Rabbit, winner social media campaign of the year

Rabbit Ears

Wed, 23 May 2012 17:17:00 +0100

Tomorrow night, Thursday the 24^th of May 2012, 3x TED speaker and author of Sound Business Julian Treasure will be joining new Rabbit clients Ecophon along with Essex County Council, NDCS and Hear2Learn at Sound Education, an event set up to discuss the results of the Essex Study, a comprehensive look at the effects acoustics have in the classroom.

Rabbit have been assisting Sound Education and Ecophon in setting up and managing their social profiles, producing social content and live reporting from all events across Facebook, Twitter and Instagram as well as developing the Sound Education social media strategy. We’re hugely excited to be working on a project that has massive implications for the future of education standards, and one that comprises engaging and fascinating subject matter.

When designing a school, architects think about class sizes, ventilation, heating and all of the other usual suspects. However, there is one area that is often neglected and that can have a huge impact on how children learn – acoustics.

The events will be discussing the recently released Essex Study, a comprehensive study carried out by Essex County Council, NDCS and others into the effects poor acoustics had on the learning of children in one Essex school. Follow Sound Education on Twitter for updates from all of the events, and some statistics around the power of acoustics that may shock you.

The acoustics of a classroom can be the difference between a child succeeding and failing in school. When a teacher can’t be heard, their lessons are lost. When they have to shout, they can come across as a disciplinarian and alienate members of the class – it can even cause the teachers health problems. This is a major issue that shouldn’t be ignored, and we at Rabbit are proud to be playing our part in spreading the word.

How airlines use Instagram

Tue, 22 May 2012 14:02:55 +0100

At Rabbit we’ve built up a stack of expertise in the airline / travel industry through the campaigns we’ve handled for Gatwick, bmi and bmibaby. Many of us are also enthusiastic users of Instagram personally, and have put the knowledge we’ve gained to the use of our clients.

@dirktherabbit has combined those two elements into a study and blog post for Simpliflying, which looks at what airlines are currently doing on the photo-sharing network, and looking at them as inherently visual businesses, some are missing opportunities.

Read it here

How you fall doesn’t matter. It’s how you land.

Thu, 03 May 2012 12:12:00 +0100

In addition to the work we’ve been doing with Future Cinema, Rabbit is privileged to have been working for The Other Cinema to spread awareness and inspire debate around their La Haine project (detailed below).

As part of this we set up a live Twitter debate with Future Cinema founder Fabien and Broadwater Farm residents Isaac and Moses.

We also helped them to establish social profiles, generating content, spreading awareness amongst social influencers and taking on community management duties live reporting from the first event, a live screening on the Broadwater Farm Estate.

Mathieu Kassovitz’ 1995 classic La Haine is a raw, dark portrayal of the lives of three young men from immigrant families, and the lives they carve out in the tough, post riot, Parisian suburbs they call home.

The Other Cinema – one arm of the Future Cinema family – has brought La Haine to post riot London, and the first screening took place on Tottenham’s Broadwater Farm on May 2nd.

The film has hardly been more poignant and relevant since its release, and with the invaluable help of Broadwater Farm locals, The Other Cinema aims to bring the unifying power of cinema to the communities that need it most.

Spanning dates across London, Paris and Tallinn, this tour of La Haine is more than just a screening. The legacy of this event will be a lasting framework to give those in disadvantaged areas more opportunities and involvement in the creation of cinema.

In the words of Other Cinema founder Fabien Riggall: “I believe in the power of cinema. This estate, and the most disadvantaged estates around the country, are full of creative and bright young people and we believe that showing a film of such power could inspire them to make a real difference.”

We’re pleased to be involved in a project that has the potential to have truly beneficial, long lasting effects in areas like Broadwater Farm.

The screenings run 2-5 May starting in Tottenham with an introduction from visionary La Haine director Mathieu Kassovitz as well as an incredible live score from Asian Dub Foundation, the band responsible for the original soundtrack.

Why Instagramers are your friends

Wed, 25 Apr 2012 21:59:00 +0100

Over the past year we’ve really embraced visual social media, to the extent that it’s not an exaggeration to say that few UK agencies understand the space as well as we do.

We’re Instagram enthusiasts and our work on the platform has won awards. We recently rolled out the 1st ‘Pinterest Lottery’ for bmi. And we were one of the first agencies to demonstrate our faith in tumblr by actually building this site on it.

