Samsung - Elephant Plays with a Galaxy Note!

Samsung has been coming on strong in the smartphone market lately.  According to Cannacord Genuity analyst Michael Walkley, Samsung is the second place manufacturer for mobile carriers in the US behind Apple.  Of course, that's really just an excuse for me to post this delightful video that The Viral Factory created to promote the Samsung Galaxy Note smartphone/tablet.  The video features an elephant (named Peter) playing/interacting with the Galaxy Note.  What I found really interesting (besides the fact that an elephant is playing with a freaking smartphone!) is that so many viewers were skeptical about the authenticity of the video, despite the fact that the description is explicit in saying that this was 100% real, In fact, the Viral Factory posted several behind the scenes videos to demonstrate that no post-production trickery was involved.  I suppose skepticism is to be expected considering how good the execution has become for various hoax campaigns such as those produced by agencies like ThinkModo.

See below for original video and behind the scenes.

Supporting Articles: Inspiration Room | AdFreak

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

BONUS: The Best April Fool's Day Joke (excluding Google)

Google always goes big for April Fool's Day & this year was no exception.  The 8-bit Google Maps, the Youtube Collection, & Google Racing were all genius, but I also loved this April Fool's Day Joke from WestJet.

Introducing Kargo Kids.  So good:

'...with plenty of toys and a state of the art feed trough, your children will be able to run, play, scream and eat all they want, while you enjoy your flight in peace and quiet.'

Project Re:Brief - Re-imagining classic ads for the modern web.

Quite simply, Project Re:Brief may be my favorite project to come out of Google.  Despite the fact that we're in the midst of a revolution in display, video and mobile advertising, many people still question whether these new advertising mediums can tell an emotional story or build brands.  Project Re:Brief answers that question by taking four of America's most iconic advertising campaigns and re-imagining them for the web.  The blog post announcing the launch of Project Re:Brief explains it more eloquently than I can:

This year, digital advertising turns 18. Over nearly two decades, waves of innovation have transformed the medium—it’s come a long way since the blinking banner ads of the early Internet. But we think the most exciting changes are still to come, as marketers and agencies increasingly embrace technology to enable new types of creativity, and build online ads that don’t simply inform, but delight and engage their audience. 
For example, what if an online ad could bring together two strangers on opposite sides of the globe? Or let you follow a real-life adventure as it unfolds? We wanted to find out. So we started an experiment, both to celebrate 18 years of online innovation, and to link advertising’s digital future to its storied past: Project Re: Brief. 
We started with four iconic ad campaigns from the 1960s and ‘70s from Alka-Seltzer, Avis, Coca-Cola and Volvo, each considered groundbreaking in its day. The advertising legends who made the original ads then came out of retirement to rethink their original “brief,” this time, using the full range of technological tools at their disposal, to reach consumers in today’s digitally connected world.

I highly, highly, highly encourage you to go to the Project Re:Brief and watch the videos, but more importantly experience new ads (and the original) for yourself.  In fact, I just sent a Coke to You can check out the intro video below:


You can see how the re-imagined Coca-cola Hilltop ad works below.  Amazing!  It really brings to life what can happen at the intersection of technology and creativity.

Supporting Articles: New York Times | Fast Co. | Mashable

Two Compelling PSAs - OCD & Alzheimers

Here are a couple of recent PSA's that have really impressed me.  No, I'm not talking about KONY.

The first PSA is from the Obsessive Compulsive Foundation.  Developed by McCann Digital Israel, it compels you to repeatedly watch the video to get the message.  It's a nice way to demonstrate what people afflicted with obsessive compulsive disorder must go through on a day to day basis to complete even simple tasks.


The second PSA is from The Alzheimer Society of British Columbia.  Created by Rethink Canada in support of Brain Awareness Week (who knew such a thing even existed).  In this beautiful spot, we're taken through a lifetime of memories seen through the lens of neural imaging.  The spot urges the audience to protect memories and support Alzheimer's research.  Watch it below, and then watch it again. Seriously.


