Once upon a time in the West... Toke Nygaard from K10K got his laptop broken, and so it was that the entrance to the portal became a page with a picture of that broken laptop and asking people to collaborate so that he could buy a new one... and he got it!
Enfants Terribles is running a guerrilla marketing campaign placing straws around Italian cities. The action, carried out to promote soft drink Chinò has started last week in Turin with straws placed in fountains and other public spots, and will continue over the next few weeks, making Italians and tourists even more thirsty (it's hot, hot, hot these days).
According to the agency, people have already started stealing, collecting and selling on eBay the straws...
From Germany, a tough challenge for those who love talking for hours and hours on their mobile. Organized by T-Mobile, the contest see teams of 2 people aged 18 to 25 constantly talk to each other, day and night. The team that shuts the talking for more than 10 seconds, is striked out. Every two hours, each participant gets a 10 minute break (eat/drink,toilet etc). The other talker has to continue talking to himself and if the team member doesn't return on time, they are also striked out. The team that resists until the end wins 10k...
I feel like I've heard about similar ideas before (I remember a "longest kiss challenge", for example), but in this case I like the fact that the contest is very much linked to the product they're promoting: a flat rate for mobile phones... talk as much as you want, the price remains the same...
Another ambient/guerilla marketing idea to which I could somehow attach the same comments of the previous post: Expedia has organized in London and Edinburgh The Blue Sky Day. A good branding exercise to deliver Expedia's message "let yourself go".
The event was held in celebration of the longest day of the year (June 21st - the summer solstice) and involved 200 painters in London and a further 100 in Edinburgh simultaneously painting on blue sky canvases at Trafalgar Square and at the foot of the castle in Edinburgh.
Three paintings were eventually chosen and are to be hung in the National Gallery for all to see.
The agency behind this was Cake, which even managed to get a bright sunny day in London for the occasion...
I received a submission from Portugal with a guerrilla campaign run for a mobile phone operator. The idea is interesting, and I'd like to share with you, most of all, because when I saw it my first question was "what's the connection with the brand?".
The agency, Torke Stunt, was asked by the client (Optimus) to create "a brand experience targeted to young people within a big music festival context". A service called “Broad Shoulders” was created. Ten big men offered their Broad Shoulders for people to climb on in order to better see the concerts or simply to find a lost friend amongst the crowd. As a result the word about the service quickly spread among those attending the festivals, and at the end of the three festival's days, a lot of people wanted to take advantage of the "broad shoulders".
As I said, the idea was original, but I cannot understand the connection with the brand or with the service offered. Maybe I miss some info on the positioning of Optimus on the market, but from what I received I can only say this could have been good idea maybe for Mastro Lindo/Meister Proper/Don Limpio or for any other product or service, where power and strenght are crucial...
So, to recap, I would say the Broad Shoulders project hasn't been a brand experience, but rather "an" experience paid by a brand.
Since last fall Les Shoppen Boys are a marketing case in France. A bunch of men, wearing only red boxers act as models in Celio stores (a men clothing chain), and help women to choose clothes at the right size for their partners. If you're not sure whether a t-shirt will fit your boyfriend, you pick a "Shoppen Boy" who looks the same size of your man, and he tries the t-shirt on for you.
Basically the Shoppen Boys are the commercial version of the Full Monty... The video below recaps the action (an idea of Nouveau Jour) and highlights all the PR buzz generated in France (they even ended up on Tv several times).
Now the action has gone further, cashing on the PR. They've launched a site to recruit the 12 Shoppen Boys who will appear in the Celio 2008 calendar. Becoming one of the them is not easy, as men have to prove their skills sending a video in which they dance wearing only the boxers and following the music of the official soundtrack... Women, if you're brave enough, visit the gallery with the submissions until now...
If you want to be friend with the Shoppen Boys, they also have a page on Myspace.
