Toronto Silent Film Festival Uses Instagram to Create Animated Trailer

Toronto Silent Film Festival - InstagramThe Toronto Silent Film Festival, which runs April 4 to 9 at the Phoenix Theatre in Toronto (naturally), is gaining plenty of attention for it’s imaginative use of Instagram to promote the event.

Three Instagram profiles, tsff_1, tsff_2, and tsff_3 were launched, with each consisting of a stream of 60 black and white movie stills on 30 Instagram images. When an Instagram smartphone app user quickly scrolls through the images in slideshow view, the images create a flipbook-like animated trailer.

The campaign was created by Toronto agency Cossette.

[via Ads of the World]

Canada

Mercedes-Benz Curates Photo Exhibit From User’s #Untamed Instagram Pics

Mercedez-Benz #Untamed Instagram ExhibitDo you have a few truly unusual photos in your Instagram collection? If so, then now’s your chance to add them to #Untamed, a unique digital photo installation inspired by the new Mercedes-Benz CLA.

To participate, go to untamed-installation.com, connect to your Instagram profile and select the three most unusual photos from your stream. Each of your photos will be evaluated (it’s not clear exactly how), and given an #Untamed Score. The score is based on how original your style is, and how different it is from others that have been submitted.

As you can see in the screen grab above, my picture of a wooden cat that doubles as a birdhouse scored a healthy 89, yet a giant zombie hand scored a paltry 36.

The installation was created by Hamburg agency Jung von Matt/Alster, and will be on display in Paris in April 2013, hopefully with a few of my Instagram photos included.

[via PSFK]

FranceGermany

Ballantine’s ‘Loud Blue‘ Platform Adds a Soundtrack to Your Instagram Pics

Ballatines Loud BlueScottish whisky brand Ballantine’s has launched ‘Loud Blue‘, the latest installment in the brand’s ongoing Leave An Impression campaign. Loud Blue is an online music platform that creates an original piece of music inspired by your Instagram pictures.

Simply add the hashtag #loudblue to an Instagram photo and share it to Twitter. In just seconds users receive a Twitter response from @loud_blue containing a link to your personalized soundtrack.

How does it work? Aspects of the photo such as colour, brightness, and people’s faces are used by the application’s algorithm to create a short piece of music. Red in the image will make the tempo slower, while yellow will make it faster. The brightness in areas of the photo will affect how complex the music is. If the application detects a face in the image it will add a vocalization. If there are several faces the vocalizations create a choral effect.

The unique pieces of music were created by Brazilian Electro-House duo Felguk, who will use some of the Instagram-inspired music at an exclusive upcoming live event.

The project was created by London digital and social agency, Work Club.

UK

Hitchcock Movie Promoted with #Hitchshots Instagram Contest

Hitchcock - Instagram HitchshotsThe weekend before Halloween I spent most of a cold and dark Saturday watching Alfred Hitchcock movies. Included in my Hitchcock marathon were Rear Window, North by Northwest, Vertigo, The Rope, The Birds and of course, Psycho.

Since then I’ve become equally suspicious of all my neighbours, high places, crop-dusting planes, birds and especially showers.

Hitchcock, due for release on November 23, follows Hitchcock (played by Anthony Hopkins) and his wife Alma Reville (Helen Mirren) during the time when the legendary director struggled to get the movie Psycho made. The movie also stars Scarlett Johansson as Janet Leigh, Toni Collette as Hitchcock’s production assistant Peggy Robertson, and James D’Arcy as the original ‘mother-lover’, Anthony Perkins.

To promote the movie’s release, Searchlight Pictures have launched the Hitchshots photo contest. To enter, participants post their best Hitchcock-inspired Instagram photos with the hashtag #hitchshots. The 10 photos which receive the most amount of shares and likes (I assume, just on Instagram), will win their owner an autographed poster showcasing the movie’s all-star cast.

I’m not a fan of using ‘likes’ and ‘shares’ as a the method of choosing a winner, since Instagram users with large audiences easily receive hundreds of likes’ for nearly anything they post.

USA

Kraft Wheat Thins Partner with Six Flags for RFID Rollercoaster Check-ins

Kraft Wheat Thins - Six Flags: The Boldest Check-inThis August Kraft Foods has partnered up with Six Flags to promote Wheat Thins two newest flavours, Spicy Buffalo and Zesty Salsa.

Throughout the month Kraft asked fans to upload their best rollercoaster faces ton Instagram using the hashtag #coasterface. The top 10 photos with the most Instagram ‘Likes’ each week won 2 tickets to any Six Flags Theme park.

This weekend visitors to Six Flags Theme Parks had a chance to make real coaster faces by participating in “The Boldest Check-In”. Staff positioned near the rollercoasters at Six Flags Magic Mountain in Los Angeles (on the Goliath roller coaster), Six Flags Great America in Chicago (American Eagle roller coaster) and Six Flags New England in Springfield, Mass. (Cyclone roller coaster) are using iPads to register riders and link their social networks to a special RFID-embedded wristband.

A special RFID checkpoint installed just before the first drop automatically posted a check-in to rider’s Facebook profiles. The first 100 riders at each park who were automatically checked-in get to ride the rollercoaster again.

The Boldest Check-In campaign was created by AKQA, with live event RFID solutions from Intellitix.

