Fake Auto Boots Promote Parking App at SXSW

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This SXSW coverage is brought to you by Red Square Agency. The agency that also brought you Frappe.

With SXSW on a seemingly endless growth curve, standing out as a marketer is becoming more and more difficult. This year many large brands erected monstrous structures, took over restaurants, built large stand-alone branded structures and hosted concerts with major artists. But what's a small app developer to do amidst marketing giants?

As we made our way from some panel to another...or maybe it was one party to another...we don't know...it all blurs together...we stumbled upon a minivan that looked like it had a boot applied to one of its wheels. On closer inspection, it turned out the boot was just a cardboard placard affixed to the tire and was promoting an app called ParkMe.

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by Steve Hall    Mar-14-12    
Topic: Guerilla, Industry Events



Samsung's SSD Angels Fix Broken Relationships

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To tout the amazing speed of the apparently blazing fast Samsung solid state hard drives, the crew from The Viral Factory hit the streets in search of laptop owners. They offered to replace a person's hard drive so they could experience the speed of Samsung's solid state drive. Four "SSD Angels" in an old ambulance approached random people on the street to fix the "broken relationship" people have with their laptop.

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by Steve Hall    Feb-21-12    
Topic: Guerilla



Anna Wintour, Victoria Beckham Cause Grand Central Commotion

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And now we know what all the commotion was this morning in Grand Central station. Fashion's biggest names (and former Brits), including Victoria Beckham, Anna Wintour, Hamish Bowles, Tamara Mellon, models Karen Elson and Jourdan Dunn, Georgina Chapman and Keren Craig of Marchesa, and David Neville and Marcus Wainwright of Rag & Bone, were standing on the subway platform. They were there with British Ambassador Sir Peter Westmaccott to hype Britain's GREAT campaign, an effort make the rest of the world understand England is still cool even if it's now just a tiny island in the North Atlantic.

by Steve Hall    Feb-16-12    
Topic: Guerilla



Travel Company 'Santa' Delivers Presents Mid-Flight

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With a strange and twisted B2B-ish guerrilla campaign, Travel Booster, a software solution for airlines, travel agents and tour operators, has launched More Than Just A Flight. The campaign features a fake travel company and a fake CEO of that company.

This fake CEO is seriously strange ("we're the Chuck Norris of traveling") but the campaign puts him on a flight where he changes into a Santa Claus and gives passengers presents. It's all an allegory for Travel Booster which can provide airlines and other travel businesses to sell more than what's just their main line of business.

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by Steve Hall    Feb-15-12    
Topic: Guerilla



Tropicana's Sun Illuminates Trafalgar Square

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Tropicana continues their Brighter Mornings campaign with a man made sun installation this morning in Trafalgar Square. At 6AM - one hour prior to natural sunrise - the man made sun began to rise. It will stay lit until 7:33PM this evening as well giving Londoners and extra three hours of daylight.

Created by Greyworld and taking over six months to create, the manufactured sun is 30,000 times bigger than a football, has a surface area of 200m2 and weighs over 2,500kgs. Its internal light source produces the equivalent of 60,000 lightbulbs, 4-million lumens of light.

Still it's no match for the actual sun but who doesn't love a little extra light now and then? Especially in Winter when it's so dark all the time. Check out the video of this morning's illumination and a "making of" video.

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by Steve Hall    Jan-23-12    
Topic: Guerilla



Agencies Pinterest'd, Latino Ads Awarded, Spies Recruited

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- Michael Glass is out with a Pinterest collection of advertising agency office space. Very cool.

Cultural Strategies is launching "The Social Revolución", the first official SXSWi Latino Awards, Lounge & After Party in 2012. They are actively seeking sponsors and nominees.

- Really, really love the new Volkswagen Golf R? Well, there's an iPad app for that. From AKQA.

- Top Gear is celebrating there approach to 10 million fans on Facebook...by blowing up a caravan when they do.

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by Steve Hall    Jan-19-12    
Topic: Agencies, Brands, Guerilla, Industry Events, Mobile/Wireless, Outdoor



Germany Invades France With...Lingerie

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In what Illegal Advertising properly dubs a guerrilla catwalk, German lingerie label Blush takes on the French with a bit of guerrilla warfare in Paris. The brand sent a model clad in underwear to roam the famous landmarks and streets of Paris. Heads do turn but this being Paris, not so much as you would think. We especially like the well planted group of camera-wielding Asians as the model struts her way to the Eiffel Tower.

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by Steve Hall    Dec-15-11    
Topic: Guerilla, Racy



Sushi Restaurant Gives Helping Hand to Drunk Drivers

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Well this is pretty ingenious. To aid potential drunk drivers in determining just how drunk they might be before they drive off into a potentially disastrous situation, TDA_Boulder - for client Hapa Sushi - created and distributed 5,000 hand-shaped cards to the windshield wipers of parked cars.

The card's message read, ""WHEN TO CALL A CAB. 1. Turn wipers on low. 2. If you have any difficulty following the finger with your eyes, we suggest you call a taxi at 1.800.829.4222." The 800 number was directed to one of several cab companies.

And no sushi sales message. How high-minded of the restaurant.

by Steve Hall    Nov-17-11    
Topic: Guerilla, Outdoor, Specialty



Giant Hand Calls Attention to Disease

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To call attention to Dupuytren's disease, an ailment that affects the use of one's hands, 200 people dressed in skin-colored body suits formed a giant hand in Covent Garden to visually illustrate the contracting effects of the disease. Observers are directed to a website for more information

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by Steve Hall    Nov-16-11    
Topic: Guerilla, Human, Promotions



Let's Do This!

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Taking car marketing to...ahem...new heights, Chevrolet has launched Let's Do This, a quirky promotion that, along with dropping a Sonic from a plane and attaching one to a bungee cord and rolling it off a 100 foot high pile of shipping containers, asks people to send in pictures and videos of goofy accomplishments.

A contest awards points to the person who earned the most badges (for particular submitted stunts) and the most votes (by visitors). The person accumulating the most votes overall will win a Chevy sonic.

Goodby, Silverstein & Partners is behind the work.

by Steve Hall    Oct-20-11    
Topic: Guerilla, Social