Long time I don't post about advergames. Is it a sign? Are advergames getting out of fashion? Maybe. The focus has shifted, we all now the new trend is called social media :-)

Anyway... this post is about an advergame and a juice, Capri Sun.

The project is aimed at kids, and the design and animation make the difference in delivering a nice experience very much in Pixar style.

via

If you love chocolate, you should have a look at Pierre Marcolini's new website. In my opinion, it's a clear example of how difficult it is to create an online experience around food.

Great photographs and few words make the difference. But in this case I don't feel completely satisfied. The pleasure of a real piece of chocolate is just impossible to reproduce digitally.

From Japan, a new interesting project by Uniqlo. How to make a polo collection cool just playing with some good photos and a great sound design.

And e-commerce store, as usual, is just one click away.

You've probably seen the Wii Warioland Shake it experience on YouTube. Vimeo, known as YouTube's high quality competitor, now takes these kind of site takeovers to a whole new level with the Honda Insight campaign. Below you see the commercial, but for the whole experience, you should visit Vimeo itself.

I'm a huge fan of James Jarvis toys. So I can't help loving the short animated video he created for Nike (yes, this is another reason why I like it :-)

Interesting to point out how limited the presence of the brand is. Just a tiny note at the end of the credits. No swoosh, no URLs, nothing. Great job

Heineken keeps walking on it's viral success of the Walk In Fridge commercial. Earlier we saw the 'user generated' spoof, and now they made an official follow up called Walking Fridge. Again, not as good as the original, but it will make you smile on this lazy Friday afternoon.

I just discovered the Coca Cola's corporate responsibility online project called Vivendo Positivamente. It's a website for South America where all Coke's social initiatives are reported and shared with the public.

The cool thing about the site is the fact that it has been conceived like any other consumer marketing project: a 3D interface, nice flash animations, catchy and meaninful icons and the possibility to save and share the projects we find more interesting.

Jungstil is a german online secure shop and this is an intended-viral video that was released a few days ago.

I loved it because this is such a truthful insight, i've seen something like this several times (except for the mutilation, i didn't stay so long -LOL-)

Thx Tobias!

Strange but true, Lacoste is becoming (or coming back) as a cool brand, at least online, and/or at least for its latest website. The campaign was shot by Terry Richardson, and this is already a good start.

The website visuals look very familiar to me, with a strong mix of white, red and green. I like the way the collection is presented. I like the weird messages all around the screen. I like the music in the transitions among sections. I just don't like the advergame, it looks like it has been forced into the site. It simply doesn't fit.

Selling t-shirts online is getting harder and harder because of the growing competition. T-shirt artworks matter (of course!) but you need a further push to succeed. Being able to generate word of mouth is the first element that comes into my mind. But the key is to have a good website where the click&buy; button is right there where it can trigger consumers' compulsory shopping instinct.

Check out the Rated Rookies website. It's a t-shirt collection showcase, nothing more but the point is that everything is simple and nicely done.

I'm sure it's fun releasing a video in which some waves are generated by a dynamite explosion and seeing that, time after that, Mythbusters try to prove if it can be done or not.

(thx Andros!)

This week I am judging the D&AD; awards in London. I'll be regularly tweeting about this experience - and if you like it I'll do the same at Cannes in a few months time. twitter.com/issybella All the best sites and winners will be posted here (after I'm allowed to share them of course) ;-)

If Ashton does it, why shouldn't we? I'm dropping my old personal account (martiz) and kicking off the official/real adverblog account (twitter.com/realadverblog). Why "real"? Because someone has taken/stolen the adverblog username and is using it just to publish the feed of this blog. Weird, annoying, but true.

In this new campaign for Vodafone UK, Dare Digital created a little short film that only lives in Facebook so you have to go there to see and/or comment. Up to date, the video has over a thousand comments from people saying what they would do, which is remarkable (and really brave on the side of the brand) because it shifts the attention from the traditional medium for this kind of things (TV, and re-edited into a 20" format) and carries all the people to an online content.

