John Lewis is a UK online and offline retailer. I've just been in the UK and saw this spot and thought is was really clever and unexpected - in fact the first time I saw it I actually didn't even know what was going on until the very end. Anyway I thought it was a nice idea which was executed very well. The second spot I found on youtube is a behind the scenes 'making of'. I believe Lowe London were the agency responsible.
Philips has launched the second version of their successful site shaveeverywhere.com . It's a completely different approach to the first version and concentrates on the Second Puberty & You theme. A lengthy intro video shows a businessman in his bathroom who discovers a long hair coming out of his nose and he freaks out. It's funny to start with but gets a bit tedious after a while. The gags are also not that new or funny.
An online pamphlet, using cartoon animation, goes on to describe the effects of second puberty and how to overcome it - using the Philips products of course.
I found this site to be useful in explaining the product benefits but also feel like it falls short of the originality of the first version.
Apologies for the slow blogging, I'm back to work after 2 months at home recovering from a broken Achille's tendon... I have a lot of work to do plus I spend three hours a day at physioteraphy, I promise to recover my usual blogging pace during the week. Stay tuned!
Once again we see former A-team member Mr. T in an advertisement. This time he appears in a World of Warcraft TV Commercial playing as a Night Elf warrior with a mohawk. It's bizarre to see how popular this video is. While being released yesterday it already got over 150 copies on YouTube.
Update: William 'Captain Kirk' Shatner is also playing WoW
Intel (for me anyway) has never been top of my mind for cool interactive executions. Well I am now re-thinking as this brand new site from MRM in Hong Kong is really, really cool.
The animations are very nice and the journey they lead you through is all fun and worth the wait... I wanted to get to the next level just to see the animations. :-)
The previous silicon game they did got given the Adobe global "site of the day" award last Thursday so they are doing something right.
Thanks for the tip Jeremy.
Keep going MRM HK - great to see you pushing a big IT company into big online ideas...
In Spain, Jameson is online with a video site to introduce visitors to the world of whisky. A bartender explains the differences among Irish, American and Scottish whisky, proposing an interesting experiment of virtual tasting.
I can't say the site is exciting nor impressive from a creative point of view, but it offers a good experience, especially to those, like myself, who don't know much about whisky. At the end of the visit you definitely have an idea of the world of whisky and scotch, and I think you will become curious enough to try some the next time you have the chance. So I think the site does its job, it tells a story, and it keeps users watching the video for quite a few minutes.
From Germany, a lovely campaign created by Scholz & Friends, Hamburg for the German Olympic Sport Federation. You'll better do a lot of sports... Copy says: "If you don't move, you get fat".
EA Games has launched a tease site for the new game, Crysis, a next-generation PC first-person shooter.
The site is very dark and mysterious as you weave your way around (walkthrough-style) using your arrow keys to discover the portals that transport you into a scene from the real game.
I like the way that game developers are starting to "show" you the experience of the game instead of "telling" you about it. I found this site to be really easy to use and I got the point straight away. You can click through to the EA site for more info on the game itself.
By: marka // Permalink // Comment(s): Category(s):Online marketing
The site aims at launching a "W movement" claiming there is no "v" in the vodka distilled by Wyborowa. The original vodka comes from Poland, and it's spelled with the "W".
The experience it s quite gloomy (it reminds me of Young Frankestein...), is based on a good concept however, according to me, it lacks in execution. There are some things that are great and worth taking note, like the navigation clicking on the newspaper and the voice over to explain the menu items, but the content s extremely heavy to load and this ends up disorienting the user, as you don't understand whether something is going to happen or not.
Canon it's promoting online its Eos 400D camera model with a nice site that, of course, puts photography at the center of the stage. It's all about navigation and exploration of three different environments (playgrounds) where the camera features are embedded and explained. Everything it's clear and simple. There aren't fancy effects, but this is good because communication of the technical features results effective. And I guess this is the goal when you want to explain a camera.
From The Netherlands, an online campaign to explain users the (almost) secret functionalities of Tom Tom. The site highlights a series of features people might not expect to find in a navigator, features that can improve their social relationships and sometimes make their lives easier...
I like the idea of presenting the content like an operating instructions book, and I like the concept of the "secrets", but in my opinion the execution it's not as good. The experience is not very smooth and the site results to be too wordy, not really interactive. It's a pity because, as I said, the idea was interesting and could have been exploited better also because, pictured this way the "secrets" do not seem to be secrets at all...
I keep being confronted with great Wonderbra ads. Remember this one, and this one, and what to think of the print ads? All from 2007. Last week we had a nice spoof on Cadbury's drumming gorilla. And now the latest one rolled in. Is it just the product or is it the creativity of the agencies behind? You tell me!
