shots' Digital Cannes Contenders 2011

With the International Festival of Creativity just over a week away, we’ve put our heads together and listed our top ten digital contenders from the past 12 months for your viewing pleasure.

This year, Cannes Lions is expected to be one of the best in the event’s history with the highest number of entries received to date, so yes, it was a tough task, but we got there in the end. Here goes...

Arcade Fire: Wilderness Downtown (issue 124)

@radical.media 

Following on from the Johnny Cash Project, this interactive music video for Arcade Fire’s We Used to Wait from Aaron Koblin and Chris Milk takes the viewer on an innovative journey using HTML5. Named after a line in the lyrics, the video combines Google Maps and Street View to offer a unique and personal viewing experience after prompting users to enter details of their childhood address. A collaborative effort from B-Reel, @radical.media and designer/developer Mr.doob, the project pushes the boundaries of the promo platform. Find out more about the making of the project here, or interact with the actual video.

thewildernessdowntown.com

Google: Chrome FastBall (issue 123)

BBH New York

Utilising YouTube and other web-based platforms such as Twitter, Crome FastBall challenges the user to complete its gauntlet of fun surprises in the best time possible. The game, a collaboration with the agency, Google Creative Lab and B-Reel, moves through five stages (Map Lap, Tour de Twitter, Translate Time Trial, The Last.fm 500 and Search Grand Prix) challenging the player with trivia and brain-teasing puzzles in a race across the internet. There’s a host of possible permutations and the project was created to launch and promote the Chrome browser, with the emphasis on speed.

youtube.com/chromefastball

Sour: Mirror (issue 127)

Having cooked up a storm with their hit, Hibi No Neiro, Japanese musical outfit, Sour, once again wooed the promo world with an interactive project but this time inviting fans to feature in the video by using their webcams. The result is a visual patchwork which utilises the Chrome browser and prompts viewers to connect via Facebook and Twitter for a personal experience with the band on-screen. If you’ve ever wanted to be a Japanese pop star, now is your chance!

sour-mirror.jp

Andes: Friend Recovery (issue 128)

Del Co Nazca Saatchi & Saatchi

Having created and executed the successful Teletransporter in 2009, Andes released another socially enhancing caign with its Friend Recovery robot. Life-sized machines were installed in the main bars around Mendoza in Argentina and with the use of interactive facial recognition software; men could actively involve themselves with a conversation in a bar, without neglecting domestic responsibility. Through webcams, users could even control the head movements of the models to fully survey the social situation in which they found themselves. The best thing is that the head is the only moving part, so the android even gets you out of buying a round at the bar.

andesfriendrecovery.com

Old Spice: Responses

Wieden + Kennedy

One of the most popular caigns of the year, this real-time response effort from W+K Portland has been picking up top prizes across the awards circuit. Featuring the man your man would like to smell like, over two days Isaiah Mustafa and the Old Spice team responded to hundreds of messages from fans on Twitter, Facebook and across the blogosphere, producing an entire series of tailor-made, personalised films and ring up traffic to the Old Spice YouTube channel.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFDqvKtPgZo

 Tipp-Ex: Hunter Shoots Bear

Buzzman Interactive

This interactive YouTube phenomenon took us deep into the woods where a big bear was lurking around a hunter’s c site. As you’d expect, there’s a bit of a panic as he turns his gun onto the beast before deciding that actually, he doesn’t want to kill it. Interacting with the video’s advertising side banner, the marksman grabs some Tipp-Ex and whitens out the word ‘shoots’ from the film’s title. He then turns to the viewer and asks for help with alternative suggestions of what to do with the bear. The concept is similar to Burger King’s Subservient Chicken from 2004 and equally as much fun. Simple, pointless and addictive, but fun.

youtube.com/tippexexperience

Vancouver Film Festival: The Warden Sixteen (issue 125)

TBWAVancouver

Created for the Vancouver International Film Festival, The Warden is a short film that was released in sixteen separate parts over the sixteen days of the event’s duration. But it wasn’t as straight forward as simply waiting for the next episode to find out what happens next. The minute-long parts were uploaded in non-sequential order and viewers could piece the puzzle together and try to work out how the story should play out. With a number of combinations possible that actually made sense, the caign was created to move away from the previous cinematic spots which relied simply on humour to promote the festival. The new approach engaged festival goers and film enthusiasts right through to the end, when the actual version was released.

thewardensixteen.com

13^th Street: The Witnes

Jung Von Matt/Spree

This interactive live event put the viewer at the scene of a crime and was created to promote the re-launch of crime channel 13^th Street Universal. ‘The first movie in the outernet’, as it was dubbed, invited a group of participants from all over Germany to visit a hotel room and witness the kidnapping of a prostitute by the Russian mafia through videos with GPS technology on their mobile phone handsets. They then followed clues at various destinations with characters that feature in the videos showing up for a fully immersive detective situation.

13thstreet.de

The Havens: Where’s Your Line?

Rattling Stick

Inspired by the increasingly distorted views about sexual consent amongst young people, Sara Dunlop's interactive film for The Havens fully involves its 18-25-year-old target audience, handing them control over the controversial situation being presented. Once alcohol is involved, things get heated and it’s left up to the viewer to decide where to draw their own line on what’s happening. With hard-hitting facts emerging once the film has been stopped, the film offers a useful education in a way that can’t be ignored and is personal to each user.

www.youtube.com/user/thehavenscentres

Jay-Z: Decoded

Droga5

This month-long caign to promote Jay-Z’s autobiography, Decoded, engaged fans online and in the physical as they followed daily to see a new page emerge in a place significant to the Brooklyn rapper’s life. Twitter and Facebook released clues and using Bing’s search and maps technology, they’d hunt down the locations and discover a new piece to the puzzle. The location of each new page was relevant to the story, putting his life and upbringing into physical context and allowing fans the unique experience of walking in his footsteps to learn and experience in a more innovative way than just reading a book.

bing.decodejay-z.com