by Evan Johnston, Phenomblue interactive developer

Sometimes when we talk about going the distance for our clients, we mean it literally. This past weekend, I was tasked with the all-important job of flying out to Chicago for a day to help deliver and set up a Microsoft Surface project for one of our clients at the annual Digestive Disease Week trade show. This annual event is slated as the world’s largest gathering for physicians and researchers in the gastroenterology, hepatology, endoscopy and gastrointestinal surgery specialties, so we were stoked to have one of our projects on display. I was especially interested to learn that around 65 percent of the attendees were international, meaning the application would be viewed by people from all over the world.

How did the likes of a Phenomblue developer end up at an event for doctors from all over the world? It was the result of months of involved planning and execution in which we provided our client with both an immersive and interactive experience, all built to run on Microsoft’s Surface multi-touch technology.

During the conference, the event attendees would be guided through a 3D experience on the Surface mediated by an actor. The application allowed the mediator to navigate around several different environments using only gesture-based interaction and object recognition. The physical objects were used to simulate the introduction of food and as an avenue for the drug to be administered into the system.

So back to the actual trip. I arrived at the convention center, and the first thing that I see is a shuttle bus with a giant advertisement for the same drug that we wrote the application for. Not only that, I also learned there was a video spot running on the bus TVs, so this was no small campaign. Once I got registered as an exhibitor, it was pretty easy to find the booth to set up the app in: it was a giant 30-foot stomach.

Although the Surface units took up a small part of the entire exhibit, they were main focal points actually set up inside of the replica stomach. For the event, there were two units running side-by-side housed inside of custom stands constructed for this event. Along with the stands, there were domed speakers positioned directly above each unit to help direct the sound downward to the audience.

The setup went smoothly, and the only real issue was with the stands. One of the main considerations when building a stand for a Surface unit is ventilation, as the units put out a good amount of heat. Once a couple of modifications were made to each of the stands — I suggested we drill more holes for ventilation to prevent crashes from overheating— we were back up and running.

Overall, the experience was a very good one and a successful end to many months of hard work for all parties involved. It was very exciting to be involved with a large product launch that would be viewed by individuals from all over the world.

Check out one of our latest projects, a portion of the web site for a leading soft drink. We crafted an immersive brand experience that takes place in the kitchen, designing a modern yet lived-in 3D environment and interactive Flash elements to engage consumers in the experience. Images, video and a case study can be found on www.phenomblue.com.

Remember back in April when we opened the window for summer interns? For only four hours? We were looking for artists, technologists and dreamers. And we got quite the response, with a flood of applicants from all different majors and career paths. We read each application and each entry. Some made us laugh, some made us see things differently, and some made us confused. At the end of the process, two candidates stood out as the combination of artist/technologist/dreamer for this summer’s internship program: Laurin, a marketing major at Creighton University, and Kelsey, a digital design student at the University of Cincinnati.

We are super stoked for both of them to join the Phenomblue team for the summer and expect lots of learning during their time here: both from us and by us. We treat internships as more than a cheap and easy way to get a hot cup of coffee. To us, having interns is as much about our learning as it is theirs. Phenomblue interns aren’t nameless, faceless students killing time here; they’re active participants who help us create interactive brand experiences for some of the nation’s biggest brands. You know the saying about students being the future? We totally agree, and we’re excited to share our expertise, passion and geekdom about tech and advertising with the professionals of tomorrow.

We <3 interactive design/development, and several of our talented interactive developers will be taking that passion with them to 360|Flex next week in Indianapolis. The conference is community focused and brings the best of the Flex community together to share tales, tips and tech know-how on a large scale. Two Phenombluers will be sharing their expertise with sessions during the conference.

Lead interactive developer Ryan Phelan will take to the stage on May 20 with Bending and Flexing, a session about using Adobe’s Pixel Bender technology to trick out applications with limitless effects and transitions. Have you ever wondered about writing pixel shaders with the Pixel Bender Toolkit and integrating them into Flex? Bringing your shaders to life using Flex effects library? Leveraging Pixel Bender’s processing power for non-visual computations? Then Bending and Flexing is a must-attend.

