Febelfin - See How Easily Freaks Can Take Over Your Life

Last year, Febelfin, the Belgium federation of the financial sector launched a film that purported to shwo an amazing mind reader revealing the secrets of various members of the public.  The film, created by Duval Guillaume, garnered millions of views and was a great piece of content to highlight the fact that many people's entire life can be found online while also urging people to be vigilant with their data online.

Now Duval Guillaume and Febelfin have gone a step further to highlight the dangers around identify theft.  In the latest film they actually steal the identity of a random person.  Rather than just steal his online identity, they go on to impersonate him in real life.  It's both creepy and fascinating. Again, these videos serve as a great tool to generate awareness of the dangers that come with being lax in our digital lives.  Perhaps most importantly, they communicate the danger in a way that's much more compelling than the typical messaging around identity theft and online security precautions.  Check it out below.

Posted by: Reuben Halper

VW - Slowmercial & 2013 Golf Auto Show Reveal

Here are two nice, but unrelated pieces of work for Volkswagen from the past couple weeks.

Volkswagen Beetle Slowmercial
According to DDB Brussels, more than a third of Belgians regularly timeshift their TV viewing and of those viewers, more than 80% of them fast forward through commercials.  So how do you get your commercial message across to viewers who are watching at 2x, 4x, or even 8x the normal speed?  DDB Brussels created the Slowmercial for the new VW Beetle.  It's essentially a static TV commercial, not unlike a moving print ad.  Kudos to them for rethinking the existing TV format to take into account new viewing behaviour.  Check it out below to see what the ad looks like at both normal speed and 8x viewing.

VW Golf & Golf GTI
The new 2013 VW Golf & Golf GTI were unveiled at the NY auto show with a very cool projection mapping event that traced the evolution of the Golf through a cultural timeline.  Delightful.




Posted by: Reuben Halper

Newspaperswork - 6 Things YOu Can Miss While Reading A Newspaper

I somehow missed this prior to the holidays.  The guys at Duval Guillaume recently created this lovely video in order to promote Newspaperswork, the marketing platform for all Belgian newspaper publishers.  In the video, three of the top advertising executives in Belgium are offered a free ride to work in a chauffeur-driven sedan.  Ostensibly they've been offered the chauffeur service so that they'll have time to read the newspaper on their way to the office.
Rather than ruin the payoff, I'd ask that you just watch below.

It's an incredibly clever and interesting use of video to demonstrate the power of print.  Very meta.

Felbelfin - Amazing Mind Reader Reveals His 'Gift'

I try not to show 'viral' videos too much on this blog.  From a brand perspective they're pretty much a mythical creature and cloud otherwise rational thought around online video.  Simply put, if viral is your strategy, then you don't have one.  That said, there's been one agency that seems to have cracked the code of producing amazing stunt campaigns that also tie back nicely to a single brand proposition and generate a huge response online.  That agency is  Brussels-based Duval Guillaume Modem.  These are the people response for the Carlsberg stunt with bikers in the cinema, as well as the TNT - Push For Drama stunt.

Their latest video is for Felbelfin, a Belgian financial umbrella organization.  As part of their 'Safe Internet Banking' campaign, they employed a 'psychic' with powerful abilities to see into people's lives.  Volunteers were told they were going to take part in a news show then brought into a white tent. Inside sat the psychic, Dave (btw - Dave seems like a rather normal name for a psychic, no?).  These folks tell Dave their names, he does some laying of hands and then starts telling them things that no stranger should know.  The injuries they have, their romantic situation, medical history, bank balance, etc.

Then Dave reveals his trick. A curtain drops & there's a room full of masked researchers on computers looking up the personal details of each person and feeding it to Dave through a hidden earpiece.

The message appears 'Your entire life is online.  And it might be used against you.  Be vigilant.'

Great piece of work for what would normally be a dry and boring message.  Again, hat tip to the guys at Duval Guillaume Modem.