Author Archives: Ana

Ai Wei Wei + Olafur Eliasson = Greatness

I am incredibly excited about this idea. Ai Wei Wei, the notorious Chinese artist and Olafur Eliasson, the purveyor of unusual things, banded together to create something amazing, fun and thoroughly interactive.

Described as “an interactive online global art project,” the site lets you draw on the moon. Yup.

Try it out here.

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How to kill two birds with one stone and feel great about it

Under the idea of “obesity is preventable, hunger is solvable,” Weightless Project combined wearable technology (Jawbone, Fitbit and Basis partnered with the project so far) to a pressing world problem of hunger. The solution is simple, as the great solutions often are: as your calories tick off on your wearable fitness tracker, donations pour in. More specifically though, the service works like this: you sign up on the site, and for every 1K calories burned, there is a $1 donation to the project’s food aid program of choice.

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Drive My Hybrid, by Toyota and Saatchi&Saatchi Norway

If you could test-drive someone else’s car, would you? It turns out, if you are a Toyota Hybrid-lover, you would. The Facebook campaign coming from Saatchi&Saatchi Norway invited users to give other people’s Hybrid’s a try. Those who were into it, could easily locate Hybrid owners nearby them and get in touch. Great example of brand transparency, community activation, brand ambassador program and loyalty all mixed up together in one.

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Cheerio does great stuff for breakfast

Cheerios partnered with the Family Dinner Project to create something pretty amazing called Family Breakfast Project. The project encourages families to start they day together, through a simple series of 7 topics/ideas for 7 days (e.g. Day 1 theme is “Laugh,” Day 2 theme is “Connect,” and so on) that will give families something to do and talk about while enjoying their breakfast. Conversation starters, advice and different themes should provide families with a fun morning routine. The Cheerios site, where families can find all of these, also displays Cheerios commercials, user-generated content, and incentive to pass the initiative on.

This is an amazing example of brand utility, social responsibility, and savvy marketing, all mixed in one. Done by always great Zeus Jones.

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Your wilting lettuce is texting you

Rotting food, in supermarket shelves and in our own refrigerators, is a big problem. So big in fact, that it weights 7 million tons.

To solve it or, at least minimize it, scientists created a microchip that when inserted into food packaging communicates the freshness of the food inside. As the shelf-life and expiration date nears, the package starts texting the owner, alerting them to consume the food before it goes bad.

Now, the question is, would we care? After all, if all we ever eat is nearly-deceased vegetables, then our diet becomes a race against rot. More environmentally & socially conscious among us will welcome this innovation, though. The rumor is that, Holland, always the innovator, is going to implement this technology pretty soon. Stay tuned.

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Have you got your disloyalty card?

Here’s what you do if you really, really dislike Starbucks. You create DC Disloyalty Card. The benefits, according to the two barista founders, are too many to count. First, by acquiring a disloyalty card, consumers firmly put themselves in the “let’s support the local coffee shops” team. Then, they express their anti-corporate sentiment. Then, they probably also feel good about themselves because of the above two. And finally, they enjoy some damn good local coffee.

So how does the disloyalty card work? Apparently, one needs to buy a coffee from the six participating local shops, and their seventh cup will be free. Get it? By being disloyal to one single coffee shop, consumers get rewarded to a free drink. They also get to know their local coffee shops, taste different kinds of coffee, and try something new. Being disloyal pays off, but only in this one instance

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How would you look if you weren’t photoshopped? Aerie finds out.

This is something more of lingerie brands would do if they had the balls. Featuring real-life, non-skinny women so far has helped only Dove to be an iconic brand with its “Real Beauty” campaign, but lingerie brands were slow to respond. Not anymore.

Aerie (an American Eagle company) launched “Aerie Real” campaign showing un-Photoshopped models. They look amazing and the entire campaign is super-refreshing. The effort is even more meaningful knowing Aerie’s audience: adolescent girls who are still figuring out their body image.

There’s also #aeriereal social component to the campaign, where girls submit their own photos. I’d really love to see the sales figures after this campaign, hope that it worked!

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Mood-based ad serving. Why not?

Very rarely any of us likes to see an ad on our mobile phone. But what if the mood is right? That’s exactly what Apple is experimenting with. The next-gen ad serving will look at things like time of the day, location, current activity, mood, heart rate, blood pressure, adrenaline level, body temperature and other parameters and determine our emotional state. For this, of course, we need  a wearable tech device, but Apple’s already working on that too.

Advertisers should be thrilled, but then again, knowing Apple, it’s probably going to be a pricey, closed system.

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Bloomingdale’s Does Super-Bowl

For anyone who lives in the U.S. and works in advertising, there is no bigger annual event than Super Bowl. It’s the time when brands go crazy, on the TV-screen and off. And when I say that brands go crazy, I mean all brands. Even those that - for all intents and purposes - have nothing to do with either football, men or beer. But, brands being all about in-the-moment relevance, it comes as no surprise that Bloomingdale’s wanted to jump the Super Bowl wagon. The retailer created a fashion/football auction where the lucky bidder can win one of the helmets exclusively designed by one of the 48 designers ranging from unknown rookies to Cynthia Rowley. All proceeds are going to NFL Foundation. Fashion touchdown!

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Let’s go shopping, it costs only a tweet!

Marc Jacobs will open a pop-up store on West Broadway in Soho on Feb 7-9th. Nothing remarkable about that, right? Well, not so fast. The only currency this store accepts are Tweets. Yes, that’s correct. You can “buy” a range of MJ accessories, designed to promote MJ’s perfume Daisy, only if you share the hashtag #MJDaisyChain with your social graph. Coincidentally (or not quite) New York Fashion Week happens at the same time pop-up shop will be open, so expect a flurry of fashionistas in hunt for MJ memorabilia. This is a pretty awesome awareness campaign, that’s accompanied by a Sofia Coppola-directed film and a print campaign promoting the perfume.

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