News and blog

Happy new year, party animals and culture vultures!

Now that January is done, along with those pesky resolutions (probably) and rotten detox diets (definitely!), your thoughts, like ours, are no doubt turning once more to the most fruitful, enriching and downright entertaining ways to make the most of life in the city.

As all ad aficionados know, this weekend’s Superbowl (that’s a bit like the FA Cup final of american football, non-sports fans) is eagerly anticipated, and not just as an epic clash of gridiron titans. There’s the heartfelt singing of the star-spanled banner, the national celebration of american exceptionalism… and there’s the half time ads.

Gamification is the application of gaming mechanics to non-gaming scenarios. It’s a fairly new term, but the concept definitely isn’t. After all, when you strip away the buzz words, you’re left with the practice of making something that isn’t usually fun feel pleasurable and rewarding.

Welcome to the new ‘timeline’ profile from Facebook.

A dodgy Coke habit…

As all enthusiastic consumers of caramel-flavoured carbonated vegetable soft drinks will be aware, singular purveyor Coca-Cola is in the habit of creating occasional new packaging designs; to mark the festive season, for example.

It comes as some surprise then, that this year’s “white can”, so-named for its predominant colourway, has met with a near-hysterical social media response from consumers.

The Wall Street Journal continues the story:

Coke said it became aware of consumer complaints through Internet postings and some telephone calls to the company. Many Internet comments have been critical of the white cans. “PEOPLE! Don’t be a victim,” wrote one consumer on Twitter, warning that mixing up Coke and Diet Coke is “a SHOCK to the palate!”

Another person accused Coke of “trickery,” and still another called the white cans “blasphemy,” among hundreds of tweets.

Mis-steps from this colossus of the branding world are not unheard of, and one cannot help but call to mind the New Coke fiasco. Looks like a classic case of bad planning.

Hat tip to Gawker.

–

More enlightenment and opinion from Madhouse, Manchester’s leading integrated marketing communications agency

Following our recent Madhouse seminar on The Future of Digital, we thought we’d consume a few blog-inches by looking at some of the trends that are likely to be transforming the way we all buy, share and communicate in the years to come.

It’s often said of Jarvis Cocker that, in his current corduroy-jackets-with-elbow-patches phase, he resembles nothing so much as a geography teacher – albeit of the kind who still seems close to his inner teenager even while describing the formation of an ox-bow lake.

Read more ›

We were in Brussels yesterday visiting our valued clients – and good friends – at Toyota Europe. The city was looking as festive as you would expect, given that it gave its name to one of the key Christmas vegetables, and Toyota itself was channeling the spirit of the season with its traditional illuminated tree, and slightly less traditional illuminated car.

Say hello to your digital future…

Madhouse has just hosted the latest in our ongoing series of quarterly seminars.

This one was entitled “The Future of Digital” and once again a packed house full of the agency’s friends and clients came together  to find out where our industry is heading.  The key question at this session was “what we can expect from  the digital world over the next two, five and ten years?”

Joining us to gaze into the crystal ball was digital expert Andrew Gordon, who talked the audience through a range of topics, asking thought-provoking questions and helping everyone to focus on the bigger picture.

Well, we knew it would be “all olympics, all the time”, and so it goes…