Pomegranate Phone Is Too Good to Be True

This new phone is amazing. It has GPS, an MP3 player, a video camera and a voice translator. Oh yea, and it can also make coffee and be used as a harmonica.

Check out the cool Pomegranate Phone website which is actually a $300,000 ad campaign for the province of Nova Scotia. Yup, you heard that right. It's Canadian travel propaganda. And I love it.

It appears to be attracting a great deal of interest with it's high-quality video and slickly produced graphics. I wonder if this type of branded entertainment functions well as marketing. My gut says that it does work. Even though I wasn't looking for Nova Scotia, it pulled me in. I've thought about Nova Scotia several times today because of this site...which is several times more than I thought about it yesterday. And now I'm blabbing to my blog about it.

Not everyone agrees that this attempt at deliberate viral marketing is effective. Some even call it the Pombomb.

Interactive Online Movies and User Narative Control

Bandwidth and video technology enable online video producers to mix and match video clips in real time. This means that viewers can click on video to alter the action or storyline. Users steer the narrative by making choices along the way. User navigated content. Some recent examples show just how seamless and full-screen these experiences can be.

Survive the Outbreak is an interactive horror film which allows viewers to make their own life or death decisions with zombies.




NOLAF.org is a wild Tostitos brand entertainment story labyrinth created by Element79 and Mekanism. It is successfully compelling and is able to weave the brand into a Monty Pythonesque tale of crusaders who are fighting against fun. I hope Tostitos is feeling that taking a marketing chance with their budget has proved worthwhile. I can consume this kind of advertising.

The Orange Underground is an interactive video site combined with user-generated videos. A Cheetos ad campaign.

And some groups are pushing the video interaction even further. For example, GPS Film is a location-based mobile cinema. "Using a GPS-enabled PDA or mobile phone, artwork selects clips based on location. As the viewer travels, the movie is revealed. The result is a new type of film experience that is tied to the movement of the viewer. Similar to a game, GPS Film tells stories by exploring an environment… but by taking it off the computer and back into the real world."

My Webcast for the American Marketing Association

TO: Macrom and Creative Contacts
SUBJECT: Aquent/AMA Webcast: Make Your Content a Powerful Asset in 10 Steps

Hi Reader:

How do you ensure that your content is a valued asset within your organization?

I thought you’d be interested in our next webcast, “Make Your Content a Powerful Asset in 10 Steps.” During the webcast, Todd Tibbetts from Aquent’s outsourcing division, Aquent Studios, will illustrate how careful planning, diligent implementation, increased collaboration, and development of success metrics and benchmarks will make your content a powerful asset that delivers the right information to the right audience every time.

Citing real examples from his clients Microsoft, Adobe, T-Mobile, Target, and Starbucks, Todd will address the following key learning objectives:

• Understand the difference between content as an asset and a liability.
• Realize opportunities for making content more powerful.
• Design and create content for maximum organizational impact.
• Learn how quality content can save money and generate more revenue.

I hope you’ll join us!

What: Aquent/AMA webcast presented by Todd Tibbetts: “Make Your Content a Powerful Asset in 10 Steps”

Who: Marketing communications managers and creative services managers who want to successfully create, leverage and manage content.
When: March 27, 2008, at 1:00 PM ET

Registration: https://amaevents.webex.com/amaevents/onstage/g.php?t=a&d=962895360&SourceId=3aquent032708
If you can't make the live broadcast but are interested in the subject, go ahead and register. We always follow up with details about the on-demand version.