The tandem Design is Dead/Emakina.FR has won the prize ‘Official Honoree’ in the Netart category for MONA, the Museum of Neverending Art. This is a collaborative virtual museum that has been entirely been developed in HTML 5. It has been presented in San Francisco for the launch of Internet Explorer 9 Beta. MONA, which is designed to be a virtual artistic play garden, has attracted 80 000 unique visitors in its first month. Surfers have contributed to the creation of 50,000 works of art, which has led to over 120 000 viewed pages. “Microsoft had asked several agencies in the world to let their creativity flow. They all got carte blanche”, explains Frédéric Bojman, the Internet Explorer marketing manager at Microsoft. “The project presented by Emakina.FR and Design is Dead has very quickly attracted our attention because it allows surfers to play with the canvas, and because it illustrates all the technical qualities of Internet Explorer 9, and in particular its speed. And it’s even more interesting because the virtual audience has really played the game.” This is not a first for Emakina: in 2010, Design is Dead had already won an Official Honoree prize at the Webby Awards for ‘deFilharmonie for Kids’.

Emakina has developed a first application for Electrabel GDF SUEZ Group. The mobile application gives Electrabel customers fast and personalised access to the ‘Energy line’ customer service. After entering a customer number and preferred language, the user chooses the subject of his question. The application then gives him the average waiting time to be able to talk to a member of staff, after which he will be automatically put through to the right service. This new application is part of Electrabel’s commitment to be easily and efficiently accessible to its customers. The application is available for Android and iPhone.

Emakina.FR has developed an innovating mobile experience for Buffalo Grill. It has done so in partnership with Facebook. Buffalo Grill has a hot plan on offer for its mobile customers. This digital experience allows customers who use geolocalisation together with a friend on Facebook to get a free tapas mix. After having identified the friend who accompanies him, the user has to confirm his physical presence in the restaurant via Facebook. He immediately gets a hot plan coupon that he can trade in via his mobile screen. Manuel Diaz, Emakina.FR’s president: “For almost 15 years now, we have been stimulating brands to invest in the universe of the social web via a mobile phone. The operations are genuinely innovating and exciting. We are particularly proud to support Buffalo Grill with this new campaign, one of the very first in the genre, that is the perfect combination of geolocalisation and social networks.”

A few days ago, Panasonic launched a new Facebook game called Evolta City. This clever and highly addictive game, concept & design by Design is Dead & development by Sevenedge, is a part of Panasonic’s campaign to promote its new line of revolutionary Evolta batteries. Wondering how it works? In order to help Mr. Evolta build Evolta City, the first CO2-free city on the Web, you as a player collect power by inviting friends and taking a series of actions to boost their sustainability such as building eco-houses, buying electric cars or building windmills. Simple as that! Well, maybe at face value it is. But make no mistake: this Facebook game is much more than just another Farmville clone. Why? First and foremost, it is an exciting and fun game to play that will keep you busy for hours on end. In addition, the game is very easy to figure out, looks amazingly attractive (how could it not, thanks to our wonderful designers?), and is never ever boring due to the many options and challenges you encounter. We are very proud to have delivered such an exemplary piece of online gaming!

It’s not that Design is Dead actually started a TV station online—but this is close enough (for now): they created the new website of deMENSEN, one of Belgium’s finest TV production companies! A while ago, deMENSEN asked the online taskforce of Design is Dead to revamp their website. Their main demands? That the website be user-friendly; that it put their portfolio of TV programs—their core business—in the picture; and that its design be understated and sleek. Needless to say, they gave them exactly what they wanted—and a little more, just a sprinkle of that Design is Dead magic. To put the focus 100% on the programs (which include Blokken, De Tabel van Mendelejev en Low Impact Man) they opted for large visuals and a simple but elegant design, topped by slide navigation for easy and intuitive use…as if the programs themselves were presented on a TV monitor. We think it’s safe to say you will not feel the need to zap away!

