With the great number of creative submissions by both celebrit designers, professionals and amateurs for Bras for a Cause, it was really hard to make a choice. But my absolute favorite is the one above, the design by Millniece Pinto is really empowering and absolutely beautiful, I just wish it really gets to be made into real life.

Many women wish they could show off their bra, either because of the colour, prints or various other design aspects. I have designed a bra,taking this into consideration,by using a basic U-plunge bra and adding a yoke to it. I have designed this bra to be worn either under or over garments. Keeping in mind, women with breast cancer, the bra is designed as a pocket bra, where a prosthesis can be put in, if needed. Sacagawea being a symbol of women’s worth and independence, I have used her culture as inspiration whilst designing the bra. The Lemhi Shoshone culture has a lot of earthy colours used, that are sombre, yet bold. I have also used tribal print, found in the Lemhi Shoshone culture, in the design. The print has been inspired by a beaded necklace. To keep with the sassy, feminine appeal, I have chosen a combination of lace and cotton fabric. The bra is designed for women who are bold and young, and women who want to rediscover their youth.

 

 

What is your favorite? Vote Now and help in spreading awareness about breast cancer.

Bras for A Cause – Funstany.com

While companies are trying to trick the social media users to talk about them , Fustany.com* is really trying  to do some social good, partnering with the wonderful Loryne Atwi from One Wig Stand for a project aiming to provide cancer survivors with sexy and accessible lingerie, whilst doing breast cancer awareness and fund-raising.  Watch the video above to find out how the idea was born and who the judges are.

And the guys are pretty well organized, they recruited a team of ambassadors, they are churning out fresh shareable content within a set calendar,  they are passionate about their cause and most importantly they are active online and very quick to respond. So companies out there trying to figure out how to operate social media stay tuned to the guys begins Bras for a Cause.

And if you are a designer, Bras for a cause competitions not for fame and fortune, but because THIS is what will really empower women with breast cancer and make their life much easier.

Don’t forget to check the Bras for A Cause website, twitter and facebook page .

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*its not the first time fustany.com are doing something to help with breast cancer awareness either

There is nothing out of the usual in this campaign and yet This campaign provides a good quality step up from the regular wishy-washy stale sweepstakes.

What is good about this campaign:

- It puts Rak Bank’s new product at the center of the promotion, by giving people a packaged message  to tweet. The message is short and concise.

- Does not force you to follow or like anyone.

- Message provided is impartial and hence does not in any way affect credibility of the tweeter.

- It is extremely simple for users to execute and only involves one step.

- It provides transparency by showing all the rules, number of prizes, campaign duration, method of selecting winners…

- It costs Rak Bank close to nothing and would be extremely easy to monitor.

- It is less of a bribery model (cheap sweepstakes) and more of a reward for promotion model.

Keep following @rakbanklive  on twitter to see their other ways of interacting with the audience.

P.S. I am lately resorting to short posts, as opposed to not writing at all.

Was tweaking through foursquare for businesses section when this stopped me in my feet. I felt so ecstatic with the idea I wanted to share with you what Flipside Beirut are doing, by pioneering location based marketing.

I will try to contact them to find out more, in the meantime let me know if you’ve tried the place before.

And Check:

- Their foursquare page

- Their twitter page

- Their Website

- Their Facebook page

It is obvious that the promotion is quite new, but let us keep watching to see where it gets.

So, do you know of any other businesses in Lebanon that have effective foursquare promotions? Or any ones in the Middle East per se.

Lesson #1: Your audience is ever more demanding!

TRUE STORY:

While watching the first football game of the World Cup:

- my father in Law: Damn this transmission has degraded, before they used to show the name of the player who has the ball and info about him, zoom into the player’s faces more when they replay, replay the goals better…

- my brother in law: Dad, this is on Playstation 2, not in ‘the real’  Fifa

Yes, we are getting more spoiled with new multimedia technologies, traditional media have to provide more information rich data, better interactivity options and more sharing opportunities. In short we want to be better informed and more involved and we expect you to do something about it!

Lesson #2: The Stakeholders Expect You to React FAST!

A day into world cup and everyone is complaining about these darn Vuvuzela’s. Three days into the world Cup and Germany filters out Vuvuzela noises to spare the fans. A couple days more Britain Joins and people start petitioning for banning the Vuvuzela( with over 300,000 fans on facebook and counting) . Add a couple of days and an app that adds vuvuzela noises to sites that filter them is created following the de-vuvuzelaing applets!

Needless to say, your clients will expect the same response rates from you!

Lesson #3: Do not forget about unexploited niches

For instant, women  have to suffer while their prince charming enjoys row after row of football matches day in day out for a whooole month.   So while everyone is gold mining the idea of the big flat screens to display the World Cup, why don’t you capitalize on the opposite – making your place a haven for football haters?

This Le Mall ad may be an attempt at just what I’m talking about, but I hate the fact that it belittles women. As a woman  I would not identify with it and will consider it an attempt to trick me into going to Le Mall and being stuck watching football, rather than showing me a clear exit path  – The “learn about football so people do not make fun of you” message VERSUS  the ” while he is watching football break loose and shop” message I would like to hear.

