Pedigree Doggelganger

I'm not entirely sure why I had to first see this on AdFreak, but how amazing is the site for the Pedigree Adoption Drive called Doggelganger?

Created by Colenso BBDO apparently, I have not seen or heard anything about this site/the adoption drive, anything.

Now, I realise that it is totally possible to miss entire campaigns if you are not within the target market, but this really is something that lights my fire. I ADORE dogs. I get very squee and loud when there is a puppy around. I would love nothing more than to adopt a dog, but unfortunetly my current living situation doesn't really mean it is possible. But, if I was in a position to do so - I could adpot my doggelganger!

First you upload a front on photo of yourself:

And then it matches your features to give you your doggelganer:

Mine is a Male Husky called Tiki. Isn't he beautiful? AND he's at Auckland SPCA! So close, just not possible (if I used emoticons, this is where I would put a sad face).

Check out the site, check out your doggelganger and if you have the means, why not adopt one of these gorgeous creatures.

Social Searching

This is lovely.

I went to a presentation at MSN the other day and learnt about all the cool social search things they are rolling out in the States at the moment. One of these things is in conjunction with Facebook and even here in NZ we will soon have Facebook referrals from our friends when we search for things on Bing.

When I heard this, my concern was the amount of education required for the general public to understand that they could benefit from social searching and (basically) friend referrals IF they are logged into Facebook. Trying to explain to your average Joe Blow why their friends profiles turn up on Facebook plug-ins as per below:

For some reason they think it's magic that their faces are staring back at them. Seriously. I have had more than one conversation about this.

Either way, I think it is great and smart and a fantastic thing for Bing to implement. Being the underdog to Google, Bing has to do something to differentiate themselves and this seems like a clever way to do it.

Having so recently seen the Bing example, imagine my surprise when I was on a friends computer the other night, searching for The Chosen One and this pops up:

Social searching on Google! Due to the Microsoft/Facebook exclusive relationship (they're totally going steady), Bing has the advantage because Facebook is a BEAST, but at least Google is trying to make some headway in this area. Obviously Twitter isn't quite as big in New Zealand, but luckily for me, I embrace the Tweets, so I am hoping that this will bode well in my searching going forward.

Really interested in what other people might think about this? If you were searching for 'new cars' and the search returns a result which details that one of your friends like a certain brand, would you be more inclined to investigate further? I think it will be really handy for restaurant recommendations, but further than that, I'm not so sure.

Coupons! Deals! Discounts! Oh MY!

Is everyone else as sick as I am with the constant bombardment of Daily Deal sites? With some of these sites you have to supply them with an email address before you can even check out the deals. Not so cool in my books.

Now, I am one for a good deal, but I am over all the spam in my inbox. Seriously done with it.

But Monica (I hear you ask) How will you know when you can get cheap OPI nailpolish - one of your favourite things in the WHOLE WIDE WORLD?

Ah ha my friend! I have found a way.

Readers... Meet Chelsey.

I found out about Chelsey today. She's a pretty classy site which is aimed pretty much bang on my demographic. Must admit, I was always a little jealous that the boys have Get Frank and we get nothing. Well, no more.

I'm getting off topic. Sorry.

Chelsey has aggregated all of the coupon/deal/t'shirt and even booze offers on one page:

Sweetbix right? I'm setting this page as one of my open on startup tabs right next to Gmail, FB, grabaseat and Reader.

This is especially good as there is no need to supply your email address just to check out the deal.

Brilliance. Thanks Chelsey.

Oh, guys. Haven't forgotten about you. Get Frank also do a deal aggregator.

BNZ - Find Your Start

What a delightful treat to stumble upon Friday evening.

There in Aotea Square was a tasty projection for BNZ and a short story competition thingee (Literacy Awards) that they are running called findyourstart.co.nz.

Unfortunately it wasn't a perfect evening for such a fantastic ambient piece, but I still thought it was rad.

Projected on the wall was this:

and if you continued to watch, you got the start of a short story already written for you (also, there were people coasting around the square handing out cards and story starters on them).

The BEST part of all of this? The story starters which were projected onto the wall were being written off the cuff by a couple of creatives in a van:

Who, from what I can tell, were writing from about 6.30pm to 11pm. That's a lot of off-the-cuff writing.

