself $10,000 and the object of your affection – a brand new XPS14z. Sweet.

Check out the competition here, unleash your wannabe star, and get cracking on your entry. The comp closes very soon.

http://wndr.mn/Tonsils

The world's largest treasure hunt. Ever.

2011-12-08T17:01:00.007+11:00

The internet. It is a universe estimated to be 25.2 billion pages large and growing every year. One man set out to find what is beyond the very last page. And now he needs your help to get home.

Microsoft challenges you to venture deep into the internet and out the other side to find Dave. Be the first and you could score $20,000. But be warned, this is not a competition for those with a short attention span. The entire internet – all 25.2 billion pages – is your search area. Start looking here:

www.edgeoftheinternet.com.au

All Stocked Up

2011-09-01T16:34:00.006+10:00

Following the recent addition of a brand new Foosball table (see demise of the old one here), Wunderman Sydney now has a swanky new Coca-Cola fridge, fully-stocked thanks to our client friends at Coke.

Just what the players need after a solid workout session at the Foos table. Let the games, and refreshment, begin.

Office Fooz

2011-08-12T22:57:00.001+10:00

The crew at Wunderman Sydney take their foosball seriously. Very seriously.

So when they could no longer perform even the most basic trick-shots on their table because it had become so dilapidated from overuse that it was being held together by sticky tape and string, frustrations with the shitty old table boiled over and the crew needed to settle the score.

We yelled for Cadel

2011-08-12T15:38:00.003+10:00

Tour de France winner Cadel Evans flew into Melbourne for a mere 72 hours this week to celebrate his incredible win on his home turf.

Highlight of the visit was the closing of the city's busiest boulevard to allow Cadel to cycle to Federation Square where a massive crowd had gathered to celebrate his win with him.

Suffice to say a handful of Wunderkids sneaked away from their desks to join the throng!

Yummo!

2011-08-12T11:47:00.002+10:00

Whilst we miss our people when they go on holiday, their absence can have an upside. Like this week, when we had the lovely Stef Digianvincenzo freelancing with us.

The great thing about Stef, apart from the fact she's a damn good writer, is she also makes a seriously good cupcake. And to celebrate Stoddy's birthday she brought in an entire box of home baked Oreo cupcakes. Yummo!

The Greatest Movie Ever Sold

2011-08-03T11:18:00.011+10:00

Morgan Spurlock has taken on McDonalds in "Supersize Me", challenged the US government's abilities with "Where in the World is Osama bin Laden", and now he confronts a section of the advertising and brand industry with his latest blocumentary "The Greatest Movie Ever Sold".

For decades, brands have been using 'brand integration' as a means of getting their product, service or logo in front of hundreds of millions of consumers worldwide. Previously known as 'product placement', this marketing dates back to the late 19th Century when the famous author Jules Verne agreed to mention shipping and transport companies in his serial stories.

In 2010, over $5.6 billion was spent globally on product placement. Brands have paid content and entertainment producers to have their products seen or mentioned in the likes of Seinfeld, James Bond films, the Simpsons, and video games. Even Wilbur and his talking horse Mr. Ed were sponsored by Studebaker motors in return for their latest vehicles being the only cars shown in the black & white comedy.

And this got Morgan Spurlock to wondering, could he create a documentary about product placement that is entirely funded by product placement?

Yes, he can.

After a brief intro and explanation of the practice, the film follows Morgan on his quest to pitch his film to brands in the hopes of getting buy-in to fund the film that he's actually already filming that already features them in the pitch. It is brilliant.

He called over 650 US brands, big and small, to finally get 15 willing and eager to pony up the $1.5 million total he needed. Volkswagen, who has been known to spend over $200 million with Universal Pictures to be featured in a swag of films, did not accept. Mini Cooper did.

The headline sponsor was Pom Wonderful, the hit pomegranate juice company that is now taking the world by storm. In return for their million-dollar sponsorship, they get top billing, their own commercial, and a raft of other benefits out of the extensive contract that came with the money. A stipulation in that contract was that the film had to achieve 600,000 impressions (views) worldwide in order for the total sponsorship to be paid. The film has already passed 900,000 with no sign of stopping just yet.

The film is not an indictment on the marketing industry nor the lengths to which brands will go in order to get in front of consumers. It is a humorous experiment and real portrayal of the machinations of product placement, sometimes to the benefit of the community.

The most interesting aspect of the film, perhaps not entirely conveyed within it but which was explained by Morgan in a Q&A session following the cinema showing, was the brands that declined to participate. Obviously, after his "Supersize Me" venture, MacDonalds wouldn't touch his project with a 10-foot french fry. And the clothing brand Old Navy also declined. Until they saw the finished product at the Sundance Film Festival, after which the CEO of Old Navy grabbed Morgan in the cinema aisle and simply said, "We want in. How much?". Morgan took their $200,000, filmed a 10-second scene, inserted it in the last minutes of the movie, and re-released it.

This is a movie that will attract two crowds. Those in the advertising/marketing industry, who should make it a high priority on their viewing list; and those who hate brand corporations and think marketing is evil. However, the latter may leave the cinema a tad disappointed, feeling slightly more educated than they expected. Those in ad-land will leave smiling.

Serious meeting

2011-07-28T10:37:00.002+10:00

Ten people gathered attentively around the whiteboard for the most important meeting we've ever seen in Wunderman. Jeremy Wilson was taking the basketball team, the Wunderhoops, through some play tactics. Jeremy's a strategist, of course.

The Wunderhoops play against other corporate teams – bankers and such. No-one really knows actually. They just turn up, talk some smack, shoot some hoops, push each other around, get sweaty, and hopefully win.

Cheer 'em on.

Winter Wunderland

2011-07-23T22:27:00.002+10:00

The Melbourne Wunderkids joined their colleagues from the Y&R Brands Group for the annual 162 Collins Mid-Year Party this week.

The theme was Snow and our creative department had everybody talking when they made their entrance in their superb snowman outfits.

As you can imagine a seriously fun time was had by all. Stay tuned as we may add more photos soon.

Recycled agency lunch

2011-07-16T00:19:00.003+10:00

After a particularly hectic week in the Melbourne office many of the Wunderkids took time out for a very special agency lunch at Hare & Grace.

What made it so special? Well apart from seriously good wagyu burgers and fabulous Fat Yak on tap, the eatery was designed by Joost.

Never heard of Joost? Shame on you!

Joost Bakker is a true original in the world of design. He works in and with recycled and re-used materials. He's big on plants and greenery too. Click here to find out more.

Note the homemade tomato sauce. Yummo!

The Little Nation That Could?

2011-06-18T09:21:00.003+10:00

The Direct Lions jury is completely gob-smacked at the small European nation of Liechtenstein. Not a single entry has been relegated to the ‘no’ pile.

Could they be the new Brazil or Belgium?

Only the second and third round of judging will tell.

Each year, the Cannes Lions reveals one or two nations that manage to out-stage all others with their creative genius. Is this Liechtenstein’s year?

This landlocked country in central Europe, bordered by Switzerland and Austria, has managed to prove to the Direct Lions jury that they can do no wrong. The jury members, representing these neighboring nations as well as USA, UK, Brazil, New Zealand, Italy, Belgium, Spain, Singapore, Israel, Germany, Canada, Argentina and South Africa are all entirely taken aback by the small European nation’s effort at the Cannes Lions.

It is not known which agencies within this country have unified to show the world stage their tenacity, creativity and originality, but the results shall prove very interesting and surprising indeed at the Direct Lions Award ceremony on Monday 20 June in Cannes.

Matt Batten
Creative Director, Wunderman
Direct Lions Jury

Happy Days

2011-06-07T13:49:00.005+10:00

When Wunderman Sydney pitched for Coca-Cola earlier this year, the client provided all the pitch details on a funky little branded USB. One member of the Wunderman team was so enraptured with it, he contemplated pinching it after the pitch was over. But no need, the pitch was won and a bunch of USBs have just been provided to the agency. Awesome.

This is a great example of a client spending a little extra to make their premiums truly premium. When it comes to good branding, you simply can't skimp.

Too cute!

