It’s our distinct pleasure to introduce the eighth episode of The GE Show: Manufacturing. (Don’t know about The GE Show? It’s a episodic series we make with GE, showcasing their technology, people, and problem-solving in inventive ways.) This was an exciting episode for us, not just because we got to visit enormous factories and play computer games all day, but because we got a chance to delve into the guts of a company that makes real physical things — a rarity these days.

Healthcare is a complex topic. The science is bleeding-edge and constantly evolving, and the concepts are often very abstract. With those challenges in mind, we approached Episode 7 of The GE Show with ambitious goals – to explain the way 3D medical images are produced, to demonstrate the future of personalized cancer care, and to show how aggregate data visualization is changing the way we think about individual medical cases.

(Not familiar with The GE Show? It’s a episodic series we make with GE, showcasing their technology, people, and problem-solving in inventive ways.)

This week Vimeo officially launched “Couch Mode” as a way to extend it’s video playback into a polished, full-screen experience. From the name, you’d think that this is all about watching videos at home, but it also adds a lot to formal video presentations at work. Let’s take a look at what features Couch Mode offers.



Full Screen – Toggling on Couch Mode instantly sets the video to play full-screen, hiding all browser/OS elements and leaving you with a clean set of controls.

Auto Playlists – Video playback is continuous, with additional videos starting just as the previous one finishes.

Instant Key Commands – Simply start typing on the keyboard to begin a search for other videos, or use the arrow keys as a remote control.

Tablet Optimized – Couch Mode runs on HTML5, not Flash, so it looks great on popular tablet devices like the iPad.

Vimeo has always tried to differentiate itself as a premium service. Couch Mode is a great addition and helps deliver on that promise with a premium viewing experience.

WE’RE SO EXCITED TO LAUNCH THIS SITE, WE CAN’T STOP WRITING IN CAPS!!

Wouldn’t it be cool if you could crack a combination, use lasers to blast open a safe containing a Samsung Series 9 notebook, and carry off $10,000 in solid gold? Well, we did what we always do here at The Barbarian Group when a truly off-the-wall, impossible sounding idea pops up: we made it real, with the help of our clients, Samsung and Intel.

A slew of models and a boatload of champagne are at the office today to welcome the one and only Tweetcracker. Using Twitter to tweet your guess, you get three attempts per day to crack the code that makes the lasers strike the C4 and blast open the safe located in our secret underground lair. (Scouting proved arduous. Apparently bad guys have the monopoly on these places.)

One lucky person is going to walk away with a brand new Samsung Series 9 notebook boosted with Intel technology and $10,000 in gold. As if that weren’t cool enough, over the six weeks that this contest will be live, should someone win the contents of the safe, we’re going to refill it with another laptop and two, around the world plane tickets. Caviar not included; the lawyers had a fit with the tariff laws.

We’ve done our calculations, and the odds of guessing the right number are close to 9 billion to one. To add a little more social media spice to this, we’ll be giving out clues to help crack the code to the followers of the Boosted branded Facebook and Twitter pages. On top of this, users can download a CSV file of every single recorded guess to help them further narrow down their potential guesses.

Tweetcracker is the latest iteration of the Boosted campaign inspired by the Samsung Series 9 with the 2nd Gen Intel Core i5 processor whose powerful specs would make any spy covetous. Just as Intel processors boosts Samsung products to a higher level of performance, our campaign exists to boost a person’s day. Think of it as a branded media channel of truly unexpected things that make you smile.

To say that we had fun building this site is an understatement. Visual inspiration for the experience came from exotic places such as the devious devices of evil-doers from Bond movies, KITT’s dashboard from Knight Rider, the He-Man logo, and a healthy dose of classic 80’s video games.

It’s not often we get to tell people to go out and use Twitter to defeat lasers and crack a code that could win them a new notebook and more than $10,000 in prizes. In fact, who else has ever been able to say that? We are proud to be the first, and are obviously excited to reveal to the world our newest Boosted creation. Visit Tweetcracker now, and see if you can crack the code!

Episode 6 of The GE Show has just taken flight, and we’re awfully proud. (Don’t know about The GE Show? It’s a episodic series we make with GE, showcasing their technology, people, and problem-solving in inventive ways.) This time we’ve returned to the fertile skies of the aviation world, exploring the problems and potential of the future of flight.

In social marketing and advertising, fan engagement is the currency of community. Looking at a popular Katy Perry song, we can watch how high fan engagement allowed an original message to evolve and change as it got shared, reaching an even wider audience…

Celebrate the anniversary of Title IX the Barbarian way — on the web! We’re proud to announce the completion of several projects for the Women’s Sports Foundation — an awesome non-profit founded by Billie Jean King dedicated to improving the lives of girls and women through sports and physical activity.

First up, the new Women’s Sports Foundation (WSF) website. We gave them a full overhaul and redesign that began with a deep analysis of over 1500 pages of content they had on their old site. We restructured and redesigned with all this amazing content in mind — to keep it organized; to make it accessible & easy to find; and to present it in a way that invites reading and deeper exploration.

Our graphic design process pulled from a variety of influences to create a look that is uniquely WSF. We looked at old overprinted posters and sports ephemera, the structure of tennis courts and other playing fields, and the WSF itself: its current branding, attitude and athletes. We tied it all together with a strong color palette, tight typographical attention to detail and a large pool of killer sports photography. The result is a modern web design that feels super active and highly engaging — much like the women of the WSF.

Over fifteen unique content templates were created to visually mix things up as you navigate deeper through the site and to suit the wide range of audiences that WSF serves: everyone from pro athletes to high-end donors to academic researchers to young women and parents looking for support to anyone who cares about keeping sports and fitness opportunities accessible to girls and women at any level of play. These templates are all fully modular and easily updated through a CMS — so the WSF can keep their content fresh and promote a new item across their website with just a few clicks.

The S.H.E. Network (sports, health and education — get it?) website is designated as a space where young female athletes from around the world can connect and learn from each other. Keep an eye on that url for good things to come.

We also created a series of seven videos to help introduce the Women’s Sports Foundation’s fresh look and to help them promote their services and programs on their website and on their Facebook page. These 1-2 minute high-tempo videos will introduce you to the Foundation, the meaning of Title IX and a range of heroic female athletes from a variety of awe-inspiring sports. (Now who’s up for some aerial skiing?)

Speaking of Facebook, we also gave the WSF’s Facebook profile a little facelift, and helped them with the design of their Get Your Game On() campaign — a social media-based awareness campaign to help get the word out about Title IX and to encourage the next generation to take notice and show their support.

It’s always awesome to work with people who are working to make the world a better place. We’re incredibly proud to have taken part in projects that will assist the Women’s Sports Foundation in achieving its admirable mission.

There’s a handful of standard goals to set when building an effective social media campaign: lower the barrier to participation; create compelling content that drives engagement; use rewards and other incentives to encourage sharing. A campaign produced by Perrier has done these 3 things and more in an unbelievably effective social campaign that has entirely reinvented viral video. They made some brilliant decisions and packaged it all into a wildly creative concept.

The Concept – Perrier produced a series of the same video that each get increasingly hot; the more the video gets viewed and shared, hotter versions of the movie clip get shown. The content of the movie gets hotter in terms of sexual appeal, but the real win is that it also gets hotter in terms of temperature, leading the characters to drink more Perrier. Let’s look closer at the campaign to see what great choices were made…