The Straddler: Take a look at this bus concept introduced at the Beijing International High-tech Expo back in May. Designed for high traffic, this public buscan hold up to 1,400 passengers and has a hollow undersection, allowing cars and other low-to-the-ground vehicles to drive underneath it.
Snow Stamp: Last winter, when the U.K. was covered in a blanket of snow, a team from Polo Mints hit the streets to make their mark – using a large branded stamp to replicate their iconic white mint, they left Polo Mint imprints in the fresh snow.
Virtual Insanity: We love the premise of this iPhone game that marries physical and virtual worlds – iPawn uses the iPhone touchscreen as a board and each player is given a small pawn (which is matter-of-factly better than Life and Monopoly pieces…combined) to participate in a role-playing conversation.
Click here to let us know that you’d like to be added to the mailing list for the monthly edition of “word.”
Michigan-based company Gas Station TV (GSTV) is capitalizing on the time people spend pumping gas by feeding them localized programming and advertising. According to a recent Nielsen report released last month, GSTV is exceeding 26 million monthly Nielsen-verified fueling impressions.
Yesterday, GSTV inked a deal with ESPN for brand integration with ESPN content, and according to Erik Sass of MediaPost, “Advertisers can couple brand integration with calls to action for products sold in gas station convenience stores…GSTV’s partnership with ESPN will now allow it to deliver full-motion video clips as part of its news content covering football, basketball, baseball and auto racing, among other sports.”
Do you feel that GSTV is too “in your face” for consumers, or do they appreciate the distraction from pumping gas?
I Am Vampire: Gearing up for the season three premiere of HBO’s True Blood, a website was launched for fans to create vampire personas. Much to their blood-sucking delight, their vampire bios were turned into an ad featured in the birth/death notice section of the NZ Herald.
Vanity Fair Lounge: In attempts to capitalize on their brands, Condé Nast is opening up a restaurant division. For right now, this will only be implemented internationally and they are said to be focusing on the Vogue and GQ brands. There is already a Vogue Cafe in Moscow and Chairman Jonathan Newhouse said it’s been highly successful in enhancing the image of Condé Nast magazines in Russia.
Dot Coms: In the hopes that Speidi will reconcile their differences, eBay user cazual714 (he has 100% positive feedback, btw) is auctioning off HeidiAndSpencer.com for $21 million. And we feel it’s worth a mention that he’s willing to let go of GuidosAndGuidettes.com for $6,000 and 3DSantaClaus.com for $2,500 (and that it actually has one bid). Hurry up, only three days left!
Nothing Is What It Seems: A finalist in Levi’s “Care to Air” Design Challenge is industrial design student, Caleb Hill, who put an interesting spin on the drying rack. He created what looks like a mounted picture – but – it folds off the wall to reveal itself as a drying rack.
Click here to let us know that you’d like to be added to the mailing list for the monthly edition of “word.”
Milk seems like a a weird thing to be thinking about on a 100 degree day, but I thought this story from Mediapost on the digital rebranding of the white stuff was interesting to all of us who have grown up with the campaign.
After 15-years of celebrity “Got Milk” print ads, the iconic campaign from the Milk Processor Education Program (MilkPEP) is finally going digital.
A text messaging component to the campaign will allow MilkPEP to give teens access to an exclusive video of celeb spokesperson Lauren Conrad. Users will snap a photo of the print ad with their smartphones and texting to be granted access to view the video, in which Conrad talks about why she loves milk.
In addition to SMS, another digital marketing effort by MilkPEP will feature St. Louis Cardinals star player in Sports Illustrated’s new iPad edition.
Nissan’s latest ad on the iPhone for their new electric vehicle, the Nissan Leaf morphs into what looks like an app, and allows users to explore and experience the vehicle, without sending users to a separate browser.
Now that AOL is spinning off from Time Warner, it has of course decided to rebrand itself. The company just released these new sneak peeks at its new look, and I’m not sure I like what they’re going for. Obviously that tired blue triangle had to go, but calling the company “Aol.” (yep, period and all) instead of “AOL” gives the impression that it should be pronounced as a phonetic word that sounds similar to “owl,” rather than being an acronym.
Minus the whole massive layoffs thing, I like the direction AOL has been going in as a company (less about e-mail for your grandma, more about editorial publishing), but I think they need to go back to the drawing board on this one. The new branding will be fully revealed on December 10. I’m kind of scared.
Kraft Foods in Australia has decided to change the name of its new Vegemite-and-cream-cheese product after the recent uproar over the new name iSnack 2.0. The company originally crowdsourced the name by asking more than 48,000 people to submit a name for the product online. An Australian web developer submitted the hokey, 2001-esque name “iSnack 2.0” as a joke, and lo and behold, it won! The original Vegemite name was chosen through a similar competition in the 1920s, although snarky web developers didn’t exist back then.
