Visual Content

The future of online is not network TV Google warns

2007-02-09T15:48:00.000Z

If you thought the future of the web was TV, you would be mistaken as Google issued a warning to companies that think they can broadcast distribute network TV shows and films globally.

The search engine giant warned that the internet should not be used for TV and that services like its own YouTube, which acquired it last year for $1.65bn, and newer arrivals such as Joost will bring the internet to its knees. Google said that was already investing heavily just to keep data flowing.

Many have talked of the internet in some instances replacing TV with its own online shows and content, but Google said that it simply does not "scale".

The company instead said it would work together with cable operators to combine its technology for searching for video and TV footage and its tailored advertising with the cable networks high-quality delivery of shows.

Source: Brand Republic

Tags: google youtube internet tv broadcast cable web

MySpace launches £1m film quest

2007-02-06T17:36:00.000Z

If you've ever harboured dreams of becoming the next Steven Spielberg, here's your chance.

From tomorrow, budding film-makers can post their shorts at MySpace Movie MashUp, a competition organised by MySpace, the social networking website, and two UK production companies, Film 4.

In the first competition of its kind, the winner will get to direct a feature-length film with a £1m budget, which will be released in cinemas in 2008. Any British resident, regardless of past film experience, can participate. The deadline for submission is April 27.

Five finalists will be picked by a jury that includes, among others, actor Sienna Miller, director Anthony Minghella, Andrew MacDonald, the producer of Trainspotting, and Kevin Macdonald, the director of The Last King of Scotland. The great MySpace public will then decide the overall winner by online vote.

Then, the project's backers will work with the director to pick a project - either choosing from scripts in development, starting a new collaboration with an experienced writer, or considering a project brought by the director.

More at Guardian Unlimited (subscription required)

Tags: feature film competition myspace vertigo+films film+4 film-makers

Channel 4 launches second ‘viral Oscars’

2007-02-02T17:02:00.000Z

Broadcaster Channel 4 has teamed up with viral site BoreMe.com to launch the annual international viral awards `Germ' to find the Best Commercially Produced Viral.

The Germ viral awards are free to enter and agencies from all over the world can submit as many entries as they wish.

Entries can be submitted from now until the end of March and details of how to submit entries can be found at www.channel4.com/germ.

Last year London based viral agency Maverick won the Best Commercially Produced Viral for a campaign to promote the racing simulation game Juiced.

more at: NetImperative

tags: viral channel+4 germ awards

YouTube to share ad revenue with content creators

2007-01-29T13:08:00.000Z

YouTube is to share advertising revenues with the real stars of its site, the people who make and send in videos.

Chad Hurley, YouTube co-founder, has confirmed that his team is working on a mechanism that would reward creativity and may even be ready within months. The offer only applies to those who own full copyright of the video sent in.

The scheme will be rolled out gradually with no plans for a big launch, Hurley was quick to say, when announcing the plans at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Source; Brand Republic

Tags: youtube user+generated+content videos

Skype unveils Web TV service

2007-01-18T11:04:00.000Z

Internet telephony firm Skype has unveiled ‘Joost’, its new Internet TV service.

The service, previously codenamed the Venice Project, uses peer-to-peer technology to let broadcasters stream full length TV programmes and films to viewers online.

The Joost menu lets users change channels by clicking on links. Users can control of the content and access any show offered regardless of time of day. They can also timeshift, rewinding or fast forwarding within a show.

Currently in beta test, Joost has not yet struck any deals with major movie studios or TV producers to stream their content over the service. Currently all it offers is a limited line up of sports, documentaries and music programming.

Commenting on the service, Frederik de Wahl, chief executive at Joost, said:"It's full-screen, broadcast quality, you've got instant channel flipping, and interactivity - a viewer can come to us and get all their TV needs."

The service has been set up by Janus Friis and Niklas Zennström, the duo behind peer-to-peer software Kazaa and VoIP firm Skype.

Source: Net Imperative

Tags: skype tv joost internet service content venice+project

Sky teaser campaign for 24 teaser recieves 60,000 players

2007-01-18T10:14:00.000Z

The teaser campaign created for Sky One's hit espionage drama '24' has attracted more than 60,000 UK players so far.

Sky One launched the online digital marketing push for the sixth series of '24', created by digital agency Meme, on January 8.

Using the http://www.ctuagent.com/ website as a starting point and the password 99k36f, fans can embark on their own Jack Bauer-style quest to defeat the terrorists and save Los Angeles -- again. After entering their details, players receive a phone call outlining the mission. From there, a text message from Jack Bauer, who is played by Kiefer Sutherland in the series, directs players to another website, where the mission continues.

The campaign also uses email and a visit to YouTube.com before players eventually find the page that lets them watch an eight-minute prequel to the upcoming series, visit Sky's 24 website and enter a competition to visit the set of 24 in LA.

Source: Brand Republic

Tags: 24 tv marketing advertising prequel

Apple launches the iPhone

2007-01-11T11:08:00.000Z

Apple unveiled its hugely anticipated bid to take a bite out of the multi-billion dollar global mobile phone market yesterday with a "revolutionary" sleek, one-button device that combines iPod, internet and phone and will cost around £250 pounds ($499).

"Once in a while a revolutionary product comes along that changes everything," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO, as he demonstrated the iPhone to whoops and cheers from a 4,000-strong audience at Macworld in San Francisco. "Apple is reinventing the phone."

In keeping with Apple's signature sleek simplicity, the 3.5 inch screen takes up most of the front of the device with just a single button at the bottom that returns users to the home page.

Instead of the fiddly "plasticky" keyboards of most smart phones, Mr Jobs said, the iPhone does away with buttons. Instead it is operated by touching the screen with your finger, scrolling up or down through songs on the iPod function, for example, or typing out emails and text messages on the keyboard that appears when needed.

Read more at Telegraph.co.uk and BBC.co.uk

Video: Steve Jobs unveils the iPhone in San Francisco

Tags: apple iphone steve+jobs mobile cell phone music mp3 digital

HD Tube Network Kicks Off With Alive In Tandem

2007-01-10T13:53:00.000Z

First campaigns to get a showing on Viacom Outdoor's London Underground high definition digital advertising network are Virgin Atlantic, Magners, Pioneer, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment and GuestInvest.

First stage of the network covers five zone one stations comprising the original digital escalator panel site at Tottenham Court Road and four major interchange stations of Bond Street, Charing Cross, Euston and Paddington. Now, following the first phase, hundreds of further panels and large LCDs will be phased into ticket office sites as well as cross-track projection sites at stations across the London Underground zone.

In line with the Underground HD take-off, Viacom Outdoor has also unveiled Alive, its new dedicated digital division, tasked with highlighting the new creative opportunities the digital network will offer to brands on the London Underground.

Dragon has delivered the brand identity for Alive who has also signed up digital design and production company Anorak Digital to develop dynamic adverts that illustrate the generic digital proposition and the individual benefits of each format in a compelling fashion.

More at DDR

Tags: tube underground advertising digital viacom outdoor london

Lycos launches video channel in partnership with Roo

2007-01-09T11:10:00.000Z

Portal site lycos.co.uk is to launch an online video channel to offer film, music and TV content to its users.

Lycos TV will offer up-to-date videos, along with archive content, covering the news, music, movies, travel and sports arenas.

The new platform will be powered by online video specialist Roo, which will also provide Lycos with tools to stream video content through the portal.

The Lycos TV portal will feature the complete library of Roo's extensive video content, which will be updated regularly. Original Lycos video content and user-generated content will be added in the coming months.

More at Brand Republic

Tags: lycos tv video channel portal roo news

Orange extends 2-for-1 cinema deal into 2008

2007-01-03T13:20:00.000Z

Orange will continue its 2-for-1 cinema offer, Orange Wednesdays, into 2008 and will extend the offer to its 2m internet customers in addition to its existing mobile users.

The scheme is understood to have helped increase cinema audience numbers in the UK, despite a global downturn in admissions. During the scheme's first 30 months the incentive added an extra 2m admissions to UK cinemas.

When the offer first ran, it was accompanied by a film ad campaign featuring Brennan Brown and Steve Furst in respective roles as Dresden and board member Burnley. The ads, created by Mother, featured various celebrities such as Patrick Swayze, Darryl Hannah and even Darth Vader pitching film ideas to the fictional Orange Film Board, only to have mobile ideas shoehorned into their pitches.

More at Brand Republic

Tags: orange wednesdays 2+for+1 cinema ad advertising mother pitch

StumbleUpon Launches Video Referral Site, StumbleVideo

2006-12-22T14:10:00.000Z

StumbleUpon’s social browsing application has been such a big hit that the company is launching a separate site for video referral called StumbleVideo.

StumbleUpon is a browser toolbar that recommends Web sites based on viewing patterns of other people with similar user profiles. StumbleVideo will do the same type of recommending for video, only it is not a browser extension. It is a Web site that works within the browser.

“We’ve seen a lot of growth in stumbling videos and now we’re able to bring you highly relevant, high quality content, based on your preferences,” said David Feller, vice president of marketing at StumbleUpon. “It’s very difficult to find something that is relevant to you just on searching ‘humor videos,’ or ‘cat videos.’ With StumbleVideo, you never leave the page. The content is brought directly to you. It’s a lot like channel searching but everything is customized based on your interests and preferences.”

To begin with, StumbleVideo will serve videos from the top three video sites: YouTube, Google Video, and Myspace. Feller said that any site with embeddable video can and will be served in the future but they chose these three in the interest of a timely launch.

