Fallon's Skimmer - Cool app to keep up with your social networks

Today, Fallon launched Skimmer, an Adobe AIR application "designed to streamline, beautify, and enhance the experience of participating in your most frequently used social networking activities." Skimmer streams Twitter, Flickr, Facebook, YouTube, and Blogger onto one desktop dashboard. This feed content can be filtered by service, by group, or by keyword. In addition, you have the ability upload pictures and videos to Flickr and Youtube.



I immediately downloaded it to see what I thought. I have to say it did make things a lot easier. I could easily follow what was going on with all my friends on Facebook and Twitter, as well as any blog updates. For me, the only downside was that it got a bit overwhelming since I hadn't grouped my friends yet.

Apparently, (via Creativity Online) the app has launched in conjunction with Fallon's new corporate Web site — employees’ social media activity will be published via Skimmer within Fallon.com. In some ways, I see this as the next step in the evolution of agency sites from the traditional to a site like Modernista's where a floating menu bar that superimposes its logo and a small clickable menu over the top of whatever referring page you clicked from to Fallon's where all employees' social media activity is openly published on the site. While I think this is an interesting idea, I wonder how much monitoring it will take as employees come and go and if it will force employees to be much more private since their whole lives are now fully connected to their employer.

I still don't get Australian Football

I don't understand Australian football. I've watched on TV a few times and found it fascinating. It's a blend of rugby, soccer, and American football, but even after several hours I had no idea what in the world was going on. This ad by George Patterson Y&R, Melbourne, is a lot like that. The ad is for the Australian Football League and does a great job of juxtaposing Australian football against just about any other major sport. So, while I have no real idea what the rules of the game are (yes, I have read the Wikipedia entry on it), the ad is fun and makes me want to watch the sport or even, play it.



Probably the added bonus for me is the use of the Dropkick Murphy's song, Shipping Up to Boston. I love that song. Either way, this ad definitely gets me to agree that the AFL is truly in a league of its own.

Here's a list of the credits:
Client: AFL
Agency: George Patterson Y&R, Melbourne
Executive Creative Director: Ben Coulson
Copywriter: Katie Britton
Art Director: Frank Muller
Agency Producer: Romanca Jasinski,
Mandy Celms
Production Company: Revolver
Director: Steve Rogers
Executive Producer: Michael Ritchie
Producer: Georgina Wilson
Director of Photography: Greig Fraser
Editor: Alexandre De Franceschi
Editorial Company: Guillotine
Post-production: Fin Design & Effects
Flame Artist: Justin Bromley
CG Supervisor: Stuart White
Executive Post Producer: Emma Daines
Post Producer: Billy Becket
Sound Design: Nylon Studios
Sound Designer: Simon Lister
Composer: Cornel Wilczek
Music Company: Level Two

My team won an award!

Last night, my design team won an award from the annual AIGA Minnesota Design show for a piece I conceptualized, the Weber Shandwick Calendar (also known as the Weber Shandwick Minneapolis 2008 Holiday Card). The winners from the juried show were considered some of the “most exceptional creative in the upper Midwest.” I feel very excited that a concept I came up with won an award as well as thrilled that the amazing design work of my team was recognized. The team includes Teri Firkins (our design director), Angie Koehn, Rachael Lybeck, Gerardo Obieta and Leslie Sorum. I feel this was a great showcase of all of their talents. I'm very proud of this piece. The piece will be on display at the Weisman Art Museum through this Sunday, March 22.

Here are the designs for those of you not in Minneapolis.

I've always loved a good competition

I've always loved a good competition. So, it's not surprising that the new Nike ad for Nike Plus strongly appeals to me. The commercial is part of the Men vs. Women virtual running campaign. The race, which started March 13 and ends on April 20, will add up all the kilometers run by men and women across the globe to see who’s the winner, men or women. You can join the virtual running race at www.nikeplus.com, something I'm strongly considering. The ad features Eva Longoria, her husband, NBA player Tony Parker, tennis ace Rodger Federer, Swedish striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic, long distance runner Paula Radcliffe, hip hop dancer Sofia Boutella and Liverpool striker Fernando Torres (a favorite of mine).



What's interesting is the each celebrity's own point of view on the Men vs. Women rivalry. "Women are generally better organized and more consistent," said marathon world record holder, Paula Radcliffe. "You might see the guys start off a bit faster and probably running at a quicker pace, but they're fair weather runners. If the rain or snow comes in, the guys are going to bottle out!"

Inter Milan striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic countered with, "Men are better competitors. We're more powerful and, mentally, we're tougher ..."

The champion will be determined by winning two of the three categories: total kilometers, average kilometers per runner and the most kilometers run by an individual in a 24-hour period. Throughout the competition, participants will be encouraged to create individual consequences and rewards against their friends and partners, based on the overall gender winner.

The Men vs. Women campaign was created by 72andSunny. The TV ad was directed by Tim Godsall and the music track is Gnarls Barkley's "Run (I am a Natural Disaster)." 72andSunny is also responsible for other creative elements such as print, out-of-home, online films and retail. AKQA created the digital aspects of the campaign.

Baseball Cards You Can Really Play With

My friend, Gerardo Obieta, pointed out this really cool video. Topps Baseball Cards used 3D animation to create baseball cards you can play with. This is another great way 3D animation and augmented reality is used to enhance a product. Any baseball card where the player can actually play his position is much cooler than the traditional card. I can't wait to see what other uses of augmented reality appear in the next few years.

GE's Smart Grid Shows Grow Interactive's Innovation

GE's Smart Grid microsite is innovative and inspiring. The purpose of the site is to illustrate how GE is transforming the aging grid infrastructure into an efficient, high-performance, energy-saving asset. Not an easy message to get across. But, I think GE does a good job of coming across as cutting edge. The forward thinking website clearly illustrates GE's forward thinking approach to energy. Using flash animation, voiceovers and 3-D renderings as well as interactive gadgets for the user to "make the power grid more efficient," the site makes the information about what a smart grid is and what it does easily digestible.

Probably my favorite part of the entire site is the Smart Grid Augmented Reality. The Smart Grid Augmented Reality makes great use of FLARToolKit and PV3D to create a digital hologram of Smart Grid technology in your hands.

Basically, you print out the Augmented Reality digital hologram, hold it up to your web cam and you have a 3-D universe. Below is a video by OgilvyPR illustrating how the hologram works. It's pretty incredible.



GE's site was designed by Grow Interactive, an award-winning design studio from Norfolk, Virginia. Looking through the company's website, I'm amazed by much of their work. It is exciting and innovative and definitely a great place to get interactive inspiration.

The Arts - Food for Thought

I ran into these PSAs a few days ago for Americans for the Arts. Personally, I think they are brilliant. The PSAs are entertaining and engaging. Each ad resembles a typical food commercial but helps make famous artists into household names. Below are the "Raisin Brahm" and "Van go-gurt" ads. Every time I watch them, I laugh out loud! Sure, they are blatantly mocking Raisin Bran and most yogurt commercials. But, that's what makes them amazing. The PSAs are directed by Marcus McCollum and filmed by Crossroads Films.