Showing posts with label youtube. Show all posts
Showing posts with label youtube. Show all posts

Thursday, June 14, 2012

VW - The Original Click

Really clever use of Youtube advertising formats in this campaign for official Volkswagen auto parts (developed by AlmapBBDO).  The idea is simple, people shouldn't accept imitations auto parts.  Similarly, they discovered that on Youtube many of the most-popular videos have poor quality knock offs/imitation videos, some of which have millions of views.  So VW bought in-stream ads against these imitation videos with the message 'Don’t accept Imitations. Prefer Original Parts.'  Clicking on the ads redirected users from the imitation video to the original version.  Check out the brief case study/explanation video below.  According to this AdFreak article the campaign generated '125,000 views and 500 clicks for every $100 spent.'



via Sibylle Tretera

Additional Articles: Adverblog | Digital Buzz Blog

Paper Crows - Build

Here's another clever use of Youtube videos from the musicians, Paper Crows for their new album 'build.'  The site shows four separate YouTube videos which are then synchronized into one coherent visual track using the Youtube API.  Each of the videos is actually a different music track, so users can change the audio track by rolling over one of the videos.  Simple, but very clever.  Check it out here, or see the screen capture below.
via Bobby Nolla

Doubleclick Rich Media - Media Bridging Desktop & Mobile

As you may have noticed from previous posts, I'm a bit obsessed with the media bridging opportunities where mobile is the glue that connects all other forms of media.  There's still a long way to go until it's seamless and elegant, but there's been some really nice progress, especially over the past six months.

One of my favorite examples (logrolling alert) was developed by my talented colleagues at Doubleclick (Scott Harmes - creative, Roberto Stocco - dev) in conjunction with Toaster Ltd.  The tech is called 'Channel Connect' and basically creates a communications channel between a desktop advertisement (such as a Youtube masthead) and an HTML5 mobile site.  It's not just limited to one user, so you can actually create an ad experience with multiple users competing/collaborating on the experience at the same time.  I think it has a ton of potential and look forward to seeing how agencies push these executions going forward.

Have a play with the demo here or for more details read below (full post on Doubleclick Rich Media Gallery blog):


Dubbed ‘Channel Connect’, this new Rich Media feature enables you to create more ways for users to connect with your brand.

What is it?
Channel Connect is a new DoubleClick package of Flash components and JavaScript libraries used to establish a communication channel between a desktop advertisement and an HTML5 mobile site.  The opened channel can be used to send any kind of information in either direction between a user’s mobile device and their desktop.



How can I use it?
Channel Connect turns a smartphone or tablet into a new input device, allowing users to interact with brand content more tactilely than a simple mouse.  Any Rich Media ad can be enhanced by switching mouse-interactions to gestures: turn a user’s mobile into a game controller or graphics tablet for maximum active engagement.





On a separate note you'll notice that it uses a QR code to initiate the mobile part of the experience.  That's definitely where most of the media bridging stuff falls down, so it's interesting to see Layar's announcement a few days ago that they're creating an easy way for publishers to turn standard print content into a simple augmented reality experience.  Really interesting stuff...

[GALAXY Note] Beckham plays Beethoven's Ode To Joy

OK, so it doesn't have much to do with the product, but I still felt compelled to share this version of Beethoven's Ode To Joy as played by David Beckham to promote the Samsung Galaxy Note.

Granted it's not as spontaneously delightful as the Elephant playing the Galaxy Note, but much better than the over the top fake of the previous Beckham Pepsi viral.  See below for some pure 'viral' enjoyment.

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Streets Ice Cream - Share Happy

This is nice experiential campaign from Australia that effectively bridges the offline and online.  Streets Ice Cream (and their agency Soap Creative) launched the 'Share Happy' campaign (sounds a bit reminiscent of Coke - Open Happiness no?).  Installations were setup across Australian cities that invited any passer-bys to record Matrix style 360-degree rotating videos of themselves.  The videos were then uploaded to Streets Ice Cream Youtube channel and available on the Streets Ice Cream website.  Participants could go to the site and easily search for/find their video and easily share it out amongst friends, family, etc.

Great idea.  It's simple, but effective.  Participants are rewarded offline (ice cream samples) as well as online (a cool digital memento of an experience that they couldn't otherwise have).

