Here's a viral ad for Levi's in which a guy named Mike 'walks' across America. Shot over two weeks, the vid is so good, that we're happy to do what Levi's wants us to do and pass it along.
A Google map of Mike's journey can be found here.
In New York, 'word of mouth' not only travels fast, it travels effectively. New Yorkers don't like to be the one left out of something everyone is doing, or eating, or trying. The latest popular 'try me' is a truck by the name of 'Wafels and Dinges', which travels around the city offering Belgian breakfast delights to anyone who will chase it down. Each day, the truck's location and promotional password are posted on the website, and 'Tweet'ed out to its myriad of followers, (a recent technological development that almost seems custom made for this company).
You know you have a strong brand when you can change your physical location on a daily basis, and your customers will do the work to follow YOU. Seems like a trip to NYC is in order.
Absolutely anyone who's ever played the most famous board game in the world will love this new print ad campaign. Monopoly's new "Own It All" campaign aims to reawaken the world to the pleasures, and pains of investing a Sunday afternoon in playing a simple board game. Each of the four photographs depicts the interior of either a hotel (the red ones) or a house (the green ones) on one of four famed Atlantic City streets, all featured in the game. The more luxurious a property in the game, the swankier it looks. So smart. Developed by JWT Frankfurt.
Next time you're downtown, and you feel that a billboard is talking to you, it actually might be. Jameson's Irish Whiskey has ads that move throughout city centres in search of their target market, (i.e. basketball fans, entertainment district frequenters, etc.) The ad then gets projected onto a big wall and someone begins typing real-time text messages aimed at passers-by, and then responds to reactions among the watchers, ("Ya that's right, I'm talkin' to you in the white coat!") The interactive approach potentially makes any viewer feel truly special.
Here's an idea from Hokkaido, Japan. It's a stretch of pavement that's paved in such a way that it plays a tune when you drive over it. (Think of the vacuum-cleaner-like drone that you can hum to as your tires ride over the different textures on the road.) I'm thinking there's an untapped opportunity here to embed a road with an ad jingle. "Intel inside" perhaps? The Diamonds song? "Mini-mini-mini-mini wheats?" I'll stop here.
More and more outrageous advertising tactics mean more and more shameless decisions being made by those looking for an easy dollar. Golden Palace Casino came under public fire recently for paying two people to permanently tattoo the gambling house's URL on their foreheads. Video game company Acclaim crossed a line in 2002 when they paid families for the rights to advertise on the gravestones of their dead relatives. And of course, who could forget when tire manufacturer Dunlop paid four Canadians to legally change their surnames from Dunlop to Dunlop Tire for one year? The price for that stunt? A shared $25,000 USD.
In anticipation of their first retail outlet in Japan, IKEA has converted a commuter monorail in Kobe into a moving showroom, replete with brilliant colours and IKEA's own fabrics. The train's bold new look is a harbinger of happy times to come for many of the country's foreign residents who, for years have had difficulty locating affordable, non-Japanese style furniture for more western lifestyles. Surprisingly, the size of an average IKEA store in Japan will be approximately that of its European counterparts, (approx. 30000 sq. metres). In its initial phase of store openings, the company plans on opening 4-6 stores in the Tokyo region and 4-6 stores in the Kansai region. An online shopping component will follow.
http://www.ikea.com