2011-06-07T12:29:00.003+10:00

Always ready to lend a hand whenever people are in need, Melbourne producer Lisa O'Brien was at the front of the queue for the animal charity fundraiser Bark in The Park this weekend. Too cute!

A Warm Reception

2011-06-01T15:15:00.002+10:00

Our Sydney office has finally completed the reception area fit-out following the move to new premises earlier in the year. A swanky custom-built reception desk has been installed, complete with logo cut-out illuminated from inside in brand purple (that apparently changes to red for Christmas and green for St Patrick's day). All our national clients have been neatly displayed in purple frames in a French hang, and the big W proudly welcomes all visitors. Sweet.

For Crying Out Loud

2011-05-31T10:52:00.009+10:00

Wunderman is a longtime supporter of the industry as a whole. In Sydney, we've just launched a campaign for Creative School and Suit School, run by the Australian Direct Marketing Association (ADMA) under the combined banner of Agency School.

Sydney creative duo Amanda Glover and Ben Peppernell used the simple insight that without the course, the people that run ad agencies find it tough to discover and hire fresh, new talent. The campaign uses some of the top figures running ad agencies in Australia as you've never seen them before.

The team pulled in award-winning photographer Steve Greenaway from Pomegranate to shoot the campaign, and he enlisted the help of Limehouse for post-production work to take the images to the next level.

The campaign kicked off with a launch exhibition to finally reveal the closely-guarded images to the industry and get adlanders excited and engaged. The exhibition included an experiential element with a live photo-shoot so attendees could get their own crying image. These images were emailed straight to them so they could update their profile pics across social media platforms to help spread the buzz.

For some added fun, a Crying Hotline has been set up on 02 9766 1799 for callers to send messages of support or unleash their own wailing pleas.

The campaign will roll out over the next few weeks with flyers and posters distributed to universities, and eDMs sent to uni students and lecturers (courtesy of the kind support from our friends at Student Marketing Australia).

The campaign includes (clockwise from top left) our Sydney Creative Director, Matt Batten; Dave Whittle, Managing Director of M&C Saatchi and CEO of Mark; Liz Fulcher, Managing Director of Clemenger Proximity; and Simon Bloomfield and Brenton Bleechmore, Creatives at Ogilvy.

Also featured in the campaign were Rob Morrison, Dylan Taylor, Paul Clarke, Neil Harris, Josh Grace, and Julie Dormand.

You can see all their shots (and enrol for Creative School or Suit School) at www.agencyschool.adma.com.au

This year, Wunderman will also offer a paid internship to one graduate of Creative School and one graduate of Suit School.

Powered by Ford

2011-05-29T18:54:00.002+10:00

The Taco Truck is one of Melbourne's best kept foodie secrets. It turns up on random street corners to serve up some of the best tacos this side of East LA.

The reason it's a secret is you need to follow the Taco Truck on Facebook or Twitter to know where it is. The truck is the brainchild of Raph Rachid, who also runs the popular mobile burger van known as Beatbox.

What makes the Taco Truck so good, apart from the food, is the fact that it's powered by Ford. A Ford Transit to be exact. Hands up who would've thought the traditional tradies' van would turn out to be so damn yummy?

A huge morning tea

2011-05-26T17:13:00.004+10:00

Our Melbourne office took part in Australia's Biggest Morning Tea this morning. This fantastic charitable event raises much needed funds to help people with cancer.

What made this morning's tea so special was that many of the Wundercrew baked up a storm the night before to provide us with lots of yummy treats. And we do mean lots.

Just seconds after the photo was taken a large plate of bacon sandwiches and a tray of bruschetta arrived. Best of all the little teapot was chock full of cash that we raised for the Cancer Council.

Big shoes filled

2011-05-19T14:31:00.003+10:00

We recently had a young fella do work experience in our Melbourne office. Matt Devine is his name and he made such an impression on us we've asked him to join our team.

At the moment we're trying to dream up a nickname for him, because he is seriously tall. So tall in fact he has to duck his head whenever he goes into the kitchen!

With all that height comes a problem we never dreamt of - buying shoes. In fact, as the article above shows, Matt has had so much trouble finding footwear Adidas had to step in and help him.

Click the pic to enlarge, then read full story.

Shanghai Surprise

2011-05-17T10:17:00.002+10:00

One of our favourite Wunderkids left us on Friday. Well kinda. Jon Paul has taken up the opportunity to be Digital Creative Director for the Asia Pacific Ford business, based at Wunderman in Shanghai.

JPJ as he is fondly known started his Wunderman career at our office in Sydney, and eventually ended up several years later in our Melbourne office.

Seen here modelling the seriously snazzy manbag we got him as part of his going away present, JP will be much missed. Although we'll obviously be chatting to him about Ford work on a very regular basis.

Are you sure it's a car?

2011-05-14T23:31:00.002+10:00

Our sister company Burrows in the UK does some incredible 3D work. In fact many of the cars you see in ads and on websites are not cars at all - they're 3D models and animations created by Burrows. They've done some great work, particularly for our client Ford, as this video shows.

Next generation thinking

2011-05-05T09:49:00.004+10:00

Stan and Stoddy attended the AG-Ideas Business breakfast yesterday. It's the centrepiece of a week long celebration of design and creativity.

One of the highlights, according to our boys, was a display of ideas created during a workshop session with school kids. These were on display in the auditorium for every one to see and luckily for us Stan snapped a few to share on the blog.

How many of these children go onto a career in creativity remains to be seen, but when looking at these photos try and keep this quote from U. LeGuin in mind:

"The creative adult is the child who survived."

A wunderful wedding

2011-04-29T17:52:00.006+10:00

Although we have no less than four people called Matt working at Wundermelbs we don't have anyone called William or Kate. Which makes you wonder why the Melbourne office spent Friday afternoon celebrating the wedding of Wills & Kate.

As you can see the wedding celebrations pulled quite a crowd. who wined and dined on a yummy range of Royal Wedding themed treats and snacks.

Leading the celebrations were fresh of the boat Matt Morgan and motherland born and bred Lisa O'Brien, who somehow managed to drag Vegemite lover and staunch republican Jules into their commemorative photo.

Wigs of Wunder

2011-04-07T10:11:00.004+10:00

The 162 Collins St building was rocking to the sounds of Poison this morning as the kids from creative rocked the eighties to the max. New copywriter Tash and her deskmate Evan got into the groove as of course did Stoddy and Dan.

Not to be outdone by the enthusiasm of the kids, Jon Paul and Stan also took a moment to revisit their youth.

Day On The Green

2011-04-02T00:26:00.004+11:00

April Fools day today but there was no joking when it came to Wunderman Melbourne's Day On The Green.

After a very busy week at work the Wundercrew hopped onto the number 96 tram and headed to the idyllic Middle Park Bowls Club for some serious fun in the late afternoon sun.

Stoddy took his bowls very seriously as did the members of his rather weirdly named team The Shuttlecocks.

A great time was had by all as you can probably imagine. Special thanks to all those involved in organising the event and feeding the hungry bowlers with tasty BBQ treats.

Celebrations Galore

2011-03-25T12:05:00.004+11:00

Wunderman Sydney celebrated several birthdays (MD Jo Lloyd, Heidi Robinson and Bec Williams) with scrumptious cupcakes.

And Wunderman Australia celebrated a big pitch win with the two offices joining forces in a truly national team. The client can only be called 'they that cannot be named', but they're damn cooler than Voldemort. And a lot more fun. Well done all.

Wunderman ♥ Christchurch

2011-03-22T19:40:00.005+11:00

Our Kiwi art director Matt Stoddart made a pilgrimage to Christchurch a week or so before the calamitous earthquake that totally decimated his home town.

So as you can imagine the Wunderkids were keen to pitch in a few dollars to help the people of Christchurch. Luckily Matt knew of a fantastic charitable cause - NZ♡CHCH.

Seen here modeling their new NZ♡CHCH t-shirts are Mario, Matt and Evan. Quite fetching dont't you think? The shirts that is, not the boys!

Locust alert

2011-03-22T12:19:00.001+11:00

Nothing like a locust on the windowsill to get the whole office talking!

