I'm extremely excited about today's post as its a sign of good things to come.  Frequent readers of my blog know I love campaigns that are helping to change the world (like time2rock and Nicole Ritchie's text donation campaign).  This week I was told about a new mobile effort for Do Something - the cool organisation that helps teens change the world by offering assistance, support, cash, whatever. 

The campaign recently launched Do Something Now - which simply encourages people to provide their mobile phone number and receive two text messages a month with ways they can volunteer.  Its like instant kharma via your mobile phone.  The volunteer opportunities are targeted by postal code (zip code) and so people receive text messages for efforts near them.  Often you hear pepole say they'd help but they don't know how to get started or where to go.  This idea makes it so simple to help - sign-up, get a text, go help.

The campaign's drive to encourage people to sign-up and create mini-ambassadors to help started recently with the Do Something Now Challenge.  The Challenge is designed to get people to get their friends to sign-up for the mobile volunteer text campaign.  Through the Challenge you can actually create your own challenge group (like friends of ryan) and get your friends to text in "friends of ryan" to the campaign code and then you are signed up - and the more people who sign-up using that reference code the more prizes the organiser can win - including a trip to NYC as a super grand prize. 

The company behind the initiative is called Mobile Commons - who are focused on creating new ways for people to help change the world via their mobile.  This is definitely a "watch this space" effort, and hope more and more companies leverage new technology to make it easy for all of us to do our part.

I need to meet the people behind this innovative album launch campaign because I love it.  Oasis has a new album coming out in early October (Dig Out Your Soul), but for some early launch buzz and excitement they've unleashed a very cool campaign leveraging street performers in NYC as well as youtube contest.  You can read more about it on the official news release and check out the campaign website too.   

Here's what's happening on the street front:

• The band connected with NYC & Company (NYC's marketing group) to connect with the city's "Music Under New York" program that supports hundreds of street performers like jazz ensembels, opera singers, guitar players, string quartets and more that make commuting around NYC like no other place in the world. 
  
• Thirty street performers were selected for something extremely special, the chance to not only hear but learn how to play, directly from the band, four not-yet-released tracks from the new Oasis album at an incredible session in NYC last week.  Then they hit the streets, entertaining New Yorkers with the new songs, a very cool way to hear it before you can buy it element.
• Smartly (is that a word) NYC&C is filming a documentary capturing the magic as it happens, which will be make its debut before the album launch.
• The NYC&C website also profiles all of the participating artists who I'm sure are loving this unique opportunity

And the YouTube competition is equally amazing:

• On the Oasis site you can enter a YouTube competition where you upload a video on YouTube performing one of the four tracks from the album that the street performers learned and are now performing in NYC
• After registering you can download the sheet music from the site, and then start practicing
• When you are ready, upload the video to the YouTube channel, the band will pick the grand prize winner who will be flown to an Oasis concert anywhere in the world.  Second place gets local Oasis concert tickets too.

This is an incredible campaign that ticks multiple boxes - leverages music knowing the power it has to engage consumers; makes it easy for any musician to enter by providing the sheet music; spreads the new songs in an incredible way, almost getting the songs in your head before you hear it on the radio; leveraegs YouTube where most of the world plays these days; has a solid prize for the competition; and most importantly, stays authentic and true to the overall Oasis brand, image and personality.

Love it!  Now go and make more campaigns like this please.

Most people are well aware of the growing influence of bloggers, and of course the "power of mom" has been well documented for decades - combine the two and a powerful force is created.  The folks at McDonald's a few years ago decided to go head-on with a variety of myths and misconceptions and urban legends with regard to the quality of their food.  I read about their latest chapter in this week's Advertisign Age, which highlighted McDonald's Moms' Quality Correspondents - a group of moms that McDonald's invites to check out where their food is made, ask questions to their nutrionists, see the ingredients and much more.

Its a great example of a company that identified a crucial challenge to their success - opinions of moms who visit their restaurants every day - and decided to open the door wide open and invite them in to have a look.  And bonus points of course for McDonald's to embrace the blogging community and provide an example of transparency that others could definitely learn from for their own efforts. 

