The Turkeyoff began on Thursday afternoon when we launched www.turkeyoff.com to help our friends Michael and Phil at the Christmas Farm. They are newbies at the farm and have grown attached to two of their turkeys.
So we’re helping them save one by getting people to vote for the turkey they think should stay alive and the turkey that should be eaten. Remember that’s why the turkeys are at the farm, so if we can help keep one alive then our work has done good.
People can follow the turkeys Brad and Beyonce by becoming a fan of them on Facebook, Digg, Linkdin or Twitter. The agency has been split down the middle with half on Team Beyonce and the other half on Team Brad – the battle has commenced! Now it’s your turn to join in.
Yes it’s been a busy few weeks for Lily’s Kitchen. Getting in 3 books in 3 weeks. But we just received confirmation (The book finally arrived on our desk) and it’s true. Lily’s Kitchen made it into the D&AD annual 2009. We’re so proud. Sniff. Go on girl.
In the final days before any campaign goes live the working days tend to get longer as the t’s are crossed and the lower case j’s are dotted, but with a campaign as unusual as giffgaff Tool Hire it should have come as no surprise that they also got weirder.
And so it was, on launch day minus one, a crack team of creatives and one unfortunate Account Manager (who wishes not to be named Duncan) were dispatched to get some heart-warming photos of the giffgaff Gimp helping passers-by in central London.
According to the aforementioned luckless account man ‘you don’t know embarrassment until you have stood in a side-street in your pants trying to pull on a pink spandex gimp suit, while office workers crowd the windows above you to get a better look.’
The strangeness didn’t end there either.
With literally hours to go to launch it was decided that giffgaff needed a song. Of course it needed a song (slaps hand to forehead). It would have been remiss, nay, negligent to launch such a brand without a jingle.
Well, who needs Josh and his Superband (what is a Superband anyway?) when you have Youtube star Daveyboyz and an Account Manager who seems to have taken rather a liking to lurid spandex on hand for an impromptu gig in the corner of the Albion board room
They went on to rally the troops with a lovely bit of Roberta Flack’s Killing me softly.
The new people powered mobile service giffgaff goes live today (Wednesday 24th). It’s been a busy time for us creating the brand from scratch. But the job has really just begun. Now everyone has to know about it. And what better way for a people powered company to spread the word than let the people do the spreading. Oh, yawn you’re thinking another UGC advertising campaign? Well no.
giffgaff Tool Hire is now open for business. Anyone can hire a giffgaff tool, but here’s the hard bit – you’ve got to go and do something interesting with it. You could take out The Musicle (pictured above) and delight the crowds with pedal-powered sounds. Or you could take out Cuddle Monster with a few friends and fondle… er cuddle people. There are currently 13 tools (with more to come) and all are physically delivered by van to the hirer in a suitably agreeable location. Hirers must then use the tool to help people out in a way that will bring joy to the people, with one of their friends filming them. The carrot is a year’s free service for both of them. A bit of mutual back scratching, like the brand itself. And unlike most user generated campaigns it shows some imagination from the brand. giffgaff provide the tools, the people provide the power.
To be fair no sane company would ever construct such a way of promoting itself. But giffgaff isn’t an ordinary kinda company. The project has nearly buried 2 legal teams, several producers and teams of prop makers.
We’ve even created the giffgaff song. Will it give X Factor a run for its money at Xmas? No.