St Patricks Day

2011-03-17T16:50:00.002+11:00

It's St Patrick's Day and of course the Wunderkids joined in all the Emerald Isle fun. Seen here are Vic, Lisa and Libby with a tray of freshly created and fabulously wobbly Irish jellies.

What better way to follow up a delicious jelly than with a pint of Ireland's greatest gift to the world - Guinness.

Our favourite intern JoJo had never had Guinness before, but that didn't seem to stop her from downing a glass or two. Cheers everyone!

Anyone seen Nicole?

2011-03-16T17:48:00.002+11:00

Our Melbourne Operations Manager Nicole headed off to the slopes of Europe a few weeks ago. She's been keeping us up to date with her adventures via her Aussie Skier blog.

This particular video she posted is our favourite - all that powder, all that space. In fact it makes skiing at Mt Buller look just a little sad. Don't you think?

New Wunderbub

2011-03-14T13:25:00.003+11:00

Wunderman Sydney welcomes a new addition to the extended family. Brent Clarke, Head of Digital, and his wife Vitalba, gave birth to daughter Ilaria at 5:50pm on Saturday 12 March. A surprise to both mum and dad, 2.69kg Ilaria was busting to get into the wide world three weeks earlier than expected.

Mother and baby are the picture of health. As expected, Brent is wandering around the office in a daze.

Congratulations to the Clarke family from everyone at Wunderman.

Country in the city

2011-03-09T11:40:00.000+11:00

The City Square is just around the corner from our Melbourne office. It pretty much consists of a few square metres of grass and a hell of a lot of dull beige gravel. At least it normally does.

This week as part of the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival the square has been transformed into a central city fruit and vegie patch. If only it could be this lovely all the time.

Bike-Cam

2011-03-08T12:34:00.008+11:00

A little bit of fun in the country on a postie bike fitted with the Bike-Cam Xtreme 2000 Plus (a mini video camera on a stick) using MaxiPro Ultra C'nect (gaffer tape).

Farewell Rabbit

2011-03-02T17:47:00.002+11:00

After about 6 years, James Britt aka Rabbit is leaving Wunderman Sydney. He's decided to take his digital developing skills into the big bad world of freelance to become a self-made man. We wish Rabbit well and know we'll see him again in the future.

Rabbit-cam:

Commute sur mer

2011-03-02T14:19:00.003+11:00

Paolo Meucci, Senior Art Director of the Sydney office, lives on Scotland Island. Yes, he lives on a freaking island. It's situated in the idyllic waterways North of Sydney at Pittwater, NSW. Surrounded by national park and native Australian bushland, Scotland Island is a small, self-contained community of only 640 residents. There are no bridges out to the island, no shops or cafés, and only a handful of cars.

This means, every morning after getting his kids out of bed and helping his wife begin the chore of feeding them, Paolo walks down to the jetty, hops in his dinghy and motors across the water to the mainland where his scooter waits to make the 36km ride into the city.

Here's how Paolo's morning begins:

Not a lot happens in the video, but it's nice and has inspired us to start video-documenting lots of different aspects of our Wunderpeeps.

David Blaine's record for holding his breath

2011-03-02T11:44:00.006+11:00

This is an interesting talk David Blaine gave at TedMed (a subsidiary of the world famous Ted talks). For those living under a rock, David Blaine is the magician who also performs feats of endurance such as freezing himself in a block of ice for 2 days and living in a glass box suspended under London's Tower Bridge without food for 44 days. While many are detractors or disbelievers in Blaine's feats of endurance (probably due to the association with his title of 'magician'), in this talk given to a room full of people from the medical profession, Blaine explains the process of how he actually achieves these feats.

It's 20mins, but worth the watch. While he doesn't start out as the best speaker you're likely to hear, he certainly builds up into a rousing seminar on dedication, perseverance and public relations.

99%

2011-02-25T11:44:00.002+11:00

Wunderman Australia was so close to being crowned the Direct Agency of the Year 2010 at last night's AdNews Awards. Unfortunately, the trophy went to Clemenger Melbourne.

It was such a hotly contested category that the judges deemed it necessary to award Wunderman a rare 'Highly Commended'. Which means we're 99% of the way toward being the best Direct Agency in the country.

We congratulate Clems on pipping us at the post. We'll take the crown for 2011.

Surfin' Frenchie

2011-02-24T11:07:00.004+11:00

Augustin Neuve-Eglise, one of our resident Frenchman and Account Directors, obviously didn't come to Australia for the work. He's one of those Europeans who take a trip to our sunburnt country, take up surfing, get sunburnt, and decide to live here as soon as they see their first kangaroo.

He uses a nifty little video camera to capture his exploits. Here's one such vid he's made:

Easter Surf with GoPro from aneuve on Vimeo.

Facebook Brand Pages for Dummies

2011-02-21T10:21:00.003+11:00

The team at Soap have created a very succinct and interesting list of tips and tricks for effectively managing a branded Facebook page.

Facebook Brand Pages For Dummies

Love is in the air

2011-02-20T13:57:00.004+11:00

Valentine's Day at Wunderman Melbourne was kick started by a very clever QR Code campaign by resident coding whizz Brett. These curious codes were located throughout the building, giving clues to the location of a tasty bowl of chocky treats.

There was plenty of love in the air throughout the day, with most of the Wunderkids managing to sneek little gifts of love onto the desks of their colleagues.

Out of Africa

2011-02-18T14:24:00.006+11:00

Wunderman Sydney has received a postcard from Natalie Millhouse (nee Enright), our former copywriter extraordinaire. She's fresh back from her extended African honeymoon and settling into married life in Newie (Newcastle).

She writes:
"Dear Matt and the Whole Creative Team,
Fresh off the plane from our honeymoon and suitably loved-up, we'd finally like to formally thank you all for the awesome gift. Hopefully in our future together we'll have plenty of reasons and opportunities to have a bottle of bubbly chilling in it. So, with all the appreciation we can muster – THANK YOU!!
Love, Natalie & Michael Millhouse
xx

P.S. The honeymoon was spectacular. We trekked with gorillas, rafter the Nile, snorkelled off Zanzibar, walked with lions, swam in the Devil's Pool and so much more. Brilliant!!"

The postcard is on the fridge.

The Amazing Race

2011-02-16T09:10:00.002+11:00

It began with a harmless enough conversation in the office of Wunderman Sydney. New Copywriter Ben Peppernell jogs to the new offices from Balmain. Thomas Tearle, Digital Strategist and New Business Lead, cycles the same route. Claims were made about how long it takes each man to commute that distance by human-power. Ben could run it in 32 minutes. Tom could pedal it in 22.

The challenge was set. The runner, with a 10 minute head start, against the cyclist.

For the more astute observers, it was a race of ginger proportions. Bets were placed and everyone had their theories on the outcome.

Ben hit the pavement at 6pm with a cheering crowd to send him off. After a quick mechanical check and tyre pump due to attempted sabotage, Tom pedaled off just 10 minutes later, raced across busy William Street and through a major intersection (possibly against the red light, but who could tell against such a speeding blur).

This morning we have the result.

At about 6:25, Tom pedaled his ass up the final hill on Victoria Road, Balmain, and from the top could see Ben ahead at the bottom, pounding the pavement with long strides, headed for the finish line. Tom's legs pumped like never before and he powered down the hill, chasing down Ben. The runner crossed the line and threw his fists in the air like Rocky Balboa, then turned just in time to see the cyclist only 5 metres behind careening down on him. Too late.

Ben was victorious. Man against machine and man prevailed.

Our resident blogger

2011-02-03T00:55:00.003+11:00

Our Melbourne creative director Stanley Johnson is something of an expert on blogs and blogging. He writes a regular column about the blogosphere for Marketing magazine, and his popular BrandDNA blog is always a source of news and opinion on the industry.

What we didn't realise is just high highly regarded Stan's BrandDNA blog is.

You see we just found out it was included in a list of the Top 50 Marketing Blogs for 2011, compiled by noted entrepreneur and writer Evan Carmicheal. The list includes the likes of Seth Godin, David Meerman Scott and Hugh Macleod.

Stan was a bit embarrassed when we spoke to him about the accolade. Although he still managed to somehow let slip that this was in fact the third year in a row that his blog had made the list!

