The song ‘Stand By Me’ is featured here and performed by a collection of ‘world’ musicians – we hope you enjoy this as much as we did…. seriously… how could you not.

Well this documentary is now officially on our extended list of things we gotta make the time to watch and enjoy. Also – if this interests you, we’d recommend you check out the website for this project here for more information.

Sensational Events through Powerful Experiences.

FACTOR168 Creative Event Company delivers creative, strategic, and tactical event management and event production services across Australia and throughout Asia.

What we like about Brett, other than he is heaps of fun to work with, is that he spent a lot of time working up some very distinctive ‘Australiana’ themed shows such as ‘Waltzing Matilda’, ‘Gallipoli’ and is also keen to develop custom shows with event producers.

Enjoy his promo video below – ‘Welcome to Australia’ with a soundtrack called ‘Solid Rock’ from one of my favorites from my youth – Goanna

Source Notes: Video from Vimeo and Brett Bower can be found here.

The previous MUSE blog regarding sand artists can be found here.

Sensational Events through Powerful Experiences.

FACTOR168 Creative Event Company delivers creative, strategic, and tactical event management and event production services across Australia and throughout Asia.

What happened? The thing is… the cats kinda did exactly what cat things do… they jumped on and off stuff… and slept… and looked about a lot before jumping and sleeping again… that’s what happened.

Look if anything – the true genius in this video is the closing footage with the lone cat wandering through the huge warehouse looking for the exit (man. I so relate to this) and of course the expected snuggly cat sleeping in one of the display beds. Kudos to the editor.

So how’d the video go in terms of creating an experience that would drive positive commercial outcomes for IKEA… haha only kidding – well like almost everyone on Earth… we know who they are and what they are about so it kinda didn’t add to this… Would we/I go to IKEA based of this? m’eh. So I guess I’m saying – we just don’t know. Still I am sure it was argued that an outcome that produced snuggly cat in awwww an IKEA bed has to be a good thing.

Okay… we don’t know why they did it. However we suspect this is a possible product of awkward timing. It’s almost like someone threw up this 100 cats event idea during a brainstorm meeting straight after the CEO had declared that there was no sure thing as a bad idea. Bugger.

Okay well has it changed my position on cats then? Well… no… they’re still kinda annoying and I still fight the urge to kick them… but I don’t of course because I can never find the bloody things in IKEA when I am wandering aimlessly looking for the Swedish coffee table with different leg lengths. Man. What I wouldn’t give for a bit of stress busting cat kicking…

No.

For us, what we would have liked to have seen is a hundred grown men being released into an IKEA store overnight armed only with an allen key and watch as they try to build some of the product against the clock with only each other to assist (or hinder as the case might be). Anyway – they didn’t do this. Check out IKEA cats below.

In designing an entertainment program that would be powerful, impactful and yet sympathetic to the historical surroundings, it was felt that instead of another tenor, the headline performers for this event had to be more contemporary and in keeping with the feminine spirit of the Apsara.

Australian classical stars excelled in this role, with The 7 Sopranos and the electric strings trio Maske delivering a collection of world class performances that had this international audience enthralled, moved, and delighted.

Other highlights of the event included the Godfather of Asian Jazz – Jeremy Montierio in concert, along with carefully choreographed theatrical appearances by Khmer Knights, traditional drummers, beautiful Apsara dancers, and a heartfelt prosperity blessing delivered by the local brotherhood of Buddhist Monks.

Guests were also spoilt with a selection of local Khmer and international cuisine prepared by a host of special guest Chefs who worked alongside the fabulous hospitality team from the Raffles Grand Hotel D’Angkor.

Event production, event styling and signage, staging elements, massive ice carvings, transportation, and site facilities including an extensive power generator farm were provided by combination of local Cambodian vendors and specialist expertise drawn from the FACTOR168 Creative Event Company trusted network of partners based in Bangkok, Singapore, Hong Kong, Bali, Brisbane, and Sydney.

This very special event experience was produced by FACTOR168 Creative Event Company on behalf of one:fortyseven communications for a global information technology corporation with strong corporate social responsibility ties within Cambodia.

Source Notes:

Special thanks goes out to Scott at our valued agency client one:fortyseven communications.

* Selected event imagery can be enjoyed by invitation in our Showcraft Image Gallery.

If you’d like to keep in touch with us – than go to our social media page full of twits and facebookery here.

FACTOR168 Creative Event Company delivers creative, strategic, and tactical event services throughout Australia and across Asia.

Sensational Events through Powerful Experiences – www.factor168.com

It is manna to anyone with a creative bent and a sense of curiosity and invention – of looking at things differently.

During his career as a newspaper cartoonist – his legacy was his ‘invention cartoons’ where he looked at inventing incredibly elborate machine inventions to perform simple tasks such as pencil sharpening, or washing windows, avoiding bill collectors, peeling apples, putting toothpaste on a toothbrush. He was about creative problem solving in unconventional ways and having a lot of fun in the process .

Since his passing in 1970, his creative approach has continued to be celebrated in the form of his postcard format book called the “Rube Goldberg’s Inventions”.

IN essence these inventions over engineer very simple tasks in a very very complex fashion and usually features a series of chain reactions.

The Perdue Univeristy, Indiana USA, started the annual Rube Goldberg Machine Contest (RGMC) in 1987 and the results have been creatively intriguing and always entertaining in terms of human ingenuity. The name of the game is to solve a problem in the MOST CONVOLUTED AND COMPLICATED MANNER POSSIBLE.

Now when you to take this Goldberg approach and mesh it with a very creative and quirky musical group OK GO – the result is a masterful visual and audible event. Memorable and fun.

OK Go’s song This Too Shall Pass” and it’s Rube Goldberged all the way. Enjoy.

