Earlier this month, in an interview with CNBC, Google CEO Eric Schmidt said, “We believe the best [YouTube] products are coming out this year. And they’re new products…much more participative, much more creative…much more interesting in and of themselves.”
As part of their continued efforts to experiment with new ways to provide value to YouTube advertisers, Google have announced buzz targeting. The press release reads:
“One of the greatest aspects of YouTube is how it has democratized the way in which videos are discovered and promoted,” said Shiva Rajaraman, YouTube Product Manager. “On any given day, a video from a top-tier content [...]

Nokia has over 300 designers worldwide, and ships over 1.2 million products everyday. Core77 has an audio broadcast that investigates their design process, ethnographic wanderings, sustainability initiatives, and plans for the future. They chat to Younghee Jung from the services and UI design team, Rhys Newman from the Homegrown Project, and Anton Fallgren and Aki Layneh, two industrial designers out of the Copenhagen studio.

Core 77

One of Unilever’s most renowned brands, AXE deodorant, recently went to market in Argentina with a new product concept and communications strategy. In order to increase consumption of its product, Unilever created “AXE 3”, a combination of two already-existing AXE deodorants mixed into a third fragrance. In order to convey this innovation, Unilever’s agency developed a media-neutral campaign where “mixed fragrances” corresponded to “mixed women.” The idea was to show men the power of mix and matching women with different tastes and preferences.
Initially, the launch consisted of TV and billboards, as well as flyers that showed how men could match [...]

Cscout points us to a sleek new push pack box designed for Glyna, a Japanese sleep supplement powder that comes in long individual packets.
Other than the novelty of something new, the benefit to push packs is that the outer box remains intact after the initial opening, where as traditional boxes tend to get ripped to shreds with just the slightest bit of impatience.
Cscout: Push-Pack product design in Japan

When challenged to create a relevant museum/experience for Lucas Bols and all of its brands, the Dutch Booze brand responded by creating House of Bols.
In March of 2007, across from the Van Gogh Museum, House of Bols is a hybrid museum and brand extension – “it’s an adventure of the senses and an initiation into the world of cocktails and bar tending.” Visitors can learn about the rich history of the worlds oldest distillery, test their taste buds in The Hall of Taste (pictured), and even try their skills at flair bar tending.
From the photos, the space looks beautifully [...]

Jason Oberfest, head of Product Strategy and Business Development at the Los Angeles Times reveals how they are working on building a content business in a digital era.

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Conn Fishburn, Director of the Advanced Strategies Group at Yahoo!, speaks on how the rise of social networks gives agencies and their creative teams a new and expanded role in shaping consumer experience.

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Adam Gayner, founder [and friend] of Fred, discusses the creation of agile, inviting, stangely meaningful brands and the process he uses to make them. Have you met Fred?

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George Parker interviews Missy, the founder of Suicide Girls, to understand how she took a different route to create a well loved modern brand.

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Photos are just coming out of Ben Sherman’s new ad campaign, which was shot by photoblogger Merlin Bronques of the notorious Last Night’s Party, and styled by Fashionista contributer Josh Madden. This marks the first time a photoblogger has shot such a high-profile ad series, though internet crossover stars are starting to be a little hum-drum these days. The ads look very nice, though they’re not as unconventional as one might expect from such an exciting collaboration.
[via Fashionista]

Lexus drivers in Philadelphia will soon be able to park in two priority parking areas at the Wachovia Center. As part of a new three-year advertising and sponsorship package between Lexus and and arena owner Comcast-Spectacor, Lexus owners will get to park in specially reserved lots that prominently feature Lexus advertising on the light poles.
[via Jalopnik]

With a goal “to create beautiful things that make life better and save the world,” New Zealand based B_E_E is living up to their mission statement and providing environmentally sustainable household cleaning products with some killer design work. Made from essential oils and other natural ingredients such as coconut, palm oil, sugar, and orange oil, these products are remarkably strong. So far, they are the only brand of cleaning products to receive accreditation from New Zealand’s Ministry for the Environment. Currently you can only find them in New Zealand and a few select shops in Australian, but [...]

Created by DDB London, Volkswagen has just launched a TV ad for the Golf exploring the concept of night driving. In it, a man drives through the streets of Los Angeles at night while Richard Burton does a voice over reading from an excerpt of Dylan Thomas’ play “Under Milk Wood.”
[via Influx]

We just stumbled upon FFFFound!, a great new web service that allows users to post images they like. Nothing new there. However, the service can also recommend images users might like based on their unique tastes and interests. Similar to how Netflix can suggests movies they think you’ll like based on previous rentals and a rating system, FFFFound! recommends images you might like. The more you reflect your tastes by bookmarking images you like, the better the recommendations. The sites is still in private beta, so you can’t register yet, but it’s still pretty fun [...]

In an attempt to reduce excessive packaging and create an unwrapping experiences that was best suited for their demographic, Mattel conducted a little market research to observe how girls were attempting to open the painstakingly complicated packaging, and then spent some time with their designers and engineers to come up with a solution that both saved them money and increased the overall unwrapping experience – all while ensuring that Barbie safely made her trip over from China.
After observing that most girls attempted to just “pull and tear” Barbie from her package, the design team decided they needed to streamline the [...]