Today, Komodo had the pleasure of welcoming uber-stylist and judge of Britain’s Next Top Model, Grace Woodward to our offices for a live chat with BNTM fans on the Facebook page of our client, the Norwegian Embassy in London. Being the (not very) cool and calm Reptiles that we are, the Komodo team was just a little panicked about what to wear prior to meeting one of the world’s most admired stylists!

Grace graced (sorry!) us with her very glamorous presence after kindly agreeing to answer questions about last night’s episode, which featured a particularly cold and frosty shoot in the very beautiful Norway.

Fans eagerly posted their burning questions, which Grace happily answered – covering everything from the size zero debate to the all important question of where she gets her amazing glasses! Take a look at the photo from today to see a perfect example of Grace’s fabulous look, pictured here with the equally glamorous Thomas Aastad of the Norwegian Embassy!

Thanks again Grace, and can’t wait for next week’s episode! To read Grace’s answers, visit www.facebook.com/NorwegianEmbassyUK.

We’re proud to announce the arrival of our new head of digital, Mo Elnadi. As well as heading up regional online marketing teams for Philips and Vodafone, he’s also studying an MBA, specialising in social media. You may have bumped into him at various digital conferences, too. You could say that he’s our very own version of Neo from The Matrix – master of the digital realm. To find out more about Mo, we decided to interview him and award him Neo points, based on his responses.

Q. Do you know kung fu?

A. No, but I am sure it could come in handy. Please add my name to the next intensive course. But in terms of training, I do regularly speak at conferences about digital marketing. You may have seen me at the first Facebook EMEA Ads Summit or the ‘Profiles in Social Media’ event from the Corporate Executive Board.

Neo points: 5/10

Q. Have you ever been in trouble for hacking?

A. That’s information I can’t share with you. However, I do get early Beta access to Google and Yahoo! tools before anyone else gets them. Does that get me any points?

Neo points: 9/10

Q. What’s the closest you’ve ever come to being hard-wired into a computer?

A. Fixing my motherboard with a wet metal screwdriver in an electric storm while it was connected to the wall socket! Bzzzzzz!

Neo points: 5/10

Q. What’s your favourite colour of clothing?

A. Well, it’s not black, if that’s what you’re talking about.

Neo points: 0/10

Conclusion: Well there you have it. Mo scored 19 out of a possible 40 Neo points. While this doesn’t quite make him ‘The One’ he has delivered some amazing digital marketing campaigns on everything from truly engaging Facebook campaigns, using beta testing to create product advocacy, affiliate marketing, good old SEO and Google CPC campaigns and much, much more. So if you’re interested in speaking to him about how digital marketing can help you, feel free to email us at info@komodopr.com. As you can see from his pitiful Neo score if you’re looking for a bullet-dodging kung-fu master to save us from Agent Smith, I’m afraid we can’t help you.

Whilst taking in our daily dose of news, we stumbled across something that we just loved, and of course had to share with you all. Now if we were to say digital billboard, what would you think? Probably something similar to those found in the likes of Piccadilly Circus or Times Square. That’s what we thought, until we heard about the digital billboards currently being tested out on consumers in Japan.

The Japanese have created a billboard fitted with cameras that are used to instantly identify certain attributes of consumers, such as age and gender. Taking this information, the billboard displays advertisements that it thinks that person would like to see. For example, if the person standing in front of the billboard is a female aged at about 20, then the billboard might display an advertisement for a fashion brand or current music album.

So what does this mean for the marketing and advertising world? It’s pretty simple, companies and agencies will be able to reduce costs by advertising more efficiently to very specific target audiences, and consumers will no longer need to be inundated by superfluous marketing for products they just aren’t interested in.

The Japanese aren’t the only ones to be making technical advances in the world of billboards. IBM is developing an improved version of these digital billboards, incorporating technology that can read the RFID chips found in credit cards and mobile phones, which will be able to tell a person’s purchasing patterns and display relevant adverts for brands/products that that person has bought in the past.

In the UK, Channel 5’s The Gadget Show reported on interactive billboards at bus stops which encourage passers-by to engage with the displayed animation. This allows a brand to individually communicate with consumers and leave a greater impact about the particular brand or product displayed.

