The Oscars are the second most watched TV event behind the Superbowl, so it was important for Welikesmall to give the stalwart award show a website that encapsulated the beauty, grace and craftsmanship it represents. The site boasts tons of content, from an interactive timeline, games, videos and more. Top that with a mobile experience, and you’re left with the most comprehensive and definitive Oscars site ever.

Aarra Agency: Welikesmall
Client: The Oscars and ABC

At the restart page you can reboot your browser through a collection of vintage operating systems. The site is an answer to an invitation to collaborate with the OFFF festival and the YEAR ZERO project.

From Windows 1.0 (1985) to Amiga Workbench 2 (1986) or Apple IIGS (1991). The restart page is a tribute to the evolution of the rebooting technologies that is part of our daily life, featuring: OS2, MAC, MS, WINDOWS XP, Openstep, QNX, Apple, Workbench and Rhapsody.

At the time of this posting, there’s been almost 20k unique tweets, and over half a million views of the project.

View the site at http://www.therestartpage.com/

Aarra Agency: rehabstudio
Collaborator: Soon in Tokyo

As part of a new feature from Aarra, our companies will offer their unique perspectives and opinions on emerging trends, technology and challenges that we in the industry are facing every month. For our first entry, SilkTricky gives their take on the Flash vs. HTML5 conversation. Read on for an in-depth analysis from Noah Costello, CTO of SilkTricky.

Short on time? Click here to read Noah’s guidelines on what to consider when deciding between Flash and HTML5.

HTML5 is hot.  The echo chamber is loud and everywhere you turn; blogs, social media, trade magazines, and corporations, are heralding it as the silver-bullet for everything—and more. It’s magical.

But what is the current reality of HTML5 for Advertising Agencies and their Digital Production partners? And what does it mean for those concepting and developing real client campaigns with real business goals? The question isn’t “Is Flash Dead?” But rather “What’s the best solution to this problem?” Both HTML5 and Flash are amazing solutions to our web executions, each with their own pros and cons.

Let’s Flash-back

It’s difficult to have this discussion without first looking at Flash and where it has fit into the picture for the past decade. After all, this is what HTML5 is slated to replace:

For the agency teams working on a digital concept for the next big campaign, targeting Flash as the development platform meant they could focus on the concept and creative rather than the technology.  Once Flash had matured, there was a solid track record of prior art showing that just about anything they could come up with was possible and could be built by the right production partner. And if there wasn’t a clear way, the best developers would come up with one. Papervision 3D was a great example of that. Flash did not have 3D capabilities built in, but the top developers in the community made it happen. And when they did, 3D in Flash was now possible in every browser on every operating system, immediately.

It was a great ecosystem for those involved.  Creatives could come up with big ideas and feel confident they were possible, without having to worry too much about the technology.  Developers were pushed to do some amazing work and often did amazing work on their own, which lead creatives to great new ideas.  One developer invents PaperVision 3D, another one figures out Augmented Reality Markers and next thing you know we have a live Big Foot interacting with you live on your webcam (www.livingsasquatch.com).

With any new project brief there are several things we want to look at to decide if it is a project we’d want to pursue.  The core of which are:

1. How will we do it?
2. How much time will it take?
3. How do those two items compare to the available budget and timeline?

Budgets will vary, but timelines are rarely long enough.  Flash gave us the luxury of predicability.  We could predictably estimate the time a project would take and the development techniques used to achieve the end result were generally clear.  Rather than targeting and customizing a launch for a slew of unpredictable browsers, we are only targeting one platform: the Flash runtime, which will run with 99% consistency across all browsers.

And we knew that rarely would someone come to us with a crazy cool idea that wouldn’t be possible. Whether it involved 3D, user generated content, webcams, sound, microphones, interactive video, Facebook integration, or whatever other wild campaign ideas our partners or us dreamt up. It was rare that we felt limited by technology when targeting the Flash platform.

