[September 2009] To raise awareness for the launch of Taubmans Endure there was a significant media spend focused on key channels, TV and online. To support this activity TheFARM developed a new Taubmans site destination and the online media campaign.

Targeted at DIY consumers, the site heroes Endure on the homepage and provides technical product information. The site seamlessly drove visitors through to Endure content and provided details on their nearest stockist.

Delivered in a testimonial style, the TVC featured real painters and was extended online through video banners and standard formats. Integrity with the advertising was maintained through the capture of footage for use in digital channels.

New Balance goes straight for the sneaker freak jugular with a beautiful campaign via Mother, New York. Each pair of the new limited-edition '574 Clips' shoes comes complete with a unique Polaroid picture showing where in the US it was made. This has a code on the back which connects the consumer to their own video hosted online - expanding on the origins of each individual pair. Users can then 'claim' their video before sharing with friends across various social networks and blogging platforms. http://574clips.com

Pop art via paintball on behalf of snack brand, Bon Yurt for Leo Burnett, Columbia http://tiny.cc/popart515. The full campaign features seven limited edition labels made by students www.bonyurt.com

In the US, BF Goodrich has launched a new app and online community through The Martin Agency, New York, similar to Nike+ that allows you to plot favourite driving routes via google maps or GPS and share them with other members. The campaign’s highlight is an iPhone app which automatically plots routes and tags any photos with GPS co-ordinates along the way. www.nationofgo.com

[September 2009] The FARM have completed the first round of site updates to the ZIP Industries web build completed in early 2009.

Returning to the key brief of "providing consumers and industry with easy access to product" the FARM developed a new UI to support ZIP's complex product attributes and integrated Flash components in to the navigation system that ultimately provided users with the most seamless solution possible. 

The dynamic expandable navigation panel and brand new flash carousel product selector use the blue and white colour palette of ZIP with chrome textures, making for a slick and visually impressive experience. 

To celebrate a huge few months at The FARM and to welcome some new faces, the team headed out for a lazy (but always competitive) Friday afternoon of lawn bowls at the Clovelly Bowling Club.

Perched atop the headland overlooking Coogee, hungry FARMers were greeted by Rann and JG already cooking up a mammoth BBQ to steel their stomachs before the high endurance bowl off. Shocking the locals, our pack of ruffians devoured our feast and warmed our hearts with ale making our way through almost all of Rann's rather indulgent grocery shopping spree.

Just as all hope of actually bowling rapidly began to vanish into the social smorgasboard our highly organised GM announced the state of play (pre prepared of course!) and the drawing of the teams. 

New FARMer, Phil did the honours of selecting the 4 teams captains and in a true performance of fitting in all too quick latched onto Rann’s compulsion to come 2nd at everything by aptly naming his team:

Rann 4 2nd
Team Captain: Phil
Guesty, CP, Aaron and Tom

Celebrating the memory of our one time French Farmer, Charlotte the next team captain Nina also aptly named her team:

Flambon Gala’s
Team Captain: Nina
Dan, Nikki, David and Wade

To encompass all the raw Aussie power brewing in the pre game BBQ, K1’s team were named by the resident Canadian:

Frogs in Socks
Team Captain: K1
C3, Kat, Shannon and Hugo

No one really seemed to know what Paul's team name meant...

Infighting
Team Captain: Paul
Sam, Karis, Rann and Owen

The teams then lined up for bowling boot camp "little picture on the inside and account for the SE wind" 

LET THE GAMES BEGIN!

With some failing to grasp the ‘little picture on the inside’ rule curve balls abounded across the field with desperate mid game searches for the full set of light bulbs, schooners, chess boards and rather misleading anchors. Karis was under pressure on her debut bowl by earlier proclaiming her penchant for lawn bowls only to earn the handicap of the 'Dorrigan Hook'. 

Frogs in Socks ripped up the bowling green and emerged undefeated until the historic final bowl from the opposing team. So confident in their win, Frogs in Socks bowled a strategic curve ball by Hugo into the neighboring lane for fear of jeopardizing their own victory. But they were slapped with the hand of irony as JG bowled a perfect (and pure lucky) last bowl of the day. Our illustrious leader jumped for joy flanked by C3 and K1 who screamed with the agony of epic bad luck until they collapsed sobbing to the ground in an unbelievable last minute defeat.

It’s been a busy week for everyone’s favourite micro-blog. There are now 18m US adults alone who access Twitter on any platform at least monthly, indicating a 200% increase over 2008 levels. Next year, that figure will be 26 million US adults, a further 44.4% climb. Twitter also announced new terms of service last week which will enable brands to embark on more targeted ad campaigns. In Twitter’s own words: ‘We leave the door open for advertising. We'd like to keep our options open’. Read more on the Twitter blog here: 
http://tiny.cc/Twitter744

Hockey Moms are the subject of a witty campaign to launch NHL 2K10, a hockey game for the Nintendo Wii. Via 72andSunny in Los Angeles, the campaign stars three moms who use the game to vent their aggression. http://tiny.cc/nhl2k10Wii 

Finally, check out Champagne Valentine’s beautifully interactive promo for The Never Ending Why, the new Placebo single. Through Nexus in London, the multi-sensory experience steers the viewer through a landscape of shadows, monsters and psychedelic colour. http://tiny.cc/PlaceboChV

Hasbro has just kicked off Monopoly City Streets. The game is a limited-run massively multiplayer online interface that, thanks to Google Maps, allows players to develop property anywhere in the world in real time. More here www.monopolycitystreets.com

According to Facebook, 65 million people around the world now regularly access the social networking portal via their mobile phone, a figure that has more than tripled from 20 million at the start of the year. 

IMAGE TO COME!

TheFARM cherish their new Farmer because?

- Truly soldiered on and delivered a huge volume of work with changing goal posts!  And didn’t crack the grumps!

- For all of her time and effort with the J+J clients

- Pulls off huge workloads – and does it all with a smile.

- Has put in a mammoth effort, working massive weeks ensuring J&J “heart” us.

- Managed to go skiing in the process!

Some digital delights courtesy of M&C Saatchi, London, whose interactive posters for the RNID (Royal National Institute for the Deaf) hammer home the message that 1 in 7 people is hard of hearing. Different executions of the posters are running on different sound waves, incorporating microphones to interact with their environments. The posters appear black until the microphones pick up a noise, and after 10 seconds of interaction the graphic equalizer images are replaced by the RNID’s logo and tagline. 

It’s not quite Mark Ecko tagging Airforce One, but Red Bull Cola has taken laser tagging to the M16 building in London thanks to Agents of Change, making the point that the brand’s natural cola has nothing to hide. www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGbShQOwjjo