Old Spice hacks Instagram with 'Choose Your Own Adventure' game

Do you have fond memories of 'Choose Your Own Adventure' games? Well, Old Spice has resurrected them by weaving its brand into Instagram through the use of tagging.

Traditional 'CYOA' games tended to be in book form, with readers playing an active role in deciding the plot's outcome - which often involved fantasy or science fiction elements.

Old Spice's spin on the game lets users search for tags, which lead to new Instagram accounts that one by one reveal the story, with the use of retro monsters, robots, and superheroes giving the game a retro, light-hearted feel. 

Give the game a go here and tell us if other brands should make their own.

Fun new campaign from National Trust

A tongue-in-cheek campaign for the National Trust was launched in the East of England late last month. 

The posters, which are placed in strategic locations across the National Trust sites, encourage visitors to enjoy their natural surroundings, using lines like 'Keep on the Grass' and 'Please Do Touch'.

The signs are designed by The Click Design Consultants and also encourage people to use the hashtag #NaturesPlayground as part of the light-hearted campaign which will feature in print ads, posters and promotional literature.

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.

Pass the time with this Street View Hyperlapse

If you've managed to tear yourself away from the last time-waster we shared with you, Google's 3D marble Maze, then perhaps it's time you had a play with another Google favourite; Google Street View Hyperlapse.

Developed by the team at  Teehan + Lax, a Toronto based digital utility designer, the hyperlapse works by taking images saved on Google Street View, then speeding them up.

To create your own, you choose a location, select starting and end points and then a focal point, the focal point is the icing on the cake, it will allow you to see an image as the camera approaches and passes, simply recreating a car journey as you pass a point of interest.

Watch the video from Teehan + Lax below, then have a go yourself here.

Google Street View Hyperlapse from Teehan+Lax Labs on Vimeo.

Google Chrome experiment creates perfect time-waster

Google's latest innovation in time-wasting fun is the Chrome World Wide Maze, and it isn't an April Fool's joke.

Coming from Japan, it is a browser experiment that turns any Web page of your choosing into a 3-D maze. You guide a marble via a smart phone synced with your computer (and, of course, installed with Chrome for Mobile for this to work properly). The aim is to collect 'power-ups' whilst completing the maze, and avoiding falling off.

The mobile-phone-as-game-controller idea has promise and isn't much different from the Wii U's current setup. It isn't the first time Google has played with this idea previously releasing Chrome Super Sync Sports and hopefully won't be the last.

Take a look at the promotional videos below.

Build a paper model of student housing with this free download

Architecture and design company Murado & Elvira has released a free download that allows you to build your own paper model of the Teknobyen Studentboliger, a student housing project they built for SiT in Trondheim, Norway.

The building has been nominated to the Statens Byggeskikkpris 2012, the Norwegian National Building Awards and has won the Trondheim Kommune Energispareprisen (Energy Saving Prize 2012)

The company also has a free desktop pet available to download, there are five to choose from, and represents the belief that buildings as objects can become like pets due to an empathic relationship people build with them.

Download the Free Paper Teknotoy here.

Pantone song titles

Pantone is a brand that many will recognise and the folks at Chic & Artistic have created this innovative and clever idea of matching the colour chips to songs.

The series, called "panto'n'roll", replaces the name of a colour in a song title with one of the famous Pantone cards, for example 'blue suede shoes' or 'yellow submarine'.

Very simple yet wonderfully creative, we love it, and they mention on their website that they will producing some posters of these too, just email them at pantonroll@chic-artistic.com with the one(s) you like. 

You can see all of the series here.

Can you think of any songs they may have missed?

Top 10 public spaces

Boca Do Lobo has  featured on their blog  the Top 10 public spaces, architecturally speaking.

The feature has some amazing examples of innovative design and amazing engineering from all over the globe, including the Floating Movie Theater, Thailand, El Bosque de la Esperanza, Colombia and possibly our favourite the170 foot Trampoline in Russia.

The list is a great representation of architecture from 2012 that is accessible to all, and helps to make the world a better and more fun place to live. Enjoy!

See the full list and read more about them here.

Counting with fingers takes a new meaning

In a new publicity campaign, Leo Burnett Toronto has created a count down for the start of the new series of popular zombie TV series "The Walking Dead".  

