Waqy

Lupe Fiasco Tags Union Square

Posted: Saturday, 5 February 2011 by Waqy Matloob in

As part of a promotion for the new Lupe Fiasco album Lasers, a massive QR code is being projected in New York City’s Union Square.
The promotion works in two ways. The code requires users to scan it with RedLaser, a technology that enables fast, clean reads of QR codes, evidently at some distance. To Lupe Fiasco’s benefit, scanning the code is a pre-order for his new album with the bonus of additional content.
The campaign should offer insight about how far people are willing to go to interact with QR codes. Fans may download the technology for the promotion, finding they never need to use it again. Either way, the promotion is engaging, and offers yet another example in the ways that people are creatively using mobile tags to their benefit.

Ready, Set, Tweet! Mercedes-Benz has announced “the world’s first Twitter-fueled race,”

Posted: Monday, 3 January 2011 by Waqy Matloob in

In a new social media campaign supporting its first ever Super Bowl ad, Mercedes-Benz has announced “the world’s first Twitter-fueled race,” in which four teams will race suped-up autos from New York, LA, Chicago, or Tampa to the 2011 Super Bowl in Dallas. The grand prize is a 2012 C-Class Coupe and tickets to the Super Bowl. Here’s the catch: it will take more than just speed to win. Racers will have to complete to-be-announced challenges along the way and garner Facebook likes and tweets (according to Mercedes-Benz, the winners will need “gallons of Tweets”). Sure, Facebook and Twitter are great marketing tools, but does this make any sense?

Applicants with a “Twitter following with serious horsepower” were encouraged to apply, and the finalists will be announced on January 5. Then, on January 12, the public will get to meet the official drivers on the Mercedes-Benz Facebook page and pick the team they want to root and Tweet for before the race begins on Feburary 2. Twenty “Most Valuable Tweeters” will also win prizes — not Coupes, but tickets to an upcoming event like the 2011 US Open or the Mercedes Benz-Fashion Week are up for grabs.
One look at Mercedes Facebook or Twitter pages, and it’s clear that this marketing ploy has created lots of buzz among German car afficionados who want in on the chance to compete for the shiny new car and score tickets to the Super Bowl. On its face, the campaign seems like a good approach. Engaged audience? Check. Earned media? Almost, but not quite. It’s something more like Bribed media. Here at Post Advertising we define Earned media as “positive brand messaging that’s produced and spread by unpaid influencers.” We’re not sure this qualifies.
Mercedes’ tactic encourages tweeters to promote Mercedes-Benz through their online networks and become “MVPs,” but those Tweeters won’t necessarily be spreading the brand message because they actually find the content worth sharing. They’re not being paid, but there is a pot of gold at the end of the Twitter race. True-to-form earned media carries credibility because consumers are spreading and sharing a brand message that they actually want their digital communities to hear about it. It’s organic, not forced, and it doesn’t just reward those who Tweet the loudest.

Top 10 Digital Advertising Innovations of 2010

Posted: Sunday, 26 December 2010 by Waqy Matloob in

As Mashable contributor Jesse Thomas recently noted, Silicon Valley is quickly becoming the new Madison Avenue. Looking back over the past year’s advertising landscape, it’s not the individual campaigns that stick in the mind as much as the use and pioneering of new technology.
This year was a transitional year in which much-hyped mobile advertising began to be a serious player, Apple once again changed the business and brands began fostering real, two-way conversations with consumers.
Here’s a look at some of the top new technologies that redefined advertising in 2010.

1. Old Spice’s Response Videos

Old Spice, a perennially troubled brand at Procter & Gamble, had watched Unilever’s Axe steal its thunder for most of the past decade. Miraculously, the brand was able to become relevant to a new generation of male consumers thanks to a clever ad campaign. The “Smell like a man, man,” ads featured an over-the-top confident Isaiah Mustafa, who somehow was able to make men insecure and be likable at the same time. If this was 1999, that would be the end of it, but agency Wieden + Kennedy offered a nice interactive twist: The agency and Mustafa shot more than 180 videos responding to consumers’ inquiries. Talk about breaking the fourth wall: For those raised on traditional TV advertising, it was like Mustafa was re-enacting Jeff Daniels’ role in The Purple Rose of Cairo — a matinee idol who popped out of the screen and into real life.