“Pixel Bender was just something I’ve been experimenting with ever since it came out, and I’m interested in finding practical applications for it in Flex projects. It’s still a pretty new technology so there is a lot of room for innovation,” he said. Expect lots of demos and open source code to play with as Ryan shares his Pixel Bender experiments and expertise.

For perspective and best practices on the process side of development, plan to attend Phenomblue CEO Joe Olsen’s session on building a scalable interactive process. Joe’ll focus on building a process that supports the highly collaborative nature of RIA development in today’s market. Looking at Phenomblue’s model as an example, he’ll talk about identifying the right candidates, building a process that supports the development, and ultimately, how to concept, execute, and deliver cutting-edge interactive experiences. The session is geared toward small to mid-size interactive shop executives, producers and development leadership. In Joe’s words, creativity is the fuel, but process is the engine.

Can’t make it to the sessions? Unable to attend 360|Flex? Follow Ryan and Joe on Twitter and check out their blogs (www.rphelan.com and  www.interactivejoyride.com) for thoughts on their session topics and tons more.

There’s been a lot of buzz for Big Omaha this week, and as a supporter of the event, we are stoked that it’s almost here. In case you don’t know why we think Big Omaha is such a big deal, check out what our CEO Joe had to say about it on his blog.

But we’re more than just fans of Big Omaha; we’re actively participating in it. Several of us will be attending, and we’ll also be debuting a new Surface application we developed and designed. Big Omaha attendees will be able to check out and interact with the program tomorrow on site at the event. Like all our previous Surface apps, this one is built for multi-user interaction and we added an additional interactive element by syncing it to Twitter.

Curious? Stop by Big Omaha, search #BigOmaha on Twitter and keep an eye out for updates from @phenomblue and the Phenomblue crew tomorrow.

More than 35,000 people sat eager to hear from world’s second richest person Warren Buffet at the annual Berkshire Hathaway shareholders meeting in Omaha this Saturday. Phenomblue shared more with the event than headquarters location. The meeting included a video that featured animations by our director of creative operations Jimm Wagner.

In the video, a salesperson gives Buffet a sales pep talk on making the biggest sales of the year every week. The salesperson scans the showroom floor to locate a customer Buffet can sell to. The visual scan needed a futuristic effect, much like a computer’s targeting system that scans an environment and analyzes the data and individuals detected, which is something that Jimm’s skills and experience in VFX and animation could make a reality.

Having your work viewed by more than 35,000 people in person at once? Not too shabby for a Saturday morning!

This spring, we’re celebrating our fifth anniversary and five great years of growth, awesome work and stellar people.

Phenomblue was created in 2004 by Joe Olsen and Jimm Wagner. (Joe’s now our CEO and Jimm’s our director of creative operations.) The two had met years before working at Vente Inc., a firm specialized in gathering consumer data for e-mail marketing. They wanted to do something fun with their skills while working for themselves and joined forces as Phenomblue, initially as a VFX shop. Two years in, the opportunity arose to do development work in addition to the design for the sleep drug Rozerem. This super successful project earned us a name in the market as shop for both great development and design. A few projects later, and we were at the leading edge of the Internet’s transformation from an information network to a major media and entertainment medium.

So 1,824 days later, the dedication, creativity and skills are still thriving but some things have changed. The biggest difference since Phenomblue’s inception is a change in focus from 3D animation to software engineering, a change that’s allowed us to be involved in some B-I-G branding projects. In fact, we work on more major brands annually than every advertising agency in Omaha combined. Joe credits Phenomblue’s growth and success to vision, risk and hard work.

“I think to succeed in our business, you’ve got to have a vision, risk everything on that vision and then work your ass off to get there,” he said.

What can you expect from us in the next five years? Phenomblue will continue to be bigger, broader more badass. And as we celebrate this milestone, we also are super grateful and appreciative of all of you who have played a part in the past five years and into our future. Now who brought the birthday cake?

At last night’s Technology Celebration Banquet, we were recognized by the AIM Institute as Technology Company of the Year. CEO Joe Olsen accepted the award on behalf of the Phenomblue team, several of who were in attendance.