Rabbit Dirk put this knowledge to good use, by writing a piece in The Guardian (online) on how arts organisations can take advantage of Instagram.

Using the example of our work for Future Cinema, where social media drove ticket sales, Dirk’s conclusion is that arts organisations (in fact any organisation) need not only a social media strategy, but a visual social media strategy as well.

That strategy should filter down to all customer facing staff including the box office team, and should possibly include physical prompts.

To read Dirk’s piece, go here.

Gatwick becomes first UK airport with the blue Twitter tick

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 13:12:00 +0100

Congratulations to London Gatwick Airport, which has become the first airport in the UK to have a verified Twitter account, with the blue tick on its profile signifying that it is a trusted news source.

The Wall calls it “a good example of Twitter customer service”, while The Drum points out that since being sold by BAA to new owners GIP, Gatwick has taken a lead in other social media areas (such as mobile barcodes) as well.

This infographic tells the story of how far Gatwick has come on over the past two years, in particular how Twitter was used as a front line customer services tool at times of crisis.

For example:

During the December 2010 snow storms, Gatwick’s Twitter followers increased by 15,000 with 300 enquiries fielded per hour (at one point it was 600)

During the 2011 ash cloud event, Gatwick gained 200 new followers and its initial messages were retweeted 200 times

And during November’s UKBA strike, Gatwick’s feed grew by 600 followers, while messaging had a reach of over 66,000

The campaign has been recognised numerous times at social media and digital awards ceremonies, just last week our Gatwick work was one of five finalist entries in the ‘best use of social media’ category at the Revolution Awards.

Parents - are you secretly accessing your teen's Facebook page?

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 12:49:00 +0100

According to the fifth AVG Digital Diaries study by Internet security company AVG, they are.    In the UK, over 4/10 access a teenage child’s Facebook account without them knowing, in the US it is even over 6/10.

These issues and more were discussed last week at an event in London, attended by media lawyer Steve Kunciewiz and Facebook’s UK director of public policy Simon Milner, and moderated by AVG’s Tony Anscombe.

The NextWeb has an excellent run-down of the discussion, which took place, and we’ve storifyed the event (see below).

Digital Diaries is a concept we created for AVG at Rabbit, and has given the company a platform from which it has been able to discuss how technology is affecting childhood from birth.

To see all AVG Digital Diaries reports, go to http://www.avgdigitaldiaries.com

Fat Sam’s Grand Slam and beyond!

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 14:30:00 +0100

Over the past few weeks, Rabbit has been working for experiential cinema maestros Future Cinema. We were delighted to note that they recently received some of the recognition they so rightly deserved, as BBC News covered the Bugsy Malone event happening right now at London’s Troxy Theatre.

The event is a visual and sensory extravaganza, with 1920s dancers, hoodlums and performers parading around, dragging everyone present into the wake of their speakeasy bluster.

In the words of the speakeasy’s proprietor and namesake, ‘it’s the greatest show in town’.

As our latest exciting client, we’ve been working with Future Cinema to boost online conversation and content generation around the Bugsy Malone event. Every single Rabbit has attended the event, so we know just how amazing it is.

Armed with this knowledge, we’ve been helping Future Cinema out with their Twitter (check out the hashtag #futurecinemabugsy) and Instagram feeds (#futurecinemabugsy) and we’ve seen some fantastic results; hundreds of new followers, hundreds of new images and millions of impressions.

Now Other Cinema – another company that falls under the Future Cinema umbrella – is embarking on a new and daring project to bring French classic La Haine to London.

The 1995 tale of French street kids in a suburban ghetto will be shown for free to residents of the Broadwater Estate, Tottenham; one of the hotspots of last year’s London riots. The screening will be accompanied by a live score from Asian Dub Foundation, who were behind the original soundtrack.

We’re honoured to be working alongside Future Cinema and Other Cinema on such contrasting projects. To find out more about Bugsy Malone (and how to book tickets), click here. For more on La Haine, click here.

Rabbit, one of the world's most democratic companies

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 15:19:10 +0100

A few principles underpinned our decision to set up Rabbit.

One very important one was that if people actively want to come into work every day, everyone will benefit - and ultimately that includes our clients.

Sounds obvious, but it’s not something every agency remembers.

As a result, after a year we were audited and accepted as one of the world’s most democratic organisations by WorldBlu.

This year we’re there again, alongside companies such as Zappos and WD40 and organisations in the USA, South Africa, Denmark and Singapore, among others.

