Here’s a terrific short video with Dan Wieden outlining his take on the future of TV and its relationship with interactive media (I don’t want to choose between TV and interactive. That’s ridiculous. It’s like saying, ‘Choose between your left hand and your right hand.’ I want to use both hands!)

He makes some insightful points about the enduring importance of broadcast (TV commercials) when it comes to creating the attention needed for effective engagement and online interaction. And he also reasserts the Wieden + Kennedy mantra that ‘this business is not about selling, this business is about creating the strong, provocative relationships between good companies and their customers.’ While not everyone agrees with him on that, it’s difficult to argue with an agency that has helped to create such strong positions for clients like Levi’s, Chrysler and Nike.

Our new work for Øresundsbron went live this week, representing a pretty radical repositioning for the bridge and moving it into digital channels. The thinking behind everything has been to create a role for the bridge that goes beyond that of a piece of concrete connecting Denmark and Sweden.

So as well as TV commercials highlighting the benefits of a Bridge Pass, we’ve launched an app and an online club for the bridge’s customers detailing special offers and suggesting fun experiences on both sides of the water.

Here’s one of the commercials:

More details in Markedsføring and BureauBiz.

A fun day today with Hyper Island looking at what we’re doing right and what we can do better in the future to keep the agency moving forward. The film above was a quick experiment using Picle, the storytelling app recently launched by Made by Many.

A Picle is a still image tied to up to 10 seconds of audio. The user can then stitch a bunch of Picles together to create a Story, like the one above. The app’s been getting a lot of traction lately and, even though our first attempt feels a bit rough and ready, we think it has a lot of potential as a creative tool. Download it yourself and give it a try.

Every now and then, a project comes along that provides both client and agency with a chance to work together to make a meaningful difference. At Advance, the most recent of these opportunities has reached fruition in the form of WheelMate – a digital platform commissioned by our client Coloplast to help wheelchair users find accessible toilets and parking spaces.

The idea of an app was originally proposed in response to a brief to create a campaign for a product launch, but we quickly saw the potential to create something that would provide genuine, long-term value to Coloplast’s customers. An initiative that would demonstrate their commitment to and engagement with the wheelchair community – something beyond a marketing tool.

Although we were aware that there were a number of toilet finder apps already on the market, and while a few did focus solely on disabled facilities, none of them hit upon the right balance of design, usability and the usefulness of the data. We focused on trying to solve these problems while keeping the feature set minimal and the flow as simple as possible – really important for an app that’s likely to be used out and about. Users can view, add, rate and comment on locations as well as add them to a list of favourites.

We also created a web app to support the smartphone version – providing a more comfortable way for users to view and add locations at home. We envisaged that many people would use both apps so constancy and familiarity across the platform was a priority.

Another thing that sets WheelMate apart is the decision to launch the app with a completely empty database. We did this for two reasons, the first being data quality. We wanted everyone using the app to know that all data had been created by their fellow WheelMate users – encouraging trust and loyalty to the project. Secondly, we envisaged that crowd-sourcing the collection of the data would build a stronger sense of community amongst users.

Insights from wheelchair users helped us scope the app.

In terms of marketing the service, we are developing a number of activities including films, brochures and banners as well as more community-based communication such as blogger outreach and events. Coloplast will also utilise their links with national and international wheelchair user organisations to seed the app and get people adding locations.

This type of project – the creation of products and services that serve equally the needs of the target audience and the profile of the client – perfectly demonstrates the change in thinking here at Advance. We understand that, since audiences now possess a myriad of ways of filtering out and ignoring not only mass media but also socially targeted broadcast messages, the need to provide genuine value becomes paramount.

But it can be tough. Because many organisations’ processes and budgets are designed to work around campaign cycles, persuading them to see the long-term benefits of this kind of project requires some work. This is why we are investing a lot of energy into finding these types of opportunities for clients and demonstrating the powerful results that can occur when their needs and the needs of their customers are aligned.

Fresh from his trip to Athens, Morten Kirckhoff fills us in on his experiences at the WPI Summit and on the visible economic downturn of the host country.

Just back from 3 days attending the Creative Summit with WPI  (our global network of independent agencies). Interesting to meet up with likeminded people from US, South Africa and EU. The main agenda was SIT – meaning Systematic Inventive Thinking. Insightfull in terms of how to systematically fuel the creative process, but old-school in how it was laid out, presented and exemplified.

This year the summit was at a venue in Athen, Greece. It’s been 5 years since I visited this proud country, from where most of our cultural, philosophical and historical heritage originates. What a depressing reunion – a country on the brink of bankruptcy, that was just given 50% bailout of the debt (worth 130 bn€), is not a pretty sight. Closed shops, trash in the streets, child beggars and hundreds of businesses going out of business.

The obvious consequences for the advertising industry were clearly visible. Passing the prime-located billboards on the highway – every billboard was empty.

Good luck Greece. Hope to see you in better shape soon, with something posted on your billboards.

Another month, another batch of gaming news from Jef. You can also follow Advance_Gaming on Twitter, where you can keep up with all the latest gaming industry developments.

Mobile growth in social games

Did you pick up on the rumour of stagnating tractor sales on Farmville for Facebook as well? It might be true. According to the ’Inside Virtual Goods’ report, social network games are still growing, but slowly.