The award is reserved for an outstanding technology company for excellence in innovation, revenue, product/project deployment, continuing education programs, community service and strategic partnerships with area firms and educational institutions.

Phenomblue was selected for our work with many companies within the community to provide cutting-edge IT solutions and for bringing untold amounts of business into the city from all over the country.

Thanks to the AIM Institute, Infotec and all of our clients, partners and supporters!

After our team’s killer win at the Miami PhizzPop Design Challenge, our team was set to take on the challenge for the finals in Austin during SXSW. Just one week after competing in Miami, the final challenge was announced, and our team of Jason Bejot, Tom Duggin and Ryan Phelan went to work.

This time, the challenge centered around creating a more sustainable Austin, incorporating a web application, desktop application, public installation and mobile application. After researching the Austin community and some productive brainstorming, the team came up with Core: a community-based initiative that provides the information, resources and action plans that will enable and empower people to make the fundamental decisions and lifestyle changes for living greener lives.

The team created a challenge — the Austin100 — to engage Austinites in the Core community. The people of Austin have 100 days to earn 100 points by making green lifestyle choices for a chance at 100 prizes. The Austin 100 utilized a web application to register and manage your account and points, and Microsoft Tag technology was implemented to simplify logging the green behaviors. A mobile application was also incorporated to encourage and facilitate ride sharing. A public installation enabled the Austin community to track the community’s progress using real-time data visualization. Finally, the entry included a desktop application to monitor your home’s energy usage in an effort to motivate energy efficiency at home.

While our team didn’t take home the grand prize, the PhizzPop finals was a great exercise in creativity and technical ability. We were excited to compete against some of the industry’s heavy hitters and see what a little friendly competition (and many long nights at the office) could create.<–>

A few of us made the trek to Austin for SXSW Interactive recently, and we brought some of our work with us to show and tell. We debuted Genesis, a new Surface application we designed and developed from the ground up, at the Silverlight/Microsoft demo area several times during the conference to receptive attendees, vendors and conference speakers.

So what’s Genesis? It’s a chroma-depth 3D application that allows users to create their own universe. Add, move and manipulate planets, scatter stars and space particles and create as many suns as you think your universe needs (but watch out for the laser-shooting UFO). As a Surface application, Genesis is controlled by touch, and multiple people can interact simultaneously, making the experience social as well as engaging.

People from both the Interactive and Film festivals stopped by to check it out and to sport the never nerdy 3D glasses. Genesis was a hit with all ages and technology levels: creative directors, developers, filmmakers and SXSW volunteers interacted side-by-side. The intuitive user interface allowed users to quickly get into the experience. Many users got a kick out of the ability to destroy their creations, and we got a lot of questions about how and why we created the program.

We built Genesis to see explore what’s possible with Surface and spark more creative, innovative ideas. We used WPF 3, created a proprietary physics engine, and used a WPF viewport and directional light to rotate and color the planets and suns (which are 3D models).

Genesis is just one of the proofs of concept we’ve been working on — others include the Kyodai Ken Sushi Bar — and we’ve got several in progress or just beginning development for clients. Check out Phenomblue.tv for video on how we’ve explored and pushed the limits with Surface.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

OMAHA, Neb. - For four hours on April 1, 2009, college students can vie for a spot in Phenomblue’s summer 2009 internship program at 040109.phenomblue.com.

Nationally recognized multi-platform digital creation company Phenomblue combines digital design and technology to create experiences that push the boundaries of consumer engagement. They’re looking for technologists, artists and dreamers to apply.

The window to apply for this cutting edge opportunity at one of the nation’s leading interactive shops will only be open from 8 a.m. to noon tomorrow. Those interested just need to visit 040109.phenomblue.com during this timeframe and answer the questions.

– 30 –

This morning at SXSW Interactive, our CEO Joe Olsen participated in a panel called Violating the Warranty on Your Touch-Computing Device with industry leaders from Microsoft, Clarity, VectorForm and Manifest Digital. Our Surface machine made the journey with us to Austin and played a role in the panel as well, demonstrating what touch computing can do.

