most contagious by Anibal Estrella

MOST CONTAGIOUS / 2008

most contagious / 2008 /

/ MOST CONTAGIOUS / 2008

INTRO CHAPTERS / 01 / LANDMARKS 02 / TECHNOLOGY 03 / GAMING 04 / ENTERTAIN 05 / MUSIC 06 / DESIGN 07 / SOCIAL MEDIA 08 / WEBSITES 09 / APPLICATIONS 10 / INTEGRATED 11 / VIRAL 12 / MOBILE 13 / OUTDOORS 14 / PLACES 15 / CONTENT 16 / GREEN

‘If 2006 was about user-generated content and 2007 about social media, then 2008 is about the conversation.’ So predicted Contagious editor Paul Kemp-Robertson in The International Herald Tribune back in January. ‘In other words, brands will have to steel themselves to the idea that marketing is a two-way street, not just a conduit for directing their messages toward pliant consumers.’ Welcome to Most Contagious 2008. Lasting way longer than a Christmas card, this is our review of the most talked-about trends and technologies that have influenced the global marketing industry over the past 12 months. Contagious Magazine’s mission is to spread the gospel of non-traditional media and innovative thinking, so please feel free to pass this on. 2008 highlights for Contagious included speeches and consultancy trips to Athens, Bangkok, Brussels, Copenhagen, Dubai, Helsinki, Hong Kong, Madrid, Meribel, Miami, Moscow, New York, Oslo, Paris, Parma, Prague, Seattle, Seoul, Stockholm, Toronto and, er, Dunstable. In June, the Debussy Theatre in Cannes was so packed before the Leo Burnett/Contagious ‘Wildfire’ seminar, the people with the clipboards had to lock the doors and relay the footage onto screens outside. And we loved the childlike reaction outside the Gutter Bar each midnight when we plonked down four gigantic Contagious cushions for festival goers to chill out on until dawn. www.directnewideas.com/index.php/2008/09/16/cushions?sw Elsewhere, we launched a new series of Special Reports to inject expert insight into some of the ad industry’s hottest topics, like the metrics of Social Media and the ‘Goodvertising’ trend. http://shop.contagiousmagazine.com/index.php If you’re an advertiser or agency who would like to receive a bespoke, analytical service from the Contagious editorial team, check out Contagius Feed, http://shop.contagiousmagazine.com/feed.php, our online intelligence resource that navigates the complex but fascinating climate that brands will have to survive in 2009 and beyond. Contagious / London

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most contagious / 2008 /

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01 / MOST CONTAGIOUS /

LANDMARKS CHAPTERS / 01 / LANDMARKS 02 / TECHNOLOGY 03 / GAMING 04 / ENTERTAIN 05 / MUSIC 06 / DESIGN 07 / SOCIAL MEDIA 08 / WEBSITES 09 / APPLICATIONS 10 / INTEGRATED 11 / VIRAL 12 / MOBILE 13 / OUTDOORS 14 / PLACES 15 / CONTENT 16 / GREEN

Barack Obama / Presidential Campaign / The New York Times has only ever opted for the use of 96pt font four times in its illustrious history. The moon landings. Nixon's resignation. 9/11. These gargantuan headlines are reserved for seismic shifts in the global landscape. All the more fitting, then, that the fourth incidence of this rarity was reserved for the election of Barack Obama, not only the first African-American to take up residence in the White House, but a man doing so on the strength of a campaign predicated entirely on the concept of epic change. As you can see from this Most Contagious PDF, the Contagious team divides this annual round-up of blistering phenomena from the worlds of technology, media, design, pop culture and brand strategy into sections, in order to make it easier to navigate. However, much like his political philosophy, Barack Obama's campaign strategy refused to be divided. Let's tick them off, shall we?

/ Branded utility / Obama's team launched an iPhone application one month before the election, boasting a 'call your friends' feature which organised contacts by key swing states, allowing you to hassle them individually. The app also provided the location of your nearest polling station, and last minute news from the campaign.

/ A big idea / They don't come much bigger than 'Yes We Can'.

/ An eye for the experts / Obama's chief speech writer Jon Favreau was 26 years old for most of the campaign, yet proved himself more than capable with the crafting of lines such as: 'It was sung by immigrants as they struck out from distant shores and pioneers who pushed westward against an unforgiving wilderness. Yes we can.' *shiver*

/ Use of non-traditional media / From the moment the Obama team hired one of Facebook's original founders to run my.barackobama.com, the die was cast. Videos, messages and campaign information were posted online and Twittered to more than 140,000 followers. His team blogged, Twittered and YouTube'd their way to the win. They even placed Vote For Change ads in videogames like Madden NFL â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;09. Less 2.0, more 2.0bama.

/ Radical transparency / You follow Obama on Twitter, he follows you. You ask your question online, his team responds. More recently, the informal tone of the Obama campaign has been taken to YouTube, where his fireside chats will be broadcast, and http://change.gov, from where his presidential transition period can be followed. / Giving power to the people / Obama's campaign was majority funded by small donations from enthused individuals, 65,000 of them newbies to political donation, giving what they could afford to bring about the change he promised.

/ Some smart PR / Facing criticism for his friendship with divisive religious figure Jeremiah Wright, Obama issued no panicked denials. He simply waited for his next public appearance and gave a speech addressing the reality of racism whilst acknowledging his own position within it.

Result - a collective gasp from an adoring media, around 7m views on YouTube, some utterly deflated opponents and most importantly, renewed hope for 'a more perfect union'. / Celebrity tie-ins / Black-Eyed Pea Will.i.am took Obama's iconic 'yes we can' speech and set it to music, hosting it online, enlisting some A-list chums and allowing for mobile downloads. 14m views on YouTube and a whole new bunch of registered voters laterâ&#x20AC;Ś / Relentless consistency / Obama's warm words for former opponent Hillary Clinton were dismissed by some pundits as pandering to the female demographic, and a democratic party still dominated by Clintonian politics. He ignored them and made her Secretary of State. And all this whilst shaking hands, holding babies, fighting off rabid opponents and at times flagrant racism, and running the kind of traditional media campaign that would put an FMCG behemoth to shame. For such a perfect understanding not only of the public mood but of the ways in which the public is now connected - Barack Obama, we salute you.

most contagious / 2008 / landmarks (cont.)

CHAPTERS / 01 / LANDMARKS 02 / TECHNOLOGY 03 / GAMING 04 / ENTERTAIN 05 / MUSIC 06 / DESIGN 07 / SOCIAL MEDIA 08 / WEBSITES 09 / APPLICATIONS 10 / INTEGRATED 11 / VIRAL 12 / MOBILE 13 / OUTDOORS 14 / PLACES 15 / CONTENT 16 / GREEN

Apple / iPhone Apps Store / If the iPhone's sleek design and touchscreen interface weren't enough to convince the Apple cynics, the July 2008 launch of the Apps store probably did the trick. As soon as the iPhone's API was released to developers, the store was flooded with apps to tell you how to get home. Which train to use. Who was winning at golf. Football. Baseball. Where to have dinner. Who to play poker with. You could be Mario. Record your voice. Find out what song you're listening to. Check Google Earth. GOOGLE EARTH, for God's sake, is now available in your pocket. Despite Apple being unhappy with the use of the term 'smartphone' to describe its little miracle, it now boasts a 17% share of that particular market, and as a result, Apple hit 100 million app downloads within three months of launch, and 300 million by December (the last 100 million was apparently achieved in a space of six weeks). Even Microsoft took the plunge, adapting its image software Seadragon for the handset. The iPhone Apps store is the steroid-pumped evolution of the long standing twin trends of personalisation and convergence. Now - if only we could use the iPhone to cut and paste. Steve! Featured in Contagious 16. Online TV / In recent years, several services have claimed to have cracked the thorny issue of online TV. All of them were lying, scuppered by a lack of subscribers, a lack of content partners, or simply having no discernible business model (not that that ever stopped anyone. Twitter, we're looking at you). Now, the combination of the BBC's phenomenal iPlayer service and the work done by Hulu in the States on cajoling content providers is threatening a sea change. Even short-form video's gone all grown up as Vimeo and now YouTube start providing content in high definition and widescreen. Ladies and gentleman, do not adjust your sets. The era of online TV may finally be upon us.

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iPlayer / The BBC's one-week catch up service was launched later than rivals from ITV and Channel 4 - but with over 20 million streams a month of BBC programming across TV and radio, the iPlayer is the first service of its kind to prove a runaway success. Launched with a catchy, simple tagline ('Making the unmissable, unmissable') and tieins with BBC stalwarts such as EastEnders and Top Gear to illustrate exactly what you would be missing, the iPlayer came into its own during sporting events like the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the Wimbledon tennis tournament. Instead of two weeks spent grumbling about missing the action, the Contagious team simply plugged in their headphones en masse. Thanks, Auntie Beeb. Hulu / Lacking the luxury of a licence fee but raking in the cash nonetheless is Hulu, which made $148m (â&#x201A;Ź115m) in advertising revenues in its first full year of operations following its launch by NBC Universal and News Corp in 2007. Content providers include Fox, Universal, Sony Pictures Television, Warner Bros. Television, Comedy Central, Bravo, FX, Sci Fi and Sundance, which means shows like Family Guy, The Simpsons, The Daily Show, Saturday Night Live and The Office - ratings winners every one. Suddenly, YouTube and all its camcorder capers looks a bit wobbly. Research company Screen Digest has predicted revenues of $180m for next year, and recent statistics indicate around 64 million streams per month. Users can also watch Hulu content at many other places across the web (eg AOL, Comcast, MSN, MySpace, and Yahoo!), and viewers can share episodes or clips via email, or embed them on other sites, blogs and social networks. The full service is currently only available in the USA. Come on Hulu! The good people of Europe and Asia deserve some free entertainment too. See Contagious 16. â&#x20AC;˘

Links / http://change.gov www.apple.com/iphone/appstore www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer www.hulu.com

IPLAYER /

iPHONE APPS /

most contagious / 2008 /

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02 / MOST CONTAGIOUS /

TECHNOLOGY / CHAPTERS / 01 / LANDMARKS 02 / TECHNOLOGY 03 / GAMING 04 / ENTERTAIN 05 / MUSIC 06 / DESIGN 07 / SOCIAL MEDIA 08 / WEBSITES 09 / APPLICATIONS 10 / INTEGRATED 11 / VIRAL 12 / MOBILE 13 / OUTDOORS 14 / PLACES 15 / CONTENT 16 / GREEN

Google / Chrome / Forever innovative, the big giant of the valley declared rainbow-coloured war on rivals Microsoft earlier this year with the official launch of Chrome, its first attempt at a web browser. Ostensibly sticking one in the eye to the cumbersome Internet Explorer and rattling the cage of an increasingly bloated Firefox, Chrome uses Google's own open source 'Gears' tool, allowing desktop applications and online applications to talk to each other. Put simply, this means that the browser could be the only operating system you'd ever need. How many Windows would that smash, do we thinkâ&#x20AC;Ś?

to be an important platform; that the browser wars of 10 years ago were right. The browser matters.' Despite the fluffy comic strip Google used to market Chrome prior to its launch (see right), there's an evil undercurrent to all this. If Google controls people's email and their browsers, not to mention a recent offer to provide free national wi-fi, they would have unprecedented and unfettered access to a huge portion of the western world's information. Minority Report was right. The future is chrome-coloured. See Contagious 17.

Of course, it's not without its glitches. No version is currently available for Mac OSX or Linux users, thus depriving Google of the subset of creative and techie visionaries/wannabes who would adopt it in their droves. Further competition will come in the new year with a new version of Firefox, whose popularity rests on the plethora of independently created plug-ins available for the system. At time of writing, there are no plug-ins for Chrome but the architecture, along with Mac and Linux versions, are promised for 2009. So far adoption has been steady, but by no means an overnight success. Web analytics GetClicky estimates that Chrome boasts a 1% share of the market, with IE at 60% and Firefox at 30%. However, Google's CEO Eric Schmidt has explained Chrome's importance to the company in no uncertain terms. 'The thing that changed in the past couple of years ... is that people started building powerful applications on top of browsers and the browsers that were out there, in particular in Explorer, were not up to the task of running complex applications,' he told The Financial Times. 'We think that the browser continues

GOOGLE / CHROME COMIC /

GOOGLE / CHROME /

most contagious / 2008 / technology (cont.)

