out of the box :: The awesome world of digital

Audi R8 - Screenshot the car

I think this has to be the first ad I’ve seen using the everyday iPad feature of the screenshot. It’s a feature all iOS users know well, but by making it the interaction for the ad is a genius touch. The car speeds through the ad at blistering pace and only the most experienced screen-shotter can capture it.

The clever bit? Every shot the user is taking is saved to their photo library as a constant reminder of the new R8’s break-neck speed. Pretty cool.

Audi bring scalextric to life through digital

Lovely activation to launch the new A3. The huge custom-built track allowed three people to race a scale model of the A3 round a scalextric track, all controlled by their iPad. The onboard cameras allowed the racers to see what it was like to actually sit behind the wheel and the video it created could then be shared on their social networks. I can’t believe something like this has not been done already?!? Nice execution.

IKEA Klippbok

It seems that recently, IKEA are embracing digital in all the right ways. First came their interactive extension to their printed catalogue (using Augmented Reality to bring to life the content in interesting ways). Now, they have brought us Klippbok to help people design their home using IKEA products. Simply drag and drop the products, rotate and scale them and create moodboards for different rooms for your house. Then, at the touch of a button, share your creations with friends, and ultimately purchase your combinations. 

I absolutely love it when a brand thinks as digital as a space in which to give their consumers utility, and not simply entertainment. A scrap-booking app like this makes it easy for customers to see on the fly how IKEA’s range of products work with each other. It’s not something to be picked up and thrown away, more something that  brings to life the products in a new, magical way. Like everything IKEA put out, the interface and user experience is clean and very well considered. Nice work guys.

Make Art Not Dinner

For generations, kids the world over have been creating art using glue and macaroni. The problem? Krafts delicious food is being wasted. The solution? Take something fundamentally analogue and make it digital, whilst retaining the fun and creativity, then share your creation with the world. The best bit? For every piece of virtual macaroni used, Kraft will donate ten to charity to help feed the people that need it. It’s art for a good cause and a lovely piece of branded digital content.

IKEA launch a new kind of catalogue

This year sees the launch of a new digital platform for IKEA. The app, available for both iPad and iPhone brings to life the pages of the catalogue in front of your eyes. Hold your smartphone up to the specially marked pages and watch videos, interact with the environments and explore additional content. It’s a nice transition for the consumer from the printed product into a digital platform. It’ll be nice to see how this grows with future issues of the magazine and what other features they can bring.

Nike Golf 360 - The Nike+ For Golf

I guess it was only a matter of time before Nike began to infiltrate every sport known to man with their stat-tracking magic. The next sport to get the ‘Nike touch’ is golf. Their new social golfing platform allows golfers to track their scores, games and sessions. It includes training tips as well as the ability to film shots and compare with others. With some useful tools, and a community of players (probably) itching to socialise their experiences, I’m sure it will be a success with fans. I know I’m downloading it for the two games I get to play (and lose) annually.

You Vs. Cat - Let the iPad tournament commence

Just this week, Friskies have launched a new iPad app that takes their previous ‘apps for cats’ campaign a little further. Their new app is the first globally that sees you competing against your cat. It’s a bizarre concept I know, and from what I’ve seen of the app in action, cats literally have no idea what’s going on. However, despite that, it seems that Cats are currently winning, with a scoreboard constantly refreshed on their facebook page. At time of writing cats are beating humans by over 50,000. Go my little feline friends!

What do you guys think to apps like this? Genius, or completely useless?

BMW tablet controlled projection

BMW were launching their new model in South Africa and wanted something innovative and interactive. This large-scale projection screen let passers by race using iPads given out by staff. All the results, and leaderboards were housed on the Facebook page, further raising awareness and amplifying the event through social channels. Although the technology is nothing new, it’s still a nice implementation, and looks pretty fun to play.

Domino’s Pizza Hero iPad App

Domino’s Pizza have today launched a new game that will have people all over the world making digital pizzas. The game itself has been beautifully crafted, and makes great use of the native touch screen on the iPad. With a progression system, social leaderboards and the ability to order your own pizzas directly from the app, this is simple digital fun. And best of all? It’s completely free! Nice work Domino’s.

Check it out and download it here.

The infinite story machine

This early prototype for a new iPad app aims to explore the links between imagination and computation. By serving up a series of randomly generated illustrative environments within a cube space alongside a very brief synopsis of the current ‘chapter’, the reader is left to their own devises to imagine the story within. It’s imagination mixed with Artificial intelligence in a really compelling way and although I don’t fully understand it, it’s an extremely interesting concept, and actively encourages creativity in children which can’t be a bad thing.

The project has been commissioned by Microsoft, and I’ll be keeping an eye on this when it finally launches later this year.