2. Bar Code Scanning

Marketers and mobile advertising firms had been trying for a while to foster the use of QR codes — logos that consumers could scan with their phones to access online content. But for makers of packaged goods, such codes take up valuable real estate on packaging. Stickybits and another firm called CauseWorld addressed this issue with new technologies that read bar codes. The former struck deals with both Coca-Cola and Pepsi as well as Campbell’s Soup. The latter worked with Procter & Gamble and Kraft on a program in which consumers could amass “karma points” for scanning the codes, which earned contributions to consumers’ favorite causes. Truth be told, the bar code readers don’t always work that well and it’s unclear how many consumers will take the time, but, by using bar codes, the two companies provided another big step toward mobile-enhanced interactive shopping.

3. Location-Based Advertising

Marketers were eager to catch on to the popularity of services like Foursquare , Gowalla and Facebook Places, but successful programs were few and far between. Starbucks’ was a notable failure. The company rushed in with a program that offered $1 off any size Frappuccino for its mayors. The program resulted in a 50% increase in checkins at Starbucks locations, according to Foursquare but many Starbucks locations appeared unaware of the campaign. Similarly, the first big promotion for Facebook Places, a jeans giveaway from Gap for the first 10,000 customers to check in to the program at a Gap location, encountered similar problems. On the other hand, SCVNGR may have found a winning formula with a more game-oriented approach that drew the likes of American Apparel, AT&T and Coca-Cola. The combination of new, perhaps slightly arrogant tech companies and inconsistent messaging at retail, however, is likely a short-term problem. Look for much more location-based marketing campaigns in 2011.

4. iAds

With its untouchable veneer of cool and its domination of the market of high-end, consumer-friendly, cutting edge gadgets, marketers are positively salivating about the idea of getting on any Apple platform. With the introduction of the iPad and the iPhone 4, Apple obliged with a new, full-screen rich media environment that CEO Steve Jobs described as “mobile ads with emotion” and positioned as a format for ads that consumers would want to watch.
With an eye on quality control, Apple set the bar high: Advertisers reportedly had to spend at least $1 million and as much as $10 million to run an iAd. But, the company may be relaxing a bit. This month, Apple opened iAd development with iAd Producer, which let marketers and their agencies create iAds even if they didn’t know HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript.

5. Promoted Tweets

As Twitter established itself as the third of the social media Holy Trinity (along with Facebook and LinkedIn, the company set its sights on a business model. With great fanfare, Twitter introduced Promoted Tweets in April. Taking a page from Google, the idea was that people searching for various terms on Twitter would see the sponsored terms along with organic results. Marketers like Coca-Cola and Virgin America experimented with the program, with laudable results. (Coke reported a 6% engagement rate for its campaign, while Virgin America posted its fifth-highest sales day ever thanks to Promoted Tweets.) By year’s end, like Apple, Twitter appeared to be democratizing the program. This month, a form for prospective advertisers appeared on Twitter’s site. The company is expected to start implementing that turnkey solution in earnest early next year.

6. Group Buying

Not for nothing did Google offer to shell out upwards of $6 billion for Groupon. The two-year-old company is profitable, popular and on to a winning formula that can be executed on a large scale. Groupon, which offers deals if a certain amount of consumers take part, proved the latter in August through its first national deal, with Gap to sell $50 worth of apparel and accessories for $25. While previously, the site was known for local daily deals with small businesses, the Gap program was a huge success. In one day, the company sold 441,000 Groupons, netting about $11 million. At the moment, Groupon is the biggest player in this emerging space by far, but the interest from Google will no doubt spur deep-pocketed competitors to file in.