A singer-songwriter such as Milow only feels truly alive when he is on tour, playing his music. A life he wants to share not only with his many fans at home and abroad, but with the music biz pros and random visitors as well. So when he came to Design is Dead looking for a new website that would look and feel ‘real’, honest, and up-close-and-personal to do just that, they were happy to oblige. Design is Dead presented a very accessible and user-friendly website designed as a continuous road trip, captured in a vintage design based on a snap-shot approach with sketches, notes, scraps, and warm colors and contrasts–but with quite a few perks. On the one hand, social media feeds such as Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, and YouTube were craftily worked into the website design so visitors can ‘digitally’ go on the road with Milow and keep track of him wherever he goes, whatever he does. On the other hand, it provides those who seek it with lots of background information that cannot be found anywhere else, e.g., tour dates, releases, contact information, and more. Or, to quote from his last single: “It’d be only you & me.” At least, that’s how it feels!

Axelle Red just released her brand new “Un coeur comme le mien” album. For this occasion Emakina launched her new website. The website benefits from a fresh new design with the vintage and warm look and feel of the new album. We also implemented a “bandpage” to her Facebook Fan Page. With this new Fan Page, the artist can customize design, upload and share tracks, videos, photos, and her touring schedule in one and customized tab. That’s for digital part. Emakina has also refreshed all of Axelle Red’s back catalogue in order to re-launch her previous albums in digipacks formats. You can see this work in all the good music stores…including iTunes.

Emakina has just released a great iPhone application for ING Belgium. Pigmalion is an Augmented Reality brain-teasing game in which the player has to guess a four colour code in only five tries. Play this code breaking game and let the funky Pigmalion pig make your talent shine. The Pig will be there to coach and push you to your best score as you guess the right order of the icons. Aim for a high score and test your potential Are you interested in joining this exciting adventure? Maybe the Pig will bring out the Lion in YOU! Now available on the App Store.

The European Commission is preparing The Roadmap to a Single European Transport Area, a White Paper on European transport policy. To raise awareness on the future of transport, Emakina produced a short video clip inviting viewers to learn more about the subject by visiting the web site. The concept of the clip is based on the pages of a book that creates the foundations for the transportation of tomorrow.

The Schweppes brand is working on a global rebranding, together with Emakina/Agency. Emakina/Agency has now launched the Schweppesonality: an unparalleled activation campaign based on an immersive viral film that uses social media as a booster. This launch campaign is all about the fans of the brand, charismatic, unexpected and inspiring personalities. In other words: true Schweppesonalities. The interactive video, which is connected to their Facebook account, invites them to take part in a unique immersive experience: to live as a star during an exclusive photo shoot and to shine on the cover of a well-known magazine. Now, you can discover the exclusive making-of of this unusual campaign.

When Studio 100 and superchef Peter Goossens decided to serve their brand new TV channel Njam! with a digital sidedish, they evidently wanted their website rather ‘well done’ than ‘medium’ or ‘rare’. Design is Dead turned out to be the perfect ‘team de cuisine’ for this job! Check out this new creation from their star-studded kitchen: a fresh-looking, userfriendly webspot where you can browse recipes, top-chefs, videoclips, tips and tricks. Plenty of inspiration for healthy snacks, candelight dinners and Christmas feasts!

Emakina/Foundation has won an Outstanding Achievement Award for the website of the Close the Gap project at the recent Interactive Media Awards. Close the Gap is an international not-for-profit organisation that wants to bridge the digital divide in the world by offering high-quality computers. The computers are reconfigured and are used for projects in the field of education and IT-development in developing countries. Thanks to the donations of numerous companies, Close the Gap has been able to deploy tens of thousands of PCs, allowing local organisations to develop its IT skills. Even though the projects selected by Close the Gap appear to be very diverse at first, they all have one thing in common: they all help individuals and their communities to make progress by using new technologies. Emakina/Foundation, which voluntarily supports humanitarian or cultural projects, has recently set up a partnership with Close the Gap to develop their new website. This new collaboration with Emakina is the starting point of a new strategic partnership for this organisation that has recently been recognized by the Department of Public Information network of the United Nations.

groupeReflect and Design is Dead‘s project ‘MONA’ or Museum Of Neverending Art was launched in the good company of its “making of” video, as requested by Microsoft. Instead of a dry technical tutorial on how MONA demonstrates Internet Explorer 9′s functionalities, we opted for a fun and narrative sequence demonstrating the concept behind MONA. An approach which Microsoft applauded. Buckle up for some Hillbilly-fun and the story of MONA’s birth!

