The international 'Put It Where You Want It' campaign from Nike Football, promoting the Total 90 Laser kicks, landed in Holland this week. Several video's starring Ajax players Sneijder, Huntelaar and Emanuelson got released and made their way around the Dutch internets. More video's of this extensive campaign can be found on Nike Football's YouTube channel.
In the same serie: Escalator, Autograph and Adios Amsterdam.
Interesting news from Dutch based blognetwork TCMagNet.com. These guys run a popular entertainment blog in the Netherlands and internationally and now expand to several European countries (Spain, Belgium, Greece and Germany) with local bloggers running the sites. Intention is to create an online network with local and international content that will please a broad audience. Looks like the big entertainment blogs are growing up and follow the proven concept of local expansion from their traditional brothers.
Wrigley's new gum has arrived from the future. It's called 5, and it has debuted online with a site in a Minority Report style.
Don't ask me what the site is about, because everything looks so weird and futuristic that it's hard to tell with precision. The goal is to introduce a new gum, 5, and to make people feel it through a sensorial experience. Do they accomplish the mission? Despite the confusion, my answer would be "yes" since the whole experience is quite interesting and definitely generates curiosity.
Fuel for Life finally got legalized, the teaser phase is over and the new fragrance has been unveiled. If you go on Diesel.com you'll see how they've decided to take a new, unusual approach to communicate a perfum, with six short videos extremely emotional and in a way cryptic.
The key question is: are you alive? You can find out the answer watching the series of brilliant videos, or browsing through a site that requires quite an effort to be fully experienced (and understood).
Love this site but it took me ages........ and ages......... and ages..... just to load it. Then there's the navigation issue. Imagine the target market - a 38+ dude trying to access this site quickly for the facts. He or she would be gone before you could say "hi". This site is cool but it's just way too heavy for the target audience. They want facts quick, not sexy flash. Shame but true ... Get past the "choose colour" and you have done well.
By: marka // Permalink // Comment(s):(1) Category(s):Automotive
It takes only one million clicks to save Fermin. There's a charity organization devoted to save Fermines all over the world, check it out and donate your click.
Donating a click takes just a few seconds, and after doing it you'll be awarded with a proper certificate. And there's even a nice music playing while you're on the site...
Pizza meets breakdance and even pizza, in Yo Roto! the advergame launched by Cici's pizza to do some online branding. As I learnt from Contagious "shakerboarding is a bizarre combination of break dancing and advertising, traditionally used by local car dealers in the States, attracting attention by throwing dance moves while spinning branded signs" and the game is part of an integrated campaign (viral and retail campaing) created by Deutsch.
The game is pretty original and fun to play, but the best thing is that it's very much connected to the activity they're doing offline, and this both rare and appreciable.
And all the people of the lulled and dumbfound town are sleeping now... This is the incipit of Under Milk Wood is a poem Dylan Thomas wrote over fifty years ago that has now become the main theme of a strongly emotional Volkswagen campaign around the concept of Night Driving.
The Tv commercial, created by DDB London, is lovely, inspiring and slightly touching. But on www.night-driving.com there's more than a brilliant video to discover. For example, there is the "usual" call to action for user generated content. Nothing new you would say, but I'm interested, since they've partnered with Yahoo!'s platform Jumpcut in order to provide consumers with an easy (and online) tool to create their videos.
At the same time I believe it's weird but interesting to note that they've opted for a par condicio (I feel so Latin tonight!), using Google Maps to present and allow people to submit a series of great "night drives" around Europe.
I think the site is online already since a couple of months, so apologies if I'm late, but I thought it was worth to keep track on this campaign and this positive online experience created by Tribal DDB London.
It looks like online marketing is becoming important for fragrances as well. A few months we talked about Calvin Klein, a few days ago we mentioned the mysterious Diesel campaign that apparently is going to introduce on the market a new perfume, now it's time to discover Daisy, the new fragrance (and website) launched by Marc Jacobs.
