Category: Marketing Strategies

Like hunting

In the last months there have been cases of people uploading photos on Facebook and successfully asking for 1 million likes. So keeping that in mind, Doctors Without Borders decided to turn their campaign idea “good intentions don’t save lives” on its head and actually make people’s intentions count.

Through a special Facebook app people could create a post and ask their friends for likes while donating 1 Danish Kroner to Doctors without Borders for each like they got. Each collection was run for 48 hours and only likes from your own Facebook friends counted. By setting a maximum amount you could also make sure you dont go bankrupt. If your friends were too slow, you could also simply decide to donate more.

At the end of each donation drive people could post a picture saying thank you to all their friends who helped them donate. The campaigns success has already made it a permanent solution and can still be found running for people who want to turn their friends likes into donation.

British Airways Barcode Reader Ad

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Many Brazilians are unaware that British Airways (BA) flies to other destinations besides the UK. So to raise awareness, BA decided to spread the message at the very moment people considered traveling i.e. in the travel section of a book store.

To know the price of the books people at the book store had to scan them on a barcode reader. That is when these potential BA travellers received the message from the airline informing them to fly to other destinations with them.

Volkswagen Smileage

With the Volkswagen Smileage app, road trips are never going to be the same again. Powered by Google the app is set to socalise road trips world over.

To start earning Smileage you have to pair the app with your car and sign in with your Google account. Once synced, the app automatically connects each time you go for a ride. Friends can then watch and comment on your journey in real time while you earn Smileage through shared photos, kilometers, checkins, comments, likes and punches from other nearby Volkswagen’s. 😎

Frozen Cinema

Fiftyfifty is a gallery based in Düsseldorf, Germany, that is actively trying to help out those less fortunate and homeless.

To simulate what it would be like to live on the streets, they got cinemas in Germany to turn the airconditioning to 8°C / 46°F. Then they showed videos of homeless people on the street commenting on the cold cinema experience. It turned out that for them 8°C / 46°F was cozy.

This reality check for the people pushed them to scan the QR codes on the blankets and donate some money to keep the homeless people warm.

Coca-Cola Chok! Chok!

Mobile and creative thinking can come together to create really compelling marketing campaigns. In this example, Coca-Cola Hong Kong created a ‘Chock Chok’ mobile app that turned viewers smartphones into a remote control for their TV Ad.

To collect the Coca-Cola bottle caps that appeared on the TV screen, viewers had to swing their phones when the ad came on. Those who successfully managed to swing and collect were instantly rewarded with prizes that included cars, sports apparel, credit card spend value, travel coupons and movie tickets.

As a result the campaign was seen by 9 million people and the app got over 380,000 downloads. 😎

For those wondering, the bottle cap collection was enabled through the audio signal of the ad which triggered the application and synced the user’s motion with the ad. The accelerometer in the phone was also used to assess the quality of the motion. Together they were used to catch the bottle caps virtually. 🙂

However as far as I know, Honda in UK was the first to pioneer this kind of an interactive TV ad, even though it did not receive results like Coca-Cola.

Potable Water Generator

UTEC, The University of Engineering and Technology in Peru, believes that engineering can change the world. So they decided to start by changing a local problem and in the process getting more students interested in applying for their engineering program.

Lima is the second largest capital in the world set on a desert, and the lack of potable water is a huge problem. Since the presence of rain is almost zero, UTEC used the atmospheric humidity which is about 98% to build the first billboard that produces drinking water out of air!

Orange Instagallery

Here is the latest campaign to break on Instagram. Orange in France launched a new hi-speed network and created an ‘Instagallery’ to promote it.

With the help of Cake Paris, Orange targeted influential instagramers by pulling their photos into a staged photo exhibition in Los Angeles. Then they created short films with awkward comments made on the photos by people walking through the gallery. The short films were then sent to the influential instagramers who then shared it with their followers and in turn created free buzz for Orange France.

Love in the end

Lacta a leading chocolate brand in Greece has been creating innovative film content since 2009 around its strategy of being a symbol for the sweetness of love. For the latest installment Lacta invited fans to submit their stories of unfulfilled love, with the promise to give them the happy end they never had i.e. on the cinema screen.

Finally three stories formed the basis of a film screenplay, entitled “Love in the end”, that was released on Valentine’s Day 2013. A transmedia campaign promoted the film and it became a big hit with audiences in Greece. 17% of the Greek Internet Population saw the online teasers, resulting in 700.000 views and hundreds of rave comments. Anticipation for the film’s release was also very high and evident through the increase of Lacta’s Facebook fans by 100.000. This made it’s Facebook page the biggest for any brand in Greece, with 650.000 fans.

The film also had the biggest opening night for any Greek movie in the last 5 years, with more than 75% of the all movie tickets being sold for it.

Here are the past film based campaigns:
2010 – Love in action
2009 – Love at first site

Volkswagen Polo Principle

Volkswagen last year launched ‘The Polo Principle’ ad campaign to convey the message that high-end innovations were now available to Polo drivers.

Then to democratize the innovation process they allowed people to actually design their very own 3D Volkswagen mock ups. The top 40 designs were chosen by a panel of judges and then put on display in Copenhagen with the entrants receiving their (mini) 3D printed Volkswagen’s in the mail. 😎

For more examples on brands using 3D printing click here.

Chrome Super Sync Sports

Google has recently released their latest Chrome Experiment called ‘Super Sync Sports’ which allows players to convert their mobile phones and tablets into a remote control for their desktop browser.

To give it a spin visit www.chrome.com/supersyncsports/, choose a game i.e. running, swimming or cycling and then follow the instructions to sync your mobile phone. Once the sync is complete you can then play your way to victory, while the game plays out on your desktop.

What will be interesting to see is how this type of interaction and technology is finally leveraged. The game currently utilises HTML5 features like WebSockets, Canvas and CSS3.