The panelists discussed how they’re currently using Surface and touch computing, a phase of technology that’s really in just beginning to be explored, implemented and discovered. There isn’t a manual or Cliff’s Notes for developing and designing on Surface, something all the panelists and many of the audience could attest to. And violating the warranty? Joe talked about how working with a new technology means diving in deep and not being afraid to take things apart and even pushing your hardware to its breaking part.

Check back soon for video of the panel.

As a company who values developing and encouraging talent, we’re fortunate to be based where young professionals come together as a community. So we’re excited that our CEO Joe Olsen will be sharing his experience as a young professional at the March 5 Young Professionals Summit in Omaha.

Joe will be presenting a session geared for managers, HR directors and company leaders entitled No One Wants to Work for You. It’s no secret that Omaha is a tough market for retaining talent, and many of the most gifted young professionals move to larger markets seeking work that complements their lifestyles. Developing core values that support the lifestyle and personal growth goals they demand is a key factor in this community’s successful businesses. As a successful leader of many young, creative professionals, Joe will share his experiences and our core value system at Phenomblue as an example of how we’ve addressed this migration from a financial and security focus to a lifestyle support focus.

All of the team here at Phenomblue can attest to the values that Joe will present. With some of the most creative young minds in the advertising industry, the firm is a rising star not solely because of the work we do, it’s the culture of the business that propels our success.

If you can’t make it to the presentation, just give us a shout. We’d be more than happy to share the values that make us happy with you.

At Phenomblue, we’re constantly aware that each project we work on has its own story to tell. It’s a mentality that carries over into other things the team works on, too. Our art director Jonathan Tvrdik flexes his brain outside the Phenomblue office by creating films. These activities hone his composition and technical skills as well as keep him on the cutting edge of new technologies and possibilities.

This weekend, Jonathan’s short film Amerigo the Brave was screened at the Omaha Film Festival to great reviews. A review in The Reader called it the best of the 20 films they screened and listed him (along with Alexander Payne and Dana Altman) as one of Omaha’s best hopes for a homegrown feature film industry.

The film takes place in 1946 Brooklyn and centers on circus owner Amerigo Cortina, his blind wife Josephine and their new star from Germany, Jacob Diefendorf (who Amerigo lets slip may or may not have been a Nazi). It was the first time Tvrdik had entered this film festival.

Congratulations to Jonathan and all involved with this film. This success is proof that the art of storytelling, even in a fiction setting, helps with the business of delivering brand-minded narratives to consumers.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

February 26, 2009

PHENOMBLUE WINS PHIZZPOP MIAMI AND SPOT IN NATIONAL FINALS
OMAHA, Neb. – Omaha-based multi-platform interactive development firm Phenomblue won Microsoft’s PhizzPop Design Challenge, securing a spot in the national championship in Austin in March.

The panel of industry experts including representatives from Facebook and Digg unanimously selected Phenomblue’s team of Jason Bejot, Ryan Phelan and Tom Duggin as the winner for their solution to re-energize and engage the public in the US space program. Phenomblue also received the People’s Choice Award for the event.

“We had a lot of fun with this challenge, and we’re looking forward to getting even more involved with SxSW this year. Five days straight of intense strategic design and development can wear anyone down, and the team proved once again why we are one of the most respected firms in this business,” said Joe Olsen, Phenomblue CEO.

Phenomblue advances ahead of companies like R/GA, HUGE and MOOV Worldwide for their spot in the national finals to compete against other industry leaders including Zeus Jones, Manifest Digital, Vectorform and Archetype. These five final teams will be given the same new business challenge and two weeks and will each present their online solution using Microsoft technology live at the grand finale event on March 16. Details on PhizzPop can be found at www.phizzpop.com.

ABOUT PHENOMBLUE
Phenomblue is a nationally recognized multi-platform digital software creation company where interactive product engineering meets a team of freakishly gifted programmers and creatives. Since 2004, we’ve been the single-source solution for some of the biggest advertising agencies and consumer brands in the world, producing not only cutting-edge interactive but providing a long-term technology partnership solution allowing our clients to grow their interactive business with scalability and profitability. Our veteran team is constantly pushing the envelope, finding that magical intersection where inspiration and technology meet, and working from there to create imaginative, elegant solutions.

