• by September 9, 2008

Co-chief Creative Officer, AKQA, New York

While serving as chairman of the Clio Awards Interactive jury in 2004, Lars Bastholm crossed paths with AKQA execs and started a conversation that continues to this day. At AKQA, he's led creative development for global brands including Coca-Cola, Nike, Motorola and Smirnoff.

Bastholm and his team took Coke's "happiness in a bottle" premise and transformed it into the Happiness Factory online. "We wanted to make it possible for people to live the Happiness Factory instead of just see it, and to have them take on the roles of the various workers there and live their day-to-day," he says. Bastholm and his team devised animated stories for the characters in the Factory. "We were aiming for Pixar quality, but it was hard because of the bandwidth limitations." Bandwidth aside, the results are stunning.

For Smirnoff vodka, Bastholm's program included the Pocket Bartender, the Electric Cabaret and Vodkapedia. Visitors to the site can create and share video, part of AKQA's bid to create one-of-a-kind immersive experiences for its clients' customers.

In the Smirnoff story, interactive "hot spots" allow visitors to virtually write themselves in, sharing milestones from their own lives. The site then prepares personalized "Video Journeys" of consumers' stories. Users can download and send their signature videos to their desktops and mobile phones and post them on YouTube.

Bastholm is particularly excited about mobile storytelling via the iPhone and other handheld computers. "There's this whole world that's still unexplored by people, what works and what doesn't, and how personal consumers want it to be."