Take a Ride in the Whole Foods Rickshaw

Simple and effective branded utility idea from Whole Foods in NYC. They’re offering free pedicab rides within a ten block radius of the store. So if you’re in NYC and don’t want to lug your groceries home, give it a go and enjoy the ride…

Image via.

The Prototype Experience – Awesome use of Facebook Connect

So I’ve finally got round to blogging about the ‘Prototype Experience’, an online experience to promote a new console game. It’s a variation on virals where you’d upload pictures / words for a personalised experience. Instead, simply connect via Facebook (easy peasy), and immersive yourself in a personalised trailer, with your Facebook photos and details (which you haven’t picked!) interspersed throughout the crazy action.

This is the best use of Facebook Connect I’ve seen (in the context of creating a brand experience). I’m already working on a simlar integration of Facebook Connnect for one of my key clients, which can I just say I was working on before I saw this! I hold faith that mine will be kick ass…

If you’re on Facebook (who isn’t right?) give it a quick whirl here.

Play Me, I’m Yours

London has become a more musical city this month, with pianos placed at 30 popular landmarks. Like a creative blank canvas, the pianos are there for any member of the public to play and engage with. More info at the ‘Play Me, I’m Yours’ website. I hope my fellow Londoners look after them

I expect people are busting out the MJ tunes today! Devasting news and a great loss…

Image via.

Cool stuff I’ve missed while I’ve been in Turkey (yeah yeah I’m behind the curve…)

US agency BooneOakley built their website in YouTube using YouTube annotations to form the nav (via PSFK). Nice idea and relevant for the target audience.

Check out the world’s first panoramic music video (you’ll need to click on the image to view it). Okay so it’s an average execution, but I can imagine a great creative opportunity here (via Rubbishcorp).

Currently in alpha, this app from Zugara uses augmented reality and motion capture control, so users can try on clothes virtually using their web cams and a print-out marker (via creativity). One of the more useful AR apps I’ve come across.

Flutter is the new Twitter. Nuff said.

“Digitalness” in the real-world

McDonald’s has launched a new interactive sign where passers-by can interact with content displayed on Piccadilly’s giant LED screen. A simple idea that gets people to engage and interact with the brand while they’re out and about. And a great opportunity for the content to spread as people video, MMS, tweet, and share their experiences.

I wonder how staged this video is, and who subsequently bought a fillet-o-fish(!), but it’s a nice idea. Bringing digital experiences to the real-world is something that excites me. Check out the posers in the clip…

Bloc Party crowdsource their latest music video

The Internet has made it possible for large groups of widely dispersed people to come together and express ideas. Harnessing the power of crowds is called ‘crowdsourcing‘ – and Bloc Party have done just that with their latest music video ‘Ares’.

The video is made up of fan-submitted mobile phone footage – in theory it sounds awful, but the result actually has a great raw feel. See for yourself!

Via

Office Life – do you want to hit a co-worker? Do you surf the net to waste time?

A fascinating survey arrived in my inbox about Office Life in the UK. The survey reveals some stark results! It seems since the start of the recession, almost a third of office workers “can’t see the point in their job”. We’re a really angry bunch right now!

Office Flirting

36% of Londoners say they enjoy flirting with colleagues. This figure is higher in Scotland with almost 6 in ten saying they flirt with co-workers. Randy bunch.

Office Violence

40% of London office workers have “felt like hitting a colleague in the past year” compared with just 16% of people in the South West. And it’s not a stereotype, it seems the over 65’s are the most angry – over half of the grumpy lot say they want to hit their younger line managers!

As David Brent once said…

If your boss is getting you down, look at him through the prongs of a fork and imagine him in jail.

Office Theft

Only 27% of Londoners have stolen from the office, compared to a whacking four in ten Welsh people admitting to stealing.

Surfing the Net

44% of Londoners surf the net to waste time. Who are we kidding, we all do that!

Now I wonder if blogging counts as wasting time…

Re-wired teens?

Off the back of a dialogue event I attended at the Dana Centre (geek heaven!), I want to share some thoughts on ‘Rewired teens’ - basically meaning…

Game consoles, Facebook, Google…Are teenagers’ computer and web habits changing the way their brains work? And is this a good or a bad thing?

