The ANNA’s are a relatively new award, put together by those lovely people at the Newspaper Marketing Agency. Our campaign, ‘Forget Everything You Know About Flying‘ for Air New Zealand picked up the award for ‘Best Digital Campaign’.

A huge thanks to the Albionites (you know who you are) who worked so hard on this project and an even bigger thanks to our client, Air New Zealand for being so great to work with.

Well done everyone!

Seven years ago the leisure trust GLL helped to organise tens of thousands of signatures to ‘Back the Bid’. Since that moment they have been working hard to be the organisation to operate the Olympic Park after the London 2012 Games have finished.  Last week it was officially announced that they have won the contract to run two Olympic venues: Aquatics Centre and the Multi-Use Arena.

GLL signed a 10 year contract with the Olympic Park Legacy Company after beating the private providers Serco and Parkwood Leisure.

GLL is a charitable social enterprise, so will be reinvesting the profits to provide training, jobs and top quality leisure facilities at affordable prices and will help and improve communities through the services they offer. With this great Olympic task GLL will contribute to ensuring that we have a meaningful and sustainable Legacy into London for years to come. Can’t say fairer than that!

Here at the good ship Albion, we are chuffed to bits for everyone at GLL and would like to take this opportunity to congratulate them with this amazing news and wish them all the best of luck!

All week OK Go have been popping up around Brazil playing pop up shows for Cuervo whilst those of us not actually in Brazil have been putting ourselves in classic OK Go videos using #shotcast.

So what’s #shotcast? It’s a sweet piece of tech that we developed that allows fans to insert their ‘social selves’ into one of the band’s music videos. Using their Facebook or Twitter profiles, fans can then place th profile picture into a special live performance which will be created dynamically from the images and broadcast at CuervoCold.com. It’s a simple as tweeting a hashtag (#shotcast) or signing in to Facebook Connect.

Actually we’ve got a quick video of Damian from OK Go explaining how it works – and since he worked with Google on their Chrome project he gets these kind of things.

So today at 4pm (LA) 6pm (NY) 9pm (Brazil) and 11pm (UK) fans will be able to have their avatar create a unique online video experience.

Twick or Tweat developed in partnership with Kluge, uses pins on top of Google maps to show good and bad trick or treat zones in real time. The data gathered will be used by Albion Cell, Albion’s data division, to help brands understand how they can maximize missed opportunities.

Tim Bateman, Creative Director at Albion West Coast said “As newcomers to Los Angeles, we’ve noticed communities can seem pretty spread out and a little daunting to navigate. Technology can bring communities closer, making neighbors out of neighbourhoods, and towns out of urban anonymity.”

The more flags the app collects, the more of a tool it becomes. For time-starved parents, this app can help them create the best Halloween experience for their kids by going to the right places – this year and next year.

Arturo Perez, founder of Kluge, said “We’ve loved building this app because of its minimalistic approach. It’s so very simple, yet there is such richness in all of the data that it can gather. It’s precisely what gets us excited about the current social landscape.”

Happy Twick or Tweating!

The work launched this week in the US and UK with a mini series of three online films featuring Mason & Jason as they introduce the premium features of “Cuddle Class”: dreaming, drinking and watching movies all on demand. There are some nice cameos in the films too, but we wont spoil it for you (*cough* The Hoff *cough*). You can also see what’s down the back of Mason & Jason’s Economy SkycouchTM on Facebook for your chance to win a flight on the fully redesigned long haul planes. The campaign is being supported in digital media in the UK, US and New Zealand and has been made by a combination of Albion talent across our London and West Coast offices.

Enjoy….

If you couldn’t make it, never fear – we’ve compiled the best bits into a handy video. Enjoy!

Albion Society – Humanising Data from Albion London on Vimeo.

A huge thanks to all of our panelists. Charlie Hunter-Schyff from 02 Media, Geoff Watts from Editd and last but not least, our chair, Olivia Solon from Wired.co.uk. (Also, a big thanks to our very own Glyn Britton!)

Interested in future Albion Society events? Drop us a note at hello@albionlondon.com to be added to the mailing list. Alternatively, get your tweet on @albionsociety.

The Albion Society is a regular forum for our clients and friends, where we can lift our heads from the day to day, and ask thought-provoking questions about hot topics in culture and business.

In September we’ll be debating data driven marketing.

In the age of transparency in social media and geo-located smartphones, we all now give off a rich data ‘shadow’ as we go about our everyday lives: Where we are, what we’re doing, who we’re with, what the weather is like. And yet most advertising is still broadcast and interruptive – putting messages in our way that are mostly irrelevant in that place and time.

But technology companies are stepping up to try and change this – as Basem Nayfeh of online media company AudienceScience recently claimed “Advertising is becoming an engineering discipline”. But early attempts to use our data shadow to personalise advertising are clumsy and even more annoying – just think of retargeted online advertising chasing us around the web.

At Albion we believe the answer lies in the bringing together of engineering and creativity, of data and empathy, and of analytics and instinct.

On September 22nd, we’ll be joined by three speakers who we think represent the vanguard of using data to make marketing more (not less) human. And you’ll also be among the first to know about an exciting new venture Albion are launching in this space.

We are very pleased to announce that Associate Editor of Wired.co.uk Olivia Solon will be hosting the event and we have talks from Shaun Gregory from O2, Geoff Watts from Editd and last but not least, our very own Glyn Britton.

Here at Albion HQ, we are extremely pleased to announce not one, but two wins at the annual Marketing Society Awards!

giffgaff picked up the award for ‘New Brand’ with Absolute Radio following closely behind with a win for ‘Mobile Marketing’.

A huge congratulations goes out to both of our clients and to the teams involved in making this possible….We’d like to thank our Mum’s and Dad’s…..

This year at Albion, winning pitches won’t be confined to the boardrooms.

Introducing Albion Athletic; a crack squad of finely-honed pitching, batting and fielding superstars, focused on taking the London Advertising Softball League by storm.

We’ve had a few practises and are shaping up to be a formidable force in Division Five. Laura “Geordie Girl” Muse is a calm and collected Pitcher; a vital role in any successful team, Simon “White Sox” McMahon’s mitt seems to be glue to any incoming fly-ball, Romney “Yoga Bunny” Taylor is a solid batter and outfielder, Matt “Geordie Boy” Hull seems to pluck the ball from the sky and Aaron “Hinchmuffin” Hinchion smacks balls out of the park.

Our first match is against Pearlfinders on Thursday 12 May and we hope to garner your support for this, and indeed the rest of the season.

Keep your eyes peeled for the subsequent match report!

Amy Larkin

Captain

Albion Athletic