Not-so-well-known online book retailer wants to become more-known. Brazilian ad agency comes up with an extensive campaign that includes technology, some guerrilla stuff, social media, viral marketing and a cool product too.
This is ‘The Living Book’, a book that’s written by people and that changes on a weekly basis. 

The book consists solely of QR codes (those weird matrix-type square things that are being used for mobile tagging). And when you take a picture of these codes with your mobile phone, each one will translate into a new bit of content every 7 days. 

So far so cool, but it doesn’t stop there. The bits of ‘content’ are actually Twitter messages that include the words ‘love’ or ‘hate’. Great gimmick, nice campaign, lovely way to integrate UGC, interesting technology. And apparently, the book sold out in no time.

Creative Review has a nice write-up about the whole thing.

Does anyone have any other good examples of QR technology being used creatively?

The other day I was thinking about a campaign-type-of-idea to use snow or ice as a canvas for messages or advertising. Just, you know, storming the brain. 
Yesterday London experienced quite a snow extravaganza and sure thing. The guys from Curb agency swiftly ploughed their way through the white stuff to plant a bunch of Extreme sports channel logos around the city. Nice write-up in Creative Review.
A clever bit of green guerilla marketing.
Then again, my idea was better. Only because it had a digital aspect to it.
Bit less green, but quite a bit more now.
Missed opportunity?

The power of a good, creative music video remains. Here’s another commercial that’s inspired by a pop promo.

I guess that’s what those poor, struggling, starving, but highly creative music video directors are left with these days. Get the chance to develop a strong conceptual, visual idea, hoping that it will be picked up by an agency creative.
Still, they have to be kind enough to ask you to direct it. That’s the case here though: both films were done by the same director, Tom Kuntz, who recently also directed that rather fun Cadbury’s ad. Busy chap. 

But I always found it strange that production companies (who ‘rep’ their directors) don’t find ways to make more use of their roster’s creativity. In times of convergence, cross-platform and transmedia, should a production company not (partly) act as a creative agency as well?

Big billboard ads are an obvious source of inspiration for any street artist. Simply because they’re an intrinsic part of any big city street. There’s even a Poster Alteration Art group on Flickr. 
London has its Decapitator but I do like Poster Boy, a New York street artist that spices up the subway stations over there with his radical mash-ups of posters. Armed with a razor blade as his weapon of choice, he cuts up ads and re-arranges them on the spot into something funnier, more political, more thought-provoking. 

Check his Flickr stream here, films from Wooster Collective, Animal Magazine and his own YouTube channel and articles in NY Mag and the Guardian. 

Lots of attention, so answers on a Tweet: will he show up in an ad soon, sell out to galleries or is he using the media to start his own little revolution. From his interview with the Guardian:

“That’s what I want Poster Boy to be about,” he enthuses. “The idea of taking your environment into your own hands and making it what you want. As long as you’re not hurting other people, it can’t be bad.”

We’ve been working with some fashion designers recently and, doing all kinds of research, I’ve been thoroughly impressed with the creativity applied in fashion communication recently (see previous posts here and here). 
The social media expert we work with on this fashion project pointed me in the direction of Chictopia, a community platform for people who are passionate about fashion. People show what they’re wearing, rate each other’s outfits and review products. Obviously, it’s a fantastic way for brands to do some research, talk to their clients and even (subtly) push some of their products (although Polyvore seems to do that better).
And now American Apparel (the 3rd most popular brand on the network) has gone one step further created an ad campaign with the highest rated ‘models’ from Chictopia.
Genius move, yet so simple and obvious. So double genius.

Obviously, that’s all very true and useful and what not, but 2009 is set to be the year of video. On the digital platforms of course.
‘Groundswell‘ already mentioned video as an integral of any good communications strategy, and more and more industry people and blogs are talking about it. What got me thinking was this article on Video Insider, bigging up the importance of video. I particularly agreed with the bit where it mentions that it’s time to be creative with online video.

Creative in production, but very much creative in thinking. So not just re-purposing tv content into shorter ‘webisodes’, but making something that truly complements a tv show.
Not just re-purposing a tv ad into a pre-roll, but creating specific, short, funny, interesting messages that actually make sense in an online environment.
And not commissioning a viral without actively trying to seed it. 
Creative in translating your message for that right environment.  

