Red Bull | Loducca | Brazil
 

Red Bull and street art go back a long way. Back in 2006 the energy drink was involved in street art projects in Germany and Amsterdam, and the “Art of Can” series of exhibitions in which artists used Red Bull cans to create sculptures and art installations has become well established in the US. Red Bull has a long and famous association with extreme sports, and if the urban art movement can be regarded as extreme art, then Red Bull and graffiti are a natural partnership.

The recognition of street art and graffiti owes much to names like Banksy and before him Basquiat, who turned the modern urban landscape into their canvas. Of course the downside to street art is that it is often rooted in to its location, making it difficult for enthusiasts of the genre to discover the best work.

This at least was the case before Red Bull Street View, a brilliant marriage of Google’s Street View service, and Red Bull’s street art heritage. Using the familiar Google Map’s interface, fans can use the branded location finder to search out examples of street art, and use Google Street View to see works of graffiti in situ. Photographic images of the work, hosted on Flickr, are displayed adjusted for the correct perspective, to create as real a viewing sensation as possible.

Artists and fans are also able to submit work to the map, adding to the inventory of the user generated, and user-curated, global art gallery. The usual social network tools enable fans to share their posts and discoveries with their friends.

Launched in mid-February, there are nearly 2,000 works of street art catalogued on the map, with images tagged from countries across the world. The Street Art View is less of a site, and more a collaboration of web tools.  was developed by digital agency Loducca Sao Paulo in Brazil. 

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Books are taking a bit of a kicking at the moment. E-readers, Kindles, Nooks and iPads have elevated the e-book from minority technology to widely adopted phenomenon. Amazon.com famously reported that sales of e-books out performed new hardback releases for the first time in 2010.

So for perhaps the first time since the creation of television, books as form of media have a serious rival. The question now for traditional publishers is – how can books ensure they appeal to consumers hungry for more digital devices and content.

Arguably, one of the strongest USPs of a book is its tactile nature. You can hold a book, fall asleep with it, take it to the beach or clutch it on the train on the way to work. While they cost over £100, you can’t doze off with your Kindle on your lap for fear of someone pinching it.

So if one of the book’s strongest USPs is the fact that it isn’t new and digital, and that people are attracted to books as classic items to cherish – free from software updates or back-up files, then this campaign for Brazil makes the point beautifully. 

Typewriters, with a sheet of paper bearing a simple advertisement, were located amongst banks of demonstration model laptops at a computer store. 

"Penguin – Know the classics"

We all get it from time to time, that irrational rage where a red mist descends and we're tempted to throw an unresponsive laptop from the roof. Exacting percussive revenge on electrical goods is technically pointless, but emotionally very cathartic. 

In a fun site that demonstrates Google really do have a sense of humour, you can contact the Chrome OS demolab and interact with the technicians, only demo is short for demolition and the the technicians are a crazed bunch of nutcases with chainsaws, axes and even a gorilla. An IM chat window invites you to submit various methods of execution for a helpless laptop.

Once the Google team have destroyed your victim according to your instructions (I went for boiling it alive), the technicians present you with another machine to sacrifice, pointing out how quickly you can be up and running again with Chrome's new operating system which launches and is ready to use in seconds. 

Operating systems are always going to be difficult to make "cool", but this site makes for perfect lunchtime wasting activity. Admittedly I was a little disappointed when I asked for my laptop to fed to the dogs, only to find it beaten to death by a gorilla, but you can't have everything. 

Google on the other hand, can have everything. Chrome OS joins the list of Google products to launch to market recently. With phones, operating systems and tablets all released or on the way, one has to wonder what's next for the omnipresent tech brand. An online bank? supermarket? A fashion line? 

Perhaps it's best not to think about it. Why not just visit the Demolab and get violent?

See also: Eniro gold - An online map service that sent Swedes on a genuine treasure hunt.

