Ben Ayers

I’ve been on holiday for the last week, so here’s an admitedly lazy post featuring some of the digital news as served up by the digital agency we work with, Dare. So, credit here goes to Rachel Filer at said agency. I’ll post these when we get them as the guys and gals at Dare are always on the lookout for digital trends and they are a smart bunch.

John Malkovitch

First up, here’s a plug for something Dare has recently created. The Sony Vaio project which was launched last year featuring John Malkovich has just had it’s final element released. The feature of the site had John writing the beginning of a short film script and invited others to write the subsequent installments.  The final animated version of the winning film was released last week and is doing superbly well.

http://www.dailymotion.com/gb/featured/video/x5f9vg_snow-angel_creation

www.vaio-john.com

Inspring Action

Hope.Act.Change describes itself as a community of people empowering one another to create positive change in the world. Comes with a health warning though – it’s heavily wrapped up in the world of American political cheese.

http://www.hopeactchange.com/mosaic

Godiva mobile app

Nice little application that allows you to buy chocolates as a gift wherever you might be. Good example of breaking up a brands offering and serving the essentials to you in the form of an app.

http://maverix.typepad.com/brandingunbound/2008/04/sweet-sensation.html

Rewarding good companies

Very simply, Carrotmob aims to organize consumers to provide an economic incentive to companies for making positive environmental changes. i.e the companies that do the most good get the most rewards

http://www.carrotmob.org/

http://springwise.com/weekly/2008-05-15.htm#carrotmob

Telegraph not Guardian

The telegraph has just over taken the guardian online site as being the most popular news website. Some learnings could be perhaps taken from this…

http://www.brandrepublic.com/Digital/News/811280/Telegraph-pips-Guardian-number-one-online-spot/?DCMP=EMC-Digital%20Bulletin

‘Sticky’ is so last season, new word = Velcro

Interesting article that likens a viral campaign to velcro in two easy steps: What are the viral “hooks” that capture people’s attention? 2. What are the viral “loops,” which create infinite engagement that spreads like wildfire? A pleasure to read.

http://adage.com/digitalnext/article?article_id=127203

Facebook Facelift

The social network site Facebook is getting ready for the first major makeover in its short history. Have a read here.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/hi/technology/newsid_7408000/7408215.stm

YouTube’s Got Talent

Rachel also flagged up this great post about how ad agencies are increasingly turning to the big UGC powerhouses for great ideas…and talent.

http://www.searchengineguide.com/jennifer-laycock/shopping-for-a-viral-video-at-youtube.php