Phillips "Carousel" Featured in 50 Cent Music Video

Phillips’ “Carousel” the winner of the Film Grand Prix (and the Cyber Silver Lion) from the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival in 2009 is now collaborating with the musician 50 Cent and is prominently featured in their new music video 50 Cent- OK You're Right from their album BEFORE I SELF DESTRUCT which will be in stores September 2009. The music video, which can be found on YouTube and linked below, prominently features footage from the Phillips "Carousel" film, and in fact starts by zooming in on the Phillips TV, taking us directly into the film footage. These scenes are then carried over into other parts of the music video through synergistic images of clowns and other scenes from the film.

Phillips' on-line film CAROUSEL was created by Tribal DDB Amsterdam and is truly an unusual promotional piece that deserves a closer look. It uses imagination to communicate the benefits of a new technology and ambushes the consumer on the Internet with its creativity. “Carousel,” is the second on-line film to win this coveted award in the last 3 years, rising out of the shadows of the Dove "evolution" spot which won the award in 2007.

“Carousel” is an important piece of communication that needs to be examined in terms of how the Internet is used to effectively communicate with consumers. It appears that discerning consumers respond to nothing short of creativity on the Internet and this is needed to deliver results - particularly, if traditional media is not part of the media mix. Phillips uses this creativity to market their new Cinema 21:9 LCD TV on-line, allowing viewers at home to experience the same smooth viewing found in a movie theatre. “Carousel” is the 2 minute and 19 second on-line video that Phillips posted on their microsite, http://www.philips.co.uk/cinema, and uploaded to YouTube for all to experience.

In this on-line video Phillips uses the power of the Internet to communicate the product benefits in an interactive fashion not seen before. When viewing the film on Phillips’ microsite, viewers can intuitively use the mouse to move the video forwards or backwards frame by frame and click on interactive hot spots to see more. These hot spots take viewers into the depths of the film, showing how the video was created from the perspective of the director, special effects experts, and lighting specialists – fascinating. To ensure Phillips learns the most from this approach, they are currently running a short market research survey on the site to assess the effectiveness of this approach.

The film is shot in one continuous sequence, offering a glimpse into the world of film production. It uses a haunting sound-track and no words to tell the story of an armored-car heist gone painfully wrong with all the expected accoutrements of money, gunfire, breaking glass, police, and casualties. The story seems to unfold from an almost CSI-type perspective, where the viewer is taken back to the crime scene, seeing it frozen in time. As we view the footage, we realize when we come to the end, that we are remarkably right back at the beginning of the sequence.

Philips’ intention was to create a film that would excite movie-lovers, a segment of their target audience, and demonstrate the TV’s main benefits of Ambilight, Cinema 21:9, and superior picture quality. Technically, the film was shot keeping the actors motionless in a particular pose, while the camera continuously shot the sequence, navigating its way through the scene of still actors and props. Importantly, the music was formatted so that it could be properly distorted as the viewers interacted with the film either through the hot spots or as they moved the frames backwards and forwards.

I cannot imagine how much it cost to create this film, but what we are seeing is the transfer of traditional media funds into creating expensive pieces of creative that can be aired for very little on the Internet – probably still saving the company money!

Below you can see the “Carousel” short film, the making of “Carousel,” and for context, the making of that other on-line sensation that paved the way from Canada in 2007, Dove “Evolution.” It is preferable to watch the "Carousel" video off the Phillips' website, rather than YouTube, in order to see all the interactive features http://www.philips.co.uk/cinema. As an aside, see if you can find the numbers "21:9" (the name of the TV), cleverly embedded in certain places within the film. This campaign directly competes with the new Sony BRAVIA Motionflow spot featuring the Brazilian soccer star Kaká, (http://mktgcliks.blogspot.com/2009/07/soccer-star-kaka-featured-in-sony.html).

Philips Carousel Commercial - Adam Berg Commercial of the Year Stink Digital http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQ3D4CqHbJM



Philips Carousel for Cinema 21:9 TV - How they did it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teoSDTJDjF4



50 Cent Music Video "OK You're Right" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TcXaLS-NJ4

Dove Evolution The making of
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77cFhPr5GCA

James Ready - Share Our Billboard Campaign - Wins Gold at Cannes

James Ready? Who is James Ready(?) was the question being asked a few months ago when the Canadian beer brand started hitting the media for the marketing awards it was winning for its innovative outdoor billboard campaign, SHARE OUR BILLBOARD. So, for those of you not familiar with Ontario’s micro-brewing industry, James Ready is not a person but a brand of beer brewed since 1875 by the James Ready Brewing Company in Niagara Falls, Canada. Its campaign, SHARE OUR BILLBOARD, created by Leo Burnett, just won a Gold Lion at Cannes yesterday for its innovative outdoor advertising campaign. The award recognizes the James Ready campaign’s creative approach and its ability to engage with young beer drinkers to create a local buzz in the market.