Cloud Computing / Google's maneouvrings take us nicely onto another buzz phrase of 2008 - cloud computing, or the use of a web network to host information so it can be accessed from anywhere around the world. Think GoogleDocs, or Gmail. You log in, you have access, thus finally slaying the irritation of that bastard file being on the desktop at home. The notion of the cloud lends itself neatly to Google's vision of a browser-based future, and behemoths such as Amazon have allowed third party developers to contribute to their own cloud in order to ensure a slicker service. Not to be outdone, rivals Microsoft have now entered the fray with Azure. This service has been described as 'Windows for the cloud', and will be offered alongside the next release of Windows, 7. In a huge shift of policy for a company which has dominated the desktop since forever, you'll be able to store your documents/ photos/files/whatever on the cloud, which will be hosted on countless giant data centres around the world. It's all a bit Terminator - if you remember, James Cameron's notion of a centralised system through which all beings were connected was called Skynet, and it led to the near extinction of mankind. Plus, the amount of money you need to host the information means that only big, slightly sinister players with track records in monopoly need apply. Despite the obvious and exciting potential of the cloud, one of the earliest laws of computing states that data doesn't exist unless it's in at least two places. Microsoft and Google will have backups - but God forbid your log-in details should ever fail. Now might be the time for anyone with doubts as to the future of society to start putting a down payment on that shack in the woods. If anyone will give you a mortgage, that is.

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adidas / Bonded by Thread / Nanotechnology as marketing? Get outta here. Last year, Whybin\TBWA launched their Bonded by Blood campaign, in which the New Zealand All Blacks gave samples of their DNA to be woven into a promotional poster for sponsor adidas. This year, they used nanotechnology to etch fans' names and messages of support onto an 'Adithread' which was then woven into a rugby jersey worn by captain Richie McCaw. The campaign mantra? 'This is not a jersey. This is a legacy'. Two thumbs up for bringing the fans and the players closer together. See Contagious 16. Guinness Rugby / RFID / Over in Ireland, the Guinness team in conjunction with digital strategists Red Urban in London is doing some staggering things with RFID (Radio Frequency Identification Technology). The brand's positioning 'Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Alive Inside' - has been literally and beautifully interpreted by the addition of RFID tags to rugby balls, and an intricate camera monitoring system capable of measuring the speed, power and accuracy of passes and player. Ultimately, this world first could give everyone from coaches to fans access to detailed metrics of gameplay, creating the kind of obsessives and media coverage currently dominating football and baseball. In our humble opinion, this is pretty much the sport activation to end all sport activations, and definitely one to watch for the year ahead. Plastic Logic / With media attention focused on the travails of a wheezing music industry, the publishing industry has been quietly facing its own digital revolution. After Amazon's Kindle digital reader and the Sony eBook Reader, the new kid on the block is Plastic Logic. The size of an A4 piece of paper, no thicker

ADIDAS / THIS IS NOT A JERSEY /

GUINNESS / RFID / X

most contagious / 2008 / technology (cont.)

CHAPTERS / 01 / LANDMARKS 02 / TECHNOLOGY 03 / GAMING 04 / ENTERTAIN 05 / MUSIC 06 / DESIGN 07 / SOCIAL MEDIA 08 / WEBSITES 09 / APPLICATIONS

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than a pad of it and weighing under 1lb, this flexible digital parchment can display newspapers and books as well as other documents from PDFs to Powerpoint presentations. You'll also be able to connect to it wirelessly. Is this the newspaper of the future? Featured in Contagious 17. Radiohead / House of Cards / So beautiful we put it on the front cover of our magazine. Complaint rock innovators Radiohead shot a video for House of Cards using 360ยบ laser scanners instead of cameras and lights. They also premiered it on the Google code content platform. Shot by James Frost of Zoo Films, the video plus widgets and a making-of film can be viewed here: http://code.google.com/creative/radiohead Featured in Contagious 16. Google Streetview / Google's Streetview is an additional feature of Google Maps and Google Earth that provides data taken from street level. Forget top down or GPS harassment. Go forth and stalk face to face. โ ข

PLASTIC LOGIC /

10 / INTEGRATED 11 / VIRAL 12 / MOBILE 13 / OUTDOORS 14 / PLACES 15 / CONTENT 16 / GREEN

RADIOHEAD / HOUSE OF CARDS /

links / www.google.com/chrome www.guinness.com/ie_en www.thisisnotajersey.com http://plasticlogic.com http://code.google.com/creative/radiohead http://maps.google.com/help/maps/streetview

GOOGLE / STREETVIEW /

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03 / MOST CONTAGIOUS /

GAMING CHAPTERS / 01 / LANDMARKS 02 / TECHNOLOGY 03 / GAMING 04 / ENTERTAIN 05 / MUSIC 06 / DESIGN 07 / SOCIAL MEDIA 08 / WEBSITES 09 / APPLICATIONS 10 / INTEGRATED 11 / VIRAL 12 / MOBILE 13 / OUTDOORS 14 / PLACES 15 / CONTENT 16 / GREEN

2008 spawned one of the biggest media launches of all time when Grand Theft Auto IV hit the shelves, followed by a second wave of virtual worlds and Sackboy, the cutest little critter from Sonyâ&#x20AC;Ś. LittleBigPlanet / LittleBigPlanet launched on Sony's PlayStation 3 in November. Developed by small British company Media Molecule, the game puts players in control of plucky hero Sackboy. Facilitated by Sony's online gaming service PlayStation Network, players are encouraged to explore each others' worlds and even collaborate in the evolutionary process, making LittleBigPlanet as much a hybrid social network as an ultra-playable video game. The beta trial alone - among 24,000 people - saw 5,000 levels of the game being created over just three days. Despite a sticky launch due to some soundtrack issues and heavy-handed moderation, the game has since received a 95% rating on Metacritic.com. Sackboy in spaceman mode also graced the cover of Contagious 17 and page 40 of this report. Grand Theft Auto IV / The only title to score higher than LittleBigPlanet on Metacritic.com is Rockstar Games' Grand Theft Auto IV. GTA IV has done nothing but smash records all year: in its first week, it shifted six million copies worldwide, amounting to total sales figures of over $500m. This eclipses the $300m taken by Halo 3 last year and even Hollywood's biggest grossing film Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End which took $460m in the six days following its release. Much to the frustration of prospective advertisers, Rockstar was vehemently against the emerging trend of featuring in-game

advertising. Instead, revenue was created using more progressive and inventive business models. For example, thanks to a new technology called ZiT, players can use the main character's mobile phone to dial a number when they hear a track which they like on the car radio. Much like the real-world service Shazam, the title and artist of the track then gets sent to them via SMS message. If the player has already pre-registered on the Rockstar Games Social Club website, they are able to compile a playlist of all their favourite tracks from the game and by visiting Amazon.com, purchase every one of these tracks for under $1 each. See Contagious 15. Spore / The Sims designer Will Wright of Maxis Studio spent three years creating Spore. The game allows players to develop a character from a single-cell organism fighting against the fluid dynamics of a tidal pool, into a member of an advanced civilisation and eventually a spaceconquering demigod. Prior to the game's release in September, parent company Electronic Arts made a stripped-down version of Spore's creature creator available for free download. This lets users get to grips with the interface and their character by playing with an infinite number of body parts, colours, textures and appendages. Furthermore, an awesome video showing comedian and actor Robin Willams bungling his way through a tutorial of the application was launched online. In San Francisco, a micro billboard measuring 14" x 6" was placed on a roof top; a fixed telescope helped passers by to check it.

LITTLEBIGPLANET /

SPORE /

most contagious / 2008 / gaming (cont.)

The game has not gone without its fair share of controversy however. Electronic Arts, which owns Maxis, recently lost a reported $25m through illegal downloads by consumers who felt that their ownership rights were being abused when they found that the game could not be registered on multiple PCs… More power to the console, eh? See Contagious 17 Rock Band / Guitar Hero / Apart from the emergence of collaborative, online initiatives such as LittleBigPlanet, the other video game trend which characterised 2008 was undoubtedly the rise and rise of casual gaming. Started by the industry-subverting Nintendo Wii console in 2006, the casual gaming market has been steadily growing as girlfriends, parents and grandparents discover the joy of the joystick. The one genre which has profited most from this trend is that of music-simulation - most notably titles such as Activision's Guitar Hero franchise and Rock Band from Harmonix. Something of a cultural phenomenon, Guitar Hero invites you to 'Unleash your inner rockstar' something which apparently over 23 million people worldwide have done, resulting in $1.6bn at retail. Bands and advertisers have clearly recognised the penetration of the franchise; most recently, The Killers marked the release of their third album, Day & Age, with an appearance in Guitar Hero World Tour. Day & Age was released on 25 November and the Las Vegas rock quartet is releasing two singles, Human and Losing Touch, as downloads into the game. 2004 smash hit Mr Brightside will also form part of ‘The Killers Track Pack’. Rival series Rock Band, the first game of its type to add drums and vocals to the traditional guitar-

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controller setup, has also been going great guns supported by its own celebrity collaborations. Guns N' Roses released the first single from their longawaited comeback album Chinese Democracy ‘ Shackler's Revenge’, via Rock Band. Also, exciting news for 2009 - creators Harmonix are set to release a special Beatles edition of the game featuring the entire back catalogue of the Fab Four's hits and fully endorsed by Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Yoko Ono Lennon and Olivia Harrison. If this doesn't make your mum want to play video games, we don't know what will… Featured in Contagious 16. Ones to watch / Football Superstars / Created by Nottingham-based CyberSports, Football Superstars combines the appeal of games like EA Sports' FIFA and Konami's Pro Evolutionary Soccer with the virtual world platform found in Second Life and the massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) experience offered by Vivendi's World of Warcraft. The game is free to download and once players have completed training, they can join a virtual team. However, as well as playing matches, users are encouraged to interact off the pitch where they can indulge in a whole host of decadent extrasporting activities. So far, over 219,000 have registered for Football Superstars and CyberSports have claimed that a further 3000 are signing up every day. CyberSports has signed up a number of brands for in-game placement including Puma. The revenue model also includes micro-payments, with CyberSports estimating that each player will spend around £3.50 ($5.4) a month on items such as clothes, locker space and refreshments. See Contagious 17.

most contagious / 2008 / gaming (cont.)