More at TechCrunch

Tags: StumbleUpon StumbleVideo video referral YouTube Google Video MySpace NataliDelConte

Stella Artois ends iconic sponsorship of Channel 4 movies

2006-12-20T10:28:00.000Z

Brewer InBev is to cease promotion of its brand Stella Artois during film programming on Channel 4.

The sponsorship of the strand has been a mainstay of Channel 4's sponsorship budget for the past eight years, and is understood to be worth in the region of £1m a year to the broadcaster.

InBev said it has no immediate plans to cut its ties entirely with film sponsorship and will still carry on with web-based activity and its outdoor film events.

The increased online activity has included the launch of bespoke website studioartois.co.uk, where users can find games and competitions, trivia, listings, an area for budding filmmakers and the Film Finder search engine.

More at Brand Republic

Tags: stella artois film channel+4 ch4 tv sponsorship advertising

Skype founder to launch global broadband TV station

2006-12-18T13:01:00.000Z

Janus Friis and Niklas Zennstrom, the founders of Skype, are set to launch a global broadband television service next year, promising viewers and advertisers the best of the internet coupled with the best of TV.

Friis and Zennstrom, also founders of music download applications Kazaa, sold Skype to eBay for £1.3bn last year and are reported to have invested part of the proceeds to develop the service, according to a report in the Financial Times. It has been codenamed The Venice Project.

The project will show near-high-definition programmes, which will be supported by advertising revenue. Users can personalise channels or join forums to discuss content. The amount of advertising revenue available to the project will differ according to whether the content owner sells the ads or if its own sales team book them.

More at Brand Republic

Tags: skype tv broadband digital advertising the+venice+project

The Original Sony Bravia Balls?

2006-11-17T15:10:00.000Z

Letterman balls

Did Fallon get its award-winning idea for its much admired Sony Bravia ad from someone else?

This bit of video is flying around the web. It looks kind of familiar and it was done by David Letterman in San Francisco 10 years ago.

Source and more comments: Gordon's Republic

Tags: sony bravia ad advertising tv david+letterman the+late+show balls fallon

Antenna Ends on a High

2006-11-10T14:10:00.000Z

Antenna the bi-monthly showcase of some of the best and most creative music promo's is comming to an end!

The last ever show at London's NFT takes place tonight (Friday November 10 at 8:45pm) and promises to be a send-off to remember.

Since it's a very special show (it's their fourth Antennaversary, the twentieth show AND it's the last one), they have a very special night planned.

This time, there will be no panel on stage, instead they have used all the time available to squeeze in as many great new videos as they can before they say goodbye. But even so, they have a very special guest making his second appearance on the Antenna stage!

The screening will be followed by a proper knees up in the NFT café, where the marvellous Stuart Warren-Hill of Hexstatic will be manning the decks. There will also be an exhibition of all the posters they have ever had made for them over the four years of running the show in London, and the past year of their collaboration with the British Council.

Tickets are now sold out, but if you missed the boat it's always worth queuing for returns at the NFT box office, but you have to get there early.

More info: www.antennapromo.co.uk

Tags: antenna nft music promo video ninjatune hextatic exhibition posters

Microsoft to offer TV show downloads via Xbox Live

2006-11-09T14:40:00.000Z

Microsoft has announced that it will offer TV shows and movie downloads via its Xbox Live service, further moving the Xbox 360 from video game console to consumer home entertainment device.

The new service, Xbox Live Video, will launch on 22 November and initial content partners include CBS, MTV Networks, Paramount Pictures, TBS, UFC, and Warner Bros Home Entertainment.

Xbox Live Video will support high-definition TV shows and movies, and Microsoft plans to launch the service with around 200 hours of HD content and 800 hours of standard-definition content.

Source: NMA.co.uk

Tags: microsoft xbox mtv paramount warner entertainment tv video films movies shows

Attacked by Giant Puppet: Levi Virals

2006-11-03T17:44:00.000Z

More at YouTube

YourKindaTV launches awards for user-generated video

2006-11-02T17:41:00.000Z

A web-based TV channel featuring user-generated content launches next week with a search for the best mobile and video clips on the net.

YourKindaTV.com is a UK-based site with a range of different news and entertainment features illustrated by clips sent in by viewers. A soft launch of the service is already up and running.

It will launch with the unveiling of the British User Generated Awards 2007, or Bugas, an annual awards ceremony for user generated video that will take place on February 4.

The awards ceremony is designed to celebrate the rise of citizen journalism and user-generated content as a major creative and leisure past time today.

Categories include best comedy clip, best mockumentary, best candid clip, best live music clip, best local news report, most dangerous stunt, best user-generated ad and most original clip.

More at: Brand Republic

Tags: tv user+generated+content video awards clips net yourkindatv

The First YouTube Video + YouTubers Mashup!

2006-10-27T15:02:00.000+01:00

Here's the first video that was uploaded to YouTube. This is one of the company's three founders Jawed Karim, currently a grad student at Stanford.

Yes, this is how a $1.65 billion company got started.

read more about this story here

This next video, appropriately entitled "YouTubers" is utterly captivating, and speaks volumes to what's happening in the CGM2 (consumer-generated multi-media) space.

It's raw and edgy, but worth all nine minutes. To the cultural anthropologists out there, please take out your notebooks!

Source: ConsumerGeneratedMedia.com

Latest News: Google will not tolerate copyright breach by YouTube.

Search giant Google says it will stamp out any copyright violations when it takes over video-sharing network YouTube later this year, following its $1.65bn acquisiton of the social media website.

...more at Brand Republic

Tags: youtube video first consumer+generated+content youtubers mashup

RESfest 10th Anniversary Tour

2006-10-26T17:14:00.000+01:00

RESfest is launching its 10-year anniversary tour in the UK, beginning in Bristol at the Watershed today before heading off to the National Film Theatre in London from November 14-19.

Showcasing the most cutting-edge music videos, short films, animation and motion graphics.

highlights include three retrospectives: A Decade of RESfest, a collection of 10 seminal short films from a decade of the festival; Unsung Heroes, a collection of some of the best music videos and a look back at Radiohead's finest music videos; and film rarities from the festival's recent past. Add the English premiere of Rock The Bells, a documentary about reuniting the Wu Tang Clan and LoudQUIETloud, a film about The Pixies (Bristol) and there's quite enough to make it an indispensable event in any self-respecting creative's calendar.

For more on events and screening times, check out the website: www.resfest.co.uk

Source: Shots.net

Tags: resfest res anniversary radiohead pixies film festival music video

Beck of beyond

2006-10-26T17:13:00.000+01:00

Doors that turn into windows that turn into a chest of drawers that turns into an armchair that turns into a singer. Yup, it could only be Michel Gondry's latest video for Beck.

The dazzling video for Cell Phone's Dead is from the new album The Information and is only the second time the two have worked together, the last being in 1997 on Deadweight.

More at Shots.net

Tags: video Michel+Gondry Beck Cell+Phone's+Dead

Sony pushes Bravia in first HD ad spot

2006-10-18T14:40:00.000+01:00

Sony has teamed up with Sky to screen the UK's first high-definition television ad, which will appropriately promote the Bravia range of HD television sets.

The ad, which follows up the much-hyped 'balls' spot, will be seen in high definition for the first time on Sky Sports HD 2 tonight, during live coverage of the Uefa Champions League tie between Chelsea and Barcelona.

Fallon created 'balls' and the new ad, which was directed by Jonathan Glazer. It features hundreds of litres of paint in numerous colours exploding over a disused towerblock in Glasgow.

It is the first ad to be entirely produced and broadcast in high definition. For tonight's HD debut, a 70-second version will be shown. OMD has handled media for the campaign.

View the Ad here

More details at Brand Republic and www.bravia-advert.com

Tags: sony bravia television tv advertising ad fallon jonathan+glazer hd

Reuters opens virtual office to report from Second Life

2006-10-17T17:41:00.000+01:00

Second Life, the virtual reality game world, is to have its own Reuters journalist keeping people in the real world abreast of events in the virtual one.

As part of the move, the news agency will place its own correspondent in Second Life. Called Adam Reuters, in reality he is a London-based media reporter named Adam Pasick.

Bartle Bogle Hegarty, Leo Burnett and Arc Worldwide have also opened offices in the game, which was created by San Francisco-based Linden Labs.

In the game, individuals can create avatars and pursue alternate virtual lives, with their own cars and homes.

The virtual world also has a dark underbelly where users can indulge in digital sex, while in reality they just tap away at their keyboards.

More at Brand Republic

Tags: second+life reuters game internet advertising agency

IPTV/VoD: The World That’s On Its Way

2006-10-17T17:25:00.000+01:00

As technology evolves at breakneck speed, companies can spend so much time trying to keep up that they neglect to plan ahead. Alex Cameron, managing director at IPTV firm Digital TX, looks in to the distance, and sees a future with broadcast TV and universal Internet connectivity between all devices…

Continue reading at netimperative

Tags: iptv digital tx television internet

Direct a DJ Shadow promo

2006-10-09T14:35:00.000+01:00

Pre-eminent hip-hop turntablist DJ Shadow is inviting budding creatives and die-hard fans to come up with the video for his forthcoming single, This Time, taken from his latest album The Outsider.

With Shadow himself judging the competition, the promise of global promotion of the winning video (not to mention a GPB1000 cash reward) and a totally open brief, the stakes are high.

Entrants have until Friday October 20th to get their work in. For more information visit the official competition website at www.djshadowvideo.com

Source: Shots.net

Tags: dj+shadow the+outsider video music promo competition

Google in negotiations to buy YouTube for $1.6bn

2006-10-09T13:05:00.000+01:00

Google is in talks to acquire video-sharing website YouTube in a $1.6bn (£857m) deal.

The deal between the companies is expected to be concluded this week. It could mean that Google's online ad program AdWords is rolled out across YouTube.

While all eyes have been on the site and potential acquisitors, one dotcom investor, Mark Cuban, has said that anyone paying for YouTube is a "moron" because the site would be "sued into oblivion" for infringing copyright.

However, there are signs that the record labels, whose videos appear on the site, are more interested in working out how they can use it to market their artists and make money, rather than risk incurring the wrath of the millions of members who are used to getting stuff for free from the internet.

Microsoft and Yahoo! are each trying to emulate the success of YouTube with their own video websites. Microsoft has launched Soapbox and Yahoo! Video made its UK debut last week.

More at Brand Republic

Addition 10/10/06: Google has put an end to speculation by agreeing to buy video-sharing network YouTube.com for $1.65bn (£884m) in a stock deal. More

Tags: google video+sharing website YouTube video film yahoo user+generated+content

Yahoo! strengthens video service as it snaps up Jumpcut

2006-09-29T14:12:00.000+01:00

Yahoo! has acquired online video-sharing and editing web site Jumpcut, in an attempt to enhance its Yahoo Video service and strengthen its community.

The deal gives Yahoo! users the ability to create "multimedia mashups" of video and other media. The company will also work with Yahoo!'s media and advertising partners to create high-quality movie and video content.

Jumpcut said: "Joining forces with Yahoo! Video will provide the resources to bring Jumpcut users and our partners more great social media experiences. As part of Yahoo! we'll be working on bringing video editing and remixing to everyone with an Internet connection."

The acquisition is the latest move by the internet media giant to capture a share in the booming market of user-generated content web sites.

A video about Jumpcut's plan to merge with Yahoo! can be viewed here.

More details at Brand Republic

Tags: jumpcut yahoo video web2.0 edit multimedia mashup video+sharing user+generated+content

Fallon's giant ‘snowball’ of doom for Travelers

2006-09-28T17:06:00.000+01:00

San Francisco’s a great spot for shooting certain types of ads—ones involving millions of little bouncing colored balls, for example.

It’s also good for showing a guy tripping and falling, rolling down a steep hill, accumulating all sorts of debris, and becoming part of a giant, indestructible snowball of crap that’s hurtling uncontrollably toward an inevitable violent end.

In other words, a TV commercial by Fallon for Travelers. Few insurance ads are as fun as this.

Source: adfreak.com

Tags: travelers snowball fallon ad advertising tv

Filminute: Submit your vote

2006-09-28T16:47:00.000+01:00

Filminute, the international one-minute film festival, has opened up judging to the public.

The competition features 27 one-minute shorts from around the world. Voters can submit their choice online at www.filminute.com

Tags: filminute vote films film festival

Truth in Advertising

2006-09-27T14:36:00.000+01:00

The full version of the short film 'Truth in Advertising'

A great story about how a marketing campaign is made. Speakers say what they think and not what they should say...

Source: Ad Arena

Tags: truth advertising film

Raindance prepares to face the music

2006-09-26T13:28:00.000+01:00

Music documentaries of various guises are set to dominate the 14th Raindance film festival in London, which opens tomorrow with a screening of the acclaimed Brothers of the Head.

Directed by Keith Fulton and Louis Pepe, the film is a faux-documentary that follows the attempts of a 1970s promoter to conjure conjoined twins into a rock'n'roll sensation. Brothers of the Head won the Michael Powell award for best new British feature at last month's Edinburgh film festival.

More straightforward interpretations of the 'rockumentary' genre are provided by Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man, Jonathan Demme's Neil Young concert film Heart of Gold and Too Tough to Die: A Tribute to Johnny Ramone.

The Raindance film festival has built a reputation as a training ground for new film-makers and a platform for independent productions. In previous years both Memento and The Blair Witch Project were first unveiled at the event.

The 14th Raindance film festival runs September 27-October 8. Further details at raindancefilmfestival.org.

Source: Guardian Unlimited

Also checkout: Tiscali Short Films

Tags: raindance independent film festival shorts movies london brothers+of+the+head

3 begins live mobile TV trial in Ireland

2006-09-25T15:50:00.000+01:00

The mobile media network, 3, is to trial the broadcast of live TV on mobile handsets using DVB-H technology in Ireland.

The one-year trial will offer access to several live TV channels and interactive TV and promises consumers pictures without delays, freezing or buffering.

3 began using the technology in Italy earlier this year with a service called WalkTV, which 140,000 customers signed up to in just six weeks.

The tests in Ireland build on 3's existing package of TV content including Barclays Premiership highlights, Father Ted and the network's own music channel.

Source: Media Week

Tags: DVB-H 3 mobile tv technology trial walktv broadcast

onedotzero competition & Young Guns deadline

2006-09-14T12:03:00.000+01:00

No pain no gain. An expression that could have been made for young creatives worldwide. To ease that though the entry deadline for next year's Young Guns Awards has been extended until October 13.

Open to all creatives under the age of 30 and with the potential to win a top prize of $10,000 it's a deadline not to miss.

Click here to enter: YGA Awards

As part of its tenth anniversary celebration, touring arts festival onedotzero is putting on its very first festival in South America, to take part from September 29th to October 3rd in Buenos Aires. See www.onedotzero.com.ar.

The festival is also launching a competition in association with MTV called Bloom.

The competition is looking for student, graduate filmmakers and creatives to submit creative proposals for one-minute films on cultural and global identity.

The winning treatments will be commissioned by onedotzero, with the chance to be part of the next onedotzero festival and tour and be shown on MTV. For more information on the project, click here: www.mtvonedotzero.com

Source: Shots.net

Tages: onedotzero competition young+guns mtv bloom filmmakers film awards

Bitfilm digital film festival

2006-09-12T14:55:00.000+01:00

The Bitfilm digital film festival, starting out on September 7th, will be entirely online.

Check out more than 130 films: from feature-length 3D films from Hollywood to 30-second short clips for mobile phones competing in seven categories at: www.bitfilm.com/festival.

Internet users are asked to disseminate their favourites on the web. The film with the highest "viral potential" in each category will win a Bitfilm Award.

Source: Shots.net

Tags: bitfilm film festival animation shorts feature mobile digital

Telegraph and ITN team up for video content

2006-09-12T14:17:00.000+01:00

The Telegraph Group is to produce and broadcast branded video content in partnership with news provider ITN.

The material will feature some of the Telegraph's best-known journalists and will be distributed on the group's website, telegraph.co.uk, and other electronic media, with ITN handling the programmes' production and distribution.

The announcement comes as the Telegraph Group launches a multimedia newspaper, Telegraph pm.

Source: Media Week

Tags: telegraph pm broadcast video content itn

Apple expected to announce film download service

2006-09-12T14:10:00.000+01:00

Apple is expected to announce a new film download service this week, according to reports.

The company is tipped to be launching the service through iTunes, its market-leading digital music store, to tie in with new iPods with enhanced video capabilities, including a larger screen, that are also expected to be launched within the next few weeks.

The news comes just days after Amazon unveiled is Unbox service, from which users can download thousands of TV programmes as well as films from studios including 20th Century Fox and Warner Brothers. Content can be played on both PCs and MP3 players.

Source: nma.co.uk

Tags: iTunes digital music film downloads amazon unbox

Startup Uses Military Tech to Fix Low Res Video

2006-08-31T16:45:00.000+01:00

Motion DSP is creating a simple web based interface that will significantly enhance low resolution camera phone video into surprisingly high quality stuff. It started off in 1998 as a U.S. military funded project at UC Santa Cruz. In January 2005, Professor Peyman Milanfar, the primary researcher behind the technology, co-founded Motion DSP.

The company compares multiple frames in a video to find and replace lost pixels in a given frame, significantly enhancing the experience with little increase in overall file size after compression. The service works best when a video is not moving rapidly or in a jerking fashion, but tends to improve just about any low quality video.

To see a demonstration, check out this page on the site that contains three different before and after video shots.

The service will go into consumer beta sometime this year, CEO and co-founder Sean Varah told us. The service will be free and will allow users to upload a video and download an enhanced version. But he also stressed that the focus will be on getting deals done with the large online video sites, such as YouTube, to enhance user-uploaded videos.

More at TechCrunch

Tags: youtube videocamera+phone improve+quality user+generated+content

Wheatley takes on Tesco

2006-08-24T14:04:00.000+01:00

Tomboy Virals director Ben Wheatley has shot this sinister satirical short showing the world domination plans of British supermarket giant Tesco.

Shown initially as part of a programme created by satirist and broadcaster Armando Iannucci called Time Trumpet, the viral depicts a not-too-distant future in which Tesco has taken over.

"I got a brief asking me to think about how Tesco might attack Denmark, I pitched back with a load of ideas and then some were chosen some were rejected. Luckily they didn't go for the B52s carpet bombing with deli wraps and the amphibious stores storming the beaches was rejected due to budget," says Wheatley.

The spot took two weeks to film. The plates were shot in Denmark with compositing and 3D help from freelancer Alex Mallinson, who also helped Wheatley on his gold cyber lion winning AMBX spot.

