While boring creative is a drag, fun creative can be like a good smack to the face. Wrangler Europe takes that stance pretty literally with their fun, interactive campaign Get Your ‘Edge Back.
It’s a simple concept executed well. Music and video are synced tightly, and users are encouraged to drop the beat by dragging and releasing the bodies of the site’s actors, propelling them head-long into the ground and right through to another scene, altogether.
There is a lot of excitement about the potential of augmented reality, but on a whole, the executions rarely seem to live up to the hype. All of that may be changing very soon however thanks to Sesame Street and Qualcomm. The Sesame Street Bert and Ernie Augmented Reality “Playset” originally started generating buzz at CES earlier this year, but a new video is re-stoking the fire.
The set itself is fairly simple in design: a mat, and some basic 3d plastic toys. What is sure to get children around the world excited however is what happens when the toys are viewed through a mobile device. The plastic toys come to life and start speaking and interacting with one another, and the objects around them. It’s pure wish fulfillment bliss.
Looking back on the week’s highlights in the online and social realm, from a creative standpoint.
10AM
They say that imitation is the highest form of flattery and in the case of young basketball players, it’s also the way they hone their skills _ by imitating their idols. Armed with this insight, Nike created The Film Room which debuted at the inaugural World Basketball Festival. Originating in 2010 and seeing a great new surge of pick-up in recent days, aspiring basketballers are able to select their idol, identify their signature move and then be coached on how to execute it themselves. All this culminated in participants performing the move and creating their very own visually striking and highly sharable poster (above) as a keepsake.
Nike has been refocusing on not only digital as a marketing channel, but as an enabler of new product lines, so we’re looking forward to seeing how Nike continues to fuse digital into its business in new and unexpected means.
Numerous inroads have been made into the Augmented Reality space in the last few years, but none have truly delivered on the science-fiction promise of the future like Google’s rumoured AR glasses.
Rather than relying on smartphone screens, users will be able to view data about both the world around them and what’s going on online via projections on a pair of glasses. Your incoming messages, local weather, traffic conditions and nearby restaurants are just a few of the applications for this type of technology.
Have you ever wanted to go on a wine tour of Kelowna? Now there’s a helpful app to help plan your trip, navigate your way into tasting rooms and track your wine purchases for future reference.
Tribal DDB Vancouver recently launched Tourism Kelowna’s Wine Trails App for iPhone, Android and Blackberry, which allows wine enthusiasts to explore wineries in Kelowna region, map-out a custom itinerary for trips or follow a suggested trail, and save your favourite wines and tasting notes to a virtual cellar.
With the increasing sophistication around interactive technology comes a new pool of projects attempting to replicate our natural environment. Just last Friday, we shared footage of a digital tiger running through the streets of Paris, and an interactive galaxy of stars (created through the use of a video projector, a swing, openFrameworks and Kinect software). Whether new technology is used for creative or educational purposes as with this scalable look at the universe, we look forward to seeing more examples of how users might experience interpretations of nature through digital tools.
Japanese artist Ryoichi Kurokawa’s Octfalls is a strong example of one such literal interpretation – in this case, by recreating a waterfall through HD screens and a series of complex audio loops arranged to challenge the audiences’ sense of perception and to experience a highly stylized digital version of standing by a waterfall. Kurokawa’s work has been recognized by Tate Modern, Venice Biennale and Transmediale – and his work is equally popular across social platforms such as Vimeo and Flickr, where he actively shares his work and creative thinking process.
Looking back on the week’s highlights in the online and social realm, from a creative standpoint.
10ams
The scale of the universe
Charity in motion
Luminous Field at Millennium Park
The 21st century version of the solar system science fair diorama has arrived. 14-year old Cary Huang and twin brother Michael just released The Scale of the Universe 2, an updated flash site that aims to accurately scale the entire cosmos as we know it.
The interactive animation logarithmically measures everything from the string in string theory (10^-35) to the complete observable universe (10^27) and entities of varying size in between. A fun to use sliding bar allows users to scroll back and forth between the microscopic and the intergalactic, and clicking on any of the illustrations will pop up a short description and its real-world dimensions.
Everyone loves eye catching digital whiz-bang wizardry, but often an analogue execution with a smart digital twist can be just as effective. The Misereor charity in Germany recently created an interactive outdoor poster in this vein that highlights what people can put in motion with 2ó.
At its core, the poster is a series of ramps and pop-up book pictures that help illustrate where someone’s donation of 2ó will be put to use. What makes the display truly shine however, is the subtle camera integration that snaps a photo of the donator to incorporate them into the display as they watch their donation travel along its journey. The photos are then uploaded to the charity’s Facebook page, which is accessible via a QR code.
