Garbage turns into gold

I found this interesting report at trend spotter Cassandra Daily. A great way to start living more sustainable: Urban residents worldwide generate 1.3 billion tons of garbage per year. At this rate, The World Bank estimates that annual waste tonnage will reach 2.2 billion by 2025. To reduce this level, new services that encourage city dwellers to alert others of unwanted, but still usable, items have emerged, thereby upcycling potential waste to keep it out of landfills. Goedzak: Too often, people throw away items in good condition rather than donating or selling them. To prevent this, Simon Akkaya of Dutch design studio Waarmakers created Goedzak, a translucent bag with a yellow stripe that signals to passersby that the contents have value. People are encouraged to fill Goedzaks (which means “do-gooder” in Dutch, and combines the words for “good” and “bag”), and leave them on curbs for others. Akkaya and his partner Maarten Heijltjes also are piloting a program with a chain of secondhand stores in Amsterdam, through which bags are collected and the items within them can be resold or recycled. Trashswag: Trashswag is a Toronto-based website and app that crowdmaps items and materials that have been abandoned on curbs. Users upload photos of disposed goods, write accompanying descriptions, and pin them on a map. There’s also an option to report objects via email or Twitter with the hashtag #trashswag. By signing up for email alerts, users can discover what’s currently available in their areas. Founder Gavin Cameron came up with the idea when working on a project with artists who texted each other pictures and addresses of useful items left on the street. Cameron hopes to expand the “Craigslist for dumpster divers” to other cities. ReBounty: ReBounty is an app that lets New Yorkers list and find items they no longer want or have spotted on the street. Much like with Trashswag, users can upload pictures and descriptions to the site, through the app, or via email. They also can receive alerts to stay informed about unwanted goods found by others. What sets ReBounty apart, however, is the ability to contact item owners directly, thereby allowing for a wider—and potentially more valuable—variety of objects to be posted. The app, still in beta, won Best App for City Crowdsourcing at Reinvent Green, a sustainability hackathon where it was created last year.

Ad placement gone WRONG

II found this on Quirkology blog. Too funny!! Or tragic... 

"@Letitia_Potorac brought my attention to this great site containing unfortunate positioning of ads and CDs.  Here are my favourite three….

Second hand shopping get styled by new app - Instagram meets Gumtree

For several years we have seen houses being styled into perfection just before going on the market. A flat that looks dull is quickly transformed by new white cushions and a vase full of lilies, perhaps a bowl of limes and a smell of cinnamon.

We all know the real estate agents are faking it, and that the apartments will look just as dull the minute the kids toys are spread around the house and the flowers have died. But still... we love beauty, and we love the feeling of possibility - of potential glory.

This is why a new app for second hand sales - think Gumtree - that combines sales with the power of filters like the once at Instagram, is making purchasing old stuff more glam! The new Swedish app Osom presents your used old bikes and lamps in an appealing way, as if they were art objects, and this will lure the eye, the brain and the common sense.

I find shopping online boring since the objects are presented against a sterile white background, without the holistic touch of senses you get in a normal shop, and upon that you will pick the item up in a beige box at the dreadful post office! But with this kind of app, screen shopping will get more interesting. I will fore sure love the product more,  having got the first impression of it in an emotionally attractive setting. What about you?

Turn a potato chip into an experience - beautiful and brilliant packaging

Today I am in love with this packaging design! In times of consumer needing to be constantly entertained, involved and engaged, a brand has to use every opportunity to stop them on their hamster wheel. To get their desired attention for another second. This is a brilliant way of making a generic product more interesting.

This Icelandic brand of chips eliminate the problem of loud crunchy noise and full on dirty hands digging into shallow chip bags; it's a box that folds out into a bowl! 