Hope you enjoyed that as much as we did.

Of course this is not the first time this musical group have delivered on a memorable video clip experience.

A previous music clip, very very simple in execution and concept, was superbly delivered on the back of some fabulous choregraphy using treadmills. The clip is called “Here It Goes Again”.

Just fabulous… Rube Goldberg and OK Go… fantastic. The applications within the special event environment in terms of team building, in regards to stage showcraft, out-of-the-box thinking and creative innovation is wide ranging and excites the heck out of the FACTOR168 team and never fails to recharge our mojo.

Now for some Goldberg trivia.

Some Goldberg trivia – Rube Goldberg’s machine inventions were the inspiration for the much loved classic board game “Mouse Trap“. Compare his artwork, compare the board game… yeah, you can see it too huh?

PLUS in 1931 the Merriam-Webster dictionary adopted the word “Rube Goldberg” as an adjective defined as accomplishing something simple through complex means.

Source Notes: More on the creative world of Rube Goldberg and for more music got to OK GO.

FACTOR168 Creative Event Company
Creative. Strategic. Tactical.
Sensational Events through Powerful Experiences.

Love this idea of making what is a pretty boring and functional transaction with a bank -a memorable fun experience instead.There should be more of it.

Sure, many cash machines around the world offer a number of language options but this is the first time I’ve come across a ‘slang’ based version.

Customers on selecting this option are requested to enter their Huckleberry Finn (PIN) before they can receive their sausage and mash (cash).

Those wanting to withdraw £10 sterling will have to ask for a speckled hen, while the machine may inform users that it is contacting their rattle and tank, rather than bank.

‘We wanted to introduce something fun and of local interest to our London machines,’ said Ron Delnevo, managing director of operators Bank Machine.

‘Whilst we expect some residents will visit the machine to just have a butcher’s (look), most will be genuinely pleased as this is the first time a financial services provider will have recognised the Cockney language in such a manner,’ he added.

All the usual fees associated with an ATM applied but Bank Machine offer the actual Cockney display prompts at no charge. Must have been an oversight on their part.

Bank Machine have done well. They have in effect creatively customized a functional transaction and transformed it, at what I imagine is a relatively low cost exercise, into a distinctly memorable experience.

People that visit and transact with these machines will carry with them positive associations with Bank Machine units as part of the East London landscape.

No doubt Bank Machine partners will also love the extra trade that this sort of traffic, for a ‘butcher’s’ or not, will bring. And following their transaction, they’ll be ready to spend some of that ‘bangers and mash’.

This same thinking can be strategically applied to other relatively ‘soul-less’ transactional activities that all companies share on a regular basis with staff and clients.

Certainly within the event spectrum, this same approach can be applied with great potential impact.

Event elements such as the registration process and post-event follow-ups are perfect candidates for being reimagined with a greater creative and interactive dimension. The possibilities are extraordinarily exciting.

Now for those that do not live in or visit East London – you can experience the Cockney slang in all of it’s glory with this fun little online app’. It is an English to Cockney translator.

Lor’ luv a duck! i’ is bee’s knees fun. Know what I mean?

* The image featured here is from Bank Machine.

FACTOR168 | Creative Event Management Company

We came across this clip from the Today’s Big Thing and thought you might really enjoy it just as much as we did and do.

The clip presents a television performance by a South Korean lounge band – and everyone seems to be on the same safe and dull ‘musical page’ until you notice the drummer in the background. He is having a a ‘wow’ of a time…

A star performer will always shine no matter where he or she sits within the ‘band’.

* Drum image courtesy of Lilguitar – fabulous images.

FACTOR168 | Creative Event Management Company

A beautifully shot advertisement showcasing the diversity of ‘the long white cloud’ in it’s locales and it’s people. The legendary story of this nations birth and the soundtrack of ‘forever young’ – it’s powerful and it works. I’d go…

This advertisement would have to be best in genre.
It’s a pity that their website lets them down so very badly.

Cluttered and difficult to navigate, and let’s be frank – just not that visually appealing. It has all the standard tourism site tools – the travel planner, event calenders and so on. I did however like the extension of the strong storytelling device evident in their advertisements with the send-a-friend a postcard and the the showcasing of visitors, residents, and fans home made films uploaded as 100% Pure NZ video experiences.

Fantastic ad, ordinary web presence. This should serve as a lesson to all of us. It’s not really good enough if there is no branded experience consistency across all facets of a project.

It would be akin to sinking the majority of your event budget into an expensive headline act and neglecting the event environment, high care table service, or even fundamentally a smooth and warm registration process. It never fails to amaze me that even today, some people spend a fortune on staging an important event only to neglect setting aside within their budget and site times for adequet presenter and techincal rehearsals and then wonder when things ‘happen’ or worse… don’t. Seriously talk with us or your current professional event management partner to best determine how to strike a considered balance between all aspects of an event so that you and your guests are assured a consistent and impactful experience across all aspects of the event cycle. It just makes sense.

Since we are on the subject of tourism style advertisements, a good one creates an expectation of a unique or at least a memorable experience and motivates the viewer to act on it. Consider the next clip which had the very hard task of promoting one of Australia’s east coast cities commonly regarded by many as a big country town – Brisbane. I think they did a pretty good job although would it compel me to holiday there or just make me feel warm and fuzzy about living there?

And finally, a personal favorite of mine. An advertisement for Las Vegas. What I like about this advertisement is it doesn’t show the Vegas most of us know – the shows, the strip, the neon lights, the gambling tables, the dancing and so on… no it just presents a little story and you fill in the ‘blanks’ with your own Vegas experience. Smart, fun, and effective. I’d go… for the shopping of course. Enjoy.

FACTOR168 | Event Management Company