Work On Your Guns With Your iPhone

Here's another innovative iPhone app which will no doubt contribute to iPhone owners' sense of superiority!

For a fee of £1.79, iPhone owners can download the REPS app which promises to turn your phone into a mobile Nintendo Wii. Users can set weight loss targets and view their progress via a real-time rep counter, which calculates how many calories have been burnt and alerts users to how many reps they have completed by vibrate or sound. Users can also use the app while listening to the iPod music on their iPhone.

There are also motivational audio clips from a personal trainer to further keep you motivated.

Via - Revolution Magazine

The Gathering Of Savvy Mommies

Proctor & Gamble UK has identified a new consumer segment - which they have termed "savvy mommies" - and in a bid to appeal to them, the FMCG group has has its key household and beauty FMCG brands under an umbrella community site.


The website will target mothers with children aged five and over who use the internet on a day-to-day basis, with content ranging from special guest contributors, blogs, a forum and online product offers.

There are also features articled on subjects from growing plants to funding children through university and getting ready for a party.

According to Brand Republic, P&G is currently running similar effortsin other European countries including France, Germany and Italy, with a reach of a million consumers per country.

In addition to the relevant information, the interactivity and simply navigable space should allow the various brands to really make an impression on targeted users

Via - Brand Republic

Sim City To Be Invaded By Advertising?

The Sims 3 is set for launch in February 2009. The makers and developers of the popular video game promises that the new version will be more realistic than ever, thanks to improved graphics, better processing power and an increase in ads.

Electronic Arts, maker of "Sims 3," is working with IGA to provide dynamic in-game ads - which can be switched in and out of the game via an internet connection - to the latest version of what has become the world's most-played PC game.

In its first new version in five years, "Sims" players will be able to venture beyond their houses and lots out into Pleasantville, where they can go to the movie theater, the sports arena or the grocery store. It's a more open experience, akin to newer online virtual worlds, although it's still a single-player game.

With the average time spent by Sims players measured to be about 1.7 hours with the game per sitting and spending 47.6 hours with the game in total, a serious amount of one-on-one contact with potential targets can be had by various brands.

The ramification for brands is rather exciting. Imagine helping the players' Sim feel better through the purchase of your headache tablet brand, or become more sociable and confident through the purchase of your new sneakers, new opportunities are abound for brands out there who are paying attention.

Via: AdAge

Beat Usain Bolt At His Own Game

Puma has launched a nice site in celebration of their biggest star in the form of Usain Bolt.

The site features the latest Puma Olympics apparel, as well as an interesting advergame allowing the user to race against the fastest man in the world.


It's a simple but amusing advergame, very nicely designed, and nicely integrated video spots and definitely worth checking out. Click here to see if you measure up.

Choose Your Own Online Adventure

Wally has already been brought up to date to the 21st century, thanks to Canadian artist Melanie Coles and Google Earth. Now, another piece of childhood memory has been modernised with the proliferation of the internet in most parts of the world.

Youtube user SMPfilms’ video series has made an online version of "Choose your own adventure". The adventure utilises the video response system in YouTube to make online video into a game of sorts. Users watch the first clip and then make their choice on what should happen next in the story, in exactly the same vein as the book version.

Below is the first in an adventure about someone trying to find his cat. In order to participate in the story, you'll need to watch the clip on YouTube. Perhaps not the most exciting premise for a story, but still an interesting idea to increase the level with interactivity for brands utilising such channels.

Via: PSFK, Fallon Planning

Do You Have What It Takes To Drive For BMW Sauber?

Intel has launched an interesting online branding exercise in partnership with the BMW Sauber F1 team.

A website called "You be the Driver" has been set up which has a series of tests to help you find out whether you have what it takes to be a F1 driver. Apparently according to the first reaction test, I have what it takes to be a F1 driver.. Sadly, I didn't fare so well in the other challenges though.


There's also a driving game in keeping with the racing genre, as well a behind the scenes look at the BMW team.
The site is highly interactive, beautifully designed and does a great job at promoting each of the major sponsors for the BMW Sauber team.Well worth checking out!

Via: Adverblog

The Converse Microsite Fest

Converse has launched an elaborate web campaign featuring more than 20 microsites to mark the brand’s centenary celebrations.


Constructed much like an online treasure hunt, users are rewarded not in monetary treasure, but with increasingly odd content.

All the sites are linked together via a neat interface at the bottom of the screen, meaning users can scroll through oddities such as outofyourleaguegirl.com (a video-based site in which a hottie gives advice on dating to hapless men) and iseverythinggoingtobeokay.com.

Start legitimately wasting time by clicking here.