Supporting Articles:  AdFreak | AgencySpy

Gap Geo-Fencing Campaign

In what's sure to be a much more common media play, Gap (in conjunction with out of home agency, Titan) just wrapped up a campaign that combined standard bus & transit ads with geo-fenced mobile display ads.  For those of you who may not be familiar with geo-fencing, it's essentially a virtual perimeter in a real-world area.  In this case, the mobile display ads utilised the location based services standard in smartphones/tablets to establish that users were within the geo-fenced area.  Here's how it worked, people in NYC, San Francisco & Chicago saw standard posters for Gap, but smartphone/tablet users within a specific area around the posters also saw mobile display ad offering Gap coupons if they were on particular sites or playing various games from Zynga, such as Words With Friends.

Dave Etherington, Titan’s senior vice president of marketing and mobile, says that 'The lines are kind of blurring,' he says. 'You’re only a click away now from rich brand experiences and purchases.'  He went on to say that Gap & Titan were pleased with the results which has a noticeable, but unspecified, sales uplift.  Additionally, 'the campaign, which ran from Feb 20 to March 6, delivered 2.5 million impressions, with a 0.93 percent click-through rate.'

It's a really nice way to enhance the efficacy of standard outdoor ads and I love the potential that geo-fencing and other mobile technologies are starting to offer as a way to bridge the digital and offline to provide true cross-platform experiences.

As eConsultancy pointed out, we'd need to know more about the campaign before passing judgement, were the posters near actual Gap stores?  Were the results skewed due to it being an offer?  No

Supporting articles: PSFK | TechCrunch | eConsultancy

Parrot AR Drone Remote Control Banner

The Parrot AR.Drone, in my humble opinion, is probably the coolest toy/gadget on the market.  They've done a fantastic job showing off the capabilities and experience of the drone through various media, primarily Youtube videos (see their channel here).  A recent rich media campaign developed by Beacon Tokyo takes things a step further in bringing the user closer to the actual experience of piloting a Parrot AR.Drone.  In a media bridging exercise, a user is prompted to scan a QR code in the interactive banner.  That then triggers their smartphone to act as a controller for a virtual AR.Drone on your screen.  You can then fly around, shoot at the site, which eventually collapses and prompts the user to watch more demo videos or go off to Facebook or Twitter.  Take a look in the video below.  Reminds me of the Doubleclick media bridging Christmas card/demo, Snowball Fight.


Again, just a really nice way of bringing users closer to the actual product experience and showing rather than just telling.

UPDATE: You can experience it for yourself here:
http://ardrone.gallery-site.net/

Supporting Articles: Contagious | Adverblog

Puma Social - Live Life, Don't Watch It

Let me first say, I haven't a clue what Puma Social is...from what I can tell it's an amalgamation of their various social activity plus some ER stuff and an umbrella for their Lifestyle/Youth outreach.  But you know what, it doesn't really matter...what matters is the message they're putting out in the video below.

A Puma describes it in the video itself
'With the rapid rise of reality television, more and more people seem content to spend time watching life on television, instead of actually living one themselves. Elevating those who fight, backstab and cheat into celebrities and role models. Something has got to change. So for the latest PUMA Social release we are offering people a choice: do they want their nights to be spent staring at televised strangers, or do they want them to be more? A time when they live life, instead of just watching it. Where reality stars are replaced by teammates. The 90-second film juxtaposes a slew of reality television audio clips with visuals of life being played. It celebrates those who choose to ignore the banality of today's reality television climate, in favor of creating their own stories with friends and teammates. Furthermore, the film encourages those of us not out already, to get off the couch. Because in the end, life deserves to be played, and channel surfing is not a sport.'


AMEN.  Seriously, I couldn't agree more.  Our own friends and live are far more interesting than the vapid half-wits on reality shows.  That said, I'll vegetate for hours watching whatever HBO decides is worthy of airing, but that's not the point.  OK, that's the end of my rant.  Overall really nice work by Droga5 & a great way for Puma to send out a strong, inspiring message with a clear call to action.

via Nicola Young