Check out the 'Best Of...' video below.
Additional Articles: Simply Zesty | Digital Buzz Blog

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Skittles - Touch The Rainbow

Skittles (and their agency BBDO Toronto) cleaned up at Cannes last year, winning a Gold Lion in the Film Category and a Gold Cyber Lion for the now famous 'Touch The Rainbow' campaign.  My personal favorite was the Skittles Touch: Cat spot featuring Zach Galifianakis as a half-man/half-cat (see below).


Now Skittles & BBDO are back with another series of 'Touch' videos that are bizarre as their predecessors.  All five can be seen in the playlist below.  My personal favorite is the Zombie Tennis video.  Personally I don't find the latest videos as impressive.  Then again, they set the bar pretty high as the previous 'Touch' campaign that surprised and delighted viewers with the unexpected nature of the spots.

Columbia - Great Moments In Trying Stuff

I posted this to the 5 Cool Things G+ page a couple weeks ago, but just have recently had time to explore the rest of the Columbia Sportswear Youtube channel.  Their latest campaign 'Great Moments In Trying Stuff' is a series of videos that demonstrates the benefits of various Columbia sportswear through a series of amusing pseudo-science experiments.  As they put it: 'What do sweaty hot dog buns, cafeteria workers, mesh tank tops and a cat have to do with proving our gear is the best in the industry? Everything. Watch as we put our most innovative products to innovative tests.'  The videos are extremely entertaining while also being peppered with features/benefits/functionality throughout.  Anyone know the Agency responsible for the work?  In the meantime, here are my two favorites, but check out the rest of the 'Great Moments In Trying Stuff' on their Youtube channel.


BONUS: 8-Bit Mad Men

The Fine Brothers are one of the more established Youtube Stars, ie. content creators that have created a huge audience/following on Youtube.  They release videos twice a week that typically tap into the Youtube zeitgeist (such as this one, Kids React to Nyan Cat) and have racked up more than a million subscribers.

They recently released a fantastic Youtube game, tapping into the excitement around the Season 5 premiere of Mad Men.  The game (done in 8-bit/Nintendo style complete with awesome Nintendo-ish sound) uses Youtube annotations to create a choose-your-own-adventure experience where you play Don Draper looking to level up on his inner peace, new ideas, and confidence.  Have a play around below:


This is just one of many interesting executions across various mediums that tapped into the excitement around Mad Men, with Sky in the UK running 60s-style spots during it's ad breaks & Newsweek revisiting it's 1966 design for the issue the featured a Mad Men cover story (again complete with 60s-style ads from contemporary advertisers throughout the magazine).

Supporting Articles: Forbes | MTV

Monday, March 5, 2012

Peugeot - Let Your Body Drive

To promote the idea that the new Peugeot 208 is like an extension of your body, BETC Euro RCSG developed an interactive Youtube experience/video entitled 'Let Your Body Drive.'  According to Peugeot, the new 208 'has been designed to be perfectly in tune with the driver's body: more intuitive, more sensation, more stimulation. It allows the body to express itself fully, and the new interactive film perfectly illustrates this'.

That of course, tells you nothing about what exactly 'Let Your Body Drive' is all about.  Simply put, it's a choose-your-own-adventure story using Youtube annotations.  You're put in the shoes of a naked dude who's just been caught cheating on his girlfriend and is basically wandering the streets in his birthday suit.  Choose correctly and you get back together with her.  Choose poorly and...well you get the chance to play again.

The story is well done and amusing throughout.  Respect to them for not hitting the user over the head with Peugeot 208 branding/messaging throughout the experience.  From a more technical perspective it's nice that the experience takes place within a single video.  Many choose-your-own-adventure type executions using Youtube annotations pop the user off to a separate, unlisted video at each decision point.  That's great in terms of protecting the story flow, but from what I've seen there's significant drop off/bounce when users are taken to a separate video, rather than jumping another point within the same video.

'Let Your Body Drive' is part of a larger digital & ATL campaign that's currently running.  The interactive video is also nicely integrated into the new Peugeot 208 campaign site, which houses previous interactive experiences and promotions for the 208.

Have a play around yourself by going to their Youtube channel or see below.



via my colleague Inga Spitzer