Thanks to a submission from Europe we have a new interactive campaign for HI-TEC to look at.

Last year, the independent Amsterdam ad agency CCCP, launched one of the most successful viral videos of 2010: ‘Liquid Mountaineering’. Produced for Hi-Tec Sports, the film introduces a new extreme sport called  ‘Liquid Mountaineering’ and features three guys doing what man has attempted for centuries: walking on water.

Now the Liquid Mountaineers are back. And like every proper extreme sport they now have their own video game. However, there’s a bit more to it.  Whereas regular games are only about having fun, Hi-Tec takes it a step further. “The Infinity Run”, as the game is called, is actually is a unique and fun way to sell shoes.  As far as we know, it is the world’s first “Game Webshop”.

CCCP founder Eelco Keune said ‘The game is part of a carefully planned campaign that was kicked off by the viral. Now that we have established a firm base, we want to focus on the ‘magic behind the sport’, the ultra water repellent Hi-Tec V-Lite Infinity model.’

Players can choose from the three Liquid Mountaineers who starred in the original video and try their luck at running on three lakes ranging from Alaska to Brazil. Not only must they have the speed and skill to run on water, but players must also avoid the dangers lurking in the depths, which can pop up at any moment. After playing you can buy the Hi-Tec V-Lite Infinities you just ran on. The lucky player who obtains the highest score each week will receive a free pair of trainers.

Simon Bonham, Global Marketing Director for Hi-Tec, added, “We are very excited to launch this unique ‘Game Web Shop” as phase 2 of our Liquid Mountaineering project. The original viral has, for the past 12 months, engaged with consumers the world over and we are delighted to be able build on this phenomenal success with The Infinity Run on-line game.”

Give it a go at: http://www.hi-tec.com/infinity-run/

Bout damn time this actually looks clean, intuitive and sharp. Anyone else checked it out yet? I am a fan of the new layout. But not everyone is, in fact many users are claiming that Netflix removed too many features. Do you like or dislike the new layout?

The review of the new site:

Cons: The the scrolling action doesn’t feel comfortable at all. And they could have refined the top navigation to a more attractive UI design. The ability to click on a film title from the old site and go directly to the film’s detailed page was placed in the mouse-over pop up which delays the time it takes to get to the reviews page for each movie. And due to insight gained from the message board: The sort and search feature was removed altogether. That last part is upsetting many customers because it does not allow users to search for films the way they used to. This is a bit of an easy fix for Netflix they should just bring this feature back to accommodate the larger Netflix user base.

Pros: I love the size of the film covers now, they really add to the experience for me. And the layout seems simple and intuitive.

To everyone in the community that assisted in reviewing the Netflix site update I appreciate your input. I hope you continue to give input and feedback in the future and as a Netflix account user as well, I hope Netflix listens to your critiques too!

Why I liked the overall layout:

I enjoyed the new Netflix layout because I am a sucker for bigger covers of movies, I used to work in movie theaters and I love movie posters more than most. And it is more similar now to iTunes and I like iTunes for its movie section better than Netflix hands-down. That is a personal taste so albeit it may not be for everyone that is my rationale. That said I do not like everything about the user experience, I especially dislike the auto scrolling feature because it does not feel natural at all.

When comparing this layout to Blockbuster.com too in my opinion their is no comparison. Blockbuster.com’s layout is lousy because:  it is so busy and filled with calls to action left and right, it is not following the rules of “KISS” ( Keep It Simple Stupid ), and less about the movies and more about the branding for blockbuster.  And on their selections page their is not enough horizontal separation between the movie covers themselves. But if your looking for an argument about why you would switch media providers it has to do more about the sites selection of films than just about UI/UX.

iTunes still wins in my opinion as far as layouts go for the movies section. It has a clear focus and an easy on the eye approach in my opinion.  But Netflix is a good runner up layout wise, just because they got rid of the redundant Calls to action for “Play” and the stars ratings feature which was dominating the visual presence on the page in the prior layout.

The review of the old site:

Pros: Star ratings were clear, I did like the left and right scrolling arrows it was more user friendly than their newer sites mouse hover auto scroll. I wish they would bring back this scrolling feature to the new site.

Cons: The star ratings plus the call to action for Play were taking up a lot of real estate. In comparison to the newer site the images of the films covers are very very small, and in my opinion hurt independent films and foreign films because they have to rely more on the name of the film then the cover of the film to get a click. The UI became quite dated.

Supplied to us by a fan. Thank you, LaShaunda!

This submitted campaign spot for the ISPCC is heart wrenching and is well executed. The actors were not hurt in anyway, but regardless I am not sure if this spot could be played in America because of excessive violence in the spot. What do you think? Do you think the advertisement is effective?

Irish Society for the Preventition of Cruelty to Children Summer Campaign is entitled “I Can’t Wait Until I Grow Up”. The campaign, which will run for the month of May 2011, highlights that childhood is supposed to be one of the happiest and safest times in a child’s life, yet for many Irish children who contact Childline this is simply not the case.
The ISPCC receives less than 10% government funding. All funds are greatly received and will help us continue our work. Every donation helps brings us one step closer to our vision of every child having the right to be heard and to have a childhood free from abuse.

To read our Children’s Rights Manifesto, to make a donation to our work or to learn more log on to www.ispcc.ie to make a donation or to learn more.

If you are under 18 and affected by any of the issues highlighted, or need someone to listen please call Childline 1800 66 66 66 or childline.ie.

Before this device even came out the guys over at Apple knew what a gold mine this device was going to be. With today’s results one can already see the changes in the design community to accommodate this new device. Web/iPad standards have been set this product is cross platform friendly and it is clear that it will continue to push the design community to accommodate for it to be cross-platform friendly.

Consumers of all ages are getting savvier and savvier about technology to the point where yes my parents own an iPad and yet I still have not yet purchased one. Will I? Probably it will be a present for the holidays if anything but the point is that consumers the ones who have the money and spend are buying these en-masse.  But why is this news? Today, Apple doubled their profit. I am not claiming to be a financial guru but if anything is for sure this impacts the interactive design community. While Apple and the iPad & iPhone are not Flash friendly, the impact is clear it pretty much defeats the purpose of using Flash for a mass audience stand alone website or for an advertisement unless its only shown for web users or for specific mobile or specific pad devices. And that has forced businesses to design for each platform, web/iPad, Android Pads ( Flash Friendly ) ,  iPhones,  & for all other mobile users. Designing for specific platforms is costly and timely, and the future is clear being cross browser friendly is cost effective and easier to manage.

I am going to go a bit off tangent: Focusing purely on the future,  my bet is the iPad is going to launch a full scale invasion into the living room with new applications. Xfinity TV & Fios both started to scratch the surface of that by creating applications to watch and record shows. Additionally, on the business to business side it is clear that applications can help sell products and subscriptions, and the every day brick and mortar shops could clearly benefit from using them as an email/social media newsletter sign-up platform. And for college students, its only a matter of time before the publishing industry stops killing so many darn trees and just out right asks students to be able to have an e-reader before the semester begins.

What do you think is the iPad King, or is this still just a 24.67 billion dollar a quarter fad? And do you think the new Intel pads will be even capable of competing or denting the iPad demand?

Btw to those hardcore fans of Android and Blackberry,  I would love to know your thoughts about the mobile, and pad markets.

Just to end with a cool new use for the iPad: I noticed Wacom just started selling high quality pens for iPad. Pretty cool, they are clearly paying attention to the 2,000,000 plus iPad users.

One of the largest advertising agencies in the world is taking a swipe at Crowd Sourcing to promote an awards program called “The Bessies”. I somewhat come off with a bad taste in my mouth about the whole TV spot, and you might ask why? It is an honorable thing to attack crowd sourcing as a practice, especially since the value of the creative generated by its practice is quite questionable at best, and at worst legally a rip off of somebody’s intellectual property. Well the reason is ironically CP+B has a history with testing out Crowd Sourcing as a practice, and ex employees from it actually split off to create a studio called Victor & Spoils based on Crowd Sourcing as its business model. http://www.mediabistro.com/agencyspy/cpb-alums-launch-crowdsourcing-based-agency_b4786

Additionally, CP+B the creator of the Online video also has a history with Crowd-Sourcing. They apparently paid a sum of $1000.00 to the winner of a Crowd Sourcing competition for the brand identity of Brammo Motorcycles in 2009.  Read more here about that: http://www.mediabistro.com/agencyspy/crispin-crowdsourcing-for-brammo-logo_b4138. What are your thoughts is CP+B just poking fun at itself, or did they bring up their own past in a negative light with their promotion for the Bessies, a Canadian Ad Awards program.

For those interested in reading more in CP+B and Crowd Sourcing:

http://edwardboches.com/did-cpb%E2%80%99s-crowdsourcing-experiment-backfire-have-designers-created-an-exclusive-club-designed-to-keep-newcomers-out

http://adweek.blogs.com/adfreak/2010/06/cpb-tries-to-crowdsource-away-the-oil-spill.html

http://adland.tv/content/cpb-players-start-their-own-crowdsourced-ad-agency-victor-spoils

SATS, Scandinavias Leading Gym

Advertising Agency: PS Agency, Stockholm, Sweden
Agency website: http://www.psagency.se
Creative Director: Pål Roos
Art Director: Johan Angantyr, Viktor Andersson, Kent Lovén
Copywriter: Cia Säflund, Igor Smurawa, Johan Lindman
Photographer: Patrik Engström
Published: April 2011

Slick looking brand update if you ask me. I dig the simplicity and bold use of elements. The prior version was focusing on the illustration of lemon and lime this just gets right to the punch. I never really cared for the taste of 7-Up because it gave me personally that fake sugar headache when drinking but, the brand update is nice.

