Here's a nice piece of branded content from Norton Securities, the maker of various utilities and antivirus software. Their overall messaging has been around 'Protect Your Stuff With Norton,' demonstrating how Norton protects your valuable content and data. According to Leo Burnett ECD Jon Wyville, Stuff Theater is an effort to 'put your social-media stuff on a pedestal and treat it with the importance it deserves, even if it’s as mundane as a Facebook update.' While it's not the most concrete tie in, I love the idea (developed by Leo Burnett and Arc Worldwide). So what was it exactly? A live, unscripted, unrehearsed 24-hour performance on November 30th in which sixty actors brought to life over 1,000 Facebook posts on the Norton Facebook page. Facebook users could submit their post to be performed over the 24-hour period that Stuff Theater was live.
They're currently pulling together the best of video, but the teaser videos are hilarious (see below). It's somewhat reminiscent of the CP+B created Kraft Mac & Cheese TV (where tweets were turned into TV spots within 24 hours), though more ambitious in some ways (a 24 hour live performance) and less ambitious in other ways (turning around a TV spot within 24 hours).
And of course it would be been fantastic to see this as a livestream on Youtube as well.
Sadly all spokesmen (or in this case spokespuppets) eventually come to the end of their marketing usefulness. What's I've found interesting is how both Ford & Air New Zealand have gone about retiring their respective characters, Rico & Ford Focus Doug.
For those of you unfamiliar with Rico, Air New Zealand introduced their raunchy spokespuppet about a year ago to promote the new airline livery and seats (see below for the first spot)
The Rico campaign (developed by New Zealand agency .99) includes a series of online-only videos where Rico interacts with passengers, as well as celebrities such as Lindsay Lohan, Snoop Dogg, & Richard Simmons. The campaign has been controversial, but ultimately successful. Over the course of the year, Rico amassed more than 4.5 million Youtube views and 45,000+ Facebook fans(check out the Rico section of the Air New Zealand Youtube channel for the entire series).
Air New Zealand has decided to kill Rico (in a somewhat literal sense). Rather than immediately moving onto the next campaign, they've created 'Cluedo,' a Clue-like competition for users to solve the mystery of Rico's murder. Interestingly, even though the character was controversial, the competition is presented in partnership with the game maker Hasbro. In any case, the user who finds the clues and solves the mystery wins an all expense paid trip to either LA or New Zealand.
All in all a nice way to wring a bit more usefulness out of an already successful campaign. The competition is ongoing at the Bye Bye Rico site. See the contest intro video below:
In Ford's case, they introduced Doug back in March (see his Youtube channel here if you're unfamiliar with the campaign) and it's been a big success over the past 6+ months. According to Brand Channel:
Doug is being retired from active duty as a branded entertainment experiment for the brand, after a phenomenal run of webisodes. Ford targeted the generation of 10,000 Facebook fans for Doug; he now has 43,000. According to Monty, people have engaged with Doug on Facebook at a rate three times greater than for the vehicle itself. About 40 percent of online "conversation" about Focus has been about Doug.
And yet, as disappointed as Doug might be at being put back on the shelf, the campaign hasn't all been about "Doug," as much as his obnoxious persona would have it.
Talk about a Focus group — Monty tells us that 77 percent of people who saw the 48 Focus Doug videos to date said their favorability toward Focus has risen, and Doug's adventures have prompted a 61 percent increase in Focus consideration.
"We've even had a handful of people say that they bought a Focus just because of Doug," Monty said.
Rather than just quietly retiring the campaign, Ford created a penultimate video where we see Doug ditching his companion. This was shortly followed by a farewell/retrospective video looking back at the high points of the various webisodes.
In both cases I like the idea using online video to extending the campaign lifecycle a little bit longer and going out with a bit of a bang rather than a whimper.
One of the key features of Google+ is the power to share and interact with people dynamically via Circles. While most sharing and social network relationships today are a somewhat awkward and often static (ie. I put all of my friends in a generic 'friends' bucket). The fact is that not all friends are created equal and our relationships on social networks evolve much as they would in real life. Circles is one of the key features of Google+ that bridges that sharing/relationship gap that exists in our real world relationships vs. our online relationships. So how do you convey this in TV commercial? See the latest Google+ spot below which does a great job showing the power of circles through the evolution of a relationship between Kyle & Lisa.
OK, this isn't a campaign, but it's beautifully done and well worth sharing (though it's already made the rounds on the internets):
Google Street View stop motion animation short made as a personal project by director Tom Jenkins.
Story: A lonely desk toy longs for escape from the dark confines of the office, so he takes a cross country road trip to the Pacific Coast in the only way he can -- using a toy car and Google Maps Street View.
Music by the wonderfull Cinematic Orchestra (cinematicorchestra.com) and the track is Arrival of the Birds - please buy the fantastic album: itunes.apple.com/gb/album/the-crimson-wing-mystery-flamingos/id297787201
All screen imagery was animated - there are no screen replacements.
