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! 

Avenue Q.

Avenue Q is defiantly a musical for people who don't do musicals. I love going to the theatre, and I have laughed and cried in the past at shows, but I have never been so entertained or laughed so much as when I saw Avenue Q on Broadway. Its absolutely hilarious!! 

The story is played out by a combination of actors and puppets and starts when Princeton, a nieve college grad moves to New York City. The only neighbourhood his small bank balance can pay for is Avenue Q and the story plays out as he attempts to live alone with the help of his neighbours, in the real world. It's a story about real life with songs which include "everyone's a little bit racist" "the internet is for porn" and "If you were gay."

Honestly me and my friends never stopped laughing for a single second! - Go see it!

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! 

Mark Haddon

 If you haven't read anything by Mark Haddon yet - you have to. I just finished "A spot of Bother" which is his second adult novel, and it was a "couldn't put it down" read. Infact I left my copy on a bus in America so I had to find a bookshop the next day and buy a second copy! (and the fact I was so short of money I couldn't eat must go someway to explaining how much i wanted to finish the book!) The book is written from the perspective of several different characters and goes back over the same events from each of their viewpoints, which made for an interesting read. I read Haddons award winning first novel, "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time" a couple of years ago, its written from the perspective of a little boy with Aspergers syndrone, and its a very moving read, similarly his latest novel deals with mental illness from the perspective of the sufferer, but does so in an often amusing way. If your a keen reader give these novels a go!

... and for those of you who are into all this blogging, Haddon has a pretty interesting one on his site... http://www.markhaddon.com/ he is a very interesting and creative individual