Fifteen year agency vet John Palumbo is approaching the creation of his new ad agency, BigHeads, very differently than most. Rather than staffing the agency with jaded agency types, many of whom can't get out of their own way, Palumbo, he firmly believes there are no longer any rules governing advertising, has hired a cadre of "big heads" including a New York City bike messenger, a reality TV producer, the date doctor the movie Hitch was based on and twin dancers from Crazy Horse in Las Vegas. If some new ideas can't come out of that mash up of personality types, the whol business might as well roll up its ego-infested carpet and give up. He's doing something right because Braun, Ramada Worldwide and Remy USA have slipped some business his way.
Speaking about the computer as if it were an extension of one's self, HP has launched a new ad campaign that celebrates (over analyzes?) the relationship between computer and human and how it is "one of the most personal things you own," " your own broadcast network," "your private media empire" and "it's your life." There are tinges of past Apple campaigns the the recent HP images campaign embedded in this campaign. One spot, hosted online, ends with a virtual desktop which you can drill into as if it were your own. Unfortunately, one of the spots ends with that nasty, consistency-ruining Intel ending. But, with all the monet Intel throws at computer makers just to show that logo and sound bite, we're stuck with that for a long time.
In a clever bit of marketing, SanDisk has launched a site called iDon't to promote its new Sansea e200 MP3 player. The approach is a snipe at the ubiquitous iPod and features links to other anti-iPod sites as well as schwag, posters, templates and chat icons, all of which carry the iDon't anti-iPod message. Of course, to be complete, there's a weblog on which Da Sheep Herder will continue to spread the iDon't propaganda. No that anything's going to knock the iPod out of its top spot but this is, by far, the best marketing effort to have taken on the iPod. The site must be making the rounds because it just became unavailable. Perhaps it's on the receiving end of come Boing Boing, Digg, Fark, Slashdot action.
One of the coolest Visa "Life Takes Visa" commercials, in my opinion, is the one with the work which dances to Afrika Bambaataa's "Looking for the Perfect Beat." Blended Films has posted an interview with Patrick Smith, the man behind that dancing worm who talks about the creation of the worm, the spot and the choice of music. On the site, there's also promotional AIM icons and the spot itself.
When it comes to promoting Coke Light in Brussels, they don't sign some random pop star to perform canned dance moves, they go out and film real people doing real dance moves and let others create their own dance moves on a website that collects all these dance moves. On the sitem you can watch dance clips or upload your photo onto a random body and create your own dance clip. Predictably. most are amateurishly bad but, then again, people love to see themselves on camera and send them to their friends so I guess this could work.
Yesterday, we shared a few pictures of Apple's New York store opening. Today, we have a video that further captures the insanity and the power the Apple brand holds over us. It's just a computer store, people! Relax. Go home. Have a beer. Seeing James Woods and Kevin Bacon really isn't that exciting. Unless, of course, your life is meaningless and ll you need is a few pieces of geeky white electronics to spice it up.
It seems the Texas heat is causing people to get it all the time in Austin. The Austin-Statesman is running a promotional campaign with the tagline "How Do You Get It?" to promote the Austin newspaper and its online properties. One women gets it from her assistant, Ricky, on her desk. One basketball player gets it in the locker room. One student gets it from her guidance counselor. Hmm. One guy gets it from his dog. Yuck. One hottie got it her first week of college. One dude got it from his best friend's Mom. Uh, no thank you. Anyway, it's one of those campaigns that does cause you to go "hmm" and pay attention for at least a few more seconds than you normally would.
Ever the intrepid reporter, Bucky Turco weaseled his way into the exclusive Apple store opening at 58th and 5th in New York Friday night. Apparently, a snatched press pass did the trick. While inside, Turco took a bunch of pictures of the opening and of the elite crowd allowed into the store which included James Woods, Kevin Bacon, Julianne Moore and Jobs himself. If it weren't enough to worm oneself into the event, Turco, after gaining early entry, switched the homepages of as many of the computers in the store as hew could to his publication's website, Animal. Bucky knows his guerrilla marketing.
While we can't remember which advertiser recently did this - in fact it might have been from Dodge itself with a version of this very spot - Dodge is now doing the men's bathroom "that's big" thing for its new seven inch longer Durango. With the usual "handles great" and "I love the way it looks," this spot pumps the joke for all it's worth. After all, seven inches added to even the tiniest...uh...vehicle is a very big thing. Apparently, the ad's been banned from TV but you can check it out here.
In a natural move, Nikon, as part of its Stunning campaign - the one which recently featured Kate Moss - has entered into a deal with photo site Flickr whereby any picture taken with a Nikon camera and uploaded to Flicker will display a small Nikon log next to the information section on individual photo pages. Also, photos tagged "nikonstunninggallery" will be featured on Nikon's NikonStunningGallery website and a prominent link to Nikon's site is featured on Flickr's homepage. If ever there were an appropriate campain to appear on Flickr, this would be it.
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