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Ogilvy Group UK has opened a Digital Lab at its Canary Wharf HQ to nurture creative thinking, innovation and new projects. The Lab has been equipped with a range of futuristic, high-tech goodies, including 3D holograms, 360-degree TVs, motion sensor equipment and six-sheet interactive screens.  The Lab is also kitted out with the latest interactive gaming equipment, top-end Apple Macs and a 63-inch plasma TV.

Ogilvy already has a number of Digital Labs in other parts of the world - the first was opened in Singapore, with New York and Brazil following - but London’s Lab is the largest and best-equipped. Creatives and other agency staff are encouraged to visit the Lab to develop ideas outside of specific briefs, which can then be presented to clients or prospects for consideration.

Ogilvy’s Nicole Yershon says: “The Lab is helping clients to understand new ideas more clearly, and to get them to innovate.”

A number of clients have already visited the London Lab, including BP, Ford, Unilever and Fanta. Two projects are about to emerge from the Lab’s ambit - check ogilvy.co.uk regularly for details…

Click on the images to see the Lab in all its glory.

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Another ogilvy.co.uk exclusive - and another example of us giving the people what they want!

A number of people have enquired about seeing some “behind the scenes” shots  from the Breast Awareness Guy” session. And here they are - just click on the thumbnails above and below…

One person who really enjoyed the shoot was copywriter Emma Poole (below), who used the session to, er, get to know model Tommy Maxwell a little better… 

Finally, don’t forget to visit the website www.breastawarenessguy.org  and make a donation.  As well as helping women to become more breast aware, the viral and microsite also aim to raise money for Cancer Research UK. Thousands of people are alive today thanks to the work of Cancer Research UK, but to save more lives they really need your help.

Making a donation of just £2 a month by Direct Debit will allow the Cancer Research UK to continue its groundbreaking  research into the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of all types of cancer - and you’ll get a fab free digital desktop calendar into the bargain!

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By our Buff-Bodied Correspondent

Ogilvy Group UK this week launches a campaign for its client Cancer Research UK to tie in with Breast Cancer Awareness Month (BCAM) which runs from 1st to 31st October.

The campaign – entitled “Breast Awareness Guy” – aims to encourage donations of at least £2 per month to Cancer Research UK and help women become more breat aware. The campaign consists of a short viral film which will be sent out via email and seeded around the Internet. The film – also supported by email and banner display advertising – directs women to a microsite (www.breastawrenessguy.org) where they can learn about breast awareness, the work of Cancer Research UK and how to make a donation.

In order to secure the attention of women at a time when they will be bombarded with messages on breast cancer, the campaign features an eye-catching male model (see above), who demonstrates the principles of breast awareness.

The star of the campaign – chosen after auditioning over 50 candidates - is Kent-based model Tommy Maxwell, a former personal trainer and boxer.

“I have done lots of work as a model but doing this campaign is the thing I’m most proud of,” says Tommy. “I hope as a result of this campaign, women will become more aware of breast cancer and will donate to a very worthy cause.”

As a special treat, all visitors to the site who make a donation will receive a special gift – a fabulous digital desktop calendar with a stunning photo of Tommy for every month of the year.

Emma Poole wrote the campaign, with Maciek Strychalski handling the art direction.  Creative partner was Colin Nimick and Rosie Collins did the planning. Viral director was Susanah Hayes, Neil Evely took the photos and the calendar was photographed by  Paul Greenwood. Matt Cresswell, Mark Rossiter handlede the TV production, Katy Welsh and Peter Hadden the digital side.

Don’t forget to visit the site www.breastawrenessguy.org, ogle and make a donation.

 You can also watch the viral here:

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Over the past couple of weeks a number of bloggers have picked up on an  old address by David Ogilvy, filmed in Bombay (now Mumbai) back in the 1970s and now available on YouTube.

The great man’s talking about what was then called “direct response advertising” - now known of course as “direct marketing”.

One blogger, Joe Reis of Androids (http://androidsagency.com), says: “The original ad man, David Ogilvy, gives a prophetic talk about the collision course of direct response and general creative advertising. I’m impressed (although not surprised) about how relevant his ideas of measurable media have grown in alongside the web.”

