October 30, 2007
6 Comments
I’m not a big fan in general of comparative advertising because I find that brands should focus on their own strengths and not on other brand’s weakness or whatever. But sometimes it’s done in such a fine way that I do like it, like in this example for Fedex for instance. I thought that was really original and good.
[Via Buzzing Bees]
October 20, 2007
1 Comment
Soo little time, soo much work to do… and so much more stuff to write about. Therefore I’m writing this post to wrap up the week.
It was a busy week with many events. On Wednesday I was Bea’s guest at the first Brussels Girl Geek Dinner, kudos to Clo for organizing this. Some familiar faces and some new ones and a little goodie bag for everyone. And yes Sarah, I’m bringing one of those for you on Wednesday ;)
On Thursday & Friday I was present at the second Customer First event in Brussels, and of course to the MIXX awards on Thursday night. Again these events are mainly interesting to network and to hook up with some people you haven’t seen for a while. The Belgian internet advertising industry is rather small, so it’s fair to say that everybody was pretty much there :) Great results at the MIXX awards by the way since Geert and Openhere won the Gold Award in the category Brand Awareness for Bring The Love Back. I recently started a group on Facebook for Bring The Love Back by the way, 163 members in the first week, join us here.
I also did a presentation on Microsoft and Social Media at Customer First, which I’ll post here in a separate post. Feedback was quite ok so that’s always nice.
October 1, 2007
1 Comment
There are a few reasons why I got very interested in the email Chris Abraham sent me a week ago about Firebrand. Not only did it seem to be about a very interesting project, but also the approach Chris and Firebrand took to get the news spread was a good example of good engagement in social media. Since Firebrand is not live yet for public viewing (launches on October 22nd) I will talk a bit more about their outreach to bloggers and leave the review for once I get access.
Here’s just a little introduction to Firebrands though, so you know what I’m talking about:
“Firebrand is a new, opt-in entertainment and marketing destination that gives consumers interactive access to their favorite brands, products and promotions. Firebrand programs the “coolest” TV commercials the way MTV used to program music videos and its multi-platform network, slated to launch on October 22, is the first to go “live” simultaneously on TV, the web and mobile. Firebrand even has CJ’s (commercial jockeys), the same way MTV had VJ’s, who will contextualize the commercials as art and entertainment, and guide consumers through playlists, contests and promotions.”
And while the above copy may sound like your average PR speak (and it is from the press release obviously) the approach taken by Firebrand is interesting:
It remains to be seen whether the service will become a success but I can only notice they seem to have their act together at Firebrand and given some of the most popular videos on the web are actually ads there’s definitely potential. Hopefully I can tell you more in a few days/weeks.
September 21, 2007
0 Comments
Found this one at Right-Half Chow and had to post that up here as well. You’re never too young for some ‘branded entertainment’ I guess ;)
From Atypyk.
August 16, 2007
4 Comments
If for anyone it still wouldn’t be clear that we’ve entered the Age of Conversation, then I suggest you take a look at these logos below. I guess it’s fair to say that looking at these logo’s we have to acknowledge the conversation is part of this generation. Or is it just a sign up the web2.0 bubble economy?
[Via Brand Autopsy]
July 25, 2007
1 Comment
Well, at least some of it’s advertising is. I think the Simpsons movie is going to be great and most of the advertising & promotion I’ve seen from around the world were quite good as well. But what I saw today on the Flemish newssite HLN.be was just a horrible experience. I’ve put a screenshot up here and if you go visit the site today, you’ll probably see it for yourself as well (never mind the Flemish, you can’t read anything anyway).
July 24, 2007
0 Comments
… Belgium brings you ‘PC bites Man’. Back in 1992 the killer comedy ‘C’est arrivé près de chez vous‘ (US title ‘Man bites Dog’) showed a camera crew that followed a serial killer/thief as he exercises his craft slowly involving the crew into it as it goes. From the comments it looked like people either hated or loved the movie, I found it to be fantastic.
And so today we get ‘PC bites Man’. This time it’s not a movie but an interesting campaign for the N95 that was developed by the Belgian agency These Days. It’s been a while since I saw an interactive campaign that is able to draw attention, is fun and which is still very much in line with the value prop of the product. Many times a viral campaign is fun but you wonder what the link with the product is.