[via Marketing Daily]

USA

Qdoba Mexican Grill Leverages Instagram API for Campaign

Qdoba Mexican Grill leverages Instagram

Last week Instagram announced on their blog that they had surpassed 80 million active users who have collectively shared more than 4 million photos. That’s 30 million new users since Facebook announced their acquisition of the photo sharing platform back in April.

Brands like Starbucks, Brisk and Levi’s Brazil created a presence on Instagram early, posting images of products and behind-the-scenes views. Over the past year brands like The Macallan, Ford Europe, National Geographic and dozens of others have created competitions for Instagram users.

US Mexican restaurant chain Qdoba is the latest brand to use the Instagram for a digital campaign. They use the API to pull images from Instagram into an 8×4 grid on Qdoba’s website. The images that appear are based on which keyword visitors use to complete the phrase “Food for people who love ______.” Qdoba will be monitoring the words that visitors use looking for trends or themes, and yes, they have included a profanity filter substituting more family-friendly words in place of the naughty ones users may choose to enter. As a bonus, each word entered by a visitor unlocks a coupon within the grid that can be printed, emailed or shared on Facebook.

The campaign will be supported by TV, in-store and social media.

[Via Digiday]

USA

National Geographic Launches ‘Untamed Americas’ Instagram Contest

National Geographic Launches Untamed Americas Instagram ContestPhotography has always been a major part of the National Geographic publications. It sounds cliche but the first time I experienced the magazine was at the dentist’s office while i was a kid. As the oldest of my brothers, I always chose to be the last one to be ‘treated’. So there was lots of time to flip through the pages of whatever issues of the magazine were laying about.

With Instagram being the hottest thing of the moment, it’s natural to see the National Geographic use the photo sharing app as part of it’s projects. This spring National Geographic Channel and Nat Geo Wild will broadcast the insanely cool-looking ‘Untamed Americas‘, a four hour HD mini-series event spanning the Americas from Alaska to Patagonia.

To compliment the series, National Geographic Channels wants to see your pics of ‘Untamed Americas’ – just follow @natgeochannels on Instagram and submit your photo with the hashtag #UntamedAmericas between May 5, 2012 at midnight through June 18, 2012. Photos will be judged by host of Nat Geo WILD’s America the Wild Casey Anderson; landscape photographer and Instagram artist extraordinaire Cole Rise; and Cynthia Drescher, editor of the travel guide Jaunted.

Winners can receive prizes including a National Geographic camera bag filled with a Nikon D3100 SLR Digital Camera with 18-55mm VR & 55-200mm VR Lenses & basic kit, a Glif (a fantastic tool for iphoneography), a subscription to National Geographic Magazine, a National Geographic Channel Jacket, Hat, Water Bottle, Binoculars and Untamed Americas DVDs, and a limited edition signed print by Cole Rise.

USA

Madison Square Garden Invites Instagram Photographers to Document Rangers’ Playoff Game

@nyrangers on Instagram

@nyrangers Locker Room on Instagram

With the Ottawa Senators and New York Rangers set to battle it out on the ice at Madison Square Garden tonight, 6 influential Instragram photographers will be documenting the event, before, during and after the game.

The photographers, hosted by Madison Square Garden and Delta will have special access to areas of the arena that not even national press have access to, and have been tasked to document the game in as a creative way as possible. The photos will appear on Instagram and Twitter via the hashtag #NYRDelta, in the Rangers Facebook photo album and on the Rangers’ official fan site blueshirtsunited.com.

Mauricio Parise, Delta’s U.S. manager of brand marketing communications explained on Mashable that the promotion is an example of how social media has changed traditional notions of sponsorship.

“Just having the sponsorship is not enough — we need to make sure we bring it to life, and social channels are allowing us to do that in ways we haven’t been able to in the past,” he says.

The 6 NYC-area photographers with a combined 743,000 plus followers are:

The Instagram app can be downloaded free on iTunes App Store of in Google Play.

Are You Swedish-ish? VisitSweden Launches Tourism Campaign with Instagram Contest

Visit Sweden - StockholmVisitSweden has launched LiveSwedish, it’s 2012 campaign with a photo contest using Instagram, and wants people in the UK to take photos of themselves ‘living Swedish’ and consider Sweden as a possible travel destination.

Participants are asked to upload their photos to Instagram with one of campaign hashtags: #LiveStockholm, #LiveSkane or #LiveGothenburg. The three LiveSwedish curators will select the image that best captures the essence of their location. The winning photographer will win a week’s trip to experience the real Sweden.

The curators, from Stockholm, Gothenberg and the Skåne region will take turns for a month curating content on the VisitSweden Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Tumblr accounts.

The “LiveSwedish‘ campaign was created by London agency glue Isobar.

The Macallan Whisky Launches Instagram Photo Contest

The Macallan Instagram ContestThe Macallan, a premium Scotch whisky distiller has launched a photo competition using the popular online photo sharing site Instagram.

Entrants are asked to take a photo of themselves with The Macallan, or one that represents their love for the whisky brand, the upload it to Instagram account using the hashtag #meandthemacallan. The top five pics will win a special prize from the distiller as well as being featured on The Macallan’s Twitter and Facebook pages. You can review the entries here.

Instagram is available as a free download in the iPhone Apps store. An Android version is rumoured to be released soon.