Designed by Edda Gylfadóttir, Guðrún Hjörleifsdóttir, and Helga Björg, Iceland

http://www.thedieline.com/blog/2011/4/18/orflogur-microchips.html

Sorry for not posting

Hi everybody. I have not posted in a while; I am just too busy at the moment. Promise to be back soon :)

Love Branding book 5 Us dollar

My book "Love Branding" is now for sale at Amazon, Kindle version. Only 5 dollar!! Unfortunately the format is a little odd... if you prefer me sending you a pdf, just email and I send a paypal request. Thanks

http://www.amazon.com/Love-Branding-people-brand-ebook/dp/B00BKQ5QA2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1361856099&sr=8-1&keywords=carolin+dahlman

Can I have a pizza and that blue table please?

Springwise reported in their latest newsletter about a pop-up restaurant in Netherlands that is not just letting diners choose the dish, but also the furniture, the table cloth and the decoration. Interesting how bored we all must be to need all these odd little unnecessary enjoyments to make life a little richer. I guess deep down the pleasures from love, a dip in the sea or a hug will be what really counts, but in a society hungry for multiple impressions, we need more, more, more. Cool idea for sure :)

"We’ve seen personalization in the dining world through the Hoppit site, which allows a user to select a restaurant based on ambience. Similarly, the IkHa temporary restaurant in the Netherlands recently allowed customers to select their choice of Ikea furniture to populate the space while they dined.

Created by Oatmeal Studio, the café was erected as part of last year’s Nordic Film Festival and aimed to make the experience of eating out more customizable for diners. Upon arriving, customers filled out their preferred furnishings – and meal choice – in pencil onto a paper slip, much like the process found in the Ikea store. As well as selecting from a range of tables, chairs and decorations, diners could cut their own tablecloth from wallpaper hanging from the walls. The space invited those using it to personalize it according to their tastes, providing a more engaging experience for diners, as well as doubling as a showroom for Ikea – despite the company not being officially involved in the project.

While the festival is now over, the IkHa restaurant is still available to hire. How else can others in the hospitality industry offer customers a greater role in designing the spaces they use?"

Oh, and the cute pic is just to cheer you up :) 

Be meaningful, different and salient - SHINE

Wisdom from Millward Brown.

GROW VOLUME THROUGH BEING SALIENT

If growing volume is the goal, then salience is the next most important consideration after meaning. But salience is not simply top-of-mind awareness triggered by the category name; our pilot work confirmed that salience is best measured in association with category needs. For example, British Airways was the strongest brand on traditional top-of-mind awareness for the airline category in the UK. But when we applied a needs-based approach to salience, it was easyJet that came through as the most salient brand. That's because easyJet has built an extremely strong association with low price, one of the most important category needs. So, to build salience, you must not only shout louder than the competition, but you must shout about things that relate to category needs.

TO COMMAND A HIGHER PRICE, BE DIFFERENT

If your objective is to sell your brand at a higher price, focus on being different. For an example of great brand differentiation, we can look to Apple, the most valuable brand in the world according to the 2011 BrandZ Top 100. Though Apple does well on each element, its most outstanding performance in nearly every category and country is on being different. The basis for this success is Apple's consistently great product innovation, but Apple also goes beyond functional differentiation to project a unique personality and a clear set of values.

Not all product innovations can capture people's imaginations as the Macintosh, the iPhone, and the iPad have done, but all brand owners should work to establish genuine points of meaningful product differentiation. And even where there is limited scope for functional differentiation, brands should still strive to differentiate through their personality and values.

CONSIDER THE POWER OF THREE

The most successful brands are not just meaningful, just different, or just salient—they are all three. Don’t sell your brand short by using a myopic model of brand building that only acknowledges one of the three ingredients. Instead, acknowledge the importance of all three and use consumer insight, knowledge of the category, and brand objectives to identify the best area of focus.

Wow, this is branding!! Well done Virgin

From PSFK:

With a series of innovative and luxurious airport lounges, airline Virgin Atlantic has truly perfected the art of waiting. Their Clubhouses have been designed to provide travelers with an oasis of comfort and relaxation amid their busy travel schedules. Recently, PSFK had the opportunity to take a closer look at Virgin Atlantic’s Clubhouses at JFK and London Heathrow Airports. The stylish lounges offer a refined and elegant experience for the discerning traveler.