If you move to a new country and want to integrate, you speak the new language, right? But to me it seems that brands/clients/communicators seem to struggle with or even avoid that new language.
True, it’s far from clear yet what the online video ‘language’ really is. Correction: make that ‘languages’, plural. Because that seems another pre-conception: that there’s one solution. Not necessarily, me thinks: why not have a variety of ‘translations’ of your core message. Another topic that Video Insider writes about very well.
Why not have different versions of online ads, all based on the same message or tagline. And with all the power to measure online behaviour, you must be able to target different varieties of your message to different people. Why not have…

I’ve been involved in quite a few online (video) projects over the last few years and “It’s only for the web” is still a phrase commonly used. And while they say that, they divide the ‘big budget’ by 8 and give that to online. TV STILL seems to be THE one platform where a lot of people want to be.

Shame, because while production costs are much lower than they used to be, I think the development of concepts and ideas are gonna be key in 09, the year of online video.

This time of the year is mainly good for receiving some nice Christmas cards sent around by the creative industries. Keen to impress their clients, potential clients and anyone who’s interested in watching/reading, companies are spending some quality time and money on these ‘cards’.

A friend sent me this cool one, from agency AKQA, but Creative Review have collated the nicest ones from their mailbox here and here. 

So have a great break and here’s to an inspiring 2009. 

I never mentioned it here and I didn’t manage to vote, but Volvo, Vice Magazine, The Independent and Yahoo ran this competition called Creative 30, to find the leading creative think-ers and do-ers in the UK. The winners have just been announced and the jury chose artist Katie Paterson, while the public vote went to milliner (isn’t that a beautiful word for hat-maker) Will Chambers. Paterson’s pieces are particularly intriguing. She makes various sound sculptures, influenced by science and nature and general cookie-ness. Charming stuff. 

But have a look at the other 28 nominated creative talents and check out their profile films. I particularly liked the work of photographer Jonnie Craig (see picture above), illustrator Mimi Leung, the beach chairs from furniture designer Max Lamb and ‘possible sculptor’ Daniel Mort.  
Nice initiative and interesting to see that a brand like Volvo wants to spend some money on this (Paterson wins £10,000 – Chambers a Volvo).

While the advertising world is still wondering just how cynical, colonial and faux-real that new Whopper ad/documentary is, I prefer my campaigns to be a little more subtle.
Have a look at how agency BBH is trying to revive interest in Tango with a campaign called Do the Can Fist. The full-length ad is here or on production company’s Knucklehead’s website, but also check out the Save Tango website, which seems to complement the whole vibe pretty well.  
I’m sure Tango wasn’t even doing that badly, but that underdog role suits it just fine. Made me smile.  

Two weeks ago I wrote about how I liked the Transport For London ‘Do The Test’ campaign. And it seems like the Observer liked it too, because they did a half-page spread on it in last week’s paper (online version here). That’s pretty good column inches for an ad campaign (is this what they mean with blurring the boundaries between advertising and PR?). 
But in the article, Fergus Adam from advertising agency WCRS (who created the spots), says that this kind of viral marketing is pretty much over, because people are less likely to forward clips and jokes. 

Does anybody know of any statistics that support that statement, because this totally surprises me. I agree with him that clients asking for “a viral that gets 5 million hits” are a bit naive. It’s not that simple. And I also think that the word ‘viral’ still gets used to justify lower production budgets (”but it’s only for the internet”). 
But if something’s good, surely it’ll be passed on, talked about and shared? No matter what platform it was originally made for. No matter whether it was ‘marketed’. Sharing has become such an easy part of communication that if you have a good product or make something that’s worth watching/reading/listening to, then I’m gonna tell my friends about it. 
Surely?

A very clever and creative piece of advertising/awareness raising for Transport For London. It was created by agency WCRS and directed by Chris Palmer at Gorgeous Films, who also did this similar TFL film a while ago.

I just wonder if there shouldn’t have been more of a digital side to the campaign. Some kind of interactive quiz or game element that allows people to pass on the film without actually giving away the answer. Something that builds up over time. There is a website for the campaign, but it doesn’t really add that much, does it. 
Still, very enjoyable piece of communication.

We recently moved studio and one of the guys that I bump into every now and again in the kitchen is Noah Harris, who just finished this rather lovely ad for Ford Fiesta – This Is Now. It took him a good 7 months to finish, but it’s well worth it.
In good Web2.0-open-collaboration style, he got a bunch of designers/animators on board to create all the gorgeous visuals that show in the screens. Very now indeed. 
Now, I would have thought that Ford would include all the individual pieces on some microsite, get people to comment etc etc, but nope. They seem to have a microsite for this car, but no films. Instead they’re all on YouTube and you can watch them here.

Another rather talented director that sits in spitting distance from me is Tom Haines, who made this lovely music video for crazy Texan band White Denim. It has just been picked as video of the week on 6Music and it was criminally ignored for a nomination in the category Best Indie/Alternative video at the UK MVAs.

