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Archive for April, 2008

A singing florist for Secretary’s Day

10 Apr 2008

Secretary’s Day is approaching! Belgian electricity operator Electrabel has launched a website that lets bosses produce a mini-opera for their secretaries. A florist sings a personalized song with the name of the secretary in it. Available in Dutch and French.

Secretary’s day

By the way, did you know that Secretary’s Day was created by a marketeer? Harry F. Klemfuss of Young & Rubicam launched the idea in 1952. In the US the concept is now known as “Administrative Professionals’ Day“. This year it falls on 23 April. In Europa it’s still called “Secretary’s Day” and it’s celebrated on 17 April.

Campaign website: http://www.debestemanagementassistent.be
Agency: Proximity BBDO Belgium.

 

Giant poster with synthetic turf background

10 Apr 2008

Leipziger Platz, Berlin

What makes this billboard at Leipziger Platz in Berlin so special is not so much its panoramic format nor the 50 kilowatts of lighting. No, it’s the giant size, 5,000 square meters, and what you see behind the poster. The building-under-construction supporting the billboard was covered with lots of synthetic turf.

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Absolut-ely sorry, Gringo!

07 Apr 2008

This Mexican ad by Swedish wodka maker Absolut caused angry reactions in the United States.

Absolut tweaks US-Mexican border

The ad shows a map of North America as it was in 1830, when the Southwestern United States was still part of Mexico. The ad was created by a Mexican subsidiary of TBWA. When news of the campaign reached the US, reactions varied from “they shot themselves in the foot” to “an ethnic supremacy/nation-erasing campaign“. This poll from the Los Angeles Times which drew more than 50,000 responses, shows how the isssue has stirred emotions:

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A second life for blog.coolz0r.com

07 Apr 2008

When Miel aka Coolz0r tried to upgrade blog.coolz0r.com to the newest version of Wordpress, he encountered serious problems with the database. The mess was so severe that he had to give up. He posted a farewell message on blog.coolz0r.com and announced “the end of Coolz0r” on his other blog.

I was at Barcamp Ghent with a lot of other Belgian bloggers when I read the news on Twitter of the crashing death of Coolz0r’s blog. We were shocked. In the week that followed, I offered Miel my help in trying to recover the database and restore his blog. But Miel is a busy man and his job at Microsoft takes a lot of time and mental energy. Finally, over the last weekend we had some phone calls, we exchanged logins and passwords and some essential files, and after some analysis and some tweaking and hacking I was able to bring the blog back online.

Miel, however, had already said goodbye and for him there was no turning back. He will focus his blogging efforts on one blog only: micromiel.com. I thought it was very important that the 1800+ articles that Miel has written in the last three years on “Marketing Thoughts” remain available online. A lot of these articles have no expiration date, they remain interesting and valuable even when the campaigns they describe are long gone. Keeping these articles available is not only a tribute to Miel’s talent but also a service to the marketing community.

So, we agreed that I would host the blog under a new name, “Cool Marketing Thoughts“, which is only a small difference from “Coolz0r – Marketing Thoughts”, that I would clearly identify Miel as the author of all the articles that he has written, and that I can keep the blog alive by adding new content.

From now on, this blog will be a group blog. I am looking for contributors willing to write articles from time to time in the spirit, scope and focus of Coolz0r. If you’re interested, write to luc.van.braekel@gmail.com with a short bio and some pointers to previous work.

 
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Live blog advertizing with Twitter, Flickr and Flash

07 Apr 2008

A great idea from Adhese’s blog ad network Enchanté and Caroline from Rolling Talks: send blogger Ine on a skiing vacation to Club Med in Chamonix, and while she liveblogs using Twitter and Flickr, show her tweets and flicks live in ads for Club Med.

Club Med campaign by Adhese
Club Med campaign by Adhese
Club Med campaign by Adhese

The ads are displayed this week on blogs like BVLG, Bnox, Past is Prologue and others. You can read more about this campaign on the Adhese blog.