When it comes to Christmas, expressing the joy... and even whimsy, of the Holiday Season is something that is often best done using the magic of 3D.

The proof is in the (Christmas?) pudding with this short spot we developed for our client Cinesa, in collaboration with our very own "3D Lord", Cyro Oduber, who has recently founded Cyrostudios.

The creative benefits of 3D are clear, but perhaps you are also looking for cost savings in terms of location, talent and other production charges. Thanks to the pre- and post-production done in virtual spaces, new avenues open up to promote your products, in a more economical way.

Whether that be through commercial spots, short animations, corporate presentations or even "cyber-series" for brand loyalty strategies on the Web and in Social Media... how might we help you to make a big impact, at a significant cost savings?

Please contact us (here)! And, oh... watch out for that sleigh!!!

Source: Social networks, author unknown. No copyright infringement intended.

3 from B-Reel & B-Reel Films on Vimeo.

The New Brand now has a real-time human face, personified by your most cheerful, people-loving Customer Service Reps. Coming to a webcam soon near you! ;-)

A special thanks to Juan at Pasión por el Marketing for this tip!

El Marketing Digital sin pelos en la lengua, ni cortinas de humo / Digital Marketing: straight talking with no hot air

View more presentations from Paul Fleming

Paul was in Galicia (in Northwestern Spain) yesterday, speaking to the Confederation of Business People there.

We have taken the liberty of adding English to the presentation
so that you can enjoy it here on the blog.

You might also enjoy the interview published today in the newspaper LA REGIÓN, if you are comfortable reading Spanish.


Also worth a look: "Redes Sociales, vitales para el 20% de las PYMES" (Social Networks: Vital for 20% of SMBs)

As always, we welcome your comments!

Immersed in a complex economic context in constant technological evolution, accompanied by changes in consumer purchase habits in Fashion, the Redcats Group, through its brands La Redoute and Vertbaudet in Spain, has radically changed the way it sells its clothes.

In this interesting interview with Isabelle Le Cam, Director of Client Marketing, we see how New Brands now use the various media mixes, adapting their Direct Marketing from paper to smartphones to webs, all the while tracking the ROI of each initiative.

What are the Keys to creating effective Direct Marketing
these days?

• Keeping your Database clean and enriched with information about
  user behaviour, online and offline
  
  
• Creating multi-channel Communication campaigns, taking into account their efficacy using Internet
  
  
• Communicating such campaigns with techniques adapted to each medium: moving from the paper mailing, to Mobile Marketing and online access according to profiles, then further on to adapting the messages by type of Social Media on the Net (Twitter, Facebooks, blogs and forums)
  
  
• Measuring the efficacy of your Direct Marketing, including the results of all online campaigns
  
  

What new possibilities do Social Networks offer
to Direct Marketing?

Direct Marketing, since the very beginning, has always been a Marketing of Dialogue. Social Networks give us the opportunity of using most of traditional Direct Marketing's techniques: from database management vía Facebook to new promotional channels on Twitter, or by means of exclusive sales to a group of VIP customers using a blog, for example.

What trends and challenges do you forsee in the future?

I am definitely closely watching Mobile Marketing and Geocoding
as well as Interactive Social Shopping.

We encourage you to visit these two dynamic New Brands ;-)

La Redoute · Vertbaudet

We'd like to share with you a true gem of a campaign: the new Line of Communication for a surprisingly fresh and vibrant New Brand: the nation of Spain.

In the video above, you will find 4 different spots (in Spanish, for English please see below*). Each one is directed to a different target group. What is noteworthy is the Voice of these "mini-movies", all of them intimate slice-of-life portraits.

It is the voice of the people to whom the message is directed, full of knowledge about their lives and their needs. Infused with empathy and emotion. A serene, compelling and utterly seductive invitation to consider for oneself:

Perhaps I Need Spain, as well?

* Please see these English versions if you do not speak Spanish:

Families | Young Couple | Seniors | Young Man

Click on the "Full Screen" icon to the right (with the four arrows) to expand the video and view details more completely.

In the coming year, it will become more and more important to quickly identify and monitor what consumers are saying about your Brand on the social networks. Not to mention a related need you might have: that of monitoring your competitors.

With this in mind, Barcelona Virtual is partnering with Brandwatch, the leading Social Media monitoring application, in order to offer this critical data to our customers in 2011.