The first impression isn't positive, as you have to register to "enter the garden" and discover the site. But I'm curious, so I fill in some data and get in... I become a daisy in a garden full of daisies with name and surname and my goal is to grow and become beautiful. To grow, means to play a series of advergames that are actually pretty engaging and extremely original: a positive surprise.
My experience in the garden continues with the discovery of the product. It's a pity someone still hasn't invented how to distribute fragrances through the Web, but despite this essential lack, using some imagination I can get a good idea of how Daisy is.
The rest of the site isn't as original and creative but the overall experience is absolutely pleasant and positive. Congrats to WDDG for the good work, that I cannot evaluate as excellent since they completely forgot about the sound design.
Test your passion for Honda in their newest site launched by Wieden + Kennedy London. The challenge is in 14 steps, at the end you get a unique hondamentalism signature and you can enter a competition to win exclusive racing prizes.
The site is very well designed, and the action is quite entertaining and engaging, even if fourteen steps take quite a lot of time (and commitment) to be completed. In your path you find a series of questions and small games that you can even copy & paste on your site (see below) and therefore help Honda spreading the word about her new series of Type R cars.
For more games like this one, visit www.honda.co.uk/hondamentalism/challenge
Sony has recently launched a new game for PS3 called Heavenly Sword. As part of the related marketing activities they've of course put online also a multi-language website. Even if I don't like the style of the graphics, this is not the genre of game I'd like to play and I'm an Xbox fan, I must say I'm impressed by the video content they feature on the site... ;-)
First of all there's a series of animated episodes explaining the "legend" of Heavenly Sword.
Fuel For Life is coming. And there's Diesel behind it. This time I have no insider's insights to share, as I don't know (yet) what Fuel for Life is about (maybe). I can just show you a beautiful video (by Phil Hansen), and point you to the website of the Society against Legalization.
A couple of months ago we posted about the advergame Electrocity, an educational version "made in New Zealand", of the popular Sim City. Now it's time to speak again about Sim City, a game we have been playing and playing since 1989, that Electronic Arts has recently re-released for Nintendo DS. To support the launch, they've created a multi-language site that features the history of the game, some videos and a mini-game for hardcore fans.
The site is very well designed, and the game is worth playing since it's a combination of Tetris and Sim City: fun, difficult therefore addictive (my top score is 9865...).
Too bad the loading functionalities haven't been properly programmed, you get stuck with the XML content not loaded and this is not only annoying, but also doesn't allow you to understand how the game is going.
By: martina // Permalink // Comment(s): Category(s):Advergames
Sweepstakes and trivia are among the "saddest" tools in online marketing. Give me your data, answer a few silly questions and if you're lucky you'll win something. I realize for a lot of brands collecting consumers' information is crucial to run their business, but I still think sweepstakes and trivia are good when done offline, in a supermarket, and not in the "interactive" media by definition.
In this case Kawasaki has shown there is still soom room for sweeptakes online. To promote their new KFX 450 they haven't taken the approach "gimme your data I might give you a prize" but, rather "have some fun, gimme your data and I might give a prize". There is a sensible difference in the two ways of running the promotion, and I appreciated the choice of using an improbable Mr Nigel "Salty" Graves to engage the audience. Of course, such a site is definitely more expensive than a simple html form, but how many brands can afford doing something online forgetting about the "branding" side of the project?
Another pretty nice advergame if you don't feel like working in this hot summer afternoon... it comes from the UK and it has been developed by Naked Penguin Boy to complement the TV advertising campaign in which KFC promotes the new huge meal the Big Daddy Box Meal.
This site is mad and so cool - but I have no idea why it was built and how any money will be made. I have seen and done a hundred "build your own avatar" sites but this somehow is so much cooler than anything I have seen. The interaction and design allowance is greater than ever.
Once I made my dude I was unhappy to see that the community/colony was very thin (I'm sure this will grow). Anyway it's a nice turn on avatar-type builder sites and a whole lot of fun.
