A bit of fun

This made me laugh so much today, because its so true, This sort of thing infuriated me last year on placement and Im sure it will for the rest of my design career. I think this is somthing we can all enjoy as creatives! 

Lego

What a nice campaign, incredibly simple and effective, it sums up good old fashioned innocent play and utilises bold, bright, block colour beautifully.  It's interesting how small the logo in the corner is, and needs to be.  It is very unobtrusive and gives the design space to speak for itself.

 

Free Money

Just saw this advertising piece for 3M Security Glass - What a great simple idea! I wonder how many people tried to break the glass!

Joy-full Advertising

I think what BMW are doing at the moment is great, they have positioned themselves on their website as "the creators of emotion" they have stopped trying to sell cars and are selling the experience of owning a BMW with their JOY campaign. It makes it feel like owning a BMW makes you part of a special club, and it's more than just a car, it's almost a way of life. The websites great too, I especially like the loading page and following copy here:  http://www.bmw.co.uk/bmwuk/experience/?experienceKey=JOY

Its just beautifully put together and reflects the quality of the brand, the video is on there too, its a little cheesy if anything, but I think its a great campaign leading on from the giant paintings that were done with cars driving on canvas a while ago. BMW are doing some great campaigns at the moment. It's nice to see!

Forgetting Sarah Marshall

This film was released in 2008, in all honesty I actually haven't seen it but I thought the build up teaser campaign was great.

Billboards and buses appeared before the film was released with copy lines such as  "I hate Sarah Marshall" and "you suck Sarah Marshall" followed by the URL for the film's web site. 

It was meant to look as if some guy had just bought the advertisng space to get back at an ex. It created a fair amount of attention before the film was released. I think its a great teaser campaign, really simple and effective, and the handwritten type adds to the concept and makes it work.

Compare The Meercat

I know this is really old now - but did everyone realise it's an actual website?! 

You can search for meercats, see videos and meet the meercat team - amoung other things.

My meercat is called HELIKAT, you choose its hobbies and where it lives and the site finds you a meercat - its fantastic. I saw it when it was sent round the office as a group email at my placement last year - so as annoying as the campaign was, it created alot of talkability and became viral around workplaces. The site is obviously all branded to match the compare the market site and it's fun and entertaining, I think it was a great campaign! 

Innocent Veg Pots

I went to Sainsburys today and was horrified to see these new innocent "veg pots" because they look disgusting! In my opinion this is definitely a case of extending the brand too far, they just don't look appetising  and its such a shame because we all know and use innocent smoothies as a truly brilliant example of tone of voice and branding. 

I've just had a look at the website too and I have to say I'm pretty disappointed, I was expecting it to be fun and friendly like the brand but it's actually a pretty standard, boring site. There's so much scope there for them to do something beautiful with it!

http://www.innocentdrinks.co.uk/things_we_make/vegpots/

The TV ad is on that page... again I'm not impressed, they could have done so much more with it, I really think the brand is better than this! 

Annoying Direct Mail

This came through my door the other day, and I have to admit that for a tiny second I thought it contained a £50 note and stopped to look at it. It's a difficult job, designing direct mail as we generally don't want it and don't bother to read it, so this piece was half way there, it got my attention. but on discovering it didn't contain £50, I felt stupid for believing it.

I could be interesting to look into what makes truely effective direct mail advertising.

Gender Aware Technology

I was just looking at QUIVIDI online (the company who supplies the facial recognition technology for the vampire diaries interactive street ad - previous post)

I came across this article entitled "PRESENSIA AND QUIVIDI INVENT THE FIRST GENDER-AWARE FRAGRANCE DISPENSER" 

worth a quick look:   http://www.quividi.com/news/090107/   

New technology really has taken advertising far beyond traditional methods. 

Anyone seen anything like this in use? 

A second interactive ad in NY

This ad for "The Vampire Diaries" was near my hostel in NY. Like the ESPN ad (see previous post) it consists on a huge window wrap with a TV screen and camera sensor. 

In this ad the viewer is shown in the screen as if looking in a mirror and text appears saying "vampires cant see their reflection.... can you?" If the viewer stands for more than a few seconds a crow flies through the screen and then clips from the show are played.

I've just been looking into these types of advertising online and apparently the camera technology has been developed by several companies including one called Quividi and uses facial recognition technology to record highly specific continuous market research. 

The thought I was being watched/recorded never even crossed my mind when i saw the ad... kind of a scary thought!

An Interactive Ad

I walked past this ad in Boston and then saw it again, a week later, on 5th Ave in NY. They consist of a giant window wrap with a TV screen and camera/sensor.

This type of advertising has been termed "streetscape" and more and more examples are apparently popping up in the cities, some of which are interactive.

The video screen on this ad for ESPN shows a quarterback throwing a football which passers by can catch and watch his or her points increase on the screen. 

In Boston a group of people were surrounding the screen and playing the video game, much to the annoyance of other passers who were struggling to get past!

It was definitely creating interest and I think a good idea as part of an ad campaign. 

NEW YORK

BOSTON

As refreshing as...

I saw this large scale billboard across the road from the Horseshoe Falls at the Canadian side of Niagara. It shows an image of the falls inside a bottle of Coke. 

The falls truly are amazing and so I instantly thought it was clever of Coke to attach their brand to them in an attempt to position themselves as a similarly refreshing, breathtakingly amazing thing. 

Now that I'm home I think it's a shame that anyone has tried to attach their brand to something so naturally beautiful, and some things should just be left alone! Although we live in a consumer society - if Coke hadn't done it somebody else would have! and it is still a very striking yet simple one-off piece of advertising!

Mr.W

A friend at work showed me this German Ad (produced by Nordpol Hamburg for Epuron) and I absolutely love it! A great idea, really well put together.

I don't want to say too much about it, so as not to ruin it, but I'd be interested in your opinions as I've seen some real love it/hate it comments online

Enjoy....