Deceased Poet becomes Signing Sensation at Belgian Book Fair

Is it possible for 8 authors to sign non-stop for 12 days? Yes if a robot does all the signing for them.

People usually goes to the Antwerp Book Fair (Belgium) every year to score signatures from their favotrite authors. This year online shop Bol.com raised the signing bar even higher, with a series of signings by top international authors such as Nicci French, David Baldacci and Paula Hawkins.

A stunt in which 8 authors sign non-stop for 12 days. Worthy of note: the late Flemish poet Paul van Ostaijen was also honoured in this way. Bol.com wants to draw attention to genuine literary talent again with this campaign.

In collaboration with the Antwerp Research & Design Lab Beyond, DDB Brussels created a technological signing robot which analysed, parsed and then reconstructed all the signatures and manuscripts of the famous authors.

In total, an intensive test phase took four weeks. Kevin Verelst, co-founder and Art Director of Beyond explains, “The greatest challenge was above all to imitate the writing as faithfully as possible. In the process, it was essential to completely fine-tune four important elements. Namely, the choice of pen, the angle of the writing, the pressure of the pen on the paper and the writing speed.”


'The impossible signing sessions' by Bol.com at the Antwerp book fair from DDB Brussels on Vimeo.


Bol.com - The Impossible Signing sessions from DDB Brussels on Vimeo.




Credits :

Client : bol.com
Agency : DDB Brussels
CD : Peter Ampe & Odin Saillé
Creation : Danny Vissers
Ad & Copy: Tom Meijer & Silke Beurms
Accounts : Francis Lippens & Romy Vierhouten
Strategy: Dominique Poncin, Jorian Vanvossel
Digital Design: Wieste De Ridder
Motion Design: Sven Verfaille
Producer: Stefanie Warreyn
PR: Kenn Van Lijsebeth
TV producer: Brigitte Verduyckt
DOP: Adrien Moormann
Design lab: Beyond.io

Dove: Choose Beautiful over Average

Dove's new social experiment asks women to choose how to see themselves. They placed the labels "Beautiful" and "Average" above walk through doorways in San Francisco, Shanghai, Delhi, London and Sao Paulo, so women could choose under which label they will cross. Then Dove, asked them about their choice.

Dove wants to prove that beauty is a choice and the power of this choice is in any woman's hands.

Seems good at first, but if you think it over, this label idea makes the average look really ugly which is not good. I don't say that women shouldn't see themselves as beautiful. They should. The problem here is that Dove labels average as the lowest score.

Hyundai Genesis: The Empty Car Convoy

Very impressive stunt filmed at Hyundai's Mojave Desert test track, to showcase the new technologies of the new Genesis 2015.

We see a big truck and 6 cars behind it moving in one lane. 5 of the drivers climb out of the sunroof and make a jump to a moving truck. Stuntman Buddy Joe Hooker stays in the lead car behind the truck. He puts on a blindfold, folds his arms to his chest and he lets ASCC(Advanced Smart Cruise Control), AEB(Automatic Emergency Braking System), and LKAS(Lane Keep Assist System) work their magic when the truck hits the brakes.

This kind of stunts are Volvo's game but Huyndai's Empty Car Convoy will surely be a viral hit.

Water is Life: The drinkable book

The drinkable book is a revolutionary and life saving idea. It filters water and teaches proper sanitation & hygiene to those in the developing world. Each book is printed in two languages on technologically advanced filter paper, capable of killing deadly waterborne diseases. Each page is coated with silver nanoparticles, whose ions actively kill diseases like cholera, typhoid and E. coli.

Once water is passed through the filter, bacteria count is reduced by over 99.99%, making the filtered water comparable to tap water in the United States of America.

The paper costs only pennies to produce, making it by far the cheapest option on the market. Each filter is capable of giving someone up to 30 days worth of clean water. And each book is capable of providing someone with clean water for up to 4 years.