7. Personalized Video

Though not traditional advertising, a video from the band Arcade Fire opened new possibilities this summer. Working with Google, the band’s video for “The Wilderness Downtown” could be personalized by typing in the address of your childhood home. If Google Maps has enough footage, the site conjures up a highly personalized video about the end of childhood.
Taking a similar tack, a company called Brave New Films, on behalf of the Service Employees International Union and MoveOn, released a Facebook-based app in March that let users plug in their personal info for a highly entertaining video of Glenn Beck ranting about…you. After using the app, Beck’s chalkboard was filled with pictures of you and your friends along with their names and other personal data. The point: Glenn Beck could just as easily be attacking you.

8. CAPTCHA Advertising

Everyone at one point or another has used a Captcha (an acronym for “Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart”) to prove they are human and not a bot. But who would think to turn a Captcha into an ad? Solve Media, for one. The company worked with Toyota, Microsoft and Dr. Pepper, among others, on the type of ad that consumers just couldn’t ignore. For Dr Pepper, for instance, users were prompted to type in “There’s nothing like a Pepper” instead of the usual gibberish. Later, Solve incorporated video for a campaign for Universal’s film Devil.

9. Error Message Advertising

Taking a similar idea, Digg launched a program in March with Burger King to turn those annoying error messages into advertising as well. For a time, typos on Digg were countered with the message, “No results for ‘X’ were found. Looks like your search had a typo. Blame it on your tiny hands. The beefy $1 Burger King Double Cheeseburger gives tiny hands some trouble, too,” which led to a link to a Burger King ad featuring a man with tiny hands.

10. Chatroulette

Always on the lookout for the next big thing, marketers set their sights for a time on Chatroulette, an app that combined roulette and video chat with often unsettling results (the site quickly became known for the flashing of penises). The implication for marketers was unclear until Travelocity dropped its gnome mascot into the mix, just in time for April Fool’s Day. While Chatroulette doesn’t look to be the next Facebook for marketers, Travelocity showed that innovative thinking can transcend the limitations of any digital format.

Businesses can now measure the carbon impact of advertising

Posted: Sunday, 12 December 2010 by Waqy Matloob in

A new tool will allow companies to accurately measure the carbon footprint of their advertising campaigns

Heineken will now be able to measure the carbon footprint of its advertising campaigns using CarbonTrack Photograph: Getty CarbonTrack, a measurement tool designed by Starcom MediaVest Group (SMG) and Envido, was released today to assist businesses in measuring carbon emissions from advertising. This tool can measure the carbon output of an advertising campaign throughout its entire lifecycle. It was developed with guidance from the Carbon Trust and the launch in London today will be supported by two of SMG's clients, Honda and Heineken. According to first estimates using CarbonTrack, the UK advertising industry is estimated to produce two million tonnes of CO2 annually, the equivalent of heating 364,000 UK homes for a year. "Every company with a carbon commitment will be investigating their supply chain to identify ways to manage emissions," said Alastair Bannerman, chief client officer at SMG UK. "Until now there has been an important gap in this requirement. CarbonTrack will transform accountability as the world's first credible carbon measurement tool for advertising campaigns."
Purpose of CarbonTrack
CarbonTrack will provide companies with a certified report on the total levels of carbon emissions associated with their advertising campaigns, so they can accurately report on their carbon targets. It will also allow marketers to make changes to their advertising campaigns to manage carbon emissions more effectively, while still considering coverage, quality and cost. SMG said marketers may even choose to include carbon management targets in their annual KPIs. More than 100 media owners and agencies have contributed data to CarbonTrack, which was created under guidelines developed by the British Standard Institute. Information provided by media owners is confidential and CarbonTrack will not allow for direct, named comparisons between various media owners. The programme will, however, allow companies to benchmark themselves against their previous campaigns, their peers and the wider industry. It will also provide information to help businesses engage with their suppliers to manage carbon emissions. "Carbon accounting is becoming more sophisticated and widespread as new national and international standards and legislation come into force," said Ifti Akbar, co-managing director of specialist energy, carbon and sustainability consultants at Envido. "Companies utilising CarbonTrack will be ahead of the UK legislation curve and actively contributing to reducing the emissions of their industry. With CarbonTrack, advertisers can for the first time measure and manage emissions associated with their marketing spend."