What does being ‘democratic’ mean? It doesn’t mean a free for all, far from it.

Rather we’re graded against a number of (we think) common sense principles ranging from fairness to transparency. How do we bring them to life?

Check out the Rabbit manners here

(Congrats as well to Future Considerations and Nixon McInnes, who are the other UK companies on the list!)

Facebook's $1 billion Instagram buy - what does this mean for brands?

Mon, 09 Apr 2012 22:28:00 +0100

(above, a fairly typical Instagram reaction to tonight’s Facebook announcement via @donmaldonado79)

At Rabbit we seem to love all the social networks Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg has his eye on as well.

First there was the group messaging system Beluga, a watered down version of which now exists in Facebook messenger. Then there was the location based app Gowalla…Facebook took the staff and expertise and finally shut it down a few weeks ago.

Now there is Instagram, which Mark Zuckerberg paid $1 billion for, easily double the most optimistic valuation.

Fortunately for Instagram users, Facebook is committed to keeping the brand alive as a separate entity - think of the relationship the giant photo-sharing site Flickr has with Yahoo!.

But what does it mean for brands?

To answer that it is worth looking at an excellent analysis by Om Malik (h/t @jas) about why Mark Zuckerberg paid as much as he did.

First of all, while Gowalla never really got above two million users, Instagram passed 30 million post the Android announcement and had 50, even 100 million in its sights.

Simply put, Instagram was doing mobile photography better than Facebook and so was a commercial threat.

Secondly, Instagram has a fanatical user base.

In Om Malik’s words: “People like Facebook. People use Facebook. People love Instagram…Facebook lacks soul. Instagram is all soul and emotion.”

Facebook’s $1 billion buys a super-engaged community, which judging from reactions on Instagram itself, isn’t best pleased to be part of the Facebook empire.

However, Mark Zuckerberg isn’t a fool and recognises the benefits - for now - in leaving the community and its very particular sub-culture be.

At the same time though, Facebook won’t be paying $1 billion just to see something fail. Take that 100 million user ceiling and double it. Facebook brings almost endless reservoirs of cash, it brings expertise in how to scale up, it brings resources.

We’ve said it the other day when we released our (post Android but pre Facebook) guide to Instagram.

Whatever the sector you are in, if you don’t have a visual social media strategy you need one. Now there is an even bigger $1 billion reason.

bmi commended for Facebook excellence

Mon, 09 Apr 2012 22:22:00 +0100

Over the past month we’ve been helping clients get to grips with the changes in Facebook pages, and in particular with Facebook timeline.

This includes airline British Midland International (bmi), and so we were thrilled to read what travel news website Tnooz had to say about it.

In a review by guest writer Marco Serusi, bmi was held up as “one of the best airline pages on Facebook”, with bmi having “embraced the timeline concept in full.”

bmi is in good company - aviation giants KLM, Delta, Emirates and JetBlue are the other four best practice examples.

Noting that others haven’t been as successful, Marco’s parting advice in the article is “plan and choose carefully and execute with vigour.”

We agree, the ‘new’ Facebook contains a lot of opportunities - and pitfalls as well. For a discussion about what those opportunities are for your brand, get in touch with us.

The warren is growing

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 19:47:00 +0000

Expert advice tells us that Spring is the best time to breed Rabbits. We read it on the Internet, so it must be true.

Following a string of awards for the work we’ve done for clients, and with more brands looking to work with us, we’re now expanding the warren.

So, if you’d would like to join one of the most successful, innovative and also democratic agencies in the social and digital space, read on.

Here’s what we’re looking for:

We welcome applications across different levels of experience. If you are just starting out, drop us a line.   Similarly, if you’ve got years of experience of running client campaigns, please get in touch.

At Rabbit we have a philosophy of ‘social media immersion’.   We’re conscious that anyone can give a presentation on how awesome social media is, success comes from actually getting under the skin of and using the different tools.

Therefore, whatever work experience you’ve got, we need to know you truly get and are interested in social media.   And think beyond the usual, simply having a Twitter profile is not impressive!

We’re not big on CVs, so please don’t send us one. A LinkedIn profile is OK…actually links in general are good.

Social media profiles, blog pieces, interesting work you’ve done online, send us links to things you think will impress us.

It doesn’t matter if you are in-house or in an agency (advertising, PR or digital). You do however need to know how to juggle different projects at once, and know not only how to work with clients but also to help them sell the work back to their own internal clients.

We’re not big on hierarchy, so if you are used to a team doing the leg-work for you don’t apply. Having said that, good team management skills are definitely a plus.

Does all that sound like you? Email us - iwanttoworkatrabbit@therabbitagency.com

(No agencies please, we prefer the direct approach)

Image - Tom Baugis

Geek is Chic

Wed, 21 Mar 2012 19:21:00 +0000

When Lea Rabbit is not busy hopping around the warren she is one half of the blogzine and podcast team behind The High Tea Cast.

We’re posting big Rabbity congratulations to her today as, after just three episodes ‘The High Tea Cast’ now ranks 19th in the European Podcast Awards, UK Podcast Personality list.

We’re also very excited for Lea as The High Tea Cast will be reporting live and hosting a workshop from Cybher in a few months time.

Cybher is the UK’s first all-inclusive female blogger conference taking place in London on May 12th. Founded by Sian To, the event will see brands, bloggers and speakers come together to network, share, inspire and learn.

Speakers include Bitch Buzz founder Cate Sevilla, Econsultancy news editor Vikki Chowney, Muireann Carey-Campbell of Bangs and a Bun, Founder of DWPub Daryl Willcox and our very own Head Rabbit Dirk (to name just a few!).

Tickets for this event are selling fast, so if you want to be a part of the geek chic action head over the CybHer site and get your tickets now!

An American Rabbit in the Warren

Wed, 21 Mar 2012 18:24:00 +0000

Three times every year we take an intern from the US (normally from Boston University) who spends six weeks learning the ropes at a social media agency.

More often than not, we learn something as well.

A good example is Nicole Troelstrup, who is currently impressing us with her use and knowledge of the social curation platform Storify.

Here’s a story Nicole created about her time in the warren, along with her observations about each of us!

An introduction to social business

Wed, 21 Mar 2012 17:52:00 +0000

Social business is the buzzword of the day.

Instead of focusing on the idea that businesses are social, businesses have to focus on the fact that their customers are social.

To explore this issue in a bit more detail, client Global Dawn, along with guests Michael Brito (Senior Vice President of Social Business Planning at Edelman Digital) and Jordan Viator Slabaugh (Director of Social Media at Spredfast) is holding a webinar on March 28th at 1600GMT to discuss all of the issues around social business and the ever increasing opportunities it provides for marketers.

Topics that the webinar will cover include:

The relevance of Social Business to marketers
Social Business and Big Data – the interpretation and implementation of Big Data and behavioural analytics in maximizing customer engagement
The Social Business maturity model
Social Business in 2012 and beyond

If you’re interested in social business and want to find out more about how it will shape the future of marketing, join Global Dawn here on the 28th of March, 1600GMT.

See you then!

Bunny Malone

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 11:49:00 +0000

We was in the alley playing craps last night when the phone rings. Fats walks over, picks it up and says ‘hello? Yeah? You don’t say!’

Turns out it’s these Future Cinema fellas, they’re looking to launch their next pop up cinema – Bugsy Malone was the flick – and there was only one mob they wanted to help. The Rabbits.

For those of you who don’t speak stereotype, we’ll translate.

The Rabbits are delighted to be working with Future Cinema (the genius minds behind the experiential wonderment that is Secret Cinema) in providing social support for their pop up event in Soho this afternoon.

Later this month, Secret Cinema will be airing the kiddy mob classic Bugsy Malone. To promote the screening, they’re staging an event in London’s Soho Square on the 15^th of March at 1pm. Check here for details, and come along if you can!

You can follow the action on Twitter and Instagram throughout the day on the hashtag #MaloneMob – the best content submitted wins four tickets to Future Cinema to see Bugsy.

We’re massive fans of Future Cinema’s work, so being drafted in to help them work their magic is a real honour for us. Oh, and…ahem…EHHH FUGGEDABOUTIT.

Instagram - from 27 million, to Android to "the moon"

Sun, 11 Mar 2012 23:57:00 +0000

The SXSW Rabbits went to hear Instagram co-founders Mike Krieger and Kevin Systrom take part in a Q&A session with Techcrunch’s Alexia Tsotsis.

The up-shot is, if your brand isn’t on Instagram now, it needs to be.

Here were the key points:

Instagram is on 27 million users, Rabbit Dirk actually broke Instagram hitting the 25 million barrier over a week ago, this now has official confirmation.