By: Rocco Stallvord // Permalink // Comment(s):(6) Category(s):Health and beauty
From The Netherlands, a uber cool site to celebrate Volkswagen's 60th anniversary in the country and challenge your music knowledge. Everything it's in Dutch, but don't panic, just wait for the site to load, and then click on "speel het spel" to start playing...
You have to match every song with the decade it belongs to... I did 11 at the first attempt, and you?
The new chapter of the Bom Chicka Wah Wah campaign sees Axe partnering with Durex for a cross-promotion in Germany. The initiative is taking place now in Germany, with an online contest based on a puzzle game.
Don't expect anything special from the site, the only reason I post about this action is because of the curious partnership that, if you think about it, perfectly makes sense.
In The Netherlands, a social movement is born to protect the free use of the magenta colour in communication materials. The fight has begun recently, when mobile carrier T-Mobile has started a legal fight versus a series of Dutch brands such as Slam FM, Compello and 100% NL which magenta in their logo.
Basically T-Mobile claims it owns the rights to use magenta in commercial materials, saying the registered them at the Oami... It's such a silly thing!
I remember a similar case a few years ago, when Easy entered the mobile phones market and Orange started a legal action against easyMobile over its use of the color orange to promote telecommunications services. I don't know the end of the story, but I think it's curious to note mobile carriers have a complex with branding colours...
I recently received a review copy of Contagious' report on Social Networking and User Generated Content, and I'd like to share the reading with you.
SN and UCG are definitely among the most debated topics of the moment, both online and offline. As usual, when there's a lot of buzz about something, you can hear/read a lot of good insights and relevant opinions but also a lot of bullshit (pardon my French...). When I received the report I read it with great interest and curiosity, because I love consumer studies (I like the idea of feeling predator and prey at the same time) and because I feel there is (and I have) still so much to learn about the fascinating Internet world. Contagious is a great magazine, therefore my expectations on the report were high. And I must say that I haven't been disappointed.
What I liked most it's the editorial approach they've taken, building a report that mixes sites overviews, consumer studies, case studies as well as opinions and insights from people who work and manage the SN industry. In my opinion, very often when you read industry or trends reports you're flooded with stats and numbers, you look at them and then you ask yourself "and now what?". With Contagious' report this is not the case.
In the UK, Red Bull has launched an online cartoon competition. The goal of the Red Bull Tall Story contest is to make people interact with the brand and to find new stories to be featured in the next TV campaign, made of cartoons, that this year celebrates its tenth anniversary.
As explained on New Media Age, the energy drink brand is investing 500,000 pounds to promote the contest, using radio, print and online advertising as well as dedicated on-campus student promotions.
Rum Cacique is online with a new chapter of the Escucha la llamada story that first appeared on the Web two years ago.
According to what I read on Marketing News (in Spanish), Blackville is a sort of cartoon adventure game where users are asked to solve a mystery in order to run for a prize.
How long does it take to fly from Dubai to Sao Paulo? 14 hours and 40 minutes... it's a period of time long enough to discover everything (!) you need to know about Brazil, watching Fernando Ferreira in his non-stop performance for Emirates Airline.
On www.nonstopfernando.com Fernando continues talking without stopping about Sao Paulo and Brazilian culture, and the cameras keep rolling for the entire 14 hours and 40 minutes; there are no breaks, no cuts, no edits and no cheating.
From Germany, an email marketing campaign that wanted to prove that even online, when you use Axe, you attract a lot of girls. Basically the user gets sent an email from a friend with a link to a site, after visiting the site and spraying a little bit of Axe the recipient of the viral email receives a further series of messages from a dozen of young ladies. It's the Axe effect, right? But we have become so sensitive (and annoyed with unsolicited messages) that it rather looks like the spam effect.
You can see the video explaining in detail how the campaign worked on Ads of the World.
From the UK, a very original website created by Poke London to promote Orange's "Speak Easy" pay as you go plan. Perfectly in line with the campaign's tagline "Good things should never end", the site offers an unlimited experience.
At first sight, nothing happens, so you'll better start loading the site then go, have a drink, and come back to explore it... Also, it might help if I tell you you have to scroll down and scroll down to discover what it's all about.
In their latest newsletter, global seeding agency GoViral released an interesting viral video showcase. Since I had a share in putting together this list, I'm more then willing to point you at the downloadable pdf version :)
"12 months, 20 global brands, 27 pieces of branded content. As we are approaching end of the year and 2008 is in the planning we found it worth this time around to present a 'viral video showcase' with premium brands and viral campaigns from all of last year."
In the Netherlands Nivea has recently launched an online competition featuring an advergame where the action takes place in the metro.
Since the campaign it's targeted at Dutch metrosexuals looks like the brand has decided to play on words... and the result it's a straightforward, very simple, but apparently quite successful concept.
