Playing with my friends

If you don't like this... you're dead inside. 

Agency: Mother

Director: Dougal Wilson

Woah! Nike Freeze Frame

By Wieden and Kennedy 

It's almost like a real world version of an spot they did a few years ago. 

It doesn't count if...

This is a nice idea based on a solid truth. All the ways we justify having something indulgent. 

I like the fact that it continues on facey-book and twitter as it's a really nice lead in line for tweets and status updates.

Clever, simple and funny. 

Credits below...

Agency: The TV Dept/Fabric
Director: Adam Gunser
Production Co: Bare Films
Producer: Kelly Doyle
Post Production: Unit
Editing: The Whitehouse
Editor: James Norris

Best Idea of the Year?

Anyone else not seen the Coke Polar Bowl? Well here it is.

I'm not sure how I missed this. But it's one of the best ideas of the year in my opinion. I was shown this  by Framestore and was literally bowled over by it.

It's simple, during the Superbowl you could go to cokepolarbowl.com and watch two Coca Cola Polar Bears reacting in real-time to the game. 

Great idea, but what really impresses me is the insight it's based on. 

It's a common truth (and a great insight to build a new idea/platform on) that we all sit watching TV with our laptop, tablet or smart phone by our side.

We all do it. Update our status, follow what people are saying about TV shows etc etc.

This idea owns that second screen for the entire Superbowl and does something interesting and funny.

That's four hours of engagement for a fraction of what it costs to run an ad at half time.

But being Coke, they still did a half time TV spot. But they integrated it with this idea. Watch below.

So what would make me engage for four hours? It's a good question and one that this idea has really nailed.

The Polar Bears reacted to everything. The National Anthem, first downs, fouls, touch downs, bad calls. They even started doing the Vogue dance during Madonna's half time show. This went down a treat on twitter.

However, there's only so long that people would stay interested with these gimmicks of the bears reacting to touchdowns. It's fun but it's good that this idea had more.

Social platforms were used as well. People could Tweet to the Polar Bears and you saw them respond to people and show they profile photos. 

The Polar Bears reacted in so many different ways it kept the interest up. You didn't know what they were going to do next.

I'd give my left nut to create and produce work as good as this. Titanium Lion for the Bears i think. 

The agency that did this was Wieden and Kennedy, Portland. 

Just a Quick Retail Idea

It really is a quick retail idea. 

From Puma. The faster you shop, the more discount you get. 

It's smart, sharp and speedy. 

Via Digital Buzz Blog

Pinball Park Challenge

I like the fact this idea has come from a insight about how badly people in Paris drive. 

Press for Drama!

Nicely done. Even though it feels very European. 

Check Out We Are Us

I stumbled across We Are Us today. They do design, brand image, websites and direction. Pretty cool. Fingers in all the pies.

Here are a couple of there music video promos.

Music video teaser for Benga's (Part of Magnetic Man) new single 'I will never change'

Wiley - Boom Blast

Mini Lego Billboards

Theses lego billboards are dotted around London to tell people that Legoland in Windsor now have a hotel. 

Quite cute. Probably more of a PR stunt than anything. But hey, I blogged about it. 

Done by DLKW London. 

The Kobe System

This is a great idea. Where do you go when you've reached the top of the game? 

The Kobe System will help you. 

A Star studded advert helps. But the idea of basing this on Success speakers is a great insight. 

Inspiration for the end of the week

This is the Sir John talking about advertising then, and what it's like now. He says it disappoints him when he sees creatives watching youtube. I just hope the creatives in BBH just quickly switch their screen to Vimeo if he walks in. 

As always, he does have some great insights though.  

These guys have taken the tried and tested 'Insert country' has talent competition dance troupe routine and added a fresh spin. 

Remember originality is hard to find but making something seem fresh and new to people can be done. 

It also looks pretty bad ass. 

This is good also, not necessarily inspiration. However, some people are inspired by cats. If so, this link is for you.

http://procatinator.com/

How creative's can make it happen

Today i'd like to highlight this post by Dave Trott. 

If you don't read his blog. It it a must. Take a look here.

Anyway, here's a post that resonated with what we're going through at work. He says it much better than me. 