The new JFK-based Virgin Atlantic ‘Uptown’ Clubhouse offers a range of amenities for their premium passengers. The Clubhouse features the first ever complete airport spa in the US, with stylists and registered masseurs on staff to knead away travel stress. The full service salon is stocked with organic Dr. Hauschka products and staffed with Bumble & Bumble trained stylists. The salon overlooks the tarmac and luminescent flight control tower, creating a calm oasis amid the hustle.

The spacious lounge opens up with a cozy reading library and well equipped internet cafe-style computer bay for professionals who need to work on-the-go. For those who would prefer to catch up on some sleep, a section of comfortably equipped and private sleeping alcoves might be just what they are looking for. As all of the Virgin Atlantic flights from JFK depart at night, at the center of the lounge is the sleek ‘uptown’ style cocktail bar complete with full restaurant service and billiards lounge. The clubhouse at JFK has a little something to offer for everyone.

On the other side of the Atlantic, the flagship lounge at London Heathrow offers the ultimate airport experience. The sumptuous and sleek interior is designed to enhance any travelers experience, whether they are looking to relax, work, play, dine, or sip. The airside spa offers travelers the chance to completely refresh themselves before a long trip with showers, spa treatments, and a full salon. Along with restaurant service, the clubhouse at Heathrow features an entertainment den, fully equipped desks for working, several relaxation lounges each with a unique theme, and the indulgent Grey Goose Loft Bar with wide open views of the sky above.

Virgin Atlantic has created peaceful enclaves to make traveling a truly luxurious experience. With 10 Clubhouses currently in service across the globe, we hope to be able to try them all.

Check out more images in the gallery below:

Images via: Virgin & American Architects 

 

Pepsi: A do-good-brand

The Inspiration Room presented today this interesting project. I love when companies are starting to do good. Sure, it´s to earn money in the end, but as long as they are actually doing good, I can´t see a problem with that. When states are overspending and causing nations to fall, it highlights the importance of having your finances in order. When you do, you have room to help. Just as you need to love yourself before you can love someone else, capitalistic values lead the way to altruism and generosity. 

"Pepsi‘s partnership with the My Shelter Foundation Liter of Light project in the Philippines has won Gold for “The New” at the London International Awards. The Isang Litrong Liwanag (A Liter of Light) project, based on research by students from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), involved installing solar bottle lights to provide a unique daytime lighting solution for urban poor communities living in homes without natural light sources. Pepsi sponsorship involved the installation of used plastic Pepsi bottles on roofs to refract sunlight into 55W of light. This cuts down electric bills and helps reduce carbon emission. The brand has installed over 20,000 lights through the combination of volunteer action, online donation and direct sponsorship.

To spread the project, Pepsi helped establish a center to train volunteers and educated companies, schools and people on how to create and install lights. A model community, wherein every home is lit by at least 2 bottle bulbs, was established to help take the model across the global Pepsi system.

The project was covered by TedX, BBC and NHK. It received ‘Best of the Best’ at the 2012 Global Pepsi Performance with Purpose Awards and was specially commended at the 2011 World Climate Conference.

See more on the Liter of Light project at aliteroflight.org and the Liter of Light Facebook page.

Credits

The Pepsi Bottle Light project was developed at BBDO Guerrero, Makati City, by chief creative officer/executive creative director and copywriter David Guerrero, group creative director/art director Dale Lopez, copywriters Rachel Teotico and Raymund Sison, art directors Dennis Nierra, Tim Villela and Ley Mababangloob, agency producers Jing Abellera and Ino Magno, account directors Carmella Q. Montilla, Fran Gonzalez, Dalla Sucgang and Denise Gamo, working with Pepsico International brand manager Michael Eric Rosales and marketing director Steve Romasanta, and My Shelter Foundation founder Illac Diaz. The production team included creative technologists Marissa Manaloto and Xerg Aguilar, social media strategist Roshan Nandwani, programmer Dennis Billano, production manager Al Salvador, graphic designer Manny Vailoces, photographers Karel Sevilla, Leo Dino, Joy Aquino and Aids Tecson, technical developer Chico Jabines and editor Ed Santos."

Coke keeps celebrating happiness - now on an Instagram look-alike

Psfk reports today about Coca-Cola´s new photo site, filled with pictures of Happiness.

It´s so simple but yet so clever how Coke keeps repeating its love for "happiness" and sticks to the value, the message, the theme. It makes all communication attempts line up nicely and strong. In the eyes of people its clear and consistent, making people trust the brand. Repetition is the key, and even if a marketer gets bored of a certain message or way of doing things, it´s important to understand that the consumer meets a LOT of messages and brands every minute, and will need some time to pick up your marketing idea. Dare to stay focused, dare to keep still.

• 
  
• COCA-COLA LAUNCHES
• INSTAGRAM COMPETITOR

Coca-Cola is planning to launch a new photo-sharing service called ‘Happy Places‘, and has released a free iPhone app that shows what it will be like. The app, which looks similar to Instagram, lets users take photos and share them with their social networks. It focuses on what makes people happy, letting them search by relevant hashtags such as #music, #beautiful, and #joy.

Your day, your friends, your trips, your music… your life is full of happy moments worth storing and sharing. Happy Places by Coca-Cola is that place where you can upload photos of your happy moments, share them, and remember them any time you want. Take a picture or pick one from your albums, add it to your profile, and share that moment of happiness with your followers in Happy Places, or your friends in Facebook or Twitter.

Popsop reports that the app lets Coca-Cola fans create a profile, browse photos, and get notifications on new photos added in their interests. Users can also create their happy moments offline and then upload them when they have a wi-fi or 3G connection.

Happy Places

Pay with a tweet - more common?

Cassandra Daily reports about some interesting Twitter-campaigns, where twitter meets real life.

Kellogg’s Tweet Shop: Kellogg’s London promotion for its Special K Cracker Crisps, the Tweet Shop was a 4-day pop-up shop that accepted tweets as payment for snack samples. “Shoppers” were asked to post a review containing the hashtag “#tweetshop.” Once their messages appeared on the store’s LCD screen, customers received a box of the chips. Proving that plenty of people are willing to sell themselves out, the stunt garnered significant participation, with tweets like “Forget Trident Layers, I want to be paid exclusively in Cracker Crisps” and “At the #tweetshop – getting my crisps. For free. In exchange for a tweet. Must be the future.”

BEV Vending Machine: South African beverage company BOS Ice Tea has developed a Twitter-activated vending machine, called BEV, that dispenses a free can of its Rooibos drink when a customer stands in front of it and tweets with the hashtag “#BOSTWEET4T.” An overhead LED screen shows the person’s Twitter handle and a countdown until the "free" can emerges. When the drink is delivered, colored lights blink while a speaker amplifies a robotic voice telling the person to enjoy their beverage. Rigged with a series of microphones and cameras, the conversational machine delivers a series of playful messages for passersby, saying things like “You look thirsty, human. Let me help you.”

PunkMoney: PunkMoney, a twist on peer-to-peer sharing economies, is a platform on which tweeted promises are currency. For example, someone could tweet "@Alice I promise to mow your lawn next week. #PunkMoney @Bob,” after which the vow will appear on the site’s ticker to be redeemed at a later date or transferred to another person. The “#PunkMoney” hashtag identifies and tracks what happens to each promise over time. Creator Eli Gothill, who was partly inspired by OWS grievances, designed the system to be “entirely trust-based, and between peers, so it encourages community. The only way that this money has value is if people trust each other.”

Disney re-shapes the princess role.

I really like how Disney is showing that being a "princess" is not the same as wearing uncomfortable glass shoes and search for princes :) But I am missing the little boys? Can´t they be princesses too? 

Disney has released an inspirational new video to celebrate the Princess inside every young girl. It rebrands “princess” by framing it in terms of bravery, trust, loyalty, kindness, generosity, compassion, standing up for oneself, and standing up for others.

The ‘I Am a Princess’ video shows what the company believes it means to be a Princess today. You can check it out below:

http://www.psfk.com/2012/10/disney-rebrands-princess.html for full story

Swedish article... Gratisprovernas dilemma

Varför gratis inte är gott

Skrivet av Carolin Dahlman

Häromveckan rusade jag runt på T-centralen i Stockholm och någonstans i gångarna stod ett gäng ungdomar och delade ut något. Sweet, tänkte jag. Alla gillar ju presenter. Så jag öppnade handen och fick… en pump handdesinfektion. Jaha. Läs mer Kommentera (0)

Show don´t tell why you are good. Actions speak louder!

I love this campaign from Forsman & Bodenfors. It´s a part of the "exaggerate trend" where more and more brands are not just telling what makes their products really awesome, but actually shows it by overstating the practical benefit - and in that way making it emotional.

The world-record holding tightrope walker was challenged by Volvo to walk between two semi-trailers, speeding toward a tunnel in order to demonstrate the precision of Volvo’s FH trucks. Scary!!!!

Another example of a brand that exaggerates. From Psfk: 

VENDING MACHINE DISPENSES CHINA PLATES [VIDEO]

Corelle wanted to demonstrate how chip-resistant its dinnerware was, so it set up a machine that dropped down its plates when customers purchased them.

Agency Grey in China developed a unique promotion to demonstrate the strength of Corelle‘s dinnerware. The company wanted to demonstrate that its products were chip-resistant, so a vending machine was set up to dispense plates to customers. People could purchase the plates the same as they would a typical vending machine snack and they dropped down without a scratch. You can see the machine in action in the video below:

via PSFK: http://www.psfk.com/2012/08/china-plate-vending-machine.html#ixzz256IR61PH

Planning is useless and a waste of time and money

Is planning and strategy useless?

I´ve worked at agencies where planning is seen as "overhead", something extra, like a little decoration to add on to the most important creative work. Where deep knowledge is seen as unnecessary - "it only complicates things".

They might be right, those people. I am not sure. Agencies who are planning hostile win awards and those who have loads of strategists fail. After all, advertising is a creative art, and it´s mysterious and magical in its way to think completely different and evoke emotions by avoiding the straight line from message to receiver.

Maybe my role is pointless. Maybe I just disturb by adding too much insight on the market, the product, the brand, the consumer? I read a lot, spend hours trawling through articles, blogs, websites and videos to find out more - to find those nuggets of insights that will lead to revelations about the relationship between brand and consumer. To find out what really triggers them. To understand them beyond "women 22-24 y old who buy shampoo".

When it comes to shampoo I don´t need to know everything about the active ingredients or what the factory it´s made in looks like. There are such things as "too much information" - but it can be interesting to look at women´s beauty regime, psychological phenomenon when it comes to shampoo ads, trends in beauty or retail, lifestyle trends, how people speak about hair and shampoo on blogs or to interview people on brand perceptions, their view on priorities and usage. From hours spent on digging there may be insights that makes the strategy clearer, edgier.

Or not.

You could just make an ad that looks like most. Just use a sexier lady and more foam. Just say "shampoo" with a hotter voice or add a little "made from extracts from exotic flowers in remote places".  And it can work! Creative people can even be truly creative and make untraditional ads that makes you love the brand.

Sometimes I doubt the value of myself. Especially when I meet amazing talented creative people, or when I read bunches of articles without finding much new, or when others doubt the value of me.

I love my job and of course I find myself very important - LOL - but it´s a fact that strategy sometimes is simpler than you think. And it´s also true that if you never even consider finding insights, building brands, choosing among paths, using the left brain, you will most likely fail.

Guess we need a combo. Common sense. The ability to see our own value or uselessness and be creative on the subject of planning or not planning.

What do you think?

Girls: Be flirtatious but not friendly if you want to win business

Roger Dooley´s blog at Forbes.com is a gem - always full of interesting, new and useful information. Today I´m learning about something that women have known forever though...Women who flirt a little in business meetings (with men) are winners in the "get the job-promotion-business" game. Being a prude buddy, trying to act "professional", gets you nowhere. OK, I hear ya...

Friendly or flirting?

