Shopping won't save the forest!

kinda funny video ... but i don't buy it

The future of advertising: Undercover

Coincidence or not?

This idea apparently has won Bronze Lion @ Cannes this year. It was submitted by DDB BRASIL São Paulo. What's curious is that I have posted an identical idea 2 years ago here on my blog.

 And here's a screenshot from my Google Analytics page that shows viewing traffic of my blog from  São Paulo:

 

Coincidence or not, you can make up your mind.

Idea: Alternative football game

Idea: Soft drink gives magic tips

video example:

ads are ditched online

Adblock is a free app that gets rid of ads on the web now available at Chrome Web Store

Here's an identical idea I had 3 years ago  http://ithisad.blogspot.de/2009/07/idea-ad-exorcist-10.html  .... the widget offers to swap ads for kittens.

'Liking' products off-line

Two years ago I wrote this: idea-supermarket-to-adopt-like-tagging.html

Today I read this: brazilian-fashion-retailer-displays-facebook-likes-items-real-world-stores/

Crowd-sourced ads don't make ads any better

Social Media Marketing "creative" contest scheme

That's roughly how it goes:

A brand posts online a brief with a reward for best idea (a tiny tiny fraction of what a professional ad agency would ask) and invites everybody to participate. Soon it receive hundreds of submissions from the general public participants attracted by the reward. Next step: they rate each others ideas (usually the most conventional ideas are most popular!), then the brand's jury makes its pick (usually the most popular ideas - not to upset the public!) and the winner gets his or her bounty.

Now, what happens to the rest of submissions? Here's the clever part:
They get further promotion for free by their authors as their personal creative endeavors across many other channels of social media, i.e. 'hey, check out my idea' on Tweeter, FB, Youtube, personal websites, etc. And for the brand it doesn’t really matter whether these ideas are crap or not. The most important – they keep the brand’s visibility.

So, for a price of a bicycle (or so) the brand kills 2 birds at the same time – generation of content (within the contest) and continuous promotion of the content free of charge by the same public across their personal channels afterwards. Here’s an example of a crappy idea with 936 views on Youtube.

It seems to me that when it comes to social media engagement, quality of ideas (originality, innovation, etc.) is not a priory. What really matters here is the quantity of ideas and their perpetual and free promotion on the web by the authors themselves.

Imho, I don't see this model of social marketing as a long runner.

Idea: Anti Crisis collective brand

Followed by home made clothes, tools, etc.

Idea: Magical initiation for an exclusive car

For an exclusive launch of a new super car, Mercedes Benz sets up a special magickal initiation ritual website.

Below is an example of a teaser print featuring a magick copy which customers will be able to understand once they pass the initiation process:

Below is a guideline of a traditional structure.

Idea: IKEA to introduce furniture for inner space

This is a futuristic concept for Ikea:

Idea: Bodyshop to introduce new product lines

According to traditional esoteric knowledge humans have at least 4 main bodies: Physical (symbolized by North and element of Earth), Spiritual ( South and Fire element), Emotional (West and Water element) and Mental (East and Air element).

Why not develop new product lines designed to work with each individual body?

Below's a branding example of the concept with corresponding colours:

Advertising Art & Magick

What I expect to see in 2012

Advertising and magick (concept)

The De-personalization Revolution

link

I believe that hunger for personalization has already passed the top of the bell curve (around 2006) and soon will reach its fatigue point.   In times of social change idealistic values (that unite) are becoming more attractive than materialistic ones (that separate).

So here's my version for the headline on the cover:

Future of marketing 3: The De-personalization Revolution!

Idea: WikiLeaks, Poseidon and WWF

This is a viral idea for WWF.

Why not create a new conspiracy theory with a purpose to draw public attention to the problems of overfishing? For example:

Wikileaks discloses a secret document that suggests that in 2003 US intelligence has received a warning from a friendly alien race about the dangers of overfishing. They warned the world governments that if they don't stop the destructive processes to the ocean's eco-system, the ocean's intelligence, commonly known in mythology as Poseidon, would strike back at humanity causing horrible tsunamis, hurricanes and other cataclysms.


This could be a follow up print from WWF:





inspired by:

Crowd Wisdom doesn't work here. Why?

'Crowd wisdom' always tends to gravitate towards mediocre and safe. And this is by nature. Majority voting might be good for politics or solving communal issues, but it is quite useless when it comes to judging creativity and innovation.

Henry Ford once said about the value of marketing research: if I were to ask my future clients what they really wanted, they would have answered - faster horses!

In my opinion, 'creative' ideas that get the majority vote on 'public creativity' websites (such as Jovoto, My Pitch, Idea Bounty, etc.) are mostly dull and utterly conventional.

(Even public product innovation sites such as Kickstarter or Quirky fail to produce anything original or substantial, beyond ideas for new pen holders or mobile phone covers.)

Why? Good question.

Is it because the majority (by default!) consists of 'amateur creatives' who seek approval by faithfully imitating the 'professionals'? (And we know that the professional conventional advertising is mostly crap.)

Or is it because where there's a big crowd, there always comes element of politics into play?

Or maybe because these platforms aren't about innovation & creative ideas, but just another marketing 'public participation' tools to create 'followers'?

Magick RayBans