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Archive for January, 2007

Laser Nike

12 Jan 2007

Nike has released 4 types of sneakers which are based on a laser technology. In a pretty eye-catching way they’re communicating this in France with some outdoor goodness: the billboard is made from a metal plate and the impression of the shoe and the copy are laser engraved in the plate. It’s pretty cool to see, especially with the red glow they’ve put behind it to make it stand out more. At night it looks really funky, as you can see below. I like it very much that together with the pics of the ads, the ‘making of’ is going around. That kind of shows off how they created this piece of urban art. I don’t think many homies will be able to resist the temptation of buying them. I bet there’s an empty space on many shoe shelves, begging to be filled with a pair of shiny sneakers like these.

Nike Laser Billboard 1

Nike Laser Billboard 2

Nike Laser Billboard 3

Agency: DDB, Paris
Via: AdArena

 
1 Comment

Posted in Advertising, Campaigns, Marketing

 

The Site Is Not Finished

12 Jan 2007

Just recently, I felt being left in the cold because I wanted to browse through a portfolio of a website that apparently was under construction. Seth Godin calls it a classic example of ‘the shoemaker’s children’. This tale goes as follows: there was a shoemaker who was very well known for the very good work he delivered, and he was always somewhere out of town to help out some clients. If he wasn’t on a trip, he would be making shoes for his shop. He was so busy making shoes that eventually, his own kids would have to go barefoot because their father had no time to make them shoes. Bring this back to the website I wrote about earlier, you might assume that they are so busy making websites and doing work for other people that this company doesn’t have time to make it to their own deadline and release the site on the promised day. I got pointed to another site from a company that works in the same sector -Advertising and Communication- Well, as much as I agree with Seth when he says this is a classic problem, here is a very good way to give your kids the shoes they need, even if the shoes aren’t perfect. Click here (or on the picture below) to see what to do!

Group 94

See? this is what I mean. Even if your site isn’t online, there’s a dozen of ways to keep possible clients entertained and amused. I also love the fact they’ve put a link online to the portfolio in their old site. At least you’d still have the chance to go through their delivered work. This is simply great. I’m subscribed to the RSS to see more videoblogging from them and I have to say: these guys know how to get an audience stuck to their screen and begging for more.

Thanks, Michael

 
1 Comment

Posted in Advertising, Marketing

 

Mini Yo-Yo

12 Jan 2007

BBDO Italy did something pretty impressive with a real-sized fiberglass Mini that was mounted on a moving platform. The platform could move the car up and down along the building, creating a yo-yo effect to tease passers-by. This is really cool and a very good idea, although I can’t see the link between a yo-yo and a mini, except for the fact it makes it look like a toy, and maybe ‘very light’. The strength of the action is really the visibility and the effect it has on the people who spot it.

Mini Yo-yo

Via A/D Goodness

 
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Posted in Advertising, Campaigns, Marketing

 

So You Think You’re A Gamer

11 Jan 2007

Here’s a funny little quiz that tests your average knowledge of computer and video games. If you think you’re up to the challenge, go ahead and try this one. If you’re a geek or a fragcat and you’re looking for a quiz about gaming to test your friends’ knowledge… this piece of work by Daan Van den Eeden is a very good starter. Let’s see how far you get.

Take the quiz! (thanks Dave)

 
1 Comment

Posted in Games, Geek

 

The Communication Company

10 Jan 2007

There’s a company in Antwerp that is called ‘The Communication Company’. With a name like that you might expect some experts in the field, and a loaded site with a portfolio that goes from here to Vladivostok. It’s been 10 days already since I’m trying to reach that site to look up a few things, but all I get is this message:

TCC

Now, I’m not trying to nag about it, but if you’re a communication company (can you be any more vague?) aren’t you supposed to communicate? For a company that has an office in The Netherlands and one in Belgium, the least you can do is have a designer spend one hour to create an index to make it seem like you’re actually working on the site. Today is the 10th of January. The site was supposed to be online on the first. I understand possible delays due to Christmas/New Year holidays and so on, but then they should’ve set the launch date on February 1st. Now what happens here is I get the impression they won’t even make it to their own deadlines. What guarantees me they’ll make it to the deadline a customer will set?

The copy on their site isn’t really reassuring either. If I translate it, it reads:

“No dog came to our website anymore (which means ‘no one’), so a new one is being made. Online 01/01/2007″

If they can’t even manage to get their own site to be attractive, how can I be sure they’ll make the assignment they get an eyecatcher to stand out of competitors?

 
6 Comments

Posted in Advertising, Ethics, Marketing

 

The Networked Self

10 Jan 2007

The eligible mister Swaminathan, previously interviewed on Coolz0r, has lined up the predictions Faith Popcorn has made for 2007 and the near future. Although I don’t agree on all of them, I’ll line them up here. For more details, I’ll refer you to Customer World, where every item in this list has some more background text.

