Cool Companies manage to stay one step ahead of the rest. They breed leaders who are rule-makers and rule-breakers. They are organisations that aspire to be admired. They are trend-setters in attitude and action. Quite simply, they are… cool!

Cool Company Award Winners 2009
Cool Company Award Winners 2008

To watch highlights from the 2009 awards ceremony, click the video below:

Applications for 2010 opening soon.

Want to be informed when applications open? Subscribe to our email newsletter.

The product developers describe the innovation as “the snazzy way to sleep while you travel”. What they don’t explain is how this innovation hasn’t yet caused race riots in a country already irrationally fearful of similar headware and community centres.

Snazzy Napper — Another brainless consumer product?

The website that pairs random strangers from around the world together for webcam-based conversations, is the creation of Andrey Ternovskiy, a 17-year-old high school student in Moscow, Russia. Shortly after launch, the site had 500 visitors per day. One month later, it boasted 50,000 per day. By February 2010, the site was attracting about 35,000 people on Chatroulette… at any given time!

Ternovskiy has said that the concept arose from video chats he used to have with friends on Skype, and that he wrote the first version of Chatroulette in “two days and two nights”. Ternovskiy chose the name “Chatroulette” after watching The Deer Hunter, a 1978 film set in the Vietnam War in which prisoners of war are forced to play Russian roulette.

Like the movie, the site has since become best known for its darker aspects.

Indeed, on Sunday, Chatroulette actually went dark, featuring only this statement:

“The experiment #1 is over now. Thanks for participating.
Renewed and updated version of the website will be launched today.”

Ternovskiy has been talking to investors and developers about where to take the site next and this probably means some sort of sanitisation of its content.

As a tribute to the mucky, sordid, underground culture that came to characterise the web-cam network, we have assembled three of our favourite Chatroulette clips.

Salty language warnings apply.

How to freestyle on Chatroulette

Salty Language Warning: Low

How to turn heads on Chatroulette

Salty language warning: Clean

How to (not) find friends on Chatroulette

Salty language warning: Just plain rude!

In June, we shared Kogan Technology’s very funny satirical advertisement for Minister Conroy’s ’spams and scams’ internet filter. This was not the first time we caught a glimpse of the young entrepreneur’s sense of humour. In March 2009, his company introduced Australian consumers to the chuckle-prompting KEVIN 37 Plasma Television set for $900.

This week, following a not-too-carefully constructed remark from business icon Gerry Harvey, who reportedly described Kogan as “a con” to The Age,  the following commercial was aired during the highly anticipated (and highly watched) Ben Cousins’ documentary on Network Seven.

Kogan’s anti-advertising advertisement

Funny? Hypocritical? Pure viral marketing gold? That’s for you to decide. What’s more interesting about this public spat is the underlying question it raises. What drives consumers — expensive television advertisements to establish trust and, therefore, create the ability to sell products at a premium price or the opportunity to purchase online at discount rate?

What the company fails to mention is the pure hilarity that the site often brings to its international coverage.

An explanation of the Australian 2010 election from Taiwan

Transcript:

The Labor Party swept to victory in 2007, with Kevin Rudd coming into power as Prime Minister.

For a while, Rudd was enormously popular, but his plans to institute a new tax on mining companies and his failure to implement the government’s emission trading scheme caused his popularity to plummet.

The Labor party rose up against their wounded leader.

In the end, he was replaced by his deputy, Julia Gillard. In this weekend’s election, Gillard’s toughest rival is Tony Abbott, leader of the Liberal Party.

Abbott promised to be tough on immigration if he becomes Prime Minister. Although polls show Abbott way ahead of Gillard, the Labor/Green party coalition still has more support when counted together.

‘Crocodile Harry’ has predicted a Labor victory.

This is the closest election in Australia in 50 years.

Lonely Planet’s lowly beginning was a guide to what’s known as the Hippie Trail, which traces the routes taken by low-cost travellers in the sixties and seventies throughout Asia. This became popular with young backpackers from Europe and Australasia, who embraced the hippie modes of transport and philosophy of thrift.

Now Lonely Planet is leading the way in another avenue; “augmented reality” Compass Guides for Android users.

