Here is a great recap and analysis of the Old Spice ‘The man your man could smell like’ campaign which was well documented here on Shopbabbles and seemingly everywhere else.

Diesel’s “Be Stupid” campaign platform continues to drive innovative work. This time they’ve said that Digital is smart. Analog is stupid. And with that, Diesel has created a social event called Facepark, a live event where thousands turned up to create an analog version of Facebook, simulating pretty much everything you can do on Facebook in a physical format, starting with every guest receiving a profile cut-out on arrival that would become your analog wall for the day! Very very cool!

post thanks to Digitalbuzzblog.com

The Canadian Tourism Commission teamed up with DDB Vancouver to develop an interactive campaign to engage the cities of Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles in a playfully innovative way. The agency rolled out “digital storescapes” (a.k.a. Twitter-based murals) with a comprehensive engagement strategy that utilizes Facebook, Youtube, Twitter and a street team as platforms, enticing Americans to ‘keep exploring’ by considering travel to Canada.

The murals feature touchscreen interfaces that centralize tourist buzz by displaying live tweets and photos from travelers in Canada. This creates the opportunity for potential customers to not only become exposed to other travelers’ experience, but also to browse through authentic commentary and have a customized branded experience.

Watch the mural in action:

Post courtesy of PSFK

As it says on the facebook page, Fast Lane is dedicated to everyone who loves to go beyond the regular, who is curious for new stuff and who simply enjoys to speed it all up a little. FAST LANE – Driven by fun.

Based on a previous campaign where fans were asked to come up with ideas encouraging green behaviour through fun experiences, Volkswagen has turned to a bit of guerilla marketing and Facebook to launch its new Polo GTI.

Further clips on the facebook page show how else daily life can be speeded up – featuring a slide running down the stairs to the underground to alleviate the boredom of commuterville and a pimped-up elevator replete with space age sound effects.

This is yet another example of a campaign that seems to adopt the three step model to ‘brand socialisation’. (1) Get attention offline. (2) Create and experience that people can participate in.  (3) Activate and share it via social media.

We’ll keep the motor running and keep collecting other examples!

Wieden + Kennedy’s the agency behind Nike’s ‘Write the future Spot’ has unveiled a related interactive element in the campaign—a Twitter and Facebook integration that asks the public to write the future of their favorite players in a few brief words—with the best submissions put up in lights on the electric facade of the Life Centre building in Johannesburg. The Facebook app is here.

This is an interesting spin on the pattern that Shopbabbles talked about in a previous post about how to use social media and experiential marketing to activate a brand on and off line. We had a hack at guessing that the rule of thumb was along the lines of (1) Do something that gets attention. (2) Turn it into an experience (whether you’re actually there or not) and then (3) socialise it.

The great thing about this example is that it takes these principles but works through them in reverse. i.e. use social media to create an experience that gets attention – offline.  Keep us updated with any more examples you come across…

In shopper marketing circles we often talk about ‘barriers to purchase’ i.e things that directly impact people’s motivation and behaviour and prevent them from buying what’s on offer. Sometimes they’re things to do with perception, past experience or budget e.g. I don’t believe that it will do what it says, i don’t need it now, i don’t know how to use it or i think it’s too expensive. Other times the barriers to purchase are more contextual or environmental e.g. i don’t go to that part of the store usally so i won’t buy it, I’ve memorised where to find my favourite brand on the shelf so i tune out of everything else, i don’t like asking for help because it makes me feel stupid etc etc.

What we love about this example is that technology and a simple social media (SMS txt) is used to overcome a massive ‘barrier to purchase’ or in this case, barrier to a decent life i.e. – People feel weird about interacting or talking to homeless people.

By using a projection and a simple SMS mechanic, passers by can engage and sympathise without having to ‘engage and sympathise … It also creates ‘disruption’ and has strong ‘stopping power’ for the average Joe walking down the street. Will be interesting to observe how else technology itself is a means of changing attitudes and behaviour.

http://www.digitalbuzzblog.com/the-virtual-homeless-a-digital-installation/

You may well not have seen the original projection stunt on a building in Amsterdam a few weeks ago – if not click here - but the way the orignal execution has been integrated into the you tube video above is pretty cool. For the shopbabbles team this has consolidated a hunch we’ve had for some time about how to activate your brand via social media as part of a multi-channel or ‘integrated’ campaign.

The rule of thumb seems pretty simple. Do something that gets attention. Turn it into an experience (whether you’re actually there or not) and then socialise it. We’ll keep an eye out for other examples that pop up but in the meantime, if you find any, let us know….

Maybe this is where Starbucks are going wrong you know? To get people to pay for and enjoy that ’3rd place’ coffee experience, you actually have to give them a damn good reason to go into the store in the first place and with all this downshifting hitting their bottom line like a washer woman on an old rug then there’s a lot at stake. Perhaps you need to take the experience to them?

While this is blatant ‘disruption’ and arguably doesn’t tell you much about the product or contain much of an idea… it’s got a tremendous amount of stopping power…and most importantly, will get people going into McDonald’s to claim their free coffee (and probably buy a burger while they’re at it.)

Is it scalable, is it affordable? Does it matter? It’s got conversational currency. Think it’s going to be an exciting time for outdoor / ambient and guerilla marketing this year with ever more spectacular and innovative installations and events fuelling the conversation.

In times of social media you have to come up with something that is surprising, entertaining or even shocking. No matter what it is, but it has to start a conversation.  If you want people to notice and talk about you, you have to create something that is extraordinary and special.

This is the story of how the agency Saatchi & Saatchi X helped the kebab chain ”DoyDoy” to create their own special and disruptive event…
“DoyDoy” is one of Germany’s biggest döner kebab restaurant chains.  However, in Germany there are as many kebab restaurants as there are stars in the universe. To set themselves apart from all the other restaurants and to promote a recently opened location,  DoyDoy  launched Germany’s biggest kebab – a cement mixing truck with a revolving compartment in the form of a giant kebab that rotated just like a real döner does while it cooks. Not only did the promotion generate lots of local press coverage, international media also picked up on it (on- and offline). A PR team handing out flyers offering 20% discount and a free drink with their meal supported the action.

The unexpected event of a giant kebab going up and down the streets really suprised the people.  They wanted to share what they had just seen.  As social media allow to share, people take the döner truck online to their blogs, to facebook, to Twitter or to YouTube. The news spread throughout the internet.

Lesson learned: If a campaign is interesting enough it makes its way from the offline- to the online world. Just by itself, without ever being intended to do so..