Cadbury Trucks. Well it made me smile…

The long awaited follow up from Cadbury Gorilla has finally arrived! Cadbury Trucks. It follows on quite well with another surreal concept, no direct product messaging, and with just enough character to provide us with a short burst of enjoyment. As ever, much interesting debate going on over at Scamp blog.

Having only launched on Saturday, the blogosphere is already filled with “not as good as Gorilla” type comments. Fair point perhaps. But must the ad industry have the same debate every time an agency does a cracking ad. I can assure you most consumers are not wasting their time with this debate, and are simply smiling at the charm of this ad. There’s already two appreciation groups set up on Facebook.

It’s been very amusing to see the reactions round the office to this today - what started with confused expressions and furrowing brows, has now changed to smiles all around. Is this not the same reaction we got from Gorilla?

I wonder who will be the first to spoof it, there’s already a dig at BA here at YouTube but it’s not much of a spoof.

They’ve also spruced up the site a bit more now - see it here - by the lovely people at HyperHappen.

Volkswagen.co.uk: Built the Same way as we Build our Cars

I’m loving this this well crafted ad from Volkswagen. Interstingly (to me anyways) it’s an ad to promote a brand website. I don’t think it’s airing on TV, but I really can’t think of anything else like it.

It beautifully demonstrates that as much care and attention has gone into building the new site, as VW puts into building its cars. I have personally worked at both Volkswagen and Tribal DDB, and have seen the beginnings of this project, so it’s particularly exciting for me to see it finally launch!

Tom Roberts at Tribal (Hi Tom if you’re reading this!), comments:

“What this ad communicates is how this site, as with Volkswagen’s cars, was not created via a mindless production line - it’s a best in class piece of work that has successfully brought together the expertise and craft skills of a team of 50 people who worked simultaneously and collectively to create this beautiful site.”

So enough of the ad anyways, check out the spanking new site at volkswagen.co.uk. It’s one of the largest websites to be built in Flex.

I pity the fool who ain’t got a Snickers Mr T. widget

Hey fools, listen up. If you liked the Simpsons make your own avatar fun, you’re sure to like the latest widget from Snickers and Mr T. You can make yourself look like Mr T. This is me! Is this a good look for me? Erm. No.

Grab the widget for your social network profile page, website, or blog, and you can use the Get T’Look tool to make yourself look like Mr T. Or go on a nut-fuelled rampage in the Get Some Nuts game. You can grab it from Bebo, Facebook, and the brand new getsomenuts.tv where you can also make a customised version of the Tank TV ad i.e. elf style. You may be wondering why I haven’t actually embedded the widget in this post, well wordpress don’t support it, but most of you lucky bloggers should be able to using the grab it function.

This has been a very exciting project I’ve worked on, and very technically challenging at times but we got there in the end! It’s all about creating great content, and making the content live beyond the destination site. Building a brand temple and expecting people to come is pretty nieve. But creating great content that can live anywhere just seemed like the right thing to do. It might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but our target audience seem to love it! Go on, Get Some Nuts!

Client: Snickers
Agency: AMV BBDO
Creative: Alex Braxton, Alistair Robertson
Creative Director: Paul Brazier
Media Agency: MediaCom
Production Partners: Collective and Skive

Freeze!

Watch the world’s largest train station come to a sudden halt. This is awesome. Enjoy…

The most cringeworthy ad you’ll ever see

So bad it’s hard to watch. Makes me want to vom.

Guinness Tipping Point, the pisssstake

Here’s a spoof of our (AMV’s) Guinness Tipping Point ad. You know something has entered the cultural vernacular when it is parodied.

What a compliment. Thank you Pot Noodle. Thank you AKQA.

Quaker, entering the age of conversation

Why would anybody seek out Quaker online? Well in all honesty there wasn’t much of an incentive until their recent re-haul - they have launched the Quaker blog to reflect their brand ambitions.

People who eat Quaker for breakfast tend to feel hungry after a hefty 4 hours 21 minutes. That’s why their product truth ‘make the most of your morning’ makes perfect sense.

The blog itself moves away from information about Quaker oats. Rather it provides useful and interesting information which allows people to make the most of their mornings. It also looks clean and simple which I like.

Created by AMV BBDO - yep I work there but not really on this project.

Like any new blog, Quaker are in the early days of their exciting new blog adventure. You have to give them kudos for speaking out and opening the lines of communication with their consumers (yes comments are open). In the spirit of openness, all comments / feedback welcome please…

 

 

Tokyo Web Trend Map 2008 (Beta)

Check out this Web Trend Map from Tokyo based design agency iA. You can look at all your favourite websites on the train system of Toyko. Not useful you say? Well I like a mash-up and this is pretty cool.

Websites are placed on the map using a host of criteria. Facebook has moved to Nippori because Nippori is boring but it’s still an important station. I concur, we’re all getting a bit bored of Facebook. eBay has moved to dirty Ikebukuro which is iA’s punishment to them for their slutty redesign. Fair comment. More here.

Download the huge A3 version here.