Cool Marketing Thoughts

A sysadmin unpacked the server for this website from its box, installed an operating system, patched it for security, made sure the power and air conditioning was working in the server room, monitored it for stability, set up the software, and kept backups in case anything went wrong. All to serve this webpage.

A sysadmin installed the routers, laid the cables, configured the networks, set up the firewalls, and watched and guided the traffic for each hop of the network that runs over copper, fiber optic glass, and even the air itself to bring the Internet to your computer. All to make sure the webpage found its way from the server to your computer. So, If you can read this, thank your sysadmin!

The Boondoggle agency claimed the Dutch alternative for this event for their client digibewust.nl, an initiative of the Dutch government and the companies to stimulate companies to maximize and realize their potential. Pretty cool idea. We should have SysAdminDay more often. So, check out the sites below, sign up your sysadmin and show him some love !

Visit SysAdminDag.nl if you speak Dutch/Flemish
or surf to SysAdminDay.com for more info

I’m back from Florida, had a super great time :) Let’s kick it off with a funny clip. I know this is an older one, but it just keeps making me smile :-) - It’s funny, because it’s true.

Video: Switch - Gamer

In a few hours I’ll be heading for Brussels airport to travel to Orlando, Florida. I’m going to an event called MGX, which is short for Microsoft Global Experience. MGX is an internal Microsoft conference for Microsoft’s global sales folks and the evangelists. It’s the occasion to meet A LOT of other employees, since about 14.000 will be attending, and I’m really looking forward to hook up with some people I haven’t seen in while.

I’ll be in the US until the 23rd, counting the timezone difference it’ll be the 24th when I get back. I’ll try to post from the hotel or from the conference, in between sessions.

For updates, clips and thoughts, check my other blog… since I try to keep this hobby and my work as separated as possible.

Everyone makes phone calls and sends text messages every day. Imagine the profit a mobile operator makes would be exclusively used to sponsor ecological or social projects… wouldn’t that be a very cool USP?
Ello Mobile, a new mobile operator thinks so and has launched a campaign in which they announce that every cent of profit will be donated. It’s a Belgian project, but I think it could work in other countries as well. Flemish actress An Miller and actor Filip Peeters, both very well known in the Belgian TV and theater scene, have been asked to do a very simple teaser-campaign, they’re the brand ambassadors. There are some clips on YouTube directed by Jan Eelen to spread the word. Eelen has had a hand in practically every qualitative humoristic TV series Flanders has known for the last decade.

I really like the idea, and helping out for a good cause while you don’t have to change anything in your mobile behavior… that can only be good, I think.

The clips are in Dutch, but basically all the actors say is ‘call me’.

As a really cool surplus, check out this clip that wasn’t supposed to be released.

Last year in November I already mentioned the freakish powers of The Total Blender. They’ve been blending all sorts of crazy things in the past time but their recent clip really kicks it big time. They’re blending an iPhone. Pretty neat stuff. I haven’t really written about the iPhone here before, and it’s not because I work for Microsoft. It’s because I think the device is way too limited and has nothing to offer that I can use. I’ll give you some examples of why this fashionable device will (at this time) not be on my wishlist:

1. It doesn’t support SD (micro)memory cards, no slot present
2. I can’t install other software (TomTom navigation and so on)
3. I can look at movies but I can’t record any
4. I don’t use iTunes, nor an mp3 player function and I don’t care for music support or YouTube videos
5. The battery is sealed-in so no hard reboot if the device locks (by removing and replacing the battery)
6. Got to hand in the phone at Apple store for x days if battery breaks
7. Not ready for over-the-air content delivery (3G and so on)
8. Sealed deals with operators that require minimum sign-up periods
9. I don’t store pictures on my phone, don’t have time to show off pictures either, I just use it for work-related things, not during coffee breaks
10. Compared with Nokia’s N95 5 megapixel snapshot maker, the iPhone has a rather crappy image quality

So, apart from the very cool design and touch screen navigation, there really isn’t much in it for me. I just need a device with easy access that allows me to install what I want, that allows me to chose any provider I like and that improves my mobile experience. And for what it has to offer, I think it is way too expensive. There is no technology progress. A slick interface doesn’t make me happy if the functions behind it don’t live up to the expectations. But yeah, that’s just my humble opinion. What it does pretty well though, is blend!

