Viral
Vodafone puts 28,800 Facebook members in 1 car
Vodafone has rolled out an interesting use of Facebook in the Netherlands called Facebook vs Hamilton where they are challenging F1 champion Lewis Hamilton to a race on September 13th against 28.800 Facebook users who are competing against him in a virtual car. It is a timed race to see which is faster – downloading the profile photos 28,800 facebook members or Hamilton driving around a 2.7km track in his Mercedes F1 race car.
Read more of: Vodafone puts 28,800 Facebook members in 1 car »
Cloudy with a chance of music videos
Singer/song-writer Lissie has release a new music video on her web site that is controlled by the current weather conditions in your location. When you get to her site it will determine your current position or you can choose yourself and the background of the video will change according to the current weather outside. If you select a new location while the video is playing a TV weatherman will provide a new forecast as an intermission while the video transitions to the new location’s weather. I think creating this type of unique digital experience is a smart investment for artists trying to break into the main stream media consciousness and you only have to look at OK GO’s YouTube sensation ‘Here It Goes Again’ to see the possibilities.
Read more of: Cloudy with a chance of music videos »
I am Iron Man with markerless AR
Marvel & Paramount releases a new augmented reality site / application today powered by Total Immersion technology that lets you see what you’d look like wearing the Iron Man / War Machine helmets or go inside the helmet to see the internal Heads Up Display. I’ve written before about Total Immersion AR for the work they did with Tops Baseball Cards and this new Iron Man AR experience is just as interesting as that was one. The big difference between the two is that this new Iron Man experience doesn’t require you to have a baseball card or print out a marker for it to work. You would think that would a huge step forward but it comes with a different set of problems. First is that you have to go through the dreaded plug-in download which is only around 5MB but we all know how prohibitive that simple step can be for people. Next is that I found the plug-in initialization took a really long time. I launched the site, clicked to start the experience and it took me over 5 minutes on my insanely fast FIOS connection to have the plug-in initialize and download the content. During that time I was treated to only a spastic loading bar which felt like a missed opportunity to sell tickets, market a promotional partner or pretty much anything but making me look at that load bar. The plug-in finally came online, I picked my webcam and a few second later the video came up with an open Iron Man helmet popping over my face. After a second or two the helmet snaps shut to give you the full effect of the helmet. The helmet is able to track with your head pretty well and would only consistently lose position if you the turned part 45 degrees right or left. After trying it a few times I found it struggled with how big to make the helmet and it would either make it too small so I had red hair sticking out the top or too big so it would make me look like a bobble head. You can record all of this which is a great idea to make the content viral but yet again I found it crushed by technical problems. I hit the record button, played around with the helmet and when it was done I hit OK hoping to be able to post in this article. The first times I wait 30 minutes and got nada. Tried a third time and waited and hour and you got it – nada. The ‘Processing Video’ message was the only thing I was treated so sorry but you get the generic YouTube video instead.
So while you can see how augmented reality technology is advancing in this site the technical problems are just too much overcome. If they can find a way to create this experience more in line with the older embedded web site technology and lose the install and initiation time then I think it will be moving into an area where we can start creating some seriously interesting experiences.
Read more of: I am Iron Man with markerless AR »
Why did Belgian ad agencies go on strike this week?
Nineteen advertising agencies including JWT, Ogilvy, BBDO and Saatchi in Belgium launched a virtual strike this week to try and change the number of agencies asked to pitch any piece of new business. This has been an increasing problem worldwide and it was most publicly exposed in the Zappos pitch last year that ballooned to over 100 agencies. For that pitch the agency Ignited used Google Analytics to calculated that Zappos viewed only five pages of its 25-page submission with an average page-view time of 14 seconds. This type of behavior should never happen and in the 1990′s the UAB and ACC developed a charter to define the rules for agency pitches and it was signed by all the big agencies. The virtual strike is being done to try and draw attention back to that document and get it back to being the rules of the road. The strike is being executed as a letter that is broken up into 19 pieces and displayed across the websites of the 19 different agencies. You can see the whole thing by starting here. I love seeing the industry come together to make a statement like this and I hope it has an effect.
