Creativity In Public Relations

Diesel Rocks World With 17-City Concert & Nearly Naked Viral Video Sensation

Ryan Peal — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 18:33:00 GMT

Diesel, the Italian global denim brand, is celebrating the company's big 30th birthday with a 17-city, 24-hour worldwide concert this weekend - live in each city and streaming live on a campaign microsite, featuring the likes of N.E.R.D., Chaka Khan, M.I.A., Soulwax and many more. The "Diesel XXX" fun kicks off on Saturday 11 October in Tokyo, working its way to Beijing, Dubai, Athens and other European cities before winding up in San Paolo and New York City (at an undisclosed location). Each party is a mini music festival in its own right - going live at various times in each city and them streaming live for a global audience for a few hours at each stop. Many of you live in one of the host cities and are part of the cool, underground, fashion scene so you will love the local artists that are part of the line-up. Diesel has done a brilliant job of finding the right performers to match their brand and the cutting-edge approach of the overall birthday celebration.

So, now on to what is becoming a global viral video sensation - the video invitation for the whole event. Remember, the name of the party is "Diesel XXX" - so it not only stands for 30 (in Roman Numerals) but also "TripleX" which in some worlds is all about porn. Setting the tone for the overall event and drumming up excitement and buzz in the process, the guys and gals at Diesel jumped on a recent trend called SFW Porn - Safe For Work - which paints over any naughty bits and pieces with fruit and bottles and pizza and pianos and other funny objects you'd find laying around the house. Diesel created a hilarious (but as close to a PG-rated XXX video as you can get) video that is being passed around - letting people know about the party and more about Diesel as a brand in the process. Again, some may not find this humorous so if you have doubts don't watch the video on YouTube, just go on about your day.

For me this is an exciting example of another brand that understands its place in the world and who it wants to hang out. The multi-city event connects music-loving/fashion-forward people who love Diesel from around the world together in one big mega day of music madness. Diesel reinforces its entertainment role with its desired audience and has a lot of fun in the process. Of course the event's facebook page and connection with MTV will further encircle the desired audience as well - playing where they play and doing it in the right way. And with regard to the video, yes, its over the top, but so is Diesel, and so are the fans of the brand, so like it or not, it works.

Jeans off to Diesel - I'll be watching the big show online (unfortunately Sydney didn't make the city line-up) and hope millions more tune in as well. The more successful events like this are the less bad advertising we'll have to watch as brands find new ways to maximise marketing budgets by going online and straight to the people.

Chevrolet Hits College Campuses For Back Seat Stories

Ryan Peal — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 19:31:00 GMT

We all know getting a new product into the hands of consumers helps make a connection - so sampling is a natural tactic for lots of marketers. But what happens when you have a new car to introduce - its hard to hand those out on the street. The people of Chevrolet just launched a new campaign that gets close, bringing the new Aveo5 College Cab to six university campuses in the US, offering free rides around campus with a unique social media twist.

The Aveo5 is a smart little car that only costs $12,000 - so perfect for a parent to buy his or her college student or for a student to buy on their own. So, knowing driving is believing, the Chevrolet Aveo5's arrive on each campus for a week - with a light on top and everything - offering students who hail the car a free ride. Now the social media twist, everyone who takes a ride is videotaped, capturing their experience (in the back seat) and impression of their first ride in the Aveo5. The videos for each campus are then uploaded to the campaign site, where riders send their friends and family to the site to watch the fun. The videos are up for a week - with the most viewed video from each campus moving on to the grand finale round - where the views are cleared and a national audience will select the winner (by most votes) who wins a new Aveo5. On the site riders can create flyers to give to people, post on their Facebook of MySpace profiles or email around as well. You can read more about the campaign via the launch news release.

The campaign site provides a solid digital home for the campaign - making it easy to watch videos, see where the tour is now and where its going and has some of the Aveo5 drivers on campus blogging about their experiences. There are links to learn more about the car, check out Chevy's fuel solution options and of course back to chevy.com.

So, what's missing? As always I'm sure the people who worked hard to create this campaign had more ideas that maybe didn't fit in the budget or didn't make it off the drawing board. These ideas are just to explore additional areas to think about for your next campaign. What about:

"Celebrity" drivers. Imagine if on the first day on each college campus consumers got in and were greeted with the lead singer of a local, well-known college band, either driving or in the passenger seat. Or a huge A-list actor/actress and Chevrolet makes a donation for every mile or person picked up that day by the campus cab. I just like the added word-of-mouth that it would drive, getting people to be even more on the look-out for the Aveo5 roaming around campus offering free rides.
Sing-a-long. I think its a universal fact that people sing in the car with their friends. What if there were four songs people could choose from when they get in the car, and then there'd be a winner per song. Again, i have watched all of the videos but some are funnier than others - and think watching videos of people trying to sing to funny songs could help create a viral effect for the videos, further helping to spread the campaign to others.
SMS/MMS component. Lots of mobile phones these days have video playing capabilities, so it would be great if I could send a snippet of my video to friends' mobiles or an SMS with a link to check out the full video.

