From the company that brought you 'the man your man could smell like' comes a new kind of banner ad. Old Spice, which is becoming renowned for its crazy ad antics has produced the internet's first scratch-and-sniff banner advert.

Unlike Google's April Fools joke, this one won't have you pressing your nose up to the screen, instead you fill in a form and they will send you 'the smell of the Internet'.

This is another clever and amusing campaign from the brand, promoting their Wolfthorn line of products.

Take a sniff for yourself here or see it in action over on the Onion's Sport Page.

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If you are looking for a way to bring your advertising to life, then take a look at this print ad for Lexus. With a little help from an iPad the ad comes to life.

Lexus have developed a special technology for this that they have called "CinePrint."

"Most traditional mashups feature print ads that redirect to a digital experience away from the printed page," the automaker says. "CinePrint technology flips that on its head, creating a tactile and visceral connection that brings one closer to the printed page with a multi-sensory experience that combines sight, sound and touch."

Take a look at the film below to see how it works. Brilliant!

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Ever wanted to be a modern artist? Then take a look at this website, jacksonpollock.org.

With the movement of your mouse and a few clicks you can create your own piece of modern art.

Enjoy!

Click here to get started.

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'Nine Eyes of Google Street View', by artist Jon Rafman, is a photo project named after the nine lenses mounted on a Google Street View camera.

Rafman collected many of the strange and beautiful images that Google has capture by accident from around the world.

See more of these amazing, weird, frightening and striking images here.

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Having managed the B2B Marketing Awards event for the past five years, The Think Tank was approached by the organisers, Silver Bullet Publishing, to develop the creative theme for the 2012 awards.  

Seeking to engage a wider audience, and increase entry levels from all sectors of the B2B marketing industry, The Think Tank was asked to produce a campaign that would resonate with marketers from both agency and client side and encourage them to engage with the awards at various levels. It was also very important that the theme would work in an integrated manner across a range of marketing channels as well as provide an engaging and fun format for the Awards event itself.  

The Think Tank developed several concepts that would answer the brief and the High Flyers campaign was chosen. It is designed to celebrate the outstanding creativity in the B2B Marketing sector and to position the awards as the premier industry event, not only for agencies but also for client-side marketers.  

The flexibility provided by the 'retro feel' creative execution allows the campaign to be extended from launch to the event and beyond, offering B2B Marketing the continuity of message they were looking for in 2012.  

The Think Tank is continuing to develop an integrated campaign to promote the awards over the coming months and encourage entry and engagement.

With a 20% increase in award entries in 2012 the campaign looks like a success.

For more information about the awards please click here.

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Fancy a bit of digital interactive fun then take a look at Happiness Islands by Coca-Cola.

Explore the islands, selecting different activities and visit a series of micro-sites for some great interactive features, just right for a few spare minutes.

As Coca-Cola says - Enjoy!

Created by Wieden + Kennedy Amsterdam, Random Studio and Nacho Guijarro.

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Is your website ready to meet the new data protection rules that come into force on 26th May?  

If you run cookies on your website to track and store information about users then from 26th May you will need their permission or you may be in breach of new EU legislation.  

The only exception to this rule, according to the Information Commissioners Office (ICO), is “if what you are doing is strictly necessary for a service requested by the user.” This exception is a narrow one but might apply, for example, to a cookie you use to ensure that when a user of your site has chosen the goods they wish to buy and clicks the ‘add to basket’ or ‘proceed to checkout’ button, your site ‘remembers’ what they chose on a previous page. You would not need to get consent for this type of activity.  

How you gain this approval is the next challenge. If you visit the ICO's website you will see that they now ask you the following question:  

'The ICO would like to place cookies on your computer to help us make this website better. To find out more about the cookies, see our privacy notice.'  

'I accept cookies from this site'  

Many sites will be able to ask a specific question when users register for a service or locked off content however others will also need to ask similar questions not to be in breach of the legislation.  

The ICO has issued a guidance document on this subject which you can download below.

advice_on_the_new_cookies_regulations.pdf (122 kb)

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We recently found a very interesting article in AdAge by Kathryn Koegel looking into measurement of online advertising and calls for definitions to be changed when an ad is viewed.

Making Measurement Make Sense, or 3Ms, is an initiative backed by the Interactive Advertising Bureau, 4A's, the Association of National Advertisers, the Media Ratings Council, MediaLink and Bain Consulting and calls for a whole new definition of an ad, based on whether anyone actually saw it.

According to a recent study by ComScore in the US of 18 campaigns from advertisers including Kellogg's, Allstate, Ford and eTrade, up to 31% of online ad impressions served were never viewed, even though they counted as impressions in the campaigns.

This is because whether an ad is viewed or not is based upon whether the ad technically loaded on to a page rather than whether someone had the opportununity to see it.  

IAB Senior VP of Research, Analytics and Measurement Sherrill Mane commented, "We want to put display-ad units on an equal footing with other media. The adoption of viewable impressions will ... give the media community comfort and security for brand advertisers to move forward."

Linda Abraham, CMO of ComScore commented, "Typically, top-of-page placements command highest prices, but research shows that in many cases these are overlooked in favour of in-content or below-the-fold placements - it all depends on the type of content and how people consume it. What's surprising is how little of these publishers know and use."

"As an example, recipe sites actually have higher viewability rates of ads below-the-fold than top of page placements and we're now able to 'unearth the gold below the fold'."

This may be US focussed but an interesting article on measurement of online advertising and how it is being addressed.

Read the full article here. And you can find out more about 'making Measurement Make Sense' and their five principles here.

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