These amazing retro videos (gotta love PacMan’s Game Over) were created by New York  based stop motion artist Adam Pesapane, more commonly known on YouTube as PES.

Game Over

The idea of Game Over was to take something electronic and remake it by hand. Read PES’s interview about Game Over right here.

Western Spaghetti

My second favourite video is Western Spaghetti, chosen by the Time as 2nd best viral video of 2008,

Hat tip: @domlostejon

I absolutely love this, as I can now easily remember the places I checked in but also take a look at my shout-outs! Here are the three easy steps you need to follow:

1)      Log into your foursquare account and head over to http://foursquare.com/feeds/

2)      Copy the URL for your KML feed and paste that URL into the search box

3)      Add ?count=1000 (or more/less depending on your number of checkins) after the .kml extension

Voila! Here’s a map of all your checkins (Click picture to enlarge)

N.B: Best avoided if you do not wish to share your location with the rest of the world

A friendly PR dropped me a DM on Twitter earlier this morning informing me that CNN have just launched a free version of their iPhone app for the European market today.

The new CNN International app offers an array of features to check international and local news on the go including:

Headlines: The first you’ll see on the iPhone app is the headline welcome screen. You can sift through news by top stories and by continent (USA, Europe, Asia, Africa), and the stories can be shared through Facebook, Twitter, and email. If a certain topic/article is of interest you can ‘follow’ topics/stories, you’ll receive push alerts when that story is updated.

Each story features a picture and a couple of bullet points explaining what the story is about, followed by the news article, making it easy to read on the iPhone’s small screen.

My CNN: With my CNN, you can easily subscribe to topics you’re interested in. You can also “save” stories you want to read later, better still, you don’t even need need a connection to read saved stories! Perfect when you’re travelling on the Tube!

Video: CNN’s website features lots of videos, so does the app! You can watch on-demand clips related to breaking news directly from your phone.

iReport: This is by far my favourite feature which I believe to be a total game-changer. iReport is CNN’s user-generated citizen journalism initiative, where everyday citizens can upload photos, videos, and stories about events happening near them. Some of it is even used on CNN’s news coverage.

I was also given the opportunity to interview Louis Gump, Vice President of CNN Mobile responsible for managing CNN’s mobile business in the USA.

Please note, that this is not a word for word transcript, but a summary of our conversation.

LB: What was the rationale behind creating the app?

Louis Gump: UK consumers, are increasingly accessing information from their mobiles, and there was a clear need to also offer them tailored content, which is what the app offers via the MyCNN feature.  It’s not just a marketing exercise; there are ads on the app, so it’s also an extra revenue model for us.

LB: How do you sift through the information send through by your iReporters?

Louis Gump: We currently have more than 500,000 eye reporters. We have a whole team working on double-checking and validating the information sent through by our iReporters, which is a substantial operation. The content we receive complements our own reporting.

There was for instance a firefighter who sent through some information during the DeepWater Horizon Explosion. We didn’t have a reporter on site at the time, but it sent through some information as the tragedy unfolded.

LB: How are mobiles changing the way consumer use news?

Louis Gump: I believe that the use of mobiles is the biggest shift in consumer behavior I’ve seen in years. The screens are smaller so people have started using applications to access the information they need. There is an increasing consumer demand for apps and content providers, such as ourselves, are meeting this demand.

Apps require creativity and innovation as they are very different from any other platforms out there and need to be treated differently. For instance, we present news in a way that allows consumers to sift through stories, and quickly move onto the next one.

Verdict: The app is a must have and can be downloaded right here. It’s the first news app I install on my device, and I am very much looking forward to finally being able to read news on the go.

My SOTM was taken in NYC (my fav city in the world) by the lovely Mario, a few days before my 30th birthday. We randomly found out we both were in the Big Apple at the same time thanks to Twitter.

Someone Once Told Me is an awesome idea which combines anthropology, photography and social media.

People are asked, sometimes by appointment and sometimes randomly, to hold up a large piece of paper, upon which they write something that someone once told them [...]

The people who pose often tell the story behind the message, which enriches the moment of its capture, making it a complete and often moving human document. The messages are always diverse, but the uniformity of styling points to the universality of this need to pass on messages. So the site deals with deep human instincts, captured visually, and broadcast to the world via the Internet.

‘Tu Crées Ta Propre Chance’ is the French for creating your own luck and taking ownership of your life.

Mario is currently looking for foreign languages quotes and you can get in touch with him via Twitter to organise to have your photo taken, but you can also submit your own photo via the SOTM website.