The HTML5 catalyst

Mobile has been the true driver of HTML5 on the desktop and elsewhere.  Without the success of the mobile platform, pioneered by Apple, then followed by Steve Jobs infamous words against Flash, the methodology of how sites should be built for the desktop would not have changed from 3 years ago.

Prior to mobile’s success, there have always been sites with requirements making them best suited for HTML.  They are easy to identify and usually are heavy on content, light on interactivity, animation, sound, and video.  Because these are generally simple sites, browser incompatibility tends to require minor work arounds and has limited impact on time and budget. On the flip side, for any site intended to be highly interactive, Flash was always the clear choice. Allowing you to develop freely, forgetting about browser compatibility.  However, now mobile is big and must be considered with most projects, and Flash usually isn’t an option on mobile browsers.

Is HTML5 the Flash Killer?

So here we are today where a belief has been manifested that HTML5 can do everything that Flash can do and it works the same across desktop and mobile. So Flash is dead?  An article on a popular blog was recently linked to in my twitter feed, it proposed a list of “7 Killer Flash sites that should be remade with HTML5 and CSS3.” (http://tnw.co/wJfrjm)

Unfortunately this isn’t a reality and articles such as this continue to spread a fallacy of HTML5 being the new answer for everything. It remains far more complex of an issue and HTML5 cannot do everything Flash can.  In reality trying to create these sites in HTML5 is more like “Mission Impossible” and most of them would need to be re-concepted from the ground up; with creative and user experience design that was tailored to HTML5′s capabilities.  Could the ’Ethan Hunt’ of HTML5 Development pull it off? Maybe in a few cases, but what would be the cost and what percentage of the target audience will be able to view the site?  I know that with Flash sites, most clients were unwilling to allow a site published in the latest version of the Flash player until it reaches higher that 95% penetration.  Will a WebGL site that 50% of your visitors can use really be acceptable?  And we’ll often get briefs for Flash projects that have as little as a two or three week development timeline. Good luck with that in HTML5.

Ironically, most of the cutting edge, Flash-like HTML5 sites you see these days don’t work on tablets or smart phones either.  They either use HTML5 features that aren’t available in mobile browsers (WebGL), offer poor performance (Canvas),  or the layout and user experience design does not work properly.  This is perplexing since the primary argument for dropping Flash is compatibility on Mobile.

The technology aside, there are other fundamental problems with trying to make one site fit all. Screen resolutions are all over the place. Can you really expect to design something for a  22″ desktop screen that will look good on a 10″ tablet (iPad), a 7″ tablet (Kindle fire) and 3.5″ screen (average smartphone)? You also may not want the same amount of content on your mobile site, as lots of people like to find necessary information quickly and prefer more immersive experiences on a large screen when they’re sitting comfortably.

Finally, you have the point-and-click world versus the touch-and-slide; this will affect everything from the size of a button (you’d make it larger for a finger than for a mouse cursor) to the user experience (sliding through a photo gallery on an iPad is a lot easier than clicking and sliding images with your mouse on a desktop site).

The best-case scenario would be to have the time and budget to create a specific site for each target. The best smartphone sites out there were designed specifically for the small form factor. That can be said about the best tablet sites (and apps), as well as the best desktop sites. This is rarely a realistic option for client budgets, though. We believe that right now when budget is a factor (and it almost always is), your best bet is to create 2 versions of a site. Target 2 platforms/devices with 1 version. Example: Make a HTML5 site that looks great on your desktop and works well on your tablet, then make a specific smartphone only site. Or, make a basic HTML site that works fine on tablets and smartphones, then make a specific desktop-only site that breaks the mould and delivers a unique experience. And in this case, why not use Flash?