They have installed a hoarding in Toronto Union Station, featuring two zombie hands, that countdown to the start of the new series. To add to the gore, when a day passes a finger is physically removed from one of the hands and left there to "rot". The company also arranged for some actors to dress up as "walkers", the name the show gives to the zombies, and wander around the station on the Wednesday whilst chained to cement blocks. They also gave away t-shirts and set up a competition via Twitter to win one of the digits from the hands.


This is a great bit of fun and will have an impact but alas it could put a few commuters off their breakfast.

The show starts again in Canada and the US Sunday 10th February, and in the UK on Friday 15th February.

Looking for love? Doughnut company has the answer

If you're looking for love this Valentines Day then Krispy  Kreme may have the answer: they have once again released their Love Roulette game on their Facebook page and website.

The game is a bit of fun, matching you with one of your Facebook friends, regardless of gender, preference or relationship status (we were matched with married people and those of the same gender on some attempts), and then it offers you a voucher to get a free doughnut when you buy one of their new Valentines Day doughnuts.

A clever idea to help promote their new doughnuts and inspire you to buy one for that special person in your life!

Play the game on Facebook here or the website here. Enjoy!

Get the latest weather from Comfortable Weather Guy

Have you seen the Southern Comfort ad with the tanned and rotund guy wearing Speedos and drinking, of course, Southern Comfort? No, then you can see it here then come back and see the brand extension.  

Right now you’re ready for this, the New York based office of Wieden + Kennedy has now given this character a new lease of life, as your own personal weatherman. The idea is simple, go to comfortableweatherguy.com, type in a location and the cheeky chap will be whisked to an environment with the same weather as that location, it could vary from a beach, or a foggy cityscape to a snow covered landscape. The premise of course is that regardless of the weather he is suitably comfortable in just his Speedos.  

This campaign is a great example of taking a memorable ad with a simple protagonist and transferring them into a digital marketing campaign. There are even some videos to help with the campaign, which can be viewed below.

Not your normal tube announcements

Time Out London's blog, Now. Here. This., has teamed up with Annie Mole, writer of the Going Underground blog, to present some of the best announcements heard on the London Underground.

These announcements vary between being heard on the trains or on the platforms, and are not the usual "mind the gap" or "stand clear of the doors" you would normally encounter whilst circumnavigating the tube network.

Here's a selection of our favourites, see the rest here.

“Ladies and gentleman, I’m sorry for the delay. I have just been informed this is due to people on the ROOF of the train ahead. Yes, you are probably thinking some of the things I am, but that’s what I’ve been told by my control.”

“Ladies and gentleman, I do apologise for the delay to your service. I know you’re all dying to get home. Unless you happen to be married to my ex-wife, in which case you’ll want to cross over to the Westbound and go in the opposite direction.”

“To the hilarious gentleman that just showed me his bum. I suggest you join a gym or go on a diet before waving it around in the future”.

“Would the lady going down the escalator please lower her umbrella. It doesn’t rain underground.”

Creative Distraction - Draw a stickman

If like us, you're back at work this week, then you may find this a welcome distraction.

This site has two interactive episodes and a game which allow you to express your creativity, even if you are not the most artistic of people.
The idea is simple, you start by drawing a stickman, and it develops from there into your very own animated story.

Why not give it go here.

Dangerous times at the office party

The office Christmas party gets nasty in this new ad for Harvey Nichols.

This is the sequel to an ad we featured on our blog last year, 'The Walk of Shame' and was created by Adam & Eve/DDB.

It is very funny and suggests 'How to avoid a same dress disaster this season'.

Enjoy!

Gravity defying device by 2D House

Be amazed by this gravity defying chain reaction Rube Goldberg device created by 2D House - Rube Goldberg vs. Isaac Newton..

Using magnets and visual trickery it will blow your mind - which way up and how do they do that!

You can see more of the devices they have created here.

The corner shop comes to life with Red Stripe

This stunt for Red Stripeby ad agency KesselsKramer (along with Stinkdigital director Greg Brunkalla and creative technology consultancy Hirsch&Mann) popped up in a convenience store in East London.

They rigged up loads of products in a corner store to suddenly start dancing and making music whenever a customer picked up a Red Stripe from the fridge.

It a great bit of fun but knowing these types of stores well the late night crowd may get a bit freaked out!