Exciting times for eightytwenty/4d, as the Bulmers deCider iPhone and Android applications were launched to the world, with the app reaching the top 25 for free apps, in the Irish Appstore on its first day.

The Bulmers deCider is an Augmented Reality (AR) app which allows you to scan a Pint Bottle of Bulmers Original or Light to reveal the Bulmers Orchard and Dessie and Liam, who come to life, on screen, in the palm of your hand. From the label, consumers then enter a code which, from May 11th to June 30th, could mean one of 17 trips for two to The Big Apple.

The app marks a first for the Irish market in that Bulmers is the first Irish brand to use AR to drive an on-pack promotion in Ireland.

“It’s exciting to be working with a brand that embraces original and innovative ways in which to engage with consumers.  The first step in the development of the deCider app was to understand changing behaviours and this insight, into how people socialise and plan their nights out, was essential. But the market has become very sophisticated and people want more.  So we had to create something really innovative that would not only reflect the humour of the Bulmers’ advertising campaign, but would also allow for real-time engagement and reward users with great prizes,” said David Connor, Founder and Chief Strategy Officer, eightytwenty4D.

Get the iPhone app: http://bit.ly/DeCiderIPHONE

Get the Android app: http://bit.ly/DeCiderANDROID

Watch the ‘how to video’: http://bit.ly/deCider

“The Bulmers team was very much a part of the development of this app and we feel confident that we’ve brought the brand to life through AR in a way that will put a smile on people’s faces.  To stay relevant, brands have to keep adding layers to their communications processes and we can’t wait to work with Bulmers on the next big thing.”

The promotion, which can be found on Bulmers Original and Light Pint Bottles, builds upon Bulmers’ ethos of Doing Our Bit, which underpins all Bulmers’ campaigns in an effort to reward or give something back.

Such is Bulmers confidence in the AR app, it has planned a fully-integrated campaign to support its use including TV, press, outdoor, digital, on-trade POS and targeted public relations.  The campaign shows consumers how easy it is to download the deCider app, scan their Pint Bottle to reveal the AR content and start winning prizes.

David Connor says “We’re also especially delighted that it signifies a new era for the Havas Group in Ireland as it uses a digital centric initiative supported by both traditional and new media. Furthermore the night planner element which will be launched as an update shortly provides for a long-term branded utility in the pocket of the consumer.”

Social Media is the most disruptive trend to hit the world since the Industrial Revolution. We all know the massive numbers around Facebook’s ever-growing usage, but the challenge is now to turn conversations into cash. Business like ASOS, who grabbed a $500m share of the fashion industry in less than three years, are showing that companies can turn social media into a revenue stream. Those companies are already collecting millions of user tokens giving them the opportunity of deep and rich insights into consumer preferences and likes.

Social Data Reveals the Why behind the Buy

Companies who don’t know their customers will miss this trend and won’t be able to deliver personalised services. Without knowing customers and their value you will need to keep on guessing what your customers really want.

“Over the past number of years we have had the pleasure of working with some of the most innovative brands in Ireland and across Europe. We have learned a great deal about the complexity of the integration of social media assets into the enterprise value chain. Too many companies remain trapped by merely monitoring or passively developing social media assets. Few actually deliver Social Intelligence which can shape their marketing and business strategy by using the data that social media creates. Today, companies underutilise social data and often leave it sitting in its own silo. To overcome this problem, companies must start looking at social media as a new source of customer information that integrates with their existing data. But this is far easier said than done” says David Connor

“Having shopped around we quickly realised that no platform delivered what we needed. So we have invested substantially over the last 2 years into developing Ripple, the world’s first actionable live intelligence platform which will sit at the heart of enterprise solutions and impact across business functions such as Marketing, Research, Sales and Customer Service” added David O’Leary.

