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No substitute. Sony Ericsson has launched a website, Extra Man, in its role as Official Mobile Handset of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. The new destination boasts the WorldCupedia football-focused search engine that will ‘arm fans with all the football knowledge they could ever need’. The site will also let visitors view highlights from World [...]

Jail bait. Brazil’s OI Telecom today launches the online series Final Punishment, a story about eight women imprisoned in an experimental high-security prison controlled by a computer system.
In addition to the drama, there’s an alternate reality game where users need to visit dozens of websites and social media profiles related to the Final Punishment characters. They also have to look on Facebook and Twitter for clues that will allow them to work out how to save the prisoners when they are threatened by a ‘shapeless executor’. Images and videos will also be posted on the likes of Flickr, and on blogs and various social media profiles.

By Hugh Jordan. Brand listening. Francesco D’Orazio is an advocate of UGC, but for the md of co-creation planning agency Face Wired, ‘c’ doesn’t stand for content, but rather, context.
“Content is not that useful when it comes to brand strategy,” says D’Orazio. “[At Face] we understand a brand’s issues by talking to consumers, listening to what they have to say, then involving those consumers in trying to solve the problems.”
Carphone Warehouse recently tasked Face with helping to define its social media agenda, and the agency has applied its tried and trusted model – listen, plan, engage – to do just that.

By Simon Fuller. Screen goo. UK confectioner Cadbury turned to a cult online cartoon to spearhead its advertising in the run-up to Easter. The Goovies campaign, which ran from January to April this year, featured episodes of Weebl & Bob, the off-the-wall cartoon originally launched in 2002 by animators Jonti Picking and Chris Vick. Nine episodes of the show were created with Cadbury’s Creme Egg at centre stage.