Here's the latest TV ad for the VW Golf, done by DDB London. It's a nice ad, but what's more interesting is the accompanying website. As you can see, it's a really well thought out campaign site, that's had a fair bit of time and money spent on it and it's not just a last minute ad-on to the TV ad that offers no real value to a visitor.

This campaign obviously started out with a generous idea, but of as much relevance is that Tribal DDB will have been working on this for as long as their above the line colleagues were working on the TV spot, and that the shoot was shared by both teams. More importantly, it shows what can happen when digital skills are properly integrated with traditional ones (see my previous post on how DDB/Tribal have restructured).

So while BBH are really struggling to get their heads around digital, and W+K still think it's all about the TV ad (what exactly is the point of the Hondamentalism website?), DDB & Tribal are starting to get it right (they even remembered search).

Disclosure: Lest I'm accused of anything underhand – I did work at Tribal. However, that has not influenced what I've written above. Honestly.

^{Subscribe to Advertising 2.0 by email or RSS}

Here's two really nice examples of interruptive online advertising that does work – a MPU for Amnesty and an expandable banner for Renault – however, how effective will the nth viewing be, let alone the nth execution to copy the same executional trick, is questionable.

Which tallies nicely with these comments from the Fallon Planning blog:

the WSJ reports on the "rise" of digital advertising and it's importance for the future. While this piece doesn't get into much new info (to us at least), perhaps an in-depth article in a traditional, respected publication (particularly to the people who need convincing that this is the real shit) will help further spread the word on how critical a shift it is. In fact, the Journal projects that, by 2011, the digital adspace will be closing in on a $40 billion industry.

Though it's good to see a traditional business paper talking on new media, honestly I would argue (and I think most of you would agree) the "brave new world" of advertising is not banner ads, paid search, etc but how companies are going to capitalize on social media to reach their target.

For example, I'm a big car fan. I'm often on car sites, building and comparing models, etc etc. So let's say Nissan were to track my internet activity, and consequently splash a banner ad on Facebook because I was poking around on the Nissan website moments before, curious about a new model…wouldn't really mean shit to me.

But, if they found a way to integrate themselves into the 15, 20 minutes or more I spend on the site (groups I'm in, people I'm friends with) then they may grab my attention. Hell, do a search for "Nissan" groups on FB and you get +500 results. So why not a Nissan sponsored group– host events, membership discounts, factory tours, visits to HQ– capitalize on the brand evangelists! Just one example, and I'm sure there are many more.

Hah – thought I'd get through a whole post without it mentioning Facebook? You were wrong…

^{Subscribe to Advertising 2.0 by email or RSS}

OK, I remember when one bought a publication several years ago and it was covered back to back with Advertising! It got to the point, when you favorite gossip magazine was 75% advertising and less than 25% of quality editorial. Admittedly, I rarely find myself buying a real magazine nowadays as I am a aspired digital head!

Well, is it just me or is this danger hitting the online world? Admittedly we are all in the business in some way or another and it is our job to come up with creative advertising solutions, but damn it, call me a little old fashioned but if I arrive at a site and every pixel is banner advertising then I will take my time and business elsewhere… Out of respect I will not name the sites at the top of my mind as I don’t think I am here to create a war with my colleagues – at least in my first Blog with BR!

I come from a technical and usability background, and face these types of challenges everyday when working in a media agency environment, especially here in Finland. When I worked in usability and production, our business was creating usable sites based on 100’s of variables and conditions, and I see none of these principles in the sites that come to mind! There must be a medium platform that our fellow IAB reps and we in the business can introduce to Medias as a ‘standard’ to look up to.

I’m sorry, I know its sales for our agencies, but let’s get creative, think outside the banner, think smartly and educate the Medias that they can’t sell every pixel of their sites. I have a feeling my first little bitch in this Blog might erupt some arguments from the online media world? I hope so… arguing is healthy for the business!

I don't think its a coincidence that all the pencils won for sites were done by non-UK agencies and all the pencils won for banners were by UK agencies.

There is a wee bit of an obsession with advertising (banners) in this fair land of ours over 'other things'. Clearly advertising is incredibly important and we wouldn't have anything to talk about without it but I do think we (as in digital agencies) are going to have to be able to do more than banners – to the same standard as our US / Japanese / Swedish friends – or we are going to find life very difficult.

The normal response to this by the UK scene is 'but, we don't have the budget, it's not fair'. Well, two of the sites that won pencils were not blockbusters at all – Weave Toshi from Japan and Shaveverywhere from NY - they were just really interesting from a usability and humour standpoint.

So if it aint the budget then it must be the idea.  Doing cool banners to win awards is all well and good (and certainly cheaper and easier than doing sites) but we need to think bigger and get clients to buy bigger ideas if we are to progress.

That was vaguely serious there. Did you notice?

Bubble II could be upon us – First Tuesday* is back. Let's hope it works out better than TechCrunch UK did…

*need a refresher?

^{Subscribe to Advertising 2.0 by email or RSS}

OK, you may have noticed I've developed a bit of a Facebook obsession over the last few weeks, but after Thursday's launch of Facebook Platform, I think it's justified – this marks the beginning of another massive change in the way we think about the internet.

