To celebrate its 50 years anniversary of cleanness, Dash (washing powder) makes a super present for its customers - a life time trip to Antarctica - to experience the last pure and clean part of the world.
I believe the memories of such a trip will stay with people much longer than any ad or gimmick.
Below are images of The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe designed by architect Peter Eisenman and engineer Buro Happold. It consists of a 19,000 square metres (4.7 acres) site covered with 2,711 concrete slabs or "stelae", arranged in a grid pattern on a sloping field.
Building began on April 1, 2003 and was finished on December 15, 2004.
The memorial graveyard is situated right in the center of Berlin with a purpose to constantly remind the general public of the evil done to the jews during the war.
From architectural point of view the place is rather dull. Personally, I have nothing against jews, but I don't think it is good idea at all to have a graveyard right in the center of the city (even a symbolic one!). Moreover, I believe that it is detrimental to the city's health, both from spiritual view and a practical one, to have a negative 19,000 square spot in its heart. Nor do I believe that its place and purpose is justifiable in 2011.
Wouldn't it be healthier to use this space to build something that would promote Peace &Love instead of Fear & Hate?
I am bored to see ads flogging generic sex appeal i.e. men's products like Braun shavers, deodorants, etc. - all promising hordes of good looking women filling lives (most probably pathetic) of single males. They all focus on looks rather than character of women.
As an alternative for more discerning males why not develop a strategy that focuses more on the quality (as opposed to quantity) of the attraction?
Deutsche Bahn sets up a carriage that is called Free Love where passengers during their journey can try free product samples offered by different brands (tryvertising).
Its quite common nowadays to see user generated ads for brands on social media. Why not make product placement marketing in movies also interactive and open-source?
Imagine a movie website that offers premium movies for free online viewing in exchange for user created content that promotes a certain brand and placed in the movie as a bubble-thought or a bubble-speech.
Some censorship rules might apply to prevent abuse and to encourage "bubbles" that are most creative, original and funny
ALternatively, bubbles could be set as a default canvas for Google AdWords, etc. :
Bubbls are interactive layers on top of the movie that function as mini webs and are capable of streaming rich multimedia.
a viral from Saatchi & Saatchi accuses the industry of clinging to its old ways and methods, particular its reliance on TV advertising, "even when clients begged for new, non traditional ideas".
"People have arrived at a certain degree of development, they are more sensitive and have more spiritual force, and so their problems are more acute.."
The way I see it the future of advertising will be determined by the future products, which in turn will be determined by the the people's needs and moods... and we can clearly see a growing interest for products of more experiential nature. There will be a lesser demand for physical things (i.e. no more new pencil holders, pls!), but a higher demand for new experiences that would last much longer then a few seconds of a print ad or 45 sec. of a TV commercial. In fact future TV commercials will look more like movie trailers with product placement... offering consumers chances of participation in freshly created stories, scripted or unscripted, role playing or reality games, funny or unnerving contests, educational as well as entertaining programs, etc..
Last year I posted an idea for a car brand (or a car rental company) ... a road adventure reality show "Lost in a city"... where participants are transported (blindfolded!) and dropped in an unknown to them place (new country or city) with only a credit card, a map of the place and car keys ( brand of their choice). After a couple of days of exploring the place they would arrive to a special pickup place to be transported back to their original homes. Their road adventures would be recorded and published online. No selling propositions, no logos.... think of it as bmwfilms.com a few years back... but instead of actors real people. (NB: events could be scripted or not)
Anyway, today I came across this article "High end thrill-seekers pay to be kidnapped" from springwise.com that tells us about a new business startup Ultime Réalité that offers experience seekers a menu of realistic custom made high end experiences ranging from being woken up in a morgue surrounded by corpses to being hunted down by a serial maniac. What's also interesting is that the requests, according to Reuters primarily come from top-level executives seeking an extreme-sports alternative. Prices for basic kidnapping start from 900 €.
The way I see it, brands should embrace this new experiential medium and instead of crafting persuasive selling messages start offering persuasive (as well as relevant to the brand) life experiences.
For example, Fallon has launched a campaign to introduce the new name for Charmin toilet tissue, 'Cushelle'. TV spot shows a koala hugging a Cushelle pack of tissues. Experiential approach to current Cushelle campaign would be, for instance, to let the consumer to hug the koala and experience the softness ... instead of imagining it from the picture. If this is not appealing enough (as I suspect), lets drop the koala and create a more rewarding experience of family friendly softness - i.e. to offer real homeless people a chance to spend a soft-n-cozy luxurious weekend with a real hospitable family in their own home! (with Cushelle tissues in their private toilets of course!)
