Here in Italy Coca-Cola Light has launched a karaoke website which invites women to sing a Duffy song in front of a webcam in order to share it with the world.
Even if my very first reaction was pretty negative, I think the project is based on a good idea which simply doesn't fit Coke. What I mean is that while I was watching the videos my mind went to more epical tracks like for example We Are The World or Bohemian Rapsody. So the website makes you want to sing (or at least try to) in front of a webcam and has a good viral potential, but Duffy's song doesn't fit. Imagine the same karaoke idea applied to the promotion of a new album by Madonna, Robbie Williams or, even better, to drive some energy back to a record label.
In Brazil, Adidas is running a Cluedo style game to support the launch of the Palmeiras replica. A video announced a few weeks ago that the Palmeiras shirts have misteriously disappeared. And the team supporters can help finding the guilty thief.
On Minha Segunda Pele (My second skin) visitors are challenged to find out which of the weird Palmeiras supporters has stolen the shirts of the club.
Getting people to engage with a financial company is not easy. UBank in Australia uses humour to get some financial lessons across. Called Money Box this episode looks at legitimate ways you can pay less tax, such as; Maximising your allowable deduction,getting the best out of Capital Gains Tax and negative gearing.
Augmented reality is the idea of the month. Even if it has been out there for at least a year or so, in the last month the buzz around it has literally exploded. A lot of marketers are excited by the wow effect augmented reality can generate, but fortunately another good number of bloggers and marketers have a more realistic approach to the idea. Advertising Lab writes "Augmented reality is the new Second Life", SuperCollider blogs about "Augmented Reality, Second Life, and the trough of disillusionment".
I share their same feelings and concerns. It's a bit like QR codes as well. Everywhere in the world (a part from Japan and South Korea probably) there is a lot of buzz around them, advertising agencies sell them as "the coolest thing" to naive clients, but numbers are not there to support the investment. Augmented Reality could suffer of the same problems, since it strongly relies on consumers having a webcam, and be willing to spend five minutes to understand what the brand ask them to do to enjoy the experience. If you use augmented reality only to promote your product or to simply entertain consumers than you are late and already out-of-fashion. The third (or even the second) comer already cannot count on the wow-effect. But but but, augmented reality can still have a future, like any other digital gadget, if it's used in a smart, really interactive way, with the end goal of providing an added value to the end consumer.
Mojito is one of my favorite cocktails, so no wonder why I like the website launched by Havana Club to "celebrate" it.
The experience is rather simple but strongly video based and this makes the difference to appreciate the work.
Make sure to begin by testing your skills as Mojito barman in the interactive quiz. If you do it at the end it is way too easy.
From Brazil, a great example of use of video to explain HD digital television. As ADivertido explains, Brazilians still have a lot of questions and doubts regarding HD and they end up not trusting (and therefore buying) the new technology. So LG has decided to educate them with an advertainment approach and a great web execution.
Os Remotos (which I suppose translates into "the remote controls") is a sit-com where (almost) all the questions about HD find an answer with a touch of humor and an impressive video quality.
Ogilvyone Worldwide Singapore has recently launched a brilliant website to promote Britain abroad and drive floods of tourists to the island.
When you think about Britain, you usually think about The Queen, Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, Madame Taussauds and, of course, of fish & chips. Well this website will make you change your mind.
From Belgium, an amusing website to promote Pearle contact lenses.
The message is simple and pretty straightforward: sometimes it is better to wear contact lenses rather than glasses! Choose the character you prefer (I recommend going for the opposite sex), and enjoy an amusing experience that will make you understand the meaning of the campaign message.
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.
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 :
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.
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.
I think one of the brands that uses interactive in a really wise way lately is Comcast. The awareness they've gotten since their 2005 fantastic Comcastic (not online anymore?) and other pieces like Tripleslanguage has made the brand being known even in places where Comcast services are not available, so i'm always kind of expectant what they will be releasing next.
These days, and again done by Goodby Silverstein and Partners, working together with Nexus Productions and Unit9, there is a new campaign called Dream Big. Presenting a fantastic website using a look-alike of isometric view Sims-style games, you can join the so-called Comcast Town, choose a neighborhood and then build your own space, using the capabilities of the Triple Play feature (tv, phone, internet) and inserting the product in a really smart way inside the experience.