TRANSPORT FOR LONDON AD CAMPAIGN SPOOFED

Posted: Friday, 19 November 2010 by Waqy Matloob in

Transport for London's "Together for London" poster campaign has been ambushed by pranksters who have manipulated the official cartoons to show new messages.

Spoof campaign manipulates Transport for London's

The advertising campaign, which features rounded cartoon characters promising, among other things, not to play loud music or eat smelly food, graces London’s tubes and buses.
The real adverts appeal to people to respect their fellow commuters, with the slogan: "What will you do? A little thought from each of us. A big difference for everyone".
While it is not the first time the "little thoughts" have been manipulated, a fresh batch of post-coalition slogans has begun to appear across the capital.
These spoof characters (pictured) were spotted on the Number 73 bus route and had been pasted into the bus's advertising slot so professionally it was thought they could be the latest official posters. They read: "I won't confront the state", "And I won't dissent".

Spoof ad campaign running of Transport for London's

The guerrilla campaign comes in spite of the well-positioned CCTV cameras that are fitted in all London buses.
A spokesman for TfL said: "We are aware of some instances of offensive stickers being placed on posters on a few of London's Buses. The posters will be removed as soon as they are reported and TfL is investigating."
The original campaign was launched by then-London mayor Ken Livingstone in 2008, alongside a mini-film created by Leaving Las Vegas director Mike Figgis.
The three-minute film was screened in around 800 London cinemas, while the poster campaign was developed by M&C Saatchi.
The advertising group is also responsible for the TFL 'tube or false' campaign currently featured on tube lines that asks historical questions about the London underground.
The questions include: "One night during WWII 177,500 Londoners slept in tube stations - true or false?".
It is true; during the war the London Underground installed 22,000 bunk beds, washroom facilities and ran trains that supplied seven tonnes of food and 2,400 gallons of tea and cocoa every night.
According to TFL's website there were even special stations with libraries, evening classes, films and musical events.

Together for London” campaign

Digital technology and social networking breathe new life into advertising

Posted: Monday, 15 November 2010 by Waqy Matloob in

Agencies seek to engage potential customers with interactivity and dialogue

A scene from the advert for the Toyota Auris.

