Italian Youth in early 90s

A great portrait!

At least Packard's persuasors were hidden

This is a real Hell



and this is an unreal Paradise


But just the second has something to sell, will it?

Beate-Uhse TV

Nice creativity, but... are we ready to see innocent children-oriented drawings, mixed with some erotic content?

Ikea: Dream

Fiat EcoDrive and the green drivers community

Something to be proud of:


A way to:
- Monitor your driving habits
- Save money
- Decrease pollution
- Challenge your green performance
- Join a community of EcoDrivers (Eco Village)



Everything through a USB key that one can plug into his Fiat car
My best wishes to Fiat to be as successful as the Nike+ project: the idea is great and useful for everybody.

here the website

Massively Multiplayer Online Gaming

We will probably see many more of these games out there.
I really look forward to seeing someone starting to run without any apparent reason.
It might be a new world for brands too.
Developing interactive experiences in "parallel worlds" will push a step further engagement and brand experience.



but jumping in the street, or try to escape while driving might be dangerous, so please, play responsibly.

via: PSFK

Beyond advertising - Doritos

What if you could choose to avoid advertising and change it with interesting contents?
Advertising should probably try to be interesting to avoid your filters.
That is: how should advertising be to be considered interesting and worth seeing?
How will we define brand-usefulness?
The need to answer to questions like this is more and more urgent.

Doritos offer a plugin to eliminate advertising from your browser, and change it with the content you prefer, from the internet or from your own hard drive.



via: DoubleBlog

Fear of money

Yes, it exists.


here a scientific definition.

Transport for London - Useful

Transport for London is running this campaign in which they promote their Journeyplanner service linking it with major events around the city.
It's a good way to communicate a service, showing how people can use it, and at the same time informing about interesting stuff.


They are in the city, pro the city, for the city.

Wassup 2008

Best ads on TV

They also have a podcast on ITunes

Levis': Knockout Here
Anti-Knife Crime Metropolitan Police: Follow Here
Microsoft: New family Here
Microsoft: I'm a PC Here
Pfizer: Be Brave Here
Diesel: Safe work Here
Nike Women: Here I am Here
Tourism Australia: Come Walkabout Here

The true impact of the web

Views from the future, what the web may be in the next years: great article from Faris Yakob: here

"Suddenly, the web is invisible because it is everywhere. No longer a tool, it is an extension of you, just like the blind person's cane: it is functionally part of how you experience the world."


2010: Entertainment and Communication from Faris Yakob on Vimeo.

via: Only Dead Fish

BMW: DM & press

Hybrid campaign form BMW. DM mechanisms for a print campaign.

BMW pays for your attention:
Solve the puzzle and you'll have
- incredibly low interest rate
- 10% down payment on 2008 models



Is that enough to push sales?
I don't think so.
But it's a way to enagage, entertain, and show proximity to the audience.

Via Adland

Best ad, marketing, media bloggers

Yes, I'm late, but it's not a good excuse to avoid this post. It is useful for me, and it can be useful for someone else, so it's worth sharing.



The list of the 150 worlds top media and marketing blogs, by Ad Age: here

James Gordon-MacIntosh has published a UK specific Power 150 ranking on his blog: here

While Nick Burker compiled a list of the best European ones: here

Videogamers today

IGN Entertainment, and Ipsos Media CT released some research findings from the study "Are you game?", a "comprehensive study examining the growing diversity, consumption patterns and social activity of videogamers".



Videogamers are actually more social and more active than non-gamers
- twice as likely to go out on dates as non-gamers in a given month.
- 13% more likely to go out to a movie
- 11% more likely to play sports
- 9% more likely to go out with friends than non-gamers
Videogamers have surpassed non-gamers as pop culture influencers
- friends and family relied upon them to stay up-to-date about movies and latest technonology
The average age of gamers now topping 30 and more than half of gamers married with kids
The average gaming household income is notably higher than that of non-gaming households
via PFSK
---
It strongly remind me Steven Johnson's theory written in his Everything Bad is Good for You: How Today's Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smart

Probably gamers are changing because culture is changing, and games with it. Anyway games may be a sort of accelerator in culture adoption and social adaptation (sharing dynamics, problem solving activities, fast reactions, multi mediality...)

You know what you gain playing games.

But it may be worthwile to think about what you loose, too.

Positioning: summer opponents

The picture is awful, ok, as soon as i get a job I'll buy a new mobile with a better camera.
In the meantime let me share this ad for directski.com


(Summer has tried and failed)

I like the idea of a winter-suppporter movement against the summer... and I love the summer.
It's probably because it's better to be season-enthusiasts, than season-nostalgic.
Even if it's more appealing for snow lovers, it doesn't alienate the sea fans...
Being against the summer, and standing for the winter, might have propelled many good creativities... unfortunately directski (in it's website at least) doesn't build on the idea...



What's on the other side? An against-winter movement might be interesting as well...

Street Artist Strategy: increasing fund rising

An ability test may be a good way to increase offerings.

Facebook: apps that "work"

"The number of published apps continues to grow steadily (to over 32K) but total usage remains flat. Besides the fact that the top 10% of apps account for 98% of total usage, aspiring Facebook app developers should know that only about 6% of apps average at least 500 active users per day"

"the most popular applications on the Myspace platform continue to account for slightly less users than their Facebook counterparts"

That's what Ben Lorica (O'Reilly radar), was writing about Facebook apps usage in July, and here is a chart (May data) about the kind of applications (via Flowdata) that dominate.



Data are not recent, but the picture is quite clear if you want to engage with this audience.

Y&R Brand Asset Valuator

Promoting their new book The Brand Bubble, at Young & Rubicam decided to give a sample of their Brand Asset Valuator.

It's a powerful tool that allows to explore brands' performance as to the four identified key-dimensions of Relevance, Esteem, Differentiation, and Knowledge.
Here a graph with Audi, BMW, and Toyota

Even the worst need the world

Even the worst people in the world, need the world,

via The Hidden Persuader

Pomegranatephone: everything you want

IPhone is dead.
The new Pomegranate phone is much much better...


Projector


Razor


Coffee


Anything you want, here: Pomegranate

Avdertising vs Advertising

Isn't it weird?

In Uk we have to drive on the left



but on escalators we have to stand on the right


WHy?

Digital Awards 2007

The excellence at work.
Thanks to BrandRepublic it is possible to bowse the winning projects of Digital Awards 2007

Don't forget to check out "Nike+". In that case the new product was boosted by a great digital project which attracted, inspired and motivated an entire community. The overall integrated campaign is an outstanding example of engaging communication.
But, most of all, what I really appreciate in this project is its ability to deliver value to the community.


I really liked also "Philips a Simple Switch". When you have to make people really do something, choosing the right gratification is often the hardest part. Charities know it well: you have to convince your audience that their help will actually make a difference.
In this digital project Unit9 greatly dramatized the concept.


Looking forward to seeing who will win in 2008

List of companies embracing social media

Peter Kim has published a list of companies "using and being used by social media marketing" , it will take a while to review them all, but it's definitely worthwile.
It would be really useful to have an archive with all those efforts, and considering that it is a good publicity for companies too (the list was initially smaller, it grew thanks to many people who wanted to see the name of their companies - or of their clients - in the list), I'm looking forward for someone thinking about it.

Anyway, I'm very happy to see that the first one in the list is Italian... the power of numbers!

here the link

update
I just realized that at Forrester - with their Groundswell Awards - while promoting their book, they are also showing a list of companies who decided to submit their works: here
It would be great to have more of this resources.
If you know any other browsable and public archive of social media initiatives, please let me know, I'll attach them here... waiting for the ultimate list, it might be useful for us all.

Interessante Munich. But you are loosing an opportunity

Four days in Munich have been really relaxing. Rambling around for museums, beers and parks.
Munich is a lovely city, unfortunately it seems that they are not very interested in tourists or not german-speaking people in general.

It was quite disappointing to discover it in the Deutsche Museum. In the area dedicated to Chemistry the only word I could understand was "interessante"... interesting, isn't it?


And the same at the zoo: Tierpark. Everything was written just in german.


I'm not a real great reader of museums explanations... but in the science museum you loose half of the visit if you can't understand what experiments and tools deal about.

I'm sorry, Munich but I have to say that the most "understandable" museum I visited has been the BMW museum at the olympic park... A lot of "hands on" exhibitions and everything was translated in English.






A great brand-experience delivered by a car company: I think someone in Munich should do something... for science's sake!

Words are boring

Jamie Oliver: a consistent, clear, helpful, engaging, brand

A clear mission
Getting the nation excited about cooking delicious meals from scratch again


Addressing customer needs (in the past as well as today)
…when World War II broke out, the government appointed the Ministry of Food to help families make the most of wartime rations. Because of this incredibly valuable service, people knew how to use their food rations properly and were able to eat - and live - better, even during the war! Today’s diet-related problems aren’t linked to a shortage of food this time, but are serious in a very different way. The research shows that people who cook more are generally healthier than those who don’t. That’s why this movement is so important, because it could really be good for your health and the future health of the country.


With engaging and viral dynamics
As soon as you've done your first Pass It On, and your guests have confirmed you've taught them your recipe, you'll be able to see your own Pass It On Chain. Each new person who confirms you've passed your recipe on to them will be added to your Chain - and there's no limit to how long it can grow. The people you pass your recipe on to will then need to pass your recipe on to at least two more people to get their own Pass It On Chain. What I really like about this idea is that it is helpful, and not only for your health. On the website you can find tips and easy recipes to improve (or start) your cooking expertise.


Lots of projects all linked by a credo.
Jamie Oliver is running a Tv show, he has written more than ten books, he opened (and is opening) restaurants (Fifteen and Jamie’s Italian), and websites, blogs, forums… he took parts in projects aimed at banning junk food from schools…


Here the website

Warned

Shopping experience: Delivering informations on demand

A very simple interaction:


- you decide what you are interested about and make your choices
- add your mail
- they send relevant contents to your mailbox


It's easy, fast, useful and not intrusive.
In my opinion a very good way to start a relationship with customers/visitors.



I'm still thinking about grocery stores and recipes: they might adopt a system like that. Consumers might select the recipes they want.
Receiving recipes and ingredients on their mobile, they can walk around picking up what's necessary, (and adding a voting system they might even tell the database which are their preferred ones...)

Recipes might be sent to the customers' private area on the chain website, a sort of "save in my account"... but that make me think about another possible service... I'll write about in the next post.