Interactive Buzz - December 28, 2007

The last buzz of the year! HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE! Here's to a healthy, happy & prosperous 2008!

Nice Design - FedEx Microsite
http://experience.fedex.com/
This is a well designed little microsite to help user understand a little more about FedEx - if you care, that is. The little animated people are pretty cool.

Virgin Mobile and Facebook
Content from Adverblog
Virgin Mobile has created a little application called Dooblebook they're sharing on Facebook to promote their new campaign of "Pay for 1 hour, speak for 2". It's a simple branded 'matchmaking' quiz, but ties nicely in with its brand message (above) and uses imagery of Jean Claude Van Damme, who shows up in the company's tv commercial for this same campaign. A pretty good integration of campaign with Facebook. You have to have a Facebook account to view this link, but here it is anyway.

Interactive Buzz - Dec 28 '07

Hi Darcy. These postings are dedicated to you. Have a happy holiday.

Happy Holidays from Flint Interactive
Brian Barber and the team did a fantastic job at creating this little animation. It brought back some great memories of my Fisher Price Farm set. What the holidays are all about - great memories. Good job team.

Voice Blogging (Check the widget to the right on this page.)
I don't know if that's the correct term or not, but I discovered a new tool today. Utterz. You can set up an account, call a phone number, say whatever it is you want to say and have it pull into your blog. Pretty cool. This would be great if you're traveling a lot but still want to post to your blog. Or - it's just more fun to hear someone's voice vs. reading their type. So I think. My UTTERZ message is on the right in the little widget I added.

Advergame - Got Milk?
Wow. While the load time is about 5 days, the wait is worth it. The design, execution and creativity behind this advergame is really quite beautiful. I'd love to see the California Milk Producers annual advertising budget. Whew! I WOULD be interested in seeing the ROI on a tactic like this.

Very cool site with lovely functionality and design
This site in general is pretty cool - but I love the Flashy Flash. Especially when you rotate through the various models (by using the arrows or your mouse-wheel, which is really pretty cool if you ask me!), or when you click on the little (?) icon above the couple's head then click the arrow and watch the piece of paper flip over. Purdy. (But potentially slow-loading.)

Snow Globe Boy - From McKinney

Interactive Buzz - Dec 7 '07

Campaign Integration
You've all seen the new AT&T campaign right? This site is perfectly integrated and and taking the TV, Print, Billboards to the next level. You enter your own unique "place"... THEN you can buy "goods" with that unique place on it (that's truly unique to who you are). From traditional media to interacting on the site to 3 dimentional advertising. Fantastic job AT&T. (When I type in my various job duties - it appears as if I'm a "Createcist".)

Here's mine - I'm from Faruthgo:



Amnesty's Online Demonstration
This is an interesting site I found thanks to Adverblog. Upload your face + you message. Here's their Adverblogs explantion: (http://kominactie.amnesty.nl/)

"Here you can demonstrate for human rights. At the platform you'll find a virtual square where you can add your own avatar to show your involvement. It's in Dutch, but you'll get the message. Goal is to get specific attention for five victims of human rights violations on the international Human Rights Day, which is annually held on the 10th of December."

Interactive Agency's site - Interesting Execution
Warren said it best, so I'll just use his words. (Thanks Warren)

I don't get the "screen door." I think it's a weird Belgian design
element. But I like the subtitles and I like the samples link that comes up on the left side each time she lists a recent project. (I can't imagine that this is the first time a web site designer has done the old "cobbler's children go barefoot" idea for their web site, but who knows.) Personally, I find the immediacy of the video ("News Four live at Eleven!!!") angle really engaging. The project manager is pretty and incredibly well rehearsed/well spoken and the nav bar at the bottom is ruthlessly obvious -- purposely designed lo-tech to emphasize how busy
they've been with great work on big name paying clients. This is a really well thought thru idea and execution...even to the point of providing update videos on the site's non-progress.

Blowing Our Own Horn
I wouldn't be doing justice to our own incredibly interactive team if I didn't post some of our own very cool work we recently launched. Plus, a link here or there is good for their SEO causes.
http://www.duenorthproducts.com
http://www.ulteig.com
http://www.woodmaster.com
http://www.bankrepublic.com

Interactive Buzz - Nov 30 '07

Very Clever.

Social Networking
The good, the bad and the ugly. Front page article of the Star Trib today discusses the 'pitfalls' of social networking if you're not 100% upfront. Social networkers draw a hard line on ethics. Read the whole story.
(excerpt)
Target Corp. is learning the hard way that life in the blogosphere can put you right in the bullseye.

The Minneapolis-based discount retailer is being outed in online blogs and discussed in college ethics classes after students allied with the company were told to "keep it like a secret" while singing the company's praises on the social network site Facebook.com.

