Oreo did a pretty good job of owning the second half of the blackout-interrupted Super Bowl—at least on social media. Now the world's leading cookie brand is making a grab for the galaxy in a playful new app exclusive to Nokia Lumia phones.

Meanwhile, continued innovation from Oreo will be crucial for its parent company Mondelez International as it attempts to reignite sales growth this year after a slightly disappointing 2012. CEO Irene Rosenfeld told analysts this week that she's "bullish about our future. Although our top-line growth was disappointing in the back half of last year," she said in a press release, "the quality of underlying revenue and earnings growth provides strong momentum as we enter 2013."

Using what it calls "augmented-reality" technology, the new Oreo Skies mobile app on Lumia allows users to write messages and "attach" them to actual constellations revealed in the app. Stars then "twist open" (like an Oreo) to reveal the message to the intended recipients. Other features include "shooting stars" that dash across the screen which carry special offers, recipes or incentives.Continue reading...

Remember Google's Agile Creativity Pitch to agencies? It's now amping up its own digital creativity to attract ad agencies to come and play in its Creative Sandbox, an "open platform to surface and celebrate" inspiring new campaigns and digital creative.

The name is no doubt familiar to digital types, as Creative Sandbox was the banner under which Google hosted events, dating back to San Francisco, Chicago in 2008, and more recently popping up as events to inspire creatives in Cannes, New York, London and Shanghai.

Now the party is moving online with the launch of a virtual gallery to share and showcase new creative work .Continue reading...

Need a bit of creative inspiration? Check out this collaborative art installation in Australian, the work of Japanese artist Yayoi Kasumana (who's fascinated with dots) and thousands of children, currently on show in Australia at the Gallery of Modern Art at the Queensland Art Gallery.

Titled "The Obliteration Room," it's up through March 11th. The space, designed to engage children and inspire their creativity, started out as an Australian domestic environment painted completely white to serve as canvas ... before being transformed by thousands of youngsters and other gallery visitors and colorful sticker dots into a wildly fun, dotty room.

Instead of the usual "hands off!" caution to kids visiting art spaces, they were the creators in charge of transforming the space, as you can see below.Continue reading...

TED, the nonprofit devoted to ‘Ideas Worth Spreading’ and a harbinger of intelligent and inspiring discourse, is adding an element of surprise to its ongoing call for Ads Worth Spreading.

Five agencies that enter their 2011 campaigns in TED's AWS call for entries will be randomly selected for a visit from TED and a one-on-one with each agency “to spark deeper conversations between TED and the global advertising and marketing community.” Better be quick — the deadline for submissions is Dec. 31st.Continue reading...

If you have a big idea, especially if you're a designer, the Industrial Designers Society of America (better known as the IDSA) annual competition is the place to show off your spark of creative genius.

IDEA® (International Design Excellence Awards) is an international design competition honoring design excellence in products, ecodesign, interaction design, packaging, strategy, research and concepts. Entries are invited from designers, students and brands worldwide.

The competition opened to submissions on December 1 and runs through February 10 (with a Feb. 17 late deadline already announced). Finalists start receiving notifications that they've made the first cut on March 20, and the final judging is from May 2-4. Winners will be announced on July 2, and the ceremony is on August 18.

At a whopping $300 per entry as an IDSA member, and $400 per entry for non-members, you may ask yourself why spend all the money? The short answer: the benefits of entering the contest and the experience gained are well worth it, not to mention the pay-off for winning.Continue reading...

In 1999, British filmmaker Jeremy Gilley launched Peace One Day, a non-profit organization to promote an annual day of peace and global ceasefire, encouraging nations at war to put down their weapons for just one day — and hopefully inspire them to keep them down. In 2001 the United Nations unanimously adopted Peace Day, making September 21 the day each year that Gilley's dream would take place.

For Peace Day 2012, Gilley's Peace One Day is hoping for not only a global truce, but the biggest reduction in global violence in recorded history. In order to achieve the biggest ever call for peace, the organization needs to brand its day and effort more effectively, and is reaching out to young people for help.

Peace One Day has partnered with D&AD, the UK's Design & Art Direction organization, on a student award inviting creative work to brand Peace Day 2012 and, on a bigger scale, the mission of Peace One Day. It's a creative brief designed to inspire tomorrow's creative superstars, and inspire real change in the world.Continue reading...

This lovely spot for Twirl Bites is the beloved chocolate’s first commercial in fifteen years, as Cadbury brings some marketing muscle to promoting it in the UK. 

Reminiscent of a Rube Goldberg machine, visual effects specialists Mattes and Miniatures hand-crafted the self-contained "Twirly gig" spinning structure of fans, propellers and miniature toys on spinning plates, evocative of daily activities made sweeter with an artistic twirl.Continue reading...

Guitar legend Les Paul would have been 96 today, which inspired the creative whizzes at Google to outdo themselves with their homepage logo. Not only can you strum the mock guitar — in the US at least, you can record what you play, share it with a friend and even create a duet. More details on Google's latest Doodle bop on its blog, while Huffington Post offers a quick logo guitar lesson.