This print ad for Armani created a lot of buzz: “Did Beckham’s briefs get stuffed with socks: yes or no?”
Belgian fashion store Deleye’s new underwear campaign on the other hand doesn’t leave you with any questions:
Socks
22
Dec
2008
Beer bag
16
Dec
2008
Bagvertising isn’t new, I’ve seen it many times before, but the results are often very nice.
Just like this one for example:
Although I like this example, I seriously doubt that the optical illusion is as good in real life as it is in these pictures. If the optical illusion is any good you can be sure of two things:
a) this bag will turn some heads when an old lady walking down the street is carrying it.
b) a lot of people are going to want one of these bags.
Agency: Noble Graphics Creative Studio, Bulgaria
Police Museum
03
Dec
2008
I like this campaign for the Vancouver Police Museum. Especially because I recognize myself in it and recognition is always a guarantee for success: in music, in movies and also in advertising.
When I drive home from the movie theatre, after seeing a movie with lots of fast car chases, you can bet on it I’ll put my pedal to the metal: full throttle all the way home! That feeling is just what advertising agency Cossette West tries to put in these ads and in my opinion they surely succeed in it.
This second one from a series of 3 print ads is less powerful I think; It doesn’t look natural and it’s not spontaneous enough.
And here’s number 3. This one suffers a bit from the same disease: Read the rest of this entry »
Adidas viral videos
02
Dec
2008
Last week Adidas released a bunch of viral videos: some of them are quite good, some of them really aren’t. We saw Arsenal’s Emmanuel Adebayor playing Snake with his football shoes, Madrilista Arjen Robben with his magical footgear and Chelski midfielder Michael Ballack trying to shoot through a hoop.
The viral that got the most views and the most buzz was this clip of Liverpool icon Steven Gerrard shooting at clay pigeons with his teammate Xabi Alonso at the Liverpool training pitch. Advertising agency 180\TBWA Amsterdam claims that they didn’t use any kind of computer manipulation for this clip. For some people that’s good enough to believe Gerrard actually hit the pigeon. But I’m not some people, I don’t believe it!
The camera phone effect should contribute to the credibility of the clip but for me it does exactly the opposite. The effect should make us believe that this video isn’t staged by Adidas (or it’s advertising agency), that Gerrard and Alonso are just kicking footballs at clay pigeons for a few hours and that a fan was filming this the entire time with his cellular phone. For me it would be more convincing if they dropped the amateur look. It would be more credible if Adidas just came clean and admitted that it’s partly staged: that they asked Gerrard to shoot at clay pigeons for a commercial, just hoping he would hit one after a few tries and that he actually did it eventually.
In France Adidas gave us some better stuff: they put French goalkeeper Steve Mandanda in the showroom of the Marseille Adidas store. Actually it wasn’t the real Mandanda, it was a holographic clone of the goalie. The ad agency also put a Making Of clip online, which is pretty smart because the holographic goalkeeper now leads a second life on the internet. As far as I’m concerned, this trick is way better than the 4 other virals combined.
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.
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
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.
Absolut-ely sorry, Gringo!
07
Apr
2008
This Mexican ad by Swedish wodka maker Absolut caused angry reactions in the United States.
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:
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.