Meet Pedro Oliver, Creativo Arte Online from Sra Rushmore agency in Spain. Pedro was in charge of the brilliant creative for the SyFy Being Human campaign featured in this month’s Favorite Brand Experience.


What was the brief for the Casi Humanos Vampire campaign?

Due to the fact that the campaign was going to be aired in the same period as the Spanish electoral campaign, we decided to introduce the main characters of the TV series (the vampire, the ghost and the wolf) as candidates of a political party that looks for a general aim: “to be like you, the human”. So we created a whole campaign with an electoral tone , using slogans and electoral promises adapted to the political theme, and selected the classical electoral media (buses, posters, stickers, etc).

How was this particular online ad format chosen?

In this format, we wanted to show a summary of the campaign, introducing the key elements of any political party: promises, electoral video, etc., so we decided to create a microsite where we could upload those pieces and share them with the users.  From here, we created the leaderboard with microsite functions, as buttons and all the content available to download and watch, together with the landing page, where the date of the Premiere was prominent.


How did you come up with the creative idea?

Mainly, we found the plot of the series very interesting to relate it to a political party, because the characters of the series want to be human and fight for having a normal life, rather than being monsters.
So we used this link to create a whole campaign of monsters fighting for their rights, which many times are the same as the human ones, choosing the main characters as the candidates.

We found here a connection to the promises and issues that a political party advocates: We want the same things that you want.



Who will you vote for?….

Meet Pablo Sánchez Benavides, Interactive Director at DDB in Barcelona.  He discusses the Golf GTI Experiment, which used neuromarketing to analyze consumer response to the latest car model.


What was the brief for the Golf GTI campaign?
The Golf GTI Experiment is a campaign developed at my current agency (DDB Spain) for Volkswagen. Basically, it is an experiment about how the human brain reacts to a Golf GTI. For 10 days, a total of 100 individuals, selected with a statistical approach, were part of this experiment (held in Madrid and Barcelona). Each subject completed various bio-sensory tests with a GFK patented technique (Emo Sensor ®) and Eyetracking to measure their response when exposed to a Golf GTI. The experiment has been rigorously conducted and certified by GFK, an independent company that specializes in neuromarketing.


How was this particular online ad format chosen?
The main goal was to maximize the area where the users are looking/interacting over the page, so I think the best choice was to use a SingleExpandable of 1000×1000. The main engine of the piece is only 67Kb. Once loaded, the piece reads and processes the data on the fly to determine the user interaction. At the beginning, I thought to use the new capabilities of Adobe Cyrrus to cross data between flash players, but Cyrrus is still in its beta version and there was concern that it wouldn’t support all the requests. So we asked Mediamind to inform us about the number of ads served. It is also important to keep in mind the MediaMind MouseTracker component, which can communicate the position of the mouse to the piece in real time.

How did you come up with the creative idea?
Given that the Golf GTI Experiment is an innovative project, we thought we had to create something spectacular yet consistent with the expectations of the project. After a few weeks of working on the microsite, we came up with this idea pretty quickly. It is just an analysis of the user’s attention over a webpage. Volkswagen thought it was a good idea, so we put ourselves to work! The piece works as a huge Bitmap that is updated every frame, redrawing the data in terms of interaction over time and position.


What feedback/results have you received?
It is too early to evaluate results since the campaign is still active, but everyone has been really impressed with the look of having hot areas over the screen indicating the most interesting areas for the users.


What is your idea about the perfect working day?
My perfect working day starts with: “Today you can do whatever you want…” Then my mind opens up and I start to investigate the latest technologies and how to apply them in a creative way to create a “never seen before user experience.” Then I like to share with the creative teams what it’s possible to do with a few lines of code.


When does your muse visit you?
Fortunately, my muse is working in the same agency, so she visits me often. Also I work with really good creative teams which helps keep the muse always close by.


What is your favourite brand experience?
I remember fondly the Audi website – Vorsprung duch Technik (2008) because it was sophisticated, simple and neat. I also remember especially, Vodafone Future Vision (2004) , perhaps marked the turning point in the narrative through web video experiences.

The Illusion Factory Team – Zachary Sriro, James Pascual, Janelle Okamoto and the Mering Carson team – brought a whole new dimension – 3D in fact – to San Diego golf with results that were above par for the course.

 What was the brief of the San Diego Golf campaign?

To concept and produce online display ads promoting San Diego as a premier golf destination. Ads should grow awareness of the significant golf and resort offerings in San Diego’s North County.