Source: Shots.net

Tags: tomboy virals viral video tesco time+trumpet ben+wheatley

YouTube launches video ads

2006-08-22T18:22:00.000+01:00

YouTube, the website that broadcasts 100m videos a day, is to expand the advertising it carries to include video ads, starting with a campaign for Paris Hilton's album.

Warner Bros has taken the first homepage video ad spot with a film inviting users to visit a channel dedicated to Paris Hilton, featuring behind-the-scenes footage of the heiress making her album, 'Paris'.

There is also an ad for the Fox television series 'Prison Break'.

According to The Wall Street Journal today, advertisers who pay to have their videos displayed on the YouTube homepage will be charged based on the number of visitors, regardless of how many plays the videos receive. As with other videos on the site, users will have to click on them to play.

More at Brand Republic

Tags: youtube advertising video paris+hilton prison+break

Coke: Game On

2006-08-17T13:05:00.000+01:00

Another musical epic from Grrr directors Smith & Foulkes through Wieden + Kennedy Portland for Coca-Cola.

Videogame is the latest in a rash of creatively interesting new work to emerge from Coke over the past few months that includes Nagi Noda's What Goes Around, Happiness Factory from Pysop and Inspiration from Transistor Studios that has reversed the brand's previously anodyne advertising approach.

In a wonderful balancing trick by directors and creatives, the spot successfully splices the unlikely combination of Grand Theft Auto-style computer game graphics with Coke's saccharine message.

Click here to view

More at: Shots.net

Tags: coke gta Wieden+Kennedy advertising

YouTube plans music video archive supported by ads

2006-08-17T12:55:00.000+01:00

Video-sharing website YouTube is in talks with major record companies including EMI and Warner Music about hosting old and current music videos for its users to view for free.

The discussions are believed to centre on the nature of the business model and how it will balance free viewing with ad revenue and revenue for the labels and their artists.

YouTube's ambition is to have "every music video ever created" up on the site, according to its co-founder Steve Chen.

He said: "Right now we're trying to very quickly determine how and what the model is to distribute this content and we're very aggressive in assisting the labels in trying to get the content onto YouTube."

YouTube plans to allow its community of users to add videos to their own profiles and write reviews about them, believing this will differentiate its site from Apple's iTunes store and Yahoo! and AOL's music features.

More at: Brand Republic

Links: youtube emi warner music video itunes free

Streetbroadcast joins race to be first digital network

2006-08-11T13:23:00.000+01:00

Lamppost advertising contractor Streetbroadcast is joining the race to create the first national digital outdoor ad network, beginning with 100 panels in October.

The first digital units will appear in retail parks around the UK and on the streets of Liverpool and Coventry. Within five years, Streetbroadcast hopes to have converted all of its 2,500 sites.

The company is pitching itself against Viacom Outdoor, which is digitising the London Underground over the next 18 months, and JCDecaux, which is installing digital units in airports.

The LED screens supported on columns are designed to show either static or moving images, which are fed to the units from a central server, allowing almost instant campaigns.

Source: Mediaweek

More info at Street TV

Tags: street tv led screens broadcast advertising

Rushes Soho Shorts film festival winners

2006-08-10T16:06:00.000+01:00

Terry Christian hosted the celebrity packed awards ceremony last week.

The winners are:

THE ASCENT MEDIA SHORT FILM AWARD
Winner: Cubs
Director: Tom Harper at Free Range

THE VUE ANIMATION AWARD
Winner – Rabbit
Director: Run Wrake at Sclah

THE ARRI/ARRI MEDIA NEWCOMER AWARD
Winner – Goodbye Mr Snuggles
Director: Jonathan Hopkins at Between the Eyes

THE SONY MEDIA MUSIC VIDEO AWARD
Winner – White Stripes "The Denial Twist"
Director: Michel Gondry at Partizan

THE ADOBE TITLES & IDENTS AWARD
Winner - Come Home to the Simpsons
Director: Chris Palmer at Gorgeous

View the Winning Films

Tags: rushes soho shorts film festival video simpsons michel+gondry

Mentos launches first cinema campaign

2006-08-08T14:03:00.000+01:00

Mentos is launching its first cinema campaign in the UK, weeks after it received millions of pounds in free media coverage following the global craze of creating a soda fountain by putting the chewy sweets in a bottle of Coke.

The Mentos/Coke soda fountain craze, which began in the US, spread worldwide last month with countless clips appearing on websites such as YouTube.

Mentos' new ad campaign, created by Bartle Bogle Hegarty, breaks this weekend in cinemas and is being rolled out across Europe later this month.

More details at: Media Guardian

Tags: mentos coke viral cinema video advertising

Viacom partners with Google for online content deal

2006-08-08T13:51:00.000+01:00

Viacom is partnering with Google to provide programming from MTV and Nickelodeon to thousands of internet sites and blogs affiliated with the search engine.

Viacom's exclusive deal with Google marks the first time MTV will syndicate its shows across the internet beyond the company's own websites.

The deal will begin as a test run at the end of the month via the insertion of video into Google's targeted advertising system, AdSense, including content from MTV's hit reality show 'Laguna Beach: The Real O.C.', 'The MTV Video Music Awards', and Nickelodeon's 'SpongeBob SquarePants'.

More at: Brand Republic/Revolution

Tags: mtv viacom nickelodeon google video advertising

Cunningham Makes a Move

2006-08-03T14:55:00.000+01:00

Chris Cunningham has left RSA and is in the process of setting up a new production company with former FilmFour executive producer Jim Wilson.

Chris's first music promo for seven years, Sheena Is A Parasite for The Horrors, was the first job produced by the as yet unnamed new company.

"The new company will be an outlet for all of Chris's work," Wilson told shots.net. "His promos, short films, the original music videos that he produces as well as the purely music projects he is currently working on. There's no definitive plan at the moment and the company doesn't even have a name but hopefully there'll be more news in the coming weeks and months."

Source: Shots.net

Tags: chris+cunningham video music rsa production+company

MTV's record-breaking longest music video ever

2006-08-03T14:30:00.000+01:00

Further to last week's post about MTV's record-breaking longest music video ever, here is have the promo - called Deluded In My Mind - directed by Partizan's Alistair Siddons, in all its 20-minute glory. Longest Music Video Ever

Coca-Cola Tries the UGC Side of Life

2006-08-02T15:35:00.000+01:00

The Coca-Cola Company has morphed its longtime corporate Web site at Coca-Cola.com into an international brand portal with user-generated content in mind.

The new site, designed by AKQA, marks the first global integration of the company's digital presence.

The site launch is part of the company's global "Coke Side of Life" campaign. A series of monthly challenges will encourage people around the world to create videos in response to a theme. The first challenge on the site, "The Essence of You," is drawn from Wieden + Kennedy's advertising for the client. "If you could bottle the essence of you and share it with the world, what story would you tell?" asks the site.

Site visitors will be able to vote on each other's work, and a winner of each challenge will get video equipment and editing software worth around $5,000, wherever they may be in the 26 countries.

Source: ClickZ Network

Tags: coca-cola coke akqa website portal competition advertising user+generated+content

Agency.com ‘viral’ pitch video

2006-08-02T15:21:00.000+01:00

Agency.com, in an attempt to win the Subway business, decided to do something a little different.

They created a video of themselves preparing for the pitch and put it online. According to the video, they wanted to show the Subway how "immersed" they get in understanding the client's business.

Source: Random Culture

More blog comments at Crackunit.com

YouTube: Going to Work for SUBWAY: Part 1

del.icio.us links

UPDATE: http://www.whenwerollwerollbig.com/

Tags: agency.com viral subway pitch

iStockphoto adds User-generated Video

2006-08-01T17:55:00.000+01:00

Canadian company iStockphoto, which describes itself as the world's leading community-powered marketplace for stock photography and illustrations, is widening its business base to include user-generated video licensed from $5 a 30-second clip upwards.

The new business centers on contributed stock video, film and animation clips and, beginning in September, iStock will license broadcast-quality footage, with a focus on digital formats, including HD video.

It publishes the following royalty free pricelist: Small, 320x240, $5; Medium, 640x480, $10; Large, 720x486 (NTSC/PAL), $20; HD 720, 1280x720, $35; HD 1080, 1920x1080, $50.

Web: video.istockphoto.com

Tags: istockphoto istockvideo video user+generated film getty+images

CNN and AOL launch new video services

2006-07-31T20:28:00.000+01:00

Two Time Warner sites are making serious moves into online video. CNN is expected to formally launch today a system for collecting user generated content, with video at the center of its strategy.

The basics are already up at CNN Exchange. The system will be powered by Blip.tv

In related news the New York Times reported this morning that AOL, where many services will become free on Wednesday, will launch a video service on Friday.

Commercial free downloads-to-own will start at $1.99 and various free offerings will join AOL’s video search for content across the web.

More info at Techcrunch

CNN has also released an handy guide called "Trade Secrets" for amateur citizen journalists that has some nice tips and precautions for taking pictures, shooting videos or recording audio.

Links to CNN Tips: [pdf documents]

Shooting Photographs | Shooting Great Video | Recording Great Audio

Tags: time+warner cnn cnn+exchange blip.tv online video aol

The Rushes Soho Shorts Festival

2006-07-28T17:50:00.000+01:00

Opening tomorrow and running until the 4th August is the Rushes Soho Shorts Festival.

Now entering its 8th year, this unique festival has grown to become a major event on the festival circuit.

In addition to the 140 screenings of the shortlists held in cinemas, bars, cafes and screening rooms around Soho in London they have also organised special screenings in association with the APA and Straight8.

