In Japan, Sony Ericsson has launched a new phone and a new website to support it. Have a look because the anmations on the homepages are very beautiful and inspiring (for designers).
Armies around the world are taking online recruitment very seriously, even more than brands I would say. The latest example I'd like to share with you comes from The Netherlands, where the Luchtmacht has recently launched an online experience to unveil its world to the young Dutch.
The website is absolutely amazing. I can't say whether it really depicts the reality of the Dutch Airforce, but I know that if their goal was to impress young users, the results is surely impressive, at least from a Flash/design point of view.
Converse has a new site or, better, has a series of new mini-sites on air since a couple of days as part of its "Connectivity" campaign. Everything starts at Thisistheindexpage.com where users are presented with a long lists of links to short stories and small interactive pieces (check out for example ConverseSpellingBee.com for a Google related action). After each story visitors are taken to the official Converse site where a new, music inspired experience begins, featuring Julian Casablancas, Pharrell and Santogold.
DDB New Zealand has created a witty Tv campaign to promote Cadbury muesli bars and, at the same time, respect for nature. I like the old style animations that remember me of Disney movies such as Cinderella and Whitesnow.
However I especially appreciate the educational approach of the campaign that results spontaneous and amusing enough to deliver the message even to small kids. A good series of ads to promote the product and most of all position the brand in the "green light".
YouTube partner Corry Williams (SMP Films) just released 'Choose Your Path': a homemade interactive hunt for his cat Sparta. Using the YouTube platform and it's tools like annotations you'll have to find the shortest way to Sparta. Williams uploaded 64 films, covering different routes within his own house, so it might take a while before you'll get there. But that can't spoil the fun of this innovative and very low budget way of using YouTube's video tools. I guess it's only a matter of time before we will see some branded versions come by.
Annotations is not working yet in embedded video's, so you have to visit the one on YouTube itself.
In Germany Volkswagen has launched a futuristic website to explain its eco-friendly approach to car-engineering. Everything is in German, but the site is visual enough to allow you having a good overview of the project even if you don't speak the language.
At first sight everything looks very nice and well designed. However if you spend one more minute on the site you realize there is no interactivity (if it's there I wasn't able to find it), it's just storytelling or, better, brand preaching about what they do or will do to produce eco-friendly cars. In my opinion it's a lost occasion, their online project is a good idea, but it's a pity they missed the chance to build a minimum connection with the public. What do you think?
From Australia, a beautiful online project to tell the world the story of Eglantyne Jebb, founder of Save the Children. Through a series of lovely illustrations we are invited to take twelve lessons in leadership discovering the world of Mrs Jebb and the work she inspired.
In Japan Smart has launched an online project where it invites users to design their ideal Smart.
At first sight the website reminds of a project MINI did a few years ago, when they asked consumers to design the cover of their ideal MINI car. However taking a further look you realise there is more to discover and enjoy. Nothing really innovative, I have to say, but definitely something nice to discover on a website by a brand like Smart.
Playing with the concept of a Smart small like a toy the website allows you not only to "pimp" your Smart but also to drive it around the screen and play an advergame with it. Again, nothing really new nor special, but I still believe that, even if you haven't got a brand new idea, you can still do things well and create a web project that is consistent with your brand and capable of creating an interaction with your product. After all, over 10000 Smart designed by the users aren't a bad result at all.
I like the idea that the first level of content is all video based and starts playing automatically when you arrive on the site. So you get a nice overview of the differente sections and you learn all the basic information about the vodka without reading anything. Good idea if you're lazy or better, not interested in finding out all the details about the product.
Competition when it comes to vodka brands (and vodka websites) is fierce, therefore it's good to see Russian Standard Vodka managed to create something interesting to explore in a crowded panorama.
No matter if your enthusiastic or tired of Facebook, Linkedin and Myspace, there is a new social network you absolutely have to join. It's called Lamato, and it just launched in Canada, inspired by an idea by Tribal DDB and Mott's Clamato.
I haven't been able to check it personally, but it looks pretty fresh and new. To support it, they launched also a series of short videos. Below you find my favourite.
After the thrilling football match last night between Turkey and Germany (2-3), tonight the other semi final of the EUFA Euro 2008 takes place. It's Spain against Russia, with Spain as favourite. But they didn't win a Championship since 1964. What do they need to win? In this Spanish video, Nike takes the Magnificent Five (Torres, Iniesta, Ramos, Puyol & Fabregas) from Spain to beat the prejudice.
Getty Images has launched a very nice application to inspire the creative community. It's called Moodstream and it's a tool that allow users to tap into Getty Images? creative palette of images, footage and music, to create a sequence of visuals and audio conveying a specific mood.
I like it, probably because I like looking at photos matched with the right music background, but at the same time I find it quite hard to find a reason to come back to the website.
I'm not a creative person, so my opinion for Getty doesn't count much, however I rather feel that Moodstream would work perfectly in bars to create audiovisuals projects to set the mood depending on the hour of the day. In case, I will claim the rights on the business idea :-)
What is your feeling about the winners? Do you believe any good project has been left behind? Do you think a project has been overrated?
Personally, I think that Uniqlock and Sol were just great and absolutely deserved the Grand Prix. But then, from a purely marketing perspective I think that Waitless and Drive-In game deserved more than the Bronze Lion, while Absolut Machines (gold) and Get Out and Play (silver) were not as good as the jury decided.
Sometimes you have to be a bit drunk to be sincere, to say what you really think or to unveil something about yourself that, when sober, you'll never dare confessing. After this short preface, you will probably understand why I can't help smiling looking at the new Absolut Colors website that celebrates the rainbow flag and invites users to come out online and share their story on the site itself.
Actually Absolut Colors project is very serious (and this is why I don't fully understand/appreciate the coming out feature on the site) and aims at raising money to support Aids charity associations by selling a limited edition bottle that reminds of the rainbow bottle.
So it's good to see Absolut supporting gay & lesbian rights as well as AIDS prevention however, from a purely marketing perspective, I don't like the fact they have forced a space for user generated content on the site. Which, by the way, at the moment looks still pretty empty.
To fight back Google Image Search dominance in image search on the Web, Msn has launched in the UK "Iconic Britain". The website encourages visitors to upload images that better portrait UK culture, architecture and tradition. Users are also (and more importantly) invited to search the Web and look for the images that best fit into the concept.
I have contrasting feelings about this campaign. I think the Iconic Britain concept, althought it isn't very new, could have been an interesting starting point for promoting the Live Search feature. Unfortunately it looks like MSN took a quite creative idea and developed it with the flattest look & feel and interface possible. To me this website even works negatively for the MSN brand not intentionally (of course) communicating to the users MSN isn't a cool brand at all. What do you think? Am I too critic with this campaign?
