Google Hangout – Face Arcade

Respect to Kiwi agency Resn for creating some pretty funny hack experiments using the Google Hangout technology. Check out their mind-boggling trailer for the ‘Face Arcade’.

You can enter the Face Arcade here to join the fun.

And remember: you only need a face to play! If you enjoyed it, please show the guys some vote love on FWA.

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Muscles make music for Old Spice

A while ago we brought you ‘Smell is Power’ from Old Spice and talked about how P&G had cleverly ambushed their own marketing (with help from W+K). This time round the campaign has gone truly interactive and lets you use Terry Cruise’s muscles to make music. Enjoy.

(HT @tbuesing & Adverblog)

Caine’s Arcade

What an amazing kid! which games company is going to snap him up?

I love the calculator authentication bit…

The Fun Pass is an awesome deal!

 

P&G hijack their own advertising (smell is power)

Two very different worlds of advertising collide in this new campaign by W+K. It is a very smart and (perhaps, more importantly) funny move.

The only question is, can you really go back to the tried and tested formula for the other brands now… Either way, we like.

 

Nokia & DJ/Producer deadmau5 lights up London with awesome 4D projection

As a massive fan of the DJ deadmau5 and an ex-Londoner this footage of the recent Nokia product launch was always going to excite me.

That said you certainly don’t have to be a supporter of either to appreciate the sheer awesomeness of this video. Well executed and totally awe inspiring. Nokia successfully bring together the world’s most advanced 4D technology with great music to create an amazing free light show at Millbank Tower in London.

What happened?

“Each of the 120 metre high building’s 800 windows were covered with vinyl as 16 powerful projectors, stationed 300 metres away on the other side of the river, beamed 3D images onto the structure. Huge butterflies flew across the London skyline and the tower was twisted, pulsated and even fell down. Billed as the “future of live events” the spectacular show was accompanied by music from super producer deadmau5, who created exclusive remixes for the performance — adding the 4th dimension.”

Prepare yourself this is a light show like never before!

@lottienorman

Amnesia Connect wins Silver ADMA award

Amnesia was awarded a silver last week at the ADMA awards for Amnesia Connect in the Apps and New Development category.

 

The finalists are below and well done to TBWA for Gold on Pedigree in the same category.

Big effort from Iain, Heiko, Stephan and Dan for the work.

If you have not seen connect before you may well of been hiding under a rock so here it is in action.

Great result and hopefully next year we win gold.

@maniac13

DDB: ADC Annual Awards Call for Entries Campaign

Love this! Esp as most of us can relate to it. DDB New York’s cam­paign for ADC’s Annual Awards Call for Entries.

@danKrause

Title Scream

Simple and cool idea, a collection of 8 and 16-bit video game title graphics.

Title Scream

@danKrause

Do you have Sweden’s safest hands?

Cool idea by Swedish agency Åkestam Holst.

I had to Google translate it from Swedish but still reads well… (article from the agencies blog).

“Sweden’s safest hands”, is a contest in the iPhone, which is organised by the Post. The contest is part of a larger e-commerce campaign that is about to record is the safer choice when you send your packages.

The contest is to carry a digital package a certain distance using an iPhone app. This applies to transport package is as safe and secure as the Post.

42 packages have been packed with secret content to a value between 300 and 5000 dollars. Every day at 6, 12 and 18 released a new package. Do you deliver the package intact before anyone else, you win the contents. You decide where to begin and end, so it does not matter where you live in Sweden.

Download the app and compete on posten.se / safe hands

See contest trailer:

Watch it:

Read full article.

@danKrause

A little Google+ experiment

A Google+ experiment where you can meet some of Australia’s most provocative characters, just  add them your circles.

We like the UNIQLO Voices Website

Video content tends to play a standard role in most websites. The functionality is seldom messed with : Users click a play button to start (or get annoyed it played without your permission) and play only one video at a time. Normally video sits in a fixed position and will be of a set size. Indeed, screwing around with ‘standard video UI design’ can be a dangerous game but when it’s done right, it’s easy to start believing that video should be some much more in so many sites. Check out the Uniqlo website… it’s cool, fun, breaks some boring old rules and is our site of the day.

http://www.uniqlo.com/nyc/voices/

 

HT to @lyndonjhale

Very cool project! Mill Touch ‘Behind the Scenes’

The Mill

Arguably the best post production house on the planet have put together a project that documents the back catalogue of their work into an interactive touch experience.

