furniture sellers: local doesn't have to be crappy
Living Brands points to an excellent example of a formerly cheesy mattress seller that's gone and produced a decent, likeable spot. Not the most magnificent spot in the world mind you, but a well produced spot that doesn't scream prices at you, and shows a mattress...with sheets on it.
Sometimes there is a classy (and effective) way to market even the least romantic not-so-classy products.
the master of logos
It's Friday. So you can afford (and deserve) an eight minute escape from whatever craziness your cubicle can deliver to watch a video short about Malcolm Grear, who was designing logos before the internet existed. And still creating awesomeness today.
a movie about us
Pretty sure this is totally different than the book Connected (although also a must read), but Connected the film looks to be a movie about the way we're all connected to each other and ignoring each other and yet communicating with each other.
You know, like your typical Friday night out with your friends. And your phone. From @adverve
a social location based weather reporting system
What's the weather really like? Ask your friends. Or just pay attention to the tweet stream, and measure how people are feeling about the weather.
That's the premise behind Weddar, the first people powered weather reporting app. Because you can't trust that clown in a suit in front of a green screen. But the internet doesn't lie.
pirate warning labels on deodorant
NYU student Jessica Assaf is looking to raise awareness about the chemicals that people are spreading over their armpits, and how some of those chemicals could be doing untold harm on the human body.
So she's taken it upon herself to design and install warning labels for the deodorant, and installing them on packages of Secret in stores in Manhattan. She's attempting to call attention to the situation in hopes that the FDA will one day regulate the deodorant industry.
Retailers: you can probably tell if she's in your store. She's the girl with smelly armpits.
what you could learn from an old guy
If 30 is the new 20 and 40 is the new 30, then 60 is the 40, right? Society attaches the word "old" to people 60+, but Gary Wexler is about to change your perception of what it means to be 60.
Gary is turning 60 in sixty days. Starting tomorrow, he'll be posting each day before his 60th to show you what 60 can really be. In his own words:
"I will challenge the perception, complacency and irrelevancy that threaten a person turning 60 years old. I will struggle to prove how this next decade in a person’s life, because of wisdom and confidence gained, might possibly be his or her professional best."
If you believe in wisdom and experience, you're going to want to tune in to his blog and tweet stream and get learned.
turning streets into art galleries
Artists in Paris have filled potholes with fabric. Looks awesome, but be careful if you try this at home. Nothing ruins a great art project like the artist becoming roadkill.
not quite movies, not quite photos
... they're cinemagraphs and they're pretty frickin' cool. Created by photographer, Jamie Beck, and motion graphics artist, Kevin Burg, these cinemagraphs are essentially beautiful photographs with strategically selected motion graphics added in over the course of several hours for a subtle, but striking affect. Mesmerizing!
inconclusive facebook infographic
This infographic on how Facebook affects students sums up exactly how most people feel about Facebook in general: inconclusive. Sometimes it's awesome and helpful, sometimes it sucks and is annoying and distracting.
Based on the study performed by OnlineEducation.net, the top pros include increasing students participation in college social events and class collaboration. Top cons are, it distracts students from studying and can cause depression and anxiety.
Pretty much the same thing it does to us "big kids" in the work place, but like anything else, it's all in how you use it and perceive it.
turning the tube off
Weren't you just saying that you wished there was collection of photographs of tube televisions just at the moment they were switched off?
Here you go. From swissmiss
photo aggregation goes social
You've been challenged by Flickr's unintuitive user interface for years. You have photos in Instagram, Facebook, Flickr and other places. And you need one place to keep it all, and share with your friends.
Meet ZangZing. ZangZing is a new, simple, elegant solution for pulling your photos together from all the places they exist on the internet. You can share them with only the people you want to share with, let everyone add to the album, or open them up to the world.
It's about time that someone pulled together all of the services in one easy to share place. Yes, the name is quirky, but so was "Twitter" when you first heard about it. It's in private beta right now, so you'll need to line up for an invite. (Tell your friends, and get in quicker.)
levis dry goods
Did you know that Levis started out as a dry goods company, with denim as only one of the many products they produced?
That's why their introduction of Levis BBQ sauce isn't a total stretch for the brand, and adds to the overall produce essence of their jeans. A lot of product extensions don't make a lot of sense or can spread a brand too thin - but tying to your heritage is a smart move.
Let's get the grill going, ok?
kill your inbox
Are you the victim of "reply all" abuse? Tired of pouring through dozens of pointless "thank you" and "no problem" emails? Cringe every time that little dreaded number counter on your email increases? Then this absolutely genius app is for you.
Created by Baydin,The Email Game app turns blowing through your emails fun by rewarding points for deleting, filing, and responding to emails. And, the faster you do it, the more points you earn. It even deducts points if you take too long to write a response... man I could so use that!
So what if the points mean crap? The real prize is you get the pleasure of clearing your inbox and deflecting follow-ups on to some other sucker. Go ahead, reply all, you got this.
kids these days
When I was a kid in college I had to walk to class 1/2 mile away in 2 feet of snow with -20 degree wind chills and we didn't have Google to help us with term papers, we had to use the Dewey Decimal System. And maybe if we were lucky, print text from a newspaper article on our library's dot matrix printer.
Sadly, all of this is true, but luckily kids these days have a lot more awesome technology to help them succeed at school, or completely distract them from even going to class. Whatever, either way, this graphic is a cool illustration of the technology college kids had/have at their fingertips throughout the last few decades. Lucky punks.
how to like a car in the real world
Renault produced a fun thing for their most recent auto show, using RFID cards that tie to people's Facebook profiles. So fans could scan what they like, and it would auto post it for them on their profile. (You know, for people who are too lazy to pull their device out of their back pocket.)
Also: When you watch this video, you'll likely get the impression that we haven't heard the term "Facebook pillars" for the last time.
ads that are better wet
There's probably no better way to promote an octopus and an aquarium than producing an ad that's only visible when it's raining. Or when you spill your water on him. Or maybe if you have a really productive spitting session on him. Or when hobos urinate on him. We'll stop now.
this is what you do when the internet is your playground
Artist and digital pioneer Evan Roth is up to his digital awesomeness again, with another video made entirely from animated GIFs.
We had posted on Evan's last production late last year, and this time he's pushed animated GIFs into places they've never been.
Awesomeness is all around you - you only have to bend it into another direction to make it happen.
what you can do with a paper clip
Some will say that the paper clip is one of the world's greatest inventions. And people who say that will tremble in delight when they see this awesome collection of paper clip art.
The rest of you can just move along. Nothing else to see here. From @kirstinbutler
where robot rock stars go to die
Brand Flakes BFF Casey Paquet went on a recent field trip to Creative Engineering, Inc., the birthplace of the Rock-afire Explosion, of Showbiz Pizza Place fame. Owner Aaron Fechter gave Casey and his friends a private tour of the animatronic warehouse.
Sadly (or perhaps awesomely) the entire show is intact and operable, gathering dust in various stages of repair. Aaron even fired up the band for a rare, private showing.
Like a good internet citizen, Casey documented the entire adventure with a gorgeous Flickr set and super fun set of videos.
getting an oil bath in a museum
Here's what's hot: covering a girl in oil, in the middle of a museum.
That's exactly what a group of artist-activists did in the Tate Britain museum in London last week. It's all in honor of the annual celebration of BP's Gulf of Mexico oil disaster, and to raise awareness about other potentially harmful oil-related activities taking place around the world.
What a fantastic way to make you realize that a naked person covered in sunshine would be a beautiful thing.
documents shared as short urls
Here's an entire document that I'd like to share with you: http://bit.ly/ePE90o.
Hashify.me allows you to create documents and share them as shortened urls. Text, photos, links - all of the resources you enjoy in a word processing program, but on the fly, shared by just copying a little, tiny, url.
Holy crap, the internet gets more magical with every day, doesn't it?
stacking humans
Here's one to get the mommy bloggers up in arms.
Get an Eastpak backpack, and you could be jumping off buildings. And playing human Tetris. And other fun stuff that only happens in ad-realityland. It's all fun and games until someone complains.
art, made more monsterish
You've gotta love artist chr15t0ph3l35, who found some landscape paintings at a neighborhood garage sale, and decided to make them better. By adding scary monsters.
Cheesy + scary = awesome. From @bud_caddell
a banner ad search engine
All ads, all the time. That's the life you live, and you need a search engine that can keep up with your adcentric lifestyle. That's exactly what Moat does.
Moat is a search engine for banner ads. Pull up all of the banners for hundreds of brands, and see all of their mechanical details at well. Awesome research tool.
This is how ad execs party hard.
let's all do the sake dance
Because it's Friday, because you've worked hard all week, because you know that you deserve a nice little glass of magic juice...turn it up and start the Sake Dance in the cubicle town where you work.
correct google's mistakes
Have you ever noticed that every once in a while, Google makes a mistake on Google maps? Like their map doesn't include a road that's been finished, or they get a road just a little bit wrong?
Thanks to Google's new Map Maker, you can make edits to their maps, and save them for all of humanity.
Maybe you should name your driveway.
confess your earth sins
Have you been bad to the earth recently? Now's the time to confess, in honor of the day devoted to our earth.
Enter your sin at Earth Confessions, and then meet one of several earth saints, and their accompanying prayer cards. Recite the prayer as penance, or view some of your other earthly inhabitant's sins.
All in good earth day fun. From Ads of the World.
see what's behind your favorite websites
Ever wonder what it looks like, behind the scenes at some of the internet's more popular websites?
Back of a webpage takes a look behind some of the world's more famous pages. From swissmiss.
get grandpa's attention, and get some juice
Here's a fun promo for beverage maker Festis that combines a product giveaway with live action. Activate your webcam, get grandpa's attention, and you'll get a free bottle of Festis.
Unbore Grandpa is a juicy example of how to leverage the "bored at work" network of internet users along with a live component (which really, more brands should take advantage of.) You can be sure that once you activate your camera, everyone in your office will gather around your cube.
Well done, grandpa.
a tablet goes for a ride
Here's a fun way to demonstrate what the Motorola Xoom 3G tablet can do. While on a bike...and stuff.
your friends on facebook are in this video
The Stars on Facebook. Totally fun and awesome, with pixelated goodness.
Brands: pay attention...this is great content that's all about Altoids without being at all about Altoids. Your product doesn't have to be in everything.
an intimate look at...douchebags
Ladies and gentlemen...the douche.
Finally a film that will help you better understand the guys who wear sunglasses indoors. From @tomgooday
sexy traffic light
We all love a little road-side hacking humor, like the infamous "Zombies Ahead" hack, and this one is no exception.
A Dutch prankster hacked into a street crossing light so that every time a pedestrian hit the button, they were presented with this lovely couple enjoying themselves. Pedestrians were so amused, in fact, that they kept hitting the button, therefore causing traffic to abruptly stop. The best part? This quote from a police officer, kid you not: "We had quite a lot of rear end shunts from drivers who were too distracted." I bet you did!
your face would look good on meat
Yesterday Facebook launched Facebook Studio, a site devoted to marketers and their agencies, to serve as an inspirational and information hub on how to better use Facebook for marketing.
We were immediately drawn to the Wurst Face promo case study, that allowed Facebook users to put their face on meat. Because everyone loves bologna, and your saucy meat face. Yummy.
the scroll is hot
JetBlue launched a fun takeover yesterday of Boston.com, to celebrate the Boston Marathon. The banner allowed the user to scroll off the page, and through a track that revealed a promotional message about the airline.
In a world where plenty of brands have an old school concern about being "above the fold" in fear that users don't know how to scroll, it's refreshing to see a brand that gets it, and actually invites viewers to scroll as a part of the adventure.
tweet a game changer
Combine six creative and curious friends from Costa Rica who love gaming and love social media and awesomeness ensues. This awesomeness is called TweetLand and what is does is pretty revolutionary.
Essentially TweetLand is a virtual home to a variety of games that take what's happening in the Twitterverse and brings it into your game play. Yep, it pulls in your (or any) twitter feed, takes the content of those tweets and works it into your game play. If someone tweets about being in traffic, your game play now takes place in bumper-to-bumper traffic. Tweet about hate, and get in a shooting match. Whoa, can you imagine the database to power that?!
Want to play now? Then put your money where your mouth is, 'cuz they're up on Kickstarter ready to go. Oh, and it's in 8-bit-like goodness, so even more reason to make it happen.
what people are doing in google maps now
Ever wonder what people are doing right now, around the globe, on the globe?
Google Map Maker lets you see in real time what edits are being made to Google maps, all across the world. Wow. From @dirktherabbit.
don't get caught slacking off
Sometimes exercise can be fun and satisfying but other times, it's just plain work when you'd rather be laying on your couch, watching TV in a food coma after eating something with bacon in it. But hey, who the heck will know if we skip one (or five) workouts this week, right?
Well, Reebok has come up with a way to make sure all your Facebook and Twitter friends will know about it and ridicule you for your laziness... err, or encourage you to "go for it" in a totally non judgmental way. Whichever it is, their just announced "Promise Keeper" mobile app is pretty awesome.
Just schedule your runs or walks on the calendar and the app will push it out to your social networks. Once you've gone on your run/walk it will track your results and give you the option to post those too. But, skip your scheduled run/walk, and it will post it on your social networks for all to see.
They say peer support is one of the top reasons for success on a diet or exercise plan, so if you don't mind the heckling when you skip a run for poker night, then this app is for you.
a museum of online museums
With the creation of the online museum of online museums, how could you not totally fall in love with the folks over at @coudal? Best museum ever.
experience an alien sighting
... without the annoying and always humiliating "probing" part.
As part of the Boston Cyber Arts Festival, beginning on Friday, April 22, Bostonians can use an alien detecting augmented reality app to spot virtual aliens doing funny things around the Greenway, the Children's Museum, and other hot spots in Mark Skwarek's Occupational Forces virtual installation.
A really fun way to bring the digital arts to the masses, though it would be even more fun if you could go all Space Invader on their asses too!
have you ever successfully folded a map?
The people at Crumpled City Maps have re-imagined a classic travel product in a way that takes into account how people actually use it. You'll never need to fold it. Just crumple it up and throw it in your backpack.
When purpose meets product design, beautiful things can happen.
an ipad ad that bleeds
Here's an anti fur ad for VGT, the Association for Combating Animal Factories in Austria, that presents the user with an image featuring a fur coat that eventually turns into a bloody mess.
Intentionally disruptive in both it's visual treatment and user experience, the ad makes its point well.
We're now more than a year into tablet media, and we've only scratched the surface of what's going to be possible. Hooray for the brands that let agencies explore.
What could you be doing?
how supporting art sells jeans
The Levis Film Workshop is the third workshop in a series of workshops that the brand is bringing to the community. Here's a beautiful example of a brand doing something awesome while building credibility in the process.
+ They put the industry's latest equipment in the hands of aspirational filmmakers
+ Filmmakers get to produce a pantload of beautiful film work
+ Levis gets engaging content to share (and aspiring filmmakers to help spread the word)
+ Their partnered non-profit museums lend mutual credibility, space and promotion
+ Levis shares it all in conjunction with some smart product marketing
It's a get what you give marketing campaign where everyone wins.
taking it to the streets
Sometimes the best street level marketing is just street level marketing. And then tweeting about it.
(1000 actual, engaged views on Twitpic is more than print ads in many print pubs could deliver.)
projection mapping gone wild
This projection mapping piece for Vodafone is a beauteous piece of awesome that showcases the history of mobile.
Wow. Thanks, Casey!
turning business upside down
Gigaom has a fantastic post about the launch of Kevin Smith's new film Red State. This is a super awesome example of how the film industry (and business in general) doesn't have to be run in the same way it's been done in the past.
Kevin Smith has managed to put his film in the black, months before its actual theatrical release. He did this by switching up the release and distribution plan after the original investors turned him down. Granted his fame brought something grand to the process, but regardless, he approached the marketing process differently, and it worked.
What's in your industry, just waiting to be turned upside down?
documenting typography in the wild
Typeplace is an iPhone app that lets you tag your favorite typography found in the wild, geotag the shot and share with the world.
It's like Instagram, but for designers and typographers.
(You're either scratching your head saying "huh?" right now, or wetting your pants in delight. If you're scratching your head, just send this post to your favorite designer friend.) From swissmiss.
qr codes that add to the experience
The majority of QR codes are a ridiculous waste of space, placed in ads by agencies without a clue. (Really, there's no cell service on the NY subway)
But every once in a while, someone super creative comes up with a clever use for the codes that actually add value to the user experience. Such is the case for SF Bio, a chain of movie theaters in Sweden.
This outdoor ad is made up of hundreds of QR codes. Scan the correct one, and you win. That's how QR does awesome.
what can the sun do for you?
In their continued quest to prove that B2B marketing doesn't have to be boring, The GE Show has just launched another video in their series titled The Power of the Sun.
If high school science class was made this beautiful, we wouldn't be working in marketing, would we?
best production you've seen this year
This is one of the best online brand game experiences that you will ever play. No, seriously. Magnum's Pleasure Hunt. Guarantee that you'll play it more than once, and send it to five friends.
