Digital Hive

Rock the Internet

I love rocking the Internet.  A great idea from whoever is promoting the new Tenacious D Movie.  This site lets you play with the whole Internet - while having a fun Tenacious D experience. Aside from the brilliance of turning the entire World Wide Web into your playground, there are some other smart ideas making the experience engaging:

1) People are recognized for being the first to "rock" a site, encouraging you to find a cool site nobody's hit yet.

2) You're told how many people have already rocked any site.  This can make you feel special by showing that you're part of a large group (I was one of many who wanted to rock cnn.com) or make you feel extra special by showing that you're part of a small group (I was one of the few fans of toothpastefordinner.com).  It adds another engaging fascination - a curiosity regarding how many others have rocked any particular sites you like.

3) The very nature of the creative output lends itself to being shared.  I can rock out my friends' websites and blogs and send my custom "rocked" versions of their own pages to them. Check out my rocked version of Digital Hive.

Be sure to check out the true-to-brand disclaimer.  My only complaint is that the email-a-friend tool doesn't seem to be working right now.  They should get that fixed...

TV watching online-- promising?

New numbers are out from TNS and the Conference Board regarding the number of consumers who watch TV content online.  This article couches the numbers as "only 1 in 10" web users are watching shows online.  I actually would argue that it hasn't been that long that a plethoria of programs have been available online.  Given the newness of the trend, 1 in 10 ain't that bad...

In another year, the numbers could be significantly higher. That's why these outlets are called "emerging" media.

http://publications.mediapost.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Articles.san&s=50166&Nid=24558&p=375266

Audi Presents: The Head of the Charles Regatta

Audi North America gently branded this weekend's Head of the Charles Regatta held on Boston's Charles River in glorious fall weather. By virtue of being a (practically) lifetime Audi owner, my husband and I received an invitation to the Audi Hospitality Tent with prime (heated) viewing space, virtually unheard of race-day parking, a lovely catered meal (including fine German wines & beers) and Audi swag.

The hospitality tent also featured a number of affinity partners which made for an interesting afternoon in between heats. Audi chose to display two vehicles at the entrance to the VIP tent, the 2007 Audi S8 (starting at $92,000 MSRP) and the Audi Q7 (starting at $49,900 MSRP). The S8 absolutely sizzles and was great at showing off its Bang & Olufsen sound system. The Q7 is Audi's entry into the SUV market - they cracked me up showed great event affinity by putting a crew shell on top of the display vehicle.

The hospitality suite featured a set-up by Bang & Olufsen playing a lovely rotation of dinner jazz.  B&O is providing the audio system for the high-end Audi vehicles.  Check out the sound concept tab on the B&O page - nice web work.  The president of the New England region manned the station and was engaging and provided amusing commentary, helpful information and  gentle invite to visit the Newbury Street store to try out any of the amazing equipment.  I really liked the sound of these $20,000 speakers.  My husband pointed me to the $3,000 speakers.  They all sounded amazing.  The sound system in the S8 was amazing - and if they can make a car sound that good, I feel certain they can make my house sound good.  The B&O catalog is so stunningly produced you would pay for a copy - gorgeous stock, beautifully designed, a fantastic "history of" spread in glorious photos and in the last few pages, what they can do for your home.  Nice.

Philips Shows the Benefits of 'Simplicity'

Philips has been running an innovative campaign to promote its “Simplicity” positioning. Instead of running 30-second spots, full page ads, or placing banners online, the company has partnered with certain media outlets to show consumers how it can simplify their lives.

By being the sole sponsor of an episode of 60 Minutes on CBS, Philips freed up what would have otherwise been ad time and allowed for more in-depth reports. When Philips paid to place the table of contents on the first page of magazines like Fortune, Time, and People, it eliminated the hassle of flipping through countless ads before getting to real content. And by opening up premium content to sites like WSJ.com and ESPN.com, it granted everyone access to all the coverage on those sites.

These efforts illustrate Philips’ “Simplicity” mantra—actively showing the consumer rather than telling them that the company will simplify their life. As a recent Ad Age article praising the campaign points out, it was anything but simple to get media companies (like Screenvision) to get with the program, but kudos to Philips for taking the Simplicity way, even if it wasn’t the easy way.

Just let go

AdAge (reg. req'd) reports on a rousing speech by Procter & Gamble CEO A.G. Lafley.

