I was reading up on Rohit Bhargava blog at Influential Marketing and found one of his 2009 predictions rather interesting. Tikitag service enables you to connect real world objects to the online world using RFID (NFC) tags. This online ID service can revolutionize any outdoor & print campaigns. Brands are enabled to make their campaigns interactive. How?
When a consumer touches a billboard with an NFC reader (Nokia phone for example) the consumer will get more information via e-mail, post or SMS message.
250-400 million NFC enabled phones sold by 2012. That's 40% of all new phones.
Barcodes will have a better use using the cellphone as well. Scan a magazine barcode and get more information via mobile website.
With the following months of frigid cold air and winter storms, standing outside and catching the bus is sure not something ANYONE wants to do...until Stove Top Stuffing came up with an advertising first.
What you are seeing is Kraft and marketing firm, Interpublic Group have installed heaters in bus shelters around the city of Chicago. The slogan reads: "Cold Provided by Winter. Warmth Provided by Us.
Great campaign. For $100,000, to associate the connection between the right-out-the-stove warmth of Stove Top and that I love Stove Top Stuffing are amazing for me! If my regular bus stop had a heater, I'm pretty sure on my way home from riding the Dayton RTA, I'm going to stop and get some stove top. Although I can see these heaters as a point of interest for many homeless who are out bearing the cold, I'd hang out with homeless people if I could get free stovetop at the bus stop every morning.
The question is now that viral marketing is all over YouTube, how do you make YouTube viral? NintendoWii use an embedded Flash video or might have gotten cheeky with open source to promote the new Wario Land: Shake It game.
The only problem I had when I wanted to make a blog post, I couldn't stop the video because everything was shaking and couldn't get the embedded code. Plus someone might just think that what they are experiencing is not the Wii, but a virus.
Here is the link to the virus...I mean, video, sorry for the "Shake Up"
Honda Civic has added a little highway tune for your roadtrip pleasures. If you are out in Lancaster, CA, Honda carved grooves into the road similar to the ones near the edge lines on highways to give you an audible alert when you might be veering off the road. These grooves carved in different widths to make separate tones to comprise the William Tell Overture also known as "The Long Ranger" theme.
Enjoy it now... residents nearby the Civic Musical Road will be having this paved for it is really disrupted. Although this is intriguing for most, the tune will vary due to the speed/tire variety and the such.
How do you express the quality of a new television? You can't show how sharp the image is of an LCD television when someone isn't watching on one to begin with and product offers just don't catch a consumers' interesting as much. Sony Bravia uses the quality of color to symbolically show the experience of the image and not just providing technology and product features. The vast amount of color and movement that is happening in the spot shows an innovative strategy used to create the experience of what owning a Sony Bravia television is all about.
100 Dominoes were built and used to film over 10 days in India.
Because this campaign has been ongoing for some time now. Here is one of the original Bravia Ads, but using bouncy balls. Over 250,000 to be exact, on the streets of San Francisco.
Football season is back and my Cleveland Browns put up wonderful numbers against the defending Super Bowl Champions, the New York Giants! But what comes with great football, are great commercials. This next spot, part of the Leave Nothing Nike campaign, just recently came out from Wieden+Kennedy. This catches the essence of a football player's journey to becoming a professional player. You feel the passion in the commercial and flashback through your own glory moments. Using two all stars – LaDainian Tomlinson and Troy Polamalu – this ad follows these two to their inevitable paths from childhood to the impact of helmet to helmet contact in prime time football. It's fate.
And because it's Nike, I'm posting the original adrenaline pumping Leave Nothing commercial featuring football stars Stephen Jackson and Shawne Merriman.
From PC Wars to Bud Wars. Beer that is. With the Teradata PARTNERS Conference and Expo going on in Las Vegas this upcoming week, it is only fitting to discuss data storage. There are many types of data warehouses, but none that are similar to this USB flash drive. This one comes up as the most unique. Promotion company CNK have a series of substance-filled USBs to promote being environmental friendly, freshness, and of course beer. Unfortunately it may be unlikely to get one in your hands, unless you are willing to buy 250 of them, but needless to say, it's Budweiser!
I bet those college students are getting good use of their external jump drives. Thanks Fancies and Delights for the drunken stumble upon.
Ok, I'm sure all those Mac geniuses out there are having a field day with Vista and Microsoft. Doesn't it seem like they have to defend themselves constantly? The Mojave project was the first uh-oh. Did Microsoft have to lie to the consumers to get them to like the product again? What happened to the fun and delicious Seinfeld and Bill Gates ad. That was a great tv spot, but it seems like they are stuck on trying to reconcile with the consumers. Microsoft Windows are trying to defend a product that just isn't functional.