The application determines the user’s location via GPS and when the camera is used to scan the surroundings, information labels about points of interest pop up on the screen.

As a new paradigm in travel applications, Lonely Planet is testing the water with coverage of 25 popular US, Asian and European cities. It’s difficult to believe this innovative app won’t be wildly popular, however.

The cities are Amsterdam, Bangkok, Barcelona, Beijing, Hong Kong, Istanbul, London, Paris, Prague, Rome, Seoul, Singapore, Tokyo, Sydney, Vancouver, Boston, Chicago, LA, Las Vegas, Miami, New Orleans, New York City, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington DC.

“This is one of the most innovative things we’ve launched and we’re really excited to see how people use this application,” said Matthew Cashmore, the Innovation and Ecosystems Manager for Lonely Planet. “The application pinpoints your exact location so that when you find yourself in a new city and want to know what there is to see and do around you, just look through the camera and a wealth of Lonely Planet information on the best destinations, accommodation, sites, bars and restaurants appear stuck like posted notes to points of interest around you.”

The Android’s built in compass allows the user to learn the direction and distance to the listed destinations. The Google Android store is selling the application for $4.99 USD, and it is back-compatible with all Androids back to the G1.

While we haven’t been able to source vision for the product, the app technology was built in conjunction with Mobilizy, the company behind user generated content AR app Wikitude. To fully understands how it works, watch the video.

Augmented Reality Travel App — Wikitude

Indian Pole Gymnastics

As sporting pursuits go, it is hard to find something more challenging than climbing a pole. To use that pole for acrobatic purposes,well, that’s something else again.

The art of Mallakhamb is respected as a competitive sport all over India. Gymnasts have 90 seconds to show off bendy Herculean routines, which are then judged. Mallakhamb can take place on an erect wooden pole, on a rope or, for the real show-offs, a stack of glass bottles!

Think about that as you settle into Beer O’Clock. Happy Friday Anthillians.

Yesterday, the Australian Labor Party endorsed a “special election message” from Harrie, aged 11 years old. According to the Labor Party’s description on YouTube:

“Harrie sent this through to us and we thought it was worth sharing with everyone. Thanks Harrie.”

Real? Fake? Ingenious? Or cringe-worthy? That’s for you to watch and decide.

Tony Abbot the Dinosaur by Harrie, aged 11 years old

Hat-tip: Mumbrella

It’s not for everyone but if you’ve ever tried to provide guidance to the digitally illiterate or found yourself butting heads with technical support this is sure to raise a chuckle.

Salty Language Warning: Moderate
Hat-Tip: Alex Kain

The Website is Down

This election could well be remembered as the one where focus groups took control, where success was won by the opponent most able to determinedly avoid sharing an opinion. This has not been an election about grand visions. It has become a contest of the least controversial.

That’s why it’s forever reassuring to witness the rise of an opinion that is not built on a sound-bite or caters to the common view.  This 12 minute ‘Special Comment’ was YouTube’s fourth most watched clip yesterday. In it, MSBC anchorman Keith Olbermann responds to factually incorrect reports about a community centre being built at ‘Ground Zero’ in New York.

There Is No ‘Ground Zero Mosque’

Sure, it’s sentimental and it ends with an awkward hat-tip to Edward R. Murrow. But when was the last time that you witnessed an Australian leader share an opinion that could be contentious but was designed to change opinions and inspire?

Meet the Class of Twitter HQ

When Twitter decided to spread the word that it wanted to add to its Twit-team, it didn’t fall into the old recruitment-video trap. You know: Semi-comatose talking heads droning in front of swooshy, morphing text that looks like it was composed in Windows Movie Maker.

No. Twitter, perhaps not surprisingly, chose hip. Viral-worthy hip.

In a clever clip making the rounds on YouTube, Twitter created a homage to the “Rushmore” trailer. We see members of departments, teams and clubs (the “design” team cutting out paper copies of the Twitter bird is especially choice.)

See the Twitter video below. If you want to compare it to the “Rushmore” original, here you go.

Lip Dub Recruitment by Connect Ventures

Last year, we wrote about a New York-based company that created a video featuring “lipdub” — a one-take video that choreographs an elaborate lip-synch to a popular song.