I wanted to share this interesting article about the disputed demise of blogging in reponse to an article that recently appreared in the New York Times. Apparently, the kids in America aren't fans of long copy online, preferring instead to devour the snack-sized content of Twitter, YouTube and Flickr. 

But is the research asking the right questions?

Blogging Is Dead (Again)

Blogging is dead (Again) originally appeared on the excellent Six Pixels of Separation blog from Mitch Joel, president of Twisted Image.

While many are predicting apps and mobile to be the next big advertising channels – incorporating everything from full sponsorship through to in-app advertising and contract publishing – the iPad has upped the ante. Pete Davis looks at how these technologies are changing the media landscape and what they offer marketers.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveils the iPad tablet

There has been an explosion of media choices for brands over the past few years, much of it inspired by new technology. One of the big growth areas is mobile, particularly the app market, and we have seen a big increase in these opportunities coming through our website.

With mobile ad spend increasing 32% from 2008-2009 and results expected to show further growth through 2010, what is becoming apparent is that mobile advertising and mobile apps are no longer something that should be utilised by the daring few, but rather, that they are increasingly being seen as an important channel and one that all marketers should be exploring.

However, just when marketers might have thought they were starting to understand the app market, the arrival of the iPad and other tablet technology has upped the ante. An increasing number of magazines have now ported across to the iPad with cutting-edge technology magazines like Wired and iGizmo leading the charge, and this is opening up further opportunities for advertisers.

Julian Lloyd-Evans, managing director of advertising at Dennis Publishing, which produces iGizmo, explains: “When we released iGizmo for iPad, it topped the download charts for two weeks, and we now have over 31,000 apps downloaded. This figure not only allows us to add value for our existing advertisers in the online magazine, which is distributed to 100,000 people, but it also gives us a solid basis from which to create new opportunities specifically for this media.

“While there is, of course, still room for traditional-style display advertising in the iPad version, there is also the opportunity for brands to create much more innovative ways of engaging with readers, using the range of multimedia tools that are available.”

Dennis Communications, which is the customer publishing arm of Dennis Publishing, currently works with brands such as Waitrose and Dixons to create bespoke online magazines – not simply online reproductions of their printed magazines, and Lloyd-Evans believes there is a very real opportunity for building interesting and informative magazines around a product line or manufacturer, and really owning the market through the iPad.

“Many marketers would want to hold off until the market has become more established, but we’re in a unique position at the moment where if brands can get in quickly they will be able to dominate the market for comparatively little investment,” he explains. “Being the first major food brand or fitness brand to produce a tablet-based magazine app, would make it much harder for the competition to get a foothold. While we’re presently at the early adopter stage, within twelve months this technology is going to be more prevalent and people will be much more discerning about what they download making it harder to get established.”

And brands can gain significant insight through this, for example a company like Waitrose can easily track whether a pork recipe is more interesting than a chicken recipe, for example, or what wine people are reading up on most and where. This can then drive stock control as well as product development.

As other technology companies such as Google with its Android platform along with Samsung and Sony all jump on the tablet bandwagon, so the market will become more and more mainstream and many predict that tablet technology will soon become a staple for most households, making it a powerful media channel.

But for now, the most pressing challenge for marketers is staying on top of these developments and making the right choice for their particular brand. For many, this can feel like an almost insurmountable task. However, this is where sites like Getmemedia.com can be a vital part of the process, by showing marketers what is out there.  

Being technically savvy is of vital importance to a brand. One brand manager recently informed me that they have constructed a new media development programme to allow them to test how effective certain media is in connecting with their consumers.

It’s worth remembering that quite simply, without testing or trying new media you can’t learn what works best for your brand. Many companies will spend £5million on new product development but hesitate to invest £200k on new media trials. Now where’s the sense in that?

The News:

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) recently banned Yves Saint Laurent's television advert for their fragrance Belle D'Opium. They were concerned that a scene in which the actress playing “Belle” runs her finger down her inner elbow could be interpreted as simulating drug use, whilst her expressive dance movements could be seen as illustrations of the effects of drugs.

