Keeping us very busy with kids and animals is our much-loved client, Zoos Victoria. Lately, we’ve had the pleasure of working on a very special project – an integrated advertising campaign for Zoos Victoria Memberships. Featuring online, outdoor and television advertising, the campaign communicates the value and key benefits of a zoos membership in a quirky and catchy way – with a strong focus on kids and animals.

This campaign offered the first opportunity in many years for zoos to create a TV commercial – an exciting project for us in at GDJ…

We teamed up with the clever people at Visual Playground and, with time and budget constraints in mind, nutted out the best approach. To evoke the sense of wonder and excitement of the zoo, 2D images, including photos and graphic textures, were layered and animated to produce a vivid zoo environment. Next, we worked with the talented team at GAS Inc to create a fun and evocative soundscape. Finally, it all came together into what we think is a pretty snazzy 30 second ad!

You can check out the results below.

The update involved a reskin and upgrade. We completed a photo shoot (which sees the boys trapped inside your computer screen) as well as updated the theme and incorporated responsive design into the site. Responsive design is the term to describe a site that changes to suit your browser window size – giving you the best user capabilities whether you’re on your desktop computer, laptop, iPad or phone.

We’re stoked to hear that H&A are loving the new site, and so are their fans. It integrates all their social network streams as well as incorporates the boys’ podcasts, live video streaming and advertising. All this while keeping the content layout easy to consume and navigate.

Design and build of web phenom - chumsgroup.com

That’s right, Hamish & Andy’s certified facebook killer is the web development work of Grant Day James. Launched last month, this site already has over 26,000 users and this number is steadily increasing. Whilst we can’t claim any of the hype around this site, we are responsible for developing the complex CMS system that sits behind this social ‘phenom’ in a little under two days!

You may look at the design elements of this system and consider them to be ‘basic’. And the simple answer is that they are. They are simple for a reason. Given the history of the site and the laconic humour that H&A deliver, this site is more satirical than professional. Therein lies its charm. And, perhaps, the reason for its success.

Check it out at www.chumsgroup.com

Here at GDJ, 2011 was an absolute blast - our clients, once again proving to be the savviest, loveliest and most attractive people around. Okay, fine … that might have been a bit biased but you get the gist. We feel incredibly privileged to continue to work with such an eclectic and interesting array of clients across a broad media spectrum.

Twenty-eleven saw us work on national multimedia campaigns that spanned across television, radio and press for clients including Mazda and the Australian International Motor Show as well as in the digital realm for clients including Zoos Victoria, Hamish and Andy and the Cape Otway Centre for Conservation Ecology.

We are lucky enough to be able to work on other projects like recruitment advertising, point of sale collateral, logos and brand development and a whole lot more … which, if you’re reading this, you probably already knew.

With too many other wonderful clients and projects to mention here, let me finish off by giving a big Grant Day James hug to our clients, suppliers, friends, families and pets for a wonderful 2011 and here’s to 2012 - whatever she may bring.

Sadly, with the football season over, we’re feeling a little lost! Luckily, we did manage to to celebrate the end of season in style. Last Saturday, some GDJ football tragics put on their best fan gear and headed into the office to watch the big game. Come midday, there were snags on the barbie and a huge screen projection in the boardroom. By the end of the game, our throats were hoarse and some of our one-eyed friends were a little dejected but a post match game of kick-to-kick soon remedied all … ’tis a shame that both footies were kicked atop the fifty foot roof though (cough cough, Peter James).

Ahh well, another year, another season over. But not to worry … I hear they’re going to bring in some new kind of game to the G - something called ‘cricket’? Guess we’ll just have to wait and see if it catches on.

More than a handful of staff remember the first M Day we ever did over a decade ago (yikes!). Over the years, as the strength of M Day has continued to grow, GDJ has evolved and adapted the campaign to suit.

M Day always a brings an extra buzz to the GDJ office with Studio and Account Service busily designing, creating and despatching over 300 individual pieces, including point of sale, direct and unaddressed mail and television, radio and press ads.

This year, a new spin was given to the iconic red M Day logo and a slick, modern 3D environment was created for the 15 second television ad which launched to over 2 million Australians on Sunday night.

Every member of the GDJ team has had a hand in producing the M Day campaign - whether it’s designing, typesetting, proofreading, despatching or taking on additional work to help make sure deadlines are met and creative is delivered.

M Day 2011 is at Mazda dealerships everywhere, this Saturday 13th August.

Should read: “So we at GDJ have been thinking about the insertion of something other than an apostrophe to indicate a PLURAL.”

