Spinning Around

Van Gogh's "Starry Night" re-created in 7,000 dominoes ...

This'll come in handy a later date, you mark my words!

Coca Cola gives the world a hug with some stolen CCTV moments

I thought that this little film-ette, which is now cracking on for 5 million views, was a pretty amazing piece of work from Coke.

Not because it's a remarkable film on its own - although the idea is undoubtedly a cute one, let's be honest.

I was actually rather taken aback that it had come from Coke.

Somehow, the big red canned drink was the last one that I would have expected to see apply its name to a series of stolen CCTV moments. But I guess that, since it decided to start opening happiness, a lot has changed in its brand marketing team and, amongst all the blockbusters, some small moments of unexpected loveliness are floating out.

Uniqlo’s wake-up call goes global in a matter of minutes

Now I’ve always defined a stunt as a creation that can’t justify its cost on the basis of its direct connections with a consumer (the number of people who will see an event/object, the number of people who will view a film or ad, the number of people who will interact with a game, app, piece of content).

Stunts rely on the word-of-mouth and the editorial coverage they generate to justify their cost.

However, what some smart brands have realised is that, if they really think about it hard, they can create digital experiences that not only get people writing about them and talking about them digitally, they are also so slick and well thought through that they will also justify their cost in the number of people who engage with them (rather than just hear about them).

Uniqlo as a brand is a past master of just this sort of thing.

Its latest piece of work is an alarm clock app … Doesn’t sound promising? Well watch this and I’ll be back in a minute to explain …

Right. You’ve watched that. I’ve made a cup of tea. I shall continue …

Uniqlo has created a more peaceful, not to mention social, way to wake up.

The Japanese retailer unleashed the iOS and Android alarm clock that generates a selection of music based on the weather, time, and day of the week.

What’s more, you can link the app to your Facebook and Twitter accounts to alert your social groups to the exact time, weather conditions, and temperature under which you finally mustered the energy to roll over and shut off the alarm.

The whole thing has gone gangbusters online.

Why?

Because it’s a brilliant little idea that takes something that we’re all used to and makes it … better. Which is the Uniqlo proposition made manifest in marketing, I guess.

But more than that, they’ve nailed their media. The fashion guys write about it because it’s media. The culture writers because it’s hip and and-so-Japanese. The trends writers because it’s new and different. The tech writers because it’s an iOS and Android app and that’s what they do. The design folk cover it because it’s rather beautiful. The music hacks because it’s got a belting sound track.

The genius of this then is that it’s an idea that has had every media opportunity “baked in” to its very creation.

And that is the definition of a great “stunt” product. It manages to cross the line and become something so good that it doesn’t justify its own existence in terms of its buzz, but is actually a creation so good that people want to own it, share it and keep it – rather than just talk about it.

Work. Of. Genius.

From the folk that brought you "push the button for drama" came this beauty

The very talented folk who made the "Push Button for Drama" spot. Now officially the most shared piece of content of all time (or somesuch accolade) made the clip below.

Actually, they made it before they made the experiential ad that made them famous hit screens.

And very clever it is too. Highlighting an altogether more serious issue.

A kinda Smart idea from the little car people of Argentina

I just thought that this was vaguely cute.

Smart Argentina (or rather their agency) has created a sort of Twitter flipbook.

As an idea, it's really cute. To be honest, as a user-experience, it's a pain in the backside - you have to go to their Twitter page, load the whole damn thing up (about twenty pages of it) and then go back to the top and tap the J key a LOT).

Irritating.

That said, the theory of it is lovely ...

And by the time the experience has been done properly and YouTubed, you kinda get a sense of what it should look like ...

A spot of creative terrorism that raised a wide smile this morning

Every now and then, a "job application" campaign is so stunningly clever that it goes viral to some degree or another. This is one of those occasions.

These fellas - Australian creative team GrinterSpencer - have suffered just that fate.

Their "Creative Ransom" basically involved buying the URLs for the names of Mebourne's top creative directors and then holding those pages "ransom" until they got a meeting.

This is their story (and it's well worth a watch) ...

Some top quality advertising aimed at da yoof from Oz ...

This is actually brilliant. Want to know how to appeal to da yoof with bugger all budget? This tells you most of what you need to know, we reckon ...

Basically, remove big budgets, bands, celebrity, sex. Insert humour, a cracking little script, some tastelessness and a spot of the unexpected.

It's ... well ... a snap ...

The best bits of 2011 in one post ...

We thought that it'd be nice to drag a variety of bits and bobs that we scribbled about on Spinning Around during the course of 2011 into one neat and easy place. Which means that, if you're sitting in the office this week without too much to do, you can kill more-or-less a whole hour watching all of this nonsense. Which can't be bad, now can it?

So ... first off ... The Royal wedding was the biggest thing to happen in 2011. T-Mobile's viral the funniest thing to happen from a brand in its wake (we think) ...

Madness from Nissan with "Damned Ponies" was ... odd ...

Then there was some beautiful work from Dermablend loosely hooked to woman of the year, Lady GaGa ...

45 million views after its launch, VW's The Force was a 2011 phenomenon ...

Skittles' Touch the Rainbow campaign was, in my humble, a bit bobbins. Except for this ...

Moshi Monsters' homage to Badger Badger Badger made us smile a lot ...

Footlocker's Sneakerpedia was a cracking idea from the mass-market brand ...

Canal+ continued their run of quirky, clever campaigning ...

And then there was the bug-powered phone ...

So there you have it.

We thought that it'd be nice to drag a variety of bits and bobs that we scribbled about on Spinning Around during the course of 2011 into one neat and easy place. Which means that, if you're sitting in the office this week without too much to do, you can kill more-or-less a whole hour watching all of this nonsense. Which can't be bad, now can it? So ... first off ... The Royal wedding was the biggest thing to happen in 2011. T-Mobile's viral the funniest thing to happen from a brand in its wake (we think) ... Madness from Nissan with "Damned Ponies" was ... odd ... Then there was some beautiful work from Dermablend loosely hooked to woman of the year, Lady GaGa ... 45 million views after its launch, VW's The Force was a 2011 phenomenon ... Skittles' Touch the Rainbow campaign was, in my humble, a bit bobbins. Except for this ... Moshi Monsters' homage to Badger Badger Badger made us smile a lot ... Footlocker's Sneakerpedia was a cracking idea from the mass-market brand ... Canal+ continued their run of quirky, clever campaigning ... And then there was the bug-powered phone ... So there you have it.

MantaClaus ... holiday season goodness from the Old Spice man ...

Lovely ...

Response from @beautyjunkies was, apparently, OMG I CAN DIE NOW ... She has proceeded to have lengthy chat about the whole experience with her 11,000 followers.

Loving the work ...