These digital advances generate a whole new meaning around the word ‘targeted marketing’ – consumers will no longer think of billboards as ‘just another advert’ and instead get a sense of importance and understanding from the advertisements displayed.

We may well find ourselves living in a world similar to that portrayed in Tom Cruises’ Minority Report but one thing’s for sure, when these billboards hit the UK shores, we guarantee it will be one of the most talked about events of the year.

In today’s society, we are immersed in a state of ‘celebrification’.

Celebrification is now part of our culture. Thus public interest in celebrities lives has peaked. What with gossip magazines, TV and the growth of internet media, celebrification is hard to avoid.

The ‘celebrification’ process is reciprocal – the public want to know more and therefore the media feeds them more. This has made celebrities unarguably powerful within the media, and gives them the ability to strongly influence public attitudes and behavior.

Celebrities are used in PR to do just that.

It is quite likely that you have a celebrity idol – be it Beckham, Lady Gaga, etc., someone who you would look to for fashion and clothing trends – what products and brands to buy.

Does your child want the most expensive, hi-tech football boots because Rooney wore them in the World Cup?

The Public must be able to relate to the celebrity and be able to trust their choice of product – ‘If Rooney wears them, they must be good.’ However, if a celebrity such as, Ricky Gervais was to play football in the very same boots, it’s unlikely that the endorsement will have quite the same effect.

The celebrity must be a good match for the target audience that you wish to influence, be it personality, image, style, or simply what they do.

Endorsement is particularly important in retail PR as goods can often be fairly homogenous in saturated markets. Therefore celebrity endorsement plays an effective part in making the consumer choose your brand, by creating a point of differentiation.

Gillette’s sponsorship of Tiger Woods’ made them stand out in the homogenous razor market. Without Tiger and Gillette’s other athlete ambassadors, it is unlikely the brand would be anywhere near as strong as it is today. Celebrity endorsement is a quick and powerful way to grow a brand, however, there are potential downsides.

Using celebrities can be expensive…The total value of Tiger Woods’ 9 endorsements in 2008 was just under $100m. But, if you do your research, you may find access to celebrities through the causes that they support, but just make sure that the campaign you’re suggesting raises a decent amount of money for that cause. Fees can range from £5,000 for a day, to £100,000 per hour. So whatever you have planned, make sure that you get the best return on spend.

If you’re considering using a celebrity for a campaign, here are a few tips to help:

- Find out if the celebrity has any prior engagements for any other brands

- Do an audit to find out how recently they were featured in the media previously. Editors won’t want to speak to someone who has just been heavily featured for doing work for other brands

- Research the celebrity’s background and ensure that they’re appropriate for your brand

- Pre-agree media before signing any contract

- Find out if the celebrity has any travel plans booked in the near future

- Be as detailed as you can when briefing your celebrity about your product, service or brand

- When arranging features, pre-agree brand or product mentions with the publication/show before letting the interview take place

- Allow budget for buying pictures and expenses for interviews and photo shoots

In research commissioned by one of our clients, the iPhone has been voted the eighth best invention of all time and for making our lives incredibly easier, we would have to agree. The world is literally at your finger tips. Gone are the days of packing maps, recipe books, novels and games to keep boredom at bay as everything you need is in your pocket in the form of apps.

There are literally thousands of apps out there which can make it difficult to know which ones to download, so we thought we’d simplify the decision making process and share with you our top five essential apps for the summer:

Movies Now

Here’s one for all you ‘staycationers’! The Movies Now app is what it says on the tin – something for all the movie lovers! The Movies Now app takes your location via GPS, and alerts you as to what movies are playing at which cinema, how far they are and what time they start! And if you can’t decide what to watch, Movies Now features a library of trailers, with ratings – so you’ll never be stuck again.

Puzzler World or Puzzler World XL

No matter what age you are, boredom during long journeys is inevitable, whether travelling by car, plane, train or boat. For those yet to find the ultimate entertainment app, let us introduce you to Puzzler World and Puzzler World XL.

Both versions include thousands of family favourite puzzles including Wordsearch, Crosswords, Fitword, Sudoku, Codewords and Spot-the-Difference. There’s a raft of bonus games and unlockable extras, making this the perfect entertainment companion.

Currency Converter Pro

Often tourists face the challenges of a new currency – uncertainty towards its value, which can often be disastrous in countries where negotiation is a key feature of the sales process…

Currency Converter Pro solves this, by accurately telling you the value of your money. You can set a base currency, in our case Pound Sterling, set an amount, and then see the value of other currencies straight away!

Rates can be refreshed at the click of a button, so that you’re never in the dark. Currency Converter Pro converts over 130 currencies, so no matter where you are, this app will do the maths for you.

Around Me

Around Me is like having a tour guide with you, no matter where you are, Around Me will make you feel like a local.

What does it do? Around me identifies your position using GPS. You then choose what you want to find, whether it’s the nearest bank or the trendiest bar, Around Me will show you where it is and how to get there! You can even get information on the city/town you’re in and email it to a friend….just to bring out a touch of jealousy!

Fast, easy, and accurate, Around Me is a must have app for tourists this summer.

Forecaweather

No matter where you go, it’s always good to know what weather to expect, but for those without an iPhone and currently lacking a personal weather forecast function on your mobile, Forecaweather is a definite must-have. Whether it’s Spain, Barbados, or one of the August bank holiday festivals in the UK, you’ll be able to plan holiday activities and outfits accordingly thanks to Forecaweather.

Next monday, the girls from Britain’s Next Top Model will be shooting a very ‘cool’ (see what I did there?) photo shoot in Norway and we’ve got Grace for a post-show Q&A. Have a question for Grace? If so, post it here.

We’re very proud of our client GetJar. They’re the world’s second largest app store and have just broken the ONE BILLION app download barrier. We’ve organised a party for them tonight and we sent out a jar of nostalgic  ’millions’ (which we’ve re-branded to ‘billions’) sweeties to some of our close GetJar journalist friends. Cute eh?

Komodo staring in the face of consumer media

Despite the sun shine in the latter part of May, Komodo HQ had a dark cloud hanging over it after hearing the news about Agustinus Jenaru, whom was working on an unfinished wooden bungalow on Rinca Island, being bitten by a Komodo Dragon. For hours we sat in bewilderment, asking ourselves “why did this happen? Why would one of our-kind latch onto some innocent bystanders’ hand and not let go?” Then it dawned on us! He was CLEARLY in media sell-in mode.

Of course, our cold blooded hearts went out to poor Mr Jenaru, who had to be treated for lacerations and a puncture wound, but on finding out that he was going to be fine and could return to work within a matter of days (see the piece for yourself, all is back to normal on Rinca) – the dark cloud lifted, our heads tilted and with our lips pressed together in a proud parent sort of way, we nodded ‘WELL DONE!’ We were proud of our Komodo friend for getting fired up and holding on to something until the very end (despite a few blows to the nose).

You see, us Komodo’s are very driven and will stop at nothing to get our clients into the media. Ok, we don’t make a habit of acting like three year olds or biting people’s hands (especially the hands that feed us) but we are passionate and hungry and if the need arises, we will put tantrum throwing and hand biting on our creds and ‘about us’ section on our website.

Our feeling is, if you want something then go out and fight for it. Clearly, our Komodo friend on Rinca Island knew the PR potential in the wooden property but wanted to ensure there was a decent news hook – hence the bite!

Ok – enough of the silly fight talk! Having achieve 18 pieces of national newspaper coverage in the last month alone (excluding online, consumer lifestyle and regional print), we would like to think that we are not half bad at striking a chord with the media. We can’t give away all our secrets but we will give you a few pointers (just a few!):

• Don’t over complicate things. Keep your planning and approach simple.
• Research, research, research! You need to know what the media are writing about and more to the point what you are talking about as you may look a little silly in front of influential people.
• Get different members of the team involved in the planning as this will give the team a fresh perspective on the story.
• Be confident in what you are pitching to the media. If don’t believe in your story, neither will the journalist.