Greenpeace Darth Vader spoof campaign

Greenpeace have launched a nice campaign in response to VW apparently “using its huge political muscle to lobby against key environmental laws”, using a follow up video continuing from the Little Vader Star Wars Superbowl ad released earlier this year.  The Greenpeace video continues from the point the VW ad ends, in a quirky viral which includes miniature versions of the rebel alliance asking users to join them in their fight against the 'Darkside'.  Other activity included guerrilla takeovers of outdoor sites across the capital today, using the Darth Vader imagery with a url to their website www.vwdarkside.com

Pic - Greenpeace Volkswagen Darth Vader spoof campaign

For those of you who haven't yet seen the original ad this can be found below, along with another video from Marvel which spoofed the ad for the release of the Thor movie in April.


Video - The Force: Volkswagen Commercial


Video - Little Thor


So what do you think, is this a just move by Greenpeace and will gather adequate momentum?


Hat tip to Sheepers for sending this through!!

Intel 'Museum of Me' - Personalised Facebook Experience

Intel have created a new Facebook experience which has definitely shown us once again what is possible when a brand can put their mind to it.  Intel's 'Museum of Me' is a personalised video experience which by logging into your Facebook account unveils a beautiful 3 minute piece of content.

Pic 1 - Intel 'Museum of Me' 

By using basic information about the user, the video takes photos, likes, friend, and status information to craft a fantastic personalised gallery which is really worth trying.  Although it may be scary allowing this information to be pulled, the application can be simply removed via your privacy setting once you have seen it.

Pic 2 - Intel 'Museum of Me' 

I am a big fan of this style of Facebook integrated bespoke content, and feel that if done right can achieve some impressive user engagement.  I think the only thing which must come up time and time again is how you keep the user experience high, whilst still achieving an equally strong level of brand (and more importantly campaign/ product) awareness.

Check it out here: 'Museum of Me'

Magnum Pleasure Hunt Flash Experience

This is a fantastic example of a great online flash game from Magnum ice-cream, which allows the user to navigate multiple websites collecting Magnums along the way.  The idea created by Lowe Brindfors is based around the fact that the internet is a treasure full of pleasures, as control the game character around multiple sites interacting with anyone and everything as she goes. Well worth checking out if you have a spare couple of minutes pleasurehunt.mymagnum.com.

Pic 1 - Magnum Pleasure Hunt


Enjoy!

YouTube Desperados Experience and other Channel examples

Now I'm a big fan of brands making the most of their YouTube channel to engage their users, and this time it is Tequila flavoured beer brand Desperdos who have created the Desperados Experience. After entering their age upon entry to the channel users enter a fully interactive party, where they are prompted to play with the music, knock down walls, and hook up to Facebook connect to personalise their experience. This is definitely worth checking out if you haven't already and can be found here: www.youtube.com/user/desperados

Pic 1 - YouTube Desperados Experience

Pic 2 - YouTube Desperados Experience


If you like that there are some other examples here: SchickHydro, Kitkat



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Lynx - Angel Augmented Reality Victoria Station Ambush

Now I know I have recently cited an example of activity from the latest 'Angels will fall' Lynx campaign, and do not mean to 'harp' on about it, however this is a fantastic recent example of engaging an audience through augmented reality. The video explains it all, but I really like the way this naturally involves passers by to watch and get involved.


Video - Lynx Excite Angel Ambush London Victoria

The video is explained in further depth on their Facebook page, took place on the 5th March at London Victoria Station, with further activity which happened in Birmingham Bullring 19th & 20th March 2011. Further Pictures below.


Pic 1 - Lynx Fallen Angel Victoria Station Augmented Reality



Pic 2 - Lynx Fallen Angel Victoria Station Augmented Reality


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Happy Fifth Birthday Twitter!

According to the Twitter blog, this week sees in their fifth birthday and it was this time in 2006 when a small team of people started working on a prototype of the microblogging service. It was in fact March 21, 2006, when Jack Dorsey (@jack) sent the first Tweet, and since then the site has continued to rocket to the Twitter we know today.

There have been some staggering figures in these first five years since the creation of Twitter, however I have included the stats from the original post which I think say it all.

The interesting thing from my point of view will be where Twitter goes next, and whether it can maintain this success or whether it has reached it's natural peak. With the recent introduction of various ways of monetising the service, with marketing options such as promoted tweets, and promoted trends, I do believe there are a few tricks left up the sleeve of the Twitter folk yet. I'd be interested to know what you think, and how you think Twitter will expand on the success of the first five years?

#tweets
3 years, 2 months and 1 day. The time it took from the first Tweet to the billionth Tweet.

1 week. The time it now takes for users to send a billion Tweets.

50 million. The average number of Tweets people sent per day, one year ago.

