Marketing blah blah

Paris Match’s 60th birthday was a real publicity coup for biodegradable paint manufacturer SUDLAC. To commemorate its 60th anniversary, French weekly magazine Paris Match painted its logo on the Greenland ice shelf.

The logo. enlarged to the size of a football field, was displayed at the foot of an ice promontory the height of Paris’ Arc de Triomphe. To accomplish the supersized task, Paris Match needed a special biodegradable paint that could withstand Greenland’s extreme (-31° Fahrenheit) temperature.

SUDLAC was the manufacturer chosen to produce it.  To reward the SUDLAC R&D team for the work of maximizing the paint’s cold resistance, the magazine displayed the manufacturer’s logo one million times in the 60th anniversary issue. SUDLAC also got a plug on the French Paris Match Web site. The resulting name recognition was quite a motivator for the team!

Thirty Srawberries Tagada’s are sold every second all over the world, but could Strawberry Tagada become a French marketing example? To celebrate its 40th birthday, the Haribo group launched an unprecedented French marketing campaign, changing its culinary presentation every month. Since January, the French can buy “Chamallows” and “Dragibus” with strawberry Tagada taste, or a one kilo box of the famous strawberries with the 1969′ graphic design. Starting in March , buses will cross France to distribute bags full of candies, and games will be set up on the new Web site of Haribo.  During the summer strawberry Tagada will be served  on beaches and during the Tour de France. The Haribo group is also launching TV and radio spots. Very few brands can launch a such operation, but according to the French Haribo boss , Jean-Philippe André, “the current economic crisis is both a danger and an opportunity. To emerge strengthened, you should not cut the expenses of consumers’ communication. ” Moreover, after this avalanche of pink sweets in France, Haribo plans to launch  new “revolutionary” candies: the Tri-Bü in lemon, strawberry-mango, lemon – strawberry-tea green and lemon, and strawberry-orange.

First there were “concept cars”; now come “concept shoes”. Lamborghini has created an original Web marketing campaign on a pair of high-heeled shoes called the Lamborghini Superleggera .

No detail has been forgotten relating the shoe to the car: the double silencer, the carbon heel,  headlights and the angular air inlets, the name of the car scripted on the sides of the shoe.

At the time when car manufacturing is at a low point, the Lamborghini brand created a buzz combining luxury and fashion.

Currently this shoe is just a  product of  Lamborghini designer Tom Cooper’s imagination.

The future of music industry is in great danger since a listener can easily and illegally download songs. Advertising agencies may have a solution to help the artists. Brands like Toyota decided to link their image with music. Toyota is buying a soundtrack from a given artist and offering it legally on the artist’s Myspace page. The artist gets paid for his work, the Internet user enjoys this free track legally, and Toyota sells its brand. Converse  has not only paid an artist but actually purchased music from three artists (Pharell Williams, Julian Casablancas and Santogold) to celebrate the brand’s 100 years. In addition to a well-constructed campaign and fine graphics, Converse created a huge buzz thanks to quality music (available for free download on Converse website) and it’s associated video clip. If major music companies can’t pay the artists, may advertising take their place? Here is the clip of the Converse anniversary track:

Starting  in 2003 with a monthly publication, then a weekly since 2004, the no cost magazine Sport celebrated its 200th edition in January 2009. Sport covers  not only traditional sports like soccer,  rugby, tennis, basketball, etc. but also features ‘extreme sports’ like surfing, snowboarding,  and skateboarding. Sport also writes about all equestrian sports and mountain climbing.

Sport emphasizes a high quality graphic design, despite using a lower quality paper for its publication.

Currently 500,000 copies are distributed across 11 cities in France. The magazine is also distributed in the UK with a press run of 350,000 in London.

To launch its “life for sharing” campaign, t-mobile chose to put its slogan into music, a build through decades and genres: 350 dancers at London’s Liverpool Street Station have been performing for more than 2 minutes in front of amused travelers. The spot have been captured by hidden cameras in the station. Result : More than 3 million videos seen in YouTube within 3 weeks.

You can watch the video here: