This season, the leaves are changing, the air is getting crisper, and the big brands are taking it outside… Outside of the home, that is.

When deciding how to build excitement and promote tune-in for the new fall schedule, Fox chose to move away from the TV commercials to focus on OOH, taking advantage of traditional formats along with digital billboards and networks. The driving factor behind the new move to digital? — the ability to show full-length pilots for some of this season’s lineup, such as “Raising Hope” and “Lone Star”. Full pilots ran on three major airlines, the Hotel Networks and Princess Cruises, and street-level video networks at subway stations.

Next up: Budweiser. The king of beers (whose recent sales would suggest he’s been overthrown) needed to find a way to cozy up to young under-30 beer drinkers. The solution? In-bar promotions. The bait? Free beer! The campaign started earlier this week, encouraging under-30′s to “Grab some Buds,” and reaches it’s high point tonight as the brand hosts the “Budweiser National Happy Hour.”

So what does a company do when they want to reach active 20 and 30-something’s who don’t spend their time watching TV and surfing the net? They go to them! Just ask Mitsubishi, who recently found a new way to reach the M-Generation, their target demographic whose lifestyles closely tie in with some of the vehicles’ “personalities”. The brand decided to take it on the road, showing up at races, trail heads for mountain biking, dog parks and more, asking people along the way–”What Are You Into?”

For the launch of the new 4-door MINI Countryman, the company took more of an interactive approach, actually getting consumers involved in the advertisement. Over the summer, replicas of the new car made special appearances in shopping centers, stations and streets around the UK. The challenge: how many people can you fit in a MINI? And although the cars looked packed to the brim with crammed-in people gasping for air, they were, in fact, empty.

So how did they do it? Using video cameras inside the MINIs, passersby could take the challenge, packing as many people as possible into the car while recording the whole scene. Then, the footage was projected onto the inside of the MINI, as if the challengers were still inside. Participants could then share the video with friends via Facebook.

Remember some of MINI’s other executions the past few years, some of which landed them in the 2010 OBIE Awards Hall of Fame and as finalists for AdWeek’s Best Out-of-Home Ad of the Decade?

The campaign for MINI Clubman also made it as a finalist for the 2009 Out-of-Home Media Plan Awards.

Who says the mundane tasks of our lives can’t be spiced up a little bit? The people at Volkswagen clearly have the creativity to do just that. After the wildly popular Fun Theory experiment, Volkswagen has now rolled out its sister campaign, the Fast Lane Theory. Life is always a little more fun in the fast lane, doesn’t it seem? Even better when you’re cruising in a Volkswagen on the Autobahn in Germany.

In the Alexanderplatz subway station in Berlin, Volkswagen constructed a slide to run the length of the stairway so that when walkers approached at the top of the stairs they had 2 options: a) take the stairs allll the way down or b) zip down the slide in 2 seconds. What would you pick? Check out the excitement that ensues.

In another unexpected place, the grocery store, the genius VW people assembled a grocery cart with a skateboard attached to the bottom, just under the handlebar. Think back to what you did as a kid (which most likely drove your mom crazy): run with the cart, jump on the bottom shelf and coast down the aisles, narrowly missing the four foot high display of paper towels at the end or the elderly lady reaching for the sugar on the top shelf. The reactions are the greatest part of the experiment, in my opinion. There were some people who were a tad confused by all the fun during such a boring chore as grocery shopping and others totally embraced the fast lane. Either way, we applaud Volkswagen for bringing out the kid in everyone again.

Across the pond, a VW competitor has also created a promotion gimmick this summer. Volvo is working to bring back the essence of movie drive-ins, only this time with all Volvo cars provided. You don’t even need a driver’s license! Dubbed the “Volvo Starlite Urban Drive-In”, Volvo has picked the cultural Truman Brewery in London to host the event. Once you’ve booked your tickets, pick out one of the 25 Volvos on location to pack in with a friend – 2 per car – and enjoy the movie on screen, whether it is Dirty Dancing or Grease. You can’t go wrong with Johnny Castle’s twisting hips or Danny Zuko’s retro leather jacket. Feeling hungry? Order some popcorn from one of the waitresses zipping through the lot on her roller skates. The Starlite’s success was so overwhelming (tickets sold out in less than a minute!) the creators are considering packing up and taking the event nationwide.

Let’s start in Melbourne, Australia, where Adidas has placed a huge (19 feet high and 2 tons!) Jubalani soccer ball outside a crowded tourist-y area and has a young whippersnapper who plans to live in the ball for the entire length of the World Cup. By entire, we mean 22 to 24 hours a day!  The lucky guy, Adam Santarossa, is set up with a flat screen TV, computer, Playstation, couch, bed, free food and drink, and all he has to do is use social media to keep the world updated on his new lifestyle and, of course, offer his commentary on the soccer games.

A hop, skip away in London, the famous Piccadilly Circus square features a digital screen sponsored by Coca-Cola that runs live video of fans’ celebratory dances. The stunt, aptly named “What’s Your Celebration”, engages passersby by first calling them out. The people manning the board use a laptop to type messages to the people looking at the screen and then call them to the piece of Astroturf grass and corner flag to perform their best victory dance. Their video is then posted on the screen for the entire square to see.

Heading south to Johannesburg, Nike is promoting its “Write the Future” campaign where fans can type a message up to 57 characters via the promotion’s Facebook page, Twitter (#NikeFuture), QQ (in China) and Mxit (in South Africa) to any of 50 Nike-endorsed soccer pros. Select messages are then displayed on the fourth largest building in the city along with awesome graphic images of players like Cristiano Ronaldo.

Much like the Olympics or the Super Bowl, the World Cup offers companies the chance to market to mass consumers in innovative and new ways. This year is no different –the creativity continues to flow and we are all very impressed with what we’ve seen. Now if only the U.S. had beaten Ghana…

In fact, a Corona bottle was placed right in the middle of the party, towering at 30 feet tall! Too bad it is only an inflatable promo item… There were also Corona brand ambassadors – some even (semi) famous – including Real Housewife of New York City, Kelly Bensimon, mingling all over the scene. The Corona sponsored event lasts through July 31^st.  

The “pop-up beach” is the biggest summer launch for Corona Extra and Corona Light. Parent company, Crown Imports, reported that media coverage has been provided by ESPN2’s “SportsNation”, local news, and online outlets in the States, Mexico and Japan. Other promotional giveaways at the party include sunscreen, bead necklaces, and key chains. But to win one of the 100 trips to Cancun, you better start looking for one of the 2,000 Corona bottles donning a promotional wrap that includes an entry code for chances to win online. Looks like summer is here early, and what better way to celebrate than with a Corona and lime? Better start drinking!