Cool Marketing Thoughts

For the announcement of the latest Swedish detective series (crime series), Canvas – Flander’s quality TV station – ordered a campaign at Duval Guillaume Brussels. Over at DGB, they came up with an alternative for Sweden’s number one export product: IKEA. Very funny how they approached this assignment. It’s a fact that when you say ‘Sweden’, the first thing that comes in mind is the DIY store. It’s a logical as Marco is followed by Polo. So, the guys over at Duval’s took this fact as a standard rule (probably after some brainstorming) and created DIY murder weapons. So clever, so simple and so obvious. Hah!

Copy (on the full ad):
“Mankell’s Wallander – The new Swedish crime series”

“Get acquainted with Sweden’s newest export product: Mankell’s Wallander. The detective series (13 episodes) is is written by bestseller-author Henning Mankell and is named to be the biggest Scandinavian television project ever made. You’d have to have a good alibi to miss this series.”

Client: Canvas
Agency: Duval Guillaume Brussels
Account Team: Sylvie Verbruggen, Inez De Pooter
Creative Directors: Peter Ampe, Katrien Bottez
Copy: Tom Berth
Art Director: Geert De Rocker
Art Buyer: Elly Laureys
Print Production: Elly Laureys
Media Planner: Lieve Vankeerberghen, Brand Connection
Strategy: Tom Theys
Illustration: Lim Sijmons, Touch De Clercq, Geert De Rocker
Photographer: Kris Van Beek
Retouching: Chris Den Das
Media: Magzines, dailies, posters

The Podfather – Parts I, II and III, Three special free shows from three doyens of podcasting – multi-award winning Ricky Gervais and Steve Merchant (The Office, Extras) plus the round-headed idiot savant, Karl Pilkington.

Yes! They’re back! Briefly, but still. Tomorrow is the second part of the 3 podcasts, you can still tune in for the Halloween edition right here (mp3, 14 MB)

Halloween edition includes: Ghostly drivel abounds as Steve consults a text-based oracle, Karl experiences a kidney probing, Steve visits Bristol, Karl becomes a Godfather and Ricky tells of some lighter moments at the morgue. Plus a competition to win CDs and books signed by podcasting’s top triumvirate.

I can’t wait to hear the Thanksgiving edition tomorrow, and then I’ll have to wait a month again to listen to the Christmas special on December 25th. Be part of this phenomenon, download it today and tomorrow and brighten up your Christmas with the ultra hilarious threesome of pod.

Find tomorrow’s edition on Guardian Unlimited

As an extension to the campaign I blogged about last week, LG&F created an outdoor event. Kids were sent out in the streets with notes they could pin on the backs of grown-ups in order to fool them. At school we used to do this with ‘kick me’ but that wouldn’t really have suited for this campaign, so instead the message on the notes were in the sense of “I’m a weirdo” and “Copy me” (aka Monkey me). People that had been fooled could read a message on the backside that contained information about the campaign.

Copy of the message:

“You’ve just been fooled by a Belgian child. Give children from the south also a chance to be a child. Start your own plan with Plan Belgium and become a Plan Parent. Surf to www.iederzijnplan.be”

The url translates as “Everyone his own plan”.

Site urls: Dutch version | French version

Concept (copy+ad): Johan Roelandt, Koen Van Deun (LG&F)
Creative Director: Paul Wauters (LG&F + Snow)
Strategy: Luc Libens (LG&F)
Account Manager: Elke Noels (LG&F)
Graphic Design: Lisa Allegretta (LG&F)
Webdesign: Elke Helbig (Snow)
Internet Producer: Carl De Mey (Snow)
Internet Strategie: Jonathan Detavernier (Snow)
Internet Development: MTFR
Animation & Dev Banner Campain: Bob Goor (Buroproper), Valentijn Steenhoudt (Snow)

In the same line of their previous campaign for National Geographic, the South African agency FoxP2 Advertising came up with another series of very funny ads. The fascination of kids with the little wonders of nature has always existed. Who hasn’t been playing around with worms and bugs, went out to catch a frog or some spiders. National Geographic has a special Kids magazine in which they want to educate and inform kids about what goes on in the rest of the world (as long as it’s still there). The guys over at FoxP2 have approaced this which with great care, keeping in mind that kids always want to play whilst learning. And so, below you can see the result of some very good thinking. Click on the images to see the full size. You have to read the speech boxes (text balloons) to fully grasp the humor and power of this campaign. My favorite is the one with the Amazon River. Simply hilarious!

Agency: FoxP2 Advertising, Cape Town, South Africa
Creative Directors: Andrew Whitehouse, Justin Gomes, Noel Cottrell
Art Director: Andrew Whitehouse
Copywriter: Justin Gomes
Via: AdsOfTheWorld

I’m really flattered that I’ve been invited to cover the Mplanet 2006 event by means of blog. Live-coverage is pretty fun to do, but unfortunately not many people seem to know I live and work in Belgium and not in the US of A, so I’ll have to pass on this one unless I get an airplane ticket to travel to Florida (and back as well, if possible). That said, I promised to do a little promo for the event since almost 70% of my readership comes from the US and mostly marketing minded.

