Digital marketing, engagement, transmedia, games, fun
Highest ranking is this from Palm Centro. I like the look of the product but hate the ad itself, no idea why this has been getting views.
Brazil continues to like its ads, with this one from HSBC. I’m not what the exact message is, but I think it’s advertising their Christmas website.
Finally a fun cartoon from the RSPCA with a serious message (even if it does contain a fart joke). It’s about animal obesity, all part of their campaign to Give Animals a Voice
Macy’s have pulled together a whole load of digital tools for this Christmas, with the Macy’s Believe Site
First you have the opportunity to Be Claus (I’m guessing it was called Claus Yourself at some point), loading up your picture and putting on the beard, hat and Christmassy jingle – then embed the lot. (I’d embed, but it seems not to work on here)
Be Claus from Macy's (screenshot from site)
There’s a Post Office, where you can download letter-headed paper to write your letter to Clause to make sure he know what you want this year. For each letter received, they are going to donate $to the Make-a-wish foundation (up to $1million)
Then you have the story of Virginia’s letter, an epistle from an 8 year old girl in 1897 who wrote to the New York Sun as she trusted the press enough to tell her the truth about whether Santa Claus existed. The Sun answered, bu not directly, doing its best to keep her hopeful whilst not telling an outright lie!
They’ve also got a pretty good supporting download site, where you can grab a lot of content for your blog post, like the letter to the Sun, banner ads, or this commercial
Virginia letter to the Sun about Santa Claus (from Macy's download site)
I like the whole package here, there’s a lot of stuff and a lot of assets to grab and in effect advertise Macy’s. But there seems to be little in it for the average blogger, little incentive except the Be Claus tool. Why should I put banner ads on my site – do I get a revenue share? Not quite, but if I’m on the list of bloggers identified by the outreach team (You Cast Corp, the Social Media company that is doing the connections and hosting the assets) I could get a $20 dollar gift voucher, according to the email posted by Dave at Intuitive Life. Dave praises the email sent, as at least there’s been some thought into the email, some personalisation. I agree, there’s a good balance here between form letter and personalisation, a good balance of effort and efficiency.
I’ve been asked this question a few times this week, but with all the running around, back and forth to Paris plus evening things arranged I’ve not had chance to let you know who was chosen to win the Netbook by the judging panel. it took a little bit of discussion as we all had our favourites.
Honourable mentions have to go to Dungeekin, Hugh Garry, Tom Morris, Garfield Southall, Charles O’Neill and James Cox, who all got talked about in our first round of voting.
But the winner was Ben O’Steen, who we all liked because of his multi-media usage. So the Vodafone Dell Inspiron Mini 9 is on its way to him.
Thank you all for entering, we had fun reading your proposals. Hope you enjoyed it as well.
Highest rated product video this week is one from Nokia, demonstrating the new N97 they announced this week. It’s unlikely to be available until next June, but I’m looking forward to trying it out.
Next, a really cute video about the Evolution of the Lego Miniman, which links to a site where you can upload a photo and become your own Miniman (along with 2 of your friends).
Then you have a Brazilian commercial for the LG washing machine, the steam cleaning version of it.
There’s also another Brazilian commercial for the LG Scarlet TV. Looks like LG is really going on a push for video views; whatever their agency is doing, it’s working.
Another brand pushing themselves this week, Nokia is back with yet another demo, this time of the phone actually being used.
So is love, according to De Beers. Adrants points towards a NY installation in Central Park, from De Beers. In return for a $5 donation (for the Elton John AIDS Foundation) you can have your moment under the mistletoe and have it captured by 60 cameras in a freezeframe, bullet-time moment. If you want, you can get the moment put on the web, immortalising that moment for all your friends..plus all the rest of us out here. Their Moments Gallery is well worth the time to browse, absolutely gorgeous (apart from inability to turn off the sound) and full of moments that would make the most cynical smile. Take a look, have a moment of the warm fuzzies (then buy a diamnd 
)
De Beers Gallery of Moments (screenshot from site)
I love this. It is entirely on message – love and moments that last for ever. As a Central Park event, it only has a limited audience for the live experience, but the digital version, the processed video has a global audience, taking a peep at the joy in some one else’s life. It’s got a wow factor – you’ll pass it one. overall, a great campaign.