Here is the latest try with one from the series of I'm a PC, again to defend against Mac's reputation to show how ancient PC has become. It's the new smear campaign to go along with Barach and McCain campaigns.
That commercial doesn't scream I want a PC. No strengths/attributes were included in the ad just the use of celebrity endorsements, that I'm sure was costly, but one problem with the campaign’s credibility....the ad was created using a Mac.
Do you think you have advertised almost anywhere? At Bing Design, we have covered canvas from newspaper ads to wall murals and sock monkeys to sandals, but I think there is one space we just haven't covered...space!
JP Aerospace fly high altitude balloons into the final frontier.
Ad sizes start at $400 for a 2x2-inch canvas and for those big attention getters... 4x8-inch at $4200.
These high altitude v-shaped balloon vehicles are roughly 6,000 feet long and uses an electric propulsion to slowly reach orbit over several days. Take a look at some sample ads from the website.
I can see this beneficial to a small business or perhaps to cross promote two brands. Cut the cost of the ad and provide that innovative and "out-of-this-world" (pun intended) marketing edge you might be looking towards.
That's right. You can now go to the online photo sharing site, Flickr, and can search by an assortment of primary colors.
You can currently search any online sharing site for photos in a multitude of ways including by users, keywords or tags, by region or city, and even by most recent updates. But now, it's seems the tougher task to search by color has been added to the services provided by Flickr. The Multicolr Search Lab is a fantastic tool that does an excellent job of finding great images based on the colors you select. You can select up to 10 colors to search and it quickly grabs those images in real-time.
This was totally worth it. A screen cap of my personal color selections.
Axe Deodorant and agency VegaOlmosPonce, VOP, Argentina get provocative so-to-speak. When you couldn't think censoring could be so suggestive.
The ability to take simple pixels and turn them into a tastefully made advertising spot gets the creative mind to think outside of the box. Take that FCC! After you find out what the little squares symbolize, watch this video again and see how much this guy really gets censored – the pool, the front walkway, even his car!... And that brings up the question, can we censor our own lives?
This has got to go down as the longest blog ever. Grant it this is probably a total of about 10 days of a blog journal, but I need someone to look this up on the WWW and get back to me on that. I have been keeping a daily journal of the power outage that I have cleverly termed – Blackout '08. In case you didn't know Hurricane Ike, hit Ohio as a Tropical depression, and Dayton Power & Light, our utility provider, did not do such an upkeep job at getting everyone in the Dayton area their power back in a timely fashion. It lasted for 12 days for my cohorts and I. Some of the language gets a little vulgar near Day 9, the struggle had me at the breaking point then. Enjoy.
TROUBLE IN DAYTON '08 – Day 03 We get it, we are out of power. It's not the end of the world, but can I get a little light. I have been playing jokes on my roommates. Since I have the only flashlight, I tend to move things around the house. Occassionally, I dress up in all black and I stalk them in the shadows, by shadows I mean the pitch black house that I live in. I'm a ninja, I move in silence. I'm also recruiting for partner in crime, the last one failed me.
POWER OUTAGE OF '08 - Day 04 Being able to live humane has come increasingly difficult, I had to lower my standards. Although we have gotten to know more people in my neighborhood, things are probably going to get worse as the days linger.
We managed to cook all the food in our freezer in one afternoon of debauchery for about five guys and still waste 3 gallons of milk. Why did we have 3 gallons of milk you asked? Because it does a body good damnit.
BLACKOUT '08 UPDATE – Day 05 I have increasing lost the will to maintenance my hygiene. I wake up so early for work I can't see what I'm doing in the bathroom, so I stay away from holding anything sharp to my face. I don't want to come home in the dark so I stay late somewhere where I can cypher energy and have light! Thanks Jon for the days of putting up with me in your office. But when I do come home, I stumble to the bathroom only to sit in a dusky lit room listening to the sounds of nature while I try to shower and use the facilities, and unsuccessfully reading the newspaper because it's still pitch black. It feels like I'm camping in a giant bungalow with Gilligan.