Mplanet, which will take place in Orlando, Florida from November 29-December 1, 2006, will explore today’s top marketing issues such as performance marketing, new customer reality, morphing media and channels, brand relevance, disciplined innovation and new organization reality. Mplanet will offer marketing leaders a chance to learn about new concepts, strategies and solutions that will drive actionable results within their organizations. A galaxy of innovative industry thought leaders (including representatives from P&G, Wharton, GE, AT&T, McKinsey, and comScore) will be conducting sessions at the event. A full schedule can be viewed here (pdf, 574kb)

Mplanet will bring together the world’s most creative thinkers and decision makers—they’re aiming for around 1,000 attendees—to discuss the top issues facing the marketing community today. Content will revolve around six core topic themes that marketers tell us are the most important and most pressing:

• Performance Marketing/Measuring ROI
• New Customer Reality
• Morphing Media & Channels
• Brand Relevance
• Disciplined Innovation
• New Organizational Reality

Mplanet will feature more than 50 senior marketing leaders from companies such as GE, Procter & Gamble, Nokia, Yahoo!, Hershey, Best Buy, Sony and Emerson. The event will be held at the Walt Disney World Dolphin Resort in Orlando, Fla.
With Mplanet, AMA (American Marketing Association) will create a new definition of “trade show.” Each element of Mplanet has been strategically and creatively planned. The result is an event that is new, exciting, meaningful…and a bit different.

The American Marketing Association created Mplanet because consumers and businesses are holding marketers to a higher standard of effectiveness. According to research done by AMA in the past few years, marketers seek an event that delivers more than talking heads and Power Point presentations. To help marketers succeed, the AMA is providing personally relevant insight and tools from experts and their peers.

The AMA is the largest professional association for senior marketing practitioners, researchers and academia in North America with more than 38,000 members. No other marketing association has the depth and breadth of resources, education, training and knowledge to convene a conference as ambitious and unique as Mplanet. AMA created Mplanet in partnership with McKinsey & Company, The Wharton School and SpencerStuart, all of whom provided key input into the program direction and content.

The cool thing about Mplanet is that in fact it’s an “un-conference”. Attendees will be immersed in a podium-free environment, and they’ll participate in free-form talks, town hall forums, talk shows…engaging formats. Secondly, the content is new and fresh. This is not information you’ve heard at previous events. Lastly, attendees will not be thrown into a drab conference room and talked at. The moment you enter Mplanet, you’re in a new world. From an inviting registration area infused with orange essence that immediately stimulates the senses, to a blue sky and sweeping, grassy landscape providing no barriers to explore new ideas, Mplanet comes to life through an innovative and interactive program.

Again, thank you so much for the invite and the press pass, Rachelle. I really wanted to be part of this and I really appreciate you thought of me to be amongst the bloggers to cover the event. It’s really a shame I live so far away.

The full press release is posted after the jump.

Read the rest of this entry »

In The Netherlands, Axe teamed up with Vespa and gives away 5 items of the legendary scooter with a branded saddle. A “Spray more, get more” print has been placed where the passenger can sit. It doesn’t have the brilliance I’d expect from Axe, but it is a very cool gadget and I’m sure the target audience will fall for it.

Another nice teaser is this mirror that has been modified in the men’s restrooms, where two saucy vixens have been stickered on the mirror above the sink and the blokes who’d come by to wash their hands could experience the Axe Effect, be it with a high ‘wishful thinking’ factor. Axe’s image is mostly about wishful thinking and making men dream about things the rarely come true, but it’s a great USP. At some point I think they’ll have to change the rifle from shoulder and try to approach the target audience on a different way. I don’t see that happen really soon, but I doubt that it can remain paying off with the same impact.

Both campaigns via Marketing Alternatif > Coloribus

Nice work for the Gears Of War video game, a third-person tactical action/horror game that has been developed by Epic Games exclusively for Microsoft Game Studios. A beauty of a game, totally rocking. To set the mood, in the streets of Bastille war perimeters have been maintained and a real army truck has been upgraded to an experiental ’studio’ were interestees could get the look and feel of the game. Nice, simple and effective. I can’t wait to play this game. I’ve read so many good comments about it. I just have to try this.

See the game trailer
Via Marketing Alternatif

To communicate the fact that the Gröna Lund amusement park near Stockholm city was opened for a sneak preview the weekend before the actual opening, bumper cars were placed in the city center of Stockholm, with a sticker on the back that carried the message. Some cars were placed so it looked like they crashed into something, others had skid marks behind them so it seemed they had to brake all of the sudden or slipped and one bumper car was being towed around by a tow truck (so it looked like it was parked in the wrong spot and got towed away). The copy on the stickers read: “Now test driving the amusement park. Sneak preview this weekend.” – A very cool idea, a beauty of an eye-catcher. Not new, but one to remember.

Agency åkestam.holst
Via Adverbox