Category: Marketing Strategies

BMW Flash Projection

German ad agency Serviceplan was given the challenge to turn young potential motorbikers into fans of the BMW Motorrad, by staging the brand in an unseen and fascinating way.

So they came up with the first cinema commercial that does not use a directly visible logo. During an exciting Superbike commercial they illuminated the BMW logo with a harmless photo flash onto the audience’s eyes. When the audience was asked to close their eyes at the end of the ad, they were surprised to see the BMW logo as an after image. With this BMW literally got inside people’s heads – involving them instead of boring them.

People who visited the movie shows were fascinated by this innovative performance. BMW Motorrad got a lot of positive feedback, especially excited comments on various biker blogs. Even film critics wrote about the event in their reviews. And of course there were several reports on TV.

At the pre-season opening of the BMW Motorrad a significant number of younger people asked for information material about Ruben Xaus and his Superbike…the BMW S 1000 RR. The S 1000 RR then went on to be sold out till September 2010. A huge success in midst of a declining bike market.

Undeliverable

Media agency “Media 1” wanted new clients. To get new clients they had to reach out to various CEO’s whose secretaries would screen their mail and throw out the mailings.

The challenge was to get through the secretary barrier. The insight was that the secretaries never opened letters apparently sent by the CEO himself / herself and returned as undelivered. So Media 1 sent letters to fake addresses e.g. to “H.E. Avyuser” in order to reach out to a CEO of a softdrink manufacturer.

These undeliverable letters were then returned to the alleged sender…

…found on the back of the envelope was the CEO’s name.

The enclosed letter explained how “Media 1” could reach anyone.

Out of 50 letters, they got 38 positive answers and 7 media pitch invitations.

Job offer on the luggage scanner

Supreme Security is an international company that offers security services that range from personal security to dog squad assignments – as well as access and baggage checks. In providing these services Supreme Security continually needs specially trained personnel. Only a few specialists can fulfill this narrow job profile in Switzerland. And they tend to work in the border patrol or as airport police.

So Supreme Security has started to equip their own employees with machined metal bars, which they take on business trips in their hand luggage. With a production budget under 5000 Swiss francs Supreme Security was able to recruit eight highly qualified employees in two months.

Hidden Pizza

Yellow Pages has broken away from its traditional testimonial style in its Hidden Pizza Restaurant campaign. The campaign created by Clemenger Proximity Melbourne is part of Yellow Pages annual campaign designed to show potential advertisers how effective advertising in the Yellow Pages is.

The campaign highlights how the company created a hidden pizza restaurant but didnt give customers its contact details. Customers were asked to look for it the way they would any other business. While the restaurant was open, Clemenger Proximity was busy shooting a series of TV ads which would be supported by print, radio and online executions.

More details can be found at: www.hiddenpizza.com.au

Crying Invoice

USG People, one of the world’s biggest Outsourcing companies, launched ikki.be. A new portal for freelancers in search of new projects. There mission was to build awareness among freelancers and make them sign up at ikki.be.

What they learnt was that one of freelancers biggest concerns is to get their money on time. Which they usually don’t. But from now on any freelancer will be able to recall the accounts department of their late payment. With a little smile!

The Cup Size Choir

In this holiday video from London ad agency Karmarama, Canada’s premier lingerie maker La Senza presents a novel Christmas choir. Women in their underwear lying on a puffy piano each singing the musical note represented by their bra size, from A to G.

You also get to “use your keyboard to play the girls” over at www.cupsizechoir.com/?k=1.

The BMW Light Wall Reflection

BMW asked Serviceplan from Munich, Germany to develop an idea for the BMW M3 Coupe as they had a very special billboard at the Hamburg airport – a 50x2m light wall in the middle of the arrivals hall.

For a car that exceeds limits, Serviceplan created a billboard that exceeds limits. They designed a headline out of half letters. To complete them they used the reflection on the shiny floor.

They not only managed to double the media space for free and but also doubled the attention for free!

Yellow Chocolate

The Yellow Pages Yellow Chocolate campaign in New Zealand has been recognised with a Gold Titanium/Integrated award, a Gold Media Lion, and a Bronze Cyber Lion at Cannes International Advertising Festival 2010.

The campaign began in August 2009 with a call for video entries for a mysterious quest of ambition. 28 year old surfer and actor Josh Winger was chosen to design, market and distribute a chocolate bar that tastes like the colour yellow, and to use only companies listed in the Yellow books, both online and mobile, in the process.

So Josh proved Yellow can help an ordinary bloke get an extraordinary job done. His was the fastest selling chocolate bar in New Zealand in ten years. People were paying $2 for what was actually a piece of direct marketing. Supermarkets were sold out and the bars were traded online for up to $320. There were 80,000 followers online, 16,000 Facebook fans, 800 Twitter followers. It was the most talked-about campaign in New Zealand with 61% recall and 27% of people talking about it in everyday conversations. Online usage grew by 9%.

The first pre-launch of a car using Twitter

Twitter is only just taking off in Agrentina and Wunderman Buenos Aires managed to convince Ford to do the pre-launch campaign on Twitter, with great success.

The idea was to give the most followed twitterer in Argentina, the one and only new Ford Fiesta available in the country, with the condition that he drive it for 5 straight days, tweeting about his experience. Now, that’s nothing new, but they managed to twist that strategy a little by getting some of the most famous TV stars to jump in the car and tweet mini interviews while being driven around in the new car. And after just 5 days, the campaign had reached over 200,000 people, that’s 50% of all twitter users in Argentina!