out of the box :: The awesome world of digital

Durex Fundawear

Digital advertising needn’t be about finding another channel to spread your message, and only a handful of brands are truly realising this. Big brands such as Nike have innovated the space with products such as Nike+ and Fuel band, giving people new ways to experience the brand ethos through digital forms. And now we are seeing Durex experiment in the space too.

‘Fundawear’ is the first of a series of Durexperiments. It’s a new line of underwear that allows your partner to control the vibrations through a mobile app. Perfect for couples over long distance, or just those that want something a bit different. It’s not just advertising, but a new product innovation, brought to you by a brand. I am excited to see what other products come out of the Durexperiements, let’s hope they innovate as much as this one.

Heineken create the bottle of the future

It appears Heineken have been doing some really nice stuff in the activation space of late. But this re-imagining of the simple bottle is a touch of genius. Taking cues from technology such as Disney’s ‘Glow with the show’ or Coldplay’s very own ‘Xyloband’, these bottles light up in a number of ways. Firstly, they ignite with light every time you take a sip. Secondly, they illuminate in time to the music in unison.

It’s a fantastic way of bringing people together in a club environment and a really clever way to enhance the drinking experience. I can’t wait to see these out and about.

Save the beach desktop

This is a genius idea from the guys over at Corona. To support their ‘Where you’d rather be’ campaign, they have created something simple that starts from a simple truth - we all like pictures of beaches on our desktop. By downloading the icon and photo pack from their site, you can personalise all the icons and create your own beach. Then all you have to do is arrange it and keep the beach tidy. Simple. Effective and unique. Sometimes you really don’t need something complicated to get your message across.

Rhythmical Potties

Here’s a really cool idea to take the edge off one of the most annoying parts of the festival experience - queueing for the loo. These rhythmical potties allow festival-goers to be entertained while they wait. When someone walks into a pot tie, it triggers an instrument from a song, the more that are occupied, the more dynamic the song. Pretty genius use of tech to solve a real world problem. Love it!

The Remix Sound Bottle

This is a seriously cool prototype from a group of students at the Tama Arts University in Japan. They have created a bottle that, when opened records the sound around it. Each time it is opened, it records a new sound bite, then when ready it mixes them all together. The resulting mix is then played out loud when the bottle is next opened. The outcome is a unique music mix, bespoke to the individual and the times that the bottle was opened. Very cool indeed.

File under ‘want’.

Your Man Reminder App gets a ‘hot’ update

Fresh from the guys over at Rethink Breast Cancer comes this interesting app designed to make the process of checking your breasts a little ‘hotter’. With videos from hot guys showing how to check them, reminders of when to check them and a handy little man-o-gram feature to send a reminder to a friend, it’s a much raunchier take on quite a serious subject, and perhaps a very good example of ‘sex sells’. 

I unfortunately do not have breasts myself, but for the 50% of you in the world that do, you can download the app now from the app store and take it for a spin.

Stanley, the interactive player piano

Here’s a cute little project from the guys over at Digital Kitchen. Stanley is an interactive player piano that accepts requests via twitter. Simply tweet your request to @stanleypiano, any song from the great line-up at Block Party, and it will be added to the queue for playing. It’s a great mash-up of a very traditional medium with social media, and a lovely way of bringing digital into the real-world to build a more emotional connection with the participant. Nice work guys.

Find out more at the site here.

Muppets virtually heal kids boo-boos everywhere

Here’s a smart little app from JWT London. Muppets Magic-Vision brings Band Aids to life. Simply put your band aid on (or plaster if you speak the Queens English), hold up the Muppets app and watch it come to life in glorious Augmented Reality. The Muppets then sing a song to make it all better. Lovely use of technology that the kids are going to love.

Tweet to shoot brings duck hunt to life

On September 13th and 14th, Neiman Labs thought they would run a little twitter experiment in their office. By hooking up a Nerf gun to a micro-computer they were able to turn tweets into real-world shots. Users could point the gun at a large projection of the classic NES game Duck Hunt and have a shot simply by using the hashtag #TweetToShoot. What’s the point you may ask? And of course if you have to ask that, you really shouldn’t be reading this blog in the first place, shame on you.

Unfortunately I missed the big event, but the site is still alive if you want to check it out… You know, in the hope that they turn it on again (begs).

Mount Jackmore Advergame promotes Borderlands 2

To support the launch of the new First Person Shooter, Borderlands 2, 2K Games have created a fun game where people can win daily prizes. The game takes the face of one of the characters within the game and brings it to life as a rock face in full 3D. Each day, people can log in and shoot 100 rounds of ammo at the face. Shoot a rock enough times to turn it gold and potentially win. The game shows other people shooting the rock in real-time so you have to be quick if you want to grab the prize. By sharing the game, you get more ammo too, giving people more reason to invite friends to the experience.

It seems that video game delevopers are getting more creative with the way they market games to their fans, creating games and experiences to help get people excited. With previous efforts like Twisted Metal’s Shoot the truck, and now this, I look forward to seeing what else they come up with in the future to advertise the interactive medium to fans.

Start shooting for yourself here.