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'After Hours' at Bankside
Wednesday, 19th June 2013 at 9:43am
The Jerwood Space on Bankside has been hosting an exhibition which has a focus on work by graphic designers working without a brief or client, called After Dark.Curated by Nick Eagleton, of The Partners, there is delibertly no common thread or theme throughout the exhibition, being instead a celebration of the variety of work that has been produced – driftwood sculptures, clocks, chess boards, flags, films, prints, wardrobes and remote control drawing machines – the only real connection being that it is all closer to design rather than art.
The interesting aspect you can take from the showcase is that without a brief from a client the designers seem to have come up with their own.
The Exhibition runs until 23rd June 2013.Tagged Design, exhibition, After dark, creative, designers, the partners, Jerwood Space
Solid Poetry brings designs to concrete
Tuesday, 18th June 2013 at 10:37pm
Whilst it is an important material for construction, concrete isn't normally very exciting. That has all changed thanks to designers Frederick Molenschot and Susanne Happle, and their new venture Solid Poetry.
Based in the Netherlands, they have come up with a concrete that when dry looks normal and plain, but when wet decorative designs appear.
The main benefits for this sort of idea would be bathrooms or wet rooms but could also be a nice way to brighten up the world on wet, rainy days.
To showcase the product they have produced several videos which are shown below.
£1bn business district for East London
Tuesday, 18th June 2013 at 1:09pm
Plans are in motion to regenerate London Docklands, more precisely the area around Royal Albert Dock.The plans, which will see architects Farrells work with developers Stanhope and commercial developer ABP China (Holding), will create 3.2 million square feet of retail and leisure space and 2.5 million square feet of office space.
It already has interest in the first phase from Chinese companies, including some banks, with the first occupiers to move in from 2017.
The project will see a £1 billion investment into the 35 acre area currently owned by the Greater London Authority.
Tagged Docklands, London, Farrells, Stanhope, ABP China, investment, architecture, design, development
Is social media working?
Tuesday, 18th June 2013 at 9:01am
This post was written by The Think Tank's PR Director Samantha Dawe as part of our ongoing sponsorship of B2B Marketing's PR Knowledge Bank.The PR industry magazine PR Week cites Bruce Daisley, UK sales director of Twitter, as commenting at the recent Adobe summit that too many brands are using social media campaigns because they are cool rather than as a marketing platform with clear objectives. Hear, hear Bruce.
It reports that Daisley said too many campaigns have been rushed through in a bid to increase fans and followers.
In the same issue (3rd May 2013), PR Week reports the Twitter has signed its biggest advertising deal to date with Starcom MediaVest, who's clients include P&G, Microsoft and Coca-Cola. As well as access to data and new products, they will potentially receive "preferred advertising slots".
If you listened to WPP's Sir Martin Sorrell being interviewed a few weeks ago on 'social media' he was definitely in the "Twitter is more for PR" camp...
What are your views?Tagged B2B, Marketing, PR, Knowledge bank, twitter, Social Media, P&G, Coca-cola, Microsoft, WPP, PR Week
100 Year Anniversary of the invention of Formica® laminate
Thursday, 13th June 2013 at 10:35am
At the Think Tank, we’re very proud to have worked with Formica Group over the past 10 years.
This year is a BIG milestone for Formica Group - it’s the 100th Year Anniversary of the invention of Formica® laminate.
We are starting to celebrate the 100 Years Anniversary in Europe and visitors to the Design District in Holland last week got a sneak preview of the new Formica® laminate Anniversary Collection, designed by Abbott Miller of Pentagram in New York.
Formica Group has also produced this short video where designers and architects around the world wish Formica® laminate a “Happy Birthday”…
Charge your phone with a print ad
Thursday, 13th June 2013 at 9:15am
We thought that Microsoft had created a great print ad with their Wi-fi advert, but this one from Nivea offers stiff competition.
