Marketing 2.0 Paris: Brand Face Fusions, Consistency as State of Mind
Maybe it's true what they say about Paris: You get a mite more existential while here.
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Marketing 2.0 Paris: Paula Berg, Southwest Airlines Marketing 2.0 took place at ESCP-EAP University in Paris this year. It spanned both Monday and Tuesday. I moderated a few panels and the wifi was down both days, so there was no way to cover the event in the detail I would've liked. Before my camera died though, I tried this thing where I just recorded random snippets of speaker talks. This post is devoted entirely to Paula Berg, Manager of Emerging Media at Southwest. I don't have particularly strong feelings about Southwest, but seeing her discuss its approach to consumers -- in both good times and bad -- made me wanna do the cattle call after all. She's good people, and it seems like she addresses situations with humility and openness instead of just reacting. Her presence at Southwest speaks more for its corporate culture than for any social media strategem. See the goods below. Levi's Promises 501 Pounds, and Some Face Time, for Window Display Levi's has partnered with Dazed & Confused for a window display competition. This is for the Carnaby Street store in London. In the event that your blood, sweat and tears make it to the store window, your work will be featured in the June issue of Dazed & Confused, and you'll also win a token, if paltry, 501 pounds. For that much, they're probably not getting the Five on Fifth treatment. But sometimes people surprise you in exchange for a little limelight. More about the Carnaby Street display contest here. Sony Ericsson's Free Flowers Hawk Handhelds at Moms Last weekend Sony Ericsson converted a number of London-based Carphone Warehouses into floral installations, where mothers could get free flowers in honor of Mother's Day. The gig was a promotion for the W595 Sakura handset, which Sony's trying to position as "the perfect alternative 'floral' gift for Mother's Day." (The phone's outfitted with a cherry blossom design and is, in fact, quite festive.) It also hired a "floriographer" to school moms and kids alike on what flowers to choose -- and which to avoid -- on this most hallowed of holidays. Top flowers to pick/avoid are below. For what it's worth, they illuminate the subconscious reason guys are always asking whether we like orchids. And why would you give someone dead leaves? Herpes to Go, Cewebrities in the Wild, Banging Power, Calacanis-Style Damage Control - @MackCollier, in the thick of SXSW, captures social media junkies in unnatural habitats. - Trojan continues that slightly uncomfortable pro-STD reverse psychology thing with an a la carte booth. Samples of genital warts, anyone? - Mark Cuban invests in poo-inducing pizza. Just read the story, man. - More 'net-based teen angst. - "Is this the most sexually explicit ad ever?" In a word, no. We're still kinda confused about what dude was doing with the Six Hour Power jar, and it isn't immediately clear if he's going to bang his secretary or just give her a really peppy memo. It could go either way ... but the reason why this ad fails is, we don't care where it goes. - Why Jason Calacanis employed a felon -- or how to handle negative press. Puma Rides Volvo on the Shores of Rio There's this competition called Volvo Ocean Race, in which heavily sponsored boat junkies take their latent talents to the high seas.* To promote both its participation and its nautical domination, Puma left Il Mostro signage and giant footprints in the sand on the beaches around Rio, which is where the competition goes down this year. Il Mostro's the name of its boat. (Guess it's somewhat more resonant than O Gato Gigante.) Two lucky civilians will be chosen to join Il Mostro's boat crew for one day. Visit the Puma Enigma site for more details. The site doesn't presently work the way it's supposed to -- where you click on a flag and go directly to a brand destination. As things stand, no amount of clicking gets you much of anywhere -- except for the innocuous Puma.com logo at the bottom right-hand side, which sends you to the Puma Ocean Racing blog. Beachside stunt by Espalhe Marketing de Guerrilha for Puma Sports Brazil. Whatever Happened to Progressively Smaller Handsets? Riding Ad Land's current obsession with breaking into Guinness, Cricket has just produced the world's largest cell phone -- a gigantosaur Samsung Messager composed of "wood, metal, lights, wizardry, and love." The phone -- so big you risk cardiac arrest if you happen to be lying on it in vibrate mode -- kicks off Cricket's Get Some Respekt campaign. See it in person through March 15th in Chicago; the monster of mobile hits Philly on the 20th. Orchestrated by Seattle's Cultural Engineers and events firm NEVERSTOP. Future Lions Taking Entries. On Your Marks...! Attention ad students: The Future Lions ad competition is now taking entries for 2009. Hosted by AKQA and the chastened Cannes Lions Int'l Film Festival, Future Lions seeks ideas for advertising a global brand "in a way that would not have been possible five years ago." Sky's the limit in terms of product, target audience, media and technology -- and THERE IS NO FEE TO ENTER. Winners will be given a customized Flip Mini HD cam and will also be honored at Cannes Festival on June 26 at the Debussy Theatre. The top five ideas get registration to the Cannes Festival from the 21st-27th -- hence the camera, because you're goin' to France, bitch! -- and a limited-edition AKQA-designed toy called the Future Lion Cub. (Not sure what it looks like, but it's gotta be better-looking than this bad-boy.) Submission deadline: May 4, 11:59 PST. Sounds far away, but it's not; get crackin', kids. Think of the bikinis, and the HD cams, and your faux friends, all consumed with envy and whatnot while you get tanned for being talented. It's Barbie's 50th Anni! To celebrate Barbie's 50-year anniversary, Chanel's own Karl Lagerfeld designed a Barbie/Ken exhibit for Colette in Paris. The exhibit will be visible in Colette store windows from March 9-15th, including a "high security exhibition" of the first-ever Barbie and Ken dolls on the 12th. If you're less interested in the aesthetics of Barbie than in her history, you definitely wanna check out The Big Money's awesome timeline of Barbie's social progression over the past half-century. It made us glad she shafted Ken in the early '00s -- dude was never that hawt. Spoofs for a Cause, Courtesy of AIA To promote the New York City Coalition Against Hunger, Agencies in Action and Bill Oberlander at Cossette produced a triage of cynical spoofs on well-known ad campaigns. (See iPod and HSBC variants.) The goal: to get Manhattan's agency creatives to volunteer at soup kitchens and food pantries at least once monthly. So far, six agencies have committed: Arnold Worldwide, Cossette, DiMassimo Goldstein, Gotham, Kirshenbaum Bond & Partners and TBWA\Chiat\Day. In the event that you need more convincing, or just feel compelled to show your face at another social gathering, hit up the AIA kickoff reception on Thursday, March 12 at 7pm. It all happens at the Cossette office on 415 Mad Ave, 3rd floor. More intelligence at the website. 
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