The Most Refreshing Pint

Here's a very nice, simple and addictive site for Strongbow. Keep refreshing the page to take a wee sip and see if you win a prize. Refresh and sip again. Isn't simplicity great!

Google TV Ads

I'm not to sure how long Google's Tv Ads have been in existence, but if you work in advertising like me, you might want to watch this. By pressing this harmless looking button Slate created a 30 sec Tv ad, that appeared on a national network, reached an audience of 1.2 million, and cost them $1300. No agency, no producers, no media buyers were involved in the process.

Again if you work in advertising you need to watch this.

@anywhere

Twitter recently announced it's new and upcoming @Anywhere function. The purpose of the function is to allow users to intergrate the Twitter experience into their site without having to direct their users to twitter.com. There's a bit more information over here on the psfk blog.

Some of the sites that have signed up are Amazon, AdAge, Bing, Citysearch, Digg, eBay, The Huffington Post, Meebo, MSNBC.com, The New York Times, Salesforce.com, Yahoo!, and YouTube.

Ah the world is getting smaller at an alarming rate.

Wh-wh-wh-wh-wh-wh-wh-wh-whopperface

I really liked Whopper Sacrifice and now I like this latest BK project: Whopperface. (The title of this post is a bad attempt at referencing a certain Lady Gaga song). The video explains it all really, but in case you don't have the time to watch it the setup is easy: A hidden camera takes a shot of you as you order your Whopper, a printer prints your face on a wrapper, your Whopper is wrapped up in the wrapper, you get handed your Whopper with your face on the wrapper. (Lots of W's just there).

It's interestingly lo-fi and kind of creepy. I like it.

Facebook Doppelganger

I found this Coke Zero interactive campaign this evening on The Inspiration Room. It's part of Coke Zero's larger campaign that asks the question: If Coke can clone their own unique taste, then why can't scientists clone humans. Quite a logical leap but this Face Profiler Facebook application is kind of cool.

Through some back end wizardry and Facebook connect, it scans your Facebook photos and finds your Facebook doppelganger. (That's a lot of "Facebooks" in one sentence). It didn't work that well for me. Mainly because the only image I have of myself is really bad. That's not my real hair by the way.

Direct Video Manipulation

I found this very interesting piece of technology this morning on Dom O'Briens blog. The video above explains it all and the Wrangler site is a nice example of this nifty technology in use. Through some clever use of the C# language, the technology lets user drag elements of the video. It feels like you're directly manipulating the video. Very cool and well worth a watch.

Google Goggles

Google goggles is a visual search engine for Android phones. I can take a photo of something, google goggles recognises the image and searches for it. It's not perfect... yet. Ideas are forming.

I've noticed a big increase in the amount of augmented reality products appearing on the web these days. It's amazing what people are beginning to do with this very cool piece of technology. As with most technologies it will be interesting to see how long it will take for these developments to appear within advertising and when they do which brand will use it effectively and not just as a gimmick. Here are some interesting links that go into some of the very exciting developments out there at the moment.

An interactive music player made for a Wrigleys campaign in France. I'm unsure how this is relevant to the brand, but it is the first example of fully interactive augmented reality I've seen.

Due to my lack of knowledge on the subject a confusing yet really interesting way of creating your own interactive augmented reality camera using the PS3 webcam.

And finally this amazing app for the iPhone. It uses the iPhone 3G's new video function and the phones GPS to deliver realtime, realworld augmented reality.

For the geek inside us all...or just me. Processing, the technology that brought you the House of Cards Radiohead video, is an open source coding program developed by some really clever lads at M.I.T, well done them. This blog shows off how amazing this technology is.