It’s always exciting to get our grubby little mitts on the printed samples of our work.

And after 99 days since the University of Ballarat Program Guide first hit CUBED, the project’s designer, Ellie, and account manager, Shaina, were stoked to finally be holding the real deal. Once bribed with Laura’s pavlova, they were even happy to pose (quite unnaturally) for a blog pic. Thanks gals.

This piece is a further extension of the bigger-than-Ben-Hur Learn to Succeed campaign, which – so far – has helped increase the University’s number of first preferences by 13%.

Today we welcomed Sina Karimi to CUBED.

Sina is our new Digital Designer/Developer who will be building all manner of online communications for our clients – and ourselves.

He’s flash at flash, he can speak fluent html and he lists 3D modelling and motion graphics as his hobbies.This afternoon, he took a Nissan for a virtual test drive (above) and gave us a guided tour of some of the most jaw-dropping pages on the net (we’ll be tweeting about some of these later).

So thanks Sina! And welcome aboard. We can’t wait to blog about your digital projects!

Every now and then, you hear about someone who’s gone out and had a corporate logo tattooed on their body. It’s usually incentivised by the company who stands to benefit from the exposure. Sometimes they offer money. Or a lifetime supply of whatever it is they produce – like one guy who had ‘Peri Peri’ tattooed on his thigh for unlimited free Nando’s. Then there are people who just sell the space to the highest bidder – like one girl from the US who tattooed ‘goldenpalace.com’ on her forehead for $10,000.

You couldn’t pay me enough to have that thing on my face for the rest of my life.

In fact, I’m generally against putting any kind of branded tattoo on my body – even if it’s temporary. Up until now, I’ve thought it was tasteless.

But then I came across this gorgeous range of temporary tattoos that have been released by Chanel. They’re unlike any I’ve seen before – because they’re not just promotional tats, they’re fashion accessories.

You can buy the full set from any Chanel cosmetics counter for around $90.

At risk of sounding like a sucker, I’m keen to go check them out. And I’m sure I won’t be the only one.

They’d look so cute with the outfits I plan on wearing to upcoming music festivals, which might come as a slap in the face to the festivals’ corporate sponsors.

Because while those companies fork out the cash to have their own brand of temp tats given away, Chanel will be achieving the same level of exposure – and cashing in at the same time.

Stef

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After a 12 month fundraising campaign which included an Eat for a Cure dinner event, several Bunnings Sausage Sizzles, a Poker night, the popular Destroy-The-Susan-Boyle-CD event and a movie night, it was finally time for the CUBED “Campaigners for a Cure”  to hop on their bikes and take part in the JDRF Ride for a Cure around the Barossa Valley.

On Saturday 16 January, our team of ten riders took on the challenge of riding 160km or 80km up and down the hills of the Barossa. A very tough day but made all the more worthwhile with a tour of the wineries the following day.

CUBED were the largest fundraising team in Vic raising almost $70k.

Special thanks once again to our major donors and sponsors – AXA, Dennis Family Homes, Myer, National Pharmacies, Pegasus and University of Ballarat.

And if anyone’s keen to make a last minute donation, please click here.

Client: V/Line

Product: Regional Festivals

Medium: Direct Mail

This direct mail piece was designed to encourage metropolitan residents to hop on a V/Line train and attend some of Victoria’s best regional festivals.

Our latest piece for V/Line will be hitting mailboxes this week.

Designed to increase passenger numbers, the mailer encourages city folk to hop on a V/Line train and check out some of Victoria’s best regional festivals.

V/Line is a proud champion – and sponsor – of regional events. This year’s CD look-alike pack carries the line ‘Regional Victoria Has Never Sounded Better’, and showcases the Echuca-Moama Riverboats, Jazz, Food & Wine Festival, The Age Harvest Picnic at Hanging Rock, Queen – The Unseen Archive at the Gallery of Ballarat and the Jindi Cheese Harvest of Gippsland.

