In another cautionary tale for brands jumping on the Twitter-wagon, McDonalds joins Qantas as brands who have seen their good marketing intentions on the social network go unpleasantly wrong.

Mashable reports that the  Twitter campaign that was supposed to reveal positive stories from McDonald’s suppliers turned into a nasty hashtag hijacking, as unhappy customers tweeted a variety of unpleasant tales — such as finding fingernails in their food.

The hashtag #McDStories started last week with a few tweets from the brand, promoting tales from suppliers. “Meet some of the hard-working people dedicated to providing McDs with quality food every day #McDStorieshttp://t.co/BoNIwRJS,” one of the tweets said.

In an interview with PaidContent, McDonald’s social media director Rick Wion, said, inevitably “fans and detractors will chime in.” That they did.  “Within an hour, we saw that it wasn’t going as planned,” said Wion. “It was negative enough that we set about a change of course.”

The McDonalds Twitter fiasco comes on the heels of Qantas’ Twitter PR disaster late 2011 in which the airline asked people to tweet their favourite stories about the luxury of the flying Qantas to #Qantasluxury, and instead got a barrage of negative tweets about the airline and  poor service.

Source: Digital Lab, Mashable.com

Our colleagues at Almap BBDO in Brazil have created a very cool iAd that showcases the Volkswagen Tiguan’s Park Assist 2 Feature.

The iAd challenges readers to identify spots on the map using their fingers which the Volkswagen Tiguan to “self park” right between your fingers. The iAd then prompts readers to learn more about the model and its innovative features via additional web content.

As digital content consumers have become content producers in earnest within the past decade, blogs have flourished to become a staple in the digital landscape and a key channel for domain experts, individuals and organizations who want to be heard. However, despite the ubiquity of blogs, too little brands fully understand the importance of the strategy needed to tap the reach and influence blogs can deliver.

In the latest Digital Lab thought piece, titled Bloghunting, digital strategists Juan Manuel Ramirez and Daniel Camprubi of CP Proximity Barcelona lay out the case for why it is essential to employ blogs in any consumer-focused digital strategy. They also outline the key tactics, players and opportunities in the space core to success.

With the continual rise of blog-based platforms like Wordpress and Tumblr, as well as the growth of their audiences, it is apparent that blogs are a main ingredient to potent digital activations.

Download the paper here the  now to find out how to best leverage them today.

This week marks one of the most exciting periods of the year for the technology industry everywhere as 2012’s Consumer Electronics Show gets underway in Las Vegas. What used to be a gathering dedicated merely to what it was named after – electronics – has blossomed over the decades into a full-fledged global summit celebrating everything related to the convergence of advance consumer hardware, lifestyle based software and content from all corners of industry. An estimated 2,700 exhibitors and 150,000 attendees are expected to descend on this year’s event.

This is why last week’s Advertising Age heralded CES as arguably the most important event outside of the Cannes International Festival of Creativity for the global advertising industry. As more and more consumer and engage with their content – and the advertising that comes with it – through the types of next generation devices introduced at the show, it becomes more and more important for all marketers to keep their eyes on it for a sign of what’s coming next. It is also why, for the first time ever, BBDO and Proximity will be delivering exclusive coverage of CES, featuring one-on-one interviews from top executives and keynote speakers from companies including Yahoo!, Facebook and AOL every day this week.

With the global tech device industry estimated to reach the $1 trillion spending mark this year and the importance of the consumer trends and product innovations coming out of CES at an all-time high, BBDO and Proximity’s Digital Lab is ready to bring you the exclusive news and views you need to stay ahead of the curve in this space. To see all of the latest Digital Lab CES updates as they’re available, “like”/”friend” the BBDO Worldwide Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/bbdoworldwide now.

And stay tuned to Digital Lab for what’s shaping up to be a truly exciting week on the tech front!

Proximity Singapore and Visa have just launched a campaign to encourage people to travel to Thailand post the terrible floods that struck the Nation late last year.

The message is clear – Thailand is back in business…and all that’s missing is you.

The campaign gives people the chance to win a trip to  Thailand – simply by watching the video of Dancing Matt (see below) and answering some simple questions related to the video.

Visitors to the Go Thailand website can also explore special deals at unique hotels, vibrant bars and renowned restaurants.

Everything you know and love about Thailand is back.  But there’s still something missing from the Land of Smiles, you.

Please watch and share the video with your friends and family and support the movement to bring people back to Thailand

Happy Year of the Dragon everyone!

It seemed like 2011 disappeared faster than a discounted tablet on Black Friday. It certainly left its mark on the digital world. From a tech perspective, 2011 was the year that brought us the continued upsurge in all things mobile (such as smartphones, tablets and apps), the social media-fueled Arab Spring, the emergence of social commerce, the demise of Flash, the resurgence of tech IPOs (with LinkedIn, Zynga, Groupon and Pandora leading the way) and the untimely passing of Steve Jobs.

