From Sweden, an unusual (and innovative) interactive tool to understand if your kid, who is sick at home with a cold, needs to see a doctor. Of course, as Martin explained me, F&B; (together with B-Reel) developed the tool for Apoteket (Swedish Pharmacy) in collaboration with doctors. The idea is to help parents decide if they need to take their kid to a pediatrician but also to offer personalized advice, including a list of relevant products.

Part of the campaign is also a TV spot (opens mpg).

British sense of humor arrives to France, with a new Publicis Dialog advertainment website for British Airways which makes fun of low cost airlines (link removed). Unfortunately my French is not good enough to appreciate the jokes, but I find very interesting the fact that British Airways "dares" launching an interactive campaign in France to challenge its natural competitor Air France (and not only the low cost airlines).

An article on Le Journal du Net, explains a few more things about the campaign. The site Serviceaprèsvol.com is actually only the first of an effort which will grow over the next few months with more media (outdoor and mobile marketing, for example) involved.

To my Italian friends, the website will remind the brialliant "No Alpitour? Ahiaiaiaiai" campaign realized a few years ago.

In September FC Barcelona officially agreed to donate about one and half million euros of it's normal earnings to UNICEF every year. First result of this exceptional collaboration is a commercial in a bit to create awareness for UNICEF's humanitarian aid programmes. The commercial will be broadcasted across five continents, 128 countries and 24 international TV networks.

Durex is online with a new advertainment website called "The Pants Whisperer". If you're behind a proxy you might not be able to see it (as in my case from work).

I must say I did not find it particularly entertaining and, in some cases it's quite rude, like in the user generated video section (is it all fake or people really submitted those videos?). The Dickorations was a much better concept.

Personalize your cover no longer applies only to mobile phones. Publishing company Penguin is currently running an online initiative which allows readers to design the cover of six masterpieces (The Picture of Dorian Gray and Crime and Punishment among the others). The best designs will be put into production, and will become real book covers. As I already said in the past, I love this kind of marketing ideas to stimulate user generated content, as they offer people a real added value. Reward consumers with something they cannot get themselves (and always exceed expectations!).

On the website they also say that, according to consumer research, when we decide whether or not to buy a book, cover design is always the most important thing. Unfortunately, I have to agree. If I don't already know the author, and I buy a book based on the "inspiration" of the moment, the cover does play a role in affecting my choice.

Starbucks is online with its new Christmas campaign: it's Red Again.

The site is nice. I know this sounds like a simplicistic (silly) comment, but it's really what I think. I mean, it's nice in the sense that to me it delivers a nice Xmas experience. It's not innovative, it doesn't come up with a new crazy creative concept, but it works perfectly to feel Christmas coming. You can send personalized cards to your friends and you can explore (and share) Christmas traditions from around the world.

I also very much like the design which is warm and somehow vintage. The agency behind it is Wieden + Kennedy who worked together with Odopod for the development.

Via Ad Blog Arabia, strong irony to grab people's attention on a delicate issue.

The agency is Touchstone, Mumbai.

In the US, they're getting ready for Superman's return on DVD, as you can tell from the Daily Planet website and from Lex Luthor's page on Myspace.

Apparently, Lex Luthor is set to come back with a massive take-over... he has declared that on November 28th, he will assume total control of the Web. The menace is real and definitely scary, but you can do something to stop his evil plan: find 12 tags around the Web, you will save the world and win $1,000,000. I'm not sure of the exact mechanism of the contests, but it looks like websites around the world are currently featuring some Lex Luthor content. Find them, and get the chance to win the big prize!

From Sweden a weird story or, maybe, a great campaign for insurance company AMF Pension...

I tell you the story as I received it... Some months ago a guy called Håkan Nordkvist started a blog telling the world that he has met himself in the future. Since nobody believes him, the only way to prove was by start blogging. He also put an evidence on some movie sites, a film recorded with his mobile camera (watch it on Youtube).

