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TREND HUNTER) Marketers aren't willing to waste any potential ad space these days. We've covered the advantages of mobile billboards before, but this bus, which I saw from the 15th floor of Toronto high-rise, not only…
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Located in a Japanese train station with high traffic volumes, Smart had a lot of fun with this vending machine.
A different and very cool approach to outdoor advertising makes big impact. McDonald's wanted to promote their health-conscious menu items, so agency Leo Burnett created a billboard a few months ago that had green lettuce planted in it to form the words "Fresh Salads". The video shows the sign coming alive from seeds to full-bloom over a few weeks.
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TREND HUNTER) As part of its massive “In an Absolut World” campaign, Absolut Vodka went beyond the typical media of tv spots, print ads and billboards with an Absolut Cash Machine. They wanted people to experience the Absolut World first hand in a creative and unexpected way.
Working with TBWA ad agency in B…
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TREND HUNTER) LG hosted an elaborate party, complete with red carpet, Wolfgang Puck catering and celebrity attendees for the launch of Scarlett, a brand new TV series. They spent millions on promotions for what appeared to be a new TV show staring a gorgeous action hero. The LA party followed weeks of build up su…
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Second day at the Experiential Marketing Summit, second fantastic keynote. The video above is one of several vitaminwater ads that was shown yesterday during a captivating presentation given by Glaceau chief marketing officer, Rohan Oza. Part of their "Try it." marketing campaign, this commercial demonstrates one element of the brand's Cinderella success story-- celebrity partners who are true fans of the brand. Oza told stories of celebrities like 50 cent, Shaq, LeBron James and Kelly Clarkson seeking them out for face time. The series of ads have personality-- funny, refreshing and right on brand.
What a way to kick off this year's Experiential Marketing Summit (EMS)-- a candidly remarkable keynote from JetBlue's former vp of marketing, Amy Curtis-McIntyre. Just two weeks into her new role at the Hyatt here in Chicago, Amy opened her presentation with a crack about the EMS hotel venue escalators only connecting floors 5 and 7 (yes, skipping 6) and ended it with an insightful and relative quote from Maya Angelou. Covering a wide range of brand building topics, her plain-spoken, often comical stories about her successes at JetBlue were refreshing and well-put. Like the "in-private" objective driving the development of JetBlue-- "Let's make coach suck less".
Warning that her presentation slides were simple and some of her media spots nearly got her fired, she seemed to make an immediate connection with the audience. Lots of stuff to take away from her style alone, but here are a few simple, yet effective things she reminded us, as marketers, to never forget.
In her words:
(1) Sell something people want or need.
(2) Give people more than they expect.
(3) Tell people stuff they want to know, the truth for example.
(4) Hire the right people. Get rid of the wrong ones. Take good care of the ones you keep.
(5) Good design really does matter.
(6) Look outside your industry for inspiration.
For those of you that attended, feel free to share your thoughts. This is just a start...
So, it's the first day of the 2008 Experiential Marketing Summit and Ric Peeler and Bryan Rhoads from Intel gave a presentation on some of the reasons Intel uses Social Media and their approach. I thought it was informative - from learning a general overview (via case study examples shown) to helpful analytics (via industry data cited - such as people are 6x more likely to buy product vs. direct mail) and just plain 'ol fun terms like "Google-juice", "link-love" and "color commentary conversations, not copy"...the latter being an important phrase to keep in mind since your goal is to create a relationship, not a marketing brochure.
Ric and Bryan's passion for Social Media is evident, and is probably what helps drive the authenticity of their campaigns. Clearly Intel has enjoyed much success with some of their campaigns - CES in particular comes to mind as I've personally experienced a couple of them. However, what I also liked about their presentation was their honesty about what didn't work so well ... that often they couldn't engage customer in dialogue in their space.
I'm curious, how do YOU find success with nurturing this balance between corporation and inspiration, yet provide that organic atmosphere where your customers engage in the conversation?
What would you do to promote your business in a city of 11 million people if you couldn't advertise? That's the question on the minds of marketers these days in Sao Paulo, Brazil, where the city is nearly two years into
"Sua Cidade Limpa," the Clean City Law that
banned outdoor advertising and placed restrictive guidelines on store signage.
Watching a presentation by
Marc Gobe at GlobalShop last month, it appears that the answer to that question lies, in part, on a renewed focus on the live experience. Gobe and his team recently returned from a study of Sao Paulo, where they documented cafes competing through compelling architecture and experience, convenience stores merchandising products as art, and businesses using street art to enhance their identity. Imagination and creativity appear to be taking center stage, igniting live communications in some of the most unexpected places.
It's been clear for some time that live communications have been gaining ground in the shifting marketing mix of brands today. I wonder if this great experiment in Sao Paulo will become a showcase for the power and emotion possible in live communications, leading the way worldwide for the continued expansion of experience as a marketing vehicle? Let me know what you think. I'll be keeping an eye on this one.