The speech is a clarion call from a consumer marketing giant for brands to finally admit the customer is in control, and as AdAge observes, "the cry was somewhat unexpected, coming from the chief of the consumer-goods marketer and advertising titan well known for carefully controlling perceptions of its sprawling collection of brands."

"Consumers are more participative and selective and the trend from push to pull is accelerating," said Mr. Lafley. Scary news indeed for push marketing practitioners and clients.

Tellingly AdAge also observes: "if P&G is starting to preach the gospel of letting go, even the world's more conservative marketers are bound to sit up and take notice."

A refreshing wake-up call for agencies investing more time spin doctoring their way out of this than just capitalizing upon the inevitable.

Click here for the AdAge article

Taking local search to a whole new place

Thanks to Springwise for turning us onto this one:

"London buses will soon carry the world's first GPS advertising. Yell.com has retained 25 buses outfitted with digital LED panels that will show messages matching the bus's geographical position.

Yell.com is using the GPS panel system as part of a five-month campaign to raise awareness of its local search facility. Besides intelligent buses, the campaign (developed by AKQA) also includes knowledgeable bus shelters: interactive screens on bus shelters will highlight local shops, restaurants and bars and help users find their way."

Click on the visual to get a better look at exactly how this works.

What a cool way to give consumers exactly what they need when and where they need it. A wonderful way of bringing search functionality out of the PC and into the consumer's life on the city street.

Taking product sampling to a whole new place - bus shelters

Thanks to AdVerblog for a great post about some wonderful outdoor creative in Vienna done for a shower curtain manufacturer. There's nothing quite like giving prosepcts a chance to touch, feel and use your product before buying. Not sure what the online component is - certainly this offline idea would lend itself handily to engaging online interaction.

The ever-informative AdVerblog is at: http://www.adverblog.com/

Who do you trust?

Remember the good old days when doctors and professors were treated like gods-on-earth? For better or worse, their days under the sun may be numbered. For the first time ever, “a person like me” trumped both doctors and academic experts as the most credible spokesperson for a company, according to the seventh Edelman’s seventh annual Trust Barometer. And it’s not a low figure. Trust in peers has increased significantly – from 20% in 2003 to 68% today. Wow, that was fast. Yet more evidence that word of mouth goes along way nowadays, both off and online, and that consumers are pretty much fed up with push marketing. Speaking of online, the survey also measured trustworthiness of the internet, TV, and newspapers. While the TV still wins, its popularity as the #1 trustworthy media source has fallen from 39% (three years ago) to 29% today, while the internet is up from 10% to 19%. Will 2006 be the year that the internet beats TV and newspapers to become the #1 trusted media source? Stay tuned, or rather, stick online to see where this year takes us…

An open source approach to corporate identity

Thanks to Ben McConnell's post on Church of the Customer (originally published on imediaconnection.com) for the lead on this one

How many times has a creative concept died on the table because it runs aground with the client's brand cop? Too often.

So why is Google's "shape-shifting" logo such a success? Because its mercurial character reflects the company's values and helps connect the company to the community and its users. It's the product of Dennis Hwang, whose latest variation (pictured above) honors the birthday of French national hero Louis Braille (January 5th).

I agree with Ben McConnell's opinion: "Google has carved out a unique, and well-known, space for itself in the online industry. It can take liberties that other brands might not."

He concludes that "Google’s Gumby-like logo is a reflection of three things:

Buy more clothes - but not for yourself

Check out this cool in-store guerilla promotion for Unicef being run by trendy Belgian fashion retailer C&A. Created by Publicis Belgium, it's a fundraising effort for the young victims of the recent terrible earthquake in Pakistan.

As you can see from the pictures, a series of clothes made out of Pakistani newspapers were hung around the store, featuring the message (this is a translation): "Is this the only thing homeless Pakistani children will wear this winter? Help them with a gift at the pay desk". Presumably an interested donor brings the newspaper garment on its hanger to the cash register and "pays" for the donation.

Here's why I think this is inspired. First, hanging clothes made out of newspapers on shop racks is just so cool. So, A+ to the creative team (and client!) for coolness and a breakthrough idea. Second, you're intercepting people to ask them to divert resources from their own frivolous wasteful expenditure toward helping someone less fortunate at the very time and place they are wasting money on themselves.

Kind of takes contextual relevance to a new level in my book.

Thanks to Houtlog for the great catch!