Notorious Beam Team

From AdRants:

"Smirnoff Ice's Save the Mistletoe is an amusingly long-way-around attempt to say Smirnoff brings people together (just like mistletoe - so stop ravaging innocent bushes).

While we remain unmoved by the plight of the sprig, the execution wins us over. By some curious witch magic the campaign features celebrity supporters that we thought were long dead or had found joy in covert day jobs. Natalie from The Facts of Life, Lisa Turtle from Saved by the Bell, Tiffany who crooned "I Think We're Alone Now" and even the Soup Nazi band together to protect the kissing plant from further appropriation by brute force." You can see their protest video below.



All this was supported by the website at the top of the post which you can access here which houses a very entertaining video, as well as a protest in Times Square, reported in the New York Times:

"On the day after Thanksgiving, Diageo’s Smirnoff Ice brand held a tongue-in-cheek rally featuring about 30 paid actors as “core protestors.” The theme was “save the mistletoe,” a slogan for a holiday campaign for Smirnoff Ice. Smirnoff estimates that 60,000 people passed by its four-hour rally.

“When you go into an arena that is so iconic like Times Square, people are looking to be entertained,” said Christian McMahan, brand director for Smirnoff Ice. “And they’re looking to be part of it.”

This is a great example of a brand doing something to encourage consumers to talk about their brand and is in this instance very reminiscent of Ikea's Everyday Fabulous campaign we referenced on the blog back in August.



It's also got the same architecture as the Stella Trapped idea that we blogged about last month. In this instance a street installation protecting a pint of Stella gained interest at street level, around the internet via photos and on top of this it linked to a really cool online game.



These ideas aren't very expensive, but they do get huge cut through and cause people o talk about them. The rise of sites such as Flickr means that your idea, if it's any good, will be spread round the world, often by accident.

Talkability.

Birthday smackdown



Wedding crashers



It's interesting to read some of the comments for these virals such as:

"Who didn´t see THAT coming? Lame"

"This must be why Google bought YouTube, to run ads!"

"Youtube will go DOWN the tube if this kinda fake home movie keeps showing up."

"noooooooo!!! this was awful now theyv found an even better way to promote beer"

"SUCKED LIKE THE LAST ONE"

"ffs!! i just watched another one!! birthday smackdown? It was the same thing.. and i still feel for it!??"

"I would really like a sting ray to stab this video in the heart. Say goodbye to You Tube, people. The ad losers got to it."

"I would like a stingray to stab Cubanosandwich in the heart. He probably won't like Borat, either. This video was hilarious!"

"Hysterical video. Loved it! Please put this on TV."

They really generate very polarised reactions. It showcases a range of issues that are associated with advertising using YouTube. If your ads aren't spot on they will either die or be slated. Nail them and you're laughing. Despite some of the negative reactions these videos have had hundreds of thousands of views already.

With over 28,000 views this video is reasonably popular. What interests me is the comments such as (excuse the language in them)...

"jim beam is the shit, sooo much better then jack,."

In many ways, although this is clearly a random video and not made by an agency or endorsed by the brand, it does give the brand a massively masculine vibe. Just a bit of fun really.

From the ever brilliant PSFK:

"When we were in London a couple of weeks ago, Jeremy Ettinghausen of Penguin books was kind enough to give us a new edition of Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray and Magic Tales from the Brothers Grimm. The interesting part: the covers are blank and the owner is invited to draw his or her own cover. They're part of the MyPenguin series and the back of the book announces, "Books By The Greats, Covers By You".

Penguin are also asking people to send scans of their covers to an online gallery here. As you can see from the above, we've still got to get to the book - we were thinking, wouldn't it be nice if after we finished the book we'd leave an image that was inspired by the book, then we'd pass the book on for someone else to read and leave their own mark and so on and so on..."

Here are some examples which you can see here.





You can imagine something like this working for any number of our brands which are often bought as gifts.

