Blast from the BBC
BBC has launched an amazing digital and real-life experiential event called Blast which was conceived and built by Fallon London.
The project was developed in 2002 to encourage 13 to 19 year olds to develop their skills in art, dance, film, music, writing and games. Since then, it’s had many guises, with the latest being a truly amazing virtual-control meets real-life interaction experiment.
Visitors to the site can write stories that print out within the Blast Studio, paint the walls, add to a constantly evolving sculpture and control a huge light installation.
Fallon has said that the studio experiment will contribute to TV commercials and invited artists will also be encouraged to participate with the wider internet audience.
Check out the video below to see it being setup or visit their Flickr photostream for some great visuals.
I am uniQue by Foxtel
Lowe Sydney have recently launched a lovely new campaign for Foxtel called I am uniQue. The premise is pretty simple, create a 3D portrait of yourself that incorporates text, video and images from social platforms like Facebook and Twitter. Logging-in is easy if you’ve got a Facebook account (using Connect) and the navigation for viewing the portraits once they’re uploaded is pretty neat.
One nice aspect to the campaign is that these portraits can be enhanced by others with them adding greater detail than the original creator may have given. Having not done this, I wonder what kind of moderation levels there are in place.
As each update is made, the users Wall on their Facebook page is also updated keeping people on on the platform up to date with how their 3D profile is progressing.
Australia’s Next Big Thing
Just saw this new Bigpond campaign by BWM titled “Australia’s Next big Thing“.
A clever concept sees us following the father and son team around Australia as they search for Australia’s favourite “Big Things” - think the Big Pineapple in Nambour or the Big Prawn in Ballina.
Try jumping online and creating one of your own or just checking out some of the ridiculous propositions from others. This is my version below… The Big Bacon!
NRMA gives motorists a voice
NRMA have recently launched RoadTube, a website dedicated to letting politicians and others know what irritates you about our roads and ways in which to fix them.
Users can submit comments, upload a video of their own or record videos in one of the specially designed booths touring Australia. These can then be linked through other social networks to spread the word.
NRMA president Wendy Machin said the organisation would use the groundswell of community action to lobby the State and Federal Government as part of its new Get NSW Moving Again campaign.
Skittles - good for the brand or good for the marketers?
A week has passed since Skittles.com relaunched and debate is still raging. Has this been a triumph for the brand - clever harnessing of social media to deliver an authentic user-generated experience, or a triumph for the team behind the idea?
There’s no denying the idea is clever - use Twitter, Facebook and Wikipedia as the foundation for the Skittles site. It doesn’t just integrate their feeds or API’s, but actually has them at the core of the offering.
It’s also a brave move, throwing open the doors with an inability to moderate commentary on the brand. I guess the point of view has been taken, that any brand chatter is better than no brand chatter.
At one point the “#skittles” tag was being so inundated with inappropriate material (abusive messages, porn links etc) that the company had to redirect traffic to its Facebook page.
A large part of the Twitter commentary taking place at present, is not from the supposedly ‘youth-oriented’ market discussing cherry vs orange flavour, but rather marketers discussing the value of the campaign.
So, did it work? The answer is probably. If getting your brand talked about is deemed working, then great. It certainly won’t work for all brands and caution should be shown.
Who did it really work for then? It has to be the marketers behind the idea. They’re the real winners here - a first for the idea and a case study for other brands to ponder.
A safe online network for sick kids
Finally, there’s a safe and fun online community dedicated to young people (aged over 10 and under 21 years) living with a serious illness, chronic condition or disability - Livewire (www.liverwire.org.au).
The media are touting it as a “Facebook and MySpace for sick kids” where sharing experiences takes place on an equal level. Here kids can talk about their situations in a comfortable, guarded community, safe from judgement and cyber bullying. In fact, the Federal Police have actually developed part of the program.
Livewire is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Starlight Children’s Foundation and is supported by funding from the Australian Government under the Clever Networks Program and in-kind contributions from Starlight and Livewire partners.
It’s been trialled and tested over the last few months with a staged roll-out and hopes to sign up 20 000 members this year.
Facebook crumbles in the face of people power
So Facebook has done a giant backflip. This isn’t the first time, but it comes on the back of a statement made by Mark Zuckerberg under a month ago saying people would just have to put up with the new regime: no more softly softly approach to the instigation of site-wide changes.
Well, Facebook overnight posted the following message above everyone’s feed:
If you haven’t been following, the story is pretty simple. Facebook changed it’s terms of service to state that they can use, modify or even sublicense all content you’ve ever uploaded to the site. The real killer however, is the fact that this remains the case even if you quit the network. You can read some more on this and some very interesting comments on The Consumerist.
This debate is one that’s not going to die quietly. It may not always be about Facebook, but the underlying copyright and usage issues will always be there. Check the fineprint, investigate things like Creative Commons licenses and be aware that what you put out there is in other people’s hands.
Toyota - ‘Why not?’ campaign
Toyota has just launched a microsite to support it’s “Why Not?” advertising campaign. The slick 3D interface asks users to contribute environmental innovations in six areas - safety, water, land, air, community and energy - and at the same time learn about Toyota’s efforts in these areas.
“The goal in creating this ‘virtual world’ was to open a dialogue between Toyota and people across the country - while making it fun to use at the same time,” said Mike Wilson, chief creative officer, Dentsu America (global creative agency). “Over time, the suggestions of users will ‘grow’ the landscape of the site.”
Having a look through some of the ideas already submitted, shows how much time and effort people are willing to invest in ideas around sustainability and innovation. There’s propositions that take 5 minutes to read while others are so short and obvious that you find yourself asking why they haven’t been done already.
To reward people’s efforts, Toyota has put up a week-long VIP tour of Toyota’s plant in Kentucky and the opportunity to meet with top innovators in New York City as a prize.
Video / Photosynth demo - AMAZING
This will blow you away… guaranteed. A video demo of Photosynth, the likely product to transform the way we experience digital images - think spatial and relationship modelling of all things visual.
Website / Newsvine relaunch
Newsvine has been completely relaunched with a whole suite of new features and functionality. The homepage now allows a user to completely alter the page layout and featured content with easy-to-use drag and drop functionality. Headlines and weather are localised, groups clarified, a nifty ‘Live’ ticker (actually cool for a ticker) included on the hoempage, news as pics as well as all the other existing good-gear.