With the new Formula One season starting, McLaren rolled out a new website developed by Pirata London, giving a glimpse of the backstage action, with a live video stream handling almost 200,000 people in a day.


The whole aesthetic spans throughout the website which becomes a live dahsboard, with some web engineering powered by jQuery, @font-face embedding and a custom CMS running on a nginx webserver. Besides, the visuals are a nice escape from a testosterone drive automobile industry.

Other highlights include a dedicated mobile website, a fan community an lots of (light)boxes :)

Never thought Alicia Keys would sing a song for me, but here she is:

Well, not really. But it was really surprising the seamless personal experience delivered by MySpace, BBH and Domani Studios (which are becoming one of my new favorite interactive companies).

But better than the tech wizardry behind the thing is the “LOVEABLE MAGIC”, as @FranHazeldine calls it:

With the Myspace Fan Videos, the magic isn’t in the tech. It’s in the moment when 50 Cent hangs a picture of you on his wall, or Alicia Keys sings you a song. Sure the magic is tech-fuelled, but it’s the twisted cultural content, the playful reference to things I love or hate, that really makes it. Tech is the means, not a magical end in itself.

Tech magic is out. Loveable magic is in.

Details like the reflection of your Facebook profile pic in the glossy piano surface on Alicia Key’s video show that the magic is beyond tech and is more about making it simple, collaborative and easy to share.

Create your own video at http://www.myspace.com/fanvideo

Source: BBH-Labs

If there’s one place where creativity excels is on a blank canvas. You “just” have to figure out what to make of it.

Fashion brand Land’s End is here to help with a new website developed by EVB, taking full advantage of Facebook, Twitter and Flickr to help you unleash creativity. Altough they should have used a password anti-pattern with Twitter like OAuth (there’s no way i’m sticking my Twitter password on a brand website) the Facebook Connect showed me just how my friends are the new paintbrush.

Oh, and they sell clothes too.

And just in case you didn’t notice the writing on my painting, Portugal’s main Online Advertising Award is up for voting at http://premios.sapo.pt/.

The third movie of Richard Kelly (@JRichardKelly) of Donnie Darko fame premieres tomorrow, with some promising visuals in the trailer (even if the first reviews aren’t that promising).

And one thing i love about the fantastic genre is the extra care establishing their internet presence. With The Box website, i was particularly impressed with the visuals (and no, it was not about Cameron Diaz) and the masterful aural experience.

Along with the typical sections (downloads, cast, trailers, etc) i’m starting to detect some ARG inspiration integrated in movie websites, by launching some satellite experiences, in this case a teaser website at YouAreTheExperiment.com and even a comic book.

But why do i really blog this? Because my favorite band is doing the movie score along with their Final Fantasy (@OwenPallett) peers. No wonder i loved the audio on the website.

Yes, the Internet is wonderful and all that stuff, but sometimes we do indulge ourselves with a good sofa evening, watching a film on TV.

To celebrate this escape from the smaller mobile and laptop screens, the Image Freedom movement was launched a few days ago.

You can find lots of video testimonials of people playing around this idea, with channels on Vimeo and YouTube feeding the large video experience on the website.

And just a few minutes ago, LG launched the product website at liberteaimagem.com, a full 3D experience, showcasing the borderless concept of the LG SL9000 model, the new high contrast LED with ultra slim design.

Go ahead, give the site a spin (literally) and check the gallery for some nice product footage. And maybe, just maybe, you’re free to choose LG when getting the new TV model for your living room.

So, if sometimes i don’t update this blog that often, then perhaps it’s because I’m actually working on stuff like this. Enjoy.

Credits:
Agency: Fulllsix Portugal
Creative Director: Rui Vieira
Interactive Design: Daniel Teixeira, Victor Afonso
Copywriter: Claudia Ribeiro
Web Strategy: Armando Alves
Account Management: Ricardo Costa, Sofia Delfim
Guerrilla marketing : Torke

The fine crew at Odopod are spoiling me with good stuff, as if Odosketch wasn’t enough.
Yesterday, i found via @lilmissjen, former colleague and now promising blogger, that Odopod and the NYC think tank Undercurrent (Hi Mike and Bud) launched a new site for DonQ, a six generation Puerto Rican distilled rum.

So what’s so special about rum? Well, of course one of the best reasons a guy would care about it instead of plain old beer are THE LADIES.

At DonQ’s Lady Data, one can find the how the female mind works:

• Which way does the toilet paper go?
• Do i open the doors, or does she?
• Could you date a guy if you didn’t really like his mother?
• What’s the most important thing a guy should be reading?

(and dozens of other questions related to sex, style, success, night-life, mr. manners, wordly wise and dude 101).

It’s like the holy grail of the bachelors (or data porn for the metrosexual in you). And now i know i don’t have a chance with Jen, as she’s not much into bald guys.

Have a peek into the profiles, filter by criteria, get to know the answers and suggest your topic. Add to that integration with Foursquare, smart presences on Facebook and Twitter, and rum does increase your chance to get lucky. Respectfully and responsibly, with a female perspective.

Oh, and the rum bottles looks tasty also.

Many countries around the world have been implementing smoking bans as public health policy. In Brazil, the state of São Paulo has issued last month a ban on indoor smoking, with the usual controversy amongst citizens.

Instead of taking sides, ad agency Fischer and digitial agency PIX, elaborated the installation “The Smoking Plant”, where 2 plants on a glass case where placed side by side, but with one of the sunflowers exposed to cigarette smoke. The whole experiment was live on the Internet during the past 2 weeks, with the results shown on the video below:

During the 97 cigars smoked, the project updated the progress on Twitter and created a great amount interaction with users, offering also a screensaver to follow the experiment from the desktop.

Many thanks to Carlos Merigo, for hastily providing the video subtitled in English.

Credits
Agency: Fischer America
Interactive: PIX
Production: D3 Estudio
Film: Conspiração Filmes

Cross-posted to Osocio.org

From civil war to natural disaster, Mozambique has been plagued with an uncertain future. ImaginingMozambique.com brings to attention this daily struggle, exhibiting the works of several artists as an inspiration to the African country.

123Klan, Carlos Serrao, Catalina Estrada, Akinori Oishi, Balint Zsako, Florence Manlik, Giuliano and Federico, Marcos Chin, Matt Maitland, Parra, Superdeux collaboreted on this effort for ASEM, a charity founded to help the children of Mozambique.

On the website, developed by Studio Cartelle,  a firefly shotboux allows users to leave their messages of support to the cause, with a exhibition gallery featuring the works.
The traveling art show premieres 27th August at Maxalot Gallery, Amsterdam until 10th September, later residing in the offices of Wieden+Kennedy

Crossposted from Osocio

A revolutionary online media plan, by the folks who brought you swear words, Gringo.nu.

URL: http://www.campanhainstantanea.com/

Choose your budget and expect to be surprised with the amazing snake-oil solutions. From viral to widgets, any guru similarity with reality is pure coincidence. Or not.

Brilliant self-promo. And a tongue-in-cheek critique to the so called online media gurus and social media experts.