thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/desktopkeeley/

Desktop characters are not new, but it's interesting that The Sun has decided to create one and looking at their readership I would say that they are bang into their target audience. So what's the problem? perhaps that this will probably not go down well with the HR department of certain corporate firms (if they haven't already blocked the port for the feeds) or that most Sun reader are probably part of the working force that does not use a PC as part of their daily tasks. Nevertheless it's a nice Adobe Air application. http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/desktopkeeley/

facethetask.com

I love this site but I can not take it seriously. The production is faultless, the editing wonderful but there isn't enough interaction; we are just watching an extended adds. Perfect for iTV, boring in the end on the web. The chance to donate to the WWF could backfire as people that are willing to spend 759EUR might not wants to wait hours to do so, but there should be enough sad geek out there to make it and it give Nokia a reason for spending so much money creating the site. http://www.facethetask.com/

tomcruise.com

Tom Cruise's site is like a campaign in itself. Starting with 'Also Sprach Zarathustra' and the best bits of his career. This is to remind you that the man has actually done some great films but it does go on a bit to long. The site in itself is simple and works well and you actually want more from the 'Filmography' section, where are the exclusive behind the scene photos, where are Tom's exclusive interview about the films? Sadly for the fans there is only a slide show of his photos and there is no evident call to action to engage with them, just an hidden 'Contact Us'. So a disappointing site and you wonder if all this was made to, in fact, promote the link to the 2h Special on the Oprah Winfrey show and not (as his message claims "This is for you, enjoy") for his fan. http://www.tomcruise.com/

usedcarambush.com

This is a well designed site with a lot of video content, you can not fault them for making sure they had tons of behind the scene footage to play with and they are making good use of it. The problem is that once you seen it all, you have seen it all. Does it matter? no, as the points are made clear in a humorous way and they could have pushed the GM Certified site a bit more if they wanted too. http://www.usedcarambush.com/

pro-styling.co.uk

Who care? really who care about the hair police? it's all nice and the site use video as much as possible but it doesn't do it for me...and it doesn't do it for a lot of people, the forum boost 43 members, massive ROI there then. The best bit is actually their Facebook application as you can browse your friend photos to look for hair crime as long as they are tagged...simple fun and effective, they should have concentrated on that. http://pro-styling.co.uk/

whathappensnext.com.au

A great prize as your idea will make the commercial, therefore the message and the branding is already out there even before the campaign start. The site doesn't encourage call to action but it encourage interactivity and that's a good thing. The editing is minimal but enough for people to get going and produce fun commercials script. Would have been event better if they have managed to encode the scripts for people to share the actual footage and not just a link. You can't have it all I expect... http://www.whathappensnext.com.au/

blogaholidayread.com

I arrived to late to get my free books, shame, as Penguin again shows his understanding of integrating marketing and how to engage his readers. Of course it's a bit of a gamble but more than likely the reviews will be positives as their target audience are probably brand advocate anyway. http://www.blogaholidayread.co.uk/

burnnoticeops.com

9 weeks on interaction with a brand and the TV serie 'Burn Notice' and you could win a Sabb, good start. That you can play without registering, even better. Managing to get the product as part of the storyline in an obvious but not embarrassing way, check. The first mission is sadly to easy and we are not in ARG territory yet but it's mean to be an accessible campaign and for the moment it's doing a great job. http://burnnoticeops.com/

drenchwater.co.uk

You can not fault the design of the site, or its slickness but it feel a little bit short, something is missing. Perhaps it's because the game doesn't do it for me (but good use of the web cam), perhaps it's because I wanted more, I wanted Brain to be more visible on the site, I wanted some interaction and the possibility to download Brain's screensaver, to found new exclusive moves, to build my own dance or a contest for people to recreated the dance in real life. I tend to encourage making-off but in this case, the making off kills the illusion and should not have been shown. http://www.drenchwater.co.uk

fiestalovefactory.com

I don't get it, they spend money on finding an idea to obviously compete against Honda's Power of Dreams campaign and what do we get? a TV ads that pretend to be a viral (how many time do we have to say it: TV ads are not viral) and a badly design web site with no interaction...shame on you. Where is the application to send love messages to your friend or just place a random love message? where is the virtual tour of the factory? where is the fun? Ford, sack your agency and come and talk to us or if you haven't got the budget for a proper digital campaign then use the money offline. http://www.fiestalovefactory.com/

flirtchamp.com

An old campaign that seems to be coming back for the worse.
The idea of this live widget exited me as I missed it when it was launched. The chance of being the judge or the contestant, playing with 2 real person from anywhere in the world was to good to pass. Sadly I feel I am being lied to as after testing the widget for 2 days it's pretty obvious that now you only connect to the sames 2 bots with the same answers. And why was I doing this for? for victory hair? the relationship between hair, flirting and breaking the mold is lost on me...
There is a link to http://www.ultimateflirtingchampionship.com/ that is worth a look but has the same issues, if not worse, as they have integrated a fake chat mechanic.
But who can blame them when this happened to them. Surely it was time to kill the campaign at that point. So if they ever make it live again, let me know...

