I like the media usage and the relevance of the message:
I like the media usage and the relevance of the message:
So proud of my team. Our client got a custom made X Box Kinect game to promote its bonus program campaign in shopping centres. Simple hand movement triggered the ball-game that reflected the easiness of collecting bonus points while just paying with any Swedbank debit or credit card.
If you understand Estonian or use Google translate, look also here, to learn more about how it came to life.
A video to illustrate the game:
CitySpa. Congrats. Really, what were you thinking by buying a spread in local women's magazine and placing two ads in the row. Two logos, two slogans. Two different USP s. Please decide what you want to say and say it out clearly with confidence. Do not try to say it all out in a way that screams we have money, but we re stupid and can’t decide what to do. So we just buy media.
The OD caught my attention even before that print disaster on the magazine and I was tempted to photograph it, as it was so senseless, absurd and absolutely unintelligent, considering the fact that they position themselves as an elite gym and spa. The crème de la crème. Good luck in the future. At least it is entertaining to follow their attempts.
Finally something totally brilliant from my home country. The Estonian Rescue Board made a campaign to prevent people going to swim while drinking. So they found that the best way is to alert their friends to look after them. The viral-campaign’s main message is that any method for stopping your drunk friend from going to water, is a good method. I think they have nailed the target group pretty good as well.
Method no 68 – Give wrong directions
Method no 18 – Lure them to the bushes
Method no 2 – Glue them
The new generation of young people are considered to be, among other great things, pretty convenient and lazy. Their look of life is that all the fame and fortune should come in an instant and pay check to be relevantly high on their first job. And what do they do on their spare time when they want to be creative, besides video games? Check out planking. Ridiculous, but has it’s own charm and as you can see, is addictive to older generations as well:
Audi’s representative in Estonia, Reval Auto’s marketing manager has pointed out that they are identifying themselves as sporty, innovative and prestigious. What kind of previously mentioned values do tea bags carry on?
As a keen admirer of unconventional ideas, media usage and boldness, this is the idea I had to love.
Some pics made from my drive home. Apparently all the marketers who have read Seth Godin’s “Purple Cow” decided to act now. Only forgetting the “cow” part and concentrating on the "purple".
In the web there are cleaver things. Something for the crosswords lovers. A word for every occasion… well almost. See yourself:
I should call my blog “Cool phone apps blog” as this post again is about one cool app made for smart phones. Volkswagen shows innovation through innovation. Smart.
Here is one very nice use of smart-phone capabilities. If I would be younger and had more free time I would totally love games like this. It’s an upgrade to the oh so popular GPS games used around here. And it’s branded. Total brand involvement.
Even better would be if it would be done in the style on The Game movie, launched more than decade ago, but still carries an idea how to excite and suprise.
And what a nice business idea to do personalized adventures in a smart-phone platform. For workshops, team-building events, personal suprises and message delivering etc. Dream, dream, dream.
All my male reader please pardon this post, but I just need to express my womanly opinion. My ride home from work takes 20 minutes. Although there is some construction work going on, it's pretty regular road, considering Estonian road conditions. Yesterday, after coming home, saw a TVC advertising Dunlop tyres. Their international slogan and the slogan also used in this ad was “Feel the road”. I imagine that this was meant the way that this gives bigger control for the driver, the driver can read the car and the road better and lets to enjoy the ride every inch with those tyres. Put please dear advertisers, consider the local road conditions. I do not want to feel the road, as there are holes big as lakes in some country. If I would liked to feel the road I would buy a sports car with proper sports suspension. The ones who buy a sports car in Estonia, are forced to sell it after a short while, because it destroys healthy bone structure and loosens some skrews in their heads. We are not living in Italy or US where the roads are smooth and comfortable. You can actually loose a tyre in the Estonian bumpy roads. So in Estonia “Feel the road” does not equal a comfortable and secure drive.
Perhaps I should buy a plane.
Here is a textbook example of cause marketing. A brilliant example.
