Tag: Brussels

BMW Christmas Safety Card

To wish their customers a new year of safe driving, BMW together with ad agency AIR and electronics company Selectron created a Christmas card that was meant to be hung in the car.

A micro sensor was built into the card to measure the driving behavior and react with a spoken message (Ho! Ho! Hooo! Just like Santa!) when the car was driven unsafely. The sensor measured the G-forces and reacted when the car accelerated too much, or when it braked or drove too quickly through bends.

These limited-edition Christmas cards were sent to members of the BMW M League who recently bought their car and participated in the BMW Track Days.

The Football Machine

Herta a German subsidiary of the Nestle Group, launched a new product in Belgium called Knacki FootBall – small meatballs that look like footballs.

Then at a local train station, they placed a vending machine that offered these meatballs for free. But what people did not know was that to get the free meatballs they had to play a game of football inside the vending machine against a Belgian football legend Leo Van Der Elst. The results…

bpost: Live Webshop

bpost is Belgium’s biggest postal service. To prove their ability to deliver and to fend of new contenders in the market of delivery services, they decided to open a pop-up store bang in the center of Brussels.

A lot of must-have items were put on display, from smartphones to designer coffeemakers. But then the only way to buy them was through a special online auction where the prices of all products dropped every second. 😎

People had to act really fast to catch the items before someone else did. Once sold, the item was immediately picked up by a postman, right in front of the webcam, and delivered to the winning bidder. This way everyone could see for themselves how fast and reliable bpost was.

As a result the awareness of the specific service – bpack – rocketed to 65%. In 6 days 260,000 unique visitors were registered and for every hour the shop was online, bpost sold 8 products on an average.

Recruitment of Pirates and Cyber Warriors

Since 2010 I have covered how different agencies around the world have been innovating with their recruitment campaigns. Now here are the latest two to join the list…

Pirate Recruitment

Today young web designers need to buy very expensive application suites in order to create. So they usually download these suites on illegal pirate websites. Ogilvy Brussels used this insight and uploaded a file that was supposed to be a wanted application suite. When the web designers downloaded it, they did not find the new suite but a much stronger offer…

 

Cyber Warriors Challenge

Wieden+Kennedy wanted to recruit community managers for its client Old Spice. So they came up with a crazy/fun/impossible idea. Candidates were given 5 days to complete one or more challenges listed below and then submit proof of their exploits…

SNCF Lyon to Brussels

France’s national state-owned railway ‘SNCF’ is back with another live event. This time with ad agency TBWA\Paris they have set out to promote the launch of their new direct Lyon (FR) to Brussels (BE) train route.

A 3 meter high cube was placed in Place de la République, Lyon with the message “Take a look at Brussels”. Passers-by who peaked into the hole were instantly transported to Brussels and greeted live by a Belgian music band. 🙂

Mini “Fan the Flame”

Mini along with ad agency TBWA\Agency.com created a social spectacle to increase the number of fans on their recently launched Mini Facebook page in Belgium and Luxemburg.

A Mini Countryman was attached to a thick rope in the parking lot of the “Brussels Motorshow” and a burner placed under the rope. Every Facebook fan was then encouraged to remotely initiate the burner and spit some flames on the rope. A webcam broadcasted the scene 24×7 and the Fan whose flame ultimately broke the rope was the one to win the Mini Countryman. 😎

Euro RSCG Check-in

Guerilla recruitment via social channels is gaining popularity amongst leading agencies. In this recent example Euro RSCG Brussels has used Foursquare to seek out digital talent.

The team at Euro RSCG drove around Brussels everyday and checked in at all leading agencies. After they became the ‘Mayor’ of the targeted agencies, they released their recruitment messages… 🙂

Other examples of agencies using social media to attract talent are:

Jeep Compass

One of the oldest and most effective ways to sell a product is with a good demonstration. Leo Burnett Brussels took this approach and gave it a fresh, fun spin. They strapped some cameras on a few Jeep Compasses and set out to discover the most remote post locations they could find. Direct mailers were then shipped from these far-flung places that pointed recipients to a site where they could follow the journey and see the Compass in action.

It was a simple idea with a big impact. Take a look below…

Print Ads That Really Speak

Print ads are hitting above their weight lately. Recently, you could test-drive a Volkswagen right inside a print ad, thanks to a special app. Now, QR codes are being used to get dictators talking in a set of print ads created by Publicis Brussels for the free-press advocacy group Reporters Without Borders (RWB).

In the ads for RWB you scan the QR code with your iPhone and then place the phone over the leader’s mouth. The mouth starts talking—but it turns out to be the voice of a journalist discussing media censorship in that particular country.

Currently there are Gaddafi, Ahmadinejad and Putin versions.

For more details visit the campaign micro site.

Talking Tree

Everybody has an opinion on Nature. But what about Nature’s opinion? EOS magazine decided to give Nature the means to talk. A 100 year old tree, living on the edge of Brussels, was hooked up to a fine dust meter, ozone meter, light meter, weatherstation, webcam and microphone. This equipment constantly measures the tree’s living circumstances. And translates this information into human language. Then, the tree lets the world know how he feels.

Visit www.talking-tree.com and follow the life of the talking tree via YouTube, Flickr and Soundcloud.