Technology spurs creativity, creativity spurs technology. We hear that all the time & the fact is that great things can happen at the intersection of the two. Such is the case with The Sound Of Football, the latest initiative that's part of the Pepsi Refresh project (the much discussed worldwide social initiative that encourages and funds innovative ideas). The Sound Of Football is the result of a collaboration between Akestam Holst, Society46, & Tracab and combines real-time tracking technology with 3D sound to invent a new way for visually impaired people to play football. A bit of background:
Today, blind football is played with bells in the ball and on the player’s legs. The goalkeeper can see and shout out instructions to the other players on the pitch - a relatively basic method with obvious limitations. The basis for the solution in The Sound of Football was found in military tracking technology.
With the technology, you can track the position of all players, the ball, the goals and other things on the football pitch in real time. All coordinates are passed on to each player through an iPhone app and the information is converted to 3D sound. Each player will hear different sounds depending on where they are on the pitch and if, for instance, the ball, a player, sideline or goal is nearby.
Akestam Holst then arranged a football match between a team of visually impaired players and a team of former professional footballers. The goal was to see how the teams performed under equal conditions, in a match where no one can see. Using the tracking technology in conjunction with a specialized iPhone app, iPhones were mounted to the head of each player along with blackout googles for the sighted players to level the playing field. The app then feeds stereo audio cues as to where other players, the ball, and the goals are. See the demo below in terms of how the audio aspect works (note, headphones recommended).
This technology isn't just for footballers & Aksetam Holst has already been exploring whether the same technology can help visually impaired people in large public spaces such as train stations. The ultimate goal is to create a pervasive technology that allows visually impaired people to "see" with sound. The general public are also encouraged to submit ideas of what can be done with the technology via the Sound Of Football website.
Regardless, it's worth heading over to the Sound Of Football Youtube channel, website or Facebook page to see more about the project and additional videos from the people involved in the creation and execution of the project as well as the footballers involved (both sighted and visually impaired).
About a month ago, Deutsch LA released a beautiful 2-minute spot for Playstation, Long Live Play featuring various video game characters saluting fictional gamer Michael (see the video here). The latest work, Here's To Gamers, takes that idea a step further and salutes actual gamers on the Playstation network. Sony Playstation's answer to the Old Spice guy, Kevin Butler, VP of random fake divisions, is calling out their achievements (or spectacular failures) on the Kevin Butler Youtube channel & the Hall Of Play Facebook page. In total 19 videos will be produced (about 10 have been released so far), each saluting a specific gamer & showcasing their gameplay in the background. They're pretty damn entertaining & it's inevitable that they'll be compared to Old Spice (which begs the question, is there any campaign featuring personalized video responses that won't harken back to Old Spice?).
Bearing in mind the horrible press (not to mention actual execution) for Sony throughout the Playstation network hacking debacle, you can imagine the challenge in enticing gamers back to the platform. Creating something personalized for their hardcore fans is a nice step in giving back to the community that made the platform such a success in the first place. See my favorite spots so far in the videos above and below. See more on the Here's To Gamers Youtube channel.
I was back in NYC last weekend, which also happened to be the same weekend as the New York marathon. While taking the subway, I came across this installation in Columbus Circle by Asics. Ever think about just how fast the pace of professional marathon runner is over the course of 26 miles? It's ridiculous, something like 4:45 per mile for 26 MILES! Just insanely fast. The Asics installation brought that idea to life by featuring a 60-foot long video wall that invited the public to race along with professional marathoner Ryan Hall. The challenge: see if you can keep pace with him for just 60 feet. The installation, developed by Vitro, featured a continuous loop of a countdown seguing into a 60-foot sprint along the video wall by Hall. Check it out in the above video.
On a completely separate note, check out Christoph Niemann's live sketching/tweeting of his running of the New York marathon, 26.2 miles, 46 sketches. Just delightful. Check it out here.
Remember The Peugeot Take The Car Challenge from a few months ago? Well Playstation (I know, I know, Playstation heavy this week right?) is using a similar mechanic to promote the release of the game Uncharted 3. All you have to do is hold your arm up longer than anyone else. The Grab The Ring challenge activates the webcam and asks users to hold onto the ring as long as possible for the chance to win $500 daily or the $10,000 Grand Prize:
To win, grab the ring and hold completely still for as long as possible.
After three mistakes your game is over.
The person who holds it the longest each day wins $500.
After 14 days, the person with best overall time wins the $10,000 Grand Prize.
Such a simple game mechanic, but nice to see the webcam integration provide a physical aspect and bring it closer to things work in the real-world. Check out some of an example video from a gamer who's been taking part in the challenge:
BTW - The current leader 21+ HOURS...that's dedication.
While the NBA lockout continues, Nike has been active in a social media campaign around the tagline 'Basketball Never Stops,' which includes a series of videos, Facebook page, and twitter hashtag. With shoe manufacturers and retailers expected to lose up to $500 million if the lockout lasts all season, it's nice to see Nike continuing to drive interest and remind us fans why we love the game. The spot from Weiden + Kennedy is simply awesome. See above.