Have a look yourself:

thisisnotajersey.com

Fantastic integrated campaign that combine offline, online, new technology and some cool Papervision too... my only complain would be that the videos should be display bigger. Good job http://www.thisisnotajersey.com/

wesupporteventing.com

New viral from Land Rover, they got a theme going here (see last year clip) with the football bloke and they should perhaps concentrated of making the campaign around him because the use of celebrity is minimal. Will this viral work? no, it's not a viral, it's a long ads and there is a difference that above the line agency should learn. I do hope they have the money to seed it because the clip had only had 5 views on Youtube when I search for it. http://www.wesupporteventing.com/

yummygiggles.co.uk

Let's face it there are product that do not mix with the web and trying to found a fantastic digital campaign for the latest Laughing Cow product must have been hard. So what do they do? the usual upload a picture of your child competition (hhhaaaaa....cute), the usual facts (hummm....interesting), the usual A4 color in download (heey...that would amused Jimmy for 10 minutes) and the usual FAQ / Quiz (hooo...what's the point). Well done them... http://www.yummygiggles.co.uk/

channelflip.com

After Monkey mag, publishers are now going back to normal websites like it's cutting edge. Why you would want to go there when Youtube could give you more honest and in depth video reviews? will it be the community? with only a forum that is not really vibrant I doubt it, I give it 6 months http://www.channelflip.com

code.google.com/creative/radiohead/

Make sure you watch the Making of video and use the data visualization tool, enjoy! http://code.google.com/creative/radiohead/

qik.com

From a technology point of view this is cool, you could imagine using this for concerts, protests, stalkers and so on... and that's what they need to make it big, a tragedy, an event that will only have been recorded by a Qik user and that make the news or simply a big lawsuit.
At the moment it's full of clip of people testing the service or geeks.
It will be interesting to see how they will manage the growth, more servers and 100% up time will be needed and this is before possible copyright and porn issues.
As for the service, do people really need it? I am sure this will lead to some interesting story telling exercises or art pieces but it will also lead to some shit videos too as the editing process is removed. Worth keeping an eye on.. http://qik.com

gillettebeachgoddess.com

This game has been designed to be integrated into other website, here Being girl so you can understand why they went with a Flash game but the branded page on Being girl should do the trick for your audience. There is no point to the game as there is no leader board attached to it our competition. http://www.gillettebeachgoddess.com/beinggirl/gvuk/en/

spicyside.com

This site is following the TV ads perfectly but what are they trying to achieve? I hope they don't try to create a community as most people here are trying to get their score up by rumbling. So go and have a look, have you 10 minutes of Monty Pythons fun and then leave... http://www.spicyside.com/

i-am-everyone.co.uk

The concept of emerging artists asking fans to crash at their place is not news but Orange sponsoring Jont (never heard of him before but he is a pro at organizing party) is interesting. Orange is trying to take on 02 in the music field and starting small. The concept is in line with the campaign and I am sure Orange marketing people know enough people to fake this if the registration is minimal. The question is: apart from the people that will be having a party who will care watching the same bloke performing probably the same songs every weeks? Hopefully the support bands will help. http://www.i-am-everyone.co.uk/

plum-vision.co.uk

Plum vision is a great brand and trying trying to create a new kid's program is always going to be a challenge, can this beat the Teletubbies? The films are of CBBC standards and the information are I supposed useful for new parents but come on, the idea of CBBC is that you stick your kids on the sofa and they watch TV when you are cooking their dinner or doing the washing. I don't think anyone will want to leave their 10 months baby unsupervised in front of their laptop... I hope they do try to partners with Vuze or Joost as there is nothing like it on these channels or perhaps they could bungle a DVD with their products, after all they have spend the money making these films, they might as well try to recover a bit of it. http://www.plum-vision.co.uk

thedexterhitlist.com

A classic 'send to a friend' mechanic. Good video integration of the chosen fields and you can record your own question too but this isn't breaking any mold. Surely there must be some Facebook fun to have with this...http://www.thedexterhitlist.com

lively.com

Google does Second Life. Cute Manga meets Comics look and it's great that you can use you Google account and join in the fun straight away and I am sure the Google team is busy integrating a lot of Google aps in this virtual world but I got stuck. Not sure if it's my laptop or my line, I just waited and waited for something more to load but no after 30 minutes and 5 attempts I am still on 'Joining room...'. Will this be something more than a place for kids or geeks with sexual frustrations (lot of XXX rooms already) who knows? at least they are launching before Sony Home virtual world. http://www.lively.com

summergames.lenovo.com

It's only blogs but I like it. This is what money buy you when you give everyone a brand new laptop...but it's fantastic stuff if you are into the Olympics as you can select feeds by Countries, Sports or Languages but not by individual and that's a shame. Some issues, some feeds are nicked from existing athletes blogs and therefore some of the links send you to their external blogs and using the right navigation on the Youtube videostream on the 'about' page will get you a video about Coffin Ridge Wine. So it's branded, it's interesting but it won't help selling laptop as you only need a shit one to run a blog anyway. Worth a look is the Lenovo Google page that has some sweet Google applications. http://summergames.lenovo.com/

bekanyenow.com

I will be interesting to see what the reveal is going to be as for the moment everything is so low key and badly done that the joke might come back and haunt them. So register and don't forget to look at the viral too, sadly been done to death. http://bekanyenow.com