By: marka // Permalink // Comment(s):(3) Category(s):New websites
Microsoft has just launched an advergame to promote its Live Search Maps. Created by EVB, Microsoft Live Derby 2007 it's a sort of revisited "driving" version of PacMan.
You can select to run in five different cities and decide among four crazy drivers (I picked the Golden Oldies...) who will take you around the map collecting "pills", avoiding other cars and reaching a series of key destinations.
The game is fun to play, and it's less easy as it might appear at first sight. I tried three times and I didn't manage to pass the first level... but maybe this is because I'm not a very good virtual driver ;-) I'll try again!
By: martina // Permalink // Comment(s): Category(s):Advergames
In the UK Gillette has launched an integrated marketing campaign for the new Gillette Fusion Power Stealth range. Online, they have created a "spy game" called The Undetectables where users are challenged to recover the Stealth razor that has been recently stolen.
The advergame is quite nice to play, but actually calling it "spy game" it's a little bit too much since, as far as I've seen, there's only one level/mission to play. In any case, no matter if you do or do not recover the razor, you can enter a prize draw to win training days at a spy school or, if you aren't lucky enough, a Gillette razor.
From Canada (via Freddy's blog), acampaign to raise awareness around the risks of brain injuries. The idea is to convince people to wear an helmet everytime the perform potentially risk activities, such as biking, skating, but also working in a construction site.
The website features a 3D brain that simulates what everyday social situations may be like after suffering brain injury. You can take a series of tests by answering questions or playing little games that show you how your capabilities may result affected if you don't protect your head.
I really like the approach and the tone of voice they've given to this campaign, because it touches important points to get teens' attention but, at the same time, sends out a positive message: having fun doing crazy things it's not prohibited, but remember to protect your head when you do it (see the "can I go out and play?" section).
The agency behind the site is Artistech Newmedia while the offline side of the campaign has been created by DDB Canada. If you continue reading this entry, you'll see the print ads they've created.
It's less than a month to go before the 2007 Rugby World Cup kicks off, so it's time to start seeing the first campaigns around the event. From England, we have Land Rover stressing its positioning as the official vehicle of England Rugby with a mini-site and a (viral) video that has been seeded on the main video sites such as YouTube, Google Video and Kontraband.
There is also an advergame to play, where you're asked to be an hero and save England in a match she's loosing against South Africa.
By: martina // Permalink // Comment(s): Category(s):Online campaigns
An article about Facebook published yesterday on Advertising Age made me smile (and think). It says that “half of the biz is jumping on Facebook fanwagon, for ‘research’ of course”… Ops. I feel slightly “touched” by this sentence, as I’ve been also discovering and professionally “studying” Facebook in the last couple of weeks.
As a first step in my "study" (slightly "me-too", I must admit) I've started the Adverblog's friends group (if the link doesn't work, just search "adverblog" amd you'll find us).
All regular (and irregular) readers are welcome to join. I'd like the Facebook group to share links and ideas in a fast and informal way with the international/multicultural touch Adverblog always tries to have.
As I'm still in the learning phase of Facebook's functionalities and behavioural rules any suggestion or recommendation you might have on how to exploit it at best will be more than welcome.
These days there is quite some buzz around the LichtFaktor crew, a group of German light graffiti artists, whose work is rather impressive.
Color + Design blog has an interview with them, where they share some insights about their technique.
Below you can watch a video called Star Wars vs Star Trek they have been recently doing in the UK for Sky Movies.
And if you're interested in the commercial side of light graffiti, have a look also at Vincent's blog, where he talks about a recent Sprint campaign in the US.
To promote a new unlimited calling feature, Sprint has launched Waitless to give you an idea of how time passes in your life. The site presents two main sections: a time calculator and a series of "Sprintcuts". The time calculator it's a rather disquieting feature that calculates how much time you spend on a particular activity in a lifetime. I tried it with "blogging", assuming I blog half an hour per day, and below you see the result... Actually, the disquieting part of the calculator is the disclaimer sentence at the bottom: The calculation is based on 78-year average human life span. Sprint is not responsible for how long you actually live. I hope it's a joke...