From a lengthy Fortune article (as usual, worth reading in full):

Imagine that when you shopped online for a digital camera, you could see whether anyone you knew already owned it and ask them what they thought. Imagine that when you searched for a concert ticket you could learn if friends were headed to the same show. Or that you knew which sites – or what news stories – people you trust found useful and which they disliked. Or maybe you could find out where all your friends and relatives are, right now (at least those who want to be found).

This isn't fantasy. Facebook might make it possible, and soon. Yes, the social-networking site college kids spend so much time on – the one you thought was just about hooking up – could turn out to be more important than any of us thought.

In late May, the company's 23-year-old CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, got up in front of several hundred journalists, analysts, and industry leaders … to say that Facebook would no longer be just another social-networking site. Instead, he said, it aims to be the place where you can involve your friends in everything you do online. The company has 24 million members (less than half of whom are now in college), and it is adding about 150,000 a day. In effect, Facebook is now offering the opportunity for any company, Internet service, or software maker – anyone at all, really – to build services for its members.

In advance of the announcement, which had Silicon Valley buzzing, Zuckerberg and other executives spoke to Fortune about the strategy. "We want to make Facebook into something of an operating system so you can run full applications," Zuckerberg told me. He said Facebook is becoming a "platform," meaning a software environment where others can create their own services, much the way anyone can write programs for Microsoft's Windows operating system on PCs.

Zuckerberg sometimes lapses into jarringly grandiose language, for example when he told me that what Facebook is unveiling would be "the most powerful distribution mechanism that's been created in a generation."

Today, social networking is fragmented. There are networks for dating, for philanthropy, for pet owners, for parents. But each has its own ways for members to register, describe themselves, communicate, and interact. Facebook aims to make much of that unnecessary. It will provide the underlying services – a platform – and offer access to its prerecruited pool of members. It will retain some online real estate and will still generate the lion's share of its revenue from advertising.

Liz Gannes, who was at the Facebook launch, also clarifies something important:

Zuckerberg says you can serve ads on your app pages and keep all the revenue, sell them yourselves or use a network, and process transactions within the site, keeping all the revenue without diverting users off Facebook.

And, as Michael Arrington points out:

there is also a crucial viral component – when a friend adds an application, it is noted in their news stream on their profile. Clicking on the item brings you to the app, where you can add and/or interact with it yourself.

Advertising Age also has a good article covering off what Facebook Platform might mean for advertisers.

Anyway, that's probably enough for now. I'm off to play Red Bull Roshambull.

Update: There are a few naysayers out there – have a quick read of Facebook's new platform: No guarantees.

^{Subscribe to Advertising 2.0 by email or RSS}

Doh! The groans from the TV posse last night at D&AD's ceremony were pretty much uniform when instead of awarding a commercials director or adland Creative Director the lifetime achievement award went to the Internet.

Sir Tim Berners Lee, inventor of the WWW got his first ever creative award. My how things have changed. 

The other big winner was nike+. No surprise there. I was going to do a long and supremely intellectual post about D&AD for the first time truly rewarding a creative business idea rather than something that just looked pretty but I'm too hungover.

You get the drift though don't you? Things that are useful, innovative and all that jazz are much more interesting than things that just look nice. And it's going to stay that way for the forseeable future. (Until it becomes fashionale to do the opposite).

The D&AD Awards were announced last night – Agency Republic, AKQA and Lean Mean Fighting Machine all picked up yellow pencils in the online advertising category, but there was not a single British winner in the websites category – however New York's R/GA picked up a black pencil for Nike+. Campaign seems to think 'the digital world really made its mark'.

You can see all the winnners here – although someone needs to shoot whoever designed the D&AD awards site – screen shots or tiny quicktimes of websites or online advertising, rather than direct links to the work? As James says, things that are useful are much more interesting than things that just look nice.

Update: More from James on why all the pencils won for sites were done by non-UK agencies and all the pencils won for banners were by UK agencies.

^{Subscribe to Advertising 2.0 by email or RSS}

In a week when Wildfire , another new word of mouth agency, has announced they're open for business, less than 2 months after the arrival of BzzAgent in the UK, an interesting article has surfaced, questioning the very principles on which these businesses are based.

The Wall Street Journal carries rumours that today Facebook will unveil:

a new strategy to let other companies provide their services on special pages within its popular Web site. These companies will be able to link into Facebook users' networks of online friends.

For instance, an online retailer could build a service in Facebook to let people recommend music or books to their friends, based on the relationships they've already established on the site. Or a media company could let groups of users share news articles with each other on a page inside Facebook.

Previously some companies have had pages within Facebook, but they didn't interact with the Web site's user networks. This move is significant because it could turn Facebook into a central hub for Web users, akin to an Internet portal like Yahoo. Rather than using Facebook only to keep in touch with friends and going elsewhere for other content, users could now gain access to that content inside Facebook. That could keep people on Facebook for longer periods of time, which would also appeal to advertisers.

It's unclear how exactly Facebook plans to make money from the platform strategy, but one person familiar with the matter says the firm currently has no plans to share revenue with the companies that develop services to run on Facebook's platform. In that case, the main draw for companies that put their services on the site would be visibility and access to users of the Facebook site.

Update: Mashable has the scoop – Facebook F8 Live, Facebook Video Launches and 30+ Awesome Applications for Facebook. Also see Techcrunch on Facebook Causes.

^{Subscribe to Advertising 2.0 by email or RSS}