Today Cannes. Tomorrow the world.

Congrats to Al and Pete (that’s them looking slightly dazed and confused 2nd and 3rd to the right)for wowing the Cannes crowds at this week’s MIPTV with ‘Kangaroo Court’. Their pitching prowess won us the MSN-sponsored ‘Original Comedy for Multiple Platforms’ category in the Content 360 competition. It was a sparkling team effort from Collective and we can’t wait to start evolving the idea.

Read more here: MIPTV

Animal Magic

We have had some Friday fun today with the costumes we picked up in preparation for MIPTV. We can't say too much about it at the moment. All will become clear next week!

Christmas Party

After a small 'hiccup' (where the original company cancelled at the 11th hour), our Christmas party went with a bang. After delicious cocktails and a festive meal at Dollar Grills, we had a small awards ceremony at the Priory before being whisked off to the Empire Casino in Leicester Square for champers on the private balcony followed by some gambling - because nothing says Christmas like losing it all on red.





Lots more (carefully selected) photos on the flickr.

Movember nearly over

It's been emotional, painful, hilarious, itchy and slightly scary. The Collective team has done a brilliant job of growing their mo's over November in aid of prostate cancer. Here are some pics of the mos' Guinness-tinged final lunch (is anyone actually keeping their facial furniture past December 1st?).







More on the flickr.

If you'd like to donate to the cause, please just click the banner below.

Wig out!

Hayley set up the Wig Out campaign to raise awareness for Breast Cancer (and money for Breast Cancer Care). The idea is simple: wear a wig, eat some cakes and give generously.

Thanks to everyone, the first Wig Out was a great success. We raised £103 from kind donations and on behalf of the company, the directors donated another £50. 25% will be added by Gift Aid too.

WIG OUT TOTAL - £191.25... and counting!




As ever, check out more photos on the Flickr and vote for your favourites on the Wig Out site.

Movember week one

Movember has kicked off in earnest at Collective Towers. Here's who's Top of the Taches so far...


Omar's looking dapper with his tidily-trimmed nose-tickler (so carefully trimmed he was late this morning, in fact).



Jon's gone Wild West style with matching mutton chops. Looking foward to seeing how they develop.



Whereas Kenta resembles some kind of Bond super-villain.



Methinks we have a Mo-cheat in our midst.. Nice fuax-tache, Seren.

More pics on our Flickr.

Wear it Pink

Kenta and Sean cleverly combine wearing pink for breast cancer awareness AND sporting a terrifying costume for Hallow'een. Nice one boys, you look...

Ant update

Our little ant friends have indeed been busy, making themselves at home and digging away:



Katie's ants have made the most progess, surely due in part to the motivational poster bearing down on them.



Petter's men, fuelled by fruit and cereal treats, seem to have built a dual carriageway the length of their colony and have a rather cute Bug's Life wallpaper to gaze at.

More photos on the Flickr.

Collective Go Karting

Team Collective took to the track yesterday for a day of inter-agency go-karting. It was a gorgeous sunny day and the competitive spirit was out in full. After a tough 90-minute endurance race which saw spins, crashes and drama galore, it was the designers' team 'Make My Logo Bigger' who did us proud, scooping third place. Management team 'Irresponsibly Collective' narrowly missed out on the podium with a 4th-place spot, and the 'Young Team' kids scored 15th place despite inexperience (come on, we're barely out of our toy pedal-cars).



Well done all round. Back with a vengeance next year...

Musings of Kenta

It feels so good to know that our design dept is headed up by such a well-educated and thoughful man.

Class of Collective

The Collective team step back in time thanks to Yearbook Yourself





See more on the flickr.

£1 sandwiches no more

It's a sad day for Collective lunchers, and not just because of the rain. The delightful Harlequin pub announced to us it's shutting at lunchtimes, taking with it its wonderful £1 sandwich offer. Particularly distraught were those whose loyalty cards were nearly full. The free sandwich will never be!

Collective Tennis

A troupe of sporty Collectivites blew off the cobwebs this Wednesday with some tennis in the park. Some took it more seriously than others, with Omar and James setting the bar high with some intense rallies.



While Petter and Emma went for style points.



Joe was a fantastic ballboy (until he got tired)



And the crowd went wild...



Bring it on again next Wednesday. Well, we need to work off all the jam tarts and sweeties somehow.

Get out, get snapping and upload!

08-08-08 isn't just lucky for the Olympics!






Today we'll also be snapping and uploading to the Flickr888 Day, a repeat of last years very successful event where we all share a digital "day-in-the-life of" our nation.

Collective Poker

The first Collective Poker Night was a night of highs, low, tension, frustration and joy. Rank amateurs (most of us, really) were pitched against more established players in a battle of wits, deception and pure luck.

Kenta and Silke took an early lead....



...but flew too close to the Sun and lost it all to eventual champ Katie.



Thanks to Stephane for the venue and amazing feast. Same time next week at Jeff's?

It all gets touchy-feely at MotorShow 2008

Gone are the days when the leather seats, walnut veneer and shiny gear sticks were the only thing you touched at the Motor Show. With engagement being a major player these days, getting consumers to discover more about the latest cars or the value of a particular automotive brand, the world of digital is fast becoming a more valuable entity to grab.



This year saw a sensory myriad of things to touch and play with. From the simple terminal screens, right through to USB sticks, panels, blocks, visors, skateboards and playgrounds (as well as the new cars of course!)



Probably the largest of the interactive areas to digitally tinker in was the Honda 'Problem Playground'. Based around the online experience launched earlier this year, the Playground is a place that tells the story of how Honda loves problems and more specifically, how to solve them (if you look back over time, they've been solving problems for years).



Typically, the first problem to solve before you get to touch any screen was how to get to the challenges in the first place, but once in front of a screen, there is an array of interactive problems that Honda have solved in recent years for you to discover and interact with.



But why take our word for it? The Motor show is still open (last day is the 3rd August 2008), so get your tickets now, whilst it's still there!

Collective did Latitude

We're back from Latitude in (just about) one piece... A great time was had by all.

We packed up from work at lunchtime on Friday and after a fortifying chip butty, hopped onto the coach.



Several hours of drinking (us) and getting lost (driver) later, we arrived on site.



We lugged all our booty to our luxury camp site, which turned out to be pretty plush indeed - replete with air beds, ready-constructed tents and toilets with soap and toilet roll!



After getting settled in we wandered over the arena, marvelled at the pink sheep, and caught a cool headline set from Franz Ferdinand.



Saturday brought hangovers for some, which was quelled by morning bacon butties and the big Collective BBQ. A fantastic spread of kebabs, burgers, hot dogs and other chargrilled goodness presided over by Team Australasia, Omar and Greg.



A magical headline set by Sigur Ros topped off the day's festivities, and the party continued in the Disco Shed into the night.



Sunday brought even more severe hangovers, but they were soothed by a lovely midday set from Joanna Newsom. We then caught the set from our own in-house rockstar Danny's band Ex-Lovers.



It was at this point, bruised and bedraggled and ready for a bath and bed, that we found out that our coach company had managed to go bust over the weekend. Cue several £300 cabs all the way back to London..



Thank you to the directors and everyone else for making it a brilliant weekend!
Many more photos on our Flickr page.