A friend of mine is a big fan of everything new that has an on and off button, and so was one of the first to buy Amazon's Kindle - the very cool device that lets you read books, magazines, newspapers, blogs from it - saving paper, your back (from carrying everything) and time (everything sent wirelessly to Kindle (via mobile phone networks) and at superfast speeds.  It definitely is a step in the right direction toward a paperless environment (can't you just hear trees around the world sighing in relief). 

Kindle has created an army of fans across the US, so much that many are now volunteering time to show their Kindle to people considering buying one for themselves.  Amazon is helping fans connect with potential fans by creating a simple forum on its site called "See A Kindle In Your City."  On the site people post their locations and then wait for someone close to them to say they have a Kindle and then they meet.  The fans don't get paid and seems like they do it just to spread the fun of Kindle around.  My friend in San Francisco says he does it to meet new people, hoping for a Kindle Konnection I'm guessing. :)

It's an obvious smart move by Amazon to facilitate these conversations, creating an army of brand/product ambassadors who are so passionate about Kindle that they'll donate their time and energy to make the sale to others.  Its not every company or product that would be able to pull something like this off, but definitely something to try and create if you can.

I think this is going to happen next (if it's not already here) - YouTube competitions by brands who can drive awareness and traffic through a number of on and offline vehicles.  Of course the "i want to be famous" mentality will only grow, so these competitions should make more peoples dream of 15 minutes of fame come true.

Today's example is from the ladies at Cosmpolitan Magazine, who just launched StarLaunch - a new YouTube competition that is looking for the next great female artist.  All you need to enter is to be female and a singer/musician, and just upload your performance.  Music industry representatives and music fans will pick the finalists, and the grand prize winner will bring home the good stuff - $10,000 cash prize, a 3-track demo created by a top music producer and, hang on to your hats, open for Natasha Bedingfield and Solange Knowles in a concert in NYC in December.  Not a bad way to get discovered.

This is a great way for brands to engage with consumers and create new fans who appreciate companies who help them play in a whole new way and achieve their dreams in the process. 

In Australia we did a similar YouTube competition a few months back (we are always ahead of the curve down under) which invited people to upload a video singing their version of "Bleeding Love" by Leona Lewis - winning the chance to meet Leona backstage after a music showcase Sony Ericsson put on in Sydney.  Read more about the Leona Lewis YouTube competition which had nearly 100,000 views in one week and nearly 20 videos of people singing at all sorts of level.  We didn't spend the money to do a branded YouTube page like Cosmo, which I think isn't really necessary, but if you've got the cash it doesn't hurt, but definitely not necessary (given our success with Leona).

Today was a big day for Sony Ericsson Australia (H&K client) with the launch of a new youth volunteering and empowerment campaign - time2rock which made news across Australia, helped in part by campaign ambassador and Australian Idol co-host, Andrew G, who came to the official clean-up launch event.  The campaign is grounded on a key insight of Australian youth (and perhaps a global youth insight) -- many young people are socially aware, and would love to help out good causes or charities, but are often just asked for a cash donation, something many of them don't have laying around.  What they do have is time, arms, legs, muscles, sweat and tears - they can do stuff, carry stuff, pack stuff, clean up stuff, lots of stuff - without having to give cash.

With this insight in mind, the time2rock campaign was formed.  The campaign motivates people to get involved by donating 2 hours of their time, either by attending an official time2rock clean-up event - with campaign partner Clean Up Australia - or creating their own with a "create your own clean up event" kit that they can receive in the mail.  With either participation pathway people receive a unique code to come back to the campaign site to get their hands on exclusive tickets to concerts feauring some big Australian bands - Cut Copy, End of Fashion, Cassette Kids and more.  The time2rock concerts this year are taking place in three cities close to major capital cities of Australia.  If people don't live near a concert city they can choose to receive some exclusive music content created by some of the time2rock artists.  And to ensure others can be rewarded for their ongoing volunteer efforts, they can also share their volunteer story on the site to also grab the exclusive music content too. 

