Volvo XC90 SUV
Following its online launch for the R Series, Volvo launched a 14-week integrated digital marketing campaign for its XC90 sport utility vehicle, which includes Internet, mobile phone and iTV ads. The company hopes to entice consumers to opt-in electronically for further information about the vehicle.
Centering on college football, the campaign tightly integrates offline and online media using wireless phones, Palm hand helds, enhanced TV such as Wink, email and offline media including newpaper and television.
Always a leader in online advertising, Volvo's CRM and E-Business Manager Phil Bienert says, "We're beyond looking at these new platforms as a novelty. Every element of this campaign has to contribute to the business. We're trying not to leave any touch-point untouched."
Video blogging has gone main stream and now you can use it to create and broadcast your own web TV show. UK Blogging service Tonguewag has teamed up with UK viral site TTR2 to bring you a talent contest like no other to launch the worlds first video blogging service! All you need is a webcam or a/v source and you're ready to go.
The Tonguewag video blogging service is perfect for bloggers who want an easy way to add streaming video to their sites and it's also perfect for budding TV stars who need an easy way to showcase their talents! The service is free and is the worlds first commercial video blogging service. For more information go here or for a list of features go here.
If you're intrested in who controls the fashion industry, check out this interview with Vogue Editor Anna Wintour. She is the Queen.
Wal-Mart won't give Playboy access to its customers having banned the magazine from stores so Playboy is calling for access to Wal-Mart employees inviting women to pose in its upcoming Women of Wal-Mart issue.
Television Worth Watching
I've never really watched The WB's Everwood before but I happened to watch the season premier and I have to say Everwood is good TV. It's not flashy. It's not cool. It's just good clean family fun. If that endorsement sounds strange coming from a site that is usually trashing media and writing about beer babes in bikinis or Britney's latest strip fest, realize that it can be tiring and quite boring ranting negatively about media all the time. Some positivity is needed sometimes to clense the soul.
The premiere tied up an apparent loose end from last season. In last season's emotional cliffhanger, Dr. Brown (Treat Williams) performed radical brain surgery on Colin Hart (Mike Erwin) in an effort to save his life. In the season premiere, it was reveled that Colin did die. The small town of Everwood has ostracized Dr. Brown but the town doesn't know the whole story. Hart asked Brown not to resuscitate if things went badly which they did. Brown maintained doctor patient privacy but Hart's girlfriend found a copy of the letter Hart wrote to the doctor on Hart's computer.
There were plenty of emotional TV moments but the episode did not end with everyone walking off happily into the sunset as many poorly written television series do. Everwood writers acknowledge the fact that when a person dies, it has lasting effects that don't go away when the credits roll. This series falls into the "best TV you aren't watching" category but desrves a chance to grow. Give it a watch. Don't expect hot babes in bikinis though. This is much more real than that.
Want Me? Click Here For A Date
With the tagline, "Survival of the Prettiest," Vanity Date recently launched providing hot singles with what they really want in a date: an equally hot single. According to the site's About page, Vanity Date is "the world's most judgemental, shallow dating website. At Vanity Date we have a vision of creating the largest database of the world's most good looking, rich and superficial people."
Now that's truth in advertising. The About page goes on to say members don't have to be supermodels but they do have to rate at least 7 and make over $200,000 per year. The site wants intelligent people and will, in fact, kick a member off if they are found to have an IQ below 100. If you've got it all and don't want to mess with the "sub-standard" rest of us, this site is definitely for you.
Let Me Out
Courtesy of TTR2 here's an old Budweiser ad that shows aliens what humans are really like.
Click image to view ad.
Just One Drink
One of the more interesting approaches to beer advertising comes from a U.K. based brewer whose ad ends with the tagline, "Don't Drink It!"
View here.
