Again more ramblings this week as we continue the hunt for some interesting content. One golden oldie, the rest will appeal to some, but not all of you. Enjoy.

A

Adobe FlashOn (http://www.adobe.com/flashon/)
One for our creative teams, really. As the boundary between content delivered over the web and content delivered via other channels blurs, we are seeing an increase in the number of video-based offerings (something to do with traditional mainstream creatives getting involved in the web, methinks…) In order to keep the size of files low, creative designers are leaning towards Flash video for its capacity to deliver high quality video at reasonably low file sizes. Adobe’s Flash On site invites people to explore the vast landscape of Flash videos in a simple, visual and beautiful way.

Grow a Christmas Tree (http://www.pillandpillow.com/growAXmasTree/)
You always get interesting and engaging eCards at Christmas time; I guess the subject matter makes it easier for creatives to get inspired. Anyway, I rather liked this one (once I got it working!) Choose the colour for your text, choose the colour for your card base and type in the message you want to send. Do not hit enter, hit ‘Finish’ and watch a Christmas tree being generated from your text. Lovely.

The Million Dollar Homepage (http://www.milliondollarhomepage.com/)
You may have heard about this before, but it never fails to amaze me in its simplicity and ingenuity. A student looking to pass through university unencumbered by debt set up a website called the Million Dollar Homepage. The page contained exactly one million pixels (the tiny dots that make up an image on a screen). He then used that page an advertising noticeboard where advertisers — mainly from the US — could buy space at $1 (60p) per pixel. Sounds mad? Apparently not. In the first four weeks alone, Alex sold more than 300,000 pixels at $1 each. Since then he has easily surpassed his target and the site has performed well for advertisers, too (apparently).

The Million Dollar Homepage captured the imagination of advertisers and has now spawned dozens of copycat sites that will undoubtedly do nowhere near as well as Alex’s. The reason for that is simple: the selling point of his page is that it was the first.

JC Decaux Innovate (http://www.jcdecaux.co.uk/products/innovate/content/)
Digital, as we constantly stress, does not just mean the internet – it encompasses the way that information is transmitted and communicated across any touchpoint that is enabled to process it. Bearing this in mind, anything can be a communications medium. JC Decaux represent a great example of a company that understands this and has used this knowledge to their advantage. JC Decaux, for those who are unaware, is Europe’s largest out-of-home advertising company. Over 175 million people in 3,500 of the world’s largest cities see their advertising structures every day.

The company has adopted digital with gusto, which has resulted in some engaging and thought provoking campaigns. The Yell.com showcase is a cracking example – combining GPS, Google Maps and the Yell database to demonstrate the breadth of local expertise and information that it offers. Unsurprisingly, it won reams of awards. The Innovate section is a selection of other engaging ideas.