The brand update was done by TracyLocke New York and will be in stores in several countries around the world. Unfortunately the new brand update will not be updated in the US, which is a very interesting approach. But I guess it is driven by whom owns 7-up in America it is owned by Dr Pepper Snapple Group, and in the rest of the world it is owned by PepsiCo. Either way they are testing the market waters rather than fully jumping into the brand update worldwide and I wonder if that has something to do with other Pepsi brand update(s).

Credits
Group Creative Director: David Moore
Creative Director: Milton Melendez
Design Team: Dan Pulito, Tina Paymaster, Nitin Budhiraja
Account Supervisor: Natalie Smith

Care to hear more about this brand update? Check it out at the source: http://creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2011/march/7up-redesign
If you care to see the old soda cans from America check them out too!
http://www.usasoda.com/

I do not know how comfortable you are about thinking about buying every day medication online but helpineedhelp.com is trying to change that. Cool strategy.

Care to see their other campaign videos?

PS I have never seen a credits list this ridiculously long before!

Advertising Agency: agencytwofifteen, USA
Executive Creative Directors: Scott Duchon, John Patroulis
Creative Directors: Paul Caiozzo, Nathan Frank
Art Directors / Copywriters: Paul Caiozzo, Nathan Frank
: Paul Caiozzo, Nathan Frank
Director of Integrated Production: Tom Wright
Agency Producers: Mandie Bowe, Joyce Chen
Account Supervisor: Melissa Hill
Production Company: Tool of North America
Director: Geordie Stephens
DP: Rogier Stoffers
Executive Producers: Matt Bonin, Brian Latt, Dustin Callif
Head of Production: Amy DeLossa
Line Producer: Mark Fetterman
Production Designer: Peter Benson
Production Supervisor: Tim Ford
Production Company: Lifelong Friendship Society
Director: Jason Jones
DP: Sean Kirby
Executive Producer: Dan Sormani
Line Producer: Kim Koby
Production Manager: Nicole Karczewski
Art Directors: Kit Bland, Doug Kofsky, Che Broadnax
Art Designer: Adam Sober, Kelly McGehee
Mountain Scenic: Travis Moonshine
Art PA: Matt Herschel
Gaffer: Adam Lukens
Best Boy Electric: Mike Farino
Swing: Paul Dickover
Key Grip: Matt Tomko
Costume Designer: Robin Fitzgerald
HMU: Bridget Ritzinger
HMU Asst: Brandi Fulton
SPFXMU Artist: Brian Spears
SPFXMU Asst: Rob, Pete
Production PA: Luke Sherman
Production Assistant: Mike Miles
Set PA: Juan de Lindo, Oliver Brooks
Editorial: Arcade Edit
Editors: Christjan Jordan, Will Hasell
Assistant Editor: Louise Crane
Producer: Ali Reed
Executive Producer: Deanne Mehling
VFX/Post: Lifelong Friendship Society
Creative Director: Jason Jones
Animators & Compositors: Sid Seed, Dan Short, Jay Kim, Danny Kamhaji
Post Producer: Bridgette Spalding
Executive Producer: Dan Sormani
Music: Original Music by Human
Mix: Matt Zipkin, One Union Recording Studios
Digital Production Company: We Are Licious
Interactive Creative Director: Magnus Oliv
Production Management: Ray Barnes
Development: Edvin Besic, Michel Chatten
Animation: Molly Wengert
Executive Creative Directors: Scott Duchon, John Patroulis
Creative Director: Paul Caiozzo
Art Director: Phillip Fivel Nessen
Copywriters: Nathan Frank, Paul Caiozzo
Illustrator: Phillip Fivel Nessen

Stephen Spielberg is back, and I am not sure what to expect other than awesome action cheesiness.

The Alien genre these is the new Cowboy Genre of our decade. This is already old news I suppose because the genre is taking over all of the major networks  & movie theaters with shows like:  V, Stargate Universe ( which is sadly ending ), Cowboys Versus Aliens, Battle For L.A., many cartoon feature film about aliens, and now the Falling Skies series.

Well the deck maybe stacked full of competition but I bet this series will gain momentum, it has a good young network with a fan base that’s probably right for this new show, so why not? What do you think will Falling Skies fall flat?
Some more Trailers can be found here: