What are the Geico lizard or old Mayhem going to make of this?
More importantly, what might they do with it?
An insurance company called RSA in the Middle East has created an interactive print ad that enables readers to ask for a quote, no mobile phone or other consumer device required, though the quote comes back via the reader's mobile phone (which obviously provides the brand with contact information it could use for follow up communications).
As PSFK points out, the ad, developed by OgilvyOne, is targeted to prospective customers in Dubai, and supports the brand's "Easy as Ever" promise.
Sure it's early days in this kind of thing - a first step toward some of the interactive print concepts we saw in 'Minority Report' a decade ago - and it will need to be enhanced before it gets truly compelling.
But here, the medium is quite literally the message - an innovative "wow" moment that directly delivers on the brand's positioning.
SI is taking this Strip thing to a whole new level - with a little help from Lexus.
On the heels of the duo's QR code-enabled interactive print ad, the brands used Caesars Las Vegas as the canvas for a rip-roaring 3D projection mapping experience last night, featuring models from this year's big Swimsuit Edition.
The event was managed by Pearl Media, and the 3D projection experience was developed by Go2 Productions - the same team we worked with to develop our big LA Traffic Jam with Train, presented by LoopNet last month.
There are lots of things for fans of the annual issue to like - including building-size views of Kate Upton and her fellow SI models - with 3D elements, no less.
My view: As SI's first 3D experience, this is a sure sign the venerable SI "Swimsuit Edition" brand means business - and that Lexus is more than happy to help it hit the accelerator.
But what's your view? Is this whole spectacle a sign of overexposure?
Or a major splash for what is becoming a powerhouse media event?
This time out, Lexus is going a bit simpler, keying into QR codes - the scanning of which reveals models kinda-sorta hidden in SI print ads for the new IS.
Still, the pursuit of perfection could have added a little more punch to the reveals than just having the models strut toward us. Integrating with the car in some fashion - or really just doing anything a little more interesting - would have been a better pay off for going to all the trouble.
Okay, it's still pretty cool. And it's apparently just the opening act. According to ADWEEK, the Lexus IS is also included in Sport Illustrated's first-ever 3D projection mapping experience on the facade at Caesar's Las Vegas (the development of which comes from Go2 Productions, the same team that worked on our recent 3D projection experience for a recent client event featuring a private concert by TRAIN).
Check out the Dodge Dart Registry, where you can customize your new ride, and then get family and friends (and Facebook & Twitter connections) to fund your new car purchase by sponsoring specific parts of your new Dart.
That's one way to dodge paying for it all yourself. Even if it will likely be a tough sell to your social network, familial or otherwise.
Still, kudos to Weiden+Kennedy for the concept, even if "How to Change Buying Cars Forever" may be a little bit of a stretch.
Time will tell just how crowdfunding cars takes off. But if it even gets a modest amount of mileage, one can't help but wonder how this could work in other categories.
I mean, can a home builder-branded registry be far behind?
Responding to social media comments and even other TV commercials in real time is so last year.
For this upcoming Super Bowl, it's all about gamifying the Big Game, as Coca-Cola launches a new campaign in which viewers can help three "teams" vie for a giant bottle of coke.
In a new spot called "Mirage," which launched on Facebook today (video, above), the beverage brand sets the stage with three factions - cowboys, showgirls and badlanders - racing for that Coke. As Ad Age reports, the ad, from Wieden & Kennedy, ends with a cliffhanger. And that's where the socializing begins. Now, viewers can share the video and vote on one of a handful of endings. The more you share, the more content you unlock - including 50,000 coupons for a free 20-ounce Coke.
What's nice is that you can also sabotage the other teams by voting for distractions that slow them down. A spot with the winning team will be shown at the conclusion of the Super Bowl.
Will the effort beat the bears? Hard to tell - that was such a cool, real-time event, where this has the familiar "vote for the ending" feel to it, sabotages notwithstanding.
But what's your take? Will this effort's success be a mirage - or deliver a Coke and a smile?
On the heels of my post yesterday about how we brought one of today's hottest trends in B2C marketing - 3D projection - to a B2B client (video above), I thought I'd share an article Derek Singleton recently wrote for Software Advice'sB2B Marketing Mentor.
