The launch of the new Harry Potter movie has been leveraged with a bewitching Twitter campaign which allows users to send magical potions to selected friends. Try it out now at http://www.harrypottertweet.com/

Cynics be warned, Bing.com is rapidly increasing its market share in the US – helped by a localised marketing campaign. Bing are hoping that the search engine will catch on across the globe and the statistics show that 16.7% of US searches took place on Bing.com on week commencing 8th June. Switching search engines is a difficult habit to break but we’ve found richer and more compelling search results with Bing when performing certain searches. Try it yourself.

Augmented reality is another way of describing digital experiential experiences…watch and learn!

Channel 4’s mega-shit show ‘The Secret Millionaire’ has just launched their new website. The great thing about it is that users can come along and nominate projects for funding and/or vote for the most deserving applicants. Check out the site here: http://secretmillionaire.channel4.com/ – it’s a nifty, interactive and user friendly site. We haven’t seen many outlandishly philanthropic gestures in Ireland of late, wouldn’t it be heartwarming to see this style of production localise in Ireland?

Yes, you can make money from Twitter. A new subscription service called Super Chirp allows any Twitter user to generate revenue from direct messaging. How does it work? If your stream of content is deemed valuable, you can charge for people to receive it. This could be breaking news, insider celebrity gossip, stock exchange latest from legitimate sources and all sorts of stuff!

Here at Eighty:Twenty we lovvvvve Twitter. As far as we’re concerned, it’s a truly revolutionary tool. We don’t think the creators of Twitter quite know exactly what they’ve done…check out what TIME Magazine has to say about Twitter in their recent article ‘Top Ten Ways Twitter will change American Business’ . It really gives us a taste for what is yet to come. And don’t forget to join the conversation at www.twitter.com/eightytwenty

Facebook is a perfect fit for so many brands and we have been working on setting up brand pages for some of the big names we work with. That’s why we like to keep tabs on what they are up to and barely a week goes by without some kind of Facebook modification hitting the headlines. The question being asked of late has been,’Have you reserved your Facebook username?’ Last Saturday, Facebook allowed their users to set up vanity URL’s such as Facebook.com/jillbloggs or Facebook.com/bobajobs. This means that you can easily direct people to your Facebook profile or page, feature the vanity URL on business cards and email signatures and most importantly, if people want to find you they have quite a good chance of sussing out how to get to your profile. If you haven’t arranged your vanity URL yet, do it now at www.facebook.com/username

Microsoft has revealed plans to incorporate Facebook and Twitter into its XBox 360 gaming console allowing users to publish screenshots from games to their profile, communicate with other players etc. The console dashboard will also allow viewing of Status updates and instant Twitter feeds. Integrating social networking and gaming is a really exciting development and it looks like Facebook are hooking up the same deals with Sony’s Playstation 3 and Nintendo Wii.

Anyone for tennis? We love the new Facebook app developed by EA Sports to promote its new sports franchise. The app entitled ‘The Grand Slam Tennis Quick Challenge’ gives users a sneak preview of the Wii game ‘Grand Slam Tennis’ and entices them to want more. You can choose an avatar from such tennis legends as Boris Becker and Venus Williams. You can publish your game as a movie in your news feed.

Bad jokes aside, we want to you to ask yourself…

Remember when your parents told you not to date the girl with all the guy friends?

Remember when your best friend told you not to go on the cabbage soup diet three days before that hot date?

Remember the career guidance counsellor who advised you against ‘just seeing what happens’?

Remember when we told you that having a digital strategy was an essential tool for the survival of your business?

We hate to say we told you so but…sometimes it’s important to listen. So listen up.

There was a time when having your website up and running made you feel a little bit tingly and special. If anyone liked your company or brand they could have a snoop around your website and every once in a while an email would arrive into your inbox – yay, someone had filled out the Customer Query form! Proof that your website was a good investment. *pat oneself on the back*

But while you went away and prepared a little brochure to pop in the post, the interested consumer has joined your competitors Facebook page, signed up to their Twitter account, been poring through the blog and gotten swept away by a friend-get-friend campaign. They’ve also seen those cool interactive ads with the talking hamster and shared the video with twenty of their mates. They have registered for e-newsletters with downloadable coupons and new product information. Next week they’ll get an exclusive emag feature video content, animation and wickedly engaging stuff.

We’re sorry to be the ones to break the bad news. The consumer couldn’t wait for the brochure to come in the post. It was later used to clean up some dog mess.

Digital advertising is no longer an experiment. It’s no longer a luxury. Here are some of the reasons why:

1) An average of €1,700 was spent online last year by Irish consumers. The latest stats show that a whopping 91% of consumers get information online before making a larger purchase decision.

2) New research from Millward Brown finds that digital consumers have stronger relationships with brands than non-digital consumers. Digital consumers are more likely to be “transmitters” who influence others with their opinions. These consumers are slightly younger and more affluent compared to non-digital consumers. Peter Walshe, global brand director at Millward Brown, said: “It seems that digital consumers are simply more interested in brands.”

3) Twitter is working for brands like Dell, who have attributed at least $3 million of recent sales to their Twitter postings. Social Media is revitalising consumer feedback processes, product launches and PR for companies across the globe.

4) You say ‘Prove how effective it is’ to a TV, print or radio marketer and watch them squirm. They don’t have reliable statistics. They don’t know who is engaging with your ad, reading it, listening to it and paying attention. Measurability is a pipe dream. Digital advertising is the best value your money can buy. In fact, you only pay when your ad is working. That might be why PriceWaterhouseCoopers are now predicting that digital spend will account for 36% of marketing budgets by 2013.

We could go on. But you’re too distracted by the talking hamster. Told you so.

Doritos Dodgeball Challenge

Over the past month, the Doritos Dodgeball Challenge invited the people of the UK and Ireland to fire a barrage of balls at the 34 dodgeball teams putting themselves in the firing line. The public were able to take control of one of six canons from the comfort of their own home or office – aim and fire at the competitors by simply clicking their mouse. Every hit, near miss and eye-watering moment was streamed live, direct to the nation’s computers.

Watch footage at www.doritos.co.uk

We Are Not Alone…

Make sure you are sitting down to view this short TV ad from the BBC
http://creativity-online.com/work/view?seed=11767429

Love it or Hate it…it’s the Cadbury Eyebrows

The Facebook Group has over 51,000 fans. There’s a ring tone, personalised eyebrow mugs, a series of spoof videos and now the Jivebrow 2009 Competition. We’re not decided on this campaign but as it’s Lent, we’re not eating chocolate anyway. If you wanted to watch it again:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVblWq3tDwY

Talk to Frank UK Anti-Cannabis Campaign

This clever creative concept has been transferred from TV to online and explores the different states of mind brought about by cannabis use. Cannabis has recently been re-classed as a Class B drug in the UK and now has stricter penalties for those caught in possession of the drug. We really like the TV ad too.

http://www.talktofrank.com/cannabis.aspx

We just had to share these gut-busting, hysterically bad ads:

http://industry.bnet.com/advertising/1000870/the-10-worst-ever-ads-on-youtube/