*The entirely unexpectedly and remarkably effective advertising for Friends with Things™ . Visit www.friendswiththings.com.au Outdoor creative executions. Beta test 1. Five campaigns 2011 by Ravi Prasad.

advertising*

hey, let’s change the world

Before you see the ads - an introduction to Friends with Things In my private time I’ve started a ‘social network’ a not for profit collaborative consumption community website. Friends with Things – www.friendswiththings.com.au It’s a place where you can borrow things from, or share things with your neighbours, for free - from bicycles to power tools, from cameras to sewing machines. So it’s about sustainability, but there’s more to it than just helping the environment, at Friends with Things you’re also free to share your time, skills and expertise with the community, you can even share local knowledge or connect with local people that share common interests. It’s a very simple idea, but it serves three important social purposes. 1. Sustainability. 2. Social cohesion. 3. Social fragmentation. It’s a small way we can all help bring back that sense of 'neighbourhood' that’s often missing from city living and suburban sprawl - and a nice way to make friends with your neighbours. The has been an altogether unexpected success, financed by my credit card and run by volunteers it was an Earth Hour Awards Finalist and is still growing organically - the plan is to keep it growing.

about the advertising Friends with Things is a community initiative. While the enterprise has great national, if not global ambition, the value and heart of the enterprise lies in a service to the community – it’s about local people connecting to other local people. So the look, feel and execution of our work has to be consistent with that, it has to feel ‘local’ it has to feel ‘small’, personal and intimate. The logical choice is the ‘take one’ style of photocopied ‘street poster’, used by local people in their communities to advertise everything from lost dogs to school fetes. These are handmade, so, to be true to this, our posters were designed in Microsoft Word, photocopied and the ‘take one’ strips cut by hand with scissors – also, lost dog posters don’t have logos or branding, so neither did our work. The result was a look and feel that was authentic and true to the spirit of the enterprise. Slick, glossy, sleek production values and execution would not ‘feel right’, it would communicate ‘business’ and corporate – which are not in our values. Five different creative executions were tested. Introducing campaign 1: ‘things’.

things* Campaign 1: ‘Things’. Creative: Headline 1: Things* Headline 2.Free* Headline 3.Stuff* The body copy for each poster reads: *And things and other stuff you can borrow for free, www.friendswiththings.com

have you been working out? Campaign 2: ‘Have you been working out?’ Creative: 1Headline 1: Is that a new hairstyle? Headline 2.Have you been working out? Headline 3.You’re terrific The body copy for each poster reads: A random compliment is great, but nothing makes you feel as good about yourself as helping someone. At Friends with things you can help your neighbors and community by sharing things – tools, household things, even your skills, talents and local knowledge. You can feel really good knowing you’ve helped someone and maybe even made someone else feel good too. Visit www.friendswiththings.com to learn more.

lisa* Campaign 3: ‘lisa’ Creative: Headline 1: lisa* Headline 2. ravi* Headline 3.sam* The body copy for each poster reads: *lisa is one of your neighbors, you can meet her and other neighbors and borrow their things for free at www.freindswiththings.com. There’s heaps of stuff, from bicycles to sewing machines and much more. Want your name on one of our posters? Contact friendswiththings@gmail.com to find out more.

fuzzy* Campaign 4: ‘fuzzy’ Creative: Headline 1: That warm fuzzy feeling* The body copy for each poster reads: *That warm fuzzy feeling you get when you do something nice – you can get it here for free. Sharing can make you happy . Borrow things from and share things neighbors for free at www.freindswiththings.com.

happiness* Campaign 5: ‘happiness’ Creative: Headline 1: happiness* Headline 2: cool* Headline 3: wonderful* The body copy for each poster reads: *Sharing can make you happy . Borrow things from and share things neighbors for free at www.freindswiththings.com.

interested?

Despite the clear and obvious opportunity to commercialise the site, we’re not going to. It’s going to stay not-for-profit, which means it’s always going to be in need of a little help. If you’re interested in the project or like to learn more, just drop me an e-mail. Thanks Ravi

end*

For more information contact: Ravi Prasad at friendswiththings@gmail.com Visit the site: www.friendswiththings.com.au Follow on Twitter: @ihavethings Join on Facebook: search for Friends with Things