Face recognition
There were quite a few entries that used face recognition technology either within banners or within branded experiences to give surprising, intuitive experiences. We are just scratching the surface and when you imagine a world that can detect not only your face, but your mood, we are headed towards some exciting stuff so long as it is used for good, not evil.

AR mobile apps
Holdy-uppy-printy-outy webcam AR codes are last year’s news. Mobile apps overlaying info and visuals went down well with the judges. This feels like the future, but expect a “seen it before” reaction from judges and the public if you put the technology before the experience when developing branded AR apps. It needs to be genuinely useful or entertaining to make the cut.

Facebook Connected films
We’ve nearly reached saturation point with customised films that import photos from Facebook profiles. Expect punters to be feeling the same fatigue as yesterday’s judges after a plethora of wonderfully executed “OMG I’m in a film with a famous person” pieces. There’s still plenty of life left in Facebook Connect though.

Branded alternate reality games
ARG’s were big news yesterday and some very iconic brands were forging ahead creating games that captured imaginations on a global scale. Some of the games entered were awe inspiring. Some were just down right unusable and a monumental waste of marketing budget.

Online/Offline mash ups
Many entries explored online participation that drove real world activity. There were some hugely ambitious projects offered up. The main challenges for entrants seemed to be A: Can you drive scale and genuine mass participation? B: With the costs associated with this kind of activity, can you build enough buzz in a short period to create something that people remember? A couple of entries did both questions fared well.

iPhone Apps
It’s clear that from a judges perspective the mobile app is here to stay as a media channel. Unlike some of the other technologies we saw, apps remain as fresh and engaging as the execution.

But is it “digital”?
Is a linear piece of film on a page digital? Does something need to be interactive to be defined as “digital”? The room weighed heavily towards thinking that interactivity defined work as being digital. I disagree. Why the freak do we keep saying “digital”? Is it any good? Did I engage with it and remember it? Was the content most suited to being viewed online? These are the questions for me. Work foremost needs to engage people and some linear pieces of content we saw clearly did a better job of engagement than pieces that struggled with complicated, nonsense interaction.

Is it viral?
Should effectiveness stats be provided for a viral piece? There was heated discussion around pieces that were effectively TV ads without a TV spend entered as viral entries. Around one piece we checked the Youtube views and were staggered to see 12 million hits for something that we all considered to be just a quite nice ad that shouldn’t be called “viral”. Should viral entries be judged on views or number of shares? I think not. As awards Chairman Damon Collins eloquently put it “Beavers on trampolines get hits.”

Is it relevant?
The most fundamental question of the day. Many of the entries put relevance down the list behind interaction. If it’s easy to make a 30 sec TVC that defies comprehension, this can be multiplied for digital experiences. Too much of what we judged was trying to be clever clogs instead of making the user feel something for the brand. And by the end of a day spent in a room with no windows, the lesson was clear. People aren’t robots. We don’t just get off on “new”, we get off on being entertained, informed, moved, educated, persuaded. Digital work that does this effortlessly, defies even being labelled as “digital”.

This Albion Society brings together a panel of gen Y gamechangers – a group of very special 16-25 year olds; Eliza Robeiro a young campaigner and Emi Gal an entrepreneur. Both demonstrate that this generation understand how to take on big challenges, that they are opportunists, positive and hopeful for the future.

Robin Klein Venture Partner at Index Ventures and founding partner of The Accelerator Group joins to give his expert advice on Entrepreneurism and how Gen Y are shaping the future. And Sam Ashken, Albion’s Planning Director will wrap up the event by presenting some fundamental research that determines that this generation are already making a big difference. These are the people that will shape ‘The Big Society’ and they are using every possible modern marketing technique to negotiate their ambition.

Places are strictly limited and will run out fast. Reserve yours by entering your details here

After the thrills and spills of a highly entertaining production, tomorrow sees the launch of our fantastic new ‘Middleman’ campaign for Betfair.

It’s Betfair’s biggest ever marketing campaign to date (see this article on Brand Republic)  and we’ve been really lucky to work with a cracking international client team in Hammersmith and Malta in our bid to position the brand as ‘The World’s Biggest Betting Community’ (yes, we’ve even got that claim through those lovely people at Clearcast).

The idea’s a simple one: on Betfair, you cut out the middleman which means you bet direct against 3 million other people. And that of course means better odds and much bigger wins (than all those traditional high street bookmakers).

