The Economist Thinking Space By AMV BBDO (yeah that means me!)

I’ve barely had a chance to breathe since putting our new website live  The Economist: Thinking Space, and yet it’s already gaining a lot of attention.

In Europe, The Economist targets people who we call the ‘Intellectually Curious’. They are young, university educated, interested in global events and issues. They want to understand, not just what is happening, but why. However in Europe, The Economist suffers from low brand awareness. And when they are aware of it, they tend to think it is narrowly focused on finance and economics.

The Economist Thinking Space asks people…where do you get your ideas? We invite you into the lives of some of our European Economist readers – it opens the door to their ‘thinking space’. Our diverse range of influential personalities share their thoughts, ideas, parts of their lives and the role The Economist plays in it. Users are also able to upload and tag images of their own spaces, to allow the site to become more inclusive and to grow, breaking away from the brand’s historical exclusivity.

What’s more, the interactive site is built in Papervision with stunning photography and is B-E-A-UTIFUL! Built by the good guys at Hi-ReS!. Explore it now, you won’t regret it…

In just a matter of days it’s already gaining a lot of attention and buzz on Twitter and blogs. It received 16,000 unique visits in the first two days from launch, so I’m very excited to watch it grow. We’re also working with the lovely people at We are Social to outreach to bloggers across Europe.

I hope you’ll agree that The Economist Thinking Space positions the brand as a stimulating interesting read. As always, thoughts and feedback are welcome (if not encouraged) here…

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!

The new Facebook.

…has almost arrived! You can see the new look Facebook in the screen grab below, or check it out yourself at http://www.new.facebook.com/. Ashamedly, this got me rather excited! The new Facebook comes with some essential design tweaks and a load of new features. It’s like Facebook in wide screen. I kinda like it actually. The cynic in me thinks a lot of these changes just create more room for advertising. Only time will tell..

More info via the Facebook blog.

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.

Juvenile, childish, stupid…but oh so funny!

Fear the gay chicken, go on! Something to cheer you up on these rainy days. Nuff said.

My Simpsons Avatar…ay caramba!

Thanks to Gary (fellow iChameleon blogger) for for pointing out the brilliant Simpson’s Movie website, and Meme Huffer for daring to post his very own Simpson’s avatar. More here. I was playing around with it last week and I thought I’d post my own. So this is me if I was in the Simpsons. I couldn’t get it to look much like me, so instead it’s just the geek within me!

The whole website is pretty good with games and interactive tours and lotsa other fun stuff. Though be warned – best not to go on it if you haven’t got some time to waste!

I’ll leave you with this great YouTube clip of the Simpson’s parody of World of Warcraft…

1-click award – a bit of fun

Check this out. A bit of fun for Friday! Ever wonder what really happens when you move your cursor around the screen?