Marketing

“We have observed that a lot of insights lead to small incremental thinking. But we need to use social intelligence to provide provocations that lead to bigger, transformational actions linking together Business objectives, Brand objectives and Consumer Interests whilst taking advantage of technology developments along the way” says Dan Marculescu. Coca Cola Global VP Jonathan Mildenhall couldn’t have said it any better when he described the role that data will play in creative and strategic planning going forward “data will become the new soil in which our ideas will grow and data whisperers will become the new messiahs”. We must strive to evolve to a new type of creative brief that will be informed by collaboration with consumers, real-time social intelligence, business data, the brand, and internal and external collaborations. Insights derived from social intelligence will enable us to follow a more fluid content approach and exploit the new media and connections eco-system that blends Owned, Earned and Paid media together to provoke conversations and earn a disproportionate share of voice.

Research

As the evolution to a more dynamic and connected world continues we will increasingly develop big ideas that are not 30 second TV centric. Therefore we must utilise social intelligence to develop greater capabilities and approaches in testing these ideas. We need to understand how to use research to expand the potential of the creative platforms and ideas we are creating. In the future we see a greater proportion of the research budget being invested in inspirational platforms and provocation tools. Then as we start to develop specific creative proof points we must avoid qualitative testing of scripts altogether. Instead we should spend budget on interactive feedback and online consumer dialogue tools. This will enable us to take these early creative platforms and develop them into compelling story arcs. Social Intelligence enables us to identify and collaborate with consumers which is exciting as they produce more brand stories than most brands do today. We also need to place more investment into conversational and real-time testing and in the iterative evolution of content to learn how we fuel the conversations we’re having in the long term, measuring the positive buzz and impact our efforts have along the way.

Sales

David O’Leary believes “The traditional approach to demand generation focuses primarily on outbound offers and campaigns to drive new leads into the purchase funnel. However, the shift in buyer behaviour due to the impact of advocacy on the consumer decision journey is forcing us to rethink our approach to demand generation. Social media stands out as a new source of customer engagement because it provides sales and marketing organizations with a tremendous opportunity to follow potential customers – even before they reach out to them”.

Because the buyer relies more and more on peers and independent research during their decision journey it has become even more imperative that companies bring sales and marketing together with a shared approach to revenue generation. Social intelligence has proven to be a key piece of this aligned approach as it enables deeper, more relevant understanding of who and what are influencing these decisions. In addition, social-powered sales can help sales:

• Discover new opportunities
• Research prospects & companies
• Reach out to new prospects
• Collaborate internally to direct pitches
• Target pitches to specific decision-makers
• Make deeper, more personal connections

Customer Service

Five years ago, the only way you heard about customer problems was in a retail outlet or in your call centre. Today, customers don’t automatically contact you anymore. They’re more likely to turn to social media with their problems – posting on Facebook, tweeting or searching self-service support sites. The brands that are winning hearts and minds in every market are the ones that are learning to embrace all these social channels as part of their customer support efforts – and their support costs are actually coming down. For these social-powered brands, social media provides:

• An early warning system to spot brewing problems
• A way to respond to & resolve customer issues
• A way to increase positive sentiment, satisfaction and referrals

Today’s most progressive customer support operations combine traditional customer service metrics (like satisfaction ratings, defection rates and first-time resolutions) with social support metrics (sentiment, conversation volumes, ‘likes’ and retweets) and business metrics (revenues, costs). The result is a new attitude to customer support as a primary business driver rather than a cost centre. Social-powered customer service includes:

• Actively listening for support opportunities on social sites
• Including social profiles on contact centre screens
• Encouraging people to self-support
• Rewarding customers who actively help others
• Letting people vote on the most helpful support content
• Collaboration tools to connect agents to expertise

Conclusion

Social intelligence makes sense. Why use a small number of people to help shape your brand or company when you could source the crowd. But not just any crowd. This is a crowd that is already engaged with your brand and willing to share their information with you, even if you don’t know it yet. With all the questions about Social Media ROI flying around, it seems logical that knowing what your customers do versus what they say they do is highly valuable to any business. Furthermore, we anticipate that more and more businesses will embrace social intelligence to reshape their business or brand in the future.

In a format never previously undertaken in this country, the game is played live in real-time, on web or mobile, as the show airs on TV.

Players watch the entrepreneurs’ pitches on the show, and simultaneously pit their wits against the Dragons on Bank of Ireland’s SME portal www.allaboutbusiness.ie. In the game, they decide if they are “in” or “out” and how much equity they would require, in order to compete for a top spot as the Sixth Dragon, on the live online leaderboard.

Read the full story on AdWorld News, the online news of the Irish Marketing Journal.

Pictured collecting awards for work on Beck’s Vier at the APMC Star Awards on Fri 20th April, were (l-r): Clare Connolly, Young Euro RSCG and Clara Kelleher, eightytwenty 4D

Globally, the Beck’s Vier brand is known for its ties to the art community. The brief was to deliver a campaign that would utilise all media to put the Beck’s brand at the heart of this community in Ireland and create credibility within this space.

The central theme of the overall campaign was ‘Express Your Creativity’. Consumers were encouraged to submit an original video via online channels to demonstrate their creativity. A unique prize was offered, in that the winner would have their work showcased on TV as the brand ad for Beck’s Vier. The competition itself was housed within a Facebook application where consumers could enter the competition by uploading their video for public vote.

Enterprise Week is an initiative from Bank of Ireland to support SME business owners and entrepreneurs.  Speaking about the win, eightytwenty/4d founding partner David Connor said, “We know that the Irish Small Business community is a particularly socially-active audience, where connections mean business. To extend the reach and impact of flagship events, we adopted a mobile-based strategy that took a fully integrated approach to the use social, mobile, POS and online techniques and connected people with each other, and Bank of Ireland.”

“We are delighted that the National Enterprise Week campaign was recognised for its originality,” said Judy Barry, Bank of Ireland Business Banking Marketing Communications Manager, “to achieve cut-through with busy SME owners, we need to keep our communications fresh and relevant. In this campaign, we were able to engage with entrepreneurs and build awareness of the supports available for SMEs on allaboutbusiness.ie online properties.”

The National Enterprise Week competition, accessed primarily via QR codes on event POS, invited users to answer a simple question, and check in at events to be in with a chance to win a Samsung Galaxy tablet using the #ew11 hashtag. In tandem, a re-usable Twitter Hub tool (used on large-screens at key events) pulled in tweets from the publicised #ew11 hashtag.

To complement this, and build repeat usage of the Allaboutbusiness.ie properties, a comprehensive set of exclusive online video materials was create from the events for subsequent use online – this included opinion pieces with thought-leaders, featured business interviews and videos of speakers.

Receiving the award for B2B Innovation at the Nokia Digital Media Awards in Dublin on March 30th, are, l-r: David Connor, Founding Partner, eightytwenty/4d; Judy Barry, Bank of Ireland Business Banking Marketing Communications Manager; Eimear Treacy, Digital Marketing Communications Manager, Bank of Ireland; Alan Devlin, Web Factory (category sponsor); Michael McCann, Account Manager, eightytwenty/4d.’ Photo by Corporate PR, courtesy of Ashville Media

About eightytwenty/4D

Having initially built our reputation for our innovative use of digital advertising & experiential marketing, we now pride ourselves in providing a full service interactive offering to our clients that include Bank of Ireland, Bulmers, Toyota, Colgate, Grafton Recruitment, Irish Distillers, and Applegreen. And along the way we’ve been lucky to pick up awards for our work with our most recent win being “Best Facebook App” at the Appys for the second year running.

Essential Skills required for each role

Front end and social media developer: We’re looking for a front-end developer with the usual toolbox of html/css/javascript etc and specialised in Facebook apps and social media API integration. Mobile development experience and ActionScript would be a definite advantage.

PHP developer: We’re looking for a talented developer with excellent knowledge of PHP and frameworks (eg: Cake). Strong front-end skills are also required. Experience in any of the following would be a plus: ActionScript, mobile develoment, social media API integration

Our offices are based in Leeson Street, Dublin 2. Remuneration package is dependent on experience. eightytwenty/4D is part of the Havas Communications Group.

Applications and enquiries to Creative Director (Alexis.Bouckaert@eightytwenty.ie).