Some weeks later a director called Göran Ahlberg from Machine Films, contacted Håkan about the story. He was so fascinated that he wanted to make a documentary about it! And ofcourse he needed a sponsor for such project... so he contacted the pension company called AMF. On blogs people started to write more and more about this project... could this be for real? Did Håkan really travel in time? In Sweden, bloggers are debating around the issue.

Unfortunately, most of the content is in Swedish, so we can't say if the story is true or it's just a fake. In any case, Martin from F&B; sent me the link to the documentary broadcasted last week on TV. Watch it yourself and decide...

Hotel Campari is a sexy online effort recently launched by MRM worldwide for the Italian beverage Campari. The site is quite mysterious, but it's getting ready for the big event which is going to happen on the 23rd of November.

Showing a certain knowledge of Web 2.0 the campaign also features content on the main social networking websites, see for example the pages they've created on Myspace and Frappr and the sexy video uploaded on Youtube.

To me at the moment Hotel Campari doesn't look particularly new nor impressive, but I also realize I'm a woman and I might not in the right target audience to to fully appreciate the approach chosen in the site. In any case, thanks Niccolò for the hint.

A new Adidas website by EVB for Flash and basketball fans. "Do you believe in 5?" starts with a great video, and develops in a website which aims at having basketball players sharing the ideas and ideals they believe in.

The site takes and emotional approach to community building and I believe it quite succeeds in the goal. The video intro is great (excellent sountrack), and immediately creates the right mood to browse through the site. The rest is nice, although a little bit too flat and totally lacking sounds.

Fiat have gone interactive in the cinema. Developed by Brazil's Agencia Click the six-minute-long interactive movie is in the "choose you own adventure" style and generates 16 different endings depending on the choices of the audience. During the adverts the audience are given 4 different questions to answer and which they need to text to a given number. The final version of the movie is compiled from the clips that gather the most votes (which is all handled digitally).

The campaign site (in Portuguese) is here.

From Switzerland, an ambient campaign by Saatchi & Saatchi Simko for Accessorize.

Nike just launched a new site for their golf balls. Nike Juice 312. It shows cool daily experiments (including men in white coats) in which the strength of the new balls is demonstrated. This campaign follows the recent success of the similar Will It Blend video's from Blendtec. Are we seeing the birth of a new trend?

update: and onther one!

Yesterday our local H&M; store (Amsterdam) started selling an exclusive Viktor and Rolf haute couture line. As expected, it was overcrowded with hysterical women trying to get as much items as possible. Some clever advertiser (I don't want to spoil it) attended the opening and taped it. Great anticipation, but how do we call this..precognition marketing?

A videogame character who very much reminds of Sonic make teenagers play and discover healthy foods. The project is called School Food Trust and features an addictive platform advergame.

The agency behind it is Kerb.

A colleague passed me the link to this website. Do you remember Rexona and its Stunt City tv spot? I believe they are set to come back.. The Stunt Man asks you to crash a stunt all around the screen, once you're done, it invites you to Action City (still under construction).

Since the copyright at the bottom is Unilever, something is telling me (is it my female intuition? :-) this is a teaser for next Rexona episode...

Shell moves into viral marketing and it does it using its most famous testimonial, Michael Schumacher, who recently retired from Formula 1.

What will Schumi do next?

The answer is in three candid camera videos which are proving quite successful around the Web.

Benetton wakes up from its online marketing limbo and comes up with an interesting blog project: Benetton Talk. It's "a place to ponder global themes and stuff we think we all should care about. Environment, rights, diversity, local communities, development… The goal is to highlight what is too often silenced by the media noise".

Behind it, there's of course Fabrica. I like the idea, let's hope they keep it alive and provocative as it should be.

Thanks Guillermo for the hint.

I love these ads Tim sent me. They did a lovely job despite the fact they are playing with stereotypes. Excellent art direction. Copy says: There's more to Thuringia than you might think.

My friends at Publicis Net Paris just launched an online sensorial experience around the new Thomson's Black Diamond mp3 player. The site is available in three languages and aims at engaging the visitor with a unique elegant and sophisticated product.

