According to both the Advertising Standards Bureau (advertising industry body) and the Australian Communications and Media Authority (governmental body), there are no existing guidelines or restrictions around Branded Entertainment in Australia.

Sony Bloggie is a pocket-sized HD video recorder that shares content to the web. The challenge was that Australian consumers were rapidly turning to their smartphones for recording video and as a result, the Bloggie was starting to suffer a slow, painful death.

To address this decline Sony decided to reinvigorate the Bloggie by focusing on its durability. However to do this they required a platform that could push video recording to the limit and dramatise the fact that only with a Bloggie can you truly record & share HD video from anywhere and of anything. What resulted was a powerful piece of branded content that connected the story of two incredible Aussies with a curious attitude, with a truly extreme product demonstration – demonstrating just what’s possible when shooting video on Sony Bloggie.Sony partnered with James Castrission & Justin Jones in their attempt to become the first people to ski from the edge of the Antarctic coast to the South Pole and back, completely unsupported. An adventure that would take 3 months and involve pulling 150kg sleds each over 2275km of snow and ice.

The idea was that every crevice and kilometre would be shot by ‘Cas’ and ‘Jonsey’ themselves on the Bloggie and shared with the world immediately to campaign content hubs on Facebook and a dedicated website as a series of 'Bloggiesodes.'Viewers were captivated as Cas and Jonsey battled horrific weather conditions, when having to ski a marathon a day, even when washing their filthy underpants - with each Bloggiesode broadcast from the pole generating hundreds of Facebook posts of encouragement that the guys were able to read and respond to directly from their tent, throughout their journey.

Crossing The Ice documents a world first polar expedition that provides a perspective of exploration that has never been seen before.Launched with a polar themed event in Sydney – a city not known for being a snow-covered wonderland – the story was immediately picked up by news outlets throughout Australia & the rest of the world.Once the expedition began, the PR generated drove traffic to the campaign’s Facebook page and website that acted as content distribution platforms. Viewers were encouraged to comment on and share each webisode, further driving awareness of the idea and drawing new audiences to the campaign.

Across the period of the expedition Cas and Jonsey shot and shared over 40 Bloggiesodes - a feat that resulted in 27,000 video views, 1.6m post views on Facebook and 115,000 unique visitors to the campaign site - and all with Bloggie at the heart of the experience.Yet as the expedition progressed and ever more Bloggiesodes were captured and shared – more and more news and media organisations became captivated by this unique story, resulting in exposure for Crossing The Ice and Bloggie in over 100 countries.

By providing an opportunity to sponsor a step through the website, Crossing the Ice also generated over $60,000 in donations for the youth cancer charity YouCan, which aims to build 5 specialist treatment centres throughout Australia.Having completed their expedition, our Bloggiesodes were used as a part of a primetime documentary broadcast on Australia's Channel 7 about the expedition (see attached material) and have helped Cas and Jonsey embark upon a media career in their native Australia.