Under a railway arch in Shoreditch, east London, on a dark September evening, a crowd gathered to watch an advertising shoot for the new Toyota Auris Hybrid. The commercial – which involved a crew of 45 and seven projectors – used a complex technique known as projection mapping to throw a mix of "keyframe, 2D, 3D, algorithmic and dynamic animation" on to an Auris, bringing the car to life in a blaze of pulsing ice blue lights.
Made by the digital agency glue Isobar, "Get Your Energy Back" set out to dramatise the technology within the car, which recycles energy as it drives. Glitzy and costly TV car ads are nothing new, of course, but what sets the Auris campaign apart is that it wasn't conceived as a 30-second TV spot. Rather the Shoreditch event itself, along with its digital afterlife, was the advert.
The event was repeated on a loop that night and watched by handpicked influencers, including key bloggers, plus passers-by who were encouraged to film it on their phones and share pictures and footage on social networking sites. "Some of those videos were getting 6,000-7,000 views, so [the event] created its own buzz," says Andy Kinsella, glue's innovation director. "We could track the reaction online and store it all on a campaign hub. It wasn't your typical Toyota brand communication where it's 'Sell the car, sell the car!'. Nowadays great advertising builds communities and inspires participation. It gives people a reason to interact with a brand."
From branded events and art installations to social network-based innovations such as peer-to-peer recommendations and "real time" geo-location promotions, the advertising industry is being rebooted. Traditional agencies are scrambling to reinvent themselves, as brands seek to open digital "conversations" with their customers. "The industry has gone through a massive flux and the pace isn't easing up at all," says Kinsella.
In the process, modes of advertising such as digital and "experiential", once viewed as experimental add-ons, have become mainstream – and even, as with the Auris shoot, the entire campaign. It is a seismic shift, says Fernanda Romano, the global creative director of digital and experiential advertising at Euro RSCG, that is long overdue. "In Brazil we have a saying that if the water hits your ass then you'd better start swimming. The tipping point was last year when the massive advertisers – Unilever, Procter & Gamble, Coca-Cola, Sony and PepsiCo – really got scared about the internet and started to put a load of money into digital.
"Finally, the brand owners – the CEOs and CMOs [marketing heads] - and the mainstream agencies understood that digital is not an afterthought, it has to be at the core of advertising, because that's where many people are living today."
Last month, the adam & eve agency and the digital specialists upsetmedia broke new ground by covering the full spectrum from branded art installation to commercial microsite in a campaign for John Lewis. Johnlewisharmony.com was launched as a live interactive display on London's South Bank, with a 3D house filled with rooms lit by the department store's lighting products.
The Guillemots' Fyfe Dangerfield performed, with a synchronised lighting display. Over the ensuing 18 hours, passers-by queued at a touchscreen to choose from 10m songs, with their choices then lighting up the house like an audiovisual jukebox – in effect, writing with light. The online campaign allowed visitors to click through to the products.
"This was about putting advertising in an art space," says Matt Cook, upsetmedia's co-founder. "The South Bank get a lot of requests to do branded promotions, but they turn most of them down for being too corporate and they have an arts-based remit. We were able to put our installation in there because it was primarily an experiential public event."
The event generated social media traffic, with visitors posting pictures and sharing songs. Cook says the venture offered the client benefits unobtainable in traditional advertising: "They can get very specific information about their customers from the website – such as which products they're going to, in what sort of numbers." He adds: "We always try to have a Facebook component to what we do. One of the first things clients say to us now is 'how will this help us populate our social media platforms?'"
Populating social media platforms is a specialty of Stockholm- and Amsterdam-based Perfect Fools, a digital shop that produces quirky, disruptive content. In October, its Skittles campaign "Dazzle the Rainbow", created with TBWA London and Academy Films, featured the stunt artist David Phoenix challenging the Facebook community to submerge him in the sweets over 24 hours in a central London shop-front. Every visitor who clicked through to the live event via the Skittles Facebook page (which has 1.65m "Likes"), added Skittles that were then showered on Phoenix every 15 minutes. "It ended up taking about 10 hours to completely cover him," says Patrick Gardner, Perfect Fools' chief executive. "The job was done with 1.8m Skittles."
"The shift to social is about growing and deepening a conversation with a group of people who are interested in your brand," he explains. "Instead of just running campaigns which say 'Buy our product' and 'Here's our latest message', it's about maintaining a long-term discussion, fuelling it with entertaining things to talk about. The smartest brands today are developing robust Facebook groups with up to millions of active users."
But Facebook groups with content-filled branded pages just "scratch the surface of possibilities with social media", says Euro RSCG's Romano. In particular, she predicts peer-to-peer recommendation – especially the Facebook "Like" button – will be one of two new frontiers for the industry, with social platforms using Facebook friends to recommend brands.
"Facebook knows a lot about me, and the more details I put on my profile, the more it knows," she says. "So if I 'like' a new soft drink, then they'll go to friends with the same likes and interests as me and market the product using my endorsement. This is potentially an incredible 'machine', where brands are not doing the advertising, but your friends are."
Similarly, GPS-enabled smartphones mean that when people check in on Facebook Places or Foursquare, virtual lives and real lives converge, she says. "Until now, what was missing was being able to connect where we are physically to where we are online, in real time. That allows for so many things to happen. For instance, when I arrive in Heathrow and you check in on Foursquare, shops – knowing my likes – could contact me with special offers."
It may all sound a little too close to the movie Minority Report, in which personalised ads holler at Tom Cruise from billboards. But this isn't sci-fi any more. In many ways, a rebooted ad industry is already there.