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LEGO / Universe / Set for a 2009 release, LEGO Universe is another new MMOG. Developed by NetDevil to be a seamless adaptation of the LEGO philosophy, the concept behind the subscription-based LEGO Universe is simple – if you can imagine it, then you can build it. The traditional play experience will transfer online, requiring a creative and collaborative approach to accomplish ingame goals. Contagious 17 contains a case study on LEGO. IFTF / Superstruct / ARG-guru and gaming genius Jane McGonigal (formerly of 42 Entertainment) has headed up the development of a new online project which could well save the world. Superstruct, from the Institute for the Future (IFTT), is a future-facing affair which pits players against a host of daunting new-world threats such as disease, global warming and hackers. Championing the power of gaming as a unifying force, McGonigal also believes that companies could benefit from understanding the role that gaming could play as a business tool. For more details and an interview with McGonigal, check out the link below to an article in BusinessWeek… http://tinyurl.com/64womr • links / www.littlebigplanet.com www.rockstargames.com www.spore.com www.guitarhero.com www.rockband.com www.footballsuperstars.com http://universe.lego.com/en-us/Default.aspx www.superstructgame.org/Home1

LEGO / UNIVERSE /

GTA IV /

ROCK BAND /

16 / GREEN

SUPERSTRUCT /

most contagious / 2008 /

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04 / MOST CONTAGIOUS /

ENTERTAINMENT CHAPTERS / 01 / LANDMARKS 02 / TECHNOLOGY 03 / GAMING 04 / ENTERTAIN 05 / MUSIC 06 / DESIGN 07 / SOCIAL MEDIA 08 / WEBSITES 09 / APPLICATIONS 10 / INTEGRATED 11 / VIRAL 12 / MOBILE 13 / OUTDOORS 14 / PLACES 15 / CONTENT 16 / GREEN

Quantum of Solace / Despite the long-cultivated suspicion that the Bond franchise might be metamorphosing into little more than a series of beautiful, big budget commercials, the latest effort, Quantum of Solace, eschewed heavy placements in favour of some impressive tie-ins and product integration around the action. Smirnoff Black, Bond's original tipple, underlined its placement in the film with an appealing integrated campaign based around a limited edition bottle of the spirit with a cocktail shaker, through Edinburgh-based Three Brand Design. Coca-Cola also introduced special edition bottles of Coke Zero, renaming the fizz Zero Zero 7. A global TV campaign through Wieden + Kennedy featured music from Jack White, who penned Another Way To Die, the film's disappointing theme tune. Sony's electronic offerings featured prominently. Digital agency Dare London launched Bond in HD - an immersive microsite to showcase High Definition products which saw users set challenges based around various HD products. Players were required to manipulate content, analyse narrative and test awareness and memory to succeed, honing their spy skills along the way. To celebrate Sony Ericsson's Cyber Shot as Bond's mobile of choice iris Digital, London, launched Directive C902 - an integrated campaign based around a rich content microsite hosting an interactive movie, complete with missions integrated into the plot. Each mission completed delivered a code that unlocked an exclusive mobile phone app and granted access to the next level of the game. Microsoftâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Surface technology also found a home in the hi-tech offices of MI6, and just to mess with the system, Ford's dominant sponsorship of the film saw not Bond, but Bond girl Camille (Olga Kurylenko) behind the wheel of its key placement, the new Ford Ka. Featured in Contagious 17.

most contagious / 2008 / entertainment (cont.)

The Dark Knight / We were delirious with excitement back in 2007 with anticipation of the release of The Dark Knight. (Just see Most Contagious 2007 for proof.) This was thanks in no small part to 42 Entertainment's epic alternate reality game building up over the 18 months prior to the film's release. One particularly great stage in the comprehensive ARG was Operation Slipknot, a game focusing on corruption in Gotham City Police Dept and the apprehension of 30 fugitives. Commissioner Jim Gordon sent out an email with the assignment and all slots in the game were reportedly taken within 45 minutes. The ARG is too monstrous to document in its entirety except with the help of obsessive players / wiki contributors. If you fancy a flutter, the smart moneyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s on a Cannes Lion or two for the creators in 2009. http://batman.wikibruce.com/Home

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online. The characters were given MySpace pages and anticipation reached fever pitch when fans excitedly logged on to http://lillyandjason.com only to discover a couple's wedding invitation site, seemingly unconnected to the film. Finally, in November, Paramount released the official trailer and the film's name was made public, but hints surrounding the monster still remained minimal. Cloverfield's US opening was the biggest ever for January so the slow burn word of mouth effect came good. Oh, and it helped that the film itself was pretty decent. Featured in Contagious 14. â&#x20AC;˘ links / www.sony.co.uk/article/high-definition-hd www.sonyericsson.com/bond http://batman.wikibruce.com/Home www.cloverfieldmovie.com

The film's box office takings are edging towards the golden billion dollar mark, where it would join the esteemed releases of Titanic, Lord of the Rings: Return of the King and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, the only three movies to date to have achieved such a feat. The Dark Knight will be re-released in the US on 23 January, the day after Oscar nominations are announced. Featured in Contagious 14, 15. Cloverfield / Cloverfield opened the year's box office excitement in January after a six-month viral campaign building up to the opening night. The monster flick follows five young friends in New York through their own video footage of the night a monster hits the city. The fun began in July 2007 with an unbranded trailer at the end of Transformers, the last frame of which stated 01-18-08. The first step encouraged people to search online where they found a website with nothing but two dazed faces. The next few months saw spoof videos and rumours as fans tried desperately to unlock clues to the film which were sporadically released

THE DARK KNIGHT /

CLOVERFIELD /

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most contagious / 2008 /

05 / MOST CONTAGIOUS /

MUSIC / CHAPTERS / 01 / LANDMARKS 02 / TECHNOLOGY 03 / GAMING

In a year when the global music trade body IFPI released figures showing that digital music sales now account for 15% of all sales 30% in the US - brands became more aware of opportunities that could link them to artists. Meanwhile, the ratio of unlicensed tracks to legal tracks sold is about 20:1, so live music and merchandise are becoming areas of focus for the music industry and artists. The UK festival industry alone was worth about £900m in 2008 - around 700 festivals. Can this be sustained throughout an unpredictable 2009?

04 / ENTERTAIN 05 / MUSIC 06 / DESIGN 07 / SOCIAL MEDIA 08 / WEBSITES 09 / APPLICATIONS

O2 / Live Nation / At the heart of the thirst for live music was O2, which linked up with Live Nation, replacing Carling as the brand behind Brixton and 10 other Academy Music Group venues from 1 January 2009. O2 reckons the partnership will reach more than 3.5 million music fans, extending across the UK the same priority ticketing benefits that O2 customers currently enjoy with the London-based O2 venue: the chance to buy tickets 48 hours before they officially go on sale. And despite some ugly rumours to the contrary, the O2 Wireless Festival will take place in Hyde Park in 2009. Bring back Daft Punk!

10 / INTEGRATED 11 / VIRAL 12 / MOBILE 13 / OUTDOORS 14 / PLACES 15 / CONTENT 16 / GREEN

Nokia / Comes With Music / Nokia launched Comes With Music (CWM), a download service bundled in with a Nokia phone package, most notably the 5310. Any music fans happy to shell out €199 for a CWM-enabled handset could then enjoy unlimited tracks from a catalogue bulging with two million tracks. Users must buy another CWM-enabled handset after the year has elapsed. Warner Music, SonyBMG and Universal are partnering Nokia, which will extend the service throughout Europe and Asia in 2009. On the back of Apple’s December announcement that it will be dropping DRM from the content of three major labels sold through iTunes, will this caveat-loaded approach be enough to compete in the download wars? See Contagious 17.

most contagious / 2008 / music (cont.)

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TAG / TAG Records /

Miller Genuine Draft / The Mill /

TAG, a male body spray owned by P&G that chases the same young demographic as Unilever's Lynx/Axe, hooked up with Def Jam Music on TAG Records. Q, a rapper from Brooklyn, was the first artist to be signed to the hip hop label. For more on brands such as TAG, Vodafone and Bacardi identifying fresh points of entry into the music industry, read this article from Contagious 16 by Jack Horner, co-founder and creative director of music marketing agency Frukt, London. www.contagiousmagazine.com/resources/music.pdf

Miller Genuine Draft diverted its entire marketing budget into creating a platform for unsigned bands in an attempt to reflect the brand's 'genuinely different' positioning throughout Scotland. Via Leo Burnett London, the platform gave unsigned acts maximum coverage and consumers free content. Venues in Edinburgh and Glasgow staged live performances from a selection of 108 bands. Each act had a unique poster, imagery from which is used on packaging. Gig-goers download free tickets to their mobiles via the website where 540 tracks have been recorded and distributed. Further mobile content is available via dedicated bluetooth units in the venues. Media partnerships struck with The Skinny magazine and Xfm Scotland, as well as with e-newsletters and social networking sites, built on the buzz . See Contagious 17. â&#x20AC;˘

Umphrey's McGee / Prog rock fans will be counting the days until 19 January 2009 when Mantis, the new album from Chicago outfit Umphrey's McGee is released. But how rich an experience the album is relies entirely on how involved fans have been in the lead-up to its release. In a smart initiative by Connecticut-based design and branding agency Plaid, if fans visit a special website and preorder the CD, they help unlock a treasure chest of free content which includes alternative studio recordings and remixes. What's more, fans who pre-order Mantis will be drip-fed even more content over 2009 every time they play the CD on their PC. Dr. Pepper / Chinese Democracy / Dr. Pepper promised a can of Dr. Pepper to everyone in the US if the long-anticipated Guns N' Roses album, Chinese Democracy, was completed in 2008. Yet the execution of this marketing masterstroke was shabby: servers crashed on the brand's website, meaning users were unable to log on and download their voucher for the free drink. Guns N' Roses front man Axl Rose then issued legal proceedings against Dr. Pepper, accusing it of tainting Guns N' Roses by associationâ&#x20AC;Ś still, we raise a can of, and to, Dr. Pepper for its audacity.

links / www.o2.co.uk www.nokia.com/comeswithmusic www.umphreys.com/mantis www.gunsroses.com www.themill-live.com

MILLER GENUINE DRAFT / THE MILL /

most contagious / 2008 /

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06 / MOST CONTAGIOUS /

DESIGN / PRODUCTS CHAPTERS / 01 / LANDMARKS 02 / TECHNOLOGY 03 / GAMING 04 / ENTERTAIN 05 / MUSIC 06 / DESIGN 07 / SOCIAL MEDIA 08 / WEBSITES 09 / APPLICATIONS 10 / INTEGRATED 11 / VIRAL 12 / MOBILE 13 / OUTDOORS 14 / PLACES 15 / CONTENT 16 / GREEN

Speedo / LZR / 2008â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most impactful piece of product design is arguably the now infamous Speedo LZR swimsuit, most famously worn by recordbreaking Olympic Gold Medallist and general human fish Michael Phelps. Developed by biomechanical engineers in one of NASA's wind tunnels, the suit has had such a profound effect on the sport that Alberto Castagnetti, coach of the Italian national team, referred to it as 'technological doping'. How profound, you ask? Since its launch in March, no fewer than 74 world records have been broken by swimmers wearing the LZR. It also caused chaos in the run-up to the Olympics as several swimmers not sponsored by Speedo attempted to wriggle out of their own deals in order to hitch a ride on the bandwagon to medal glory. It's just like Contagious has always said - nail those oxygenating hydrodynamics and the rest will fall into placeâ&#x20AC;Ś See Contagious 16. Nike / Zoom Victory / Almost as big news as Speedo's LZR has been Nike's Zoom Victory running shoe. By dispensing with the elements previously needed to hold a sneaker together (stitching, material) in favour of a suspension bridge design with merely a coating of fabric, the shoes weigh in at less than a chocolate bar. What's more, because the design is so pared down, the Nike team can use rapid prototyping - computer aided design - to manufacture unique versions in a fraction of the time it would take to knock up a regular sneaker. The cheap production process could enable Nike to shift some of its manufacturing out of China and back to its home in the United States, thus creating jobs in an otherwise exhausted marketplace. This unexpected side effect is fascinating: a product design innovation, led by technology, with immediate, first hand repercussions for a country's economy. Top marks to the Nike Tech Lab. See Contagious 16. X

most contagious / 2008 / design (cont.)

Electric Cars / 2008 has undoubtedly been the year in which alternative fuelling and the use of sustainable materials in the automotive industry has turned from mere novelty into a necessity. With the global economy furiously struggling to keep its head above water, and car manufacturers seeking more hand-outs than Oliver Twist, motorists the world over are looking for ways to justify and afford their daily drive. Obviously, US companies producing traditional gasguzzling beasties have been worst hit, but even the smallest are now seeking to change. Step forward parent company BMW and the MINI E. The German car manufacturer has launched an electric version of its iconic small British car, but limited production to just 500 vehicles. Furthermore, these will only be available for lease to drivers in Los Angeles and New York who have a lockable garage where the car can be re-charged from a wall-mounted unit. All the cars are silvery grey and come with the distinctive yellow plug insignia announcing their electric credentials. BMW is aiming to mass-produce an electric car by 2010. We like this softly, softly approach from MINI. Not only are they subtly vetting the initial 500 customers reinforcing the feeling of joining a select club - but also securing at least a year of free advertising from these lucky few as they scoot about in their distinctive silver and yellow cars. By the time the brand does scale up its production on the electric MINI, the buzz around the vehicle will be at a peak and demand will be high… In other news, entrepreneur Shay Agassi has been backed by the Israeli government to start implementing a network of electric cars, apparently resulting in 'sustainable transportation, global energy independence and freedom from oil'. Using a concept developed with French manufacturer Renault, Agassi's

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vision involves drivers plugging in their vehicles whilst at home or work, with longer journeys catered for by a stint at one of 150 larger charging stations dotted around the country. Financial backing has come from Morgan Stanley (yes, really) and, rather ironically, the owner of Israel's largest oil refinery, Idan Ofur. Clearly these investors share Agassi's optimism for a global roll-out, should Israel prove a successful training ground. This is supported by the recent news that interest in the 'Better Place' initiative has already spread to the US, where the mayors of San Francisco, San Jose and Oakland, California have all approved a test period for the network of electric cars. See Contagious 17.

NIKE / ZOOM VICTORY /

Netbooks / ASUS Eee PC / There’s an odd rule of technology which states that the the price of a gadget is inversely proportional to its physical size. Therefore it is with open arms (and open wallets) that the PC-buying public has welcomed the new trend for affordable versions of the mini laptops known as netbooks. Statistics published by techEBlog.com show that sales of netbooks are expected to rise from one million units sold in 2007 to a projected total of 14 million for 2008. Leading the charge was Taiwan-based ASUS with its range of ohso-cute Eee PC laptops. Available with a screen size as small as 7", these start at under €231, with an almost infinite range of tech-specs to suit every user.

BMW / MINI E /

If this wasn't enough to confirm the product as the PC of the people, ASUS has recently teamed up with the Intel Corporation to launch wePC (see page 19), a website tapping into the crowdsourcing trend to influence the design of the world's first community-designed laptop. See Contagious 15 and 17. X

ASUS / Eee PC /

most contagious / 2008 / design (cont.)

CHAPTERS / 01 / LANDMARKS 02 / TECHNOLOGY 03 / GAMING 04 / ENTERTAIN 05 / MUSIC 06 / DESIGN 07 / SOCIAL MEDIA 08 / WEBSITES

Red / If you haven't heard anything about Red yet, be aware that its amazing hi-tech cameras are shaking up the entire movie industry whilst costing around one third of the price of equivalent big brand offerings. Scheduled additions to the range - the sub $3000 Scarlet video camera and the high end Epic model - have been delayed, with CEO (and Oakley eyewear founder) Jim Jannard posting enigmatically on the company's forum that 'we have changed everything about Scarlet because the market has changed and we have discovered a lot of things in the process. We have a new vision'. The forum is buzzing and speculation is ripe; definitely a brand to keep an eye on as belts are tightened worldwide. Director Steven Soderbergh's two recent films Guerrilla and The Argentine were shot entirely using Red cameras, as was Peter Jackson's Crossing the Line. All our lunch money is going in the Contagious piggy bank for one of these (and a communal Speedo LZR to share…ewww). See Contagious 17. •

09 / APPLICATIONS 10 / INTEGRATED 11 / VIRAL 12 / MOBILE 13 / OUTDOORS 14 / PLACES 15 / CONTENT 16 / GREEN

links / www.speedo80.com/lzr-racer/ www.nike.com/nikelab/site.html?en_US#/product/ aerofly/detail www.minispace.com/en_us/projects/electric-mini-e www.betterplace.com www.wepc.com www.red.com

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most contagious / 2008 /

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07 / MOST CONTAGIOUS /

SOCIAL MEDIA / Facebook (again) / CHAPTERS / 01 / LANDMARKS 02 / TECHNOLOGY 03 / GAMING 04 / ENTERTAIN 05 / MUSIC 06 / DESIGN 07 / SOCIAL MEDIA 08 / WEBSITES 09 / APPLICATIONS 10 / INTEGRATED 11 / VIRAL 12 / MOBILE 13 / OUTDOORS 14 / PLACES 15 / CONTENT 16 / GREEN

It will come as no surprise that comScore declared Facebook the biggest and fastest-growing social network: over 132 million people visit the site every month, a year-on-year increase of 153%. Smart investment in translation tools saw the site take off in Latin America, Asia, the Middle East and Africa, and advertisers were quick to develop apps and widgets. Pizza Hut even developed an app enabling users to order a pizza without leaving the site (although we're lukewarm on the facility that tells Facebook friends that you ordered a stuffed crust Hawaiian). And best of all, GetThemIn allowed Facebook users to buy drinks via the social network which could be cashed in for real booze at over 1,500 off licences in the UK. Bebo / Teen-friendly social networking site Bebo saw 32% growth in 2008, from 18m to 24m total unique visitors, and was snapped up in March by AOL for the princely sum of $850m. One of the site's stickiest features proved to be original drama, with Bebo repositioning itself as a media platform and offering a combination of entertainment and social media, providing brands with opportunities to integrate naturally into the plot. Audience approval of placement and the fact that the Open Media platform allows users direct access to thousands of hours of premium content has proved a leading strategy so far. KateModern - which attracted advertisers including Toyota and Cadbury - set the ball rolling in 2007, but this year, Sofia's Diary captivated Beboers and advertisers including Unilever's Sure Girl and Pearl Drops. The show, in five-minute daily segments, was also syndicated to the Channel 5-owned digital channel, Fiver. Bebo followed up with The Secret World of Sam King, a joint venture with Universal Records, which followed the adventures of the eponymous hero working at the record label and averaged 600,000 views a week. Finally, comedy series Chelsey OMG!, the story of a young American in London, launched in October, backed by the likes of fashion website Glam.com and haircare brand Paul Mitchell.

most contagious / 2008 / social media (cont.)

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Crowdsourcing /

BA / Metrotwin /

Crowdsourcing has become a welcome trend among PC brands, with Asus and Intel joining forces on wePC.com - 'a place where users like you come together to share ideas, images and inspiration about your ideal PC'. The best ideas will shape the design of what wePC.com is touting as the world's first community-designed laptop. wePC.com came hot on the heels of consumer electronics retailer Best Buy working with Toshiba and HP on a similar project which invited consumers to contribute ideas for its Blue Label laptop range. Yet both were influenced by Dell which launched its crowdsourcing concept Idea Storm in 2007. Today, Idea Storm has over 9,000 contributors who have suggested 10,779 ideas.

British Airways launched Metrotwin, a social media platform to link Londoners and New Yorkers. The online community provides expert suggestions on the best places to visit, shop eat and drink in both cities, and makes recommendations based on user behaviour Ă la Amazon. BBH worked with the London-based agencies Made By Many on the design, Headshift and Agency.com on development and delivery. See Contagious 17.

Crowdsourcing wasn't limited to IT brands. Mystarbucksidea.com saw the coffee chain inviting suggestions for improvement from its customers. One of the most high profile ideas to be implemented was a free coffee for everyone on US election day. And Splitwheel launched as an online project to design and build a new performance car based on collective decision-making. The car is being built by Britain's Caterham Cars; a full, dedicated website launches in January. See Contagious 17. Twitter / Twitter's growth was well-documented - up 422% in 12 months, to quote Nielsen Online figures. Brands started to jump on the bandwagon, with one of the most memorable campaigns for the Sci Fi Channel's Eureka show which saw S.A.R.A.H., the talking smart house from the show, have its own Twitter account in a bid to build buzz. More than 1,300 Eureka fans followed _S_A_R_A_H_'s Tweets. Contagious naturally is now on Twitter too - www.twitter.com/contagiousmag.

Penguin /

BEBO / UNIVERSAL MUSIC / SAM KING /

We Tell Stories from UK book publisher Penguin enlisted six authors including Toby Litt and Nicci French to use a classic Penguin book as inspiration for a new work. Created with help from ARG specialist Six To Start, the initiative was part social networking, part ARG, encouraging book lovers to enhance their experience online with greater connectivity and interactivity. Users could contribute to the texts, evolving their own story, and also follow clues to unlock more content. See Contagious 15. Over at penguindating.co.uk, a partnership between Penguin Books and dating site match.com enabled users to start romantic flirtations based on a shared love of literature. And then buy each other a drink on Facebook, presumably... â&#x20AC;˘

BA / METROTWIN /

links / www.ning.com www.facebook.com www.getthemin.com www.penguindating.co.uk www.bebo.com

PENGUIN / WE TELL STORIES /

most contagious / 2008 /

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08 / MOST CONTAGIOUS /

WEBSITES / CHAPTERS / 01 / LANDMARKS 02 / TECHNOLOGY 03 / GAMING 04 / ENTERTAIN 05 / MUSIC 06 / DESIGN 07 / SOCIAL MEDIA 08 / WEBSITES 09 / APPLICATIONS 10 / INTEGRATED 11 / VIRAL 12 / MOBILE 13 / OUTDOORS 14 / PLACES 15 / CONTENT 16 / GREEN

UNIQLO / Contagious doesn't write case studies on any old brand you know, and our issue 16 was no exception. Whether it's clearing up at Cannes, or finding ways to blend CRM with progressive data visualisation, there are few brands that have matched the Japanese retailer UNIQLO in 2008. To start, there was the UNIQLOCK, created by Projector, Tokyo. This year it has scooped the Innova Lotus Gold Award at ADFEST, two Gold Awards and the Grand Prix at the One Show Interactive, a Grand Clio for Interactive, a D&AD Black Pencil for Online Advertising as well as a Cyber Lions Grand Prix and the prestigious Contagious-sponsored Titanium Lion award at Cannes 2008. Designed to build a global community around the brand, the UNIQLOCK can best be described as somewhere between branded entertainment and utility. The delightfully distracting microsite features a clock which marks passing moments with five-second clips of female dancers performing micro-routines clad in UNIQLO clothing. It operates 24/7 for 365 days a year and will also go to sleep at night, with sequences on the hour and an alarm clock function in case you keep your laptop next to your bed. And a downloadable version is available as a widget. By viewing WORLD.UNIQLOCK, users can link to all the embedded sites via a global map which lets you see at any given time exactly how many people are watching the UNIQLOCK and in what countries. This is perhaps the most literal realisation of the UNIQLO global community to date - proven by the fact that so far the site has been viewed 200 million times in 214 countries.

Since the UNIQLOCK, Projector has continued to study the behavioural patterns of internet users concentrating on that initial moment of uptake and how content is absorbed. As a result, UNIQLO DRY IN MOTION focused on the way in which neurons fire in the human brain when we observe the actions of another human on screen. More recently, Projector developed UNIQLO MEETS CORTEO - a campaign featuring cast members of the Cirque du Soleil rehearsing whilst wearing the clothing. Each new sequence counts down to a live action event called 'The Colour Show'. The last UNIQLO digital campaign which merits an honourable mention is UNIQLO TRY. All the brand's digital trademarks are present (quirky interfaces, frantic multiplicity) but rather than displaying any product line, they aggregate customer feedback. For each product, hundreds of small testimonial video clips are arranged in an assortment of shifting shapes - from spirals, to 3D spheres and even gigantic words. Users can click and view any individual video, or wait for the sequence to finish. At this stage, the advocates are sorted according to their opinion of the product and displayed as percentages. There is even a search option which allows you to narrow down your research via product, customer age and body type - so the results of each sequence are tailored to your interests. Not only is this a mind-boggling data visualisation and metrics tool, but it displays an extraordinary level of transparency. By providing users with an engaging way to hear real opinions from real people, this application places equal emphasis on the individual and the global community as a whole. See Contagious 16,17.

WORLD.UNIQLOCK /

UNIQLOCK /

UNIQLO / TRY / X

most contagious / 2008 / websites (cont.)

