Connecting the Dots / An Agency Blog

When you’re a brand as big as Coca-Cola, a room to house all your past memorabilia isn’t enough. No! You need a museum! Which is exactly what Coca-Cola has, and now you can skip the price of admission and have full interactive access to that museum. In celebration of Coke’s 125th anniversary, a new full-screen video experience that resembles Google Street view (except indoors walking around a warehouse crowded with coke bottles and other stuff) was launched just last week.

The site has some cool functionality based on exploration and discovery (when you find something you like you can learn more about it and then post it to your Twitter feed or Facebook wall.) Each item, and there must be thousands here, keeps a tally of how many likes it has so you can see how original you are with your…. taste!

Now, had we have built this thing I would have lobbied for the ability to create ones own “Collectors Room” to share and invite your friend network into, like all the other Cola freaks out there have. Still this site taps into the sentiment of hoarding collecting quite nicely and Coca-Cola did provide the nuts with the ability to upload your favourite Coke item, it’s just not quite as cohesive as the rest of the site.

Here’s the link. Fave fun! And if you get lost, just close your browser window.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’d know that on Friday, March 11th, 2011 a powerful earthquake measuring 9.0 rattled the Japan coast, creating destruction on a scale almost unimaginable. The disaster was covered in real-time by citizen journalists and broadcasted live to the web through every possible news outlet. At the same time, halfway around the world, the Libyan political and civil system was being battered by a delusional dictator and a population demanding change, and again, footage from the frontlines made its way to the web almost as soon as it was recorded. Extraordinary events like these are often sensationalized by big media, and perhaps rightfully so in some cases. More recently though, through social channels like Twitter, the perpetual stream of updates often demands the constant attention of a connected audience.

It can be challenging to even consider directing attention towards anything less critical. While these events continue to dominate big media, it’s astonishing that at the very same time another sensation is rapidly spreading through the social web. This time, like many times of the past, it’s driven by the entertainment business – and in complete opposition to the tragic events gaining so much of our collective attention – this sensation is simply a pop song.

More after the jump.

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MIT Media Lab recently released a new brand identity which cleverly takes on many geometric forms. It is both complex and incredibly simple all at once, which is a pretty magical balance for any creative challenge, but even more fitting for an institution renown for producing brilliant conceptual thinkers.

Inspired by the facility’s expansion in 2010, which “manifests the spirit of transparency, mutual inspiration and collaboration” this new logo designed in collaboration by E Roon Kang and TheGreenEyl.

More discourse over at Brand New.

Forrester on Youth, Brands, and Social Networks

It’s clear that youth are spending considerable amounts of time online. They have, after all, grown up in a digitally connected world. But that doesn’t necessarily create a marketing opportunity for brands to connect with the so-called Millennial generation.

A report by Forrester Research, published March 2011 surveyed 4,681 young US individuals ages 12 to 17, and seeks to Understand The Intricate Digital Behaviors Of Young Consumers.

Key findings after the jump.

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Influencers is a(n unfortunately) short documentary that explores what it means to be a cultural influencer and how trends and creativity become contagious today in music, fashion and entertainment. Influence is a powerful position, for people, and for brands, and yet, true, unadulterated influence can be both difficult to attain, and even harder to maintain.

Written and Directed by Paul Rojanathara and Davis Johnson, this short documentary looks through the lens of New York’s influential creatives in the advertising, design, fashion and entertainment spaces. See more about the film at influencersfilm.com