Got a Great Application Idea? Make it happen.

Full disclosure: I worked on this campaign, specifically in the digital realm. A ton of great people helped put it together and we're all extremely happy with the way users are engaging with it across the digital world. Let me know your (honest) thoughts here.

In early June, Rogers launched a national campaign to announce that Google Android devices had finally come to Canada. The two featured devices, the HTC Magic and Dream, are Google-enabled and loaded with excellent applications (from Latitude to YouTube). As an iPhone user, I was pretty skeptical about the capabilities of the device but after playing with it for over three months, I was hooked. The full keyboard makes a huge difference and there are a ton of apps that you can't (yet) get on the iPhone.

The campaign was launched through TV, print, OOH and a number of digital extensions - from a pre-launch microsite to YouTube page takeovers. Our campaign microsite used video and innovative technology to really bring the devices to life. Check it out here.

But the reason for this post is to discuss a Facebook contest that launched yesterday. With the launch of the iPhone, BlackBerry and Android platforms, everyone is starting to think about applications that they'd love to have on their phones. From games to maps, contacts to social networks, you can get just about anything. But if you could make your own application, what would it be?

That's the question that we've asked to our users and in just 24 hours and we've already had a ton of submissions. Each week, we are giving away a device to the top voted on idea and at the end of the contest, Rogers will select one to actually build for the user.

Users can submit their ideas via copy or mobile and it's extremely simple to submit your idea and reach out (read: spam) your friends for votes. Take a look at some of the submissions and feel free to put in your own.

I always love feedback to any campaign so please feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments below. Thanks to everyone who was involved. Sweet work.

Must Know Twitter Stats

I was reading a great article today about a study done on Twitter. It contains 10 stunning stats that any advertiser should be aware of when they are building a campaign using the service. Here are two of my favorites:

• Half of all Twitter users are not "active." If you take a general description of being "active" on Twitter to mean that you have posted a tweet at some point in the last 7 days (1 week), then the survey learned that 50.4% of all Twitter users fit this category. If you remove the 21% from point #1, this leaves about 30% of users who have an account and have tweeted before, but happen to be inactive now.

• Twitter is being led by the social media geeks. This particular finding should likely come as no surprise, but 15% of Twitter users who follow more than 2000 people identify themselves as social media marketers. These individuals are more likely to post updates every day (sometimes more than once per day) and also use Twitter more actively for direct communication.

Love that the "Social Media Marketers" are leading the charge of Twitter. It's amazing how a lot of us feel the need to justify our experience across multiple platforms even though, deep down, we might not really see the need to use them. I know that a ton of these experts use the service and love it, but still. This is quite the finding and helps to show the flood of Twitter requests within the ad industry over the last few months.

How to ruin a perfectly good vacation...

Virgin Australia has just launched a new contest that revolves around Twitter. The contest asks people to apply for a trip to LA and the chance to win a round-the-world ticket from the airline. Winners get to go to LA for three days but there is a small, 140-character catch:

You have to post a Tweet every minute from their 3-day trip. That's 4320 tweets in 72 hours.

While I really like the site design (simple, straightforward writing), I don't know how much fun this prize would be for the winner - especially if you've never been to LA before. It's one thing to have a great experience, quite another to have to apologize to everyone you meet to post a Tweet every 60 seconds.

That being said, the amount of content that will be produced from this will be interesting. I don't know many Twitter users who would want to follow a person like this for 72 hours, but it could generate some good buzz for the contest and raise awareness around the trip (which I'm sure was the main objective).

What do you think? Would you enjoy LA if you had to tweet every minute of your trip?

Thanks Microsoft. You just made the worst ads of the year.

Warning: These ads are horrible. They will make you feel stupid, dirty and sad to be a part of an industry that took part in creating them. They represent what's wrong with advertising. Dumb agencies who place "shock-value" at the center of their creative instead of sound strategy that differentiates their product from their competitors. Clients who can be sold on anything and don't think about the consequences for their products.

If you created these ads, please quit the industry and find something new. I'd recommend something that involves you never leaving the house, talking to anyone or - God forbid - selling something. If you approved these ads, don't worry, you'll be fired soon. I just recommend never admitting to having a hand in them if you ever want to find another job as a marketer.

To the agency, Microsoft, media company and production groups, thanks for making all other work feel great in comparison to this awful campaign. When I think of IE8, I think of these spots. And I feel so, so, so much better for my Mac Book Pro and Firefox browser.

The spots are so bad I don't even want to put them on AdJoke. You can view the 60 here.

UPDATE: Valleywag just reported that Microsoft has pulled the ad. I guess that's what happens when you get a guy from Police Academy to direct your spots for you. Hey Microsoft, I hear the geek from 16 Candles is available to shoot your next awful campaign.