What an Incredible Evening at Create Now Dublin! 🎉
A huge thank you to Liz Schmidt at Adobe, Kladi Vergine, and Steve Simpson for making this event an unforgettable experience. Each of you brought something truly special to the table, and I left feeling inspired, informed, and ready to create!
Highlights of the Evening:
Kladi Vergine’s walkthrough of the latest features in Photoshop and Illustrator was a masterclass in innovation—showing us how to make the most of these powerful tools.
Steve Simpson’s unique insights as an illustrator were a true highlight—his artistry and storytelling added so much depth to the day.
From discovering the magic of Adobe Firefly to exploring the seamless capabilities of Adobe Express, this event showcased how Adobe continues to lead the way in empowering creatives.
Thank you to all the presenters and the Adobe team for an inspiring day of learning and connection!
Feeling motivated to take my creative projects to the next level at pluto#CreateNowDublin#AdobeCreativeCloud#Innovation#Design#Creativity
This week, pluto supported Research Ireland & their partners with some of the amazing Science Week activations.
Loved seeing Alf come to life on his journey through Dublin City.
Great work by everyone involved 👏
We’re excited to showcase some of our most recent social work with Green Farm Fine Foods in collaboration with Zahra.Together, we’ve launched a social-first recipe content series featuring a variation of dynamic content formats that highlight healthy, quick, and easy-to-follow recipe ideas, perfect for those with a busy lifestyle.
Each reel also highlights the nutritional value on screen to educate the viewer, making it easier for them to choose wholesome and delicious meals for lunch or dinner everyday.
Check it out over on their Instagram: @greenfarmfinefoods
Last week I attended the #AD Guidelines for Honest Influencing on Social Media webinar, hosted by the Advertising Standards Authority (IRL) and the Competition & Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC).
This session covered essential responsibilities for influencers, brands and agents around labelling commercial content on social media. Topics varied from “Do I need to label this content as #AD?” (if you’re asking yourself that question, then the answer is most likely ‘yes’) to “What label should I use?” and even “Where should the label be placed?”.
Reputation and trust are at stake for both influencers and brands if the guidelines aren’t properly followed. All guidelines can be found on the ASA website, and if you’re working with influencers, I’d highly recommend you give them a read. Ensuring transparency on social media builds trust in the influencer and the brands they work with.
Big thanks to the ASA and CCPC for facilitating this discussion! 👏
I’ve spent this week back in my old stomping grounds, having an amazing time catching up with industry colleagues as well as good friends.
One of the things that struck me now that the dust has settled around London’s Tottenham Court Road area is the rise of….screens.
Screens are everywhere and, unlike other neon cities like Seoul, Tokyo or Hong Kong, these wrap around buildings (both inside and outside) to create a different, and in many ways a new, type of experience.
Above and beyond these high res screens, one of the biggest things I noticed is how brands are capitalising on these new spaces that blur the line between advertisement and ‘experiences’ in a way that has never been as public before.
These spaces are not by invitation (in most cases) and hook both visitors as well as busy locals in.
⚫ Unlike the creation of flagship stores, these pop-up like spaces create a unique sense of limited event combined with the brand’s essence, look and values vs. simply showcasing a singular product for a launch
⚫ The custom-made videos and graphics help bring the brand’s identity to life in ways that were just not possible before due to both tech restraints as well as duration of traditional placements.
⚫ The spaces make room for both tech and non-tech companies, showcasing the latest technology in their products or crafting custom scenarios for people to enjoy, such as experiences that literally transport audiences to other places, as seen with Outernet’s huge takeovers that whisk you into space, a studio or even the streets of Seoul.
⚫ Pokemon’s recent launch of their TCG Pocket app sees booster packs opening and cards flying quite literally all over the space, asking people to physically touch and manipulate them in real time to augment the core mechanic of their new game.
⚫ Microsoft’s Minecraft corner is a huge screen clearly designed to both feel the game as well as generate UGC, a key currency of these takeovers Intel’s space showcases their latest engineering within their chips with their iconic blue hue literally pulling people in through huge screens fixed seemingly uninterrupted across the entire physical space.
⚫ And then there’s the artsy stuff, the style that Team.Labs popularised in Tokyo and beyond that showcases beautiful art as a way to escape the hustle and bustle and provide a mindful respite, such as its slowly walking through a field of abstract flowers in the dark.
All in all its been incredible to see what are essentially instillations accessible to all, with brands investing in a new type of marketing in ways that perhaps only retailers would normally been able to do through physical space, and I look forward to coming back and seeing what cool new things I can spot from the brands I love.
For now, it’s back to opening a new booster pack on Pokemon TCG pocket whilst sitting on the Victoria line.
Do you ever see a piece of advertising and think to yourself “how did they get there!” or “I wish I was in the room when they got to that place!” I sure do, obsessively sometimes. The strategy and thinking behind the end product has always interested me more than the final output. knowing why people think, say, do and buy the things that they do is the ever-unraveling ball of twine that we as marketeers are always trying to unravel. People are irrational and rational at the same time, we can be walking contradictions! Its an impossible task but I think that just makes it more interesting!
Strategy and strategic thinking are all about trying to understand people and their triggers and what ideas appeal to these triggers and make a person go “oh hey this is for me!”. I was recently recommended the “On strategy Showcase” podcast series and i cant recommend it enough for anyone interested in hearing the thinking behind some of the past and more recent AD campaigns out there. Give it a listen!
What makes a piece of content social-first?🤔
👉A clear hook from the first few frames
👉A POV style that builds relatability
👉Clear, concise messaging
👉Dynamic, easy to understand settings
This is exactly how we shot our latest #PlutoLabs content drops for safefood, who tasked us with creating native content to help guide hospitality industry workers around safe glove usage, using a POV style to debunks myths and build awareness of how to effectively handle gloves across a myriad of everyday situations.
Shot entirely by the social team in-house (and at our pluto Labs studio here at pluto HQ), we maximised the shoot by creating multiple versions and formats to continue to help safefood tell authentic stories that cut through on their feed.
Check them out below and get in touch to find out how we can help take your social-first content creation to the next level.
At the beginning of October, I was listening to Jo Linehan Editor of the Climate Supplement at the Sunday Times Ireland on the wire-less, about how to be more sustainable in the arts, mainly theatre. As somebody working in the events and activation game, the parallels became immediately clear. Jo spoke about an amazing resource available for those in the theatre business, the Theatre Green BooK. It's three-volume document produced by the Theatres Trust outlining sustainable standards for theatre productions and buildings. It's a fantastic read, resource and idea generator for anyone striving to create more sustainable events, there are so many comparables and similarities. We at pluto have a dedicated Green Team to be more sustainable and eco-friendly in our event production and across the entire agency. We've made considerable moves already, many of which echo practices in the Theatre Green Book and have more moves to make. Any of my peers out there in events I recommend you take a look. https://lnkd.in/eYpmi8Af