Doritos / Hotel 626 / Goodby, Silverstein and Partners in San Francisco created a wonderfully spooky interactive experience just in time for Halloween, to celebrate the resurrection of retired Doritos flavours Four Cheese and Taco. As part of Snack Strong Productions, the brand's digital platform, the ghostly online Hotel 626 was only open from 6pm to 6am and engaged consumers in a series of eerie puzzles. Users navigated their way through the hotel's 13 rooms unlocking plotlines and completing a series of interactive challenges with a camera, headset and microphone. Brrrrrr. Online content produced by B-Reel, New York. See Contagious 17. Absolut / Machines / Absolut Machines combines interactive music making with a selection of weird and wonderful online contraptions. Building on Absolut's strong tradition of collaborating with artists, the inventions showcased at absolutmachines.com were developed by M.I.T. graduates Dan Paluska and Jeff Lieberman over six months, including one which shoots rubber balls at the keys of a marimba and another which uses robotic fingers to 'play' a set of wine glasses. A separate machine was developed by a Swedish company, Teenage Engineering, and uses a chorus of ten singing robots, aptly named the Absolut Choir. Visitors to the sites could control and compose their own mechanical musicals, and the end results (both audio and visual) can be downloaded, streamed and shared, with the devices themselves touring different cities around the world. The campaign was masterminded by Great Works, Stockholm. TBWA\Chiat\Day, New York, was responsible for a series of print ads. See Contagious 14.

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Orange / Balloonacy / Orange's digital balloon race saw competitors assign their names to one of thousands of balloons racing around the internet this summer, building awareness of Orange's animal-represented tariffs. The game had its own distribution mechanic: one internet mile was gained every time websites which had signed up to the initiative were visited. Bloggers and website owners could add their page to the race track via a snippet of code. Via Poke, London. Featured in Contagious 16. Becks / Music Mixer / As part of the 'Becks Fusion' ongoing art and music initiative, the Music Mixer website was preloaded with six dance tracks including efforts from Moby, Dystopia and We Are Rockstars. Each song is broken down into rhythm, bass, hooks and atmosphere, and an addictive mixing desk is presented to users, with the timing taken care of. Highly addictive stuff via Dare, London. Brand Tags / Noah Brier's side project Brand Tags is one for every planner to keep an eye on. The site asks users for their impressions of brands using free association. â&#x20AC;˘

DORITOS / HOTEL 626 /

ABSOLUT / MACHINES /

links / www.uniqlo.jp/uniqlock www.uniqlo.com/meets www.uniqlo.com/try/uniqlotry.swf www.hotel626.com www.absolutmachines.com www.playballoonacy.com www.becks.co.uk/mixer.aspx www.brandtags.net

16 / GREEN

ORANGE / BALLOONACY /

most contagious / 2008 /

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09 / MOST CONTAGIOUS /

APPLICATIONS / CHAPTERS / 01 / LANDMARKS 02 / TECHNOLOGY 03 / GAMING 04 / ENTERTAIN 05 / MUSIC 06 / DESIGN 07 / SOCIAL MEDIA 08 / WEBSITES 09 / APPLICATIONS 10 / INTEGRATED 11 / VIRAL 12 / MOBILE 13 / OUTDOORS 14 / PLACES 15 / CONTENT 16 / GREEN

Sprint / Now Widget / Part of a wave of 'just because-branding' triggered by the UNIQLOCK, the Sprint Widget by Goodby Silverstein was designed to reinforce its positioning for the telco brand's Now Network: the notion that customers can get to whatever they want, whenever they want it on a high-speed mobile broadband service. The widget itself is a planner's wet dream, offering a mini snapshot of what's going on in the world right now; from eggs being produced by the ton, units of energy being used, babies being born, forests being cut down, people stuck in elevators and shopping days â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;til Christmas. An 'internet buzz-o-meter' provides at-a-glance comparisons between, say, hip hop and rock'n'roll, or hockey and baseball. With a webcam, you can add yourself to the impressive data-dense dashboard, which also offers live news feeds, facts and stats that change in real time, and like any self-respecting widget, can be embedded and shared in any number of places. See Contagious 17. FIAT / eco:Drive / As the automotive industry splutters to the end of its annus horribilis, innovation has never been more important. With this in mind, AKQA London took the Microsoft-produced Blue&Me in-car telemetry technology that comes in the fabulously relaunched FIAT 500 and Grande Punto and used it to launch 'eco:Drive'. This app links cars to PCs and evaluates driving performance with a view to reducing carbon emissions by up to 15%. eco:Drive uses a USB stick that can be plugged into Blue&Me and then transferred to a PC. The user-friendly app then analyses acceleration, deceleration, gear changes and speed to score a journey out of 100 for fuel efficiency. Next, it offers advice on how to improve - possibly more constructive than other drivers (often in the backseat) yelling 'slow down' or 'speed it up, grandpa'. Targeting consumers on green issues in terms of self-improvement as opposed to finger-wagging is a no brainer. Without any media spend, some 6,000 unique visitors log onto the eco:Drive website every day, and 30% of them download the application.

most contagious / 2008 / applications (cont.)

Featured in Contagious 17. Check out Contagious' forthcoming issue 18 for more on the new 'Chip on Wheels'.

CHAPTERS / 01 / LANDMARKS

Carling / iPint / A cautionary tale - if you see something that looks fun and want to make your own version, make sure you get the creator's permission first. Carling's now infamous iPint was forwarded to friends 36,000 times in a week, and swiftly became the number one free game on the apps store. However, Molson Coors Brewing and creative agency Beattie McGuinness Bungay, London, now face a $12.5m (£7.1m) lawsuit for allegedly pinching the idea from a remarkably similar paidfor app entitled iBeer created by indie developer Hottrix. What's more, BMB had allegedly been in contact with the makers of the iBeer, and then opted to make their own free rival version…Ouch.

02 / TECHNOLOGY 03 / GAMING 04 / ENTERTAIN 05 / MUSIC 06 / DESIGN 07 / SOCIAL MEDIA 08 / WEBSITES 09 / APPLICATIONS 10 / INTEGRATED 11 / VIRAL 12 / MOBILE 13 / OUTDOORS 14 / PLACES 15 / CONTENT 16 / GREEN

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FIAT / ECO:DRIVE /

Trend to Track / Superconnected Products / Connected products are tangible items that are given a more profound existence through technology - the seamless link between shelf and web. Think Nike+. It's not just a shoe, or a website. It's the way they interact that makes it what it is. Contagious columnist Martin Lindstrom recently noticed this trend taken to the next level in a Japanese supermarket. Writing in Contagious 17, he said: ‘The majority of products' packages bore a cartoon figure. Next to the head of the cartoon figure was the name of a person, his title, age and even the address of where he lived. This information fell under a title which stated: "I'm responsible for this product." The names and

CARLING / IPINT /

addresses belong to farmers, growers, pickers, drivers - real people who own the responsibility for their goods. The rest of the world would probably stop here, but in Japan, the products also carried one of those new generation barcodes. All you need to do is photograph it with your mobile phone to be taken to a website where the person I'd seen as a cartoon appeared on camera as a real person. In the video, the guy explained how he handpicked the particular product I was observing. The video went on to show me the production line that manufactured the item, and to reveal the transportation that brought the product from factory to store. The video X

most contagious / 2008 / applications (cont.)

even included a hot link which, when clicked, took me to more information about the manufacturer and his family.' CHAPTERS / 01 / LANDMARKS 02 / TECHNOLOGY 03 / GAMING 04 / ENTERTAIN 05 / MUSIC 06 / DESIGN 07 / SOCIAL MEDIA 08 / WEBSITES 09 / APPLICATIONS 10 / INTEGRATED 11 / VIRAL 12 / MOBILE 13 / OUTDOORS 14 / PLACES 15 / CONTENT 16 / GREEN

That's some seriously radical transparency. Chinese milk contaminated with melamine, contaminated Irish pork and poisoned Nigerian teething syrup dominated the headlines towards the end of 2008. Could this kind of personal responsibility help prevent future scandals? See Lindstrom's full article here: www.contagiousmagazine.com/resources/ lindstrom.pdf Best of the Rest / Hi-tech stroller company Bugaboo launched an online resource showing the best walks around various cities for you and your buggy-bound baby. Each map boasts a bespoke design aesthetic to suit the city. We like Toronto’s urban lollipop. See Bugaboo: Birth of a Brand in Contagious 17. Tikitags are smart stickers that make your computer perform an action when viewed by a scanner. Imagine invisibly tagging your child's favourite teddy, so it opens the CBeebies homepage or Cartoon Network on your PC, making it easier for them to access the internet or applications. Business cards could also be tagged, enabling a quick touch on the scanner to transfer information to a database. So useful we don’t know why it’s taken so long, Umbrella Today is an app which tells you whether youneed to take your umbrella to work. Tap in your zip code for 'like totally the simplest weather report ever, Julie'. SMS alerts will save you should the tempest take out your interweb. •

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links / http://now.sprint.com/widget www.fiat.com/ecoDrive www.carling.com/ipint_details.html www.bugaboodaytrips.com http://tikitag.com http://umbrellatoday.com

BUGABOO / CITY MAPS /

most contagious / 2008 /

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10 / MOST CONTAGIOUS /

INTEGRATED / CHAPTERS / 01 / LANDMARKS 02 / TECHNOLOGY 03 / GAMING 04 / ENTERTAIN 05 / MUSIC 06 / DESIGN 07 / SOCIAL MEDIA 08 / WEBSITES 09 / APPLICATIONS 10 / INTEGRATED 11 / VIRAL 12 / MOBILE 13 / OUTDOORS 14 / PLACES 15 / CONTENT 16 / GREEN

Converse / 100th Anniversary / Converse marked 2008 as its centennial year with a big rock starendorsed bang, and its first ever global campaign overtly positioning the brand as a catalyst for creativity. Famous musicians, athletes, designers and artists were joined together by their Chucks in a bold, black and white design that appeared across print, outdoor, in-store and digital platforms. A musical collaboration, My Drive Thru, between singer Santogold, producer Pharrell Williams and Strokes frontman Julian Casablancas, formed an impressive piece of free branded content, backed by a beautiful music video. The brief to Pharrell, who was producing and leading the project, was to 'make some music and have some fun'. Nearly 100,000 people downloaded the track for free from converse.com and My Drive Thru attracted 750,000 streams on leading internet portals in just four days. At last count over two million people had viewed the video on YouTube, and The Times’ music critic described it as ‘a three-headed Frankenstein’s monster of coolness’. Contagious 17 contains a case study on Converse. HBO / Voyeur / A big winner at this year's Cannes festival scooping Grand Prix in Promo and Outdoor, not to mention a handful of golds, silvers and bronzes across other categories (including Cyber, Media and Film), was HBO's impressively integrated campaign for Voyeur, through BBDO, New York. Content surrounding a series of linked stories that took place in eight apartments in the same building included projections onto a building in New York, media hosted on fictional web pages, including Flickr and YouTube, mobile content and footage shot by RSA including 'The Watcher' directed by Jake Scott and interactive stories directed by Chris Nelson. Big Spaceship worked on the online elements of the campaign, which allowed users to delve in to different rooms in the building, accompanied by specially composed music. Featured in Contagious 12.

CONVERSE /

HBO / VOYEUR /

most contagious / 2008 / integrated (cont.)

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Nokia / Somebody Else's Phone /

The cyber-voyeurism theme continued with Nokia's global campaign to promote the 7610 Supernova, questioning if somebody else's phone ended up in your possession, could you resist the temptation to find out all about them? A TV ad flagging up the highly personal relationship we have with our phones introduced Jade, Lucas and Anna, the fictional stars of this campaign. Online, followers could trawl through their texts and comb through their contacts as 4,000 pieces of content were unveiled through social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, and as texts, images and movies at www.somebodyelsesphone.com. Fans were encouraged to communicate with the three characters. Via Wieden + Kennedy London, production through Academy and digital production through B-Reel. Featured in Contagious 17. Shreddies / Diamond Shreddies / At the grand old age of 67, the iconic but bog standard wheaty lattice that is a Shreddie had seen little marketing support in recent years. However, thanks to a unique product innovation from Ogilvy in Toronto, the brand enjoyed an 18% rise in sales, a heightened public profile and a slew of user-generated content. The product innovation? They simply turned the square at a 45 degree angle, and rebranded it as Diamond Shreddies. No kidding. Following a soft launch, the campaign was followed by a competition allowing 10 customers to win a diamond using unique codes found on the side of the packet. TV, print, and poster ads supported an online campaign at www.diamondshreddies.com, where it is claimed that Diamond Shreddies are more flavourful and crunchier. When a customer complained that he'd bought a packet of Diamond Shreddies and was disappointed to find that only half the packet contained diamonds and the rest were merely squares, Ogilvy introduced the 'combo pack' to Canadian shelves (66% diamonds, 33% squares). Proof that epic silliness as a marketing tool will never go out of fashion, the Diamond Shreddies campaign has kept us amused throughout 2008 whilst invigorating a stagnant brand. X

most contagious / 2008 / integrated (cont.)