The piece is focused on four of the main ways B2B companies can "consumerize" their marketing, and it includes a section on gamification, where I talk about a branded game we developed for what is now DELL/SonicWALL that demonstrates just how powerful B2C approaches can be for B2B marketers.
How are you bringing B2C approaches to your B2B marketing?
Are you doing it at all?
For far too many B2B marketers, there's a view that never the two should meet. But as I write in my book THE ON-DEMAND BRAND, it's critical that B2B marketers realize business people are just that - people. And their exposure to B2C marketing approaches in their personal lives sets expectations for B2B marketing, whether B2B marketers like it, or not.
That's exactly why we try to bring as much B2C to B2B as we possibly can.
Case in point: Our client LoopNet, the #1 online marketplace for commercial real estate.
Over the last few months, we've launched an integrated campaign for LoopNet that's predicated on a simple, yet powerful message: If your commercial listings aren't advertised on LoopNet, they may as well be invisible. That's because only LoopNet drives traffic to commercial real estate listings like literally no other option can.
Print, direct mail and online advertising developed by Creative i has articulated this theme in compelling, brand consistent fashion.
So when LoopNet decided to fete the luminaries of Los Angeles commercial real estate, I got to thinking: What if we took our message and super-sized it? What if we used a full-motion, building-size canvass to drive home the LoopNet value proposition in an amazing new way?
In short: I wanted to bring 3D projection to our campaign.
So I reached out to Josh Cohen, the CEO of Pearl Media (and its partner Go2 Productions), which has worked on a number of 3D projection mapping experiences for B2C brands like Lexus, Perrier and Chevy Sonic.
I asked him straight up: "Do you think you can make a building in downtown LA go invisible?" He thought about it, and then said: "Yes, I think we can do that."
The concept began gaining traction, and eventually became LA Traffic Jam, Presented by LoopNet - a spectacular, VIP event featuring a private concert by TRAIN ("Drive-by") and our 3D projection experience.
Multidimensional direct mail invites featured cool, die-cut guitar bodies, iPods featuring TRAIN music and a call to action to join LoopNet "at the Corner of Epic & Mind-Blowing."
Fans, attendees and participants could join the conversation via mobile & online at the hashtag #looptrafficjam.
And video of the projection was placed on a special landing page and on YouTube. The client even decided to give viewers the ability to share the video via social media for the chance to win a $1250 Fender guitar signed by the band.
The event was last Thursday night - and it was a blast - testament to a client who thrives on innovation and embraces a decidedly B2C approach to blockbuster B2B campaigns.
There's a making-of video in the works that I'll share when it's ready, along with more details of what worked, and what didn't, as client and team analysis comes in.
In the meantime, give it a view - and enter for your own chance to win that signed guitar.
My daughter calls me the biggest 10-year-old on the block.
Any given weekend will find me throwing footballs, making up new basketball games or organizing hours-long Epic Tag at the neighborhood park. It often surprises me how many parents opt out of the fun.
So while I'm not the core target for Evian (I don't think I would ever let myself be seen carrying an Evian bottle), I can appreciate a new digital outdoor effort from Havas London that involves adult-size playgrounds designed to help grownups discover their inner child. Playing on the swings or toggle a see-saw, and motion activates a reward: Snow, which I take it is rare in London, even in January.
There is a lot of promotion in London rail stations, digital escalator posters, cross-track projections and a Live Young Facebook page highlighting 31 ways to live young.
Will it expand Evian's appeal to people like me? No. But other than cracking up for a few moments over its dancing babies, it's the most I think I've ever even thought of the brand.
It's definitely the year of the sequel (or is that a sequel to all the other sequels?) - what with "Fast & Furious 6," "Scary Movie 5," "Paranormal Activity 5," "Die Hard 5," "X-Men 6" and many more.
So what are the most eagerly awaited movies of the year? Fandango's out with its Hot List of most anticipated films as indicated by Fandango fans - and top honors goes to "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire," a title which seems to speak for the franchise itself.
But I have to side with Fandango's "chief correspondent" Dave Karger.
Like Karger, my can't-wait movie has got to be "Man of Steel" - the much ballyhooed let's-just-pretend-"Superman-Returns"-never-happened movie set to reboot the whole Superman franchise. From Christopher Nolan and the team behind the "Dark Knight" trilogy and "300" director Zack Snyder, it looks, well, super cool.