As you’d expect for a brand like Betfair, it’s a fully integrated campaign with a massive online push that kicks off this weekend with the first ever YouTube takeover by a betting brand. A massive coup for all of us involved and a nice little cameo from Andy Gray of Sky Sports, so watch out for that from midnight on Saturday…

We’re also going to be on TV throughout the season’s live sport coverage (football, horse racing, golf, cricket, you name it…) with a couple of hilarious ads showing how middlemen (yes, it’s those traditional bookies again) get in the way of people trying to betting and add no value.

A big well done and a massive thank you to everyone involved at Betfair, all our partners and of course here at Albion (too many to mention in this post, but you know who you are).

Look out for it over the weekend.

Here’s a sneak preview for you:

Since its launch two months ago Draw and Fold Over is still going strong and yesterday we were contacted by Mark Sinclair at Creative Review who had just stumbled across it. In his words ‘I love it, lots of fun‘ – read more on his blog post here and if you still haven’t had a go yourself, you really should. www.drawandfoldover.com

To celebrate we thought what better place than a Mexican bar along the road where (guided by a knowledgeable barman) we tested out a number of Cuervo cocktails. The girls had some rather large pink ones (very SATC) and the boys went more macho with shorts followed by an odd looking green chaser (which the barman claimed to be good for you).

We think our night out has put us in good stead to work on the Cuervo portfolio of products and has given us an insight into the product to help us deliver an international brand positioning and creative platform.

One thing we learnt during the night is that Tequila definitely makes you happy!

Work will roll out later this year.

In true Blue Peter style, here’s one we made earlier. Yesterday in fact – and it’s a great case study on how things explode at the speed of light with the power of online word-of-mouth.

Before we start – it’s worth noting that we (Albion) did not create this image. It was sent to us. All we did was help it on its way to thousands of people via the interwebs. If YOU created this image, then give us a call and come in for a cup of tea and a chocolate digestive. You deserve it.

So, our ‘go viral’ mantra (case study of the ‘England Muppets’ image):

• Launch at exactly the right time. For the tiny percentage of the country that didn’t know, the England football team were playing yesterday and every man and his dog were acting like true football pundits on the social networks. We posted the image just at the right time when people were truly engaged in all things England and all things football.

• Make people want to share it. We laughed out loud at the irony in this work of art. To many, the England football team are a bunch of Muppets – so sticking their heads on to a team photo was perfect comedy value. It got our attention, made us smile and made us want to send this on.

• Make it simple to share it. Twitter is great for blasting out 140 characters quickly and easily, so we posted it via TwitPic with a shortend URL and tagged on the appropriate football hash tags that were trending at that time.

And finally…

• Hit the influencers – this is often easier said than done, especially if it’s branded content, but in this case, our picture was picked up organically by some heavy hitters on the key social networks. You need to know who you’re targeting; or just know that where you’re promoting the viral content, people will be interested in it.

In our minds, the ‘England Muppets’ image ticked all of the above criteria, so when it achieved over 300 views in 9 minutes, we knew this was viral gold. And it’s still going strong, achieving way over 2000+ views in less than 24 hours – and you can check out the original link here.

Johnny talked through some vital aspects of what, in his opinion, makes a really great account handler. He explained how the ‘old school’ measures of traditional account handling still firmly had their place – or sharp pencils and clean note pads, as he put it. When commenting on his days on the Ogilvy graduate programme, he spoke fondly of ‘The University of Advertising’, and how he originally had wild dreams of becoming a creative.

Interestingly, Johnny divides the Account Handler stereotype into 2 halves – those who are on-the-button organisers with great project management skills, and those who are born relationship builders who thrive on inspiring creative people and giving confidence to their clients. He admitted he himself was the epitome of the latter  – even going as far as to say a previous boss had once stated ‘We need to get you a number 2 fast….or fire you’.

As Claire Beale, Editor of Campaign, probed Johnny with questions on his ‘playboy image’ in the Ad world, he was quick to dismiss this as the way to go for young account types, adding that ‘working hard and playing hard’ is the measure of his success to date. Even stating categorically that although he loves mixing business with pleasure, this doesn’t always work out the way it’s intended.