I’ve always floated around the music industry in some shape or form and I’ve always been surprised how un-creative the environment (and its output) is; despite the fact that there are so many talented people involved.

When I was commissioning music videos (I still do the odd one), I always felt there were quite a few other ways of translating music into moving image or into a (dirty word coming up) ‘campaign’. But there weren’t many examples and everyone kept making music videos; some great ones, lots of disposable ones.
But it seems the music industry is coming round and is no longer completely averse to exploring non-traditional routes.

It’s not really a surprise that creative artists like Soulwax do something as ambitious as their tour-film ‘Part Of The Weekend Never Dies’, but none other than Oasis recently did something that made me smile.
Not only did they give away sheet music of songs on their upcoming album, allowing people to play/record/upload their own versions; they also taught a bunch of buskers in New York how to play the songs and sent them out on the street, as an exclusive preview. Original, simple, to-the-point, pretty much (another dirty word coming up) ‘360′. And you document it and you have a film. I think it’s great. 

So yesterday I was talking to some friends and we were wondering who came up with the idea. And the answer is: the advertising agency BBH. While I find it a bit scary that the big advertising agencies are getting involved in music, it actually does make sense. I’m not talking about positioning a ‘brand’ like a pack of butter, but at the end of the day agencies generate ideas. And if anything, the Oasis ‘campaign’ shows that in an era where everyone has a video camera, a strong idea makes all the difference.
So maybe, just maybe, the major record companies and mainstream artists will start tapping into the creativity that’s all around them. 

Here’s an online advertising campaign that will get some attention, taking interactivity to ‘another level’. Only in Scandinavia can you get away with that; imagine this happening in the UK. 
Made by Stockholm agency Dallas.

I’ve worked on a few pro-social and environmental video campaigns, trying to bring across a message that no one really wants to hear. So I know it’s not easy to come up with something efficient, let alone creative. Because in the end, the client just wants to show polar bears or big lumps of ice falling into the sea. 
But this film-slash-installation by director Tim Godsall tackles that challenge pretty well, me thinks.

And a YouTube link, just in case the Quicktime version is taken down at some point. 

This ‘music video multiplex’ for Pop Levi is already a few weeks old, but at the time I hadn’t started the noble art of blogging yet, so I thought I’d post it again. In case you hadn’t seen it. 

Although I really like the idea, the execution isn’t overly great. So it won’t be long before someone really explores the interactivity opportunities. I’d like to see more screens. And why not more moments where you have to pause/play/rewind to complete the video. Or make your own version for that matter. 

I reckon this could be something for director/artist Roel Wouters, you know: him from the live-installation trampoline concept for the rather fantastic zZz video.

Which by the way has just been re-used for this car ad. Quite badly re-used, I should say. Bit missing the point really.
Does anyone know whether Roel got to make that himself? It’s the same music, but I heard that he declined.

Why exactly is Euro RSCG doing this? In the press blurbs, they talk about ‘access to artists’ and ‘future-facing business models’. Now, The:Hours is not a traditional label; it also does ‘music content production’, like this. But if the advertising industry needs better/cheaper/quicker access to music creators and the copyright on songs, surely they could have bought a specialized music production agency. 

And I don’t get the fact they’re interested in a record label. If the plan is to discover the new Justin Timberlake, so McDonalds will háve to come to Euro RSCG for their new version of ‘I’m lovin’ it!’, then that’s quite risky, no? 

I know music is extremely important for brands and the last few years the trend has been shifting towards custom content (remember the Nike/James Murphy, Nike/Cassius and CocaCola/Jack White collaborations), but I’m just not 100% convinced by this one. 

What am I missing? Enlighten me!

I’ve always been a bit skeptical about banners. Last year, Han Hoogerbrugge, an animator/director I work with at my agency Pixelspew, was asked to design an interactive banner for American communication giant Comcast. Despite the fact that the result was fun and playful, we were both wondering who actually clicks on these things. Judging by the agency’s reasonable budget, it had to be quite a few people, but we couldn’t help thinking that the whole banner thing wasn’t really communicating clearly. 

But this ad (for a credit card) does its job well. The reason is that it plays with the boundaries of the banner. There isn’t a direct link, but you see a guy handcuffed to the edges of the banner, trying to free himself. Very visual and you can’t help but notice him. And then he pulls another screen across the banner to reveal the message. Pretty clever. Shame though that the ad wasn’t interactive. But still, I made the Guardian a bit of money today.

So welcome to this blog. Hopefully we can share some thoughts on all things creative. On the beautiful, exciting, interesting, funny examples, but also on the ever-changing media landscape and the role creativity can play in that.

Fill me in, contradict me, give me a shout.