Here is a rather interesting approach to the promotion of the Nokia N8 and it’s microscope lens attachment. The lens was developed for use by Doctors in remote locations to take photographs of blood samples. These can then be sent off for analysis, according to Nokia this is already proving to be successful in the detection of Malaria.

Aardman created the world’s smallest stop motion character Dot, who is just 9mm tall and used the N8 and microscope lens to film it. Dot is in fact so small that she has been entered in to the Book of Guinness World Records. Due to her minuscule stature the team had to create 50 versions of her in various poses (rather than working with a malleable model) and worked at a painfully slow production rate of 4 seconds of footage per day.

If you haven’t already seen it you can watch it below.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Melinda and TEDx Host

Yesterday I was lucky enough to be invited along to the latest TEDx event in London. As we’re arranging our own TEDx event in October – TEDxNewSt – I was interested to see, first hand and up close, how they are run.

The event was held at the Science Museum in London and was the first event, of its kind, ever. The first session (95 mins) was broadcast live from New York. 82 events took place in 40 countries, simultaneously, around the world, all live-streaming the NY feed. Once NY had wrapped up the first session, each individual event got on with hosting their events independently with their local speakers live in the room. There was a group in Auckland (NZ) who were hosting their event at 03:30am in order to take part and as we live-streamed them in to say hello, we were told how their adverts for the event read “Pyjamas are optional, progress is not”. Nice. What was even nicer however was the fact that there were indeed people in their pyjamas in the room too.

The overarching theme of the event was about the future and how we can positively effect global issues such as eliminating polio, fighting malaria, reducing child mortality rates and empowering women.

The speakers on the live feed from NY were really engaging and inspiring. As the event was co-conceived by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Melinda was one of the key speakers. Her talk was very insightful as she spoke about how development agencies and NGOs could learn a few tricks from Coca-Cola in how to reach the far corners of the earth and inspire people to want to purchase their products/lifestyles. Hans Rosling was also on stage with some very encouraging stats on child mortality rates, delivered in his own highly inimitable style.

Hans Rosling

Also Mechai Viravaidya (or Mr.Condom as he was fondly referred to) showed a presentation on his foundation’s innovative and, frankly, awe-inspiring methods of introducing condoms into the Thai communities. He is responsible for this post’s title as that was one of the first things he said in his talk and it’s really stuck in my mind.

Mechai Viravaidya

There were many, many other speakers involved in the entire event, all of which were rich with content and inspiration. I would urge you to watch the recording of the NY live-stream available on the website as it’s really compelling.

And if that whets your appetite for being inspired and wanting to do things better/differently then be sure to find out more about our upcoming TEDxNewSt event on October 15th.

We’ve seen epic movie-style videos, huge budgets spent on blowing things up, turning singers into cyborgs, or having endless well-endowed ladies shaking their thang, dripping in diamonds. So what could the future hold for music videos…Earlier today my attention was brought to the website of the New York duo ‘Broken Bells’ who appear to have parented the new generation of music video; a wholly interactive digital experience to accompany their latest track ‘The Ghost Inside’. Not only is the song particularly good, but I found myself falling madly in love with the notion of creating my own video to accompany it.

I think this is a great idea and hopefully there’ll be yet further exploration of how bands can use these channels to create their videos. In the meantime have a play around yourselves, it’s good fun, and also really rather addictive…

Last night I delivered my first Pecha Kucha talk. 20 slides, 20 seconds a slide, all run by machine. One of the most breathless six minutes I’ve ever spent (stop sniggering at the back).

Some interesting speakers (other than me of course) included Chantal Cody of Rococo Chocolates (yum) Bernadette Kinsella of Powell Dobson (brilliant housing scheme where the houses evolve with as your needs change), and Neil Young (a scientist who exposes the bogus use of science by advertisers).

You can check out the whole thing here:

Click here to view the embedded video.

On a Mac and can’t see the video? Download Flip4Mac.

This music video is such a joy to watch, taking a ‘mini-swipe’ at the ad boys. It’s by Los Angeles rock band OkGo (produced by Syyn Labs) who are famous for their cleverly choreographed music videos. The premise is nothing new, but they’ve taken it to another level in sheer scale, you can’t help but be dazzled by it.  Next, I’ll rant about T-Mobile and social media…

Click here to view the embedded video.

For those of you that don’t know, WEF is an opportunity for those who are at the head of the (board)table to thrash out their views about the state of the World and what they are hoping for in the upcoming year — a big, big deal. I overheard someone in the corridor saying; “If you’re in to politics, this is the place to be.” So no pressure then? Previous years have seen such heavy hitters as Richard Branson, Tony Blair, and even ex-president Bill Clinton attending the event hosted in the small Swiss skiing resort — such is the importance of the WEF conference. With the World economy recovering from crisis, this years WEF focused on the topics of Rethink, Redesign and Rebuild.

We were asked by our client to set up some digital brand communications within their corporate sponsored area. This took the form of a series of branded animations (two animations for each day of the conference) playing across large screens mounted along the walls so that the guests could watch, and follow, the animations as they moved through the space.

Without going into lots of information about the animations themselves, I thought I’d treat you to a video of my non-scripted ramblings via a Flip video camera that I recorded whilst I was there.

(Expect some mild expletives and some general poo-pooing of every other branding scheme…)

Click here to view the embedded video.

What did seriously impress however was this years Observation Round video. Each year we produce a ‘homemade’ video for this particular round which are often hastily mashed together at the 11th hour. Robert Ball and Tim Brown left the motley crew in awe in the pub as they played their stunning animated video featuring The Partners staff partaking in varying sporting pursuits.

Here’s the video that had us all rolling on the floor.

Just please don’t ask to see any of the photos…