The Did You Know Presentation is a very interesting video created by the folks at Shifthappens. It highlights some of the amazing transformations taking place in recent years around the globe.  Some great content for your next presentation.

Watch It!

For several years, Columbus, OH-based Nationwide Insurance has executed a humorous TV-, billboard- and print-ad campaign that features the company’s slogan, Life Comes at You Fast, that humorously depicted long-term changes happening instantly to underscore the need to plan and adapt insurance coverage.

Last year, Nationwide enlisted Irving, TX-based t:m, the advertising firm that developed the creative content for the campaign’s other formats, and Orange Barrel Media (Columbus), a billboard-sales company that brought fabrication inhouse, to develop a wallscape for a building that faces High and Spring streets, two primary Columbus thoroughfares.

Their initial wallscape featured a romance-novel theme, but Nationwide wished to push the envelope. Using the photographer’s original image files, t:m used Photoshop® to subtly manipulate the image before sending it to Orange Barrel, which punctuated the design with 100 gallons of paint (PMS-matched to the wallscape’s paint shade) that drenched the wall, parking lot and several prop vehicles below. All told, the spectacular’s area encompassed 15,000 sq. ft. According to Pete Scantland, Orange Barrel’s general manager, eight employees worked on the project for one week. The company output the wrap with 13-oz., mesh material on a VUTEk, a division of efi 5300 solvent-ink printer. He said the project, which will remain in place for approximately six months, would generate approximately 1.5 million impressions monthly. Scantland said, ‘Motorists are getting out of their cars to see if it’s real. The buzz it creates yields a win-win-win situation for the client, t:m and Orange Barrel Media.’

To celebrate Easter, U.K. candy retailer Thorntons invited visitors to London’s Covent Garden to pick away at an 860-lb. (390-kg.) chocolate billboard. The 14.5 x 9.5-ft. (4.4 x 2.9m) sign, reportedly the first edible billboard in the world, includes 10 bunnies, 72 giant eggs and 128 panels, with everything from dark, to hazelnut, to white chocolate.

Master chocolatier Barry Colenso, and his 10-person team, needed three months to plan, and more than 300 hours to build, the billboard. The candy company anticipated the wall would stand for a week, but, to its surprise, pedestrians devoured it in five hours.

Challenge: Reinforce Rexona Crystal’s efficiency in the anti-white marks segment.
Goal: Point out the benefit of the product. Maintain the urban and current look visible of the international campaign
Idea: Amplify the white marks on dark clothing problem and present Rexona as the most effective solution.
Execution: Use of stencil and other mixed techniques. Urban and feminine visual language.
Developed pieces: Adshel

Relearn to drive is an amusing series of flashback videos launched by BMW to promote its Performance Driving School.
The site features nine hilarious characters who provide you with abnormal advice on how to improve your driving skills.

The whole thing is definitely funny to watch, and I’m quite sure that those who visit the site will not only have a look at all nine videos, but also forward this one on to friends.

Alchemy Goods a company specializing in Turning the useless into the useful has found a good use for old outdoor banner ads…

 
The adbag is constructed from recycled vinyl mesh that had previously been installed on various buildings throughout Seattle. Since no two bags are alike, the only thing being advertised is individuality.

Desktop Factory had developed a 3-D printer for the masses. The 3D Printer literally creates robust three-dimensional objects made from a gray plastic powder which can then be sanded and painted.

Current rapid-prototyping machines start at $50,000 and go way up to the hundreds of thousands of dollars. When Desktop Factory starts selling its machines later this year they will cost $5,000. The company plans to get them down to about a $1,000 within the next two years.

When this happens, not only will more businesses be able to use 3-D printers to analyze their designs much faster, but savvy consumers will be able to afford this technology too.

This will surely start out as a niche market, but can easily be adopted by the mainstream in a relatively short timeline.

Imagine all of those 3D modelers and art school students being able to print out their 3D work.  That alond could end up creating a whole new market with the emergence of a new demand for online sharing/selling of 3-D CAD designs – so that people can source objects to create at home.

Introducing Megaphone a real-time multi-player collaborative gaming platform designed for use on large screens in public spaces. This system allows anyone with a mobile phone (regardless of their carrier service) to join in on the action and compete against other mobile users. Players join the game by simply making a regular phone call which links them into the game. They then control their character with either voice or keypad commands.

Our creative minds are already wrapping our brains around this technology and how we can use it in the future. We’ve talked a little bit about cinema engagement before but this could take those 20 minutes of downtime before the movie begins to a whole new level. We could also use this technology in Stadiums, Live TV Interaction, Concerts, Tradeshows, Nightclubs, Store Windows, Mobile Projection Van…. Really the possibilities are endless.

Stay Tuned.

This is absolutely the coolest thing I have seen in a long time!

Explay a technology company based in Israel has developed the world’s smallest video projection system. The revolutionary Nano-Projector is small enough to fit inside your pocket or be embedded into mobile devices. The company says the screen size will range from 7″ to 30″.

The possibilities with this gizmo are endless – imagine being able to take the big screen with you wherever you go.

PowerPoint just left the conference room for good.

T-Mobile Germany is targeting young adults in an interesting effort to promote their new flat rate unlimited calling service. The company is holding a cell phone talk till you drop contest in which teams of two constantly stand and talk to one another. Teams that sit down or stop talking for more than 10 seconds are eliminated. The team that talks their way to the end wins 10,000 Euros.

What a simple yet relevant way to promote their new offering.