29th July-4th August.

Official website

Tags: soho shorts film festival rushes london

MTV's Birthday Record Breaker

2006-07-27T17:52:00.000+01:00

Partizan is set to take the record for the longest music video thanks to director Alastair Siddons' new promo for Mike Skinner celebrating MTV's 25th birthday.

The current holder of the longest music video, as listed in the Guinness Book Of Records, is Michael Jackson's Thriller, directed by John Landis in 1983 at a whopping 18 minutes long. Siddons' video, however, will stretch to an epic 20 minutes. The spot will be shown on MTV for the first time on August 1st at 8.30pm.

The video will put Partizan in the record books for the second time - it holds the record for the most awarded commercial of all time, Levi's Drugstore, directed by Michel Gondry.

In a reversal on the usual music video procedure, the song was actually written by Skinner after the video was shot. MTV viewers were asked to send in ideas for a film based on the theme of Myths and Legends - Skinner and Siddons then read them and picked the best 25, commissioning them to shoot films with cameras supplied by MTV. The pair then waded through 50 hours of footage and selected the five main stories, with Skinner writing the tune and lyrics around those stories. Skinner features as the thread linking all the stories, singing the chorus of the song after each filmic verse.

Profits from the video will go to the Staying Alive charity, which supports young people with HIV and AIDS.

To watch the trailer for the spot, click here: MTV World's Longest Music Video

More info at Shots.net

Tags: mtv birthday partizan the+streets music+video record

MTV gives audience control over channel with Flux

2006-07-27T16:06:00.000+01:00

MTV is launching a new interactive channel and service, MTV Flux, that will give the audience control over content and offer advertisers a wider-reaching network.

MTV Flux will run across TV, online and mobile platforms and will launch in two stages.
The interactive platforms will kick off on August 1, with the launch of a community-based website at mtvflux.co.uk.

At this site, users can register to become Flux members, dubbed "Fluxers", where they can create their own personalised on-screen identity or avatar.

This will be followed by the TV channel, MTV Flux, where content will feature back-to-back music videos chosen by members, with additional user-generated content and text-to-screen applications.

More info: Brand Republic

Tags: mtv flux mtv+flux tv video film online mobile advertising

Cunningham Comes Out for the Horrors

2006-07-20T13:20:00.000+01:00

Master of twisted filmmaking Chris Cunningham has shot his first music video for seven years for indie band du jour The Horrors.

The elusive director only sporadically releases new work - the video is his first music video since All Is Full Of Love for Bjork in 2001. He released the very dark short film Rubber Johnny last April.

The song, titled Sheena Is A Parasite, features the talents of English actress Samantha Morton who starred alongside Johnny Depp in The Libertine. Morton, tensing and dancing as if in the midst of a drug induced fit, sweats and rolls her eyes in a dark room lit by strobe lights as the band, looking like something out of Kubrick's Clockwork Orange gone gothic, play in the background.

Cunningham brings his trademark twisted effects work to the video with a host of rather nasty looking alterations to Morton.

More details at Shots.net & Director File

To watch the promo, click here: CLICK HERE TO VIEW SPOT

Tags: chris+cunningham video music the+horrors promo

Mother Enters Toy Biz with "Diving Winker"

2006-07-20T10:18:00.000+01:00

Mother has encapsulated the agonies of every English football fan and produced a spoof commercial for a new toy, called The Number 17 Portuguese Action Figure, based on the Manchester United and Portuguese player Cristiano Ronaldo. "He runs, he dribbles, he collapses in a heap… oh no, he's hurt - referee, penalty! Hang on, he's okay!" says the voiceover.

Watch it here: Diving Winker

Tags: mother ad+agency toy+biz world+cup football ronaldo

Yahoo Invites Film School Students to Create their New Ad's

2006-07-18T15:34:00.000+01:00

In a departure from traditional advertising campaigns, Yahoo! and its agency, Soho Square / OgilvyOne, invited film school students to participate in creating the new advertising.

Yahoo! and the agency worked with the London Film Academy, Parsons, the San Francisco Art Institute and Yale University to develop scenarios in which a person directly or indirectly reveals that his or her "Yahoo! has changed."Additionally, Yahoo! created a new Yahoo! Video category where users can easily upload their own videos to be viewed alongside the film school work.

For the first time, Yahoo! has made available a variety of creative assets for consumers to incorporate into their videos, including the Yahoo! logo, yodel and sample scripts. Yahoo! will select the best submissions to feature in its ongoing advertising on the Yahoo! network.

Watch the film student's films here and add your own

Source: tmc.net

Tags: yahoo video advertising student film ideas user+generated+content

Google Eyes Up Your Telly

2006-07-18T15:26:00.000+01:00

Having conquered the web and the earth, Google has now set their eyes on your television.

An initial research project, announced at the Euro ITV interactive TV conference, covered a method of delivering contextually relevant web content based on TV audio.

Confused? Put simply, your PC will listen to the noise your TV’s emitting, recognise the programming and offer you further relevant content, chatrooms and the like. Although this seems a fairly clunky process (surely quickly superseded by combined TV/PC entertainment systems?) it shows how the future of the web is in adding depth to other channels.

You can read the full research document in a PDF here, if you so wish.

Source: hyperhappen.com

Tags: google tv audio content web pc

Giants of Advertising: The Video Interviews

2006-07-17T14:01:00.000+01:00

Come face-to-face with the giants of advertising. Watch interviews and archival videos of the industry's top thinkers and influencers.

These rare video interviews with Keith Reinhard, David Ogilvy, George Gallup, George Lois, William Marsteller, William Bernbach, Leo Burnett, Lester Wunderman, Tom Messner are certainly worth a minute of your time.

Source: Fallon planning blog

Tags: advertising agencies video interviews Keith+Reinhard David+Ogilvy George+Gallup George+Lois William+Marsteller William+Bernbach Leo+Burnett Lester+Wunderman Tom+Messner

"New Media Misses"

2006-07-14T14:03:00.000+01:00

On the heels of Coke's foray into social media, Advergirl scripts a hilarious fly on the wall meeting "between a Big Agency and a Big Client on New Media."

She says, "When your client makes a couple billion a year and is to all appearances unstoppable, no matter how inane the advertising and marketing gets, just how much strategic advice are they really looking to the agency for?"

Tags: coke agency advertising new+media

Absolut Launches Musical to Promote Ruby Red Vodka

2006-07-14T12:24:00.000+01:00

To promote its new Ruby Red, Absolut has launched Ruby Red the Musical, an animated online "musical" that lets the viewer choose how they'd like the musical to proceed in the next scene.

At the end of the show, the musical can be downloaded to PSP or iPod and there are wallpapers to slap on the desktop. There;s also a send to a friend feature and the option to view the musical a different way.

Source: Adrants

Tags: absolut ruby+red vodka ad musical online film animation

Eyespot: Create Video Mashups, Edit & Share Films Online

2006-07-10T14:30:00.000+01:00

Eyespot offers an impressive feature, mixing of videos with video and adding audio.

There is an interesting option called harveting in which you can choose videos from other accounts (only the ones made public), add it your account and mix it with your own videos.

Apart from the mixing, it also has a tagging feature for easy navigation and searches.

An amazing example of what you can do with Ajax, Perl, and a little innovation.

Others in this area include previously blogged Vpod, Jumpcut, Motionbox and Click.tv

Check out the Inside the Net Podcast with David Dudas from Eyespot.

Tags: eyespot vpod click.tv online video mashup edit film ajax perl

Site Tempts Video Makers by Offering to Pay Them

2006-07-03T13:02:00.000+01:00

If creators of homemade Internet video get tired of producing something for nothing, they can post their work on Lulu.tv

The Web site, which lets people upload and watch video clips, said last week that it would begin charging a $14.95 monthly fee for a "pro" account and putting 80 percent of that money into a special fund. Each month the money will be distributed among the video creators, with the biggest share going to the person who attracted the most viewers.

Other video sites are trying different approaches to bringing in cash. YouTube, the most popular of the genre, has a deal with NBC to promote its new television shows on a special section of the site. Revver.com will share 50 percent of its advertising revenue with those who post videos there.

Source: The New York Times (subscription required)

Tags: lulu lulu.tv video money internet tv

Spoof viral scoops top digital Cannes prize for droga5

2006-06-23T18:09:00.000+01:00

A spoof viral ad created by Dave Droga's agency droga5 for clothing company Ecko, in which a graffiti artist tags President Bush's Air Force One, has shared the Cyber Lions Grand Prix prize with Crispin Porter & Bogusky.

The controversial three-minute film "still free", which is Ecko's mantra, uses an old aircraft painted in similar colours to Air Force One and a mock-up of Andrews Air Force base.

It shows two man sneaking up to the fence around the base and climbing over to get to the plane and tag the words "still free" onto the side of the 747.

The ad was created by New York-based droga5, the agency launched by Australian Droga, the former executive creative director at Saatchi & Saatchi and worldwide creative director for Publicis network.

Crispin Porter & Bogusky in Miami took its share of the Cyber Lions Grand Prix prize for its Golf GTI campaign for Volkswagen.

Director on the spot was Randy Krallman, art director was Duncan Marshall and copywriter was Jeski Takaharo.

Watch the video

Source: Brand Republic

Tags: viral cannes droga5 spoof air+force+one award ecko ad advertising

Cannes Lions 2006: The Fireflies Bicycle Ride for Leuka

2006-06-16T12:59:00.000+01:00

The Fireflies Bicycle Ride for Leuka is taking place for the 6th year, running from the 12th to the 21st of June and riding into the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival.