For the launching of the new and ultralight Puma Lift shoe, Droga5 teamed up with the whizs at Firstbon Multimedia for the online side of the campaign: this website that recreates a virtual fulcrum. I'm a long time fan of Firstborn's work, even since the days of the old Yigal Azrouel or Madonna's Music websites. Years later, they also have a strong basketball team and, besides of that, they remain really humble even when they're one of the hottest and most talented digital shops out there.

The website itself is really simple, as it uses an idea from Droga 5 based on the main attribute of the shoe, its minimum weight, so you can test the weights of different things compared to the shoe and you quickly get the idea on how light it is.

I don't know how to categorize this post because it's not advertising itself but i think that Tweenbots is one of the smartest projects that i've found this year regarding people interacting on their own and with the others for a common cause. A brief description would be that Tweenbots are little robots, human-dependants, that navigate the city with the help of people they encounter, as they roll in a straight line and at a constant speed. Each one of the robots has a destination displayed on a flag and relies on people's help to reach its destination. It's techie but it's also really tender, check the video to see how they work:

Thanks Rafa!

This Jameson's (an irish whiskey) interactive-real-time-wall outdoor is fantastic:

Thanks Pit!

Shopping online for food has never been so cool (and even sexy). Check out the website of Les Gourmandises de Lolita Lempicka where food photographs, illustrations and animations mix in a sweet and engaging way.

Food prices are also for "amateurs", but if the chocolate and the cookies are good as their packaging and presentation, maybe it's really worth spending 8€ for a small box of petit beurre :-)

In Spain, even though it's not as hard as advertising tobacco brands, when advertising alcohol there's always a limit that you can't push; for instance, on TV commercials you can show the product but no one can be seen drinking it. That is why many of these brands do branded entertainment instead of focusing on creating ideas about their products' USP. One of the most notable examples of this kind of advertising is Mahou, a beer brand that has been doing interesting things online for several years, first with Herraiz y Soto doing their interactive and now working with DoubleYou.

This year's campaign is called "La Wikipeli" ("The Wikimovie"), in which Jose Corbacho and Juan Cruz (two famous comedians in Spain) are preparing a new short-film whose plot, characters, scenes, and so on, are chosen by users taking polls, sending videos or commenting the whole process and deciding things on-the-fly.

Philips produces cinematic HD TV's with the 21:9 movie format. To get attention for the TV's and show all features (like Ambilight) at best, a website is launched which is definitely worth checking out. Not only for the TV experience, but als for the impressive freezed 3D movie which is shown within the TV.

Credits go to Tribal DDB and Stink Digital

This action developed by The Kitchen (part of Grey Paris) promotes VOD, a new film-selling service from MK2 in France (under the idea of "your computer and movies are no longer more than one thing"), taking away people attention while watching "Fast and the Furious 4" trailer in french cinemas... brilliant!

(via: Los medios alternos)

The Webby Awards just announced the Official Honorees and Nominees for the 12th annual Webby celebration. Out of the Nominees the Webby Award winners will be chosen by a grand jury. Also, the People's Choice Awards will be granted. Voting for these awards runs from April 14th to April 30th. All winners will be announced during the award ceremony on June 9th and 10th in New York. For now, you can go for an inspirational tour through the worlds best internet work in over 70 categories. Enjoy

I love this simple (smart) idea by Smart: a tiny URLs generator "to park large url's into tiny spaces.

via Adivertido.

O'Neill is online with a new website, refreshing and young as the brand aims to be. From the first click you have to decide whether you want to discover the women or the men version, and this is already an important decision that has been taken (by the brand, not by the consumer :) as, in my opinion it's a bit brave yet praiseworthy to separate in such a strong way the two experiences.

Steve is a typical teenager who has been granted (he thinks) several amazing powers due to the natural ingredients of Nestea, that is the main plot of this funny site called "Nestea Liquid Awesomeness" and developed by Venables, Bell and Partners and Odopod.