While many agencies are still getting their digital and social media strategy in order, eightytwenty has been doing it in one form or another since the agency was founded several years ago. Originally known for its innovative use of digital advertising & experiential marketing, the agency now prides itself on providing a full service interactive offering that includes Digital and Social Media, Branded Entertainment, Online PR and Experiential & Emerging Media. It boasts clients including Bank of Ireland, Toyota, The Irish Times, Meteor, Colgate, Grafton Recruitment, Irish Distillers, FAI, Munster Rugby and Unilever.

We have an immediate vacancy for an intern within our Studio team.

Description

The successful candidate will gain practical experience on a variety of brands and projects in a team environment. They will develop skills in creating multimedia assets (online advertising, Facebook and mobile applications, websites etc.) and will participate in creative brainstorms. This is a good opportunity to increase skills in Photoshop, HTML/CSS, Flash and Illustrator, working alongside an experienced team. The intern must have a keen eye for detail and will ideally have and understanding of, or an interest in, cross-browser, front-end development issues.

Essential skills and experience:

• Photoshop
• Good attention to detail
• Knowledge of emerging digital trends and a passion for the digital world
• Pragmatic, hard-working, team player

Desirable:

• HTML
• Flash
• Video editing

This role is unpaid but some expenses may be reimbursed. You must be able to commit to at least three months. Hours 9-5.30. You will be based in our new offices in Leeson Street . eightytwenty/4D has a policy of considering high-performing interns for permanent roles that arise within the agency, and our interns have a high success rate in finding subsequent work in the growing digital marketing industry.

If you would like to apply for this internship please email your C.V and portfolio to darina.carr@eightytwenty.ie

It won’t affect your digital plan a whole lot, but it will make your brand page a little more aesthetically pleasing. Something that we’d already started to look at for our clients was the use of the large image featured at the top of the page and we will be rethinking this as we go. And one of our favourite benefits is the ability to use Timeline to tell our brand story.

About eightytwenty/4D

While many agencies are still getting their digital and social media strategy in order, eightytwenty has been doing it in one form or another since the agency was founded several years ago. Originally known for its innovative use of digital advertising & experiential marketing, the agency now prides itself on providing a full service interactive offering that includes Digital and Social Media, Branded Entertainment, Online PR and Experiential & Emerging Media. It boasts clients including Bank of Ireland, Bulmers, Toyota, Colgate, Grafton Recruitment, applegreen, Irish Distillers and the Asthma Society of Ireland.

About the role

We have an immediate need for an intern within our Client Services team.

The successful candidate will be involved in the the day-to-day content management of high-profile clients’ web properties. This will include content production: from writing and posting articles and blogging to supporting the production of video interviews.

Crucially, the intern will support the team in reporting on the performance of client projects – this will give the opportunity to really understand the potential of the channels for effective communications.

The role will also allow the candidate the opportunity to work on at least one high profile client project from brief through to completion.

Essential skills:

Excellent written communications skills with the ability to adapt writing style according to the medium – Blogs, Social Networks, online press releases etc

Excellent attention to detail and confidence working with numbers

Strong Excel skills

Active user of Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, blogging, forums etc

Strong interpersonal and communication skills

Fluent spoken and written English

Knowledge of emerging digital trends and a passion for the digital world

Ability to respond flexibly to changing priorities

Pragmatic, hard-working, team player

Desirable skills:

Video production experience

Experience of supporting marketing campaigns through the use of digital/online tools

Understanding of how to optimise content for SEO

Experience using Content Management Systems.

Full driving licence

This role is unpaid, but some expenses may be available. You must be able to commit to at least three months. Hours 9-5.30. You will be based in our offices in Leeson Street . eightytwenty/4D has a policy of considering high-performing interns for permanent roles that arise within the agency, and our interns have a high success rate in finding subsequent work in the growing digital marketing industry.

If you would like to apply for this internship please email your C.V and a short statement about your digital interests, to claire.percy@eightytwenty.ie.

It’s been a busy twelve months having joined the global Havas Communications Group, moved to our new premises on Leeson Street, hired some talented new members of the team including Alexis Bouckaert as Creative Director and Claire Percy as Client Service Director, and winning new business in the form of Bulmers, Myhome.ie, Fuji and Applegreen to name but a few.