Zappos PinPointing

See the full gallery on Posterous

Zappos , the U.S based online retailer launched a Pinterest based web application takes users' pins and translates them into product recommendations from the e-tailer.

The app works by analyzing pins on a user's board and then providing product recommendations from Zappos based on the pinned image and the accompanying description; mirror a digital personal shopper that produces a wish list of items that this person may like.

Because the app works by simply entering a person's pinterest username, it also becomes a social commerce gifting service which you can use for gift ideas.

Here are my results when I gave it a try. Not exactly a great match but an interesting idea nontheless, similar to Facebook apps that leverage on your social graph and digital footprint to provide customized content to you.

Try it out for yourself here

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Old Spice Muscle Music

Meet Terry Crews (love him in The Expendables), the one man muscle band. This clip is hilariously entertaining and freaking awesome

P.S Clients, this is how to do viral - Unexpectedness, fun and participation

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London 2012: The Most Social Olympics Ever

London 2012 has been touted as the most social Olympics ever. Check out this slideshare presentation by Alex Balfour, Head of New Media, London Olympic Games 2012 which gives a detailed breakdown of the online traffic stats and facts from the official digital channels of the games.

 

 

London 2012.com olympic games digital round up 13 august 2012 from Alex Balfour

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The Poverty Line: What does it mean to be poor?

The Poverty Line is a truly inspirational project by photographer Stefen Chow and economist Lin Hui-Yi that sets out to answer the question "What Does It Mean To Be Poor? using photography and examines the (limited) choices that people face living at the poverty line around the world

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See The Future (A Short Film)

This is awesome short film created by Eran May-raz and Daniel Lazo as part of their graduation project from the Bezaleal Academy of Arts that gives us a glimpse of the future in a life filled with constant data and a unified digital experience

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The man who gave the world his number

An interesting social experiment  by Jeff Ragsdale, who went through a difficult break-up last year in 2011. He found himself isolated in NYC and in desperation, put his phone number on a flier along with a simple message to anyone who was interesed: "If anyone wants to talk about anything, call me".

The flier was posted all across NYC and garnered overwhelming responses, with tens of thousands of calls across the U.S and the world. Excerpts from all the conversations, text messages and voice mails were subsequently published into a unique book project Jeff, One Lonely Guy with the aim of creating a global, social and ongoing conversation similar to Postsecret

Here's his story as covered by BBC News

 

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The Chair Experiment

A great social experiment in Petaling Jaya, Malaysia. Changing the world, one chair at the time.

This is a great testament to how advertising has changed and how both brands and agencies need to steer away from traditional ways of solving brand problems through communications.

Instead of telling the city council and petitioning to build proper seating for people waiting in Kelana Jaya (which is what TV, radio and print do - tell us how to think/feel/act), they instead chose to show them how people who lived in the city would benefit from seating and the rich and amazing stories that each person waiting in line had that contributed to the fabric and culture of the city of Petaling Jaya. Great activation of an idea and created engaging and extremely sharable content that is sure to create conversations.

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No One Likes To Be Locked In (to their Home Loan)

This one is a little dated but again, a rich point of view from NAB that no one should be locked in, especially by "force" (literally or by your home loan).

Rather than using traditional print or TV to communicate this, they have instead decided to create a series of awesome activation ideas that are distributed as video content online for Australians to view and share. Something that is sure to generate talkability about the bank and its no lock-in home loan packages.

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2013 Nissan Altima: Enough

As an advertising professional, once in a while, you will see a TV ad that catches your attention. Not just because it's entertaining, funny, has good art direction or is done in a somewhat creative way. But because it has a taken a single minded proposition and crafted a great message around a nice brand point of view.

This 2013 Nissan Altima Ad does just that. For people who don't know when to stop, the car comes with an easy fill tyre alert that tells you exactly when.

