How To...Anything At All

My colleague, Dr. Joe Adam Fry, has kindly volunteered to write a guest post for 5 Cool Things, highlighting a little prototype that our team has been working on.  Take it away Joe...

So the idea was that as we work with YouTube content and Google Search data every day, we know that there is a how-to video for pretty much EVERYTHING in the world. 

So, how would you go about learning everything? Well, head over to How To Something and start learning all the things!

The world’s biggest and longest tutorial loads a random how-to video which you can either watch, share or skip if you already know how to do that particular thing. The results are generated from a randomized list of 600 verbs which is then contextualized by returning the top query phrases around that particular verb (using the suggest API).  So you too can learn, in one continuous STREAM OF AWESOME, how to marry a millionaire, how to skin a squirrel, or how to sneeze on command and much more.

The result? Serendipitous learning at its best.

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

A Man Like Me In A Place Like This

Here's a fascinating usage/display of personal location tracking.  Rather than place himself on a flat map a la Foursquare, Facebook Check-In or Google Latitude, Tristan Smith has used Google Streetview in combination with Google latitude to show his current location in a way that closer represents reality.  As the about section of A Man Like Me In A Place Like This site describes:

Fame or Privacy. (Not Both.)

By combining data from Google Latitude and Google Streetview, this site introduces a new form of self-surveillance: An almost livestream of the creator's location using Google's extensive photo database.

Both a digital nod to the graffiti tradition of "_____ WAS HERE" and a new form of life sharing.

"A Man Like Me In A Place Like This" asks the question, "just how much of our experience are we willing to put on display?"

See below or head on over to A Man Like Me In A Place Like This to check it out yourself

Brightly - Preflight Nerves

Tweetflight is a new twist on the interactive music video.  Nerves, a Melbourne-based band created a real-time Twitter-powered film for their new single, Preflight Nerves.  As one of the band members explains:
'Basically we couldn’t afford to pay a big production company to do a film clip, so I thought it’d be wild to try and do something using web technologies – specifically, HTML5 and the Twitter API. 

The result is the first interactive real-time Twitter powered music video for our single, Preflight Nerves, that we’ve affectionately nicknamed Tweetflight.'

The music video scrapes tweets in real-time and highlights the lyrics as the song progresses.  Check out the flat film below or head on over to Tweetflight to have a play with it yourself.
via: Leon Bayliss




Posted by: Reuben Halper

Google - Art, Copy & Code

Art, Copy & Code in a series of experiments that started last year with the Google Project Re:Brief. Whereas Re:Brief re-imagined classic ads for the modern web, Art, Copy & Code looks at the future of modern advertising on the web through a series of experiments conceived, developed and executed in partnership with brands such as VW, Adidas & Burberry.  As the site explains:

A Time of Change
In the 1960's, advertising went through a creative revolution that changed everything simply by partnering up art directors and copywriters. The idea of a creative team made up of art and copy was born.  Today, it’s happening again. We’re in the midst of a second creative revolution, driven by technology. Code is being added to the core creative process, enabling new forms of brand expression and engagement. Art, copy and code is the creative team for the connected world.

The Idea Is Still King
What hasn’t changed is the need for human insights, breakthrough ideas and emotional stories. Code facilitates new kinds of experiences, but it doesn’t replace the storytelling skills the advertising industry has honed over the past fifty years. Our connected world is giving brands more dimensions and touch points, but they still need something compelling to offer in order to create a real connection.

A Series of Experiments
How will the modern web shape the future of advertising? We’re partnering with the innovative brands, storytellers and makers who are defining it to find out.

I highly recommend watching the dynamically generated manifesto/intro film on the Art, Copy & Code site.

The first in the series of experiments is the VW - Smileage app.  The official Google blog has a good overview of the experiment or check out the video below.  I envision it as the driving equivalent of Nike+, providing both entertainment AND utility back to the user in the form of insightful information about the individual's driving behaviour, habits, etc.




Posted by: Reuben Halper

Three - The Dancing Pony

Three is a UK-based mobile provider fighting for market share in a crowded and competitive environment.  Their most recent campaign, developed by Wieden + Kennedy London has absolutely blown up on UK television and the Interwebs.  'The Pony' is a truly delightful commercial and has been great in terms of generating awareness (though one could argue about the strength of the association with Three vs. just the Pony).

What's been interesting to me is to see how Three & W+K have extended on the TV commercial in the digital space, as well as taking the digital activity and feeding that back into TV.  If you haven't already seen it, check out 'The Pony' ad below before reading on.