The N95 caries slogans like “What computers have become” (UK) or “The computer re-invented” (BE) so extending that to the idea that ‘regular’ computers are becoming jealous of the N95 is a good one. And, the execution of the idea is brilliant. Just take a look at www.jealouscomputers.com and check out the shocking footage or the medical pictures from the doctor’s office. Here’s one of the videos:
But the site offers you a lot more than just the funny videos around these accidents. It offers a map with ww victims, camouflage ringtones or the N95 disguise mug that you can order. It also has videos with safety tips that learn you how to deal with jealous computers, like the one below:
Last but not least, These Days makes very good use of the power of wom by offering easy links to share the videos on blogs for instance but also safety posters you can download to hang in the office making it more than only an online piece. And of course you can upload your own experience as well. They also created some personalized video warnings for know influencers in the mobile space. Even if the videos were only personalized to include the name of the influencer, it still is quite remarkable.
Great stuff guys! I love it.
Technorati Tags: nokia, n95, thesedays, campaign, manbitesdog, pcbitesman, jealouscomputers, viral, advertising, wom
July 9, 2007
2 Comments
… or “it’s for my boss”. These were some of the great quotes out of a little video made by Karl Long, a very good marketing blogger that works at Nokia. I know I’m a little bit behind due to my holidays, but I had to post this one. It think it’s a really smart video (and cheap) that shows everything there is to say to it especially since the video is made with the Nokia N95. Great job Karl!
Read on about the how and why at Karl’s blog. There’s a very good post on the buzz around the iPhone on the Pronet Advertising blog by the way in ‘the importance of marketing and covering in moderation‘.
(disclaimer: I work for Microsoft)
Technorati Tags: nokia, iphone, iline, video, youtube, n95, marketing
June 20, 2007
2 Comments
I just found this picture at istartedsomething, where Long Zheng is making fun of a recent AMD announcement stating that the new AMD Phenom logo appears on the Ferrari Formula One Helmets. I like F1 and watch it quite often, how come I haven’t see that logo before? :)
Technorati Tags: f1, amd, branding, logo, advertising, speed, phenom, ferrari, fun
May 31, 2007
9 Comments
Today I received a copy from “The Origin Of Brands” signed for me by Al & Laura Ries thanks to CK (Is it possible not to love her?). You might remember I ordered a copy of it on Amazon in February or so but never received it, but then again you see how the community steps in… isn’t that great?!
This is also another great reminder of the global marketing community that is shaping up big time if you ask me. Although this is not new for today, there have been a number of initiatives that seemed to have speed up that whole marketing conversation and it’s very exciting to be part of that. Think about The Viral Garden’s Top 25 Marketing blogs (a classic) which is now in a new format, Todd Andrlik’s Power 150 that includes +300 Marketing blogs actually, Marketing Profs Book Club, The Conversation Age ebook, … all very interesting projects driven by the people out of this community.
Another sign of the common interest in this community is the fact that people want to learn more about each other and also there we see a few initiatives that are worth looking at. Arun did a great job on profiling all 100 Age of Conversation authors, Todd started doing something similar on the Power 150 called the Power Profiles (with Darryl Ohrt as a first guest), we also have Blogger Stories from Toby Bloomberg and don’t forget the compelling ‘bloggers as teachers‘ post from Ryan Karpeles, you sure teached me Ryan!
If that all ain’t enough, think about the conversation we’re all having amongst eachother, whether that is in each other’s blog comments, via email, on Twitter, IM, … whatever. There’s this special notion amongst blogger of ‘meeting’ people, you know where you put the ‘meeting’ between brackets ;) I wonder if that’s a kind of meeting only bloggers understand, but I sure ‘met’ some interesting people this way the last few weeks and months (you know who you are) and I hope I get the chance to ‘meet’ more of you soon.
Maybe it is just me and nothing really has changed, but I get the feeling it has. I’m looking forward to more of this and wouldn’t it be fantastic if eventually we find a time and a place we could all meet up face to face and have a sort of Marketing Mashup? Sounds good to me ;)
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