This is product placement 2.0. A second screen app that turns product placement into a game. Developed by Achtung! for the new RTL drama series Divorce, about three guys who share an appartment, because they are all in the middle of a divorce. The game is simple; whenever you see Volkswagen car keys on TV (the protagonists all drive Volkwagen), you got to tap a virtual hand on your second screen. If timed right, the key appears in the virtual hand. This way you can collect them to win a Volkswagen Beetle. In the first three episodes – with an average of 1.6 million viewers – 20,000 viewers played the game. Smart innovation. Technical execution by B-Lex.

LG asked Perfect Fools to show the consumer that “the best things in life are better in 3D”. So the agency picked up a platform that is “universal, loved and fun,” namely Facebook, and turned it 3D. The new application enables you to see your newsfeed in 3D. Since everything nowadays needs to be turned into video – because we’re too busy and lazy to try out apps and because video is easier to seed – it was beta trialled among “selected members of the Amsterdam creative community” and filmed. The film is not very interesting, but it at least shows more or less how the app works – saves you a trip into the app. The 3D Facebook newsfeed is the first in a series of 3D creations that Perfect Fools will create for LG. Feedback (like: “Why doesn’t this app use the colour of Facebook’s visual identity?) can be submitted on Facebook. The goal of this all is that whenever you think of 3D, you think of LG. Makes sense.

For those of you who don’t know who the characters in this picture are; Frank Rijkaard and Rudi Völler. The only reason we can think of for choosing them as the icons of this Euro2012 penalty kick app (both on mobile and Facebook), is that Rijkaard spit Völler in the hair during the World Cup 1990 – which was, to say the least, not very chique. In other words, for some, they are the epitome of Dutch-German football rivalry. The app allows the Dutch and Germans to take penalties against each other. For every shoot out, a Dutch player is linked to a German player – via a complicated back-end that ensures a similar experience as playing with your Playstation Network. Quite impressively 45,000 players already played 210,000 penalty shoot-outs. So far Holland is leading with 115,000 against 105,000. Oh, and not for forget, you can also win a Volkswagen Up, somehow. Created by Achtung! and built by Superhero Cheesecake.

Lab 1111 created a new iPhone app, called Boodschapp (literally: grocery), which allows you to scan products in Dutch supermarkets (for now just AH, C1000 and Jumbo) and compare them with similar products on price and quality. Out of a total of 16 different parameters (calories, fat, sugar, etc.) the product also receives an overall grade and the intuitive colour green, yellow or red. Lab 1111 worked with an independent team of professional food specialists to make sure the app is reliable. Since there are many different (quasi independent) ‘buy sensible’ logos on packaging nowadays this new ambitious project has the potential to become the overarching new standard.

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.

So that’s what you get when a management consultant hires a digital agency; an ‘Appbook’. The book, titled ‘The Next Ten‘, shows us the expected challenges and opportunities of the coming 10 years by combining old skool press with an iphone (app), to be inserted in the center of the book. Some great Dutch thinkers like Robbert Dijkgraaf (on science), Rem Koolhaas (on architecture), Onno Ruding (on the economy) and Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten (picture) – founder of The Next Web – (on digital media) give their view on the future and provide insights on how our life, work, and the way we interact will change. This fine book was created by Fitzroy in collaboration with Accenture, celebrating its 10th anniversary with its clients.

Last year we were much impressed by Tribal DDB’s work for the Philips Wake-up Light. The agency made an entire village in the Arctic use a Wake-up Light and share their experiences – they even made a documentary about it. This year Philips and Tribal DDB chose to go for the masses; everyone can test the product (for free). That is, not everyone, but a ‘selected’ group of consumers that ‘Like’ the Wake-up Light Facebook fan page. This group can download an app (on iPhone) to register the ease of waking up on a daily basis. You can also simply do a quiz to find out whether you are a “Morning person” – or a ‘zombie’, ‘grump’, ‘early bird’, etc. Apparently the proof of this product is really in the eating. But it fascinates us that even though this product feels scientifically sound, it is so hard for Philips to make everyone use it. That is, we’ve never come across one except in Tribal DDB’s campaigns. Is it the price of the product (around €100)? The appearance maybe? Or are consumers simply conservative by nature? Probably a bit of each. Anyway, compared to the Wake-up light itself, Tribal DDB has done everything possible to make things look attractive. The film was produced by Mini Vegas and Revolver Media. The animations were done by Keytoon Animation Studio and the website was built by MediaMonks.

This film for Ben promotes a website that allows you to dance with Bashir. The webcam application that recognizes your dance movements was built by SuperHeroes and based on the commercial ‘Ben & Bashir’ by KesselsKramer – directed by Mijke de Jong. In the KK commercial Bashir throws his mobile phone away. When it comes back like a boomerang he catches it again – don’t ask us why, but it follows up a series of commercials released in September, last year. The dance app is very techy and smartly made, but we were also left wondering what Ben is trying to sell us here.

Supermarket Albert Heijn (AH) has added yet another feature to its app; voice recognition. You can add groceries to your list by simply saying the words. As with the previous update of the app, AH is hiding some Easter eggs in the app (‘grappies’ – meaning jokes); this time products with musical connotations – ‘boodschappen wijsjes’. We’ve recorded the ‘drumsticks’ for you – there’s also bietjes (phonetically ‘beats’), popcorn, and nootjes (meaning nuts and ‘notes’). When you’ve found them all you can see them  perform together on AH’s website. There you can also create your own ‘grappie’ and win an iPad. Created by Muse.

The ‘My Baby & Me’ app made for Philips’ sub brand Avent can help you keep a log of your baby’s growth, weight, sleep, and feeding. The app also allows moms to upload photos, register milestones – like first time crawling – and gives practical tips. Here you can see the instruction film. With this new app, created by Muse and Ice Mobile, Philips is yet another step closer to the simplicity in its own pay-off ‘Sense & Simplicity’. It shows that Philips (finally) understands the importance of intuitive software that enhances the functionality of its hardware. Welcome to the future of consumer electronics.