The Brilliant creative team blog

Most children are amazed by their first pop-up book, and I felt like a kid again when I first saw Beercamp 2012. A website promoting the after-party of the 2012 Front-Ends conference programme (a ’gathering for front-end lovers to discover the current trends to build a professional career out of innovative website front-end development’), it takes the pop-up book idea to the next logical step. All built in HTML 5, it shows just how creative this new web technology can be. Go to Beercamp 2012 and get caught by the monsters.

The annual Super Bowl game is often the most-watched TV programme in the US, and so naturally has become something of an advertising hotspot, as big brands fight to promote their wares to hundreds of millions of viewers (Apple’s ‘1984’ launch ad for example was aired during the 1984 Super Bowl). As in previous years, car adverts made up the bulk of the one and two-minute commercials, but beer, soft drinks, sportswear and technology products also featured.

With slots costing around $3.5m for 30 seconds, many companies pulled out all the stops to make use of their big budget. Below are three which play the nostalgia card to tempt viewers to part with their money. Head over to the Creative Review and Branding Magazine websites to see full round-ups of commercials from the 2012 XLVI event.


MetLife
Insurance company MetLife brought together famous cartoon characters from the past, including He-Man, Mr Magoo, and the casts of Scooby Doo and Charlie Brown.


Samsung
Electronics giant Samsung resurrected 2000s glam-rock group The Darkness, using frontman Justin Hawkins to lure prospective Apple buyers to sample its products.


Honda
Honda brought Ferris Bueller’s Day Off back, casting original star Matthew Broderick, and inserted over a dozen references to the cult-1980s film.

A nicely-resolved infographic is, to me, as beautiful as an old master is to an art enthusiast. Usually beautifully illustrated and graphically striking, they catch the eye, telling their story concisely and directly. Take this one for example from hubspot.com, which imparts information on the history of marketing through the ages. A simple colour palette and iconographic shapes mean it’s easily read (though it is a little busy at times, I will admit), and fun in a way that a wordy feature just isn’t.

Well, whad’ya know, the new Volkswagen 2012 Super Bowl XLVI TV commercial has been released early, and unexpectedly builds on the canine theme featured in ‘The Bark Side’ teaser spot. ‘The Dog Strikes Back’ features an overweight pooch called Bolt, who undertakes lots of doggy exercises to get fit so that he can chase the German company’s new Beetle. That’s all very cute, but where does the Star Wars link make itself known? We won’t spoil it here, but there is a galaxy far far away-tinged ending, keeping the running theme from last year’s ‘The Force’ film. An edited 60-second version of VW’s 76-second clip will air during the 2012 Super Bowl XLVI on Sunday 5 February, along with high-budget car ads from Acura and Honda.

Buoyed by the 2011 success of its Star Wars-themed ‘The Force’ advert (Adweek’s ‘Commercial of the Year 2011’, 44 million YouTube views, 6.8 billion impressions), Volkswagen is again going intergalactic for its 2012 Super Bowl XLVI TV commercial. Called the ‘Bark Side’, this 64-second teaser previews the full advert which will air on 5 February. Featuring a collective of canines (some ‘dressed’ as characters from the series’ titles) barking the ‘Imperial March’ from the film’s soundtrack, it’s looking like it will cause as much of a sensation as last year’s Vader-themed clip.