Looking back on the week’s highlights in the online and social realm, from a creative standpoint.

10ams
´ 360 Degree Happiness Camera
´ Human Face Projection Mapping
´ Israel Loves Iran

Ice cream and trampolining seem unlikely bedfellows, with little in common apart from both bringing happy moments to everyone. With that in mind, we were intrigued to see Australia’s Streets Ice Cream set out to marry the two and capture the results digitally. Over the past month, the company invited people to try the ice cream but with a twistƒthey had to try it while trampolining! The resulting joyous moments were captured on the “Happiness Camera” which created 360-degree mementos for the participants. These videos were hosted on both YouTube and a branded microsite for the campaign so that those who participated could easily access them and, more importantly, share the happiness with their friends.

More brands are starting to recognize the value of amplifying a real-world experience with shareable, digital assets, and vice versa. If these experiences are going to be as fun as ice cream and trampolines, we’re excited for the summer.

A new piece of video content for Samsung Portugal’s Explore Your Dual World campaign features projection mapping on a human. The campaign was created for the launch of Samsung’s first dual SIM card smartphone, and looks to emphasize the multiple dimensions of the new product’s offerings.

While we’ve seen sophisticated examples of project mapping on buildings, cars, and even shoes, we enjoy the loose narrative tied behind this experimental video – in less than two minutes, the man serving as a canvas is morphed into intricate patterns, colors, and even tools such as maps (a nod to some of the capabilities of Samsung’s new smartphone). Tying into the brand’s global messaging, it also reminds smartphone users that there are other devices which provide creative solutions outside of the popular iPhone.

Some ideas are just inherently socially sharable. They can be an amazing catch phrase, a beautifully shot video, a hilarious Internet meme, or a social good initiative. The ideas are almost always simple, straightforward, and transcendent of niches, and, as is the case of with Israel Loves Iran, movements that people are proud to become a part of.

Israel Loves Iran was created by Ronnie Edri and Michal Tamir from Tel Aviv, and consists of a photo and the message “Iranians we love you ƒ we will never bomb your country.” What started off a small, powerful, statement, has now become a website full of well wishes from around the world, including many responses from Iranians. It has even spawned a LOL cats spin off involving Israeli and Persian cats.

Looking back on the week’s highlights in the online and social realm, from a creative standpoint.

10ams

Following in the footsteps of Louis CK, comedian Aziz Ansari is making a stand up comedy special available for download on his website for only $5. He launched this offer by telling the loyal fans he’s cultivated on his Twitter account and by doing an AMA (“Ask Me Anything”) on Reddit.

What’s interesting about both of these comedy specials isn’t the $5 price point, but the growing trend of artists (comedians, musicians, filmmakers) to cut out the middleman. Artists, along with politicians and of course brands have realised that digital and social media allows them to communicate directly with millions of their fans or consumers, in a way that’s as human as possible. This sort of communication lends it self naturally to commerce by providing a great product to a huge fan base at great value while unlocking the efficiencies of the internet. Releasing the video file directly like this also means that Aziz doesn’t have to pay for costs to produce and ship DVDs.

What can be done to motivate people to fill up a luxury hotel in the low season? Discounts? Free nights? Package deals?

If you’re a boutique art hotel, you give away free artƒ with a catch. Melbourne’s Art Series Hotels procured the work of notorious street artist / prankster Banksy, who’s known for his pop-savvy social critiques and law-bending installations, and encouraged hotel patrons to bend the law themselves by making efforts to abscond with the work.

During his 2008 campaign, US President Barack Obama and his team leveraged online resources and social platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube to rally voters. During this first term, they have continued to participate across multiple channels in an effort to provide Americans with access to content such as weekly addresses, copies of speeches, infographics explaining new policies, and even behind-the-scenes glimpses into the White House. Most recently, a live Google+ hangout session allowed Americans to partake in a real-time discussion directly with the President himself.

With the upcoming presidential election in November, Obama’s team continues to utilize the web for his re-election campaign; this week, with a 17-minute documentary shared on YouTube. Directed by Academy Award-winner Davis Guggenheim (An Inconvenient Truth), The Road We’ve Traveled is narrated by actor Tom Hanks and features several interviews with key political leaders as they discuss Obama’s first term and how he handled notable obstacles around the economy, health care, and the capturing of Osama bin Laden. Instead of uploading multiple 2-minute attack ads, the Obama team attempts to bring the focus back to what has been accomplished in the past four years through this more in-depth approach.

Looking back on the week’s highlights in the online and social realm, from a creative standpoint.

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