Maybe it says something that I leveraged a tagline from a 30-year-old TV campaign in referencing GE.

Still (maybe the last) bastion of what passes for mass media these days, TV remains supreme. But i may no longer possess the power to embed a tagline deep within the Limbic system the way it did during GE's "Bring Good Things to Life" era.

Nonetheless,  GE, which has sported another tagline - "Imagination at Work" - for many years now, is finding digital fertile territory on which to tell a broader story about what it offers the world, offering opportunities TV never could.

Which is saying something. GE isn't exactly a consumer brand, after all. Beyond light bulbs and appliances, it is the driver behind next generation technologies for everything from jet engines to healthcare. And yet GE is scoring in social and mobile, with 4 million monthly followers across platforms ranging from YouTube to Instagram, and from Snapchat to Yo.

And as ADWEEK reports, it's now using another digital medium - virtual reality, or "VR" - to enable folks to take a deep dive into its technology for undersea oil exploration.

Visitors to its research center in Rio de Janeiro can strap on Oculus Rift headset and sit in a sensory-enabled chair and enjoy a simulated underwater experience.

"One of the challenges that we have is that we operate in locations and environments that not many people get to go to," Katrina Craigwell, GE's global manager of digital marketing, said in a keynote address at a  recent mobile marketing event, as cited by the pub. "With things like the visual content on Instagram, video and now virtual reality, we have been able to take people to these environments and bring them into the world of GE."

Neat for visitors. Neater still when these kinds of experiences become broader social experiences for folks far from her brands Rio research hub, through the power of tomorrow's technologies.

Some of them, perhaps, created using GE's own innovation. 

Read more here.

NEW: JOIN OUR LINKEDIN GROUP

Like us on Facebook

Follow us on Twitter

Listen in on iTunes

Some of our favorite digital marketing innovations from the year just past, from the whimsical to the sublime.

PAULIG MUKI: MUG SHOTS

This coffee mug that uses heat from coffee to produce pictures, messages, quotes, comic strips or even today's weather, on a screen embedded in the cup, when hot drinks are poured.

SELFIE MIRROR: PERFECT HANDS-FREE PHOTOS EVERY TIME

SELFIE in this case stands for "Self Enhancing Live Feed Image Engine." Though the practical applications for most consumers may be a bit of a head scratcher, I can imagine this kind of technology built into clothing store images similar to those developed by Tom Nicholson at Nicholson NY. This would enable social shopping experiences where users could solicit real-time feedback on whether an outfit is say, "fly" or "forgettaboutit" from their extended social networks.

APOTEK: SUBWAY AD DISPLAY IS A HAIR-RAISING EXPERIENCE

It's not every day a hair care ad blows you away. This digital signage from Apotek in Sweden senses incoming trains at this Stockholm subway station, and makes the poster model's hair react with dramatic flourish.

3D PRINTING CLOTHES & FURNITURE

3D printing technology has me wondering about what constitutes a "brand" in categories seen for so long now as immune to digital media disruption: Fashion and furniture.  First up, news that a company called Electroloom hopes to launch ready-to-wear clothes that you could print from your 3D printer at home. And second, a look at what happens when this technology eventually results in home 3D printers (or even "bays") capable of printing out furniture.

BRITISH AIRWAYS: MAGIC BILLBOARD

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? ... oh wait, it is a plane. Flight 186 from New York, in fact. This effort from OgilvyOne and Storm won the Direct Grand Prix at the Cannes Lions Advertising Festival for the effective use of ground-breaking technology matched with a brilliant idea.

OREO 3D PRINTED COOKIE VENDING MACHINE

And then there's 3D-printed munchies. Oreo's experimental "Oreo Trending Vending Machine" uses 3D printing technology to print out cookies. The initiative comes via a partnership with Twitter that includes "trending flavors" based on trending social conversations, which customers can then select to watch their cookies being built. It sounds like it takes about two minutes - which seems like a long time wait - but hopefully novelty will trump timeliness in this case.

