February 16, 2007

Dancing Hands from Guinness Hands

I came across this intriguing make-your-own-video promotion for Guinness beer called Guinness Hands. [Via Random Culture]

Guinness is jumping-on the user-generated media craze by encouraging visitors to create a short video that features your selection of hand gestures with your choice of a soundtrack. Stop motion animation is used to create a compelling effect.

I'd like to see this type of animation used for linking together a series of dance moves.

I created my own movie on Guiness Hands called "Dancing Hands."

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January 31, 2007

Virgin's Fresh Footwork Campaign

Adrants in "Ballerina Goes Noir in Virgin's Fresh Footwork" links to Virgin Money's "Yes Campaign." Watch the Flash video for "Fresh Footwork" and click "Yes" to proceed to next section:

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January 10, 2007

Sanex Choreographs European TV Ad Campaign

To promote its skincare products in Europe, Sanex worked with Cuban dancer and choreographer Alex Verona to create a captivating TV ad campaign that features 100 nude dancers that "visually portray the natural processes of healthy, active skin."

On Sanex's "Living Skin" site, you can watch the first of the pan-European TV ads, see behind-the-scenes video footage of the making of the ads and view a photo gallery.

Here are screen shots from the TV ad:

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April 24, 2006

Crossing Flash Mobs and Site-Specific Performances

What would happen if you crossed a site-specific dance performance with a flash mob? I'm not sure, but you'd probably generate a large, engaged audience.

A flash mob is when a group of people -- who may or may not know each other -- use the Internet to arrange a public gathering to perform a specific act that takes place at a specific time and location. A dance flash mob would be when a group of dancers agree to meet at a designated location to dance for a few minutes and then disappear into the crowd. Here's an example of an Argentine Tango flash dance mob in Vancouver:

Or a more recent example of a flash mob took place at the University of Florida earlier this month to recreate a banned Xbox TV commercial that never aired. Here's the bizarre video of this recreation on YouTube:

The above flash mob is based upon a commercial that Microsoft never ran probably because of the excessive simulated violence -- just about everybody in the video is pointing their fingers at others as if they are going to blow each other's heads off. You can watch the original commercial:

What I find interesting is that within 12 days almost 50,000 people watched this University of Florida flash mob, which gives you an idea of what types of videos are most popular on YouTube -- ones that are inane, silly and meaningless. But I still think that there is some value that can be taken from this video and its success.

What is it about flash mobs that intrigue people? Why do people participate in flash mobs? Why do others want to watch videos flash mobs? I think it has to do with the compelling nature of spontaneous collective action. It's also an intriguing premise to consider how digital communication tools can be leveraged to bring strangers together within a very short time-frame to act in unison.

I was thinking about flash mobs when I came across a write-up on the Networked Performance blog for the upcoming Sitelines 2006 series of site-specific performances that is organized by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. You can view a map mashup that shows the locations for all of the performances:

The program kicks-off in Early May with a performance by Benoit Maubrey's Audio Ballerinas, which features dancers that wear "electro-acoustic clothes and dresses that make sounds by interacting with their environment."

I haven't figured out the answer to my opening question about the end result of crossing site-specific dance performances and flash mobs. But there must be something fun and intriguing that can be created - especially when you start with an outside performance by a technology clad dance troupe. So I ask you: how would you add a flash mob component to this performance to get more people involved and build greater levels of excitement and interest around this event?

Technorati Tags: dance, flashmob, performance, xbox, youtube

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April 10, 2006

Product Placement and E-Commerce Technology Offer New Career Opportunities for Dancers

PersonalScreen Media, a new producer of TV programming for the Internet, has introduced technology that enables viewers to get instant access to products, clothing and other items featured within a show. As you watch a show online, you can click on a dress, for example, get a pop-up screen that provides the details and purchase the dress through an integrated e-commerce system.

Click for Larger Image

I think that this type of integrated product placement and e-commerce functionality offers some great opportunities for dancers. Even though this market is very new, it strikes me that dance offers advertisers and retailers a quick and effective way to grab the attention of multi-tasking and easily-distracted Internet users.

You can learn more about PersonalScreen Media in an article in this morning's edition of ClickZ.

For more dance-specific possibilities for integrated e-commerce and product placement, read two recent stories I've written:

- "Nike Offers Marketing Campaign Featuring Hip Hop Dance Video" - Here's an impressive online marketing campaign that features a dance video, a breakdown of dance steps and the ability to buy the clothing worn by the dancers. ClickZ also has a recent article that provides background on the creation of this online Nike campaign.

Dance Video

- "Emerging Digital Dance Careers": In November I wrote about new career opportunities for dancers in the online world. One of the areas I discussed was product placement and a video ad from Nordstrom's that features the Go-Go's. Viewers can watch the video and buy the featured clothing and accessories.

Technorati Tags: ads, audition, career, dance, e-commerce, marketing, video

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March 13, 2006

Dancing Up a Storm with Gene Kelley

I enjoyed watching a mechanical umbrella performance done to "Singing in the Rain" designed by installation artist Peter William Holden (via Boing Boing).

