Sketch2Photo

Not sure I totally agree with Devin Coldewey’s albeit “tentative” comment that this new technology from students at Tsinghua University and the National University of Singapore appears “to be the greatest thing of all time” but it is undoubtedly very cool.

Sketch2Photo: Internet Image Montage from Tao Chen on Vimeo.
It will be interesting to see how this technology develops [...]

Cannes Lions 2009 - My Personal Top 10 Cyber Picks

1. Warner Bros/The Dark Knight Film: Why So Serious? - 42 Entertainment, Pasadena, USA.

Epic! I’ve discussed this Grand Prix viral already in an earlier post.
2. Fiat: eco:Drive - AKQA, London, UK

Given the complexity of Fiat’s eco:Drive system, I think the main success of this digital tool is its simplicity. I also think that the strategy of positioning eco:Drive as a ‘no brainer’ in [...]

Why So Serious? Case study microsite

Here’s a handy case-study microsite of my favourite integrated campaign from 2008 by 42 Entertainment to promote the Dark Knight.

Intriguing and immersive websites, email and snail-mail campaigns, scavenger hunts involving mobile phones hidden in cakes, exclusive film teasers, page take-overs, virtual elections, real world fan conventions, flash-mobs and events, competitions, posters and unique collectables; all combined to make [...]

The Next Wave of Social Networking from Google

Looking forward to having a play with this new communications platform from Google. Even at beta stage, it’s already massively hyped as the rival to Facebook, Twitter, FriendFeed and possibly also Webex in the business community.
Put very simply, the platform is a type of live chatroom with a facility to share/amend/display documents to participants in real [...]

Charitable Baby Dragons Find Their Den at Kiva

Here’s an inspiring non-profit business model that I heard about on the latest edition of BBC’s Click.
 

 
Kiva is an innovative charity that is attracting the attention of budding venture capitalists with its innovative peer-to-peer lending model; allowing small lenders to support low income entrepreneurs in developing countries with ‘microloans’.
Lenders visiting the Kiva website can browse [...]

JC Penny - Beware of the Doghouse

I enjoyed this viral film that one of my colleagues shared with me last week. It’s a few months old now, but I thought it was worth noting, as apart from the fact that it had quite a few of us in stitches with its comic timing and nice one-liners (”it’s the best vacuum cleaner you’ll [...]

Scrabble - The Beautiful Word

There’s a really nice thought behind the intriguing art direction of this campaign for Mattel’s iconic Scrabble game, developed by Ogilvy Paris.
It seems to do a very good job of injecting some life into the 60-year-old brand, whilst intelligently dramatising a well-observed truth about the enjoyment of playing the game. I imagine cut-through will also [...]

Philips Carousel

Here’s an impressive new online film from Tribal DDB Amsterdam and Stink,  which cleverly manages to demonstrate the benefit of the new Philips Aurea TV’s high definition picture quality, using a type of media that probably wouldn’t normally be considered for that sort of task.
Eerie and immersive, the film takes you into the heart of an epic [...]

April Fools 2009

Thought I might start with something light to kick off my new Blog….
 
Here’s a quick round up of some April fools pranks from various brands, starting with the latest of BMW’s famous press ads:

The ad describes a new ‘Magnetic Tow Technology’ – with the headline, “For once, we’re happy to be behind the competition.”
The copy [...]