Tuesday 26 June 2012

Moving Day





Ikea has been acknowledged for its interactive stunts over the years, but most recently they have won a North American Gold Effie for “Moving Day”. Due to the number of leases ending on June 30th, many people are required to move house on July the 1st, with this in mind Ikea launched an experimental campaign providing people with boxes for their move. Printed with moving tips, check lists and discounts on furniture, the boxes could even be transformed into a chair for moments of exhaustion. Placed around Quebec, the boxes were hung flat on walls and designed to be the hardest working posters yet.

 Ikea considered peoples desire to return to a time when neighbour helped neighbour, by offering a small helping to hand to get them through stressful times. Their aim was to guide all those feeling a sense of disorganized desperation to a state of composed and organized optimism. Seeing Ikea communicate with its customers in such a supportive way shows that the brand wants to further build its relationships not just sell products.

For Ikea, the sales increase from the ‘cardboard box’ campaign was the equivalent to building, stocking, and opening an additional 300,000 sq. foot store in that market. A clearly successful, thoughtful and surprisingly useful campaign designed by Leo Burnet Toronto.

Thursday 21 June 2012

Gottwood









So working for a music magazine definitely has its perks, one of them being free tickets to festivals, in particular Gottwood. Ive been working as a graphic designer for the music based magazine Movement for the past two weeks which features articles on Hideout, Louche, Garden Festival and Gottwood Festival. To say thanks they offered me two free weekend passes to Gottwood Festival in Wales. With Disclosure, Huxley, Bondax, Apogee and many more headlining its set to be a good weekend, let just hope the weather gets a bit better.

To read more on this festival and up and coming events this summer
check out Movement Magazine here


Wednesday 20 June 2012

Who cares?





When the Swedish armed forces needed to recruit more young people, they decided to create a campaign that would test how far people are willing to go for one another. The digitally intergrated event consisted of one person sitting in a box until someone replaced them. The question was: Who cares? Every hour a door would open, and if someone else was there to take their place, they could leave.

The campaign directed people towards a live-streamed website where they could follow the person in the box in real time via 4 different cameras. But visitors to the site could do absolutely nothing to help him. Unlike many other social campaigns no like or tweet could save them. The only way to help was to physically take the place yourself.

With nearly double the applicants, the campaign was clearly successful as people all over city visited to take part. I think what I like the most about this idea was that it went against many social networking campaigns, and insisted that you physically got involved. It’s not an easy thing to have to promote but I think they have approached it in a really memorable and unusual way.

Tuesday 19 June 2012

Visitnorway.com




As the video explains commuting the same route every day is exhuasting and reptitive but what if there was a way to entertain people whilst riding the subway. Visitnorway.com had the idea to use in-tunnel advertising, mounting multiple LED screens on the tunnel walls displaying scenic Noway imagery. With every screen perfectly aligned to each passenger window, it creates an enjoyable animation promoting Visitnorway.com. This idea has the ability to reach out to millions of passengers each day, its not the first time this type of outdoor medium has been used but its one of the most effective I have seen.

Thursday 14 June 2012

Obsession





For this year’s annual AAF Dallas ADDY awards, TM Advertising created ads that celebrate the ‘obsessive’ advertising professional. The nine short videos that define the life of an advertising creative are brilliant. Ive sat through and watched every one and these are my favourite, short, witty and definitely worth a watch.

Tuesday 12 June 2012

Nike building twist



To work for a company like Nike, your ideas need to be one off, unique and never done before. I think its safe to say I’ve never seen this done before. Using projection mapping, the ‘Building Twist’ campaign was controlled by a Nike trainer that was wired up with pressure sensors and plugged into an Arduino board. This allowed users to literally twist a building like you can the shoe, demonstrating the trainer’s main feature of flexibility. I have to say it is a pretty cool interactive experience but I’m not sure how much it sells the trainers or whether it just shows how much money Nike have to waste on stunts like these. I enjoy reading about the different ways big brands like Nike engage with their audience but I cant help but feel they very rarely sell their products anymore, they sell campaigns.

Wednesday 6 June 2012

depressed copywriters







I recently discovered a group of copywriters who have decided to pretty much go against all current marketing and twist its original meaning. By placing scraps of paper over the ads with either a witty slogan or a humorous line, the group known as the ‘Depressed Copywriters’ have thrown a spanner into the copywriting industry. Reading through their Tumblr, I am a huge fan of their work, I love what they do and how they do it. It maybe considered as slightly cynical but I personally think its intellectual on a whole new level. It makes you realise how much we crap we are fed to believe, and how changing a few words can reveal a completely different message. Clever stuff from Chris Sheldon, Mariana Oliveira, Whitney Ruef and Tedd Wood.
View more - http://www.depressedcopywriter.com

Monday 4 June 2012

Dream Job

Finally finished university for the summer and couldn’t be happier. My lack of posting was mainly due to my never-ending workflow towards the last few weeks, in particular my portfolio. One of the briefs set was to think of a way to grab the attention of a dream employer. With advertising being the career I intend of venturing into, I considered the ways in which I could stand out to creative director Damon Collins who previously worked for Y&R Advertising.

In order to grab his attention, I researched his interests and hobbies and discovered he has a strong love for Nike trainers, as he owns 47 pairs. With this in mind I suggested sending him a pair of paper Nike trainers designed by the illustrator David Brownings, with nothing but a QR code placed on the shoebox lid. The limited branding and lack of explanation aimed to intrigue Damon into scanning the QR code, which would then lead him straight to my online portfolio.

Understanding who you are targetting can make things a whole lot easier.