New Old Spice Guy Fabio

New Old Spice Guy Fabio
The Old Spice guy is back...but this time it's Fabio rather than Isaiah Mustafa.  Old Spice has been uploading a series of new spots starring Fabio and his long locks.  As always, the spots are amusing and offbeat, but do Fabio has pretty big shoes to fill.  They're even playing off of that in several of the spots, with Fabio talking about how he's the best Old Spice guy ever.  Reaction thus far on Twitter, Youtube, & Facebook has been pretty negative, but those people are kind of missing the point.

A couple interesting things...in the past whenever Old Spice has run new campaigns they've used the same Youtube brand channel (youtube.com/oldspice), but for this campaign they're using a new brand channel.  That makes me think that this is just a temporary measure while the real Old Spice guy is off in Hollywood shooting movies.  Other outlets have speculated that 'the whole thing was likely an elaborate joke to incite instant negative reaction on social media and on YouTube resoundingly against Fabio. In that case, the whole exercise was a resounding success.'  P&G has confirmed that Isaiah Mustafa will be coming back at some point in the future.


UPDATE:  As hypothesized, Fabio's involvement is part of a larger stunt involving Isaiah Mustafa who has challenged Fabio to a duel Mano a Mano in el Bano @ Noon EST July 26th.


Supporting Articles: Brand Channel | Washington Post | Daily Mail

Craftsman SCREW*D

Craftsman Screw*d
What is Screw*D? Maybe a better question is: Who is Screw*D?

This summer, Craftsman is taking one tool-clueless person, and through a series of intense, even high-risk tool and surivival challenges, put them through the ringer. The goal: Turn them into the ultimate handyman.Those chosen will be pushed to their limits over the course of 10 weeks  gain new tools skills for this online reality show.  Right now the contest is in the finalist stage, but with 5 finalists having been culled from over 300 submissions.  For 10 weeks beginning in mid-August, the winner, who will be relocated to an apartment in Chicago, will be filmed receiving boot-camp-style carpentry training from experts. Then, as Y&R describes it, the contestant "take part in extreme survival tests in the middle of nowhere."

Ryan Ostrom, divisional vice president for digital marketing for the Craftsman, Kenmore and Diehard brands at Sears, said the subject would be led blindfolded into those situations and would be extricated only through meeting some construction challenge. Mr. Ostrom would give no further details, except to say the situations would be “uncommon to the everyday tool experience.”
Those challenges will be broadcast live online. The brand’s Facebook followers will be encouraged to offer tips and suggestions in a live-chat format.  The participant can win up to $50,000 if he or she successfully performs a few tasks and those DIYers who help out a great deal can also win Craftsman products.  As you can see from the trailer video, Craftsman is having fun with this contest and it seems like a great way to attract new consumers while also engaging with the existing audience of DIY enthusiasts.

Supporting Articles: New York Times | Brand Channel | TubeFilter

HUGO Just Different

HUGO - Just Different
P&G owns several prestige fragrance brands such as HUGO BOSS & Gucci.  As part of their foray into the digital space (spurred on in part by competition from L'Oreal & last year's Christmas Corridor), they've launched a fantastic interactive Youtube custom gadget for HUGO - Just Different that uses headtracking to control the experience.  The tagline of the campaign is Just Different and film pushes the idea of seeing things differently via new angles and perspectives. This interactive film requires you to tilt your head left or right, thanks to realtime head-tracking technology, allowing you to control the experience with your own movement.

They're driving traffic to the channel via mastheads in at least seven markets.  This is just the beginning in terms of P&G's investment in Youtube, so expect to see more multi-market campaigns across Europe.  I believe the decision whether to activate in each individual market is up to the country brand mananger so I'll try to give you a heads up if there's an opportunity for multiple mastheads in your markets for future campaigns.

Supporting Articles: Digital Buzz Blog | Ubergizmo

Intel - The Inside Experience

Intel - The Inside Experience
It seems like I'm featuring Intel at every meeting, but they've really been undertaking some great marketing efforts as of late.  Their latest initiative is being billed as the first 'social film experiment'  and debuts today (July 25th). The premise is that Christina (Emmy Rossum) is trapped in a room 'with only an Intel processor-powered Toshiba laptop and an untraceable Internet connection. Unable to determine where she is being held or what her fate might be, Christina uses the laptop to mobilize her social network, reaching out to friends, family and anyone else who can help her figure out where she’s being held and how to escape. Viewers are encouraged to connect with Christina, tweet clues and post advice to her Facebook page.

