Void Of Words, And Effectively So

BY

Capcom’s cinematic trailer for Dark Void foregoes dialogue and anything beyond rudimentary story setup to focus on the action and set down its game play promises.  While the trailer is completely high-resolution CG and not in-game unless the[a]listdaily missed a console transition it works in presenting both a compelling action premise and core game play features one can expect in the game.  In no particular order, it is going to be about shooting hordes of creatively designed metallic thugs, piloting vehicles, fighting giant bosses, and generally rocketing around in combat like Iron Man but without any of the licensed game baggage.

Watch it at GameTrailers {link no longer active}.

‘Full Of Sartre’

BY

Belgian brewer Stella Artois is running a viral campaign channeling retro modernism and 1960s chic to communicate current concerns about the environment and promote its use of recycled material.  The campaign is extensive, creating a mock 1960s French TV variety show called “Le Recyclage de Luxe” with an obvious painstaking effort at authenticity.  In-fact remove the currency of the subject matter, subtle Stella branding and recognizable artists such as Florence + The Machine as special guests, and the footage could be exactly the archival material it s pretending to be.  There s even enough material to fill a complete show, with a 15-minute segment launching the concept and a half-dozen shorter clips.  The message is that Stella Artois is using 100 percent recycled paper, 75 percent recycled glass and 50 percent recycled aluminum in packaging its beer.  There is irony in an overproduced campaign promoting recycled material, but given the project’s philosophical depth who is to say that isn’t intentional.

The two-minute short Utopia gets to the core of the concept; watch it at YouTube {link no longer active}.

You can read more about the campaign at Fast Company {link no longer active}.

The campaign has an official Le Recyclage de Luxe Show YouTube channel.

Self-Affirmation With Jack Black

BY

Actor-comedian Jack Black is helping promote online multiplayer in EA’s Brutal Legend in a funny video telling gamers how to overcome online trash talking.  The clip openly channels the Saturday Night Live skit “Daily Affirmation with Stuart Smalley,” which featured the confidence-challenged character made famous by now U.S. Senator Al Franken.  Black’s version plays on the concept of actually needing ego girding to prepare for the often incomprehensible trash talking one can expect to hear online.  The video has the feel of a production that took all of an hour of the star’s time, but it proves a couple of formulas.  Get a gamer celebrity like Black sold into a project and he can give you mileage.  And with Black specifically, give him a minute or two of screen time and he s bound to make you chuckle.

Watch it at GameTrailers {link no longer active}.

Ad Age Viral Video Chart For Week Of Nov. 16

BY

Ad Age’s weekly chart lists the top 10 viral videos for the week of November 16. Six new videos have popped on the chart, and they run the gamut from me too to wish I’d thought of that .

Heineken s Know the Signs (a.k.a. spot the drunk) campaign manages to break in at number one, garnering nearly 1.2 million views for a staged user video of a pole-dancing drunk literally bringing down a wedding. With that description, the[a]listdaily is likely helping that number climb. Prepare to be underwhelmed. Microsoft manages a couple videos in the top ten. The Natal video is still hanging on at number ten, having generated enough views to populate a metropolis after 20+ weeks on the chart. The company’s second entry is a new video that completely mimics T-Mobile’s crowd dancing virals, with Microsoft’s version featuring a breakout line dancing session at one of its new retail stores. It’s at number five with more than 560,000 views.

The two standouts for the week are Tillman the skating dog’s tie-in with Activision’s Tony Hawk Ride and Samsung’s viral campaign promoting its 2010 Winter Olympics sponsorship. The Tillman video is at number four with more than 780,000 views. It has its own entry in today’s newsletter. Samsung’s video is the second staged user video in its Olympics campaign showing outlandish feats in winter sports. The one that makes this chart shows perhaps the best use ever of a Curling puck, drawing nearly 550,000 views to make number six on the chart. The other new entries include a more geeky than cheeky spot for Cisco’s spam guarding servers, and Toshiba’s TV spot where it actually launched an armchair into space.

