Our cool things this week allow for more than just some titular alliteration.
Rules
First up, if this then that has the potential to revolutionise your online life, giving you the means to create actions based on pre-defined triggers. For example, set up a rule to automatically save every new Instagram photo you take in a specific Dropbox folder, without you having to do a thing.
The options are limitless, meaning a little time investment up front could dramatically change the way you use channels, services and devices together. And even better, you can export each rule ‘recipe’ to share with friends, letting them tap into your newfound efficiency.
Robots
The desktop robots mooted by the designers of reaDIYmate work on a similar premise, but this time the action that results from an online trigger happens in the real world.
Construct your robot, and set him any type of task. This could be to sound the alarm every time your boss sends you an email, but wolf-whistle when your beloved does. Sounds and movement can be combined, giving your robot friend the ability to be a physical manifestation of what’s happening in the virtual world.
Anything that builds a bridge between the online and offline worlds is a winner in our book, and colour it in right and it’s cute bot to boot.
Rapping
And strictly for fun, Incredibox turns even the most musically challenged into an artist extraordinaire – a simple drag-an-drop interface, blending layer upon layer of melodies, beats and voices. The results are (arguably) as catchy as anything in the Top 40. Could this be the end of pop as we know it?
Every Friday afternoon we get together to share a quick end of week tipple, and showcase some of the stuff that has excited and inspired us during the previous week.
Richard Potts, our host last Friday, sifted through all manner of suggestions (including this, as featured on Ricky Gervais’ latest foray in to TV, Derek) before settling on these Three Cool Things.
Smart Argentina
Most brands have some kind of presence on Twitter, offering information, updates, and customer service facilities. But Smart Argentina has opted for something different – a scrolling feed animation.
To get the full impact, and watch the story unfold, you need try it out. Open your mind indeed.
Tipex
We first met Hunter and Bear a few years back, with a Youtube takeover that gave anyone watching the ability to control the outcome of the story.
Well, they’re back, and this time we’re given the ability to travel through time.
Undoubtedly a fantastic idea that’s brilliantly executed, but I wonder if it misses one vital point. Socialising a brand like Tipex, at least to the point of people sharing the ad, is one thing. But giving us a reason to actually buy the product? Now that’s the challenge.
Caine’s Arcade
And lastly, here’s something that’s guaranteed to make you smile. Nine-year-old Caine, an inventor in the making, gets the surprise of his dreams after making his own arcade in his Dad’s used auto part shop.
What do you think?
Cool, or not?
Technology for technology’s sake perhaps?
Next, this one from Miss Jaqui Hill, is BELIEVE IT OR NOT, nail varnish – for men.
We’re filing this under WHAT NOW?
Seriously.
And if that’s not enough, here’s a handy ‘how to’ video, for those of you who are still slightly unsure about this entire concept -
Finally, and this is by far and away our favourite entry from last week, the British Heart Foundation have recruited Vinnie Jones for this tongue in cheek but potentially life saving PSA video -
To the beat of Stayin’ Alive? Perfect. Hat tip to Ryan for finding that one…
First up, our resident Kiwi and HR person, Lucy Armstrong, wanted to share this awesome piece of Rugby World Cup inspired Lego-based wonderment -
When we asked ‘Why is this cool?’ to the rest of the office, the simple answer was ‘BECAUSE IT IS LEGO!’
However, one thing that did come out of this was the amount of time and effort that goes into some of these cool things. The above stop-motion video leads quite nicely into another high-effort delivery, aka: cool thing number two -
Regular readers will know that we like our big Follow Fridays here at 1000heads and last Friday was no exception. The Nokia community team were in the office helping to create the above #FF message out of post-it notes. @My_E72 was over the moon with our message and well, we thought it was pretty damn cool too.
Our third and final cool thing came from one Joel Diamond. Joel had managed to locate what is being labelled as an ‘Audio-Haptic Navigation Environment.’
It’s time for episode two of ‘Three Cool Things’, for a bit of background on what this post is all about, please jump back and check out episode one. In the meantime, let’s crack on.
Yes, it’s a cool piece of work. Yes, it’s a cool use of Google Maps. But the most interesting part of the whole case study? Check the voice-over at 33secs -
“A TV commercial informed Norway that a Golf BlueMotion would drive northbound from Oslo in two weeks. People were invited to place their bet on where the car would run out of fuel.”
The interest wasn’t built via their Facebook page, nor was it garnered through Twitter. This integrated campaign used ‘traditional’ media to drive eyeballs to the activity. TV to Social. Not the first, but certainly part of a new trend.
Next up, Katie Bunting showed us this video. Simply entitled ‘Eat‘.
Now, this video [and it's two counterparts, Move and Learn], did the rounds a good month or so ago and this fact alone meant that it nearly didn’t make the ‘cool’ cut. However, Katie brought along a new insight. Over half of the ‘heads in the room had seen the video(s) but virtually none of them new why it was done or for who.
For us, this served as a healthy reminder that when your video goes viral [the three videos combined views are over 9million], most of those views will come from other blogs embedding your content and sharing with their own communities.
Which means, if you haven’t remembered to brand your video anyway, it’ll be much harder for viewers to make any kind of connection.
Finally, our third item consisted of the first half of a work in progress case study [one that we can't share yet - not until we get the results at least], so in the meantime take a look at this work from Sao Paulo to help launch a brand new ‘turbo’ fan -
We love our outdoor work here at 1000heads and this idea is simple, understandable and completely universal.
Up until this point however, unless you’ve been in or around our office at 5pm on a Friday, you wouldn’t ever know what actually we get up to.
It’s time for that to change.
#3CT, as it is known internally, is our way of shutting the laptops, sitting down together and sharing the three coolest things we’ve seen that week. From now on, every Monday* we’ll be sharing (where possible**) those things from the week before with you too – hopefully kick-starting your morning and your week with some awesome creativity.
Sometimes it’s our own work, sometimes it isn’t. Sometimes it’s new stuff, sometimes it’s old. Sometimes it has no relevance to word of mouth whatsoever but has simply sparked ideas in our ‘heads.
Welcome to #3CT.
First up, Hatim Zakout wanted to show us this awesome video from Cadbury, showing off their augmented reality partnership with Blippar.
Working in-line with their 2012 Olympics-based Spots v Stripes campaign, the AR in this video is cool for a whole ton of reasons. But why we like it is that it takes an everyday object that you wouldn’t normally look twice at (the chocolate bar) and turns it into a campaign-focused augmented reality game.
Very cool.
Second, Emma Parsons took the company through the great work currently being demonstrated by the Bulmers ‘Experimenters Wanted‘ campaign.
A cursory glance at the Bulmers homepage right now will show you an abundance of different executions all trying to encourage experimentation, with rewards available for the brave-hearted. All of this in the name of their new drink, ‘No.17′.
Why is this cool? Well (and there was some discussion around this), some ‘heads thought that it tried to do too much - however, others felt that doing all of these different ideas lived up to the exact principles that the campaign is trying to endorse; be different, try something new. Good work Bulmers, definitely cool.
Finally, for our third cool thing, Michael Quinn wanted to talk to us about KLM and their recent ‘Tile Yourself‘ campaign. We’ve talked about KLM before here at 1000heads, and their work is constantly referred to as some of the best in the business. ‘Tile Yourself’ is awesome also.
The above is merely the launch video. To watch the whole ‘this is what we did’, you have to head over to the Facebook application page which is still live. On Friday we talked about how while this is a huge idea, it is also uniquely KLM. The Delft blue portrait element just works for the brand, perfectly.
Also, picking up on the case study video, there is a danger in digital/social media marketing that when creating campaigns (especially on Facebook) of ‘the legacy problem’ – what to do with an app/page/group (delete where appropriate) when the work is done.
KLM have countered that by simply leaving the app URL active and have made it the only place where one can see the case study video of what they did.
A great lesson in social media marketing best practice.
That’s it for #3CT for this week, thanks for stopping by.
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*Yes, I know it’s Tuesday. But rules are there to be broken, right? **Sometimes we’ll share new (top secret) facts and (NDA’d) figures, or the latest cut of a soon-to-be-released video/case study. Obviously we can’t share these but, when this happens, we’ll always try and find a replacement.
