Whats AdiMade all about? Who are we and how are we any different to the other sites?

What is AdiMade

Adimade is a video-sharing network focused solely on user created advertising competitions. In a time when consumers are avoiding ads in droves - adimade is offering consumers, businesses and charities a place to collaborate and create new ads, redefining how ads are made and distributed. Adimade users create Ads that are more than just a "sales pitch". Adimade users make ads that WE WANT to watch.

Adimade runs ad creation projects on behalf of our project partners (businesses, charities and causes). Adimade project partners, like us, are sick and tired of having boring unentertaining ads, which is why they have teamed up with Adimade and the community of amateur video makers to try and do something a lot more creative and a little bit different.

We provide the amateur video creating community with the project guide, giving video creators the creative direction for their original, insightful and entertaining video ideas. Users create videos, then users share and vote for the best clips. The top 5 videos enter the final selection round and the project sponsor selects the winner. The winners get rewarded and the project partner gets an ad. It is that simple.

AdiMade Roots and Peeps

(Please note some information in this section may not be 100% true. Our lawyers are in the process of working out who gets to sue who first. )

How it all began..

Way back in 1985, 2 fresh faced young lads from the Australian Outback, inspired by what they saw in what they understood to be the documentary "Back to the Future" set forth on a mission to create a flux capacitor and be the first in their primary school to travel though time. 22 years later having come to terms with the fact that they may never achieve their dream of time travel, the 2 men decided to set about working on their other great idea from 1985, a user created advertising site aimed at helping online video creators earn money from their work (they were a little ahead of their time on this one). With a little help from the team at Smine Design the site launched in late 2007 and AdiMade was born...


The AdiMade team (Jake's verson)


Name: Jake
Role at AdiMade: Jake of all trades (LOL)
Reason for being here: Sick and tired of seeing good people not get a start in creative jobs just cause they dont have "industry experience"
Who is he: Jake kicked off his IT career working for some of Australia's largest ISP's during the .com bubble of the late 90's were he learnt valuable lessons from his employers such as "how to keep one step behind the competition", "innovative ways to drive away customers" and "why a viable business model isn't required for internet startups". Rather than following in the footsteps of such luminaries he decided to make some changes, first taking some time out in Nepal as a volunteer English teacher then returning to Australia to work in the Human Resources sector, all the while studying the meteoric rise to power of organisations such as Google, Facebook and of course Youtube. Despite trying his best not to become a "computer geek" he now takes care of all technical aspects of the AdiMade site (with a little help from the brilliant people at Smine Design) between his hectic schedule of janitorial duties at AdiMade's head office.


Name: Nat
Role at Adimade: Wouldn't we all like to know!
Reason for being here: pure fluke!
Who is he: Nat began his foray into the Video Production world in 1992 with his ambitious yet critically acclaimed claymation movie "The Smurfs: Shortbus style" which was later turned into a stage show touring regional Victoria for a sellout season. Since then Nat has spent the bulk of his significant family fortune on a number of failed movie project including the feature length documentary "Knocked Out: The untold story of It's-A-Knockout" and "An Ugly Life: The Ugly Dave Gray story". Nathan now wanders in and out of the AdiMade office shouting, usually unintelligible ideas about how to make the AdiMade site better. Its hard to watch someone so young and with so little talent fall apart in such a way, but with the support of AdiMade he may just live to shoot another movie.



The AdiMade team (Nat's verson)


Name: Nat
Role at AdiMade: Filling in the gaps
Reason for being here: Because the Ad industry needs a shake up and I'm in a shaking mood
Who is he: With a Masters in Economic, Nat devoted the first part of his career trying to surround himself with models in lingerie. After serving an apprentice working as an Analyst for some of Australians leading fashion and household brands, Nat made the ingenious switch to consultancy. It was in this role where Nat was able to witness "worlds best practices" in time-wasting, project mismanagement and "unnecessary meetingisation" (a term he has since trademarked). In 2005, while trekking meeting to meeting at the Australian Taxation Office, searching for that elusive "outcome" in the maze of bureaucracy and public sector politicising, Nat found himself lost in South-East Asia. A self-confessed media junkie (a 15 year long addiction) Nat often obsesses about the latest media crazes in between his role as chief facebooker and Vice president of youtube-ing. Baffled as to why companies continue to throw good money at proven failures, Nat is often heard mumbling "I don't get it, I don't get it, I don't get it" as he walks around the Adimade offices.


