Cool Marketing Thoughts

Samsung’s very long and lasting printer is capable of printing 100.000 sheets per month. To communicate that heroic fact, the same amount of sheets as there are to be printed were stacked and printed on the side so they looked like a real printer. This point of sales gadget was distributed amongst hardware shops that sell Samsung’s printing Tarzan. I like the idea, but it’s kind of a little waste of paper, unless the store decides to use it afterwards, but it doesn’t look like it’s regular A4, so I guess most of it will be thrown out. And that would be a shame. Nice stunt though.

Agency: Leo Burnett, Bogota, Colombia
Thanks, Marc

… for a better life. There’s a campaign running in Belgium for DVDPost, a service that delivers rental DVDs to your doorstep. The campaign is created by the Emakina agency, and it genuinely kicks ass big time. In fact, it does so in such a successful way that the Belgian Institute for Equal Rights (between men and women) filed a complaint against this “sexist provocation”. Obviously that only helped to increase the popularity of the campaign. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it. This sort of advertising is just teasing in a playful way, just like P-magazine or Ché Magazine have been doing for years already. The site “rentawife.be” allows you to select out of an archive of 9.584 candidates you can pick from and order to be delivered at your door. If you’re tired of one, you can send it in an exchange it for the next one on the list and it will be delivered within 24 hours. Obviously the women represent the DVD collection, and I really don’t see what the big fuzz is all about. How many times haven’t you been in the video store saying: “I want to see the new movie with Angelina Jolie”, then the next day you want to see one with Scarlett Johansson. Big deal. If the campaign would’ve been aimed for women and it would’ve been a rent-a-man site, I don’t think anyone would actually say something about it. Oh no, wait. Elections are coming. That must be it.

Video Link

Agency: Emakina (Belgium)
Thanks for the pointer, Erik!

Also buried under the pile of email I’m working myself through (150 to go from 950, yeeey) was this beautiful campaign from Claudio Lima and his partner. This is a new campaign for a pro-bono client of theirs called “The International Rescue Committee”. I like the idea very much, of the IRC needing funds to rescue more people, and it’s a very nifty job. Imagine this in the real world, as an attraction on a fair or in a supermarket or a mall, where you’d have to put in real coins to save some small puppets in the field. I think it would be a great way to get some kids and even adults involved in the project. Nice work!

Copy:
“The IRC has been aiding and rescuing refugees from conflict areas for more than 70 years. Help at www.theirc.org”

Advertiser: The International Rescue Committee
Title: Claw Machine Darfur / Afghanistan
Agency: DRAFTFCB, NY
Creative Directors: Chris Becker, Rodd Chant, Richard Velloso
Art Director: Daniel Prado
Copywriter: Claudio Lima
Photographer: Keith Ross

Johan Van Oeckel, the man behind the miniature guerilla that I featured here last year, sent in a video from a project he did for Wonderbra. It’s a very good idea that came out of the box here, and for a brand like Wonderbra, it fits right in with their advertising strategy. What we see here is a small billboard that’s totally flipping. The Wonderbra seems to push the boobs so far out so that it becomes impossible for the next ad to appear through rotation. Humor is very often hidden in small details :) Funny thing to look at when you pass by it in the street. A lot of men will like this.

This ad was also sent in by Lieven Vos, as an entry for the contest.

Friends of the Institute Bordet, a tobacco detoxification center, ordered a fancy ad at McCann-Erickson to announce the ‘no smoking in restaurants’ policy that saw the green light on January 1st of this year. It turned out to be nothing like the ‘Smoking Pigs’ video I posted earlier, but it’s a very good visual to illustrate the egoism that comes with lighting up a ciggie in the restaurant. I’ve said it before. If I want the meat to be smoked, I’ll ask the chef. And if it comes out of the kitchen and doesn’t taste like nicotine, that same chef intended it to be so. I can’t stand it when other people screw up my food with ingredients I didn’t order. This campaign has been sent in for the contest by Tanguy. Smooth one :) I like the comparison. Spot on!

Copy: “There are some things you shouldn’t do in public”

Client: Vrienden van het Bordet Instituut / Les Amis de l’Institut Bordet
Contacts: Ariane Cambier
Agency: McCann-Erickson
Account Manager: Perrine Madrenas
Creative Director: Jean-Luc Walraff
Art Director: Kwint De Meyer, Marleen Galle
Copy: Marleen Galle, Kwint De Meyer, Gregory Defay.
Photographer: Yann Arthus Bertrand
Graphic designer: Jean-Christophe Bouchat
Media: press

Tanguy from McCann-Erickson dropped this goodie in my mailbox as an entry for the contest, which by the way ends today. I think it’s a brilliant ad. One might wonder how a car brand can sponsor an exam night, and how on Earth it would be possible to create an ad around this given fact that actually makes sense and gives the concept some more visibility in a playful and original way. Well, seriously, here’s how:

Agency: McCann-Erickson
Account Director: Geert Keyaerts
Account Manager: David Driesmans
Creative Director: Jean-Luc Walraff
Creatives: Kwint De Meyer, Marleen Galle
Photographer: Evert Thiry
Retouching: caouchou
Media: press