The most interesting and amusing part of the site is the SprintCuts sections, where they use videos to teach you how to save time in some common daily activities, such as opening bottles, peeling an egg or tying your shoes.
There is also a YouTube channel where you can upload your own Sprintcuts. The agency behind the whole thing is Goodby Silverstein & Partners.
The new football season is about to begin (and in some countries has already begun), therefore for the teams it's time to train and work on their marketing activities to sell tickets and merchandise. In Portugal, Sporting CP has started a viral campaign to sell seasonal tickets, and even if you won't understand much of what they say, I'm sure you'll appreciate the idea.
The first match is about to begin. Everybody, players, trainer and the rest of the staff is in the locker room waiting. Waiting for a fan that is still missing. Suddendly the team player walks in, and points to the coach the name of the one who hasn't arrived to the stadium yet... it's you. So he calls you on the phone. And your mobile rings. For real.
Unfortunately the site doesn't work with international numbers, but what happens is that when you answer the coach shuts at you, urging you to get to the stadium asap.
Even if the idea of a call in real time isn't new, I believe that in such a context (targeting football fans) what counts it's the potential it has to make people feel involved with their team, and of course to drive word of mouth.
I’m at home (connected) for a week. It’s a good opportunity to relax, read, think and fix a few things here on Adverblog.
First of all, the newsletter. It’s alive and kicky again since a few months, thanks to the incredible support of Eroi that not only kindly provides me with the application to send it out, but also managed to make it work without having to fight “weekly” with my lack of time (and slight lazyness). Today (and this is the big news), I’ve added again to my pages the sign-up form. If you subscribe, you will get an email every Thursday with the recap of the articles published here on the blog.
In the RSS era subscribing to a newsletter might sound a little bit old fashioned. But given the editorial approach we try to give to Adverblog (showcase the best, forget the rest) I still think that a weekly recap represents a good tool to archive and keep track of the campaigns worth being remembered. So don’t be shy nor lazy, and subscribe. The newsletter is weekly and double opt-in, so you won’t be spammed.
By: martina // Permalink // Comment(s): Category(s):Everything else
In Belgium, Renault Twingo is looking for a new test driver. The selection process is currently taking place in a Twingo Lab located somewhere in the countryside where a crazy professor and his humble assistant are testing the potential candidates.
You can also participate in the selection, you just need to sign up filling a form to be enrolled. It's an amusing experience and the tests you have to overcome are not as easy as you might presume at first sight. I'm still stuck with the second trial, and I'm becoming quite addicted (of better, annoyed) to the fact I don't manage to move to the third test.
Youtube tries to make itself useful not only to individual exhibitionists and brands seeking some Web 2.0 attention, but also to charity organizations that can benefit as well from massive exposure. Last week the channel DontYouForgetAboutMe has been launched in the UK, with the goal of bringing the plight of missing children to a wider and younger audience.
The channel has been set up by the International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children (ICMEC), in collaboration with the Find Madeleine Campaign and with the support of Youtube. Interesting to point out, it's not possible to copy & embedd the code of any of the videos uploaded by the user DontYouForgetAboutMe.
By: martina // Permalink // Comment(s): Category(s):Social campaigns
I'm happy to say that we had a great last weekend in Brisbane Australia recreating the famous bar scene from Stanley Kubrick's 'The Shining' and invited passers-by in for a drink, to promote Stella Screen's airing of the classic horror film . The brief was to create an innovative brand experience for the screening of a classic film and to maintain Stella Artois Screen's global strategy, "fanatical about film".
Groups of passers by were invited into the depths of The Stella Artois Gold Room by pale strangers dressed in coat and tails. Guests then were confronted by the lone bartender, Lloyd, to inject the right amount of unease into guests.
The visitors were then directed to another room located down a dark corridor. On entering room 237, another stranger would ask them to write their details in the guest register.
