Introduction

Welcome to the third edition of the Vizeum digital newsletter.

This month create a totally unique musical portrait of yourself and then access the stored music on your PC on the move, become a virtual reality star and decide which flavour Doritos release.

Inspiration #1:

Become a Virtual Reality Star:
Endemol and Electronic Arts have joined forces with the impending launch of Virtual Me. Intended to bridge the gap between traditional TV, videogaming and the Internet, users can use the tool to create life-like cyber clones of themselves and then participate in online talent TV shows like Fame Academy and big brother.

Gerhard Florin, executive vice president of EA International, called the project a "hybrid form of entertainment that takes gaming beyond the console" to a mass-market audience.

It’s an interesting move to try and future proof their business, but it’s yet to be seen if the average Internet user has the desire to live their lives as virtually as the techie audience.

Inspiration #2:

TREND – ‘Early birding’:
In the age of plenty and social badging, businesses are creating a standout consumer experience, through controlling supply and rewarding loyal customers with exclusive pre-launch/release information.

Used as an acquisition tool, potential ‘club’ members are tipped off through general Internet buzz and spurred into joining the exclusive club.

Limited supply creates incredible Internet chatter and often takes it beyond to prime time news. The opening of the primark store in london created an increase in blog postings, receiving 50% of the searches made by clothing giant Topshop in the month of march as anticipation built. Blog postings are now peaking for Topshop with the anticipation of Kate Moss’ clothing range, with 1000 blog posts about this subject alone.

With the ever increasing adoption of web 2.0 capabilities to profile and manage user’s lives, giving people something to chatter about will play an important part within marketing strategies.

Innovation #1:

Pete Townshend ‘paints’ your portrait:
Under the patronage of Pete Townshend, Method Music (Lawrence Ball & Dave Snowdon, Mathematician/composer & software developer respectively) affords users the ultimate in personalisation.

The Method is an Internet based software programme where the user ‘sits’ for a musical portrait. By uploading four strands of unique personal information, a digital photo, a rhythm, a sound and a voice, a unique musical portrait is ‘painted’ by the system.

From May 1st for 3 months, users will be able to create 3 free portraits and download them, share them with friends and be generally amazed about how different inputs create subtly different signatures.

Pete Townshend has created an album of musical portraits with samples available for streaming on Method Music’s MySpace page.

Innovation #2:

Mobile music communities:
Whilst slingbox technology synchs your pc to your TV, enabling users to log-in and watch their TV whilst at work, holiday etc, Phling synchs users mobile phones to stored entertainment media on their PC.

Users not only have the ability to listen to their stored music on their mobile, but they can share access with up to 6 friends and also access other friends music.

The service shows what people within the phling community are listening to, enables users to post reviews and leave messages on friends bulletin boards.

Will people ditch their portable music players in favour of a mobile phone service? What happens if you’re out of mobile service? Is it environmentally responsible to leave the PC on 24/7 to enable access? Will radio stations perceive it as a threat and develop more user-controlled services for when on –the-go.

Creativity #1:

US - Doritos, You Decide:
After a successful promotion recruiting users to ‘crash the bowl’ and create the ad to be aired in the superbowl (650k views of the winning video alone), Doritos continue to position the consumer as a brand partner.

Fight for the Flavour, sees the consumer deciding which of their two new flavours, Smokin’ Cheddar BBQ and Wild White Nacho, is released.

“The idea of Doritos fans continuing to take control of the brand is what excites us about the ‘Fight for the Flavor’ campaign,” said Ann Mukherjee, vice president, marketing, Frito-Lay. “We want Doritos fans to continue to tell us what they want to see, from the advertising to our next flavor and beyond.”

Online audiences have been exposed to the communication through a boxing themed animated video, seeded through video viewing platforms and via purchasing the video home page slot on you tube.

Creativity #2:

Le Duel: Club Internet:
Potential customers interested in Club Internet’s on demand TV service, 24mb broadband and phone triple play package, arrive at their home page to view a video of a duel, only to witness the duellers come out of the video and start using page elements to continue their duel.

It’s a high quality video experience to advertise a high bandwidth communications package in France. In the UK video is becoming increasingly prolific within ads as consumer expectations increase and advertisers look to create engaging advertising experiences.

Just For Fun:

24 hours of flickr:
Join Flickr’s global community project on 5th May to document 24 hours around the world.