Archive for June, 2010
Xbox Kinect
Formally Project Natal, this new feature has been eagerly awaited by the gaming and in-home entertainment market for some time now and is set for a release November 2010 in the UK.
This fantastic piece of hardware will position you (the player) as the controller. Think of Nintendo Wii, but with better graphics, better response time and NO controllers…
This is astonishing equipment, and a leap forwards in entertainment towards virtual reality.
You can tell from the clips that this is more targeted towards friends and family use, but regardless of this it is still going to be an essential purchase for the gaming market.
This is the first time a console has made the step away from a controller. Using a motion sensitive camera on the Kinect device, it can track your entire movements throughout a room and even interact back with you through voice commands.
What I particularly like about the Kinect is the voice commands. When I was younger I always thought it was spectacularly impressive when a person talked to a computer in a film or something, and it responded…..you can do this now! So mix that all in with the fact that your entire body is now the controller and you have an absolute winning formula.
I think this will shoot the Nintendo Wii straight out the water, people will be trading it in like its nobody’s business and there will be a dramatic shift over to Xbox 360 as the console of choice. Nintendo really need to step up, because they are really being left in the shadows – more so than ever if Xbox take away their younger/family audience with Kinect.
PS3 will no doubt do something similar in the future, but I think the next big platform for the entertainment industry is 3D consoles….watch this space
The original T-Shirt War was a stop motion classic that went viral with great success. Stop motion is proving time and time again to be a great up and coming form of media for the internet.
when combined with a team of stop motion fanatics who know what they are doing, two companies who are looking for some viral stars, and an ad agency who thought the two would make a perfect mix = A well funded and produced piece of online media and you have another example of how people from YouTube and other video sharing network sites have found fame and fortune from their creativity online, and asked to reproduce that for a company viral.
Home made stop motions are great, and I hope they never die out due to the larger corporations funding YouTube antics, but there is something very satisfying about seeing a production that has been well epuiped and well funded, yet ran by the same guys who did it without all that momentum and funding. You just know that they put their all into it when it was free, so an even bigger effort and performance will follow now that it is paid for.
I have attached the behind the scenes clip underneath too so you can see the team behind it all and how they did it. Stop motion is a long, long process. But the finished result tends to be spectacular.
Sharing similar aspects to the “Piano staircase” by the Fun Factory, the Fast lane by Volkswagen is designed to offer a slightly bizarre public experiment. Set on a staircase heading down to an underground train station, a bright orange slide has been built to offer people a question.
The question is who will step up to the fast lane and take the plunge down the slide, instead of the normality of the stairs and conformity of society.
The experiment is launched on the back of Volkswagens Social Media campaign combined with the new Polo GTI, as it joins the online world with a Facebook fan page and a twitter account. This step up to the online media world is more than welcome by Volkswagen who produce some top quality automobiles. Its a clever viral, that whilst lacks complete originality still has some great aspects, the main being that it is carried out in a social environment where the public are unaware of what is happening. This has proved time and time again to be a winning formula for viral campaigns.
Although released before the World Cup this is the first time I have seen this viral from Puma, or seen it in any of the viral charts.
Its a little surprising to be honest because I think its a fantastic clip. There’s a nice soundtrack, powerful slow motion footage of the African culture and attitude towards this World Cup, and of course there is some big names in here from the African teams.
Its a great branding video for Puma but has yet to grace the global viral charts. This was found in the UK charts with only half a million views. Now that is clearly a lot of views but compare that to Puma’s main rivals during these world cup and they have missed the mark.
Its a great shame and I do hope that people start sharing this more and more because its astonishingly better than a lot of world cup ads. Take for example Pepsi’s attempt to bring African culture and love for football into their viral…big names, cheesy production yet it gained millions of views.
This is a powerful production that shows off true culture and passion, great skills and a wide variety of all ages showing how people enjoy, watch, follow and play the beautiful game.
Compare this to Adidas Star wars edition – truly great viral, full credit due. Nike, Write the future – again fantastic viral and the ongoing sharing stats will prove that time over. Puma, The journey of Football….Its a different route to the other two but its the best of its kind.
It deserves better!
I hope you enjoy it and share it round your various social media circles
Women in bikini’s….Pool Party….and a rapper. Sounds like a music video right?
Not too far from the truth…
This is a collaboration between Nivea, Cosmopolitan and some music and YouTube stars. Whilst appearing to look like a regular music video, you can soon tell by the constant and repetitive lyrics that this is some form of viral collaboration.
Does it work?
Its certainly impressive, and eye catching but I think more time could have spent to promote the brands behind the lyrics. There is a scene with all the girls standing together dancing, forming the words Nivea. They all have glow sticks and a flash of an overhead shot during the video gives a snippet of what the word is. A bit more time could have been spent here, as it is an impressive shot.
So my conclusion is that it is an good video, but an annoying song. The main reason it is annoying is because of the repetitive lyrics and uncertainty to whether they are meaning to promote the brands. Im a little disappointed its number 1 in the viral charts at the moment. But im pretty confident thats due to teenage boys seeing girls in bikinis as the thumbnail – not appreciating the video as a good viral for the brand.