The floor of Waterloo station has a number of (rapidly dirtying) posters/stickers on the floor, as well as hanging from the roof. The phone is being sold as the social network phone, with Facebook, Windows Live and Skype updates all built in. I wasn’t too impressed by the other floor stickers though, this being just one example.
There were a lot like this, all the random trivia from a day in the life, the sort of thing the average journalist or blog commentator complains about, how useless all this social media is, which is then discussed endlessly by bloggers and journalists who complain that the other media or blogger just does not get it (see Paul Carr’s latest in the Guardian for a perfect example!). But in reality, that sort of thing is what a lot of people do write, they’re connecting with friends, with a level of ambient intimacy that just lets you know what’s going on, the same sort of thing you’d mutter to them if you were in the same room. So here, the ad creators were right, even if it initially annoys.
AgencySpy highlight some nice, cheesy ads made by Strawberry Frog to promote the US based charity gift-giving organisation Changing the Present.
The site allows you to buy gifts from multiple charities, depending on your choice of cause, both home and abroad, with prices ranging from $1 up to $1000s, so perfect to give something to someone else this year no matter what your budget. The site is clean, crisp and looks like it works well.
On the other side of the Atlantic, Oxfam offer something similar with their Oxfam Unwrapped store, available all year round. Same idea, with multiple types of gifts although all for the same charity. I prefer the design of this site, it feels a lot warmer with the oranges, although there must be something about green and charities as both sites have green as the base colour.
Oxfam Unwrapped (screenshot from site)
There’s a big difference in the checkout procedure, with the US site being a lot easier, checkout, tick an option to support the site and then straight to a single page to fill in all your details. With Oxfam, I was asked to create an account first and then presented with 5 pages of forms to click through, a lot harder to get through. I wonder what the respective drop off rates are for the two sites.
Gothamist point towards an offer from Mini USA to try out their new Mini E, the electric version of the car. This is not a hybrid, but a fully electric one, using new lithium-ion batteries.
They are after 500 people to trial the car for a year. But take a look at the conditions:
Unlike Gothamist, the cost for driving a new car on a lease seems in keeping to other costs I’ve seen and, as long as you meet the requirements, the benefits seem to be pretty good, especially if you are keen on helping move towards a new kind of car. Although not everyone agrees, as there is definitely a reaction against the cost, with some that as you’re doing them a favour, you should get it for free
It’s interesting that the FAQs address blog rumours:
Contrary to some rumors out there in the blogosphere, we’re not simply giving the vehicles to well-connected celebrities
I can’t find many of those posts, but I do find a lot of posts from people very, very excited about this, such as MPGomatic and this from Tronbikes who talks about the type of questions that are asked, such as your favourite inventor and how you are changing the world.
One of the reasons they chose LA and NY area for the trial is because they’re urban and you’re not necessarily going to be doing long journeys and would return home at the end of them to plug back in. Apparently the USA has no suitable charging stations – I wonder of the ones I see around London would work for the Mini, if there are standards, or if you have to build new ones for different car types.
Image by Rain Rabbit
The Mini site goes into a lot of detail about the offer, laying out all the issues and concerns. They have also got themselves a lot of coverage, both in the specialist car blogs and in the environmental, green blogs, which can only be positive for the brand image. Many of the blogs had been emailed with the news, to get the word out there and attract applicants, a nice use of social media PR.
I wonder how many of the 500 will do an online journal of the trial or if they will be allowed to. Keeping ongoing coverage of the trial going could be essential in driving sales when a production version does come out, a huge body of online information for when some one is doing the research about their next car to buy.
Highest ranking for views last week appears to be this one from Nike, starring Frank Ribery in an ad for new Pink shoes. I say appears to be, as the numbers (53k views) don’t add up against some of the other videos also added last week in the top 100.
Next is a Starbucks promotion, for Product(Red). Today, World AIDS Day, they’re giving 5¢ for every drink sold to he Red Global Fund and for the rest of the holiday period, 5¢ for every promotional drink (Espresso Truffle, Gingersnap Latte or Peppermint Twist Mocha) in the US and Canada
Blendtec is back, with their latest Will It Blend video, this time with avocados, which look pretty simple. They’re also running a contest to win a trip to the factory and to appear in one of the videos.
