Giant Balloons Company

“Was all this made from your imagination?”

– A line among lines from The Great Gatsby

3D is dead.

I know, I know that’s a big statement for a 3D director to make. What I mean to say is 3D as a movie gimmick is dead.

That’s the impression I got walking away from an opening night showing of The Great Gatsby in 3D. Director Baz Luhrmann’s re-imagination of Fitzgerald’s well-known novel is out this weekend and it holds some really interesting secrets for creative directors. I won’t get into a flat out review of the film itself, except to say it sparked a whole lot of discussion from urban theatregoers as they exited the multiplex.

I had a few discussions myself, the biggest of which continues to be “what an interesting thing Luhrmann has done with the film.” That interesting thing is to attempt to advance his unique approach to cinematic storytelling by integrating a few new tools with his considerable arsenal.

“Integrating.” That’s the right word. The Great Gatsby shows off an integrated approach to film direction. His signature smashing together of modern soundtrack and period piece is on full display. The Roaring ’20s has never felt so modern. The film’s style is drenched with eye-popping colour and frames that feel like they were photographed with the most intricate of lighting. He even adds layers of text and image throughout the film in ways that are familiar to television audiences, but still foreign to most films.

Then there’s the 3D, a tool that also gets the integrated treatment in the film. When you go to see most 3D films these days, you know that 3D is going to try to be an extra star cast member. It’s a big gimmick that makes Iron Man 3 more explode-y and Star Trek Into Darkness more spacey. It’s different here. The Great Gatsby has been designed to be a blockbuster for grown ups, and as such, the 3D feels integrated in the same way Luhrmann’s other approaches feel integrated.

There are just a handful of shots that make you think “oh wow, look at the 3D.” Instead, the entire film just feels dimensional, like you’re experiencing storytelling in a new and different way. Luhrmann’s entire bag of tricks is on display here and 3D plays along really, really well. Watching the characters walk through the riot of color in Times Square is immensely satisfying. The party and dance scenes (oh yes, there is dance) feel like you’re experiencing, rather than simply watching an entire world.

Taken as a whole, The Great Gatsby is a careening, fascinating attempt to recast the way we can tell stories. Does it work? Yes … and no. To me, the film feels like an artist attempting to understand a subject. In lucid moments, it works spectacularly. In other places, it’s up to the traditional techniques of acting, pacing and drama to carry the story. Ultimately, the film demands to be seen by creatives as a way to inspire new thinking about everything from sound and color to the most grown up use of 3D in film yet.

Luhrmann shows us that 3D can be so much more than a catchy way to attract audiences. It’s a way to create a visual playground that engages in new and startling ways. He may have tried to kill off 3D as a gimmick, but in doing so, he’s shown that it can be an important, integrated way to tell a story. From this perspective, The Great Gatsby isn’t just another summer blockbuster, it’s a landmark film that visual storytellers need to see. My takeaway? Every Creative Director needs to see this film in 3D.

This guest post was written by James Stewart, a director with TateUSA and founder of Geneva Film Co. He is a six-time speaker at Cannes Lions and presented at TED2011 and TED2013. His new short film Foxed! opens theatrically in front of Storm Surfers 3D on June 28.

Jack Dorsey follows him on twitter. @jamesstewart3D

In an effort to call attention to little known Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy which is slowly and painfully killing his 6 year old son, Harrison, Alex Smith can be seen along with his son in a AIS London-created PSA for the desease which carries the headline, “I Wish My Son Had Cancer.”

The strategy behind the ad, of course, is that cancer is widely known — and well funded — as compared to Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy so, in a sense, Harrison might have a fighting chance had he suffered from cancer instead.

The ad copy gets straight to the point, “Harrison, my 6 year old, has Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. He is one of 2,500 sufferers in the UK who’ll die from it, most before they’re 20. Unlike cancer, there’s no treatment and no cure. And because you’ve never heard of it, very little funding either. My only hope is to raise as much money as possible for the research scientists. They’re close to a major breakthrough. Your 5 pounds can get them even closer.”

The ad is receiving a lot of press in the UK and Alex was invited by ITV for an interview which you can watch below.

To celebrate Mother’s Day, AT&T is launching a special Mother’s Day version of its ongoing It’s Not Complicated campaign. The spot, entitled Big Hug,” will air Friday through Mother’s Day and features kids exclaiming that big hugs are better than small ones and that the best hugs come from Mom. It also invites viewers to create their own customized version of the spot by visiting www.ATTmothersday.com where they can send it as an e-card to their moms.

Get on it, people! There are only a few days left.

– During Creative Week, DDB CCO Matt Eastwood and Waterislive.com ECD Kristine Bender will discuss First World Problems. No, really. That’s what the press release said.

– BuzzFeed has introduced a “reaction cam” button at the bottom of posts sponsored by Starbucks and non-sponsored posts deemed “safe for work” that will create and share a three-second animated GIF of visitors’ faces as they react.