The film portion will debut at the end of July, with one four-to-five-minute episode released on various social media platforms every few days, linked in between by tweets, Facebook posts, and videologs, all to help viewers get in on figuring out the "film’s" big mystery: Why and where is Christina (Rossum) trapped in a room with a Toshiba laptop (with Intel inside!) and an untraceable Internet connection. Her only hope: Connecting to "friends" on Facebook and Twitter who will aid her quest to free herself.  The editing team will also incorporate posts that best fit the storyline into the episodes.  Additionally one viewer was cast via a Youtube casting call and will be incorporated into the movie. The film culminates in an early August episode that wraps up the mystery, which can be solved along the way by devoted watchers.  The full film will be released as a stand-alone story online after the mystery is solved.

Supporting Articles: Inspiration Room | The Guardian | Creativity Online

Peugeot - Take The Car Challenge

Peugeot - Take The Car
I love this campaign.  It's a great take on the old “Touch The Car” endurance competitions of yesterday.  To promote the range of new Peugeot's, the Swedish creative agency Volt launched the “Take The Car” challenge online, where users would compete live from around the world to score a week with the car of their choice.After connecting with Facebook, users would choose a car, then click-and-hold down the mouse for as long as they possibly could. Every time someone joined the competition, their profile pic would appear on the car in real time, so users could actually see their competitors in the challenge. While all this was going on for hours on end, the website spat out over 9,000 words of pure sales information to help brainwash contestants into wanting the car!
Promotion was done via banners and Facebook sharing. The site had 45,000 visitors from 86 countries, despite being designed for the Swedish market.

Supporting Articles: AdWeek | Creativity Online

BONUS: Cannes Lions Winners - Case Study Compilation

A few of us were lucky enough to attend Cannes last month.  I thought it'd be useful to compile the case studies from the various Grand Prix and Gold Lions winners.  While much of the work will be familiar to most of you, there's some campaigns that I certainly hadn't seen.  So take a few minutes to check out the various winners and the corresponding case studies.  This list isn't exhaustive, it's just what I could dig up.  For a full list of winners check out the Cannes Lions site

Grand Prix Winner: The Wilderness Downtown by Google



Grand Prix Winner: Old Spice Response Campaign



Grand Prix Winner: Pay With A Tweet

Pay with a Tweet - Case Study - OMG version from Leif on Vimeo.



Gold Lion Winner: Foot Locker Sneakerpedia



Gold Lion Winner: UNIQLO Lucky Line

LUCKY LINE from DD on Vimeo.



Gold Lion Winner: Google Art Project



Gold Lion Winner: Edding Wall Of Fame

Gold Lion Winner: NTT DoCoMo

Gold Lion Winner: MINI Getaway

Gold Lion Winner: Renault E-Space 360

Gold Lion Winner: VIV iPad Magazine

Case Study: The First Motion Cover and Interactive Spread for iPad from Alexx Henry on Vimeo.

Gold Lion Winner: Life In A Day

Gold Lion Winner: Nike Write The Future

Gold Lion Winner: Heineken Star Player

Google+ Firsts For Brands/Agencies

It's the dreaded 'media first.'  No launch of a new service or social thinga-ma-jiggy would be the same without them.

Google+ Ford Europe - Ford Europe has what I believe is the first brand presence on Google+. Nothing fancy, but good to see brands embracing it out of the gate.

First Campaign on Google+ - In what's generously being billed as the first creative campaign on Google+, Israeli creative agency pH Creative saw the huge demand for Google+ invites and tapped into a clever invite loophole using it as a way to promote themselves & their work.





Supporting Articles: Social Times | Google Plus Users

Stride Chewing Gum - Be Ridiculously Long Lasting

Stride Chewing Gum - Be Ridiculously Long Lasting
Stride Gum bills itself as 'ridiculously long-lasting' & their new campaign capitalizes on that tagline.  They developed 100 challenges & corresponding teaser videos for the campaign, which challenges consumers to break 100 records over the next 100 days.  After the 100 days expire, the 100 record-breakers will each win $500 in cash.  Each teaser video is uploaded to Youtube, Facebook & the Record Setter website with strong integration between each of the three platforms.  The challenges are basically funny human tricks (ie. Longest Time Kicking One’s Own Butt or Most Armpit Farts In 15 Seconds).  One twist, if you break the record in the teaser video, you actually become the legitimate world record holder for that challenge as all uploads are submitted via the Record Setter website which has various criteria and is a database of various random world records.  That said, it's a shame they didn't use Youtube as a platform for submissions, but that may have been a criteria from Record Setter.

The bulk of the daily activity takes place via Facebook (again a shame), but overall a great example of a campaign which encourages repeat visits and continuous engagement while also creating a competition with a relatively low barrier to entry.