In case you all missed it and want to check it out, I even took a video. You're going to have to excuse my laugh half way though. It seems as though the guys in the van were drawing inspiration from people who were walking past, which was awesome when it was the people obviously coming out of an evening at the Civic, but when they were talking about the crew I was with... even more hilarious.

So nice work BNZ. What a wonderful promotion (people don't know how to use their words anymore, it's great to be encouraging it) and fabulously executed. I love interesting and different ambient ideas. Totally my favourites.

The Awesome Reaction Opportunities of Online Advertising

Jeepers, what a news day! Hows about that Obama unscheduled announcement at 3-something this afternoon? That was a ripper.

News started coming through Twitter about 2.30 this afternoon about the unscheduled announcement from Obama and then very quickly the rumour mill went into overdrive in that it was to announce that Osama Bin Laden had been killed and the US had the body.

This kind of news of course spreads like wildfire on the internet. The announcement was to be streamed live on The White House website, which of course was delayed for almost an hour. During which time, everyone was hungry for information, which meant publishers had to turn information around SUPER QUICK.

As @tweetdaniel pointed out, TV3 didn't manage to get it quite right:

I would recommend clicking on the link above so you can check it out in full, but basically, it reads:

"We are currently experiencing extremely high traffic due to the announcement that Barack Obama is dead. Please bear with us we will be back up soon."

Whoops.

Not sure that was right.

Now, if you've read my blog before, you will probably know that I don't have a lot of nice things to say about TVNZ. I still don't, because when I tried to watch a live stream on tvnz.co.nz this afternoon it wanted me to report the error in loading, which I tried to do a number of times. Le sigh.

However, they did manage to do something right today (shock horror I know).

There I was, reading Mashable.com on what was to be announced and what do I see, but a One News banner run through the Google Content Network:

I do not tell a lie, this was up within half an hour of me first reading about the rumour that Obama was going to announce the death of Bin Laden. Now, it's not the prettiest of banners, but it's bang on. All the information you need. Up to date. Relevant.

I think it is awesome and just shows how online is the best medium for this kind of immediate response. Press also gives the opportunity for quick reaction turnaround, but for that, we're talking the next day, not within the hour. This is just too good. Brilliant work.

This doesn't change anything though TVNZ. This is clever, but all is not forgiven...

Make Easter Awesome

Buy only Palm Oil Free Chocolate

This handy guide courtesy of Auckland Zoo.

Why do I care about this? I've written quite a lot about Cadbury and what they have been up to, but nothing got me more that their Glass and a Half of CRAP ad. Thankfully they have changed their ways, but if you're going to gorge on chocolate this Easter, I hope it doesn't come at the expense of the Rain forests.

Happy Easter!

AirNZ - you disgust me

As in actually disgusts me.

I understand it's April Fool's Day and you guys are all about trying to be clever and forward thinking and someone has told you that the Rico thing was a good idea, but whoever told you that this was a good idea is a fucking moron.

Grab a Seat had a special promo on 'today':

You select male or female, enter you age and then enter your weight, giving you your cost for a seat. As you increase the weight, the person expands filling up more and more of the 3 person seat. Hit Calculate and you end up here:

Brilliant. This one is not as bad as I entered Male and 89kgs, but when I put in my weight it basically told me that I was a lard arse. Awesome. Thanks very much. I actually prefer the term 'cuddly' to lard arse. There is some positive brand association right there.

I actually think that The Real Steve Grey sums the whole thing up best, but you can read that over at his blog here rather than me retelling his story.

I was offended. I thought it was an awful, unfunny promotion and so, as I do, I tweeted about it:

Do you think I go any response from AirNZ. Of course not. Way to use twitter as a broadcast medium Air NZ instead of having a conversation with your customers. You're kinda missing the point.

In the afternoon they sent out this tweet:

I can only assume I am not the only one that was not impressed. In fact, the response from my followers who replied to me made it obvious that I was not the only one.

Between this and the Rico bullshit that they have been putting out the damage that they have done to this brand in my eyes currently is irreparable. I will be avoiding AirNZ at all costs.

Oh, what also doesn't help the cause, is when either an AirNZ or agency person starts responding to such complaints on Twitter. Only to me/@tone & one other person, but this doesn't help the situation. In fact, you're making it worse. Honestly, what were you thinking?