Marketing blah blah

The Google Chrome Internet browser touts its extreme page rendering speed, which greatly enhances the responsiveness of the Web browsing experience. To make its point, the Internet giant made this funny, viral little video that pits the browser’s speed against a potato gun, the speed of sound, and a lightning strike. The video is quite effective, and it must be pretty interesting too: the numbet of YouTube views is now at more than two and a half million, and counting.

Google has been very frank in disclosing the technical details of its experiments, such as the surprising fact that it used locally hosted  — i.e., saved on a local hard drive – versions of two of the three Web pages in the experiment. This removed the variable of download speed from the experiment, which may somewhat limit the validity of the results for the average user. Still, the video gets its message across.

It is recording a real image, in real time, and then using technical wizardry to add virtual objects to the scene. A  real-world positioning sensor allows the virtual objects to be manipulated via computer to create an image that unites the real video with the virtual — fixing the virtual objects in the real landscape.

Video to explain

It’s a small but revolutionary advance for architecture, industry, defense, cinema, leisure…

Here is one of many examples:

World-famous beer brand Heineken, widely known as the armchair-footballer’s best friend, won big points at the Milan AC-Real Madrid UEFA match with an unusual strategy: Heineken offered Milan fans’ female companions free tickets to the lyric opera — but only if they could get their boyfriends to come along. The opera’s scheduled date and time, though, would confront the men with a very difficult choice: miss THE match, or please the girlfriend.

In the end, more than 1000 courageous guys made the right choice and opted to miss the football broadcast — and after 15 minutes of violin and arias, pain and regret showed on 1000 faces. But then a message appeared: “Hard to say no to your girlfriend, isn’t it? And to the match?” A few seconds later, a new message popped up: “How could you even think of missing the big match?” (Smiles started reappearing on those same 1000 faces.) Then came the winning play: “Are you still with us? Real and Milan AC are on the pitch; let’s enjoy the match together!” Shouts of joy and thunderous applause …

1.5 milion people watched this extreme fake-out on Sky Sports, more than 10 million saw it the following day on TV news, and it generated 5 milion unique Internet visits in the next two weeks — along with thousands more on blog and social media sites, which are still spreading the buzz.

“Heineken. Made to entertain.” Seems these guys got the message.

For marcom companies, much of doing business consists of selling concepts and ideas.  Here is a little video that demonstrates why good ideas deserve good payment — featuring a young Walt Disney, selling his work to a studio for a time-based fee…

As the ad says, there are at least 90,000 applications for the iPhone! Like what. you ask? A wide range of things, ranging from basic essentials (such as the app that lists all the world’s cat breeds) to more esoteric ones – like the one that connects you with the King (Elvis Presley), or the one that lets you use your iPhone to blow out your birthday candles!

Logo of Citizen Connect

Looking beyond such lighthearted uses for the technology, the mayor of Boston, MA has launched “Citizens Connect,” an app that lets Bostonians report city infrastructure issues (potholes, broken lighting, and a variety of other problems, depending on the neighborhood). The app can even send photos and GPS coordinates to accompany complaints. The app was developed at a cost of $25,000 U.S. Asked why it was created, mayor Thomas Menino explains that the goal is to get more citizens involved in keeping Boston running smoothly.

Indesit Company, which owns the Hotpoint-Ariston and Scholtes brands, is Europe’s second-largest producer of home appliances, and the group posted sales of €3.2 billion in 2008. The company is known for its well-designed lines, where “Every product answers a need.” For several weeks now, our TVs have been screening a remarkable film about the  Aqualtis washing machine. The award-winning ad has won more than a dozen international prizes since its production in 2006. It takes us on a dream-like underwater journey, lulled by the sweet melodies of Vangelis. We are far from the realities and guaranteed values conveyed by Vedette’s famous 1972 “Mother Denis” spot and from the technological seduction of that caressing wash Philips promised the now first lady of France in 1989.

The champagne brand Perrier-Jouët is blending the old and the new. Swedish artist Barbro Andersson’s artwork based on the brand’s “Belle époque” vintage bottle was inspired by the brand emblem — a swirling flower design that evokes not only the champagne-making process, but also the wine’s swirling bubbles and delicate floral “nose.” Limited-edition prints are on display at select wine cellars and restaurants around the world. http://popsop.com/26467

The leaders of our planet are meeting this month to determine our environmental fate. Seize the chance to make our voices heard and sign the UN-sponsored climate petition that will be presented at the COP15 UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen this December. Add your name to the list of Hopenhagen citizens on:
http://www.hopenhagen.org/

An exemplary usage of microsites and social media to spread the word around the world about actions that need to be taken.

Humor is still one of the best and most creative ways to highlight a message, give a product personality, or simply surprise your customers in an over-advertised world. Consumers are like children: if you make them laugh you are halfway to getting your message across. Here is a selection of really funny campaigns — some simple, some subtle, but always original.

Advertising for luxury brands is spread across more magazine pages than ever. This site reprises some of the glamorous campaigns of 2009.

http://www.strategies.fr/creations/diaporamas/127790W/campagnes-de-luxe-2009-dans-la-presse-magazine.html

American magazine Vanity Fair, as part of its promotion for a book called Vanity Fair’s Proust Questionnaire, is hosting an online mini-quiz that will tell you, based on your answers to 20 probing questions, which famous personality you most resemble. Not sure poor old Marcel Proust would appreciate this “Turbo” version of his questionnaire, but the buzz is working for Vanity Fair – and visitors to the website are enjoying it, as well.

On a personal note, it seems my alter-ego is… Brigitte Bardot! Since I’m not really sure how to take that news, I invite you to form your own opinion.

Want to take the “Turbo Proust” quiz?  Click here

Ah, the banana! Gentle. sweet, exotic, colorful…and loaded with nutritional benefits. An incredibly simple, pure, incomparable design, the shape of a smile. The Union of Banana Producers of Guadeloupe and Martinique is launching a new campaign on our screens. The 3 short films invite us to be kind and respectful to the delicate fruit. The prosaic everyday activities featured in each film are interrupted by a charming and nostalgic moving-picture postcard (with a great sound track) from the Caribbean Islands. The campaign never mentions price, performance, or technology. It is a sweet, restful armchair voyage, and it is thus a great departure from the advertising norm.

Total cost of the campaign: half of the union’s annual budget of four million euros (1,5 million euros from producers, supplemented by a 2,5 million euro grant from the European Union and the Office of Overseas Agricultural Economy Development).