Archive for March, 2006

Online Game Debuts Interactive Ads

Mar 31

Posted by richard ting in Gaming

project_entropia.jpg

PROJECT ENTROPIA, AN ONLINE MULTIPLAYER game, has begun hosting interactive ads, powered by in-game ad firm Massive Incorporated. The deal allows advertisers and brands to insert ad campaigns dynamically into the game, which allows players to interact with one another in a virtual world, and features an economy based on Project Entropia Dollars, which operate at a fixed exchange rate to the U.S. dollar. The virtual dollars can be purchased for real-world currency, and in-game assets can be sold for real-world dollars.

Read more.

No Comments

Move 3 – Under the Influence

Mar 26

Posted by richard ting in Design

move.jpg

This design summit for motion-based artists and designers will explore the fascinating sources of inspiration behind work that inspires you. MOVE3 will deliver the directors, designers, animators, ad legends and art stars who not only create groundbreaking work, but shape the future.


Check out the site.

No Comments

AdiColor Campaign in Berlin

Mar 26

Posted by richard ting in Sneaker Culture

addi2.jpg

addi3.jpg

addi4.jpg

addi5.jpg

Here’s a posting that I ripped from the Wooster Collective website. There’s been quite a bit of chatter on their site regarding how brands should and should not be assimilating graffiti and street art into their campaigns. A few weeks back, there was some public backlash over the Sony PSP campaign, but this most recent AdiColor campaign does a great job at ‘doing it right’.

Here’s how the campaign rolled-out. First, Adidas installed a number of pure white billboards, slightly branded with the adidas logo, to encourage heads to tag on the billboards. Several days later, a new billboard is layed on top of the old billboard. The main difference with the new billboard is that there are transparent aspects to it that allow the old tags to ’shine’ through on the new billboard.

It’s an absolutely brilliant campaign because it really tells the story of the AdiColor product in a simple, clear, and interesting manner. Bravo.

No Comments

Maxim Goes Mobile

Mar 26

Posted by richard ting in Mobility

THE MAY ISSUE OF MEN’S magazine Maxim will be mobile-enabled, with links in the pages to content and advertisements accessible by readers’ mobile phones.

Rob Gregory, Maxim’s group publisher, said the magazine’s audience is a good demographic to advance mobile marketing and content. “The first wave of mobile advertising will be directed towards young males,” he said. “They are the first group to embrace the technology–they’re the test case for every major brand in the country that wants to embrace mobile, and when we looked at the Maxim audience, we saw we had a huge audience of young guys.”

The editorial content of the May issue will include links to microsites where readers can get more content, including more photos of the Maxim models, and the opportunity to enter contests. The magazine–which hits the newsstands mid-April–will also include service pieces about how readers can use their cell phones in new and different ways.

Read more.

No Comments

AirPlay to Tie Mobiles into TV Shows

Mar 23

Posted by richard ting in Mobility

teaser.jpg

San Francisco-based AirPlay is set to launch a line of mobile games that will tie into live television broadcasts. While big US networks have been slow to adopt mobile participation (about the only exception is that Fox uses SMS voting for American Idol), AirPlay will attempt to boot strap it. Because it can’t control the content, it will pit players against each other:

“AirPlay expects to launch its first content category — AirPlay Sports — in conjunction with the start of the professional and college football seasons this Fall. The AirPlay Sports experience will allow players to make live game and play predictions from their mobile phones and — like popular fantasy sports — compete directly amongst groups of friends for rewards and recognition.”

Besides sports, the company plans to market games for awards shows and reality TV. AirPlay was founded by a former president of TiVo, so the company is no stranger to TV. Qualcomm is an investor along with Redpoint Ventures.

Check out AirPlay.

No Comments

Google Finance

Mar 23

Posted by richard ting in Interactive

google_finance.jpg

[from Mediapost]
Google’s new finance site was unveiled on Tuesday. One of the most distinct features of the new Google Finance site is its incorporation of Flash technology to create more dynamic stock charts than those that are currently on Yahoo Finance. Google Finance visitors can chart the daily ups and downs of a particular market just by scrolling over its name. Likewise, they can chart a stock’s trajectory over one to five days, one to six months, or several years by dragging a slider, which also determines related news headlines that appear next to the charts.

Google also offers users the ability to search for stock quotes either by a company’s name or ticker symbol, while Yahoo requires users to use the ticker symbol. Google Finance users also have access to information on privately held companies, as well as blog posts from Blog Search and Google Group posts. “We consider the inclusion of blog posts to be a major added value for readers, helping them to understand why stocks are performing the way they are,” said Google’s Stanton.


Check it out.

No Comments

Makine

Mar 23

Posted by richard ting in Design

makine.jpg

Here’s a link to a cool design studio based out of Venice Beach, California. Looks like they’ve done some interesting motion graphics for Jeep, McDonalds, Chevy, and Usher.

Check them out.

No Comments

Undercover HD

Mar 23

Posted by richard ting in Music

undercover_hd.jpg

ROO launches undercoverHD.com at SxSW. UndercoverHD.com is a music information website dedicated to providing the world with the latest breaking music news, interviews, reviews and tour & chart info.

News stories, concert/CD/DVD reviews and music artist interviews are covered by UndercoverHD.com journalists and photographers. Other media is supplied by Reuters, The Associated Press and industry sources.

