KIT KAT consumers will be given the chance to engage with the brand and the band through augmented reality. An AR marker will be featured on all KIT KAT 4 finger promotional packs – the first time an FMCG brand has used augmented reality on-pack. The campaign will go live from late August.

Through the AR marker, consumers will witness the band playing their next single ‘Silly Song’, released in late August, as well as perform an additional hidden track if the marker is manipulated correctly.

Users will also find other music related content within the site as well as a promotion to win £100 Ticketmaster vouchers. In addition to this, KIT KAT have partnered with MySpace to host four intimate gigs in different locations around the country. Scouting For Girls will launch this partnership and the gigs on Facebook via live streaming.

Jemma Handley, Brand Manager, KIT KAT comments: “Our first ‘Music Break’ activity proved a great success for the brand in 2009, marking a major touchpoint in its association with music. Through this current campaign, we are not only demonstrating our lead in the FMCG sector for digital execution but offering consumers an enhanced experience around ‘breaktime’ and music.”

Rupert Runewitsch, Account Director, Skive comments: “The FMCG sector has, by tradition, been slow to embrace the opportunities that digital offers. Through this campaign, KIT KAT translates its core principle message of ‘Have A Break’ to engage its loyal and the wider consumer using some of the most up to date digital capabilities.”

Insert cheesy stock photo here

We’re looking for an outstanding candidate to help support the office management and business development departments. 

You must be a recent graduate, ideally marketing or business studies, with lots of enthusiasm, common sense and a can do attitude.  This is a great opportunity to gain some invaluable experience in the digital marketing industry with a top London agency.    The work will be unpaid but expenses and travel will be covered.   The last intern was so good, we gave him a job.   So this is a real chance to make yourself indispensable. 

Please e-mail cover letter, CV and contact telephone number to: charlie@skive.co.uk

Moody stills of our new gaff. That's Charlie in reception.

Hello there artists, illustrators, painters, printmakers, weavers, solderers, sculptors, thinkers, crafty kids, creative teams and creative types.  We’ve just moved into our shiny new studio. Unfortunately the walls here are blank, and we badly need something inspirational to look at.

This is where you talented lot come in.

Tell us what you’d do to make our boring walls look better. You can submit your ideas in the form of a moodboard, a written proposal, a sketch…whatever. Just post it to our Facebook group’s wall.

The people whose ideas / designs we like the best will be invited into the studio to paint, draw or install their creation. Not only that, but the person with the most votes will get a full paid placement in our agency. The deadline is the 30th July. The Creative Directors will then announce the winners the week after!

Good luck!

In what is becoming a frequent blog post, the ‘Start Thinking Soldier’ campaign has picked up yet more trophies.

Firstly, at the prestigious FITC (Flash in the Can) Awards, where it was rewarded for Best Flash Motion Graphics. Skive’s very own Dan ‘Greyskull’ Bradshaw and Stephen ‘Penfold’ Archer were on hand to collect the distinctive prize in Toronto, and evidently celebrated with a few cold ones afterwards. The full roster of award-winners is here.

The project also picked up a Silver in the AME (Advertising & Marketing Effectiveness) Awards for Best Integrated Campaign, and has been shortlisted at the D&AD Awards for a gold pencil in the Integrated category. Fingers crossed.

We’d been nominated in four categories, the others being Best B2C Campaign, Best Website, and Best Use of Video – and to be honest thought we had a much better chance in those than the hotly contested Integrated Campaign, which featured a shortlist of 7 including work from CHI, Dare and AKQA, as well as T-Mobile and ComparetheMeerkat.com.

It was fitting to be there with the creative team from Publicis Modem, Jon Groom and Asan Aslam, who were integral to appointing us and whom we’d first met some 18 months previously - as well as client Nic Cary from the COI.

It was also pleasing recognition on the back of winning an IAB Creative Showcase Grand Prix, for Most Innovative Campaign. Next up for the Start Thinking Soldier Awards Rollercoaster: FITC in Toronto…

In above the line categories, it also won a Bronze Best Press Ad for ‘Football’ and a Silver Best Public Service Ad for ‘Girlfriend’ and a handful of commendations, so congratulations to the creative team of Matt Anderson and Steve Nicholls of Publicis, who were also responsible for the four TVCs.