  • Identity Flux

    Gender-neutrality goes mainstream. People list skills on their business cards rather than title, and dress up in various costumes depending on who they feel like being that day.

  • Liquid Brands

    Chameleon-like brands focus less on communicating a static message and more on being the right thing for the right persona at the right time. Constantly morphing retailers carry products until they sell out and never restock.

  • Virtual Immortality

    While some let their avatars drift away to online purgatory, many more leave behind specific instructions on how their virtual selves should proceed. Services offering avatar surrogates flourish, and we bequeath avatars to friends and family in our wills.

  • EnvironMENTAL Movement

    Companies are expected to reduce the amount of damage they are doing to our minds. Savvy companies sponsor marketing-free white spaces in lieu of polluting the environment with models and logos.

  • Product PLACEment

    Enviro-biographies are attached to just about everything, letting consumers know the entire life story of a product: where the materials were harvested, where it was constructed, how far it traveled, and where it ended up after being thrown away or recycled.

  • Brand-Aides

    Socially responsible brands make a buck while providing desperately needed services. Communities are revived by Target daycare, Starbucks learning centers, and Avis transportation services for the elderly.

  • Moral Status Anxiety

    A person’s net worth is no longer measured by dollars earned, but by improvements made. Families compete with each other on how many people they fed while on vacation, and the most envied house on the block is not the biggest, but the most sustainable.

  • Oldies but Goodies

    Respect for elders makes a comeback in the form of Ask Your Grandma hotlines and the proliferation of online video clips by seniors showing us how to tie knots and concoct home remedies.

 
1 Comment

Posted in Marketing, Trends

 

Protect Yourself

10 Jan 2007

Here’s a campaign with nice visuals about how necessarry it is to protect yourself when toying around with other people. For some morons, statistics and preventive warnings aren’t convincing enough, so in this case, when you look at it from another angle, it becomes pretty obvious as to ‘why’ you should take the needed precautions. The only thing I wonder about is that if you connect the dots between dangerous professions and protection and making love, it would sort of turn sex into a profession as well, no? :) It’s hard work, but someone’s got to do it (as long as you do it safe).

Protect Yourself 1

Protect Yourself 2

Protect Yourself 3

If anybody knows the agency credits, please drop ‘m in the comments.
Agency: Advico Young & Rubicam, Zurich
Via 24

 
3 Comments

Posted in Advertising, Campaigns, Marketing

 

Stolen Billboards

08 Jan 2007

Together with ClearChannel Outdoor and McCann Erickson, Opel had decided to opt in for a viral campaign to kick off the car fair promotion. The teaser campaign existed from a viral spot and a 1/4 page ad in the national press. The clip was seeded on YouTube (obviously) and shows a few buddies who’re stealing a 36m² billboard in Brussels, while the second part of the campaign is in fact a (fake) statement from ClearChannel Outdoor, confirming the theft of the billboard and calling for witnesses to clear up the mystery. Besides the fact the buddies are stealing a billboard that pictures one of Opel’s newest cars, no obvious link has been made to the brand itself.

Even though seeding a viral clip doesn’t end with putting it on YouTube, there’s been quite some buzz about it. Everybody knows by now Opel does something weird around the opening of the national car fair, so on one of Belgium’s most popular leisure sites the link to ‘another viral from Opel’ has been made quite fast in the comments of the seeded post.

I think it’s a funny campaign that tries to make the point that people can’t wait to own the newest car, so they decide to steal the billboard. In another billboard, pictured below, you’ll see a man trying to fit a billboard in his garage. Presumably to see how well the car would fit in that setting. Pretty clever and I think it’s a solid try.

Opel - ClearChannel Message

Copy:
“Witnesses Wanted
In the night from December 26th to December 27th a number of our outdoor billboards have disappeared. Looking at the scale of the operation, the billboard measures 36m² and weighs around 100 kg, we’re hoping people would have seen something that could help us recover these valuable billboards.

If you’ve seen something or if you know the perpetrators or if you could provide us with any leads, please contact us at [email]

In the mean time we thank you very much.

ClearChannel Outdoor”

The clip of the thievery:

Second billboard:

Opel - Billboard

Client: General Motors Belgium
Agency: McCann-Erickson
Account team: Yves Bogaerts, Tanguy Binard
Creative Director: Jean-Luc Walraff
Creation: Lennie De Troyer, Tim Vercauteren
Online Strategic Planner: Tanguy De Kelver
Production Company: Videohouse ENG (Pascal Michaud)
Photographer: Kurt Stallaert
Media: Posters

 
10 Comments

Posted in Advertising, Campaigns, Marketing

 
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