Building a community these days isn’t what it used to be. Once upon a time all you needed was a semi decent robe, a dubious relationship with God, and a decent stash of Kool-Aid. Kids these days just aren’t so easily influenced, and winning their buy-in (much less keeping it) requires increasingly more authenticity and genuine brand/consumer relationship building.
More than ever these communities exist online, and as an early player in this space, Taboo has been well placed to experiment, listen and learn. Our understanding has allowed us to bring people together who accept and celebrate a common aspect of who they are – be they brand loyalists, expert consumers, new influential’s or social media butterflies. We foster, nurture, and grow these communities and social media channels to great effect, producing fantastic results.
Our Chupa Chups ‘Chuck’ facebook fan page has now passed 55,000 friends and climbing http://www.facebook.com/chupachuck?ref=ts. In little over a month we created and grew RSPCA’s facebook fan page to over 17,000 engaged animal lovers – donations please and thank you. And in case you didn’t hear about it, for Sensis Whereis we threw the party of a lifetime (so we’ve been told) that proved the best way to hit social media with a bang is to get seriously social – for real.
Taboo’s packaging design solution for NELSON beer is something we’ve been quietly proud of for some time now. Call us alchemists if you will, because by entering the NELSON packaging design in the Pent Awards it turned it to gold! That’s right, we won a gold medal (insert fist-pump and celebratory beer spraying here). The award now sits proudly in our trophy cabinet, and is available for viewing business hours Mon-Fri, or check it online at:
http://blog.pentawards.org/?p=1268
Note - The NELSON packaging design solution is an evolutionary one, with changing artwork resulting from collaborative projects with artists from a diverse range of genres – to date these include: Sydney based design duo Sonny Day & Biddy Maroney*, Melbourne band The Temper Trap, and Melbourne based fashion house Trimapee.
* The PentAward winning design was taken from the first collaboration, featuring artwork by Sonny Day & Biddy Maroney. ---
The first Whereis party was a mystery to all but those who planned it. The well-guarded secret location and theme kept guests and select media in the dark right up to the last minute - the paint-suit invitations having instilled them with a mixture of excitement and trepidation. That curious adrenalin inducing anticipation was realised in full color, as ‘Whereis The Paint Party’ unleashed a night few will forget.
The organised chaos of this mass paint-fight made a mess of all in attendance’, though nobody really seemed to mind. In fact they loved it. Widely talked about both during and after the event, ‘Whereis The Paint Party’ generated masses of online banter, rapidly spreading word about the event, and causing much speculative hype as to what was coming next… Stay tuned to find out… More info.
A couple of months back we had a blackout. It was during the day, so I guess it wasn’t technically a blackout, but we lost power nonetheless. Anyway. This meant all our computers croaked, so for once our eyes wandered from the screens to the surrounding walls. Not long after a meeting was called, and we collectively decided to either close our eyes when power went out, or put something worth looking at on the walls to keep us entertained whilst awaiting electricity.
Deciding on the latter, we began thinking of ways to beautify our walls. The solution is in its finishing stages, and will soon be up for all to see. Until then, here’s a sneak peak…
2009 was a year of interesting opportunities for Taboo, with several projects requiring hush-hush agreements that prevent us from saying much about them. One such project came to us from Cadbury, and effectively transformed the creative department into a fantasia of Willy Wonka’s mad bent on chocolate.
This project came to us from Cadbury’s Global innovations team – The task was every descriptor you can conjure for inspiring, and asked us to conceptualise YOU CHEEKY BUGGER, HIGHLIGHTING THIS SECTION SO YOU CAN SEE WHAT’S WRITTEN UNDERNEATH in 2015 WE HAVE HEARD OF YOUR SORCERESS WAYS, AND YOUR MAGIC WILL NOT WORK HERE and how to SO EVEN THOUGH YOU ARE CUNNING LIKE A FOX the future of chocolate THIS TIME THE FOX GETS NO CHICKEN.
After several long days, longer nights, and weekends spent in the office, bleary-eyed but sugar-buzzed we presented our concepts. These were then sealed and taken back to Cadbury HQ in London, where they seemed to generate a great deal of excitement. So much so, that we were approached with a second (equally secretive) confectionary caper.
Work on both continues, so for now, our lips are sealed…
Few banks have taken the idea of ‘fighting unfair banking’ quite so literally as NAB. This statement of intention is something they intend to embody in its entirety, and Taboo has been helping them fulfill this desire.
To form a part of this, Taboo recently brought NAB’s battle with ‘unfair banking’ to life with a series of activations (and supporting rock-poster campaign) involving ‘NAB Ninjas’. Personifying the ‘fight unfair banking’ theme, the ninjas kicked, punched, flipped, and stealthily traversed the urban landscape of university campuses throughout Australia, encouraging students to join the fight, and bring an end to ‘unfair banking’.
NELSON's had a rough run recently, and sadly many things just haven’t gone to plan. Unfortunately things keep cropping up and foiling our best efforts to deliver beer – we do promise to keep trying.
One such recent incident involved a truck. Said truck crashed. And beer harbored within said truck smashed. And rather than thirsty punters, greedy Mother Nature gulped it all into her earthly belly. So when you hear about strange unexplained volcanoes erupting in the outer suburbs of Melbourne, you’ll know why, it’s Mother Nature unleashing a gigantic beer burp…
Taboo has been bolstered by a shot of estrogen, welcoming five new ladies into the office. These wonder women are multitalented and multilingual, between them speaking 6 languages – of which most of us understand one, and smatterings of abuse in the others… not that they ever abuse anyone, they’re all very nice… promise… well maybe parking inspectors… but that’s it… and only if they deserve it…
Mia - Account Director
Mia arrived at Taboo via way of the continent after several years working with some of Europe’s top FMCG companies – Maybelline NY, Société BIC, and Kraft. Though Mia lets her work do the talking, we thought one of her awards was worth a mention – The 2006 Kraft Media Award (Asia Pacific region) for Vegemite media strategy and execution. Being of Greek extraction, Mia is passionate about most things she does, including her role as Account Director.
Rachel - PR Director
From time to time our New Zealand neighbours produce some magic, and Rachel is living proof. So like Russell Crowe and the brothers Finn we’re going to claim her as our own. A Public Relations Director of the highest caliber – with international experience crafting innovative PR campaigns for sports and entertainment clients including Academy Award Winning SFX company Weta Workshop & Weta Limited, the International Equestrian Federation, Sony BMG and Island Records artists – if it’s newsworthy she’s on it, and if it’s not, she makes it so.
Maddy, Marre and Emily - Account Managers
Additional to these new leading ladies, Taboo has also welcomed three account managers onboard – Marre, Maddy and Emily. Each bright, brilliant and filled with boundless enthusiasm, they have taken charge of projects with the savvy of seasoned veterans. Their work ethic is unwavering, their results undeniable – with these girls on the case, you’re guaranteed things gonna get done right.
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©2010 The Taboo Group. All rights reserved.
Taboo's experience using social media for campaign and promotional activity dates back to the early days of MySpace (well before laggards such as Mr. Murdoch bought in). Steadily learning and developing ever since, Taboo has earned solid credentials in social media marketing. A natural progression of this has been extending our capabilities to Social Media Monitoring.
Over the recent months we have been evaluating various monitoring tools and running case studies on behalf of our clients. Taboo now has the capability to harness social media as a research and brand tracking resource, making it even more responsive, accurate, insightful and cost efficient.