CHAPTERS / 01 / LANDMARKS 02 / TECHNOLOGY 03 / GAMING 04 / ENTERTAIN 05 / MUSIC 06 / DESIGN 07 / SOCIAL MEDIA 08 / WEBSITES 09 / APPLICATIONS 10 / INTEGRATED

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An honourable mention goes out to Here I Am, through Wieden + Kennedy, Amsterdam, the impressively animated campaign of five films featuring Nikesponsored female athletes such as Maria Sharapova and Nicola Spirig which ran online. Integrated elements included banners, print ads and a coffee table book. See Contagious 17. A campaign from Nissan's X-Trail 4x4 targeted skiers in deepest darkest winter early in 2008. Through Stream\ London, skiers were filmed or could wear a head-cam to capture personalised footage of their run. Films could be accessed online and branded content including weather updates and resort guides was accessible via Bluetooth in the ski resorts. The estimated media value for the whole project reached €1m (£795k). Featured in Contagious 15.

NOKIA 7610 / SOMEBODY ELSE’S PHONE /

Bloggers transformed Sony's foam attack into a shared experience when director Simon Ratigan from HLA handed out Sony cameras to 200 locals including journalists and bloggers to record the foam coveredcity. Extra content online included a behind the scenes documentary and some 15,000 stills taken on the shoot. Prior to the campaign launching, footage had attracted half a million views. Through Fallon, London. Featured in Contagious 15. •

11 / VIRAL 12 / MOBILE 13 / OUTDOORS 14 / PLACES 15 / CONTENT 16 / GREEN

NISSAN / X-TRAIL / links / www.converse.com www.hbovoyeur.com www.somebodyelsesphone.com www.diamondshreddies.com www.nikewomen.com www.nissan.co.uk www.sony.com

NIKE / HERE I AM /

SONY BRAVIA / FOAM /

most contagious / 2008 /

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11 / MOST CONTAGIOUS /

VIRAL / ONLINE BUZZ / CHAPTERS / 01 / LANDMARKS 02 / TECHNOLOGY 03 / GAMING 04 / ENTERTAIN 05 / MUSIC 06 / DESIGN 07 / SOCIAL MEDIA 08 / WEBSITES 09 / APPLICATIONS 10 / INTEGRATED 11 / VIRAL 12 / MOBILE 13 / OUTDOORS 14 / PLACES 15 / CONTENT 16 / GREEN

AC/DC / Runaway Train / Who would have thought that an Excel document could blow our tiny little minds? Before you ask, it wasn't the prospect of data entry or budget reports, but rather this extraordinary rendering of the AC/DC music video Runaway Train. Created by Sony BMG employees Steve Milbourne and Phil Clandillon, a video (which has already racked up over one million views on YouTube) shows a giant Excel document being scrolled through, with moving images generated from the arranged data. And the best thing? Because the Excel format is universally accepted, the content can be shared without fear of it being blocked by internet fire walls. Altogether now! 'It's the highway to Excel...' See Contagious 17. Nokia N96 / Bruce Lee / The definition of a good viral is compelling content which begs to be shared, and we're pleased to say that Nokia China's series of virals ticks all the above boxes with aplomb. Created to promote a limited Bruce Lee edition of the latest N96 multimedia phone, the videos are shot in a similar style to the grainy, black and white footage of Lee performing his famous one-inch punch. However, in the first spot the martial artist is shown brandishing a pair of nunchucks which he uses to dominate a game of ping pong with first one, and then two players at once! The next in the series shows him attaching a rough material to the end of his nunchucks before precisely striking a match being held in a brave volunteer's mouth. As soon as the Nokia branding appears at the end of the ads, we'd hope the audience would work out that these are new, computergenerated images. However, as is always the case on YouTube, a whole string of sweary, non-sensical arguments have broken out in the comments section. 'Is it actual footage of Bruce Lee?' and 'Surely this is CGI?'. Perhaps more importantly however, it passes the golden test of 'Would you pass this on?' We would and have - how about you? X

most contagious / 2008 / viral (cont.)

Transport for London / Awareness Test /

Created by London-based production company Gorgeous, The Original Awareness Test was designed to highlight how, when distracted, we can fail to notice even the most obvious of things - in much the same way as many drivers ignore or miss cyclists on London's roads. This video showed a street basketball game and asked the viewer to keep track of how many passes a team clad in white make. This is difficult enough in itself, but providing you managed it, you'd think that you'd feel pretty happy with yourself, right? Wrong, because it is at this point that the video is replayed and you are told to watch out for the guy in the bear suit moonwalking straight across the shot - the very same one you completely failed to spot the first time round. In case that wasn’t enough, the followup, Whoddunit?, should hammer home your own stupidity. Diesel / Dirty Thirty / There's always been a pleasing streak of kink in Diesel's branding, but in 'SFW XXX', it found a way to use pornography to promote the gigantic 'Dirty Thirty' global birthday party. A hilariously reworked viral montage from 1970s 'classic' skin flick XXX has already been viewed over 11 million times on YouTube. Adapted to avoid any untoward nudity by The Viral Factory's Keith Schofield, the video replaces 'recipient' actresses with pinball machines, and various private parts with maracas, bongo drums and even a harmonica. Fans of the www.sfw-porn.com website will be in no doubt as to where the inspiration came from (SFW is short for ‘Safe For Work’. Don’t open an attachment without it.) The Dirty Thirty party took place in 17 cities around the world, the events featured the hottest local bands with tickets available for a nominal charge (all of which went to

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charity). A range of limited edition XXX jeans was also created for the anniversary, made available on a firstcome-first-served basis to fans who registered online for the giveaway price of $30, a fraction of their $600 retail value. See Contagious 17. Mac vs PC / Who started it? Does anyone care anymore? For well over a year, Apple has run a series of TV and viral ads showing the Mac User as the cool guy alongside the chubby nerd priggishly defending his PC. However, rising above this corporate bear-baiting, Microsoft continued with a campaign featuring Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates 'hanging out together' with a tag line that played on the letters PC - 'perpetually connecting'. Following a mixed reception, the next phase featured celebrities (Eva Longoria, Deepak Chopra et al) alongside mere mortals who all claimed 'I'm a PC' - a parody of Apple's line of two years 'I'm a Mac'.

TRANSPORT FOR LONDON /

Next, Apple countered with ads directly referencing the 'I'm a PC' spot via TBWA\ New York; One showed the nerd as a bean-counter, frittering away wads of cash on advertising. Finally, Microsoft introduced a usergenerated element, inviting viewers to create their own 'I'm a PC' vignette and upload it onto windows.com where Crispin Porter + Bogusky, Microsoft's agency, may opt to weave it into future spots. Here at Contagious, we’re opting out of binary and refusing to let our choice of hardware define us. See Contagious 17. Burger King / Whopper Freakout / Burger King's slogan in the US - ‘have it your way’ - was steeped in irony during an eight-minute documentary by Crispin Porter + Bogusky where a restaurant in Minnesota experimented with discontinuing the Whopper for a day. Hidden cameras in the restaurant and the drive-in captured genuine consumer reactions

DIESEL / SFW XXX /

MAC VS PC /

most contagious / 2008 / viral (cont.)

to the news that they were in a Whopper-free zone. Disbelief and outrage, competing with floods of childhood memories reminiscing about the Whopper, make for compulsive viewing. When staff at the restaurant present customers with burgers from Wendys, they're rejected by angry customers. So workers eventually compensate customers by bringing in the King himself to reveal the stunt and present them with a Whopper. The film attracted 3.3 million views and has inspired a series of spoof 'freakouts'. See Contagious 14. McDonald's / Cheer for China / The brief for the 2008 Beijing Olympics provided to DDB China Group by McDonald's was to find a unique way for the brand to stand out in the crowd of official sponsors. The result - Cheer for China - not only answered this brief, but in doing so, exceeded expectations and even broke a world record. Appealing to the patriotism of the Chinese public, the campaign turned McDonald's global tagline 'I'm Lovin' it' into 'I’m lovin' it when China wins'. The idea was that people could record this cheer and then upload it to websites or blogs via photo, video or audio. 'Cheering stations' were even arranged at restaurants and venues across the country so people could turn up and get involved in some collaborative hooray'ing… 220,000 people uploaded cheers onto the website and the top 10 were picked through internet voting before moving into a Cheering Training House in Beijing. There, they were coached in dancing and singing, with training clips from the camp broadcast on the internet and in McDonald's restaurants across the country every week. This online reality show culminated in the

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five best cheerers being picked by a panel of celebrity judges. In the final stage of the campaign these five - now the official McDonald's Cheering Team - led 1,200 people in Beijing to dance together just metres from Beijing's Olympic Bird's Nest Stadium. Dressed in red outfits they performed a special 'I'm lovin it when China wins' dance for five minutes to create a new world record for team cheering. The initiative also drove over 32m unique visitors to the campaign website. See Contagious 16.

links / www.acdcrocks.com/excel www.nokia-lee.com.cn www.dothetest.co.uk www.diesel.com/dirtythirtystores www.windows.com www.whopperfreakout.com www.mcdonalds.com.cn www.wherethehellismatt.com www.stridegum.com

Stride Gum / Where the Hell is Matt? / What better way to create buzz and chatter about your brand online, than to bolt it onto a proven viral phenomenon? While this may not be the most creatively admirable method, it is a smart one especially if your chosen subject is as popular as Matt Harding, otherwise known as 'Dancing Matt'. The self-confessed 'deadbeat from Connecticut' first sprang to fame back in 2005 when a video of him dancing on holiday in Hanoi taken by a friend became an overnight internet sensation. Chewing gum brand Stride and JWT New York approached Matt and offered to sponsor him on a global tour, where he could film mini videos of himself performing his trademark moves in front of famous landmarks on seven different continents. In 2006, he did just this and the resultant video received over 12 million views on YouTube. In June 2008, Stride once again invited Matt to take a similar jig-powered pilgrimage - this time with a stronger community focus, inviting locals from each location to appear with Matt in the video. In just six months, this second sponsored spot has already overtaken the first, amassing a staggering 13.4 million views on YouTube. • STRIDE / WHERE THE HELL IS MATT?

most contagious / 2008 /

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12 / MOST CONTAGIOUS /

MOBILE / CHAPTERS / 01 / LANDMARKS 02 / TECHNOLOGY 03 / GAMING 04 / ENTERTAIN 05 / MUSIC 06 / DESIGN 07 / SOCIAL MEDIA 08 / WEBSITES 09 / APPLICATIONS 10 / INTEGRATED 11 / VIRAL 12 / MOBILE 13 / OUTDOORS 14 / PLACES 15 / CONTENT 16 / GREEN

Google / Android / Despite the iPhone's dominance of this year's news, last year's Most Contagious gadget is now facing competition from software masters Google in the form of Android. A platform to serve multiple types of content across myriad handsets, Android's open source nature is exciting developers and hardware manufacturers in equal measure. The first Android compatible phone, the T-mobile G1, failed to set the tech blogs alight but further handsets are promised from Motorola, Kogan in Australia and Chinese manufacturer Huawei. It's all a proudly blank canvas, with the Software Development Kit for Android updated on a regular basis for developers and Android Marketplace mirroring the iPhone apps store. Despite a slow start, the potential for marketers here is enormous. Mobile marketing has always been hampered by an ability to serve content over multiple handsets, yet Android looks set to solve that problem. As soon as it's crammed into a prettier handset with mainstream appeal and usability, marketing on the mobile should become a tangible reality. Treat it with respect, kids. Featured in Contagious 17. Nike / PhotoiD / When every trendy Tom, Dick and Harry is sporting a swish set of swooshed sneakers, how can a player stay ahead of the game? NikeiD is good starting point, allowing you to custom pick your own fresh colour schemes and materials. But if you're lacking inspiration AKQA London have a genius idea that could help. The NIKE PHOTOiD application picks out the two main colours from any photo taken on a cameraphone. You then send the picture via MMS to a shortcode, et voila! The colours are transferred to a pair of Dunks which can be further customised online. Daniel Bonner, ECD at AKQA, explains: 'We saw an opportunity that allowed consumers to draw on their environment as a source of inspiration rather than having to start from a blank canvas, and closed the gap between promotion of the product and audience action.' Featured in Contagious 16.

most contagious / 2008 / mobile (cont.)