2010 is well underway and we’ve already  picked up our first trophies for the cabinet in the shape of the Recruitment Advertising Awards, held at the Grosvenor House Hotel and hosted by the ubiquitous Michael McIntyre.

The night started well and just got better, with Start Thinking Soldier picking up Best Campaign – just as Publicis’ Mel Hopkins needed the loo.

This was soon followed by Best Microsite, where Skive’s Louis Clement and Hopkins were joined on the stage by the COI’s Nic Cary.

Best was yet to come, however, as the campaign picked up Best Work of the year, and McIntyre was mobbed on stage by a jubilant Skive team.

It wouldn’t be a Skive Night Out without some glorious mishap, however, and while most turned up to work the next day with a sore head, there was alas no sign of the statues themselves. Turns out we’d left them in a sack at the hotel…

Skive will propose an overall digital strategy for L’Oréal LPD, identifying key objectives and success measurement metrics. It will also develop and implement the individual digital marketing plans for the key brands within L’Oréal LPD. Work begins imminently.

As part of Skive’s work, the agency will also provide a detailed series of digital marketing training programmes for the communications teams within the L’Oréal Luxury Products Division. Initially, Skive will work on briefs for Yves Saint Laurent and Lancôme brands but this will widen as the full L’Oréal LPD digital strategy becomes evident.

L’Oréal LPD recognises the importance for the beauty sector to reach target audiences through digital channels and this appointment signifies its intention to be the sector frontrunner in digital use.

Emma Dawson, Communications Director L’Oréal LPD comments: “The beauty sector has been slower than others to embrace digital but this situation is changing rapidly.  L’Oréal LPD recognises the need to use the medium as a way to engage further with our consumers, complimenting other marketing spend and Skive’s appointment is the start of our work to do just that.”

Sean Singleton, Managing Director, Skive comments: “The luxury brands sector is increasingly competitive by nature and has used TV advertising, glossy print ads and rich retail experience to target audiences. As research starts to show an increase in luxury consumers using the web for information about the products they buy, so digital needs to play a larger role in luxury marketing efforts. L’Oréal LPD is perfectly placed to take hold of the emerging opportunities ahead of its competitors.”

It was interesting to see that amongst the clever experiential campaigns, striking illustration portfolios, inspiring digital interaction and the latest from CP+B, WK or Goodby was some good old fashioned print.

I’ve been an admirer of the recent Dixons print campaign by M&C Saatchi since it launched in September. Few brands attempt long copy ads (I can only remember VW and Ford in the last six months) but I think these are great – a perfect mix of placement, message and media (the London Underground is where I’ve encountered them).

At the heart of the campaign is good planning insight: people increasingly shop for goods online but quite like to see the products in the flesh first (it was predicted that 93% of consumers planned to shop for their Christmas gifts online in 2009 according to eDigital Research). The strapline makes you think twice because it’s seemingly negative: “Dixons.co.uk. The last place you want to go.” Then there’s the creative itself, playfully sending up John Lewis, Selfridges and Harrods, which has naturally incensed the high street giants and generated a bit of healthy PR in the process. And it also shows Dixons know their place – not in our hearts but perhaps in our wallets.

But it’s the Christmas iteration I really like, which was also voiced by David Mitchell for radio. The fonts in the other ads nod to the brands they’re riffing, but this last is more generic and the resulting page is straight from Dickens, replete with odious caricature in Cedric Prattletwerp. Lovely.

I still wouldn’t shop at Dixons.co.uk if you nailed my balls to a chair…

The Tweeting Twankey in all her glory

Find the Tweeting Twankey and win yourself some Christmas spending money.

To enter into the festive spirit, every day for a week some unfortunate from Skive will don the unmistakably gaudy garb of Panto’s finest comic dame and miserably troll the streets of London texting, tweeting, twitpiccing, foursquaring and lifecasting their camp hearts out.

During the generally accepted lunch hour of between 1-2pm, from the 14th – 18th December, anyone who manages to personally locate the Tweeting Twankey (and believe me, she will be hard to miss) and speak the magic password will instantly receive £100 shopping money to spend in the store in which they have successfully located the bewigged young fellow.

So make sure you keep your eyes peeled for an embarrassed looking chap in a bawdy golden frock, and ask all the weary sales assistants if the Twankey’s been seen nearby.

And for every person who follows the Tweeting Twankey on Twitter, Skive will donate £1, up to a £1000, to Shelter’s Christmas Appeal.