London Creative Shop Designs Wrapping Paper Inspired by Cold & Flu Viruses

WCRS Wrap-up Project

With cases of homelessness in the UK increasing by 31% in the last two years, London creative agency WCRS looks to raise awareness of the issue with The Wrap-Up Project.

With the onset of winter, people living on the street become even more vulnerable to sickness. With that in mind, the agency has created a series of colourful Christmas wrapping papers which feature graphical representations of the viruses for the common cold, influenza and pneumonia as snowflakes.

The papers are available on ebay in packs of 3 (£8), 5 (£12.50) or 10 (£24), with all proceeds supporting the work of London charity St Mungo’s, which helps people transition to a new life off the streets.

[via Design Taxi]

UK

British Airways Digital Billboards React to Aircraft Flying Overhead

British Airways - 'Magic of Flying' Digital Billboards

This outdoor digital billboard created for British Airways by Ogilvy 12th Floor is certainly an inspired example of real-time advertising.

The digital billboards — part of the airline’s ‘Magic of Flying’ campaign — are located in Chiswick and Piccadilly and interact with British Airways aircraft flying overhead.

The billboards use custom-built surveillance technology, that track the plane flying overhead, interrupting the normal rotation of the billboard with an image of a child pointing at the plane as it passes over.

The billboard displays the flight number and the destination it’s arriving from, along with information such as the lowest available fare or the temperature at that location.

[via Marketing Week]

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Google Brings Context-Aware Search Technology to Digital Display

Google Now - Outdoor Search

Google’s Now technology delivers mobile users with up-to-date information based on search history, location and time of day. For example, it can provide weather and traffic information based on it’s observation of a user’s daily routine.

Google has partnered with R/GA London to bring Google Now to digital display screens at 160 bus shelter and Underground locations around the city.

The pilot project dubbed “Google Outside”, takes into account such things as location and the weather to provide timely information about attractions and businesses in the local area.

[via Marketing Magazine UK]

UK

Derrick Rose Has Fans Jumping for Free Shoes at London Pop-Up Store

Adidas London - Jump Store

Earlier this month Chicago Bulls’ superstar Derrick Rose was travelling around Europe as part of Adidas’ “D-Rose Tour”. When the tour reached the UK, agency TBWA constructed a pop-up store in the London borough of Hackney stocked with hundreds of pairs of D Rose 3.5 shoes. (remember when we simply called these sneakers?)

To bring home a pair of shoes, the aspiring basketball players simply had to grab them off the shelf. However, the shelf was located high above the floor at the height of a basketball net.

[via The Denver Egotist]

UK

Shoppers Feed Pigs Live via Smartphone in Support of Animal Welfare Charity

Compassion in World Farming - Live Pig Feed

Recently, shoppers at Westfield Shopping Centre in Shepherd’s Bush, West London were given the chance to put their smartphones to a different use. While they watched on a giant digital screen, they could connect to a special URL to activate a feed machine which scattered apples and other feed to a group of free-range pigs at Collings Hanger Farm in nearby Buckinghamshire.

The feeding machine, which was created by members of the engineering department at London South Bank University, read information collected from the user’s smartphone’s accelerometer to determine where and how far to scatter the feed.

After feeding the pigs, a personalized message of thanks appeared on the screen along with a prompt asking others to make a donation to Compassion in World Farming.

The campaign, created by Elvis Communications, was a winner in Ocean Art of Outdoor competition, in which agencies and brands were invited to come up with ideas that pushed the creative boundaries of outdoor advertising.

[via Ocean]

UK

Squad of LED-Carrying Quadrocopters Create Star Trek Logo in London Sky

Paramount Star Trek Into Darkness Quadrocopters

On Saturday night Paramount Pictures in cooperation with the WWF marked the beginning and end of Earth Hour by displaying a massive Star Trek Academy in the London sky near Tower Bridge.

The 380 foot tall logo was created by the Ars Electronica Futurelab and Ascending Technologies using 30 LED-carrying quadrocopters (or 29, as two collide at 1:20 of the clip below, leaving one falling from the sky) powered by batteries charged in Austria using green energy.

Check out the Ars Electronica blog post ‘Spaxels in London‘ for an in-depth look at the challenging setup of the project.

[via Wired UK]

UK

Beer-brand Sol Tempts London Business Blokes with Necktie Recycling Bin

Sol Beer - Necktie Recycling Bin

In this stunt for Sol beer, London businessmen passing through Canary Wharf underground station do a double-take as they pass by a recycling bin labelled ‘Ties’. The bin featured the message, “Lose the Tie, gain some Espiritu Libre”. After depositing their tie in the bin, the sound of hammering and sawing could be heard from inside, before what was left of their tie appeared attached to a coupon for a free beer.

In The Drum article Graham Wall, executive creative director at The Marketing Store, stated: “The tie can be a symbol of power and success, but it can also be seen as a shackle, part of the daily grind. We wanted to give office workers back a sense of their true selves – to make bold choices and be rewarded for it. The Espiritu Libre activity brings out that free spirited sense of liberation that every bogged-down city worker has in his heart.”

The campaign was created by the London offices of The Marketing Store.

[via The Drum]

UK

The Shelves of an East London Corner Shop Come Alive for Red Stripe

Red Stripe - Corner Shop Music

Recently, the creative folks at KesslerKramer’s KK Outlet, worked with Stinkdigital and Hirsch&Mann to transform an ordinary corner shop in East London into an immersive animated experience for Red Stripe beer.

As customers reached into the refrigerated shelves for a Red Stripe, the shelves came alive with shaking and tapping of boxes, bottles, cans, packets of crisps, and more. The sounds were programmed to perform the 1978 ska classic “A Message to You Rudy” by The Specials.

Check out the amazing ‘making of’ video embedded below.

How Red Stripe made music in the corner shop.

UK

Kellogg’s Pop-Up Store Hands Out Free Crisps In Exchange for Tweets

Kellogg's The Tweet Shop

This week in London, Kellogg’s launched a social media twist on the concept of traditional product sampling. A pop-up store dubbed the ‘The Tweet Shop’ has been opened in Soho on Meard Street. The brand is giving out boxes of new Special K Cracker Crisps free to customers in exchange for a tweet.

People were free to create their own tweets, but the brand posted three at the pop-up store for anyone who was stuck.

The Tweet Shop was put together by experiential agency Slice.

UK

[via The Grocer]

Coca-Cola Celebrates London 2012 Sponsorship with 100 ft Tall Vending Machine

Coca Cola 100 ft Vending Machine

For today only, (September 3) Coca-Cola is giving away free product to celebrate their sponsorship of London 2012. People in Britain can go to freecoke.co.uk to claim their product code.

To promote the giveaway, they constructed a 100 foot tall replica of a Coca-Cola vending machine, complete with giant ‘push’ button.

Coca-Cola is well-known for their interactive ‘Happiness Machines’ including; one in Singapore that responded to hugs, and one in Turkey that gave away free coca-cola to couples only. (note these vedning machines were activated by remote control, and did not include image recognition or senors)

UK