Created by Giovanni + Draftfcb in São Paulo, Brazil, this print ad has a solar panel to allow you charge your phone.
Whilst it may not work over here due to the lack of sun, it's definitely a clever concept and is another step towards making print ads more inventive and memorable.
Watch a demonstration of the advert in the video below.
IBM's 'Smarter Cities' campaign
Wednesday, 12th June 2013 at 7:11pm
As part of their 'Smarter Cities' campaign, IBM has produced some clever and useful billboards.
Providing a ramp to help get heavy luggage up stairs, a shelter from the rain or even a bench to sit on, the new poster campaign, created by Ogilvy & Mather France, has been created with the belief that cities should be designed with the needs of those that live there in mind.
The aim of the smart furniture is to encourage forward thinkers and local leaders to make their city smarter and therefore better.
Watch a video for the campaign below.
Skeeball comes to Chrome
Wednesday, 12th June 2013 at 3:21pm
Google has created another of its interesting Chrome Experiments, this taking a classic American boardwalk game and digitalising it.
Roll It is an electronic version of the popular Skeeball game, where the object of the game is to roll a ball into different holes to gain points.
The Google version works on the same principle and like previous experiments utilises a linkup between desktop and mobile.
The game requires players to have the Chrome Browser installed on both their desktop computer and their mobile device, and then allows them to sync the two, utilising the mobile as a controller.
Play it here (desktop link) and go to g.co/rollit on your mobile.
Win a blocky stool from sixinch
Wednesday, 12th June 2013 at 10:32am
We felt this competition was too good to keep to ourselves; sixinch are offering the chance of winning one of five of its blocky stool.The stool, which was designed by Pieter Jamart from their design team, comes in a choice of seven colours and is made from rotation moulded Pu.
To enter all you need to do is email them your name at pr@sixinch.eu before 30th June. Winners will be chosen at random and contacted by email.Tagged Design, sixinch, competition, stool, Pu, win
London preview of Close, Closer
Tuesday, 11th June 2013 at 7:47pm
On Thursday 13th June Building Design magazine is hosting a preview talk for the 2013 Lisbon Architecture Triennale, which is entitled Close, Closer.
The chief curator, Beatrice Galilee, will be joined by two of her co-curators Mariana Pestana and Liam Young to discuss the curatorial approach, challenges and ideas behind this year’s show, and it will be chaired by Jeremy Till, head of Central Saint Martin's and pro-vice chancellor of the University of the Arts London.
The talk will take place at the London offices of KPF at 7pm and places are free but limited.
To book your space email bdrsvp@ubm.com or visit here for more information.
Celebrate under-valued architecture in London
Tuesday, 11th June 2013 at 4:40pm
The Design Museum is holding a free exhibition called Lesser Known Architecture, which is a tie-in to the month long London Festival of Architecture.
The exhibition is a series of single colour offset prints of sites around London that display great architectural design, but tend to go unnoticed by the general public.
The ten sites were nominated by leading architecture critics and the prints will be displayed in the Museum Café and Tank from 4th June until 22nd July 2013.
The nominations include Crystal Palace Subway, Cabmen’s Shelters and Occidental Oil Refinery Jetty.
The installation was curated by Elias Redstone and designed by Ben Mclaughlin. All the photographs for the prints were taken by Theo Simpson.
Serpentine pavilion opens for the summer
Tuesday, 11th June 2013 at 9:36am
The 2013 Serpentine Gallery pavilion in Kensington Gardens opened last week. Designed by Sou Fujimoto the pavilion, which is said to resemble a cloud, will be open until 20th October 2013.A geometric structure constructed using from metal beams, it strikes a delicate balance between man and nature, utilising natural daylight and creating a closed off space, which still allows visitors to experience the nature around them.