Thanks again to Andy Bargery for organising an awesome London Bloggers Meet Up last night, held at the brand new Talk Talk Experience Centre on Broadwick Street.

The Talk Talk Experience Centre, located in the heart of Soho is a convenient ‘Internet Centre’ for both Talk Talk customers and non-customers. How cool is that? Anyone can pop into the centre to use the net or recharge their phones.

If you’re a Talk Talk customer, you can make the most of their private lounge, or even book a meeting room for your client meetings; pretty awesome if you’re self-employed!

The Experience Centre is a great way of reinforcing Talk Talk’s brand values, increasing the brand’s visibility in a saturated market, but also adding value to existing customers.

More information about the Customer Experience Centre right here, or why not check it out next time you’re out and about in Soho!

The Talk Talk Experience Centre is on Foursquare and Twitter

Digital photography and photo-manipulation (aka photo-shopping) are now bona fide Twenty-First Century art genres. But what would you say if I told you that you can now create artwork with your iPhone or iPad? Better still, the artist who’s pioneered the iPhone-art-on-the-go genre, is 72 year-old (!!) critically acclaimed artist  David Hockney.

After creating a number of pieces on his iPhone (using a nifty app called Brushes), the world famous pop artist is not creating artwork on the iPad; “the iPad is far more subtle than the iPhone, and in fact it really is like a drawing pad”, adds Hockney.

The 72-year-old, who is famous for works including We Two Boys Together Clinging and A Bigger Grand Canyon also said that the iPad would “change the way we look at everything from reading newspapers to the drawing pad”.

Here are some of his iPhone and iPad pieces…

iPhone Art:

iPad Art:

Photo via

Edit:  Jorge Colombo designed the New Yorker’s cover using Brushes last year. Amazing video!

Earlier this year, I blogged about an exciting international social media campaign 90:10 Group was working on; the Live Every Litre campaign was born to support the launch of the new Honda CR-Z with the aim of creating a pan-European crowd-sourced movie directed by Claudio Von Planta.

We cherry picked a handful of bloggers in each European market to help us bring the story to life through social media, and after 7 months of hard work (we started planning the campaign in January this year) this movie/documentary will be coming to a computer screen near you on 21/07/2010. Here’s a sneak preview…

I’d like to thank once again the bloggers I had the pleasure of working with over the last few months. You guys have done a tremendous job!

UK: David Sztypuljak from Hey you Guys

Italy: Cinzia Migliardi of Frizzi Frizzi, Sergio Lanfranchi of Blog Motori, Cristiano Ghidotti and the lovely Simone Attanasio aka ‘Pizzulata’

France: Fabien of Buzz Ecolo, Chloe Luisetti and Gonzague

The online premiere will air on 21/07/2010 – more information on the Live Every Litre website.

Disclaimer: Honda is a 90:10 Group client and the views expressed here are mine and do not necessarily reflect those of 90:10 Group

In attempt to diversify the content of this blog, I’ve decided to start writing about my other interests in life… Besides there’s nothing wrong in indulging in a little easy blogging now and again, right?

I absolutely love Fergie’s singing to club sounds, a far cry from her Black Eyed Peas tunes.

OK, fair enough, I might have gotten a little over excited when I saw David Guetta using Twitter in the clip

Over three million people use the Underground every day. That makes both advertising and marketing on the Tube highly effective ways of getting a product or service into the public eye.

The commuter has become much more sophisticated in distilling the information he takes in on his way to work and so the advertiser has had to become more ingenious at targeting him. Ads need to be either extremely repetitive (continually punctuating his journey) or be extremely creative in order to catch his attention.

I tend to pay more attention to the latter category. I spotted the below ad for Magum on my way to work this morning, and checked out their website as soon as I got into work.

The creative is pretty awesome but the site is simply dreadful! Come on guys, if you want me to check out your website, you should at least make it user friendly! I would have also loved to see something in line with the ‘unlocking the temptation’ messaging online. Such a shame…

Facebook seems to be absolutely everywhere these days!

Stella Artois recently featured their CO2eux Soiree on the front page of the Metro newspaper inviting Metro readers to watch ‘their Eco Chic’ TV show directly from the Facebook Fan Page. This activity supports their previous Recyclage de Luxe ad campaign, highlighting the company’s green credentials.

Remember the Wispa bar brought back to on the shelves by popular demand? This time Cadbury’s are launching a new Wispa Duo bar, and have created a Facebook app which lefts you identify whether you’re a left bar or right bar lover. The app doesn’t add much value, but I can see younger consumers falling for it.

One thing’s sure; you don’t get to 500 million friends without making a few ennemies