Carlsberg Attempts to Liven Up Reserved Swedes

carlsberg_unbottle_yourself.jpg

On April 5 Carlsberg will launch Unbottle Yourself, a competition that will encourage Swedes to engage in outgoing "missions" designed to "unbottled" the nation's apparently pent up reservations. The winner will get a free trip to Hong Kong.

The competition is delivered via mobile with an iPhone and Android app that includes over 500 missions such as silly in-store dances and dares to process one's love for another.

Prepare yourself for much light-hearted idiocy. But who knows. The competition could be the purveyor of the next viral sensation.

more »

by Steve Hall    Mar-29-11    
Topic: Mobile/Wireless, Promotions, Social



Augmented Reality Mobile Game Aims to Boost Product Sales

red_bull_racing_game.jpg

For Red Bull, Circ.us created a mobile gaming app for the iPhone that allows people to create their own race track by arranging and photographing Red bull cans. People arrange the cans on the ground in a way that represents the curves in a race track. That arrangement then becomes the shape of the race track in the game.

The work succeeds on two fronts. It offers up a free and customizable mobile game and it gets people to buy Red Bull in order to make the game possible. Fun + Sales = Win.

more »

by Steve Hall    Mar-18-11    
Topic: Games, Mobile/Wireless



At SXSW, Loopt Sees 33 Percent Increase in Check Ins

loopt_rewards.jpg

During SXSW Interactive in Austin, Loopt, a location-based mobile service which launched a rewards program March 1, saw a 33 percent increase in check ins compared to the median over the past three weekends in Austin. For the push notifications, the service saw a 13 percent click-through rate to the fully branded reward page. For a program run specifically for Southwest Airlines, Loopt saw saw 22 percent of people who got the phone notification drop what they were doing to come and get the reward.

With the company's Reward Alerts, brands and local businesses can offer limited-time and perishable-inventory deals to nearby consumers. Reward Alerts help companies offer a "flash" deal that is immediately redeemable in person, instead of a deal that is purchased now, but used at a future date. The new local deal alerts add to Loopt's existing Friend Alerts, which send users a notification when a friend is nearby.

by Steve Hall    Mar-16-11    
Topic: Mobile/Wireless



Seemingly Bored Creative Creates Seemingly Useless App

laser_ass.jpg

So what does a creative do in his spare time? No, not play Foosball. That's old school. He creates and iPhone app, of course. And that's just what RKCR/Y&R's Dan Hubert did recently when he unleashed iLazer, an app that allows you to add laser beams to pictures you have on your device or from Facebook. Images can then be shared to Twitter and Facebook.

Why anyone would actually wants to waste there time doing this is...oh wait...we waste countless hours screwing around with images here so we'll probably love this app.

The app is tied to a website that showcases the best and most inventive zapped snaps. There's also a section called CELEBRITiLazer where snaps of the rich and famous are zapped revealing their roving eyes.

by Steve Hall    Mar- 9-11    
Topic: Mobile/Wireless



Buying Mobile In-Game Advertising to Get A Whole Lot Easier

tap_me_mobile.jpg

Wouldn't it be nice if buying ads within mobile games was as easy as buying ads across websites with Google AdWords? That simplicity, it seems, will become reality with the launch of Tap Me, a mobile gaming ad platform that promises to make ad insertion easy for game developers and ad buying easy for brands and their agencies.

Kleiner Perkins says the mobile gaming space is a $50 billion marketplace with 300 million gamers worldwide who spend more time playing games and social networking than they do making phone calls and sending messages.

We've seen a demo of the platform and it is, indeed, simple. A major tenet of the offering is that game play will not be interrupted. Advertisers can buy keywords across the network associated with game play such as speed, agility, reload, energize and have their ads appear during those non-play moments of the games.

So simple, even a...oh wait...that tagline's already taken.

by Steve Hall    Feb-28-11    
Topic: Games, Mobile/Wireless



App Turns iPhone Into Vibrator

TDASirRPhoneAppControls72.jpg

To celebrate Valentine's Day yesterday, Sir Richard's Condom Co., with help from TDA_Boulder, unveiled Significant Other, an iPhone app which turns the device into a personal massager with three intensities and a timer.

And just so all sides of the sexual scale are covered, the brand also released a branded cocktail napkin with instructions on how to fold it. Wait, what?. Women get to have an orgasm and men have to fold napkins? What the hell sort of equality is that?

Dear TDA_Boulder, we are reporting you to the Verizon Dumb Dad Association which insures men in commercials aren't tossed off as blithering idiots, emaciated savants and dolts who can't fold napkins. You should be ashamed of yourselves!

by Steve Hall    Feb-15-11    
Topic: Mobile/Wireless



Lingerie Plays, Xperia Plays, Fiat and Honda Get Apps

LINGERIE-BOWL-VIII-TEMPTATION.jpg

- While we were all watching the ads during the Super owl, the Lingerie Football League held their Lingerie Bowl in Las Vegas. If you care, the Los Angeles Temptation beat the Philadelphia Passion 36-25.

- Sony Ericsson launched its Xperia Play last night with a commercial in top ten local markets during the Super Bowl.

- Fiat has launched an app that recognizes traffic signs and transforms them into features of the new Punto Evo.

more »

by Steve Hall    Feb- 7-11    
Topic: Mobile/Wireless, Racy, Super Bowl 2011



Footwear Brand to Host Virtual Bear Hunt During Sundance

sorel.jpg

Footwear brand Sorel is all over Park City this week for Sundance with a program that lets people go on a virtual scavenger hunt through augmented reality, QR codes and Facebook to win some boots, hats and other items from Sorel's Fall 2010 collection. Winners will also gain access to VIP-only areas in Park City during the festival.

In a partnership with GoldRun, Sorel is using an augmented reality mobile application to host the virtual scavenger hunt, during the first six days of the festival. Ten virtual Sorel bears will be placed in high traffic areas around Park City. The GoldRun app allows people to track down, interact with and collect the virtual Sorel bears. People who pose with the Sorel bear can email a picture via the app for a chance to win Sorel boots, access to VIP-only events, including Sorel Happy Hours, and other prizes.

more »

by Steve Hall    Jan-18-11    
Topic: Mobile/Wireless, Social



iPad Drinkspirated, Games Socialized, Honda Gets Naughty

drinkspiration_ipad.jpg

- Absolut is out with an iPad version of its Drinkspiration app.

- To help raise money for the United Way, Colle+McVoy has launched Happy Exchange where everyone is invited to join the effort by posting their smile for just $1.

- Calling McDonald's a "hip hangout" is never a good thing. Especially in a forced product placement.

- Former buy.at executives have launched Performance Horizon Group which is out with new products aimed at improving campaign management for agencies and lead generation for publishers.

- Gossip Girl's Blake Lively has been tapped (not literally, of course...because that would be gross) by Karl Lagerfeld to front his Winter/Spring 2011 Chanel ad campaign.

more »



Gap Campaign Integrates 'Add to Foursquare' Button

gap_add_foursquare.jpg

First came Like. Then came Twitter. Then came Foursquare sitting in a Gap ad. OK, so that doesn't rhyme as well as the original but the point we're trying to make is that Foursquare has graduated to the level of relevancy that it can bnow be included as a call to action just like the URL and Twitter before it always were.

A new campaign for Gap features an Add to Foursquare button which, when clicked, adds a Gap To Do and offers a 30 percent discount. Mashable reports the online ads are also location aware allowing the To Do associated with a store to pop up when a person is nearby the location they choose.

more »

by Steve Hall    Nov-30-10    
Topic: Mobile/Wireless, Social