digital filter

PSFK CONFERENCE NYC 2011: Aaron Dignan :: Why The Future Of Work Is Play

2011-05-11T13:47:00.000-04:00

The CEO of Undercurrent and author of ‘Game Frame’ talks about how to make life more interesting and engaging through the use of game mechanics. In the fascinating talk, Dignan explains:

Why the future of work is play
How we’re bored in places that matter – school, work etc. and how to fix this.
It comes down to motivation and achievement
The 2 key issues: lack of volition and lack of faculty
That play is nature’s learning engine

PSFK CONFERENCE NYC 2011: Aaron Dignan from Piers Fawkes on Vimeo.

Posted via email from digitalfilter :: steve callahan

Web 3.0 by Kate Ray

2010-05-26T10:06:00.001-04:00

Ray does a great job presenting the passions that drive the Semantic web debate.

Posted via web from digitalfilter :: steve callahan

"Having Ideas Versus Having a Vision" by Roberto Verganti

2010-04-26T14:48:00.001-04:00

The commerce and advertising industry has worked with an innovation model that put the "Big Idea" central to the creative process. It has worked for decades and is central to many an identity. Verganti poses the question if the approach of ideas driving change is less effective in the long run than the creation of a single deeply researched vision. In the more well rounded environments both live and feed off each other. When one becomes more dominant the risk is cyclical role play and everyone working from the same play-book.

In the past decade, firms have been praised for ideas. Experts have celebrated the power of brainstorming and idea-generation techniques. Eureka light bulbs have populated the covers of many books. Businessmen have been asked to improve their creative attitudes. And 2009 was named the Year of Creativity and Innovation by the European Union.

One consequence of a decade focused on idea generation is ideas are now more easily accessible, which has also made idea generation less of a differentiator in competition than it has traditionally been. When more than 30% of the population belongs to the creative class, as Richard Florida suggested in his 2003 book The Rise of the Creative Class, ideas are not in short supply. And with the diffusion of open innovation processes, ideas competitions, and the like, executives are increasingly exposed to a wealth of ideas.What is in short supply, I'm afraid, are visionary thinkers who will be capable of making sense of this abundance of stimuli — visionaries who will build the arenas to unleash the power of ideas and transform them into actions. http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2010/03/having_ideas_versus_having_a_vision.html

Posted via web from digitalfilter :: steve callahan

Heineken: Guerrilla Marketing Event In Italy

2010-03-16T12:11:00.001-04:00

Heineken İtaly Activation from Kreatif360 on Vimeo.

Brilliantly orchestrated campaign for Heinekin in Italy

Posted via web from digitalfilter :: steve callahan

Bruce Mau Design - An Incomplete Manifesto for Growth

2010-01-06T15:32:00.001-05:00

Written in 1998, the Incomplete Manifesto is an articulation of statements that exemplify Bruce Mau's beliefs, motivations and strategies. It also articulates how the BMD studio works.

1. Allow events to change you. You have to be willing to grow. Growth is different from something that happens to you. You produce it. You live it. The prerequisites for growth: the openness to experience events and the willingness to be changed by them.

2. Forget about good. Good is a known quantity. Good is what we all agree on. Growth is not necessarily good. Growth is an exploration of unlit recesses that may or may not yield to our research. As long as you stick to good you'll never have real growth.

3. Process is more important than outcome. When the outcome drives the process we will only ever go to where we've already been. If process drives outcome we may not know where we’re going, but we will know we want to be there.

4. Love your experiments (as you would an ugly child). Joy is the engine of growth. Exploit the liberty in casting your work as beautiful experiments, iterations, attempts, trials, and errors. Take the long view and allow yourself the fun of failure every day.

5. Go deep. The deeper you go the more likely you will discover something of value.

6. Capture accidents. The wrong answer is the right answer in search of a different question. Collect wrong answers as part of the process. Ask different questions.

7. Study. A studio is a place of study. Use the necessity of production as an excuse to study. Everyone will benefit.

8. Drift. Allow yourself to wander aimlessly. Explore adjacencies. Lack judgment. Postpone criticism.

9. Begin anywhere. John Cage tells us that not knowing where to begin is a common form of paralysis. His advice: begin anywhere.

10. Everyone is a leader. Growth happens. Whenever it does, allow it to emerge. Learn to follow when it makes sense. Let anyone lead.

