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If you haven’t heard of The Betfair Front Room by now, you can’t call yourself a real football fan. Our highly acclaimed integrated campaign which puts Betfair, the world’s biggest betting community, at the heart of football fandom, is now in full swing with a whole host of tantalizing TV adverts and online content under our belts. (check it out here)

But we’re not stopping there.  With our 5 über-passionate (bordering on obsessive) football fans feeling very comfortable on their inflatable Chesterfields, we thought it was about time we mixed things up, and so last night’s shoot was just a little bit special.

Enter Andy Gray, former international footballer, seasoned commentator and world-renowned Sky Sports pundit.

Yes, you heard it here first – this is an exclusive. So be sure to check out the first airing of Andy Gray taking on the Front Room lads in style during the coverage of the Champions League second-leg game between Manchester United and AC Milan at Old Trafford on 10^th March.

Massive big-up to all involved, especially to our clients at Betfair, and of course to our director Theo Delaney and the crew at Hotspur & Argyle. Finally, here’s one for the scrap book – our own Neil Potter and Matt Roskill rubbing shoulders quite literally with the big man. Although Matt’s jumper has either shrunk in the wash, or he’s choking on Neil’s excessive use of perfumed hair spray. In the words of Andy Gray: ‘Right on the money’.

After a successful pitch to Albion’s Senior Management we are sending Senior Planners Hannah Yelin and Sam Ashken to Austin, Texas as the official reporters for Contagious Magazine and Brand Republic’s new Tech Blog, The Wall.

They will be flying out next Thursday to South by SouthWest, the most important industry conference of the year, as our man and woman on the ground, reporting back, in real time.

The best of all they encounter will be summarised in a series of films, blog posts, Venn diagrams and even T-shirts.

Check out the blog, here, which has already set the twittersphere ablaze since it launched last night. Follow them at @HannahYelin , @samashken and #VennSXSW.

Yesterday we enjoyed our best Albion Society yet. We were filled to the rafters, with people having to stand at the back to fit everyone in. Those who couldn’t make it were following on Twitter, like @debkhan who tweeted “@albionsociety stellar panel -fed up to miss it-following up via Twitter love-in”. So massive thanks to all those in the audience who set the twittersphere alight with your quotes during the session. It’s not surprising that this was our most talked about Albion Society with a high calibre panel second to none.

Alan Rusbridger, Editor in Chief of the Guardian Media Group talked about a series of interesting binaries facing both journalism and politics now: Us Vs. Them; Open Vs Closed; and with direct  reference to Murdoch’s Paywalls, Pay Vs. Free.  ”If you are open that means you want to be part of the way the web works rather than simply on the web,” whereas, being authoritarian, top down and proprietorial, whether in politics and journalism, is ” just completely antithetical to the way everything is going”.

Justine Roberts, founder of the influential online community Mumsnet, hailed this as “ the first social media election. We have a  have a power in agenda setting, because all the journalists and therefore the politicians are all watching social media”. However she dismissed suggestions that this made communities such as Mumsnet the new block vote saying that if anyone tried to tell her members that they all had to do the same thing, they’d be more “like an octopus with PMT” all going their own direction.

Tess Alps, Thinkbox Chief Executive, praised the space for criticism provided by the  mediation of professional journalists: “I don’t want politicians and the public to always have a direct unmediated relationship because next time it will be Nick Griffin. I think Goebbels would have loved the internet for that reason!” She made an impassioned plea for us all to continue supporting professional journalism saying “Politicians without online communities would be worse, but online communities without journalism would be utterly meaningless.”

Dan Thain, Senior strategist at Bluestate talked about how digital campaigning doesn’t replace real world campaigning, rather it is a way of stimulating “real activism in the real world. The fundamentals haven’t changed. Peer to peer contact is still much more important and high value.” Digital campaigning however, enabled the two important elements to any successful political campaign “Money and Mobilisation” a strategy they’ve developed by “looking at participation, what matters, what gets results – seeing what works and focussing relentlessly on that”.

Read what the Telegraph and Brand Republic had to say.

Next time Albion Society gets together at Patisserie Valerie will be in June. Make sure we have your details if you want to be invited to come along.