If you were in Cannes last year, you may have noticed a peloton of cyclists clad in shiny red tops and black lycra, sweeping down the Croisette, late Thursday afternoon.

These cyclists are known as the Fireflies riders and each year they traverse 1000 km across the French Alps from Geneva to Cannes raising money for Leuka.

Read more about this epic journey here

Catch up on the LATEST NEWS !

Sponsor them here

Tags: fireflies bike ride cannes cannes+lions leuka leukaemia charity advertising

MTV Blows Whistle On People Trafficking

2006-06-15T13:31:00.000+01:00

In the midst of World Cup fever, MTV Europe Foundation and JWT London have created a sobering reminder of the spectre of people trafficking.

The spot is backed up by a website www.mtvstreaker.com where web users can watch the harrowing film again and find out how to report suspected cases of trafficking or prostitution to the German authorities.

The spot was shot by Partizan's Dominic Murphy, "The idea was an attempt to create an analogy within the football environment. To know that a streaker was forced to streak against their will was a comparison which we felt would be thought provoking," copywriter Laurence Quinn tells shots.net. "MTV wanted something to make people realise that if you pay for sex during the World Cup you could be sleeping with someone who was doing it against their will. At the same time MTV are not against prostitution, just sex slavery.

Nick Bell, creative director at JWT, comments: "Once in a while this business offers the opportunity to do something significant for a worthwhile cause. This is such an opportunity and I would like to publicly credit Dominic Murphy and everyone involved in this project for movingly capturing the horrific nature of this issue."

Source: Shots

Tags: world+cup football film website mtv sex partizan jwt

Full-length Film shot on Mobile Phone

2006-06-14T18:10:00.000+01:00

Two Italian directors who wanted to follow in the footsteps of their legendary countryman Pier Paolo Pasolini have reportedly scored a first - shooting a feature-length documentary using a mobile phone.

The 93-minute film, called Nuovi Comizi D'amore (New Love Meetings), is a modern version of Pasolini's 1965 documentary, Comizi D'amore (Love Meetings), in which Pasolini interviewed Italians to find out their views about sex in postwar Italy. Attitudes across the country showed people had taboos and self-censorship was widespread.

The new version, shot by Marcello Mencarini and Barbara Seghezzi, was filmed in MPEG4 format with a mobile phone. For two months last year, the directors interviewed some 700 people across Italy, at bars, open markets, on the beach. About 100 of them ended up in the movie.

Source: Guardian unlimited

Official Film Website at http://www.nuovicomizidamore.com/

Tags: movie film video camera+phone mobile phone documentary nuovicomizidamore

The Extreme Diet Coke & Mentos Experiments

2006-06-13T17:46:00.000+01:00

What happens when you combine 200 liters of Diet Coke and over 500 Mentos mints? It's amazing and completely insane.

The first part of this video demonstrates a simple geyser, and the second part shows just how extreme it can get.

Over one hundred jets of soda fly into the air in less than three minutes.It's a hysterical and spectacular mint-powered version of the Bellagio Fountains in Las Vegas, brought to you by the mad scientists at EepyBird.com.

More Info at http://eepybird.com/

Stephen Voltz, co-producer of "The Extreme Diet Coke & Mentos Experiments", talks with CNET News.com's Michelle Meyers

Tags: eepybird extreme diet+coke mentos bellagio fountains las+vegas video

Viacom plans £72m Upgrade on Tube Ad Sites

2006-06-13T17:32:00.000+01:00

Viacom Outdoor is to spend £72m on upgrading advertising formats on the London Underground.

Oxford Circus, Bond Street, Victoria, Kings Cross, Piccadilly Circus and Tottenham Court Road will be amongst the first stations to be transformed, as part of the new eight and a half year contract Viacom has been awarded.

Within 18 months, Viacom plans to install more than 2000 new digital sites at 30 stations, including digital escalator panels, LCD screens in ticket halls and an average of two cross track projection screens per platform.

The moving images on platforms and in ticket halls will be silent, because sound cannot be introduced for health and safety reasons.The remaining 31,000 advertising sites on the 275 station network will be replaced with a ‘dry-posting’ format which uses post-it note technology to do away with glue and paste.

Source: Media Week

Tags: viacom outdoor digital screens film advertising tube london

Micro-site's Agogo - Snickers, BMW & Burger King

2006-06-09T16:44:00.000+01:00

Snickers has launched Instant Def, a branded entertainment campaign featuring 5 short films about a fictional "hip-hop" crew called Instant Def. This crew is actually played by the Black Eyed Peas.

BMW has also launched a great microsite for the 2006 BMW 3 Series. The site looks great, utilizing lots of 3D renderings of the car, and also has a ton of video content.

Burger King has rolled out yet another site, Huckin' Chicken Extreme Air is the latest. It features videos of someone in a chicken suit doing tricks on a motorcycle. As more people visit the site, more videos will be revealed.

Source: Random Culture

Tags: micro-site video film advert website snickers bmw burger+king

Vpod Shines in the Evolving Video Sharing Space

2006-06-07T14:37:00.000+01:00

vpod is a “best of class” service, in the rapidly evolving and increasingly crowded video sharing space. vpod is doing things that no one else is with transcoding, editing/display and monetization.

vpod will allow advertisers to easily create advertisements, and play them on their own websites and/or insert them into users’ videos. Ads will be inserted at the beginning, middle or end of videos and will range from 10-60 seconds long. Users can opt out of ads by paying a fee. By opting in, they’ll receive a revenue split from vpod - something in the 50% range. This is further than what competitor Revver has announced to date.

But vpod also shines in other areas. They take video from almost any source and, more importantly, transcode for almost any device. Want Mpeg-4 for the PSP? vpod will let you download that format. Mpeg for the iPod? You can have that too. Just tell vpod your device and it will give you the correct format.

And finally, the tools for creating your own “channel” on vPod are stunning. The only Flash is around the player. Everything else is javascript and dhtml. They allow, for example, resizing of boxes by dragging the mouse, something I’ve only seen in Flash previously.

More at TechCrunch

vpod.tv Blog

Tags: vpod tv ipod video advertising create

Nokia's Viral Dancing Pjotro on Russian TV

2006-06-02T12:39:00.000+01:00

Pjotro, Nokia's tongue-in-cheek viral dancing character and web site, made the rounds of the blogosophere pretty fast.

Pjotro shows off his musical suit during a blipped-out appearance on Russian TV.

Visit his official site.

Tags: nokia viral pjotro musical+suite russian tv

Startup Watch: TurnHere (Your Local, Neighborhood, Video Site)

2006-06-01T13:25:00.000+01:00

TurnHere is that rarest of video sites on the Web: it actually pays filmmakers for the mini-documentaries that it shows on its site. "I could not imagine not paying creators," says founder Brads Inman.

The site, which soft-launched last December and has recently unveiled a vastly superior redesign last month, currently features about 300 videos showcasing neighborhoods in different cities.

There is the one about NYC's Canal Street narrated by a private detective who works on product counterfeit cases; an homage to the Lower East Side's famed smoked fish shop Russ & Daughters; a history of San Francisco's Palace Hotel; a tour of Burlington, Vermont; and a look at the real Tijuana. They tend to be hit or miss, but pleasantly there are more hits than misses.

Inman wants to film the world, one neighborhood at a time. The online videos are all made by freelance filmmakers, journalists, and other semi-pros (although there is one 17-year old who contributes as well). Inman pays $500 and up for each video, and he is very selective about what he accepts This is no YouTube free-for-all. "We want professionally created video," says Inman. "You don't need to be a Hollywood studio to do this stuff." He is taking advantage of cheap video and editing technology, even cheaper Web distribution, and a highly-skilled, highly-distributed freelance workforce.

More details at B2Day

Tags: video films filmmakers online turnhere

Yahoo Battles YouTube

2006-06-01T13:16:00.000+01:00

The new Yahoo Video product launched last night (Wednesday). The big change? Yahoo Video is targeting YouTube by allowing user-generated videos on the site. The biggest disappointment? The product is not being integrated (yet) into Flickr.

Yahoo Video will continue to allow major video publishers direct API access to the site, as well as crawling the web for relevant videos as well. But now, regular Internet users will have an easy way to upload videos and create their own video blog channel on Yahoo Video.

Source: TechCrunch

Tags: yahoo video publish youtube flickr

'The Next Big Idea' Getty Images announces winner of their International Film Competition

2006-05-26T13:36:00.000+01:00

Getty Images have announced Mark Tapio Kines from Los Angeles, CA as the grand prize winner of "The Next Big Idea," a peer-judged short film competition that garnered more than 200 entries from 23 countries.

Kines' "The Closest Thing to Time Travel," which depicts an invention that enables people to witness past events, was selected from a shortlist of 28 films that made it to the final round of the competition for online peer voting. In addition to receiving the US$10,000 grand prize, Kines' film will be premiered around the world.

The competition brief was simple: explore the one thing that links all creative work -- "the big idea" -- and produce a 60-second film with at least half of the content originating from the vast collection of digital film and still imagery available at www.gettyimages.com

"The Closest Thing to Time Travel" and the nine finalist films can be viewed online at www.gettyimages.com/thenextbigidea, and are scheduled to premiere at Getty Images' events around the world.

Source: Yahoo News

Tags: getty+images the+next+big+idea competition finalists winner shorts films film archive time+travel

Virgin Mobile Motormouth Ad, Down Under

2006-05-26T11:11:00.000+01:00

Virgin Mobile in Australia has launched its new round of television commercials featuring the monotonous motor mouth Russell.