In the video above, you can see a basic introduction to this easy-to-use console, which provides invaluable information for your strategic Brand-oriented decisions.

More information can also be found in the following post:
http://www.brandwatch.com/2010/11/brandwatch-tutorial-session-1-social-media-monitoring-101/

Silestone -- 'Por Encima de Todo' from Alex Roman on Vimeo.


We'd like to invite you to take a brief, 56 second journey,
accompanied by Beauty Herself.

To do so, simply click on the video above and you will discover the commercial created entirely in 3D for Silestone by Spanish 3D expert Alex Roman. Well-known for his 3D short film "The Third and the Seventh", Cosentino, parent company of the Silestone brand of kitchen ceramics, commissioned Roman to do this brilliant piece for their own campaign.

The dynamism and realism of the "photography" (which is actually based on 3D polygons) stirs the imagination and communicates in a very powerful way. These pieces remind us of another 3D masterpiece we highlighted here earlier this year.

Since our creation in 1995, Barcelona Virtual has always recognised the importance of 3D and included it in our strategies, when relevant.

Our 3D Department never stops pushing the envelope, researching the latest and greatest in our internal R&D projects.

The images you see here are of
3D projects done here in the agency.

The 3D hotel here, as well as the farm below, was recently created
for a project of Caixa Renting

3D office created for our client Simon

How can we make 3D work for your New Brand?

As usual, Sesame Street is in step with contemporary culture, as you can see in this video of loveable, tech-savvy muppets ;-)

We fully agree. Not only will we soon launch apps for iPhone, Android and Blackberry for one of our most important clients. We are also restructuring the agency to respond to the increased demand for Apps and Mobile Marketing we forecast for 2011 (and beyond).

If you seek to connect with your own users in a new and dynamic way, just sing along with the Sesame Street gang and your friends here in Barcelona at The Agency of the New Brand:

THERE'S AN APP FOR THAT!

Contact us: we'd be delighted to help you.

In the United States, we have a popular saying:

"The more things change, the more they stay the same."

Truer words were never spoken, especially as we observe the current frenzy around the topic of "Social Media". The current moda of social networks has captured the imagination of Advertisers the world over. Yet, paradoxically, due to their own self-interest and pride, their explotation of such social platforms is absolutely anti-social.

Most Brands that stake a claim in the current social networks are as irritatingly boring as self-absorbed monologists at cocktail parties. They neither understand the art of conversation, nor do they possess authentic interest in persons they still consider "targets" to shoot at. If they sincerely understood the concept of Lovemarks, they would cultivate relationships with individuals in search of connection and engagement and build true Communities together with them. Pure Cluetrain.

Sadly, this is not the case.

In fact, the looming saturation that is clogging Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other networks threatens to convert "Fans" into "Enemies", should ill-conceived "Community Manager strategies" continue. Far from transmiting a warm feeling of Community, many Facebook "Fanpages" are a hollow, tepid flow of conventional (spam-like) advertising messages.

Too many absolutely irrelevant posts. Too many Brands that all look the same. Too much infotoxication, as Alfons Cornella of Infonomia calls it. We shut down.

Why? Because "We the Fans" don't feel the love... we don't see Brands that are truly interested in our opinions, nor in hearing our complaints. Worst still: such Brands don't understand a key concept crucial to the New Marketing:

They don't understand our "Digital Lifestyles".

As we say in Spain, ni flowers. They don't have a clue! And this is dangerous for Brands.

Because if they don't know how we live our "Digital Lives", they won't know where we are, nor how to connect with us.

If they did care, they would know how, when, why and where we connect. They would understand that Internet is our OXYGEN and that we "live and move and have our being" in the Net (to paraphrase a famous writer). And they would attempt to meet us there.

They would recognize that we listen to music in Spotify, play and explore in 3D worlds such as Habbo Hotel and Second Life, learn leadership skills directing groups in World of Warcraft, rent movies from PlayStation® Network, set up birthday parties via Facebook and make decisions about new products using Flipboard on iPads, from high-speed trains and not from our offices.

If Brands truly cared about their Fans, instead of talking so much, they would relish any and all opportunities to create more off-line events. These events would be designed to come into direct contact with the leaders of the Communities they seem to be so earnest about creating. In order to listen, learn... and then lead.

What might be the result? New Brands for this new century: humble, open, transparent, curious and... social.


Photo credits: Jeffrey Chen