Of huge X-es and silent disco

It's been close to a month since Ad Unplugged 2010 and we've covered some contagious stickers, a connecting booth, a giving tree, a multilingual parrot and some desserts. Today, we look at the last two ideas of the selected seven.

Firstly, let's talk about the (probably) only ad that can be seen on Google Earth: Google Earth X!

This idea simply involves some paint and a bunch of building. First, we paint a huge ass X on the surface of the city's landscape. Then, we wait for the Google Earth bot to capture the X and tadaa! We wait for viewers to start seeing the X on Google Earth.

It's really a simple idea that gets hype and attention, and the best part is that it bring UOX to national stardom.

Next, we have the Silent Disco – a simple idea that installs headphones and music players in college and uni libraries, making things more lively and fun – amidst the silence.

Imagine browsing through your school library and stumbling across your friends who're moving to the beat that only they can hear. How cool is that?

So that's two ideas in one post today, concluding the Ad Unplugged post mortem. Although it's about a month since Ad Unplugged 2010, we do hope that the learnings have not been forgotten (yet)

Once again, great job to all you who turned up and see you again next year, mutants! :D

Because everybodee loves desserts!

It's officially been two weeks since Ad Unplugged 2010 and thus far, we've already looked at a bunch of contagious stickers, a connecting booth, a giving tree and a multilingual parrot. Today's idea was from the same bunch of mutants who gave you yesterday's parrot. Like seriously guys. You really need to get your genes checked for real cause we're adamant that you're all abnormal. Mutants.

But hey, today's idea is still as awesome. Not only did it impressed the ECDs present at Ad Unplugged, your humble narrator is also sold to this idea. Because today's idea is simply Desserts!

What would UOX taste like? Hmmm...

The insight behind this idea was that most students spent their time hanging out with friends in their college/uni canteens. But head along from one canteen to another and ask them 'What's good to eat here' and they'd probably give you an 'Umm' before agreeing that the most palatable item from the kitchen would probably be the white rice.

This idea gives students a reason to actually hang out and patronise their campus canteens. It implements a new range of desserts called Dessert UOX and it comes in the form of ice-cream (!) and doughnuts. Skew it towards UOX's identity, and you get new interesting flavours, unique to the brand of UOX: yam, grape, blueberry and blackcurrant.

This adds literal flavour to the brand, and students actually get to experience UOX from a whole new perspective: through their tastebuds! And deng- it's already sounding tasty :D

Of Multilingual Parrots

In yesterday's post, we spoke about trees and giving life to handphones. Today, we talk about the next idea that stole the ECD's hearts at Ad Unplugged 2010: parrots!

So this idea primarily involves a parrot and some SIM cards. Throughout the period of the campaign, colleges and unis can expect to have a new pet: a multilingual UOX parrot! That's right, it'd actually be taught to greet people in 4 languages, don a little purple tee and a mohawk and fly freely around the campus compounds. The cutest bit? The little bag of SIM cards that it carrries for distribution.

The insight behind this idea was simple. College/uni life gets dull and routinal for students. What more than a parrot to add some life to the atmosphere?

Great job Melody, Julia, Chui Ying, Luann and Mei Yan!

And as usual to our dear readers, feel free to comment on this post if you have anything to add or questions to ask.

Of Giving Trees and teens who love downloading things

So we've covered some contagious stickers and a connecting booth that made it big at Ad Unplugged 2010. Now let's look at trees!

They call this one the Tree of UOX but unlike Avatar's Eywa or the Nordic Yggdrasil, this one doesn't do the flashy shiny streams of lights nor does it transfer organic life to one thing from another. This tree gives life to something dearer to most students and teens. Their handphones!

The group behind this idea (who respond to the name Sai Win, Shin Wey, Eric, Su Lian and Shin Yee) worked on the insight that a phone these days mean so much more than a device of communication to students. In fact, phones these days are like an identity symbol of a person. Whether you carry an i-Phone, a HTC, a Blackberry or a basic phone that still has numbers on its buttons that aren't a part of the screen, it says plenty about you.

That's why students go to great lengths to customise their phones. Think little pink blings and downloadable apps, ringtones, wallpaper and screensaver thingies.

So how does this idea work?

1.A UOX Tree is set up within the college and university’s compound
2.Paper cups are hung on the trees
3. Some of them are fitted with music players that play a certain caller ringtone while others have wallpaper images on its base
4.Students can choose to download caller ringtones or a wallpaper images that they like from the tree

And there you have it, a tree that gives lives to handphones!

It was a unique idea that offers students with what they want while at the same
time conveying the message that you get more with UOX.

So great job to you guys behind this idea. And as usual, feel free to comment on this post if you have anything to add or questions to ask.

Of Connecting Booths and friendly Malaysians

We spoke about that awesome winning idea at Ad Unplugged involving stickers and sexy people yesterday. Today, we look into the next great thing that stole the hearts of the ECDs at Ad Unplugged. Teh awesome UOX connecting booth!

