Ah, how I love it when big, fancy brands can poke fun at themselves. This is a thing of beauty.
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Brilliant branded entertainment for the World Cup Classical Musician
This little bit of branded entertainment from Berliner Konzerthaus is just so awesome for so many reasons. Apparently some of the German fans are a little less than "fond" of the ubiquitious Vuvuzela. So they make their case for the "instrument" by poking fun at themselves in a very charming way. This is a "win" for so many reasons. First and foremost it allows a classical concert group to be seen 1) by lots of young people 2) as a group that is fun and relevant 3) as entertaining, not stuffy. Originally appearing on Zeit Online, I've provided the subtitled version from YouTube here for your enjoyment. And if you don't like it, I say "pfffft!".
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Branded Entertainment about Branded Entertainment
For anybody who ever wondered about branded entertainment, here it is! Take a look at THIS wonderful offering from Pinkberry which is fun and entertaining while it pokes fun at the very brand the piece is designed to enhance. Way, WAY fun. Kudos to the folks over at William Morris Endeavor for this painfully accurate look at modern moviemaking.
Friday, June 19, 2009
Does Your UPS Man Look this Hot?
I'm guessing, probably no. But that's probably because he's not, a fashion model like the guy in the picture above. AND he hasn't been outfitted with one of the new award winning designs from the fashion design contest recently hosted by UPS.
I have to admit, when I think of the men and women in Brown, "fashion" is not the first word that comes to my mind. But I think this is a really smart piece of cooperative marketing launched by UPS.
It seems that UPS and the Royal College of Art (RCA) hosted a design competition that challenged graduate fashion students to to create clothing or accessory designs that combine the concept of ‘free movement’ with the distinctive elements of the UPS brand, culture and heritage.
Talented duo Robert Huth and Simone Sommer, who are studying menswear and womenswear were named winners of the competition at the annual Royal College of Art Graduate Fashion Gala, attended by new talent and senior figures from the fashion and retail industries.
Long story short, a nice lift for what could be seen as a fairly stodgy brand. Myself, I think they needed to integrate this into an episode of Project Runway, and they need a sexier website, but that's just me. I give them a A for concept, a B- for execution and an E for effort.
You can read more about it here:
http://www.uk.upsalamode.com
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Sponsorship, You're doin' it gr8, and not sew gr8 acksually.
I've posted previously about my favorite Lolcat site, icanhascheezburger.com. For those of you who may not know (or have been living under a rock for like 2 years) a Lolcat is an enduring meme which features a picture of a cat with a humorously misspelled caption. I posted one here. Anyhow, icanhascheezburger is a very popular site with over 1 million unique visitors per month, so it's small wonder that they are trying to monetize some of their efforts.
Just this week, I've seen two different attempts, one that seems to have generated very positive feedback and one, not so much actually.
The first to appear was a game sponsored by Walmart and Iams. The game is actually quite cute, albeit very simple. The Lolcat is maneuvered around to pick up the pieces of cat food (kibble).
There are a few problems though. One is that every cheezpeep (the denizens of the site) knows, cats won't make much effort to eat anything that is not canned (gushifuds or toona). The other more serious problem is that a lot of pet lovers have big problems with Walmart, Iams and Proctor and Gamble for perceived poor practices in animal testing for their products.
Whether or not these perceptions are accurate or justified, the game spawned a spate of nasty comments, resulting in the moderators closing the comments down after only 22 comments. (On a really popular picture comments can reach over 300.) So the comments are negative, and many of the cheezpeeps felt that their beloved site "sold out" to the animal-abusing mega mart. Not so gr8 actually.
However just today, I saw a much better example of integrated advertising/entertainment on the same site. The site is now hosting a "rawr" contest where viewers can submit their favorite "rawr" pictures (depicting kittys roaring like a lion) to promote the upcoming "Land of the Lost" movie. The winner gets a Blu-ray player and a seven Will Ferrell movies on Blu-ray.
Although there is a bit of confusion about the rules (and jokes about how the second prize is 20 Blu-ray discs starring Will Ferrell) the response is much more positive. Undoubtedly this is due in part to the fact that the "Rawr" is a very popular meme that originated with the site.
Users get to participate in a very natural way through the preexisting channels, and users feel like the contest "belongs" to them. Naturally, the comments were much happier and folks are jumping to respond.
So, what can we learn here?
1. If you're going to offer branded entertainment in an online space with a public forum, make sure you don't have a big red target taped to your butt.
2. If possible, make something that engages the participants in a creative way.
3. Make sure your "contest" feels natural for the space.
Just a few observations by the One
ID Man.
Just this week, I've seen two different attempts, one that seems to have generated very positive feedback and one, not so much actually.
The first to appear was a game sponsored by Walmart and Iams. The game is actually quite cute, albeit very simple. The Lolcat is maneuvered around to pick up the pieces of cat food (kibble).
There are a few problems though. One is that every cheezpeep (the denizens of the site) knows, cats won't make much effort to eat anything that is not canned (gushifuds or toona). The other more serious problem is that a lot of pet lovers have big problems with Walmart, Iams and Proctor and Gamble for perceived poor practices in animal testing for their products.
Whether or not these perceptions are accurate or justified, the game spawned a spate of nasty comments, resulting in the moderators closing the comments down after only 22 comments. (On a really popular picture comments can reach over 300.) So the comments are negative, and many of the cheezpeeps felt that their beloved site "sold out" to the animal-abusing mega mart. Not so gr8 actually.
However just today, I saw a much better example of integrated advertising/entertainment on the same site. The site is now hosting a "rawr" contest where viewers can submit their favorite "rawr" pictures (depicting kittys roaring like a lion) to promote the upcoming "Land of the Lost" movie. The winner gets a Blu-ray player and a seven Will Ferrell movies on Blu-ray.
Although there is a bit of confusion about the rules (and jokes about how the second prize is 20 Blu-ray discs starring Will Ferrell) the response is much more positive. Undoubtedly this is due in part to the fact that the "Rawr" is a very popular meme that originated with the site.
Users get to participate in a very natural way through the preexisting channels, and users feel like the contest "belongs" to them. Naturally, the comments were much happier and folks are jumping to respond.
So, what can we learn here?
1. If you're going to offer branded entertainment in an online space with a public forum, make sure you don't have a big red target taped to your butt.
2. If possible, make something that engages the participants in a creative way.
3. Make sure your "contest" feels natural for the space.
Just a few observations by the One
ID Man.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Friday, July 25, 2008
I'm so SPECIAL
Yet another fabulous entry on behalf of the guys at Burger King. Their new ad campaign, which is based on the idea that if you eat their new steak sandwich people might think you think your special is a bit of a yawner for me. But their new online viral campaign is so bang on and fun, ya simply gotta love it.
It's based on the idea that we all grew up thinking we'd be special and we'd end up on the local hometown news. For this broadband viral campaign, you simply upload your picture and your name, click on a few choices and voila, a hometown news segment is built and posted on YouTube starring YOU.
I was so tickled with this thing, I did it like 5 times. (Each selection randomly selects among four or five random outcomes for a total of 20-30 options.) Here's my score:
Concept: A
Freshness: A
Execution: A- (Have to wait to get an e-mail telling you it's on YouTube)
Viral Infection Rate: B+ (Same note as above)
You can see one of my favorites HERE.
Or click HERE to go make your own.
Enjoy!
The OneID Man
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