Work in progress: the first ever twitter pub quiz

This week we’re busy planning what, as far as I can tell, is the world’s first ever Twitter pub quiz for Irish Whiskey brand Bushmills. Not as easy as it might sound. First of all there is the challenge that we must keep it limited to people 18+ (as the prize is a bottle of whiskey). This was solved by using a private Twitter account and linking it to the sign-up mechanic on www.bushmills.co.za. So its slightly complicated but works, you sign-up with your Twitter address, we follow you, you follow us back. The next challenge is to come up with questions that can’t be found easily on Google. Pretty tough but by going for South African bits of trivia and checking them on searches I think we’ll crack it. First round is on Friday about lunchtime and we’ll select a winner from people that answer all questions correctly. Bushmills on Twitter is found at @bushmillssa.

Quick update: week 1 was a success I reckon with about 20 entries and one winner (pretty tough questions it turns out)

Magazines as networks

I’ve had some interesting conversations with South African journalists recently around the future of magazines. For a web geek I’m a huge fan of magazines (and must spend about R500 a month on them) so I’m not a believer in a purely digital future for media (in fact i think the idea is pretty sad). You can’t take laptops in the bath on a Sunday morning… But I think that any publisher that sees themselves as just producing a magazine is in for some serious trouble. A great publication to me is one that lives beyond the pages, yes obviously on the web, but also at events, in products, in documentries, or just when a member of the team opens their mouth in public. Monocle magazine is a great example living in print, online, podcasts, a shop, limited edition products etc.

One way to look at the future of media is to look at a magazine brand as a network formed amongst people with shared interests and lifestyles. All the output of the media in whatever shape is designed to feed this network with conversation points, inspiration and ways of bringing the network together. A step further is to take that network to the point where readers can start forming relationships with each other brought together by the media. A magazine like Destiny is edging towards this and has huge potential to bring likeminded, ambitious women together – not just in faceless chats but in real-life. Seventeen magazine with their urban scouts network is also heading in this direction with younger readers.

Media, merged with social media, has potential to become the gentleman’s (or woman’s) club of the future. From a brands point of view it will be very appealing to work with a magazine that isn’t just consumed in a one-way flow of information but that has a tight-knit community of followers that regularly interact with each other. I’m pretty convinced that magazines that survive the “death of print” will have found clever ways to form communities out of their readers and created relevant ways for brands to interact with them.

Kehinde Wiley, ghetto portrait artist

New York based artist, Kehinde Wiley provides an interesting twist on portrait painting with his images of ghetto kids in the kind of poses found in paintings from the renaissance. Whilst centuries old European nobles depicted in the portraits of the old masters and kids from the hood might seem polar opposites there are some interesting parallels: strip it down and the renaissance portraits were about showing off wealth and success in the same way as the average hip hop music video.

Dress for a month project from Elle SA

Since I gave up being a fashion blogger last year there are whole bunch of new kids on the block blog (doing it better) in SA. One of the most interesting is a project from Elle writer Emily Pettitt-Coetzee who is wearing the same dress for a month and documenting her different ways of wearing it on dressforamonth.blogspot.com. The project is aimed at raising funds for the Elle Foundation but I think is a great single-minded blog idea which should do really well. Maybe i’ll wear my zip-through black top for a month as well (thinking about it i probably do). Just hope she’s doing some over night laundry though!

ghd Revelations part 3

After a wander down a corridor (which was one backwards talking dwarf short of a Twin Peaks scene) the audience came across a window where they could watch this young lady talking on the phone:

Nearby was a phone booth where her conversation could be overheard – there were also telegrams (sent from the girl to a lover):

More photos in the rest of the article.

Behind the scenes at ghd Revelations part 2

The ghd Revelations event took place last week after nearly a year of planning. The end result was very different to the original concept – the result of working with many people on the event (Hammer, theatre director Craig Leo, Mari Gronewald and our decor stylists). I mean that in a positive way though. The event was designed to immerse consumers in the ghd brand, show off their creativity and spread buzz about the brand. Guests wandered around 14 Hope Street – which basically feels like a dishevelled theatre following a circuit that led them around loosely connected scenes. There was a vague story behind the event – but we wanted people to interpret in their own way – it’s been fun to hear different people’s takes on it.

All the photos are taken by Simon Deiner & team. Should have some video later in the week…

Mari talks us through the looks at the technical rehearsal:

The pink frock ended up on our slightly toasted party girl (pic further down):

Lots more photos after the jump:

Dark Night Of The Soul

Music producer Danger Mouse, Sparklehorse (the band) and David Lynch have collaborated on an album/multimedia project called Dark Night Of The Soul. Due to a legal dispute with EMI it cannot be released as a traditional album so to get round it a book with photograpy by Lynch and a blank CD R have been released – the idea being you find somewhere to download it.  South African’s will no doubt appreciate the photo of the prom princess braaiing.

You can hear a sample track in the youtube clip:

From the vaults: The Miniscule of Sound

The Miniscule of Sound has to be one of my favorite ideas ever. Basically a fully functioning club – including bouncers, dj, dancefloor etc that fits about four people. What I learnt from this is you don’t need a big expensive idea to get people’s attention. A small perfectly formed bunch of arbness will sometimes do just the trick (on a fraction of the budget).

So I didn’t say anything about always posting new stuff…

Scowling in heels – The September Issue

Fashion is usually a pretty good subject for documentry makers as its full of larger than life characters that live in their own outrageous fantasy worlds. For those of you that thought The Devil Wears Prada was a documentary on Anna Wintour’s managerial skills you should really check out the real thing. Personally i can’t  wait to see this. And if you haven’t seen Lagerfeld Confidential already get to it.

www.theseptemberissue.com

New campaign for Capitec Bank

Atmosphere has just launched The Capitec Bank Youth Prosperity Survey. Aimed at connecting with young people and their parents, the survey takes a look at young adults attitudes and aspirations in relation to wealth.

To support the campaign we collaborated with Cow Africa to create a microsite to host the survey’s findings and includes a (beautifully designed) interactive quiz on spending habits and vox pops. In its first day the campaign has already scored a primetime interview on E TV, frontpage coverage in the Pretoria News and articles in Weekend Argus, Daily Dispatch, Weekend Witness, Beeld and Die Burger with much more expected over the next few days.