Similar to Dodgeball which we have blogged about previously Loopt offers the chance to organise your entire life through your phone. See where friends are hanging out, tag good places to visit and stay in touch with everyone at the same time.

This looks like a great site and a brilliant way of integrating a campaign.

Via Russell Davies blog.

This blog full of user generated tools is brilliant. Of particular interest is this Absolut example. You get a chance to fill in the top and bottom lines as per the example below.



I wonder whether anyone is capturing the lines that are written and whether there is a gallery of user generated bottles somewhere?

Other great examples include this tattoo generator.



Have a look at the rest of the Generator site for some great ways of dressing up presentations.

Thanks to Russell Davies' blog for this.

Threshers the UK off licence is bracing itself for a huge loss as uptake on its 40% off voucher far exceeded expectations.

The Observer has an article detailing the current pre-Christmas craze for vouchers as retailers try to lure people away from the internet and into their shops.

Personally, I think Super High Street has the answer.

From PSFK:

"Earlier this week we checked out a pop-up bar that the Heavenly Social team have set up for four weeks in the old Pop bar at the top of London's Soho (remember Pop anyone??). The idea behind 'Everything Must Go' is to take a deserted bar and run special events including live music."

The beauty of pop up bars is that they offer the chance to test ideas and give a brand energy.

For previous entries on pop up bars click here.

A typical question board above... and a few of the gift options below.



Imagini gift finder is a very clever site where you can create a profile of the person you need to find a gift for by completing a set of visual indexing tasks. Really great idea and brilliantly executed. Would be a really interesting way of launching a global gifting catalogue for VAPs.

American Dad Clos Du Bois

Add to My Profile | More Videos

Did Clos du Bois pay to get this PR or did it just happen... and would they want it?

Thanks to Craig Nichols for this.

Thanks to Gerry Williams for this from Radio Five this morning.

Some very sage advice on the pros and cons of blogging.

There seems to be a trend at the moment for brands to do search ads. Just thought it's interesting - especially as Absolut have done an interactive version.

Spot Stella's film references:



To see the answer click here.

Find all 74 bands alluded to here:



To see the answers to this one click here.

Find all the Absolut bottle:



But I don't have the answers to the Absolut one so give it a go yourself here.

Happy searching.

LX TV is an online lifestyle TV channel specialising in food, drink, entertainment and fashion.



This screen grab below is from a video they host guiding viewers through the world of Scotch. To watch the video click here.



More interesting still is this video for Absolut Ruby Red.



It is the first installment in a three part series linking the spirtit with cocktails, cool bars and exciting social occassions. Moreover it's supported by an ad on the right of the screen linking to Absolut's Ruby Red website. This is a great example of how to incorporate video material online whilst integrating it into the rest of the brand campaign.

To enter the Absolut Lomo contest or to see what it's all about click here.

It all sounds a bit like Hype to me:

"Apart from simply visiting the Gallery and see the artwork, visitors to the ABSOLUT LOMO site will be given the opportunity to send in their own pictures. The photos will then be printed out – inside the Gallery – and fitted on the wall, thus becoming part of the exhibition.

If you don’t want to participate with your photos in the exhibition you are more than welcome as a spectator: Once visitors have ventured to the Gallery, they will be able to zoom in on all photographs on the wall and post comments on them. A rating system of the photographs is also available. During December, January and February, the rankings generated by visitors will be displayed on the site."

This particular ad has been around for a while but I still really enjoy it.

The latest website from 42 below vodka.http://www.42belowstories.com/Based on the award-winning creative - we can now go online and use the images provided to tell a story and of course forward it onto our friends.

Hugh MacLeod, the man driving Stormhoek wine’s recent marketing initiatives through his blog, Gapingvoid, has been thinking about ‘ooze’; a word he has used to abbreviate the term ‘Objects of Sociability’. ‘Ooze’, he writes, ‘is the future of marketing.’

