G&T blog.

Our latest news & thoughts

Stunning interactive video by SPP

Here’s a really clever interactive video from Swedish Pension Firm SPP that shows two alternative visions of 2045.

SPP-interactive-video

The smart part of the video is the interactivity: by sliding the vertical divider bar left or right, we are shown SPP’s ‘sustainable saving’ version of 2045 contrasted with the rather darker, gloomier alternative.

Combining creativity and technology in this way makes the point in an amazingly effective way. Check it out at http://earth2045.com/

Augmented Reality for kids colouring

If you have children or you’re a big kid yourself like some of us are, then something conceived or designed by Disney will be in your house somewhere. DVDs, dresses, lunch bags, pencils, story books, pens, you name it they do it.

And now the humble colouring book has been Disney-ified with an Augmented Reality app…

Who knew that a little colouring book would now be powered by real-time texturing, outlier rejection algorithms, surface deformation recovery thus outputting a 2-D image into a 3-D one by completing occluded 3-D areas not evident on the 2-D model.

And there was most of us thinking it was just a simple case of tree > chop > pulp > dry > press > print and voila!

Nope, colouring is far more complicated than that as most under 10’s will tell us!

Social media competition guidelines

Our clients often ask us “what are the do’s and don’ts around social media competitions?” So to help out, we’ve compiled this handy little overview that covers the latest guidelines from Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest & Instagram.

The top 10 British TV ads

It’s 60 years today since the first ad hit British TV screens (for a point in your next pub quiz, it was by toothpaste brand Gibbs SR). To mark the occasion, Marketing Magazine asked the nation to vote for their favourite ads. Here’s what the great British public picked:

#10 Levi’s “Laundrette” (4% of the vote)


#9 John Lewis “Always a woman” (5% of the vote)


#8 Guinness “Surfer” (5% of the vote)


#7 Budweiser “Whasssuuuppp” (5% of the vote)


#6 Coca-Cola “I’d like to teach the world to sing” (7% of the vote)


#5 Yellow Pages “JR Hartley” (7% of the vote)


#4 Hamlet cigars (7% of the vote)


#3 Smash Martians (11% of the vote)


#2 Compare the Market (16% of the vote)


#1 Cadbury’s “Gorilla” (16% of the vote)

The G&T office playlist

The office jukebox is on all day, banging out tunes that inspire & energise us. And because we’re all in one open space, we’ve created a Spotify playlist to which we all contribute so there’s something for everyone. Check it out… and follow it if you like the sounds!

[iframe src=”https://embed.spotify.com/?uri=spotify%3Auser%3Adaverreed%3Aplaylist%3A3msCOEs9lUqjrFCjDNQ7Kc” width=”100%” height=”500″]

Google invites you to pay for a snack with a photo

We’ve always loved ideas where interactivity (like Tweeting or Liking) is the method of payment instead of cash. In this case, Google wanted to showcase Google Photos so passers-by were invited to find a photo of a given object within a few seconds. In return, yummy treats were served.

The G&T drone’s first flight

In our never ending quest for fresh perspectives, we’ve got a drone in the agency. While it’s not the easiest beast to tame, when it gets in the air the results are impressive. See what you think from this recent test flight over intu Merry Hill.

Bouncing and team building

In our latest team building away-day we headed out to Bassett’s Pole for a spot of quad biking and inflatable fun.

There were some clear winners on the day – from Brendon’s 40 second assault course scramble (just missing out on the all time record) to Dave’s 2 second stint on the Gladiator station – and a good time was had by all.

We retreated to the bar licking our wounds and shining our medals, but an even stronger team than we’d started.