• by Staff Writers , September 6, 2007

Video Online video ads prove entertaining in their own right.

IBM AND CENTERLINE
INNOV8 BPM Flight Simulator Sneak Preview Video

IBM WebSphere: Dave Daniels, Michael Buss, David Lapp Centerline: Jodi Schwartz

Perhaps the best compliment one can pay to the Innov8 BPM Flight Simulator sneak preview video, produced by IMB and Centerline, is that it boasts the look and feel of a Hollywood movie spot.

Innov8 is a game designed to help organizations address their internal business processes - specifically, to bridge relations between it teams and business leaders. It's thought to be the first such entity, so marketing it with the sneak preview video served to highlight the novelty of the tactic as well as give potential users/players a quickie glimpse.

Activities like organizational process improvement aren't generally regarded as too much fun. By creating a game that simulates a range of activities - everything from redesigning a call center to processing an insurance claim - IBM and Centerline lend a bit of levity to the task. The sneak preview video, similarly, positions the game as entertainment without reverting to the usual ad-world hype.

INITIATIVE
Lionsgate Films/"The Condemned"

Initiative: Jon Haber, Director Innovations; Dave Rosner, Director Innovations
Lionsgate: Erika Schimik, Senior Vice President, Media; Danielle DePalma, Director

Lionsgate films and initiative bill the interactive movie trailer they created for The Condemned as "historic." While that may be overstating the case by a bit, it's fair to say that the trailer does more to encourage engagement than any that has come before.

As the regular-length movie trailer plays, viewers can access character bios (complete with pictures and related content) and buy tickets (via a widget into which they enter their zip code). They can also hit a "teaser" button to view "secret" additional scenes.

The trailer for The Condemned quickly became one of the most-viewed in the history of Break.com - no small feat, given the site's embrace of movie trailers. Perhaps the most rousing endorsement of what Lionsgate and Initiative created, however, was that Break.com adopted the technology as its own, changing their site video player to accommodate it.

* WINNER *
SCHEMATIC
Nissan

Jackie Honikman, Project Manager; Patrick Phegley, Creative Director; Ben James, Freelance Flash Designer; Justin Arnold, Senior Designer; Beau DeSilva, 3-D Animator; Abe Serrano, Flash Animator; Chris Shellen, Copywriter; Jonathan Barsook, ABC Program Manager; Andrew Solmssen, Account Manager & Problem Dissolver

For this Nissan Sentra campaign Schematic sought to convey a sense of excitement while specifically touting the model's sleekness and speed. The real challenge for the firm, however, was to create an ad pod that not only integrates video and a wealth of information, but also looks as sharp and professional in the online environment as the programming it accompanies (in this case, episodes of Grey's Anatomy).

Schematic accomplished this with the Nissan ad pod. In addition to displaying the video content in fine quality, the player boasts easy interactivity. Interested viewers can learn about vehicle specs while viewing a range of clips. Additionally, a small clock at the top of the screen lets viewers know how long it will be before the programming returns - a feature absent from most comparable online players.