Category Archives: Video

Add a motor to it – on YouTube

I spent an interesting lunch at the IAB Creative Showcase where the last quarter’s winners explained their work. For me The Monkeys ‘Put a Motor To It’ for coffe milk drink ‘Ice Break’ stood out. The campaign documented people adding engines to all kinds of unusual devices – think ‘Top Gear’ meets ‘Mythbusters’. Here is the Ice Break YT channel and below is the campaign’s case study:

As Ben Cooper from The Monkeys explained, the staggered release of videos over 7 weeks allowed the agency (to a small degree) to creatively react to the audience’s viewing behaviour and also integrate fans into the edits. Professional seeding, careful uploading (naming, descriptions, inter linking, meta data etc) and special attention to the inner circle of brand adorers/ambassadors were key. Paid media (e.g. featured video on YouTube’s homepage) actually kicked in only later and formed a second stage.
Other experts like Josh Spears of Undercurrent favour an immediate release of all material. After all, the user doesn’t ‘have all minute’ and probably won’t return to your channel anyway.

In any case, The Monkeys definitely succeeded in bringing a brand that previously aired the same TVC for 9 years in a row to take a leap into the wild world of online video and content.

I Know Where Bruce Lee Lives

Enter The Dragon“, Bruce Lee’s first (and only) solo big Hollywood production, ran on Australian television last weekend.  So it is good timing that I have managed to pull together a video case study of my/SKOP’s “I know Where Bruce Lee Lives“. This tells the story of an ultra-interactive KungFu remixer combining the heroism and cheesiness of 70s KungFu films, the ironic use of the VHS video aesthetic with simple yet engaging interactivity. Here’s more on the making of this interactive art piece. Unfortunately we never filmed any of the live installations and performances. Teaches you to document everything well for cases like these.

Many thanks to my former Holler colleague Razif Djamaludin for the animation work.

Near future communication at Mojo

“Swipe, tap and eat” -  a little update from the Creative Technology front at MOJO. We have partnered with Amnesia/Razorfish and the University of Sydney to develop a mobile application that could change the way we order our favourite meals. We helped MA student Stephen Davis to devise, test and program ‘BrandTable’. It is concept that allows shoppers to order food with only a tap of their mobile phone, using near-field-communication (NFC). A popular smartphone feature in Japan and Korea, NFC will sweep into the Australian market in 2012. Our video of the prototype, which you can see here, has already caught the attention of global technology blogs TechCrunch and Engadget.
We know Australians love smartphones and social networking, so we will continue to explore this technology. Any progressive creative idea, from mobile couponing, real-time scavenger hunts to launching branded films, can be propelled by NFC. And that makes it very near-future-communication for us at MOJO.

Making / Hacking Films: Creative Social Sydney

The latest Antipodean Creative Social, organised by Publicis Mojo took place at Finch, a very progressive content production company down here in Sydney. We met with Emad Tahtouh, their Head of Technology, who presented how Finch works with e.g. the Eye Writer in order to explore new creative concepts, innovative production and augmentation of video. Here is a doco of the evening.

To me it is remarkable that Finch invests in emerging and experimental technologies as they relate to video production. And if you look at Emad’s soldering table you know he is a real tinkerer. I’d be curious to know if other production companies worlwide are offering similar approaches. Or is it still left to the digital agencies to bring these new impulses into the video space?

Emad Tahtouh's work space

Emad Tahtouh's work space

Emad Tahtouh

Emad Tahtouh

CS Sydney donning the bipolar glasses

CS Sydney donning the bipolar glasses

Splendour in the Grass and on YouTube

This Sunday afternoon from 4pm onwards Splendour in The Grass will be running as a free live stream in the masthead on YouTube’s homepage as well as on Virgin Mobile’s channel. This is a first for paid media in our region so everyone here at Mojo is properly chuffed about getting this up.

YouTube masthead with Splendour in the Grass

YouTube masthead with Splendour in the Grass

Many people here including our partner agencies and Google have been working hard to make this happen. If you do live in the right region please enjoy the free stream of a pretty good line up consisting of Coldplay, Kaiser Chiefs, Cloud Control, Elbow, Vaccines and The Vines.

Even better, if you happen to be mucking around at Splendour itself, or know someone that is and/or have a Twitter or Instagram account, please participate with the hashtags #splendour, #splendourlive or #SITG . All tweets will be picked up and displayed underneath the videostream. And some of the Instagram shots might end up in The Vaccines new crowdsourced music video.

Splendour Live Stream Party

Splendour Live Stream Party

There are also live streaming parties running in Sydney, Perth and Melbourne this Sunday, so come on down to the Beach Road Hotel in Bondi or the Bimbo DeLuxe in Fitzroy from 4pm on Sunday and enjoy the festival atmosphere without the mud!