yourinsidejoke.com

More and more campaigns are about showing how you can share personal moment with your friends. This site is based around this and the fact that we like to humiliate our friends publicly. The keyboard navigation is good idea but made useless by not using the "Enter" key to trigger the 'View this inside joke' function.
I would have added more fields when entering a joke so a quick filtering could have been implemented; team joke, friend joke, family joke, work joke, night out joke, holiday joke...
The real problem is that most jokes are not inside jokes but an image that people found funny...therefore browsing the site is mostly boring. http://www.yourinsidejoke.com

web.orange.co.uk/p/film/home

Orange film site has been revamped. You will found the classic Web2.o shading and design but I don't think the navigation has been improved as there is a lot of waste space and non intuitive links and the pop-up box for the trailers is either a lazy IA idea or a return of an old concept that hasn't been beaten by Ajax. http://web.orange.co.uk/p/film/home

watchmenmovie.warnerbros.com

Style before substance and it's shame as the backstory of the Watchmen would have made good reading or a great ARG game. So the film is marketed as an action film and it shows, it's slick but it looks like they only concentrated on the characters section. Have a look at the music site too watchmenmusic.com. http://watchmenmovie.warnerbros.com/

1secondad.com

Not only the site invite you to see all the ads but you will want to see them on the day too. This is a winner campaign for sure and a great comment on the advertising industry without forgetting to be close to their consumer. http://1secondad.com/

lancome.elle.fr

Cosmetic is all about the form before the content and this site just does that, slick, sharp and fast. It doesn't reinvent the genre but it's a nice execution. http://www.lancome.elle.fr/

fifa09.ea.com/uk/directexperience

An interesting proposition, mixing real life footage with in games ones. What makes it is also the possibility to swap between team in real time. Tons of footage from the day but it a shame the game features are not video too. A perfect example of an off-line activity that produce online content and generate word of mouth. http://fifa09.ea.com/uk/directexperience

detectivestripes.com

It's fun to watch as it's well produce but it's a one time only experience. Is this a problem for the brand? Probably not as the product doesn't required an immersing experience. The downloads are cheesy and fun but I doubt they will create an icon out of detective stripes, so no Facebook for him. http://www.detectivestripes.com/

benjaminbutton.com

With high quality pictures, full screen and a great soundtrack this remind us that sometime less is more. If only they have put a bit more effort in the gallery section and not done a deal with MSN... http://www.benjaminbutton.com/

agentprovocateur.com/love-me-tender.html

Agent Provocateur viral are like mini film, beautifully shooted and well, straight to the point, sex still sells but a full screen version would have been appreciated... http://www.agentprovocateur.com/love-me-tender.html

refresheverything.com

You can blame people jumping on the Obama effect but Pepsi does it in a good way by letting the user speak and still managed to plug their stars and products. By using YouTube and Tumblr they are being clever as these make them the corporation that organise a voice for the nation. It's all about democracy right? http://refresheverything.com

snowstories.kodak.com

A seasonal site for sure, packed full of the usual guides to Ski resorts, you can downloads them to your phone but most of the info are available on the net and are not that useful. What's useful if you are a surfer is to be redirect to the Rossignol website where you know when to try new kit. The questions is where are the stories, it would have been great for people to submit their best snow photo or having a video blog of the people going on a sky trip. This site is a waste of time as it actually do not demonstrate anything about Kodak product. http://snowstories.kodak.com/

obama100days.amnesty.org

No rest for Obama as Amnesty is on the offensive. The video is poorly made and the site looks like a rush job but is available in 4 main languages. It's another petition site from AI but you can not blame them for been dedicated to the causes they defend. http://obama100days.amnesty.org/

gofindit.net

Offline and online campaign for the new KA. With a lot of things to find indeed but the site would have had so much more impact in full screen, especially to navigate around the map instead of zooming out. They sadly remove the side bar that let you jump between external websites probably by fear of people actually staying on these sites, and that's where I think the problem is, stop trying to control the content. The TV advert is visually interesting and they should have encourage a competition around it or letting people submitting their version as the video of Shoreditch or Berlin means nothing to someone in the middle of France. The other issues is that with most car campaign you always end up on the official site for brochure, test drive and spec and this is where most user will switch off. So good for the brand but not great for the sale. http://www.gofindit.net/

