Stoke This

Web design is a very tricky thing. It is by far the fastest evolving creative medium on the planet. In less than 10 years, we went from using tables to organize our website layouts to creating multi-dimensional, immersive, and interactive website layouts.  This award-winning website by Fox Home Entertainment is an excellent example of how far we have come.  They created this stunning HTML5 parallax scrolling site, which takes a tour behind-the-scenes of how some of ‘Life of Pi’s’ most amazing moments came to be.

Parallax scrolling is the latest trend in the web design world and for good reason.  The effect creates a sensation of depth (3D) and a much more interesting browsing experience. 

Get your scrolling finger ready and click on the link below to experience this engaging site: http://journey.lifeofpimovie.com/

~ Walid Elshahed, Web Designer, The S3 Agency 

This ad from Vodafone – “The Kiss” – simply sucks you in for a minute:30. Gorgeously crafted, it’s a beautiful expression of love. What an amazing way to elevate the message of a plan offering limitless talk & text. Props to the agency (Grey in London) for coming up with it – and to the client for approving it. ~ @AdvertGirl

“THIS VIDEO HAS HOW MANY VIEWS?!” is a phrase normally screamed while watching Psy’s “Gangnam Style” YouTube video. Straight from South Korea, Psy brought his Gangham Style to YouTube, and has showed over 1.5 billion viewers his flair for dance.

Dubbed the “King of YouTube” by media, Psy is ready to repeat his success with his new music video “Gentleman”.

Gentleman, which was released on April 13^th, has already broken the record for the most watched video on YouTube in one day. Although the video might be a bit on the crude side, there is no denying that Psy’s 15 minutes of fame might last a little longer than we may have originally believed.

Oh. He plays Candy Crush Saga.

Sigh.

~ Matt DiCiero, @themattchuchu & Social Media Coordinator, The S3 Agency

Who knew Target was 50 years old?

The fashionable discount retailer celebrated their golden anniversary last year in style – with beautiful designs. From coasters and invites to the actual bricks from their first store, this campaign delivers amazing, authentic, retro visuals and gorgeous typography. These tasteful designs helped make the anniversary matter more to customers – and to art directors (I’m both). To see more, click here.

Cheers to 50 years!

~ Mike Kolatac, Sr. Art Director, The S3 Agency

Last weekend’s Mad Men episode featured Don and Peggy in an agency showdown, competing for the Heinz Ketchup business. Not surprisingly, both campaigns were strong. While neither shop walked away with the business – Heinz ended Heinz ended up going with a bigger shop – it was clear that the client was buying in more to Peggy’s campaign, which featured the product front and center. 

The giant bottle atop blocked type declaring “Heinz. The Only Ketchup.” is bold. But does it evoke appetite appeal, the emotion that comes with seeing delicious food photography, or the taste we all know that can only come from the mixing of a great ketchup with comfort food like French Fries or a burger? THAT’S the angle Don went with – choosing not to show the product at all. 

That absence of the product makes us yearn for it – to be in the ad and, more importantly, in our hands / on our plates / in our mouths. Which is why Peggy’s concept was darn good – but Don’s was greatness.

Heinz actually reaped some modern benefits from this 1960s creative shootout, with social consumption jumping 25%! Now if only they would actually run “Don’s” ad campaign. THAT would get people talking (and buying ketchup)…

~ @AdvertGirl

In fact, the new “Love Your Color” ad from Valspar paints stands out – quite the opposite effect one might expect from camouflaging chameleons. The adorable color-changing, color-enthusiast chameleon couple (say that five times fast!) won me over right away. As “Jon and Val” shop for their living room paint colors, their easily relatable human characteristics make you almost forget that they’re not people. Instead, the focus is on new paint colors and the clever way those colors are brought to life with these spokesanimals of a different color.

~ Ashley Waitts, Graphic Designer/ Production Artist, The S3 Agency

Recently YouTube rolled out some major changes to the the layout of their Brand Channels. The newer, less visually pleasing design is called, “One Channel”. 

Instead of having multiple areas for brands to program and design, the layout only allows a single upload panel (along with the brand’s profile image). The layout is unmistakably similar to Facebook’s layout and is obviously intentional.

“OLD” YouTube BRAND CHANNEL LAYOUT

Here we have an example of the “old” YouTube layout – which allowed brands to create user friendly social & web buttons that were fully linkable.

NEW YouTube BRAND CHANNEL LAYOUT

Now, as you can see in this example from Nike, social buttons are relegated to a tiny piece of real estate on the lower right hand corner of the banner image.

The reason for the change is simple… YouTube wanted to create a single layout format . The layout is also more television friendly, as more and more consumers are accessing YouTube through gaming and Blue Ray consoles.

For now, brands are not required to use the new layout – but chances are, a couple years from now we will all be looking back fondly on the ‘Old’ YouTube Brand Channel.

~ Jaime Hamel, Digital Strategist, The S3 Agency

The latest installment of Dove’s mission to encourage positive self-image in real women has gotten a lot of attention this week. For a three minute video ad posted on YouTube this week, Dove hired a forensic sketch artist and had him sketch women based on their own self-descriptions and then sketch them again based on the description of strangers who didn’t know the women.

The results, and the women’s reactions to them, were pretty powerful, highlighting the fact that women are almost always their own harshest critic. The public’s reaction has also been strong: 19 million views so far in the first week. See it for yourself:

From their Real Women ad campaign to their video that went viral a couple of years ago showing the process that took a model from drab to fab, Dove has been doing a fantastic job over the years of staying true to that core message of appreciating real beauty through various advertising and social media efforts.

~ Ali Gogarty, Account Supervisor, The S3 Agency

As many brands have no doubt reminded you, today is Earth Day. Here’s my pick for best branded social media graphical meme that truly ties in…from Good Earth Tea. (Full disclosure: this is a client of my agency. But it really is my favorite!) ~ @AdvertGirl