To visit BrandDNA click here. To see the Top 50 click here.

The Secret of Marketing

2011-02-01T14:47:00.004+11:00

To gain market share over your competitors, you need to identify a benefit that is unique to your product. But what do you do when there are no new product benefits? You invent one.

Keep the noise down!

2011-01-25T14:06:00.005+11:00

The Melbourne creative crew are down in beachside Beaumaris today, shooting a short film for a client website.

The location is perfect, as is the weather. The talent are looking good too.

But why oh why didn't anyone tell us that the next door neighbor would be having concrete poured for a swimming pool while we were filming?

And, action!

2011-01-24T14:02:00.002+11:00

It's very quite in the Melbourne creative department today, with Matt and Mel offsite shooting.

Just to clarify, because we have three Matts in our Melbourne office, that's Matt Stoddart the art director.

Who is seen here doing whatever it is art directors do when they bend over and peer through a camera viewfinder.

Throwing Down the Gauntlet

2011-01-19T15:48:00.013+11:00

The simple raindrop has caused one of the largest natural disasters in Australia's 200-year history. Deadly and destructive flooding has swept through the state of Queensland, northern NSW, and now also Victoria.

The damage bill will be in the billions.

Wunderman Sydney has launched an appeal on behalf of the worldwide Wunderman network, asking for all international advertising agency networks, especially those with an office in Australia, to donate to the official government flood relief fund. For decades, the international advertising industry has benefited from Australia and the global community has been inspired by Australian creativity. Now it's time to give back.

Wunderman worldwide will match all Wunderman employee contributions dollar-for-dollar made at www.qld.gov.au/floods until 31 January 2011.

What's your network doing?

Pass on our challenge and appeal to other advertising agencies with the link http://wndr.mn/help

UPDATE
20 Jan: Ian Haworth, Global Chief Creative Officer of RAPP, has stepped up to accept the challenge and put his network behind the cause. "You can count RAPP in," said Ian.

Campaign Asia has helped spread the word throughout the region and received positive feedback.

Patrick Collister, international DM guru and Editor of Directory magazine, has offered to put this appeal as the leader in the next Directory newsletter. "My sister lives in Queensland," he said, so it's a story close to home for Patrick.

Tyron Giuliani, advertising recruitment specialist in APAC, has featured this appeal on his blog, MediaAPAC.

MediaCafé have promoted this appeal.

21 Jan: Campaign Brief has featured this appeal.

New Digs

2011-01-17T13:10:00.004+11:00

Goodbye Clarence, hello William. Streets, that is.

Wunderman Sydney has moved out of the Y&R Brands building into newly furbished offices at 150 William Street. On the top floor with a balcony on three sides, it's the perfect vantage point of Sydney city, the Harbour, the bridge, and the sails of the Opera House all on one side and the famous Coke sign and Kings Cross on the other.

There'll be parties aplenty, we're sure, especially for the fireworks extravaganzas Sydney Harbour is known for.

While we're still surrounded by boxes, boxes everywhere, Wunderman Sydney is up and running and we'll be having our official cocktail soiree in early Feb when the last little bits of fitout are complete.

Mario's Melbourne

2011-01-03T09:55:00.003+11:00

Towards the end of last year mighty Mario made a few appearances on the Wunderings blog. So it's only right that he repay the favour and help us kick start 2011.

Mario worked long and hard on this outstanding drawing of the Melbourne Wundercrew. The likenesses of every person in the agency are uncanny.

Our personal favourite though is Mario himself, pictured down the front snacking on a Nandos' drumstick. Nice one Mario!

Images of Wundermas

2010-12-25T11:47:00.000+11:00

The Melbourne Wunderkids had a big day out for this year's Christmas Party. After a fabulous breakfast smorgasboard organised by Lisa O'Brien and her little helpers the kids boarded the bus for a day at the Mornington Races.

Obviously a fun time was had by all, but our favourite pic of the day was this one of Carly and her crew trackside.

Many of the Wunderkids also attended the Ford Blue Team Chrissie Party at the Little Creatures brewhouse. Our fave pic from this fun night was the coming together of Creative and Data over a sugary donut ball.

With the Collins St office now open plan, it was hard to find somewere to put the Christmas tree. So instead we'll share with you this great pic Stan took of the tree across the street in the City Square. Merry Christmas everyone!

Aussie Christmas

2010-12-20T15:06:00.002+11:00

The Melbourne Wunderkids had Kris Kringle last Friday. As you can imagine, a few drinks were consumed. So much so that the already quite funny gifts seemed even funnier. None more so that the instant Aussie kit that Mario received from Santa.

Nice one Matt!

2010-12-02T22:48:00.004+11:00

Every year many Melbourne art directors turn off their Mac for a weekend or two and pick up a paint brush and palette for charity.

Sales from Home is where the art is go to the Lighthouse Foundation to help homeless young people. Given the astonishing amount of heavy rain that's hit Melbourne this year, this has never been more important.

Our favourite art director Matt Stoddart contributed this very cute painting called Buzzy Bee to the auction.

Matt wasn't confident that anyone would actually hand over hard cash for his painting, so he was blown away when spirited bidding saw his Buzzy Bee sell for a handsome $400. Nice one Matt!

ADMA Awards 2010

2010-11-27T10:21:00.003+11:00

The Wunderkids gathered at the ADMA Awards 2010 in Melbourne last night. Six hundred of the industry attended the event at the Recital Centre, emceed by Julian Morrow and Chris Taylor of The Chaser.

Wunderman collected three bronze trophies – all effectiveness awards in the Technology category for Microsoft.

The Windows 7 Share House integrated campaign which achieved a massive 10.4 million brand impressions, Throw This Away flat mail piece which saw an uplift of over 700%, and Internet Explorer 8's internationally successful Spoilt Milk digital campaign all received bronze ADMA Awards.

Congratulations to all the Wunderkids.

It's a Kind of Magic

2010-11-10T15:26:00.003+11:00

Given the volume of work moving through Wunderman Sydney lately, Art Director Paolo Meucci has found a unique way for Creative Director Matt Batten to be in two places at once.

Super Mario

2010-10-22T21:44:00.003+11:00

A massive amount of work has made its way through our Melbourne creative department over the last few months. And tucked away in the corner, toiling away behind the biggest computer screen in the agency, is Mario. He's only been with Wunderman for a few months, but in that time he's taken everything we have thrown at him and hit it for six.

This Friday a rare sighting of sunshine in Melbourne also saw a rare sighting of Mario from out behind his desk. He's denying rumours that the barman asked him for ID before serving him that beer, but there's no denying we're proud to have him on our team. Onya Mario!

It's a threepeat!

2010-10-20T23:13:00.003+11:00

After a year of hard slog, new biz wins and several new faces, the Wunderteam were very proud to see their efforts recognised with a finalist nomination at the B&T Agency of The Year Awards.

Wunderman Australia is a finalist in the National DM Agency category. This follows our Melbourne office achieving a State Agency of The Year finalist last year and the year before.Making it a finalist threepeat!

Winners announced on 3rd December. Be sure and keep your fingers crossed for us.

An inspirational excursion

2010-10-19T17:47:00.002+11:00

Our Melbourne creative director Stanley is continually reminding us that inspiration can be found anywhere, as long as you look hard enough.

Today he set out to inspire the whole agency with a secret visit to the Lyon Housemuseum. It may not look that exciting from the street, but you can't imagine what lies behind that facade.

The Lyon family are serious art collectors and architects. They designed the house to accommodate them and their amazing art collection.

Quite how Stanley managed to get us inside the walls we'll never know. But everyone who came along for the visit walked out feeling inspired like never before.

The house even has a music room for chamber music performances. And a pipe organ that has to be heard to be believed.

Last but not least was the Black Cube. This housed video installations and was also wired up for some serious Playstation action!

If you'd like to be as inspired as the Melbourne Wunderkids click here to find out more about this secret that surely can't remain a secret for too much longer.

The Mrs Schwartz Rule of Service

2010-10-11T10:56:00.001+11:00

Lester Wunderman, founder of Wunderman, gives a personal insight into understanding customers, relationship marketing and the imperative of needs. He calls it the 'Mrs Schwartz Rule of Service'. It involves chickens.

