Outdoor Ad Collects Feedback

A case of life imitating Second Life: "GB Glace (?) have a few high tech posters in Sweden's major cities that double as consumer surveys. On the posters you can vote for your favorite new ice-cream, just by touching them." More details and close-ups on Ad Rag. In Second Life, posters in the Sears and Circuit City builds solicit visitor feedback.

Mountain Dew for Gamers

image source

Not quite the reverse product placement, but a nice way not only to promote a game, but also to market a drink for the gamers demo. It's a Mountain Dew limited edition with Halo 3 imagery on the label. More on AdAge and Kotaku.

Update [Apr 16 2007] More modern product tie-ins.

Earlier:
Reverse Product Placement in Games
Fictional Brands Coming to Life

Website Made on a Top of a Fridge

Miranda July promotes her new book with a website written on a top of her fridge. She then switches to the gas stove.

Future: Internet in 2016 Is 3D

CNet on the upcoming report from the Metaverse Roadmap: "Within 10 years, the report suggests, people may wear glasses that record everything around them. They will likely see little distinction between their real-world social lives and their interactions in digital, 3D virtual worlds. And they'll increasingly turn to services like an enhanced Google Earth that are able to present data on what's happening anywhere, at any time, as it unfolds." Also see an older CNet article on the topic.

Polaroid and Word of Mouth

My friend Rekha told me about this optical shop up at Harvard Square called Eye Q Optical. They recognize that choosing the right frames can be a difficult job. They do a smart thing. They take a Polaroid snapshot of you with the glasses on so that you can show it to your friends and see what they think. Word of mouth by design.

I've always loved the Polaroid experience and how instant printing changes the entire routine and protocols of picture taking. It's a great marketing tool, too, whose novelty is based on its obsolescence. Polaroids have been used in bar promos forever, the company's site even has a Diageo case study about it. The company also sells branded instant film, in case you are interested.

There's also this Polaroid iZone camera that prints stamp-sized pictures that can be used as stickers. The iZone camera itself has been a show piece of viral marketing and is featured in a couple of books: The Art of Innovation by IDEO's Tom Kelley and The Anatomy of Buzz by Emanuel Rozen.




This Brazilian promo has been making rounds for the past month or so: Polaroids were placed in bathrooms instead of mirrors to reinforce the company's "instant images" positioning. Not unlike this photobooth that shoots scalps and dandruff.




Speaking of the word of mouth, I've just finished reading Buzzmarketing: Get People to Talk about Your Stuff that the author, Mark Hughes, had kindly sent to me. He was the one who had masterminded the renaming of Halfway, Oregon into Half.com, so besides all the good advice it contains, you are treated to a behind-the-scenes story. The book has received glowing reviews all around and was named one of the best biz books by Financial Times back in 2005 when it came out. Many popular business books today are more like over-extended magazine articles. Buzzmarketing isn't one of them: for your $15 and a few hours invested into reading it, you'll get lots of stories from across many different industries and a lot of conclusions to draw.




Finally, if the Nor'easter (?) subsides, I'll be in New Orleans for the next couple of days for a WOMMA event. Looks like it's going to be fun. Say hi if you are there.

Flash Support by Email Clients

source: campaign monitor

What support? Was looking for something else and stumbled across these test results from 2006; doubt things have changed a lot since then.

Webby Nominees for Interactive Advertising

Lot's of good ideas and executions at this year's Webby nominations for interactive advertising, including the Fedex "Just in Time" clock.

Game Promo Uses Camera, "Ghosted" Film

It's one of those campaigns I wish I'd thought of first: a promo for a PlayStation 2 game "Forbidden Siren 2" last year in Germany during a game con. They have created branded snapshot cameras loaded with ghosts on a pre-exposed film that appeared on the printed pictures given away to visitors. More pictures at I Believe in Advertising (and so do I).

How to Kill Google

Paul Briant at the Reluctant Blogger came up with a doomsday scenario: if Microsoft upgraded Windows (or perhaps IE) with a text-ad-blocking feature turned on by default, it would be the end of Google as we know it. Unlikely for a variety of reasons, but not impossible, considering that a pop-up killer is a standard option on most browsers now, and that there's third-party software that zaps AdWords as well. Also see the comments on 25hoursaday: "The outrage from Google would be tame compared to how pissed off all the companies that depend on AdSense and Adwords would be." It would also put the anti-MS and pro-Goo crowd in a peculiar position of having to turn the adblocker off to spite Microsoft.

Earlier:
Automatic Commercial Skipping
How Geeks Block Ads
Set-top Box Blocks Ads
Commentary: Philips's Ad-Skipping Blocker Good Idea
NY Times on Anti-Ad-Skipping Patent by Philips
Firefox Users Click Less, Kill Ads

Start Your Own Ad Agency

Start your own advertising agency with a set of expandable toy cubicles and life-like plastic figures. Pitches, meetings, brainstorms -- now all on your desk in a labyrinth of cubes, decorated with special stickers. On Amazon, and also on the maker's site.