AXE Canada just released a new commercial to promote the exclusive 'AXE Cottage'. As we can see on the website, this cottage is full of women, but there's a lack of men. And that's where the AXE buyer comes in. He can win a trip to the cottage, together with his buddies, and help all these lovely ladies out. Nice!
In Spain Heineken has launched a new campaign to promote its 5 liters beer barrel mixing music and comics. The TV spot very nice as it proposes different camera angles and text baloons like a comic book while playing a song by Adele. The agency is Remo.
BBH and GT have recently released a mini-site for the new Audi RS 6. Even if you're not much into cars (like me), you'll better have a look, as the video experience is quite powerful.
I especially enjoyed the sound design and the interface, even I think it might result a bit confusing for the target audience of the car, who I believe might be not so Internet savy. But maybe it doesn't matter, the experience is impressive so casual clicks around will work as well.
In Australia, Tequila has just launched a new initiative as part of the Absolut World global action. It's the Absolut Line to the Top, a "secret view" on the office of Kevin Rudd, Australia's Prime Minister. Four CCTV cameras follow him while he takes care of his daily duties, which include (but are not limited to) the regular update of the Facebook status. You can also interact with him, ordering Chinese food for him or making prank calls...
Not sure if I like this idea, mainly because I don't feel it's in line with the Absolut brand. It's too artificial and it doesn't have the touch of class and beauty that Absolut usually has.
A video clip that's an ad... Sydney agency colman rasic carrasco has just launched a music video for top UK band Radiohead. The single 'All I need', from Radiohead's critically acclaimed latest album 'In Rainbows', became a perfect fit for the idea behind the human trafficking message. The video clip was created to raise awareness of exploitation and human trafficking in developing countries.
Nokia has recently launched a website to present its environmentally friendly phone, the 3110. The site doesn't tell much about the technical features of the phone, rather it focuses on the ecological aspects of the project, with a series of interests to Nokia and WWF people.
At first sight (and also at second sight), the website hasn't got anything special. The navigation interface, in particular, is a bit "disconnected" and could be very much improved. However I appreciated the enrichment of the interviews with simple yet nicely done animations that reinforce the story telling and help the viewer to keep paying attention to what the testimonials say.
I believe the agency behind all this is Wieden + Kennedy.
Nike just released the full version (2 minutes) of a spot for the upcoming UEFA 2008 European Championship football. The 'Take It To The Next Level' commercial is directed by Guy Ritchy and shows a first person journey through several teams and players, including Ruud van Nistelrooy, Wesley Sneijder, Cesc Fabregas, William Gallas, Wayne Rooney, Cristiano Ronaldo, Marco Materazzi, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Nani and Arsene Wenger.
Through an interactive storytelling mechanism, visitors are asked to express their preferences and build up their ideal week-end, from Saturday to Sunday choosing from a range of different activities. At the end of the two days, they are presented with the Harley Davidson model that better fits their lifestyle and tastes.
The quiz is probably the simplest form of interaction you can use in online marketing. And most of the quiz often end up being also the poorest examples of interactive marketing you find around. But it doesn't have to be always like this, as Heineken demonstrates with its Destination Moscow action.
Created by Born05, the website delivers a great experience, through an excellent sound design and an accurate art direction. The quiz presents you with five questions, if you get them right, you can win tickets for the Champions League final next May in Moscow.
So next time you feel like complaining because your client is not brave at all and just wants to have a "quiz", think again, remember of Destination Moscow and, as Elvis used to say, "do something worth remembering"!
Levi's Asia Pacific is offering us another weird digital experience. Metal Denim Passion is the destination website to discover the new Levi's Copper collection.
Unfortunately, despite the promising premise, the site hasn't much to offer. It takes a long time to load and what you get is a slow motion/kind of enhanced version of the TV spot. I'm the first one who says that every campaign should have a digital part too, but in this case the result is disappointing and the Web part looks more like a waste than a good supportive idea.
From Japan, a new chapter in the Axe saga. It's now time for the Axe Full Moon Party, with a sexy Thunderbird look-alike trying to seduce the girls on the beach.
Once again, given the language gap, I'm not able to tell you much about the campaign... As usual, it would be great if someone who speaks Japanese could leave a comment to explain what is going on. The whole thing looks quite weird and different, therefore it's very appealing for us curious interactive marketers.
I like the fact that this campaign doesn't present an ideal beauty, showing beautiful models and a sexy boy. Instead, you have puppets whose sex appeal is of course granted by the fragrance.
Over fifty experts from all around the world will gather next week in Paris to discuss the latest strategies and ideas in online communication and buzz marketing. The fourth edition of the Marketing 2.0 Conference will take place on May 5th and 6th. It offers an amazing range of discussion topics representing one of the must be events of the year in Europe.
To find out more and get your ticket, this is the website to visit.
The Lynx Effect is on air again in the UK with a new website that encourages consumers to mix the Lynx fragrances.
Created by BBH the site features the tagline "It's good to mix things up" and it's directly connected to a partnership Lynx has signed with MTV to give more visibility to the campaign and to the online competition that invites consumers to watch the Lynx "barman" mixing the fragrances, and then submit their own videos.
The Lynx Effect in this case is not as cool and innovative as we are used to. realize I'm not the target for Lynx' communication, but the site is nice to watch maybe once, when curiosity pushes you to explore it, but then the call to action for user generated content is not particularly compelling and it doesn't give you a reason to participate nor to spread the word. Too bad.
