Category: Marketing Ideas

Check out this clever billboard ad produced by Ogilvy UK. When an airplane flies past the billboard in Piccadilly Circus, a sensor is triggered to display the actual flight number, where the flight is coming in from, along with video footage of little boy pointing up the airplane as it flies by in perfect timing. What a great way to utilize technology to engage the audience.

Arcade Fire’s new album, Reflektor, was released a few weeks ago and debuted at #1, selling 140,000 copies. This time around, the band cut deals with Capital and Universal Music Group, in addition to working with their indie label Merge Records. There massive album launch included several elements. One of those was partnering with Google to create this interactive video.

They also promoted the release through cryptic street art in various cities, which featured the date and time of a performance they did under the name “The Reflektors.” This performance was recorded and televised as “Here Comes the Night Time,” a late night post-SNL special which included cameos from several respected actors and comedians. It was quirky, weird and fit the band’s new sound, which they’ve described as “Haitian Voodoo meets Studio 54.”

A few days prior to the release, they also posted a “lyric video” of the entire album set to the 1959 film, “Black Orpheus”. They’ve since taken it down but you can still see the section they recorded for the song “Afterlife.”

Finally, for their recent appearance on Jimmy Kimmel, they chose to perform at the iconic Capital Records building.

For an indie band, Arcade Fire have come a long way. For their fourth release, they pulled out all the stops and went big, which ended up paying off. Read more about their album launch here.

To promote the upcoming Olympics in Russia, Moscow created a machine that gives you a subway ticket after doing 30 squats. What a fun and interactive way to engage people and promote an athletic competition.

Read More at Mashable.

Today the Make a Wish Foundation give a 5 year old with leukemia the best day in the world: they made him Batkid. It’s a pretty big deal. They sent Batkid (accompanied by a full size Batman) through San Francisco in a Bat-Lamborghini on a reenactment-quest to save a woman tied to railroad tracks, stop a bank robbery by the Riddler, and find the Giants mascot who was kidnapped by the Penguin. There were about 15,000 people who signed up online to be part of flash mobs to cheer him on. The Mayor of San Francisco (Gotham) gave him the key to the city. Even President Obama gave him props!

It’s great to see happiness brought to a child who is suffering. As a marketer, the takeaway lesson is that if you do something big that’s worthwhile, what happens is people notice, get excited about it, and get behind it. With so many people involved, it made the event that much more special and something that caught everyone’s attention.

You can read about it and see more pictures at Mashable.

This airbag-style bicycle helmet was invented by two Swedish women. I think it’s pretty amazing. Hopefully they can eventually bring it down to a more reasonable price point (right now, they go for around $600).

Read more about it here: http://jalopnik.com/swedes-develop-invisible-bike-helmet-1460189477

I’ve been a long time user of the Lose It App, which helps you track your calories and exercising. One of the ways they have “gamified” their product (in addition to social competition features) is through their badges, which include milestones like losing 10 pounds, exercising 5 days in a row, keeping things reasonable during thanksgiving, etc. Lately, they’ve gotten a little more creative with their badges and the cross promotional possibilities. Here is a screen shot from an email I just received from them:

As you can see, I’ve been eating my veggies. Ma, aren’t you proud? But look who this badge is brought to me by: Green Giant! The link from the email takes you to this “Giant Difference” landing page, where I can watch some well done Youtube videos, see what 100 calories of vegetables look like vs. 100 calories of chips and get some delicious looking recipes that include vegetables. I think it’s a really smart move by Green Giant to partner with a Lose It to reach a health consensus audience. Bravo.

2011 Boy: “Please Please Please Let me Get What I want”

2012 Snowman (the Journey):

This ad is from back in 2008. This is one of my favorites because it does such a great job of telling a story. The stork (a metaphor for the creator) has gone through so much effort to bring us into this world, yet most of us aren’t accomplishing what we could be. I think many people aspire to something more in their career (and life, for that matter), so it’s very relatable and positions Monster as a company that helps you reach your potential. As their tagline states, “Your calling is calling.”

I recently discovered this article about the evolution of the Starbucks Logo over at Brand Autopsy. It’s interesting to me how Starbucks has been able to take the iconic mermaid symbol and distill it down to it’s essential elements; to the point of eliminating the need for their name to be included with the logo. Very few brands are able achieve the level recognition necessary to warrant a removal of their name (Nike, Apple and McDonald’s immediately come to mind) but when they do, it’s a sign that their branding is working.