Maloney & Porcelli – Expense-A-Steak Headquarters
Now this is smart. The steak house Maloney & Porcelli have come up with a great little interactive site called “Expense-A-Steak Headquarters”. All you have to do is type in the amount you want to expense and bingo -
The receipts in total add up to the amount you want to claim.
Clever, fun and appealing to their business clientele. Very cheeky and well played Maloney & Porcelli.
Mark Braddock & Carolyn Hall launch ‘Chatterblock’ at Block Branding
PERTH: Two of Perth’s most respected marketing and communication executives, Mark Braddock and Carolyn Hall, have formed ChatterBlock, a division of brand management agency Block that specializes solely in digital and social media strategy.
ChatterBlock now sits alongside Block’s existing divisions: Block Consulting, Block Branding and Block Imagining.
“Many marketing executives are curious about using social media to reach their consumers but they have no idea where to begin. At ChatterBlock, we hope to play a leading role in helping companies implement digital and social media strategies,” says Mark Braddock, Creative Director and Co-founder at Block.
“One-on-one conversations with people have always been the holy grail of marketing communications, but until now they have always eluded us,” says Hall, explaining her decision to join ChatterBlock at Block.
“With the rise of digital media, this holy grail is within our grasp. We can now communicate directly with people without always needing costly, drawn-out product development cycles and focus groups. We can take a product or idea directly to the brand’s audience and they can tell us if they like it and would buy it. This is a radical shift for all business owners, big and small,” says Hall.
ChatterBlock will work with clients to show them how, when using digital media, it’s all about integration with their existing communication campaigns. It’s not about technology, but a way to grow closer to their existing customers as well as access new audiences far more effectively than mainstream media channels sometimes allow.
Braddock brings a wealth of experience to ChatterBlock having worked at The Martin Agency and Ogilvy in the United States and Smarts Advertising in the UK before returning to Perth in 2002. He formed Block with co-founder and Managing Director Tanya Sim in 2002.
Carolyn Hall brings 22 years of experience to ChatterBlock as former Senior Vice President for McCann World Group in New York, the largest marketing communications organization in the world. At ChatterBlock, she will also continue at the helm of brand consultancy, City Hall.
“We’re excited about collaborating with Carolyn because she’s passionate about all things digital, and offers a unique perspective as a result of her mixed background as a marketing and advertising executive. She already authors several blogs, and her website SmallNotes has been hugely popular, making her a bona fide digital expert,” says Braddock.
In 2006, Hall returned to Perth from the United States as Brand & Communications Director of the Royal Automobile Club (RAC), which became the top-ranking brand in the Annual WA Business News branding survey for two years running under her leadership.
Block’s decision to launch ChatterBlock heralds a major shift in the WA advertising industry, which is making way for niche, specialist players like ChatterBlock in addition to the large agencies that have traditionally dominated the landscape.
For Joy
One blurry night out last year I ended up at my friend’s apartment playing dress up. I noticed a pair of bright red leather clown shoes and straight away laced them on. It was only on closer inspection that I noticed the shoes were a limited edition line from iconic skate shoe company Vans. I couldn’t help thinking why a well-known brand would release a product that was costly to produce and almost-certainly difficult to push. My friend replied, “For joy.” My heart warmed. It got me thinking about other ‘joyous’ brand endeavours which don’t appear to generate any immediate payoffs, but do work to cheer and inspire onlookers.
During my time in the US I was lucky enough to interview Charlie Todd, creator and chief prankster of ImprovEverywhere. In his modest apartment Todd discussed the ins and outs of “causing chaos and joy in public places”. With its beginnings in 2001 impersonating Ben Folds in a bar, to having over 41,000 people worldwide pledging their time to Todd’s cause; it seems pranks are a serious business.
Volkswagon’s The Fun Theory is one example of ‘joyous’ branding. Under the simple premise of changing people’s behaviour by making the tedious seem fun, Volkswagon moved people to use the stairs, recycle their bottles and put their rubbish in the bin.
Although it may be difficult to identify an obvious correlation between small pranks and a huge corporation, joyous branding is possibly one of the most effective tools for building a positive brand identity.
Brands – Now is the time to tweet
It is no happy accident that after Barak Obama, Coca-Cola is the most popular page on Facebook. Unlike many pre-internet brands, the king of carbonated drinks and confectionery has a social media strategy that keeps the one hundred and thirteen year old company fresh for consumers.
Recently posting a link to redirect traffic from their website to their Facebook page, Coke now has almost 3.8 million fans. It is important to remember that visits to brand websites are often infrequent.
Utilising social sites like Facebook and Twitter can grow brand networks at an exponential rate whilst maintaining and building lasting consumer relationships. These social platforms also work to build a more personable brand identity.
To Blog or Not to Blog?
With the rise of user-generated blog sites like gdgt and TrendHunter the way we consume and share content is clearly changing. Piers Fawkes creator of creative insights blog PSFK recently questioned what the web community wanted from online publishing and the future of the ‘blog’.
There seems to be a conscious move away from trusted experts publishing tailored content, to a wider social platform of reader-generated content and social networks. Well worth a read.
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