Credits:
Client: Water is Life
Chief Creative Officer: Matt Eastwood
Executive Creative Director: Menno Kluin
Group Creative Director: Andrew McKechnie
Head of Design: Juan Carlos Pagan
Associate Creative Director: Sam Shepherd
Associate Creative Director: Frank Cartagena
Senior Designer: Brian Gartside
Designer: Aaron Stephenson

Director/Editor: Kyle McMorrow
Producer: Nina Horowitz
Head of Integrated Production: Ralph Navarro
Head of Production: Ed Zazzera

Chemist: Dr Theresa Dankovich
Biochemical Engineer: Corinne Clinch

Printer: Jamie Mahoney, Bowe House Press
Binding and 3D: Peter Ksiezopolski, xweet
3D Printing: Morpheus Prototypes

Principal typeface used: Knockout, Hoefler & Frere-Jones

via

CNA: Speaking Exchange

The Speaking Exchange project is a win-win idea from FCB Brasil and the CNA language school network. It connects students who want to speak English with Americans living in retirement homes via an exclusive digital tool that uses video chat technology to bring the students face to face with Americans. The reactions as we can see on the video are heartwarming.

Credits:
Advertising agency: FCB, São Paulo

The Hunter and the Bear in Pharrell Williams' book

The hunter and the bear, heroes of one of the most acclaimed digital campaigns of the last decade are back with another friend, the amazing Pharrell Williams. Get ready for an exhilarating adventure...

This year, Tipp-Ex®, N°1 correction brand in Europe,Bic® and Pharrell Williams go together to make history by creating the first participatory book instantly translated into 5 languages. A real technological feat imagined by Buzzman agency for a world first!

The idea: Tipp-Ex® and Buzzman asked Pharrell to write a book about the source of his inspiration. A few hours before the book launch, struck by panic due to fierce readers seeking to steal the book, the bear decided to cover the whole book with Tipp-Ex® to protect its contents.

With this blunder starts a new Tipp-Ex® adventure ... To participate, you will have to enter the cabin of the hunter and the bear and help find the thousands of words, which have been covered in the book.

Obviously, the hunter, the bear and even Pharrell will be there at every moment with hints to help you complete the book. The more words you find, the closer your name will be in the credits alongside Pharrell Williams.

Once completed by users, the “Social Book” will be printed and published.

Profits will be donated to an organization supporting disadvantaged children as they attempt to, hopefully, rewrite their lives.

Help them at http://www.tippexsocialbook.com/ 

Credits:
Agency: Buzzman
CEO and Creative Director : Georges Mohammed-Cherif
General Manager : Thomas Granger
Associate Director : Julien Levilain
Creatives : Santiago Cosme, Miguel Durão
Account Managers : Olivier Lopez, Loïc Coelho
Social Media Managers : Julien Scaglione, Joeffrey Arruyer
PR and Communication : Cyril Paglino, Clara Bascoul-Gauthier
Digital Producers : Laurent Marcus, Lara Jane Lelievre
TV Producers : Vanessa Barbel, Elodie Poupeau
TV Production : Iconoclast
Director : Adrien Armanet
Digital Production : We are Anonymous
Artistic Direction : We are from L.A.

Castrol Footkhana: Neymar Jr. v Ken Block

Football meets gymkhana and Footkhana is born. A shootout between Neymar Jr. and Ken Block. Juggling with the ball meets smoking tires and spins in this experiment from Castrol, an official sponsor of the World Cup 2014.

Lisbon City Council: LX Type. The official font of Lisbon.

LX Type is the world's first typography made from tracing Lisbon's tram wires. Lisbon's trams are an iconic element of the city. Their wires that blends with the sky emerged the idea of creating a typography based on them. A very interesting project from Leo Burnett Lisboa with the support of the Lisbon City Council. You can test and download from lxtype.pt the fonts for free. You can also find out a place associated with each letter, transforming words in spontaneous and personalized guides of the city.

Advertising Agency: Leo Burnett, Lisbon, Portugal
Executive Creative Director: Luciana Cani
Head Of Art: Nuno Salvaterra
Copywriter: Jaime Nascimento
Art Direct: Guilherme Nunes
Photography: Guilherme Nunes
Head Of Digital Production: Nuno Frade
Direction and editing: Hugo Lage
Collaborators: Freddie Brando, André Mota, Joana Bruno, Natasha Hellegouarch
Music: Dead Combo

Beldent: Almost identical

You look better when chewing gum. At least this experiment from Del Campo Nazca for Beldent Gum (the Argentine version of Trident) is trying to prove. They took identical twins, gave one of them to chew gum and asked visitors of the Buenos Aires' Museum of Contemporary Art to answer questions like which one of the twins had more friends, had great sex, is more like to give an employe a raise, etc. From the 481 participants, 73% voted for the twins that chewed gum.