So let's face the facts. Malaysian's are an overly friendly bunch who have more friends in Facebook compared to anyone else in the world. By friends, this includes good friends, good friend's friend, good friend's friend's friends and so on. Students especially can relate to this. They do after all love meeting new people and having more friends.

Thus, working on this insight, this group, (kudos to Alan, Sheng Feiyan, Yi Von, Zu Jian and Wai Kwan) came up with the UOX connecting booth.

How this works was that phone booths were set up around colleges and universities. It isn't your typical phone attached to a cord attached to the um -phone kind of phone booth. This phone booth had a single mobile phone and a web cam in it.

Anyone can choose to enter the phone booth and place a call to any of the other UOX connecting booths in other campuses. For example, Jon, a KL-ite studying in The One Academy can choose to enter the phone booth and make a call. The phone booth would randomly ring up any other UOX connecting booth and in this case for illustration purpose, the phone booth that it would call would be the in Lim Kok Wing, Sarawak.

Over in Lim Kok Wing, Sarawak, Jane is walking past the UOX connecting booth when it suddenly rings. She can choose to pick up the phone.

“Hello” she will say.

“Hi” Jon will say.

And Jon and Jane will begin a conversation for 3 minutes. As they speak, a screen in front of Jon and Jane will flash some suggestion of conversation starters... Just in case.

Now once the 3 minutes is up, Jon and Jane will have the option to see each other for 5 seconds through the web cam. Should they both agree, they will find themselves, staring into each other's face for that fraction of a minute.

Not long enough? That's alright. Cause if they decide that they don't hate each other's faces that much, they will have the option to add each other on Facebook and tadaa! We have a connection!

It was a simple way to help students expand their social circle and the best part is that it clearly exhibits UOX’s role as a mobile service provider that connects people.

So once again, congrats to you awesome mutants who came up with this idea. For the other five groups who's ideas are still in the hands of your humble narrator, we'll be taking a look at your works next time. And If you've any questions or comments about this idea (or if you're either Alan, Feiyan, Yi Von, Zu Jian or Wai Kwan who thinks that we've missed out something) feel free to comment on this post!

Mummys and Daddys of the awesome connecting booth idea

Getting ContagiUOX at Ad Unplugged 2010

First things first, congrats to all mutants, students, participants and living beings who turned up last Thursday at Ad Unplugged to brainstorm and churn out ideas with the ECDs. You guys did a great job, and it's not just us saying that, the ECDs think so too. The fact that there had been no hair wrenching, mouth foaming and exasperated cries from them only proves us even more.

So yes, Mr Kit, Mr Sa'ad, Mr Hisham, Mr Szu and Mr Edward are all very proud of you. This is your cue to imagine them smiling approvingly at you all. If you guys can't envision that for yourself, you can use this picture:

Yes, even Janet's proud of you too...


Moving on, Ad Unplugged 2010 may be over but deng, it was such a blast that we're still feeling its resonance here. That's why the friendly bunch at 95% have decided to have our own Ad Unplugged Post Mortem, where we'll be slicing up the seven selected works, and showing you why they worked.

If you were there at Ad Unplugged, you would already know which were the selected seven and what the ideas were about. If you weren't.... well... maybe if you stared hard enough at the pictures, you might be able to infer something out of it.

So without further ado, let's bring in the winning piece. ContagiUOX, by Celine, Edmond, Ejin, Jon and June.

To recap, the brief this year was to promote UOX using ambient ideas in colleges and universities.

Working on the insight that:

- Students these day lack real-life social communication with each other
- Students live stressful life

and the brand problem which was

- UOX had low brand awareness among youngsters

The group under the guidance from their mentor for the day, Kit Ong came up with a simple solution: The Stick Message System, SMS in short.

How this works was that firstly, sticker dispensers from UOX were installed in colleges and universities. Students can then just grab a sticker or two to write their own messages on it and later, 'send' them out, by simply sticking the sticker onto someone else (without their knowing)

Anything can be written on these stickers, be it a fun message, an encouraging message, a phone number, a death threat, a hotel room number... you get the picture.

When the recipient realises that he or she has been sticker-ed, he or she can choose to reply the message (or take revenge), heading back to the sticker dispenser and repeating the process.

The rationale behind this idea was to help students get more out of life: by creating real life communication opportunities. This paves the way for them to meet more real people than online profiles. Neat.

Production wise? Even neater. It is easy to produce and media space (the student body, literally!) was in abundance. And when the student walks around and out of campus, the idea travels with him. This makes it highly visible.

So why did the judges like it? Why did Kit Ong even say he'd wish he was the one who came up with it?

Primarily, because it was simple. Students are a vicious and vengeful sort (when it comes to things like this) so naturally, they would want to get back at each idea. And because of that, this idea would only end up more viral.

Now don't you wish that you came up with it instead?

So that's one idea down, another six to go. Your humble narrator would love to put them up here but once again, the friendly bunch at 95% would rather go at it one at a time.

Stick around to learn about what worked for the other six. If you've any questions or comments about this idea (or if you're either Celine, Edmond, Ejin, Jon or June who would like to add a little more to our post mortem on your work) let us know! Comment on this post!

Congrats guys! Now go brag about it to your friends!