Category Archives: branded content

Brand Spanking: Best of the Super Bowl

Written by Peter. Posted on February 7, 2011. No comments.

We’re all a bit dumber after watching so much crap during the Super Bowl yesterday. It’s shocking that a 5 hour advertising bonanza (with small bits of actual gameplay) is one of our country’s most celebrated events. However, there were a few memorable ads that aired yesterday. In case you missed them, tune in below. [...]

3D 360 Interactive Video Technology for iPhone

Written by Peter. Posted on January 31, 2011. No comments.

Posting about the Black Eyed Peas makes me feel kinda gross (sorry if you’re a fan), but their new 3D 360 interactive video experience for the iPhone shows off some pretty crazy technology. Yes, 3D 360, as in you can turn around in the video and see objects in 3D (the experience is limited to [...]

Brand Spanking: Honda, GE and Nike

Written by Peter. Posted on January 31, 2011. No comments.

Another Monday dose of branded content for all the commercial lovers out there. Honda’s unique, animated European commercial for the Honda Jazz called “This Unpredictable Life,” featuring Garrison Keiler’s awesome voice. Created by Wieden + Kennedy London. GE demonstrates their latest braking technology for trains using really amazing slow motion HD footage of different objects [...]

Students Create WeSC RFID Sneakers

Written by Peter. Posted on January 25, 2011. 3 Comments.

Imagine checking in on Facebook without even having to blink. I stumbled across this video today on these special social media shoes. Students at a Swedish progressive, new media-focused school called Hyper Island partnered with clothing company WeSC to create RFID shoes that help connect social media to your experiences without the hassle of fumbling around [...]

Brand Spanking: BMW, Bud Light, Asics and Levi’s

Written by Peter. Posted on January 24, 2011. No comments.

Your Monday branded content multi-vitamin. Trailer for BMW’s promising future-minded, four-part documentary series called “Wherever you Want To Go.” Each part will be released weekly over the month of February. Bud Light demonstrates the dangers of 3D advertising in this year’s Super Bowl commercial entry. If these athletes drank Gatorade before this commercial shoot do [...]

Have You Seen This Yet? Ray Ban Viral Where the Sun Don’t Shine

Written by Peter. Posted on January 19, 2011. No comments.

I noticed a new viral video while trolling the net and thought I’d confront it. It was posted yesterday on YouTube. Then BuzzFeed picked it up yesterday and Laughing Squid picked it up this morning. It features a guy running through a subway train in the opposite direction that it’s traveling, so he stays even [...]

Brand Spanking: MLK, Monster Trucks, Bus Stops and more

Written by Peter. Posted on January 17, 2011. No comments.

Gathering up buzzworthy branded content from around the web. Chevrolet goes big on MLK day with a site that invites people to record themselves reading quotes from the historic civil rights leader. Check out the website here. Mini takes center stage at a monster truck rally in this brilliant new commercial of theirs. Colle+McVoy created [...]

Have you seen this yet? Intel Visual Life “The Sartorialist”

Written by Peter. Posted on January 10, 2011. No comments.

Urgent team member Kasia posted this video on her blog fake tv the other day. It’s a short doc about fashion blogger Scott Schumann of The Sartorialist made for Intel’s new Visual Life campaign. It’s nice to see intellectual and influential bloggers getting more mainstream love by collaborating with brands. With 70k hits a day, [...]

Brand Spanking: Carlsberg, Kraft and Huggies

Written by Peter. Posted on January 10, 2011. No comments.

Gathering up buzzworthy branded content from around the web. Carlsberg goes big with this new commercial demonstrating why they have probably the best ad in the world. via Adverblog Ted Williams on his first gig with Kraft after becoming a YouTube sensation. I find the whole thing kind of awkward now. Like we can’t just let the [...]

@LEGO’s Whimsical Short Film “The Brick Thief”

Written by Peter. Posted on January 4, 2011. No comments.

