This is the sixth installment of Digiday’s series that highlights interesting, creative, funny or otherwise notable digital projects from around the globe. While these lists are by no means meant to be comprehensive, it is our intent to shine a light on the rest of the world’s current best. Please send me tips.
From a Danish iPhone app that helps blind users “see” to a rose-dropping drone Cupid, compassion is a recurring theme in creative projects that resonated globally over the past few weeks.
“Genuine intent and human emotions transcend borders,” Arun Iyer, the national creative director at Lowe Lintas India, told Digiday. “The best pieces of work are rooted in very basic human truths. Culture might differ, but human truths don’t.”
Which is why the world’s largest-ever animated painting by a British graffiti artist in Brazil and a campaign from Air France in Asia also made our list this month.
“You can’t even understand a different language than yours, but the meaning of a hug, a kiss, a smile or a tear is universal,” said Juan Pablo Garcia, account director at Lowe SSP3 in Colombia. He added that the campaigns included below all connected through universal values and emotions, and not product benefits or promotional prices.
Here, then, is this month’s list of some of the best creative from around the world.
Be My Eyes
A new app by Danish non-profit Be My Eyes and developer Hans Jørgen Wiberg helps blind people to see. The app connects the blind community with the sighted by using the video function on iPhones to provide “eyes” for its over 4,000 visually impaired users.
Blind users double tap their iPhone screens whenever they need assistance, and a notification is sent out to one of the 55,000-plus sighted users on the platform. If available, they accept the request and are connected via the Be My Eyes app. The sighted can then help the blind person through a video connection by answering any questions they may have, from checking the expiration dates on products to verifying that it’s safe to cross the street. And if all does not go too well for some reason, the app also has a “block” feature.
INSA’s “World’s Largest GIF”
What do you get when you try to make a GIF using graffiti? “GIF-ITI,” of course.
INSA, a U.K.-based artist has created the world’s largest bit of animation — visible from space — by combining a group of satellite photos of his graffiti paintings into one GIF. A shifting yellow and pink heart-shaped pattern, created with a team of 20 volunteers over four days, covered a 57,515 square meter concrete canvas in Rio de Janeiro.
The video documenting the endeavor was posted on Jan. 21, and has been watched more than 1.9 million times. It was sponsored by Ballantine’s, the Scottish whiskey brand, which first approached the artist to see if he had any outlandish ideas.
“I said I want to paint something big enough to be seen from space and to animate it. A week later they said, ‘We’d like to help you do that,'” he told Mashable.
Air France’s “Upgrade Challenge”
You could shell out thousands of extra dollars for an airline upgrade. Or, you could perfect your gaming skills. At least, that was the case for passengers flying Air France last month, when the airline promoted its new business-class cabins in Asia with a specially created game that let passengers score an upgrade as they waited at their boarding gates.
The airline partnered with agency Fred & Farid Shanghai and invited passengers at Singapore’s Changi Airport and Japan’s Kansai Airport to play “Cloud Slicer” against each other during a 15-minute wait before boarding. The highest scorers were upgraded to the new business cabin, while the runners-up won seats in premium economy.
The competition has been extended to the regional level until Feb. 28, for all Air France passengers flying from China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia or Japan. The video itself has been viewed over 983,000 times.
Flower Council of Holland’s “Cupidrone”
The Flower Council of Holland has come out with this heartwarming commercial full of all the reliable old clichés, just in time for Valentine’s Day. Set in Romeo and Juliet’s hometown of Verona, Italy, a fully operational drone took to the streets with a very special mission: to patrol the skies and search for couples to bring together. When the so-called “Cupidrone” spots its target, it quietly and stealthily drops a red rose.
The ad was created by Dutch agency Kingsday and has gathered nearly 28,000 views on YouTube since being posted on Feb. 5.
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