Check out the site.

No Comments

Denim and Sole

Mar 16

Posted by richard ting in Sneaker Culture

denimandsole.jpg

Here’s a new website dedicated to bringing you the right pair of denim and sole for wherever you may want to wear them, from the block to the boardroom.

Check it out.

No Comments

Windows Live Local Virtual Earth

Mar 14

Posted by richard ting in Interactive

microsoft_preview.jpg

Catching up with Google’s satellite mapping technology, the next evolution of this trend is Windows Live Local Virtual Earth, which gives users walking or car views. San Francisco and Seattle are currently available.

Check it out.

No Comments

Tag Clouds

Mar 14

Posted by richard ting in Design

Flickr_Tag_Cloud.gif

A tag cloud (more traditionally known as a weighted list in the field of visual design) is a visual depiction of content tags used on a website. Often, more frequently used tags are depicted in a larger font or otherwise emphasized, while the displayed order is generally alphabetical. Thus both finding a tag by alphabet and by popularity is possible. Selecting a single tag within a tag cloud will generally lead to a collection of items that are associated with that tag.

Check out the great Tag cloud page on Wikipedia. It’s an excellent resource for those interested in designing Tag clouds.

Check it out.

No Comments

dixonbaxi

Mar 8

Posted by richard ting in Design

dixonbaxi.jpg

dixonbaxi are a London based design and directing team formed by award winning directors Simon Dixon and Aporva Baxi.

Check out their site.

No Comments

Shock Absorber – Bounce-o-meter

Mar 8

Posted by richard ting in Interactive

shock_absorber.jpg

This bounce-o-meter tool is designed to showcase the performance benefits of the shock absorber sports bra. It allows users to select their cup size, level of sporting activity, and then visually see the differences between, no bra, basic bra, and the shock absorber sports bra. The site experience is definitely a bit on the humourous side, but the performance benefits are quite clear and in your face.

Check out the site.

No Comments

Scarface — Talent Search

Mar 8

Posted by richard ting in Gaming

scarface.jpg

[via trendcentral]
Scarface soundtrack seeks talent on MySpace: Vivendi Universal Games has partnered with MySpace on a talent search to find unsigned North American bands to supply a song for the soundtrack of Scarface: The World is Yours. Artists must have a profile on MySpace with music tracks to compete. MySpace users will vote to narrow it down to the top 200 artists, while a panel of music and gaming industry players will take it down to 20. All 20 will be posted on the MySpace game profile, voted on by users, and the winner will be announced on March 28th.

Check it out.

No Comments

Saatchi and Saatchi Toilet Campaign

Mar 8

Posted by richard ting in Advertising

saatchi.jpg

Excellent guerilla marketing campaign by Saatchi & Saatchi New York to highlight the public restroom shortage in New York. Cardboard people were placed around certain locations to get people’s attention to the problem.

Check it out on Adverblog.

No Comments

Room 116 Blog

Mar 8

Posted by richard ting in Advertising

sony_1.jpg

I snagged the above photo of a Sony Walkman print ad on the Room 116 blog site. It’s an great blog site hosted by Bryan Chiao over at Anomaly in New York City. Excellent resource for those non-traditional advertising wonks out there.

Check it out.

No Comments

TBWA Blog — Lisbon

Mar 8

Posted by richard ting in Advertising

Inspiration_Visa.jpg

Thanks to Harshal Sisodia for the link. Check out the TBWA\LISBOA blog, which is a part of the TBWA\ network which, in turn, is part of Omnicom Group Inc, one of the world’s largest communication groups. The TBWA\LISBOA office has a team of 50 people who work on a wide range of areas such as: brand management, creativity and ideas, design, research and strategic planning, traffic and TV/Radio/Photo production.

There’s a ton of cool ideas posted on this blog. Give it a look.

No Comments

ROOT Markets

Mar 7

Posted by richard ting in Interactive

root.jpg

It’s the first trading platform for the pricing and exchange of real-time consumer data. The /ROOT exchange is used for lead trading and /VAULTS is used for consumer storage which will bring the liquidity of a modern financial market to online advertising.

Founded on the premise that the consumer has the right to her data, ROOT Markets is the first financial exchange for consumer leads. Leads are personal data that express an individual’s intent to purchase. The quality of the leads at ROOT Markets is driven by their ability to qualify intentions through consumer focused applications. Root Markets is an active supporter of AttentionTrust.org, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping consumers keep track of and benefit from their online activity.

Check out the site.

No Comments

Podbop

Mar 6

Posted by richard ting in Music

podbop.jpg

[via trendcentral]
Rather than Googling yourself silly trying to find shows in your area, read about the bands, listen to their music, and then spend more time downloading the MP3s, this nifty little site lumps it all together for you in an efficient, easy-to-use format. Simply type in your city and you’ll receive listings and MP3s of bands playing in your area, so you can listen before you commit to a show. Just drop the Podbop Feed into iTunes (or whatever podcasting application you might have) and you’ll have your city’s MP3s in a jiffy.

Check it out.

No Comments

Carspace

Mar 4

Posted by richard ting in Interactive

carspace.jpg

Carspace.com is Edmund.com’s automotive lifestyle social networking site, which launched February 2006. It’s Edmund’s bid to apply the social networking model of MySpace.com to folks who tune, race, and obsess over cars.


Check it out.

No Comments