Prizes and Farewells

2010-10-08T18:14:00.005+11:00

It's been a big week in the Sydney office with a sad double departure and a glorious honour.

We bid farewell to Kate Nicoli who moves on to what amounts to a promotion but it cannot possibly be in an agency as good as the one she's leaving. Never before have we seen such an ecstatic and overwhelmingly childlike reaction to a farewell gift as we witnessed today. It was truly one of those moments when you wish you'd had a video camera to record the giddy squealing.

And Cory Spence, a freelance digital producer, who's short time here made a large impact with his diligence, expertise and outstanding wit. We shall miss his email humour immensely.

On a hugely positive note, Nicole Green, digital producer on Nokia has received a global accolade.

Ever the quiet achiever, often working late with conference calls to regional production hubs and offices around the world, and never the cavil uttered, Nicole has been awarded the Global Producers' Award. Of over 400 people working in 108 markets from 53 offices around the world, Nicole has been chosen as the one producer who stood out among the rest for communication, project management, precision and personality.

Well done Nic. High honour indeed, and deservedly so.

Gruen Transfer – The Pitch

2010-09-23T09:58:00.008+10:00

Wunderman Sydney was invited to participate in The Pitch segment of ABC's hit TV show The Gruen Transfer. Our brief was to convince the Australian public to allow refugees arriving by boat into the country. Following a Federal election in which both major parties promised to 'stop the boats', Gruen host Wil Anderson chose this topic for episode 11 which aired on ABC1 on Wednesday 22 September.

While both parties talked about stopping the boats, neither gave a single reason as to why they should be stopped. The reason Australians give for not letting 'boat people' in are usually along the lines of 'job stealing', 'terrorism', and the more general 'not welcome'. It's a politically-charged issue that hides fear and racism behind a distorted version of national patriotism.

Here's some facts about refugees who arrive in Australia by boat:
• Only 2,000 asylum seekers arrive in Australia by boat in 2009, compared to the 50,000 people who illegally over-stay their visas each year.
• 95% of asylum seekers arrive in Australia by plane.
• 42 million people worldwide were displaced in 2008.
• 839,000 people applied for asylum somewhere around the world in 2008. Only 0.57% of these were in Australia.
• In a list of 71 countries that accept refugees, Australia is 32nd. Behind Kazakhstan and Djibouti.

Special thanks to those who donated their time and skills to make this happen

Credits:
Creative Director: Matt Batten
Copywriter: Theodora Gerakiteys
Art Director: Paolo Meucci
Producer: Paul Hayes
Director: Phil Rich, 2feet Films
Director of Photography: Anna Howard
Camera Assistant: Jordon Maddocks
Post Production: Paul McDonald, Fanatic Films
Casting: Peta Einberg, Peta Einberg Casting
Location Scout: Michelle Williams
Location: Earlwood Public School, NSW

Run Baby, Run

2010-09-20T09:17:00.003+10:00

Team Wunderman participated in the Sydney Running Festival on Saturday 16 October. The team included Hakan, Nicole, Brent, Sophie and Emily. They chose Cancer Council NSW (one of Wunderman Sydney's newest clients) as their charity, raising money from their efforts.

Brent Clarke, Head of Digital, is a former personal trainer, so he's not only up with all the latest gadgets but also a run-junky. He tracked his pedometric activities with RunKeeper: http://runkeeper.com/user/BrentClarke/activity/16709834

Unfortunately, there are no photos. While the team may be fit, they aren't sound of mind.

Do the Rabbit

2010-09-17T17:56:00.004+10:00

Some more funky dance stylings from the Sydney creative department.

http://www.image-n.com.au/wunderDance/

Ooh yeah.

Don't even ask

2010-09-09T08:54:00.002+10:00

It's not safe in the Wunderman Sydney Creative Department. Make one little movement and someone just might have a video camera, a music track, and access to the internet.

This is Paolo Meucci, Art Director and Premier Danseur.

She's gone kids!

2010-08-28T15:41:00.004+10:00

Friday 27th was a day of celebration at our 162 Collins St office, as we bid farewell to marvelous Mishy.

Scroll back through the posts on this blogs and you're sure to come across many Mishy moments. She was the self appointed Mum of our agency and we will miss her dearly.

We kicked off the day with a huge brekky smorgasbord, ventured out to Trunk for a cocktail enhanced lunch, before gathering around the Wunder-couches for final farewells.

Now all that remains of her is an empty chair and a whole lotta memories.

Why Is Australia Always Winning?

2010-08-13T15:50:00.002+10:00

The Wunderman Creative Director's Conference 2010 was held on the rooftop of the Palais Royale in Cannes during the International Advertising Festival, aka the Cannes Lions.

Matt Batten, Creative Director of Wunderman Sydney, was invited to attend and give a presentation on the topic of "Why Is Australia Always Winning?" to 35 of his Creative Director colleagues from around the world.

This video is a 4-minute cut down of the original hour-long presentation, using the same visuals and an abridged story.

RANSOM!

2010-08-11T09:55:00.006+10:00

The evil gnomenappers have made contact. They have made Wundernome create a Facebook page, clearly under duress for his name is mispelled and they have mistakenly claimed he likes a TV show about a man who drinks his own urine instead of water carried by the cameramen.

Even worse, they have placed Wundernome up for bid on eBay.

Clearly this is they way they intend to extract money from us for his safe return. But I ask you, would you trust someone who steals purple gnomes to actually deliver the goods after receiving payment? No, I think they'd just take the negative comment to their seller's name. After all, they are evil.

But they have already made a grave error. They have set the starting bid at $20. Wundernome only cost $15 at Bunnings. And we really haven't gotten to know him that well for his value to have increased by 33%.

Curious? Try one.

2010-08-10T20:02:00.005+10:00

A healthy diet of redskins, may be taking the 'healthy' a little bit too far. But at least they are on Wunderman brand.

Cosmopolitan.

Emotive.

Connecting.

Eclectic.

Curious? Try one.

Farewell Big John

2010-08-06T16:16:00.002+10:00

Today, John Campbell-Bruce leaves us. Despite his pretentious double-barrel surname, he's been a valuable asset to Wunderman Sydney on the Nokia account. The big man has brought his own flavour of culture to the office and been a pleasure to work with.

We have called his future employer and given him a terrible reference, so there is hope yet that things will not work out well for him outside of Wunderman.

Here, he gives an in-depth handover to Sophie who will take up the reins on Nokia (or as Sophie put it, an in-depth 'hangover').

MISSING

2010-08-06T13:05:00.014+10:00

Wundernome has been gnomenapped.

He went missing on the morning of Monday 2nd August 2010 and was last seen in the vicinity of Basement Level 4 at 35 Clarence Street, Sydney.

Today, this photo arrived in the mail:

What evil person has perpetrated this vile act? Wundernome never hurt anybody.

We are offering a reward for information leading to the apprehension of the perpetrator/s and the safe return of Wundernome. Please send information to emily.murison@wunderman.com

You may remain anonymous if desired.

For more photos of innocent little Wundernome's life, visit www.flickr.com/photos/wundernome/

Belated Birthday Boy

2010-07-29T23:32:00.002+10:00

The last few weeks have been totally crazy at 162 Collins. Late nights, weekends, pitch wins, sick staff, car launches. Madness I tell ya!

All of which meant we had a lot of trouble getting our MD Chris Jeffares to stand still long enough to blow out the candles on his birthday cake.

Today we decided enough was enough and hijacked him from a client meeting for a quick burst of Happy Birthday and some gorgeous mini cupcakes.

Given the importance of his meeting Chris then disappeared even quicker than the cupcakes did.

New brand experience training

2010-07-28T16:29:00.002+10:00

WunderNic is in NZ at the moment on what she has termed 'brand experience training'. We just call it having a well-deserved holiday. Enjoy and Happy Birthday!

PS - try and avoid another avalanche please.

Wunderman Supermodel Rumours

2010-07-14T18:37:00.003+10:00

Wunderman Supermodel 'CA' who can be seen below in her latest high-profile advertising campaign for Ford, has just jetted off for a week in Vegas ... with her lovely long-term boyfriend.

