Social Hallucinations

See the Ghost!

Super cool online promotion for the new horror movie. It gave me creeps. Well done site! But the best part is that you can customize the site, send it to your friends and scare them!

Super idea!

The Face of Blogosphere

Tino Butic has started 2000 bloggers project that is now rolling over cyberspace creating kind of links frenziness.

I like the project because it gives the blogosphere face, no matter what type of blooger you are. This is the good mix of different people and different opinions from different parts of the world, . It gives the real face to the blogoshere and is a good inspiration. You can find here plenty of great things to read. This is the real face of social media.

Brandchannel Reader's Choice Awards 2006

Brandchannel's Reader's Choice Awards* 2006 results are very interesting and are proving that some parts of the globe people's view on the brands evolved strongly. People seek and choose the brands that are authentic, stand for clearly defined values and make difference. 

It is incredible to see the high position of YouTube, Wikipedia, young "online brands" that spend nothing on brand advertising. Their strategy focusing on people and relaying only on people and world of mouth.

In Europe & Africa the traditional brands are the strongest. Only Skype has taken over 2nd place. In USA & Canada "online brands" are much stronger and take over the list.And of course, Apple rules!

*The Readers' Choice poll measures brand impact according to brandchannel readers. The study runs online and is open to the public during November and December. Votes can be cast for up to five brands per region; respondents can only vote once per region but no section is mandatory. More than 3,600 people from 99 countries voted in the 2006 poll. The greatest number of voters fell in the age range of 26 to 35 year olds, with an almost equal number of men and women. Voters claiming employment with actual brands as opposed to agencies was greater by half. Respondents per region equal: 3,625 for Global; 1,595 for US & Canada; 1,420 for Asia-Pacific; 1,358 for Europe & Africa; and 581 for Latin America.

Tags: brandchannel, brands, new brands

Sweden and Second Life

Sweden is going to be the first country opening its official embassy in Second Life universe. The embassy will provide interested visitors with information about Swedish culture and history, as well as tips about traveling in Sweden.

"We're constantly trying to reach new groups of people with information about Sweden," Wastberg said. "This is a very simple and cheap way to reach a large group of younger, educated people who are flooded with information."

Via International Herald Tribune

Tags: Sweden, Second Life

Beauty Evolution

A couple weeks ago I wrote about Dove's campaign for the real beauty revealing how the "media beauties" are created.

It seems that not everyone is happy for the real life and looking at ugly people, and they've created "anti video" Slob Evolution

Tags: dove evolution, slob evolution, youtube, video

Links for 25/01/2007

IPTV Guide

Ofcom observes that the demand for services delivered over broadband is developing rapidly. It suggests that over the next five years linear television viewing may fall by 20-30%, to be replaced largely by the increased use of on-demand services. A similar pattern is anticipated for audio programming. You can download the whole report here.

Tags: IPTV, broadband, ofcom, TV

More Marketers Are Grabbing the Attention of Players During Online Games

Games are becoming popular marketing spots as they begin to accept more branded messages.

Tags: games, advergames, online games

Coming Soon: The Death of the Web Page

With the rise of Web 2.0, Rich Internet Applications, Ajax and more, your static web page will soon be an antique: see what this means for your marketing plans.

Tags: web page

Big Media’s Crush on Social Networking

Tags: social networks, second life

Tags: Links

Fresh Kool

Fro the old good times, where cigarettes were snowfresh, and made your mouth feel clean you throat refreshed! Amazing how much happened since then and how our attitudes to advertising and cigarettes changed :-)

Tags: advertising, vintage, kool cigarettes

Advertising Clutter

Gee, it's shocking how many ads are on Times Square. David from Ironic Sans got an idea to photograph all ads placed on Times Square and see them on one page. Cool idea and impressive result.

There are hundreds of commercials of all kinds. The amount and density of advertising creates the feel of chaos. It is overwhelming, not convincing enough to me. I don't even want to know how much does it cost to get location there.

Anywhere the Eye Can See, It's Now Likely to See an Ad

Tags: advertising, times square

Picture by StrangeInterlude, found on Flickr

Subliminal Advertising?

Is McDonalds using subliminal advertising? See and judge yourself. The video "buzzed" YouTube.