140 million. The average number of Tweets people sent per day, in the last month.

177 million. Tweets sent on March 11, 2011.

456. Tweets per second (TPS) when Michael Jackson died on June 25, 2009 (a record at that time).

6,939. Current TPS record, set 4 seconds after midnight in Japan on New Year’s Day.

#accounts
572,000. Number of new accounts created on March 12, 2011.

460,000. Average number of new accounts per day over the last month.

182%. Increase in number of mobile users over the past year.

#employees
8. 29. 130. 350. 400. Number of Twitter employees in Jan 2008, Jan 2009, Jan 2010, Jan 2011 and today.



Pic - Twitter Birthday Cake

Top 10 brands on Facebook - Infographic

Here is a nice little infographic I found giving a snapshot of some top ten's including brands, celebs and TV shows which I thought I'd share courtesy of allfacebook.com.


Pic - Top 10 Brands on Facebook Infographic

St Patrick's Day Ad - Guinness 'Man Hugs' Video

To celebrate St Patrick's Day on March 17th Guinness have released the below video as a reminder of how to act appropriately this year when engaging in a man hug. Also pop along to their Facebook page if you are a fan of the beer to claim a free pint, as well as watch further lessons such as 'How to engage a stranger in a conversation'.


Video - Guinness 'Man Hugs' Video

Happy St Paddy's Day!!

Cadbury Creme Egg Cad-apult - using Google Maps to goo your friends

Cadbury's Creme Egg is one of those brands who are known for creating some very clever and engaging formats and microsites, and this example is no different. The Cadbury Creme Egg Cad-apult from Canada gives people the opportunity to goo both friend or foe by simply imputing their address and hitting the 'fire' button, then using the Google Maps functionality an egg is fired through the sky directly onto the chosen target. This is definitely one worth checking out, so you can view the microsite here Returnofthegoo.ca


Pic 1 - Cadbury Creme Egg Cad-apult



Pic 2 - Cadbury Creme Egg Cad-apult



Pic 3 - Cadbury Creme Egg Cad-apult


Enjoy!

Volkswagen Black Beetle YouTube Takeover.. and others

Maybe not a post for those who are not a fan of creepy crawlies, however a great example of another YouTube takeover for the VW Black Beetle. The video takeover which can be viewed at youtube.com/blackbeetle and acts as an extension to their fantastically popular Super Bowl commercial showing a beetle running around the undergrowth past the other traffic, knocking down the screen and disrupting the other insects as it goes. I have included the ad under the screenshot below for those who have not seen it.



Pic - Volkswagen Black Beetle YouTube Takeover


Video - Volkswagen Commercial: Black Beetle

Also look out for the dragonfly which follows your cursor around after the video, a nice touch I think.


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Britain's Got Talent 2011 YouTube Competition

Once again Britain's Got Talent is nearly upon us, and this year to ensure they continue to recruit the best the UK has to offer a competition will be held on YouTube giving a handful of people the chance to audition in front of the judges. Users are being asked to upload themselves and their unique talents to YouTube via the Britain's Got Talent channel by the 24th March to be in with a chance of winning.


Video - Britain's Got Talent Entry Competition

I think this a great extension to an already very successful programme, and like it or not, it is always a positive move when fresh ideas can be introduced in order to keep viewers engaged in the format before people have a chance to get bored. Although this recruitment process is nothing new and has been done many times before, it is becoming increasingly important for channels such as ITV to build upon the content they have in order to prolong the talkability of shows like Britain's Got Talent.


Pic - Britain's Got Talent 2011 YouTube Channel

Facebook Usage - Video infographic

I'm personally a very big fan of this style of video infographics, and so here is an excellent little snapshot of some incredible Facebook usage stats. Regardless of the fact that the video mainly focuses on US usage, I think this is still worth a watch.


Video - The World Is Obsessed With Facebook

My personal favorite stats from this are that apparently 57% of people talk more online, than they do in real life, and that 48% of young Americans said that they find out about what is happening in the news via Facebook.


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Lynx: Even Angels will Fall - Rich Media Example

As some of you would have seen by now the new Lynx Angels will fall campaign is building nicely into certainly one of my favourite at the moment, and not just due to the scantily clad angels either (this is excluding the crazy big brother style online series for the same campaign in Europe unfortunately). I really like the way the campaign is building, which was only supported further by a MPU I spotted on Media Mind's blog. To jog your memory the TV ad is below.


Video - Lynx Excite TV Advert - Full Length Version

Using google maps and postcode functionality built into the unit the user enters their postcode, to see an angel fall from the sky onto their location. This can be seen from the following link seen here: Creative Zone Served by MediaMind - Lynx - Google Maps


Pic 1: Lynx Angels will fall rich MPU


Pic 2: Lynx Angels will fall rich MPU


Pic 3: Lynx Angels will fall rich MPU


Pic 4: Lynx Angels will fall rich MPU

Enjoy!