OSCAR-MAYER: BACON-SCENTED ALARM CLOCK

Yes, it's a thing. Oscar Mayer's new "Wake Up & Smell the Bacon" device plugs into your iPhone so that when the alarm goes off, you bask in the smell and sound of sizzling bacon. Fun, effective and cruel, all at the same time.

COCA-COLA: 'FAIR PLAY'

You have to love the latest installment of Coca-Cola's Happiness Campaign—involving two vending machines on opposite sides of a sports stadium, where you can't get a Coke for yourself. But you can give one to a fan of the opposing team. Genius.

FELT: IPAD APP THAT LETS YOU SEND HANDWRITTEN CARDS BY MAIL

THIS new app integrates digital and physical worlds with handwritten notes you can send via snail mail.
Let's face it, it's print and snail mail when you want to send the very best, Hallmark or otherwise. Felt, the company behind this app, understands this - and looks to have delivered a very nice app just in time for this last holiday season. How might your brand use digital to pay off in physical?

AR+INFRARED = NEW INTERFACE FOR WEARABLES

I'm digging this vision video from augmented reality player Metaio, which foresees a world where thermal heat scanning wearables enable users turn any surface into an interactive touch screen interface. Think of the implications for communications, and then think further. Gaming, mixed reality movies and shows, layered brand experiences. Entire environments and cross-reality social media, activated and annotated by a simple touch. How can your brand lead the way?

SEPHORA: 3D AUGMENTED REALITY MAKEUP MIRROR

Here's looking at you - in a whole new way. Sephora's Milan store has a new AR mirror that enables shoppers to try on makeup without applying anything. Live AR like this represents a compelling application of AR at retail - empowering the consumer to do what previously would have take a lot of time and tissues to even attempt. The tech, from ModiFace, looks to work quite well. For many other applications, be sure to pick up a copy of my book THE ON-DEMAND BRAND.

DISPLAY MAPPER: 3D PROJECTION MAPPING FOR IN-STORE DISPLAYS

Called a MirrorBox, this unit from DisplayMapper is billed as the "world's first" projection-mapped display unit for retail. Best of all - it works in daylight. And content updates are managed through a cloud-based interface. Perfect for many lifestyle goods brands.

Without a doubt, digital is the ultimate sandbox. If you can dream it, you can do it. What will your brand do with ad-tech in 2015? And most important of all, how might this kind of ad-tech innovation reshape not just your marketing, but your business model in the decade ahead?

NEW: JOIN OUR LINKEDIN GROUP

Like us on Facebook

Follow us on Twitter

Listen in on iTunes

Call it branded video's mischievous cousin (don't miss our Top 10 Branded Videos, too). Stuntvertising. Hell, call it whatever you like—just as long as the camera is rolling as you punk one of your customers so other people can laugh at them.

Best known as "prankvertising," this technique combines physical-world antics and digital-age magic to astonish those who see it live, and delight the many (many) more who will view videos of the shenanigans online.

Despite the high risk and low advisability, prankertising has been all the rage the last few years, and this last year was no exception.

While none of this year's efforts topped the "Carrie" remake-inspired telekinetic coffee house rampage Sony pulled off in one of last year's GEN WOW AWARD winners (Check out my iMedia piece "3 Secrets to Powerhouse 'Prankvertising'"from last January), pranks were plentiful in 2014. 

Here are 10 of our favorites. Enjoy—and let us know what pranks made your list this year.

'DEVIL'S DUE': DEVIL BABY ATTACK

This promo from last January, for the film 'The Devil's Due," which looked to be a modern take on "Rosemary's Baby" delivers. In fact, it follows all of my three tenants for powerhouse prankvertising. Hell ... er, we mean WELL played, Damien, well played. Bottom line: It would have scared the crud out of me. How about you?