The Science Bit

Apologies for any inaccuracy here, I’m no scientist! But…humans are born with the maximum number of neurons, and as we grow these form interconnected networks. Our brains are ‘wired’ to respond to the world around us – i.e. context /  culture / experiences are all significant in brain development. Inputs from our environment significantly affect the wiring of our brains.

With this in mind (and some fancy convincing brain charts), our speakers (from neuroscience fields) were keen to agree that with the ubiqutous nature of digital technology in our daily lives (particularly amongst digital natives), our brains will have indeed re-wired compared to say 10 years ago. Which brings us to the ethical issue – is this a good or a bad thing?

Re-wiring for better or for worse

If we look at the prevailing arguments, there are a lot of prejudices which have been fuelled by the media. They paint an unpretty picture of a digital world which has created a generation of zombies. I think it was the Telegraph that said Twitter makes you immoral and the Daily Mail that Facebook makes us bad people. As ever with new stuff in the digital space, there seems to be a whole lot of hype and horror and not a whole lot of facts.

The media often starts with the prejudice, and then searches for supporting evidence – or considerable lack there of in this case. Let’s consider the fact that we’ve only had decent brain scans for around 10 years, and it takes longer than this for your brain to develop! Science is being exploited to instill fear rather than actually help us understand something as complex as the re-wiring of our brains.

There is some evidence to suggest that digital natives are for example worse at multi-tasking (as digital immigrants are better at prioritising) and read much shallower. But if you look at video gaming where there has been the most research in this area – evidence suggests positive effects on learning and brain development.

Consider when novels first came along, people felt this passive behaviour was damaging – in contrast to storytelling with friends in social environments. Isn’t it good that the Internet is an interactive and increasingly social medium?

People First

If you work in the digital industry the people-frst approach probably isn’t new to you – it’s not really about the technology, it’s still about people.

Take those so-called dangerous video games which kids play that involve killing. Haven’t kids always acted out pretend kill during play? It’s the same behaviour, but different medium. And teenagers are spending an awful lot of time on Facebook – which isn’t surprising considering the role of friendships and interaction for teenagers in growing up.

Have you considered that technology is largely shaped by wider cultural changes and human behaviour? Surely technology exists to make communications easier? While humans have adapted to the changing digital world, the fundamentals of human behaviour have stayed the same.

All things considered – the Internet is here, there, and everywhere – probably for better AND for worse.

I’m going to Grape you good!

This just made me literally cry with laughter! Whitest Kids U’Know test out their marketing skills with this endorsement of ‘The Grapist’ for a kids grape product. He’s gonna grape you good

I don’t think I’ve ever watched a viral this long (3.44) and literally laughed all the way through it. I could have watched for longer!

Fire real dodgeballs at real people – LIVE – with the Doritos Dodgeball Challenge!

It’s not too often I take the time to blog about my own projects here at AMV BDDO, but for me this has to be the most ambitious digital project I’ve ever taken on. That feeling of ‘are we really doing this?!’ hasn’t really left me yet. But I’m goddam excited!

The Doritos Dodgeball Challenge is our unique way of launching Doritos brand new flavour – Flamin’ Cheeseball. The Challenge gives people (that’s you!) the chance to aim and fire real dodgeballs – LIVE - from six purposely engineered dodgeball canons, each controlled by a member of the public online – here at the Doritos website. That’s right, via the Internet everyone will be able to fire real dodgeballs at real people with pinpoint accuracy. Sweet! We’re seeding this video (via Unruly) to get the word out…

Facing the canons will be a selection of the UK and Ireland’s leading Dodgeball teams, each competing to be crowned the Doritos Dodgeball Champions. The winning team will then be invited to a one-off ‘world-series’ dodgeball match against the reigning US National Dodgeball League champions, the San Diego Crossfire.

During the hours of play when the professional dodgeball teams are not competing in the competition proper, a variety of celebrities, including Timmy Mallett and Jodie Marsh, will make a special appearance in ‘the cage’.

The site itself was produced in partnership with the amazingly-talented Shoreditch based creative production company, Unit 9.

This project really has been a labour of love for the whole cross-agency Doritos team. I hope you enjoy playing it as much as we’ve enjoyed making it!

p.s. I’ll probably be facing the canons a couple of times in May, so if you’ve ever wanted to fire a ball at me, now’s your chance!