Rumours are swirling about their international jestset lifestyle and this flying visit, with comparisons to fellow Australian Miranda Kerr and Orlando Bloom.

Enough said for now. Stay tuned ...

Paulie Picks

2010-07-14T17:49:00.005+10:00

Wunderman joined the World Cup frenzy over the last month with late nights, tipping comps, foosball chamiponships and a lovely little 'experiential' site from These Days - Paulie Predicts at www.pauliepredicts.com

Vuvuzela

2010-07-09T12:56:00.006+10:00

Wunderman Sydney's social committee hosted another games night on Thursday, this time with an in-house Foosball comp in honour of the World Cup Fever that has gripped the agency recently. While vuvuzelas were banned from the event, the Wunderkids came for the early start (which means an early knock-off from work), the drinks, the cheese plate and pizza. And the game, of course.

Eight teams picked a country to represent, and after the bookie's favourite, Spain (Paolo and Will), was knocked out of the comp in the first round, the spectators were hoping for a trans-Tasman clash between Australia (Rabbit and Nat E) and New Zealand (Amanda and Paul). But Australia fell to England (Soph and James) leading to a best-of-three grand final battle between the old empire and the young colony – England vs. New Zealand. In just two rounds the kiwis scored 10-8 and 10-9, besting the lions and claiming the trophy.

(There is a video of the night, but this freakin' blog won't upload it).

Ten Grand Wins APMA Grand Prix

2010-07-02T11:50:00.003+10:00

Last night Wunderman Sydney’s TenGrandisBuriedHere campaign for Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 took out Gold for Best use of Social Media Within a Promotional Campaign and the GRAND PRIX at the Australian Promotional Marketing Association Awards.

The agency almost missed out collecting the Grand Prix trophy as our two agency representatives at the Awards, Nicola Long and Paul Hayes, chuffed at having picked up Gold, were about to sneak out and go home early, but lingered long enough to get a very pleasant surprise when the Grand Prix was announced. In her subsequent excitement, Nicola managed to drop both trophies, which Paul is repairing with superglue as I write.

These wins add to Ten Grand’s previous haul of metal at both Caples and ADMA.

Au revoir Cannes. Bonjour Paris.

2010-06-27T01:29:00.005+10:00

My time in Cannes came to an end. The four days were hectic, enjoyable, inspirational and career-defining in more ways than one.

Brian Langerfield, CD of Wunderman Toronto, happened to also be travelling to Paris for the weekend, so we decided to travel together.

And then we couldn't get out.

We heard that there may be issues with the trains due to a strike. After hauling our luggage to the SNCF train station we discovered the rumour was true. All trains had been cancelled until Tuesday, so we returned to the Hotel Gray d'Albion.

We jumped online to buy EasyJet tickets from Nice to Paris. The site appeared to be inundated with activity and was chugging, so I called my wife in Australia and had her purchase our tickets online and email me the confirmation. Done.

Since our flight was scheduled to depart in 8 hours, we took in some of Cannes' sights. After some final beers on the beach, we collected our bags from the hotel and took a cab to Nice airport.

Then all hell broke loose.

While we had been relaxing on the beach, the air traffic controllers also decided to go on strike. All flights had been cancelled until Tuesday. Hundreds of travellers were stranded and screaming for a refund. Then they realised the bigger issue. With all the inbound flights bringing travellers into Nice and Cannes earlier in the day, hotels were at capacity and many people would be without a place to sleep for four days.

While Brian waited in the queue of hundreds to find out how we claim our refund, I raced down to the arrivals terminal to book a hire car. Avis and Europcar were both closed having booked out all their vehicles already. I joined the queue for Hertz just before the masses arrived to do the same thing.

In the queue, I overheard the gentleman in front of me on his mobile phone saying he had to get back to London and the only way was to take the Chunnel train, but first he had to get to Paris. I offered he hitch with us to share the hire cost and the driving. This was a very lucky thing because it turned out Brian couldn't drive a manual, so I would have had to drive the entire trip myself if not for our new British travelling companion, Richard.

We got one of the very last cars from Hertz and hit the road at 8.30pm.

After ten-and-a-half-hours, a questionable meal at a truck stop, and a one hour nap on the side of the A8, we finally pulled into Paris at sunrise. I took the lion's share of the driving, with Richard's 3-hour stint at the wheel hauling us over the line.

Bedraggled, bewildered and bedevilled, we returned our rent-a-car, and said farewell to Richard who headed for his London-bound train. Then Brian and I parted ways to find our respective hotels and sleep off the dusk-til-dawn drive.

In Paris,
Matt Batten
Creative Director
Wunderman, Sydney

Day 4

2010-06-24T18:45:00.001+10:00

Another grueling day of non-stop lectures and seminars from some of the intellectual and creative elite. Today, Gayle Troberman, CCO of Microsoft, gave an interesting look at some of the cool brand work being done for the world’s largest software company.

Anthony Di Biase, ECD of Wunderman Irvine, provided insights on pitch success with several case studies. And Lee Feldman, CEO of Blast Radius, totally inspired yours truly with some of the remarkable work they’ve created using data. I know that might sound boring – truth be told, I was skeptical going in – but I’ve been shown the light and now believe data could be the foundation for creative ideas instead of a brief.

After pumping our brains with information, we have a brief reprieve to don our Sunday best and attend the Cannes Lions ceremony for Media, Outdoor, and Radio.

In the former, Australia has picked up the Grand Prix again, this time for MEC Sydney/Leo Burnett’s Photochains campaign for Canon. Carat/GPYR Melbourne also collected a gold Lion for Its No Picnic, and Starcom/Colenso BBDO Auckland a gold for Yellow Pages’ Yellow Chocolate.

Two silvers were awarded to Starcom Melbourne, and bronzes to JWT NZ, Starcom/Colenso BBDO Auckland.

In the Outdoor category, the USA took a whopping three Grand Prix trophies, while JWT NZ took a silver, Colenso BBDO Auckland took a silver and a bronze, GPYR Melbourne took three bronze Lions for Defence Force Recruiting, and TBWA/Tequila Auckland collected a bronze.

Of the fifteen gold Lions in the Radio category, one went to DDB NZ for Sky TV. DDB NZ received four silvers, Clemenger BBDO Melbourne three, Meerkats Perth garnered three, and Leo Burnett Sydney one. DDB Sydney collected three bronze, with US Sydney and Leo Burnett Sydney each taking home one.

Later at the official Cannes Lions Festival’s Carlton Beach party, I ran into the crew from Leo Burnett Sydney on a complete high from their worthy medal haul. ECD Andy DiLallo was joined by former joint-ECD and creative partner Jay Benjamin who flew in from New York to see his old colleagues celebrate in style. Some of the work that earned trophies was created while Jay Benjamin was still with the Sydney office.

The beach soiree is easily the largest party I’ve ever attended, extending out onto a pier and in both directions along the beach from the front of the majestic Carlton Hotel. Unsure of exact numbers, I’d have to guess there were several thousand people at the “black tie (optional)” event, most dressing in the black tie, some choosing the “optional”.

Of course, as soon as Cannes security closed down the party at 2am, presumably for noise and safety reasons, over a thousand people continued the party only 100m along La Croisette at the infamous Gutter Bar. The noise and safety remained the same, but you can’t argue with the logic of an armed Frenchman with a very large muzzled dog.

I awoke surprisingly well after only three-and-a-half hours sleep, ready to tackle another day of seminars, the least of which was my very own to the Wunderman Creative Directors’ Summit. My colleagues have been eagerly anticipating my lecture on the topic of “Why Does Australia Always Win?” especially after the Aus/NZ medal haul on day one of the festival. Having taken out eight of the total 19 gold Lions awarded and the prized Grand Prix, they were all hoping I would have the magical answers to help them improve the standards of their own countries.

I’m pleased to say the presentation went extremely well, and I’ve even been invited to deliver it to Wunderman London while there next week.

