Author Archives: Mark

What the SPAM!!??

Not sure how long this site has been up but it is absolutely hilarious! I guess when you get to the stage that SPAM is at with its brand you just have to give in and poke some fun at yourself. They even have a SPAMmobile that is venturing around the USA delivering all the goodness of SPAM to the masses. It’s a pretty cool design and the videos have been really well scripted. In the SPAMFESSIONALS section there are “supposedly” user coments such as “I thought the SPAMMOBILE had wings. Because it’s an angel of deliciousness!” Too funny… I loved it. Check it out.

Let the games begin…

Cannes has begun for this year. So what are your choices for the gold Cyber’s? My guess is that this year a Cyber choice will be the Best of Show. Given the surge within our industry towards interactive and digital the judges (and the whole event itself) can’t be seen as “old school”. Well it’s just my opinion…

Not So Shiny

What do you all think about Apple’s new site? They’ve moved away from the excessively copied shiny plastic lolly aesthetic which was cool (once upon a time). The graduated reflective buttons that they used are gone and it’s back to the basics of usability. NICE!! I am so glad to see a “design leader” revert to the simplicity of good function, fast download speeds and limited animations whilst still displaying a lovely design interface. I like it. Do you?

Welcome Snoop

Looks like MTV are cashing in on the recent government rejection of Snoop into Australia. It seems as though he is going for full Australian citizinship. This looks like the teaser so can’t wait for the full campaign… then again - imagine Snoop as an Australian!!

Your consumer cannot be found

While Mark is looking for ground-breaking and usable agency websites, Shedwa points at this great example. At first glance you think the page cannot be found, but a second look learns you so much more. The connection to your consumer cannot be found. Read further and you’ll see how simple and strong an agency message (and website) can be. Kudos for Westwayne!

Agency sites try too hard…

Have you noticed that 99% of major global agencies (and I mean the big five groups - not the independant agencies)have bad sites or a holding-page or nothing at all… I find it weird that as agency folk we don’t always put forward our best work on our own sites (from a design/execution perspective). I know, I know - we are all too busy working on cool work for clients which actually pay the bills but I just wish that one MAJOR agency network would break free and really do a site that is worthy of a global award in its own right or at least get big respect from the peer community for pushing it hard whilst keeping some sense of usability. Check out the new site for tbwahakuhodo in Tokyo… it’s a monster/great amount of work they did, but it’s sooooo frustrating and hard to find anything you may want to look at as a prospective client. It’s cool, but I think it’s only for the “sake of cool”. Can anyone send an agency site that is both ground-breaking (design/tech) and usable from a (god forbid - client angle!!)?

Sprite goes kite

After the very successful Dynamite Surfing video from Quicksilver, I knew similar branded video’s wouldn’t take long to pop up. And indeed, here’s the first. What seems to be a terrible kite surf accident, filmed by amateurs, turns out to be a Sprite Zero ad. Not as brilliant as Dynamite Surfing, but still entertaining.

Essence Beach Showercam

It looks like the feed of cool AXE campaigns just doesn’t stop. This time it’s an RFID experiment with a beach showercam. You can adjust the shower temperature and see the effects on a hot beach girl. Easy and fun. via Coolz0r

Teaching them young

How is energy is generated? How much does it cost? How does it affect the environment? These are extremely important topics today, and are no longer just the domain of engineers and industry experts. ElectroCity was developed by Draft in New Zealand to increase public awareness – particularly among students – of the basic “common knowledge” of these topics. That is, the general terms and concepts of the industry and the dilemmas that go along with them. The goal is not to provide students with a sophisticated understanding of the controversies in the various energy debates. Rather, it’s to spark an interest and lay an unbiased foundation for later learning. Great to see big corporate companies (especially Energy one’s) putting some money behind education of the environment.

NOTHING to hide

Very amazing client to let this one through… in fact it supposedly is the client who is the star. The green screen streams are a bit average in transition but it at least brings “nothing” into the mainstream. In their own words “elave commissioned this risque eye-catching method of communicating the serious message that elave has no worrying chemicals in its formulations and therefore ‘nothing to hide’. ”

I’m not sure how many clients will follow this angle for the sake of “hits” but it will be interesting to see…