To sum up a great 30 minutes with one of the industry’s top men – Johnny hit the nail on the head by saying that to be really successful in the often self-indulgent Ad world, you must really love what you’re doing. ‘Our industry is going at 120mph’ he added, and pointed out how we must be constantly listening to our clients; knowing what’s going on in the industry in every media channel; and never forgetting that the over-supply of agencies wanting to take your breakfast is even more apparent now than ever before.

One of Johnny’s best quotes of the evening is still ringing in my ears – ‘I’ve always wondered where average Account Directors end up…probably not in a good place.’ Inspiration and motivation were the order of the evening, and we certainly got served a plate full. Thanks Johnny.

Steve Henry, our non exec advisor picked up the Chairman’s award at the BTAA awards the other week. He calls it “one of those lifetime achievement awards which make you feel like your career is all over”. You can read all about his experience of the night on his blog.

Steve showed us some of his favorite HHCL work in a company meeting recently. It was interesting to look at the diversity of work from the subversive Tango stuff, to the category-breaking First Direct launch and then the more serious Fourth Emergency service work for AA. Nearly all of the work still stood up today. Sure it didn’t have an associated augmented reality, social-networked embeddable widget, but the rules of cut through in advertising haven’t changed. Engaging, relevant brand thoughts expressed in a way that is surprising and entertaining still get momentum. And you know that if any of these campaigns were executed today they would have the legs to span digital media.

When people hear that we have Steve Henry in at the agency their first question is usually “What does he do?”. So let’s paint the picture. Steve is in 3 days a month, which works out as once a week for 3/4 of the month! He usually begins the day by spending time with the agency partners talking about the briefs with the most potential for creative greatness. These briefs could be big or small or they could be pitches. He then helps us interrogate the briefs before they go into creative development. For the rest of the day he is looking at live stuff going through the agency with a fresh pair of eyes. He can be heard to be saying constantly “Great work always has a something about it that feels like it can’t be done.” And occasionally someone gets a serve in a way that only Steve can pull off – where they are held accountable for screwing up, yet feel motivated to fight another day.

Steve is basically a ball of energy who questions what we are doing. Steve still has more to give than most people who are just starting out. His enthusiasm for the business is infectious and we feel lucky to have him. For him every day is just another day with opportunity to change the world.

Finally, here are a few pieces of HHCL work that we admire (and could find on Youtube).

Sometimes advertising delivers one of those Really Proud Moments.

Really Proud Moments usually include:
- Your mum seeing some of your work.
- Your mum seeing some of your work and understanding it.
- Your mum seeing some of your work, understanding it and actually liking it.

Well, we were really chuffed to make it onto Wired Magazine’s updated London silicon roundabout. Another Really Proud Moment. The original 2008 list compiled by Dopplr’s CTO included 15 tech start ups all based around Old Street. In the updated map we one of only a few creative agencies to be noted alongside some of our favorite tech brands: Tweetdeck, Moo and Last.fm. Oh, and we are at number 69 (cue childish chuckles – double proudness).

With this as his start-point, his focus has been on building the company, not building a brand. This year the Starbucks marketing drive during the economic downturn has been single-mindedly on reconnecting with the core customer and the brand is now number one on both Facebook and Twitter. And this energy and engagement has been sustained by social initiatives like giving away a free coffee on the day of the US presidential election to anyone who came into any branch of Starbucks and proved they’d voted.

Howard was keen to point out that CSR is not marketing for him; it’s part of the Starbucks ethos As you might expect, Anne asked a searching question about Starbucks’ relationship with the growers – one of Cafedirect’s greatest passions in life. It was an interesting discussion to open up – whilst Starbucks is one of the biggest buyers of Fairtrade coffee in the world, it’s still a tiny proportion of their whole product, but Howard’s justification was that the Starbucks product strategy is to put quality first above all else. Howard also pointed to a micro-lending scheme and a water programme. Anne’s view was that in reality a corporation of that size could be doing a great deal more to help growers achieve the right product quality with fairer trade, and that with their scale they could have a massive, immediate impact. Howard’s philosophy in business is about rising to the challenge; as he described it “you have to take the hill everyday” Now leading a business that has grown from 3 stores when he first joined to 16 000 worldwide with 180 000 employees, that’s one hell of a lot of hills he already has under his belt. Given Starbucks’ commitment to being a responsible employer, embracing the people who supply their product, as much as the people who serve it, seems the logical next step for the business. Maybe that’s Howard’s next hill…

Watch ‘An Audience with Howard Schultz’