The James Ready Canadian advertising campaign, SHARE OUR BILLBOARD. made a splash by plastering 106 billboards in southern Ontario, asking people to keep the price of James Ready beer at $1 per bottle by sharing in the cost of the billboard campaign. Classified ads appeared in local Canadian newspapers with a similar message as to the outdoor advertising campaign. People were asked to, “Help us keep James Ready a buck. Share our billboard.” Billboard messages steered people to a website www.jamesready.com where they could post their best offer (no actual cost was accepted) and upload messages and photos to be included in the billboard. The result – on a first-come-first-serve basis, people’s submissions were posted on individual local billboards with a tag line from James Ready Beer thanking them for keeping the price of the beer at $1! The people showcased in the SHARE OUR BILLBOARD campaign became local celebrities in their communities, creating further buzz for James Ready beer and prompting many conversations at water coolers and bars in the area!

The James Ready SHARE OUR BILLBOARD campaign has already won numerous awards including Andy, Marketing, and OBIE awards. You can see a short video clip of this Canadian campaign below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xqu2HbCRkgE

Best Job in World Wins Big at Cannes

Australian creative energy continues to make its mark at Cannes with Queensland Tourism Best Job in the World winning two 2009 Grand Prix awards for public relations and direct advertising. The PR stunt created by ad agency SapientNitro (Brisbane, Australia) was unique in its approach - a type of hybrid that used user generated content, reality show-type voting, and PR magic to beat out the viral campaign for Barak Obama’s presidential election – no shabby contender!

In 2009 it was difficult to not get caught up in the Best Job in the World opportunity – it was everywhere – on the news, in magazines, and online in the blogs as people, wrapped up in the 6 month contract position for a caretaker for Hamilton Island, were captivated by the beautiful Great Barrier Reef in Queensland Australia. The job included feeding fish, collecting mail, cleaning the pool, exploring the island, and capturing the adventure on a daily blog – anyone could apply with the winner also receiving over $8,000 per month in salary and free luxury accommodation! Who could not be captivated by the beautiful footage of the paradise island and its escape from the drudgery of everyday life?!

Individuals had 6 weeks to submit a 60 second video application online at www.islandreefjob.com. The public then voted on the candidates, selecting their top applicant. Queensland Tourism then selected another 10 applicants from the entries and flew them all to Hamilton Island for an interview. The final winner was selected in May for a job start of July 1, 2009. Stay tuned for the publicity machine to roll out yet again on this date with the winner, 34 year old charity worker Ben Southhall from the UK, starting his new position!

In the end, the job (a legitimate position), turned out to be what has been coined the biggest publicity stunt ever seen - a campaign promoting the Islands of the Great Barrier Reef Australia by Queensland Tourism. The purpose of the campaign was to raise awareness of the location among potential experience-seekers from the UK, USA, Europe, Japan, New Zealand, India, China, and Korea. The campaign wove the story of the job posting through a public relations campaign of press releases, press conferences, and media interviews. A microsite was set up at www.islandreefjob.com, small print ads were placed in the classified and employment sections of newspapers, online ads were posted on employment websites, and small banner ads were placed on the Internet.

The Cannes Lions' website details that that the campaign cost $1.7 million, generating free publicity valued at more than $150 million. The site goes on to explain that more than 3 billion people were exposed to the campaign, and over 6,000 news stories were written. In addition, TV coverage was secured on CNN, the BBC, and the CBC, just to mention a few media outlets, and people from 201 countries submitted 34,684 video applications. Within the 6 week application period the microsite had 6,849,504 visits, 47,548,514 page views, with an average time spent on the site of 8.62 minutes. 450,000 votes were cast by the public to select a winner.

You can see a short video-case of the campaign, the video job posting, the winning candidate’s video-application, and the final winning announcement below - very creative!

Tourism Queensland The Best Job in the World – Case http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SI-rsong4xs



Tourism Queensland Seeks Applicants for "The Best Job in the World" - Island Caretaker http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTUUWOV4Vns



Island Reef Job - Ben Southall http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnosVJfDrpY



Brit Wins Best Job in the World http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fuvwA350ac