The Graceful Degradation

We’ve noticed an interesting phenomenon as a side effect of the HTML5 buzz explosion.  Industry folk and the developer community seem to be expecting and accepting less from HTML5 sites than their Flash brethren.  Essentially, it takes far less robust of an end user experience for an HTML5 site to receive critical acclaim than with a Flash site; a sort of “HTML5 Affirmative Action.” You can see this in examples such as this: You have two “Graphic Novel” themed sites. The first an FWA award winning HTML5 site on January 30th, 2012 (http://www.soul-reaper.com/). The site features lovely illustration and a single auto scrolling page with some simple animations; continuing the “Single Scrolling Page” theme we are becoming accustomed to seeing day in and day out. To the non-techy end user, this is a nice looking site, but it doesn’t offer much in the way of an experience. Now compare that with the second “Graphic Novel” themed Flash site from 2009: Team Geist. Also an FWA award winning site, it features a uniquely concepted game that combines Live Action Cinema, 3D, Visual Effects, Game Strategy, Social Integration, all in a tightly woven package built in Flash. It required a large production and development team across multiple disciplines; as seen in the Behind the Scenes features here: http://www.northkingdom.com/case-studies/adidas-teamgeist/.

Truth be told, this has actually created a solid advantage for using HTML5 as a means of generating buzz in the developer communities. It takes far less of a commitment of time, resources, and innovative thinking to create a site deemed buzz and award-worthy (though a chunk of time will now need to be devoted to debugging and browser compatibility solves).  This, however, assumes your target audience are those in the community around you, who care mostly about the trends and the nitty gritty tech of how a site was built. If that is not your target audience, then you may not be meeting your client’s goals of reaching a larger non-tech savvy audience. How long this phenomenon will last is still uncertain.  If the innovation hits a ceiling due to technical limitations or continued browser limitations, we could see a shift back before the next 100 parallax scrolling single page HTML5 sites hit the web.

.NET magazine recently released an article about the “15 top web design development trends for 2012” in which seasoned designer Tom Muller predicts Flash will surely survive, certainly in the near-term. He explains that during 2011, he was involved in 3 major projects that relied on Flash, simply because it remains the best tool for interactive video, animation and 3D online. He added, “Web designers and developers sometimes lose sight of what works and is demanded by a larger audience, due to preferring what’s considered ‘cool’ in their bubble”, and that “More big brands will shift from Flash, testing the water with HTML5 and CSS3 for focussed campaigns. But for entertainment sites, Flash is – and will remain – the predominant tool of choice to create engaging experiences.”

One certainty in HTML5′s future is that the pace of innovation will be slower than anyone would like.  Instead of a situation where we rely on one company to innovate and release new features (in the way that Adobe does with Flash or Apple does with iOS), we are relying on a standards board to decide on features and then four browser manufactures to implement them.

Furthermore, once the browser manufacturers implement them, users of each browser need to get the latest upgrade. And finally, with each browser comes a new set of bugs that developers need to create work arounds for.  For an inside look at how convoluted the web standards process can be, have a look at the following excerpt from the book HTML5 For Web Designers – by Jeremy Keith.  The excerpt is from the opening of the book and details how HTML5 came to exist, it describes all the infighting going on behind the scenes. It is a true nerd war, including the big decision on whether it should be “HTML5″ or “HTML 5″ with a space.  Critical stuff.

For developers we have sites like http://html5please.us/ which tell us the features of HTML5 we can safely use and those that are broken or don’t work in specific browsers and need fallbacks. And while this site may be seen as a handy resource for developers, the fact that it exists at all should be a warning to anyone seeking to have a cutting edge HTML5 site developed. To look at this from another perspective:  Can you imagine if you wanted to build an iPhone application and as you dug in and referred to Apple’s documentation for various functions, you discovered that 80% of them didn’t work properly and you had to use work arounds, or did not work at all? That would be completely unacceptable. The reality is that closed development platforms such as iOS or Flash provide developers with an enjoyable and predictable experience.  If a bug arises with a feature of the platform, you only have to find a work around for one platform, not several browsers on two different operating systems.  Furthermore Apple and Adobe fix these bugs quickly in next release of their runtimes.  In HTML5 you rely on multiple browser manufacturers to fix bugs and broken features, and often this can take years. As in cases where Microsoft took as many as 10 years to fix a small issue.