Apart from being a brilliant project I thought the documentation of the process was handled brilliantly and makes a great case study.

Congratulations to Billy Blue’s Class of 2011

On July 1st I had the pleasure of attending the Vol No 1 exhibition where this year’s graduate class showcased their design skills prowess. To say the least, the exhibition was beautifully executed, and refreshingly current. This year’s exhibition was purely digital, a telling sign of the times as many of the graduates came from the communication design school, traditionally non-digital. Special congratulations to Lina Hallberg, Rasmus Rennerfelt, Sofie Johansson, Phil Sheather, and Nitesh Asrani.

The welcome room of the exhibition had a giant interactive wall (shown below). The wall was not only controlled through an iPad application but also through a mobile website.

Other rooms had mini-walls where the work of a group of designers was showcased further. Again the wall was controlled by an iPad application.

For more information, please see the official video below, or visit the official site http://bbex1101.billyblueinteractive.net/.

Do you like to invent stuff?

then maybe you should try and get hired at Inventionland – no I am not kidding, this place really exists.

I have seen some cool workplaces in the past, just think about Google Headquarter or the old Amnesia office next to the brothel , but George Davison really put some effort into this place.

He created multiple different environments for his employees to get the creative juices flowing – e.g. work on a Pirate Ship

 

It seems to be working too as they are pumping out over 2000 inventions per year.

Here are some more of their workplaces

the concept kitchen

 

the race track

 

or the tree house

 

You Can check it out here, but be warned they have some weird theme song on their site

or check out their flickr stream here

 

pretty awesome

@maniac13

Ultimate list of Cool Touch and Gesture Based Video Walls

So who has the best interactive walls? Here’s some of our picks below. As we move into a world which is transitioning to devices using the NUI (Natural User Interface) there’s a lot to keep an eye on. If you know any more please post them in the comments.

1.University of Groningen:
Pros: Looks awesome, very responsive. Multi-user capable.
Cons: You can’t go out and buy one off the shelf. Touch based only?

2. Microsoft Xbox 360 Kinect AND Windows Phone 7, working together!
Pros: Kinect SDK on the way for PC (fingers crossed) so a very affordable way to develop. Multi user. Facial recognition. Supports second screen in this video.
Cons: None. Seriously! SDK pending, this will be the easiest entry point to start building your first video wall.

3. Toyota Vision Multi Touch Wall:
Pros: Massive 82 inch screens at high res. Very responsive.
Cons: Expensive setup.

4. HD 18 Screen 20 ft Paint Wall with iPad integration.
Pros: Very cool. Huge. HD. Responsive. Works with a second screen (iPad)
Cons: Looks a bit like a one off application for now. Can’t go out and buy one.

5.Yahoo’s Gesture based Video Wall. http://vimeo.com/19177169
Pros: Looks good, hi-resolution and seems responsive.
Cons: Tiled screens. Looks like only one user at a time?

6. Microsoft LightSpace
Pros: It’s a true 3D interface for an entire toom. It projects working interfaces onto your arm/ hand.
Cons: Early days. Long way to go here (but still very cool).

7. Hard Rock Cafe Vegas:
Pros: Multi user. Smooth and responsive. Great content.
Cons: Looks expensive?

8. Ring Wall http://vimeo.com/6648869
Pros: It’s a massive 425 square metres in size. Enough room for everyone to play.
Cons: With 15 HD projectors we’re betting the ongoing running costs might stack up? 

9. The Schematic TouchWall with RFID
Pros: It recognises RFID cards allowing you access to personal info. Social integration.
Cons: Nothing obvious. This wall is pretty cool.

10. The BendDesk.
Pros: It’s horizontal AND vertical.
Cons: Not quite wall sized! It’s a prototype so a little rough round the edges.

 

11. Canon’s big wall – Expo 2010
Pros: It’s looks big and multi user.
Cons: We can’t quite tell if this is a ‘smoke and mirrors’ job. This video is more about the camera than the wall itself.

12. HP’s video wall of touch (link):
Pros: Nice tight looking tiled screens. Cons Already looking a bit dated compered to the others. Touch only. Touch looks a little laggy.
 