I am fully aware of how severe the BP oil spill is over the pond and I am by no means being disrespectful to the people directly and indirectly affected by the spill….but this is a funny parody.
Acted out by Americans, the sketch involves a BP board meeting discussing how best to solve the current problem. This time the problem is coffee spilt over the table…not quite as devastating for sure, but a crisis nonetheless!
This disastrous situation leads the whole team down a number of avenues and tactics to solve the problem. All are thwarted by the impossible spillage and the blame and responsibility is shifted round the group.
It is a pretty funny parody of a not so funny situation with a cheeky cameo from Kevin Costner too. Definitely worth a watch however and with nearly 5 million views on YouTube alone Im sure the rest of the world agrees too.
Mixing original Star Wars footage with some huge celebrity names is an instant classic, and thats exactly what Adidas have done here.
Featuring the likes of David Beckham, Daft Punk, Snoop Dogg, Franz Beckenbauer, Noel Gallagher, Ian Brown, Ciara, Jay Baruchel, DJ Neil Armstrong, not to mention the original cast and settings from Star Wars – It even has the same music with the characters interacting with the original footage as if they were always a part of it.
This clip from Adidas Originals went viral in June and has already collected 3.2 million hits on YouTube alone. It displays a wide range of their products from shoes to polo shirts, and includes a selection from smart to casual, modeled by the array of celebrities.
I imagine this is the kind of advert that they all wanted to be in and had a lot of fun doing, Star Wars is such an iconic film saga and a brand in fact, that its almost supporting the Adidas brand with an even bigger brand, itself.
I don’t have anything negative to say about it, I think its a great advert that allows you to relive a famous film scene with new characters and you have the added bonus of spotting which celebrities are taking part throughout the clip.
Great viral.
Despite making an appearance in the viral charts this has not been quite as big a success as Pepsi would have hoped for. The video still sits under the 1 million mark for views and is very much shadowed by some more than impressive World Cup adverts from the likes of Nike – Write your future, Carlsberg Don’d Do Team Talks, and even Coca Cola’s celebration viral featuring the official World Cup song!
Now compared to the likes of those adverts, all striking the same World Cup theme – this clip from Pepsi has failed to get as wide a reach than the others. Not for the lack of trying though, the campaign features Lampard, Drogba, Arshavin, Kaka, Messi and Akon…certainly some big names there, but it lacks the same level of interest than the others and seems to rely on the quality of the big names involved to make it viral rather than the content of the ad.
There is no real tricks or flare from the players and the concept is a little strange and unexplained to say the least…Im not expecting an introduction middle and end here, but why are they all in Africa without enough money to buy a can of pepsi even? An overly cynical critique perhaps and its not dreadful by any means, but it does not make me excited about the World Cup or the brand – Pepsi Max. Something has not quite worked here for pepsi, who are renowned for creating some pretty special World Cup adverts.
Walking on water, as far as I know, is only possible if your a Lizard, some other form of insect/reptile….or Jesus.
Now these guys are none of the above. But this little gem from Hi-Tec has already collected over 4 million views in over a month. Created by CCCP, an award winning dutch production agency, this agency has captured and delivered exactly what Hi-Tec wanted.
This is a perfect example of a viral video, it has literally made people doubt, believe and question it so much so, that the creators had to release a “Walking on Water – The Making of” video. They also created a lot of pictures and footage of all the staff and sportsmen involved to add more to the viral element – creating a hive of information online ready to be shared across peoples viral networks at the touch of a few buttons.
What I really like more than anything is the comments on YouTube from people:
“Its fake, its definitely fake”
No way man its real!! They even explain it in the making of video!”
This is perfect, they have created a debate amongst the masses and video responses have started as an attempt to justify the cause on each side. This has done wonders for Hi-Tec who were a relatively out of date brand in the sporting world and forced to focus on more mountaineering and outdoor sports. This will have kick started the brand amongst a younger generation and justified its position in the outdoor sports market.
If you are wondering whether its real or not, take a look and see for yourself. But just to save you the trouble of scrolling the web looking for the answer, I have also included the making of video – Which is definitely worth a watch.
Im still yet to try a Coke Versus Mento experiment myself and when ever I see one of these kind of videos on YouTube I always get that step closer to buying the ingredients.
Im going to be honest, when I saw this title I thought “Get in, this is going to be epic”, knowing full well what a simple Mento in a bottle of Coke can do.
…..But I was rather disappointed If I were to be brutally honest. I mean, fair enough the car travels some distance (212ft) and it is pretty impressive all the same. But I genuinely expected it to be a lot more substantial than it was.
A clever concept all the same, and Im sure the team at Eepy Bird have set some form of record for the stunt. Its also collected 2.3 million views in 11 days, so its obviously appealing to the masses.
Perhaps greedily I expected more…Nonetheless definitely worth a watch, even if it is out of pure curiosity.
As Seen On…