11. Harvest ideas. Edit applications. Ideas need a dynamic, fluid, generous environment to sustain life. Applications, on the other hand, benefit from critical rigor. Produce a high ratio of ideas to applications.

12. Keep moving. The market and its operations have a tendency to reinforce success. Resist it. Allow failure and migration to be part of your practice.

13. Slow down. Desynchronize from standard time frames and surprising opportunities may present themselves.

14. Don’t be cool. Cool is conservative fear dressed in black. Free yourself from limits of this sort.

15. Ask stupid questions. Growth is fueled by desire and innocence. Assess the answer, not the question. Imagine learning throughout your life at the rate of an infant.

16. Collaborate. The space between people working together is filled with conflict, friction, strife, exhilaration, delight, and vast creative potential.

17. ____________________. Intentionally left blank. Allow space for the ideas you haven’t had yet, and for the ideas of others.

18. Stay up late. Strange things happen when you’ve gone too far, been up too long, worked too hard, and you're separated from the rest of the world.

19. Work the metaphor. Every object has the capacity to stand for something other than what is apparent. Work on what it stands for.

20. Be careful to take risks. Time is genetic. Today is the child of yesterday and the parent of tomorrow. The work you produce today will create your future.

21. Repeat yourself. If you like it, do it again. If you don’t like it, do it again.

22. Make your own tools. Hybridize your tools in order to build unique things. Even simple tools that are your own can yield entirely new avenues of exploration. Remember, tools amplify our capacities, so even a small tool can make a big difference.

23. Stand on someone’s shoulders. You can travel farther carried on the accomplishments of those who came before you. And the view is so much better.

24. Avoid software. The problem with software is that everyone has it.

25. Don’t clean your desk. You might find something in the morning that you can’t see tonight.

26. Don’t enter awards competitions. Just don’t. It’s not good for you.

27. Read only left-hand pages. Marshall McLuhan did this. By decreasing the amount of information, we leave room for what he called our "noodle."

28. Make new words. Expand the lexicon. The new conditions demand a new way of thinking. The thinking demands new forms of expression. The expression generates new conditions.

29. Think with your mind. Forget technology. Creativity is not device-dependent.

30. Organization = Liberty. Real innovation in design, or any other field, happens in context. That context is usually some form of cooperatively managed enterprise. Frank Gehry, for instance, is only able to realize Bilbao because his studio can deliver it on budget. The myth of a split between "creatives" and "suits" is what Leonard Cohen calls a 'charming artifact of the past.'

31. Don’t borrow money. Once again, Frank Gehry’s advice. By maintaining financial control, we maintain creative control. It’s not exactly rocket science, but it’s surprising how hard it is to maintain this discipline, and how many have failed.

32. Listen carefully. Every collaborator who enters our orbit brings with him or her a world more strange and complex than any we could ever hope to imagine. By listening to the details and the subtlety of their needs, desires, or ambitions, we fold their world onto our own. Neither party will ever be the same.

33. Take field trips. The bandwidth of the world is greater than that of your TV set, or the Internet, or even a totally immersive, interactive, dynamically rendered, object-oriented, real-time, computer graphic–simulated environment.

34. Make mistakes faster. This isn’t my idea -- I borrowed it. I think it belongs to Andy Grove.

35. Imitate. Don’t be shy about it. Try to get as close as you can. You'll never get all the way, and the separation might be truly remarkable. We have only to look to Richard Hamilton and his version of Marcel Duchamp’s large glass to see how rich, discredited, and underused imitation is as a technique.

36. Scat. When you forget the words, do what Ella did: make up something else ... but not words.

37. Break it, stretch it, bend it, crush it, crack it, fold it.

38. Explore the other edge. Great liberty exists when we avoid trying to run with the technological pack. We can’t find the leading edge because it’s trampled underfoot. Try using old-tech equipment made obsolete by an economic cycle but still rich with potential.

39. Coffee breaks, cab rides, green rooms. Real growth often happens outside of where we intend it to, in the interstitial spaces -- what Dr. Seuss calls "the waiting place." Hans Ulrich Obrist once organized a science and art conference with all of the infrastructure of a conference -- the parties, chats, lunches, airport arrivals — but with no actual conference. Apparently it was hugely successful and spawned many ongoing collaborations.