Name: Jake
Role at Adimade: CEJ
Reason for being here: Well someone needs to keep the place tidy
Who is he: Jake heads up the technical and Janitorial duties at Adimade. You will often hear him assert that he is the worlds first CEJ (Chief Executive Janitor). A self-proclaimed entrepreneur (a word he is yet able to spell correctly) Jake is not new to starting his own business ventures. His first venture, selling bootleg copies of the days favourite VHS movies to his 3rd Grade schoolmates, was a runaway success with movies such as "Porky’s", "Revenge of the Nerds" and "Spaceballs" among Jakes most successful bootlegs. Jake’s follow up venture "Selling Ice to Eskimo’s" was seen by many as a colossal failure when later research revealed the Eskimo’s population in Western Victoria was significantly less than he had forecast. Not to be discouraged Jake held on to his investment long enough to find a thriving market among drought stricken farmers in the summer of 2006. Defying his dislike for formal education, Jake obtained a Masters degree in "kicking arse and taking names" from the fabled University of Wisconsin, a degree that has proved invaluable in his role of chief statistician and "ideas-man" at Adimade.

AdiMade for Clients

A 15 second video of a hamster on youtube gets 2.5 Million views in its first week. At the same time, millions of people are investing in technologies that allow them to avoid seeing TV commercials. Why are people deliberately watching the hamster video and purchasing devices to avoid commercials?

If the following scenario doesn't add up to you;

  • Spending a tonne of money paying for a TV-style ad to be conceived and produced by someone who is not connected with your brand.
  • Displaying that ad on an increasing expensive distribution platform (free-to-air TV ad spots) to a declining fragmented audience who are avoiding watching your ads anyway, and,
  • Of the people that do watch the ad, they either think the ad is boring, lame, cliche' or, worst of all, they don't think about your ad at all.

Then perhaps its time to rethink how your business builds, maintains and engages dialogue with consumers. Consider how adimade can help deliver a grass-roots advertising solution.

Ads that Get Watched

Have you ever done one of the following?

  • Recorded something off Television using HDD-Recorder, TIVO, or even ol-skool VHS.
  • Downloaded a movie or TV show over the internet (either legally or using Bittorrent)
  • Muted the TV during a TV Ad-break, or got up for a cuppa or toilet break.

We all have at least done one, if not all of these. We partly do this for convenience - TV schedules very rarely fit into our life schedules. We partly do this to avoid watching ads.

Are consumers trying to avoid ads?

No. Have you ever read a magazine mostly for the full-page glossy ads? Watched an infomercial? Have you ever sat down with a cup of tea and a bunch of catalogues? Or watched a best-of Commercials TV show, or an ad on youtube?

What is the lesson then? Make crap ads, and consumers will not watch. Make ads that are interesting, useful and entertaining, and consumers may just be kind enough to watch them.

Ads don't have to be lame. Ads can be entertaining. Ads don't have to make consumers cringe and switch-off. Unfortunately most TV-style ads these days are lame, are NOT entertaining, make us cringe and make us switch-off.

This is where the online video creating community and Adimade can step in and save the world. Ok, maybe not the world, but perhaps we can save your next TV-style Ad campaign…

Cost

Instead of paying a creative agency to review your brand, pay them for creating a concept and again paying them for turning that concept into a Ad, Adimade project partners can get better results by engaging with the video creating community and giving something back in return (the project prize).

Ad agencies are great at making slick, professional and expensive commercials, but are they good at creating fresh, entertaining and funny videos engaged with the new breed of consumer?

Amateur video creators can create ads that are high quality, entertaining and truly engage with the customer (hey, the videos are made by the customer after all).

To see how good some of these videos can be, check out the Adimade videos page or download the Info Pack for a comprehensive list and links to some of the best User Created Ads out there today.

Adimade gives project partners the access to quality videos in a space that promotes the viral conversation-focused nature of funny, clever and genuine ads. To see how good some of these videos can be, check out the Adimade videos page or download the Info Pack for a comprehensive list and links to some of the best User Created Ads out there today.

Youtube and Viral video

Creativity and inspiration do not care if you have been to university, drive a BMW or work for a big creative Ad Agency.

Take a look at youtube (and sites like the best of youtube). The creative talents of amateurs are present everywhere. Check you email box for viral videos that you have been sent. Did Hollywood directors create these videos? Or did a 15-year-old high school student from Tallahassee create them? Ideas, good authentic ideas, go viral. Only if something is entertaining enough, genuine, funny and authentic (even if it is an ad), will it will be promoted, shared and talked about by consumers. It really is that plain and simple.

Where once we talked of ads and marketing campaigns that created buzz and conversation around the "water-cooler", now that conversation has moved online to youtube, myspace, facebook and to the countless of other online spaces that promote conversation and the sharing of ideas.

Consumer Engagement

In an environment where so much advertising is done just to keep up with your competitors, traditional forms of advertising become just another part of the same background noise.

Consumers are deliberately investing in technologies that enable them to avoid TV-style commercials. The effectiveness and reach of television advertising is declining. The acceptance of shout advertising is waning.

Adimade provides a way for you to stop advertising AT your customers - and instead open a dialogue with them. Let your customers tell you about your brand, what they like about your brand and how they want to be marketed to. In this dialogue, users create the ads that THEY WANT to watch.

Lots of people watching your ads, making your ads and thinking about your brand.

If you have read this far then you should DEFINATLEY get in touch with us for a chat..