The Brisbane locals that didn’t run out screaming left the bar with a mysterious invitation and code to enter a website - stellagoldroom.com.
Using their code, they could access the guest register on the website and confirm their booking details. The ticket was then emailed to them. Interactive CD was Jonathan Mo. It was so much fun!
It's time for a new chapter in body grooming. Philips has just launched Robotskin, a campaign with a Blade Runner twist. Created by Tribal DDB London, the site features a series of mysterious, futuristic and sexy webisodes, starring an improbable “Grooming Robot”.
I have very different feelings about this project. At first sight I thought it was an interesting idea, very well executed. But after having spent a few minutes on the site, I feel it misses something. Of course it was extremely difficult to replicate the creativity (and success) of the Shave Everywhere campaign, but I still think Robotskin it's more a good branded entertainment exercise than a cool marketing campaign.
If you look at the single elements that compose the site (webisodes, goodies, a touch of wom) everything seems to be there, but the truth is that connection with the product is quite weak and completely made up, and even the product page is nothing more than a textual description.
It would be great to have your opinion on the project.
Draftfcb in Sydney have just soft-launched an online business simulator for Macquarie Graduate School of Management (MGSM) to attract the best business minds to their MBA programme.
Run a company and get advice from real-life CEO's. The site itself is not all that dynamic - in fact a little too old school in design - but it has some really nice elements as well. You have to sign-up to "play" which is a shame. It does a good job of showing real life issues and having real CEO's helping you make decisions is kinda cool. It doesn't deter from the actual reason for the site - reel in potential students. It's worth a look.
By: marka // Permalink // Comment(s):(1) Category(s):
Sony has launched a new site to showcase its Vaio range of laptops. Quiet an odd site for showcasing laptops but I like it. Remix Your Life is the campaign title and it's all about matching your personality to the right laptop.
Once you have checked out the three vids already on the site you can then hook up your webcam and microphone and create your own. Now this is cool, but I hate to imagine how many people who want to experience this site but can't as they don't have a webcam or microphone - therefore annoying them rather than selling them on the products and brand.
It reminds me a little of the Lynx Blow campaign where users needed to blow into a microphone.
I guess this site will serve many people well - and piss-off just as many others. :-)
*UPDATE*
Thanks Andy! His note is below:
I know we all borrow from time to time, but they really should have nodded to Lasse Gjertsen
With millions of views for Smirnoff's Tea Partay video, it was just waiting for the sequel. Well, here it is. This time it's the West Coast response on the East coast 'rappers'.
By: Rocco Stallvord // Permalink // Comment(s):(2) Category(s):Online video ads
From Japan, via the UK, the latest Puma's idea for football, called Puma Tribes. The site, created by Profero, allows users to create their personalized team uniforms (like NikeID already does ;-) touching and retouching all the possible details from the shirts to the socks.
Since it's quite rare for me to receive a campaign made in Asia, I must say I was pretty curious to have a look at the site, to see a possibly different approach to online communication. Actually there isn't anything different to see... ;-) but it's curious to note they use caucasian characters and it's nice to have an automatic update of the cost of the outfit your building depending on the choices you make.
Sony Television has a pretty slick full-flash site. I am unsure of its launch date, however it's basic essence is to showcase the TV shows they produce - which it does quiet nicely. The nav interface is predictably a movie/tv studio lot which gives you a sense that you are somehow special and "inside the studio".
Apart from the very slick graphics produced by the cool dudes at Red Interactive the content is a little slim. I did enjoy my journey through this site but I'm unsure if I'll go back - purely because I saw the lot in one go.
First of all, the newsletter. It’s alive and kicky again since a few months, thanks to the incredible support of Eroi that not only kindly provides me with the application to send it out, but also managed to make it work without having to fight “weekly” with my lack of time (and slight lazyness). Today (and this is the big news), I’ve added again to my pages the sign-up form. If you subscribe, you will get an email every Thursday with the recap of the articles published here on the blog. 
