We've all seen the upload your face campaigns made popular by Trailer Crashers but I haven't seem one that seamlessly integrates your face into the product so well. Check out this online campaign for HP which puts you into their ads.
The best part (well for flash nerds like me) is it'll take any photo of a face, crop, rotate and size the photo to fit the required area. Then add lip syncing, and blinks without the users needing to do anything.
Here's one I did with Rob's baby photo. Which you can see was not exactly cropped and ready to go. The results are quite good. I was able to choose 5 different elements, some of which were further customized, and then create this video.
My only complaint is that if you want users to add the videos to their blog or webpage, don't load the entire video unless the user clicks to view it.
After we had this "viral" campaign for the 40 hr Famine submitted to us I got me thinking about all the "Blingvertising" I've seen over the last few years. Ali-G, MR.T and every other rap artist worth their salt is draped in gold chains and diamonds so it’s no wonder advertisers don't use this aesthetic to sell their products.
MC Squared: This is a "viral campaign" for the 40 Hour Famine, although I cannot see any tie in. The customize my rap reaks of aveaword (which is nicely polished and sells the client's product well) and the talent is pretty ordinary. Even the "hoes" are ordinary. A quick google reveals the real MC Squared is a beat boxer. Sorry Sputnik, you guys do great work but this blows? Even the URL is APPTbusiness which just misleads you even more.
We're as guilty as any for dipping into the bling basket to style a project. We had a pimped out Pig for KKash and blatantly used the word for our Bling My Bomb site.
Sadly I realize now that using this aesthetic for kids in Australia Americanizes what’s “cool” to impressionable minds. There is very little in today’s advertising that is uniquely Australian. And what is is seen as backward or uncool.
Note: This is by all means not an exhaustive list but ones I've been sent, involved in or really enjoyed. I'll also claim to be the first to use the word Blingvertising. Please comment with any other bling campaigns I've missed.
Update: here's the link to the Swedish campaign mentioned in the comments.
ahem. NSFW perhaps - DWYW (Depending Where You Work).
Flick-book erotica entertained Victorian era Ladies and Gentlemen, and now, via the interweb, Zootube.co.uk has brought us the Interactive bouncy castle.
With lots of different things bouncing. altogether. from different angles. in a bouncy castle. with no clothes on.
Ok this is the last Snakes on the Plane item I'll post but I thought this was quite fitting.
Now you can create your own banner ad for Snakes on a Plane. Great! let users generate content they usually ignore or hate! That said it's a nice idea but wouldn't it be better to let users create something else like a trailer or poster?
This is one of the most suprising sites I've seen in a while. I'm sill confused but intriged. I'm also interested to see their latest album, which this site promotes, is produced by Rick Rubin??! I guess for the biggest "girl band" in the world they have the power to attract big shot producers as well.
Enter the wierd and dark world of Dixie Chicks Underground. From the warped minds of WeFail who can;t seem to put a foot wrong right now.
Here's another Snakes on the Plane promotion from Palisades MediaGroup worked & Gorilla Nation, aptly titled Snakes on a Babe.
It even has it's own myspace profile. Even ads themselves have myspace profiles.
I think b3ta sums up below about how everyone is feeling about Snakes on a Plane right now.
-------------------------------------------------
: COOL WATCH
Snakes on a plane - now officially uncool
Jesus-shitting-Christ we're fed up with the
pre-promotion of this film:
* Idiots impersonating Samuel L. Jackson in the
pub, "Snakes on a plane mouthafukka!"
* Endless messageboard threads thinking of
sequels, "Spiders on a submarine!"
* A trailer on YouTube that isn't as exciting
as imagining the movie in your head.
All the marketing has peaked too early and we
hope we're the first to point out the film has
jumped a big snakey shark.
-------------------------------------------------
Snickers and BBDO New York joined up with the Black Eyes Peas to create a 5 part webisode series called Instant Def. They also reigned in an ensamble cast of B grade actors to boot. You can read the official press release here.
The art direction of the video is amazing, if anyone knows the production house responsible please let us knows, and the flash on the site quite nice. The acting and story though is a little rough and the tie in with Snickers a little contrived but hey it's still entertaining.
This isn't BMW films but it's great to see this type of work being produced. Just don't get your ROI calculator out on this one unless they paid the Black Eyes Peas in Snickers for their time?
The Asia Interactive winners have been announced. Click here to view the full winners list.
There were a total of 600 entries and 47 winners. My gripe is that these awards need to link up all the entries so people can view the winning work. It's no use just showing the agency name and not giving any indication what piece of work won. Hopefully this will be fixed up soon. I understand some were behind password protected areas but the majority were just public facing URL's.
Only one winner from Australia with that being Clemenger Blue winning gold for Best Copywriting for their Mars/Snickers microsite.
Honestly the design lets the site down quite a bit.