The campaign provides Sony Ericsson with a great way to engage with young Australians who want to do something to help the world, who may not be able to give cash but they can give time.  The campaign site has minimal Sony Ericsson branding, as the company understands the importance of providing a forum and vehicle for youth to get involved and just be a part of the conversation, not the center of it.  And by using the global youth currency of music, time2rock strikes the right chord with people who will get excited about a free concert, and hopefully, appreciate the path to get there - with the end goal of having more people start a lifetime of volunteering at an earlier age.

The team was inspired by a similar effort in the US by Boost Mobile and added a variety of new twists with time2rock (part of the team was involved in the launch of some of the efforts in the US).  The team added the 'create your own' element to make the campaign and the essence behind it more accessible to more people.  Any person volunteering to help anything or anybody also is rewarded with a special 'share your story' component of the campaign.  The entire Sony Ericsson team is truly hoping to motivate more youth to experience the feeling you can only get by doing something to help the world.  The world needs more of these campaigns - designed to encourage others to do more - and this campaign hopes to inspire additional companies to find ways to help others get involved to do their part too.

Check out the time2rock campaign site to read more about it or the campaign interactive media release.  And of course check back over the next few weeks as the local clean-up events kick in as the campaign heads for the concerts in mid-November.  Plans are already in development to bring time2rock to more cities across Australia, with more ways to motivate more Australians to do their part to help rock the world in a whole new way.

Photo competitions - yes there are a lot of them, so thankfully the guys and gals at Canon Australia (an H&K client) are back with a photo competition that joyfully doesn't have a "cutest baby" category. Canon's "Photo5" competition is back for another year, bigger and better thanks to more possible participants, both an amateur and professional division and what we really love, more cash and prizes.

The concept is fairly simple, which is always a plus.  Anyone with a camera or cameraphone registers at the campaign site and waits for the surprrise - a box containing 5 every day objects that each entrant has to photograph in a creative way and then upload to the site to enter.  That's it - your imagination does the rest.  Last year's objects included chalk, yellow dots, blue cellophane, a red balloon and the cardboard box itself.  Even though H&K is working on the campaign I couldn't get anyone to tell me any of the objects for this year - all I got was a "stop bugging me Ryan I'm not going to tell you."  Rude :-)

The first round of the competition is just for the month of September, where the first 10,000 registrants will then make it to the next round where they'll get their box of goodies and then let the happy snapping begin.  The campaign this year has launched its own blog which should also help spread the word about this fun campaign.

I think the campaign works on a number of fronts - it taps people's creative minds, it's obviously visual, incredibly simple and the prize and product package should be an extra motivator for all. Go Canon, definitely in focus with this campaign.  I wonder what is in the box?

So everyone that's a reader of my blog knows I love how companies use naked people in their marketing mix.  You can find some of my favourite examples of people naked trying to sell something with hot guys and girls in their underwear, girls in their panties with a samsung TV and more people in their underwear (no one is watching, its OK).

And on to the latest - this one from Lush cosmetics - who pride themselves on natural beauty products that are sold in thier stores across the US (and I think around the world).  The company recently asked for employee volunteers to hit the streets in the buff, asking shoppers to "go naked" by puchasing products free of packaging.  The naked employees wear nothing but aprons reading "Ask Me Why I'm Naked" and hand out informational cards (I'm assuming on recycled paper) letting people know to buy products free of packaging. 

The effort is spot-on with the company's own brand DNA with regard to its environmental stance - the company has eliminated most of the packaging for products they sell by selling solid "naked" products that don't need plastic bottles.  The company removes the water from products like shampoo bars, massage bars, body butters and soaps and sells them "deli-style" without any packaging.  According to the company's news release just last year approximatley 3 million plastic water bottles weren't manufacturered, transported and disposed because of sales of Lush's solid shampoo bars.

From a visual point of view, I guess it depends on who is naked in front of the Lush store.  From an impact point of view, the campaign is spot-on, communicating an important issue in today's environmental discussions in a fun way that connects to the overall brand personality of Lush.  They are seen as a company who is doing something good in the world while still making a profit - which seems a bit hard these days.  Only missing link for me was the company not talking about their naked efforts on their facebook page but all in all a great campaign.  And for more naked video action, watch below.

I can't wait for the next naked marketing campaign that pops up somewhere in the world.