All posts in Branding campaigns

NYC is a spectacle on NYE thanks to out-of-home advertising

nye2009.jpgMuch like years past, New York City’s Times Square is bringing together some of the biggest brand names for the all-time New Year’s Eve celebration. And once again, out-of-home advertising is the star of the show. This year, however, sponsors are getting a bit more creative and optimistic (not to mention frisky) in an economy that has seen mostly pessimism and stagnation in the past year. From confetti wishes and kissing stages to wind-powered digital billboards, it will truly be a site to see.

New this year at midnight, Times Square will rain hopes and dreams’€”literally. The Mars brand’s newest candy bar, 3 Musketeers Mint, is sponsoring a Wishing Wall for people to submit their resolutions, goals, and hopes for 2009. The messages will then be printed on tiny pieces of paper and dropped over Times Square at midnight, showering New York City with over a ton of wish-covered confetti. Wishes can be submitted online at http://www.timessquarenyc.org/nye/nye_interactive.html or in person at the Times Square Information Center.

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Echoing Mars’ upbeat tempo is Pepsi’s new ad campaign focused on youthful optimism that will blanket the billboards of NYC. The campaign, titled Wordplay, creates uplifting words out of the brand’s redesigned logo. As part of the NYE festivities, the company will unleash one thousand balloons (complete with new Pepsi logo, of course) on Times Square minutes before midnight. Stuck at home for New Year’s? You can still be a part of the action by texting “Change”, along with your own message of optimism, to 66333 where it could appear on MTV’s Times Square screen or in their coverage of the celebration.

Not to be outdone, JVC’s iconic (and newly designed) digital billboard will also allow partygoers to take pics from their cell phones and upload them to nyc@jvcnewyear.com. Once approved, they will display for three seconds on JVC’s 19- by 34-foot high-def screen.

With luck, the hope and happiness theme will carry through the coming year, lifting our spirits (and possibly the economy) along the way. Happy 2009!


One more reason to love Jameson

jameson112508-2.jpgI was flipping through the virtual Advertising Age this morning and ran across an interesting piece on Jameson Irish Whiskey. Now, in the interest of full disclosure, I have to say that I am already a big fan of the brand, which is really the main reason I clicked on the link. But all predisposition aside, they are about to launch an impressive, innovative campaign leveraging digital projection to “speak” to passers-by in New York, Boston, Denver and LA. According to Advertising Age, here’s how the “spot” unfolds: Continue reading →


MMMMM…Oreos

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Maybe it’s because I’m in my afternoon munchy phase, when any sugar consumed at lunch is starting to wear off, but this Adrants post really caught my attention (click here to see the dunking in action). Granted, it’s a few days old, but it’s still worth sharing as a really clever way to promote an iconic brand and capture consumers’ attention. Too bad Oreos didn’t include a place to purchase their product right there… I don’t know about you, but I would have gladly handed over a buck for some cookies after seeing this display.


Google Embraces Outdoor

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Either I’ve become Google-fixated or the search juggernaut is becoming a mainstay in the press lately. Last week, I talked about Google Adword TV ads and now Google itself is going offline with an extensive outdoor campaign in Russia, hoping to cut into the 15-year-old Russian search engine of choice, Yandex.

The reported $250,000 investment includes more than 5,000 outdoor advertisements, including benches and stickers at bus stops and subways. With so much marketing attention being focused on the digital space, it’s great to see that one of the pioneers of online advertising – and a proponent of “the right ad to the right people at the right time” – understands the effectiveness of a well placed ad on a bench.


Indiana Jones and the Outdoor Campaign

The entertainment industry has long been a staunch proponent of the outdoor advertising industry, creatively incorporating the medium to promote everything from movie premieres to Broadway openings. Hollywood’s “Man with the Midas Touch,” Steven Spielberg, continues the out-of-home legacy, once again calling on alternative out-of-home to promote the long-awaited return of Indiana Jones. Given the successful use of alternative media to promote Spielberg’s Transformers movie last year, Paramount decided to turn it up a notch for Indiana Jones & the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

According to the article from Reuters, the Indy campaign comprises about 2,000 billboards, wall messages, bus-side promos and other out-of-home messages nationwide. Talk about a glowing testimonial.

And the promoters of Indiana Jones like billboards so much, they’ve decided that two are better than one. In target areas such as Los Angeles, New York and Chicago, multiple billboards are being used for a single message for the blockbuster. (In fact, several dozen photos of just the billboards are already on Flickr.)

While it’s hard to say exactly what portion of the $126 million opening weekend can be directly attributed to outdoor, there’s no question that the tight integration of all the campaign’s channels helped deliver the hype studio execs were banking on.