For now, the 57th Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival closer to its finale, with the Press, Design and Cyber Lions categories being awarded tonight.

in Cannes,
Matt Batten
Creative Director
Wunderman, Sydney

Day 3

2010-06-24T00:56:00.002+10:00

Forget the blue skies and the azure sea. There’s gold in Cannes. And Aussies and Kiwis are taking a lot of it home so far.

Last night saw the 57th Cannes International Advertising Festival ceremony award the PR, Direct, and Promo & Activation categories in the Palais de Festival. A capacity audience watched as the Lions were handed out, and it certainly felt like Australia and New Zealand took a lot of stage time.

Our region usually does well in the Direct category, but last night the Grand Prix, 8 gold, 5 silver and 3 bronze Lions were awarded to us by the biggest jury ever to preside over the direct category. Of the 19 gold Lions awarded in total, Australia/NZ have taken a staggering 42% of them.

The coveted Grand Prix went to Special Group NZ for their brilliant Orcon + Iggy Pop campaign for Orcon Broadband. The campaign also collected gold. Pablo Alzugaray, CEO of Shackleton and president of the Direct jury, recognised the campaign as a winner as soon as he saw it.

“The idea of having Iggy Pop re-record The Passenger in real time, using a band in New Zealand chosen via online auditions with Iggy Pop in Miami, was one of the very best uses of celebrity I have ever seen,” said Pablo. “It’s intelligent, experiential and response-driven.”

Three of the gold Lions went to Saatchi & Saatchi Sydney’s Nothing Soft Gets In for Toyota, spearheaded by ECD Steve Back and then-CD Dave Bowman with creative heavyweights Steve Jackson and Vince Lagana.

DDB NZ’s Live Rescue for Coastguard NZ collected one gold and one silver. Leo Burnett Sydney received a gold, a silver and a bronze for Canon’s Photochains, and a bronze for Canon’s Photo5. Droga5 Australia picked up a gold and a silver with their 4320 LA/SYD Twitter-based campaign for V Australia, while a gold Lion went to Clemenger BBDO for Support Scent for Guide Dogs Australia.

A silver each went to GPYR Melbourne for It’s No Picnic, and 3 Drunk Monkeys for Sunsound, with a bronze each for BMF’s 6 Beers of Separation, DDB Sydney’s AWARD Call-for-entries, and AIM Proximity NZ’s Missing Pictures.

For Promo & Activation, Saatchi & Saatchi Sydney took two more golds for Toyota, Clemenger BBDO collected a silver and a bronze, Leo Burnett another silver, with Special Group NZ and BMF taking a bronze each.

In the PR category, 3 Drunk Monkeys and Leo Burnett were each awarded a silver Lion.

In today’s issue of Lions 2010 Daily News, the finalist list has been announced for the Design and Cyber Lions that hope to be awarded tonight.

For Australia, GPYR Brisbane and Landor Sydney each have a Design nomination, with Droga 5, Visual Jazz and Longtail Perth each earning a nomination for the Cyber category.

New Zealand’s Colenso BBDO and Alt Group are nominated for Design, and Tribal DDB, Colenso BBDO and TBWA/Tequila are the kiwi hopefuls for Cyber.

Congratulations to all, and good luck for the coming ceremonies.

And on a final note, today (June 22) is the birthday of Lester Wunderman, founder and Chairman Emeritus of Wunderman, father of Direct Marketing, and advertising legend. From everyone at the Wunderman Creative Directors’ Summit in Cannes, happy birthday Lester.

in Cannes,
Matt Batten
Creative Director
Wunderman, Sydney

Day 2

2010-06-23T04:56:00.001+10:00

On day two, the clouds have passed and Cannes has unveiled a beautiful blue sky. As some of my colleagues know, I am immune to jetlag. Unfortunately, I have discovered I am not immune to the infamous Gutter Bar. The festival hadn’t technically started, but the advertising crowd was out in force last night.

Most interesting is the Gutter Bar (its real name Croisette 72) has been ad-bombed. Global brand Yahoo! has recognised this establishment as the central hub for our industry and bought out the entire front façade in an obvious attempt to rebrand the place as the Yahoo! bar.

I don’t think the name will take.

Today, the long-awaited shortlist of Cannes Lions finalists has been published.

Our plot of land has once again competed well, and possibly dominated, along with our friends across the ditch, New Zealand. In fact, if I was to take the viewpoint the Sydney Morning Herald took recently in their front page report of the Kiwis in their first World Cup match, I would simply say Australiasia scored 106.

At my count, Australia has racked up 69 finalists and New Zealand 37 – very impressive effort.

In Oz, the standout agencies at this point appear to be Leo Burnett Sydney (10), Clemenger Melbourne (9), GPYR Melbourne (7), Saatchi & Saatchi Sydney (7), DDB Sydney (5), and BMF (5). Leo Burnett’s finalists are for their work on Canon’s Photo5, PhotoChain, Earth Hour, and Bundaberg Rum. Chum and Guide Dogs account for most of Clemenger’s finalists. GPYR have earned their spot for their work on the Australian Navy and their renowned It’s No Picnic campaign, while Saatchi & Saatchi have scored the highest finalist haul for a single campaign with Toyota’s Nothing Soft Gets In being given 5 finalists across the categories.

For the Kiwis, Colenso BBDO has listed 12 with the rest shared across a swag of agencies.

With luck, many of these will be converted to metal tonight, and many more the following night at the awards ceremonies in the Palais de Festival.

Featured on the cover of today’s Lions 2010 Daily News is Wunderman London’s Executive Creative Director, David Harris, whose lecture today to a packed auditorium was on the source of inspiration. He said, “ideas are neither common nor sensible”. Does that mean today’s list shows Australia and New Zealand have no common sense? Apparently that’s a good thing for generating inspirational ideas, and we’ve certainly shown that to the world thus far.

Given that I’ve been invited to give a presentation to my international colleagues on Wednesday at the Wunderman Creative Directors’ Summit on the topic of “Why Do Aussies Always Win?” I’m hoping to make some quick adjustments to my talk to include some stellar 2010 Cannes Lions results for Australia and New Zealand.

Good luck everyone.

Live in Cannes,
Matt Batten
Creative Director
Wunderman, Sydney

Cannes. Day 1. Base Camp.

2010-06-22T01:49:00.003+10:00

Matt Batten, Creative Director of Wunderman Sydney, reports from Cannes.

Bienvenue á Cannes magnifique.

It is my pleasure to attend two great events: the 57th Cannes International Advertising Festival, and the annual Wunderman Creative Directors’ Summit held in an exclusive marquis on the rooftop of the Palais de Festival.

For the first, approximately 12,000 people from every advertising nook and cranny will attend to hear internationally renowned speakers and find out who has earned the coveted Lions trophies. For the second, 35 Creative Directors from 27 Wunderman offices in 18 countries have been gathered to share their experience, knowledge and ideas to keep the network strong and innovative.

Those attending the Cannes Lions have come to hear from such luminaries as Patrick Collister, Editor of Directory magazine, Rory Sutherland, Vice Chairman of Ogilvy Group (UK), Bob Jeffrey, Worldwide Chairman and CEO of JWT, Mark Zuckerberg, CEO and founder of Facebook, and Sir Martin Sorrell, CEO of WPP Worldwide (and my ultimate boss).

Having touched down in Nice aboard a plane-load of accents from around the world, it hasn’t been hard to spot some of the adlanders in their designer jeans, branded T-shirts and black dinner jackets. We all make the pilgrimage to Cannes and I’ve already bumped into some fellow Aussies, including Eardrum’s Ralph Van Dyke (to whom I already owe 25 Euro), DDB’s Adam Rose, and BMF’s Jeremy Nicholas.

My primary goal today was to slowly advance in the long queue of delegates to obtain my festival pass, then locate my hotel to wash off the 28-hour journey.

As angry French clouds roll in from the North, thundering over the distant hilltops, I prepare to attend Wunderman’s Opening Cocktail party and meet my internatinal colleagues, then hopefully find that infamous Aussie haunt – the ‘Gutter Bar’ – despite the threatening rain.

Room For Improvement

2010-06-18T16:16:00.006+10:00

Last night, the interior decoration gnomes worked their pointed hats off preparing a surprise for all the Sydney Wunderkids.

