Last week, a teaser on several Dutch TV channels announced a new talentshow called Men With Talent. As there was no further information available, confusion was around. But today it turned out to be the new Heineken commercial, making fun of the talentshow overload we're experiencing. Men With Talent is the official and worthy follow up on the highly successful Walk In Fridge commercial.

Marketing on Facebook is continuously evolving, while getting people's attention is getting more and more difficult. The coolness of the brand isn't a good reason for keeping its status updates in someone's timeline. So the same basic process applies in order to gain fans and keep them loyal. Once again, it's all about being valuable, providing good, amusing or best of all, useful content.

Easyjet has recently launched an Holiday Planner within its Facebook fan page. It's an application that allows fans (yep, you need to become a fan in order to be able to use it...) to plan holidays together with their friends. And very soon they are going to add a feature that will allow people to buy plane tickets directly from the social network, without having to visit the Easyjet website.

This is going to be a huge shift. We are starting to get used to give up our brand websites to let interactions with the our brand to happen mostly on social media... but ecommerce... that's another story. As a marketer, I don't know if I'm ready for this. Interactions and relationships on Facebook are so volatile. Also, trust is so difficult to get. I appreciate it's important to provide consumers with options but I can't imagine the death of the website to be too close.

From my friends at Nike Japan, a great video to promote the Nike Free running shoe.

That's so sad, yesterday Aegis announced that they were shutting down FarFar after ten years of an amazing journey with amazing projects. Looks like this video they made for their 10th anniversary works fine as the final tribute

Thanks FarFar :)

As a consumer based in Europe (and partly as a digital marketer), I never thought Gap was a cool brand. But now, a few days after the iPad has been launched, I definitely changed my mind.

The Gap 1969 Stream iPad app is so much of the moment! It's an iPad application that allows you to browse a lot of (branded) denim content, celebrities and designers videos as well as music. And on top of this, looks like you can also purchase products directly from the application. Once again, the geek marketer in me claims an iPad as soon as possible. But I guess I will have to wait until end of April to get one in Italy.

Today I discovered Bank Run, an interactive action movie that you can play online (the first part) and then continue on your iPhone by purchasing the application on the Apple Store. The game itself is pretty good, it is quite amusing and difficult enough to become addictive. But the smartest thing about the project is the ability to engage first and then connect with the players/consumers landing on their personal mobile devices.

Mix the platforms, establish a first contact on the Web and then continue the relationship on a mobile device. It's not a rule that the order should be this, but the principle to follow is quite straightforward: if you want to win consumers' attention in today's world, you need to be able to "connect" with them and their daily life. Which means, to deliver meaningful experiences (useful/entertaining) without necessarily requiring the consumer to visit our (corporate, brand, boring) website.

For a brand to "connect" might mean to create iPhone/mobile applications (or games) that people enjoy downloading and most of all keeping on a device which is part of their lives at least 12 hours a day. To connect might mean to engage and deliver value to fans on a Facebook fan page. To share news and new products but first of all to deliver valuable information worth interacting with in a flood of updates from tons of friends (and people you barely know).

Last year, while writing about the maturity of argentinean digital industry i came upon a campaign for Paso de los Toros, a bitter tonic water. This year they're back, with some extended features that takes the user to an interesting online-offline-online-offline trip:

The agency is BBDO Argentina.

From Oz - I'm sure I've seen this type of idea before (the freeze motion to view product details but can't remember where - was it done by Uniqlo??) Anyway Jay Jays Dance Off 3D is an interactive catalogue - a mash up of fashion, music & movement. Check out all the dancers & find the codeword for 20% off in store.

Users can get their 3D glasses in-store. Nice idea but having to go to a retail outlet and then return to the site seems like a lot of work just to see the seasons range (which you would have already done if you actually went in-store to get the glasses).

You may have experienced (suffered ?) some hoaxes on this April fools' day...
Among the pranks and fakes issued by media publishers and brands today, Nike got my vote.
To be fully transparent, I must (re)say, not only Nike is my client, I am also a big fan of the brand,
nevertheless I didn't work on that project and I truly liked it when I discovered it today.

If you have always wondered where the air of the Nike Air shoes is coming from, Nike revealed its secret today :

Are looking for more cool interactive ideas? Check the archives