All-in-all, I think this is a great campaign, designed to appeal to the desired audience for the product, leveraging social media in an intuitive way and a nice prize to get people excited. A big "WOOHOO" to the team at Chevrolet.

Volunteering Via Mobile: Dialing Up New Ways To Help

Ryan Peal — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 19:20:00 GMT

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.

YouTube Contest Scaring Up Pizza Customers

Ryan Peal — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 22:22:00 GMT

I'm continuing to keep my eye on the growing number of YouTube contests that pop up each day, as I truly believe this will continue to grow given how easy and inexpensive they are to set-up. Today’s case in point – Home Run Inn Pizza – who recently launched the Home Run Inn Horror Film Competition. People are invited to create a 2 minute horror film that should scare the world, and incorporate Home Run Inn Pizza in the contest. The top 5 winners receive free Home Run Inn frozen pizza for a year and the grand prize winners gets $2,500 cash, a big Halloween production for their house on the big night and hot pizza handed out to people who come for some trick-or-treat fun.

At first I have to admit I thought it was going to be a stretch to get people to incorporate pizza into a horror skit, but thankfully I was proven wrong after watching a few of the video entries. This just goes to show that for a little cash and a unique concept people will come and play along. It’s also important to note that a brand like Home Run Inn Pizza has an existing relationship with families that gives them the permission to take people on this journey.

A few things I’d do differently next year to help drive more awareness, views and participation:

Elvira. Yes, the mistress of the dark. She may be a bit too non-family and is a bit old school but media still eat her up (no pun intended) around Halloween and she could help drive awareness through the media coverage that could have been gained with her part of the campaign. Even adding her in to serve the pizza at the winning house could have been a solid addition. And maybe I just thought of her to add her picture to this entry. :)
Facebook. The company has a Facebook page but doesn’t look like its utilized that much and doesn’t mention this campaign at all.
Blockbuster. Wonder if Blockbuster could have been approached to do some type of in-store promo about the campaign. Perhaps they could offer secondary prizes of a full library of the scariest movies of all time and Home Run Inn Pizza could give away frozen pizza to the first 10 people (in costume) who come into the stores on Halloween night (nice sampling).
Late night radio pizza delivery. This may have been done, but think it would be worth feeding the radio guys/gals who are entertaining people at night could have been engaged with some food to raise awareness of the campaign. Directing the DJs to the site to have a laugh at the videos could also drive some nice on-air chatter.

So all of these ideas are obviously budget dependant and the team who put this idea together may have these ideas as well and/or may be testing the water this year and thinking big for next year. Just adding some more food-for-thought (another zinger) for everyone to consider for your next big campaign. Overall i love this campaign because its simple, fun and easy for people to enter - and of course some of the videos could go viral and spread the brand message even further.Well done!

New Oasis Album Launch Effort - Free Music, NYC Street Performers

Ryan Peal — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 23:24:00 GMT

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.

Nicole Richie Launches Texting Fundraising Campaign

Ryan Peal — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 11:26:00 GMT

My friend Andrew over at thecoolhunter.net let me know of a very cool campaign that just launched in the U.S. with Nicole Richie and Joel Madden. It seems like a no brainer, and not sure why no one has done it before - so thrilled to see its arrival as it can only inspire others to do something similar. Here's how simple it is - you just text "child" to 90999 from your mobile phone (in the US) and you have just donated $5 to The Richie Maddden Children's Foundation - $4.50 goes to the foundation and $0.50 goes to the Mobile Giving Foundation to support more text donation programs. The $5 charge shows up on your phone bill, that's it.

As I said before, this is such a simple way to make it easy for people to donate to charities, and really hope this new fundraising method spreads fast and furious to help non-profits around the world. Bonus points to whoever thought of this creative fundraising tool. Love it!

McDonalds Has Moms Blogging About Food

Ryan Peal — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 08:52:00 GMT

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.

Meow Wow - Wigs For Your Cat

Ryan Peal — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 19:52:00 GMT

From the "there is creativity all around you" file - cat wigs. From pink passion and bashful blond to silver fox and electric blue, your cat can feel all glammed up with their very own cat wig. The cat wig phenomenon is taking off it seems, with hundreds of people joining the Kitty Wig Flickr group too.

So next time you think you have run dry of creative ideas, think of kitty wigs to inspire you. Perfect at least for a Friday. :)

Free Brand Ambassadors for Amazon's Kindle

Ryan Peal — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 19:14:00 GMT

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.

Indie Rock Bands Hear The Bell

Ryan Peal — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 19:54:00 GMT

Another brand that I think is well in tune with its target audience is Taco Bell. For those of you not in the US, Taco Bell is a fast food, inexpensive Mexican food chain. My ex-colleague and pal Will Bortz is one of the marketing gurus at Taco Bell and recently announced another spot-on campaign that speaks directly to their youth audience with the "Feed The Beat" campaign that just launched.

The campaign invites indie bands to visit a site to upload info about the band as well as submit a sample track for judging. Lots of bands will get free Taco Bell food and a lucky few will make it to the a battle of the band style competition - with consumer votes moving bands to the next round. 3 final bands will get a major marketing push via Taco Bell, which reaches millions of people who walk through their doors each day. It's a bit of an unconvention way for bands to break on the scene - but one that I think will become more and more common. Brands are looking for new ways to spend their marketing budgets given the increasing decline of effectiveness of traditional advertisements. And this is even more true for younger audiences who are spending more time online than on TV these days.

