Newcastle - Follow The Money

I love the work that Droga5 has been doing for Newcastle Brown Ale over the past couple years.  Their 'No Bollocks' communications strategy is all underpinned by the idea of 'good beer without the bollocks of traditional beer advertising.'

Their latest effort/stunt is simple.  Follow Newcastle on Twitter to get a check for one millionth of a million dollars, which is actually one dollar.  As they say in the video 'Why endure the unsolicited marketing of other beer brands for free when you could endure Newcastle's unsolicited marketing and get paid.'

The stunt comes from the real desire to get more people on Twitter to follow the brand:

"Basically, the brief from the client was to get people on Twitter to follow us. Our brand's philosophy has always been to do things in the most No Bollocks, no bullsh*t way," Bell says. "We got the budget for the project to get people to follow them and said, 'What if we just gave people money to follow us?' which was pretty much it. There are middlemen places where you can go to get people to follow you, but it's $3 to $8 per follower and we thought, 'Why not just cut out the middleman?'"

While most brands are trying to make an emotional connection with their consumers, I love the straight up transactional nature of this in a way that both makes fun of their competitors and perfectly aligns with the overall 'No Bollocks' theme.

Other Things I Like But Don't Have Time To Write Up - Steinlager, VW, MTN

Steinlager - Be The Artist, Not The Canvas
I love this ad from Steinlager to promote responsible drinking.  Rather than tap into the typical cliches around responsible drinking, it appeals the juvenile, yet common occurrence that can happen when young men get too hammered.


VW - Take On Me
I'm blown away that Take On Me hasn't been used in an Ad before.  VW remakes the classic song to promote their no-charge scheduled maintenance on every new VW.

MTN - The Everywhere Library
Another great example of a brand doing good, in this case the Telco MTN brings books to students across Africa via SMS.


Posted by: Reuben Halper


Posted by: Reuben Halper

Amstel - Pause

The past year has seen a wealth of clever experiential campaigns, interactive vending machines and other types of successful public stunts.  They typically require some sort of feat of concentration, physical exertion or the like from the relatively few members of the public that actually encounter the installation or stunt.  The more amazing, the more likely it seems that the subsequent video will garner millions of views.  The latest stunt from Amstel in Bulgaria bucks that trend by asking very little from the user.  Their agency, NEXT-DC created Amstel Pause, an interactive vending machine that rewarded users with a beer for simply doing nothing (eg. taking a pause in their hectic life).  All you had to do was stand in front of the machine for three minutes in order to receive a free beer.  It's a fantastic idea and taps into the reality of our busy world where we often forget to take time to stop and smells the roses (while drinking an Amstel of course).  According to the agency, the installation was live for:

'16 days, working from 16:00 to 21:00 o'clock in the busy center in Sofia, Amstel Pause collected:
— 4,032 minutes of break or more than 67 hours of rest for different people;
— Average of 84 users per day;
— Total of 1,344 beers given to people who do nothing;'

Check it out below:

Posted by: Reuben Halper

Other Things I Like But Don't Have Time To Write Up - Old Spice, Tap King, Samsung & Heineken

Old Spice - Architect
I love the recent work for Old Spice from W+K that brings back 80s type jingles.  Check out the latest video, 'Architect.'


Tap King - Lionel Richie Beer Fridge
Lionel Richie + Beer makes for a winning ad.


Samsung - All Eyes On The S4
A great stunt to demonstrate a killer feature of the Samsung S4, namely that it knows when you're looking at the screen.


Heineken - Departure Roulette
In order to promote the new Heineken 'Dropped' episodic adventure series on YouTube, Heineken challenged travelers in JFK to drop their travel plans and play departure roulette where Heineken would send them to a random destination.



Posted by: Reuben Halper

Southern Comfort - Comfortable Weather Guy

The 'Whatever's Comfortable' spot developed by Wieden + Kennedy for Southern Comfort was one my favorite ads of 2012.  IMHO, everything about the advert was pretty much perfect, absolutely nailing the brand tagline of 'Whatever's Comfortable' in a delightful way.  Given the popularity of the spot, it's no surprise that the brand is extending the duties of the Comfort man character.  The Comfortable Weather Guy site features the eponymous character against a backdrop of whatever the weather is in your particular city.  You can also see Comfort man deliver the weather (against an appropriate backdrop of course) anywhere else in the world.  It looks like there are about sixteen different videos that are matched up to the particular weather at any given time. Check out the original spot below as well as the different weather videos or just head over to the website and have a play around yourself.  Silly?  Yes.  Pointless?  Somewhat.  Entertaining?  Most definitely.

