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12.07.2008 by Zoltan 
brandtags
Brandtags is an absolutely genius idea by Noah Brier (a strategist at Naked). The idea is to chart public - a.k.a consumer - perception of brands via user-generated tags.
Where the project becomes really valuable though is in playing backwards. Here you have to guess the brand, and the tags become a chart of the efficacy of a clear and coherent comms strategy. Those that have got it right are immediately identifiable by a few massive tags. Those unsure of exactly who they are (and obviously have conflicting comms messages) are reflected in a mass of different tags.
Hardly a true and accurate cross-seciton of the population (yet), but nevertheless if i was a brand manager, I’d have this bookmarked and be charting change over time.
Big up to Naked as well, no doubt this idea was hatched on their time ;)
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12.07.2008 by Zoltan Through the eyes of a master
4Creative are simply awesome. To advertise the Kubrick season beginning this week, they’ve recreated the set of Kubrick’s ‘The Shining’ with mind-boggling attention to detail. The ad becomes a behind-the-scenes romp via all the main characters, resolving on ‘you’ being handed the script as the famous tricycle scene is about to be shot.
Its compulsive watching if for nothing else but to appreciate the sheer scale of a feature film. The ad itself was shot in one take as well which makes it all the more beautiful and breathtaking. Unfortunately its not embeddable, but you can watch it here.
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11.07.2008 by Zoltan Classical rollercoaster
Lovely piece of motion graphics for the Zurich Chamber Orchestra. Such a simple idea - to make the piece of music into a literal rollercoaster, to mimic the emotions embodied in the music. The only thing that lets it down is the cheesy red endline “Great Emotions” which seems slapped on at the last minute and is in no way integrated into the design of the piece.
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11.07.2008 by Zoltan Who said screensavers were dead?
Obviously they never got that message at Uniqlo HQ in Japan. Again they’ve released a lyrically beautiful piece of motion that just begs to be watched.
But unlike the uniqlock, this campaign ‘Dry in Motion’ is actually not weird and irreverent (albeit in that very compelling japanese way), but conceptually and strategically very strong. Oh, and it doesn’t hurt that absolutely everything looks good in super slo-mo. What I really like is how they show the same clip at different speeds, aided by power of good graphic design.
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10.07.2008 by Zoltan Batman heats up on 10.07.08
The Dark Knight is almost upon us, and it seems the marketing campaign to end all marketing campaigns is only getting warmed up. 10 PM today seems to be a big event, as seen by the countdown at whysoserious.com - one of the plethora of links within the ARG.
For example, there’s a new group called the C.F.B (Citizens For Batman), with their own recruitment video leaked on youtube. They even put the Bat signal on buildings in both Chicago and NYC.
But if you really want to see how deep the rabbit hole goes, then head on over to the wiki, where you’ll find things like email accounts from the Gotham Police as well as the Gotham Bank, fortune teller tickets edited by the joker which are codes to a map of the city (see the images below), text messages sent by human resources people and only god himself knows what else.
Honestly my head physically hurts considering the breadth and depth of this campaign. I would love to meet the team behind this. I can only suspect its actually The Architect from the Matrix. No one else could possibly keep on top of all of this…
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04.07.2008 by Zoltan Absolut Colours
Absolut has done more than its fair share of amazing online campaigns. And seemingly it cannot, or at least has not, put a foot wrong. Which is why this newest site Absolut Colours surprises me a little bit…
Gay pride is a good thing don’t get me wrong. Hell, most pride is a good thing, if it’s not without reason. But I struggle to see many people jumping on this UGC bandwagon, and the fact that its empty seems to prove me correct.
via the venerable adverblog (really, how does she keep down a full-time job?)
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17.06.2008 by Zoltan Interactive YouTube
Something big is happening on YouTube. Something which is fundamentally going to change the way you and I use it. They may not look like much, but the newly added annotations allow you to embellish videos and even make them interactive.
Imagine the possibilities. Truly interactive narratives. User-defined endings. And even games (the example after the jump). Unfortunately the embed function doesn’t work, so you’ll have to jump over to check it out.
via Digital Examples
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13.06.2008 by Zoltan the-affair gets FWA
This is a bit old now, but if you don’t follow the FWA you won’t know that my t-shirt brand the-affair recently won the FWA Site Of The Day.