Busby Berkeley choreographed dancers to mimic the motions of machines and modern inventions. “AutoGene” is the flipside of this. It’s a simple aesthetic looking robot composed of eight modified umbrellas mounted in a circular pattern. A cocktail of air hoses and electrical cables join these umbrellas to a central computer which enables “AutoGene” to produce a choreographed dance which erodes the machine's mechanical qualities.

And if you want more Singing in the Rain, watch this hip-hop dance take on this famous song in a Volkswagon TV commercial.

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Momix Dancers in Hanes Ad

Rachel Feinerman at Downtown Dancer writes post, "Momix and Hanes," that links to TV ad featuring Momix dancers. (When you get to the ad page, you have to click on the image of "Women's Comfortsoft TV").

Click for Larger Image

Rachel writes:

I have always wondered why ad agencies didn’t run after dance companies to use in ads and commercials and now I just caught the Momix dance company in a Hanes commercial.

I think that there may be an increase in the number of dancers featured in TV ads - I think it's great opportunity for dancers and advertisers. I especially like the online interactive campaigns where the dancers wear the clothes or other merchandise of an advertiser and website visitors can buy these items on the spot. This is what I wrote about last week in my post about a Nike ad that features a dance video, a break-down of moves and the ability to buy the featured clothing on the spot.

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March 8, 2006

Nike Offers Marketing Campaign Featuring Hip Hop Dance Video

Nike has created a Flash-based website, Nike Women, that features the latest hip-hop video from Rihanna, a breakdown of the dance moves from choreographer Jamie King and a "Shop the Video" section to buy the featured clothing.

Dance Video

I like this type of integrated marketing promotion. It's better than product placement in a movie because in the case of the Nike Women site, you can watch the video and buy the dance clothing off the dancer's back even before the video is over.

Breaking Down the Moves

It's interesting to see how they teach the hip hop moves. All they do is demonstrate each move once followed by doing the move in tempo. Not much time to figure it out, but you can push the pause button at any time. But even if you don't like the way they break-down the moves, it's still fun to watch because the video quality is better than anything else I've seen in the realm of online dance instruction.

Buying the Dance Clothing

I found the Nike Women site in a post on Adrants.

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December 6, 2005

Pepsi Samba Online Dance Competition

Pepsi in Australia is promoting its tropical cola drink Pepsi Samba via an online dance competition where participants upload their short dance videos to win cash and other prizes. On the site you can vote for the best and worst videos of the day, upload your own clips, play a dance game and download wallpaper and screensavers. Plus, you can download ringtones and wallpaper for your cell phone.

What I like about this site is the strong focus on interactivity and user involvement. Everything is designed to encourage people to participate. I think that fostering this type of interaction is the best way to brand a product online. Plus, if you feature a bottle of Pepsi Samba in your dance video, you can win even more cash.

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November 18, 2005

Advertisers Embrace Dancing

Here are two fun advertisements that feature dancing characters - one a dancing Doughboy and the other a dancing Citroen:

I came across the Pillsbury Dancin' Doughboy on Leigh Witchel's dance blog.

The Dancin' Doughboy is a Flash animation that allows you to create your own dance routine by selecting moves and choosing your song. As Rachel Feinerman from Downtown Dancer says in comment to Leigh's post this Flash application is similar to The Ellen Degeneres Dance Maker. But unfortuneatly, it doesn't seem like this Dance Maker game is still available. Here's the post I wrote about it in October: "Bust A Move with Ellen Degeneres".

The second dancing ad is for the Citroen C4. This is also a Flash animation that features a video of a Citroen C4 transformed into a robotic dancer. The dancer deserves credit for a solid stretching regime before initiating its dance routine. It's fun to watch. (To watch ad click link on bottom left that reads "See the TV Ad")

The following screen shot from Citroen ad is from Car Pages.

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October 6, 2005

Bust A Move with Ellen Degeneres

American Express features Ellen Degeneres in a dancing-themed TV commercial and interactive Flash animation.

The Ellen Degeneres Dance Maker let's you combine your choice of dance moves into your own choreographed dance composition - all the dance moves feature Degeneres.

(By the way, when you reach the Dance Maker page, you may have to click on an arrow that you'll see to the left of Ellen's head on the left side of the page. Then, click on the rotating crystal ball to start the Dance Maker).

To get started, you drag your choice of dance moves to the bottom row and click on the single song to slect an audio track. Then, click "Bust a Move" and you're ready to watch your personalized dance piece. If you think you've created a masterpiece, you can submit your dance combination to Ellen.

You can also watch the accompanying American Express dance commercial also featuring Ellen Degeneres. The commercial closes with Degeneres saying, "I like dancing to my own tune." I like the tie-in with the overall theme of this American Express promotion. You get to decide which dance moves to add to your final dance piece just like you get to decide how to use your AmEx card.

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September 20, 2005

Dancing in the Changing Room

Gap clothing has an amusing Shockwave site called "Watch Me Change". You can watch either an annimated man or woman dancing while changing clothes. It's fun and silly. I came across this Gap site in a July post on Tom Higgins' Blog.

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September 15, 2005

Dance with Cingular and iTunes

To promote its new cell phone that integrates Apple's iTunes software to play songs, Cingular has launched the Make Me Dance website.

They've created a fun Flash application (click "Make Me Dance" on their site) that lets you choose a dancer, drag a song to a Cingular phone, and then watch the dancer keep beat with the music.

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