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...

Friday night emails will never be the same!

Today Google announcesa potential saviour from those drunken moments of madness after a night of beers, spirits and other stimulants. Active during prime hours of risk (Friday and Saturday evenings), Google mail will present you with a series of simple mathematical tests that you need to (correctly) answer before the email is sent. Added to this challenge, these simple sums have to be completed within a time limit!

Jon Perlow, a Gmail engineer who created the software, announced the new product on Google's Gmail blog, explaining that he himself had sent some unfortunate late-night emails.

He said: "Sometimes I send messages I shouldn't send. Like the time I told that girl I had a crush on her over text message. Or the time I sent that late-night email to my ex-girlfriend that we should get back together."

"Gmail can't always prevent you from sending messages you might later regret, but today we're launching a new Labs feature I wrote called Mail Goggles which may help.

"Hopefully Mail Goggles will prevent many of you out there from sending messages you wish you hadn't. Like that late-night memo -- I mean mission statement -- to the entire firm."

Gmail users can set Mail Goggles to activate at any time they feel they might need protection.

So sit back, relax, have an extra pint, with the knowledge that now, your letter telling the boss where to stick his job or that email to the ex telling them they should really stop being the idiot and get a life are risks you dont have to worry about any more.....

Collective in the News!

Learndirect highlights success stories in campaign

Learndirect, an e-learning specialist, has appointed digital advertising agency Collective to create an ad campaign to highlight career success stories and encourage optimism during the tough economic climate.

Collective won the digital project following a competitive pitched against Learndirect's other roster agencies Glue and Grand Union.

>Click here to read the full article on marketing week.co.uk

Flash for the iPhone

Paul Betlem, the Senior Director of Engineering at Adobe Systems, has announced that Adobe is developing a Flash Player for the iPhone.

This is great news for anyone wanting to deliver brand experiences on mobile phones – it’s just a shame we still don’t know when it will happen. The powerful combination of the iPhone interface with the rich interactivity of Flash is something agencies, marketers and consumers will find hard to resist. Interestingly, we can also envisage a potential cost saving for clients as pre-existing Flash content is repurposed for mobile.

At present, it looks like there is only talk about the Flash plug-in on the Safari web browser. As such, Flash widgets per se are not really on the card yet. Native iPhone widgets/applications in Flash are still a good while away, but we wait with anticipation for the opportunity to use this new technology.

Ants

Collective received its latest recruit of worker ants today.. literally.



The new guys are kind of dazed and sleepy so far - but it's a Monday and they did just take a long-haul trip with Royal Mail so fair enough.



Expect regular progress reports, if they actually ever do anything.

I'm a PC...the rejoinder to the stereotype.

Sometimes it's not necessarily how much you spend on a campaign that grabs attention or changes perceptions.

For me, the great thing about 'digital' is being' 'clever', not necessarily 'cool'. This week, Microsoft have validated this notion in withdrawing their $10 million campaign (featuring Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld) and then launching a much simpler (and in many people's opinions more effective) messaging campaign that responds intelligently to the successful Apple "I'm a Mac, I'm a PC" ad campaigns.

"I'm a PC" aims to break the geeky stereotyping by showing a series of video clips from PC users around the world including members of the public in a variety of jobs and celebrities such as 'Desperate Housewives' actress Eva Longoria, author Deepak Chopra and musician Pharell Williams who all say proudly "I'm a PC".

Added to this, there is also a microsite that allows you (the general public) to also stand proud in announcing your PC-affiliation. So if you ARE a PC, why not join the throng!!

Musings of Kenta

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

End of week one - Collective impressions

I joined Collective on Monday so I thought now would be a good time to put down some first impressions of week 1.

For those that don't know the history I used to be a client of Collective's in their early birth. The Collective style of working at the time really appealed and their work was creative, productive and refreshing. Enthused by this experience I ventured off to agency land elsewhere to try my hand at life on the other side.

So, I've now come round to Collective again (or come home?), not quite full circle as I won't be working in the autos sector anymore, instead I'll be looking after some of the fantastic clients they've been working with recently.

What this week has shown is that the spirit of collaborative working has been retained despite the growth in size of the last few years. In the agency's early days it was probably a necessity to get things done, but now with around 50 people, folks here still genuinely seem to recognise the value of sharing and lots of involvement in creating the work... having 'Collective' over the door is clearly a help but the culture seems to have it ingrained. I guess if you share the responsibility and rewards and everyone knows the client this helps.

Only area I've spotted in the agency where the spirit has lost its way is the dishwasher, which retains individual mealtime neglect.... can't think of a digital solution to this, but maybe a brief is out there for it.

Still, week one nearly complete. Looking forward to picking up the account bag on Monday already... and making some Collective glory.

How's your Colour IQ?

Check your Hue IQ with this fun little toy.



Collective League Table
0 - Steve Little
0 - Petter
0 - Bora
0 - Charlotte
4 - Daniel
4 - Silke
4 - Stephane
4 - Steve B
7 - Jeff
8 - Adam C
8 - Joe
12 - Jon H
16 - Katie
42 - Nicola

Class of Collective

The Collective team step back in time thanks to Yearbook Yourself





See more on the flickr.