40. Avoid fields. Jump fences. Disciplinary boundaries and regulatory regimes are attempts to control the wilding of creative life. They are often understandable efforts to order what are manifold, complex, evolutionary processes. Our job is to jump the fences and cross the fields.

41. Laugh. People visiting the studio often comment on how much we laugh. Since I've become aware of this, I use it as a barometer of how comfortably we are expressing ourselves.

42. Remember. Growth is only possible as a product of history. Without memory, innovation is merely novelty. History gives growth a direction. But a memory is never perfect. Every memory is a degraded or composite image of a previous moment or event. That’s what makes us aware of its quality as a past and not a present. It means that every memory is new, a partial construct different from its source, and, as such, a potential for growth itself.

43. Power to the people. Play can only happen when people feel they have control over their lives. We can't be free agents if we’re not free.

Posted via web from digitalfilter's posterous

The changing nature of Account Planning and Strategy - is your agency practice still silo'd?

2009-12-11T11:38:00.001-05:00

Posted via web from digitalfilter's posterous

Is strategy really the new creative?

2009-11-15T21:53:00.001-05:00

Is strategy really the new creative?

Recently, say over the last years or so, planning and strategy has gained sex appeal. Lots of clients are all about “insights” these days and seem to have developed quite a hankering for that one inspirational bit of information that can transform business ideas, product ideas, marketing innovation ideas. Oh.. and, I almost forgot: communication ideas. Meanwhile, the agency landscape seems to be filling up with a formerly less commonly heard title: Chief Strategy Officer.

So, understandably, the trade press comes out with articles entitled “Is strategy the new creative?”.

But what does this really mean? I believe a headline like this is a great eyecatcher. But really, it is written that way to make you look. Strategy is not the new creative. It’s simply that the definition of strategy and creative and how both have to work together has changed.

However, what the headline really does, too, is to ignite a conversation. And conversations, or rather making sure that people talk about your brand and brands themselves are part of those conversations is what is actually behind the fact that the definition of strategy and creative has changed.

In a communications landscape where marketers have begun understanding that people aren’t interested in your messages obviously the old form of creative product, i.e. the delivery of ads, is losing importance. Or, at a minimum, ads need to be complemented with different creative products that provide context-relevant experiences, content and participatory elements alongside before they can be effective again.

Arguably, before strategy and creative were seperated, creative directors or account people did the strategy. Now it looks like everyone has to do strategy and creative. Why?

Having moved from the brand era to the people era has not only increased the need for agencies to offer a different or extended creative product, it also forces agencies to change the way they work to achieve the delivery of idea platforms that work channel-agnostically. Agencies have been offering full-service for decades, but in siloes and all services and creative executions tied back to the might big brand idea.

The most apparent differences of doing creative work now vs before is what happened to team structure and process: the traditional art director / copywriter duo who was responsible for “the big idea,” and represented the creative fulcrum of the agency, now has to live with the fact that the team responsible for creative output just got bigger. In order to deliver idea platforms that work in all channels, it does not suffice to come up with a “communication idea” and then adapt it into channels. You have to have ideas about experiences, content, functionalities, technologies and the brand’s product or service itself. Also, to be creative for those kinds of deliverables you need to do more than call your brand planner for some “consumer insights” about people’s attitudes: you need behavioral insights, channel insights, technology insights, experience insights. As a result, you need more people adept at a lot of different things to get the job done. And yet another result is that you need to completely step away from the linear process of research -> creative -> production. Your process needs to iterative and co-creative, from writing the brief to coming up with little ideas that tie into one idea platform instead of just one big-ass communication idea.

So, in order to accomplish all the above, you need someone to keep provide a bigger sandbox for everyone to play in. And guess who stepped up to the plate for that one? Strategists. Being that “sandbox provider” means that the traditional research and briefing job of a strategist has become much more about actually staging the discovery experience of the whole team and making that experience visceral. In a way, the frame in which an entire team of art directors, copywriters, concept developers, content strategists, social media strategists, interface designers, technologists, motion designers, experience planners, and brand planners tries to solve for a communication-, brand-, business- or product issue has to be staged and stewarded. To me, this doesn’t mean the strategist also has the creative ideas, but it means he provides the environment in which it happens. This means that strategist can’t sit in their office and pump out a creative brief anymore and that’s it. It means that they have to become a part of the creative process itself. And vice versa, creatives being part of the discovery mean they have to think a lot more about insights, as well.