— 30 —

At Phenomblue, we pride ourselves on being experts in our fields and beyond. So when the opportunity arises to contribute our knowledge, gain some more expertise and check out the latest in the interactive, we do what we can to make it happen. Many of those opportunities are industry events and conferences, and it just happens that many of the biggies occur from now until the summer. Here’s a glimpse at what — and where — Phenomblue has planned.

CEO Joe Olsen got back from Interaction 09 earlier this month; check out his blog to see what insights he had about the experience. And next week, three of our talented developers go to Miami to compete in the PhizzPop Design Challenge at FOWA. The specifics on the challenge were announced yesterday, so Jason B., Ryan and Tom are hard at work, using their skills in WPF, Silverlight and other Microsoft technology to create the best and most innovative solution.

Next on the schedule is SXSW Interactive in Austin, where we’ll be doing some cool collaborations with Microsoft Surface (hint: we’re working on a couple new applications completely created in-house). Joe will be participating in a panel on the future of multi-touch computing, and he, Brian and Kt will be exploring what’s new in the interactive field and meeting industry leaders and clients.

SXSWi overlaps a day with Microsoft Mix 09 in Las Vegas. Joe and Sean will be at this gathering for web designers and developers to experience new Microsoft technologies. And in May we’ll be at both MicroSoft Tech Ed in Los Angeles and Flex|360 in Indianapolis before heading to Minneapolis in June for Flashbelt 2009.

The timeline may sound a bit daunting, but the team is up to the challenge. For our developers and creatives, getting to explore and share the always changing world we work in is definitely worth risking a bit of jet lag. If you’ll be at any of these events and want to connect with Phenomblue, give us a shout. We’re always looking to make new friends.

A few of the crew are taking Phenomblue on the road to Austin, Texas for SXSW Interactive this March (I may have already starting packing). Not only is this a great opportunity to see and meet our clients and colleagues face-to-face, we see it as a chance to share some of rad things we’re working on back in Omaha.

Our CEO Joe Olsen will be participating in a panel on March 15 called “Violating the Warranty on Your Touch Computing Device”. Pretty cool, right? Simple touch computing is taking the world by storm in desktop, mobile, and environmental computing, and Joe and other industry experts are going to discuss what they’re doing next with Microsoft Surface and other touch computer platforms. Expect these bright stars of interactive to draw inspiration from Star Wars to James Bond and to go beyond the conventional bounds of touch computing. If you’ll be at SXSWi, put this bad boy on your schedule.

Don’t stress, we didn’t forget about those of you who can’t make the trek to Austin. Phenomblue.tv has demos and walkthroughs of one of our favorite multi-touch computers, Microsoft Surface. And take a look at Joe’s blog for more thoughts on the use and future of this technology and a bunch of other cool stuff.

Earlier this week, the Omaha Federation of Advertising invited Phenomblue art director Jonathan Tvrdik and vice president Jimm Wagner to help review portfolios and resumes of advertising, graphic and communications students preparing to enter the ‘real world’ of advertising and design. The three hour event gave aspiring talents the chance to meet one-on-one and ask questions, get advice and learn some of the hidden nuggets of information you can’t learn in school.

The portfolio and resume review gives students constructive criticism from seasoned professionals to improve their books and up their chances of getting the jobs they really want. Jimm and Jonathan sat with the students at a table, one-on-one, to discuss their portfolios, resumes and career goals. Jon brought his expertise in graphic design and art direction to the table, and Jimm tapped into his years of ad agency and interactive experience to give these up-and-comers feedback, tips and a taste of what it takes to succeed in the industry.

So how did this semester’s crop of young hopefuls fare? Keeping in mind that most portfolios came from students only partway through their education, there were a handful of really good ones. Here’s what else Jimm and Jon had to say about the experience and the future talents.

Jimm’s thoughts:

“It was a great experience that I’m looking forward to doing again next time around. It was great to get to work with up-and-coming talent, giving advice that helped them think along lines they hadn’t thought of previously.”

“Many of them had great starts to their work but needed some direction in how to finish off that last 20 percent of a project.”

