[April 2010] TheFARM was very pleased to see the fund selector we’ve been working on for Russell Investments go live this week.

The Fund Selector allows the user to explore how Russell Investments' choices are built, across the various options that make up the Diversified Funds.

It operates via a 3D Flash based application hosted within the current Russell Investment site. A FARM hosted Umbraco CMS runs the Flash frontend.

The result: a fully flexible navigation system for our friends at Russell. And it’s just a little bit sexy ; ) Skeptical? Check it out here.

[April 2010] Over the past few months TheFARM has been building a huge brand hub to encompass all of Neutrogena® young skin care, and we’re really excited to announce that it’s launched!

The cross platform, social media hub is One Less Stress, but we like to call it OLS.

OLS was born out of the simple insight that feeling stressed can cause skin to become stressed, which can in turn lead to feeling more stress and so on. The idea is to help break this vicious cycle by creating a dialogue where young women can share some of their stress and alleviate it with advice and stress-busting giveaways.

In a first for our relationship with Johnson & Johnson TheFARM was given the opportunity to be the lead creative agency - leading the development of the master brand, roll out of the platform idea and integration of OLS into print and TV!

The eight month campaign is running across MySpace, Facebook and (for the first time in Johnson & Johnson Australia history) Twitter.

The launch phase sees roadblocks and rich media placements on influencer sites like Beauty Heaven, 2Threads and Bella Sugar, who will also provide content for OLS via partner publishing and cross promotions.

The OLS umbrella brand is designed to adapt through the year to promote the various Neutrogena young skin products, with creative and content reflecting the rationales of each sub brand. Right now, it’s all about orange and Acne Stress Control. A phase two facelift will see OLS become pretty in pink to match the Neutrogena® Wave™.

Indications are the folks at Johnson & Johnson are as loving OLS as much as we are! A committed New Zealand roll out is in the works and J&J Pacific has already presented the idea to the global team for further expansion.

[April2010] TheFARMers have had a busy few months preparing for some major launches for Johnson & Johnson and were particularly tickled to see the Aveeno® campaign take off over the weekend.

A new range in Australia, the campaign centers around increasing brand awareness and educating the masses via a big bold media launch. We produced takeovers, rich media, standard banners, a Facebook page and of course www.aveeno.com.au.

Already popular product in the US – where it has been recommended by dermatologists for decades – the early signs are that Aveeno® will be a similar success here. A seeding campaign on sites such as Beauty Heaven, 2Threads and Bella Sugar has already resulted in some rave reviews and testimonials.

In a Facebook first TheFARM also created an application which allows Aveeno® to gather consumer feedback via Facebook. Check out the Aveeno® product survey here.

With the The FARM flat out tending to our fabulous clients in early 2010 responsibility for maintaining Suite 101 fell to yours truly - the latest agency recruit.

I soon noticed that The FARMers had been slack in reporting the OzTag season progress and set out to rectify the problem asap.

Alas, before I had the chance to join them on the paddock (intimidated as I was at first by the buff and professional looking specimens I saw circulating in the office the afternoon of game day) the season was over.

Having read about their promising first weeks here on Suite 101 I turned to The FARMers optimistically for an end of season wrap up.

There were tales of Hugo’s suave and nimble movement, Karis’ super human tagging skills and Aaron’s remarkable bravery in the face of injury (apparently he managed to finish every single game with a bleeding left knee). The highest praise however was reserved Yankee Brooke Blakslee, not for his mammoth diving tries (which were nonetheless legendary) but for his team spirit. Though sidelined with a nasty phlegmatic illness Mr Blakslee braved it to the park for the final game where he provided much needed moral support – not to mention beers at half time

The FARMers were more than happy to commend the skills and attitude of their fellow team members. But they were not so forthcoming when it came to the hard facts: What was the win to loss ratio? Where did they sit on the table at season’s end? 

When my initial attempts to obtain this information were thwarted I was pointed in the direction of team founder and Business Development Manager Phillip McCann.

The initial response: “Too many losses to remember”.

To which my reply was: “Well surely you remember the amount of wins then??”

The verdict - 1 official and legitimate win (which you may have read about here – explains the lack of updates after that!), 1 on paper only win (the other team forfeited), 1 embarrassing loss to a team that obviously cheated (miscellaneous – we’ll chalk that up as a win), 1 loss (to the comp leaders) which apparently would’ve been a win if not for a dodgy referee, 1 forfeit on Melbourne Cup Day (which would’ve been a win had anyone been sober enough to run in a straight line) and numerous on paper losses that might’ve been wins had the team not been penalised for a shortfall in X chromosomes.