NOT HAVING POWER OF '08 - Day 06 Well, another night of darkness. And I'm not being precocious about it either. I have one flash light, one, for like four dudes. I was sick of going out and spending money on nourishment that I decided to cook some soup on the stove....I think I fell ill from the hot/cold soup that I thought would be good. So now I starve, or go to Jimmy's to charge my phone and have a liquid diet. I feel compelled to turn off lights at places where I go too because it just doesn't seem right to be in a room well lit by an energy source that I am not fond of at the moment. Roommates are breaking down and staying where they can find a power source to have the faint whispers of a television to ease them to bed. I don't blame them, with the sounds of nature and raccoons pillaging around at night, it's difficult as shit to get a decent rest. These are the ways that I have been able to cope with sleep: 1. Get extremely drunk and pass out (Very costly) 2. Take some drowsy medication on top of getting drunk and passing out (Not as costly) 3. I leave my DS on all night so I can listen to the sounds of Electroplankton (Cheap.)
NO ENERGY '08 - Day 07 So there are conflicting stories that DP&L has said that 95% of people will have power back by Sunday, but those remote power outages, i.e. the Speakeasy, may be without power for 3-4 weeks. 3-4 weeks? What do you think this is, why do I have to rely on one company for my energy resources.
Last night I was tired of going to Jimmy's Cornerstone and spending 20 bucks a night, so I decided that I would only spend 5 bucks...a pint of Old Crow Bourbon Whiskey. I sat on my front porch, drank that warm, had my ipod playing the best of T. Monk and Miles Davis. I finally got smart and picked up an assortment of lanterns and maglites. It makes me feel like I have some light source. Picture a flashlight that has the power of 1,000,000 candles.
Because I'm in the mood for some Jazzy music, here is the Nike commercial featuring Marvin Gaye that aired during the China Olympics you might have seen.
On a side note, check out BINGenuity, for my associate's blog on her adventures volunteering at the Olympics.
NO POWER CRISIS '08 – Day 08 Last night's main event involved Greg and I creating a drinking game that involves making ridiculous text messages to random people in our cell phones, we were able to incorporate a deck of cards and it turned out to be quite amusing. I happen to believe Greg was fortunate enough to pick your number, but we managed not to make complete fools of ourselves. DP&L got the number down to 49,000 from 300,000 without power. I can see that number dwindle down to about 1500 and we would still be in that number without any source of energy.
I think I'm getting sick because of not having electricity. I would suspect that there was a study taken about how having a light source keeps your morale up. What keeps my morale up is having the ability to take a hot shower. I could cry because it feels so good, but I don't because I have to be strong for those who do not have power.
We also got carried away with some shadow puppets with the lanterns before the batteries died...
Hilarious quote by Dave Chappelle: "When white people lose power they PANIC. When black people lose power they PLANNED IT."
DP&L FAILURE '08 - Day N9NE ** expletive deleted **
ENERGY DISASTER '08 – Day 10 Day 9 was rough, but last night I was able to cope very well. I ran my ipod all night on some little speakers with a snake light wrapped around the foot of my bed to give an illuminating glow to my room. Although nothing beats a warm fire to build morale as well. Last night sitting on my couch I realized how I totally take for granted the sounds of nature without a TV blaring or the sounds of instruments in the band room. However, that still doesn't stop a few gunshots and sirens constantly astirring in my neighborhood. Here are a few new acronyms for DP&L:
Deceiving Public Life Dayton Power we Lack Dayton Pathetic & Lame Dayton Plunder on Lights Defective Potential Lights Dayton Candle and Lantern
Apparently in the "Grunge of the Nati" over 1.2 million were without power, but the utility company down there were able to get to the majority without power. The lack of talent prevails here in the "Dirt of the Gem".
You be the judge:
CAMP OUT '08 – Day 11 Yeah, that's 11, not 1+1. Can you sense my ability to calculate the magnitude. There is hope though Jake. I saw three road crew trucks head down my street this morning on my way to the Springs. They turned down Squirrel so all my eggs are in the basket for tonight. If they fail me, you know what I'm going to do? OH man!, these corporate wigs are going to get..... a letter.
That's right, I'm going to type it professionally in bold helvetica font, using the power of words to convey my emotions and print it on some stock paper. Sign it, stuff it, and seal it. Addressed to the corporate fat cats. It will sound something like this...
Yes, similar to the answers I received from DP&L.
NO SIGN OF POWER '08 – Day 12 The definition of sulk – To be sullenly aloof or withdrawn, as in silent resentment or protest. Under the low grumbles of my undertone I am inevitably going to be without power until next week. Camping has been nice, but a little light can really brighten the day. I think my skin tone is quite pale now. I see why hermits usually have that ill look to them because they live in the dark.
