Yunus will be part of today’s Rushes Soho Short Future of Advertising panel at the Apple store on Regent Street. We will be talking about some of our latest work, and where we’re going. The talk is taking place at 4.30 pm on Thursday 24th July at the Apple Store. So come down if you’re around! Other agencies taking part are Hotspur & Argyle, Seefood TV and DARE.

Us Londoners have just been greeted with bill board ads from Coca Cola’s Let’s Get Together campaign proclaiming no added preservatives and no artificial flavours. One missing ingredient from the ads is the actual drink itself.

Toronto was recently littered with teaser ad posters for a marketing campaign promising a new drug which help parents curb the life ambitions of their kids, and limit free thinking and being individual.Other posters read: “My son used to have his own hopes and aspirations. Now he has mine. Thanks, Obay!” “When Amy started thinking for herself, we had to nip it in the bud with Obay”.The campaign was part of the marketing strategy by University of Western Ontario. Teaser ads tend to work because they make us stop and think and work out the meaning behind the campaign, which gives us a sense of accomplishment. When the product is eventually revealed consumers pay attention.

Last summer, a teaser trailer for an untitled movie in which Manhattan was attacked by an unseen force drew widespread international speculation, ultimately building such a powerful buzz that the film - later revealed to be Cloverfield - opened in January 2008 to record-breaking box office numbers.But the marketing gambit doesn’t guarantee success. But the marketing gambit doesn’t guarantee success. In 2007, a video of a bride cutting off her hair in a pre-wedding fit drew 12 million views on YouTube. When SunSilk the product behind the campaign revealed its involvement two weeks after the Canadian clip was uploaded the buzz abruptly stopped.

Consumers stop caring pretty quickly once the mystery is revealed. And hence planning the mechanics of teaser / buzz campaigns is a real fine art to get right.Though a wide array of organisations such as Scientologists and anti-pharmaceutical lobbyists have been widely named as suspects in the Obay whodunit, despite being clustered in eastern Canada, The Colleges of Western Ontario have gained national / international attention online.

It’s great to see brands like Prada investing in innovative short films to raise their online awareness.  This stunning animated short piece first aired at the New York Fashion Week.   It’s beautiful aesthetics, and confident yet mysterious story makes it a great viral targeted at the trend setters.  Visit Prada’s website and click on Trembled Blossoms to watch the 4 min short.

Yunus is joining a panel on the future of advertising at the London Short Film Festival on Thursday 10th January. Here’s more info; Curzon Soho bar (free entry) Howling Feedback 4: Rushes presents The Future of Advertising
With a DIY aesthetic flooding the promo world, is YouTube dictating advertising? Does the death of virals mean the rise of serials? Now commercials and short films are increasingly merging, colliding and hybridising, where’s it all heading? And how can you get a piece of the action? As the Rushes Soho Short Film Festival rebrands its Title Sequences and Idents category to become the Broadcast Design Award, festival director Joe Bateman reflects on current trends in advertising format and content with guests from Imperial Leisure and Film Friends Forever. Plus Eoghan Kidney, who’s StreamLounge will be in the ICA bar later tonight.

IBM has just published a study forecasting greater disruption for the advertising industry in the next five years than occurred in the previous 50. This is no news flash to most of us, but it makes interesting reading. The report observes four change drivers tipping the advertising industry balance of power: control of attention, creativity, measurement, and advertising inventories. You can have view the ‘End of Advertising as We Know It” here.