Read more of: Why did Belgian ad agencies go on strike this week? »
IKEA turns Facebook into their own showroom
IKEA has come up with an innovative digital campaign that turned one of Facebook’s basic functions into a promotional tool that they used to promote the opening of their newest store in Malmo, Sweden. The campaign started with a profile of the store’s manager, Gordon Gustavsson who then uploaded pictures of the store’s showrooms to his photo album and any “friends” who tagged the products with their names then won those items. The word quickly spread through Facebook and users started embedding links and images in their profiles and news feeds. So with nothing more than some photos and a great idea they got thousands of consumers to willingly promote IKEA and its new store.
Read more of: IKEA turns Facebook into their own showroom »
Orange smartly uses social media to create Friend-o-Meter
The U.K. mobile provider Orange has created one of the most interesting uses of Facebook and Twitter connect that I have seen recently. To promote the launch of the social media focused Motorola DEXT mobile phone they have created a site that quizzes you on ten questions to see how well you know your friends on Facebook and Twitter. The way they use the data is really smart as the questions aren’t the obvious ones you would expect and use things like friends upcoming events events, like and dislikes to create challenging questions that will really test how well you know people (I only got a 45%). You leave the experience thinking that maybe you need to be better connected to those sites and that information which us exactly the point of the experience. Since Facebook seems to be unable or unwilling to give advertisers the tools to be able to create meaningful experiences on their site then this direction may be able to save them from themselves.
Read more of: Orange smartly uses social media to create Friend-o-Meter »
Mountain Dew Crowdsources Agency Review and Selection
PepsiCo’s Mountain Dew is taking a new tact on their agency review for their $100 million-plus business by letting consumers pick the winner. A contest beginning this month will allow any agency, independent film company or individual to submit 12-second clips outlining their ideas for marketing three new Mountain Dew products. Consumers will then vote for the top talent, whom will be awarded the business. This is not their first venture into the area of crowd sourcing as the three new products names Distortion, Whiteout and Typhoon were created by consumers through Dewmocracy a Facebook-based initiative designed to open up product development to consumers. And when you look at the number it is obvious that this tactic is working for them as the Dewmocracy brands accounted for 25 million cases in sales last year which equates to nearly two hundred million dollars.
Read more of: Mountain Dew Crowdsources Agency Review and Selection »
Burger King wants the truth from Tony Stewart
Crispin Porter created a nice online extension of their Tony Stewart School of Endorsements TV spot (see below) with BK Finds Out The Truth About Tony microste. The site is a video stream of a polygraph test that was given to Nascar driver Tony Stewart as he answers consumer submitted questions about he is he really loves his primary endorsement – Burger King and the Whopper. I have always believed that advertising needs to work out from a core concept and that the interactive extension of a campaign should take advantage of the medium and not just be a straight port of the offline creative. When you watch the TV spot and experience the site you clearly see that was the case here and the benefits of this approach are obvious. The total video is about an hour long and you will have to watch it to see the final results for yourself.
It is also a small thing but orange home bar that runs down the left edge of the site that opens to the content of the BK.com home page is a really elegant way to keep micro sites like this one from developing into individual islands that are disconnected from the main brand site.
Read more of: Burger King wants the truth from Tony Stewart »
A book cover designers opinion of the Amazon Kindle
I have long felt that the Kindle is a device where typography goes to die and I though book cover designer Charles Brock’s video of his opinion of the device was too funny and well done not to share.
Read more of: A book cover designers opinion of the Amazon Kindle »
AXE uses fresh techniques to create Day & Night ads
No one has been able to continue to re-invent the concept of ‘sex sells’ better than Axe deodorant that past few years. Their latest campaign called Day & Night is the first one I can remember that uses technology in a new and really smart way. The first execution is a print ad where you have to text ‘AXE’ to specific number but you have to do it after 9pm. In return for the text AXE sends you the missing part of the ad. Hold your phone over the ad and you have the whole picture.
The second execution is an outdoor poster where the bottom half of the image is obscured during the day by a polarized film. At night poster is back light so the bottom portion of the image can be seen through the polarized film.
Even more important than the smart use of technology is that fact that the ads create an impression that will make you not only remember them but either take action to see the rest of the print ad or seek out the outdoor ads. It also makes you take that action at night which I am sure is based on behavior of their core audience demographics. 9pm is a media grazing phase and will be able to focus on the experience not distracted by work and before young guys would be heading out to clubs and bars. I hope they keep up this new direction of moving beyond the bikini clad TV spot to do more work like this.
Read more of: AXE uses fresh techniques to create Day & Night ads »