What exactly does this mean? Put simply, Ooze is something that ‘allows you to engage with another person.’ Hugh predicts that in years to come, having something which gets people talking will be more important for brands than having a ‘Message’.

"What is an Object of Sociability [OoS, or "Ooze" for short]? "Ooze" is simply something that allows you to engage with another person. It could be anything. It could a party. It could be a bottle of wine. It could be a hyperlink. It could be a social gesture. It could be social currency. It could be doodling a cartoon on the back of a business card at a bar and giving it to the cute barmaid. You tell me."

This all chimes well for a company that is determined to pursue a course of making sure all its marketing promotes the idea of talkability. Any widget is a good widget. We want as many things to enter the social lexicon as possible and touch people's lives in a powerful way.

Thanks to Ellie for this.

I've been meaning to post this for a while. It's Mazda's "Global Brand Essence Site" which I think is fascinating. They've been very brave to open this out to the public but in doing so makes the brand far more accessible to the all the people working on the brand around the world. Far from giving the brand's strategic secrets away to competitors it makes Mazda seem confident in their marketing direction and must surely help to generate seemless global creative - even if their strapline does just say "Zoom Zoom"!

To see the site and view the video click here.

The concept of having a Global Brand Essence site, be it public or private is a very powerful idea.

"As if customized interiors and personalized number plates aren't enough, a company is now offering Porsche 911 owners "an extra personal touch", where they will replace the product type at the back with your choice of customized text. Let your creativity run wild and give your Porsche its own identity and a unique name. You can make up anything you want: 'made in Germany', 'back off', 'follow me' or 'have a nice day'... Or why not use the back of your Porsche to make a personal message like: 'no more Ferrari', 'my tird', or 'thanks daddy'."

Visit Name Your Porsche to give it a go if you happen to have a Porsche!

George Carlin describes the Modern Man using the buzz words of the day.

Simple & effective.

Thanks to Ellie Grant for this post:

Chris Anderson, Wired magazine’s editor-in-chief, recently published a book which is causing quite a stir.

The Long Tail: The New Economics of Culture and Commerce forecasts the demise of the hits-driven culture which defined the twentieth century, predicting instead that the emerging digital economy of the twenty-first century will herald a new entertainments industry relying just as much on ‘misses’, niche markets and mass-customisation.

See this video here for the launch party for the book in conjunction with Wired and Flavourpil.



Anderson argues that the twentieth century saw an entertainments industry physically constrained by the economics of supply-and-demand. Retailers would only carry content which they knew would generate demand sufficient enough to cover costs. Roughly translated, this meant that your local HMV would only have ordered as many copies of an album as they believed would sell within your local area. As a result, the twentieth century saw the ‘tyranny of the hit’ and a society of people who watched the same films, listened to the same music and read the same books. Anderson anticipates that as the entertainments industry moves into the digital world, the individual will become the focus as opposed to the mass market. Online retailers have the capacity to supply products that are in low demand or have low sales volume, though which collectively make up a market share that rivals or exceeds the relatively few current bestsellers and blockbusters. Companies such as Amazon, NetFlix, iTunes and Rhapsody are at the forefront of this emerging trend, catering to individual preferences and tastes.



These are his three rules for ‘The New Entertainment Economy’:

1. “Make Everything Available”: offer anything and everything online on the off-chance that it will find a buyer. For the film industry, this could mean offering up previously underserved genres, such as Bollywood films, documentaries, foreign films, and independent flicks.

2. “Cut the price in half. Now lower it”: iTunes singles currently retail at $0.99 (79p in the UK). While the labels argue this price is too low, and fear that lowering prices further will drive consumers away from record stores, potentially leading to a massive CD retailer rebellion, consumers would often argue that $0.99 is too high when they could just use a peer-to-peer network to get their tracks for free. Anderson argues that if online retailers lowered their prices, consumers would actually buy more, meaning the industry wouldn’t suffer as much damage as it currently believes it would. He suggests that the entertainments industry as a whole could entice consumers down the Long Tail by lowering prices.

