Cool Marketing Thoughts

Umm. How does one illustrate his point with an ad like this one? First try: Please stand by for a commercial break from a messenger of our sponsor: Jabba The Hutt. – Second try: It’s a challenge for the washing machine to clean the mess this guy is causing, but with a powerful machine from Electrolux, you’ll do just fine.
So, if you’re ever planning to eat pasta in this way, please do not bother to invite me. By all means, no.

Copy: “Front Load Electrolux, Removes Any Stain”
Agency unknown.

The Absolut brand is one of my favorites, I’ve been tracking it for quite a while already. I’ve never seen so many fake ads appear about a single brand, so many consumer generated ideas. The brand itself is doing great and their advertising is ‘kick ass’ all the way. I haven’t seen any official ad or campaign yet that I didn’t like, which is pretty impressive. Here are three more ads for Absolut, one of them is a supersized outdoor by TBWA, and as a surplus you get the list of all the previous related posts on this blog. Enjoy!

Previous “Absolut” on Marketing Thoughts:

• Fake Absolut Ads
• Absolut’s 82 Bottles
• Absolut Spoof Ads 2
• Absolut Ikea / NY
• Faux Absolut Ads
• Absolut NewYork
• Absolut Temptation
• Absolut Kravitz Full Update
• Absolut Kravitz
• Absolut Spoof Ads 1
• Absolut Sweden Viral X-Mas
• With Love From Paris
• Absolut Ads Archive

There’s an ad I forgot to add in the post about Perrier which I did last week, so that’s the first one you’ll see here. The other two are pictures that were taken at the CityParade in Charleroi, a festival that was organized a little while ago in a city in the southern part of Belgium. The three bodypainted Perrier girls were walking behind LaRocca’s truck, so they’re most likely part of the famous ballroom’s promo team. Ben sent these images to me in response to the previous Perrier post. I don’t know who took the pictures, but as far as the promo for Perrier, all I can say is that it’s pretty daring for a brand to do it like this. Then again, Perrier has always been known for being “l’eau fou” (the crazy water), so it fits right in the concept of the CityParade, of which Perrier was a main sponsor as well.

This is a pretty cool ad for Berlitz, with a theological background. See, back in the biblical days, man had it in his heart to be like God, to join God in heaven and to become like him. The Tower of Babel was the utter example of mankind’s arrogance. A united humanity wanted to build a tower to heaven. Because God and humans aren’t equal, God stopped the project by confusing the language of the builders, so that each spoke a different language and they could no longer understand each other. So because communication had become impossible, the tower was never finished and the builders spread over the Earth. In the bible, this story is used to explain the existence of the many different languages and races. Now back to the ad.

Because Berlitz, the language school, is helping the world communicate – as it is mentioned in their copy (next to the logo)-, they can in fact complete the Tower of Bable, because they help to overcome the confusion there once  was amongst the people of the Earth. This approach is brilliant. I like it a lot.

Agency: Scholz & Friends, Berlin
via 24

I bumped into this campaign because Ben sent me a link to some dark site with too many NSFW stuff on it so I won’t link back to it. They obviously only listed the campaign because of some sexy shots and didn’t mention the agency or their source. Nevertheless, there are some really good ads in it so I didn’t want to hold it back. I’ll put two images before the jump, otherwise the index becomes way too heavy. If anyone knows the agency, please drop it in the comments so I can update the post. Meanwhile, enjoy this load of Perrier ads. May the sparkling crazy water be with you.

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Thomas Rockstar (cool name, no?) writes about an outdoor advertising stunt from Adidas. In Denmark, Adidas decided to take advantage of the Copenhagen Fashion Week to launch a new store in Pilestraede, Copenhagen. They’ve filled the fountain at ‘Enhave Plads’ with small blue rubber ducks. On the side of the ducks it says: “I’ve swum too far – help me get back home!”, on the bottom was printed “Reward for my return at adidas Original store”. So, Thomas took the little duck home and got a nice t-shirt as a reward.

So, why is this so cool? I think it’s a great way to make people experience your brand, to get them involved in the action. It might not be ‘guerrilla’ in its true form, but it’s a good outdoor that motivates people to participate in the brand experience. First of all their attention is raised by seeing the ducks in the fountain, of course they’ll check it out. Next, the duck is in fact the link between the outdoor and the store experience. The message is rather funny and it’ll trigger the curiosity of people, it’s a cute call-to-action. Everbody loves rewards, and so by returning the duck your reward is an orginal limited t-shirt, on top of that, people will get to know the new store, and they’ll interact with the brand again. Afterwards, this action will lead to conversations about the brand, the store and the fountain, extending the experience. If it would have been me at the fountain, I’d have taken one duck to the store and kept another so I can put it in the tub to play with :)

Thanks for the tip, Thomas!