"Is flirting in a business environment ever a good thing for women? The answer is a qualified “yes.” New data shows that women using what the researchers call “feminine charm” achieved better results in business negotiations. Flirtatious (vs. merely friendly) behavior also had a positive effect.

Researchers from UC Berkeley and the London School of Economics looked at both social charm and flirtatious behavior by conducting negotiations using male and female subjects, reporting the results in thePersonality and Social Psychology Bulletin. The result of multiple experiments enabled the researchers, led by Berkeley’s Laura Kray, to conclude that using feminine charm produced better outcomes. This was true both in “zero sum” negotiations, where one party’s gain is the other’s loss, and in cooperative negotiations where the gain by both parties can be increased by working together.

You might wonder how the researchers define charming behavior. Here’s how they instructed female participants in one of their experiments to turn on the charm:

In the feminine charm condition, females were advised to be animated in their body movements, make frequent eye contact with their partner, smile, and laugh. They were further advised to be playful and to compliment their partner in as sincere a fashion as possible.

Flirty vs. Friendly

Two key components of feminine charm are flirtation and friendliness. It appears that both are important. Friendliness, which signals a focus on others, increases likability but also indicates a weaker negotiating stance. Flirtation signals a concern for self, which could decrease likability but increase negotiating strength.
One of the interesting conclusions was that friendly women pay an economic price because by demonstrating warmth signals they are seen asless competitive and self-interested. Being flirtatious (and hence apparently self-interested) helped women negotiate better deals. The exception: the deals were worse if the flirting was perceived by their male counterpart as merely being friendly.
In short, the research suggests that the ideal negotiating style for women is to avoid a neutral style and instead use feminine charm. The “charm” should include both friendly behavior and flirtation. The ultimate goal is to be viewed as likable but also motivated by self-interest.

(I feel compelled to add that this research didn’t include any highly aggressive flirtation or behavior that might cross either legal boundaries or typical company guidelines. It would be a mistake to think that if a little flirting is good, a lot is better!)

The “Friendly” Trap

How Women Should Negotiate

Note that much of the perception of “flirty vs. friendly” is in the eyes of the negotiating partner. That is, the same behaviors could be interpreted either way. This suggests that women who want to optimize their social charm benefits need to gauge the reactions of their counterpart to avoid sending the wrong signal.

While all of the experiments were one-time negotiations, this advice should be relevant to more general behavior in the workplace. Women who use feminine charm effectively with co-workers, bosses, and employees will convey the message that they are friendly but not overly accommodating.

Social marketers think all people want is info. Hahahahaha. So funny

Today I´ve borrowed from Brian Solis who found research from Pivot:

-  76% of marketers feel they know what their customers want yet only 34% have asked customers. 

- 83% of consumers seek deals, but only 53% of businesses think that’s what customers really want. 

- 45% of marketers feel that rewards programs are important to customers and 70% of social consumers thought otherwise. 

- 59% and 58% of social customers wish to engage businesses for buying insights and customers service respectively; on the contrary only 37% of marketers believe that these services are in demand by their customers. 

- There’s agreement between customers and marketers on product feedback. 55% of consumers and 53% of marketers would like to collaborate on improving products and experiences.

These are data proving social marketers have no clue on what to offer... As always, marketers and brands are stuck in the belief that they are in the centre of the world and that people are dyyyying to know more about what they need to offer. Sigh... We all need to face the fact that people are horribly selfish and all they want is goodies for themselves :) Offer what they search, and you will be loved:

Also have a look at:http://howwemove.blogspot.se/2012/05/statistics-on-how-we-use-facebook-and.html http://howwemove.blogspot.se/2012/01/why-does-4000-people-like-shoe-brand-on.html http://howwemove.blogspot.se/2012/05/statistics-on-how-we-use-facebook-and.html

Love this campaign

Thanks to Campaign Brief:

Droga5 Sydney smashes social media records and one billion target with UN World Humanitarian Day campaign featuring Beyoncé's latest single

Monday 20, August 2012 at 8:03 AM by CB

  Comments (19)

Droga 5 Sydney's campaign for the UN's World Humanitarian Day smashed its social reach target of one billion people following the release of 'I Was Here' - Beyoncé's latest single and WHD 2012 anthem.
 