My hopes were dashed when I got home last night to see those trucks still working on the same street. That's over 12 hours on what couldn't be more than 4-6 houses. So tonight we are going to hold a sayance with our Ouija board and get some answers!
All other large utility companies have restored power in the other counties, but welcome to Montgomery County, least amount of people in a large county to lose electricity, but still the most without. I'm just going to have to pour some gasoline on the utility pole and burn that SOB down.
I can literally see us being the last 4 to get power. If this was a reverse lottery, we'd be banking...but then would have to pay DP&L for the rate hikes.
Here's part of my personal advertising sulk.
Although this sign has more of a political statement behind it than mine...Five Oaks knows how to advertise!
In case the statement above is too small. It states, "This Community is Dead Already. We Need Leadership to Rebuild This Community. Too Many Run Down Houses Need to be Torn Down."
Really catches your eye. Only after viewing this picture on my blog, I saw the abandon house behind the sign. Classy.
****WE INTERRUPT THIS NEWS CAST WITH A NEWS UPDATE****
With a flick of the switch. We have the power! No more sitting in the dark.
Some of the positives that have came out of my trail and tribulations: 1. My mom has definately cooked me some good hot meals along the way 2. Flexibility – I've been able to see how I can cope without electricity, like they didn't have owe some 100 years ago. 3. Was nice to see the neighborhood come together in this time of desperation 4. I can grow a mean beard and on top of that I have been told my beard brings out my eyes. 5. I finally got to go camping this year. 6. Got cable credits since I couldn't use their services
Some negatives: 1. I DID NOT HAVE POWER. 2. Spent too much on eating out. 3. The sulking. That is all.
Thanks for following along with me. I'd have looked back at this entry and found that I should be more prepared. I could definately chart my optimism by each day, probably peaking around day 8 or 9. Thankfully I get to watch The Office tonight too!
"That's what she said!"
Here is a video my friend found that made him think of me. Charlie Brown never fails, Thanks Jake.
Due to the power outage, it occurred to me that I might have to move into a hotel to survive without power. But with the availability of hotels in the area, how would one like to lure me in, perhaps promoting the comfortability? Extended Stay Hotels and ad agency Toy, New York, do just that.
I guess to appeal to the those who think that fart jokes are still hilarious this would suit them, but this is quite for the flatulent humor. I would not want to stay in a bed or in fact a room that was being farted on, but I guess there could be worse...alot worse! Revert back to my previous post on cleanliness, if comfortability doesn't suit your Hotel needs.
For those suffering from the devastation of Ike, there is always hope. Thanks Laura for little amusement.
The presenter, Clay Campbell, presented on the topic, "Get Big Results for Your Small Ad Dollars." Clay is currently a partner with Wizard of Ads and a consultant for small business owners.
He came to speak today on how to get more bang for your marketing buck. In short, the discussion surrounded word-of-mouth marketing. He wrote a book covering over 100 ideas and strategies to help get the results from your advertising investment. Many of the techniques he covers was provided by his own trial and error.
One quote that he used, from Johnny Cash, was that "Bad news travels like wildfire, Good news travels slow." The same could be said about WOM. The consumer will exponentially hit at something they dislike compared to that of something good a company may have done.
The 5 main points of his strategy for WOM: 1. Establish a Budget 2. Architectural 3. Generosity 4. Movement 5. Good Ad Copy
To indulge (in brief): Establish an Ad Budget – 5% of your sales should be saved for marketing. While saving this money it should be decided upfront where to spend that budget.
Architectural, in regards to the design of your building, can help build viral marketing. Example: Longaberger Basket Company and Harley Davidson Riverboat.
Generosity – Just how Wal-Mart has it's greeters, hiring an friendly, caring person to greet your customers can help build revenue. Clay owns the Kentucky Opry where he hired a sweet, kind woman who would make every person feel warm and at home and because of this, visitors would buy more merchandise. Clay would later state that he considered her pay part of the advertising budget.
Movement – Kinetic Energy to be exact. Japanese Hibachi grills are the prime example. When the chef prepares the food showcasing how handy with a blade and fire, while throwing food into his hat, you know, the whole nine yards of entertainment.
Finally, Copywriting, is a must when creating your ads. This will be discussed in thorough in a latter post.
Remember that how your marketing efforts will be in direct correlations with your ability to increase the reach of your campaigns and the salience of the ad.
