Lastminute.com debut Mexican Wave Ad

OK, so a Mexican wave doesn't sound very enthralling, however this isn't any normal Mexican wave, this is a Lastminute.com Mexican wave using a run of three consecutive 60-second ads on ITV, Channel 4 and Five, due to start on Saturday night (28th February 2009) at 9.50pm. As you can see from the preview below, the ads will feature a Mexican wave of thumbs-up and viewers will be asked to follow the wave as it flows from ITV through to Five.



The great thumb wave will take viewers all over the world, and will challenge people to guess the number of thumbs they see in order to enter the online prize-draw. The website set up for the campaign is as follows http://goodstuff.lastminute.com, which will also feature the ads once aired.



This is a fantastic idea, and demonstrates a very well thought through creative and media execution. It has had significant media backing including digital outdoor, in order to generate enough buzz, and personally I cannot wait to see the result. Those times again are:

Saturday 28th February
ITV1 at 9:50pm
Channel 4 at 9:51pm
Five at 9:52pm


Update: To view the full ad - Lastminute.com Great Thumb Wave advert


Enjoy!

Routes Game – Channel 4 and Wellcome Trust initiative to teach us about Genetics

Welcome to Routes, a new initiative commissioned by Channel 4 and the research charity Wellcome Trust to teach today’s youth about genetics and how genetic testing could affect us all. The Routes game experience in short is a huge educational project which takes the form of a series of online multiplayer games combining an ARG (Alternate Reality Game), video and viral content, to bring to life the new Channel 4 TV programme Routes which explores the topic of genetics and bio-ethics.



Four games have been created for the project and will be rolled out over the next two months starting with Breeders, which is available to play now. The other games in the series will be Sneeze, DNA Heroes, and Ginger Dawn.



Breeder as mentioned is the first in the series, in which the user gets points for breeding their very own creature. Points are won when someone breeds with their creature, with prizes offered throughout the process.



This is a great idea, with a large amount of users already playing. Other features allow players to upload their customised organisms onto their social network profiles, and watch them evolve over time. With the TV programme’s help, the prizes acting as an incentive for users to join, and with the addictive and easy to follow ways in which people can earn bonus points etc, I can see this catching on very quickly.

The end of Project Kangaroo?

Well so it may seem…It’s been reported on Brand Republic today, that Project Kangaroo, the on-demand joint venture between BBC Worldwide, ITV and Channel 4, has been blocked by the Competition Commission, after allegedly spending £25m on staff and development costs since announcement of the platform in November 2007. There were high hopes for the platform which for advertisers meant reining in the rapidly growing video on-demand market, by offering a central platform for users to view popular programming on offer from BBC Worldwide, ITV and Channel 4.



Despite the fact that throughout the last year or so there has always been conversations regarding the concerns that "there was a danger that the platform could be too powerful" (30 June 2008, the UK's Office of Fair Trading referred the proposal to the Competition Commission), it seemed the platform would still be launched intially in 2008, which was later moved back to early 2009. Today however with the news of the end of the venture, it appears that rivals to Project Kangaroo including Virgin Media, Babelgum and Joost will be cheering, after all calling on the commission to block the platform.

From early polls and comments on the news, the agency world seems reasonably split on the decision of the CC. However I seem to think that with the ammount of work which has already gone into Project Kangaroo, I don’t think this is the last we’ve seen of some sort of joint video on-demand venture between BBC Worldwide, ITV and Channel 4. Watch this space I guess!!

For the full Brand Republic article click here: Kangaroo killed off by Competition Commission

Big Brother 10 auditions on YouTube Channel

Big Brother fever has hit once again with the likes of Coolio, Verne Troyer, and Ben Adams already within their first week of their 22 day stint. As any viewers will be aware Channel 4 are already inviting future hopefuls to send in their entries for Big Brother 10 this summer, with the added bonus of now being able to enter via YouTube.



In order to jump the queue, and perhaps be invited to a VIP audition day, this year Channel 4 are using their YouTube channel for views to submit their audition videos, as well as watch some of the past efforts of previous contestants.



Videos should be about a minute long, and need to be posted by February 3rd 2009, so for anyone who is crazy enough to give it a go the link is - http://uk.youtube.com/bigbrotherauditions

Good Luck!