Fill the Sky Chinese New Year App
Issue 18 | March 2011
Agency
Ogilvy Beijing
Creative Team
Doug Schiff, Sascha Engel, Creative Directors, Wang Fei, Art Director, Doug Schiff, Writer, Sascha Engel, Rita Wang, Kevin Yeh, Technologists
Production Team
Kevin Yeh, Axis 3D
Date
January 2011
Background
Chinese New Year, or CNY, is the biggest, most festive holiday of the year for people in China. Two of the most popular customs are setting off colourful fireworks and sending text messages to colleagues, friends and family. To give revellers a way to make their greetings more interesting this year, Ogilvy created the "Fill the Sky" CNY Fireworks iPhone app.
Idea
Opening the app launched the camera function, so users could add a variety of fireworks to any scene at which they aimed their phone's camera. Point your iPhone at Tianamen Square, for example, and add even a bunny-shaped firework display to the scene, because, of course, this is the Year of the Rabbit.
Then, after snapping a photo of the scene, plus fireworks,, a greeting in English or Chinese could be added, with options for size, colour or font. The greeting could be placed anywhere on the screen, and then emailed or uploaded to Weibo (China's Twitter).
RESULTS
Too early to tell
Our Thoughts
Year after year, advertising commentator’s have said this is the year of the mobile. But maybe this really is that year. This app shows what can be done to use several of the smart-phone’s functions together: camera; design; messaging, all wrapped in one very jolly idea. As a demonstration of Ogilvy Beijing’s credentials as both a creative shop and an agency that understands digital platforms, this is a hell of a lot more persuasive than a few powerpoint slides.