I saw an advert last week and I wasn’t quite sure what exactly it was about but at the end the advert told me to ‘Search for Choose a Different Ending’.

With the industry we work in and also being slightly intrigued it was immediatley searched for, and we uncovered one of the most impressive interactive advertising campaigns we have seen in a wee whiley.

In a recent post we discussed the future of search and its integration into other marketing techniques, and the ‘Search for Choose a Different Ending’ campaign, which was produced by Drop The Weapons, is a very sophisticated example of what we were talking about.

Not only does the campaign incorporate TV and search but it goes onto utilise YouTube in an unique and clever way to encourage indivduals to think about their use of violent weapons and to demonstrate the harrowing situations many young adults find themselves in by making the decision to carry weapons.

In their own words:

Choose A Different Ending is an interactive film that allows you to decide what happens next. You can interact with it, choose what to do and decide how it ends. In Choose A Different Ending you decide whether to live or die.

So, upon searching ‘Choose a Different Ending’ you happen across the start of an interactive video displayed by YouTube. Watching the video you placed in the scenario of a young male who comes across several (potentially life changing) decisions, and you as the video watcher have to make those decision.

As you make each decision you are presented with another as the story develops, one scenario results in someone taking a knife, getting into a fight, stabbing someone and then being arrested; all through the choices the choices made in this interactive video.

Fingers crossed this campaign makes a difference; it is thought provoking, clever and its interactivity catches the attention of the audience forcing them to choose their own ending, so hopefully as a result viewers really will choose a different ending.

Google Earth have launched a new feature that will now let you ’sing among those stars’ and ’see what spring is like on Jupiter and Mars’…

To coincide with the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission which successfully became the first lunar spacecraft to land on the moon Google Earth have launched a Moon in Google Earth feature which allows you to:

• Take tours of landing sites, narrated by Apollo astronauts
• View 3D models of landed spacecraft
• Zoom into 360-degree photos to see astronauts’ footprints
• Watch rare TV footage of the Apollo missions

Overall our adventures into the Twitterdom have been fairly succesful, we’ve Tweeted with some nice folk, bagged invites to a Vivienne Westwood sale (thanks @anniebeee), bored ourselves of stalking Ashton & Demi, watched hundreds of people Tweet about their anger at ScotRail and been put in touch with some very useful links and articles.

Why the name change?? One major thing we have noticed about Twitter is that it goes hand in hand with all the other social networks, and we love all the other social networks just as much as we love Twitter and being an equal opportunities office we thought it was only best and fair to open the ‘diaries’ to one and all.

But before I do, I feel we should round up the Twitter experiment and say what we have learned- a lot that is what! But in terms of Twitter for business we have identified the various opportunities for both B2B and B2C brands. I could waffle on about the pro’s and con’s of Twitter for both B2B and B2C businesses but instead I thought it would be better to condense it into bulletpoints (everyone loves bullet points).

Business 2 Business

• There are 700,000 sme’s on Twitter
• Getting a lead directly off the back of Twitter is unlikely but it is an excellent brand awareness tool
• You can connect and engage with like minded business individuals
• Involve employees and get them talking about your brand
• Put up links to your website and blog (see @digitalcribs)
• You can keep an eye on anyone talking about your brand and join the conversation
• Use Tweets to inform followers of any promotions or events (see @ibmevents)
• Use Tweets to provide advice and guidance to other Twitterers in need of help in your industry
• It is an excellent forum to share industry related information
• You can ‘follow’ existing clients, although, depending on your own preference, it may be more beneficial to pick up the phone than rely upon Twitter to resolve customer service issues but see below for an example of how Twitter has been used as a customer service tool.

Business 2 Consumer

• You can see who is talking about your brand and join the conversation
• Put up a link to your website and blog
• Tell potential customers of new products, special offers etc (see @asos & @iamboutique for example)
• Follow potential and existing customers, create an opportunity for them to Tweet something positive about your product or service
• Go a little further with product/service info, get employees online and talking on a more human level about what products they like or what is so good about a specific service
• Post Twitpics of staff nights out (sensible ones), products and the premises to give customers a feel for the brand
• You can turn Twitter into a customer service tool, Hyatt hotels did by inviting patrons to contact their concierge service via Twitter (see @hyattconcierge)
• Use it as a recruitment tool, posting whenever any exciting or major positions arise (see @newlook_careers)

The list of things Twitter can achieve for your business is endless, can you think of anymore?

Overall how Twitter will work for your business depends on what your business is and the industry it operates within. It will be more successful if it is integrated into a full social media campaign and is supported on your company website; ensure there are suitable links to all your social media profiles and keep these profiles active, updating them on a regular basis.

Have you heard the latest slip up from the BBC? Apparently this morning on the BBC Breakfast show,  a Mr Watson mistakenly called Google a browser! Yes you read right, while talking in the business feature about Google’s growth and the issues surrounding behavioural targeting, Chris Watson was quoted saying that if a user did not like Google they could “close the browser and use a different one”.

Of course we all know that Google is in fact the most popular search engine and one of the most popular websites throughout the world. However it is easy to sit here and criticise, I wasn’t up at the crack of dawn with the pressure of thousands of people watching me and listening to my every word while sweating under the bright studio lights. So I feel for Mr Watson, if I was making a blunder like that, I would hope I wasn’t on national television at that unfortunate time!

We are big fans of all things eco friendly in the office and always on the hunt for some enviro inspiration.

So you can only imagine our joy when we came across the Business Green website, a comprehensive website dedicated to all things eco friendly but specifically targeted to the business sector. Interesting resources include a guide to green office fashion and green guide to office parties.

“Office lights left on overnight use enough energy in a year to heat a home for almost 5 months.“

Another interesting website for businesses is the Carbon Trust website, it was set up by Government in 2001 as an independent company. The aim of the organisation is to accelerate the move to a low carbon economy by working with organisations to reduce carbon emissions and develop commercial low carbon technologies.

At first glance going eco can appear to be a ‘bit of a hassle’, however, there are many ways an organisation can benefit from greening it up a bit.

Image: With growing concern over our  melting icebergs, growing rubbish piles and rising sea levels business decision makers and consumers alike are under pressure to choose the greener option. Doing your bit for the environment will not only demonstrate that you are giving something back but may also increase your desirability.

Saving money: Wise investments in energy saving light bulbs, solar panels, wind mills, and reusable items will all help to save you money. As energy bills rise does it not make sense to choose energy efficient products and follow green practise to try keep bills down.

Innovation: Challenging yourself to change traditional marketing practices, such as direct mailing which can be damaging to the environment, can lead to innovation and the generation of truly unique marketing ideas which ultimately will set you apart from the rest. Look at ‘natural media’ company Mind the Curb by turning traditional advertising concepts on their head they have came up with a entirely green ways for companies to advertise their brands.

Mind the Curb | Clean Advertising

360innovate had the honour of being invited to take part in the Glasgow University Media Week. Media Week is a series of talks, conferences, workshops and Q&A sessions open to everyone.

After much persuasion John (web design) and Andrew (online marketing) signed themselves up. They will be speaking on Friday the 13th (unlucky for some!!) at 2.30pm, the topic of choice “New Media for the Digital Age”. They are keeping the exact details of what exactly they are going to say under wraps even though we are all gagging for a sneaky preview but they are having none of it. Oh well, we’ll just have to get ourselves down to the John McIntyre Building in the Glasgow University to check it out for ourselves.

Media Week Brochure 2009