Now you can play 'Dumb ways to die'

Following on from the success of its 'Dumb ways to die' campaign for Melbourne Metro, McCann Australia has produced an iPhone and iPad game built along the same idea.

The game, developed in collaboration with local developer Barrel Of Donkeys, has been the No. 1 free app in Australia for a week, and is charting in 79 other countries.

The concept of turning the viral advert into a game was to continue to encourage younger people to be careful around trains, and avoid dying in a dumb way, as you try to save the characters from the video from their fate.

The game is free from itunes.

Foster Partners design two new London skyscrapers

British architecture firm Foster + Partners has unveiled plans for two residential skyscrapers as part of the 250 City Road project, led by property developers Berkeley Group.

The skyscrapers will form part of a cluster of residential towers proposed for the City Road area in Islington, a redevelopment of a 1.9 hectare site currently occupied by a cluster of commercial buildings.

Other companies involved in the project include landscape architects Gillespies, Dutch firm UNStudio and US architects SOM.

Elsewhere in London, Foster + Partners recently received planning permission for three residential towers on the south side of the river Thames near Lambeth Bridge.

More about the 250 City Road project can be found here.

First Skype enabled campaigned launched

Specsavers has been working with Microsoft Advertising to launch a new competition; 'Spectacle wearer of the year’.

The competition, developed by Manning Gottlieb OMD in conjunction with DG MediaMind, uses Skype to encourage more users to submit photos of themselves wearing their spectacles via their web-cam. Using Skype to promote the competition makes sense as it is one of the biggest video calling services, and recently has been used a Microsoft as a replacement for its Messenger service.

James Hayr, head of specialist sales at Microsoft Advertising, says: “This is the first time an advertising campaign in the UK has used Skype’s video capabilities within a creative solution to bring a brand message to life. Skype’s ability to make more meaningful connections over video means that this is the only platform a campaign like this could have been executed on, outstripping the reach of its competitors.”

The campaign will run till the end of June and will be supported by digital display ads on MSN.

Wacky Races returns in new ad

A great new ad from Peugeot has brought the Wacky Races to life.

The advert features live versions of the characters from the famous Hanna-Barbera cartoon, including Penelope Pitstop and Dick Dastardly.

The purpose of the advert is to show off the features and handling of its latest car, and does it with some great comedy moments.

Watch the advert below and relive your youth.

Russian drivers given unexpected test drive

In Moscow illegal parking is a problem, one that leads to many drivers having their car towed to a location an hour away from the city centre.

In a new campaign, Mercedes has started to offer test drives of their Smart car to these drivers to try and encourage them to switch from the larger vehicles they are used to a smaller car which should be easier to park.

The campaigns came about as Mercedes realised that there was no interest in their city friendly cars, so along with BBDO Moscow they helped 'save' 623 stranded drivers, using a fleet of 40 Smart cars around 8 shopping malls. As a result they found test drives increased 10 fold and purchases by 300% in the two weeks following the event.

Watch a video of the event below.

Mobile bank introduces itself with mobile orchestra

BNP Paribas has launched what it is claiming to be the first fully-digital mobile bank; 'Hello Bank'.

To commemorate the event Publicis Conseil, in collaboration with master production company B-Reel and the Czech National Symphony Orchestra, recorded a special performance of 'Carmen'.

During a performance in Prague led by conductor Libor Pesek, the outfit's 60 musicians put aside their instruments and picked up mobile phones and tablets.

To show how much effort went into creating the performance a behind the scenes video was also released which how the mobile devices were hooked up to 227 different interfaces, and linked together via WiFi.

Watch both the performance and behind the scenes below.

Installation creates prison of light

An amazing light installation that was on display at the Mapping Festival, which took place in Geneva between the 2nd - 12th May this year, trapped visitors in a prison of light.

Isotopes v.2 by Nonotak Studio was inspired by events surrounding the Japanese Earthquake and Tsunami back in 2009. The result of this natural disaster led to a meltdown at the Fukushima's nuclear power plant, an event classed as a Level 7 Disaster, the highest level issued by the government.

The installation is an open space that slowly surrounds the visitor in a barrier of intense light, a play on human-kinds approach to nuclear power.

Watch a video of the installation in action below and for more information click here.

Location guessing game for endless fun

Another company has taken Google's Street View and created something wonderful, this time it's a game. GeoGuessr is a location guessing game, perfect for travel addicts.

The game is pretty simple; you are dropped in a location on Street View and by clicking around you use the map interface in the top right corner to guess where you are, the closer your guess is to the actual location, the more points you get.

You get dropped in 5 locations each game and you can move around as much as you like.

Why not have a go for yourself here.

Watch the top of One World Trade Center spire be installed

After some delay the final piece was put in place on the One World Trade Center tower.

The spire for the building was installed, making it the tallest building in the western hemisphere and will stand as a focal point  in a group of buildings designed to replace the Twin Towers that were destroyed in the September 11th attacks.

To commemorate the topping off, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey released a video of the spire's installation. Filmed using a GoPro camera which was attached to the spire itself, it gives a stunning glimpse at the height of the tower.

Watch it below, but be warned it can cause vertigo!

Being an award winner

This post was written by The Think Tank's PR Director Samantha Dawe, as part of our on-going sponsorship of the B2B Marketing Knowledge Bank.

Just been having a chat with a good contact on a key industry magazine for the architect and design sector, and the subject of that magazine’s annual awards came up...

Now I know how passionate B2B Marketing magazine is about its very own annual awards…and rightly so, but it made me reflect on why we enter and why we encourage clients to enter industry awards.

We have worked with one of our clients for almost a decade. Certainly for the past four years have prepared entries with them for a European-wide series of awards that are seen as particularly prestigious. This year they won one. They are over the moon, and so are we. The press release about this Award is going to be issued globally by the various communications teams.

Entering, being shortlisted and hopefully winning awards can help achieve press coverage certainly.

But winning an industry award can also boost staff morale, attract new business, impress potential investors, gain prestige and recognition from peers and respect from customers, and raise awareness of a new product or service.

It’s worth considering an entry for a local business award for these reasons too – usually in the UK organized on a county by county basis. A local platform for celebrating the very best business successes, they will not only cover how well your business is doing, but aspects like customer service, environmental awareness and staff training and development.

For staff to see their organization recognized within their immediate community and can be really motivating.

It’s also a great way to stand back a bit and assess what you’ve been focusing on and to celebrate any innovations and efforts that are making a real difference to how you do business, or in the services and products you provide.

Of course much depends on the time and resource you have to devote to preparing entries. So set a realistic, tangible goal, for example, entering at least two different Award schemes this year. And if you don’t win the first time, don’t give up… next time you might be that winner.