Last weekend this larger than life outdoor ad – excuse us for the poor quality of the recording – was projected on the Beurs van Berlage, a historic building in the centre of Amsterdam, to promote Samsung’s new 3D LED TV. After the screening, the audience could experience 3D on a real ‘miniature’ Samsung TV. The event was spread online, through YouTube, Foursquare and Twitter (#Samsung3Devent). When logged in on Foursquare during the event, you could win a 3D TV. And on June 1st the projection will be part of a YouTube take-over. The ad, created by Muse and media agency Starcom (part of Publicis), made us eager to experience 3D TV at home. But as the pay-off “Turn on tomorrow” already suggests, we might have to wait a while, since it will take a long time before your average sitcom will be broadcasted in 3D. Just as it will take a fair amount of time before we can fully enjoy Philips’ intensively advertised 21:9 standard. And though we never watch sitcoms and know that movies are a lot quicker to adopt these standards, we don’t want to pay the premium prices for this ‘TV of the future’ – being an innovator is quite an expensive hobby. But that doesn’t matter, really, cause we love the ad and from now on will remember Samsung as an innovative brand.

Earlier we wrote about Amsterdam zoo Artis activating its youngest target to communicate with André Kuipers who is in space at the moment – “Engaging advertising in its truest form” we called it. Samsung is doing something similar. Just like Artis the rapidly growing mobile phone manufacturer wants to send out a message to Kuipers into space – “to thank him for all the beautiful pictures he shared with us from outer space.” In the case film Natasso – a Spanish street artist – asks the consumer to share a Facebook image and from all the images collected (about 50,000) a huge mosaic will be made that can be seen from Kuipers station in space. Since some extra exposure doesn’t hurt, the image is made close to Schiphol so that the airplanes visiting and leaving Amsterdam can also see it. We like the idea of creating a huge message that can be seen from space, but wonder why the artwork has already been made before the campaign starts. In other words, why does Samsung need the Dutch consumer for this? And what’s the difference for André Kuipers? Created by Cheil Benelux (Samsung’s dedicated agency) and Kong.

Update: according to Kong the artwork is not ready yet, so the picture used is hypothetical…

Muse created an ad, or rather a contest, using the app ‘Draw Something’. The one who will make the best drawing of My Little Pony – or whatever the game asks you to draw – gets to do a creative internship at Muse. The copy is a bit clunky (“In advertising a message should be as clear as possible. We’re looking for interns who own this skill”?), so maybe they should have searched for an intern with writing skills, but we like the animation and using an existing social game app to recruit an intern is quite a smart idea.

Yet another cool online activational piece of advertising by KLM, created by Ice Mobile; the KLM Passport app, an app that turns traveller’s journeys into movies. This film, developed by Muse, shows more or less how it works: you choose a theme (adventure, around the world, island hopping, in the snow, etc.), select the best pictures and videos on your iPhone taken during your trip, and the app creates a need little movie. It all looks very smooth. The only downside of the concept is that most people still use a camera instead of their phone to collect travel memories, so the question is how many people will actually use it seriously. Nevertheless it shows once again that KLM understands that travelling is more than just buying a plane ticket.

Not so long ago you at least needed talent to become famous. Even if you looked as unattractive as Paul Pott or Susan Boyle, your voice had to get people’s attention. Today you don’t even need the voice anymore. In fact, even if you can’t playback properly, you’ll get your 15 minutes of fame. Take Keenan Cahill. He has become world famous by playbacking 50 Cent, Katy Perry and David Guetta. And now Samsung – or more correctly agency Muse – hires him to sell the new Smart TV. Since this new TV gives access to the internet, we understand that Samsung wanted to use a YouTube celeb – though we would have tried to find something more attractive. The idea is to have consumers participate in a ‘stare battle’ with Cahill – through your webcam – on a special YouTube channel, during which he distractingly explains the special Smart TV features. For the occasion he also recorded a video in which he ‘sings’ De La Soul’s “Me Myself and I” without blinking once. That is, he blinks at 0:13, but, as said, it doesn’t require much skill to become famous nowadays.

We’re big fans of WeTransfer; a service that allows you to transfer big files for free. We like the clean site and are impressed by its business model; it simply sells wallpapers as advertising. And though the ads cover your entire screen, they’re not intrusive at all, cause WeTransfer only allows stylishly branded images – rotating every 45 seconds. With this game, built by Samsung and promoting the 3D LED Monitor, WeTransfer has taken things one step further. When you click on the pair of glasses (see picture), you become part of a first-person shooter and have to perform some simple tasks like reloading your rifle and spotting a terrorist with your binoculars. The game is not that special, but we like the fact that WeTransfer made it subtly ‘on demand’, instead of in your face.