However, despite being the fastest growing mobile social network, Kevin Systrom didn’t think that was a particularly big number, saying he believed Instagram could hit 100 million on Apple devices alone.

Instagram was also showing “Facebook like” levels of engagement with 67% of users having logged in over the past day

However the real growth opportunity will come with the announcement that had been on the cards for months. Android for Instagram is here. Or at least in private beta with the public version coming very soon.

Instagram is concentrating on expanding “from 27 million to the moon” as Kevin Systrom put it.   This comes ahead of making millions in revenue, though Kevin Systrom did point out that IG was using the most effective medium for advertising - the visual one

We’ve been running campaigns on Instagram since the early days, our signature campaign for low-fares airline bmibaby has seen 30,000 images uploaded around different destinations, resulting in one award win with two more nominations in the pipeline.

Get in touch with us for a free Instagram work-shop, and we’ll come and brainstorm how the network can work for you. Don’t think you have a visual brand? We’d beg to differ. Again, call us and we’ll show you that you do.

The SXSW Rabbits have compiled their links, images and pins on Pinterest, Storify and Delicious

New Client in the Warren

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 16:43:00 +0000

Today the Rabbits are very excited to welcome a new client to the warren, Ministry of Waxing!

Ministry of Waxing, has been providing their customers with the finest in hair removal for over 10 years. Since their early days in Singapore, they’ve *ahem* ‘pruned over 2 million bushes’. Now boasting 34 salons globally including South Molton Street, Mayfair and Floral Street, Covent Garden, they’ve earned their title as Global Waxperts.

Ministry of Waxing already have some impressive campaigns under their belt, including their recent work with animal rights charity PETA. We couldn’t be more excited to officially announce that Rabbit will be providing awesome social support that does their unrivalled service justice. Watch this space for updates.

UK Operations Director Shah Abdul-Wahid had these kind words to say about working with the Rabbits, “We are excited about our partnership with The Rabbit Agency and look forward to working with them. From our initial discussions, Rabbit understood our brand, the brief and key messaging and we are confident that with their expertise we will enhance our social media presence”

To view all Rabbit clients take a look at our Rabbit’s Work section on our Tumblr.

Texas Shaped Rabbits

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 16:28:00 +0000

We’re back in Texas, here for the 2012 South By Southwest Interactive festival, the leading and largest conference for our industry.

Activity at SXSW sets the agenda for the upcoming year highlighting emerging trends, technologies and innovative uses of social.

Throughout the week we’ll be attending as many of the scheduled (and unscheduled!) events and meet ups as possible you can view myself, Dirk and Cat’s schedules online thanks to the SXSW scheduling system.

Keep up to date with our daily news as it happens on our #sxswrabbits tag for both Instagram and Twitter, you can also track our Rabbit adventures on our collaborative Pinterest board. Cat, Dirk and myself will be blogging regularly, we have lots of Rabbit Tumblr posts planned, and we are also storifying our experiences.

When we return to Rabbit HQ we’re planning an in-depth update on all our insights from this whirlwind of social inspiration. If you have any specific questions or are wanting to meet up in Texas call us out on our tag and we’ll hop on over.

Introducing the bmi Pinterest Lottery

Tue, 06 Mar 2012 09:30:00 +0000

Today sees British Midland International (bmi) launch the first ever game of chance using the the hugely popular network Pinterest.

Users are invited to re-pin up to six images hosted on one of five boards for the chance to win flights to the bmi destination of their choice. Each week a new destination will be added, based on what the users want.

bmi have been expanding their social presence so far in 2012, currently running the #bmieditchallenge on Instagram, launching their first blog on Tumblr - with all content focused on social - and now an innovative use of Pinterest to inspire their passengers to travel!

We’re really excited to be involved, so head on over to bmi’s Pinterest page to play the bmi Pinterest Lottery!

Instagram - 26 million users and counting

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 21:36:00 +0000

How many users does Instagram have? According to research done using Instagram’s API, the answer is 26 million.

This comes from Rabbit Dirk who loves both stats and Instagram, and so wanted to find out, posting the results on his blog.

What’s the significance of that?

It shows Instagram grew by over ten million since Christmas and has now passed Foursquare (on 22 million) as the world’s biggest international mobile social network.

The story has since hit the major social media news sites, including Mashable and The NextWeb.

Check out Dirk’s blog and the article on The Next Web, the first major news site to run with it, after Dirk alerted them to the story.