So it doesn’t just look like everyone has to do strategy and creative. This is the way it has to be. In fact, if you do things right, you could also ask “Is creative the new strategy?”

To me it looks like after a long hiatus, you have to get ready for strategy and creative to move in together again. Just don’t let the strategist pick the furniture.

A little clip here on how strategy (and to me creative) has to move beyond the world of communications).

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Tags: agency process, agency structure, collaboration, creative, creative product, process, strategy

About The Author

Alexander Wipf

Head of Strategy at Leo Burnett Frankfurt

Other posts byAlexander Wipf

Author's web sitehttp://culturalfuel.com

04

11 2009

by Alexander Wipf
posted in Opinion

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Interesting post from the Leo Burnett - Cultural Fuel Blog. The highlighted operational solution is typical to a larger agency structure. Non-traditional ad shops and digital agencies never focused on the art director/ copywriter nexus, moving to include technologists, UX, strategists, and executive producers. One key point I've been on the soap box for years is how counterproductive the notion is that there is a linear phases from research > creative > production. Thanks for the insightful post. Bravo Alexander Wipf!

Posted via web from digitalfilter's posterous

Sony: Soundville

2009-10-03T00:49:00.030-04:00

Every sound is precious. It needs to be delivered pure. Welcome to Soundville, where sound quality is tested to the limit. (tag line)
I found this viral branding piece for Sony compelling on a number of fronts. The viewer witnesses the reactions of a small Icelandic village as it becomes the location for a sound installation. The townspeople in this simple setting are intended to be the clean canvas for the presentation of Sony’s "Soundville". The piece is beautiful and subtle, but can a brand be damaged by aligning itself with a noncommercial entity? Has Sony and its agency Fallon slipped over that line or is this piece a sincere attempt to present an evolving brand in a fresh light?
Here is an interesting comment from the YouTube posting of the ad:
“My hometown in an internationl ad campaing makes you feel so proud. Great campaing. The final result is really nice. Although this stupid music was killing me when they were shooting this 2 days listening to this music it echoed all over you couldn't get away from it. Still really good and I'm glad it's finally out it's been over 6 months since they were shooting it.” CatiumB

Henry Jenkins on Transmedia

2009-06-03T12:48:00.000-04:00

Henry Jenkins on Transmedia - November 2009 from niko on Vimeo.

Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide by Henry Jenkins

2008-05-24T15:16:00.017-04:00

"…convergence culture is highly generative: some ideas spread top down, starting with commercial media and being adopted and appropriated by a range of different publics as they spread outward across the culture. Others emerge bottom up from various sites of participatory culture and getting pulled into the mainstream if the media industries see some way of profiting from it. The power of the grassroots media is that it diversifies; the power of the broadcast media is that it amplifies. That's why we should be concerned with the flow between the two: expanding the potentials for participation represents the greatest opportunity for cultural diversity. Throw away the powers of broadcasting and one has only cultural fragmentation. The power of participation comes not from destroying commercial culture but from writing over it, modding it, amending it, expanding it, feeding it back into the mainstream media." quote from page 257, NYU Press (August 1, 2006) buy at amazon

As more clients look to branded content to reach an illusive online target we should remember the inherent difference between user behaviors online and traditional broadcast advertising. The success of any online project lives in the interaction - how the audience makes the experience their own. The strategic planning and creative development that goes into a successful online entity should acknowledge the difference broadcast media and the digital space.

Muto blu - Art before commerce

2008-05-23T13:07:00.049-04:00

Talented illustrator/animator "Blu" from Bologna, Italy creates fantastic animations that transform public buildings into a dynamic canvas. He's also cleverly blanketing the web via social video channels vimeo and YouTube, but the most comprehensive documentation of his work is on his site that includes the MUTO animation made in Buenos Aires and Baden www.blublu.org. It's tastefully scored by Andrea Martignoni.
Bravo!

facebook - Think before you enter the room

2008-05-08T11:22:00.040-04:00

At this point we've all been held hostage as teams follow along limply behind a client request to "make friends" for the brand in facebook. Yes it's a potentially huge marketing opportunity, but more than likely it will be a dead end without an relevant communications strategy. Excuse me for stating the obvious at this point in the game, but the reality is that facebook is not appropriate for all brands.