Update: The site is now live and the wait is over, we can see a little film with Kayne as a heart of it...glad I came back for this...not...

youbethedriver.com

Intel sponsors the BMW Sauber team so the best use of this sponsoring is to create 3d bad mini games and add some pre-rendered animations to make it looks slick and powerful. Sadly it doesn't work as the bar as been raise a while back with Coke Zero. http://www.youbethedriver.com

centraldark.com/keepthefireburning/uk/cd

A fun send to a friend mechanic that works well. The fact that you can upload your picture and see the passing of the flame makes the difference. The alternative to the Olympic flame for sure. The Facebook application is sadly just an embedded Flash version and I would I like a more integrated solution. The problem here is with the prizes as the 1st league with over 160 members is competing for 2 holidays and 3 Xboxes and as everyone is as important as anybody else, who should get them? http://www.centraldark.com/keepthefireburning/uk/cd

Have also a look at 'Out in the Park' competition on the main website, a simple way to get people doing creative work and virals for you. The 'Experience' is sadly disappointing, it's slick but you get nothing more than wallpapers for your efforts.

thisistheindexpage.com

Brand awareness and attitude it's what it's all about as you probably will not visit the official Converse site in the end but Converse delivers tons of small but simple mini sites that could turn viral (where are the share options?). With youshoulddoitnow.com, kissingwithross.com / kissingbackwithross.com(this should be a screensaver), onashoestringfilms.com (funny?), iseverythinggoingtobeokay.com (a classic to Dig), the 'Lost at Sea','Out of League Girl', 'Chuck in Soda' and the baseball series videos should be on youTube but my favorite as to be conversespellingbee.com. Enjoy http://thisistheindexpage.com/

instinctthephone.com/?dl=contest

I always appreciate honesty and you can can more honest than this campaign. The technology behind it is impressive and creating the movie is a breeze but I would I liked to be able to choose wish insert clip is used instead of a random one. Letting people play with your product and having fun always work. The product site itself is polished and carry on the tongue in cheek tone, especially with the 'Instinst Vs iPhone section'. http://www.instinctthephone.com/?dl=contest

rockyourlook.com

JC Penney takes the usual 'upload your video' contest seen so much on youtube (even if they use it for streaming) and add some nice editing functionality for the teens. The prize is great as it linked with The Teen Choice Awards but why choosed such old songs for a young audience? The site doesn't do anything else than the competition but considering the teen's attention span that is probably a good choice. But why have they let though an unshaven topless man? http://www.rockyourlook.com/

news.sky.com

Well the BBC started it so Sky needed a facelift and they borrowed heavy from their competitor and what strike me the most is the adverts as I am used to the BBC adverts free design. The style is plain and remind me of The Sun; they could have use a bit more Ajax to not have to jump from one page to another. The story tracker is a good move but the general personalisation options could have been pushed a little bit. Sky is still pushing the Web 2.0 as much a possible, blog, user content, sharing tools and a bit of social elements and their weaver page is sweet. http://news.sky.com

coldlunchthemovie.com

A simple design that let the music and the content take prime place. It's a shame that the attention to details as not been carry away in the navigation of subsections, the user of scroll for text should have been avoided and the extra footage should have been show in full screen. I appreciated that each photo had their own description, something that is mostly miss in Film website. http://www.coldlunchthemovie.com/

quiksilver.com

A fresh new look for the teens that push the bug name associated with the brand. It's all lovely and fresh but the navigation suck if you try using the middle section, you jump from one page to another without any sense of navigation and when using your back button are constantly have to skip the intro or re-select your surfer. Some sections even send you to external sites without telling you...What a shame as the blogs format and design works for the audience. I hope they can keep up the content and tidy up this mess... http://www.quiksilver.com

everyonenose.com

The clip was first banned and then re-edited for MTV to remove the soft-core imagery. Therefore you will think they will use online as much as they can to promote it even more. Sadly no, they partner with AOL (street credit -1000) and therefore anyone outside the US is locked out and the director cut is not even live yet. Sure they do link to lastnightparty to stay cool but lastnightparty might have great photos, is user interface and navigation sucks big time. It's a shame as the site use of random video footage from the party with the 'remove by request' twist was encouraging'. http://everyonenose.com/

nokia.co.uk/maps/

An interesting mini-site, inside the main Nokia portal. It's not a site as such, it's more a series of mini clips but the simple, and classic, trick of using people as analogy for the device functions works well and is understandable by the masses. The main video is well edited, provided quick link and is an homage to 'The Fast Show'. What interesting is seeing the use of videos now taking prime place in most campaigns. http://www.nokia.co.uk/maps/