Supporting Articles: AdWeek | Creative Review | Mashable

BMW Canada - M Powered Performance

BMW Canada - M Powered Performance

BMW Canada has launched a new campaign that showcases their new 1M series coupe doing incredible things.  About a month ago they debuted a video showing the BMW 1M vs a series of walls.  A true viral (no Youtube marketing behind it as far as I can tell), they've now followed this up with another viral hit called 'Helipad.'  It's unclear on whether these are real or fake and it doesn't appear that BMW is going to share that fact.  They'll be releasing additional videos in the future, though interestingly these spots will only be seen online and in the cinema.  

We all hear from advertisers and agencies that they want their content to go 'viral,' but it's really about creating something that's spreadable.  What I love about this campaign is that it ticks all the boxes for what it takes to create a spreadable/shareable/viral content.  Creating something innovative and exciting that people will want to share, content that will provoke a debate or a discussion.  These two videos certainly fit the bill and it will be interesting to see what they come up with next.

Supporting Articles: Inspiration Room | Jalopnik | Autoblog

Lynx Effect - Lucy Pindering

Lynx Effect - Lucy Pindering
We've all seen Tippex A Hunter Shoots A Bear, now Lynx has created their own interactive 'type-a-request-into-a-search-box' experience as part of their Premature Perspiration campaign featuring UK pinup girl Lucy Pinder.  This racy gadget features the 'Pindering' game where users are presented with a box that says: Lucy Pinder _____ing makes me prematurely perspire.  Depending on what you type, you are then shown one of many videos of Lucy Pinder performing that act in skimpy clothing and showing off her various assets. They also have created a microsite which features the 'Pindering' game as well as 'Ctrl-X' in which a user tries to get her to remove various articles of clothing.


According to Unilever: 
'This latest push forms part of a more sophisticated approach to our marketing strategy. This is a really creative way of engaging directly with our target audience and allowing guys to connect with the brand in a personal way. This digital element forms part of a fully integrated campaign that will reinforce our core brand values.'


You can debate the originality of this campaign, but anecdotal evidence from around the office convinces me that it certainly creates engagement with the target audience ;-)  Additionally there are some clever twists depending on what you type...'rant' yields a funny spoof on the Christian Bale set meltdown from a year or so ago, while 'geek' spoofs the Stars Wars viral video from a couple years back. My personal favorite...'shoot' pays homage to the original Tippex campaign.


Our colleague Giles Tuck has kindly taken the time to create a compilation video showcasing some of the videos.


Supporting Articles: Brand Republic | New Media Age | B&L

Intel The Escape

Intel The Escape Youtube Game
Intel has created some great digital experiences lately as part of their shift in messaging away from specs & performance figures and towards are more emotional message of how Intel technology enables a digital life.  Recall their Youtube Visual Life contest or the recent Museum Of Me site that they developed.  It all started with the short film 'The Chase'  launched back in January.  Extending on that original concept, Intel has launched a Youtube gadget intended for the Asian market called 'The Escape," an immersive, entertaining thriller which allows the Youtube audience to take part in the adventure.

"The Escape" integrates YouTube, interactivity and social networking into a single seamless experience for the first time. Inspired by Intel's earlier film, "The Chase," "The Escape" breaks through YouTube's third wall and makes the audience the hero, remotely piloting drones and brawling with assailants to assist the film's femme fatale in her mission.

This is definitely one of the most sophisticated & interactive games that I've seen on Youtube.  The game also utilizes Facebook Connect giving users the option to add pictures of their friends in certain scenes and earn achievement badges to post to their Facebook profiles. It also contains hidden clues for viewers to unlock additional content as they play.

Supporting Articles: Wall Street Journal | Brand Channel | ClickZ | Campaign Brief Asia

BONUS: Rich Media Ads Of The Week - HTML5 Challenge Winners

Back in March, Doubleclick launched a competition challenging creative agencies and freelancers in the UK, France, Germany and Italy to design a HTML5 masthead which showcases their company or agency's skill.  The winners in each market won a free trip to Cannes as well as a free masthead featuring the winning entry.

The winners were announced awhile back and they're pretty cool executions, in particular the UK and the French winners stood out to me:

UK - Lean, Mean Fighting Machine developed a masthead that uses search (both text & voice) within the masthead unit to then pull Youtube videos based on that query.

France - biborg | alpha layer (the same agency that developed the 360 degree Assassins Creed campaign) created a stunning & delightful masthead that integrates your location as well as Google Maps to create an interactive balloon flight experience.  

BONUS: TwitTV

TwitTV is a web-TV channel that's programmed by what's trending on twitter.  Here's how it works...you select a region (eg. a channel on the dial) and it finds the top trending topics for that region.  TwitTV then pulls Youtube videos based off those trending topics, giving you a constant stream of videos.  It's a great mashup of both the Twitter & Youtube APIs and gives you a video zeitgeist of what's happening on Twitter as expressed through Youtube.


Supporting Articles:  FWA Site Of The Day | Propaganda3