Welcome to Funkadelic Advertising! I'm Alex Smith a comms planner working in the hustle and bustle of London's West End. This blog is effectively my scrapbook, a collection of everything I think is a bit cool, clever, or just a bit different. It is all my views rather than my employer's… So please enjoy, and do let me know if there’s anything you’d like to see more or less of!
Greenpeace have launched a nice campaign in response to VW apparently “using its huge political muscle to lobby against key environmental laws”, using a follow up video continuing from the Little Vader Star Wars Superbowl ad released earlier this year. The Greenpeace video continues from the point the VW ad ends, in a quirky viral which includes miniature versions of the rebel alliance asking users to join them in their fight against the 'Darkside'. Other activity included guerrilla takeovers of outdoor sites across the capital today, using the Darth Vader imagery with a url to their website www.vwdarkside.com
Pic - Greenpeace Volkswagen Darth Vader spoof campaign
For those of you who haven't yet seen the original ad this can be found below, along with another video from Marvel which spoofed the ad for the release of the Thor movie in April.
Video - The Force: Volkswagen Commercial
Video - Little Thor
So what do you think, is this a just move by Greenpeace and will gather adequate momentum?
Maybe not a post for those who are not a fan of creepy crawlies, however a great example of another YouTube takeover for the VW Black Beetle. The video takeover which can be viewed at youtube.com/blackbeetle and acts as an extension to their fantastically popular Super Bowl commercial showing a beetle running around the undergrowth past the other traffic, knocking down the screen and disrupting the other insects as it goes. I have included the ad under the screenshot below for those who have not seen it.
Pic - Volkswagen Black Beetle YouTube Takeover
Video - Volkswagen Commercial: Black Beetle
Also look out for the dragonfly which follows your cursor around after the video, a nice touch I think.
Now this may not be particularly new or ground breaking, but is still an extremely cool execution from Canada. The passerby texts their chosen car from the projection shown which is then deposited in the tray beneath, with each MINI displaying its own unique exhibition (Shown in the video below).
In a time where in the industry we see a lot of cool and innovative things on a daily basis, it is nice to see that brands can still find ways to make us take notice. This is a very nice example of a homepage takeover by Nissan Qashqai from France placed on MSN and Yahoo. You can view the HPTO on this permanent like here: Nissan Qashqai Homepage Takeover
Yesterday every one's favourite British brand turned 50, celebrating fifty years since MINI first drove off the production line.
Pic 1 - MINI Email announcing 50 year birthday
To celebrate the birthday in the UK, all the best bits of the brand's fifty years have been pulled together into a nice little microsite which give fans of the brand a chance to look over the old ads, a competition, other firsts from 1959, as well as a more detailed look at the car's history, and all the best bits from the big birthday bash 'MINI United' back in May.
Pic 2 - MINI '50 year birthday' site
The birthday as expected has also been celebrated Worldwide with the release of the below series of videos to celebrate the milestone called “Rebel without Pause” which focuses on MINI fans and drivers all around the world and their personal experiences with the brand.
Video 1 - MINI 50 years - Rebel without Pause. (part.1)
Video 2 - MINI 50 years - Rebel without Pause. (part.2)
Okay now before we get started I just want to clarify that these are different campaigns; however are both good examples of utilising emerging media platforms such as Spotify and Twitter.
Let’s start with Spotify… Spotify is a brilliant application which allows users to listen to any music they wish to for free, and is still growing at a rate of at least 10,000 new users every day! It’s purely ad funded (well there is a premium service for those who are still mortified by the very prospect of seeing a banner on their screen) and due to the clean nature of the app can achieve very impressive standout for an ad.
Volkswagen in Sweden decided to use the music application for their Passat EcoFuel Jazz Calculator campaign which allowed users to plot their journey cross country in Jazz miles. The site calculates the Kilometres, and CO2 emissions for your journey, as well as the time it will take, and creates a Jazz playlist which can play out throughout that time (which you can then save to your Spotify account).
This is a great idea, however would be a lot more interesting if you could download it to your mobile, via the Spofity App (due to land later this year) and play it through you car stereo.
So… Twitter. This is a really cool example of utilising Twitter without pulling users away from the site they are currently on. Volkswagen has created this neat ad which looks at the info from your Twitter stream and recommends the car most relevant to you.
Pic 1 - VW Twitter Rich Media ad
I really like the simplicity of this ad, test it for yourself here (Volkswagen Rich Media Twitter ad), and if you still do not have a Twitter account why not try a celeb Twitter name. I’ve posted some examples below.
