Sony EyePet

In the latest addition to the fast growing range of applications that Sony are developing to utilise their PlayStation Eye, we see the introduction of Sony EyePet. This family orientated application brings a 3D virtual pet into your home through an Augmented Reality style interface and interaction. As well as being able to play with your pet with real world hand gestures, you can also create objects in his virtual world through 2D drawn objects that then pop to life on-screen.

This is just another example of how Augmented Reality is being brought into our lives. I expect that we'll see a lot more applications being developed for gaming platforms such as the PS3.

CG 3D Animation

I was doing a bit of digging, looking for someone to do a bit of 3D work for a small project that I was asked to lend a hand on, and I found these guys, C4Real. This is their showcase work and it has to be seen to be believed.



Basically this was just done as an example of C4Real's CG capabilities. The process involved storyboarding, previzzing, animation and rendering, which were all done in house. Total production took 4 weeks and rendering was done on an 8 core MacPro taking 4 months. As you can see the quality is absolutely impecable but it's no wonder, every single frame was rendered at a maximum of 1 frame per hour, with some frames taking up to 24 hours each.

VW: The People's Reviewer

So it would seem there's a new bandwagon when it comes to online auto promotion. You have a new model coming out and the done thing is to get the public to review your new car and offer them a chance to win one. Simple enough. So.....

To the best of my knowledge the first major promotion of this type was done by Ford. Either their German, US or British Fiesta campaigns (I'm not entirely sure which got there first), followed shortly afterwards by their US Mustang 2010 campaign. More recently Toyota Ireland also followed suit with a similar style campaign. And the next folks (pardon the terrible pun) joining the party are Volkswagen. In an somewhat similar format to the other campaigns, Volkswagen are searching the digital sphere to find: The People's Reviewer.

So if all these campaigns are so similar why would I bother writing about it? Well to be honest, with the exception of the Mustang 2010 campaign, Volkswagen are (IMHO) going about this far better then anyone else. The campaign, developed for Volkswagen by Tribal DDB London, utilises a simpler yet far more rewarding mechanic then any of the other European examples.

VW asked the public to submit 'audition' videos (via YouTube) about why they should be chosen to test drive, review and comment on the new VW Tiguan. The campaign was promoted through a number of Social Media channels including Twitter, YouTube, Facebook and Flickr. Essentially the promotion was designed to drive as much user-generated online / digital buzz around the Tiguan.

Over 1,000 people created and submitted audition videos, and the next step was to narrow this down to nine reviewers. These nine reviewers were then given a Tiguan for a week. During the that week they had to shoot a short video review of the car. These videos are then all voted on by a public vote and the the highest number of votes gets to drive away a new Tiguan. The campaign itself is setup through a series of three heats. Three reviewers per heat, with one person going through to a final three person finale. These three then compete for the new car.

Interestingly VW also took the very smart direction of teaching the contestants how they could best build followers and win votes, through Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Flickr.

So what have they achieved so far? Well there's over a 1,000 youtube videos all tagged up for the Tiguan. There are numerous FlickR! albums, blogs and Tweets, all talking about the Tiguan. Ultimately they all link back to both the VW site and campaign microsite. Achievement: more rich online content then you could ever hope to generate through non-social channels. Also consider the cost implications - aside from they agency (management and development) costs, some PPC (I would hope) and a small amount of social ads - they give away a car, at cost. So basically, this was a seriously cheap campaign for the results it has already achieved.

Of course you're probably thinking that this all counts for little if the voting element doesn't draw a lot of attention. Solution, there are also a huge stock of prizes for voters including an extended three-month Tiguan test drive and holidays (including trips to Bath, Venice and London).

Tribal DBB commented on the campaign, saying "The journey has had us meet some crazy characters like Dirk the artistic knitter/busker/crime novelist with outsized hair and Johnny, a gregarious import/exporter who towed a Winnebago plus a van and two mini race cars all in one go. We think it's a great campaign that combines social media with an offline experience while bolstered by a traditional media spend."

This is the promotional video that VW/Tribal DDb created for the campaign...



Another recent campaign from Tribal DDB can be found here.

No Social Media in China

Since riots broke out in Xinjiang province in early July Social Media sites such as Twitter and Facebook have been completely shut down from within China. However during the last week reports have also started filtering out of China that Chinese Social Media sites such as Fanfou, Digu and Jiwai have now also been shut down. It seems that the Chinese authorities have massively extended their crackdown on all Social Media both domestic and international.

This is a major development in Chinese censorship and represents the first time that there has been a full order to censors both Western and Chinese sites. A Shanghai-based digital analyst has commented that the cause of the shut downs is still completely unknown. While it has become common practise for the Chinese government to operate shut-downs during politically sensitive times and events, there is nothing specific coming up. The last major Social Media shut-down was seen in the lead up to the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square riots.

In good news, Tim Haynes general manager of Starcom IP China, said "Despite the censorship efforts, Chinese netizens have discovered alternative methods of accessing sites such as Twitter. There are always alternative avenues to be found to access these sites. As soon as someone puts a wall or barricade around them, there’s always a way around it."

What’s Next In Marketing & Advertising

During the week, Paul Isakson Head of Strategy with Space 150, gave a presentation at Marketing 2.0:unfiltered, an event put on by Espresso. Paul's presentation was an updated version of a presentation he gave about a year ago at one of Space 150's monthly 'What's Next?" sessions.

Paul was asked to talk about what's going on in marketing and how things are changing. The updated presentation looks at the industry a year on and shows Paul's insights on how the industry is changing.