Category: Marketing Strategies

The Facebook Cover Motion

Brands using basic social website functionality to preview commercials seem to be the rage of the month. In this latest commercial, outdoor brand Quechua has leveraged the Facebook Timeline to promote its 2 sec tent.

To successfully view the commercial, you need to load the different images composing the ad by scrolling down their experimental timeline. Once at the bottom, press the shift and space (to scroll up) buttons to see the animation.

I however found it easier to just visit the Facebook photo album, open the first photo and then just keep the right arrow button pressed to view the commercial in Flipbook mode.

Volkswagen Facebook Flipbook

In April, Smart Argentina created the first of its kind Tweet Commercial using its Twitter stream. Now Volkswagen Amarok in Turkey has created the Facebook alternative.

The Volkswagen Amarok being the ultimate all terrain vehicle could go everywhere i.e. from the city to sand to water and with some creativity from McCann Erickson Istanbul even on Facebook. 🙂

201 images that followed each other in sequence were uploaded onto a Facebook photo gallery called ‘Amarok FlipDrive‘. Opening the first photo and keeping the right arrow button pressed made the photos flip by fast and give the effect of a running movie.

The flipbook experience was very jerky the first time, but once all the photos were cached, it played as seen in the below video…

Puma Fastest Purchase

Puma Faas 500 are supposedly the fastest sneakers in the world. So Puma Mexico created an in store initiative where they increased their store sales by rewarding their fastest customers.

Customers were made to take a ticket when they entered the store and another one when they checked out. Depending on how much time it took them to purchase the shoe, they got a discount! 😎

It’s old, but it smells like new

Ford Seleccion is the brand of used cars from Ford in Spain. Bassat Ogilvy Madrid, the agency responsible for marketing the cars was given the task of bringing the excitement of a new car to the old ones.

So the team set out to bring the ‘smell of a new car’ to those who chose to buy a used one. After all, you might be willing to sacrifice the new car itself, if the old one at least smelled like a new one. 😉

Once the smell of the new car was identified, it was taken and bottled into fragrance samplers called ‘Olor a Nuevo,’ which means ‘Smell of New’. With this fragrance the line of old cars that smelled exactly like the new ones was created and successfully advertised through print and outdoor ads.

BMX Turntable Riders

Cogoo, a bicycle sharing service in Japan has created a system called Turntable Rider that transforms a BMX bicycle into an elaborate wireless MIDI controller.

The system was developed in a collaboration between professional BMX rider Kotaro Tanaka, turntablist DJ Baku and interactive artist Toshiyuki Sugai.

Check out the video below to see how tricks on the BMX can create super-fun soundscapes…

The making of video below shows how this technology was created to turn a BMX into a musical instrument…

Magnum Pleasure Hunt across Amsterdam

Earlier on in April Magnum launched the second edition of its hit online game ‘Magnum Pleasure Hunt‘. To extend the campaign further, a real time mobile augmented reality game was created that took the game to the streets of Amsterdam.

The game is currently ongoing and participants between April 22nd and April 29th can use the special mobile app to hunt down 150 chocolate bonbons that have been hidden across 9 locations in Amsterdam. The one who claims the most bonbons wins a free trip to New York, while the rest are rewarded with the new Magnum Infinity ice cream.

I find the the Magnum mobile game to be a toned down version of the Vodafone Buffer Busters game that ran in Germany last September. Either ways its good to see more brands using augmented reality as a medium of engagement.

The smallest Ikea store in the world

With city populations on the rise, living spaces have become increasingly limited. Ikea however believes that no matter how cramped your space, there’s always a solution. To demonstrate this, they built an entire Ikea store in a 298×250 pixels web banner.

People looking for studio flats as well as one/two bedroom apartments were targeted. The tiny Ikea store held 2800 products and was placed in ImmobilienScout 24, Germany’s largest online real estate market. As with their full size stores, shoppers were able to browse by department and buy all of the featured products.

Smart eBall

At the Frankfurt Motor Show (IAA) in 2011, Daimler promoted its third generation ‘Smart for Two’ electric drive car with a special interactive game event. Berlin based agency, Proximity BBDO designed a special game called eBall that demonstrated the joy of driving a highly responsive Smart car.

Visitors were invited to sign up with their driver’s license, and then given instructions on forward and reverse before engaging in a live duel of Ping Pong that used laser measurement technology to keep track of the game.

The Hug Me Machine

As part of its global “Open Happiness” campaign, Coca-Cola has set up a vending machine at the National University of Singapore that doesn’t take coins or any other cash…only hugs! For every public display of machine love, the Coca-Cola “Hug Me” machine gifts the person a free can of Coca-Cola…

The machine is one of a number of “Happiness Machines” Coca-Cola has deployed around the world since 2009.

Flashmob Marketing Hits – April 2012

Flashmob marketing has been quite a fad in the last weeks. If you are unfamiliar with the concept, a flashmob is a large group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, perform an unusual and pointless act for a brief time and then disperse. The whole act is normally recorded on video and then put on the web to generate more buzz.

So here are this months flashmobs hits…

Daily dose of drama

To launch their new digital channel in Belgium, TNT placed a big red push button in a quiet Flemish square. A sign with the text “Push to add drama” invited people to use the button. And then…

The worst breath in the world

Tic Tac has come up with a great flashmob idea that is bound to make you smile and cover your mouth while you do it! While giving directions to a lost tourist in a bustling square a series of targets have no idea that they are about to set off a chain reaction that looks apocalyptic…

The Wouaaah Effect

For its Q10 Plus product, Nivea in France created a fun flashmob on the streets of Paris. In this video released by their team, an unsuspecting woman is seen stopping at a sampling stand and trying some Nivea cream. After she walks on she is suddenly faced with a series of people lavishing her with attention…