Uniqlo Undercover

I love seeing innovative uses of the Google Maps interface (such as Levi's Roadwear covered here a few months ago).  Uniqlo has recently partnered with Japanese fashion brand Undercover and their 'UU' website launched a month or so back.  The site uses Google maps as the mechanism to browser the whole product collection.  As you can see from the walk through below, you can zoom in further and further to go from big (and random) pictures to product details on individual garments.  You can also turn on and off different maps layers that will organize the collection by area (mens, babies, etc.), show social comments about the collection or take you to a store locator layer.  Just a great use of a navigation interface that we're all familiar with as an innovative way to show off the entire collection.

Have a play around with it yourself art the Uniqlo Undercover site or see the video capture below.

Additional Articles: FastCo | TheFWA

Heineken - The Fever Keeper

Heineken and their various agencies have done an amazing job of activating their Champions league sponsorship and providing both utility & entertainment to football fans through initiatives such as Heineken Star Player.  The latest work (from Vidal Parternship) is aimed squarely at Champions league fans in the US.  Due to the time difference, most games occur when people are at work and therefore can't watch the games live.  As any sports fan who's tried to watch a Tivoed game knows, you essentially need to enforce a communications blackout from match time until you get home and can actually watch the recorded game.  There's just too many opportunities to see the results of the game accidentally while browsing the web.  Enter Heineken Fever Keeper, a Chrome browser extension that blanks out any revealing information about the match, regardless of what site you're on.

Genius...now if only there was something similar for smartphones.  Check out the video below for more detail and to see it in action.


Additional Articles: PSFK | Adverblog

Google Maps Cube

Back in January Google released this delightful video to promote Google Maps.  It features a wooden block 3D labyrinth of a cityscape that's suspended and rotated to show off a physical representation of navigating via Google maps.  At the time it promoted a beautiful HTML5 walk through of Google Maps, but it always struck me as surprising that there was no digital execution to match.  Fast forward a couple months and now we see the release of Google Maps Cube.  It's a fun WebGL based game/Chrome Experiment that allows users to experience different map based challenges.  The experience digitally replicates the metal ball in a wooden maze-type tilt games while promoting different features and functionality of Google Maps.

Have a play around:  http://www.playmapscube.com/

via Leon Bayliss

Fix At Four PSA

I really do think that some of the most clever work of the past couple months have been various public service announcements.  Here's another excellent set of PSAs encouraging pet owners to get their dogs or cats fixed at four months.

Smart Argentina - Animated Twitter Commercial

Smart cars pretty much fit anywhere and in any parking spot.  BBDO Argentina decided to demonstrate this fact by showing how a Smart car can even fit in Twitter.  Using a series of 455 tweets they've created an animated commercial in their Twitter feed.  It unfolds much like an animated flip-book.  Scrolling through the Twitter feed doesn't really convey the intended effect, so the best thing to do is go to the Smart Argentina Twitter page and use the 'J' or 'K' keys to scroll forward or backward.  Of course you can just check out the video below.

The strapline at the end reads approximately: 'It goes anywhere, even in 140 characters.  A big idea for the city.'  Nice use of a small space to demonstrate a small product.




Supporting Articles: Adverblog | Adfreak

$#*T Kids Say & Course To Shine - Topical/Relevant PSAs

There seems to be a wealth of really wonderful and emotionally evocative public service announcement (PSAs) work being done lately.  In the past few weeks I've also begun to notice PSAs that tap into the current zeitgeist/memes/trends as a clever way of creating relevancy with the intended audience.  I'm not sure of the agency responsible for this first one, but it seems that VW has teamed up with Nikkietutorials, one of the many Youtube stars/gurus, to help communicate this message.  Rather than trying to describe the video, please watch below (hint: be patient)

We often talk about brands enlisting Youtube stars/gurus as part of their marketing activity, so it makes complete sense to partner with them in order to get across the message that '500,000 road crashes are caused by women drivers applying make-up.'  Just a great execution in terms of creating something unexpected within the perfect context of a beauty tutorial. (via my colleague Briain Curtin)

Next up is a PSA for the NSPCC (National Society For The Prevention Of Cruelty To Children), created by Inferno London called $#*! Kids Say

While perhaps it's a bit late to the Shit _____ Say meme, it's still a great way to convey the message which asks the viewer to trust their instincts when they think things aren’t quite as they should be & generally raise awareness about the NSPCC mission.