Ad Age’s chart includes number of views for the week and percentage change in views for videos that stayed on the chart. The list is compiled by Visible Measures.

 

 

How The ‘Off Santa’s List’ Set Parties

BY

Schweppes is running a randy holiday-themed campaign in the UK. The fizzy mixer maker is promoting its products in TV spots that take classic Christmas card scenes and turn them into embarrassing holiday party moments. Part of the charm is the simple technique in the ads, where minimal movement and zany voice-over are the only things turning Norman Rockwell-esque scenes into pop culture inspired mayhem.

 

Watch it at Brand Republic.

Guinness Brings A New Campaign To Life

BY

A new TV spot for Guinness is helping launch a re-branding campaign for the popular brew. The campaign is girded with an updated slogan, “Bring It to Life.”

The long-form ad shows sequences where hardworking men labor to bring barren parts of the earth back to life. There’s a tinge of environmental messaging, though it mostly seems to play on the perception that those who drink the frothy stout are of the more thoughtful beer-drinking ilk. That’s been an ongoing message for Guinness, from their last slogan “Good Things Come” to “Those Who Wait” to the nearly hundred-year old tagline “Guinness is Good for You.” Creativity-Online notes that the new slogan is the first update for Guinness in a decade.

 

Watch it at Creativity-Online.

Another American Pastime

BY

GameStop is advertising a pre-sales promotion for EA’s “Left 4 Dead 2” where it’s giving away a baseball bat with every pre-order. The campaign is timely, with Major League Baseball wrapping up its season with what’s been an exciting World Series. The TV spot makes clever use of the connection by taking a very fitting sequence from the game and adding classic baseball commentary. This could be more proof that wasting zombies is fast becoming America’s other pastime.

Watch it at YouTube.

Verizon Stays Mysterious With Droid Ads

BY

Verizon s second TV ad for Droid, its iPhone killer smart phone, proves the mobile carrier is planning on building a lot of buzz before giving out details.  The approach is contrary to Apple s ads for iPhone, which for all intents and purposes have been slickly produced hands-on demos.

Verizon s first spot for Droid could be considered informative, in that it implied what the device can do by listing what the iPhone can t.  However it stopped short of giving even a glimpse of the phone, let alone showing it in action.  The follow-up ad foregoes any specs or information altogether, instead setting up a premise worthy of a summer blockbuster film that builds up to one fleeting glimpse of the phone.  The take aways: it s out November 6, and it has a red light.

 

Watch it at Mashable.

Sony ‘Make.Believe’

BY

Sony has launched its make.believe campaign in the UK, the company s first-ever branding effort merging its electronics and entertainment products into one message. That message is that Sony can whisk you off into worlds of make-believe in movies, videogames or music, thanks to its broad product line. As pointed out by UK ad site Campaign, there is thought behind the slogan and its structure. The dot between make and believe represents the point at which Sony’s innovation (read: tech products) meets creativity (read: content).

The spot launching the campaign has a timely holiday movie feel to it, supported by the choice of music. The holiday brush continues through the first transition from reality to make-believe, where a young urban hipster finds himself in what could be Sony’s high-tech version of Santa’s workshop. From there, clever use of iconography such as Sony’s trademark PlayStation X-button and Walkman logos take viewers on a journey of popular Sony content.

Campaign reports that the ad will be running in UK cinemas starting this month. Watch it at Campaign.

A Brutal Ballet

BY

The slogan for Namco-Bandai’s Tekken 6 asks, What will you fight for?  The slogan feeds the concept behind the publisher s live action viral videos, the message seemingly being that people will fight anyone over anything.  The creative videos show people from all walks of life women, children, grandfathers, lingerie models in the midst of laying smack-downs worthy of an MMA ring, and apparently for no good reason.  Standout qualities for the videos are expert production value with use of super slow motion photography and classical music to great effect.  AdFreak calls them out as attempting to bringing class to game marketing, for a change.

Watch the videos at AdFreak.