The Fancy - Online Retail Made Social

Straight from the source, “Fancy is part store, blog, magazine and wish list”, from the outside prospective, it’s another to add to the list of Pinterest ‘Pin’-mposters. But don’t write it off too quickly, there is more behind this new social platform than just a copycat.

The Fancy is a Pinterest-style website which displays photos of items each individual user may like; in categories such as fashion, travel/accommodation, décor, gadgets… you get the idea. When you sign up the website initially asks you to choose some basic interests and it goes from there. There are a few major differences between The Fancy and Pinterest but above all the idea behind The Fancy is that you are creating a list of things you’d like to buy, rather than a collection of things you wish would define you (or is that just my take on Pinterest?). Once you click on a featured photo you are given options, and I don’t just mean how to categorize it. You can ‘buy it’, get ‘more info’, ‘sell it’, ‘show someone’, among a other options.

If it hasn’t come to your attention already then we’ll enlighten you with the hard facts. The Pinterest audience is 80% women. We welcome man-friendly social media in this agency; therefore, the buy power and variety of the actual items featured on The Fancy are much more our style. Personally, I very much appreciated the myriad of choices I get when I’m looking for a way to use up my extra bit of pumpkin (or insert left over ingredient here), but my males counterparts? Maybe not so interested.

The Fancy has something for everyone, stereotypes and preferences aside so we suggest you check it out and add one more social media platform to your daily list of time-wasters.

And just in case you’re not convinced The Fancy is an $18 million dollar start-up with investors such as Aston Kutcher, P Diddy, Kayne West and MTV Exec’s. Head to TheFancy.com to see what all the hype is about.

Wunderman welcomes a new Account Manager

It is with absolute pleasure that we announce a new face - Julia Herbert.

Growing up in Chatswood, NSW, Julia joins us as Account Manager with a digital focus. Having previous worked as an account director working on a mix of clients and projects, Julia will be working closely with team members and clients at Wunderman.

Julia is a self-confessed Facebook dependant with an arty side. She uses her spare time to paint and draw… maybe the Wunderpeeps might be able to convince her to paint something for the office!

Welcome to the team Julia!

A Wunderman Melbourne update

We know it’s only March but Wunderman Melbourne has had a busy year! It’s all started with the launch of the Colonial Buy Smart iPad app which was a 2 week retail blitz campaign (picture below) that prompted 8,000 new members added to the database as well as a sales total of $1,438,718!

We also had the launch of the brand new Killawarra website and Facebook page which is being promoted with the amazing Killawara K Klub giveaway. We’d be lying if we said we weren’t jealous of the winners of this VIP experience. Limo service and free Killawara? What a great night out!

For this event Killawara is pairing up with She Can DJ and giving away a personally signed She Can DJ presents Minx CD, plus K Klub shows featuring She Can DJ artists at top nightclubs around Australia.

A work in progress, the Melbourne office has created a brand-new experience for potential new car owners. The Ford Falcon, a powerful sedan, is set to suit even the most dedicated Ute drivers. Wunderman Melbourne has created a website component called an 'experience tab' which allows visitors to explore each and every way the car can possibly be built. Coming soon are videos which will demonstrate how each component of the car functions so that possible buyers can choose the best features for their needs.

Sticking with the current theme, the Ford website has introduced these ‘experience’ tabs all over the website. The all-new Ford Kuga is a dynamic, high-quality vehicle that calls out to adventurous drivers. Videos are on display throughout the website to ensure that each user gets a full-on experience and can see all of the angles that this SUV has to offer. Check out the Wunderman team’s handy work.

5 horses, 1 fine lady, and a pair of damn sexy boots

Check out the latest work from our Melbourne office for equestrian apparel brand Weatherbeeta to launch their new fashion product, Dublin boots.

Australia's best horse trainers spent weeks making star performers out of these six magnificent creatures. And only one of them was human. Produced by AMVI, this viral film is already causing a stir amongst riders for the horses, women for the boots, and men for who's wearing them.

Monster challenge for Digital Production team

Once a month there is Digital Production team meet for a team building activity. This month the team were given the monstrous challenge of building pipe cleaner monsters.

As you can see from the pictures in this post, each and every one of the team expresses themselves in a very unique way, and in any contest, there can be only one winner and this month’s winner.

Voted by an independent 3^rd party, Nicole Green won with her monster “Snooki” (below). Snooki the hideous monster was not available for an interview.

No monsters were hurt in the making of this blog post and all monsters were promptly freed into the wilderness of the Sydney streets.

For more information feel free to contact us via our Twitter or Facebook page.

Wunderful start for new recruits

This week Wunderman are proud to announce an additional two new members of staff to the Wunderteam!

Firstly let’s give a warm welcome to Arthur Lin.

Arthur has a Masters in Master of Engineering Science from the Melbourne University and can speak fluent Mandarin.