So where did all this leave The FARMers at seasons end? As OzTag Champions of the year of course (well in their eyes anyway ). Onya FARMers!!

[January 2010] Following a successful partnership on Like? Love! Warner Bros Australia commissioned TheFARM to completely redevelop their consumer facing website.

Leveraging off an existing global product database of thousands of Movie and TV titles, TheFARM localised designs from the US and built an entirely new Content Management System.

The result is a fully data driven rich media website that will scale over time to include Videogames and eCommerce functionality - as well as promote price discounted items and seasonal collections.

This month Farmers old and new alike took interest in Google's revelation it had fallen victim to “a highly sophisticated and targeted” cyber attack “originating from China” and resulting in the theft of its intellectual property. The official Googleblog went on to all but outright accuse the Chinese government of orchestrating the attacks in an attempt to access the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists.

As the evidence mounted that the People’s Republic was indeed behind the debacle it became clear we had an interesting power play on our hands - Superpower vs Cyberpower. It was interesting to speculate how that showdown would play out… 

The good news? It turned out the attacks (which also hit over 20 other companies) had exploited a vulnerability in IE 6 (http://praetorianprefect.com/archives/2010/01/the-aurora-ie-exploit-in-action/)  – thus putting another nail in the coffin of a browser which should have been buried long ago.

For the record: The Farm happily ceased support for IE6 from October 31 2009. In the aftermath of the cyber attack Google, better late than never, announced it would follow suit from March 1. Thanks Hu Jintao!

Google’s answer to the iPhone – the Nexus One smartphone – may be yet to hit Australian shores but it’s already got Farmers' chins wagging.

The topic – not so much the merits of one phone vs the the other – though you can read about this here http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/15/torn-between-two-phones-nexus-one-vs-iphone/?ref=technology – but what the competition bodes for the future of the www.

While the smartphones might work well with their own software they don’t seem to be making an effort to get along with one anothers other services. Some commentators – namely Tim O’Reily - think this bodes a bloody period of competition that could threaten the interoperable web of today. In the 80s it was Macintosh v Microsoft – in the 2010s the war looks set to take place between Apple and Google.

O’Reily may be onto something. While it’s too soon to tell if the Nexus One will emerge as a serious competitor to the iPhone, some Farmers have already taken sides.

Those who like that Google’s Android platform is more open to developers champion the Nexus One. The others, like everyone else, are so deep in iPhone love they can’t see past their touchscreens. One Farmer has even suggested we change the phrase “the best thing since sliced bread” to “the best thing since the iPhone”.

What do you think? Will you trade in your iPhone for a Nexus One? And who’s your money behind in the war for the web?

[December 2009]TheFARM is very excited to see our original concept "Little White Truths” coming to life.

The concept came about after Ferrero identified digital as the key channel to spearhead a campaign to drive more awareness and sales for Raffaello. What was needed was a parallel brand that could provide the Raffaello masterbrand with social currency online.   

Utilising social media, viral video, digital advertising and print, The FARM lead the way with all the creative, strategy and production for “Little White Truths.” The campaign calls on women to share the harmless, sometimes downright funny (and often embarrassing!) truths they tell their girlfriends.

The LWTs entered at the campaign site and on the Facebook page are an endless source of amusement for us here in the office. This one recently had us in stitches: “I put Berocca tabs in my brothers board short pocket at the pool. When he hopped in they dissolved and left a yellow trail behind him so I told everyone he peed in the pool.”

Now THAT is creative genius. 

[December 2009] For the first time this year BONDS ran its popular Baby Search entirely online. TheFARM created a dedicated Baby Search section within the Bumps & Baby website and developed a registration tool that intelligently integrated with the existing Bumps and Baby member database. A Facebook page and Twitter account extended campaign reach and tapped the power of social media to encourage consumer interaction and WOM. 

TheFARM is proud to report that the campaign was an overwhelming success with a record 17,885 individual entries and 420k unique visitors. Facebook was a big part of the success story – prominent placement of share tools on baby profile pages drove 38% of site traffic. At campaigns end the Bumps & Baby Facebook page was going strong. With a fan base of over 10, 000 it looked set to provide a key platform for Bonds to engage with Mums moving forward.