Tweet to Ads, Live!

In an industry first, Nestle (US) are preparing to launch a campaign allowing users to Tweet directly into their online display ads, live. Developed by SocialMedia, the new concept, coined 'Twitter Pulse', is currently being tested as part of a drive to promote its Juicy Juice fruit drink.

The ads will carry a range of questions such as ‘How do you stimulate your child's mind?' and ‘How important are vitamin enhanced foods to you?' Users can then use Twitter to answer the questions by posting tweets directly into the ad. Through use of a #hashtag the Tweets will also appear on the campaign Twitter profile.

When users clickthrough on the ads themselves they are brought through to the Juicy Juice's YouTube channel, where they can see a number of videos with useful information for parents.

Google: Real-Time Search

Without doubt, one of the largest growing areas within the Search Industry is Real-Time Search. That is the ability to search resources (usually User Generated Content and Web2.0 self-publicising platforms) that has just been created/uploaded. The best example of this is Twitter Search, which allows users to search through Tweets within real-time. This contrasts against traditional Search Engines that need to index and catalogue webpages before they become available through the engine.

A recent article on Revolution discussed how Google will integrate itself into this new area of search. The article quotes the unofficial Google System blog as saying that a real-time search service from Google would most likely deliver results sorted by relevancy that could integrate into Google's main results page. According to Revolution, Google's chief executive Eric Schmidt has made it clear that Google is interested in the growth and potential of live search.

At the recent Zeitgeist Europe, Google co-founder Larry Page said, "People really want to do stuff in real-time and they [Twitter] have done a great job about it. We will do a good job of things now we have these examples."

In an update to their article Revolution also had the following statement from Google:

"At Google we strive to connect people to all the world's information, and this includes information that's frequently updated such as news sites, blogs and real-time sources. While we don't have anything to announce today, real-time information is important, and we're looking at different ways to use this information to make Google more useful to our users."

Augmented Reality Top 10

I spotted this great article on Brand Republic listing Alex Smith's (of Zed Media) top 10 examples of Augmented Reality. Most of them have been covered here on Digitology but there are a few quality examples that you should check out.

Bloggers Report Robot Sightings

A digital campaign has launched to promote 'Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen', which is based around two 'blogs' carrying stories of sightings of giant robots around the globe. The two blogs, The Real Effing Deal and Giant Effing Robots, are both conspiracy style sites, informing the public of the hidden truth about these strange giant robots. The sites feature regular blog posts, imagery and video footage of "transforming" robot sightings across the world.

The videos are really well done and show a host of locations such as Tokyo, Berlin, Barcelona and the UK. There is also one brilliant video of a robot sighting at the Champion's League final in Rome.

The campaign has been produced by Rubber Republic for Paramount Pictures and is being promoted worldwide. The blogs are supposedly run by characters from the film. Rubber Republic say that "the overall objective of the campaign is to allow fans to get more involved in the film's back story and find out what has happened since the first instalment".

Heath Tyldesley, marketing director for Paramount Pictures International, said: "Extending the narrative of the film into the real world prior to a film's release is a great way of building buzz and awareness among fans and viewers, rewarding them for their engagement with the first film. Directors are really embracing broadening the platforms of the films narrative to include the web and Michael Bay is no exception."

Matt Golding, creative director at Rubber Republic, said: "These clips not only take the world of the film into new spaces where fans can engage online, but also provide additional content around the film driving awareness of the release."

Microsoft $10k Give-Away

It seems that Microsoft Australia have really decided to go after Firefox's growing marketshare. In a rather intering online campaign, MS are offering (AUS)$10,000 to one lucky person who finds where the cash is "buried" on the internet.

The campaign has been activated from Microsoft's own site (http://www.microsoft.com/australia/ie8/competition/) but users have to follow Microsoft on Twitter (@tengrand_IE8) for clues to find the money. However, they have to do it with Internet Explorer 8! The site states:

"But you'll never find it using old Firefox.
(So get rid of it, or get lost.)"

Interestingly there is a dialogue box on the Microsoft site that is not viewable through Firefox, so users are forced to use Internet Explorer 8 to see any content there. Obviously Twitter works perfectly through Firefox, leading me to question their use of the micro-blogging site. Obviously it makes sense to "fish where the fishes are" (as someone I greatlty respect often says) but at the same time, if the entire campaign is driven to use Internet Explorer 8 instead of Firefox, surely they could have based everything through the Microsoft site?

Cheers to Gav for passing this on to me.


- - - - - Update - - - - -

Lukasz in work directed me to this site...

It's from a Mozilla Linguist and Coder, Mitcho. Clever! Check him out here or follow him on Twitter.