So Australia promotes itself with "Where the bloody hell are you?" and mini cinematic masterpieces by Baz Luhrmann. How do the "cool capitals" of Europe do it? With CoolCapitals.com, of course. The site highlights Amsterdamn, Antwerp, Valencia, Vienna and Zurich. Sounds boring, right?
Not really. The site is...um...cool. Nice navigation. Informative videos. Pretty pictures. And lots of deals. All good but what makes this offering from the Netherlands Board of Tourism & Conventions really cool is the promotional video that gets one to the site.
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To encourage Greenville, South Carolina-based users to explore the Bon Secours St. Francis Health System, Brains on Fire and Grow Interactive created Happy in Greenville, a deliciously simple information site.
"City secrets" enables users to click on an animated rendition of the city and read more about its sights -- farmer's market, Greenville Zoo, things like that. Hold your mouse down on the hot-air balloon to watch it shoot up and up.
To get down to business, read about St. Francis or find a doctor. Wherever your mouse may meander, the animation and overall experience are diligent and immersive, never too wordy -- like flipping through a really useful Richard Scarry book.
Good choice of background music, too: adds to the feel-good effect but you totally forget it's there.
"You can wear this to a club, you can wear this while you get jiggy ... you can wear this just to have a latte!" gushes an Alexander McQueen Puma sneaker promoter on the revamped Honeyshed, which hopes to give QVC's bauble-loving enthusiasts a run for their money.
Also, product models aren't 65 pounds overweight ... and sometimes they breakdance. You know you want those Alexander McQueen velcro shoes now.
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A new campaign from BBDO and the Ad Council for the Irag and Afghanistan Veterans of America reminds people the one percent of Americans who put their life in harm's way for the other 99 percent should not be left alone when they finally come home.
The campaign includes television, print and a social networking site which offers returning veterans the chance to connect with fellow soldiers and work towards re-entering society.
"I'm a PC ... and I love the slimming effect of a purple striped shirt."
That's the profound kick-off to "Real PC," one of the :30 TV spots being cobbled together with clips from Microsoft's Upload Your Own 'I'm a PC' Ad! campaign. I saw one last night and winced; what is it about this effort that rings so painfully desperate? See more here.
These user-generated variants manage to be just as quirky and random as the originals, with a little amateur-vid spice tossed in. One guy at ad:tech's Millennial panel said he finds these ads more "democratic" than Apple's snarky but irresistible "Mac vs. PC" spots. He's not wrong; they definitely reek of The People's OS. For whatever that's worth.
Let's just hope Crispin didn't produce them on a Mac this time.
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- Be a GAMER. Made of steel. Video game school will show you how.
- The US Army is using webcasts by overseas soldiers to bait new recruits. The series is called -- wait for it! -- "Straight from Iraq." Soldiers are ready to take your questions.
- Keep up with Advergirl's social manifesto on how companies are using social media. It's illustrated!
- To remind us all how with-it and un-stodgy it is, Microsoft (I guess?) sends rats skydiving. Sick 'em, PETA.
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by Angela Natividad
Nov-11-08
Topic: Agencies, Brands, Campaigns, Cause, Guerilla, Online, Opinion, Political, Promotions, Research, Strange
Last Wednesday after ad:tech, Eyeblaster recognized six agencies for the best digital ad campaigns of 2008.
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blogads Founder Henry Copeland points to what he dubs the "cleverest Adsense ad ever." Without hesitation, we'd have to agree completely. Riffing on Google's stock market woes, Woot placed an ad that reads, "We saw what's over there. Figured you'd look away. So we put our ad here. woot.com." Is that not brilliant placement (and copy) or what?
- You know you wanna browse through Barack Obama's flickr.
- Make the Logo Bigger taps his own top 25 influential bloggers to spit knowledge on Pepsi's blogger outreach effort.
- GOP taps social media to rekindle its fire.
- Levi's to agencies: want our business? We want your internal invoices.
- PomX break room sheep go "What the fu-uuuck?" for "maximum wakey-wakedness!" Via.
- CEOs in ads = company death rattle.
- Rate your hate for "Saved by Zero."
While it's said attendance was down slightly from past conferences, the New York ad:tech conference was, by all counts, alive and well despite 24/7 news reports reports of doom and gloom. It's true the economy is not doing too well right now nor is it expected to improve over the course of the next year. But, thankfully, the online and interactive market space is one of the few bright spots amongst the graying economic skyline.
In his keynote address Tuesday morning eMarketer Co-Founder and CEO Geoff Ramsey said he expects to see a 14.5 percent growth rate in U.S. online ad spending in 2009, not bad for an economy that's supposed to be tanking. Many other sources have proclaimed such health as well for the space which bodes well for those of us making our living in online marketing.
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