“It’s interesting to see the difference in talent depending on the school they were from. Some students just had natural talent in certain areas regardless of their curriculum while I think other students suffered based on limits their particular courses may have had.”

Jonathan’s thoughts:

“Many had promising portfolios with signs of true talent and creative voice, going above and beyond those who were there purely out of hobby.”

“An alarming number of the resumes/portfolios were very similar, a direct effect of professors guiding their students in what to do to stand out from the pack. The inverse is the unintentional byproduct, and oddly enough I found myself applauding the one student who wore a suit and tie.”

Thanks to OFA for  inviting us to share the experience and expertise of two of Phenomblue’s brightest.

Our CEO Joe Olsen spent part of last week digging on all things interactive design at the Interaction 09 conference. Here’s some  highlights from his time there and Joe’s take on it all (from Joe’s blog, Interactive Joyride):

This past week I spent a few days at the IxDA’s Interaction 09 conference in Vancouver, BC. Overall, the event was great and the energy was awesome. There were a ton of great presentations, but Robert Fabricant from Frog Design’s keynote was by far the most thought provoking in my mind. Robert did a magnificent job of defining a couple key concepts in design that I want to call out quickly.

First, he referenced the example most people use when describing what “interaction design” is, and that example is typically technological in nature. He expressed his sincere belief that interaction design is not technology. While I agree, I do think that most of the employment interaction designers have and a good majority of their projects are steeped in technology and that most of the time technology can be used as a tangible reference to the interaction designer’s trade value. Again, I think this is another “form vs. function” debate, but either way, the message was heard. He used an ancient pendant as a better example citing the inscribed message, mobility of the medium and cryptic nature of the message as a more relevant use of a technology equivalent. Nice work.

Output, Outcome and Impact
Secondly, he brought up the fact that it’s one thing to design awesomely and another to actually solve the problem. He used the metaphor of “purity balls”, a recently popularized ritual for evangelicals that commits a daughter’s virginity through marriage via a gala and ultimately a written pact with her father. These balls where designed to solve the problem of increased teenage pregnancy among this sect of society. He describes the output of this designed solution as purity balls, rings and contracts with the outcome being an ultimate commitment to celibacy.

Unfortunately, the impact is a steady increase in pregnancy rates. This means the design works on two levels, but not the most important, the impact level. Too many times as designers, we forget to actually go back and measure whether our design had the impact we wanted. The call out here is to make sure your impact is measurable and then do it.

For me, both of these areas bring up an interesting debate about whether you can talk about content without talking about the medium. In most design I think the medium is never sexier than the content, but in technology I think it’s reversed for the majority of the population. This includes most people who pay for design. For instance, many times technology is sexier than interaction design for technology devices; hence I think the line is blurred between the two. I don’t think that’s something you can consciously try to change, that’s just the way it is.

Additionally I think the idea of interaction design is a complex notion for many people, especially as it relates to spending money on sound interaction design. That’s why I think aligning the content with the medium can help sell the idea of sound design, which in all cases helps the cause of good interaction design. So, I would say aligning the interaction design field with mediums like technology in many instances is a good idea.

Also, as a follow-up, check out Frog Design’s homepage. Not technology? What?

Back in October, a great challenge was set forth to the dudes of Phenomblue: grow as much facial hair as possible in two months and then craft the coolest mustache. We developed a website, cashforyourmustache.com, for visitors to track and rate the progress of each participating employee. Voting closed Feb. 1 at noon, and the results are in!

The champion of facial follicle formation, the mustachio master, the sultan of stache is Sean! In second place is Tom, and Jimm rounds out the top three in third place. Check out the winning mustache masterpiece at cashforyourmustache.com.

Our mustaches and the whole crew at Phenomblue thank everyone who checked us out and voted!

In the advertising world, campaigns often have an online and offline version, and most of the time the two don’t interact. For example, you walk by a movie poster with web address written at the bottom, but the site isn’t a mobile site (assuming you even take the time to enter the address in your mobile browser), and odds are you’re not going to remember to check it out next time you’re at a computer. This translates into a lost opportunity for the movie. Microsoft’s new technology Tag is aiming to change that problem.