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Honesty Shouldn't Go Unrewarded

The "Honesty Experiments" are by far one of the most ingenious ways I've seen a financial institution come out and side step traditional advertising and go all out to have an honest (pun intended) and genuine conversation with consumers wrapped around a relevant cultural insight and unique point of view. Rather than just tell people here's an honest and transparent credit card, NAB goes out and shows them through simple on-ground activations that honest Australians deserve an honest credit card.

As a sequel to the "Honesty Experiments" , NAB follows it up with a really nice surprise and delight activation around the point of view that honesty should not go unrewarded.

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The Future of Renting Things

V, the energy drink has launched a muti-platform campaign offering customers (albeit quirky) experiences that money can by in the form of V Rentals, a make-shft company that offers body building removalists, a pimped out Jacuzzi truck, a puppy wingman (etc) to V customers who collect barcodes found on the can.

Done by Clemenger BBDO Sydney (Disclaimer: I work for BBDO/Proximity Singapore) It's a high energy, irreverant campaign that reflects the brand ethos and the product truth which makes "everyday more awesome".

The best takeaway, was this quote made by the brand marketing director who said "Brands today can’t just say, they have to do, but you have to do in a way that only your brand can. You have to go beyond advertising and create experiences and memories that brings your product and brand promise to life."

That sums it all up and should be what all brands seek to do beyond traditional print and TV ads. Spoken by a true client marketer that gets it.

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How and Why People Overshare Online

This is a useful infographic (below) that shows how what people are sharing online and qualifies the reasons for such behavior. The end message is clear, as social media becomes more pervasive in our lives, our willingless to share personal information as part this social appetite has also risen. 

In this chilling reference, photojournalist Hana Jakrlova took series of photos at a Prague brothel where customers could trade their privacy for free services. If you think about it, in a way, this policy is an extension of the deal we all make online. We essentially give up our privacy in exchange for the free use of our favorite sites.

via http://www.online-education.net

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The Smoking Kid

Great activation idea created around a unique point of view - Surface what smokers in Thailand already know by getting them to think about themselves instead of others

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Happiness is 100% recyclable

The Coke Happiness Machine is a great platform for Coke to activate its brand purpose of creating happiness with every can of Coke opened.

This time the Coca Cola Happiness Machine strikes in Singapore with a nice tie in with the National Enviromental Agency to encourage Singaporeans to recycle. All this wrapped around a nice point of view: Happiness is 100% recyclable

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The 22 Rules Of Storytelling

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Pixar's storyboard artist @lawnrocket  compiled this list of narrative wisdom she's received working for the animation studio over the years. It's an amazing list and the rules are applicable to any form of content creation from movie scripts to digital story stories. My favorites in bold.

 

1.     You admire a character for trying more than for their successes.

2.     You gotta keep in mind what's interesting to you as an audience, not what's fun to do as a writer. They can be v. different.

3.     Trying for theme is important, but you won't see what the story is actually about til you're at the end of it. Now rewrite.

4.     Once upon a time there was ___. Every day, ___. One day ___. Because of that, ___. Because of that, ___. Until finally ___.

5.     Simplify. Focus. Combine characters. Hop over detours. You'll feel like you're losing valuable stuff but it sets you free.

6.     What is your character good at, comfortable with? Throw the polar opposite at them. Challenge them. How do they deal?

7.     Come up with your ending before you figure out your middle. Seriously. Endings are hard, get yours working up front.

8.     Finish your story, let go even if it's not perfect. In an ideal world you have both, but move on. Do better next time.

9.     When you're stuck, make a list of what WOULDN'T happen next. Lots of times the material to get you unstuck will show up.

10.   Pull apart the stories you like. What you like in them is a part of you; you've got to recognize it before you can use it.

11.   Putting it on paper lets you start fixing it. If it stays in your head, a perfect idea, you'll never share it with anyone.

12.   Discount the 1st thing that comes to mind. And the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th – get the obvious out of the way. Surprise yourself.

13.   Give your characters opinions. Passive/malleable might seem likable to you as you write, but it's poison to the audience.

