Digital Inspiration

nice Flash and YouTube combination

hammersm — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 09:31:30 +0000

I just caught this nice site http://www.innovate-or-die.com/ about some awards about innovation. What I like was the way they had tied flash in with youtube using a pop up. It seems a good way of using social media content and getting views up on the videos so that they become popular and then more viral thus spreading your message.

I did feel a little frustrated that I could not comment on the video in the normal way on youtube and there seem no way of actually getting to the video page on youtube to do this.

But nice implementation.

I went to review BMW but it was broken

hammersm — Tue, 01 May 2007 09:37:50 +0000

I just went to have a look at http://www.1off.com/ BMWs new campaign site for their 1 series. I am interested in the project as it sounds like a lofty plan. They are trying to create a destination site where people go and see their city and in the process find their local BMW dealer. My problem with the idea is that by doing this they are having to compete with some pretty big sites for the traffic. They are up against sites that review cities as their primary focus and so it is going to be difficult to better this.

Maybe it would have been better to partner with a company who own the city review sites and have a BMW one series feature in here. However I went to the site and it was not working so I cannot really comment.

I did note that Donna Air was involved somehow?

I did note that the site does not validate as HTML and therefore is not that clean in different browsers and it fails some basic checks on the WCAG list. Pay attention Mr BMW

tags:
internet+marketing,
online marketing,
google,
yahoo
adsense
search engine marketing
sem

Ask’s Online Campaign

hammersm — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 11:04:07 +0000

I just caught ASK’s online campaign. Well one of the online flash adverts anyway. See image above. The next screen says ‘The other search engine’ but I think something like ‘There as whole other world out there’. This would point at the fact that Google is a filter and will only show you the results that the algorithm puts up. People who need to know the latest info should be made to think how that filter is affecting them and this advert is almost there.

Ask is also doing a TV ad and I have caught it a couple of times but I cannot remember what it is about. However I do remember it was about ASK so it is good for getting the brand back in my mind. Will I be using ASK, maybe as I used to use it and now I do not……..

WEFAIL

hammersm — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 08:58:08 +0000

If you are looking for a little lilght relief then you should check out the work of WEFAIL. Flash designers Jordan Stone and Martin Hughes have been doing quirky design for a while now and have some interesting clients. This is a purely Artistic piece that has no marketing in the mix and I guess they wanted to show off. It is much better than most of the stuff you see in ART galleries that are dubber interactive art.

http://www.wefail.com/

The Tate’s Site

hammersm — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 11:46:40 +0000

I think the Tate’s website is a good use of Web 2.0. The site provides videos of artists talking about different parts of the exhibition. This is so much better than a static website and you can see people who are passionate about the art. I find that some art leaves me cold unless I know about the artist and what they are trying to get across so therefore I find going on a tour much better. Seeing the videos before or after a visit allows you to take that tour once you interest is peeked. You can also leave the ‘tour’ at any time and not offend the guide.

I think web 2.0 comes into its own when the solution to a problem is very simple. In this case it is showing videos. A website like the Tate will have a fairly large traffic just from people interested in the brand, but how could they encourage more visitors. I would put the video’s on youtube and then have a link of the tate website appear at the end of the film to show people where they can find out more. Or maybe even so them a map so they can see where they have to go the visit. Youtube would self promote the vids as they are good content. Also I would envourage people who actually visit the museum to go online to the website after by giving them a code to enter on the website to win a book on their favourite artist. Thus capturing interest and data and openning up a relationship.

Visa Campaign relaxes me

hammersm — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 19:38:25 +0000

It seems like everyone and everything around me is completely manic. Today is the first day I have had time to look at other people’s work let alone write in this blog. Apologies if you read my ramblings. Anyway I am going to keep going because I enjoy doing this.

I caught the Visa campaign and thought I would mention it becuase it hit home. It is nice and simple and relaxing and this is well appreciated.

It is a good piece of Digital Marketing because it enhances their brand by associating it with luxurious tangible experiences. Where as the actual tangible benefits of one credit card to another is pretty slim, so the cards compete completely on branding.

http://www.visasignatureliving.com/

Not viral enough for Virgin but a nice try

hammersm — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 11:41:38 +0000

I quite like the Virgin dance styled online piece. You basically keep clicking yes and therefore keep seeing more exciting things. This one I am writting about has a dancer changing from more traditional forms of dance ballet, contemporary to fire poise etc. I liked the fire poise more than the final crotch grinding bit. Although she coud have been better with the poise.

As a marketing piece I think this format has legs where the user keeps pressing yes to see more but I think another subject would be better. Perhaps a dinner party where the guests get increasingly interesting. They start off formal and then at the end they are all in a scene from Eyes Wide Shut.

http://www.freshfootwork.com/

Toyota Campaign

hammersm — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 20:51:00 +0000

I have just come across the Toyota campaign and I thought I would put my feelings down about it. To be honest I am interested in it because from a flash point of view it looks cool. I see it and start to think how I would put it together in flash. Therefore I find it really hard to be objective and sits back and see whether it works as a marketing campaign. I can understand what Toyota are trying to do, basically get cool by using digital marketing and arty type campaigns. They have to ad budget to create the brand and can therefore do this kind of approach. Maybe the break through they now need to get to in the market is at the moment closed to them. Toyota have been seen as a bit of a safe option in the car class, rather than a cool car. Toyota is the largest car manufacturer and so they need to mine different markets if they are going to expand and this has to be the higher premium market and try to challenge the BMW and the Audi’s market.

They have a long way to go but I think they are doing to right thing by bringing in tallent from around the world. I for one will be paying attention as I used to work in the automotive industry!!

this digital marketing campaign can be seen here.

Lynx advert blow her away

hammersm — Sat, 09 Dec 2006 15:07:26 +0000

I like this lynx ad because it is simple quick to do and appreciate. The idea is to blow into your microphone and blow away the clothes of a beautiful young female. Lynx know their customer base well and this is sure to hit the mark. I do think that lynx have a good marketing team and have been watching their TV adverts closely. They make entertainment out of what is actually a very dull product.

Keep it simple. I think one of the rules of online interactivity should be ‘can I do it in 1 min’ if not then you are going to loose a lot of people. Users just do not have time to figure out things.

here is it http://www.lynxblow.com/

back soon

It sounds better in the meeting for Lynxjet

hammersm — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 19:25:33 +0000

I can see what lynxjet are trying to do with their online campaign, but my instinct tells me this one is a miss.

http://www.lynxjetplanet.com/

It starts quite well with some nice flash and a good intro and animation but the resulting game is poor. Overall these guys want two things, the message that a new product is in store for their target consumers and also to collect email addresses. Firstly I cannot see this being viral as it is too hard to play quickly and it takes too long to sign up. Also most people have pop up blockers on their computers now which means that when the game pops up it is blocked causing the screen to refresh and logging you out. Something like this would cost some serious money and it is a shame that the underpi9nning idea is lame. The idea is to move around a game and collect girl’s email addresses. The interaction is a bit second life ish without any of the interaction. At first I thought that there might be actually people in there to interact with but you can only ask set questions for set answers with computer characters.What would have been better? I am not sure and I would have to see the brief. I know this is a bit of a cop out but some better idea must be out there for the money behind this.Mark