Pause Fest 2011 call for creative submissions

Melbourne Australia’s pioneer digital festival Pause Fest is set to showcase the future of technology, art and ideas from 7 through 13 November, 2011. Since the event is being designed to foster sharing, networking and education, creative companies and agencies worldwide are being invited to submit projects for possible display. Read more

Play games, get lucky in Canada

At this very moment, and running on through Jan. 23, executives from Toyota Canada are hosting thousands of visitors at their impressive displays at this year’s Montreal International Auto Show. There, fans are simultaneously playing the Scion Canada Augmented Reality (AR) Racing Game developed for Scion by global creative agency ATTIK and its project partner, North Kingdom. In the addictive, award-winning game, fans virtually “take the wheel” of a Scion and navigate it through a menacing cityscape, for fun, bragging rights among their peers, and more importantly, a chance to win a 2011 Scion tC Urban Sports Coupe.

Promotions for the game will continue at shows in Toronto, Calgary, Québec City, Vancouver and Edmonton over the weeks to come, elsewhere at various lifestyle events across the country, and inside Scion’s 45 Canadian dealerships. For more specifics, please visit
Scion Canada’s official Events Calendar.

Meanwhile, for those Canadians who are snowed in or otherwise unable to catch these location-based promotions before the contest ends on April 25, the game is fully accessible online.

Read more

Forces for Good: Mike Corso

If I have my facts straight, publisher, writer and marketing consultant Mike Corso has personally been operating Cool Site of the Day for well over 13 years, and last year, he decided to take-up a very important initiative: On Fridays, the daily email he sends out showcasing a unique, innovative website is themed as the “Do Good, Feel Good” E-mail. For example, back in October, he used his Friday edition to report on General Electric’s Ecomagination initiative detailed in the video above, reminding us that for every photo readers uploaded, Ecomagination would donate 480 gallons of clean, safe drinking water to communities in need. For more information on Cool Site of the Day and to subscribe to Mike’s newsletters and social media outposts, please visit http://www.coolsiteoftheday.com.

And to Mr. Corso, thank you very much for the thought leadership and the daily inspiration!

Nathan Love gives thanks

Happy Thanksgiving from Nathan Love and NBC (and of course, yours truly!).

You can learn more about this project at www.nathanlove.com.

Many happy returns!

Scion ATTIK North Kingdom FWA!

Scion and ATTIK have combined to score their fourth FWA Site of the Day award, this time for their Take On the Machine Augmented Reality game honored today. ATTIK’s news release and artwork galleries are available here.

Simon Needham: “Our goal was to engage people with the bold and aggressive new Scion tC, and earning an FWA Award is a great measure of our success.”

Join Jamie Oliver’s food revolution

In the video above, first broadcast on August 2, celebrity and humanitarian Jamie Oliver introduces the OpenIDEO Challenge currently underway at OpenIDEO.com. There, Jamie, design and innovation consultancy IDEO, and many other prominent organizations are pooling their resources to address the best ideas we can provide to promote the benefits of fresh food to kids, so that they’ll be able to make better choices. Below, I’m also sharing Jamie’s inspirational TED Talk from earlier this year, where his passions for encouraging people to change their lifestyles and diets for the better, earned him a TED Prize. Read more

Ralph plays with Number Four

Last week, Penguin Books UK released the sensational new thriller “I Am Number Four,” the first release in a trailblazing new science fiction series, The Lorien Legacies. Together with Penguin, the principals of digital creative agency Ralph proudly announced the launch of “The Legacy Test” online at www.iamnumberfour.co.uk.

Covert affairs from Ralph

In support of the new USA Network original series COVERT AFFAIRS, digital creative agency Ralph recently developed The Farm (http://thefarm.usanetwork.com), which allows fans to work alongside Annie Walker (series star Piper Perabo) to hone active spy skills, including closed-course driving, video surveillance, lock-picking and more. For completing tasks, fans can win prizes such as iPods, Bose products and more. New challenges continue to appear, allowing fans to use Facebook Connect to pull in information, share scores and gain extra points by recruiting their friends to help answer questions. Check out The Farm anytime, and COVERT AFFAIRS on Tuesday nights 10/9c on USA Network. You can also become a fan of the series on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/CovertAffairs and follow it on Twitter: http://twitter.com/covertaffairs.

Uplift and Upload Now for Prizes from BET and Coca-Cola

BET Videos

In their latest collaboration with advertising agency Wieden+Kennedy, international creative design and production studio Brand New School and director Jonathan Notaro recently produced the stop-motion brand film above, which promotes the Uplift and Upload Contest sponsored by Coca-Cola for BET’s popular daily music video show, 106 & Park. Seize this chance to show how you’re creating and spreading happiness in your community by uploading a video of your good deed at www.bet.com/uplift — but please note, according to the official rules, entries must be received by 6pm ET on Friday, July 23 (even though the video states that July 21 is the entry deadline).

No moment of happiness is too big or too small for your chance to win the grand prize: $5,000 in spending cash, and an all-expense paid trip to New York, where you’ll present the “Wild Out Wednesday” Best in Show winner, alongside Rocsi and Terrence. Creating and spreading happiness is just an idea away.

Good luck!

NYC, where will you watch the World Cup?

With soccer (er, football) now reigning as our planet’s most popular sport, beginning tomorrow, the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa will take center stage as its most prominent sports event. According to Jeremy Hollister at creative ideas studio We Are Plus, as a tribute to New York City’s vibrant international diversity, World Cup fever is greater there than nearly anywhere else in America.

We Are Plus is applying the power of social networking software to tap into this native enthusiasm with its World Cup Game Finder, a free mobile app — now available at iTunes — that helps NYC-based fans find local venues screening games featuring their favorite teams, and offering the easiest way to find the best spot in the city to join your fellow fans and support your favorite team. For more information, please visit www.nycgamefinder.com, and please help spread the word!