Guinness / Passport to Greatness /

Once the novelty of trying to communicate through yelling/hopeless flailing wears off, the language barrier can become a bit of a bugger. Guinness realised this would be an issue for some of the 20,000 overseas fans attending the Rugby Sevens event it was sponsoring in Hong Kong, and created a talking mobile application that could speak Cantonese on behalf of bewildered visitors. As well as useful information in the form of maps, match schedules, emergency numbers and stadium information, the app delivers lines like 'Where's the nearest ATM?' and 'take me to a bar full of Guinness and good-looking girls'. Created by OgilvyOne Worldwide's Hong Kong office, Passport to Greatness was downloaded by 5.51% (1,103) of the target group. Tim Cairns, group account director at OgilvyOne Worldwide, comments: 'The plan is to expand next year and include hotels - the key is helping people get where they want to and drive them towards Guinness outlets'. Instead of just slapping a logo on an event like oh so many brands sinfully do, Guinness has made a real effort to improve the sporting experience. (See the technology section for Guinness' brilliant activation of rugby in Ireland). Featured in Contagious 15. Johnnie Walker / Digital PA / This Nokia-compatible app is a textbook example of the level of incredible mobile innovation happening in Asia capitalising on the drink's CRM database. Jennie is a friendly digital personal assistant that updates Johnnie Walker drinkers on VIP events, tell them the best parties to go to and will even order them a cab home - completely in line with the brand's responsible drinking message. The mobile application launched in

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Singapore, where it was reworked for the start of the Singapore Grand Prix, and will roll out in other Asian territories. Mark Seeger, OgilvyOne's head of digital, says: 'Up and-coming 26 to 34 year-old businessmen want to be in the know when it comes to VIP events and nightclubs and the only communications channel they have with them all the time is their mobile phone.' Featured in Contagious 14. FANTA / STEALTH SOUND SYSTEM /

Nokia / lifeviNe/ Geotagging to the max! Developed by R/GA, lifeviNe uses the GPS technology on Nokia Nseries phones to plot every step you take around town, the photos you snap, the music you listen to and the videos you shoot. This ends up online as a little path/vine laid over a colourful map, thus creating an illustrated journey for you to keep and treasure. Little leaves sprout off the vine to denote the media of the moment; say Sonic Youth on the bus down Oxford Street, or a quick snap of the charity muggers on Carnaby Street. There is also a widget for embedding on your Facebook or blog. Featured in Contagious 17. Fanta / Stealth Sound System / Fanta demonstrates just how in touch it is with its target audience with the unveiling of two fun new mobile applications aimed squarely at teens. The Stealth Sound System, courtesy of Ogilvy London, is based on the same technology as the mosquito teen repellent device that uses high pitch frequencies to keep bored yoofs away from public hangouts. Adults cannot hear the irritating whine, and can look smugly down their noses at the teens writhing on the floor in agony. But Ogilvy has rather rebelliously flipped the tables and turned this technology against those mean old

pensioners, using it to send secret messages like wolf whistles and warnings. Subversive genius. We love. We're also excited about The Hyperfactory's 3D Fanta augmented reality tennis game that can be played using two handsets and Bluetooth. Obama / iPhone App / This handy iPhone app was just a small part of a whopping digital blitz from the Obama camp. Connecting users right to the heart of campaign, it gave them handy tools for spreading awareness amongst friends and families, such as an editable contact list that users could prioritise by who they've called/state they live in, news updates, local events media and a load more handy political ammo. â&#x20AC;˘ links / http://code.google.com/android http://nikeid.nike.com/nikeid www.guinness.com www.our-work.com/jw/digitalpa www.nseries.com/nseries/nokiavine www.fanta.com http://my.barackobama.com/page/ content/iphone

most contagious / 2008 /

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13 / MOST CONTAGIOUS /

GREAT OUTDOORS / CHAPTERS / 01 / LANDMARKS 02 / TECHNOLOGY 03 / GAMING 04 / ENTERTAIN 05 / MUSIC 06 / DESIGN 07 / SOCIAL MEDIA 08 / WEBSITES 09 / APPLICATIONS 10 / INTEGRATED 11 / VIRAL 12 / MOBILE 13 / OUTDOORS 14 / PLACES 15 / CONTENT 16 / GREEN

Beijing Olympics 2008 / Opening Ceremony / The Beijing Olympic Games, it is fair to say, were something of a controversial affair. Prior to the start of the games on 8 August (eight being a lucky number in Chinese culture), the committee in charge were tasked with coming up with something spectacular enough to dispel public criticism over China's foreign and internal policy. And they almost pulled it offâ&#x20AC;Ś Held in the iconic Bird's Nest Stadium, the show featured thousands of percussionists, costumed dancers and musical performers as the story of China and the Olympic flame were played out in a spectacular display of coordination and opulence. Performers used oars, boxes, scrolls and giant floating spheres to construct intricate patterns and spell out messages. Dancers on high wires performed an epic 'spacewalk', martial arts experts moved in perfect tandem, and millions of tiny lights formed the Olympic rings and mimicked the movement of the waves on China's coastline. 91,000 people were in the stadium, but more than four billion tuned in worldwide - 15% of the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s population. Despite some later controversy concerning a part of the show which had been pre-recorded (huge firework footprints which stormed across Beijing, no less), when the eyes of the world finally fell to China, it did not disappoint. Reports that the London 2012 Olympics opening ceremony will feature Boris Johnson morris dancing on the top of a double decker bus have, we hope, been greatly exaggerated. See Contagious 16. X

most contagious / 2008 / great outdoors (cont.)

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IKEA / 3D Cover / After the Bible and Harry Potter, the IKEA catalogue is the third most printed publication in the world, apparently. But how to keep it visible in people's homes throughout the year? With the help of Jung von Matt, Hamburg, the front cover of the German edition became an ambient medium. The familiar living room catalogue cover was recreated down to the tiniest detail becoming a 3D installation in shopping centres throughout 24 cities in Germany. Shoppers could be photographed and then pop over to IKEA to pick up their own personalised version of the catalogue, starring themselves on the front cover. The redemption rate was a whopping 56%. See Contagious 15. howies / Despite being a small company with relatively minimal marketing budgets, UK active clothing brand howies has extended its sustainable philosophies from its base on the west coast of Wales to its recently opened Carnaby Street store in London and Bristol-based outlet using fittings made from recycled and sustainably sourced materials. A key focus of the store is a wall called 'The Power of Ten', on which staff display personal recommendations of their favourite non-howies products, such as fairtrade organic coffee or energy-efficient bike lights, around a regularly changing theme. There is also a drinking water tap installed in the store, from which customers can fill up their own water bottles. Featured in Contagious 15 and 17.

15 / CONTENT 16 / GREEN

HOWIES /

IKEA /

HOWIES / X

HOWIES /

most contagious / 2008 / great outdoors (cont.)

UNIQLO / Heat Tech / In November a number of silver jumpsuit-clad UNIQLO reps were let loose in New York's Time Square, and on London's Oxford Street, equipped with portable thermograph scanners to celebrate the launch of UNIQLO's Heat Tech fabric. Performing on-the-spot body heat scans, anyone deemed to be suffering from a bout of winter chill was entitled to a free heat tech garment from a giant 'human vending machine' containing actual mime artists. Pop Up Shops / Pop up shops have been all the rage again in 2008 with efforts appearing from brands as diverse as Monocle magazine to charity Barnardo's, via GAP's concept store. Favourite efforts include Reebok Flash which brought 80s glam to New York, thanks to creative agency Formavision. Eco-friendly cleaning brand method's pop up store in various US cities also created joy amongst shoppers and those attending the organic cocktail and eco craft parties that the store hosted in the evenings.

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Architecture is Transformer. The tetrahedron structure will be unveiled in 2009 in South Korea and will provide a space to host Prada's cultural, artistic and fashion events. Westfield, London's mammoth 43 acre shopping centre, has been defying the economic downturn: half a million visitors marched through the doors within four days of the November opening. And, as if you needed another reason to stroll the streets of Tokyo, Dutch architects UNStudio have unveiled designs for a Louis Vuitton flagship store which will be ready for 2010. â&#x20AC;˘

links / www.ikea.com www.howies.co.uk www.uniqlo.co.uk www.formavision.info http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=U58HAK0KUGg www.prada.com http://uk.westfield.com/london www.unstudio.com/projects/name/L/1/343

The Killers at MTV / The Killers' performance of Human at the MTV Europe Music Awards in Liverpool was the most stunning piece of set design we've seen, well, ever, taking staging and lighting to new levels. Produced in-house at MTV. Ones to Watch / Prada's latest collaboration with architect Rem Koolhaas and AMO / Office for Metropolitan REEBOK FLASH /

UNIQLO /

THE KILLERS / MTV /

most contagious / 2008 /

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14 / MOST CONTAGIOUS /

BRANDED DESTINATIONS / ARCHITECTURE CHAPTERS / 01 / LANDMARKS 02 / TECHNOLOGY 03 / GAMING 04 / ENTERTAIN 05 / MUSIC 06 / DESIGN 07 / SOCIAL MEDIA 08 / WEBSITES 09 / APPLICATIONS 10 / INTEGRATED 11 / VIRAL 12 / MOBILE 13 / OUTDOORS 14 / PLACES 15 / CONTENT 16 / GREEN

Chanel / Mobile Art / The trend for luxury brands designing pop-up, transportable spaces, such as Hermes H-Box, manifests itself beautifully in Chanel's Mobile Art container, designed by the omnipresent Zaha Hadid. The mobile event space features exhibitions by 20 contemporary artists interpreting Chanel's quilted bag, curated by Fabrice Bousteau, editor-in-chief of Beaux Arts magazine. Visitors are guided through the futuristic pavilion by digital handsets playing soundtracks composed in collaboration with the artists. Although the nomadic structure looks like it could have dropped from the stratosphere, it is being transported to cities around the world - taking in Hong Kong and Tokyo before its current location, New York. Look out for it in 2009 in London, Moscow and Paris. Featured in Contagious 15 and 16. California Academy of Sciences / The newly reopened California Academy of Sciences is the only place on the planet where you can visit an aquarium, planetarium and natural history museum all under one substantial, sustainable, living roof. The building, designed by architect Renzo Piano, is at the forefront of environmental design. The Academy includes a canopy embedded with 60,000 solar cells to generate 5-10% of the building's power. It was constructed from vast amounts of recycled material including steel and concrete, with denim providing wall installation. adidas / Beijing Brand Centre / adidas opened the Beijing Brand Centre - officially its largest retail premises in the world - in time for the advertising extravaganza that was the 2008 Olympic Games. Covering 3170mÂ˛ over four floors, this behemoth is the first of its kind to unite all of the brand's diffusion lines under one roof - Y-3, adidas Originals et al. A whole host of interactive experiences are on offer, allowing visitors to involve themselves in the science of the products. Amongst these is an introduction to the new miCoach initiative - a Nike+ rival which acts

most contagious / 2008 / architecture (cont.)

as a personal trainer via online and downloadable mobile applications. There is also a juice bar, a special Urban exhibition area, a kids' interactive zone and - wait for it - a roof-top basketball court, appealing to fans of one of China’s most popular youth pastimes. If this still isn't enough, you can further personalise your retail experience by having a tour from one of the many guides, printing your own custom T-shirt or even consulting your own personal sports stylist. Phew! See Contagious 16. Sony / White Wood / London-based communications agency Freestate was charged with the design and production of Sony Europe's 50,000 sq-ft installation at Berlin's fantastically named Internationale Funkausstellung - the world's largest consumer electronics fair. The Messe Centre was transformed into a fantastic forest with towering white trees and gigantic mirrored walls which created mind-boggling 'visual echoes'. Projected silhouettes interacted with visitors and a high definition sun rose and set. Splashed across 44 metre-long screens, VJ sets by D-Fuse and Hexstatic were woven into visual stories conceived by Fallon, London, for some of the 1,000 Sony products on show. White Wood appeared in Contagious 17. Green Supermarkets / Amidst pleas from Gordon Brown to cut down on food waste and consumers taking a closer look at what's in their trolleys thanks to the economic downturn, the competition for the UK's greenest supermarket is very much on. Sainsbury's took an early lead at its Dartmouth store which is built from wood, uses rainwater to flush the toilets and boasts checkouts powered by wind turbines.