So if you’re into riverboats, jazz, food, wine, picnics, hanging rocks, Queen, cheese or you’re just a train nut, get in touch with V/Line and book your next escape.

Last year, singer songwriter Regina Spektor released a song that became an instant favourite of mine.

You see, I’m a big fan of good word-play or a clever turn of phase, this time it’s just a lyric got straight to the heart of something.

Musically it might not be your cup of tea, it’s not all that different from the sort of thing Alanis Morissette puts out. But unlike Ms Morissette who once released a song called “Ironic” wherein she proved that she didn’t actually understand what irony was at  all, (which is itself is quite ironic), Ms Spektor knows her  subject matter.

“Laughing With” is a song that at its core is one of ad-land’s  holiest of grails, an insight.

She’s just making an observation about society’s views on religion and faith. And the human condition. That it’s ok to take the piss when everything is going well, but placed into a situation that’s gone seriously pear-shaped our attitude changes somewhat.

Ok, it’s not rocket science, and she’s not going to trouble the Pulitzer board with this, but is that the purpose of a pop song anyway?

If this were a bit of advertising and if it got peoples’ attention, made them take a second look and sold lots of product I’d say it’s more than done its job. Look, I know music is subjective, but then so is art, and design, and advertising, but if we could build all our creative around an insight, how much greater the chance we’d connect with our audience.

“Laughing With” ended up going to a very respectable number 14 in the US singles chart, which might suggest I’m not the only one who heard it and thought “yeah that’s what I think too”.

d

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We’ve just updated the CUBISMs folder on our flickr with some new material.

Our favourite from the latest batch was this gem from Stefanie, our new writer, who’s apparently discovered the benefit of getting older:

The results are in for the University of Ballarat’s Information Day campaign, and everybody’s pretty chuffed about them.

The campaign included television and radio commercials, press advertisements, a dedicated microsite and direct mail. And it garnered the sort of results that uni students dream of.

As the University’s Director of Student Services, Valerie Runyan, said:

“Students came from Ballarat and as far away as Gippsland, Echuca, Horsham, Geelong, Bendigo  and from the suburbs of Melbourne, Cranbourne, Ringwood, Deer Park and Melton to name just a few. The weather was amazing to say the least, I do not think it could rain any harder!”

In spite of the type of weather that makes you start thinking about swapping your car for an ark, the number of attendees increased by a whopping 11,000% (nope, that’s not a typo) compared to last year’s event.

So congratulations to all involved on the very appropriate outcome for a campaign titled ‘Learn to Succeed’.

It’s the standard smart-arse response when you ask for a ballpark quote or a budget or a rough idea of head hours or any question where the details haven’t yet been nutted out.

How long’s a piece of string?

It’s a cop out.

Because you’re not being asked for a precise figure. You’re being asked to guesstimate and you probably have enough information to do that. If not, ask a few questions. Figure out your parameters.

All you really need to know is what the string is for:

For tying up my tomatoes? Anywhere between 10cm and 20cm per tomato plant.

For wrapping a toy? Probably somewhere between 30cm and 3m.

For stringing up Christmas decorations in the agency. Hmmmm, around 30m should do the trick

Rough, ballpark figures to give someone a better idea of what they’re dealing with.

That’s all we ask.

You’d be mad to give a creative team a brief without a budget – it’s like throwing down a challenge to any creative worth their salt. You’re telling them the sky’s the limit. And you’ll never be able to afford what they come up with.

My rough guess is that most people have a half-decent idea of their budget. The conversation goes something like this:

Me: What’s the budget?

Them: Client didn’t give us one

Me: Just a rough, ballpark cost. Doesn’t have to be exact.

Them: Sorry, I really couldn’t say.

Me: OK. So a hundred dollars a pack sound OK?

Them: God no, more like 2 bucks.

So next time your request is met with ‘how long’s a piece of string?’, ask ‘what’s the string for?’.

Or just answer ‘twice as long as half the length’.

That ought to shut ‘em up.

xk

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