Cellphones To Control The Times Square Billboards

Using only his cellphone, Adi Isakovic, a Toronto based entrepreneur, will attempt to control a Times Square billboard this Thursday night.


Isakovic will be putting his company’s technology to the test in front a typical Times Square audience, hundreds of thousands strong. Mr. Isakovic’s company, TubeMote, aims to let people use their phones as universal remotes simply by signing up for the service, allowing them to control not only their televisions and home security systems, but also public screens on stadium scoreboards and possibly, Time’s Square billboards. The service is compatible with iPhone, Android, Blackberry and Windows phones.

The billboard space has been rented for 8pm this Thursday, on the 5,000-square-foot screen at West 47th Street and Seventh Avenue. In a watershed moment for his company, this demonstration will show exactly what his technology can do.

New Wieden & Kennedy Campaign Owes Much to Dos Equis' 'Most Interesting Man'




NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- The "Most Interesting Man in the World" has met his match. Well, not really (that's impossible) but Heineken's "The Entrance" is the cornerstone of a new web campaign from Weiden & Kennedy that topped the Viral Chart last week with more than 2 million views.


The 90-second video, featuring a man with over-the-top timing and grace, is supported by several others that give humorous back stories to the scene: "Kung Fu Comback," "The Man with the Eye Patch," "The Perfect Gift" ... you get the idea.

Also new to the chart is another spot, or more accurately a mini-movie, for Lego called "Brick Thief," a sequel of sorts to "Lego Cl!ck" launched almost exactly a year ago, and also created by Pereira & O'Dell. Maybe it's me, but these videos seem incredibly high-budget for something made for the web, a sign of the growing importance of this kind of brand marketing.

The third newcomer was National Geographic Magazine's "7 Billion," a three-minute video promoting a year-long project on global population growth.

NEW YORK BY SONY WALKMAN

Thanks to Apple and its superior design, marketing, advertising and, well, anything else to do with creating and selling a product, most other global communications brands have languished in a kind of brand-image purgatory. Sony is fighting back with this great campaign created by Saatchi & Saatchi Sydney, helmed by art director Eron Broughton. The agency took Sony's earphones and literally mapped out the New York subway system, mimicking a traditional subway map. It's a simple idea but powerful in its execution, giving Sony a much-need dose of coolness. At last, other brands are thinking outside of the square. Now all Sony needs to do is apply that principle to its actual products. Innovate or die, guys.