And it happened … They hit the world where it would hurt the most ! Chaos ensued, the world became a different place, everything was about survival, flashmobs became ancient history, one single thing was in the mind of human kind : “Error 404″ … they had destroyed the Internet !

KBC strengthens its multichannel approach and explores the possibilities of the mobile Internet. The bank and insurance company works with The Reference to define and implement its mobile strategy. It has now launched its mobile website. The mobile version of kbc.be immediately reaches a large target group. M.kbc.be has been optimized for Android and iPhone users. The attractive interface offers the information that is most relevant for mobile surfers. This also includes a handy office locator that takes into account the location of the user. You can immediately see which branches, agents or ATMs are close by. On top of that, you can use the mobile site for a number of simulations. You can very quickly and efficiently consult the conditions for a mortgage or consult the rates and instalments for other types of loans, such as loans for cars, motorcycles, green investments, … If you hesitate between taking a loan or saving money, you can immediately see the differences between both options. And, last but not least, it also offers a number of important telephone numbers, such as Card Stop, the Telecenter etc.

Emakina just launched the all-in-one e-commerce solution for The Phone House, a tool that delivers an optimal online shopping experience while giving the client complete flexibility and control over its online channels. Trough high-level features such as multi filtering results, ultra-sharp precision of search criteria, selection of hot products or exclusivity, products comparison, proposal of product-related accessories, bundle offers… and a unique navigation that makes it possible to keep an eye on the entirety of a selection while consulting a detailed product sheet, Emakina has managed to develop a solution that stands totally out solutions on the market. And the easy to use and reliable administration interface allows The Phone House staff to feed and update its catalogue, to manage products, to handle orders and invoices in a simple and effective way, easily create new pages, edit and update content, launch promotions or polls… From setting up the store, to managing its products, pages and promotions to generating detailed reports, Emakina’s solution empowers The Phone House to customize its website and eShop following its business requirements. As Acquia and Magento partner, Emakina has chosen to develop the e-commerce platform with Drupal and Magento open-source technologies.

The Reference is finishing a new touch application for Gazet van Antwerpen, one of the newspapers of media company Concentra. Local news is visualised on a map and can be read via a simple touch movement. The deadline for this exclusive is the opening of the Antwerp book fair this weekend. The local news is immediately visualised on four giant touch screens. Not only do you read what has happened, you also see where it has happened. You can have a look at the news on a satellite map, explore other news items, or use the search function to discover what has happened in and around the ‘Bouwcentrum’ where the book fair takes place. The news that touches you… and that you touch right back! Gazet van Antwerpen gives you yet another reason for visiting the book fair between 31 October and 11 November. You can find their stand in hall 2.

The jury of MIXX Awards has just announced its verdict revealing some brilliant results for Emakina regarding the Yunomi community platform it developed for Unilever. Emakina is awarded with a Silver MIXX Award, the first price in the category ‘Direct Response’. Whereas Unilever Benelux receives the award for E-Advertiser of the Year, because they dare to invest in a digital project like Yunomi. “Yunomi has become a success because we really respect the women on the platform, listen to them and make them important. We work on that relation on a day-to-day basis with our editorial team and create content that is really appreciated. And off course because Unilever dare to invest in an all-digital concept” comments Raymon de Kruijff, managing director of Emakina.NL. Michon van Doorn, Multi-brand Platform Manager Unilever Benelux shares her thanks: ”This is a nice recognition of our digital strategy and above all for the work of the Yunomi team. And the enthusiasm of the Yunomi members once again illustrates the success!” A double winning that rewards the extraordinary results of this online community. Congratz!

This video, created by Emakina.EU, is inspired by the Innovation Union, a major European Initiative. Innovation Union is about being daring and creative; it’s about developing great ideas into results which help create more jobs, improve people’s lives and build greener and better societies.

A sphere triggers a series of unexpected situations… To be continued… (made by Emakina.EU)