He will be joining the Wunderman team as a CRM analyst in both our Sydney and Melbourne office.

Next we’ve got Emily Burns who joins us from Wunderman in the UK as an account manager. With previous experience with Global Nokia team, she will be an excellent addition to the Nokia team in Sydney.

As a graduate from Bath University, it is her first time in Australia and she looks forward to exploring everything that Australia has to offer.

Out with the old

Unfortunately this post isn’t dedicated to new members of the Wunderman team.

We sadly announce that our own Hakan Gogebakan will be leaving Wunderman Sydney after 3 years working on the Nokia account. A crucial part of the team, he supported account setup, operationalisation of the business and major campaign management. Hakan recounted one particular favourable moment:

“My wife and I welcomed our baby boy into the world on April 20^th 2010, we received a sweet package from the team at Wunderman. Package was generous and warm hearted. We appreciated the kind gesture – most importantly the ‘thought counted’!”He’s now leaving us for DGM Australia, but he fondly remembers his time at Wunderman.

We will miss you Hakan!

Students given an excuse to use fake tan

Who would have thought that using fake tan could get you a whole host of prizes?

In conjunction with MTV, Microsoft is running a Back to University competition called the ‘Lighten Up Challenge’.

Students enter the competition as a team to compete in various fun activities such as a Jersey Shore tanning competition where they have one minute to tan their team mate along with a hot tub foam fumble and other activities.

Prizes include an exceptional ‘Back to Uni’ pack which includes an Acer S3 Ultrabook with Windows, Nokia Lumia, tickets to Creamfields and much more!

This challenge is open to students aged 18-25 that are about to or currently attend Sydney and Melbourne university.

Students can access the registration form by clicking on this link.

Amazing Everyday, Every Day.

Nokia's Windows Phone 'Lumia' is coming soon. To celebrate it's arrival on 1 March 2012, we are hosting a month of the amazing everyday, every single day. All captured on the amazing Lumia.

To get a taste, watch the teaser. Then stay tuned on amazingeveryday.com.au from March 1st to see a little piece of the amazing everyday, every day.

Wunderman Valentine’s BBQ

It started as if it was any other day. Coffee was consumed, meetings were managed and emails were exchanged. Yet the staff members of Wunderman had no idea what was in store for them...

Lunch beckoned and our Wundermen and Wunderwomen leapt from their desks to find a beautiful Valentine’s Day BBQ.

From succulent barbeque chicken to thirst-quenching melon (and even a drop of rosé), the Wunderful Serena Wong, Hakan Gogebakan, Tamie Wong, Judit Sandor, Elaine Loke, Emily Murison and Heidi Robinson tirelessly slaved to reward the hardworking staff at Wunderman.

Readers will be pleased to know that very single member of the Wunderman BBQ team were all held responsible by senior management for the resulting rotund bellies and placid smiles.

...So here’s a loving thank you to the team and we all plead for the same performance again next year!

Facebook Timeline for brand pages

Facebook have now announced that it will be rolling out ‘Facebook Timeline’ for all users.

Loyal fans will see then change on the 29^th of February but luckily for the social networking obsessed at Wunderman, many of us have toyed around with it for quite some time now.

Users will be getting a 7-day grace period in which they can delete and hide all the content that they do not what to show. Once users have completed the changeover to Facebook timeline they will not be able to change back.

Wait a second, what exactly is a Facebook Timeline?

Facebook will be changing your wall, and instead of the standard one column on their ‘Wall’, users with the new Facebook Timeline will be presented with two columns. All previous information will also be sorted into chronological order allowing ‘Friends’ to visit any previously recorded events in their Facebook life.

Of course all events displayed on each user’s Facebook Timeline is completely controllable and users can even add or delete any previous event in their life.

Events are organised into five different categories – Work & Education, Family & Relationships, Home & Living, Health & Wellbeing, Travel & Experiences. Each of these is then subcategorised. If that’s not enough, users can customise their life event.

How will brand pages be affected?

Wunderman’s own Facebook insider has disclosed that ‘Facebook Timeline’ will be arriving for brand pages very soon but what exactly are the implications of this change?

At this time it is difficult to say with certainty what will happen but there are some pretty big clues:

• Visit the past in a single click – as mentioned above, Facebook Timeline allows users to go to any point in the page’s history. This means that users will have the ability to see any of their previous campaigns, posts and interactions on Facebook. Businesses may want to think about reviewing their Facebook interaction history, no matter how long that may be.
• · Life events – If the change also allows brand pages to add exact dates events, businesses may want to think about fully detailing their major events since they were first founded. Smaller businesses may even want to show when their employees joined – if employees agree that is.
• · Apps – One of the wonderful things about Facebook Timeline is that many apps show a ‘Recent Activity’ section. This is great for brands to showcase their activities on other social networks such as Pinterest.

Pin your interest on Pinterest

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?

Sydney Harbour Light Show

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.