Additional cheap ways to add to your Ad budget include: Press Releases eNewsletters - Not just to push your advertising on them, but to entice your consumer to pull your consumer to have others subscribe (i.e. entice with a gift certificate for a referral.) Public Speaking - Toastmasters, Ad associations, etc. are always looking for speakers Cross Promoting with other businesses - Use clients to help promote both brands Bartering - trade services, but don't forget to report that with the IRS.
If you are able to read his book or check into his list of websites it would be beneficial for your small business to try and gain more marketing bang.
Ran across this website, in creation of the World's Biggest Ad. The company Photolibrary provide creatives with access to over 3 million images and over 2,000 hours of footage.
Using an online product, Ad Builder 1.0, similar to Photoshop, anyone can become part of the construction. In a group advertising effort, to help cross promote interactive TBWA and give designers the ability to use their talents and even select certain images to see who created them.
Using a cool piece of technology, you are taken to what looks like a basic image editor. You can then build your contribution through your web browser with an interactive desktop allowing the user to select from Photolibrary's stock images to compose an ad.
The campaign began July 23rd, the objective is to spread the word to the ad community that royalty-free images offer plenty of scope for creativity. The campaign has raised Photolibrary’s profile in the stock photo/creative industry. (I never heard of them until now.)
This new viral campaign is the next phase. It builds on the pull marketing concept on the web, by directly involving the audience, whether it being mainly designers or creatives, it helps get the consumer involved. Everyone can submit a small section of the ad, and ultimately create the world’s biggest ad.
Yesterday I was craving some McDonald's French Fries. It was exactly how I remembered them when I was a young boy going to McDonald's and having a Happy Meal with my Grandma. I stumbled upon this recent ad for McDonald's by the agency DDB, Stockholm.
Just so you know how good these tasty golden french fries are, watch the ad below.
Here's a funny viral video from EA Sports. About a year ago a YouTuber uploaded a video of a glitch in Tiger Woods 08. He was able to get Tiger to stand on top of a lake and drive the ball into the hole. In response, EA came out with this viral video to show that what the poster had claimed, is indeed true in real life. View the original video here.
Like a previous post, Calm Before the Storm, It's a clever way for advertisers to use social media sites that have become so popular for viral related content. The best marketing is that in which you can get the consumer involved and what a better way than to pick out a video to showcase a product and to ease into a pull market by having he consumer spread the word. The agency Wieden + Kennedy, Portland came up with the idea to create a video response and launched the ad on Youtube. As of Saturday afternoon, the video had been viewed more than 900,000 times.
A little blasphemous. The company had concerns that the "Jesus shot" phrase used in the original YouTube video, as well as showing Woods walking on water, had the potential to offend some people. However, the feedback from consumers has been uniformly positive.
In a campaign to create more hype around USA Network's hit espionage show, “Burn Notice,” mailed out 14,000 “FYC” (For Your Consideration) press kits, printed in invisible ink. The elaborate kits, produced by TDA Advertising and Design, each have a slip-cover, 3-panel, hardcover kit holding a UV flashlight and the instructions:
Step 1: Use this flashlight to reveal hidden text. Step 2: Deny you ever used this flashlight.
Across all three panels, no other words or images are visible, except under black light – at which point photographs of the lead actor and supporting actress, a list of six potential “Drama Series” Emmy nominations, and four press blurbs (e.g. “The show floats along on a spy’s handbook. Narration that sounds remarkably convincing.” – L.A. Times) come into view. Also, tucked into a slot are 4 DVDs with this season’s 12 episodes, plus written synopses.
The hour drama about an ex-spy runs Thursdays at 10PM EST on USA Network.
Great execution for this direct mail kit. Out-of-the-box thinking but practical for reading? Probably not, but will get the show some great buzz.
Because of the Summer Olympics and the success of my soccer seasons. I bring you a few sports theme posts today.
First goes to "the beautiful game". European football is at an all time high. My squad is back from a summer tournament where we placed second after finishing first in our division. Now it's time to improve, and what a better way to improve than to recruit.
Appearances aside, this deceptive team of over-aged and beer belly pub players prove their skills in this viral ad for Lucoazde Sport produced by agency M&C Saatchi, London.
Moral: Performance enhancing drugs can help you play like you are twenty again.
A young actor with a rare talent bursts onto the scene. Huggies contracted JWT, New York for this promotion. It had to deliver a powerful message targeting moms where they spend a lot of their time...on the Internet.
Premise: The advertisement shows a father changing his son's diaper at a party. Everything in this room and even old dad gets soaking wet as soon as the diaper is off. The scenario repeats until the father is able to secure the diaper. "Huggies. Nothing stops leaks better," is the tagline at the end.
