02 July 2008

Posted at 15:39h in blogspot, communication, generation y, new media, rss, social media, trends, youtube by

I'm normally fairly good with people's birthday yet I missed a friend's yesterday. I only discovered it today when I opened my diary and realised the reason I forgot is because she doesn't have a Facebook account. I've come to rely on this tool but also many other aspects of social media. It hasn't just given me more channels to communicate but has now become a main source of information and entertainment. The way I contact people and stay in touch with them has changed with Facebook. The way I watch my favourite television shows has changed with YouTube, which has also opened up infinite hours of UGC. Similarly, the radio is streamed via podcasts. The daily read of a newspaper has changed with my RSS Subscriptions where I choose what I want to read. Interestingly, these changes are all free. No wonder Generation Y is so reliant on social media....

24 February 2008

Posted at 12:00h in andy lee, blogspot, chaser's war on everything, facebook, hamish blake, naked, sprite, truth hunters, youtube by

Or is it? In what was set to be a very creative campaign Sprite's Thirst For Truth was launched a month ago. Appearing as a cross between the Chaser's War On Everything and Hamish and Andy, Truth Hunters AJ and Nicos aim these three minute videos at 16 to 24 year olds in an attempt to uncover "unspoken, brutal honest truths". The campaign has your usual vitals; a Facebook page, YouTube channel, blog and more but it seems the campaign hasn't quite received the attention they wanted. A contest asking for user submissions of people videoing their own Truths didn't receive a single entry. Promotions were run through billboards, bus sides and a cinema spot, yet $500 and a free trip to Sydney went unnoticed. Even after a month, I only heard about this campaign through someone at Naked Communications. It raises the question, does new media require old media? Can you successfully market a campaign digitally without a traditional launch? Perhaps in two years things will be different but at least here in Australia and now in the present a thirty second spot would have benefited this campaign greatly....