Kick someone, feel good.

I've just been having a look at some new work from Weiden + Kennedy Amsterdam, on behalf of the Burnout series of games by EA. The campaign is built around a fake Eastern philosophy called Kah Ra Shin, which promotes "Inner peace through outer violence".

First of all, I like the insight: Anyone who's played video games, particularly ones that involve smashing stuff to bits, knows their stress-busting qualities. And I imagine the Eastern philosophy treatment works well for the Kill Bill generation too. What's more, there's no arguing the site isn't beautifully crafted.

But that's not why I chose to write about it. The thing that interests me is the level of brand presence. The banner ads have none, there's a subtle logo on the website, and some of the content on the site and the YouTube channel of the movement's elders plugs the game.

Now, it's clear that over-branding Kah Ra Shin would've ruined my enjoyment of the piece (and I have no doubt W+K's creatives repeated this like one of their mantras). But, if it wasn't for a bit of perseverance on my part, there's a chance I would have missed the Burnout connection (where the game is mentioned in the content is done nicely, it's just not very up-front). And it's not as if the campaign relies on the intrigue of me not knowing where this mysterious organisation came from: its obviously a joke, and obviously done by a brand. And it's done so well that I reckon Burnout should take more of the credit. But is that just because I like EA?

I guess the trouble is there can't be any hard and fast rules about how prominent branding should be in pieces like this, because it's dependent on the context of the creative idea, the brand's reputation, and who's interacting at the time. (Royal Mail's stoplateness.com is another example that I liked, but was unsure about how branded/unbranded it should've been.)

So all I can say is, for me, EA got pretty close to getting it right for Burnout. What do you think? And have you seen any examples that raise the same issue?

"My lips; Google's Arse. Google's Arse; My Lips."

I'm really conscious that I can't seem to help banging on about practically everything Google do. It's got to the point where I nearly didn't post this:

There's some cool new functionality on Google Maps. It lets average punters like me do the kind of mash-ups that crazy coding people having been doing with the free Google Maps API thingy.

Anyway, I had a bit of a play with my girlfriend's cycle route to work. (I wonder if she'll give it a go?)

It really is brilliant. As well as the obvious bits like doing your own lines, shapes, text & picture annotations, you can even export a KML file and open it with Google Earth. I tried it with the cycle route above and it worked a treat.

"Spam, egg, spam, chips, spam, spam and spam, please."

Here's an example of some excellent marketing: Everyone's favourite mechanically reclaimed meat product - SPAM - is launching a new garlic variant. The basic idea for the launch has been to tie in with hit musical 'Spamalot'. Fine.

The genius bit is the way everything from the product name (Spam with Stinky French Garlic) and packaging design, to the viral game, totally embrace the spirit of the Python musical and indeed the Holy Grail film. For example, the copy is all excellent, using John Cleese's insulting Frenchy-speak to get the product benefits across, while still being genuinely entertaining.

And the online game component...



...is not only fun to play (a simple set-the-angle-and-power affair a la 'Tanks' or 'Worms', only greatly improved by the use of livestock as ammo), but is also crammed with lovely Pythony bits (the Black Knight has to be despatched limb by limb).

Finally, the touch that really made me want to congratulate the people at Spam, Underground BLC & 4T2 Multimedia, was the fact that they've built in an ingenious way of driving sales. Whereas most games-purporting-to-be-virals do well to shoehorn any mention of the product, this one gets more enjoyable if you actually buy the product. By entering the barcode from tins of Spam with Stinky French Garlic, players can unlock extra items to lob from their catapult.

For someone who never, ever buys Spam, I find myself wanting to nip to Budgens to get some, in the hope I'll be rewarded with a Killer Rabbit to sling at the Knights Who Say "Ni".