Sony is currently taking over walls and public spaces in Paris to run its Donwalkalone campaign, which is also supported by a website www.dontwalkalone.com. Actually you understand there’s Sony behind this only if you read the post on Buzz is Media, where they give credits for the action to the Japanese brand and the agency Vanksen.
The online part is not particularly interesting, but it’s functional to push the contest which challenges les Parisiens to find the spots around Paris where the animations are projected.
I must say it’s not easy/intuitive to understand what’s the product promoted with this action. I admit my French is far from being perfect, but the copy on the site is quite vague and insubstantial… In any case, the object of the action should be a new kind of poster/sticker called “Cling Rite”, perfect for ecological urban guerrilla actions. The stickers are indeed based on electrostatic principles which allow people to attach and remove them easily without leaving any sign on the surface.
I kind of have the feeling this is a cool idea but, as I said above, it's not very clear what it's about. Is there anybody out there who can clarify a bit more the action? Merci!!
From Italy, another clear example of urban spam... there's a car parked out of the Erotika sex shop, with all the windows covered by stickers representing hard scenes, looking carefully inside the car it seems there are 6 guys, 3 boys and 3 girls, having sex. On the car's doors there are stickers saying "Toys you can't wait to use". The agency is Leagas Delaney Italia.
Boh... what shall I say? The concept reminds me too much of Candid Camera... You know, sex sells, sex grab's people attention (yes, I'm also writing about this campaign), but I find the whole thing quite weak and not very original. Would be more interesting to look at the results. How many people saw the car and then walked into the sex shop in front of it? The answer to this question would be the best evaluation of the campaign.
Via Woostercollective, an interesting guerrilla marketing campaign done by chewing gum brand Sportlife in The Netherlands. Videos of a skateboarder got projected on the walls in the main Dutch cities with the goal of draw people's attention on the Sportlife's call to action: "Can you make it to the pack?".
Another form of urban spam as my friend Piers would say? :-)
From Israel, a guerrilla marketing campaign for denim brand Revero. Maybe it's not really groundbreaking, but given the product advertised, it's obviously interesting for me to take note. Actually what's relevant to notice is that they spotted a new advertising space available in public spaces. Done properly, I mean with a sort of artistic approach, painted (branded) benches could work both for advertisers and for public administrations which could find a new revenue stream to fix their bills.
Yesterday our local H&M store (Amsterdam) started selling an exclusive Viktor and Rolf haute couture line. As expected, it was overcrowded with hysterical women trying to get as much items as possible. Some clever advertiser (I don't want to spoil it) attended the opening and taped it. Great anticipation, but how do we call this..precognition marketing?
A strong guerrilla campaign done in France by Médecins du Monde to get people's attention on the drama of clochards sleeping and dying on the streets every winter because of the cold.
Copy says: Every winter, hundreds of homeless die on the sidewalks. React.
The agency is Euro RSCG C&O.
Maybe it's not an extremely original concept (I believe a lot of campaigns for road safety have been already using it) but it's new the problem they apply it to.
In the age of consumer generated content, "tagging" moves to the real world, with this interesting initiative Sergei has just told me about. It's a guerrilla action with the objective of raising the level of consumers' awareness about the quality of outdoor advertising in a city. (I would say it's also useful to advertisers to understand what people think about their ads)
In Berlin and Seoul guerrilla "soldiers" have been tagging outdoor ads with personal evaluations delivering messages such as "this ad makes me sick", "I like this ad", "I find this campaign boring" etc...
As I said, the idea was original, but I cannot understand the connection with the brand or with the service offered. Maybe I miss some info on the positioning of Optimus on the market, but from what I received I can only say this could have been good idea maybe for Mastro Lindo/Meister Proper/Don Limpio or for any other product or service, where power and strenght are crucial...
In the age of consumer generated content, "tagging" moves to the real world, with this interesting initiative Sergei has just told me about. It's a guerrilla action with the objective of raising the level of consumers' awareness about the quality of outdoor advertising in a city. (I would say it's also useful to advertisers to understand what people think about their ads)