I love the work of Del Campo Saatchi & Saatchi. See more of their work here.

Credits:
Title: "Casi Identicos"
Advertising Agency: Del Campo Saatchi & Saatchi
Directores Generales Creativos: Maxi Itzkoff / Mariano Serkin
Directores Creativos: Matias Eusebi / Ammiel Fazzari / Juan Pablo Lufrano / Ariel Serkin
Productores por agencia: Adrian Aspani / Consuelo Gimenez Uriburu
Directora de cuentas: Ana Bogni
Ejecutiva de cuentas: Oriana San Martin
Planner: Regina Campanini
Productora: Agosto Buenos Aires
Directores: Diego & Vladi
Productor ejecutivo: Luli Krämer
Postproductora: La Posta
Productora de sonido: Tres Sonido
Productora de música: Circle of sound
Responsables por el cliente: Sebastian Genesio, Diego Serantes, Maximiliano Diaz, Victoria Feu, Angeles Curia.

Lidl: Dill

Lidl took Stockholm by surprise with this wonderfull stunt. They created a pop-up restaurant with a Michelin-chef for 3 weeks and people fully booked it from day one. They enjoyed the excellent food but they didn't know that all the ingedients came from Lidl.

Lidl Dill 60s from Colony on Vimeo.

Credits:
Advertising Agency: Ingo
Production Co/Director: Acne/Marcus Svanberg

BOX: One-of-a-kind projection mapping onto moving surfaces

A truly magnificent piece of work, exploring the synthesis of real and digital space through projection-mapping on moving surfaces. The short film documents a live performance, captured entirely in camera. Bot & Dolly produced this work to serve as both an artistic statement and technical demonstration. It is the culmination of multiple technologies, including large scale robotics, projection mapping, and software engineering.

Next level visual and interactive designer GMUNK has a detailed presentation about the project here.

Credits:
Production Company: BOT & DOLLY
Executive Producers: Bill Galusha, Nick Read
Executive Creative Director: Jeff Linnell
Creative & Technical Director: Tarik Abdel-Gawad
Design Director: Bradley G Munkowitz
Lead Graphic Designers: Bradley G Munkowitz, Jason English Kerr
3D Artists: Scott Pagano, Bradley G Munkowitz, Jason English Kerr, Conor Grebel
2D Artists: Conor Grebel, Ben Hawkins, Pedro Figuera
Director of Photography: Joe Picard
Lighting Designers: Joe Picard, Phil Reyneri
Projection / Touch Designer: Phil Reyneri
Robotics Animation: Tarik Abdel-Gawad, Brandon Kruysman, George Banks, Michael Beardsworth
Robotics Operator: Michael Beardsworth, Brandon Kruysman
Prop Fabrication: Matt Bitterman, Ethan Dale
Script Supervisor: Ian Colon
Sound Engineers: Joe Picard, Michael Beardsworth
PAs: Sean Servis, Dakota Smith, Nico Mizono, Eric Wendel, Patrick Walsh
Editors: Ashley Rodholm, Ian Colon
Music / Sound Design: Keith Ruggiero
Sound Mix: Joel Raabe
Performers: Tarik Abdel-Gawad, Iris, Scout

Gillette Training Tracks: Built For Training

American football players workout is turned into a music track in this great video from Gillette. Phil Mossman, took the sound of pushups, weight lifting, jump rope, heavy bags hitting and all the movements of the players workout inside the gym and managed to create a music video that is actually good.

Credits:
Agency: BBDO New York
Production Company: Partizan
Director: Michel Gondry
Post: Final Cut - New York
Composer/Arranger: Phil Mossman

Volvo Trucks: The Hamster Stunt

Volvo Trucks does it again. This time a hamster is steering a 15-tonne Volvo FMX construction truck at Los Tres Cunados in northwestern Spain, a place famous for its challenging conditions.

A precision driver holds a carrot and as Charlie, the little hamster, is chasing it he is steering the truck and proves that Volvo's latest steering system is very easy to handle.

Filmed in a steep quarry this test will definitely impress you.

Credits:
Advertising Agency: Forsman Bodenfors
Director: Jamie Rafn
Producer: Ray Leakey
Production company: Smuggler
Post production: The Mill
Sound design: 750
Music: Adelphoi
Animal handler: Grace Dickinson
Precision driver/Stunt coordinator: Seon Rogers

Ray-Ban: #nofilterjustrayban

Last day of summer but I'm posting about a cool idea DDB Brussels had for Ray-Ban sunglasses to keep it going for a little longer (well, in Greece, the weather is like summer almost year round).

