In Belgium the online buzz is all around Ray. Do you remember the Coke campaign in Grand Theft Auto style?

Well, it looks like Ray is alive and kicky, and the "Reality Police" is chasing him. Anyone who has information about Ray and can help discovering his real identity is invited to visit www.realray.be to sign-up and get ready to share such tips.

Ray also has a page on Netlog, the most popular social network in the country.

A GPS system becomes a tool for for storytelling, to "navigate" through the life of a great basketball player, Steve Nash. Definitely an amazing commercial for the NBA (where amazing happens).

The agency is Goodby Silverstein & Partners, the animation production company is Lifelong Friendship Society, New York.

via Motiongrapher (where you can also find the HD version of the spot).

Strawberry Frog is back with a new lovely work for Onitsuka Tiger. It's the Electric Tiger Land, a Japanese metropolis in the heart of a sneaker.

The video animation is very nice and definitely delivers an experience.

I'm surprised Microsoft has worked on a new version of Office for Mac, and I'm even more surprised by the nice site they've launched to promote the new software. "Simplify your work" explains the product characteristics with lovely animations and a touch of sweetness I wouldn't have expected from Microsoft.

The agencies behind the site are McCann SF & Firstborn.

via Cpluv.

In the UK, Cadbury is online with a weird website called The Creme Egg Goo-ology Research Centre, which has the mission of helping"Creme Eggs release their goo, and fulfil their sweet, sticky, runny destiny".

There is quite a lot of content to explore (videos, advergames, a personality test ect...), and some parts are even amusing. However I'm not sure I fully get the meaning of this site...

In the UK the British Heart Foundation has recently launched the Food4Thought website with the aim of promoting healthy lifestyle to children.

The site is a sort of adventure game, where children play exploring a virtual city full of junk food advertising messages. As explained on NMA, the idea of the BHF is to run a digital campaign that employes the tactics used by snack brands which continue to advertise through child-focused sites.

K-Swiss is online with a simple but nice website dedicated to freerunning. The concept is built around user generated content: type a word or a short sentence and watch K-Swiss testimonial (and "inventor" of free running) Sebastien Foucan jumping over the letters.

Perfect Fools is behind the site.

To promote the new football game FIFA Street 3, EA Games just released this cool new viral. It shows some high quality extreme football from Mexico. They sure used some 3D add-ons, but that doesn't make it less interesting. Anyhow, it's made by W+K Amsterdam and launched across Europe.

Animated short movies to promote your brand. It's relatively new and can be, at least in terms of viral spread, very successful seeing Coca-Cola's Happiness Factory and Wilkinson's Fight For Kisses. KitKat France got the message and created their own animated short about a young office boy looking for the ultimate break.

Via Culture Buzz

In Japan Lupin is still alive and kicky as in the Seventies. I've just discovered this site www.lupin-steal.com that I don't understand as it's in Japanese (once again it would be great if Shingo or someone else could explain me/us what the site is about :-) but I still found great, not only because it reminded me of the hours spent watching Japanese cartoons in the Tv when I was young(er).

I clicked all around, enjoying the bits and pieces of the cartoon I used to love and discovering a page with a game...

If your boss flies with Finnair he might be back in the office earlier than you expect. You'll better take this into account before making the same mistake Joe did... EarlyJack is an amusing mini-site launched by Finnair to promote its flights from Europe to Asia.

The site also features a video advergame that challenges viewers to play and have fun with Joe before his boss comes back from Japan. If you manage to to see all stunts before his boss Jack comes back from Japan, you will win flight tickets for two to Asia or Europe.

via Brainwash

In France, Coca-Cola has launched a mini-site to "hire" more people for its Happiness Factory.

In the US, Crispin Porter + Bogusky has recently created a "pizza builder" for Domino's pizza. Being Italian, I'm extremely conservative when it comes to pizza, since I believe the best is the simplest you can have (just mozzarella and tomato). I started looking at the "tool" with curiosity (and a touch of horror)...

The experience is rich and quite amusing, especially if in the past you used to play Pizza Tycoon :-) but the great thing is that once you're done with your creativity, you can actually place the order and receive at home your "personalized" pizza in just half an hour!

In the UK Honda has launched a mini-site to support its upcoming new campaign dubbed "The Joy of Problems".

The full site will launch next February (and again I personally find disputable the decision of going live with a work-in-progress site, but they must have had their good reasons for this). For the time being the site features a nice Tetris inspired layout and a jigsaw that users are called to help solving.

One year after the Heidies project it's again time to talk about creative lingerie related projects.

KnickerPicker has recently launched an online dress room in which, even if the experience is virtual, models are real, they are presented in video and move around if you ask them too. It's an e-commerce store that definitely offers something new, and not only for voyeurs...

