This particular one, called ‘Next Day’ is probably the first ever supermarket ad that gave me goosebumps. Not least because of the excellent music choice (Silversun Pickups) which is in heavy rotation on my Spotify account.

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An IBM study confirms that this also translates into a more competitive company. One that is more in touch with customers, able to deal with change and innovate its products and services.

Social CEO study by IBM

As a Forbes article put it:

“Simply put, CEOs and their executives set the cultural tone for an organization. Through participation, they implicitly promote the use of social technologies.  That will make their organizations more competitive and better able to adapt to sudden market changes.”

So if you can spot your bosses being active on Twitter and LinkedIn, that’s a good sign. If they’re mixing it up on Soundcloud or Last.fm they might be showing there’s more to life than work. But if they start posting their kids’ lunches on Instagram and want to be your friend on Facebook you might see more of them than you really care for.

“I wanted to do something very fun for myself and the visitors, just laugh and have a good time. I was surprised that there were so many laid-back people who were not afraid to look funny! Spacious studio was bursting at the seams and everyone was crying with laughter, laughing at themselves and at each other. Everyone (and there were more than one hundred!) who dared to stand up in front of my lens that evening will remember this photo shoot for a long time and have an extraordinary shot in his album,” said Tadas Černiauskas.

Visit his site tadaocern.com and for more faces you can check his facebook page.

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All this was made for the organisers to have a real-time master view of the effect their campaign has. And to predict where more effort is needed and where they can relax. It makes it easier for local organisers to tap into an existing supporter base and it even contains competitive elements (gamification anyone?) to compel supporters to outdo each other. No wonder then that this American election is being called the ‘Facebook vote’ or the ‘data election’. Check out and register for a test run here.

This ‘dashboard’ makes me draw parallels to software like ‘Spotify’ that can predict a better tour schedule for up-and-coming bands, based on the listening history of fans using the streaming service. And the truth is, the better you can predict how your messaging reverberates and model your efforts accordingly, the more success you will have.

In politics as well as advertising.

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The German-Finnish-Australian co-production had about 75% traditional funding and manged to rake in the rest via crowd-sourcing and crowd-investing. More interesting from a creative stand point is how listening to the audience and working with the supporters led to a a quicker, yet visually high-quality production  that was going to please the followers. At the same time it minimised the need for traditional film marketing. Now I am already liking the film for actor Udo Kier’s character name: Wolfgang Kortzfleisch. Probably the worst name in the history of film making. Check out one of the teasers below:

First up, the big one, the Mac Daddy of ego-shooter games, ‘Call of Duty’ in its new iteration Black Ops 2 has aficionados fumbling for their wallets.

Limbo is one of the most atmospheric, monochromatic and unusual jump and run adventures of recent times.

Even more challenging in terms of navigation is ‘The Unfinished Swan’ in which paint splatters that you need to throw in front of you, lead the way.

Journey lets users start a mission to reach a mountain top with the help of co-players. The clou: all you can communicate with is a single sound. Morse code anyone?

Even if you don’t know who or what Rayman is, the Origins edition makes for entertaining viewing.

In Gamers’ talk ‘Fez’ is a ‘platformer’ in which you need to figure how to get across structures and buildings. The game is reminiscent of classic 8-Bit arcade games, albeit in a warped version.

OK, as a last treat, this is a big step into fantasy game nerds’ territory. But if you have ever heard of the 1980′s craze ‘Dungeons & Dragons’ you will appreciate the jokes, played out by characters from the ‘Summoner’ game.

See the nicely decorated venue below and spot the visual identity of two overlapping ripples, created by Pim Van Nunen at Publicis Mojo, proud  supporters of Advance.

Advance at Town Hall

It was indeed a humbling experience to see so many highly successful and at the same time giving and community-minded Australians up on stage. Many of the prize winners had foreign-born parents, some of which proudly accepted the prizes on behalf of their children working overseas. No surprise for such a young and immigration-oriented country, their backgrounds ranged from Holland, Denmark and Germany to Vietnam and Malaysia. See their new website and winners here.

Dr. Adeeba Kamarulzaman

Jeremy Heimans

The new Advance logo on an 'idea bulb'

Pintermission

Honda is offering $500 each to the most active pinners  if they’ll take a 24-hour break from Pinterest and do the things they normally pin about. And then pin/post about those. Which in a way brings us full circle to the question: ‘How much pinning is too much?”

I liked the personalized invitation via an @ mention below, showing true blogger outreach, with effort going into research, personalised and engaging through craft. See all invites after the jump.

Pinterest invitation

1. Is the surface mobile friendly?
2. Can consumers physically get to the code?
3. Will consumers have internet access?
4. Is it big enough?
5. Is the information at a minimum?
6. Does it lead to a mobile friendly destination?
7. Is there value behind the code?
8. Will consumers realise there is value behind the code?
9. Have I scanned this?

Apart from the technical best practices I would really stress questions 6, 7 and 8 which are too often neglected. People don’t explore these code. That would be like saying people click on banners just to see where it would take them. Either they get why they should use the code or they don’t.

Get the full article on B&T

Smore Easter edition

So if you are after some last-minute inspiration for baking, cooking and crafting around Easter, browse through the first edition of “s’more”. The magazine is also available as a PDF download here and finally, you can start following the s’more crew via their blog.

I’m incredibly proud of Kristin and her friends for pulling this off. And if you look closely, you might discover yours truly, modeling his way into a new career as ‘food editorial background talent’.