Two Nice Stunt Videos - Sony Xperia & Red Stripe

I keep thinking that stunt campaigns are somehow going to die off, but the public appetite for them shows no sign of slowing down.  What's more impressive is that agencies keep coming up with new and innovative ways to communicate a clear product message through stunt videos.  The latest hot stunt was developed by CP+B Stockholm to promote the new waterproof Sony Xperia phone.  During screenings of the new James Bond film, Skyfall, several  of the waterproof phones were hidden inside free soda cups given to random viewers.  It's a nice way to demonstrate the main USP of the phone in a way that fits nicely into the overall theme and feel of the Bond film.  Check it out below...I do question how the hell the people managed to get a drink without noticing that there was a phone embedded in their massive Coke.


Another delightful stunt comes from Kessels Kramer for beer brand, Red Stripe.  For one day only, a corner store became a giant musical instrument, playing 'A Message To You, Rudy.'  Products on the shelves and items left scattered around the store part of an ad-hoc orchestra, triggered when a customer chose a Red Stripe from the shelves.  Just a really nice way to reward customers who choose your product with a delightful and unexpected experience.  Check out the video below and it's also worth checking out the behind the scenes video as the 'making of...' is fascinating.

Other Things I Like (But Don't Have Time To Write Up)

Budweiser - Bud Clock
Great use of QR codes to turn Happy Hour into an interactive drinking game and extend Happy Hour through buying more Bud.

via: Banner Blog

Kit Kat - We Will Find You
Kit Kat has created a modern day version of Willy Wonka's Golden Ticket with a dash of dystopian Phillip K. Dick novel.  They've hidden GPS transmitters in four packs of Kit Kats on sale in the UK.  Opening the pack activates the GPS and Kit-Kat promises 'We Will Find You' within 24 hours and give the lucky recipient £10,000.  Very cool from a tech perspective, but the messaging is kind of creepy.


Gatwick Express - Tracks
To elevate the experience of the 30-minute train journey from Victoria to Gatwick airport (and of course boost online sales), VCCP has commissioned various artists to create a custom half-hour soundtrack that's synced to what riders see on the journey.  Customers who buy their Gatwick Express tickets online can download the tracks directly from the Gatwick Express website.

Grolsch - Big, Bold Journt

I recently came across this campaign on the fantastic Digital Buzz Blog.  It's a campaign by Grolsch (developed by BMB agency) that promised to be a true multi-screen experience.  There seem to be more and more campaigns that are truly multi-screen experiences where the TV spot just becomes the teaser for the rest of the campaign.  The real substance and essence of the experience lies in digital.  This campaign promises just that, viewers of the TV commercial are introduced to the character Journt, a policeman that demonstrates that character speaks louder than words.  Users who go to the Grolsch UK site are invited to share a beer with Journt.  Text him your name and if Journt recognizes the name he'll reward you by buying you a beer.  Literally you'll get a text back with a  a coupon for a 4-pack of Grolsch and a store finder that shows the nearest shop to claim your Grolsch.  It's a great idea and great way to tie together the awareness from TV with SMS, online video and mobile activity to ultimately drive foot fall in store.

Unfortunately the TV commercial doesn't include an obvious call to action or information about what viewers can expect (eg. free beer!) at the Grolsch UK website.  Unless you're one of those people who go to the URL at the end of every commercial, it's unlikely that a great number of people were pushed to spend further time with the brand by viewing the TV commercial.  Too bad really as it's a very nice idea.  Check out the case study below.

Heineken - The Fever Keeper

Heineken and their various agencies have done an amazing job of activating their Champions league sponsorship and providing both utility & entertainment to football fans through initiatives such as Heineken Star Player.  The latest work (from Vidal Parternship) is aimed squarely at Champions league fans in the US.  Due to the time difference, most games occur when people are at work and therefore can't watch the games live.  As any sports fan who's tried to watch a Tivoed game knows, you essentially need to enforce a communications blackout from match time until you get home and can actually watch the recorded game.  There's just too many opportunities to see the results of the game accidentally while browsing the web.  Enter Heineken Fever Keeper, a Chrome browser extension that blanks out any revealing information about the match, regardless of what site you're on.

Genius...now if only there was something similar for smartphones.  Check out the video below for more detail and to see it in action.


Additional Articles: PSFK | Adverblog

Happy (Belated) St. Patricks Day...

...but that's really just an excuse to post the hilarious Guinness - Round Up Your Mates video.

via Andrew Bent