My favourite work of 2009

2009 has been a year of changes.

It's been the year we had to learn to do more with less.

It's opened new avenues with new technologies such as Augmented Reality finally taking off, Mobile applications becoming mainstream and widely adopted, 3D cinematic releases becoming more and more frequent and creativity spreading beyond platforms and into entirely new realms and it's also produced some of the most inspiring advertising/comms work I've ever seen.

Below are just some of my favourites...

Campaign: The Marmarati
Client: Unilever / Marmite
Agency: We Are Social

Imagine you're in a Victorian-esque dining room in the middle of London on a weekday evening. You've been invited here under mysterious circumstances and are brimming with curiosity. Imagine the Victorian waiters as they show you to your seat and the sumptuous decoration. Now imagine you're blindfolded as you sit at the table....can you smell Marmite?

We Are Social were tasked by Unilever to help them launch the new 'extra strong' Marmite (the UK's much better version of Vegemite) into the UK marketplace.

Now if you're english you'll be familiar with Marmite's 'love it or hate it' slogan and that people are either worringly obsessed with it or can't even enter a room where it's being eaten...

The clever folks at We Are Social understood the 'love it or hate it' phenomenon well and decided to recruit the Marmite obsessives who were already self-confessed brand advocates. They were subsequently invited to assist in the creation of the 'extra strong' Marmite product....

'The Marmarati' were consulted on everything from taste to packaging. This was advocate 'out-reach' at it's best, flick through the below preso for more information:

The Marmarati

View more presentations from We Are Social .

Campaign: Expedition 206
Client: Coke
Agency: Coke

Coke has always aligned themselves with fun and happiness within their messaging and creative, but this time around they decided to really bring the essence of happiness to life...

In early 2009, emails, newsletters and announcement were made across numerous blogs, websites and forums recruiting avid travellers with filming/creative talents to apply for the trip of a lifetime covering 206 countries and 275,000 miles in just 365 days! But no one knew why or what it was all about...

Thousands upon thousands entered the competition and 9 lucky hopefuls were flown to Atlanta Georgia where they were finally told that they were competing for the chance to become a Coke 'Happiness Ambassador' - see video introduction to the project below:

The hopefuls were divided into teams of three, they then named their teams and set about creating video content, Facebook pages and social followings to secure themselves the victory of becoming 'Happiness Ambassadors'.

The winning team were chosen via online voting by people all around the world for a period of 3 weeks.

Team 'The MIX' were recently crowned the winners, meet them below:

The year-long adventure for these three, throughout 2010, will bring Coca-Cola's Open Happiness campaign to life as they visit with people from different cultures, document their experiences and share stories of happiness throughout their journey.

Beginning in Madrid on Jan.1.2010, and culminating with a celebration at the World of Coca-Cola museum in Atlanta on Dec.31.2010, the story of the happiness ambassadors and their adventure will play out online with content for fans to follow via the expeditions online head quarters at the website, as well as on Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, Flickr and other social sites.

Campaign: Chalkbot
Client: Nike
Agency: Wieden + Kennedy Portland

This truly brilliant campaign was developed for LIVESTRONG, Lance Armstrongs cancer charity.

Each year at the Tour de France, avid race fans chalk messages of support and encouragement on the sides of the roads for the participants to read as they cycle on by...

W+K used this insight to create the basis of the idea for Nike Chalkbot, albeit looking to communicate with a broader audience than just those physically present at the Tour de France.

The Chalkbot was developed with software studio DeepLocal and robotics developer Standard Robot and was a robotic, automated chalking machine designed to receive, process and deliver chalked messages...

Messages could be sent to the Chalkbot via a direct SMS, Twitter @Chalkbot or by visiting the website.

The Chalkbot then printed the messages of hope and encouragement along the race route.

Each message was photographed and the GPS coordinates were captured, the sender would then receive an email message with the details .

Over 100,000 messages were received and chalked...

Campaign: Facebook Showroom
Client: Ikea
Agency: Forsman & Bodenfors

To promote the launch of Ikea's new store in Malmo, Sweden, a local agency by the name of Forsman & Bodenfors created a Facebook profile for the stores new manager, Gordon Gustavsson.

Understanding the Facebook craze of photo tagging, Gordon (F&B) uploaded a series of 12 photos onto his profile depicting different Ikea furniture arrangements in different rooms over a period of 2 weeks. They then encouraged people to tag themselves against a specific item in the photos. In doing so, people could win that exact Ikea product.

The real beauty of this campaign was the inherent understanding of the viral properties of photo tagging and the potential reach which could be built from it....

Each time someone tagged themselves in a photo, that update along with the image and link to Ikea's page, would go out to all of their Facebook friends on their news walls. Therefore, all Ikea needed to do was spend a tiny bit of budget on advertising and watch the idea catch on and grow like wildfire....genius.

Campaign: Wimbledon 2009
Client: IBM
Agency: IBM

With the majority of phone app and overlay examples fitting into the 'isn't this cool but ultimately useless' bucket, this activity really stood out as providing something new and entirely useful for the attendees of Wimbledon 2009.

IBM digitally tagged the whole of Wimbledon and created a Seer Android App which superimposed real-time match data, news and useful venue information over the live video feed on the handset using your phone's GPS coordinates to plot the view.

Therefore, pointing your handset towards the Centre Court would tell you which match was in progress and the score as well as helping you find the nearest loo or strawberry selling cart!

The below video will give you a basic overview:

Campaign: Golf GTI Mk6
Client: Volkswagen
Agency: AKQA New York

In 2006, VW spent $60m launching the Golf GTI Mk5 in the US.

In 2009, they spent $500,000 launching the Golf GTI Mk6 in the US, and gained an in-depth reach of over 3 million people, that's a bit of a difference!

In true digital evangelist form, VW shunned any traditional advertising in favour of creating an iPhone app, and only an iPhone app, for the launch of the GTI Mk6.

The app was an entirely free racing game which allowed people to drive a Golf GTI Mk6 and post their driving times on Twitter and Facebook, which VW believed was exactly the right strategy for their target demographic.

To build further excitement and engagement they also created an online competition, complete with a live leader board and the possibility of winning one of six limited edition GTI's, replete with options like carbon-effect trim and 18-inch wheels.

In order to further publicise the game, VW piggybacked/linked off of the Firemints Real Racing game which was a top 10 gaming app for a significant period of time and 4 star rated.

The game has so far seen 3 million downloads!

Campaign: Replay
Client: Pepsi / Gatorade
Agency: TBWA/Chiat/Day Los Angeles

Taking branded content to a whole new level, Gatorade decided to focus on amateur sports players as opposed to their normal favourability towards big name, elitist athletes...

The Easton Area Red Rovers and The Phillipsburg Stateliners are two of the biggest high school teams in the US. In 1993, one game ended in an uncomfortable tie of 7-7.

Gatorade decided to reunite the two teams in a much hyped re-match of that 1993 game to see once and for all who should have been the ultimate winners. The twist was that the team players were exactly the same as those who played in 1993....except they were now in their 30's and very unfit!

Video content was created in the form of a 10 week training schedule designed to get the players back to their required fitness levels as well as player diaries and coaching voxpops.

The content culminated in the match itself which was played on FOX Sports Net and broadcast nationally.

Watch the video below, guaranteed to stir your emotions...

For more inspiring, innovative and truly amazing work, I would highly recommend you read the Most Contagious 2009 report asap!