- Yikes. Reminiscent of that "where the hell did all the 18-34 men Go" trauma of a year of two ago, MediaWeek's Marc Berman reports NBC's adult 18-49 demo plummeted 24 percent to a 2.2/9 compared to last year representing the lowest since September 1991. Hmm. Ratings glitch?
- The Web Marketing Association has begun the 2007 Call for Entries for the 11th annual international WebAward competition. Check it out if you can stand the insanely annoying Rovion video that incessantly appears in the lower right hand corner of the site every time you visit. This is a technology that should get shot in the head. Along with in text advertising and PayPerPost.
- CreateAthon 2007 wants 24 hours of time from agencies to dedicate their time and talent to non profits.More info here.
- Kleenex has debuted a new oval-shaped package and a program that lets people design their own tissue box for $4.99.
- While it feels like the whole graffiti as advertising trend is so yesterday, apparently, it's still a thing and Adidas has launched a project whereby graf artists are tagging a New York subway car.
Genevieve at VLAN points us to this effort to win Baltica beer drinkers on the metro. Maybe we're delusional but there seems to be something totally sexual about the way the beers are perched. Like ... do they move?
Not that we need another but if you feel you simply don't have enough online personas, there's another place for you to place one, B4class. Created by 18-year old North Quicy, MA resident Sofia Loginova, the site's unfortunate claim to fame, to the chagrin of Loginova, will now be yet another Boston-based marketing stunt gone wrong even though Loginova had nothing to do with it. This morning, unattended backpacks were found in Newton North High School which prompted a Aqua Teen Hunger Force-style lock down until it was determined the backpacks contained only promotional references to Loginova's B4class.
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For their ongoing Want 2 B Square campaign (whose Boy Meets Girl video we're still fawning over), Scion throws out the last of its six worlds, The Beat. It's music-themed and contains a Dance Dance Revolution-type game, which we like but are ashamed of liking.
We've grown fond of Want 2 B Square and are even starting to think the xB's aren't bad on the eyes. But sentimentality aside, Scion has done a good job of using alternative forms of marketing and subculture inclusions to push the weird customizable vehicle. Which is more than what we can say for some.
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We apologize for not highlighting earlier when it occurred in mid-March. We meant to. really, we did. Somehow it got lost in the pile of "publish me!" requests filling up our inbox. Usually, we just let these missed pieces dies a happy death but this work from ADK and 60 Layers of Cake for Puma's Travel Golf collection is too mesmerizingly beautiful to just toss in the trash can.
On March 17 in Antwerp, 2,000 golf ball shaped helium balloons attached to Puma golf items were sent aloft to float down Meir, a busy shopping street as well as near taxi stands, train and bus stations. People were free to take the items. Labels were attached to the balloons that described the collection and directed people who grabbed them to the Puma website. The effort aimed to convey the "packable, portable and playable" qualities of the line.
Several images of the work can be viewed here, here and here. You can also drink in the beauty of this "Travel Light" campaign in a video here.
Think your cube sucks? The mad scientists at Cummins & Partners create a coin-operated scientist to raise money for Multiple Sclerosis Australia.
A man in a white lab coat sits slumped and virtually paralytic inside a booth until curious onlookers pop some coins inside. The scientist then gets to work on little experiments until he feels like the money has run out. In theory, this generates a sense of immediate gratification over having donated X amount to grander scales of research.
The man in the cube is a volunteer who sits and performs science experiments meant for 10-year-olds and up, on-call, for three hour increments. Talk about playing lab rat. And we thought this guy had it bad.
We often wish we could shrink down various scientists, philosophers, slam poets and ex-lovers to keep in little shoebox habitats for use as-needed. This kind of reminds us of that. Really - wouldn't it be awesome to have a coin-operated man just hanging out in the living room? How completely jealous would your friends be?!
The International Fund for Animal Welfare launches a campaign under the banner "Will only words remain?" The idea is that if we don't start taking care of our furry little friends, we'll lose all but the memory. To correspond with this they're spreading actual words spelling out endangered animals. Here's a video of them creating a zebra-shaped zebra crossing in Amsterdam.
Unless they're also leaving educational brochures or at least a sad but eloquent zebra mascot nearby, we're not sure it quite gets the message across. And we feel a little guilty about thinking it would be kind of fun to walk across the word "zebra" - you know, it would be like playing hopscotch or walking down a warped crosswalk. There's something so Through the Looking Glass about that.
- In Guatemala, Super Glue is affixing branded boots to car wheels to promote its sticky stuff.
- Advertising Age reports, "Both sides are claiming victory as Martin Sorrell's libel action ended today after several days of debate behind closed doors over new forensic evidence. Mr. Sorrell dropped his claim that Marco Benatti and Marco Tinelli were personally responsible for scurrilous blogs and an e-mailed photo. And the two defendants agreed to payments to the WPP Group chief executive and Daniela Weber, WPP's chief operating officer for Italy, apparently because of evidence that FullSix, the Italian media company Mr. Benatti founded and Mr. Tinelli ran, may have been involved in disseminating the material online."
- Animax Entertainment has been nominated for its second Emmy Award for its work on "Off-Mikes," a weekly original animated series the studio produces for ESPN.com. Last year, Animax and ESPN won the first-ever broadband Emmy for its debut season of "Off-Mikes."
Over the weekend in Times Square, the Kleenex Let It Out campaign in which people let their emotions out while Kleenex films them was infiltrated by Greenpeace which is irked Kleenex manufacturer Kimberly-Clark uses "ancient growth" forests in their tissue products. Greenpeace activists, posing as distraught individuals complained about Kimberly-Clark's apparent deforestation tactics while Kleenex PR people had nothing much to do except let it happen, even when some activists unfurled a banner for Kleercut, Greenpeace's tree hugger effort.
It's classic surprise marketing at its finest. After all, what could Kleenex people do? The entire promotion is all about providing people a platform to air their grievances. If you are concerned about a company's supposed less-that-nice use of foresting techniques tan what better place to air the grievances that on a couch to an understanding listener. Or at least one that's supposed to be understanding.
Always up for a good time, French lingerie purveyor Sloggi has gone Smoggi, launching a guerrilla and online campaign in Belgium relating to the government's recent lowering of the national speed limit due to the level of smog in the air. Coolzor reports four lingerie-clad women stood by the road side holding signs that pointed people to Smoggi.com where a countdown to a mysterious something is occurring. We're told Belgian agency Brand Activation is behind the work.
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