JOVA

All brands are not created equal

Adrien Dawans — 2008-02-26T15:44:29+00:00

Interbrand and Businessweek have released their list of the "Best Global Brands by Value for 2007". It's a fascinating read and well worth downloading.

Interbrand

Love Jozi in Winter

Adrien Dawans — 2008-02-26T16:06:45+00:00

We've been following Love Jozi since it's inception in 2005 when design guru Bradley Kirshenbaum put his design skills to fashion and created his bespoke label Love Jozi. He started off with a small run of 70 shirts depicting the Johannesburg skyline. Now in its seventh range, the label has developed a strong following by an interesting mix of consumers – from South Africans living abroad to trendy teenagers across the country. Nine stockists supply the range including one in London. Click here to see Love Jozi photo's on JOVAFlickr. And fly to Love Jozi here.

Short term Blogging (for events)

Adrien Dawans — 2008-02-26T16:45:35+00:00

Although you may think that Blog's were but a passing 2007 fad, if you spend any time on the net you will know that is not the case. Blogs are here to stay, though they may change host, look, feel, format and topic, as an easy-to-use online communications platform, blogs are very useful - particularly if you have an event, conference or campaign that requires short-term communication with your market. Rohit Bhargava is the vice president of Interactive Marketing at Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide as well as a recognized blog author, industry speaker, and expert on integrating social media with marketing, advertising and public relations. In Rohit's article The Complete Guide to Short Term Blogging, he shares with us his insights on when to launch a short term blog and how to do it right. For the full article, read Rohit's blog Influential Marketing here.

Silver Jubilee for VWV

Adrien Dawans — 2008-02-27T16:13:16+00:00

VWV rocked their 25th (!) birthday party in glamorous style at the beautifully refurbished Alexander Theatre in Braamfontein, Johannesburg. See more photo's on VWV's JOVAFlickr set here.

Subtle Sushi Marketing

Adrien Dawans — 2008-02-27T18:20:18+00:00

It's a clever idea - go to all the Sushi restaurants you know and subtly advertise a service that can take you to where Sushi originates: Japan Airlines. Article by David Billion from Culture Buzz.

Thinking of taking a holiday trip to Japan? In this case the best thing to do might actually be to go and have dinner in a sushi restaurant… in London, Japan Airlines decided to conduct an ambient marketing campaign in several Japanese restaurants.

The idea is simple: On the sushi conveyor-belt’s found in many Japanese restaurants, consumers could pick up both sushi and little suitcases with the price for a flight to Japan written on the labels. A creative and efficient way of getting a message across; without disturbing the given restaurant’s clients in any way!

Why not take a little trip to Japan... maybe you can fit it in between two sushi dinners!

Music We Love Right Now - Feb 08

Adrien Dawans — 2008-02-28T13:44:38+00:00

Looking for some musical inspiration? Maybe we can help. In this regular JOVA feature we introduce the sweet sounds that are filling up our days...

We'll be updating this list as we go, we hope you enjoy our selection. Feel free to tell us what music you're listening to in the comments section. We kick off this series with two gems - 'new but old comer' Yael Naim and the fabulous new Chemical Brother's album.

The Dictaphone is Back

Adrien Dawans — 2008-02-28T14:49:16+00:00

But these days it's known as a Digital Voice Recorder (DVR) and it can do lots more high-tech stuff in addition to recording secret conversations... The blog generation are snapping up DVR's that also play music, record music and of course store lots of files. So next time you need to record your thoughts, sing your thoughts or save them in word, just use your DVR.

Let them Drive Cake

Adrien Dawans — 2008-02-28T15:35:10+00:00

Remember the Hansel and Gretel fairy tale, with the house made from cake? You have to watch this advertisement for the carmaker Škoda . They've made their Fabia car out of cake, literally bringing the pay off line 'Full of Lovely Stuff' to life!

PowerPoint can be deadly

Adrien Dawans — 2008-02-28T16:05:02+00:00

Bad PowerPoint presentations kill. Not only your audience (as they slowly die from boredom) but also your concept, your passion, your dream and most importantly any chance of walking out victorious.

Thanks to Lifehacker: Presentation consultant Alexei Kapterev put together a must-see slideshow on creating great presentations. Hit the next button above to flip through it and see how to stop killing your audience with boring PowerPoint presentations (no audio, the slides speak for themselves). This one's essential (and entertaining) viewing for students and professionals

slideshare | View | Upload your own

A Square can also be a Diamond

Adrien Dawans — 2008-02-28T16:38:05+00:00

Ogilvy Toronto came up with a stellar concept for the cereal brand Shreddies. The brief was for the agency to 'make people think of Shreddies again'. The concept was simple but potent: take the breakfast cereal square, turn them 45 degrees and rename them as diamonds. Get it? Then package the same product as a new product called 'Diamond Shreddies' , set up a microsite , do some market research , put together a humourous ad and viral campaign and see what happens. Outstanding.

Addict Lab Call for Entries

Adrien Dawans — 2008-03-05T13:53:35+00:00

Addictlab.com is organising a 2nd OPEN LAB in South Africa. Addictlab.com is an international creative lab©, attracting great talent from different fields (design, fashion, art, photography, etc.), creating platforms for the creative scene and inspiration for the industry. In collaboration with ELLE DECORATION a selection of great South African talent mixed with international concepts out of Addictlab’s database will be shown at the DESIGN QUARTER in Johannesburg.
And you can be part of that.

Must see: Easy as Picnik

Adrien Dawans — 2008-03-05T15:01:15+00:00

You know when you have an image that you quickly need to crop, make smaller in size or just rotate.... but you don't have expensive photoshop or any other graphic program that would let you do it? And anyway even if you did you have no idea how to begin to use those programs?

Festive Free Green Love

Adrien Dawans — 2008-03-06T15:32:24+00:00

In Europe, festival season kicks in from July to August as schools and universities close for the summer and workers take leave to enjoy the long evenings and sweaty days. Literally hundreds of festivals blur and bump into each other - dance, music and art take centre stage all over Europe as people fork out big bucks to get dirty and high and often sopping wet, in public. Each year the festivals jostle to promote bigger and better artist line ups to tempt punters to catch their show. A social innovation trend we're picking up on is the "Green Festival" - festivals where the music and entertainment is powered by anything but electricity. The FreeFunk festival in Holland powered their DJ's and lighting with solar panels, home gym equipment and wind

Montreux Golden Awards

Adrien Dawans — 2008-03-06T15:46:22+00:00

The city of Montreux in Switzerland is best known for it's popular JAZZ FESTIVAL that takes place every July attracting Jazz afficionados from around the world. Creatives take note, similar to Cannes, Montreux also has it's very own International Advertising and Multimedia Festival taking place in April. The awards are called the Golden Awards, the jury is made up of high level professionals from around the world who bestow certificates, golden medals and the one and only Golden Trophy to the most outstanding entries. Entries are currently open until the 15 March - you can enter online, your work needs to have appeared between January 1st 2007 and April 18th 2008.

Obamarketing

Adrien Dawans — 2008-03-06T17:22:24+00:00

We had a good laugh last year when we saw the sultry "I've got a crush on Obama" music video by Obamagirl (see below) which suprised the Obama marketing team who claimed they had nothing to do with it.

Cheeky viral video's aside, Dan Goldgeier, a columnist for AdColumnist.com , reckons Obama and his team have their fingers on the marketing pulse, creating the 'most sophisticated marketing program" he's ever seen.