Another, Efraín Mendicuti (http://thedailyandthenotso.blogspot.com), comments: “Tell me you wouldn’t want to have him as THE ambassador for digital/on-line marketing today”.

But don’t take our word for it, click on the YouTube video below and judge for yourself.  Just subsititute “direct response advertising” for “online marketing”.

 

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By Drew Bish and Martyn Gooding

Each year, OgilvyOne/Interactive London creates a campaign to showcase IBM’s relationship with Wimbledon (the company has provided the tournament’s measurement systems for a number of years).

The Wimbledon campaign is a highlight of the creative year and our work is noted for technical innovation (remember 2006’s bluetooth-enabled lawns and trees, or last year’s sensitive walls?).

This year, the task was a little different -  we got a global brief to bring to life IBM’s long-standing partnerships with all four tennis Grand Slams: Roland Garros, Wimbledon, the US Open and the Australian Open; and which would also communicate the “Stop Talking. Start Doing” theme adopted for the 2008 campaign.

To do this, we created a website which captures IBM’s “innovation agenda” at each tournament; and we also came up with digital (and press) creative to drive people to the site.  The work had to resonate with IBM’s upmarket business sector audience, had to be adaptable and had to have longevity - quite a challenge.

With a target audience that’s time-poor, and a subject matter that could lean towards being dry, the other challenge of the site was to quickly communicate the “Stop Talking…” message but in an interesting, interactive way.

Our key themes conceptually and visually were that IBM is the link between the four tournaments which otherwise operate in isolation, so the visual is derived from the idea of IBM literally bringing the tournaments together.  Visit the site for yourself here: www.ibm.com/grandslam

For the techies among you, the site was built using high-end 3D and the latest Flash coding and video technology which allows high quality, fully interactive 3D visuals.

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By Kevin Whitlock

OgilvyInteractive’s Stefanie Price (that’s her above, in the hat) is off to Glastonbury this weekend… not to watch, but as a performer.

Stef, PA to OgilvyOne’s interactive creative director Bo Hellberg,  is a member of The Masters of the Kazooniverse (click on the thumbnail below), a 12-piece band which claims to be “the world’s only marching Kazoo orchestra”.

She says of the combo: “Our mission is to travel the world, traversing oceans, marching from cityscapes to countrysides, through alleyways and mountainsides. Spreading love and enlightenment, uniting people of limited musical ability using the ancient and mysterious power of the kazoo!”

MotK’s repertoire is hugely eclectic, running the gamut of everything from Black Sabbath’s “Paranoid” and the mighty Zep’s “Whole Lotta Love” through to soul stompers like “Sir Duke”, jazz standards like “Night Train” and pop classics such as “Enola Gay”. And they do a really wicked version of the theme from Terry And June.

They’ll be marching around the festival’s Circus & Theatre Field, so if you’re going to Glasto this year, make sure you check them out. Just listen out for the lilting rasp of the kazoo. And if you do bump into the band, it’s worth noting that they’ll even take requests! 

“If you would like to hear your favorite song improved by means of kazooage, we would love to hear from you,” says Stef. “The Masters of the Kazooniverse are also available for fetes, festivals, funfairs and funerals.”

This will be the second consecutive year the combo have played at the world’s greatest festival. Last year they went down a storm (apt, considering the weather) and were interviewed by BBC Radio 6 Music and also appeared at the Glastonbury Kids’ Festival (click on thumbnail pics below).

As well as Glasto, the band will also be performing at Bestival (as well as Glastonbury Kids again) this year. But if you can’t make any of these events, visit their MySpace page for more:

http://www.myspace.com/mastersofdakazooniverse

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OgilvyInteractive has given a digital twist to an old format - Panini stickers or football trading cards - in a website that keeps fans abreast of all the latest action from Austria and Switzerland.

OI client Castrol is one of the key sponsors of this year’s UEFA tournament and briefed the agency to create an idea for the sponsorship that could run across a variety of media, including the website and on- and off-line advertising collateral.

