I recently did a presentation on innovation at my agency, to keep us and clients up to speed with new happenings in the digital world. My main conclusion was to remind people that digital is more than just a mouse and a screen. ‘Digital can be everywhere’ in the words of our 3D bod.
One innovation I looked at was interactive Cinema, as used by Volvo. The in-cinema car driving game is controlled by the audience holding their hands up to control the direction of the car. It looks a bit shaky from the demo video (below), with the car not really responding to the audience movement so well. So lets hope 02’s latest application of this digital technology is a bit more slick.
Going live on 10th July, ‘Asteroid Storm’ will feature in the trailer reels before Ice Age 3 3D and G-Force in the summer, followed by Up and Toy Story 3D in the autumn.
02 Interactive Cinema game
The game takes place on ‘Starship O2’ which is trapped in an asteroid belt. The audience is told by the captain that the ship has been damaged and that their help is needed to steer the ship back on course. Again by using their hands the audience is able to control the direction of the spaceship.
The 3D game itself is powered by technology from iO and was conceived by O2’s media agency, ZenithOptimedia. Creative work was done by VCCP and Agency Republic.
People expect a more and more from their cinema – it’s not just a venue anymore, they want more of an experience and a hightened feeling of an ‘adventure’. Family are a key audience that cinemas are wanting to tap into, so digitally lead interactive and immersive experiences like this will be a great way to keep audiences coming back for more.
Bridgestone (yes the tyre company), recently wowed the crowds with a 3mm thick E-paper at a recent Tokyo trade fair. It resembles a flexible piece of paper with touch screen technology. So, it seems updateable newspapers and magazines have suddenly become within reach.
According to ePaperCentral, “unlike other e-paper devices like the Kindle and Sony’s 505/700, the Bridgestone model does not use E Ink based technologies. Instead, it uses a powerful technology built in house that could completely revolutionize e-paper called QR-LPD.” With HP and Fujitsu already pushing e-Paper, Bridgestone is the latest Kindle-killer to the market.
The A4 sized full-colour capabilities are amazing. The ability to scribble-on-screen is ensuring Bridgestone’s 13” colour screen ‘has the future written all over it’. What’s more the paper does not need a continual power supply, as when it’s switched off it maintains the image on screen through its ‘memory state’. Great news for the environment. However, two problems which are not insurmountable remain – screen refresh is rather slow (0.8 secs min) and the price is prohibitive ($500+).
Yet, I can still hear Rupert Murdoch salivating already and perhaps we can really now save some trees.
It looks hilarious. And frankly I think it’s pure genius! Can you imagine the brain storming session … “ok so guys, we want to create a new game to target Japanese males 18-35. They’ll be living alone and have a job which leaves them lots of free time. From our consumer research, the insight we gained is that men this age are really feeling a sense of loss of masculinity as women take over traditional male roles’…..Ok. So first idea I had was – muscle men in bikinis…that’ll make ‘em feel better eh’!?
If you want to see more muscle men really in bikinis with their little bottoms waggling then just follow this link.
The idea of the campaign is to get people sharing photos of themselves online, with a McDonald’s digital billboard as the backdrop. Not just any billboard though, the Piccadilly Circus billboard which is viewed by an estimated 1.1million people each week.
The billboards show various different entertaining images such as a speech bubble, bowler hat or hammer, which visitors can pose with. And yes, the McDonalds logo is peeping out too.
It’s another campaign which is a good reminder that interaction is not limited to the mouse and the keyboard.
please note -this does not mean I support McDonald’s. Just good ideas.
I’ve had dating and love on the brain of late … unfortunately not because of some romantic happenings in my life (boo hoo hoo). No I’ve been thinking about the digital space and dating.
Online dating is seemingly becoming more and more prolific, especially for my generation of late 20s to 30 somethings. It’s now practically the normal way to meet people. So then I started pondering if this is the same in other cultures? What is dating like in other cultures and how is the digital age aiding/hindering this?
Having lived in Japan, I know that dating over there is a whole different ball game. I mean they don’t even really have the words I love you and when I tried to just hug a friend I thought he might die of embarrassment.
In Japan, what they do have which I know about is something called – Konpa (don’t know how you spell this, but that’s the idea). Konpa is where two couples go out and essentially have a double date, in the hope that at least two of them will pull. It’s a lot more regimented that British let’s-get-drunk-and-slober-on-each-other styles. They also have the firmly held belief that women over 30 are ‘Obachan’. Translation – grandmothers. Nice. I wonder how hard the dating game is for these ladies, and ultimately are they using the online space to break down traditional boundaries?
Secondly, I was wondering if anyone has met anyone online via Twitter. ‘Oooh we were thousands of miles apart, but we met on twitter and fell in love in 140 words’.
Both of these cases are very interesting stories in my book. Book… book?
I know that everyone is trying to create something ‘viral’ these days. But really, Cadbury’s Trident chewing gum really could try harder in terms of originality.
To promote a competition, in which you can win tickets to see Beyonce, they staged a dance stunt at Picadilly circus, London. So basically lots of scantily clad dancers, shaking their booties to Beyonce’s track ‘Single Ladies’
Perhaps it wouldn’t be so irritating if we hadn’t just had the T-mobile flash mob advert. This was a relatively original idea in terms of mass media. Not an original idea really though, as flash mobs have been happening for quite some time on the ’street’. Also known as ’silent raves’. It was a shame in the first place that T-mob had to steal the idea. But c’est la vie.
So second degree butchering of an idea is just unforgiveable Mr.Trident.
However, despite it’s unorginality, it could be a rehashed idea that works: people bitching about how unorginal it is (like me) and how it is too soon after T-mob and the result is the aim of the game – raising brand awareness.
In fact – scrap that – it just gets on my nerves, its unoriginal and I am certainly not having a positive brand association right now.
Just had another blinding idea. At least I think so.
In Japan, they have these amazing electronic toilets. When you are using the loo and you might make a noise that will cause you to blush, these loos have a little button you can press. When you press the button, the loo makes a loud toilet flushing noise to disguise any indiscreet noises that you might be creating. Hence, your blushes are spared and the world sighs with relief, that polite society still reigns.
It’s genius. It’s ridiculous. It’s also entertaining.
So, I was thinking … a loo paper company should create an app which makes a whole host of ridiculous sounds to cover up any noises you make, not just a loo flushing. It could even be as silly as someone famous saying in a loud voice ‘Please cover your ears. I am about to fart!’.
One problem I can see is that I think it would be a 100% male usage … ladies never fart!