Here again are some fundamental tenants to remember when entering the conversation:

1. brands should view the entry into facebook as the beginning of a dialog with consumers. Bore them from the introduction and you'll never regain their interest.
2. brands and branded applications (tools) are invited into social circles, this is not a push advertising medium.
3. facebook application must be relevant and useful to users.
4. facebook apps should also be fun. Don't push branded content or information down users throats or they will opt out.
5. facebook application must allow for users to add personalized content, comments, opinions (they should be able to make it their own)
6. facebook application should be planned with sharing in mind. The information must be relevant not only to the individual user, but also work sharing with close friends.
7. facebook applications can include quizzes, challenges, or surveys IF the results can be shared and compared across the users circle of facebook friends.

Treading Lightly on the Corona Beach

2008-05-02T18:53:00.035-04:00

The immersive new site for Corona is both beautiful and a technical powerhouse. The talented team at Big Spaceship partnered with Cramer-Krasselt to bring what is a faithful if at times too literal a translation of CK's TV and print advertising. The site is most enchanting when the experience extends the brand in unique, playful behaviors that resonate with personal experiences relaxing on a pristine beach. Congratulations on bringing this iconic brand online and giving us all a perfect getaway from the daily grind.
disclosure: I produced this site while at CK working with BSS.
link: thecoronabeach.com

Hulu - Pro content from NBC and News Corp

2008-01-09T11:48:00.002-05:00

Started as a venture between NBC and News Corp, the Hulu model is closer to a new syndication arm than another You Tube competitor. Hulu, while still under partial wrap continues to pull in new partners. FoxTV and over 15 cable networks (Bravo, E! Entertainment, FX, Sci Fi, USA, and more), along with licensing deals with four of the largest Studios (Fox, MGM, Sony and Universal).

Comcast and CBS is planning to port its VOD business to the Internet. Their current effort lives on Fancast.com, a site for free streaming video. Change is the clichéd phrase of '08, but networks are making the shift away from localized content streaming towards wider distribution models. Hulu has partner site deals with AOL, MSN, MySpace, and Yahoo! Will ventures like Hulu change the broadcast advertising mindset or just enable more entrenched behavior by the old guard?

KALTURA - collaborate

2007-12-04T13:57:00.004-05:00

Kaltura have taken a solid step forward in collaborative web based experimentation.
They partnered with the New York Public Library to allow users to build web based video projects utilizing NYPL content along with user content. This like all experiments that demand community involvement to be successful puts the burden of responsibility in our hands. Will we actively take ownership the of creative process or passively view the offerings of corporate machine?

link: NYPL_kaltura

Taco Bell trips over first base

2007-10-28T20:29:00.000-04:00

Behind home plate green keyed ads fill most baseball game broadcasts and now Taco Bell has taken baseball even further away from the trusted place fans respect. My immediate response was to chuckle over the dialog between Red Sox Royce Clayton and Coco Crisp as they debated the logistics of Taco Bell's "Steal a Base, Steal a Taco" promotion. Are players selling tacos in the middle of the World Series? Is this a new low for embedded product placement or just a bad idea?

Dylan on Facebook

2007-10-23T17:52:00.000-04:00

The folks behind Bob Dylan have released a clever Facebook app that utilizes the part of one of his classic songs "Subterranean Homesick Blues" as a social messaging tool. You can embed your version of the song with Dylan holding "your' cards on your facebook page and share your version. Cool and simple.

link: http://apps.facebook.com/bobdylan/

Confessor nation - Post secret

2007-10-17T11:41:00.002-04:00

Is there value in our move towards being a confessor nation? The list of naysayers is long. User generated content? - Almost an ugly word in a culture that until recently has yielded to the voice of the media elites and looked down there nose at open un-mediated communication. Of course things are neither black nor white and often there is cause for concern when a culture refuses input outside of its narrow sphere of influence, but the democratization of the web is real. This trend has affected all aspects of our lives. "Post Secret" is a long standing and popular blog that encourages intimate and personal confessions. This is who we are, not the overproduced brand spot running mid. Advertisers, network content producers, and consumer brands have attempted to align with this shift in the communication landscape with various degrees of success and authenticity, then there are those companies and there agencies who view this trend with derision and contempt. Well my friends the train has left the station. Consumers have their own soapboxes, are part of digital collectives and are affecting your brands now with or without your permission.

