Cool Marketing Thoughts

Check out this supercool commercial from Smirnoff. The concept might be a little abstract, the idea might be far-fetched, but the clip is awesome. I don’t know which agency came up with it, but I bet their budget was quite astronomous, if you look at the effects.

Video Link: Clearly Smirnoff

Here’s a cunning little take on the famous subservient chicken from Burger King. Ford captured a random Swedish guy, locked him up in a sauna and you can, by typing the right commands, make him do funny things. The purpose is to promote the Ford Fiesta Cool series. This campaign is particularly aiming for the female cluster of buyers, which is probably why the Swedish man is vacuum cleaning and the likes. Try typing commands like ‘handstand’, ‘basic instinct’, ‘kalender’, ‘kubus’, ‘ballen’, ‘bellen’, ‘kammen’ ‘dans’ ‘gitaar’, ‘touw’, ’stofzuigen’ or ‘mop’. Fun ! So, what’s the deal? Kalle Hötson, the Swedish man, needs to sweat. The point is to score 300 points as fast as possible by typing the right commands. If you succeed, Kalle will go seek freshness in the airconditioned Ford Fiesta and you get to win lovely prizes.

Visit the site, and give it a go
Agency: Ogilvy, Brussels

Hyundai sees things big. Really big. The latest campaign they ran in Belgium was one where consumers were challenged to get a hold of a dropzone mark to put at a location of their choice. If they were selected, they could open up a blog and people could vote on them. (a map of the participants is here). The ubercoolness factor here is that the car will be dropped by heli. Yeah, you read that right. A helicopter will come drop the car on your location. Talk about a ‘wow’ factor. Good way to wake up the neighbors on a quiet Sunday morning :-) If you think the creative directors of this clip have been watching Apocalypse Now too much, you’re right.

Video: Hyundai i30

Agency: Duval Guillaume Brussels, Duval Guillaume E
Account Team: Johan Parmentier, Peter Clijsters, Filip Van der Haegen, Annemie Verschueren
Creative Directors: Katrien Bottez, Peter Ampe
Copy: Tom Muysers, Peter Ampe
Art Directors: Louiselotte Brekelmans, Katrien Bottez
TV Producer: Bruno De Jonghe
Media Strategy: Davy Caluwaerts
Strategy: Davy Caluwaerts
Animations: Dave De Preter
Production Company: The Fridge
Director: Dirk Verheye
Producer: Tom Hameeuw
Post-Production Company: The Fridge
Website: Pieter Baert & Tim Elsen (webmaster), Stijn Dupas & Raf Thys (Development), Judith Vanderlinden (Testing)
Media: Guerilla, Internet, TV, dailies.

>> More campaign images and guerrilla snapshots Read the rest of this entry »

Last night I woke up and it was still dark outside. I usually don’t wake up early. I was staring at my ceiling and saw the last fractions of a dream replay. I was a little boy, standing out in the fields and looking up to the sky. At the horizon I saw a light, an ignition of a rocket that was launched into the black, starfilled sky. I saw a beautiful stripe of light go up and make a bow as it went further and further away from me.

I went to sleep again and woke up later this morning, started doing some e-mails and such. Then I got a phone call from a colleague to inform me that David Boschmans had passed away last night. David was the guy that wheeled me in at Microsoft. He was my mentor, my trusted colleague and friend. We shared dreams and hopes. His insights and advice will always guide me.
I could never have dreamt of getting a better mentor.

I’m lucky to have met him. I feel lucky, even when I’m typing this and tears drip on my typing hands. David, My Dearest David. I will never ever forget you. I’ll miss you. I’ll miss you so damn much. There is no explanation possible for all the why’s I’m feeling, no person that can fill the empty gap you leave behind.

May God watch over your family and take care of them. Sweet dreams, David.

Does it happen to you too that when you urgently need to reach a coworker, all you get is their voicemail? Do you suffer from irritability caused by coworkers who contact you hourly with meaningless changes to the presentation deck? Are you vulnerable to a prolonged exposure to smooth jazz as you are waiting for others to join a conference call? Do you experience the inability to broadcast vital information to a group of people in real-time and to various devices? Then it might very well be that you are suffering from P.D.B.D. [Post Dramatic Beep Disorder], Getouttamyinterfacia, Saxophonia or M.T.D. [Mono Transmission Disorder]. If your answer to all of the above is ‘yes’, then you are heading straight for a meltdown… and if you look at the clip below, that is NOT what you want.

Video: Cisco Systems: Meltdown

Better play it safe and check the website for remedies.

This is a gorgeous viral, and it totally cracked me up! I loved every second of it, except for the promo-pitch of Cisco on the microsite… but obviously it’s part of the game. What a refreshing take on the diseases of nowadays. I’ll forward this to everyone I know who suffers from it too, and believe you me, that is a lot of people!

Agency: Ogilvy & Mather, LA, USA / OgilvyOne, SF, USA
Creative Directors: Jeff Compton, Bob Strickland, David Shearer
Copywriters: Joel Maron, Ned Selover
Art Directors: Matt Coonrod, Cassiano Saldanha
Released: June 2007
Via: adarena / AotW

In the category ‘goodies from down-under’ flies in this superb advertisement for… public transportation. This is by far the best ad campaign for local bus services I have ever seen. I love the angle of approach, the way it is has been produced and the idea behind it. You could easily make it cross-service and expand it to trains, airplanes, taxis and what not. A very adaptable concept.

Thanks, Dave