14.   Why must you tell THIS story? What's the belief burning within you that your story feeds off of? That's the heart of it.

15.   If you were your character, in this situation, how would you feel? Honesty lends credibility to unbelievable situations.

16.   What are the stakes? Give us reason to root for the character. What happens if they don't succeed? Stack the odds against.

17.   No work is ever wasted. If it's not working, let go and move on - it'll come back around to be useful later.

18.   You have to know yourself: the difference between doing your best & fussing. Story is testing, not refining.

19.   Coincidences to get characters into trouble are great; coincidences to get them out of it are cheating.

20.   Exercise: take the building blocks of a movie you dislike. How d'you rearrange them into what you DO like?

21.   You gotta identify with your situation/characters, can't just write ‘cool'. What would make YOU act that way?

22.   What's the essence of your story? Most economical telling of it? If you know that, you can build out from there.

 

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Ford Keyfree Login

A great way to demonstrate how useful your product or service is will be to show how pervasive it can be in the context of everyday life.

Leveraging on the point of view that its new keyless car entry allows for "no loss of time", Ford creates an everyday life example of how useful its keyfree technology is: In the form of  a mobile app that uses proximity sensors to automatically log in and out of all your web accounts

 

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Puma Social Dream Team

Puma has been able to put a unique point of view around sports that is intrinsically linked to the brand purpose: The After Hours Athlete. Honoring the heroes of after hour sports, these are unconventional individuals who shun calories counting, fitness training for ping pong, ten-pin blowing, foosball, darts and karaoke. Just like regular athletes, they keep their eye on the prize – the goal of scoring a phone number precedes the goal of winning a basketball game.

 

This POV is wrapped around a truly social platform aptly branded Puma Social.

 

In its current form, Puma has launched Puma Social Dream Team in Asia. User engagement comes in the form of a Facebook app which leverages on your social graph to determine your social traits within a team setting and goes on to help you put together the right group of friends (leveraging on their social graph) for every social situation possible ranging from a night out in town, a bowling match to a Karaoke session.

A retail marketing strategy is tightly weaved into the experience with the app making recommendations on customized products for you and each friend in your dream team.

One of the truly “social” aspects of this is that it allows you to discover interesting social facts like friends who have checked-in with you most often or who has “liked” your Facebook posts the most.

There’s a also a clear call to action and retail push in the form of a downloaded coupon that gives you 15% discount on Puma merchandise. Check it out here

 

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Daybreak: A Transmedia Campaign of Epic Proportions

AT&T together with Tim Kring and BBDO launched Daybreak, a transmedia campaign that marries digital content, storytelling and engagement across multiple platform and device.

Daybreak is a layered digital campaign for AT&T's "Rethink Possible" platform that highlights its 4G netwrok and product innovations. It's a transmedia campaign of epic proportions, starting on TV with Touch the Fox series created by Tim Kring and continued online across two dedicated sites and mobile apps, creating an immersive entertainment experience that gives users a new way to expereince storytelling across mutiple layers of media and devices.

Check it out here

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Coca Cola Security Cameras

I've said this many times: Coca Cola is one of the world's most well known and loved brands for a reason. One single minded brand purpose - Open Happiness. A brand platform that can be communicated in so many different ways and that resonates to consumers emotionally. 

In this series, Coke shows us how happiness can come from looking at the world a little differently.

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Tourism British Columbia: Giant Vending Machine

I really like the feel good factor and goodwill that brands generate when they do on-ground activation programs that generate surprise and delight moments for consumers. These are acts of generosity that are performed by brands that can help or cheer up an individual or groups of people.

The important thing for brands to remember is that these moments should not be frivolous and should be tightly weaved into the brand purpose or the product proposition. This giant vending machine activation by Tourism British Columbia (which is similar to Coca Cola's Happiness Machine) surprises passerbys with random surprises that tie in with their 100 "British Columbia Moments"

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