But don’t go thinking all those annoying game ’requests’ and ’invites’ will soon be a thing of the past. Especially not when you are the proud owner of a mobile device. According to the same report, the mobile market for virtual goods is gaining speed and is about to hit $500 million in sales this year in the U.S. alone. Up from $350 million last year, but still far behind the $2.9 billion in virtual goods through online social games. So don’t worry if you’re a Farmville tractor designer, you won’t be out of a job any time soon.

It also seems that the social gaming audience is a bit different from the mobile social gamer. Compared to mobile, Facebook gamers are more likely to be older and female. But it is only a matter of time before this group will also be able to pick up their favourite social games on their mobile.

Source: Inside Virtual Goods Report

56% of U.S. households own a gaming device

Chances are you do too. And don’t get us wrong, we know you are probably not a ’hardcore’ gamer. But wasn’t it you who bought the 46th ad-on for Angry Birds the other day?

Yes, we’re talking mobile and tablet gaming here. Saving the day for a ’core’ gaming market that hasn’t been going anywhere the past few years. Thanks to smartphones and tablets, gaming purchases in the U.S. have been pushed an extra seven percent the past year. When it comes to gaming devices themselves, numbers are up 6% from 50% in 2011.

What’s more, families increasingly seem to overlap their devices. 66% of households with kids (6-12) that own a Nintendo DS or Sony PSP also own an Apple iOS device. Gamers are not stuck to one screen anymore. Their gaming cravings are being satisfied more and more across multiple screens, 24% today up from 17% in 2009.

How many devices can you juggle?

Send us your videos…

Source: Nielsen U.S. Gaming Review

The most interactive comedy game you’ll ever play

Coming later this year.

We made a little case video for the HK campaign (in Danish):

And here is the spot we produced for P2:

And so begins the last day of SXSW and despite the mist of my first hangover of the convention, the inspiration of yesterday’s sessions can still be felt. Although most of what I saw wasn’t strictly relevant to the agency, the foresight and depth of knowledge of Ray Kurzweil was staggering. You may not know this guy, but you will certainly have been effected by at least one of the technologies he’s responsible for. From inventing the flatbed scanner right through to the development of voice and text recognition software. When asked about his opinion of Apple’s Siri, he replied “well, first of all I’m very proud, since the technology behind it was originally developed by my company before being sold to Apple”.

I also learned what happens when someone uploaded the barcode from their Starbucks payment card to the web – $19,000 flowed through it in one month. The thing is, he didn’t add the money himself. The ad hoc community he created added credit to be used by people they would never meet. A great example of ‘paying it forward’ and also of the tolerance of some big brands. Read more here.

I’m not much of a coffee guy so I opted for free food and beer at the Skype party.

Top observations:

1. Since it’s governments that cause conflict, future technologies will have to be regulated by us.

2. Even the experts on social ROI don’t know how to calculate social ROI.

3. Austin is crazy even when SXSW isn’t here.

4. I’ve seen the summer and it feels good.

Chris, clearly fit as a fiddle once more, sends another update from SxSW:

What a difference a day makes.

The sun came out yesterday afternoon and immediately SxSW kicked into overdrive. Suddenly all of the ad hoc activities surrounding the conference centres flourished. Foursquare’s real game of ‘foursquare’ (apparently it’s a playground ball game too) made more sense in the sunshine and beer flowed from every corporate outpost.

The best session of the day posed the question “can gaming make the world a better place?”. Expertly moderated, the panel provided a great insight into how ‘gamification’ is no longer a meaningless buzzword but rather an essential part of the communication toolkit when it comes to changing behaviour. There was plenty of granular detail regarding how to balance incentives and user action and how to ensure that the habits stick after the incentives disappear as well as a high level perspective on the benefits of motivating the masses.

I also popped into a sketching workshop that invited us to shed our digital mindsets for a while and get scribbling to create, among other things, an analogue social network consisting of business cards and hand-drawn arrows.

Today, more sunshine and a session on how agencies should embrace projects for social good.

Top observations:

1. ‘Big data’ is here so let’s use it.

2. Keep an eye on the idea of ‘micro volunteering’ – prompting users to spare  a couple of minutes or even just seconds to gather or verify data.

3. We are so lucky in DK that we can drink outside.

4. Rockstar bagels are worth hunting down in this taco-centric city.

Chris, ‘sick as a dog’ but soldiering on,  sends word from SXSW Interactive:

Greetings from sunny Texas! Apparently, Austin has just experienced a dry spell lasting some months, resulting in severe brush fires, so unsurprisingly, the locals seem rather pleased with the torrential rain we’ve been having. Nevertheless, the festival spirit remains strong at SXSW. The really amazing thing about this event is the sheer size and scope of the thing. Yesterday you could get down and dirty with HTML 5 and responsive design or listen to Frank Abagnale, of Catch Me If You Can fame, talk about his barely believable life.

So far I’ve attended panels that have dealt with such varied subjects as building a brand’s social presence by staying true to your heritage, the use of Hollywood narrative models to enhance a product’s story, through to cultivating a ‘making’ culture in a creative agency. I’ll elaborate on those when I get back, but now it’s time to learn how gaming can make the world a better place.

My top 5 observations so far:

1. ‘Authenticity’ is at risk of becoming a social media buzzword already.

2. Foursquare really works here.

3. A breakfast of less than 10000 calories is hard to find.

4. People actually say “y’all” in Texas.

5. Texas style barbecue is GOOD!