Now I know that this is without doubt going to change, and possibly require updating at some point (as we are talking about the current hot topic), but I just wanted to capture some of the best examples of Augmented Reality that I have seen integrated into a wider brand campaign. So please agree, disagree, send me your suggestions, etc etc.
10. Night at the Museum This example uses AR to bring the characters of the movie to life, in such a way that grows the experience away from just a trailer prior to release, especially for a young audience who can still get away with buying into the whole magic of the film.
9. Doritos The Doritos Sweet Chilli campaign uses the packaging itself to engage the consumer, driving them to a website where they can release their own Tamagochi style creature, and then interact with other users.
8. Eminem - Relapse The reason I like this example is that although it may not be the most complex of the ten I have chosen, it uses a competition to drive users to engage with AR, which in most cases is normally the best way to get people to actually give it a go in the first place.
7. Lego This is a very simple use, but I love it, using augmented reality to offer point of sale interaction with the consumer is brilliant. Plus its Lego, and who doesn't like Lego!
6. MINI & IQ These are two very similar ideas which allow consumers to simply hold the car in their hands and look at it in every angle. The reason I have selected both is that I really like the way that the MINI example used an outside back cover of a magazine to promote the AR functionality. The IQ example on the other hand demonstrates how with a bit of tweaking you can make the outside of a car a bit more engaging.
MINI - Convertible
Toyota - IQ
5. Nissan - Cube There are a few examples of automotive brands using AR in this list, but this is the only use I saw that uses the technology to show the exterior and interior of the car, within an interactive brochure. where consumers can actually select colours, and packages etc, to tailor a 3D model of the car they are interested in.
4. Fanta This is an augmented reality game which can be played anywhere, in which two phones connect via Bluetooth before playing a game of tennis using an actual 'court'. To play, users download a free app, run it, and serve away using the phone's camera to look at the court and hit the ball as it comes their way.
3 . Pokemon - Trading Cards This gives users the opportunity to use cards to battle each other in a very simplistic way, that looks amazing, this could easily be used to engage consumers online to further enhance their experience.
2. Oasis Oasis have been the latest brand to integrate the technology within its latest RubberDuckZilla campaign offering four Augmented Reality Games for users to play with, although only two currently available, the remaining two are to be tied with media partners, once again giving the technology an opportunity for the consumer get up and give it a go.
1. BMW Z4 Probably one of the sleekest uses I have seen, fitting in perfectly with the rest of the campaign. Users can turn their desk (or in fact anywhere) into a canvas for the BMW Z4 to drive around controlled by the users keyboard.
Last week I posted about the new GM advert (GM: Reinvention - New ad for New GM) entitled Reinvention. The commercial dedicated itself to ensuring that the public does not lose trust in the brand, following the news that they were filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Well... following this I was highlighted to the fact that there was a well edited spoof circulating shown below.
Video - GM Spoof: GM Retardation commercial
Supporting the spoof ad is an GM Retardation website exact replica of the new GM Reinvention website, obviously tweaked as expected highlighting users to fictitious Blogs, Twitter, Flickr, and Facebook accounts, with copy such as: "Pretend like you can be friends with us. We'll pretend too, and then we'll close down your dads car dealership".
This is the latest ad for GM released yesterday, entitled Reinvention. The commercial dedicates itself to ensuring that the public does not lose trust in the brand, following the news that they were filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The ad is launched in line with the new website GM Reinvention.com, which aims to inform the consumers of the ways in which the brand plans to be reborn.
I really like the honest, and down-to-Earth tone of this ad, which is evident from the opening line 'Let's be completely honest, no company wants to go through this, but we're not witnessing the end of the American car, we're witnessing the rebirth of the American car'.
Here is a look at the New Ford KA website, a funky, cool site, which runs seamlessly, showing off all of the different aspects of the car in a querky, fun way.
On entry to the site, the user is invited to create a simple insect based avatar, which then follows them around as they explore the car. The site features games, 360 degrees interior camera views, and relevant video content which explains everything you would want it to.
The only problem i found with the site was that depite everything cool about it, this doesn't seem to be reflected in the car, which seems to be oversold slightly as the next big thing. Although this comment in itself is one that is clearly in the eye of the beholder, i was always under the impression that if you are cool, you don't need to tell people.
It was the grand unveiling of the new Lotus Evora at the British International Motor Show on Tuesday this week, and the start of an interesting guerrilla campaign which sees a creepy band of faceless people wondering around high profile places throughout England (see pic below).
The tagline underpinning the campaign is "True character in a faceless world", and is supported by the website www.FacelessPeople.com.
It was slightly unhinging seeing these characters when walking around the Motor Show, but is certainly impactful especially considering everything else going on around the show.