I’m not even going to delve into the question of the actual product — every time my Aussie boyfriend makes a Vegemite and toasted cheese sandwich, the aroma alone makes me nauseous! The Awlsuggests it may be made “from the carcasses of diseased koalas,” which is actually entirely plausible. The company decided to create the new cream cheese hybrid spread after finding that people spread about 13 grams of the creamier Vegemite on a piece of toast, versus five grams of the traditional version. All I have to say is, thank goodness they don’t sell The Spread Formerly Known As iSnack 2.0 in the States!
Ben & Jerry’s popular “Chubby Hubby” flavored ice cream announced via its Twitter account and Facebook fan page last week that the delectable treat will be renamed “Hubby Hubby” through the month of September in efforts to throw the company’s support behind same-sex marriages in its home state of Vermont.
Talk about using social media to make a social statement! Very cute, yet profound marketing tactic – I love it. I truly appreciate brands that stand behind a good cause, regardless of how it might impact their image and sales among those who don’t support their platform. It’s these kinds of bold moves that incite brand loyalty among do-gooders like myself!
Who knew Godiva has an all female, invite-only social network of 400 chocoholics! The members are consulted about insights on luxury chocolate and its place in this economy.
According to BusinessWeek, this group will soon be replaced by two new 300-person communities: one for Godiva customers, the other for fans of other premium chocolates.
Everybody’s favorite late-night convenience store, 7-Eleven, has created a new microsite where users can upload a photo and change their complexion while virtually drinking a Slurpee. The “BrainFreeze Laboratory,” as the site is called, uses Oddcast’s PhotoFace — a technology that transforms a single photo into 3D avatar models.
Let’s not ignore the elephant in the room, this microsite is definitely a modern take on the old Gusher’s commercials, and we all know it.
Here is the least surprising statement to be made on this blog, ever: people hate Gwyneth Paltrow. Not in the way that some people hate (unjustly) Rachael Ray, or the way New Yorkers hate the Red Sox (I think that is a sports team, I always thought we hated garish footwear until I Googled it.)
This fact was originally pointed out on FWD Thinking awhile back (note: I wrote that blog post too, so in fairness perhaps I just hate Gwyneth.) But The Chicago Sun-Times is on board too.
Why do we hate La Paltrow? The Sun-Times says that it is because her blog is too high-falutin’ and holier-than-thou for these economic times. Face facts, the real reasons we hate Gwyneth are:
2. It sounds like she got her kid’s names from a failed Mad Libs experiment (a macrobiotic food: apple, your favorite biblical character: Moses).
3. She likes to pretend that she is your slightly dumpy, down-on-her luck best friend, when in fact she hit the nepotism jackpot.
4. You know that if she came to a potluck, she’d bring plain brown rice.
Anyway, Paltrow got the memo and tried to soften her image with this morning’s Goop posting. This is perhaps the least convincing portrayal of an everyday woman since Tootsie:
I can do the whole rap at the end of The Revenge of the Nerds and all of Jeff Spicoli’s dialogue, but sadly, my expertise ends there. I do, however, love film and whether it is an exceptional documentary, a classic or a Seth Rogan [sic] vehicle, I am always excited about seeing something that my friends love.
First off, I’d pay $30,000 to see Gwyneth perform any rap song…an extra $20K if she does it with Blythe Danner and the song is “California Love.” The lesson learned? You build your brand online, it has to be accessible, but it also has to be believable. — Andrew
Anyway, Jack in the Box, purveyors of delicious burgers made from a meat-esque product, dove into the viral video deep end with this commercial that aired during the Superbowl. (Note: The Jack in the Box campaign is not realated to this VV powerhouse).
Here is how the video works (spoiler alert): Jack Box, founder of Jack in the Box, gets hit by a bus. The video then directs consumers to visit HangInThereJack.com to see a series of videos about the state of his health. They also have a Twitter feed (sample tweet: “Jack just got the best hommade ‘glad you made it out of your coma’ card ever”), a Facebook page (sample comment: “stupidest marketing campaign ever”), and a place where consumers can post their well wishes.
They’ve engaged more than 4 million consumers, but is the campaign a success? Looks like advertising notables are split…some think that watching a brand image bite it might not equal bigger burger sales.
Though, it seems unfair that a bus would hit Jack, rather than that pretentious clown Ronald McDonald.
As a result of yesterday’s news that Twitter might start charging brands to use its service, Biz Stone has now clarified that will not be happening, saying, “Everyone – people, companies, celebrities, etc. – will still be able to use Twitter for free.” So rock on, Twitter brands.