The social reach for the message - encouraging people to do something good for someone else - hit the goal of 1 billion less than 20 minutes before 9 a.m. (US Eastern Standard time) Yesterday August 19, which was the deadline to sign up for a new technology platform called Thunderclap - owned and developed by Droga5 - that aggregated the social reach of each campaign supporter.
 
VIEW THE FILM CLIP

To introduce World Humanitarian Day to the world, Droga5's Sydney and New York offices partnered with the United Nations, Beyoncé, Kenzo Digital and RSA to create a campaign that would make August 19 a day to remember.
 
"There are seven billion people in the world and we reached hundreds of millions of them with our message. People really care," said Valerie Amos, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs.

At 9 am (US Eastern Standard Time) on 19 August more than one billion messages were shared at the same time: "This World Humanitarian Day I‟m doing something good, somewhere, for someone else. Join Me!" Upon navigating to whd-iwashere.org, people can now mark their good deed on a global interactive map.

The campaign numbers soared following the release of the "I Was Here‟ music video by Beyoncé on 18 August, whose support for the cause, alongside other major brands and celebrities, put this campaign on the global stage.

The agency turned Beyoncé's song into an iconic symbol and geographic marker that represents individual humanitarian actions wherever they happen, and allows individuals to make their own mark on the world and say 'I Was Here'.
 
The campaign launched with a unique performance by Beyoncé in the UN General Assembly Hall. Accompanied by a giant projection, and filmed to create a music video, the song told the story of humanitarian work around the globe.
 
Yesterday (August 19), Droga5 released the video and the single message around the world to over a billion people. It encouraged people to do one act - simply something good, somewhere, for someone else.
 
With the help of the social amplification platform 'Thunderclap', 'I Was Here' has become the largest single social media message in history, supported by brands, celebrities and events across the globe.
 
The World Humanitarian Day 2012 campaign was powered by a new technology platform called Thunderclap that aggregated the social reach of each campaign supporter.
 
Thunderclap tallied the number of friends supporters had on Facebook and/or the number of followers they had on Twitter to determine each individual's social reach and add it to the total. 

For celebrities and big brands, the number of likes each had on their Facebook fan pages were substituted for number of friends. The Twitter calculation did not change.
 
In China, social reach was calculated based on the number of each supporter's Weibo followers.

Supporters included influential individuals and brands alike, from Michelle Obama, Jackie Chan, Lady Gaga, Ben Affleck and Kaka to Coca-Cola, Sony Music, PUMA, Oreos, MTV, Toshiba, Gucci, Hershey's Kisses, Johnson & Johnson and Pepsi.

The screen used for the event in the UN General Assembly (created by SuperUber) was the biggest indoor screen ever created, weighing more than 7 thousand pounds and measuring 10,304 square feet.

On August 19, World Humanitarian Day events were hosted in countries around the world, including Australia, Papua New Guinea, Ethiopia, Colombia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

"Creating ideas with a genuine sense of humanity has always been central to our approach, so forging such an exciting relationship with the UN is a brilliant outcome," says David Nobay (above), creative chairman, Droga5 Sydney. "The fact that our first campaign comes out of Sydney and is being produced in New York is strangely fitting given the UN's commitment to working within the global village. I couldn't be happier."

Says David Droga, founder and creative chairman, Droga5: "There are few forces for good as extensive and important as the United Nations. Being able to work with them and other global aid organizations for World Humanitarian Day is a humbling and extraordinary opportunity."


Supporters included:
 
Musicians;
Lady Gaga
Rihanna
Shakira
Chris Brown
Justin Bieber
JayZ
Hilary Duff
Keith Urban
 
Screen stars;
Jackie Chan
Ben Affleck
Charlize Theron
Oprah Winfrey
Katie Couric
Jamie Oliver
 
Brand support;
PUMA
Gucci
Coca-Cola
Pepsi
Oreo

World Humanitarian Day 2012_I Was Here Campaign_Credits(v2).pdf