We've been busy tweaking parts of the site to make them more Web 2.5 compatible. We're looking at other ways to integrate other buzzwords into the site. User generated content, podcasts and blogmetrics are all on the cards.
The most obvious overhaul was with the news section which is now fully archived and allows for user comments.
Top Tip: If you wanted to get instant cred around the world (Bannerblog is seen but over 50,000 people a month) start an agency called "Unknown" and claim the work as yours!
I have no idea if these ads are a global buy or are only being served for my IP but I have only 2 real brands advertising on Myspace.com. Those being Dell and Virgin Blue) Aside from the plethora of "brand" profiles there doesn't seem to be any real campaigns running/
Below is one of the of the quality ads I've been served while exploring the wonder that is Myspace.com.
Revenue aside isn't it in the best interest of Myspace sales people to show how advertisers have jumped onto the Myspace revolution? Or is this the only ad money they can attract. Scam ads to win iPods and Spyware.
I clicked this to be enlightend and it told me to install "Starware" to get the latest gossip. Excellent sounds harmless to me :)
This is my fav though. I clicked and unfortunately no horny gamer girls looking for fun to be seen :( My search continues for chicks that like to frag.
Maybe Myspace set a cookie that flagged me as gullible but after the Horny Gamer girls, between a new ad for a HP printer I'm shown this beauty.
It's like when you're watching late night TV and there's ads for rug sales, ringtones and sex chat lines.
Newcreatives.com, the online community database driven by the ideas of young creative people launches its ‘call for participation’ for its 2006 ‘newcreatives award’ competition. Young, global creatives can compete for the best ideas for ALESSI, the renowned, high-end Italian “Factory of Design”. The participants will look for the most impactful ideas in support of Alessi’s soon-to-open US Flagship store on Greene Street, in Manhattan’s fashionable SoHo District. (The store will open in mid-September of this year), as well as focus on branding ideas for the US market.
Interested creatives of all disciplines (advertising, graphic design, product design, free artists, photography, web design, filmmakers, fashion designers, illustrators, etc…), up to the age of 30, and with a maximum of 3 years of professional experience, can get their copy of the briefing by confirming their participation at award@newcreatives.com.
The competitors will have a month to complete a 2-category task on ‘How beauty can affect your daily life'. Mid-September, an international jury of professional advertising and design creatives will select category winners, who will get a free trip to NY and will be invited to the newcreatives award ceremony and winners’ exhibition in the new Alessi store in NY. At the award ceremony, the Grand winner will receive an additional $1000 in Alessi product.
Bandwidth aside the site has the lion’s share of video on the web and I doubt it will just suddenly go bust. Maybe this Valleywag has interests in one of the competitors or just likes to punch people when they are on top of the world.
Samual L Jackson is working his ass off promoting Snakes on the Plane. Here you can send a personal message from Mr. Jackson to a friend to go check out Snakes on the Plane. This obviosuly woudl work best as a mobile phoen call (which I cant test) but the email is good enough.
This is much in the same vein as 'Ave a Word. Shame that you can't send a R rated one as you just know it woudl have sounded better with a Mutha Fucker thrown in there.
Gone are the days when simply Photoshopping Hoff's head into movie posters was as deemed worthy enough to send on. With sites such as YouTube offering seemingly endless free video hosting, tagging, rating and networking tools it's no wonder that iconic TV shows and classic movies are fare game to be mashed!
Business Week have an interesting article about how advertisers are now having to pay big dollars to produce and seed their "viral" videos. If a client spend $250,000 on a "viral" video you'd expect it to go gangbusters!
AdNews, Australia's leading industry publication, has tallied up the damage done to the collective balance sheets of Australian agencies at this years Cannes Lion festival.
Leading the charge, was Saatchi & Saatchi Australia, spending a mammoth AUD$65,350 (approx US$45,000) on entry fees, outspending its nearest rival by more than double.
Adnews produced the chart using publicly available entry data and used the lowest entry fee in that category as the basis for the calculations.
No doubt the chiefs over at Singleton's who have a steadfast 'no award show' policy are smiling.
Pop-up advertising is annoying, but is it a crime?
In one of the strangest things i've read in a while, the AHTCC (Australian High Tech Crime Centre) a Federal Government agency, has classified pop-up advertising as a form of online crime according to its website.
So next time your media agency submits a media plan that includes pop-up advertising, perhaps you should point out that its possibly a crime in Australia...
We can only hope that they start locking up some of the media planners out there ;)
Blatant misuse of the word 'viral' should also be a crime, so I'm going to start lobbying.
![mashup.ww[1].jpg](http://www.bannerblog.com.au/news/picts/mashup.ww%5B1%5D.jpg)
Here's another Snakes on the Plane promotion from Palisades MediaGroup worked & Gorilla Nation, aptly titled 