More Ways To Get Fit While Gaming

The appeal of gaming is that it allows the players to temporarily escape into a make-believe world, where there are no real life consequences. But ever since the Wii Fit came on the scene towards the end of 2007, the line between real life and gaming has become increasingly blurrier.

Now, SecondLife has jumped on board with this trend and has launched a test phase for the SL-Fitness program. The company has set up prototype stationary bikes connected to computers to allow riders to explore the SecondLife world. Sensors on the bikes read the velocity of the turning wheels and the direction of the handlebars - allowing the avatar to interact with the virtual world. There is even an “ET button” that lets the rider take flight.

The first prototypes are based on conventional bike-type home-trainers, with more conversions and prototypes are in the pipeline.

Via:Trendhunter

Camry - The New Spy Vehicle

Toyota’s Camry has been the best-selling vehicle in America in nine of the past ten years. With US sales of Toyotas dropping by 8% year-on-year, the Japanese automaker seem willing to connect with every single previously ignored demographic in their attempt to revive sliding sales.

Professional African-American women have never been drawn to Camry’s. A recent study found that black women do buy mid-price sedans, but they just tend to buy into other brands. The Camry was being outsold almost 2-to-1 by Dodge's Avenger among black customers - a car that suffered from less horsepower and lower fuel mileage than just about every six-cylinder competitor, including the Camry.

To shift the car's perception and increase purchase consideration, Toyota have turned to 42 Entertainment, a company that specialises in creating alternate-reality games - including a recent innovative viral campaign for Warner Bros.' forthcoming "Batman: The Dark Knight" – for a piece of branded entertainment in order to connect with professional Africa-American women.

In the game, Bianca, an assistant designer at an urban fashion house, finds herself and her new 2009 Camry entangled in a world of espionage.Bianca's unwitting involvement in espionage will be assisted by Camry's various gadgets – including the on-board Bluetooth, navigation and push-button ignition system - all features that will be "seamlessly integrated" into the content.

The campaign is supported by a $5 million print, radio and online campaign that will run in media primarily consumed by African-American women and aims to drive the target demographic to iflookscouldkill.com, a site where "fashion and espionage collide”, says Toyota.

via:Advertising Age

Is Unexpected Always Good?

Mercedes-Benz Germany have launched a new interactive website for the GLK SUV. The campaign ties in with the debut of the vehicle in the recently released movie version of Sex and the City.

The site allows the user to design their own car, with the ability to customise the colour and rims, ultimately showcasing the car through an interactive music video. Users also have the ability to manipulate the music and interact with the surrounding objects in the video once they have completed the customisation process. There's also a cell phone application which one can download.

The site also includes a “GLK backstage” link where the obligatory stats for the vehicle are shown.

The site is rich in new media which means the loading time in SA feels way too long. Presumably, the premium compact SUV is targeted at someone who is slightly older and a lot more sophisticated than me, with far less time for adver-games, customisation of cars and electronica music. One has to question whether this great idea was implemented on the wrong product by Mercedes.

Click here if you have the patience, time and curiosity to load the webpage and see for yourselves.

"Where's Wally" In The 21st Century?

22 year old Canadian artist Melanie Coles has brought the "Where's Wally" game well into the 21st Century, by painting an enormous Wally that can be seen by Google Earth satellites.

The 55ft figure was installed on an undisclosed rooftop in Vancouver last month, sparking a flurry of interest among internet users keen to be the first to spot this Web 2.0 Wally.

But competition is tough. Not only do they have to locate his roof perch, they also have to wait for Google's imaging equipment to pick him up, which could happen at any time. The company does not reveal exactly when it updates its images.

"It's like this huge shift. Radio is going to the Web. Television is going Web. And now Waldo is going Web, which is pretty fitting right now."

Coles, an art student who publicised the project on her blog www.whereonearthiswaldo.com, is encouraging others to follow her lead and create a network of Google Earth Wallys across the world.

McDonald's Unsnobby Coffee

McDonald's in the US have brought out an edgy campaign today in their battle against the more premium coffee chains.

The campaign's microsite, called Unsnobby Coffee, is one initiative to stage interventions on expensive competitors. The site is light-hearted and interactive in its functionality, and claims that one shouldn't need a "second language" to enjoy good coffee. There's also an online game and downloadable coffee coupons... all aimed at helping us kick the snobby coffee habit, and boost their own sales.

Mid-Week Catharsis

Here's something to take your frustrated minds off work for a bit... brought to you by Virgin Active UK. An interactive advergame which forms part of a larger recruitment campaign for the health club franchise, aimed at banishing the Couch Potato in all of us.