Tag creates small, colorful graphic codes, and the application allows an individual to use on their camera phone to take a picture of the Tag (via Microsoft’s mobile tag app) and access the mobile content through their phone’s web browser. So back to the movie example, the web address on the poster for the upcoming Alien vs. Vikings movie could be replaced with a Tag. The Tag links to a video of the trailer that you can view on a mobile device. And Tags can be added to pretty much anything including print media, video or even clothing.

In testing this new technology, our VP Jimm Wagner created a T-shirt with three Tags. One links to his web site, another to the Phenomblue site and the third to his kontain site. The great thing about setting up a Tag is that the Tag’s information can be changed at any time.

The process for creating a Tag is incredible easy:

1. 1. Login to http://tag.microsoft.com using your MSN login or sign up for an account.
   2. Create a Tag. Select the kind you want (URL, Free Text, vCard or Dialer) and add the required information.
   3. Click the “Render Barcode” button to generate your code graphic file.
   4. Add your Tag to any medium you want.

The Tags even come with reports to see how many people have accessed it.

It’ll be interesting to see how long it takes for the technology to be fully adopted between the mobile community and the physical marketing community.

Every so often, we take a break from creating cutting edge technology driven experiences for our clients and do something for ourselves.  In this case, ourselves includes the entire Twitter community and several outspoken staffers.

This year, Mix 09 (Microsoft’s annual interactive conference) was sponsoring a contest for the most creative application written in “Silverlight” under 10 kilobytes called the “Mix 10k Challenge“.  We created the idea of a simple application that would take a feed from Flickr and update a Twitter profile at regular intervals.  We threw in the ability to build custom photo feeds, apply masks (think Polaroid), and spread the word. The winner isn’t announced until February, but until then we’re happy with people simply getting shift+faced. Check out and vote for the shift+face entry here.

If you head over to cashforyourmustache.com you can see the final mustache designs posted along with the progression of facial hair growth. The site is setup so that you can give a rating to each person. On the 2^nd of February we will announce the winner based on who has the overall highest rating. You can rate everyone once a day so visit often and support the person who you feel has the greatest facial follicle formation.

Level 3’s Red Couch is a video series that features candid interviews from industry leaders at technology events around  the globe.  Phenomblue’s CEO Joe Olsen was recently “Red Couched” at Microsoft’s PhizzPop Design Challenge in Chicago.  Check it out here.

In the Nov. 17 issue of Advertising Age magazine, Gatorade’s G2 was recognized in a special Marketing 50 section honoring the top 50 brands of the year and the brains behind them.

Gatorade G2’s success is attributed to the massive Super Bowl launch in early 2008 that featured heavy media spots featuring popular athletes like Derek Jeter and Dwayne Wade and a massive viral online effort including the G2 Lounge created by Phenomblue. All together, the G2 introduction was the biggest launch in Gatorade’s 40 year history

Carla Hassan, director or marketing at Gatorade, told Ad Age that not only did the low-calorie G2 reshape the Gatorade platform, but it broke marketing ground for the brand.

The G2 Lounge was an interactive environment created to allow visitors to experience an online version of the offline event in Arizona. In the real-world lounge, VIPs and media were invited to mingle and experience the new drink at a very cool, week long launch party. The G2 Lounge featured a DJ, complimentary product, a live broadcast of “Mike and Mike In the Morning” (ESPN Radio), and a miniature bowling alley.

Online G2 Lounge visitors can explore the lounge, listen to the online version of the radio show, bowl against scores posted from the real world lounge, and watch video uploaded from the live event. During the event, the video was upload at regular intervals to immerse the online visitor in the real time experience.

These ground breaking initiatives have led to a strong initial showing for G2. According to Pepsi Co. numbers are looking very strong and are leading to growth for the entire Gatorade brand. G2 also grabbed an 8.3% share in the sports drink category according to Beverage Digest.

Ms. Hassan was quoted (Ad Age) as saying, “We call G2 our Rookie of the Year and our MVP all rolled into one”.

We like the sound of that!

*Facts, quotes, and figures referenced from the November 17^th issue of Ad Age magazine “Marketing 50” article entitled “G2”.