What do Apps have to do with Affairs of State? When are Memes a Political Matter?

Whenever we plan our Albion Society events (where we provide the speakers and the big themes and the breakfast goods) we look for the most pertinent ideas in society and think about how they relate to what’s going on in our industry. And what could be more pertinent right now, than the looming election?

We started building a panel and have secured an amazingly diverse and relevant selection of heavyweights!

Politicians and Journalists have always been intimate (if sometimes antagonistic) bedfellows. Discussing that special relationship, how it’s been changing and the great paid vs. free content debate we have none other than Alan Rusbridger, Editor in Chief of The Guardian. We’re really excited to have him.

Something else we’d noticed to be a new theme in this election was the rise of coordinated blogging as a force with political sway. We were thinking that blogging seems to be the new lobbying and that online communities could be the new block votes (you know, like the Christian right is in the U.S.). To talk about this we know no one better than Justine Roberts. As the Founder of Mumsnet, she’s second to none when it comes to organising an online community and using their collective clout. Impressive.

Approaching the subject from the other end of the media spectrum is Tess Alps, Chief Executive of the television umbrella organisation, Thinkbox. We really wanted her involved because this will be the first election to have the televised debates that are traditional in the U.S. So among other things she’ll be talking to us about what our first TV election will mean. Interesting stuff.

This is all very “Post-Obama” and can be seen most in the way technology has enabled a different model of online electioneering. The expert in this is Dan Thain, from Blue State Digital. They’re the people who enabled the micro donations to Obama’s campaign, and Dan’s the man in the digital driving seat for numerous local and national campaigns including those for the Labour Party.

So that’s the plan. It couldn’t be more interesting than that. Now all that remains is to fill the very few seats we have left.

If you’re interested (of course you are) sign up here. But I warn you, we released places today and they’re nearly gone. So be QUICK!

I’m saving some seats for people who suggest the most interesting questions for our panel. All suggestions welcome, and if you’re really lucky, you might win a place to ask them in person.

Hope to see you there!

Digital Democracy, February 24th 8am (for 8.30 start) Patisserie Valerie, Spitalfields

Further information: http://www.albionlondon.com/society/
Follow us: @albionsociety

This week it was exciting to see Contagious magazine reprise their September coverage of the giffgaff launch with another great article on their website.

This time it was focused on the great user generated content that is coming out of the Tool Hire campaign.

giffgaff even made it onto the prestigious “If you only read one article…” spot on the Contagious homepage.

But proof positive that giffgaff is not just the reserve of trendy marketing types came when GMTV picked it out as the best example of a new brand catering for a generation of web savvy savers who are want to develop an active and mutually beneficial relationship with the brands and products they use.

Exciting times indeed for giffgaff, and we are really excited to be involved.

The last Albion Society of 2009 took place yesterday at Patisserie Valerie, Spitalfields. George Magnus a Senior Economic adviser at UBS and someone who is widely credited with being one of the first economists to foresee this year’s credit crunch hosted the event talking about the ageing population; an The Age of Ageing.

For the first time in history life expectancy is currently rising and at the same time fertility is falling. This is increasing the number of dependents (people too old or too young to work) relative to the size of the workforce which is having major implications for economic growth and public finances.

George covered 3 potential solutions: increase the retirement age, (thus making people work longer), increase immigration (substitute workers from overseas for UK workers); improve Total Factor Productivity so that we can increase economic output even though the labour force will be smaller (get more from fewer people working).

In a room predominately filled with people below 60, it stirred up much debate as they conjured up thoughts of  their own futures. David Wethey from Agency Assessments raised the question of how far we will be able to solve the problem if we manage to address the prejudice of ageism?

The morning was wrapped up by one of our very own Senior Planners, Sam Ashken who highlighted the possibilities and opportunities an aging population can have for businesses and entrepreneurs – there are tremendous opportunities to target this ‘growing’ market  - answers on a postcard.

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.

She also made it into these lovely publications.

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.

After watching the build up to Question Time on TV, we wanted to see how people felt about Nick Griffin so we put up an application called Slap Nick Griffin. The experiment has attracted 20 million slaps which we think is enough so the game has now been taken down.