13. The Giant iPhone – Table Connect
Pros: Pretty simple concept. Just plug in your iphone and mount it on a wall!
Cons: Do they make a wall sized one yet?

We’re pretty sure we’ll be seeing a lot more of these soon. Please send us any good ones we might have missed! 🙂

IKEA’s self-assembly banner ads

With everyone and their mum banging on about ‘being part of the conversation’ it’s easy to forget about the humble banner ad…and let’s face it, a lot of the time banners sit somewhere between pretty forgettable and downright irritating.

Well, here’s a great example of why banners don’t have to be boring – it’s an IKEA ad by Hamburg’s Grabarz & Partner that made the finals of the LIAs a little while ago.

Briefed with promoting IKEA’s spring sale, the Germs could have banged out some Harvey Norman-style price screamers. Instead they managed to create something that cheekily encapsulates the IKEA philosophy – “assemble it yourself and save money”.

Unbox the banner yourself here – no allen key required.

– @bdecastella

Mini get-away: Virtual reality game from Stockholm

I love this game. The rules are simple but the game is not easy. You download the iphone app. Find the virtual mini and you ‘take’ it if you get within 50 metres of it. Then comes the tricky bit … you have to keep other players from taking the mini from you. Keep hold of it and you win a real life mini. Nice.

Watch this space for mash-ups from every agency going 🙂

From here

@handypearce

 

No! You can’t enter our social media competition

I just had a rather interesting experience with a guy from Vodafone Australia looking after the Android Man Social Media comp. The problem – I tried to enter with a photo of Android Man and an iphone:

Full size image and actual caption here.

The story goes like this:

I went down to checkout Vodafone Australia’s Android Man competition. The game: locate Android Man from his cryptic tweets, take a creative photograph, upload it to facebook and you could win a HTC Desire HD.

My idea for the ‘creative photograph’ was to give Android Man my iphone in the hope that he would give me a shiny new HTC Desire HD in return. However, after I took the shot I was approached and encouraged to delete the shot. The conversation went something like this:

Vodaman: “You can’t take a photograph of Android Man and an iPhone”
Me: “Why not? The competition is take a creative photo. That’s creative”
Vodaman: “I want you to delete the photo of Android Man and the iPhone”
Me: “Sorry mate, it’s user generated content, social media, my phone, my picture and a public space”
Vodaman: “Delete the photo or I can help delete it for you”
Me: “Seeing as you put it so nicely … Sorry I’m not deleting it”
Vodaman: “Look if you upload Android Man and the iphone to the Vodafone AU facebook group it will be removed and you won’t win the competition”
Me: “Fair enough … You know. You sometimes see dolphins here some times. Seriously. I’ve seen one once.”
Vodaman: “Just one?”
Me: “Just once. It was looking for something.”
Vodaman: “Maybe some food?”
Me: “Yeah maybe”

Well … yeah …I made the dolphin bit up, but the rest actually happened.

I love social media competitions like this. In fact I helped create The Smirnoff Secret Party Treasure Hunt a few years ago. However, this incident highlights just how important it is that everyone from the ground up is aware of just how transparent social media is. Your people are your brand and they need to know that everything they say and do can be repeated and tweeted and be the make and break of such campaigns.

Just sayin 🙂

@handypearce

Update (16.54 on 28/10): Nice response from @vodafone_au

The real life colour picker is now real

When building a website, a tool that could give you the colour code of anything on your screen would be awesome – not quite as awesome as this concept I talked previously about, but still pretty great.

So a company called Pantone must have thought so too and they just announced Capsure, a sort of handheld scanner – just place it on anything and it’ll ID your hue in CMYK and RGB.

unfortunately it costs US$649 and that is pretty hefty even with the Aussie Dollar being strong at the moment.

If you have the money to spend you can pick it up here

@maniac13

Wonderful Computer Graphics seem almost too real…

This is 10 minutes of your time you won’t regret spending. Breathtaking CGI / animation meets architecture and photography. Hard to believe this is all computer rendered. Quite stunning – just watch it:

The Third & The Seventh by Alex Roman. “A FULL-CG animated piece that tries to illustrate architecture art across a photographic point of view where main subjects are already-built spaces. Sometimes in an abstract way. Sometimes surreal.”

Awesome work. http://vimeo.com/7809605