link: postsecret.blogspot.com

Rule the Storm

2007-09-17T19:25:00.003-04:00

A experiential site that give the user the ability to control a coastal storm. it's success lies in the rich palette of storm controls and a matching soundtrack. Clearly we love customizing our environments online and are obsessed with storms. This site lets us play with the storm scenario in cinematic splendor all at a safe distance and consider the product tie-in later. Nothing could be simpler... nice.
link: www.rulethestorm.com

Digital Ethnography - the YouTube Project

2007-07-20T11:47:00.001-04:00

Dr Michael Wesch led a group of students in a ethnographic study of the YouTube community utilizing the model of participant observation where his students immersed themselves in the digital collective actively contributing to the dialog. The power and humanity they experienced and documented reached beyond the more commercialized use of the tool. It's true that this is only one layer of use on the site. Advertisers march on in an attempt to appropriate the open architecture of YouTube in an effort to catch up to a growing online community. Judge for yourself where the future of this community will reside, in the lap of the big-media messaging barrage and or in the hands of the people - with you.

link: http://mediatedcultures.net/youtube.htm

Here's to beer - what no Bud hammer?

2007-07-11T19:23:00.003-04:00

It's good to be king. In a refreshing move DDB has added new content to the "Here's to Beer" site, a celebration of all things beer for Anheuser-Busch.
"Who would you have beer with?" is stupid funny and thankfully branding-free. The humor and relaxed stance is well matched to the aesthetic of beer drinking. The site is full of supporting content and lifestyle video. It's not fancy, it's just fun and with the entertainment focused approach they stay clear of product comparisons, pitching, or macho beer chugging crap. I'll tip a pint to that.

link: herestobeer.com

Heineken Netherlands - Dutch Powerhouse flexes

2007-06-14T01:11:00.000-04:00

Heineken's freshly updated site is a robust tour de force. You first command the landing of a Heineken bottle, keg, or can on a public space and as soon as the Heineken lands it's party time. Moments before the crowd screams as if trapped in a Tom Cruise movie only to cheer the landing along with booming dance music - huh? Has the Godzilla of Euro-beer come to party? Other "acties" also bring the party to your browser, responsibly of course. You can compose your own house dance mix in the "twist to play" section - oh yippee! The sub zero cooler section mini film is bathed in neo-romantic cinematic aural splendor. Old style baseball t-shirts, penguins, and beer marches, ... I have no idea. Is it just a tongue-in-cheek anthem saluting the beer of Holland? I feel tears welling up.

link: www.heineken.nl

Sketchbook - Experimental narrative

2007-06-10T01:52:00.000-04:00

Sketchbook is more irreverent behavior by British agency Wefail, yeah their name is perfect. A collection of vignettes presented in a rough animated style that feels manipulated by hand. Check it all out. Their use of sound is rich and layered. Inspired not from highly polished web sites, but old school hand drawn animation and stop motion film.

link: www.martin-h.com

Greenovia - Simple and elegant

2007-06-10T00:46:00.000-04:00

Romanian environmentalists, landscape designers, and savvy marketers Greenovia worked with Infinity Art Studios to create this elegant web presence and beautifully animated navigation branch system/metaphor. The design and navigation remain consistent and intuitive throughout the experience.

link: www.greenovia.net

Color Lovers - Fight for love in the color revolution

2007-06-09T12:28:00.002-04:00

A rich design community site that reviews, comment, shares the latest color trends across the industry. There's a strong BLOG with insightful articles, interviews with rock star designers, animators, illustrators, and photographers. The joy of the site is that it's focused on the work. A place where we all strive to be.
link: www.colourlovers.c om/trends/

Well Styled - Color Palette Generator

2007-06-09T12:16:00.000-04:00

Relax. This is a tool for designers, not a shortcut and isn't safe for account management to "play" with if you haven't learned that already.
That being said it's a quick and fun color palette tool that works triads, tetrads, and analogic schemes. The folks at Well Styled a sleek web developer knowledge-base coded this tool for your pleasure.

link: http://wellstyled.com/tools

Emerald Nuts - Make us hip please

2007-06-08T18:40:00.001-04:00

This site has it all! You got your product line info, got yer funny bits, yer links to to the e-store, yer viral content, health info, historical spoof, a PR section, and of course Robert Goulet.
It's official Emerald Nuts are now hip.

link: www.emeraldnuts.com

Our friends Barbarian Group rocked this site.