At the start of 2011, we made a few fearless predictions on what the year would bring. Let’s recap those prognostications to see how we fared:

We predicted that between the rise of video, social and data targeting, a new era of innovation will kick off in display advertising, raising CPMs and, for the first time in a long time, the interest of your average web surfer.

2011 did, in fact, bring renewed demand for online advertising from brands. So much so that eMarketer claimed that display advertising, which includes banner ads, rich media, sponsorships and video, is on a path to eclipse U.S. search ad spending by 2015. eMarketer expected total display ad spending to hit $12.33 billion in 2011 and predicts that spending will increase 78% over the next four years, reaching $22 billion by 2015, with online video driving much of that growth. The continued growth of the social display ad giant known as Facebook as well as early-stage ad innovators like Spongecell, Solve Media and DoubleRecall will only bolster the trend.

Lower bill of materials costs in the TV industry and Asian supplier evidence will come together to confirm that Apple is indeed planning to introduce a new age television set, possibly as early as 2012.

We were pretty spot on with this one too. The rumors of Apple planning to build a full-fledged TV hit a crescendo by the end of the year with sources pegging the Read More

The end of the year means the annual “Best of” compilations for the year.

Contagious Magazine have released their Most Contagious issue for 2011 highlighting the trends, work and innovations that caught their attention this year.  It’s a jam packed bumper issue of great ideas, sublime work, and inspiring content that is worthy of another (or maybe your first) look…and fantastic to see BBDO represented in this year’s best of the best issue:

Colenso BBDO (New Zealand) are featured for their innovative work for Pedigree aptly titled “Doggleganger” and also for Westpac’s  “Impulse Saver” Mobile application/campaign.  BBDO Argentina (with +Castro)  represent for their “Vending Machine” work for Lays.

Add it to your holiday reading list…enjoy!

It’s a much discussed subject (by Agencies and Clients alike) and incredibly difficult thing to plan for –  making a TV Ad go viral on YouTube (or any other video sharing social platform).

In reality, a TV commercial’s chances of becoming a viral hit are generally pretty slim – which is why we are seeing a plethora of made-for-online Ads or mini-films that evolve the traditional TVC into a longer form (See DC’s “Ad” below) – an approach that seemingly increases the chances of becoming viral phenomenon.

Unruly Media has just compiled a list of the MOST SHARED Ads of 2011 – highlighting that compelling content is the #1 factor driving sharing, but adding  killer music to the mix also increases share-ability.

Interestingly, it is a made-for-TV Commercial that tops the list (by a significant margin) – Volkswagen’s  “Darth Vader” Ad for Passat  - a smart, compelling and genuinely entertaining Ad   – that has garnered more than 44 Million views on Youtube alone and a staggering 4,713,179 shares.

The others making the top 5 most shared Ads of 2011 include – #2: DC Shoes wicked “Ken Block’s Gymkhana” Ad (2,028,238 Shares), #3: T-Mobile  “Angry Birds” (1,783,607), #4: T-Mobile  “Royal Wedding” (1,733,419), and #5: Kia “Soul Hamster”… (Watch them below)

See the the full top 20 at Mashable via this link…

Note: The list above does not include music videos, user-generated content or movie trailers. Unruly’s Viral Video Chart tracks 18 million shares a day through third-party APIs.

Earlier this year, we at BBDO/ Proximity Worldwide partnered with Microsoft to undertake an unprecedented global research study to better understand how today’s global media audience perceives and behaves around content consumed through different screens in our multi-screen environment.

The results of this quantitative and qualitative effort shed new light into how today’s media consumers relate to the PC, TV, mobile phone and tablet.  It also revealed new rules on how marketers should best create content based on the different expectations around these screens.

Since completion of the study, we have delivered the insights from this project, called Meet The Screens, to warm reception at advertising and digital events across the world. And, now, the complete findings for Meet The Screens is being made available directly to you in our look book below.

Below, Richard Fraser, Proximity Asia’s Regional Managing Director, speaks about why the research was undertaken and the implications of the findings.

Before you contemplate your next multiscreen marketing effort, dig in to this revealing study below and find out why all screens are truly not created equal.

Tis the season…for retailers around the world to one-up their prior years digital Xmas promotions.  This year there are some fun  uses of digital emerging to capitalise on the Xmas season.

Macy’s have enhanced the send-a-letter-to-Santa tradition creating an Augmented reality app that brings the Xmas shopping experience to life – especially for the kids.

JC Penney are using QR codes in a smart way to deliver a an interactive personalised spin on gift card that they are calling Santa Tags. With a Santa Tag, you can record a personalized gift message for each of your gifts, giving your friends and family a little extra fun and meaning this holiday season.

And Starbucks have jumped on the AR wagon and released their Starbucks Cup Magic that brings their annual “red cups” to life via a mobile app.  Use the app to find Starbucks Holiday Characters – on Red Cups, Christmas Blend bags, in-store and more – and watch as they magically come to life on you mobile.