Tag archives: france

Les Nuits Des Clans (part 2)

It’s time for an new episode of Les Nuits Des Clans, a mysterious adventure game launched in France by Nouveau Jour (this is the post about last year’s edition).

Everything is in French but it’s definitely worth giving it a try even if you don’t speak the language… You find yourself on an island and you have to move around to play small (but challenging) advergames and collect words to complete a mysterious sentence that will unlock the doors of the castle.

Once the again the brand behind this complex advergaming experience it’s not revealed. Last year it was Ricard, this time we don’t know yet, but the mystery is part of the game so we are in no hurry to find out.

Winter is back

Who said that presenting home heating systems online can’t be done with a touch of creativity? Have a look at “L’hiver revient” (Winter is back) launched in France by Leroy Merlin. It’s nothing fancy, but it’s well done and functional with a bit of video amusement to enhance an experience (choosing an home heating system) usually boring almost by definition.

Monopoly in the 2.0 era

Do you want your city to be feautured in the next Monopoly edition? Then you have to support it online, with your vote but also with grassroots activity using 2.0 (and not only) tools. For the upcoming release of Monopoly France, Hasbro has decided to exploit the power of citizen marketers, allowing users to decide which are the cities and the streets that are going to be featured on the new board. The idea is absolutely nice, unfortunately the site supporting the campaign is not as rich as you might expect. A part from registering and voting for your favourite city there isn’t anything else to do. They ask you to create supporting actions to collect votes for your city, but the tools at your disposal are nothing more than a pdf to dowload and a animated gif to copy & paste, and this is very disappointing and not motivating, even for the most fierce supporters wannabe. via Pat Amiel.

Dim Dim girls: Rugby for women

At first sight I thought it was a sexist campaign, but after having visited the Dim Dim girls site for a few minutes I had to change my mind. Of course it’s an opportunistic idea, but isn’t this what we usually define as a (smart) “tactical” action? 1. Take an international sport event that will get men’s attention for over a month (the Rugby World Cup); 2. Realize that women will go crazy during the event because (in most of the cases) they don’t understand the game and, most of all, they don’t understand why men should prefer rugby to them; 3. Consider the product you sell (lingerie); 4. Agree with me that Dim Dim Girls it’s a great idea because: A) It explains the key rugby rules to women, using their own language with explanatory examples that put the sport in context with real daily life situations B) It shows several nice girls in lingerie to men, who next time that will have to buy something for the wives/lovers/friends would probably remember the easy DIM brand name. via E-conomy.fr

Wilkinson Fight For Kisses

I believe Sigmund Freud might have something to say about the new Wilkinson campaign from France that exploits Edipus Complex to promote a razor. Ignoring psychoanalysis and concentrating on the pure entertaining/advertising side of the concept, watch the video below and let me know whether or not the concept is brilliant and has the potential to generate a lot of buzz.

There is also site to check out with a series of goodies and an advergame to download (98MB) and play to win a series of prizes.

Read more…

The Shopping Boys

Since last fall Les Shoppen Boys are a marketing case in France. A bunch of men, wearing only red boxers act as models in Celio stores (a men clothing chain), and help women to choose clothes at the right size for their partners. If you’re not sure whether a t-shirt will fit your boyfriend, you pick a “Shoppen Boy” who looks the same size of your man, and he tries the t-shirt on for you. Basically the Shoppen Boys are the commercial version of the Full Monty… The video below recaps the action (an idea of Nouveau Jour) and highlights all the PR buzz generated in France (they even ended up on Tv several times).

Now the action has gone further, cashing on the PR. They’ve launched a site to recruit the 12 Shoppen Boys who will appear in the Celio 2008 calendar. Becoming one of the them is not easy, as men have to prove their skills sending a video in which they dance wearing only the boxers and following the music of the official soundtrack… Women, if you’re brave enough, visit the gallery with the submissions until now… If you want to be friend with the Shoppen Boys, they also have a page on Myspace.

Addictive advergame for Dodge

Eventually an addictive advergame. Perhaps it doesn’t have much to do with the product it’s advertising (a car), but it’s different, sticky and definitely worth generating some word of mouth. What shall we ask more to an advergame?

Ok, now one step back and some more info on the whole thing… It’s a mini-site launched in France by Dodge to promote its new Dodge Nitro. The concept plays with the idea of nitroglycerine/adrenaline, and therefore features a site full of testosterone to immediately get the attention of the right target audience. Even if the site is in French, finding the way to the advergame isn’t very complicated (just look for “jouer” and/or “survoltez vous”) but there’s an annoying mandatory registration form to fill in in order to play. When you’re in, use the spacebar to reach the right level of adrenaline, and then jump across the holes to get as far as possible… if you can, try to avoid the walls… via E-conomy.

Fly me to the moon…

… but I can end up in France… there’s a new online campaign, by The Moon Travel corporation, a fictional travel agency, to drive tourists to the Moon. Those who apply to reach this destination will actually arrive in Nancy or Metz, but I believe this is just a detail… Le Journal du Net reports more details on the initiative which debuted online last November with the mini-site and advertising spaces bought on MSN and Yahoo! messenger services. Since the launch over 45.000 French users have visited the site (which isn’t much…), to take a series of (advergame-based) tests and win the travel to the moon. Overall the concept is nice, but according to me it has been developed though a site which looks somehow too complicated.

British Airways, come fly with me

British sense of humor arrives to France, with a new Publicis Dialog advertainment website for British Airways which makes fun of low cost airlines (link removed). Unfortunately my French is not good enough to appreciate the jokes, but I find very interesting the fact that British Airways “dares” launching an interactive campaign in France to challenge its natural competitor Air France (and not only the low cost airlines). An article on Le Journal du Net, explains a few more things about the campaign. The site Serviceaprèsvol.com is actually only the first of an effort which will grow over the next few months with more media (outdoor and mobile marketing, for example) involved. To my Italian friends, the website will remind the brialliant “No Alpitour? Ahiaiaiaiai” campaign realized a few years ago.

Halloween, Virgin style

In France, Virgin Mobile has launched an Halloween promotional website called “Allowinner“. It features a nice TV commercial (which you “have” to watch”) and a slot-machine advergame. A simple but nice effort, even if I don’t understand why you have to watch the video in order to be able to play. Also, as usual, I don’t agree with the forced “refer-a-friend” feature, which means, that if you want to play the game more than one time, you are asked to refer 2 friends.