Video: Will It Blend? iPhone [source]

By the way, you can bid for the blended iPhone on eBay :-) It’s already at $430.

Summertime is here, and as usual that means a flood of al-ki-hol related campaigns because sun, sea and beaches equal the perfect drinking atmosphere. The hot weather is also causing severe shirt and short shortness and mini skirts are filling the streets, which sometimes leads to not so attractive sights - but hey, you can’t have it all. What better time to party til dawn? Here’s a Belgian campaign for Cointreau, the famous liquor. They came up with a very hip cocktail that listens to the smooth name of Cointreaupolitan. This summer drink is made with 5 cl Cointreau, 3 cl of cranberry juice and 2 cl of lemon juice. To top it off a little twisted curl of orange peel is inserted in the cocktail right before you serve it. I tried it and it’s pretty good. Looks very pinkish too. Funky. To create a little awareness and make the brand stick more, a contest has been created where you can win a 10-day trip around the world with your (girl)friend. All you have to do is prove you’re a real cointreaupolitan and answer 4 questions about the cities you could be visiting if you win. The contest runs only in Dutch and French, but I very much like the idea that you create a character of your brand user and dip it in a clubby atmosphere. The site looks pretty loungy and creates exactly the atmosphere you’d expect from a drink like this one. As an extra, 25.000 free cocktails are shaken and stirred in a number of popular Belgian venues, which can be located on the site.

Pictures of the events can be found on Flickr and a little ‘making of the photoshoot’ has been put online as well.

Agency: DuvalGuillaume
Thanks, Tim

A 56.6% increase of the visits, 8942 subscribers and a definite upward trend of the users (66.5%). What do you do when you get these facts if you’re a beer brand? Right. You invest a huge smack of money in a marketing campaign, create a dozen 3D webisodes of your virtual 3D brand mascotte and you launch a dedicated section for those fresh users to come and win prizes, and most of all, to bring their friends. You make it very modern and up-to-date by adding a ‘my’ before your brand name and off you go! That’s exactly the strategy behind MyCeres, the new social networking space branded Ceres beer, inspired by the more famous My Space or Windows Live Spaces. With MyCeres the users can create and customize their personal profile, invite friends to join, play and challenge the other subscribers to the “Fight Chen” duel (a face to face viral game), and add them to the friends list to exchange messages. MyCeres gives the opportunity to win a lot of gadgets, and the grand prize is 4 tickets to the paddock of Moto GP 2008 with the Team Honda Gresini. Time to brush up your Italian and explore the site.

Sounds all pretty exciting to me, but my sober remark in the side line is: would I really need yet another space to them spam all my friends with invites to it? I’m not denying that the growth of users and increase of visits is a good thing. I’m simply questioning the resultive actions. I’d love to see facts and figures of the MyCeres campaign.

Agency: Dartway Interactive, Genova

These two clips were made to create awareness around road safety. There’s a different approach for every clip. The first one is Danish and it’s in fact to promote wearing the seat belts, the other one is Irish and is to point out that you need to keep to the speed limits at any time because you can never predict what’s going to happen. Road safety is a very difficult topic to create awareness around because you need to change other people’s behavior, so there are not so many successful ways to do this. It’s pretty weird how people will only change their behavior when something bad has happened to them or to friends or family close to them. That’s why I think the approach in the second clip is the right one. The shock effect sucks you right into the story drama, it makes it personal and you feel instantly involved. It will make you think, and hopefully act accordingly. The first clip, even after seeing it several times, looks too much like an average stunt clip from a moron. It takes too long before any action occurs and even when it is occuring, it happens very deep in the scene. You, as a viewer, are not really involved because it happens so far away. The message in the first clip is: even stunt drivers need to wear seat belts. The message in the second clip is: if you can’t control your vehicle, very bad shit is going to happen. One way or the other, it’s all in the message and the way you bring it.

Video: World Record Two Wheel Driving [source]

Warning: this is a very, very graphical clip.

Video: Speeding [thanks, Arnaud]