In addition to being flat-out fun to watch, the video by Connected Ventures (a company that describes itself as “a group of friends who work for Vimeo, CollegeHumor, Busted Tees, and Defunker”) was designed to attract people who might dance to a different tune.

Skype’s Chilling Recruitment Video

Skype took a completely different tack last year, but it was no less effective. In fact, there’s no way for the viewer to tell that this bizarre and strangely chilling piece of work is a recruitment video unless they choose to follow the link shown at its conclusion.

Swedbank makes prospective staff wait to get payoff

Of course, not all recruitment videos on YouTube are serious. Check out this one for a European banking concern. Stick it out to the end; the payoff is worth it.

Licence 2 Chill (Worst recruitment video ever?)

And then there are the recruitment videos that were best left unmade. Yup, it may have seemed like a good idea at the time but this recruitment video for the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) can be described as anything but chillin’.

Image by Justin Cormack

It might not equal ‘99 cents’ as a marketing ploy (aptly described as “brilliance in advertising” by everyone’s favourite fictional ad-man Don Draper).

It does not even compare to the absurd majesty of Comfort Wipe (spruiked by its makers as “the first improvement to toilet paper as we know it since the 1880s”).

But it, nevertheless, is no secret that we, at Anthill, think that the Gruen Transfer is pretty damn great.

This week, the satirical commentary program rose even higher in our approval ratings when it unintentionally became a serious, political production house for the Greens when this ‘fake’ TV spot was aired on Wednesday night.

Gruen ad for Greens — Republic of Everyone

The advertisement was created for the Gruen Transfer’s regular segment The Pitch, which pits two agencies against each other with an invitation to sell the unsellable.

Previous topics have included whaling and euthanasia. This week, the two willing ‘contestants’ were asked to sell a more topical long-shot — tasked to convince mainstream voters to switch their votes to a minor party.

Regular Gruen panelist Leo Burnett CEO Todd Sampson said on the program to its creators from Sydney agency Republic of Everyone, “It’s the best ad The Greens have ever done. I’m sure you’ll get a phone call”.

Sure enough, Greens spokesperson Ebony Bennett confirmed to AdNews the party rang the offices of Republic of Everyone yesterday morning requesting the ad.

“Overnight we had a big response on our social media networks to the Gruen Nation ad. We’re encouraging our supporters to share it online and post it to their sites and pages,” said Bennett, speaking to Adnews.

We are looking for a charismatic solo entrepreneur (or aspiring entrepreneur) to take part in an innovative documentary film project.

If you are an outgoing, entrepreneurial, ambitious man, aged 28 to 45 and available to travel overseas for up to two weeks sometime in the next couple of months, then this project could provide you and your business with extensive exposure to a national and international audience.

This is an exceptional opportunity for self-promotion as part of a professional film production project.

It sounded like an adventure that might be of interest to our readers. So,we checked it out.

It is an initiative of The Hallway, a Sydney based digital marketing and advertising agency. The project is top secret. Based on this video extracted from The Hallway website, however, it’s not hard to guess the project’s agenda.

John Jameson Productions – Case Study Video

Whatever the purpose, it involves free international travel with unapologetic opportunities for blatant self-promotion. Sounds like fun. So, here’s the link: http://www.smallbizdoco.com.au./. (We notice that the form incorporates no privacy clauses. Just so you know.)

But, while online electioneering can be traced back to 2000, the real turning point didn’t occur until Hillary Clinton announced her candidacy via the world’s favourite video sharing site.

So, what’s changed in 2010? Will this go-around be described by future political scholars as the ‘Social Media’ election?

Probably not. While Gillard did finally set up her Twitter account two weeks before the election, the way most politicians have used social media still remains pretty one-sided. I’ll talk, maybe listen but have an actual conversation? Don’t be daft!

What is exciting about this election is the democratisation of commentary we’ve, so far, witnessed.

Last week, I posted several sites created by otherwise politically neutral organisations, in addition to a pile of funny videos and spoofs created by good citizen journalists. In fact, these types of contributions are fast becoming the only interesting thing about the current election.

For your viewing (and voting) pleasure, here are a few more.

Will the real Tony Abbott please stand up

This latest video from GetUp.org is unlikely to win over any new voters for Labor but it sure will cement the views of those who already harbour big questions about the Opposition leader’s true beliefs.