So, DDB tranformed trams in all major Belgian cities into "Ray-Ban Test-Drive Trams" by pasting filters on the windows and letting people discover the city through different Ray-Ban color lenses thus promoting the wide range of Ray-Ban's polarized color lenses: from sky blue to hot pink.

To make it social, posters inside the tram invite travelers to share their pictures of the city with #nofilterjustrayban.

Credits:
Campaign: #nofilterjustrayban
Agency: DDB Brussels
Client: Ray-Ban Belgium (Luxottica Group)
Marketing Manager: Dagmar Sleuwaegen
Agency: DDB Brussels
Creative Director: Peter Ampe
Creation: Gertjan De Smet
Account Manager: Gertjan De Smet
Strategic planner: Maarten Van Daele
Head of Digital: Geert Desager
Online producer: Simon De Pauw, Sevenedge
Experience Architect: Maarten Breda
Graphic Designer: Arnaud Hemroulle
Production company: Lijncom, JCDecaux, Clear Channel
Photographer: Mary-Ann Koninckx, Yannick Tielemans
Media: website, transit, social media

Intel and Toshiba: The Power Inside

The third social film experience from Intel & Toshiba is here. They started two year ago with "Inside Experience" and now with the "Power Inside" we deal with an alien invasion. It seems that extraterrestrial moustaches and unibrows take over the upper lips and eyes of people around the world.

Your face can join the Uricks (the aliens) or the Guardians. Just visit www.thepowerinside.com or www.Facebook.com/insidefilms to watch the trailer and audition to be in the film. To join the Urick team and potentially be featured in the film you have to upload a photo to the Facebook Page, and the facial recognition software will add a moustache or unibrow. You can also upload videos of yourself removing a moustache to join the Guardian team.

Directed by Will Speck and Josh Gordon  (“Blades of Glory” and “The Switch”), the movie stars Harvey Keitel (“Reservoir Dogs”), Craig Roberts (“Submarine”), Analeigh Tipton (“Crazy, Stupid, Love”), Reid Ewing (“Modern Family”) and Zack Pearlman (“The Inbetweeners”).

The first episode of the social film will be available on August 15 and continue online over the next six weeks.



(thanks Monika)

UTEC: Potable Water Generator Billboard

This is the first billboard that captures air humidity and turn it into potable water. A project by UTEC (The University of Engineering and Technology in Lima, Peru) and DraftFCB made to get student interested in their engineering program. Instead of running an advertising campaign though, they helped Lima, the second largest capital in the world set on a desert, solve the huge problem of lacking potable water.

Dead Man Down movie: Elevator murder experiment

What would you do if you saw a murder taking place in an elevator? Would you help, take photos or just run? 2 guys set a hidden camera and staged a murder. Great viral for the promotion of Dead Man Down movie.



http://deadmandownmovie.com/

3Doodler: The world’s first 3D printing pen

The title is correct. This great little gadget allows you to draw in 3D. As you draw, plastic comes out of the 3Doodler pen, is cooled by an integrated fan, and solidifies right in front of you. You can draw on any surface and lift it up into the air to create your own 3D objects. Almost magical.

The 3Doodler was designed by Boston-based company WobbleWorks.
via

Microsoft: illumiRoom Xbox project

IllumiRoom is an immersive gaming experience that extends the action from the TV into the whole room. Using a projector and the Kinect sensor, the system puts the player right in the center of the action. It is impressive that the effects in the video are rendered in real time and are captured live - not special effects added in post processing. This is really a new way of playing games.

PolskieRadio: Touch the sound

Yes, the title is correct. Sound can be touched. Hypermedia Isobar did it for PolskieRadio.pl, a news portal with the largest radio recording database in Poland. In order to promote it at Science Picnic - the biggest science fair in Europe - Hypermedia used 3D printers to print out the most historical radio recordings of the 20th century. The recordings where chosen through interactive banners and Facebook apps.



Credits:
Advertising Agency: Hypermedia Isobar
Creative director: Maciej Nowicki
Art director: Krzysztof Jagielo
Copywriter: Jan Cieslar
Account manager: Sylwia Skarzynska
Programmer: Piotr Polit