So you see, there is a real propitious niche there, that your competitors are not exploring. And let us not forget about children, where do people with children leave kids to go watch the games? You say grandparents, I say create a replacement product…There are a millions of ideas and campaigns buried in unrealized consumer demand in your market too-  Be creative, we’re expecting no less!

My personal favorites in this regard is the above Macy Gray video clip and this great post by Maya Zankoul.

Lesson #4: Shamelessly exploit trends?

I am not even gonna go into the myriad of brilliant and so and so ads, campaigns and offers linked to the world cup. Yes it is a good tactic. Yes, it will help you not stay behind, but if you truely wanna innovate, go back to point 3.

Lesson #5: We are watching You, and we have everything ON RECORD!

One of the first big time fxxx-ups in this world cup was the British Goalkeeper giving a slip to the ball, right after catching it. Man, it was a media circus at my in-law’s house. With the whole family lividly replaying his walk of shame and lively commenting how his career is over. And all of this replicated across millions of households in reaction to a slip of a man who by default can not catch all the balls shot at him. So Imagine what your Stakeholders will do if YOU slip up!

Have you learned any new marketing lessons from the world cup, let me know!?

Why limit yourself to your internal pool of designers when you can hire an agency? But why would you limit yourself to an agency, when you have thousands of designers with explosive ideas, right? And, oh , they will give you their ideas for free hoping to expand their portfolio and win a substantial prize.

Moreover, given the needed exposure the campaign will raise overall brand awareness and will give people a sense of ownership in the brand as well as hype their curiosity.

I think it’s brilliant and as a cinephille and popcorn addict I will be watching the result closely.

If you are young designer, why not give it a go, you never know what will happen!

If you are not following me on twitter you have missed a lot! We have been going at this for about 2.5 weeks and I am really impressed by the tremendous feedback from all my tw-friends… And now is the moment of Truth!

 How did #MYDESK Start?

Well, I was reading this blogpost about “working space image” from one of my favorite bloggers – Penelope Trunk. So basically it says that your desk portrays your image and you should be careful on how you manage you desk space, and what that projects about you. Having a messy desk myself ( even extremely messy at times) , I was disgruntled by that people with neat desks are considered more productive.

I am one of those people who can not manage a tidy desk, i simply can’t work on one, having so many projects I need all my papers to be within reach and combined and mixed for me to start forming the bigger picture. I feel less productive if I have to put the files back every two seconds… Even Penelope’s blogpost provides a counter argument saying “”Messiness is related to creativity because it tends to juxtapose things that don’t normally go together.”

Anyway, I know that its a pretty radical subject so I will not be blabbing about it any further, here is a photo of my desk at its worst! There you have it!

need to say in my defense that i specifically chose a very messy photo to post. (why do we messy people always feel the need to justify ourselves?)

So anyhow, after I read this post, I wanted to know if there are people out there like me. And I Tweeted about the link and asked the question. I did not even to gets pics… and then I did… and everybody started participating and commenting…

The Desks

 As I said it went back and forth the pst three weeks, with me encouraging everyone on the network to show us what their desks look like and starting a mini competition. and at one point I wasn’t able to keep up with you guys:)

So let’s move the competition here. Comment, tell me what you think ?

 & if I’ve missed your desk, give me the link & I’ll repost it.

The “Creatively Organized” (code name for messy, but we do not accept the negative connotation)

(hover over the photo to see whose desk it is)

The Elegant

The playful

The Zen Like & Minimalistic

What Normal Desks should look like?

The Musical

Social Networking Workspace

The Hig-tech

The Untraditional

 The Office with the Best View

I couldn’t embed Twitvid so you have to go through the link, but truly this office space needs to be seen http://www.twitvid.com/163C5

& this @mhallani's desk at this amazing office Lots of natural light and a beautiful view of the marina!

So What does your desk look like ?

* I’ve noticed there’s a new user on twitter Mydeskpicwho got recently created yesterday, just wanted to tell you, that it has nothing to do with me.:)

Twestival Dubai was lucky enough to get a Goldend, ticket for Dubai Metro launch on 9/9/9 and they are now auctioning it off. All proceeds will be donated to Dubai Autism Center.

Participate in the Golden Ticket bid, and be one of the first to experience this urban development.

On a side note, I have been finding a lot of difficulty finding quality information about 9/9/9 since RTA is as yet to release an official website and their own site is neither user friendly, nor helpful.

So if anyone finds any onfo about the golden ticket winners or when and where these will be announced, do let me know.

See Also: RTA Golden Ticket Competition

RTA Promotion for Dubai Metro Header

History is all about what happened in the past. Making history is what happens in the present. Be a part of it by participating in the biggest draw of the century with your chance to win a ‘GOLDEN TICKET’ to be one of the first to ride on the Dubai Metro on 09.09.09.

Answer the question of the day to double your chances of winning. 

click here for a chance to win the golden ticket

See also:  Twestival Dubai Auctions off Golden Ticket