BBC Musicubes is a pretty cool slice of interactive content for the MTV Overdrive generation. Users can create a visual expression of their musical DNA using the constructor tool, and then link/blog it wherever they like.
Check out my Musicube here.
Lynx have created lots of great destination websites for their target audience of young, red-blooded males in recent years.
Their latest one - created to promote Lynx Boost shower gel - is a veritable smorgasboard of interactive delights inspired by Towelboy, the Lynx Boost brand ambassador who starred in the recent TV ad, and Manwash, the Lynx Boost roadshow that's currently touring Britain.
Highlights include:
- A multimedia blog on the lynxboost.com homepage that's featured photos, videos, emoticons and mobile backgrounds in recent weeks
- A Manwash roadshow locator tool
- Links to specially created Myspace profiles for each of Towelboy's female friends
- A Towelboy game called 'Snakecharmer', featuring a secret lingerie level accessed by clicking and holding the mouse over the Lynx Boost bottle
All of the above have been made easily linkable and bloggable, which is probably why they're whizzing round the web as virals!
Interesting to note that what might be considered an unsophisticated target audience are reached by Lynx using exotic online content. Whilst well-to-do Digital Immigrants tend to be more cultured when it comes to traditional media, it's Diginatives, regardless of social class, that best understand and appreciate the new digital media.
Here's an exampler video of Towelboy's antics:
The hype surrounding camp horror flick Snakes on a Plane (SOAP) has reached fever pitch ahead of the film's global release on August 18.
The various online manifestations of this hype are of particular interest to Diginative. First up is the official website, which offers SOAP addicts:
- Streaming of two trailors and a music video
- Images and desktop icons for download
- Video and audio clips for inclusion in fansites, blogs, etc.
- A soundtrack listening point
- A SOAP fan sweepstake, with merchandise and a deluxe private screening up for grabs
- A VERY cool tool that allows fans to customise their Myspace page with various SOAP skins
Rather than trying in vain to control SOAP hype, New Line Cinema have fully embraced early enthusiasm for their soon-to-be cult movie. In addition to the features listed above, the official site includes a Fan Site of the Week section, linking latecomers to a selection of the fan-generated content that exists on the web.
The pick of the SOAP fan sites is blanksonablank.com, which celebrates the film's no-nonsense title. A competition was hosted by the site to find the best SOAP spoof, with contestants asked to submit a short film based on a randomly generated Animal on a Vehicle combination. The competition is now closed, but all entries are still available to view here. Diginative recommends the hilarious Tarantula on a Hovercraft, Pig on a Segway and Llama on a Train.
Recognising the role of citizen publicists is worthy of praise, but New Line Cinema deserve special credit for literally taking on board the script suggestions of early-adopters. In order not to disappoint the emergent fanbase, the studio re-shot several scenes from SOAP to upgrade the horror and incorporate the popular "muthafuckin' snakes..." quote, which as Wikipedia notes, was actually first used in a spoof trailor for the film that appeared on the net in late 2005.
Curiously, Wikipedia also reports that the phrase 'snakes on a plane' has entered the blogging vernacular as an alternative to 'shit happens' or 'oh well, what'cha gonna do?'. It seems that SOAP has permeated Diginative culture to its very core. And all before a single critic has had the chance to pass judgement on the film!
In summary, SOAP is the ultimate web 2.0 marketing phenomenon, complete with massive interactivity and user-generation. It's also a textbook example of a Gladwellian social epidemic, spreading virally by passionate diginative connectors.
I leave you with a clip from the film and the immortal words of Mr Samuel L Jackson:
"I've had it with the muthafuckin' snakes on this muthafuckin' plane"
Guardian and Sunday Times commentator Simon Jenkins, an archetype digital immigrant, offers his view on the history of conversation and its status in the digital world.
Ironically, Jenkins is himself reluctant to converse on the matter - he never replies to bloggers' comments posted on the Guardian's Comment is Free blogsite.
Web-based IPTV is an ideal medium for reaching Diginatives. Here's some interesting channels with an obvious youth bias:
E-music television is an interactive music video channel that allows you to view videos on demand and/or choose up to 5 videos a day for inclusion in the live stream.
MTV Overdrive offers short-format music, film and entertainment content on-demand, and it's updated daily.
Converse Made By You is hidden away in the Content section of the Converse website. It's worth searching out, though, as the product is completely unique: user-generated 24 second films inspired by the classic Chuck Taylor All-Star shoe.
From today's Technology Guardian...
A YouGov survey of more than 15000 people has found that the average internet user spends 23 hours a week or 50 days a year online.
If 8 hours sleep a night are factored into that measure, then by my calculations Digital Natives are growing up in a world where they can expect to spend around 20% of their lives connected to the interweb.
On the subject of YouGov, check out their Mobile Life Report 2006 to see how growing up with mobile phones is impacting on the lives of Diginatives.
For those that enjoyed Mark Prensky's essay, here's another essay that he wrote in 2001, which provides scientific support for the digital native/digital immigrant distinction.
And here's his 2004 follow-up to Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants, which is entitled 'The Emerging Online Life of the Digital Native'.
Check out this diginative's eye view of ambient marketing - a warning shot to marketers who think they can own the streets:
As a startpoint, it might be useful to analyse the concept that inspired this eponymous blog. What is a so-called 'digital native' and where did the term come from?
Marc Prensky's 2001 essay entitled 'Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants' is considered to be the first use of the term - essential background reading for anyone interested in marketing to digi-savvy young consumers.