PEPSI MAX AUGMENTED REALITY BUS SHELTER

Pepsi pilfers a page from LG and takes it to the MAX with this fun bus shelter prank in London. Meant to give commuters an unbelievable moment, the bus shelter is also a kind of prankvertisement in that it's meant to shock and surprise while it simultaneously delights. We do wonder about the specific demographics for this initiative - we'd have to see central London bus ridership statistics - but on its face, this looks to be a fun way to build some serious buzz.

DOVE: 'BEAUTY PATCH'

This little prank may be the one blemish associated with Dove's decade long "Campaign for Real Beauty." Longtime readers know I'm a big fan of the decade-long campaign, having written extensively about the program's efforts to boost women's self-esteem and perceptions of beauty in my book THE ON-DEMAND BRAND. And I frequently cover updates to the campaign here at GEN WOW – most recently with the outstanding "Beauty Sketches" effort. But while I know "Real Beauty" has always had detractors, "Patches" is the first time I've actually seen press coverage of a blowback. What's your view?

'WALKING DEAD': BUS SHELTER

Dead man freaking: What is it with bus shelters in 2014? Here's more augmented mayhem, this time for SKY TV's "Walking Dead." The only thing that would have been better is for one of the zombies to be a real actor instead of AR, bursting around the front of the bus shelter. Hershey squirts all around.

'WALKING DEAD': NYC

Not to be undead, we mean undone, AMC went the "live" actor route in NYC—and scared the bejesus out of plenty of passersby. And that's saying something in this town.

HEAD & SHOULDERS: 'DREAM DATE WITH DANDRUFF'

This Head & Shoulders promotion pulls a hidden camera fast one on young men out on a first date with what can only be described as the doyenne of dandruff, judging from the flakes falling from her head. Kudos are deserved, however. From all appearances, the guys acquit themselves well.

COCA-COLA: 'HAVE A COKE AND A SHHH'

Coca-Cola did movie lovers everywhere a favor by inserting audience members into films to squash noise. Now if only Coke could help theaters find something less grating to hear as popcorn. A nice reminder to kindly shut the hell up.

MCDONALD'S: 'BIG MAC MIND TESTS'

Even Ronald McDonald has decided to play some pranks, here by way of mind games on passersby who are asked to snap a photo of a couple. A poster of a Big Mac is carried past them to cause a distraction while the female half of our couple switches places with another person. Will the unsuspecting dupe even notice?

FORD: HALLOWEEN CAR WASH

In 2014, even local car dealerships got into prankvertising. This treat of a Halloween trick comes from Muzi Ford in Boston. If the screams are any indication, these cars might be in need of an inside wash and air freshener, too.

TD AMERITRADE: 'ATMS—AUTOMATED THANKING MACHINES'

Here's an approach to prankvertising you can bank on: TD Ameritrade pulls random acts of kindness for unsuspecting ATM customers. With apologies to AMEX—THIS is priceless.

NEW: JOIN OUR LINKEDIN GROUP

Like us on Facebook

Follow us on Twitter

Listen in on iTunes

It's no secret video marketing is a red hot topic these days, from micro-videos to how-tos to promos to feature-length movies.

But for us, our favorite brand videos tended to fall into one of two categories - narratives (ie, more akin to short- or long-form commercials) and prankvertising (mostly covered in our upcoming list of Best Prankvertisements of 2014) - and tended to be specifically built to maximize sharability (ie, more humorous or poignant, less demonstrative and visually astounding).

So sit back and enjoy our picks for Top 10 Best Branded Videos of 2014. Then let us know if you agree or not, and which videos made your own personal list over the last 12 months.

APPLE HOLIDAY SPOT: 'THE SONG'

Okay, so this wasn't technically a brand video in the online sense, though it has flourished there, generating 3 million views in its first two weeks. Indeed, I only saw the spot (which is an unconventional 90-seconds long) once over the holidays - and found it as compelling, if not more so, than last year's much ballyhooed "Misunderstood" (which went on to win a Creative Arts Emmy for "Outstanding Commercial).   Apple has posted a special look at the story behind "The Song," here.

HUGGIES: 'MOMENT-CAM'

Whooping it GoPro-Style: Helping new moms in South Korea capture everyday moments is nice. How Huggies packaged them up into this video is pure magic.

LINCOLN: JIM CARREY

Lincoln probably didn't love this SNL video featuring Jim Carrey spoofing Matthew McConaughey's spots promoting the brand. In fact, this is probably the last way the brand (or McConaughey) hoped the spots would be perceived. But we enjoyed it. And I'm not sure we'd be talking about the Lincoln campaign without it.

EVIAN: 'BOTTLE SERVICE'

This initiative is illustrative of an important element to social media marketing: It's not just the promotion itself; it's the video that captures the promotion and spreads the word. Hard not to love this effort from Evian, which among other things boosted social engagement stats dramatically (click through for more.)

P&G ALWAYS: 'LIKE A GIRL'

Unilever's Dove brand has been revolutionizing the way women's brands connect with the audience by helping change perceptions of the nature of beauty (as counter-intuitive an approach as they come, as I pointed out to Broadcasting & Cable magazine, and in my book THE ON-DEMAND BRAND).This last fall,  P&G's Always brand got in on the action. And while it clearly is borrowing a page from Dove, what's nice here is that its perspective isn't about outward appearance at all. It's about what it means to be a capable, powerful human being. For the effort, the campaign won the coveted Grand CLIO Award. That's beautiful all the way around (though not with without some controversy)

WEIRD AL: 'MANDATORY FUN'

Also a mandatory case study on generating media coverage of your online video campaign. But hey, how can you not love a video series that includes a modern spin on "School House Rock" that reminders to all of us to avoid "Word Crimes" in our real-time, online stream-of-consciousness?

BRITISH AIRWAYS: "MAGIC BILLBOARD"

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? ... oh wait, it is a plane. Flight 186 from New York, in fact. This effort from OgilvyOne and Storm won the Direct Grand Prix at the Cannes Lions Advertising Festival for the effective use of ground-breaking technology matched with a brilliant idea.

COCA-COLA: "FAIR PLAY"

Another case of capturing the initiative being as important than just implementing it. In this case, the latest installment of Coca-Cola's Happiness Campaign—involving two vending machines on opposite sides of a sports stadium, where you can't get a Coke for yourself. But you can give one to a fan of the opposing team. Genius.

DOVE: "SELFIE"

It's not like Dove left the field to P&G's Always this year. Indeed, despite some blow-back for efforts like Dove's "Beauty Patch" video, the 10th anniversary of the "Campaign for Real Beauty" found Dove scoring yet again with "Selfie."

WREN: "FIRST KISS"

This video had gone supernova with 11 million views in just hours before anyone realized it was actually an ad for an up-and-coming fashion brand called Wren. Then the spoofs began (the kind a brand dreams of achieving) — from the likes of Jimmy Fallon ("First LIck," featuring puppies and kittens) — followed by spoofs of the spoofs (including "First Sniff"). Now at nearly 100 million views, this has to be the biggest return on investment for a startup fashion brand ever.

BONUS—LEGO: "THE LEGO MOVIE"

Yes, everything is awesome when you're part of a team. Especially when that team created what was without a doubt the single greatest piece of content marketing of the year, maybe the decade. A piece of content that found audiences gladly paying to immerse themselves in a one-hour-and-twenty-minute commercial about a "highly sophisticated, interlocking brick system" made of plastic. Sure, the same can (and has) been said for movies like the GI Joe or Transformers franchises. But those films were based on toys. This movie featured the actual toys, both as animated avatars, and as actual toys. And it solidified the brand's value proposition as the ultimate catalyst for childhood creativity. This movie shouldn't (just?) win an Oscar. As the Guardian points out, it should win a Grand Prix at the Lions.

What videos made your list? And more importantly: How will your brand plan to use video in 2015?

NEW: JOIN OUR LINKEDIN GROUP

Like us on Facebook

Follow us on Twitter

Listen in on iTunes