Voting closed on Saturday May 6. Since then production has been in full swing in preparation for the launch of the new exciting ad recently shown on Channel 10.

The Virgin Mobile Motormouth Ad is available to view online. Somehow the creative team has managed to tie together a horror genre, birthday suit, a nun on a piano and disco music.

The new exciting ad is available in 60 second, 30 second and 15 second versions from the Virgin Mobile Exciting Ads page.

The campaign has been developed by Virgin Mobile’s regular agency and production company: Host and The Glue Society, the same combo who produced the Warren, 5 Cent and Jason Donovan campaigns. Host and Glue Society will have ten days to film Russell in the chosen genre.

Michael, the actor behind the Russell character, has his own MySpace web site - “Oh What a Mindblast!”

Source: Duncan's TV Ad Land

Tags: virgin+mobile tv ad motormouth australia russell

City AM and Titan Outdoor launch City PM 'bluecasts'

2006-05-25T17:21:00.000+01:00

City AM has launched a podcast via mobile using Bluetooth technology targeting homeward-bound business commuters using London's Liverpool Street and Waterloo stations.

Under a deal struck with outdoor specialist Titan, the "transvision" screens in both stations will run a 15-second commercial for the service, every two minutes from 5.30pm to 7.30pm daily. The ad will air 45 times a day.

The five-minute podcast can be delivered to 150 mobile phones simultaneously.

Capital Spreads, the online financial spreadbetting service, has signed up to sponsor the podcasts as well as the transvision ads.

The project was conceived by outdoor media agency Kinetic.

More at Guardian Unlimited

Tags: cityam titan outdoor advertising podcast bluecast bluetooth

Google Moves to Sell Space for Video Spots

2006-05-23T13:22:00.000+01:00

Google will launch a new pay-per-click video ad product and syndicate it out through its Adsense Network today.

Like Google’s normal text ads, Advertisers will bid for placement and will be charged when a user clicks on the video. A graphic will appear on the website displaying the ad.

According to the New York Times, which Google presumably briefed, says that Google hopes to bring video advertising to small businesses.

Michael Arrington at TechCrunch is "betting against it".

Full story at the New York Times

AdWords official info blog post

Tags: google adsence video internet search advertising

An Online Market for Video Clip Reruns

2006-05-23T13:13:00.000+01:00

A new entry into the market for providing video clips is Clipsyndicate, which is an aggregator for traditional broadcast outlets to be licensed to bloggers or other web publishers. Clipsyndicate will either let you supply your own ads with the clips or will embed ads that have been bought through them.

"Web sites and bloggers would love to add video, and news outlets would love to give it to them, but they haven't figured out a way to do it without getting ripped off," said Allen Weiner, an analyst with Gartner, a technology consulting firm. "So this addresses a major pain point."

Source: NY Times

Tags: ClipSyndicate tv advertising blogs websites

Mini Viral: Aveaword.com

2006-05-19T17:36:00.000+01:00

Mini in the UK has launched a new viral marketing campaign you can find at: Aveaword.com. The site allows you to customize a video of a bloke to insult your friends and convince them that the new Mini is actually a "man's" car.

And guess what? Mini can still have great virals without Crispin Porter on the roster. This one was created by Glue London.

Source: Random Culture

Tags: mini glue london viral ad aviaword

Wrong Guy Interviewed on BBC News

2006-05-18T17:54:00.000+01:00

How would you do if you found yourself on live TV answering questions on something you have no idea about? Would you freeze? Would you explain who you really were? Or would you rise to the challenge?

Guy Goma was waiting in BBC reception for a job interview. The producer asked for Guy Kewney, editor of Newswireless.net, who was due to be interviewed about the Apple vs Apple court case.

After being pointed in Mr Goma's direction by a receptionist, the producer - who had seen a photo of the real expert - checked: "Are you Guy Kewney?"When he confirmed this he was rushed through the BBC, into a bright studio and seconds later he was being interviewed on live TV.

See how he did

Source: BoreMe

Full story on the BBC website. BBC reports the story on TV

Wrong Guy recalls live TV moment

Tags: BBC tv news mistake wrong+guy apple

Tango's new twist on the Sony Bravia Ad

2006-05-17T16:52:00.000+01:00

Following the popularity of the Fallon produced Sony Bravia Commercial, Tango has made a mess of an English town by dumping several tons of fruit down the street.

The incident sparked a protest from the Swansea North Residents Association who insist they "will not be dumped on."

Tags: fallon sony commercial tv ad fruit

Create your own Bollywood edits at Bombay TV

2006-05-17T16:39:00.000+01:00

Make your own subtitle edits utilizing schlocky Bollywood film clips, send 'em to friends (or enemies).

Source: Fallon Planning Blog

Tags: bollywood tv film edit

Glue London wins top spot at MSN awards

2006-05-16T18:23:00.000+01:00

Creative agency Glue London has been awarded Best in Show at the MSN European Creative Awards.

The awards, which celebrate the region's creative and planning teams, received 255 entries, double the entries for the previous year's awards.

The judges awarded 14 winners across five categories. Glue claimed three prizes including the "Snickers Bowl" campaign for MasterFoods in the consumer goods/FMCG category, and first and second place in the financial services category for its Virgin Credit Card "Plastic surgery" campaign and "Say yes" campaign.

The 14 winning campaigns were awarded with cash prizes and entry and attendance to the 2006 Cannes Cyber Lions Awards.

Source: Revolution

View Winners

Tags: Creative agency Glue London Best in Show MSN+European+Creative+Awards

Clear Channel launches digital billboard network

2006-05-12T14:38:00.000+01:00

Clear Channel Outdoor is set to pilot a scheme to roll out the UK's first network of outdoor digital billboards in London.

The locations include sites at London's Vauxhall Cross and on the high-profile Cromwell Road. The company plans to introduce the 10 digital screens in the third quarter of this year.

The billboards will use reflected light using sunlight in daytime and front-lit lights at night instead of the LED technology used across Clear Channel Outdoor's existing digital networks in the US.

Barry Sayer, UK chief executive of Clear Channel Outdoor, added: "The screens will not only provide unparalleled flexibility, enabling advertisers to target audiences at different times of the day, in different mindsets with different messages, but they are also more energy-efficient than traditional LED screens."

Paul Meyer, global president of Clear Channel Outdoor, said: "We are very excited about this pilot, which employs a new generation of digital technology that furthers our commitment to make all of our outdoor displays as energy-efficient as possible."

"The knowledge we gain from this project and our existing digital networks in Cleveland and Las Vegas, combined with the additional digital networks that will be deployed during the second half of the year, will be invaluable in developing our long-term strategy for rolling out digital displays across our many markets."

More details: Brand Republic

Tags: clear+channel outdoor advertising digital display screen led technology billboard

The 2006 Webby Winners Anounced

2006-05-12T14:36:00.000+01:00

10th Annual Webby Winners, Webby People's Voice Winners and Webby Special Achievement Honorees have all been announced!

BEST USE OF VIDEO OR MOVING IMAGE

WEBBY AWARD WINNER: Freedom of the Seas
AGENCY/CREDITED ORGANIZATION: Arnold Worldwide/IQ Interactive

PEOPLE'S VOICE WINNER: THE BOOK OF COOL
AGENCY/CREDITED ORGANIZATION: Ocelot Productions Ltd

View all the Winners

Tags: webby+awards awards video moving+image web internet winners

First Post magazine offers £5k online viral prize

2006-05-10T14:21:00.000+01:00

Daily online magazine The First Post has launched a competition offering £5,000 for the best original viral film or animation.

The winning virals will be used as part of an ongoing marketing campaign for the online magazine and will also feature on a number of entertainment websites.

The judging panel, which includes: Patrick Collister, former creative director and vice-chairman of Ogilvy & Mather London; Graham Fink, creative director at Saatchi & Saatchi; Mat Smith, managing director and creative director of The Viral Factory; and Mark Law, editor of The First Post, will be looking for "style, humour and a healthy dose of irreverence".

Source: Revolution

More info at: The First Post

Tags: first+post viral prize competition film

The Da Vinci Code: Google Quest & Sony Ericsson Trail

2006-05-05T18:03:00.000+01:00

For all the Da Vinci Code fans out there (film released in the UK on 19th May), not only is Google offering the Da Vinci Code Quest we now have the Sony Ericsson Da Vinci Code Trail to keep you busy!

Enjoy the weekend!

Tags: da+vinci+code quest google sony+ericsson trail website game

Amateur snappers get their reward

2006-05-05T14:05:00.000+01:00

Members of the public who have shot newsworthy images or footage could get their reportage recognised by a new award.

Backed by Nokia and the UK's Press Gazette the Citizen Journalism Award will spotlight people who found themselves witnesses to events that made the news.

It has been created because so many people own phones that can shoot snaps or video clips, said the Press Gazette.

Amateur snappers have until 30 June to submit entries.

The competition is open to anyone that has shot stills or video that has been printed, broadcast or appeared online in the last 12 months. Working journalists are excluded from entering.

More details at BBC News

Tags: nokia press+gazette citizen+journalism award photography film competition uk

Xenophile Media combine TV and the Net

2006-05-05T13:45:00.000+01:00

What do you get when you combine TV and the 'net? If you do it right you get ReGenesisTV

What if you created a web site for a TV show that isn't just an ad for the show but actually involves viewers in the plot - sometimes even inserting them into the show itself? What if you created nine sites and a podcast? That's what Xenophile Media has done for the Canadian TV show ReGenesis.