Its a real honour - especially as we don’t quite have the same budget as a global car brand. Needless to say its been very good for us with tonnes of new people checking out the site. Thanks again to our resident Flash guru Kamil Gottwald for making it all happen. And if you’re in the position to give him work then please do, I can guarantee he’ll be amazing.
On a side note, that’s one bloody good business, £23.50 to enter and imagine how many per day they must get?!?! I’m sure it beats the financial hell out of selling t-shirts ;)
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10.06.2008 by Zoltan A token of thanks
Normally I hate anything remotely resembling a ‘clever’ way for brands to enter my everyday life. And normally its not unfounded. So it was with apprehension that I opened the slightly bulging packet from ING Direct the other day. But to my great surprise, what I found inside was this brilliant piece of marketing.
With the exact same form factor (and weight) as a £1 coin, this ‘token of thanks’ allows you to (literally) save your pounds when grabbing a trolley in the supermarket. Now I avoid supermarkets like the plague, but for those who don’t or can’t, its the bank’s positioning made tangible. But above all, it is actually useful, so will no doubt get much attention around Britain’s hypermarkets. I wonder who the agency was? Anyone?
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10.06.2008 by Zoltan Uniqlo, the statisticians wet-dream
It all started with their collaboration with yugop. And wether you like their generic clothes or not, it seems that Uniqlo cannot put a digital foot wrong.
Their latest site Uniqlo Try is like a questionnaire on too-much protein shake. It uses videos of their customers within a PV3D engine to represent abstract data visualisation - thus making sense of the questions and bringing to life the statistics.
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03.06.2008 by Zoltan Now Showing
‘Now Showing’ is an exhibition “exploring the Lost ‘Art’ of the Film Poster” currently at The Cosh Gallery in London. 40 creatives were asked to submit a design/illustration for an iconic film. The two below stand out to me, especially the bold elegance of the ‘Birds’ poster by Corey Holms / Marian Bantjes. See the full set at flickr.
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30.05.2008 by Zoltan Magnetic Movie
Magnetism in deep space is not the usual subject matter for short films, but Magnetic Movie does a beautiful job of bringing the subject to life. I can’t help thinking how similar this is to data visualisation - bringing out the inner beauty of things are that we cannot see.
My only criticism is that you can’t embed the film, so you’ll have to hit the jump to see it. Please do though, it’s very beautiful.
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23.05.2008 by Zoltan GTA4 Staying Alive
User-generated (in its loosest sense) GTA4 mashup, which is only really a new soundtrack. But it fits so perfectly that you wonder why the agency didn’t think of this? Surely the rights couldn’t be too much for Rockstar? Just like Cadbury’s Gorilla, spend what you have to spend on the track. After all, there’s no talent cost is there?
via digital examples
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07.03.2008 by Zoltan Nikon USA relaunches
Nikon has just relaunched their US portal, designed by my good friend Tom Kershaw, ex de-construct. Apart from the de rigeur Papervision homepage, I like the fact that the EXIF data (all the stuff the camera records every time a shot is taken) has been used as a hook for design, and a pathway into the content. And its nice to know that there are some clients out there brave enough NOT to overload the homepage with 17 content boxes / promotions.
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07.03.2008 by Zoltan Content stomps style in the Secret Wars Grand Final
As you know last Friday was the Grand Final of Secret Wars and I’m stoked to say that Wen completely wiped the floor with Odisy. Pics below…
With one judge each, it was decided on the crowd vote and I’m sure Odisy will put it down to Wen having more crew or something else. But the funny thing is that Odisy was so certain he’d win, and his piece so arrogant and juvenile in its simplicity (I’m not talking about line here, but content) that it was poetic justice for “the unkown art fag” to annihilate the old-skool graff boy. Goes to show that thought / insight / content always stomps style.
Big up Wen!
For those that weren’t there, the cap on Odisy in Wen’s piece was the one he was wearing that night, as were the glasses.
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