It's 2013: Do you know what your digital marketing's up to?
Here are five quick resolutions for the new year. Like lots of behaviors, these are practices we know we should keep - like eat less, move more - but rarely do. All of us are guilty of bypassing these common sense rules from time to time.
So if we do just five things this year, let's resolve to:
5. Not Ask How - Ask Why
I said this in a recent post on social media trends for 2013. But it's really true of anything we do. If you've heard it once, you've heard it a million times at agencies and client-side brands throughout the land: Let's do "X" - insert your digital buzz word du jour here - not because "X" is central to a brand's objectives, but because it's considered cool. But saying "we need a mobile/social/viral strategy is akin to saying "we need a brochure strategy," or a radio strategy, or a signage strategy. These are channels & platforms, not strategies. First figure out what you have to accomplish, then decide which approaches and channels will get you there. It's so simple, yet we all get caught up in coolness from time to time.
4. Know thy customer - and thy channels
On that note, as I write in my book THE ON-DEMAND BRAND, insight comes before inspiration. Today's most successful digital marekting initiatives typically don't come from a great idea for some hip new experience, or a me-too approach to major trends. Instead, they start with consumer insights culled from painstaking research into who your customers are, what they're all about, how they interact with consumer technologies, and what they want from the brands they know and trust. Just look at the work Unilever's done over the last few years with the Dove brand's "Campaign for Real Beauty" and all its crazy ass work for Axe - including everything from QR code peep holes in bathroom bars to faux "Shower Together" PSAs. These marketers have a firm read on their customers and the channels with which to reach them. In 2013, look for social + mobile + local to be a key to accomplishing this.
3. Always commit multi-plat-fornication
Innovate through as many channels and platforms that make sense for your strategies and audience. It's what MTV calls "multi-plat-fornication." As I show in the book, MINI USA has made an art form of this, using insights on its "fun-tech" loving audience and how they congregate online to use numerous approaches - branded games, especially, but also things like RFID-based key fobs that enable roadside billboards to call out to passing drivers by name - to actually enlist customers to market the cars for them. And Coca-Cola has raised the bar over the last year, with everything from branded iPhone apps to the Polar Bears' social stunt at the Super Bowl to its Kinect-Powered Vending Machine, to a magazine-ad-turned-mobile-stereo-speakers and much, much more. Small wonder the brand has been named "Creative Marketer of the Year" for the 2013 Cannes International Advertising Festival.
2. Honor traditional as the sizzle to digital's steak
It's heresy these days to point out the obvious. In a fragmented media universe, the channels that still attract any semblance of "mass" are more powerful than ever - with TV being exhibit A. For all our gadgets, we're watching more TV, not less. And whether it's "Walking Dead" or "Dancing with The Stars," TV has communal power like nothing else. As a result, many of today's most innovative integrated campaigns use traditional advertising - old school TV, print, radio, etc - to build awareness and then point consumers to deeper, richer, more meaningful experiences online, or via mobile and other digital platforms. Again, Coca-Cola's Polar Bear stunt at the Super Bowl immediately comes to mind, attracting over 9 million consumers who spent an average of 28 minutes with the brand. And Doritos has effectively done all this in reverse every year, with its Crash The Super Bowl user-generated ad contest - with the chance to work with director Michael Bay at this year's bowl.
1. Never put "buzz" before "business"
Obviously digital marketing is about endless and innovative experimentation. If it were as easy as creating any old viral video, branded game, or mobile app to generate enough buzz to bring in business for our brands, we'd all be rich. For many lifestyle brands, this kind of experimentation is enough - especially in categories where an aura of hipness is a prerequisite for sales success. But while there is obviously a lot of fun and games in all this fun and games, it's important - critical - that we approach digital initiatives with specific objectives in mind (see resolution #5).
As Harley-Davidson's global CMO Mark-Hans Richer puts it to Ad Age, "This is a new gold age for marketers. The shackles are off, and the possibilities are nearly endless. If we aren't conducting radical experiments, trying new ways to engage our targets and adding value to them, then we're not doing our jobs."
But, he adds, "It's not about chasing the buzz; it's about chasing the biz." Marketers who get this formula right - by fueling innovation through substantive consumer insights - weill thrive in the on-demand era.
Those who don't will have to settle for some fun - but ultimately fruitless - experiments.
Recent Comments