The development community eventually comes up with work arounds as you can see on the html5please site, but what happens in the middle of a project when you discover a bug across multiple browsers that hasn’t been uncovered and solved by the development community?  Is everyone prepared to add weeks to a project timeline, and the correlating cost, to accommodate such scenarios?

A Hole In HTML5’s Video Armor

The HTML5 video tag is another good example of these headaches.  I’m going to single this out since so many of the award winning Flash sites of the past 5+ years have relied on video for the overall experience (Live Action and/or rendered video animations). And simply playing video in a self contained player is unarguably one of the core requirements of web sites, yet it is still extremely convoluted and time consuming to implement in HTML5.  Previously in Flash you simply rendered out one video file and loaded it in to play in your Flash video player.  It was guaranteed to work for 98% of desktop users.

Today with Mobile and HTML5 in the mix it is no longer so streamlined. Developer and author, Robert Reinhardt, recently wrote a blog post titled “The World of Pain that is HTML5 Video”  in which he discussed the issues with HTML5 video. At the core of it is the fact that the various browser vendors are pushing different encoding formats and there is no single format compatible with the current popular browsers; meaning you have to encode three different videos for desktop and then also mobile versions.

On a recent project we had roughly 30 different video animations in queue at any given time.  Having to encode three different versions of each, every time a creative revision came in, would have blown up our pipeline and caused us to miss deadlines.  You can just skim his blog post to get the idea of how complicated this issue is and in the end his conclusion is that currently the best strategy is Flash video on the desktop with fallback to HTML5, allowing you to encode in one format.  But this still relies on Flash to simplify things. If your site experience relies on using interactive or alpha channel video (pretty much anything other than playing video in a standard player), forget HTML5.  I personally know how complicated programming Flash video interactivity for a site can be, like our www.bankrungame.com site for example, and trying to do something like this in HTML5 will be 10 times more difficult; if not impossible in its current state.

In Closing

What we’ve tried to do is give a realistic look at what it will mean to target HTML5 for upcoming campaigns.  Based on the current buzz around it, people may not have a clear idea of the challenges involved with working around its limitations.  You want to make sure you chose the right tool for the job.

HTML5 is here to stay and often it will be the right tool, but if you try to force the technology on a project its not right for, it may come back to bite you.  Possibly via missed deadlines, budget overages, poor metrics due to limited compatibility, or a campaign that goes live full of bugs and a phone ringing off the hook with an upset client.

It may feel like overall tone of this article is negative on using HTML5.  That’s not the case, as we think it’s a great option for the majority of sites on the web. We simply aren’t excited about it as a definitive replacement for Flash.  HTML5 in its current state allows us to do less creatively with far more work, so we prefer the absolute creative freedom that platforms like Flash or iOS provide. We also don’t care about web standards.  Not to say they don’t have importance, but it is not what we are focused on. We are focused on concept, execution, and doing work that is motivating and enjoyable. Strategically we’ll continue to develop our HTML5 portfolio and use it when it makes business sense for our clients. Though we would be more excited about it if it allowed us to create end-user experiences that hadn’t already been possible at some time in the last decade.

Finally, here are a few logical guidelines when considering a strategy for new campaigns:

• Don’t decide on the technology until you figure out your audience. Is the primary target mobile or desktop? What percent of your audience is on HTML5 compatible browsers?
• Figure out your clients goals. Are they ok with you targeting a smaller audience for the sake of industry buzz and awards? Or are they more concerned with overall reach to consumers.
• Creatives concepting HTML5 sites need to learn more about the technology and limitations.  You can’t assume everything you would have concepted for a Flash targeted site will be possible in HTML5.  Especially if it is running on tablets and smart phones.
• If the goal is a highly interactive site on the desktop that will reach a maximum audience, use Flash.
• If a site uses interactive video and/or alpha channel video, use Flash and don’t expect the same type of experience to be possible on mobile.
• If the site only requires basic animations (think animating layers of a photoshop document) and video in contained players, use HTML5.
• Deep content/copy heavy portals, corporate sites, and blogs should be HTML. This has always been a good rule.
• If the same site needs to work on the desktop and tablet expect less (in terms of interactivity, animation, and innovative UX).
• If the same site needs to work on the desktop, tablet, and smart phones, expect a lot less.
• Be careful not to expect a robust HTML5 site to be built on a tight timeline. Extra time will be needed for build and more importantly QA/bug fixes. i.e. Don’t plan on approving creative two weeks before a site needs to go live.
• Understand that not all HTML5 features are created equal. Some work on mobile, but not desktop. Some work on desktop, but not mobile.  WebGL is a good example.  Currently it is not enabled in mobile browsers and Internet Explorer on the desktop.