Romanians Are Smart

I love seeing examples of Google search or AdWords used in creative ways.  Converse Domaination was probably the most prominent example of a creative campaign using AdWords.  Now McCann Erickson has developed a campaign for Romanian confectioner Kandia Dulce, producer of the ROM chocolate bar, to improve the online reputation of Romania.  Currently when you type 'Romanians are...' in Google search you get Google Instant results that are less than flattering, for example when I type 'Romanians are' Google instant returns 'scum' and 'latin.'  The campaign aims to change that by essentially Google bombing the results so that first instant result will be 'Romanians Are Smart.'  Check out the case study below for more details and feel free to help change the Google results by heading over to RomaniansAreSmart.com


It'll be interesting to see if this is successful in changing the Google results, but regardless it's a great concept.

Supporting Articles: Inspiration Room | SEO Moz

Project Re:Brief - Alka Seltzer & Avis

I'm slightly obsessed with Project Re:Brief.  If you're not familiar with Project Re:Brief then stop reading and head over to ProjectRe:Brief.com for some background.  Anyhow, I just love the concept of bringing iconic campaigns to life through digital media and truly believe that we're just scratching the surface in terms of the potential of display, mobile and digital advertising as a way to create an emotional connection between advertisers and users.  With that in mind, I was excited to see the last two of the Project Re:Brief campaigns have gone live.

Check out the re-imagining of Alka Seltzer - 'I Can't Believe I Ate The Whole Thing' & Avis - 'We Try Harder' below.  It's better to head over to the Project Re:Brief site and play with the desktop versions of the ads, they really are exceptional.  Mobile demos/walkthrough videos are included below, but if you're not familiar with the original campaigns then it's definitely worth heading over to the site to get the full context of the original and re-imagined campaigns.

Tipp-Ex Experience 2

I thought I'd post this in case you've been holed up in a cabin without Internet.  If not, you've probably already seen this...the Tipp-Ex Experience is back for round 2!  The original Tippex Experience, developed by Buzzman in 2010, proved to be one of the most popular and successful Youtube campaigns of all time.  The campaign garned millions of views and many, many awards (see original campaign here or the case study here).  I wasted far too much time playing around with the original campaign and this version is no different.  In the original campaign users were invited to rewrite the story of 'A Hunter Shoots A Bear.'  In the new campaign users are invited celebrate the Hunter & the Bear's birthday throughout different times in history (see video below for backstory and to begin the experience).  Just type in a year and see what happens (check out 1990 for the Saved By The Bell spoof).  There are about 40-50 different videos from various years and some of them include interactive features (try typing in 1980).  Have a play around and say bye-bye to a couple hours of productivity.

WTF!? Tupac Performs At Coachella

Remember that Dave Chappelle skit where Tupac wasn't really dead (if you haven't seen it, check it out here.  Chappelle's show was brilliant and is sorely missed)?  Anyhow, in a case of art imitating life, Tupac has in fact risen from the dead with help of holographic/CGI technology and decided to perform with Snoop Dogg & Dr. Dre at Coachella.

Very cool technology and not the first time it's been used.  For example, there's a holographic pop star in Japan and T-Mobile staged a Mariah Carey concert in multiple venues using similar technology.  That said, I believe it's the first time that the technology has been used to bring back a dead artist.  The whole stund reportedly to have cost more than $500,000.  What's scary is that it's being talked about a future revenue stream for the music industry, that is resurrecting long-dead artists to do holographic performances.  Ugh.  I'm pretty sure that's one of the signs of the apocalypse no?