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BaceriAds

A clever concept by Lifebuoy and an interesting creative execution. Apparently only 17% of people regularly wash their hands. Urgh. To show the invisible dangers of bacteria we come in contact with throughout everyday life they made poster-sized, bacteria-filled petri dishes - to make the invisible visible.

See the video here:

http://bit.ly/2hcsqaE

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Consumer Behaviour

Consumer behaviour and habits are a tricky thing. This video provides for insightful stats and data about consumer behaviour and marketing. Worth a watch!

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Art and Museums v2.0

Art meets technology. Museums that infuse technology in their exhibitions to create immersive experiences are gaining popularity around the world, that also have strong social media potential to attract crowds and spread online. 

Above we see “Transcending Boundaries” - a digital wonderland at the Pace Gallery complete with projections of cascading waterfalls and floating butterflies that, once “touched” by visitors, tumble and die. 

Others include Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama’s “Infinity Mirrored Room” or the work of Swiss artist Pipilotti Rist that you can all see in the link below: http://bit.ly/2lyWiQz

This all shows how technology is also capable of revolutionizing the world of art exhibitions and museums, creating never-seen-before experiences. 

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Google's VR Short Film Earns an Academy Award Nomination

It’s called ‘Pearl’ and its a 360 VR short film made by Google, nominated for best short animated movie of 2016. It’s 6 minutes long and follows the story of a life-long father daughter road trip. Check it out here: http://bit.ly/1Tp1BZm

Although it’s the first VR film to be nominated for an Academy Award, it’s not the first one up for a major award. Facebook-owned Oculus has won two Emmys; one for a film called Henry and the other for Sleepy Hollow.

Google is also competing with Pixar's Piper, a non-VR film about a baby seabird trying to find its way, that you can see here: http://bit.ly/2k2HfxW

This just goes to show how VR, animation and tech companies are still capable of creating innovative and beautiful content at the same time.

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The Coughing Billboard

A Swedish pharmacy has created an interactive billboard that coughs when smokers are near it. A bit passive-aggressive, but an interesting use of interactive technology in out-of-home billboards.

See the video here: http://bit.ly/2iAISPz

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Facebook Live Product Launch

BMW has launched the new 5 series, which they claim is the most innovative to date. Surely it deserves an equally innovative way to present it to the public? The brand decided to do so on Facebook Live. They are by no means the first to do so, but it overall helps demonstrate how mainstream this new feature has become for brands and highlights the overall potential effectiveness of this method.

26,000 views, 300 shares and 700+ comments.

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Understanding Millennials

Millennials. Everyone knows about them but not very many people know them. They account for more than 90 million people and represent almost third of the population of the U.S. This doesn’t only apply to the United States; this demographic balance is similar worldwide and by 2018 they will have the most spending power of any generation. Yet it seems like many people have a hard time understanding them.

But it seems like one person has them figured out. Check out this insightful talk by Simon Sinek, definitely worth a watch.

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Virtual Reality on The Rise

Like it or not, VR is the future. Adoption of VR is growing rapidly and is expected to reach 5 million people in 2017 and 20 million in 2018. VR is gradually becoming mainstream thanks to pioneers in the industry like Google and their Cardboard VR (http://bit.ly/1KNna6j), who first made it accessible to thousands of people worldwide.

VR is making huge steps forward in advertising too, and we see this in brands that are using this technology as a powerful tool for storytelling. Notable examples are The New York Times, that generated more than 3 million viewing sessions when they distributed Google Cardboard in their paper, and Cannes-award-winning Lockheed Martin with their film, ‘Field Trip to Mars’.(http://bit.ly/2fCBymh). 

VR is revolutionizing the gaming world too. Together with Playstation VRs and Oculus Rifts, new experiences like ‘The Void’ we talked about earlier on this blog (see it here: http://bit.ly/1ADm2Zx) now could get even more immersive with the development of Sarotis, the synthetic skin that could help you FEEL virtual reality.

Check it out here: http://bit.ly/2dd3AFm

VR. Coming soon near you.

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Chatbots

Everyone knows how hard it is to learn a foreign language, especially when you don’t have anyone to talk to or practice with. Enter Duolingo’s new chatbot! An intelligent piece of software that mimics a real person with which to hone your conversational skills, check it out in the link below: http://tcrn.ch/2e9l0Vz Loads of brands are using chatbots to help consumers with queries and customer service. Facebook, Kik, Line and Microsoft just to name a few. So chatbots may be here sooner than you know it. Interestingly, 60% of US Millenials prefer interacting with a bot than a person when facing issues with a brand. Stay tuned

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Louise Delage 

She doesn’t exist. But alcohol addiction does. This is what Addict Aide in France wanted to demonstrate when they created a fake Instagram account of a young, party-loving girl with a dark secret. Very clever or is the message not very clear? I’ll let you be the judge. 

See the video above

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...The way forward

Branded content leads to 59% better recall than other digital ads, says a study from IPG MediaLab, Forbes and Syracuse University's Newhouse School.

It also suggests consumers are 14 percent more likely to look for additional content from a company after a single impression of branded content.

This shows branded content is overall getting better,  showing a 17 percent improvement in brand recall compared to a similar study in 2013 by the same trio.

The more you know.

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Snap Inc: Snapchat 2.0.

Snapchat has undergone a rebranding and is now unveiled Snap Inc. From this new brand, makers of the social media platform now also comes Spectacles, a $130 pair of sunglasses with integrated cameras, to link everything you experience in real life straight to your phone and online. Never experience FOMO again.

Not only that but it seems Snapchat has ended the perpetual debate over landscape v portrait video...

Check it all out here! http://bit.ly/2cAFweU

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Pizza Box Projector

Pizza and films: the best combination ever. This is what the people at Pizza Hut thought too when they tweaked their pizza box design to double up as a projector to have a film night with friends while you eat.

Very cool. Check out the video above

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The first trailer made by AI

For the upcoming thriller called Morgan, centered around artificial intelligence, 20th Century Fox approached IBM and employed Watson, their most advanced piece of AI yet, to make their move trailer. The supercomputer analyzed the films’ content and made the video above. An amazing PR stunt as well as an interesting demonstration of how far technology has come and what it will be able to achieve in the future.

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ZOOM

The much-awaited zoom feature is coming to Instagram. Currently available just for iOS, coming soon to Android too.

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Pimp Your Ride, With Amazon

Amazon has launched a forum online for petrol heads to review, discuss and design their own dream car. Although you cannot buy the car directly off amazon (just yet) it is a great way to get to know more and customize down to the every last detail your ideal next car, which is especially good considering the high-involvement nature and research behind this kind of purchase. The way we buy out cars might just be about to change!

It’s called Amazon Vehicles, check it out: http://bit.ly/2bl2e7n

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Virtual Reality...Smell?!

To honour the release of the new South Park game, The Fractured But Whole set to come out in December, Ubisoft has unveiled a device that will make the game even more immersive; by being able to smell farts. This is all thanks to the Nosulus Rift, a spinoff of the traditional VR experience the Oculus Rift that will let you smell things in the game, mainly the main character’s farts.

Almost too funny to be true, this is either a great PR stunt or a groundbreaking device that will bring VR into a whole new world.

You be the judge, see the video here: http://bit.ly/2aVUZT1