Thursday, December 23, 2004

The Long Tail

This is an article that Andy Barefoot referred to the other week in a reply to one of my mailings.
It argues that the future of entertainment is the long tail at the end of the buying curve for currently obscure or out of favour items, and how word of mouth recommendations can suddenly ignite sales for these items (e.g. a large % of Amazon's sales are for items not available in bookshops). It also relates to The Tipping Point, the book that tried to identify how social & cultural phenomena happen.

The URL (http://www,thelongtail) leads to a blog - start reading the original Wired article at the bottom, and go on from there.

Tuesday, December 14, 2004

Coca Cola Nordic Christmas Tournament

Lovely little site - with three great games

Guerrilla iPod Films - Pro and Anti

George Masters loves his Mini iPod so much that he made his own ad for it. I'm sure there are lots of things wrong with it from a creative point of view, and it obviously doesn't fit in with any strategy, but it's a very nice homage. I particularly like the kaleidoscope bit at the end.

Via Adrants

But let's not forget that it also works the other way. About this time last year this film was released online, complaining about iPod's Dirty Little Secret (low battery life)
http://www.ipodsdirtysecret.com/
It's now been seen by 1.6 million people, and led to Apple promoting an official battery replacement service.

Wednesday, December 08, 2004

Sex Education for Teenagers

These may make you cross your legs...
Aimed at under 16s, and produced by the London agency Now Wash Your Hands , under the theme "Am I a freak?"
As Billy Connolly said "My first sexual experience was terrifying. It was dark, and I was on my own..."

Film for boys

Film for girls

Come Clean Viral

This is a new viral site for Method eco-friendly hand cleanser. You get to confess what you'd like to 'come clean' about, and read other people's.
E.g. -
"I trip people on the subway"
"I haven't changed my underwear in a week"
You get the picture... Also available as a screensaver.
Very clever way to promote a product that isn't exactly interesting or sexy.
From the people that brought us Subservient Chicken.
More at Adrants

More on iPod & U2 - the Digital Box Set

This is the way things will go with digital music - packaging things up together to enable a service like iTunes, normally used by people to selectively pick the songs that you want, and leave the fillers behind (essential in U2's case, I would have thought...), to let people buy EVERYTHING at a reduced price, plus exclusives, and even a digital booklet on PDF offering artwork, track listings, and band commentary.

Monday, December 06, 2004

Ebay Christmas Treasure Hunt

Christmas Treasure Hunt

Very good idea by Ebay:
They've hidden items thoughout their listings. Each day they give a clue, and in among the listings for that item there will be a free prize. E.g. (I've spent no time on this) today's clue of "Rudolph" could lead you to a prize in the categories for 'Red', 'Nose', 'Reindeer', 'Donner', 'Blitzen' etc.
A perfect way for Ebay to increase random searching, and also to increase their page impressions before the end of the year.

Tuesday, November 23, 2004

New Reebok Site - RBK Streets

Going overboard on the whole urban thing. Includes:

a basketball court, with a basketball game to play,
a recording studio where you can upload a mix track for 50 Cent to judge
the crib - a home for rbk videos
the barbershop - a community forum.
plus links through to other Reebok sites

Monday, November 22, 2004

Flash Avitars - e.g. Newsreaders

Good example - the point is to have a animation of the existing station weatherman...

Jeep 4x4 Challenge

Take the Challenge! It's well produced, but effectively just a multiple choice game.

Mercury - Meet The Lucky Ones

New from Mercury, an American campaign to promote their cars that takes the form of a regularly updated Soap. I have to say it's all a bit lost on me.

However it seems to work - 825,000 unique visitors in the first two weeks of a 5 week run:

Further info here

American Airlines - We Know Why You Fly

Great campaign - nice films, good concept, very user-friendly hosting site.

Wednesday, November 17, 2004

Friday, November 12, 2004

Amazon Theatre - Films wiht Product Placement

Amazon has premiered the first of it's new series of films - Amazon Theatre

This brilliant concept is very simple - short (5 mins or so) films, directed by proper directors, which are very in tune with the times.

