MARK RONSON TEAMS UP WITH COCA COLA FOR OLYMPICS
Coca-Cola’s
‘Move
to the Beat’ campaign was launched at the end of
last year in support of the
London 2012 Olympic Games. Teaming up with DJ
Mark Ronson, the global marketing
campaign targeted at teenagers aims to use music
to unlock the social side of
the sports event. Ronson travelled the world to
meet up-and-coming athletes and
fused the sound of their sports to create the
campaign anthem, which Coca-Cola
hopes will become the soundtrack to this
summer’s Olympic Games.
HOLES
OF
HAPPINESS
I just think this is cool - Guerrilla gardener Steve Wheen brightens up the otherwise dull surrounds of inner-city London with colourful floral displays and lively model sets that fill in the gaps in the roads and pavements and add some intrigue to pedestrians’ daily commute. Now a documentary has been made to capture the reactions of passersby.
HELP REMEDIES LATEST PRODUCT TURNS YOU INTO A LIFESAVER
An incredible idea.
You're standing in front of your bathroom mirror. You decide it's finally time to say goodbye to that mean 'stache you've been sporting for the past six months. You nickyourself shaving and reach for a bandage. Who would have thought that such asmall, forgettable incident can now become a life-saving moment?
But it can, with "Help, I Want to Save a Life," the latest addition to Help Remedies' smart, no-frills line of health-care products and one that's sure to be showered with design and creative awards. The new kit is little more than a pack of bandages, but unlike the typical box of Band-Aids, it includes an easy-to-use bone-marrow donor kit, through which buyers can become part of a donor registry by sending in a small blood sample.
JANE AUSTEN NOW GETS HER OWN FACEBOOK GAME
Continuing the vogue for modern updates of her fiction, a new Jane Austen game is set to launch on Facebook. The Rogues and Romance game, developed by BBC Worldwide in partnership with Legacy Interactive, is set in the world of Austen’s six novels, where her most famous couple, Elizabeth Bennet and Mr Darcy, have escaped from the pages of Pride and Prejudice. Players must hunt them down and convince them back into the book, along the way taking their place in society where they will be able to leave calling cards, attend and host receptions and pursue courtships.
A major apparel company has released a short horror film focusing on content first, and the product second. All of the apparel you’re seeing is from the featured brand - but they haven’t plastered their logo all over the place instead they’ve produced branded content…unbranded. It’s very well made and I still can’t find out which brand has done it yet! (If you’re easily scared then don’t watch it!)
SPAM LOOKS TO GET SOCIAL WITH A NEW CHARACTER
Back in 1936, Jay Hormel's idea of market research was a New Year's Eve party where the son of the founder of Hormel Foods asked his guests to submit a name for a new product. An actor from New York took home $100 for the winning entry, "Spam," which began rolling on the production line in Minnesota on July 5, 1937. The rest is canned-meat history. This week, Spam and BBDO, Minneapolis -- the only agency the brand has ever had -- is marking 75 years with a new campaign featuring what is billed as Spam's first spokescharacter. His name is Sir Can-A-Lot, a two-and-a-half-inch tall animated knight that the brand says will "crusade to rescue the world from routine meals." That is, if your idea of adventure is Spam and potatoes, or Spam and macaroni and cheese.
ATARI CHALLENGES INDIE DESIGNERS TO RECREATE ‘PONG’ FOR iOS
Atari has invited indie game developers to create an iOS version of Pong for a chance to win $100,000 and a development contract with Atari.
Forty years ago, Pong became the first commercially successful video game ever, driving thousands to play it in arcades, and launching Atari into the video games market. Now, Atari said they are looking to bring Pong to this generation of devices, but inviting game developers to re-imagine the classic title.
MERCEDES TO PUT APPLES SIRI INTO CARS
For years, automakers have been adding iPod and iPhone compatibility to their vehicles to appeal to the millions of consumers carrying Apple devices, but Mercedes-Benz is going one step further: using a home-grown Digital DriveStyle app, future Mercedes vehicles will be be able to access the full content oftheir iPhone via their in-vehicle display, and use Apple’s Siri voice recognition technology as part of hands-free communication system to send messages, speak commands, select music tracks, make appointments, change the radio, get news and information, and more. Mercedes says the system will debut in its new A-Class vehicles, but will be available across the company’s entire line.
GOOGLE’S SCHMIDT ON TECHNOLOGY AND THE FUTURE
Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt shared his vision of the future of mobile and Internet technology at the Mobile World Congress, hinting at various Google products as he went along. His thoughts varied from ‘In the future, you will be able to send a robot to a rock concert instead of you’ to ‘There will be an Android in every pocket’
EVEN SEXY BRANDS STRUGGLE WITH LOW ENGAGEMENT ON FACEBOOK
The common view that Facebook "likes" equate to brand engagement took a hit last month when the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute shared some interesting data. Researchers found that less than 1% of fans of the 200 biggest brands on Facebook actually engaged. Their conclusion was based on a six-week study of Facebook's People Talking About This metric, with researchers considering the number as a proportion of fan bases. Only 0.45% of fans engaged, if you subtract likes to isolate for more meaningful activity, including shares and comments. This confirmed something many readers already suspected: Facebook fan bases and actual engagement aren't the same thing. One of the more interesting questions arising from the study is whether the findings apply to passion brands, like Nike or Harley-Davidson, as opposed to ubiquitous products that, loyal as their audiences might be, don't get folks lathered up at the mere sight of the logo. Though the short answer is that passion brands might get slightly more engagement but it's not enough to throw off the overall findings.
24/7 DOGGY TV ENTERTAINS YOUR PET WHILE YOU’RE OUT
DOGTV is a 24/7 cable television channel, which aims to keep pooches entertained. The channel features specialist programming developed using research from pet behaviour experts. According to DOGTV, canines are happier when a television is on and the channel has been tested to ensure it captures a dog’s attention. It will be broadcasting three types of programs — calming sections to reduce animal anxiety, stimulating sections to keep dogs entertained andsegments aimed at improving their behaviour.
MICROSOFT ILLUMISHARE: SHARING VIRTUAL AND PHYSICAL OBJECTS VIA A DESK LAMP PROJECTOR
Microsoft have demonstrated a new technology at TechForum they have named ‘illumishare’ which enables remote people to share any physical or digital object on any surface. It is a low-cost, peripheral device that looks like a desk lamp, and just like a lamp lights up a surface at which it is pointed and turns it in to a shared space.
To do this, IllumiShare uses a camera-projector pair where the camera captures video of the local workspace and sends it to the remotespace and the projector projects video of the remote workspace onto the local space. With IllumiShare people can sketch together using real ink and paper, remote meeting attendees can interact with conference room whiteboards, andchildren can have remote play dates in which they interact with real toys.
NEW MOVIE PROMETHEUS TEASED IN TEDTALK FROM THE FUTURE
The crowd at TED got a glimpse into the upcoming Ridley Scott sci-fi film “Prometheus” on Tuesday, in the form of a video of a TEDTalk that takes place in 2023. Although not a clip from the movie itself, the futuristic talk is given by Guy Pearce, who stars in the film, and offers some clues to the plotline. At one point, Pearce, who plays CEO of the fictitious Weyland Corporation in Prometheus, says, “At this moment in our civilization, we can create cybernetic individuals, who in just a few shortyears will be completely indistinguishable from us.”
A new app from the founders of Tapjoy is emerging to combine mobile and social commerce on iOS and Android devices. The app, called Karma, makes gifting to friends a breeze, by integrating with a user’s social graph on Facebook and suggesting gifts for them. What’s nice about the Karma app is that users can send gifts almost instantaneously, without having to enter their billing information before doing so. You also don’t need to have the address or contact info of the recipient — they enter that information when they choose to accept a gift.
OSCARS : BRANDS TARGET FEMALE ENTERTAINMENT FANS
Not quite of the same scale as the Superbowl but still pulling in a significant TV audience, The Oscars have proved a popular bet for advertisers this year with many brands creating bespoke ads especially for the occasion. Roughly 70% of the viewers are said to be female so unsurprisingly most of the ads are targeted squarely at women.Check out some of the best.
Courtesy of James F
WHAT MOBILE USERS WILL AND WON’T PUT UP WITH
Young people between the ages of 18 and 24 are even more connected to their mobile devices you might think.
Nine in 10 young adults spend between one and five hours on their mobile devices daily. Nearly one in 10, meanwhile, are on their gadgets between five and ten hours each day. Just under a third would actually like for brands to send them promotions via smartphone and tablet, but more than half say that it’s “extremely important” to be able to opt out of such come-ons.
This is all according to a study by mobile interaction and payment agency mBlox, which commissioned a December study of more than 4,000 young mobile users in the United States and United Kingdom. According to mBlox’s chief marketing officer Michele Turner, the research provides important insight as advertising and marketing to people on the go continues to proliferate.