This morning, when the troops stepped out of the lifts on level 11, they thought they were on the wrong floor. When they had left the Wunderman office the nght before, it was the same old place it has been for years. Upon arrival this morning, they stepped into a brand new reception area decked out like an eccentric bourgeois parlour - in Wunderman purple.

A high-back purple Victorian sofa with tailored Wunderman cushions rests beneath the purple deer heads mounted on the walls in ornate frames. On a locked bank safe (its contents a complete mystery), a purple television set bears a Wunderman logo amid a sea of static fuzz. Past the freshly-branded glass door is a library of books and curious purple objects. Whose squash racquet is that? Why is the happy cat waving at me? Who spilled the purple paint tin frozen in time?

Atop the bookshelves stands a small army of purple gnomes, each bearing a placard with our clients' logos. A rustic French reception desk is adorned with a vase of purple flowers, a purple laptop and a customer service bell. Beyond, an inviting window seat with purple drapes framing the magnificent city view.

More changes are yet to unfold in Wunderman Sydney's rejuvenation. Come in, sit. Stay a while.

Sydney Goes Looney

2010-06-04T11:12:00.006+10:00

On Friday 28 May, Wunderman Sydney’s monthly all-staff meeting went looney. Or Luna rather.

Having won the Lester Wunderman Social Marketing Award for WWF’s Earth in Your Hands, the Sydney office decided to share the prize money amongst the entire agency, treating everyone to the afternoon at Sydney’s Luna Park.

The theme park’s conference room hosted our meeting with drinks and Following the regular monthly wrap-up on the agency’s recent creative work, successes, news, birthdays, and so on, everyone was champing at the bit to get onto the rides.

The agency divided randomly into four teams, each charged with a treasure hunt list to complete, featuring questions, challenges, and photos to collect. But for most, this team-building exercise lasted only 15 minutes. The Rotor, Mousetrap, Coney Island, and dodgems were just begging for thirty crazed adults to regress to their childhood after getting hopped up at the bar on ‘mummy’s red cordial.’ Which is a far better team-building experience anyway, as you can see in the photos.

A couple of true personalities came to the fore throughout the day. Some of the big men of the agency being reduced to whimpering babies – “I have to give this one a miss. I don’t think my stomach can take it” – and a couple of the more reserved Wunderkids exposing their inner adrenalin-junkie, bolting from one ride to the next while jabbering incoherently about how “THIS IS THE BEST DAY EVER!”

Clearly, it was a well-deserved reward for a hard working team.

Gingerbread Men

2010-06-01T10:09:00.004+10:00

Every once in a while our data man Dan Wilson brings in a sweet treat lovingly prepared by his wife Cass. Last time round it was a superb carrot cake.

Yesterday he brought in something just as good but a lot more fun - gingerbread men. The stash pictured went pretty quickly, unlike Stan's tales of his Dad making gingerbread men, which seemed to go on forever.

Big thinking/Made small

2010-05-28T21:13:00.004+10:00

This little bloke may look small but he has a big job at Wunderman. He takes those long unwieldy website urls that always seem to play up in emails and turns them into short, sweet, well behaved urls. Best of all he was designed and built at Wunderman Melbourne.
Click here to put his url shrinking skills to test.

Back to the future II

2010-05-13T17:22:00.004+10:00

Local girl done good Mel Elliot is back from the region for a few days. Took her no time whatsoever to slip back into the Melbourne groove along with fellow returning exile Slim Sheedy.

Curious ...

2010-05-07T18:08:00.002+10:00

Well we have curiosity as part of the Wunderman DNA, but this could be taking it too far. Lunch in Chinatown, Melbourne. All we can say is 'hot & chewy'.

School Excursion

2010-04-28T15:56:00.003+10:00

Today, the creative department of Wunderman Sydney took a short excursion across town to see the talented Stephen Wiltshire. The famous UK artist is here to promote Autism Spectrum Australia. Renowned as an autistic savant, Stephen is able to hand draw perfectly accurate architectural pictures and entire city skylines in detail from his memory.

Yesterday, Stephen went to the top of Centrepoint Tower (yes, it will always be known as Centrepoint Tower regardless of whatever naming rights are purchased on the landmark by major corporations) and took in the Sydney view. Back in Customs House at Circular Quay, he began work on his laborious sketch from his mind's eye of what he saw.

The Sydney team saw him in action and he is a talented man with an ability that beggars belief. The true art he performs lies in the photographic memorisation of architectural landscapes to such a degree that the reproduction is accurate down to the correct number of windows in a building such as Sydney Summit at Australia Square.

Autism Spectrum Australia has a live webcam of Stephen's progress on his art at http://www.viostream.com/autismspectrum/

Below is a short video of his work that we captured in case this link closes.

New Gogebagogakaganakan

2010-04-27T13:38:00.003+10:00

Wunderman Sydney welcomes a new Wunderbub to the family.

Hakan Gogebakan, Nokia Account Manager, and his wife have had their first child, Daylan. The baby Turk came into the world a little early but mum and the little man are both doing fine. When we say "little man", we mean both baby and father.

Says Hakan, "We are totally blessed to have Dalyan in our lives – words can’t explain the feeling. Time for me to spend some quality time bonding with my lil’ superman.

"Will share some more photo’s in the coming weeks."

Congrats Haks.

Micro Ultra Sonic Alarm

2010-04-20T12:00:00.000+10:00

Agency Excursion

2010-04-15T16:14:00.005+10:00

The Melbourne Wunderkids took a train trip the other day for a well earned lunch at Colonel Tan's. As you can see from the pics a fun time was had by all.

Nice capsule

2010-03-26T10:31:00.002+11:00

The renovations at Collins St are still ongoing. At the moment the builders are installing cupboards which bear an uncanny resemblance to a Japanese capsule hotel. Tired after a hard day at the Mac, Toni decided to put our new capsules come cupboards to the test.

Knock Knock...

2010-03-23T12:16:00.001+11:00

Word of warning to the Wunderkids of Melbourne - if you don't bring your swipe card you ain't getting through the back door.

Radelaide

2010-03-22T14:38:00.004+11:00

Matt Batten, Creative Director of Wunderman Sydney, travelled sou'west to judge the AADC Awards in sunny Radelaide – yes, they still think the word 'rad' is rad in Adelaide.

Unable to divulge the results upon pain of death from Jay Wheeler of the AADC Committee, he reports that the quality of work was outstanding and hopes to show some of it to the agency as soon as possible. There were certainly some world-class pieces and a few destined for Cannes Gold among the mix.

While there, he caught up with ex-colleague Dale McGuiness (now with KWP!), who showed him around the town from which he once escaped – yes, Matt is a former crow-eater – as seen above in the mini montage.

Wunderfoos

2010-03-22T14:33:00.002+11:00

The Sydney Wunderkids held their second dodecannual (that is, twelve times a year, also known as 'monthly') Wundergames evening. There was talk of Twister en masse, but instead the crew put together a mini foosball comp of eight teams. Hard fought to the bitter end, bets were placed on the three-match shoot out for the final. Paul Hayes, Producer, and Chris Jerochim, Senior Devigner, proved victorious.

What games will be in store for next month?

A game changer

2010-03-19T21:17:00.005+11:00

Our Melbourne creative crew pitched a terrific iPad based idea to a client this week. As you can imagine, we've all got our fingers crossed that it gets a green light. Much like the amazing Microsoft Surface, the touchscreen of the iPad offers some very exciting opportunities for interactivity as this demo of a motion magazine for Viv Mag shows.

Balloons!

2010-03-19T12:03:00.002+11:00

Last week, Wunderman Sydney celebrated the birthday of Jo Lloyd, Managing Director. She tried to keep it quiet, but the team surprised her by covering her office with balloons and banners.

You can't keep anything secret.

Look who's back

2010-03-12T10:48:00.004+11:00

Yes folks, those rumours are true. It's the real Slim Sheedy and he's back at Wunderman.

Poker player, football pundit and sometime DJ, Slim Sheedy has returned to the fold to help us keep the Wheels of Wunderman turning during what can only be described as a period of business hyperactivity.

He says he'll only be with us for a month. Guess we'll have to wait and see on that one.