dirtypig.org

I wanted so much to see something good coming from and organisation that is trying to deal with something that most teenager don't care about, after all, against drug, alcohol, pregnancy and aids, dropping litter is hardly a first priority. The intro is terrible, the scripting is terrible and the only thing you can do is email to a friend. This should have been a mobile application. http://www.dirtypig.org

comparethemeerkat.com

Churchill has a dog, they have a meerkat. Trying to create a following based on a character is always an hard sell and comparethemarket.com could do a lot of more to make this happening as 437 fans of Facebook is not good enough. Come on bring on the user comments, downloads, blog, mobile and a little viral, but it's a bold move to try to stand out for the crow. http://www.comparethemeerkat.com

hovisbakery

A classic display of a poor campaign that add a digital element for the sake of it in the same way it add a Z list celebrity to give it some credibility. Just have a look at the downloads to see how despair their are. At least give Emma a blog, even a fake one, so we can see her progress and let us print the recipes. http://www.hovisbakery.co.uk/challenge/

unleashthemanleather.com

Lynx drops its usual sexy approach for a playful site that all the family could use. The edge is lost but the mini games are making good use of your microphone even if, as usual, blowing into the mike has the same effect than you trying to roar like king-kong. The animations are polished and pleasant but in term of marketing you only see the product on the loading screen, perhaps an animation of your character using Lynx would have be good to add after each game. http://www.unleashthemanleather.com/

FWA Best site of 2008

Take some time and enjoy the winner one more time http://ecodazoo.com/

insurancetimes.co.uk/thejohnkitsonblog/

Who ever is your digital agency, sack them, just sack them. Who though the Fish was funny? Who though that their green screen was good enough on that still lake picture? Who actually signed of the script and copy? and the blog is not updated enough and doesn't let you comments, so what's the point? Actually do not sack you digital agency, just sack your marketing director John Kitson. http://www.insurancetimes.co.uk/thejohnkitsonblog/

nikon-connect.com

Eeveryone love to draw nice shapes but the point is miss here as Nikon seems to randomly choosing fact about themselves that should impress me once my drawing is finish. It doesn't and I am not impress. What would have been better would have been to give me the ability so send my design to my friends and get link to their design instead of strangers. http://nikon-connect.com/

Draw your own penis here:

thmbnls.co.uk

You will need a mobile to see this one, even if it hasn't the edge of Skins this is a good initiative to reach teenagers. Let's hope they have enough money to publicize it and I hope they will put the series online once the campaign is finished. http://www.thmbnls.co.uk

groundhogdreams.com

In case you not familiar with the groundhog tradition visit this site http://www.groundhog.org/ first. The problem with this site is that it would have been great 5 years ago as the design, navigation and interaction is kept to the minimum. They should have mixed more the Groundhog tradition and integrated a widget to spray the words as they have a cute mascot on their hand and should make the most use of it. http://www.groundhogdreams.com/

nokia-lee.com.cn

Bruce Lee limited edition phone. Pre-rendered 3D animations and transitions, so nothing that is actually ground breaking. but their viral is pretty good.http://www.nokia-lee.com.cn/

iam60PastMasher

This idea would have been so cool if it wasn't stolen from http://www.yearbookyourself.com. Shame on you... http://iam60.puma.com/standalone.jsp?site=iam60#EN/iam60/content/side/iam60PastMasher

Smack my bitch up in 2009

What is there more to say? really...

whoppersacrifice

Finally the ultimate Facebook application...I haven't used it but I can see the potential. Of course this mean that for one person doing this 10 virals get send, even outside of the US where the promotion doesn't even run. http://www.whoppersacrifice.com/

bushbyebyeparty

Someone had to do it, and I am surprised there isn't more parties registered but there is 10 days left. Some good downloads but a Facebook application would had have more impact in getting people in. I would also have liked a place, even Flickr, for people to know where to upload their party's photos. It's also a shame that there isn't more contacts details for the parties. It would have been useful to know what type of music would be played or if you need to bring your own food/drink or simply a clear way of contacting the organiser. http://bushbyebyeparty.com

Most Contagious...

If you don't know Contagious try to get a subscription for the office, just tell your boss that any descent agency should have one. If not just download their round up http://www.contagiousmagazine.com/pdf/MostContagious2008.pdf and act like you know it all in your next pitch.

Enjoy and see you next week...

Happy new year....

Sorry for the lack of updates in December but an office move, some problems with BT, Christmas, DIY, Kids and a few snowballs got in the way. Normal service should resume on the 12th of January. See you there...