Commit to save your 20% (http://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/commit/)(http://www.thegrandunion.com/creativeshowcase/)
Most of our clients have CSR plans and carbon neutrality is a huge theme at the moment. This Grand Union designed campaign (IAB Creative Showcase runner up for October) uses the current trend for consumer activism to generate support for their commitment to saving energy campaign. People can make their commitment via targeted ads and a bespoke microsite has been adapted to allow users to personally display their commitment to the world (see the widget on the bottom left hand side). Personally, I found the ads annoying, and for those of you who like the Nike Run London site, you may notice a similarity in approach. But then all creativity is theft, isn’t it?

Blackle (http://www.blackle.com/)
Stop using Google and start using Blackle. Based on the idea that a black screen uses less energy than a white one, it acts as a reminder to keep taking small steps towards saving energy every time you search in black. When you start looking deeper into this, the science is slightly flawed (Blackle is only beneficial on CRT monitors not on LCDs. See this Wall Street Journal article for the run down on the numbers), but either way, it’s an interesting concept and should serve as a reminder that every little thing can help.

(I’m looking forward to when they come out with Bmail or even better, Blackmail.)

Recruiting by lifestyle (http://www.medrecruit.com)
Medical recruiting agencies, like many others, typically focus on the nuts and bolts of the job when attempting to match up doctors and positions. Missing from that model, however, are many of the factors that can have just as big an effect on the success of the match—lifestyle factors like the surrounding culture, the availability of family-oriented services and activities, and the types of sports and recreation on hand nearby, all of which contribute to a doctor’s ultimate happiness with the position. MedRecruit aims to pick up where other recruiting efforts leave off by explicitly including lifestyle in the process of matching doctors with positions.

Doctors who sign up for the free service, which currently serves just New Zealand and Australia, specify not just the details of their medical specialty and grade; they also tell MedRecruit what type of location they want and what sorts of family, cultural and recreational opportunities–skiing or surfing, for example. MedRecruit then helps find a good match among the hospitals and medical organizations it represents. Watchlists are available, as is 24-hour assistance, and MedRecruit facilitates all travel and accommodations. It even pays a 4 percent bonus to doctors who work exclusively through MedRecruit. Ultimately, the company says, the result is happier doctors and higher retention rates for the hospitals that hire them.

With thousands of jobs available at hundreds of hospitals across New Zealand and Australia, MedRecruit was founded last year by Sam Hazledine, a doctor and skiing champion who wanted to create better balance between doctors’ work and personal lives. The same principle could well be applied to virtually every other profession, too. As everyone knows, happier employees translate into better performance all around—who’s going to argue with that?

An innovative approach to selling product features and benefits (http://www.feelsomething.com.au/)
We’ve all seen an increase in the use of video on the web, principally driven by the growth in bandwidth available. For many of our clients we have created bespoke video blogs where candidates articulate what it is like to work for an organisation in a montage of subtly crafted soundbites. But how about this? No copy. No words. In a voyeuristic moment of creative genius we get to see how a product will impact our feelings, rather than be told. It’s a great approach and while the site has elements that I think could be improved, the lateral approach to conveying product benefits works for me.