– 5 steps for effective mobile banner ad design.

– Mobile traffic and revenue trending up according to survey.

– It’s a headline grab from 2006, but Business Insider has done a nice job rehashing Abercrombie and Fitch’s hatred of fat people.

– Yet another gross reason to quit smoking.

– Does anyone really want a strange French chef to sleep over? Pasta Garofalo thinks some people do.

This afternoon, HubSpot announced Social Inbox, a new suite of tools — and part of HubSpot’s Inbound Marketing offering — that aims to bring the human element back to social media. Joe Chernov, current VP of Marketing at Kinvey and former CMO of Eloqua (somewhat of a competitor to HubSpot), was in attendance at this afternoon’s launch and tweeted, “Conclusion: @HubSpot Social Inbox is what Radian6 should be.”

Conclusion: @hubspot Social Inbox is what Radian6 should be.

— Joe Chernov (@jchernov) May 7, 2013

Describing Social Inbox in a blog post, HubSpot CMO Mike Volpe wrote, “With Social Inbox, HubSpot takes your contacts database of leads, opportunities, and customers, and merges it with your social media interactions. So when you get a tweet from someone, you know if they are a customer or a lead. And when you know who someone is, you can treat them the way you should be treating them.”

In a nutshell, HubSpot Social Inbox connects prospects, leads and customers to their social media activity — as well as where they are in the sales funnel — and paints a more robust picture of that person and their needs so when a brand interacts, it’s more relevant and more human.

Here’s a screenshot:

The video below describes the offering in more detail and why HubSpot thinks it’s time to bring the social back to social media.

HubSpot CEO Brian Halligan had this to add, “The promise of HubSpot was always the notion that customers expect and deserve more lovable marketing. Over the last five years, social media marketing has been far from lovable; in fact, brands were typically using social media to push out contests, sweepstakes, and promotional content–tactics that are impersonal for customers and ineffective for marketers. HubSpot Social Inbox allows marketers to create, share, promote, monitor, respond, and integrate social media into their overall marketing approach. Social Inbox is a powerful vehicle for marketers that results in a singular narrative for customers.”

HubSpot Social Inbox will roll out to customers in early June

This is pretty interesting. The Spanish child advocacy organization, ANAR, launched an outdoor campaign that uses lenticular technology to deliver different messages to children and adults. Lenticular technology is that thing that makes what you see change based on the viewing angle.

Grey Spain created messaging that only children — or anyone under 4′ 3″ — can see and a separate message for those who are taller. The message seen by taller folks is “Sometimes child abuse is only visible to the child suffering it.” The message seen by shorter children is, “If somebody hurts you, phone us and we’ll help you.”

The differing messages reinforces the underlying fact that many times child abuse is, in fact, only realized by the child and not the adult. Nice work.

Here’s an interesting addition to the “brands make products” trend. Audi, with help from DDB Spain is out with a mobile Android app called Start-Stop that mimics one of the features in new Audi vehicles; smart technology turns off the engine when not in use (at a stop light, etc.) and turns it back on when needed so that energy is saved.

The app monitors which apps have been running the longest in the background and sends an alert to remind the user to quit the app, thus saving valuable battery life.

It’s a perfect tie in with the brand and a practical and useful product all in one.

Just a step above watching water boil, Domino’s has gone live with, well, Domino’s Live. The brand has outfitted a Salt Lake City Comino’s location with five webcams that allows people to view the pizza making process. Visitors to the site can also Like the brand’s Facebook page and have their name appear live on a screen in the store…which also has a webcam on it so the entire world can see as well.

Of the work, Domino’s CMO Russel Weiner said, “We at Domino’s have made continued efforts to open our doors and be as welcoming as possible. This is simply the next step, and we are very excited to merge the visual tradition and spirit of the pizzeria with today’s digital capabilities.”

Following this pilot program, the brand may roll out the program to other stores across the nation.

The outpouring of support for Jason Collins, the NBA player, who recently earned the title of the first openly gay male athlete on a major American sports team, has been impressive.

JetBlue has raised its flag of support for Collins in the form of a Mullen-created social media ad which transformed the brand’s i-people logo into a multi-colored show of support. The ad carries the headline, Thanks Jason, TOday We’re All on the Same Team.”

The ad was posted to the brand’s Twitter and Facebook pages and, predictably, the comments have been mixed.

GIFs have been around for 25 years, but they’re exploding in popularity in a web that caters to visuals and content curators. As once stated in a New York Times article, “GIFs function as glorified emoticons” with the ability to punctuate a moment.

The ad:tech blog has summarized a special GIF-format report from 360i that explores why GIFs are enjoying a renaissance, how to create successful GIFs and five ways brands can use them to their advantage.

Check out the full details here.