Oddcast, the guys responsible for this year's It's Red Again campaign, just launched U-DOO in tangent with MySpace.
U-DOO enables you to create unique user avatars and ringtones for your phone so instead of staring at an image of your buddy with his mouth hanging open every time he calls, you can look at an animated version of him while bobbing your head to his theme song. If there's anything better than that, we might just spontaneously combust, because that's a fate too sweet to miss.
Read more about U-DOO here. It ain't no iPhone but we're sure they'll get along just fine.
Owning an iPhone is the equivalent of an out-of-body experience which is the only way to justify the 7% leap in Apple share post-unveiling and the $499-$599 price tag that out-hurrahs both iPod and BlackBerry.
ZDNet talks pros and cons, foreseeing death and suffering for many companies left vulnerable in the storm of common interest. With Apple's cultlike status they could have released this to the exact same jizz-in-the-pants fanfare.
There's a vibe in the air like people are down to give Apple their credit cards for safe-keeping until June, when the first iPhones will slide off conveyor belts and into warm laps. That is, if WOM is anything to go by as the topic's received a whoppin' 1,684 mentions on Google news alone per Adfreak's last count. Obviously iPhone is already more popular than the Beatles, a sweet irony because it's really only a platform for the Beatles and because Apple recently exercised total ownage over the Beatles.
Apple also changed its official title from Apple Computers to Apple Inc, better suited to accommodate its menagerie of soon-to-be-successful non-computer products, including iPhone and the iTV which will marry the 'net to the tube. That's definitely a pairing we've seen attempted before but with Apple's blessing (and the fact that the original WebTV is now owned by MSN, adding the critical pwnage component) we're sure it will fly this time around.
Post eggnog haze, it's come to our attention the holidays are fast winding down. So we're cranking out the last of the jingle bells-oriented marketing efforts of 2006:
- Do New Years with Hard Rock and help save the music. Because somebody has to. Soon. Help. Please.
- This Santa Session from Dailey makes you pity the extra work Santa has to put in for perfectionist consumer culture. At what other point in time could you viably tell your favourite mythological character, I'm sorry but I don't think you're hitting the alliteration right?
- Santa + fleet of Porsches + wreath-bearing bull = happy holidays to the plush-ass execs feeling fresh post-bonus. Brought to you by the big ballers at Jack Morton Worldwide.
- And just for some holiday diversion, some guy recut the Mary Poppins Trailer into what he calls Scary Mary.
- Celebhead, a new series from VH1 Mobile created and directed by former Deutsch creatives Cheryl Van Ooyen and David Rosen, debuts online and on cell phones today. The first episode, of course, features "Paris Hilton."
- On December 5, Save the Children launched an outpost in Second Life called Yak Shack where residents can buy a virtual yak and donate to the charity.
Visa has launched Fan With A Plan, a community site where sports fans can make travel plans to their favorite large sporting events such as the Olympics and the World Cup.
- Sunday, January 7, VH1 is debuting The Surreal Life Fame Games, a collection of the show's audience favorites from the show's past six seasons.
- The AARP magazine has increased it readership seven percent to 29.9 million adults according the Fall 2006 MRI report.
With some hyper-prevalent advertising, that is. Eric Schmidt, CEO, tells Reuters that even if mobile phones aren't entirely free in the near future, costs will definitely go down.
Which is something we're definitely not opposed to. We're quite used to living side by side with advertising in all other aspects of our lives. And hey, if they want to make money, the ads have to at least be helpful, yeah? Maybe one day we'll be able to order directly from our "Call" buttons and have the costs added to our wireless bills. - Contributed by Angela Natividad
With the cell phone fast becoming the single most popular device for...well...everything, it only makes sense for "old" media such as magazines to capitalize. Conde Nast has teamed with mobile couponing company Cellfire to offer steeply discounted magazine subscriptions. Those who use the free Cellfire mobile application can subscribe to Wired, Glamour, Allure, Teen Vogue, Details and Vanity Fair.
As part of a McDonald's Japan promotion, the burger giant, along with Coke, gave away 10,000 MP3 players to those who purchased specially marked cups of Coke. Unfortunately, the MP3 players were infested with QQPass, a piece of spyware, that, once connected to people's PCs, allowed hackers access to passwords and other personal information. McDonald's issued a public apology and a recall for the infected MP3 players. It's unclear whether the company made any restitution for any data lost by those who were infected.
Adrants reader Heather Dougherty received an odd text message today on her phone that may have been part of the currently running, very strange Geico advertising campaign. The message read, "Call me ASAP! I just found out someone u used to mess with has an std. But don't stress - I just saved a ton of money by switching to GEICO. Keep this going!"
Whether or not this is a sanctioned viral SMS campaign is unclear. We've contacted Geico seeking confirmation. While spoofs like this happen all the time, we have a hard time believing the average person would actually create a TXT message like this just to send to their friend. It has advertising copy written all over it. On the other hand, does anyone really want unsolicited TXT message of any kind delivered to their phones? We're not sure we do. What about you?
Brazilian-based AgenciaClick has created what would seem to be an intriguing interactive movie theater experience to promote the Fiat Idea Adventure, a light offroad vehicle. Movie goers will meet a guy named John in a pre-movie film and, using SMS messaging from their cell phones, be able to generate 16 different versions of the promotional film and choose the ending.
To promote its new online and mobile dating show, Meet or Delete, this virally intended video features a woman on her bed transfixed by a guy she's checking out online. Her desires to be with him do come to fruition but, sadly, not for too long.
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