3. “Help me find it”: Online retailers need initially to attract consumers with hits and then guide them down the Long Tail using the ‘Other customers have bought…/Other users recommend…’ format, just as Amazon and iTunes do at the moment. You might therefore begin by buying Britney Spears’ Greatest Hits. A recommendation would encourage you to listen to Pink, which might lead you to No Doubt, which might lead on to some obscure 1980s Southern Californian punk outfit. A Britney fan will have been guided down the Long Tail and in the process discovered they have tastes which diverge radically from the mainstream.

If the entertainments industry follows Anderson’s advice, the future will see the provision of entertainment in abundance, endless choice supplied by digital and online retailers and opportunities for the consumer to discover something which he might never have found by wandering into town on a Saturday afternoon.

The author recently gave a talk about his book and hosted a book signing in Second Life with the help of Millions of Us . See what he had to say by watching the video.



Anderson’s book has got the Beam Team thinking about how the Long Tail theory might be applied to our booze brands. There are the obvious constraints relating to the physical distribution of alcohol; we can’t sell alcohol online in the same way Amazon shifts CDs, books and DVDs or in the same way iTunes allows us to download music. However, we can learn an important lesson from The Long Tail: If you create a supply, you might just find you have a demand.

We might find there are opportunities to draw consumers’ attention to these little-known brands and create a few ‘Global Microbrands’ in the process, especially if we consider that in the future, consumers might become used to always being offered such a wise choice in other areas of their lives. We could start guiding them down the Long Tail, attempting to broaden their tastes beyond the ‘hit’ global mega-brands.

For the economic and statistical theory of the Long Tail, and more basic facts, hit the Wikipedia page.

Have a look on Squidoo for more info.

Buy the book.

For a PDF of the Long Tail click here and be patient.

If anyone's got any thoughts or comments feel free to share. Thank you Ellie for this.

From Yes but no but Yes:

"Nike and Burger King get a lot of kudos for having innovative online offerings, but for my money, one of the most interesting sites created in support of a brand is Absolut.com. Over the years they've created many thought provoking pieces based around the arts, and are always updating and refreshing. Check out the latest piece to go live - The 100 Absolutes - where you can nominate your favorite - well, anything really. It's not a new concept, but I love the way that it's been implemented."

It's a great website, tremendous idea, looks awesome and also serves as a research project.

The site was created by Great Works from Sweden who have also built sites for Absolut Bling Bling and created the internal marketing material for Ruby Red.

New Campaign for Smirnoff. I am not a very big fan of the ads; but they have had some positive reviews on several blogs. Any one else want to share their thoughts? Please comment.

"This clip was from Late Night with David Letterman 10 years ago. Roughly 9 years later, Fallon shot a nice ad for Sony. Makes you wonder." Anita O'Shea



To see the Sony ad that this resembles click see below.



Comments on YouTube so far include:



See the previous post on Sony Bravia and Tango. I think's its amusing how Sony were happy for Tango to rip their ad off and now they seem to have nicked it from Letterman in the first place. It all reminds me of the Bacardi Salmon ad that appropriated an urban meme. I wonder what will happen!

Hennessy's new Christmas VSOP Fine de Cognac giftpack in the UK looks very stylish. They have collaborated with Central St Martin's Design College to create this much in the same spirit of last year's design by artist, Nadya Bertaux, below.



This design competition was hosted on Dexigner.com where you can find this rationale for the design:

"For the holiday season, the artist Nadya Bertaux and Hennessy have joined forces to give the Hennessy Fine de Cognac bottle a completely new gift box. Nadya’s work on the box takes its inspiration from a combination of her own work and the development process of the cognac.

Through her creation Nadya Bertaux evokes the mysterious evaporation of the eaux de vie during the cognac production cycle, which has the poetic name "the angels’ share ". This gift box symbolises this mysterious phenomenon, and the series of strips that she makes allow us a glimpse of the warm, amber colours of the cognac."