In the book ‘Jaws’, the marine biologist Matt Hooper dies at the end.

In the movie he doesn’t.

I always assumed this was because Hollywood likes happy endings.

So they just rewrote the script.

Well the real answer is yes, and no.

In the original shooting script, Matt Hooper did die.

The massive shark opened up his cage and ate him.

Just like the book.

That was what Spielberg was planning to shoot.

But things went wrong.

The big mechanical shark Spielberg was shooting wouldn’t work.

It became increasingly obvious they needed a backup plan.

So a second-unit was dispatched to Australia.

They were told to get some underwater footage of a real shark attacking the cage.

But when they got there, they had a problem.

The sharks weren’t thirty feet long like the one in Jaws.

They were fifteen feet long.

Which didn’t look like the terrifying monster they wanted.

How could they make a medium sized shark look huge?

Obviously, what gives something its scale is what it’s compared to.

Which in this case, would be the man in the cage.

So they thought, what if we had a little person in the cage?

Then the smaller shark would look much bigger.

And no one would know what size the man was, because he’d be covered in a black rubber suit and miniature oxygen tanks.

So they lowered the film crew and camera into the water.

Then they lowered the shark cage into the water.

Then they got the little person ready to go into the water.

But before they could, the shark began attacking the cage.

Going crazy and ripping it apart.

When it was over they called Spielberg.

They said, we’ve got good news and bad news.

The good news is we got fantastic footage of the shark attacking the cage.

The bad news is the cage was empty.

Spielberg thought for a bit.

He said “Okay, that’s not a problem.”

And he sat down and rewrote the script so that Matt Hooper managed to escape from the cage before the shark destroyed it.

That was the easy bit.

Now he had to sell it to the Universal Studio execs.

(And remember, at this time Spielberg was still an unknown 27 year old.)

He called them up and said “I’ve been thinking, I want to take out the sub-plot where Matt Hooper has an affair with Police Chief Brody’s wife. It diverts our attention from the point of the movie, which should always be the shark.

It complicates the relationship between the two men, gets in the way and confuses things. Because Hooper has seduced Brody’s wife he becomes the bad guy, so he has to die at the end of the film.

By removing the affair we can create a bond between them, and we have the added advantage of being able to have both guys alive at the end of the movie. So they can swim off talking and joking together, which is a much more uplifting ending.”

And the people at Universal agreed.

They were happy to lose the unsavoury element of marital infidelity.

They thought Spielberg was being sensible and responsible.

And Spielberg never mentioned the real reason.

Which was the only usable footage he had was of a shark attacking an empty cage

He took their attention off what he really wanted.

And diverted their attention to something else.

And while they were concentrating on that, he slid what he really wanted through unnoticed.

Just the way a stage magician does.

Just the way a film director does in a movie, in fact.

He used the same technique he usually uses to persuade the audience of something.

But this time he used it to persuade the studio execs.

There’s a lesson for all creative people there.

Domino's Pizza hero game

It's like Guitar Hero, but instead of shredding your topping.

Nice HTLM5 site

This is a nice site from Honda. The Honda Experiment. Move the windows to complete the puzzle. It's a nice idea using HTML5. However, it probably could have been done in flash and worked in very much the same way. 

Take a look here. 

iPad 'slide to unlock' gimick ads

Audi's go (probably better than the one below. So, if you look at one video, look at this one.)

Amnesty International's version

It's been done now. Everyone move on.

Challenge a marathon runner

Asics made a massive 60 foot digital screen to let people experience a professional marathon runners pace. People could run along side Ryan Hall and see if they could match him. It's safe to say..he's quick.

Nike + run data Vis

This is cool.

A years worth of Nike + date turned into art prints for consumers.

Do you know what a QR code is yet?

MILK ME!!!

Sexy Fingers

It's for Aids awareness. It does have a purpose. Otherwise your just playing with some cartoon willy's and boobs for your own amusement... Oh, hang on a minute.

Go here to have a look.

By the way if your lucky to have a 27 inch monitor such as myself, don't hold back. Blow that shit up full screen.

As a side not to that previous sentence. Only do that if you work in your own office.