Canon EOS 400D campaign site receives Site Of The Day award from the FWA!
Today, the Favourite Website Awards (FWA,‘Web awards at the cutting edge’) have awarded the Canon EOS 400D campaign site done by MediaCatalyst as their Site Of The Day (SOTD). In their own words: “FWA is an industry recognised award program, established in 2000, showcasing websites who use cutting edge technology, together with inspirational ideas, that lead the way for future generations.” It’s definitely the most relevant “Flash Award” out there today.
The campaign site, building on Canon's 'Welcome to the playground', allows the visitor to roam around in three environments that playfully showcase the features of this entry level reflex camera. The environments were shot on location and then imported into a custom-built 3D generator, creating a uniquely interactive experience using the Papervision 3D Engine and a lot of Actionscript love.
The project is a part of an integrated campaign (TV, print and online), as a collaboration between MediaCatalyst and Cayenne Communications, who are responsible for the print and TV ads.
It’s worth mentioning that this is our second time receiving this great honour. In 2006, The DaVinciCode Trail (no longer online), a campaign site we did for Sony Ericsson, was also awarded site of the day status.
Keywords: Awards,FWA,Canon,SiteOfTheDay
This is definitely cooler than karaoke booths in malls
How do you turn pedestrians into players?- Get a very, very, very, big screen and put in a crowded place.
- Make sure the very, very, very big screen is connected to a multi-player collaborative gaming platform.
- Check that multi-player collaborative gaming platform plays in real-time.
- Get pedestrians to take out their phones.
- Tell wary pedestrians it doesn’t matter what kind of phone they use or who their provider is.
- Urge them to make a phone call to the number on the screen.
And that’s that. Players can start playing immediately by using their keypads or their voice. Megaphone sure looks like a lot of fun!
This is again another example of how a more traditional media is being transformed by digital technique that goes beyond simply functioning as a giant TV. It's really interesting to see how advertising media such as billboards can be co-opted, transformed or subverted by interactive media.Take for example the project BeamMobile that was conceived a few years back by the Dutch design collective DEPT. Using a strong beamer, political images and messages were projected around Amsterdam at that time.
One way of subverting the mind-numbing and eye-blinding effects of billboards would be a campaign ala-BeamMobile. It’s cheaper than renting an advertising space where you can make your own political statement, and more importantly, it’s mobile and unique. I think this is a creative way of posing questions and inversing perceptions in the public sphere. Projects like Megaphone or BeamMobile merge interactive media into the public and physical sphere, weaving interactivity that in turns create fluid public interfaces.
Keywords: games,public,sphere,collaborative,gaming
More music
In April of this year, I wrote a little bit on what I still think is a great move: Nine Inch Nails releasing a complete album as multi-track files, the 'source code' of music. The idea was to follow-up with a site where all fan-made remixes, "user-generated content" as Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor aptly calls it, could be aggregated.
But as can be read in a statement by Reznor on the NIN website, the record industry is getting in the way of creativity and innovation:
"My former record company and current owner of all these master files, Universal, is currently involved in a lawsuit with other media titans Google (YouTube) and News Corp (MySpace). Universal is contending that these sites do not have what is referred to as 'safe harbor' under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and therefore are in copyright violation because users have uploaded music and video content that is owned by Universal. Universal feels that if they host our remix site, they will be opening themselves up to the accusation that they are sponsoring the same technical violation of copyright they are suing these companies for."
To end a bit more upbeat: two new albums, both independently produced and great to listen to, got released as digital downloads recently. Radiohead’s In Rainbows, for which people can decide for themselves how much they are willing to pay, and Saul William’s Niggy Tardust, which people can download for free, or for $ 5.-. Pay for them both, they're more than worth it.
Our work for Sony Ericsson saves the music industry!
Okay, that may be a bit of an overstatement. Nonetheless, in this article posted on nu.nl Sony Ericsson and m-buzz are singled out as 'lifesavers of the music industry'. As MediaCatalyst is responsible for both the online as well as the mobile sites of Sony Ericsson's musical initiatives, we are very pleased with such an honourable mention. Since not all of our international bunch have gone through the motions of the 'inburgeringscursus', after the jump you'll find some choice quotes translated to English.
Keywords: m-buzz,Sony,Ericsson,music,industry
Out with the old in with the new: Lifestyle advertising
Nice new report on the future of advertising - the consumer centric way, hence the term 'lifestyle advertising'.
Interesting and exciting times ahead especially for cross media 
Enjoy, 
Networked radio
Last week, we were at the Web 2.0 conference in Berlin. Quality of the presentations was very inconsistent, but I attended one session which I thought was particularly interesting. Matt Webb was talking about Craft, Design and Technology. In his definition, products are:
- self-demonstrable
- explainable in a sentence
- for an audience
- identifiable
- measurable
- predictable
Obviously product developers need to consider who their audience is. As we learn from the web, the current generation can be called Generation C. They are all about co-creation, communities, connections. This is what they expect of their products....
(Read more...)Game on, gamer
The premise is so simple: provide entertainment, receive attention. It's the guiding principle of advergaming, that successful merger between something people tend to want to avoid (advertising), and something they welcome, even actively seek out (gaming).
Keywords: advergaming
