"Imagine a world where beauty is a source of confidence, not anxiety." 

In Dove's latest campaign, women describe themselves to an artist who then proceeds to sketch them. The artist then listens to strangers describe the same women and sketches their drawings. The end result is two sketches that speak volumes about self-criticism and how women see themselves. It's a simple project stripped from the bells and whistles and sends a clear message that hits the core of Dove's mission statement.

Dove does a wonderful job at championing a bigger idea rather than the simple ask for purchasing products. From its commercials to its website, the brand places emphasis on celebrating female empowerment and finding self-confidence.

The "Dove Real Women Sketches" video was uploaded in mid-April and, as of today, reached over 25 million views. The video's message resonates to a larger audience because it focuses on bigger ideas, which makes it instantly sharable. It even sparked a humorous male-centric parody.

In the case of Dove's latest YouTube sensation, selling products was secondary to its overall goal to inspire women. Sometimes the loudest brand messaging is not when the brand is talking about its products but about its beliefs. 

Last December, "Monsters University" released another transmedia marketing effort by way of a Tumblr Blog called The Grumblr.  

Quietly creating content for the past three months, the Tumblr is written by Grumblr, a student at Monsters University. The blogger writes blog posts that are so wonderfully crafted in the voice of a college sophomore that every detail is a nice nod to the social network and fellow Tumblr users.

The last time I saw a film taking advantage of Tumblr is "Hunger Games"'s Capitol Couture fashion editorial, and while that was an excellent example of transmedia  advertising, The Grumblr hones in on assimilating itself in the Tumblr community --The Grumblr relies less on imagery and more on the youthful culture of the network.

Not to discredit any of the artfully-crafted image posts, but the blog's content plays up the writer's point of view versus leaking content from the film. The blogger indulges in homemade memes, and he posts Instagram-like images with clever hashtags that mirrors real Tumblr users (I defintiely used some of his tags back in my college days). What's unique about The Grumblr is that the storyteller isn't telling the the movie''s main characters' story but his story within that world.

A new photo app called Photolettering from House Industries allows users to lay text over photos. It's a simple app that provides a number of stylish typefaces.

It's a great little photo app to keep in a Content Manager's back pocket for creating content on the go. One of my favorite features of the app is that text placement is easily controlled with finger gestures. You can also resize and rotate text with gesturing. My only complaints are the limited number of filters in the app and only three of their typefaces are free. The 24 paid typefaces can be purchased for $10 or you can buy them a la carte at $1 a piece. With that said, many of the typefaces are gorgeous and some are so fun they already write captions for themselves that it's probably worth the splurge.

It would make a nice addition to other photo-editing apps such as Camera + or Snapseed.

(Images from House Industries)

Yes, the content department had to get their fill of zombified-fun with The Walking Dead Facebook app Dead Yourself. Much like the rest of the world, we are beyond stoked to tune in to AMC Sunday night. Fortunately, AMC let us live out our dreams by becoming zombie versions of ourselves. Nice work on network for creating an app that focuses on sharing user-generated content to spread the good word about the return of the television show. If you have "dead yourself", tweet us your best ones @BFGcom. We'd love to see your undead face.

Zombified-Diva

Zombied-Man with Extraordinary Hair

Zombified-Atlantan Diva 

Zombied-Hippie Flower Child

And Your Favorite Zombie BFGer!

With the Vine app and the recent success of 1 Second Everyday app on Kickstarter, it's becoming increasingly more evident that we are trying capture more meaningful moments in our lives and in a culture that is focused on receiving and sharing information.

“Posts on Vine are about abbreviation — the shortened form of something larger. They’re little windows into the people, settings, ideas and objects that make up your life,” says Vine co-founder Dom Hofmann on The Next Web. Similar to the 1 Second Everyday app, where users stitch together one second of everyday, Vine is a simple app that is directly embedded in Twitter and provides a six second clip.

Vine prides itself on telling a brief story within seconds while 1 Second Everyday threads all of your memories in a longer "movie". Cesar Kuriyama, the creator of 1 Second Everyday, believes that each second has a story and Vine brings that point home with creating smaller stories for a more frequent consumption. As different as these two apps may seem, they focus on capturing the brief seconds of life, whether that means capturing a dinner with friends or providing breaking news with live video.

It may be proof that as technology and culture has become more about consuming information, we begin to try to immortalize moments in our lives in a more meaningful way. Although each app strives to capture these moments, curation is definitely a defining factor. 1 Second Everyday limits you one second a day to capture an idea. Since you can't keep multiple short stories in one day, there's more careful consideration into choosing what should...