In terms of driving digital activity, Three have created 'The Pony Mixer' which sends users to the Three YouTube channel where they can create their own bespoke version of the Dancing Pony, complete with various visual effects and a wealth of iconic songs to choose from.  That's a fantastic way to deepen the experience for users who are willing to go beyond just a passive view of the video.  You can check out the trailer for the Pony Mixer below.  There's also a heavy Twitter component around the hashtag #DancePonyDance, which generated 14,000 tweets within five hours of the video being uploaded and has continued to be active throughout the life of the campaign.
 

Lastly, Three have also taken the best of of the user generated videos created via The Pony Mixer along with the associated tweets and are running those as follow up TV commericals.  These include versions such as the Bollywood Pony, the Punk Pony and my personal favorite, the Hip-Hop Pony (see below)

Taken together the work from W+K London is just a fantastic example of how various channels can work together in a way that allows each component to extend and amplify the overall campaign.

Also worth noting that, the Poke have created their own hilarious version (not via the Pony Mixer) of the Dancing Pony called the Findus Pony.  For those of you outside of the UK, Findus is one of the brands/vendors caught up in the recent Horsemeat Scandal.

hat tip: Bobby Nolla & Adrian Dent


Posted by: Reuben Halper

Coca-Cola - Small World Machines

I recently came across this teaser video for the latest in Coca-Cola's ongoing 'Open Happiness' initiative (via Jonathan Mildenhall, VP of Creative @ Coca Cola).  Open Happiness has been running since 2009 and is a great example of how many different executions can be developed from one truly fertile big idea.  I'm also amazed at how many different ways Coke and their respective agencies have been able to bring the 'Open Happiness' idea to life through various owned assets such as Coca-Cola trucks, vending machines, etc.

The latest execution seems to be a natural extension of last year's Coca-Cola Re:Brief project which delivered on the brand promise from the classic 'Hilltop' TV ad of forty years ago, allowing people around the world to buy a stranger a Coke from the web.

The 'Small World machines' video shows vending machines using streaming video to allow customers at one vending machine to see and interact with a person in front of a Coke machine in another part of the world.  The two geographically separated people must then virtually join hands to draw a heart and earn a Coke.  It's a nice way to deliver on the idea that Coke is something that connects people in spite of their differences.  I'm looking forward to see how this worlds in the real-world.  In the meantime, check out the video below:



Posted by: Reuben Halper

Escape Flight

Escape Flight is a new travel site/service that flips the traditional model of planning and booking travel online.  Rather than start with a destination in mind, Escape Flight asks the user what attributes they're looking for in a getaway.  As their site descibes, Escape flight is 'a free service that has been specifically designed for people in big cities who need a last-minute getawar, but can't afford to do all the ground work themselves.  We have created a one-stop, travel-agent-defying algorithm that considers; your personal interests, the weather, your preferred airport, flight times, potential destinations (...including how easy they are to reach), even if there is an event on you might like, and of course not forgetting the cost.'
This idea isn't necessarily new, in fact there was a great piece of Miami Ad School student work that was similar, but based strictly on the weather requirements of the traveler.  I believe that I've also seen this sort of functionality buried in the booking options of other airlines sites.  The point is that none of the major travel players are really thinking about how to meet the needs of the traveler in non-traditional ways.  Escape Flight have brought the idea of interest/attribute based travel booking to the forefront in a both delightful and useful way.  It's crazy to me that big travel brands or travel aggregators aren't leading the way in terms of providing this sort of functionality as it resolves an inherent tension in the current travel process as well as serving an unmet need for potential travelers.


 Posted by: Reuben Halper

Mohan Music Palace - Harmonium Banner

Here's a really nice use of rich media advertising. Developed by Web Chutney for New Delhi based Mohan Music Palace, the banner aims to help stem the decline in usage of the Harmonium, a traditional Indian musical instrument.  Targeted at various music sites and users who showed an affinity for musical instruments, the banner turned users laptops into a digital harmonium replicating the experience of playing the Harmonium.  Not only does the ad demonstrate a clever user of rich media technology, it was also extremely effective in terms of  interaction rates and an uptick quote requests.  Just goes to show that rich media ads can be an effective tool when used properly.  Check out the case study below.

via: Leon Bayliss


 Posted by: Reuben Halper

Le Trefle - Emma

This is just a lovely piece of work from Leo Burnett France for French paper company, Le Trefle, reminding us that we'll always need paper, at least in some aspects of our lives.


Posted by: Reuben Halper