Meals Together - Food Industry conglomerate talks to consumers!

2007-06-08T17:21:00.000-04:00

While not the most entertaining execution, this food focused site does succeed at presenting product offerings within the structure of family settings. What's missing is a user controlled and centric experience. I feel like I've visited a sanitized version of a bad 50's sitcom. It might be a nightmare version of television's future.
And why doesn't the dad stop dancing? Use the damn bathroom already!
link: www.mealstogether.com/

Win Nick's Life - sweet as

2007-05-25T15:59:00.000-04:00

Fun and engaging site to introduce Steinlager beer to the states. Strong underlying concept and very well cast, written, and directed.
Simple unobtrusive site structure.

link: www.winnickslife.com

Bob's Cube - Experiential metaphor

2007-05-17T19:30:00.000-04:00

Simple? perhaps.
But more and more exploratory sites are hitting the web as an invitation for users to subtly experience a brand. Savvy because they allow users to dive as deep as they like without being overtly marketed to. Consumer focused clients now understand the power of introducing their brands by letting the customer control their relationship to the brand.

Our friends at 15 Letters inc created this experience.
link: www.15letters.com/bobscube/

want2bsquare - Scion

2007-05-04T12:57:00.000-04:00

A fantastic multi-environment experience for Scion and their square vehicles. Simple flash cube interface allows the user to choose which environment they want to explore, each with a number of fun and engaging interactions.
link: www.want2bsquare.com

ATTIK and form collective are behind this fully integrated campaign. bravo!

obscura digital - out of the box action

2007-05-04T02:26:00.000-04:00

Obscura Digital is partnering with agencies to build some of the most immersive environmental branding work around. Very tech savvy, you'll continue to see more of there work as our focus moves from the screen.
link: www.obscuradigital.com

neave.tv

2007-05-03T16:50:00.000-04:00

Heavy experimental fun use of Flash, video, and animation. Paul Neave is the creator of this subversive Flash engine that uses content from blip.tv, google video, youtube ... It's a great media saturation fix if you need it and who doesn't? It all feels seamless because of the use of Flash 8 bitmap filters.

link: http://www.neave.tv/

someecards - irreverent fun

2007-04-19T12:29:00.000-04:00

Here's a engaging ecard site with a edgy sense of humor. It's a "light" execution that could have a long life.

link: www.someecards.com

NO SCRUF!

2007-04-12T11:46:00.000-04:00

National Organization of Social Crusaders Repulsed by Unshaven Faces - NO SCRUF
Truly a viral site. No client mention, no branding, intentionally retro schlocky design, irreverent content and real buzz. Is it just clients with dominant market share that can take these kind of chances? link: www.noscruf.org

Get the Milk - To know them is to love them, the Adachi family

2007-04-12T00:22:00.000-04:00

This rich 3D online board game revolves around the Adachi family. It's a beautifully modeled and rendered board game that feels like the "Game of Life". The experience is peppered with smaller challenges that reinforce the brand message. It's beautiful, very well planned, fulfills the promise of an immersive experience, but is also a little polite. Judge for yourself.

link: www.gettheglass.com

Interactive heavyweights North Kingdom Design from Sweden bring you this tour de force
www.northkingdom.com

Henry Needle and Sons - Great Pockets

2007-04-11T21:19:00.000-04:00

A timely new product roll out from acclaimed British haberdashery. It's smart, targeted and playfully innovative. Let's just say that you don't have to rush the punch line in a web experience.
link: www.greatpockets.com

more hot work from Sweden: www.farfar.se

MGM Grand - Maximum Vegas

2007-04-05T12:49:00.000-04:00

High production value - rich video / 3D site experience. It entices the user and delivers contextually rich content. The elaborate video tour is the best aspect of the site. Content links from the "maximum " section are a few steps down. Visual sub-nav both orients the user to the experience and simplifies the offering.
link: www.mgmgrand.com
enter maximum vegas