Each film features a number of products, which are listed at the end of the film in the credit sequence. You can click on any of these links to buy via Amazon.

In this film no books were used at all, showing Amazon's move away from reliance on books.

Very neat idea.

Via Adrants

More details at Seattle PI

Wednesday, October 27, 2004

10 Years of Online Ad Examples


The banner ad is now 10 years old.

To commemorate this fact this German site has archived examples of online campaigns from the last ten years, including the very first banner, a 468x60 for AT&T.

Some really good examples here, particularly in the more recent years. Love the German Weight Watchers work and the DWS overlay, (both on page 5)

Via Adland

Update - the German site is now offline, but you can see the AT&T banner ad (the first ever banner ad) here

GTA 3 - San Andreas Trailer

The new Grand Theft Auto game went on sale yesterday, and was promoted with three traiers online, including this one, set to Tupac's "I Don't Give a F***". Obviously contains swearing.
I'm clearly very behind the curve on this, not being a gamer, but there's lots of other stuff to see on the site.

Monday, October 25, 2004

New Jaguar X-Type Webisodes

The first of 5 Webisodes to promote the new X-Type Jag in the US.

Via Adrants

Jeep Climbs Manhatten

Film on the Jeep site of the 2005 Jeep Grand Cherokee climbing the side of Two Penn Plaza to a special 'Jeep only parking' spot at the top.

Great idea, but the film is dull.

Friday, October 22, 2004

Online Begging

Begging for Beer

Vs

Online Busking


Mazda Uses Blog to Launch Halloween Viral

Supposedly anonymous blog created by Mazda in the US to initiate the viral spread of three films.

The first two at the bottom show the Mazda running amok as if it being controlled by an evil force, the final film, which runs within the blog, shows people riding in the M3 with ghouls.

An interesting way of launching a viral.

Via Adrants

Birdseye Health and Nutrition Site

Health & Nutrition

Created by Zentropy Partners.

Part of the much larger Birdseye site

Link via Adverblog

Tuesday, October 19, 2004

Chicken Fight!

Chickenfight - from Burger King, and their agency Crispin Porter & Boguski.

Two ways of playing - with your mouse, or by shouting 'peck' into your pc's mic (please, no...).

A new addition to the great BK online work that includes Subservient Chicken and Ugoff

Via Adland

Thursday, October 14, 2004

Pot Noodle - Natural Noodling

Pot Noodle, recently named the most hated brand in the UK, are continuing their theme of parodying 'dodgy' web sites with their own take on 'Dogging' Natural Noodling

Good fun site, perfect for the target market, with some nice self-depreciating humour, like "If you're under 16 you shouldn't be here. You should be hanging out in shopping precincts with your mates"

Other pot noodle sites include the main site, and Office Bike

New Honda Game for UK

Nice game, and very sophisticated for a free game on a car site.

Somehow supposed to promote their 'whisper quiet' new diesel engine. Very sophisticated for a free game on a car site.

Wednesday, October 13, 2004

U2 Video in the iPod Stylee

Current combined U2/Apple TV Ad

What was the deal with this? Did U2 pay Apple to get the exposure? Or did Apple pay U2 to use their track and iPod-ise the video? Or give U2 a higher % of the revenue from sales at iTunes?

Great example of a combined mass market music launch.

2 minute version also available, but only to iTunes customers

When I Grow Up

Great new ad for recruitment site Monster

Little mites talking about working in advertising.

Monday, October 11, 2004

Elite Designers Against Ikea

New Campaign for Ikea - Supported by Elite Designers Against Ikea

Quite a nice spoof of the arty designers who make far more expensive furniture, which gets featured in the sunday supplements and mags like Wallpaper*.

The Merchandise page is particularly good - t-shirts for £300, mug for £370, watch for £16,290.

The whole ting gets across the value for money that Ikea offers, and is a lot less up itself than much of the previous Ikea advertising.

Friday, October 08, 2004

Two Drink-Related Mobile Examples

Good Pub Guide goes mobile - not exactly rocket science

Buy Me A Beer - send beer tokens to your friends' mobiles (currently only at a Corney & Barrow)
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