With the iPad leading the way, opportunities for creative, interesting, relevant (and fun!) tablet publishing continues to excite both our creative and digital teams.

Friskies launched its iPad Games for Cats initiative last month — allowing fans to access interactive games created specifically for their feline friends. On a similar note, Tramontina recently introduced an interactive iPad ad to promote its line of non-stick pans. The iPad user is now able to test out their line of cookware products, frying up digital pancakes, bacon and eggs – even receiving tips on how to cook the foods better “for next time”.

When Funny or Die was founded in late 2006, actor Will Ferrell was one of the creative talents (and co-founders) behind the comedy driven video website. Over the years, the site has continued to produce and share both original and user-generated content — in many cases, featuring contributors such as James Franco and Justin Bieber.

Borrowing from this platform model, actors Jason Bateman and Will Arnett have teamed to launch DumbDumb. Unlike Funny or Die, however, this comedic duo looks to support traditional and digital advertising campaigns by creating original (and hopefully funny) sketches and video content around brand-specific storylines. Given the level of familiarity fans and moviegoers have with both of these actors, it is the creators’ hope that the tie between consumers and user engagement may be propelled further by strong writing, acting — and their existing influence.

Many commuters in Mexico spend up to two hours in traffic every day. In an effort to reach this target of potential readers, Gandhi Bookstore launched a radio campaign — utilizing a medium that a large number of these commuters are tuned in to. Following in the footsteps of this campaign from Brazil, the radio campaign contains hardly any audio – instead, listeners are required to read the accompanying text scrolling across their car radios’ digital stream.

Watch the video.

Dot is a 360_ panoramic photo/video lens that was created for the iPhone 4. It will be launching this summer, and was funded through Kickstarter by 440 backers (pledging over $50,000 – far exceeding the $20,000 goal, with 38 days still left to go).

The Dot lens can be attached to the user’s iPhone, and will capture visual content within their immediate vicinity. It pulls the existing technology that the creators have finessed through a larger 360_ lens that they call Lucy — only in the case of Dot, the size, weight and durability ensure that user can carry this lens along with their mobile device.

Now available to the public in beta, HBO Connect allows fans to access the premium cable network’s original programming and social online presence using the platform as an intricate hub. HBO has partnered with both Foursquare and GetGlue in the past, but this is the network’s first attempt to aggregate content and social activity into one place.

HBO Connect features include customized Twitter feeds and posting capabilities, Facebook integration, and YouTube content. This is in addition to robust Q&A sessions and real-time Twitter posts from the feeds of the actors and creative talent — as well as from fictional characters. Users may engage via Twitter as their favorite show airs – or if they prefer to watch a rerun, they can read the archived Twitter feed as it unfolded in conjunction with the original air time. With the shift in how television audiences consume their programming, we are looking forward to seeing how HBO Connect’s attempt to create a second layer of screen time develops in the coming months.

For its new It’s Personal campaign, MINI set up a photo booth in Berlin – inviting local fans to take photos and customize their dream MINI based on the color, make and model of their choice. Wearing headphones that reflect the color they’ve chosen for their dream car’s rear view mirrors, their images are then projected to a large video screen in one of the city’s busiest intersections — as well as online. Fans can then share the image through the brand’s Facebook page.

To ensure that the campaign is open to fans outside of Berlin, the Facebook MINI Photo Box allows users to participate from afar — modeling virtual headphones to match their chosen MINI, and appearing alongside local fans on the video screen.

Following up on yesterday’s One Thing, today’s post highlights another new technology built around augmented reality.

With Sony’s SmartAR, programmers will now be able to create much smoother augmented reality based performances with markerless objects. This is a far cry from the original 2D barcodes — instead, the object now captured by the camera can be tracked at high-speed and displayed over a physical 3D space. By combining the 3D space and object recognition technology, virtual objects can fit, adjust and move within these actual spaces.

Last year, we looked at Layar — an augmented reality based tool that allows users to pull real time data from multiple social networking tools, as they pertain to their immediate surroundings.

Building on this offering further, the Layar Player code now helps iPhone app developers to embed augmented reality directly into their app – similar to the way a YouTube video can be embedded to a website. This ensures that whether the developer is experienced or a beginner in the space, the tool is equally accessible. Users can see AR content through one of the following three options: Augmented Reality View, Map View and List View.

Lancome’s new House of Color campaign is an ambitious and well integrated effort supported by a Facebook app, traditional online media buys and partnership programs through Elle’s Style Coalition and fashion styling platform Polyvore.

The campaign attempts to celebrate the individual consumer’s style from a lifestyle perspective – not just around their make-up and beauty product choices. Through a blogger outreach initiative with Style Coalition, 20 popular fashion and lifestyle bloggers were provided with the opportunity to interpret and model new shades from Lancome’s product line. This is in conjunction with a 10-day sweepstakes and contest hosted on Polyvore — where fans are encouraged to design outfits inspired by the 10 new palettes of eye shadows.

SoundAffects is a sensor-driven art installation set up around Parsons’ campus in New York (at Fifth Avenue and 13th Street). Until May 22nd, the experimental project will pull audio and visual data, streaming through an online feed. Participants can listen to and observe content from the installation though live video/audio footage or as reinterpreted musical notes.

In addition to the sound of traffic and pedestrians, the sensors will also share various elements such as weather and cell phone activity in the nearby vicinity. Since Parsons is sharing this data with the public, participants are also able to create and share their own visualizations and creative interpretations. Creativity Online has confirmed that director Ray Tintori will be creating a mini-documentary on the project as well.