But even little old me, with limited knowledge of Split Infinitives and the like, can see that the English language is being smashed online. Initially, I was a bit upset about it, but I figure it’s evolution. One of the great things about the English Language is that it’s a robust beast and will organically reshape itself as users apply it to all sorts of new media - whether that’s online or on smart phone. Hey, who hasn’t used expressions like ‘tomoz’ and ‘c-u’ etc due to lack of time or sheer annoyance with the little keyboard on the screen?

Of course, some things are just plain wrong and will never be anything but. Personal hates: ‘I would of called you, but I was busy’ or ‘your a great friend’. There are many more no doubt, and some that probably annoy other people a lot more.

However, there are some things that we (a few of us here at GDJ) think could do with a bit of assistance.

For instance, one of our clients is Mazda. And the difficulty with the word ‘Mazda’ is when it becomes a plural. We always avoid the word ‘Mazdas’ as a plural because it looks… well, just wrong. And we never use it in radio ads as it also sounds odd! In fact, we actually end up rewriting sentences to avoid the plural. So instead of putting ‘Plenty of Mazdas to choose from’, we’re likely to say something like ‘Plenty of Mazda models to choose from’. That got us thinking about all kinds of words like Mazda that become plurals and how people will insert an apostrophe in there to help digest the word. Of course, it could be that they’re just confused about apostrophes and are chucking them in everywhere blindly. But let’s just assume for the moment that when people insert one, they’re doing so because things like 70s and 80s looks better as 70’s and 80’s. Now while that may look a bit more digestible (mmm… debatable), it’s obviously also wrong as it turns the word from a plural into a possessive.

Now this use of apostrophes in plurals isn’t new. It’s a disease that’s seen all over the place in lots of countries. Shop windows, TV ads, Press ads, newspaper articles. Everywhere.

So we at GDJ have been thinking about the insertion of something other than an apostrophe to indicate a possessive. Sure, you could argue that it doesn’t require ANYTHING. But like I said above, English is robust… why not create something that indicates plurals where a plural looks unusual in the printed form? Can’t we evolve to help people out who are making mistakes on their shop windows, TV ads, Press ads etc?

But before we unveil this solution, if you’re at all interested in this topic (most likely not) and would like to suggest your very own punctuation/insertion to take the place of an erroneous apostrophe for possessives, please let us know!

An asterisk perhaps? An em dash? The floor is yours!

You don’t need to be a rev head to appreciate the exciting list of exhibitors this year either. Names like Lamborghini, Maserati and Porsche will invariably draw the aficionados and the drop-ins alike.

And there is something for everyone at this year’s Show. For example, did you know that women make up a good proportion of Motor Show attendees and are more likely to visit the show with the aim of collecting information to make an informed car purchase in the future?

It makes sense. With the likes of Ford, Holden, Kia, Land Rover, Mazda, Toyota, Volkswagen and Volvo on display, the Motor Show is a terrific opportunity to meet and greet the various reps under one roof and have all your questions answered.

Beyond comparing current models, performance car enthusiasts are also in for a treat, with exhibitors such as BMW, Toyota and Hyundai unveiling their futuristic concept cars like the Hyundai Blue2.

And there’s no shortage of prestige, with Audi unveiling their all-new next generation Audi A6 model on Friday 1st July, it was certainly an opening with wow-factor.

This year, the Show has timed perfectly with the school holidays. There are special family days on Saturday 2nd July and Saturday 9th July, where the kids (and kids at heart) can enjoy face painting, magical fairies, balloon artists, clowns, Po from Kung Fu Panda 2 and Dorothy the Dinosaur!

Since welcoming the Australian International Motor Show as a client in 2010, Grant Day James have produced radio, press, outdoor billboards, static and expandable banners and a great TVC in the lead up to the opening of the Show, and we look forward to working with them in future.

So get your motor running fast, and get down to the 2011 Australian International Motor Show at the Exhibition and Convention Centre! Doors close Sunday 10th July.

For tickets and more information visit http://www.motorshow.com.au/.

Hyundai Blue2

The GDJ office will be closed for the Easter and Anzac Day public holidays from Friday 22 April and will reopen on Wednesday 27 April. For anything urgent during this time, please contact Cathy Grant on 0412 434 781.

Be safe and have a restful, happy Easter!

The 2010 Motor Show, held in Sydney, showcased some truly spectacular vehicles with everything from lean, green, zero emissions machines right through to the high-powered, performance-focused super cars. There was something to rev everybody’s engines.

The crowd arrived in droves to get a glimpse of the latest, greatest and hottest cars around. They were treated to more launches and reveals than ever before in Australia.

We are very excited to be working with the lovely folks at AIMS and continue to work with them on the Melbourne Motor Show this year. In fact, we’re counting the days until the doors open (98)!

So, until the 1st of July… keep your motor running and get ready for the 2011 Australian International Motor Show.