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Asda hit back with 'low carbon' stores that aim to transform the way people shop, particularly by placing doors on every single fridge and freezer which will help halve emissions and energy use. Tesco's £100m (€127) environment fund will be spent on introducing sustainable technology to its stores. In the US, Wal-Mart will use wind power to supply 15% of the electricity for 360 of its Texas stores next year. See Contagious 17. UNStudio / Star Place / Premier Dutch architects UNStudio have just completed Star Place, a luxury department store in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. The façade of the building is covered with vertical glass fins and lamellas that act as both a sunscreen and weather barrier, while decorating the building with swirling patterns. Inside, escalators spiral up the 10 stories through a giant central atrium, creating a dynamic landmark for the city. O2 / The O2 Dome / Finally, no look at branded destinations would be complete without a nod to the reigning champion, the O2 Dome in London. Featured in 2007's Most Contagious, in 2008 the venue has hosted the most desirable concerts of the year, from Led Zeppelin to Coldplay and, at the end of 2007, overtook Madison Square Garden as the most popular entertainment venue in the world. O2 has just taken over naming rights to the UK's Carling Academies, expanding its priority ticketing and perks for O2 customers across the UK. O2 customers also benefit from the venue's exclusive Blueroom, following the VIP trend, offering drinks and a space to relax. An O2 case study featured in Contagious 13. •

CHANEL / MOBILE ART /

links / www.zaha-hadid.com www.chanel-mobileart.com www.adidas.com www.calacademy.org www.sony-europe.com http://tiny.cc/QlXuk http://tinyurl.com/5kwnfe www.unstudio.com/news/recent/200812/ 479 www.theo2.co.uk

ADIDAS / BEIJING /

most contagious / 2008 /

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15 / MOST CONTAGIOUS /

BRANDED CONTENT CHAPTERS /

Seth MacFarlane /

12 / MOBILE

In September, Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane launched his Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy, a 50-episode animated web series, with some high profile partnerships. Google distributed the series via AdSense, targeting those websites where 20-30-something Family Guy fans were hanging out. For MacFarlane, the deal offered a high-quality platform for his work as well as the benefit of a share in any advertising revenue that also gets split between Google, the site that generates the click and Media Rights, the company negotiating the deal. Google integrated advertising in either banner format or branded additions, and Burger King was first to jump on board with a two-minute Super Mario-style animation of The King tearing through a cinema screen being chased by angry tribesman. The fast food brand extended its 'have it your way' brand promise , inviting viewers to add their own dialogue and sound to Seth MacFarlane's animations and upload them online. This slickly integrated model wouldn’t have proven half as effective if the content wasn’t actually really good. Can the man MacFarlane do no wrong? Featured in Contagious 17.

13 / OUTDOORS

Suave / Sprint / In the Motherhood /

01 / LANDMARKS 02 / TECHNOLOGY 03 / GAMING 04 / ENTERTAIN 05 / MUSIC 06 / DESIGN 07 / SOCIAL MEDIA 08 / WEBSITES 09 / APPLICATIONS 10 / INTEGRATED 11 / VIRAL

14 / PLACES 15 / CONTENT 16 / GREEN

Online branded content started to make the transition onto TV in 2008, most notably In The Motherhood in the US. The show, which targets 'mommy bloggers' (don’t be fooled. There are thousands of them), first launched on MSN in

2006 and has built up such a strong fan-base that it is now scheduled to appear on ABC in 2009. Unilever shampoo Suave and mobile phone Sprint helped to co-create the show, with MindShare Entertainment. It's clocked up over 21 million views since launch. ABC bought up a 13-episode run of the show which stars Leah Remini, Chelsea Handler and Jenny McCarthy. The programme also invites the audience to submit contributions for its storylines via the show's community site at inthemotherhood.com. Plots so far have included supermarket tantrums and holidays from hell... See Contagious 17. Eurostar / Somers Town / Eurostar funded the Shane Meadows' film Somers Town which received a mixed response from critics, despite being adorned at film festivals. The film was produced by Mother and Tomboy Films on behalf of Eurostar and was mainly set around St Pancras, the location of the London terminus. It picked up the top award at the Edinburgh International Film Festival earlier this year. Mother also had success at Edinburgh's Fringe arts festival with Pot Noodle: The Musical produced by Mother Vision, the production arm of the agency. Described as Les Miserables of the freeze-dried, snack-food world, the musical starred Steve and Digger from the current Pot Noodle commercials. Featured in Contagious 15 and 16.

CAVALCADE OF CARTOON COMEDY /

SUAVE / SPRINT / IN THE MOTHERHOOD /

EUROSTAR / SOMERS TOWN /

most contagious / 2008 / branded content (cont.)

Sony Ericsson / Johnny X /

Spurred on by the success of properties like KateModern and Sofia's Diary, online series became more commonplace as brands experimented with episodic content that kept audiences panting for the next instalment. Sony Ericsson partnered Dare London on Johnny X, a nine-episode web series distributed globally to promote the Xperia X1 handset. Three episodes of this reality web thriller were released over three weeks, with each one demonstrating different elements of the new handset. Amnesiac Johnny X was desperately trying to piece together his identity, so each time he unravelled another truth, he updated his handset, enabling him to discover different aspects of his personality. Dare estimates that Johnny X was viewed over six million times and has inspired over 3,000 blog posts. Featured in Contagious 17. Ones to Watch / In November, Toyota-owned brand Scion funded a web series, The Fist of Oblivion, featuring martial art puppets that look like leaner, meaner, fitter Muppets. Running for nine weeks from December 2008 to January 2009 on Scion broadband - Scion's online marketing platform - the story focuses on the plight of a cop wrongfully imprisoned for a crime he didn't commit. Now freed, he is tracking down the guilty parties responsible for his framing with the help of his newly-formed Kung Fu gang - the Red Dragons. Roman Coppola directed the Kung Fu fest. If it can play any part at all in helping the brand reverse its 6.4% drop in sales year-on-year, expect other car brands to engage some big-name directors for their branded content ventures in 2009… Much cheaper than buying those expensive TV slots. In keeping with the Muppety, kung-fu theme, we would like to do our best Miss Piggy. HI-YAAAAAAAAA!!!!

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Other initiatives included New York agency Droga5 and production company Smuggler’s e-mall shopping channel, Honeyshed, in December 2007. Placed somewhere between MTV and QVC, the channel was backed by Publicis Groupe and was described by CEO Maurice Lévy as 'our most important creative bet today'. Despite a high-profile launch, actual user statistics remain hard to come by. MSN launched Kirill, an online interactive sci-fi show starring David Schofield as a desperate outcast trying to make contact with a journalist to save the world. To watch the show, produced by Endemol and Pure Grass Films, viewers needed to download Microsoft's Silverlight video technology. Kirill is being used to demonstrate this rival to Adobe's Flash, along with other interactive tools like Live Search and social networking site Space. Initial episodes and trailers attracted over 200,000 viewers. The show allows the audience to engage via 10 three-minute episodes, blogs and secret websites. See Contagious 17. •

TOYOTA SCION / FIST OF OBLIVION /

MSN / KIRILL /

links / www.sethcomedy.com www.inthemotherhood.com www.somers-town.com www.potnoodlethemusical.com www.whoisjohnny-x.com www.scion.com/broadband http://kirill.uk.msn.com

SONY ERICSSON / JOHNNY X /

most contagious / 2008 /

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16 / MOST CONTAGIOUS /

GREEN / VIRTUE / CHAPTERS / 01 / LANDMARKS 02 / TECHNOLOGY 03 / GAMING 04 / ENTERTAIN 05 / MUSIC 06 / DESIGN 07 / SOCIAL MEDIA 08 / WEBSITES 09 / APPLICATIONS 10 / INTEGRATED 11 / VIRAL 12 / MOBILE 13 / OUTDOORS 14 / PLACES

Orange / RockCorps / There were some encouraging examples of brands doing good deeds in 2008 and they can feel fully justified in giving their shiny halos a big polish. 'If you give, you get given' was the message behind Orange's collaboration with independent pro social music production company RockCorps. Orange RockCorps staged a free gig starring headliner Busta Rhymes at the Albert Hall for young folks who had donated at least four hours of their time to volunteering in community projects. Some 60 volunteer projects across the UK saw Orange RockCorps partner charities such as Crisis, The Prince's Trust and Timebank. The concept was for Orange volunteers to maintain a long-term relationship with the organisation. Stories of the young volunteers can be read on the website, and media partners for the event included Channel 4 - which televised the gig on 26 September - along with radio stations XFM and Choice. The Contagious staffers who took part reported some extraordinarily well coordinated CRM, including personal phonecalls and emails. Patagonia / Footprint Chronicles / Outdoor clothing brand Patagonia became one of the first major clothing manufacturers to track and expose the environmental impact of specific garments via a specially created website. The Footprint Chronicles allows users to track the impact of various Patagonia products, from design to delivery. Patagonia showed first hand that sustainability is not just about mitigating the impact of business on the planet; it's about how businesses themselves can continue in the face of changing environmental and economic circumstances. We hope to see more transparency in 2009â&#x20AC;Ś Featured in Contagious 16.

15 / CONTENT 16 / GREEN

most contagious / 2008 / virtue (cont.)

Google / 10100 /

To celebrate its 10th birthday, Google launched Project 10100, which promises to commit $10m to the cause deemed by Google to help the most people. Visitors to a dedicated campaign site suggested their own causes and voting begins on 27 January, so cast your vote for what you think is the most deserving cause. Google being Google, the site even includes a facility to remind you to vote, so there's no excuseâ&#x20AC;Ś See Contagious 17. American Express / Members Project / The Members Project, from American Express, invites Amex cardholders to vote for their favourite charitable initiatives, from feeding malnourished children to helping promote the early diagnosis of Alzheimers. Some $2.5m is up for grabs, with the top project being granted $1.5m. See Contagious 17. Nike / Considered / A limited run of Nike Considered sneakers were unveiled by designer Jeff Staple in January. In collaboration with Nike, Staple sought to produce a limited run of shoes which conformed to a strict set of sustainable, eco-friendly rules. Some 500,000 pairs of Jordan XX3's went on sale at $230 in January. Nike is now designing all shoes in line with the Considered approach. Featured in Contagious 14. Pull and Bear / An honourable mention to Spanish fashion brand Pull and Bear, who created an online ecoexperience containing tips on how to reduce carbon emissions, each of which was illustrated

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with its own mini game. On completing these, visitors could embed different blog kits with medals accrediting their environmental achievements. See Contagious 17. Ones to watch / Coca-Cola responded to a Facebook-based call for humanitarian action by dedicating a small part of its distribution operation in Africa to ensure that critical medical supplies reach their destination. Nearly 7,500 Facebook users have become members of the campaign which was instigated by social affairs innovator, Simon Berry. We reckon next year might spawn a few more flashes of inspiration when it comes to big business helping out communities in a way that's completely obvious to an outsider but which often fails to enter the heads of those working inside an organisation. â&#x20AC;˘

NIKE / CONSIDERED /

links / http://orangerockcorps.co.uk www.patagonia.com www.project10tothe100.com www.membersproject.com www.stapledesign.com www.pullandbear.com www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=18947780476

PULL AND BEAR /

most contagious / 2008 /

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