Inside the Net talk with Xenophile creative director Evan Jones about the site, the design, and the idea of truly interactive television.

Check out the podcast

Tags: tv show regenesis xenophile+media internet website game podcast advertising

ABC Gives Fans a "Lost Experience"

2006-05-04T13:50:00.000+01:00

ABC has devised a way to keep fans of its hit show confused, guessing and on the edge of their seats during the lazy days of summer reruns.

The network announced Monday the creation of an interactive multiplatform treasure-hunt game called Lost Experience that will introduce a new story line but stay true to Lost's signature mix of supernatural and psychological mystery.

The Lost Experience will require players to trade email messages and phone calls and check out billboards, TV commercials and Websites to gather all the necessary clues.

"Cutting edge technology has vaulted us into a new era," ABC Entertainment President Steve McPherson said in a statement. "Audiences are demanding greater depth of content and more creative ways of storytelling."

In a savvy stroke of synergy, the game's first clue, in the form of a toll-free number that you must call, will air during a May 3 Lost episode. The first clues for Others in the U.K. and Australia are being released May 2 and May 6, respectively.

One of the most exciting parts of the Lost Experience will be the interaction it fosters among people all over the world, according to Michael Benson, a senior VP at ABC. He said that Lost's writers, not ABC marketers, were responsible for plotting the game's course. More than 20 broadcastes on five continents will air the series of clues in different ways and ABC would like to see fans reaching out to each other to stay up to date on the latest Lost Experience info.

"We wanted to tell stories in a nontraditional way," Lost writer and executive producer Carlton Cuse told the New York Times, "and there were certain stories that Damon [Lindeloff] and I were interested in telling that don't exactly fit into the television show."

Read more at: Eonline.com

Check out the official Lost podcast

Tags: lost tv television the+lost+experience interactive game abc

ICA goes Viral with 'Outrageous and Contagious'

2006-05-02T13:48:00.000+01:00

The Institute of Contemporary Arts has teamed up with Channel 4's IdeasFactory to launch an exhibition celebrating viral ads called 'Outrageous and Contagious', a title that picks up on the medium's association with the controversial.

The exhibition consists of a showcase of classic, weird, funny and outrageous virals, including a Sky News viral that featured the text "Bush: one of the worst disasters to hit the US", under a picture of George W Bush, Ali G talking about drugs to the British drugs czar and the Volkswagen Golf ad that featured Gene Kelly singing in rain.

It will be followed by a summit where participants can discuss the phenomenon, share ideas and talk about its future.

The exhibition will also include the launch of this year's Germ, the second annual viral 'Oscars', which includes categories such as 'best video viral' and 'best commercially produced viral'. The nominees will be judged by an expert panel of digital, creative and broadcast professionals.

Some Viral examples from boreme.com:

VW suicide bomber spoof

Great moments in presidential speeches

Football hazards

Read more at: Brand Republic (subscription required)

Tags: ica viral vw spoof exhibition advertising germ

Firefox Flicks Crowns a Champ

2006-05-02T13:07:00.000+01:00

While Internet Explorer teeters, Firefox is roaring, most recently with the completion of the do-it-all browser's grassroots marketing campaign.

The winner, "Daredevil" by Venice, Cailfornia's Pete Macomber, will be shortlisted in the NY Festival of Advertising's 2006 International Advertising Awards next month. Judges for the competition included StrawberryFrog chief creative officer Scott Goodson, Charlie's Angels director McG and Six Feet Under actor Freddy Rodriguez.

Source: AdCritic.com

Tags: firefox internet+explorer marketing competition

Art Flicks Sparkle on Mobile Phones

2006-04-28T13:06:00.000+01:00

Art-house flicks for mobile phones and iPods might teach Hollywood a thing or two about mobile entertainment if the movie bigwigs would just pay attention to the tiny screen, experts say.

This week at the San Francisco International Film Festival, 20 movies made for mobile devices with 2-inch-by-3-inch screens will be shown as part of the festival's Pocket Cinema program.

Some of the films tackle very big issues, like Katherin McInnis' spookspeak, a four-minute film parodying the National Security Agency's Echelon electronic eavesdropping program.

The Pocket Cinema program highlights the art world's contribution to mobile video, which the entertainment industry hopes will be the next big content boom. Fox, for example, is releasing mobisodes of the TV show Prison Break, while Touchstone Television Productions is producing a version of Lost just for mobiles.

Full report at Wired News

Tags: san+francisco international film+festival mobile video tv fox touchstone

Quiet Storm's Viral Prize

2006-04-24T14:30:00.000+01:00

Quiet Storm Films has launched a competition to find the best yet-to-be-made viral script or idea. The competition, called Projectile, is open to creatives and has a completely open brief.

Entrants are urged to submit scripts and ideas which would otherwise never see the light of day.

The ideas and end films must be no longer than 60 seconds and the scripts should be submitted by email to projectile@quietstorm.co.uk.

The winning film will be funded and produced by Quiet Storm and will be released onto the internet as a viral. Richard Jobson, who recently signed for commercials representation with Quiet Storm Films, will direct the winning script.

The closing deadline for submissions is May 15.

For more details go to Shots.net

Tags: quiet+storm film viral competition script idea projectile

AmEx and Tribeca Film Festival's 15 Second Clips Competition

2006-04-20T13:10:00.000+01:00

American Express and the Tribeca Film Festival have joined together to create the 15-Second Clips Competition.

The winner gets a VIP trip to New York and a cool $15,000!

Martin Scorsese, M. Night Shyamalan and a panel of judges will award a filmmaker top honors following the submission deadline of 26th April.

The Competition is open to residents of the United States and the District of Columbia.

For more info and to view the currently submitted films goto 15SecondClips

Tags: american+express tribeca+film+festival competition martin+scorsese vip new+york

Coca Cola advertisement with Jack White song "leaked"

2006-04-19T13:02:00.000+01:00

The NME reports today that the much anticipated Jack White penned Coca-Cola advert has leaked on the internet.

"I've been offered the opportunity to write a song in a way which interests me as a songwriter. I certainly wouldn't want a song that I'd already written to be used on a commercial. That seems strange."

"But to be asked to write something particular along one theme of love in a worldwide form that I'm not really used to appealed to me. I've written a song and I wrote it really quickly and it's an interesting commercial that's been made. I was inspired by the commercial."

Check out the Advert below:

It's my guess the video was directed by the same director of the music video 'Sentimental Journey', Nagi Noda.

Tags: jack+white white+stripes coke coca+cola ad advert sentimental+journey nagi+noda music video

The 10th Annual Webby Awards, nominees announced

2006-04-13T15:51:00.000+01:00

The 10th Annual Webby Awards Nominees have been announced, a full listing can be found here.

Here are the nominees for:

BEST USE OF VIDEO OR MOVING IMAGE

Nominee: Freedom of the Seas

Agency/Credited organization: Arnold Worldwide

http://www.freedomoftheseas.com/

Nominee: Nokia 20Lives

Agency/Credited organization: Euro RSCG 4D

http://www.prize-entry.com/nokia/webby

Nominee: Rocketboom

Agency/Credited organization: Rocketboom

http://www.rocketboom.com/

Nominee: Tate - BT series

Agency/Credited organization: British Telecom

http://www.tate.org.uk/btseries/

Nominee: THE BOOK OF COOL

Agency/Credited organization: Ocelot Productions Ltd

http://www.bookofcool.com/

There are over 65 other categories including; Television, Movie & Film, Corporate Communications & Social Networking.

The 10th Annual Webby Awards gala celebration will be on Monday, June 12th, at the Cipriani Wall Street in NYC

Tags: webby+awards awards video moving+image web internet

Disney offers free shows online in ad-skipping battle

2006-04-11T17:42:00.000+01:00

In a move that could reverse the fortunes of TV advertising, Walt Disney is moving to thwart ad-skipping by making popular programming available free any time on the web.

The content, which can itself be paused, rewound and fast-forwarded, will include ad breaks that viewers can not skip.

Ten advertisers are already said to have committed to the new initiative, which challenges the onslaught of TiVo video recorders, which allow viewers to fast-forward through commercial breaks.

A revamped ABC website will from the end of this month enable viewers with broadband connections to watch free episodes on their computers of hit programmess such as 'Desperate Housewives' and 'Lost', the morning after they air on TV.

Ad breaks will not follow the traditional format. Instead of five interludes in an hour's episode, three breaks only will be screened, but each will last at least one minute and all will be from the same advertiser.

Read more at Brand Republic

Tags: TV advertising content ad+breaks tivo abc broadband lost desperate+housewives

Mobile group in talks to create TV link for citizen journalists

2006-04-10T14:02:00.000+01:00

Citizen journalism is poised to take a great leap into the mainstream media as the mobile phone network 3 pursues talks with ITN and Sky News about feeding clips produced by its customers on to television news bulletins.

A deal would create a direct channel for anyone caught up in a big news event.

3 already has a service that allows its customers to send in clips - mostly comic in nature - which can be downloaded and watched by other subscribers.

This service, called SeeMe TV, is already generating a million downloads a month, with the most watched videos showcased on the web through the blog site, MSN Spaces

Full report at Guardian Unlimited

Also Dan Gilmore on why we are all reporters now

Scoopt is a photo citizen journalism site that opened shortly after the London bombings last year.

Tags: citizen journalism citizen+journalism video 3 ITN sky news