This original ad called "Geyser" aired several months ago. The popularity of the ad prompted JWT to create a "mockumentary" version, dubbed "Inside the Diaper."
Anyone with a baby boy can relate to a child and their uncontrollable urge. In order to engage moms and be able to convey a difficult message that typically compares a brand name to the "leading" brand. It's able to put a little comedy behind the natural wonders of old faithful.
Denver Water has a clever conservation campaign I have dubbed this campaign...CCC™. Agency Sukle Advertising & Design, (which by the way have an interesting 'temporary' site.) Having the idea of conserving water and using the minimum with the tag "Use Only What You Need."
First this boardless billboard, doesn't exactly get the conservation award, since plenty of electricity seems to be surging through it. Still, the idea is to save on water, the campaign's artistic design is in good display.
Unfortunately, I can't say the same about making park benches slightly uncomfortable. The idea and presentation of the ad is considerably good. But it leaves me to think that they really want the people of Denver to get healthier.
And to make this a little bit more humorous, a friendly reminder from your electric company, Eskom.
UPDATE:
I may have only captured the two billboards, but this campaign is brilliantly displayed here and here.
This interesting outdoor campaign for Google Video Germany used a billboard imitating a real-life video player capturing the simple things in life. The tagline "Any Film You Can Imagine", is a simple message that intice people to search for videos and to upload their own videos.
The billboard has a google search bar at the top with a search phrase with the billboard placed somewhere in Germany where people might be doing that of which is in the search criteria and the bar below shows what looks like a video streaming.
It's not very clear if the campaign was launched before or after the YouTube, but the fact that the video embedded above is from YouTube tells a lot about Google Video's success. The campaign makes the point that online video presents life in all it randomness and that is what makes it a success with the crowds.
The quick-turnaround for a viral campaign is critical and it usually shows how strong brands can stay current with today's trends. Well not necessarily a trend in this case, but a strong gail of wind forcing a tree to fall to the streets was captured by amateur video. The falling tree almost hit a car. The agency, Colenso 99, took the original footage and recreated the scene of for a Jeep owner "Having fun out there."
99 Auckland explains; "Last week saw some of the worst storms in recorded history to hit New Zealand and what defined this in the hearts and minds of New Zealanders was viral footage and News coverage of a falling tree almost hitting a car in Nelson, South Island. 99 Auckland thought about the Jeep brand proposition of 'Have fun out there' and what would happen if a Jeep was there? The original footage was sourced, and we recreated the scene of a Jeep owner doing just that, 'Having fun out there.' The viral was sent out a day after the news coverage aired, to maintain relevancy."
This would have been even better if they aired the ad on TV after the news the next day - but such quick media-buy is long gone isn't it?
Humor and sincere. Hallmark icontinues their series of touching stories featuring greeting cards with “Brother of the Bride”, set at a wedding. Agency Leo Burnett created this spot.
In short, a young man, the brother of the bride, makes it clear through his continual conversational gaffes that he has little tact or accuracy. When he gets up to say a few words about his sister everyone is anxiously interested to hear what he’ll come out with.
But he’s taken the safe route of sharing the inspirational words from a Hallmark card. The ad is rescued from sentimentality by a humorous reference to the bride’s mother.
This girl and her tongue find out just how clean her hotel room really is. Extended Stay America uses this viral video, cleverly named "A Girl, Her Tongue and a Hotel Room." In it, a blonde woman steps into a hotel suite and begins to lick things. With the call to action an offering the URL extstay.com inked on her palm.
Call me a bit skeptical, but I find that I happen to like seeing how clean a hotel room really is with one of those flourescent black lights we typically saw on a local news feature. But Extended Stay America – and agency Mullen, seem to have captured the essence of what clean is for a hotel.
I can't seem to figure out if this is an ad for porn or for a hotel. Even the URL EXTSTAY sounds like ecstacy, so maybe in each room you get a cute blonde willing to lick every nook in your room.
I think the only medium this is good for is web/viral though. I can't even imagine what the parent organizations would do if they got a hold of this on network or even cable television.
Today's posts I found a couple new ad campaigns that take are drawn by the the ink of a pen. The first showing how vivid a pen can really influence choices you make and the second a more friendly turn to ....
The first video was created by TBWA France, ADWEEK's Global Agency of the Year in 2006, introduced this year, for the client Amnesty International, and directed by Zurich 29 (You might want to translate this page). This video touches on some very controversial issues and it really gets the consumer to want to act. It provides the emotional feel that gets the viewer in touch and that many people can relate to when contributing to charities.