The idea is to encourage adults to exercise by hopscotching for a bonus. All they have to do is to make 16 random hops on a specially designed hopscotch mat that works like a numeric keypad. The person who hits the right digital number of the credit card gets a reward, i.e. a credit card loaded with free 500€ to spend.
This is in response to AdAge's post announcing that Government PSA Urges Americans to Get Swine-Flu Vaccine . Called "Together We Can All Fight the Flu," the campaign features seven 30-second TV commercials, three radio spots, online banner ads and outdoor ads that remind Americans of the importance of being vaccinated against the H1N1 flu virus.
To be honest, it sucks. Not just creatively, but also strategically.
The campaign fails to solve the main problem - credibility issue. Everybody I know (including myself) believes that the whole swine flu propaganda is a political ploy which has been artificially hyped up to instill more fear in the populace. (Very similar to "war on terror" strategy.)
Here's a better idea how to sell swine flu:
Instead of showing sheeple bragging about being vaccinated why not show those unfortunate souls who already have been infected with the virus? I would like to hear them and not some actors on pay roll. Who are those victims that the government so desperately trying to make us believe are real and many?
According to the Centers for Disease control, 22 million Americans have been infected with swine flu, and nearly 4,000 have died from the H1N1 virus.
Better yet, the most convincing ad for me would the one that shows members of the government themselves taking the shots!
As we move closer to 2012 more people get interested in exopolitics (study of political relations between humans and extraterrestrial civilizations) and crop circles phenomena.
According to International Crop Circles Archive (ICCA) appearances of crop circle formations worldwide are increasing and now capture imagination even of the "mainstreamers".
It would be a good idea for a big brand to sponsor a piece of land specifically designated for communication with extraterrestrial intelligence through crop circles medium. By this I don't mean "shaving" a huge brand's logo on the crop field or anything like that. The project should not be a gimmick but rather an experiment with an objective of possibility to establish a meaningful dialog with ETs.
From a marketing perspective the project would contribute to the brand's progressive image (open-minded, forward thinking, etc.)
i.e. below is an example for Apple brand (since they claim: Think different)
I can't imagine Microsoft doing it, but if it did, it would definitely help the brand to change it's rather uninspiring mainstream image into a more forward thinking and progressive... as well as winning hearts and minds of millions of crop circle enthusiasts worldwide.
Other potential sponsors who'd benefit from this idea: BMW or Mercedes, Google or Yahoo, Shell or alternative energy groups, etc.
A soap brand produces viral videos with famous "dirty talk" rappers being "mouth washed". Their original music videos would be re-edited and a 'clean' word would be audio superimposed on each bad word , i.e. "love" for "fuck", "lovely" for "fucking", "ladies" for "bitches", etc.
A graphic representation of soap foam could be also flashed in sync over the mouth. All 'nice' words could be spoken with a voice similar to Sam from Microsoft "text-to-speech" app.
Check out this trailer for a new 2012 movie. The only interesting thing about it, in my opinion, are special effects. As for the plot - it's a yawn. Hollywood execs use the same old strategy of scaretactics, physical destruction, lots of noise, explosions, etc. This might appeal to an average Joe, of course, but definitely is a misleading interpretation of the global event (21 dec. 2012)
Personally, I would be more interested to see a different interpretation of the event. For example:
Why not to explore a different scenario with the base idea that on December 21, 2012 all people of the earth suddenly become telepathic? What would be the consequences of this global phenomena? And would it change the world for better or worse? And how many of us would survive the sudden change?
I have spent a fair amount of time researching the subject of 2012 and to me it's more about the paradigm change in our human consciousness, and less about earthquakes, tsunamis or falling fireballs. Booo hisss!
This idea was inspired by the latest book from Chris Anderson "FREE " where he writes about the future of a radical price:
Wouldn't it be cool if a brand offered us a free product from its rival?
i.e. Special promotion with underlying message:
We are so confident in superiority of our product X that we are willing to give you a free sample from our closest competitor for you to judge for your self.
idea can be applied to all sorts of snacks and sodas, tea and coffee brands and other premium products.