Working with Stinkdigital and HEIMAT Berlin, Minivegas created a powerful social commentary platform for CNN and the COP17 climate change conference in Durban. Any time someone tweets with the hashtag #COP17, the Ecosphere will add it to a tree representing that specific topic or discussion, making the most popular topics the biggest trees. After a few weeks of collecting tweets, the piece will be shown in Durban as an installation that renders the site as a 3D holographic image.

The entire site is built in WebGL/HTML and harnesses Minivegas’ incredibly powerful and flexible Atlantis platform.

View the site here: http://cnn-ecosphere.com/ and get a behind the scenes look at the installation here.

In addition view the full case study here.

Aarra Agency: Minivegas
Client: CNN
Collaborators: Stinkdigital/HEIMAT Berlin

To help Razorfish launch the new Performance Balls campaign for Bridgestone Tires, Driftlab was proud to develop a Facebook Application chock full of goodies. From viewing the TV commercials, to interactive tech demos with videos and even a sweeps to win tickets to the Super Bowl, the App gave users a rich experience to get to know more about Bridgestone’s products and a chance to go to the big game.

View the App at https://www.facebook.com/BridgestoneTires

Aarra Agency: Driftlab
Client: Bridgestone Tires
Agency: Razorfish

Our Generation is a unique brand that supports children’s development in positive take charge manner, such as helping families learn to recycle, holding bake sales to support charities, and promoting literacy.

Honest helped create a site where a girl can weigh in on issues that are important to her. Or spend hours creating the next new look for a fashion-forward doll. Or crafting a heart that will represent her story on a Wall of Hearts that represents the story of her entire generation. (Who knows, her heart may even end up on Our Generation packaging.

Constant brand and user involvement allow the site to change and grow. Almost every aspect of the site is controlled through a back-end content management system (CMS). From updating products to approving user generated art, the CMS gives the brand managers complete control. The site utilizes a perfect blend of fun and product information to express the Our Generation story.

View the site at http://ogdolls.com/

Aarra Agency: Honest
Client: Our Generation

Lollipop worked with GSD&M on the design and development of Shareacarol.com, the digital component of the 2011 holiday campaign for GSD&M client TJX brands – comprised of Marshalls, T.J.Maxx and HomeGoods. The campaign’s digital footprint encompassed fully functional experiences on a web site, Facebook and on iOS and Android devices. Users were able to enter any address, and via Google Street View receive a live action carol sung at an image of their front door complete with snow, twinkly lights and even a reindeer.

View the site at Shareacarol.com

Aarra Agency: Lollipop
Client: TJX
Ad Agency: GSD&M

Driftlab collaborated with Colle+McVoy and Caribou Coffee to help spread holiday cheer and warmth for a good cause. Each time someone creates a festive holiday sweater animated GIF in the Facebook App that Driftlab developed, Caribou will donate one real sweater to the Salvation Army. So upload your face and choose the tackiest sweater you can find, all for a good cause.

View the site here.

Aarra Agency: Driftlab
Client: Caribou Coffee
Collaborators: Colle+McVoy

For a good portion of 2011, The ID Corp & BBDO have been creating a huge amount of banner campaigns for AT&T. Starting in April of last year, ID began simply enough with a request to help BBDO animate some of their AT&T work. And the relationship grew from there. Since then, ID have adapted to, perfected the style of, and animated hundreds of banner ads for the telecom giant. Odds are if you’ve seen an AT&T banner on the internet, The ID Corp developed it.