Interactive Buzz - Nov 23 '07

Happy Thanksgiving!
Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and I have so much to be thankful for... my family, my friends, my fantastic coworkers, my health... Thanks to everyone in the Flint/AdFarm Family for making this such a great place to work. Enjoy the posts and Happy Thanksgiving. - Jen

BMW Microsite - Relearn to Drive
I just really love the videos on this site. They're well done, engaging and it's hard to stop at one.
http://www.relearntodrive.com/

Classy Microsite from MTV
An interesting little "Maturity is overrated" Microsite from MTV. I thought I knew what the demographic was for this site - until I found myself oddly entertained. Insert disclaimer here.
The submitter of this post didn't want credit...so I'll be secretive in thanking someone from our Duluth office whose name rhymes with "lion larber".

Interactive Buzz - Nov 16 '07

The Couple
A look at the relationship between an advertiser and his consumer. (Thanks Mary)


W + K Amstradam's corporate agency site is a Blog
Interesting execution for your corporate site. Instead of having a site with a blog - just make the blog your site. They link their commercial samples to YouTube to watch. And they utilize Google technology to show where their employees are from. Unique. Fresh. Raw. Kinda fun if you ask me!

Interactive Microsite
http://www.jeep-japan.com/patriot/special/index.html Interesting site in that it allows users to edit their experience.

Great use of product in the creative
http://producten.hema.nl/
Thanks to Darcy from AdFarm for sharing this one.

Online Marketing
http://www.wodka.com/
A black/white video launching the "W" movement claiming there is no "v" in vodka distilled by Wyborowa. It's an interesting execution with unique navigation.

Interactive Buzz - Nov 9 '07

Facebook's Marketing Potential...
"Big Brands & Facebook" - a Forrester presentation worth looking at. They state "Facebook marketing requires communicating, not advertising." I think that's the case with a few "new media" solutions. Check out the presentation.

Making Toilets Beautiful - Video based content
http://www.washlet.com/
Problem: Advertise a toilet. Solution: Entertain and engage. They created a unique and interesting online execution. All the "Why you should care" content is video based. Videos of 6 different people telling you how positively wonderful this toilet is. Interesting concept... people don't want to read about how lovely our toilet is - so lets let them watch (and listen) about it. Thing is - it's pretty well done and the copy/narration is pretty smart too.

The Long Wow - An experience-centric approach to measuring loyalty
An Adaptive Path article on achieving long-term customer loyalty through systematically impressing your customers again and again. It's a pretty good read.

Viral Microsite with a link back to the agency
Agency Fusion (an online development company) created an entertaining microsite called http://www.makemylogobiggercream.com as a way to show their creativity, create something viral and drive traffic back to them. Execution isn't bad.

Just sites with beautiful features/design
http://www.rhythmoflines.co.uk/ = Pretty cool interactive/artsy programming
http://www.sectionseven.com/ = Unique portfolio view
http://www.youmustcreate.com
http://www.designboom.com/contest/view.php?contest_pk=16&item_pk=11744&p=2 (just a really awesome product)

Flint Interactive Buzz - Week of Oct 29 '07

Yea! The Buzz is back. (That's where you all go - "yea! we missed it!")

As you can see, the Buzz has taken on a new format. This way everyone can review past posts, make comments, read a blog. Go crazy - add this to your "Google" home page so when updates are made, they're automatically delivered to you!

Powerful PSA
http://www.thebodyshop.co.uk/page/helenbamber?cm_re=-_-HomePageBottomBan
A few of you have seen this already. It's an extremely powerful PSA. Click on the video. Disclaimer included on the video.

Insurance Microsite
http://www.allstate.com/teen
Allstate's latest campaign is really smart (so I think). They understand that getting people to use their insurance early on is key. What better way than to focus on teens. They also understand that parents love their children and the thought of them driving for the first time is frightening. One of the lines in their dynamic commercial "Every year nearly 6000 teens go out for a drive... and don't come back"... (watch the commercial)
Their focus - teen driving and safety. Allstate wants to help. yada yada. They've created a nice, simple little microsite to engage a specific audience. Smart stuff.

EBAY France Combines TV and Web
(content from Adverblog)
In France eBay is about to launch its first advertising campaign on TV. The message they want to deliver it's "eBay c'est vous" (eBay it's you) and, together with the agency BETC EuroRSCG, they've come up with a very smart and extremely consistent idea: eBay sellers can buy spaces within the spot to advertise the products they usually sell through the auction platform.
> Read the whole story
( http://www.adverblog.com/archives/003286.htm)

Designing Websites for the "Senior" Audience
The older audience is becoming a huge user of the web. Heck, my parents just got High Speed and are surfing at record speeds. But I've watched them surf. What seems intuitive and easy to me isn't so for them. So, when we're designing for them, it's good to remember that there are some basic rules that should be followed.
> Read more at Blink Interactive (http://www.blinkinteractive.com/ourexperience/essays/2007/09/understanding_older_users_is_y.php)