It’s not quite the new year, but I thought I’d take the opportunity to review what’s impressed us in 2010. We had the Chilean Miners being rescued, the Big Freeze and the rise of Justin Bieber. (Peggy told me to put that in). But we also had the launch of the the long awaited iPad and the iPhone 4. And even a movie about Facebook, how times have changed.

THE JOHNNY CASH PROJECT

Personally, I like this one. Users were invited to contribute drawings of certain frames of the music video “Ain’t no Grave”. They could choose which frame they wanted to draw.

Once they selected the frame, they were taken to a painting palette page were they could draw in whatever style they liked. Then they were asked to upload their drawing and it was embedded into the music video. The results are pretty amazing.

http://www.thejohnnycashproject.com/#/explore/TopRated

THE WILDERNESS DOWNTOWN.COM

Without giving too much away, this is a very clever idea from Arcade Fire. Users are invited to type in the address where they grew up (ideally). Using data from google street view, your street is incorporated into an online music video. It doesn’t work too well with Irish locations, so maybe try it with somewhere you went on holiday when you were younger.

http://www.thewildernessdowntown.com/

WORD LENS APP

For those of us with itchy feet, there was the Word Lens App for the iPhone. Simply hold up your phone to a printed word in another language and it will translate it for you.

THE RUBBERBANDITS

The Rubberbandits took YouTube by storm, well in Ireland anyway. The Limerick punky hiphop Internet sensation didn’t quite make it to No. 1 for Christmas, but it did wonders for the sales of plastic bags and piebald ponies.

CORNA LIGHT FACEBOOK APP

Corona Light invited their followers on Facebook to have their picture appear on a giant electronic billboard on Time Square in New York, cunningly using your face to endorse their product, while giving you a brief moment of fame.

Once you uploaded your picture to the app, you were told you would receive a message on Facebook when your picture appeared in the Times Square, which you could post to your wall to share with your friends.

Each picture showed the exact time and date the followers image appeared. Here’s Lizzie doing New York large!

John Martin - Senior Art Director

I started in advertising when there were things called paper and markers. Moved around town a bit, then changed religion and transposed myself from traditional to digital. Thinks a lot, moans a bit, drinks a little.