The other brand that tries something different althought not new for a fashion brand, is Passionata which will stream live on the Web its catwalk that will take place at the end of the month in Paris.

Even if this is not a TV ad, I'm sure that you will enjoy it. It's the making-of montage of the Omaha Beach invasion of World War II re-created for a BBC Timewatch documentary. Even if you have a low budget, if you have great skills and creativity, the sky is the limit!

via Motiongrapher.

I really like the bravery of the project launched by Burton in North America. It's called "Sabotage Stupidity" and it challenges snowboarders to poach inside one of the four US resorts which still don't allow snowboarding.

Snowboarders are invited to submit a video that documents their experience, and the best video will be awareded with a cash prize worth $5000. Once again it's a challenge for user generated content, but it's a cool challenge, relevant and inspiring for Burton's target audience, so... well done! And let's see what happens!

via Direct Daily

Let's refresh ourselves with some web ideas from countries we don't mention very often. For example, today I point you to the new site of McDonalds in Poland, very nicely designed by Endorfine.

My favourite part of the site is the store locator, probably too dark and mysterious to be in line with the McD brand, but definitely kind of fascinating (and now ask me how can a store locator be fascinating... ??!! :-).

Ok, ok, the site is all in Japanese and you won't understand a word on it. But if you're curious discover the latest Axe integrated action in Japan. It's the Axe Laser effect.

Would be great if someone from Japan could explain me what the action is about... I decided this is going to be my "Japanese" year, I want to go to Japan, and I'm interested in everything that comes from there, so please be patient and help me understanding the Axe Laser effect! :-)

Prospect Denim has launched a basic but lovely designed website to present its new collection.

There isn't much to do on the site apart exploring the denim collection. There is a promising "Purchase" button in the top navigation menu, but at the moment if you click it you just get disappointed and rather annoyed, as the functionality is still under construction. Wouldn't it be better to add the button at a later stage, with the e-commerce system in place instead of disappointing the visitors? It's as simple as that...

The agency is MediaBoom

via

Sony Ericsson has recently launched a colorful global mini-site to promote its new W910i and W580 models. Everything is conceived around a rather psychedelic experience that mixes music and colors and allows users to create unique and personalized kaleidoscopes.

It's a nice site, and apparently a lot of people have already created their own kaleidoscope. Too bad it reminds me so much of Audi's Rhythm of lines website which was based on exactly the same concept: follow the music and draw lines around the screen...

One year after "ze german costgard", it's time for another amusing Berlitz commercial...

via

FOXTEL in Australia has launched a new website to try and educate people on High Definition TV. Most HD sites are a mix of techie content and hard to understand diagrams. The Foxtel concept is all about entertainment with some deeper content for the techies should they want it. It's all about the pixels on your screen and how they are freaking out with the impending loss of space once HD arrives.

From Australia, the OriginalsFestival, a online pixel graphics game by Adidas and Vice which lets you create your own music festival.

You have a budget of 100k, that you have to use to a) put together your own dream festival line-up from a pool of around 200 bands, b) book the venue c) design the promo poster d) book the after-party band or DJ.

I'm not sure since when this website is live, but it delivers an immersive interactive experience (around Hyundai), so I post it anyway, even if I realize the Think About It campaign actually started last September.

The site is rather heavy (so you'll better shut down all other browser windows while you experience it) but offers a lot of content to discover, watch and interact with.

If you look at the menu of the bottom you will be able to preview the kind of experience you will get from each element of the site. One of my favourite is surely "Save the egg" where you are challenged to build a safety system to protect an egg that is falling from the sky.

If you're committed to save energy and support recycling, you shall start building your green credentials by recycling film clips to create your own commercial...

In the UK, power supplier EDF Energy is launching today the TV ad above, created by Euro RSCG, that uses "recycled" film clips including the Wombles, Thunderbirds and John F Kennedy. The soundtrack is an adapted version of Sesame Street song "It's Not Easy Being Green".

At Nike Italy we are currently looking for a young talent to join for six months our brand communication team. If you're interested and qualified for the position, your English (as well as your Italian!) is excellent and you are willing to move to Bologna, please send me your CV to this address: submitnews @ adverblog. com.

Update: Please note this position is at Nike Italy, so you should already live in Italy and you need to speak and write perfectly Italian in order to qualify

I love the site developed by Proximity BBDO Paris to present the safety features of Mercedes' cars. Video plays a key role in the experience. First, visitors are presented with a futuristic and inspiring video that showcases the Mercedes S capability to avoid obstacles and anticipate potential dangers.

Then the content gets more instructive and practical. A video documentary with a voice over shows and explains at the same time the concept of "securite integrale" of the Mercedes S Class.

Are looking for more cool interactive ideas? Check the archives