The Google Chrome Internet browser touts its extreme page rendering speed, which greatly enhances the responsiveness of the Web browsing experience. To make its point, the Internet giant made this funny, viral little video that pits the browser’s speed against a potato gun, the speed of sound, and a lightning strike. The video is quite effective, and it must be pretty interesting too: the numbet of YouTube views is now at more than two and a half million, and counting.
Google has been very frank in disclosing the technical details of its experiments, such as the surprising fact that it used locally hosted — i.e., saved on a local hard drive – versions of two of the three Web pages in the experiment. This removed the variable of download speed from the experiment, which may somewhat limit the validity of the results for the average user. Still, the video gets its message across.
For marcom companies, much of doing business consists of selling concepts and ideas. Here is a little video that demonstrates why good ideas deserve good payment — featuring a young Walt Disney, selling his work to a studio for a time-based fee…
The leaders of our planet are meeting this month to determine our environmental fate. Seize the chance to make our voices heard and sign the UN-sponsored climate petition that will be presented at the COP15 UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen this December. Add your name to the list of Hopenhagen citizens on:
http://www.hopenhagen.org/
An exemplary usage of microsites and social media to spread the word around the world about actions that need to be taken.
Humor is still one of the best and most creative ways to highlight a message, give a product personality, or simply surprise your customers in an over-advertised world. Consumers are like children: if you make them laugh you are halfway to getting your message across. Here is a selection of really funny campaigns — some simple, some subtle, but always original.
Advertising for luxury brands is spread across more magazine pages than ever. This site reprises some of the glamorous campaigns of 2009.
http://www.strategies.fr/creations/diaporamas/127790W/campagnes-de-luxe-2009-dans-la-presse-magazine.html
American magazine Vanity Fair, as part of its promotion for a book called Vanity Fair’s Proust Questionnaire, is hosting an online mini-quiz that will tell you, based on your answers to 20 probing questions, which famous personality you most resemble. Not sure poor old Marcel Proust would appreciate this “Turbo” version of his questionnaire, but the buzz is working for Vanity Fair – and visitors to the website are enjoying it, as well.
On a personal note, it seems my alter-ego is… Brigitte Bardot! Since I’m not really sure how to take that news, I invite you to form your own opinion. 
Want to take the “Turbo Proust” quiz? Click here
A creative spirit needs a steady diet of new inspiration to stay productive. The problem is that, although the quest for ”eye candy” is a pleasant pursuit, it is also a time-consuming one. Luckily, social networks (again!) understand that lovers of the visual arts are in a never-ending search for new influences — hence, the newest trend: ”art-bookmarking.” The principle is quite simple: Instead of posting a daily inspiration on Facebook or Twitter, you share your latest finds on a dedicated blog (like this one) and oncourage other contributors to add their latest eye-candy treats. The result is an unending flood of pics bookmarked by thousands of creative spirits worldwide. But it gets even better. As you bookmark other contributors’ posts, the site compiles your feedback in a “likes profile” and then uses that information to serve you with daily inspiration chosen expressly for you! The best-known of these sites is www.ffffound.com , where your spirit can be refreshed by images like this every ten minutes: 
You may also want to try www.dropular.net, which is less design-focused and full of zany imagery. Now go bookmark something!
Check out the new WWF campaign about the environmental emergency.
Fear of unemployment in both the United States and Europe has led to a decline in consumerism and, therefore, sales. To remedy that, new marketing offers are appearing on both sides of the Atlantic to provide the consumer with a ‘bail-out’ in case of job loss. For example, a JetBlue program refunds customers for trips canceled due to unemployment; and a Virgin Mobile USA program covers customers’ wireless service plans for up to 3 months in case of job loss. 
Typography is an art. Below are 24 of the most creative alphabets we’ve seen:
Clic here to access the credits.
With an utterly simple concept and nearly no communication budget, this campaign for a car-washing station in the city of Kiev relied on a team of volunteer drivers of really dirty cars who had an easy assignment. Each volunteer was simply asked to drive his or her car around the city, after scribbling the slogan “wash me,” the name of the station, and the price of a carwash on the dirt-encrusted vehicle — using only a finger.
As compensation, eaxh driver won a free car wash .
The impact was huge: a 35% increase in customers … and a few more clean cars on the streets of Kiev.
Simple, cost-effective, and efficient – what else can you ask of an ad campaign?
The city of Bourgoin-Jallieu has adopted a new logo. The goal was to create a logo that would fly in the face of popular advertising trends, showcasing the city’s dynamism and modernity with an unmistakable message: the city as work of art. The unique approach even included a custom-designed alphabet — a bold vision, and an audacious gamble!