Vince Shlomi is also known in the US as the ShamWow Guy, a pitchman that succesfully peddles absorbent towels and food choppers, and that was arrested last month on the charge of assaulting a prostitute. So, due to the spot created in the cleaning market a video was released recently, in which a new product called SlamWow (claiming that it will replace everything) based on Slamson, the mascot of Sacramento Kings basketball team.

Although not having a lot of views (yet) the video is hilarious, mimicking all the do's and don't of a sales pitchman ad and I don't know if this is a particular creation from a fan or there is a campaign for the team behind, as the Kings are about to complete a horrible season.

As you might remember, BMW already played with 3D animation. Well, it seems that when the German automotive company gets into innovative projects, they never do things by halves.

In UK, they 've adapted their "Expression of Joy" campaign on many supports and technologies. One to notice is the Augmented Reality application :

You can start the experience here.

I admit they are not the first brand to use AR, but in my point of view the all campaign remains consistent, especially regarding the positioning of the product, and shows a nice execution.
Note that the BMW group already used this technology in Germany for their Mini brand. They have also explored this field for some years now, in a very interesting industrial and service perspective.

Soccer and rugby players use to swap jerseys after every game and this is the main point for a new campaign released by Adidas in New Zealand.

The Super 14 is the largest rugby union football club championship in the southern hemisphere, so to promote their 2009 edition Adidas released this quick microsite called Super 14 Jersey Swap where you can win some free game tickets for the tournament and also swapping (for real) your jersey with a player at the game, exactly as they do in the site.

A terrible earthquake has hit my country. Over 260 people have died and almost 30000 people have lost their home. Let's help them. And please help me spreading the word. Thank you.

In The Netherlands, the "Nationaal Comité 4 en 5 mei" has launched an online exhibition to explain young generations what it ment for the country to face World War II.

The website offers an immersive Flash and 3D experience which takes visitors through the first five days of the German invasion started on May 10, 1940.

Done by Poke London, this is great. Albion, a bakery from London, is using something called Baker Tweet to announce what is being cooked in their kitchen. Check out the video:

And the site for further information.

Yesterday I liked this site called "6 minutes to midnight", for the upcoming Watchmen film. I'm not very much a fan of these comic series but it looked interesting to me the way of displaying a teaser trailer, through Rorschach (the name of one of the vigilantes) tests that allow (each) you to get previously unseen content and revealing more info about the film in (i think) a catchy way for the real fans.

We just did this for Kia's new Soul car. The basic idea is that no two souls are the same.
The face-flipping tool is cool and it makes some weirdo sets. I like flipping the individual panels to make my own soul. Click the Random Soul on the right to change it all or upload your own.

In The Netherlands, IKEA has launched a nice online campaign to promote its kitchens and drive loyalty as well as new customer acquisitions.

Those who bought an IKEA kitchen are invited to share their setup and help building a "virtual" but "real" kitchens gallery. But you don't contribute just for the sake of or, better, to show off your home (which might be already a strong reason to participate for Dutch people who are usually very proud of their interior designs). If you decide to share your kitchen in the gallery you can actually win the chance to get your money back on your purchase

Looks like we've got a new trend here. Following the success of the New York based prank collective Improv Everywhere, brands now start to do their own branded flash mobs. In January, T-Mobile had a huge hit with it's Liverpool Street Station dance. Last week, both Amsterdam and Antwerp had it's turn. Who's next?

In Italy D'Adda, Lorenzini, Vigorelli, BBDO have launched the new agency website. Very very -2.0...The interface is conceived like an MS-DOS screen, and you have to type commands to access the sub-sections. My favourite part is the loader, with the 56K modem sounds.

The MS-DOS interface is a very nice idea, probably not very usable, but surely creative. The problem, in my opinion, is that such an interface is like an implicit declaration of "we are so much a traditional agency". Take Modernista, for example, they did exactly the opposite, and I like them better, of course but, you know, I'm a geek girl :-)

Are looking for more cool interactive ideas? Check the archives