Childrens’ author most prolific election tweeter

BuzzElection released an announcement earlier this week revealing the second most influential tweeter in the Australian 2010 Federal Election is Lesley Dewar, beaten only by ABC News.

Lesley outranked Annabel Crabb (ABC Online’s chief political writer), Latika Bourke (Political Journalist at Parliament House Canberra) and even Sky News Australia.

Lesley was a financial planner for 25 years but now writes a series of children’s stories entitled “Stories My Nana Tells” and is a well-known environmental activist. She has a keen interest in online networking, but what is most interesting is that Lesley is not a political reporter nor does she have a career background in politics.

According to a statement from BuzzNumbers, Lesley is very surprised at the positive response she is receiving and says, “I actually think it’s fantastic, fun, and has opened up a lot of discussion about the election. There has been very interesting feedback considering I’m not a traditional journalist. I’m a grandmother who writes children’s stories. I have been in business for 40 years and am very politically aware – but I think it’s a hoot!”

Using crowdsourced voicemail to send a message

In the same week that Australia Post released the outcomes of its latest Gen Y survey, which revealed that young people prefer to be communicated with for commercial reasons via mail, rather than the social web, the Australian Youth Climate Coalition has harnessed the telephone to get its message across.

The AYCC has launched a campaign tool it calls ‘Power Vote’, which allows the user to enter their name and postcode, find their MP, and have an automated telephone voice message left for them saying they’ll vote for the candidate who acts on climate change.

With over 1,000 power votes in the few days since its launch, young voters, who make up 20 per cent of the vote, are showing MPs that they can beat them at their own game, providing one-way, ‘autocue’ responses. The technology has never before been used in a federal election campaign.

Analysing the social election – Tweets and word from the digital street

Like BuzzNumbers’ social media analysis tool, BuzzElection, digital media agency Amnesia Razorfish has also launched a central repository of social media news,  developed to “take the pulse and analyse how the political parties and the community use social media to sway votes.”

The site features commentary on how – and how well – Australia’s political parties are using social media, plus the latest Tweets from Julia Gillard, Tony Abbott and Bob Brown. Plus, it has a sense of humour. Forget the election promises. That’s something we all need in these beige times.

The goods news is that the paralysing paranoia seems to be diminishing (news is not in trouble — just print) now that the iPad has given the technically illiterate PTBs (powers that be) an alternative that they can hold in their ink-stained hands and genuinely comprehend (unlike the wild and untamed interwebs).

A report prepared by Macquarie, commissioned by Fairfax chief executive Brian McCarthy, which Macquarie expects to be released in conjunction with its 2010 results, has produced a startling analysis coupled with an equally surprising recommendation.

According to an article in The Australian:

Fairfax Media should axe its Melbourne and Sydney daily print editions and focus on e-readers and online to boost earnings.

The report found that “dropping print editions of The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age and delivering content via e-readers such as Apple’s iPad could boost earnings from the two papers to $55m — $5m more than the bank’s 2010 forecast… [Macquarie] analyst Alex Pollak also suggests Fairfax could get the ball rolling by spending about $50m to give away 100,000 e-readers to seed the migration of readers away from print.”

This news came only days after Rupert Murdoch voiced his support for The Times of London’s’ decision to ‘put up the paywall’ last month. At a new media forum held by The Australian in Sydney on Monday, Murdoch said tablet or slate computers were “a perfect platform for our content” and pay walls were part of the evolution.

“We are rolling out a paid content strategy across our newspaper websites,” Murdoch said. “Already The Wall Street Journal is the largest of its kind in the world with 1.1 million paying subscribers online. The Times of London and The Sunday Times last month started charging for access to their websites. It’s going to be a success. Subscriber levels are strong.”

Does this mean free iPads for all? According to Pollak, in the report, “such a move is likely, but not in its entirety on day one — a seismic structural shift like this will take time for Fairfax to convince both advertisers and consumers alike of its merits.”

Rupert Murdoch defends paywalls

In this excerpt from an interview with Peter M. Robinson, a research fellow at the Hoover Institution, Murdoch talks about his vision for news and his feelings about the iPad.