Tags: subliminal advertising, mcdonalds, youtube

Creativity

I am currently working on defining what creativity means for media agency and how we should embrace it to meet the needs and expectations of the market. I must admit it's not an easy task, as there are more critics than supporters. The Seth's thought on creativity is very inspiring.

"99% of the time, in my experience, the hard part about creativity isn't coming up with something no one has ever thought of before. The hard part is actually executing the thing you've thought of. The devil doesn't need an advocate. The brave need supporters, not critics."

Seth Godin

I wonder often why the brave and new ideas meet so many critisism. It must be the fear of the slightest change in the world around us. The world we know, as with every change we fear of losing control and our routines. The fear of unknown and unpredictable. Fortunately there are people who dare.

Tags: creativity, Seth Godin

I am currently working on defining what creativity means for media agency and how we should embrace it to meet the needs and expectations of the market. I must admit it's not an easy task, as there are more critics than supporters. The Seth's thought on creativity is very inspiring.

"99% of the time, in my experience, the hard part about creativity isn't coming up with something no one has ever thought of before. The hard part is actually executing the thing you've thought of. The devil doesn't need an advocate. The brave need supporters, not critics."

Seth Godin

I wonder often why the brave and new ideas meet so many critisism. It must be the fear of the slightest change in the world around us. The world we know, as with every change we fear of losing control and our routines. The fear of unknown and unpredictable. Fortunately there are people who dare.

Tags: creativity, Seth Godin

European Online Buying in Growth

According to the "Mediascope Europe 2006 Study," Europeans are avid online buyers. 

The study found that:

• 78% of European Internet users shop online

• they spend an average of € 750

• buy 10 items online over six months,

• there is 11% increase in online buying year over year

• online shoppers in the UK and Scandinavia spend and buy the most goods online

• Germans are online bargain seekers, buying a higher number of items at a lower cost

•  62% German online shoppers and 49% online shoppers in UK visit auction sites at least once a month (European online average of 41%)

• mobile phones top Europeans' online shopping list

• mobile phones had the largest growth in conversion rates year over year, growing at 23%, followed by music downloads, car accessories and home furnishings

via eMarketer

Tags: online buying, shoppers, Europe, Internet

Newspapers without Borders

NewspaperDirect offers a service that allows you to get your favorite newspaper anywhere in the world and on the date of publication!
There are 450 newspapers available from 37 countires.

"NewspaperDirect's Print-on-Demand solution enables out-of-market newspapers to be easily printed in different types of locations around the globe. This flexible and unique solution is powered by the ND PrintStation, which consists of a standard digital printer and a PC with our subscription and printing management software. When connected to the Internet, the PrintStation downloads and prints a single or multiple copies of the newspapers available on the NewspaperDirect network.

To reduce transportation costs and ensure newspapers are available on a same-day basis, PrintStations are located as close as possible to the newspaper consumer. These locations include offices of our distributors, hotels, cruise ships, retail shops, libraries, corporate offices, yachts & marinas and conference centers."

A Second or First Life?

Hilarious concept! Darren Barefoot reacted to the Second Life by creating a site called Get a First Life.

First Life is a 3D analog world where server lag doesn't exsist. Good satire!

The Ad Generator

The Ad Generator is an interesting and funny site to watch.  It was created by Alexis Lloyd as a component of an MFA thesis project in the Design and Technology department at Parsons The New School for Design. The purpose of  the Ad Generator is the exploration of how advertising uses and manipulates language.

"Words and semantic structures from real corporate slogans are remixed and randomized to generate invented slogans. These slogans are then paired with related images from Flickr, thereby generating fake advertisements on the fly. By remixing corporate slogans, I intend to show how the language of advertising is both deeply meaningful, in that it represents real cultural values and desires, and yet utterly meaningless in that these ideas have no relationship to the products being sold. In using the Flickr images, the piece explores the relationship between language and image, and how meaning is constructed by the juxtaposition of the two."

Tags: advertising, the Ad Generator, Alexis Lloyd, language

Billboards with Face Recognition

"Engineers at Microsoft Corp. have developed a prototype advertising system that uses a small video camera and facial-recognition software to try to determine a viewer's gender and select an appropriate ad to display. The system is intended for use with large video screens in public places, such as shopping malls."

Microsoft is hoping to lure more advertisers with new tools designed to help them fine-tune their campaigns and target their ads more effectively.

Read more at Seattlepi

Tags: Microsoft, advertising, technology