Cravendale Goodbye Cow, Pirate and Cyclist advert

As sad as I am to say, one of my favorite creatives of all time is ending, Cravendale Milk are no longer going to be using Not To Scale's directing duo Pic Pic Andre's characters for their commercials. The 'Goodbye Cow,Pirate, and Cyclist' ad created by Wieden + Kennedy and Pic Pic Andre now pays homage to the previous adverts with a quirky, and I'm sure you'll agree emotional, tune to support the work. Enjoy!


Video - Goodbye Cow, Pirate and Cyclist


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BT Chat for Change - Comic Relief Video

Comic Relief is here once again, and as one of the sponsors, BT is calling upon everyone to get involved and do their bit. Friday 18th February is 'BT Chat for Change' day and they will donate 1p to Comic Relief for every BT home landline call.


Video - BT Chat for Change


1. Other ways to get involved including retweeting the following: BT will donate 1p to Comic Relief for every BT home landline call on Feb 18. Call someone with a joke to take part! #BTChatforChange www.facebook.com/BTchatforchange

OR...

2. Visiting - facebook.com/BTchatforchange

OR...

3. Sharing the promotional video above


Thanks!

Valentine's Day - Victoria's Secret Do's & Don'ts

A tad late but here is a nice video from Victoria's Secret for Valentine's Day highlighting some of the classic do's and don'ts.



Video - Valentine Do's & Don'ts from Victoria's Secret


Enjoy!

Foursquare Infographic 2011

Foursquare have posted this interesting infographic showing some very interesting topline figures from last year, most impressive perhaps is their staggering 3400% growth. It does make me wonder however how the geo-location service will try to maintain this in 2011, especially with the increasing popularity of Facebook Places and the new announcement of Facebook Stories of the back of this.



Pic - Foursquare Infographic 2011

Intel 'The Chase' Viral

Here is a quick Friday viral from Intel to build excitement around the 2nd Generation Intel® Core™ i5 processor showing the speed and potential of the product via an epic chase through the internet, including Flickr, YouTube, Facebook, and Google Maps.


Movie - Intel 'The Chase Film'


Enjoy!

Digital Advertising Predictions for 2011

Yesterday Chris Maples, Commercial Director at Microsoft Advertising posted his ‘Digital Dozen’ predictions for digital advertising in 2011 which have been listed below. This is a very interesting selection, all of which were clearly visible by the end of 2010 proving that in terms of advances in the consumer relationship between technology, social, and advertising comms looks to be a very interesting year.

1. Technology and creativity in advertising will evolve, hand in hand

2. Location-aware technology

3. Mobile will (finally) come into its own

4. Social media IS the internet

5. The individual as personal brand

6. The evolution of branded content

7. Privacy is all about the value exchange: What can advertisers offer consumers in exchange for their information?

8. Digital evolution vs revolution: Microtrends become nanotrends

9. Social and Search: A new breed of digital marketer is born

10. Social shopping and crowd sourcing will come out of infancy

11. Gaming will move onto the next level

12. The ‘death of the agency’ will be proven a myth, and advertising agencies will be more relevant than ever


Pic - XBOX Kinect proves to be the biggest shift in gaming in 2011

I think this is a very realistic list of predictions and from my point of view definitely hope that these are the significant growth areas of this year. In particular I am interested in how all of the above elements will come together, and how the convergence of these technologies will not only sit with the consumer but influence their purchasing and online browsing behaviours.

Ultimately from an agency point of view I will be very interested to see how the advertising elements of these media will evolve opening up opportunities which will hopefully lead to a richer and much more relevant experience. It is definitely worth having a read of Chris Maples post which goes into each of these in much more depth.

MINI Vending Machine - Mobile Shortcode Building Projection

Now this may not be particularly new or ground breaking, but is still an extremely cool execution from Canada. The passerby texts their chosen car from the projection shown which is then deposited in the tray beneath, with each MINI displaying its own unique exhibition (Shown in the video below).


Video - MINI Vending Machine

Facebook more popular than Google on Christmas Day

That's right for the first time Facebook received more UK Internet visits that Google UK on Christmas Day 2010. As the illustrated in the chart below compiled by Hitwise, on Christmas Day (December 25th) facebook.com accounted for 10.50% of all UK Internet visits, while the figure for google.co.uk was 9.77%. This was the first time that Facebook has ever been the most popular UK website. Facebook has been known previously for it's unusually high traffic volumes on Christmas Day, however I'm sure this was still a very nice Christmas present for them.



Pic - Facebook Vs Google Traffic Volumes December 2010


Via