M&S Christmas campaign 2010

Posted: Friday, 5 November 2010 by Waqy Matloob in

Dannii, Twiggy, Lisa Snowdon, VV Brown, a Victoria's Secret model and Peter Kay... time for another M&S Christmas campaign

By MAYSA RAWI
Last updated at 9:54 AM on 2nd November 2010

The usual M&S suspects have rounded up again for a glamorous new Christmas campaign.

The feel-good advert, starring the retail chain's models Dannii Minogue, Twiggy, Lisa Snowdon, Ana Beatriz Barros, VV Brown also includes Jamie Redknapp - and Peter Kay.

The 90-second ad sees the celebrity cast dancing to a Bee Gees track You Should Be Dancing, but the comedian was reportedly kept in the dark about his dance routine until he arrived on set.

Girls on film: Lisa Snowdon, left, Dannii Minogue and VV Brown star in the new M&S Christmas campaign

Girls on film: Lisa Snowdon, left, Dannii Minogue and pop singer VV Brown star in the new M&S Christmas campaign

star cast: Jamie Redknapp, left, VV Brown, Danni, Twiggy, Peter Kay, Ana Beatrix Barros and Lisa Snowdon

All star cast: Jamie Redknapp, pop singer VV Brown, Dannii, Twiggy, Peter Kay, Ana Beatriz Barros and Lisa Snowdon

Peter, who displayed his impressive dancing skills with two other models, said: 'Has anyone noticed that I'm the odd one out here?'

Despite his insecurities, he gained Twiggy as a fan, who claimed she couldn't keep a straight face during her scenes with the Phoenix Nights actor.

Ex footballer Jamie was let off the hook, opting to 'play the DJ' rather than have to put his lack of rhythm to the test.

Retro chic: Dannii, left, Lisa and Twiggy strike a pose in the new fashion collection

Party time: Some of the dancing sequence takes place in the disco to BeeGees track Feel Like Dancing

Party time: Some of the dancing sequence takes place in the disco to Bee Gees track You Should Be Dancing

The dynamic sequence kicks off with the girls in a dance studio, choreographed by Peter Kay in a Fame-style scene.

The lively montage also sees X Factor judge Dannii and presenter Lisa in 1920s style flapper dresses, dancing the Charleston, and Victoria's Secret model Ana Beatriz strutting her stuff in sexy lingerie in a similar sequence to Beyonce's Single Ladies.

The lingerie bit: Victoria's Secret model Ana Beatriz shows off her model behaviour

Dannii, Lisa and VV are seen in their pyjamas, singing into their hairbrushes, while Twiggy and Peter Kay tussle for the limelight dressed in slick tuxedos, reminiscent of Madonna's music video Vogue.

Jamie stars as a DJ, with Dannii, Ana Beatriz, Lisa, VV and Twiggy in glamorous party wear, shimmying in a Seventies style dance-off as they show off the new collection.

The final scene sees the entire cast united together and surrounded by more than 50 dancing Santas, as the scene cuts to the line, 'Don’t put a foot wrong this Christmas.'

The extravaganza was directed by Vaughan Arnell, famous for his collaborations with Robbie Williams, having directed Rock DJ, Angels, Let Me Entertain You and Supreme.

The new ad comes as M&S launches a dedicated Christmas microsite to help guide customers organise their Christmas celebrations.

Presenter Myleene Klass fronts the store’s dedicated Christmas videos.

Steve Sharp, Marks & Spencer’s Executive Director for Marketing, said: 'This is one of the best Christmas campaigns we’ve ever put together.

'It is very glamorous and lots of fun, truly capturing the spirit of the Christmas party season.

'This is also the most integrated campaign we’ve ever put together.

'There’s a seamless transition from TV to online and we have a strong presence across all media, from mainstream TV right through to social media.'

Visit www.marksandspencer.com for more information