Room For Improvement

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

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

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

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

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 ...

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

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

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

Agency Excursion

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

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...

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

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

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

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!

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

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.

Welcome Wunderkids

We're busy, busy, busy at Wunderman these days, with several new faces joining the Melbourne team.

Pictured clockwise from top left are Digital Designer - Silvia Susen, Account Exec - Julia Sheehan, Account Manager - Victoria King, Producer - Nicole Ross and new boy in Creative - Karl Blankley.

With no shortage of work to be done at 162 Collins these new Wunderkids have all hit the ground running. And with some big news on the new business front about to break, there may well be even more new faces joining the team shortly.

Wunderful fashion

Many of our younger Wunderkids may not realise it, but the Melbourne office is situated in what used to be one of the worlds best department stores - Georges.

With the Melbourne Fashion Festival in full swing, the Georges building has been chosen to host The spirit of the little black dress. An inspirational exhibition, where ten emerging designers were invited to re-envision the popular fashion staple.

The show runs from the 12th o 21st March, so be sure to swing by 162 Collins St and take a look.

Wunderman spikes interest in Earth Hour

Hot on the heals of last year’s award winning augmented reality project for Earth Hour, the team at Wunderman Sydney have broken more new ground.

Developed in conjunction with STI Lilyfield, the Earth Hour Spike helps raise awareness of environmental issues whilst feeding a plant as it biodegrades in the soil.

For more detailed info click here.

The Melbourne Storm

Our Sydney CD Matt Batten was in Melbourne for a wild weekend. Here's his story:

Now I know how Melbourne's NRL team got their name. I was in Melbourne for the 16th Annual AIMIA Awards on Friday night. On Saturday, I got caught out in the worst weather the city has possibly ever seen.

I've never seen weather turn so violent so quickly before in my life.

The day was overcast and had the air of rain about it, so we headed for a store to buy an umbrella. While my wife stood at the register, I cast a look out the window and saw the light instantly sapped from the day. It was like the sun had just set. At 3pm.

In the short seconds it took for me to get to the shop's door, the skies opened with hailstones the size of 20-cent pieces. Within a few minutes the stones were accompanied by a downpour.

Here are the photos I snapped of it.

Little Bourke Street became a raging torrent within a minute.


This driver heads upstream along Little Bourke St to escape Elizabeth Street which lies at the lowest point.


That's not just water flowing down Little Bourke St to flood Elizabeth St, it's a sludge of ice. Note the sulo bins floating away.


Elizabeth St is now under a foot of water and ice. The Elizabeth St glacier.


Ten minutes later, it all ended. The Plane Trees along Elizabeth St had been almost stripped of their leaves.


Any underground access acted like a drain. You wouldn't want to have been down there during the storm.


This Melbourne winebar had a sense of humour about it.

Drink up girls

Huge couple of weeks at 162 Collins, with barely a free moment to grab a bite to eat. Although somehow Carly, Toni and Mishy still managed to find time for a quick Margarita at lunch last Friday!

New Creative Director for Wunderman Sydney

Well, it could have been a new CD. Some might even argue it looks just like the existing CD, but it's actually the talent on a shoot for an upcoming campaign with Art Director Paolo Meucci.

(Paolo is the one on the right).

What was the title of the first Beach Boys album?

This and many other questions boggled the brains of the Sydney Wunderkids as they held the first Wundertrivia games night. Five teams took the battle of the grey matter across five categories - TV, science, music, movies and adland - with The Moist Gussets taking the prize pool of cash and wine.

After stretching their minds, the kids proceeded to stretch their vocal cords with a marathon of singing to Xbox Lips. Blondie, MC Hammer, the Big O and FYC blared but the volume couldn't compete with the caterwaul of the live talent.



(to protect the reputations of the talent and the ability of your hearing, we cannot play the actual singing audio)

And as the songfest raged on, the beer was imbibed, the pizza consumed and the foosball table battered until late in the evening. Who knows what the next social night will entail in a month's time.

The walls come crashing down

The Melbourne office renovation is finally underway and the team is getting excited at what lies beyond the barricades. The one thing that won't be left behind are any walls.

Here's a sneak peak looking at what was once 4 offices ...

Tweet-o-matic

Nokia is one of Wunderman's most interesting clients. As you can imagine, the mobile phone market is an area that anyone with a taste for innovation is sure to love.

Our colleagues over in New York have just launched the Tweet-o-matic for Nokia. A very clever widget that brings together the Twitter and Ovi brands into one very useful (and fun) utilitity. Click here to find out more.

MySchool

Two days before the agency closed for Christmas, Wunderman Sydney were invited to pitch for the Australian Curriculum and Assessment Reporting Authority (ACARA) business. The submission was due only two days after the agency reopened in the new year.

We prepared the document over the break, submitted it in the nick of time and were awarded the business 24 hours later. Our first project began immediately – TV and radio commercials promoting the MySchool website. The site, discussed heavily in recent press, is part of the initiative to make Australian education more transparent so parents have all the information they need about their community's schools. The ultimate goal is to make education better for all Australian children.

The TV and radio commercials feature children talking about a single part of their own school so they create a larger continuous story about the diversity of Australian schools. As the story unfolds, their illustrations connect in one seamless pictorial narrative.

The whole sequence was captured in-camera and uses clever production work to create a quirky motion of fast-moving hands while the camera pan remains at an even pace.

AIMIA Finalist

We've just found out that Wunderman Sydney has a finalist in the 16th Australian Interactive Media Industry Awards. Microsoft's TenGrandisBuriedHere.com campaign is listed as a finalist in the Effectiveness category. The winners will be announced on Friday 5th March. For the complete list of finalists and to see what the rest of Australia is doing well in digital, visit http://www.aimia.com.au/i-cms?page=6636

2009 Lester Wunderman Awards

We've just learned that Wunderman Sydney has two finalists in the Lester Wunderman Awards. All up, there are 36 finalists from 18 offices across 13 countries. Our "Earth in Your Hands" augmented reality microsite for WWF's Earth Hour is a finalist for Online Excellence and our campaign for Microsoft's "Teacher Tools" is a finalist in the Marketing Ideas category.

The final round of judging takes place imminently with winners to be announced shortly thereafter. Fingers crossed.

See "Earth in Your Hands" at www.ourawardentries.com.au/earthinyourhands

The posters from the Teacher Tools campaign are pictured below.

Next stop Shanghai

Last week we bid farewell to mighty Melanie Elliott. She's headed off to Shanghai to take up a senior position in the Ford regional team.

Mel's been a fixture of 162 Collins for as long as anyone can remember and we're really gonna miss her. So much so, we gave her a guard of honour as she stepped into the lift and out of our office. Good luck Mel!

Lester Wunderman Award 2009

Wunderman Australia's Chris Jeffares, Matt Batten and Jason Stubbs have been selected to help judge the 2009 Lester Wunderman Award alongside a panel which represents 19 countries in 23 offices.

The LWA rewards creative leadership, marketing innovation and online excellence across the global Wunderman Network encompassing Blast Radius, ZAAZ, AGENDA, KBM, TheseDays and other industry leaders.

Australia received many accolades laast year at local and global shows like Caples, ECHO, ADMA, APMA, Globes ... and the team are keen to get the score sheets out looking at the best ideas the network created in 2009.

Helping to mother nature

At Wunderman we do everything we can to minimise our impact on the environment. In Melbourne we try to print with Finsbury Green, Australia's leading environmental printer. This year, thanks to Finsbury, we have reduced our CO2 emissions by 26,751kg. Which, when you stop to think about it, is a hell of a lot of greenhouse gas.

Image by Sam Huang.

Happy Hanukkah

Here in multicultural Melbourne we never miss an opportunity to celebrate. This week is Hanukkah and marvelous Mishy has organised some traditional treats from our favourite Jewish bakery. Yumm!

What did you want to be when you grew up?

That's the theme for Wunderman Sydney's Christmas party this year. The invites were sent two weeks ago to much aplomb. Our clients love them and are very excited about our shin-dig to be held this Thursday night at Sydney's old School of the Arts, better known now as the ArtHouse Hotel.

The invites took the form of old school pencil cases, purple of course, covered in hand-drawn doodling and complete with the recipient's name in the letter pockets. A Wunderman badge added a touch of branding.


One of our client's loved it enough to post it on his facebook wall...


Inside, you found some purple bubblegum, a couple of pencils, a christmas chocolate and a personal note "For Your Eyes Only". Unfolded, the note torn from a schoolbook bore the invite details surrounded by elaborate hand-drawn doodles.


The invite directed recipients to whatyouwanttobe.com.au where they could RSVP, get advice from our online Careers Counsellor, and graffiti on the desktop when teacher's not looking. Unbeknownst to users, the graffiti function actually recorded their scribbles to be projected onto a large screen at the party alongside the artist's name. We're secretly hoping to see some very interesting... doodles.

The office is abuzz with everyone asking, "What did you want to be when you grew up?" with many keeping their costume secret until Thursday night.

Wunderkids painting the town ... purple!

It's the time of the year for award shows, Agency of the Year festivities and Xmas parties. We have no favourites, we love 'em all.

Here are some Wunderkids out for a pre-event drink looking glam and basking in a balmy Sydney sunset.