Although ASA clearly expressed their disapproval of the TV commercial, they also stated that they had no objection against the fragrance name itself, since it is a well known brand in the UK.

Behind the News:

YSL stated that they never intended to use drug imagery in their advert. 

Asked about the scenes in question award-winning choreographer Akram Khan explained that: “The veins represent the road that leads to desire […] to passion […] all the ingredients we use in life […] come from the Earth. So the movement represents the sense of giving life out of earth.”

Although YSL disclaim that they are not using drug imagery to promote their fragrances, they are frequently using terminology related to this context by, for example, describing their fragrances as “narcotic” and the scent as “overdose”.

Historically, in contrast to France, Britain experienced, especially during the Victorian Empire, a dark period of increased opium abuse. The lack of sharing the same historical background might be one of the reasons why YSL was not fully aware of the implications this particular campaign would have. When adapting international advertising, a message that is acceptable in one market might not be in another.

However, taking into account that the market for perfume is booming and extremely competitive in which brands are facing the challenge to distinguish their product from others, even controversial headlines, such as an advert ban, might help to increase brand awareness – especially, when the story makes headline news on the eve of Valentine's Day!

Heat tracker | Draftfcb | US

Online dating has enjoyed something of a rehabilitation in recent years, or at least so we’re all lead to believe. Services like eHarmony proudly proclaim in all their advertising that 2% of American marriages were a direct result of couples meeting through their online service. But the online world is a strange (and apparently tempting) place. As quickly as sites like eHarmony can bring couples together, Facebook reportedly tears one in five unions asunder. It turns out that some married individuals like to be a bit more sociable than others on the social network.

While its suitability as a tool for discovering one’s soul-mate might be questionable, there’s no getting away from the fact that the internet is a great place to enjoy the odd brief romantic interlude. Although this is a very convenient method, some people will always prefer to meet people in real-life situations, but then you're faced with trying to track down where all the good-looking folk are hanging out - unless you happen to have downloaded this handy app from Draftfcb.

Geo social networking is still very much in its infancy. Brands like the Gap and Starbucks have led the way in the US, but elsewhere in the world users have been reticent to post their whereabouts online.

This neat idea sidesteps the (frankly pointless) gaming mechanic that forms the basis of Foursquare, and instead uses the social element of the platform, connecting online members in the real world

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Fadi Shuman

Cream is pleased to announce a new member to our blogging family. Fadi Shuman is the co-founder & e-commerce director at Pod1.

Fadi ensures that the agency is at the forefront of all digital strategies with a particular focus on integrated marketing, user centric design and optimisation tactics. He currently operates between London and New York where Pod1 has recently opened its first international office.

“My interest in computers and digital stems from the many hours in my childhood spent tinkering with my Commodore 64. I’d painstakingly enter 100’s of lines of code through the night that I’d copy from magazines in the vain hope that I'd get some fantastic game or application working.

I discovered the web in 1997 whilst working at the BBC working as an Oracle DBA in the Y2K department. In between saving the world from the Millennium bug and updating databases, I'd spend my time on Web Monkey learning HTML and creating personal websites, just for fun.

In February 2000, I set up my first web agency called Wild Goose Productions. With my then business partner, we realised very quickly that no one really had a clue about how the web worked, and that included us to an extent! Within a few months, the .com bubble had burst and a mini crash ensued. By June that same year, the work dried up and I decided to spend some time travelling and seeing the world.

After twelve months of travel, I found myself back in the UK and ready for a challenge. After an impromptu meeting with an old university friend of mine who shared my enthusiasm for the industry, in October 2001, we bought the domain name Pod1.com. Now, over nine years later, with offices in London, Cape Town and New York, we’re still doing what we love best with some of the world’s most exciting brands.”

Read Fadi's first post for the Cream blog here.