Read more about the design in out previous blog post.Tagged Serpentine gallery, pavilion, design, architecture, Sou Fujimoto, London
Riverside Museum wins award for engagement
Friday, 7th June 2013 at 1:49pm
The Riverside Museum in Glasgow has won the prestigious European Museum of the Year Award (EMYA). Designed by Zaha Hadid Architects, the museum which opened in June 2011, has received the award for it’s ability to “demonstrate brilliantly how a specialist transport collection can renew its relevance through active engagement with the wider social and universal issues.”
The museum, which has received over 2 million visitors in less than 2 years, was chosen out of 40 museums from 21 European Countries and fulfilled the EMYA's criteria of public quality at the highest level.
The Riverside Museum showcases Glasgow’s transport, shipbuilding and engineering heritage.Tagged Awards, design, architecture, Zaha Hadid, Riverside Museum, EMYA, European Museum of the Year, Glasgow
New Twitter cards to allow email sign-ups
Friday, 7th June 2013 at 9:39am
Twitter has unveiled a new lead generation card that allows brands to gain email sign-ups direct from tweets.The new tool, which has been tested with a few brands already, allows users to sign up via their twitter credentials within the app or website. With one click their username and email address is completed for them and then securely sent to the brand.
This seems to be further expansion by Twitter to appeal to brands, especially following some high profile hacking that has taken place recently.
Currently the lead generation card is only available to Twitter's managed clients but there are plans to roll out globally and to small to medium businesses in the future.
Find out more on their blog.Tagged Twitter, marketing, email, cards, lead generation, social media
Fun new campaign from National Trust
Thursday, 6th June 2013 at 9:52am
A tongue-in-cheek campaign for the National Trust was launched in the East of England late last month.
The posters, which are placed in strategic locations across the National Trust sites, encourage visitors to enjoy their natural surroundings, using lines like 'Keep on the Grass' and 'Please Do Touch'.
The signs are designed by The Click Design Consultants and also encourage people to use the hashtag #NaturesPlayground as part of the light-hearted campaign which will feature in print ads, posters and promotional literature.
How to write a press release that gets attention
Thursday, 6th June 2013 at 7:47am
This 'How To Guide' has been written by The Think Tank's PR Director Samatha Dawe as part of our on-going sponsorship of B2B Marketing's PR Knowledge Bank.There have been many tips offered for writing press releases. The key factor is to write a release that gets the main points of your news across clearly and gains the reader’s interest (whether a journalist, blogger or investor etc). This is simple but sometimes hard to do when you may be loaded with information that you think could be relevant.
It’s wise to write down the core news elements when you start to prepare your draft. There is nothing to stop you following this release up with a subsequent release, if you have more news or a progress report to give.And a word of warning: don’t make claims that you can’t back up. You may think this makes the release more attention-grabbing but if you can’t back up a claim with facts and figures, don’t put it in. A good journalist will check the facts. Your competitors may read it and counter your claims too.One of the best pieces of advice for preparing a release I was given was by a journalist, who referred to Kipling’s Six Honest Men. At the time I had to look that up, so to save you doing so here is the appropriate reference:
“I keep six honest serving men (they taught me all I knew);
Their names are What and Why and When,and How and Where and Who.”
First paragraph
The Kipling reference relates to the fact that you need to contain all of the elements of the story within the first paragraph of your release. That’s because of time pressures. The rest of the release might not get read, but if you have the elements of the story in the opening paragraph this is what will hook the reader. You can work through the six honest men as a check. Don’t forget to put the date when you are issuing the news, and if the story is time sensitive, and the time too, in this first paragraph or just above it.
Targetting
Who are you writing the release for? Make your releases relevant; you may need to prepare two versions of the same news release for example if you are sending one out to the trade press and one out to the local press. What the journalists will engage with is different in terms of the content and what their publications will be looking for in terms of news, even though the core story itself will remain the same.
Language and clarity
Use language that is straightforward and business-like. Don’t waffle. You can leave further explanations and references to technical information for the ‘Notes to editors’ (see below). As a rule of thumb, abbreviations should be spelled out in full the first time you use them, even if you think that everyone knows what the letters stand for eg: Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG). After writing out it out in full the first time, you can use the abbreviation thereafter. Use standard measures consistently - don’t mix them in different references: the box measured 50cms high and one inch deep. If this is what you have been given, go and find the correct measurements in imperial and metric of all dimensions.
Quotes
Subsequent paragraphs expand the story and a quote is usually included (not necessary if you are targeting the traditional broadcast media though). Adding in a quote from a company spokesperson or an agreed third party adds interest and can help bring a story to life. You can also use more conversational language in the quote otherwise it can feel wooden. If one of your staff has won an award for example, have a quote from them too. Killer quotes are passionate: “We have won this award through the efforts made by all of our staff here at Widgets Ltd over the past 12 months. We couldn’t have made this sort of progress without this sustained effort”. Rather than predictable: “We are very pleased that Widgets Ltd has received this award.”
Notes to editors
This is a really useful convention to be aware of. Editor’s notes appear at the end of the release and should be written under a separate heading ‘Notes to editors’. This is the place where you can put in more detailed background information, appropriate web addresses; expand on sources of data etc. It shows you can back up what you are talking about with more context. Depending on how the journalist writes their story this information may or may not be included. Put in a short background paragraph on your organisation here too and the website address.
Final check
Take time to proof read your release before you send it out. It is often worth getting a colleague to give it a proof too as they will often see things that you haven’t because you wrote the copy. Don’t rely on spell checks; we’ve all had that occasion when the spell checker has changed the original, misspelling word into something quite different.Tagged How to, PR, Press release, B2B, Marketing, Knowledge bank
Kmart continues down the almost rude route
Wednesday, 5th June 2013 at 12:34pm
After their 'Ship my pants' advert, Kmart and agency DraftFCB have created a new borderline ad.
This time promoting fuel prices, they use American expressions to create a rude sounding commercial with their 'Big Gas Savings' spot.
Perhaps not as funny as the previous advert, mainly as you have an idea what to expect, but it still has some funny moments and does lead you to wonder where can they take this next.
Watch the advert below.
Scrabble points equal Wi-fi minutes in Paris
Wednesday, 5th June 2013 at 10:57am
In this age of smartphones, tablets, emails, text messages and instant messaging, one thing has become slightly neglected: spelling.
To try and address this, at least in part, Scrabble and Ogilvy Paris have created wi-fi hotspots in areas that normally have no internet connection across Paris.
The catch? You have to earn your time by playing Scrabble. Given some letters, users must create a word. The higher the scrabble score for the word, the more wi-fi minutes they get.
A clever idea to promote correct spelling, Scrabble and remind people of the fun they can have with words. Take a look at the video case study below.
Scrabble WiFi - Case Study from Ogilvy Paris on Vimeo.
Great ad campaign for Vancouver Aquarium
Wednesday, 5th June 2013 at 9:46am
Found on BuzzFeed, these adverts for the Vancouver Aquarium are the work of TAXI.
Clever and thought provoking they promote the various exhibitions taking place at the aquarium.
The campaigns include pregnancy tests in men's urinals that become positive, highlighting the fact that for some sea-creatures it is the male that bears the children.
Another included a board with a shark fin attached whilst the advert itself was only visible at low tide, and another used its placement on street lights to mimic the Angler Fish.
Take a look at the full collection of creative here.
Now you can play 'Dumb ways to die'
Friday, 31st May 2013 at 5:37pm
Following on from the success of its 'Dumb ways to die' campaign for Melbourne Metro, McCann Australia has produced an iPhone and iPad game built along the same idea.
The game, developed in collaboration with local developer Barrel Of Donkeys, has been the No. 1 free app in Australia for a week, and is charting in 79 other countries.
The concept of turning the viral advert into a game was to continue to encourage younger people to be careful around trains, and avoid dying in a dumb way, as you try to save the characters featured in the video from their fate.
The game is free from itunes.
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