CASE STUDY: PROJECT adiSYNTH

An award winning viral marketing campaign recently united hundreds of Kiwi rugby fans in a quest to create the 3D online 2009 adidas All Blacks poster. The campaign, called adiSYNTH, encouraged fans to don 2009 All Blacks shirts, collect special cameras at All Blacks test matches, and take photos of their idols singing the national anthem. The photos are now being stitched together into the final 2009 poster using a unique process called synthing. Here's how it all works:

THE CLIENTS

adidas and the All Blacks. See what's been shot so far and hear Jonah Lomu explain how it all works at http://ishotthe2009allblacks.com

THE BRAINS BEHIND THE CAMPAIGN

TBWA, adidas' advertising agency (www.tbwa.com) - Andy Blood, University of Durham, UK

Shift (www.shift.co.nz) - Ross Howard, Saint Kentigern College and Wanganui School of Design

Microsoft NZ (www.microsoft.com/NZ) - Nigel Parker, Kristin School, University of Auckland

THE COOL CAMPAIGN

The campaign aimed to promote the 2009 adidas All Blacks jersey. To take part, fans had to either buy a 2009 All Blacks jersey to be in to win one of 10 positions as an on-field photographer, or go along to a test match to take photos from their seats during the national anthem (while continuing to sing). Awesome adiSYNTH promotional girls were at the test matches to hand out special cameras for fans to use and to collect them at the end of the match so photos could be synthed.

HOW IT WENT DOWN

Digital photos from Eden Park in Auckland, AMI Stadium in Christchurch, Waikato Stadium in Hamilton and Westpac Stadium in Wellington have been synthed and uploaded to the campaign's photosynth server. Check out the amazing 3D images at http://ishotthe2009allblacks.com  The photos were also featured on the front page of Photosynth's global website (www.photosynth.com) and the advertising campaign was recognised as one of the top five ad campaigns in the world for August 2009.

TRY SYNTHING FOR YOURSELF

Get together with other synthers and take a bunch of cool photos of a location. You can synth them together at www.photosynth.com. Using the website you can tag your synth with keywords and click where it was created on a map to give it a physical location. This drives more people to view your creation.

Tip: It's best not to synth your house or friends for privacy reasons.

GET SYNTHING AND WIN!!

Actv8 has a copy of Microsoft's Expression Studio 3 suite, worth $850, and two adidas All Blacks jerseys to give away.

To enter click on the Competitions page or  see page 5 of actv8 magazine.