View the banners at http://www.theidcorp.com/portfolio/att/

Aarra Agency: The ID Corp
Client: AT&T
Ad Agency: BBDO NYC

SilkTricky was proud to work with Goodby, Silverstein and Partners to bring the newest version of Gotmilk.com to life. Leveraging the awesome 3D and Motion work Silk is known for, combined with their smooth and fluid Flash animations, the site is a fun and whimsical look at this beloved beverage. Be sure to fill the blender full of fruit for a little surprise.

View the site at http://www.gotmilk.com

Aarra Agency: SilkTricky
Client: Got Milk - National Milk Processor Board
Ad Agency: Goodby, Silverstein and Partners

Partnering with Goodby, Silverstein and Partners, rehabstudio created a website for Chevy that allows users to go on a nostalgic drive through their past, jumping into one of six Chevrolet cars like the 57’ Bel-air, ’69 Stingray or the Camero –  all shot by rehab exclusively for the campaign.

Using Facebook connect, the site identifies locations from the user’s profile and then leverages Google Street-view to generate a stop-frame drive past video.

The campaign also pulls in Facebook friends and displays them throughout the experience, which is the first of it’s kind. Users can takeaway a map showing their life journey which they can easily share on Facebook or with the friends featured in their ride.

All of the cars were shot on location in Detroit and then a bi-coastal b-roll shoot linked the experience together, the linking shots are chosen from country, suburban or urban to keep the narrative of the campaign.

View the site here: http://rideofyourlife.chevrolet.com/

Aarra Agency: rehabstudio
Client: Chevy
Ad Agency: Goodby, Silverstein and Partners

Honest worked with Random House to launch this amazing new book by first time author Ernest Cline (screenwriter of Fanboys). At once wildly original and stuffed with irresistible nostalgia, READY PLAYER ONE is a spectacularly genre-busting, ambitious, and charming debut—part quest novel, part love story, and part virtual space opera set in a universe where spell-slinging mages battle giant Japanese robots, entire planets are inspired by Blade Runner, and flying DeLoreans achieve light speed.

Honest were tasked with creating an online campaign that would both speak to the audience that would naturally gravitate to a book about video games and pop culture, as well as a broader audience that would be drawn to the epic journey that the character goes through.

For more information visit http://stayhonest.com/work/video/ready-player-one/

Aarra Agency: Honest
Client: Random House

Goodby, Silverstein and Partners and the ID Corp. are working hard to get the word out about Google’s latest creation, their own social network, Google+. Circles, Hangouts, Mobile Hangouts and much more. ID was proud to animate a massive banner launch for the product.

View the banners at http://www.theidcorp.com/portfolio/googleplus/

Aarra Agency: The ID Corp
Client: Google
Ad Agency: Goodby, Silverstein & Partners

Working with Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, Honest developed a series of games for a Homepage Takeover of CBS.com. Each game has a unique gameplay mechanic, making it a fun tie-in with the new season of Survivor. Honest wanted to create something that was quick and fun, yet were deceptively challenging. They added simple flourishes to each game to make them more engaging – animated waterfalls, swaying palm trees, balance meters on the tightrope. All done on a short timeline, Honest had to colloborate with GSP, Eyewonder and CBS to make it work within both their creative and technical standards.

For more information visit http://stayhonest.com/work/sprint-survivor/

Aarra Agency: Honest
Client: Sprint & CBS
Ad Agency: Goodby, Silverstein & Partners

Always one to take on passion projects, Welikesmall was able to combine their love of the outdoors, skiing and of course great web design/development into a brand new site for Moment Skis. In their own words:

We utilized some fun bits of Javascript to give the site a unique flavor and add to the intuitive design. Check out the team page to see some larger than life masonary sorting, or any ski page to get a great feel for a particular model. Additionally, we tied into the Instagram API to keep images on the site super fresh.

The welikesmall approach to any product site is to think through the strategy between consumers coming to shop and those coming to get an experience, we feel the Moment site exemplifies this delicate balance.

After your done browsing the site feel free to purchase a ski with the Django / Python based Satchmo ecommere system we built.

Check it out for yourself at http://www.momentskis.com/

Aarra Agency: Welikesmall
Client: Moment Skis

Lollipop worked with Goodby, Silverstein & Partners on the development of a rich media campaign for Dickies workwear. The creative consisted of multiple page takeover executions on popular destinations such as ESPN and Sports Illustrated.

When a plumber jiggles the handle on a broken toilet, first the toilet, then the entire page begins to leak and spray water, resulting in a high pressure explosion that reveals water pipes behind the page. The banner continues to animate with the campaign’s ‘Life Hurts’ message followed by a focus on the short sleeve work shirt. The takeaway is that Dickies workwear can stand up to just about anything you throw at it. Check it out for yourself below.

As part of their Unlimited Data Everything campaign, Sprint wanted to create digital connections to Times Square through animated billboards and mobile devices. Uncorked Studios partnered with Goodby, Silverstein & Partners to create the mobile experience. Built around a simple postcard rack metaphor, the site allows users to select their favorite card and send it to a friend via Facebook, Twitter, SMS or email. Recipients would receive a link to the animated postcard. The experience of sending and receiving a card is identical across Android and iOS platforms. To create this level of seamlessness and cohesion was no small feat. Defying traditional convention, this site is only available via mobile devices.

View the mobile website (Best viewed on a mobile device)

Aarra Agency: Uncorked Studios
Client: Sprint
Ad Agency: Goodby, Silverstein and Partners

Woven between all of this is a consistent Heineken tone and brand message, that creates a cohesive mashup of advertising and user generated content. By letting users engage and be a part of the show, it’s lead to huge user involvement and  interaction. Additionally the platform created for this event is extremely portable and scalable, able to be rolled out across any kind of festival, club or interactive website.

Aarra Agency: Minivegas
Client: Heineken International
Agency: Minivegas/Sid Lee

Remember when people would hold up cigarette lighters at concerts? Now in its place is the mobile phone in every pocket waiting to be lit up. As part of Sprint’s All Together Now campaign, Goodby, Silverstein & Partners worked with Uncorked Studios to develop a mobile website that could take advantage of this and provide fans with a set of “cheer tools” concerts and sporting events as well. The mobile tools included foam fingers, team colors, air-horns, and of course the cigarette lighter.

The site was built to achieve device support for as many users in attendance as possible, so after deliberation, they ditched the swiping and sliding interface compatible with newer devices and opted for a sleek streamlined site with straight-forward access. Mobile video plays a big role in this project as well, and required Uncorked to creatively implement video playback in multiple different ways.

View the mobile website (Best viewed on a mobile device)

Aarra Agency: Uncorked Studios
Client: Sprint
Ad Agency: Goodby, Silverstein and Partners

Getting a chance to redesign their very own Webby award winning site for Smokey Bones was a task near and dear to WLS’ heart. The old site had all of the bells and whistles from the time period it was made in – full of Flash, easter eggs, VFX/motion and green screened videos – it set a new standard for restaurant websites.

The times have certainly changed, so for the new version of the site, WLS was still able to celebrate Smokey Bones’ signature style and humor, but this time under a lean and mean HTML5 and mobile optimized build. With its easy navigation, great content and a platform agnostic experience, WLS once again sets the bar for how restaurant websites should function.

Technologies used:

• HTML/CSS (HTML5)
• JavaScript
• Full CMS driven for both website and mobile
• Animated GIFs (Cinemagraphs)
• Geolocating
• Platform agnostic

Check out the site at: www.smokeybones.com

Aarra Agency: Welikesmall
Partner: Push
Client: Smokey Bones