A few days ago LEGO released a stop-motion short film called “The Brick Thief” as a follow-up to last year’s much-viewed “CL!CK.” The films star a mustachio’d inventor who discovers the inspiration that LEGO’s can lend to idea-makers such as himself. Although LEGO has already evolved into video games to better serve the modern child, [...]

Looking at Branded Content in 2011

Written by Peter. Posted on December 22, 2010. No comments.

I was reading this list of predictions for digital advertising in 2011 and one point in particular really stuck out to me: 5. Brands Will Become More Like Media Companies Social media has empowered brands to break their own news instead of relying on advertising or PR to disseminate their message. As brands become increasingly [...]

2010′s Most Innovative Viral Video Ads (via @mashable)

Written by Peter. Posted on December 9, 2010. No comments.

Mashable published a list of the 10 most innovative viral video ads of 2010 today and, needless to say, it’s definitely worth checking out. Every year the effect of viral video ads gets closer to eclipsing television ads – and this year I feel like viral definitely killed TV. Sure, TV ads still get more [...]

SF Gets Video Games At Bus Stops (via @7x7Magazine)

Written by Peter. Posted on December 8, 2010. 1 Comment.

7×7 posted yesterday about these new Yahoo-sponsored interactive games featured at select Muni stops around San Francisco. No more refreshing Next Muni on your iPhone every minute while standing in the cold! Now we can play games against friends, strangers, transients! Well…at least until some dick tags up the screen with a paint pen. Apparently [...]

Cute Moleskine Commercial That Most People Won’t See

Written by Peter. Posted on December 6, 2010. No comments.

You’re hip, you’re creative, you’re organized, you probably own at least one Moleskine. Since you don’t really need to be sold on the practical uses of a day planner/notebook, you probably don’t need to watch a commercial for one. But you MUST watch this. Like you, this commercial is hip, creative and organized (well credit [...]

OK Go To Write Their Name Over Los Angeles

Written by Peter. Posted on November 16, 2010. No comments.

Range Rover recently teamed up with viral kings OK Go to help promote the auto company’s new Pulse of the City app that tracks your journey via GPS. On Wednesday, the band is going to perform an 8-mile mobile concert in Los Angeles and the route will spell out the band’s name across the city. [...]

@Good Magazine Spoofs Die Hard

Written by Peter. Posted on November 10, 2010. No comments.

Urgent’s friend Alex Gorosh sent us this funny trailer he wrote, directed and edited for Good Magazine. It’s a parody of the Die Hard action films to create awareness about the large number of water-related illnesses in developing countries. The video promotes a product called Life Straw (a portable water filtration device) to be used [...]

Valvoline Goes Viral

Written by Peter. Posted on October 7, 2010. No comments.

Urgent’s friend Simon over at Bloggasm saw our recent post on Weezer’s YouTube invasion and gave us the heads up today on another YouTube invasion – this time from Valvoline. The company teamed up with Key of Awesome and Upright Citizens Brigade for some branded videos centered around one thing – the word “probably.” Valvoline [...]

Game, Set, Match for Gillette

Written by Peter. Posted on August 18, 2010. No comments.

The latest branded viral video win goes to Gillette for putting out this amazing trick shot demonstration with Roger Federer. The company claims the footage was captured in one take during a real commercial shoot with the British Skin Foundation. Somehow Roger manages to knock a water bottle off a guy’s head not once, but [...]

video of the the day: hidden branded spot for reebok

Written by Henry Goldman. Posted on August 2, 2010. No comments.

Funny or die has been killing it when it comes to branded content lately. Their access to namebrand celebrities (no matter how off the radar or washed up) all but guarantees their ability to produce clickable links. Cos while I may not think I care about Ralph Macchio, but when I see a link to [...]

Video of the Day: Orbit branded video with Jason Bateman and Will Arnett

Written by Henry Goldman. Posted on June 11, 2010. No comments.

In the future there will be no commercials. Only branded 4-minute web videos starring comedians you already like. I will stop posting these kinds of branded videos when they stop making funny ones. On the industry-side, this piece was developed out of a partnership between Bateman and Arnett and Electus, the new, somewhat stealthy IAC-backed [...]