Vacuum cleaners are made for cleaning and to make that extra clear, Electrolux took the idea of cleaning into a higher level and decided to collect plastic waste from the world's major oceans and seas, so they could raise public awareness that plastic waste is polluting vulnerable marine habitats and produce a limited number of vacuum cleaners out of the plastic they gathered.
Here is their vacuum cleaners collection made out of plastic derbies:
From left to right: North Sea Edition, Indian Ocean Edition, Medittareanen Sea Edition, Pacific Ocean Edition, Baltic Sea Edition.
The global reach of this project is remarkable, as even me, who lives in a small place called Estonia, is touched by it, as my home country runs alongside the Baltic Sea. Although the waste gatherings were made in Poland, Latvia and Sweden it still rings my bell more, than to hear that someone gathered plastic waste form the Indian Ocean.
Read more about the plastic gatherings and recycling from here and watch the video to illustrate their cause:
Although it's one-time action as we are dealing with the limited edition here, it is still a very smart, simple and inspiring idea. And please note that the pretty vacuum cleaner are not for sale. They are made for making a point. You can buy a piece from their Green Range called Ultraone.
While selecting my country from the webpage, as it forced me to read swedish, I was amazed by the countries list. There was no Estonia, there was European Union. This page did not open. And there were Latvia and Lithuania, but no Estonia. And to my big suprize there was a country called Soviet Union, which to my knowledge stopped from existing 1991. See it yourself from here.
I consider myself the biggest internet addict I know. I work, consume information, prepare for school, communicate with friends and family, run my everyday errands like banking, shopping, vacation planning and etc. via Internet. And now due to some changes I had to manage without it.
What a shock.
I thought it will be liberating, but was it really? What did I learn? Work – absolutely not possible to manage. Luckily I had a vacation and no harm done, if not to consider some personal projects.
Information came mainly via TV and not in the amount and shape I’m used to. I am used to create my own information flow in the internet, so I consume only the information I’m truly interested in. So not completely satisfied with the local news, as it’s not tailored according to my needs. Although if there would be a hurricane, earth quake or some other major disaster I should know of, I would know and I would not die.
I was totally cut out from social communication as I manage it via msn, Facebook and e-mails, as I’m from the new era of communication and instead of meeting my friends, I tend to communicate electronically. I’m not used to pick up the phone and ask “Hey, what’s up, how you’re doing?”, what’s worse, actually get dressed and visit someone instead of calling. I do it from time to time, but not on the regular basis. So now I get sms-s and calls inquiring “are I still alive?”. As for the known quote: if you’re not online, you do not exist.
There is also one institution who thought there is something wrong. My home bank, because my regular payments were not on time. I dragged myself to the bank office and made my payments manually via payment machine, which was a first time experience for me. Pleasant luckily. It was very easy to handle.
As for the vacation planning, it was a total failure. How do you book something if you do not know how it looks and what is said about it in the forums. How do I know if the price-range is reasonable or is there a room for negotiations? I can handle some background checking via phone in
Anyways living without internet in the longer run is expensive. Your choice is limited and the effort made, to consume, bigger. Also the phone bill.
There are still many families who run their everyday lives without internet. My dad for example. I still wonder how he manages all his errands so well. Although I have to admit, the life tempo is from another dimension and comparable to geese migration speed. As a marketer it triggers, how to reach those households, without internet. There in an answer. About it in my next post.
Yesterday evening I received a call from a journalist who had noticed that the ads Taevas has made for a Raadio Uuno's morning program were extremely similar to the ads made by Miami Art School for Red Bull. You can read the article from here. Use Google translate, if not Estonian.
That’s true, they do use the same technique. This is not some rocket science originality, I admit, but these ads have very well served the purpose they were supposed to and lifted the awareness of Raadio Uunos new morning program. Mission completed. Not so good for the agency, as who wants to be called copycats anyway.
But this case is really interesting. These things happen. All over the world. Parallel geniuses. Thinking the same thoughts. Without knowing about the existence of the others.
Please check out this blog, which has dedicated itself for revealing shameless copycats and exposing just unfortunate coincidences. I’ ll take the privilege to copy some of those revelation into my blog. Please enjoy: