Bob Dylan Advertainment Messaging Site

How exactly this Web site, which started in late September, slipped past me is beyond me, because it’s great. I suppose it is rather inconsequential at this point anyways, though; the nice thing is that I found it. Created by Ten4, this highly interactive site, Dylanmessaging.com, was created to promote “Dylan,” which is a greatest hits compendium available in a 1 CD Edition, or a 3 CD “Deluxe Digipack” Edition, both of which you can buy directly from the Web site (always a good idea from a production standpoint). The entire site is designed to look like an album cover of sorts, though it also comes off slightly resembling an old newspaper.

In addition to being able to buy the actual album, and being able to find out relevant information about it, the site also links to other Dylan works such as “No Direction Home,” directed by Scorsese, and several other DVD’s. But the site is designed and engineered around the Messaging concept. If you click on “Send Someone a Message,” the truly interactive part of the site becomes visible. Here you can create your own message, which can say anything, on 10 different sheets of paper, which Mr. Dylan himself (from 40 years ago) will hold up…you can then send this message to your friends via email. Of course, at the end of your message there is a quick plug for the new Dylan album.

Check out the neat little video that I made Here. After you create your own message, you can click on “The Video,” where you can view the entire music video for Dylan’s song “Subterranean Homesick Blues”, which is the background (and the canvas) for the message that you, yourself create. According to the site, which actually took its synopsis of the video from Wikipedia, “The video takes place in an alley behind the Savoy Hotel in London where poet Ginsberg and Neuwirth make a cameo in the background.”

This site is certainly a must-visit for any big Dylan fan, and it is well worth the visit for anyone who has even a slight interest in him and his music. And for those who have no interest in Dylan at all (though I would find this somewhat hard to believe), the site is great for its viral marketing and advertainment value, at the very least.

Nikon D40 Camera- Picturetown Advertainment

So, the new campaign concept for the Nikon D40 Camera may not exactly fall within the confines of what is traditionally defined as advertainment, but advertainment itself is untraditional, so I think it is ok to post about this neat new campaign. I found out about this new ad campaign through a wonderfully well-placed (and probably pretty expensive) hard-stock insert of a picture of the D40 camera itself, in its actual size. I found this ad in the December issue of People Magazine (it was my girlfriend’s copy of the mag., I don’t usually read it, I swear). Next to the insert is a traditional, full-bleed ad that describes the overall campaign concept where it says “Go to stunningnikon.com/picturetown for proof that people start taking amazing digital pictures the minute you hand them a Nikon D40. Recently, we gave 200 D40’s to the people of Georgetown, SC. Check out their pictures and learn more about the Nikon D40.”




I instantly took a liking to this ad due to the fact that the insert catches the reader’s attention immediately (also, the pages automatically open to the insert if the mag. is set down, due to its hard-stock, which is always a good idea), and the ad provides more information. Plus, the camera insert itself opens up, with a similar description of the “Picturetown” idea, and also an added incentive for people to check out the Web site: a sweepstakes that automatically enters you in to win a trip for two to Tuscany, Italy if you visit the site. Now that is good stuff…the insert catches attention and breaks through the clutter, the ad further explains the concept, and the inside of the insert gives added incentive to learn more, all the while, every piece of advertising has the Web site in bold yellow letters on a black background, now that’s excellent brand spiraling.

The site itself is where the advertainment comes into the picture (corny, I know…) a bit more clearly. You can select from a number of options on the site, which is simply yet sleekly designed, including “The Story, The People, The Pictures, The Nikon D 40, and Enter To Win.” Before you get to the homepage, however, the site loads and the message displayed sets up the premise for the entire campaign, it says “Anyone can take a great picture with the Nikon D40. To prove it, we gave 200 to the people of Georgetown, South Carolina.” I find this message to be well-thought, and well-directed…I like the idea.

Once the site loads, if you click on “The Story,” an informative video shows the whole process of the cameras being handed out, and it re-emphasizes the average Joe factor here, showing that these people are just like you and I, and by no means photography experts. “The People” further proves this fact, and then “The Pictures” section really drives home the point that the camera is capable of taking good pictures, even when in the hands of average Joes. This section is set up as a large, interactive gallery, where you can see a bunch of thumbnails of photos at once, scroll over them to get more info., and then click on them to see a bigger copy. Overall, Nikon shows a good melding of traditional methods of advertising (magazine, etc.) in an untraditional format (unusual insert), and good use of interactivity on the Web site itself; all of this adds up to good advertainment.

National Geographic Channel Dinosaur Advertainment & Advergame

Interesting news for fans of advergames/closet archaeology and paleontology enthusiasts such as myself: The National Geographic Channel has created a new advergame to promote two of their new specials, Dino Death Trap and Dino Autopsy, which aired on December 9th.



This advergame, called “Fossil Hunt,” is part of a full-fledged microsite for the two aforementioned shows. The site itself (which you can check out Here) is pretty well-rounded. It offers a lot of video and other interactive content. You can preview the shows themselves, check out photos of actual dinosaur fossils, and even try the “3D Dino Explore” feature on the site, which is a relatively-rudimentary click-and-drag view of virtual dinosaur likenesses buried under the earth; you can “Revisit their last moments and see these dinosaurs in full 3D.”

The Fossil Hunt advergame itself is a 3-D tile board akin to mahjong, but where you attempt to match two of the same dinosaur bones in order to make them disappear from the dig site. As an archaeologist-gamer, your goal is to assemble the full dinosaur in order to advance to the next level. The game is very simple, suggesting that it may be an attempt at marketing to a younger demographic audience, or maybe just a quick way to throw together an advergame. The site was, in fact, first made available on Dec. 3rd, only a week before the shows aired.



I think that it’s safe to say that nearly everyone had a pretty decent interest in dinosaurs when they were kids; and why not, what is more enigmatic than a giant creature that lived on earth millions of years before you were born? So, go ahead and indulge in your childhood fascinations, check out the National Geographic Channel Dinosaurs Microsite.

To read a bit more about this site, and the two shows it was created to promote, take a look at This Article by Shahnaz Mahmud over at Adweek.

Milk Gets an Advergame

While the campaign started quite a while ago, and so is anything but new on the rapidly changing Internet landscape, I just barely found out about it, so it is new to me. The Get The Glass advertainment site and advergame was created by North Kingdom and Goodby, Silverstein & Partners for the California Milk Processor Board (creator of Got Milk? fame, etc…). This site is truly a work of art, and evidence of the boundless capabilities that increasing virtual design technologies are allowing. Put plainly, it is web-based advertainment done right.



The site follows the chronicles of the Adachi family, which the introduction describes as “A family struggling to overcome a staggering predicament: Life without milk…Only one thing may help them: The power of the glass.” So, your goal as the player of the advergame is to help them get to the glass on the massive 3-D island that includes various types of terrain and precarious places to pass through on the way to “The Glass” which rests on the top of a large fortress. Before actually playing the game, the site user can take a look at the entire island through a 360 degree tour of this graphic extraordinaire. The island’s design has a very dark, gothic, Tim Burton-like feel to it, which works as a stark contrast to the giant illuminated glass of milk that you are supposed to reach. When you play the game itself, it is set up as a giant monopoly type of game board which prompts the user to roll a die in order to determine the Adachi family’s next steps on the island, ultimately determining whether or not they reach “The Glass.” There are numerous small-scale games embedded within the main game; these are mini-missions that aid the family in their plight, one such mission is driving a truck to escape island security.



Perhaps the sites only immediately visible flaw is its large loading time upon entrance to its main page. However, the slow loading at the beginning is the only large load time on the site, and it is well worth the wait to enter. The load time is a small price to pay for the enormous amount of visual detail and excellent overall design that the advergame offers. Get the Glass proves to be yet another excellent promotional tool for the California Milk Processor Board.

Thanks to Rob Ford for bringing this site to my attention through posting about it on Adverblog (through Martina). Check out this post Here.