The agency’s response was an on-line statistical and analysis package called the Castrol Index. (http://castrolindex.com) Once logged on, users can access all sorts of player information, UEFA rankings and stats on all the competing nations. The information is presented in the form of flippable “cards” reminiscent of the old Panini stickers much loved by schoolboys - or at least those of a certain age!

Constantly updated, the site provides a complete view evolving view of the state of play, including video clips of the latest goals and on-pitch incidents. Users can post their own contributions to the fully interactive site.

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By the OgilvyInteractive team

Last month Ogilvy was a major sponsor at MIPTV, the largest media and content event in the world. And we were there to participate in the debate about new advertising models - to share our ideas and vision in branded entertainment - and to inspire collaboration with an entire industry that knows how to engage audiences.

Our presence was noticed - as you can see in the MIPTV Review magazine ( promoted to 40.000 media/content/digital/advertising professionals in the world):  http://mipreview.miptv.com.

Our favourite sections include:

The photo gallery (see Russell Jarman Price and Rory Sutherland up close as well as the celeb attendees!): http://mipreview.miptv.com/photo-gallery.htm

The Power of the Community - read the article and check out Travis Katz of MySpace and Joanne Shields, president of Bebo on video: http://mipreview.miptv.com/social-networking.htm

Mobile Media - read here: http://mipreview.miptv.com/mobile-media.htm

Advertising and Media - all of the articles and videos are great - see our client Richard Dickson, senior vice president of Mattel Brands, in action in text and on video! http://mipreview.miptv.com/advertising.htm

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By Kevin Whitlock

Last year one of our clients, environmental awareness and education charity Adventure Ecology (www.adventureecology.com), tasked us with raising awareness of the real-life impact of climate change among a young and tech-savvy audience.

The Ogilvy Advertising team decided to target Second Life, the popular internet-based virtual world created by Linden Labs (www.secondlife.com). After gaining permission to flood large areas of this virtual world, we seeded a story to Second Life contacts the night before the virtual deluge, posting locations and flood times. We then posted a clip of the flood on YouTube and sent it out to Second Lifers who’d witnessed the event.

We also worked with Technorati and BogPulse to track the blogosphere’s response. Although only a comparatively small number (about 75) of Second Lifers witnessed the flood first hand, virtually all of them are connected with hundreds of others, and word spread like wildfire - and not just in the marketing community: we got some big hits on environmental blogs too.

From a single notice posted on a blog (plus a bit of good old fashioned PR) our virtual flood garnered a huge amount of coverage - in mainstream press such as The Independent, as well as trade titles sch as Contagious, Campaign and Shots. Our campaign was also picked up by the online versions of such prestigious publications as The Guardian and National Geographic and caught the imagination of bloggers worldwide.

The reasult was that for a comparatively small outlay, we got our client around £350,000 worth of editorial coverage, resulting in a 54% increase in web traffic and a tenfold increase in blog mentions.

This innovative campaign has already won its fair share of plaudits and we’ve just heard about the latest - it’s made it into the Creative Review magazine’s Annual, a prestigious publication which recognises the best creative endeavour (in all fields) from the past year.

Find out more at www.creativereview.co.uk

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Earlier this year Paul Campbell and Steve Bartlett from OgilvyOne created an interactive banner for BP Ultimate called “Mileometer” (see above).

The banner was part of a campaign which started in January and is due to run throughout the year; it has so far appeared on a number of top newspaper, magazine and broadcaster sites, including Times Online, Sky and Autocar.

We heard today that this particular piece of creative has made it into the D&AD Book - a first for OgilvyOne London.

Colin Nimick, executive creative director at OgilvyOne said: “D&AD is ranked by most creatives round the world as the most prestigious awards you can be nominated for, and also one of the hardest to succeed in, so this first is a tribute to everyone involved.”

Mileometer shows how far your “car” (represented by your cursor) could have travelled on BP Ultimate compared to ordinary fuel. Steve and Paul created two other executions for this campaign: Ignition (allowed net users to turn a key on the banner to see the car start up using BP Ultimate winter formulation, compared to other fuels); and a third which demonstrated how much extra power a car can gain when it runs on BP Ultimate.

Find out more at: www.bpultimate.co.uk

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