• by Steve Smith  @popeyesm, March 11, 2013

Last year, Google worked with brands and agencies on cross-platform re-imagined updates of legendary campaigns for the likes of Coca-Cola (“I’d Like to Give the World a Coke”) and Alka-Seltzer (“I Can't Believe I Ate The Whole Thing”) that attracted tremendous press attention and a few awards as well. This year, Google is bringing these collaborations out of the 60s and 70s and into real-time and current marketing efforts by brands like Volkswagen, Adidas, Burberry and agencies like Deutsch L.A. Dubbed Art,Copy & Code, the program will be announced this week at SXSW, but the site is already live with examples of some of the projects.

This program is meant to riff off of and update the marriage of art and copy creativity in the 1960s with the addition of tech and programming in the 2000s. “We’re in the midst of a second creative revolution driven by technology,” the site claims. Code is now part of the process, even as the core creative idea is still the key.

The effort involves a series of marketing experiments, three of which are already outlined. The first involving connected objects shows how sensors in a running show can produce fun and motivational content for the athlete. The “talking shoe” uses accelerometers, gyroscope, Bluetooth and Android to create a show with personality feeding back pithy and sharp-tongued responses to the wearer’s activity.

Deutsch LA will soon be launching a Smileage mobile app from Volkswagen that will map and share the joy of people's drives with friends across social networks.  

According to a report in the The New York Times, agency Grow will be Google's tech and creative partner in these collaborations. Projects for Adidas and Burberry are yet to come.