 How was this particular game format chosen?

We wanted to give users an opportunity to engage with real golf courses in a fun and interactive way, while showcasing the beauty of each course. The game gives us this opportunity with lively game play that uses 3D renderings of actual San Diego courses: Torrey Pines Golf Course, Rancho Bernardo Inn Golf Resort & Spa and Maderas Golf Club. It allows users to experience the golf destinations through the sunny outlook that encompasses San Diego.

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How did you come up with the creative idea?

The gameplay was designed to be familiar and easy to learn so that users could interact with the ad immediately. For “replayability”, we included three levels with increasing difficulty and leaderboards for top scores. Depending upon which video is loaded, the key icons fall faster or slower, and are varied across the levels.  We were able to accomplish the additional levels with very little increase in filesize by dynamically loading videos and using cue points to carry- gameplay data. The leaderboards give a competitive purpose to the ad, making the game more fun and more likely to be shared amongst friends (or rivals).

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What was the best part about working on this campaign?

Rich Media ads are powerful because of the ways you can use video to communicate the ad’s message. Instead of just playing a video highlighting each course, the user actually gets to see the course first-hand in a more entertaining way. The video not only acts as a vessel for the message, but is the message itself: playing the game is fun and you also learn what those courses look like. Finding new, creative ways to use video to execute engaging ads is always the best part about working on Rich Media ads.

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How is this campaign different than other campaigns you’ve worked on?

We have made games before using video as complimentary or supporting content, but this was the first time that video drove the gameplay itself. The ad required synching of dynamic elements, like the golf cart animation, score, keyboard cues, and gauges, with the video playback. Combining all of the elements was definitely challenging, but very rewarding.

David Baksh – creative director, infinite corridor @ Annex Films discusses behind the scenes of SpecSavers, the Ad of the Month featured in The Feed, MediaMind’s monthly newsletter.


What is your favorite brand experience?

Anything that grabs my attention without making me hate it for doing so.


 What was the client brief for the SpecSavers campaign?

‘We’ve got less time and money than the last one.  Go!’


 How did you decide on the concept?

The shuttle crew concept came from Specsavers’ in-house creative department and is a continuation of their latest TV campaign.  We’ve worked together on their last four campaigns and the process is very organic – they push us, we pull them.  We bat the creative back and forth all the way through the project, refining and changing as we go.  Something is only ever signed off if it can’t be improved.  It’s insane – but it works.



 What role did MediaMind play in the campaign?

Initially, we consulted heavily on the concept to make sure that we all knew what the goals were.  User experience was key – we wanted a seamless and subtle scene to play from the MPU and out across the MSN page.  It had to be eye-catching without being annoying.  MPU, float and leaderboard all had to sync perfectly AND we had to give the user something worth seeing after they expanded the creative.  While we were shooting and building the assets, the MediaMind team set about making sure all functionality we needed would be available.   When we started to put it all together, MediaMind were always on hand to iron out any bugs and improve any components.


 What was the client’s reaction to the campaign? 

Pick a quote:

http://www.livethesheendream.com/


 What feedback have they received?

Friends, family and Marketing are ALL very happy.  I think Wills & Kate also sent a telegram of congratulations but, then, I understand that the user dwell time WAS unprecedented.

But for those interested in actual numbers, the average dwell duration for the campaign was 112.49 seconds of quality brand engagement. That’s 129% above the benchmark (49.04 sec).


 What is your idea of the perfect working day?

I’m very lucky because I enjoy every part of the process.  From concept, to shoot, to build, I couldn’t put one day over another and I wouldn’t want to give up any of it.  Mind you, to be perfect it would always involve banking a cheque before 4:30.


 When does your muse visit you?

Just in time.  (So far.)  In truth, my job is to solve puzzles.  You either have that kind of brain or you don’t.  So if you CAN do it, you just do it.  It’s like asking a plumber, ‘When can you fix the toilet?’  He can fix it whenever he has to.  He’s a plumber.

Tourism Australia’s objectives were to engage New Zealanders online, sharing with them Australians’ favorite experiences. Kiwis were then invited to visit www.nothinglikeaustralia.com where they could immerse themselves in over 29,000 unique experiences. Instead of running all creatives evenly distributed, Tourism Australia utilized MediaMind’s Smart Versioning Automatic Optimization algorithm to identify and then to serve the most appealing ad the majority of times in order to encourage a high level of response.


See for yourself!





Download the Tourism Australia Case Study here.