Oh, and it just happens to be for pleasure inducing chocolate treats. Tell your assistant that you're booked for the rest of the day, lock your cubicle, and just play. And then go get some chocolate treats. Thanks, @satisfeye!
things aren't as big as they seem
Ever wonder what forced perspective could do for you?
At Disney, they use the art of forced perspective in their architectural design, so that buildings that seem ginormous from a distance are in actuality only a few feet high. These shots from the Disney Parks blog put it all into impressive perspective.
Maybe you could use these tricks to make everyone at the client meeting think you're seven feet tall.
your digits for a meme?
Internet memes are pretty ridiculous to begin with, but then add reenacting them in the real world, plus trying to pick up women, and hi-larity ensues. Case in point, this fun little ditty from YouTube stars SimplePickup. Some pretty attractive girls fall for it too, so maybe you should try this at home.
buy attention like ad placements
We all know those people on Facebook, Twitter, dating sites, etc. that are incredibly attention needy, so you have to wonder, how far will some people go for attention? Well, Andrey Andreev, created an entire dating/hookup/sex social network called Badoo banking on the idea that people would actually pay for that said attention. And they are.
Badoo has been around for a few years now, with 114 million+ members mostly in Europe, but it's starting to get some attention in the U.S. as Andreev has finally gone public in explaining and promoting his creation. Basically, if a member wants to get noticed they pay fees (similar to how you would buy online advertising or search) for their profile to be featured on potential mate's pages, search results, even all pages for a day... you're very own site takeover if you will. And now, they even have a mobile app that allows you to see other members in a specific radius of where you are for a spontaneous "adventure." Check out all the details at Wired UK.
So, what do you think? Brilliant? Gross? Sad? All of the above?
grunge fans like to get it on
As if a dating website that matches you up with other singles based on your musical preferences wasn't cool enough, Tastebuds went and created a chart of how far their members were willing to go on a date, cross-referenced with their musical preferences. This is, of course, assuming "coffee" (in quotes) is code for sex, duh? So apparently, if you're looking for a one night stand, look for the flannel first, or long, metal hair. Rock on.
the power of words
If you're a content creator and you want to market your services, why tell people about how the right content is so important when you can show them? That's what UK content specialists, Purplefeather, did with this beautiful and touching video illustrating the impact the right words can have on the world. Beautifully done.
the shining with computer generated effects
Ever wonder what films like the Shining might look like if computer generated effects existed back in the old days?
Here's the famous elevator blood scene, with computer generated blood. From @coudal
magic personal tweet generator
That Can Be My Next Tweet is a site that analyzes your tweetstream, and auto generates a new tweet based on material that you've tweeted previously.
It's like a tweetbot that's auto-tuned to your personal tweet style. Let the twitter robot building begin.
overload of cute
Because you can never have enough cuteness in your life, someone's created Cute Roulette, a site that delivers cute upon cute upon cuteness, served up in random style just like the perverted version of the same tool, Chat Roulette. Awwwwww, panda bears on slides!
This is exactly why the government invented the internet. From @mtlb (who doesn't normally share "cute" stuff, for the record.)
awesome button to help remove awesomeness
Ok, we could probably use this awesome tool that helps you replace "awesome" with less awesome words like "brilliant", "incredible" and "bitchin'". Awesome.
when magnificence turns to ruin
A collection of photographs featuring abandoned theaters across the United States. Just a little something to kick your Tuesday off in a depressing manner.
records, the good and the sad
In honor of National Record Store Day coming up on April 16 (which also happens to be National Foursquare Day... hmm, what if you checked into a record store using Foursquare on National Record Store / National Foursquare Day? Whoooa.). Yeah, anyway, to celebrate, Buzzfeed put together this sweet collection of vinyl art. And then, to make sure you feel bad enough on April 16 to go out and support your local record store, they've also given us this sad, sad collection of photos from across the U.S. of closed down record shops. So, get on that!
an infographic about infographics
Mind blowing, I know. Well, it was bound to happen. Thanks Ivan Cash, because, hey, the more you know!
the making of vintage pinups
Here's a reason to browse through vintage pinup pictures at work, in the name of "research".
Pinups, and the original model photographs that were used as reference prove that illustration was the original Photoshop. (All safe for work, by today's standards.)
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