This animated spot sends the message that a pen can be stronger than a sword, and we all have the power to save the abused victims by using our own voices, and signatures. A great piece, and a rich message. Talk about a life-saving signature. This was actually a second spot of the Amnesty Ink.
You can view the other spot, called Signature > HERE. This won a Cannes Gold Lion earlier this year.
The second in our series is a Nokia spot called Maps. In this video, the people use the Nokia Maps application on their Nokia phone to help them determine how to draw the map. This spot ran in the UK, with agency direction by Wieden+Kennedy.
It's best to say that "the pen is the tongue of the mind."
I was reading an article in the National Post the other day regarding the TypeCon 2008 Conference. To parapharse, the author discussed among designers: "If you were stuck on a desert island and only had 10 fonts..." This was there list: • Janson • Gill Sans • Didot/Bodoni • Joanna • Myriad • Helvetica Neue Light • Walker • Century Schoolbook Condensed Light • Trebuchet • Meta
Good typography is important to any medium as it is to use images and shiny objects. The fact that you may skim articles and headlines, it should still be pleasing to look at and easy to read.
In every situation where type is used - in television, signage, packaging - the designer has to adapt his techniques to suit the medium.
So I figured i would just google things on typography and wouldn't you know I came a cross this website, NYCtype by designer Jason Powers.
Jason goes around New York City photographing street typography. I was intrigued by it because I always wanted to go around the Gem City and just photograph signs and different types. Here, Jason takes that idea and uploads to his blog.
Although he doesn't critique the styles of typography, any graphic designer who is looking for a new style to try, this gives you the visual record in the public terrain. Check out NYCtype to find a font that might be suitable for your next medium.
Ah, my man Pearly over at Fancies and Delights hooked me up with this hot link. A Bar inside a tree that draws crowds of people every year to South Africa.
The bar is located in a rural area of Sunland Farms...inside a tree! A Baobab tree for that matter. The bar is hollowed into the 155ft wide trunk. Carbon-dating has shown the anicent tree is about 6,000 years old. It can comfortably seats up to 15 people and has four meter high ceilings.
Read more and see more photos over at the Daily Mail.
Adidas going green? Not quite...A recent ad campaign billboard in London, Adidas appears to be reaching out to the environmentally conscious type. The ad features an Adidas running shoe without typography or a logo on a billboard composed of vines, plants and foliage. The brand is well known for it's three stripe etching on the shoe that it's pretty easy to associate which brand it is. The message they are going for is clear, but only points in the right direction and is far from sincere.
Reports have come back that the vines are made of plastic. I got to say I was a little let down once I heard that...to find out that a beautiful ad that represents such a positive message is constructed of plastic that so happens to be polluting the world. Shame to hear that loss. Innovative idea nonetheless.
Most people won’t make the effort to bend over and pickup a penny from the street. Chevrolet tested this idea by creatively placing a 20 foot billboard in London and covering it with over 20,000 pennies.
The pennies were all plucked from the billboard in less than 30 minutes.
Chevrolet’s Les Turton said: “There have been some great car adverts before, but none that has stopped traffic and actually put money back into the motorist’s pocket so this is certainly a first. We’re glad we’ve topped up lots of people’s wallets, purses and, in some cases, rucksacks, but it would have been nice for the billboard to last a little longer than 30 minutes.”
While the ad may have only been truly effective for 30 minutes, it will continue to catch eyes all over the internet for the next week or so. Don't you just love viral marketing!
Another music video post. This video was released in 1998 by Unkle with Thom Yorke doing vocals. Director Jonathan Glazer – critically acclaimed for his films, commercials, and music videos – shot the video in real-time and allowing the diegetic sounds produced by objects and characters to be audible above the music. It differs from that video in that the music itself is non-diegetic. Rabbit in Your Headlights is such a great music video – won MVPA Best International Video of the Year Award in 1999 – it actually has it owns Wikipedia page. The money shot comes around the 4:22 mark.