I think this campaign works on a number of fronts. The first one is obvious - using the youth currency of music to engage with a younger audience. The second one is a bit more sublte - indie rock or alternative music focus. This is a more credible and authentic route for the right brand to venture down and should give Taco Bell some extra bonus points with this audience. It's also smart for Taco Bell to ask for the band's social network page as part of the registration process - which I'm guessing will play a role down the line with the campaign using these sites to promote the competition, going where the kids are and doing it in an appropriate way. The website right now isn't that exciting, but assuming it will get a total makeover when the competition truly kicks off with the battle of the band weeks. I think they could have done a bit more on the site to engage and entertain bands making the visit.

The campaign is also casually connected to Taco Bell's push around the "Fourth Meal" - the time between dinner and breakfast, that provide a solid connection to Taco Bell restaurants staying open very late to cater to the younger audience who is out late all the time.

All in all a very solid campaign and approach, and I definitely look forward to watching the fun roll out over the next few months. Obviously if a band is discovered and makes it big Taco Bell will have a whole big heap of fun on its hands.

YouTube and Cosmo Magazine Searching For New Female Music Superstar

Ryan Peal — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 19:43:00 GMT

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).

Have You Done The Walk Of Shame?

Ryan Peal — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 18:49:00 GMT

This one makes me laugh. Check out a hilarious new video (below) that i was sent from a friend for AMP Energy drink. The video celebrates what we all know we've done, whether we want to admit it or not, the walk of shame, and is part of a campaign from AMP called Walk of No Shame. Wearing clothes from the night before, smelling like a bar, and more. The gang at AMP Energy drink must have heard in some consumer research that many of us reach for an energy drink that morning to help at least speed up the journey home. The campaign invites others to share their own walk of shame story and the top stories receive some cool prizes. On the campaign site you can become Facebook fans of the campaign, and you can download the music/lyrics as well.

I hope the campaign had actors as walk of shamers heading down busy streets on Sunday mornings with thier AMP drinks in hand, passing by restaurants with Gen X and Gen Y'ers outfront, perhaps swaying a bit or heads way down - providing a good conversation piece that could connect with this campaign. Good times indeed!

Give Time Now and Rock Later With New Youth Volunteer Campaign

Ryan Peal — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 09:24:00 GMT

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.

McDonalds Takes On Coffee Snobs

Ryan Peal — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 22:38:00 GMT

Coffee is a crazy thing - many people swear by their favourite brands, can't imagine a morning without it, travel way out of their way for the right kind and basically think they have a personal relationship with a handful of special beans that gave thier lives to make their morning coffee a very special moment. On the other hand, many people think coffee is coffee, maybe have a few variations they play with but that's it.

With that in mind, enter the marketing gurus of McDonalds, who I still hold as one of the truly great marketing companies who have had to change their ways more ways than one to match the ever changing global food habits and concerns. Their latest move has been in the coffee arena, slowly encroaching on the turf of the likes of Starbucks, Seattle's Best and others who started on coffee and extended in their own ways into pastries, light food, chocolate and more.

McDonalds, leveraging I'm assuming some insight into the "I just like good coffee, nothing too fancy" vibe, recently launched a new website hitting directly at some of the elite coffee drinkers and perception of coffee. The new unsnobbycoffee website makes coffee and all its recent new varieties very simple - shows the easy difference between a latte versus a mocha versus a cappuccino. A good education element. The site also has a "snobby coffee intervention" area where you can send friends a tongue-and-cheek email about their snobby coffee behaviour and tell them to relax, it's just coffee.

The site clearly isn't going to change the world, and its consumer engagement levels could be a lot stronger (in addition to the content above it just has a pinball game and a store locator), but it may be a small glimpse of what things are coming next.

If I was working at McDonalds and wanted to "own" coffee and breakdown the perception of coffee snobs, I'd continue this campaign with maybe:

a series of videos showing Ronald McDonald trying to order at fancy coffee stores, getting confused by the menu and running back to McDonalds with its simple menu
planning protests outside of McDonalds by people dressed up in ultra fabulous clothes drinking small little cups of coffee, carrying signs that say "only expensive coffee has expensive taste" and "stop making great coffee so affordable to so many, it bugs me"
creating McCafe mobile buses, bringing the great taste of McDonalds coffee to big consumer events, of course giving the coffee for free
a big visual recreating the Boston tea party, with average janes and joes pouring expensive overseas coffee down the drain, wearing American flag t-shirts (if McDonalds gets thier coffee from US farmers if they grow coffee beans in the US) or just to show their hometown (USA) pride

So just a few ideas that could help continue the conversation to raise awareness of McDonalds new coffee offering, making the case that great tasting coffee can be affordable and doesn't have to be served in a mini cup and have 12 different words in the name of the coffee.

5 Objects = $50,000 with new Canon Photography Competition

Ryan Peal — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 02:43:00 GMT

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?