Not everything on the site is 100% original, as the tactile experience has already been seen some time ago with Mercedes from A to S, but in any case it's a good website which plays with the senses and features the product in a stylish way.

This is not advergame, it's an educational game (edugame?) I found on the BBC Science & Nature site. Sheep Dash! is simply a gimmick to test your reaction times and explain you how a cup of tea or coffee can affect your performance.

It's simple game, but it's very addictive and extremely viral. A good example to bear in mind when thinking about a viral game.

BTW, I'm a bobbing bobcat...

From Australia, a site which allows you to discover how's life in the Royal Australian Navy. As the Sydney Morning Herald points out, Australian Defence Force's key recruiting demographic watches less and less TV, preferring to go online or play video games, that's why as a recruiting tool they have launched a site which very much looks like a videogame.

A great work in Flash by Visual Jazz which examines in detail life on board and also shows on a world map where the Australian Navy is actually operating. The site follows a previous initiative, a few months ago, called "Extreme Battleships", a strategy game to be played via MSN Messenger only available for Australian users.

Last year we had "Come Clean", now it's time for "Stain Art". Siemens Appliances UK has launched an online contest for artists (?!) who want to create "dirty" t-shirts. The best creation will their new auto stain removal washing machine. The concept isn't extremely innovative but, don't worry, you can go crazy with a wide range of stains: grass, blood, baby food, chocholate, sweat and much more!

The agency behind is Nexum Creative from Turkey, which is also interesting to point out as the client is British.
Devil's advocate question (also coming from personal experience): are UK agencies getting too/very expensive?

I recently bought my first console ever, and Xbox 360 which was coming together with the videogame Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Double Agent. The game is quite challenging (and I'm a sloth) so I can't really say I'm having fun with it... Maybe I find funnier the promotional mini-site launched about one month ago by Ubisoft to promote it.

Called The Fifth Freedom the site features some advertainment content such as a red hair guy (to Italians he will remind Claudio Lippi) a very unlikely video and a creepy "morality test" animals' lovers won't appreciate...

Logitech is online with a viral marketing campaign to promote its webcams. Two short movies feature the conversations via webcam between a woman, who is at home, and her boyfriend, who is in the office. The viral potentials of the two videos are questionable as usual, in my opinion the new video called "Our secret" is funnier than the one launched six months ago called "Working Late", but I believe my judgment is biased by the fact I'm a woman :-)

In Holland, elections are about to be held. Competing parties will do anything to get attention from their possible voters. This includes using the latest in (online) marketing. After some public appearances in Second Life and a TomTom voiceover, I just received this link. It's a personalised viral (in Dutch, but you'll get the message) from Social Party frontman Jan Marijnissen. Through the video (and a real textmessage) he asks for my help. Simple, friendly, clever and effective. Good job Jan.

* At this point in the video I actually received that textmessage

In a world of baguettes, Diesel launches the Boule, a luxurious rounded bag. Today the mini-site dedicated to the Boule is online on the www.diesel.com homepage. The agency behind it is Magnetic North.

There is also an online contest... Tell us what you would sacrifice for a Boule bag, and if you come up with the most creative and original sacrifice we will award you with the bag.

PS: You can even say you don't want to sacrifice anything for a Boule, I won't get offended :-)

Diplomatic Cover has recently launched the mini-site for the latest Rayman Raving Rabbids videogame.

A very nice Flash design make the site worth a visit. If you're a rabbit fan, don't miss the videos section which is full of hilarious content.

Car manufacturer Opel in Germany has launched a pre-campaign for the new Tigra TwinTop on www.total-verfoehnt.de (basically that means 'totally messed by blow-dryer'). Main objective is to test if your hairstyle stands the new Opel Tigra TwinTop.

Clou is the combination of the online and mobile channel: on entering the site, users can subscribe with their mobile phone number. The supervisor of the hairstyle experiment Professor Windaloopie is than calling the users on cell phone inviting them for a test drive weekend.

Are looking for more cool interactive ideas? Check the archives