It is wildly theorized that: "The nonsensical ramblings show a man in transition, confusion, a state of delirium - a man undergoing enlightenment. Audible surroundings underline the abuse he is receiving, the inescapable aggression and oppression of life. His resolve demonstrates a bravery; he stands up to the hierarchical shit of the world, and realises that we, as living creatures, are stronger than the machines we create - we can reach a sublime state, a nirvana - and thus, in Jesus-like pose, he becomes all powerful. And while his final pose has a religious element to it, it is more to do with spiritual realisation in the non-religious sense - a much more personal response to the world. His arms are lower than a crucifix pose, below his waist - demonstrating more power. His clenched fists and closed eyes also show ultimate power in the mind and body. The loss of his hooded jacket again shows a discarding of human influence and of the need to hide from the elements - he is free, omniscient, omnipotent, alive."
Since I'm on the music video theme for the day. New video just dropped as Cee-Lo and Danger Mouse again offer up an interesting and quirky visual treat. The duo directed the video in collaboration with Chris Milk. Little gory, but watch as a man has his heart ripped right out. But it is all Gnarls geniality - it's slightly weird, yet totally brilliant at the same time. On top of all that, Cee-lo finds an interesting new use for a piece of broccoli. The dialogue makes this video.
Just utterly impressed with this video by the duo Gnarls Barkley. The song plays as background noise in a diner, but it's the dialogue between the two diners that is deeply enriched with emotion. Everyone can relate too that one who got away and the comparing of exs to new people you meet, but damn isn't this what being broken hearted looks and feels like!?!
Take that, conventional music video-making wisdom! Radiohead known for there unique sound and revolutionizing the production of music and unconventional ways of releasing it, Have taken it another step. Creating a video without the use of a camera.
In Radiohead's new video for "House of Cards", directed by James Frost of Zoo Films, no cameras or lights were used. Instead, 3D plotting technologies collected information about the shapes and relative distances of objects. The video was created entirely with visualizations of that data.
Two technologies were used to capture 3D images: Geometric Informatics and Velodyne LIDAR. Geometric Informatics scanning systems produce structured light to capture 3D images at close proximity, while a Velodyne Lidar system that uses multiple lasers is used to capture large environments such as landscapes. In this video, 64 lasers rotating and shooting in a 360 degree radius 900 times per minute produced all the exterior scenes.
Thom Yorke in the press release: "I always like the idea of using technology in a way that it wasn't meant to be used, the struggle to get your head round what you can do with it. I liked the idea of making a video of human beings and real life and time without using any cameras, just lasers, so there are just mathematical points-- and how strangely emotional it ended up being."
Go here to check out the making of the video and how you can create your own visualizations and then upload it to Radiohead!
Today's featured content is from an Irish advertising agency IIBBDO with creative direction from Mal Stevenson.
Now doesn't that make you want a tall glass of Guinness. Oh goodness. It was hard to catch on what was going on in the video, but I think they could have captured this from the panoramic view that they used at the end of the video more vividly.
I happen to like to blog about things I have seen. Typically if it isn't a night out drinking, it's something on PBS that is intriguing me. Like for instance the Sidewalk Astronomer...John Dobson.
The Sidewalk Astronomers are a group of amateur astronomers who build telescopes and take them to public places beckoning passersby to come have a look at the heavens. They do this with no profit motive in mind; it is purely for the satisfaction of sharing the wonders of the heavens with others.
They stop people on sidewalks and let them see the craters of the Moon, the moons of Jupiter, the rings of Saturn, or the spots on the Sun. For just a moment, they have a personal connection with the universe around them, and sometimes life seems a little better after that.
It's a 1 hour profile of John Dobson, creator of the Dobsonian mount – a device that revolutionized the telescope, making large-diameter telescopes that once necessitated costly setups available to anyone with a few bucks and the will to gaze into deep space.
It was fascinating, and very inspirational.
He doesn't believe in the Big Bang which will inspire some fun conversations here.
Here is an exercept of Dobson sharing his belief. The full documenatary is enlightening.
Supersonic Standstill? How does that work? Glad I asked.
Supersonic (sōō'pər-sŏn'ĭk) 1. Having, caused by, or relating to a speed greater than the speed of sound in a given medium, especially air. 2. Of or relating to sound waves beyond human audibility.
Standstill (stānd'stĭl') 1. Complete cessation of activity or progress
I wanted a place that would have fresh content related to all things viral. Referring to marketing techniques that use pre-existing social networks to produce increases in brand awareness or to achieve other marketing objectives (such as product sales) through word-of-mouth delivered or enhanced by the network effects of the Internet. Like my Blog!
I wanted a place so that I can access all the viral videos that seem to hit the market. Feel free to drop me a line of something that you might have caught your fancy and I'll be glad to share with the blogosphere.
It provides the latest creative works of advertisements I stumble upon or just something that fascinates me. And I get fascinated easily.
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