Microsoft-Hotel Sax

Recent Work

Microsoft

Experiential marketing campaign
in partnership with Hotel Sax
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A New Craft Delivered to Your Desktop

Published on March 30, 2009 in Advertising and Marketing. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

HP Creative Studio | The Daily SurpriseDid you know that HP.com has much more on their website than technical information and printer drivers?

They have hundreds of great, free projects and crafts and we wanted to give these projects their due. Working with HP, Hamilton Partners conceived, designed and programmed a simple desktop calendar that delivers a daily creative project available for download.

The HP Daily Surprise brings you a calendar-full of creative ideas with a single click. This widget is available for free and currently works on both MAC and PC computers. Get it here.

Happy Hol-E-days, Send an E-card

Published on December 10, 2008 in Fun, Marketing and Social. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , .

Hamilton Partners HP eCards

HP liked what Hamilton Partners has been creating for them in interactive media this year.  Because about five weeks ago, they asked us to design and program a series of unique online Holiday e-cards for their worldwide employees to share with family, friends, colleagues and vendors this season.

Launched this week over their intranet, the HP holiday musical e-cards offer a range of illustration styles and music to appeal to well-wishers across the globe.  We designed and built the navigation, and completed all the artwork, original music, sound mixing and animation in house.

The Singing Penguins dance to the backbeat of their own drum. When they jump up on their floating ice stage, the viewer can control each penguin’s harmonic performance. The animated Musical Doves and Fireworks cards let the viewer interact and control the music, too.  The virtual snow globe e-cards let you upload a photo. The card recipient can use their mouse to shake the snow globe,  then enjoy the music as the swirling snow settles and reveals your smiling face as a Snowman,  Mouse king or Baby New Year.

To try them live, go to hampartsecards.com and turn up your volume!

The Good in Gaming: Benefits to be found in video games

Published on October 2, 2008 in Fun. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

Rock n’ Roll was once considered the root of all evil, followed by TV, and then video and computer games. History shows that society is always looking to hang the blame on something for the decline of its youth. Television and rock music haven’t ruined the world yet, in fact these innovations have proven monumental and it looks as though gaming is to have similar results. The effects of media in general have negative and positive connotations, but video games have been given an especially bad rap.

Mass amount of research has been conducted to determine the negative effects of video games, but what about the positive? Books like Everything Bad is Good for You and Playin’ to Win, A Surgeon, Scientist and Parent Examines the Upside of Video Games, make valid points regarding the benefits of game use such as goal setting, motivation and problem solving. A Scottish study released last month indicated that children who play video games on a daily basis can improve skills in math, concentration and behavior. The study observed, students in 32 schools who were instructed to play a brain teasing video game for 20 minutes a day, for 9 weeks. These students improved by 50% over students receiving the regular curriculum.

Gaming is here to stay – more than 500 new games are scheduled to appear before Christmas. Gamespot.com announced its Top 20 Most Anticipated Games for the 2008 holiday season list. Of the list two new releases seemed interesting:Left 4 Dead and Spore. Left 4 Dead is focused on cooperation and team play. Four survivors of a pandemic are to battle infected zombies in order to save themselves and each other. The goal is to help teammates make it to safety. The new game, Spore allows a player to control evolution. Players guide the species from a unicellular organism, to an intelligent and social creature, and beyond to interstellar exploration. A lesson in survival skills, team work, biology and worlds beyond doesn’t sound so bad.

Maybe if you’re good at Rock Band, you’d be inclined to learn to play a real instrument? Maybe after playing Wii Tennis your stroke will improve to the point of taking it outside to a real court? Maybe after playing Left 4 Dead, you will help fellow survivors after a major natural disaster to safety? What we are witnessing is the next level of gaming and technology: the persistent advancement of interactivity. Everything has good and bad traits- maybe it just all depends on how you look at it and there are some benefits to video game play after all?

Advertisers Link in to LinkedIn’s User Profiles

Published on September 26, 2008 in Advertising and Social. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

What if the popularity of your social website was so extreme that you had more companies than you could handle begging to advertise on your site? I guess you could just launch your own ad network, like LinkedIn.com just did. The social network with a supposed 27 million registered users (who all just happen to be business professionals), has partnered with Collective Media to create the “LinkedIn Audience Network.” LinkedIn has a valuable audience, and is now willing to sell access to it.

The new network will allow websites to apply as partners. Once approved, qualifying sites will have access to LinkedIn profile information that will allow them to better pursue specific groups of users to target. Nothing too personal – just the industry you belong to, company size, location, number of connections, etc. Serious identifying information, such as names will be deleted. Users will be tracked by a cookie on their computers, which will be used to identify them when they visit partnering sites. Through this information, ad network partners will be able to make more relevant offers to consumers. Sounds invasive? Could be, but there is availability for users to opt out of the program completely, if desired.

LinkedIn currently sell ads on its own site and does very well, with display ads starting at $30 CPMs (cost per thousand impressions) up to $76.50, and now will profit from partners’ sites in addition to this. It is said that the ad network will more than likely include the site’s existing partners like the New York Times, BusinessWeek and CNBC and many more companies are expected to join as well.

LinkedIn isn’t alone in this type of endeavor- MTV Networks has expanded its Web presence by building ad networks they refer to as “Tribes.” MTV.com is making deals with other sites that share similar audiences to create online communities, the basis of an “advertising Tribe.” This follows a growing trend across the Internet where companies use a site’s targeted audience and present it as an ad network, all in hopes of gaining larger profits for everyone. Keep in mind though the revenue has to be split between all parties involved.