Posts filed under ‘Brainstorms & Campaigns’
Just OOH Does the Hamptons: The Axe Lounge
The summer is upon us, and Memorial weekend tends to kick start the season for many of us. I was fortunate enough to be out in the Eastern Long Island region that is the oh so fancy Hamptons last weekend.
The place I was staying at was a 10 minute drive to what the Hamptons veterans call “Dune;” one of the more well-known and visited night clubs in South Hampton. I actually first heard of this campaign from my father, who is 70, and then from some of my friends, so the word was already out on Axe’s sponsorship of the club for the summer. Word of mouth.
Then a friend of mine and I went there last Saturday night, as it is one of our usual “pit stops.” When we parked the car; the ticket had “Axe” on it, as soon as we walked up the stairs, an entire wall by the entry was branded “Axe,” and the DJ booth, which was actually difficult to see with the crowd surrounding it, was also indeed branded “Axe.” Altogether, hard to miss; and simple Out-of-Home media tactics.
Then we ran into a very old friend of ours Mike Heller. He’s the CEO of Talent Resources, and a veteran in the “scene.” You want Paris or Lindsey to show up to your event, I suppose he is your man. He didn’t mention anything about he’s involvement in this particular campaign, just that he had to be there because he brought someone famous (I forget who now, because of adult beverage reasons & celebrity appearance/media?); we actually all left after a few minutes to go to another place. But as I found out today from Axe Body Products Puts Its Brand on the Hamptons Club Scene, he was the mind behind it. In this NY Times article, a business strategy consultant states that the audience is not right for the Axe brand, but I beg to differ. The place was crowded with youngsters to the point that we (Very early 30s) felt somewhat old. I also know exactly who Axe targets, as I worked on a Monster RFP for them just last year, and the targeting and environment seemed to perfectly fit the bill in terms of what Axe is seeking.
Anyway, kudos to an old friend (who I sent a what the hell? email to today:) ) for what will seem to be a great campaign with a mix of Out-of-Home, event, and celebrity marketing; and you simply got to write a post when an old friend makes it on the New York Times.
Digital Haiku
Photo won from a gentlemanly game of poker from DailyDOOH.com
Twitter’s great, and digital signage is great. Integrate social media and Dightal Out-of-Home; even greater. Let people get use their Haiku writing skills to bring unique user-created content to a big digital screen? The icing on the cake.
Titan Twitter First (For London At Least) reports that the OOH giant, Titan Outdoors, created a campaign where consumers can create their haiku poems and submit them via Twitter. As mentioned, not the first time Twitter is being incorporated into the Digital Out Of Home world, but it is certainly another excellent example of how different medias; in this case, social and DOOH medias, can be integrated to create a unique and fun campaign. Content creative costs have to be pretty low as well. Want your Haiku to run on a large digital sign at Kings Cross Station in London? Then submit your Haikus via your mobiles (or otherwise) to @kingsplace between May 18 to May 22.
An excellent concept!
The Game Equation: Videogames + Digital Signage = Effective Engagement
You don’t become one of the most well known brands in the world and history from nothing. The recent Coca-Cola Israel campaign utilizes videogaming and digital signage in a way that has not quite been seen in the industry yet, or at least to my knowledge. The theory is simple: use the effective ability of videogames to engage the consumers, and digital signage as the communication platform; actually in this case, as the controller as well!
The result? Just look at the crowd of people waiting to try it out. REAL Impressions.
In OOH: Sometimes, Size Does Matter
Via http://failblog.org/ and @eelain212
Love Twitter for several reasons, but especially because you can be made aware of things you might have missed.
@eelain212 sent me this link that shows how sometimes, the first move is not the best move; and with some creative and humorous copy writing, and understanding the scope of the environment- You can get the edge over the competition.
The “first move” was made by Audi, where the ad copy clearly attacks BMW by stating, “Your move BMW.” BMW responded back very cleverly by buying the billboard space next to Audi’s billboard, creating a much larger one, and placing a simple “Checkmate” copy on it. Very smart.
Size usually does matter in the Out-of-Home / Billboard world to get the eyes, but this is a great example of how the factor of size can directly correlate with the effectiveness of the campaign itself.
Carnival Cruises Sleeping with the Fishes and Digital Out of Home
Ships and cruises have been buying up Digtal Signage and DOOH concepts recently, and perhaps, there has been no better friend to the Out of Home and Digital Out of Home sectors overall than the Carnival Cruises brand these days. AdAge covers one of their newer campaigns that highlights much of what was discussed in the previous post. Using Moblies to create you own fishes (and move them around) on a large digital display install on the street. Watch the video to get the details, but few key things that stuck out was:
1. They are NOT cutting their marketing budgets in this tough time: Smart – the campaigns they run now will help them not only in the short-term, but in the long-term as well. Case in point: P&G during the Depression, as discussed here and Bonita blog.
2. Integration of DS, Mobile and Web: Wont go into the DS, Mobile, Web (as well as Interactivity/Engagement) parts – read the previous post for that. But always like to stress the importance of Integration of media here.
3. “Fun” always helps to get “Eyes”!: The use of gaming concepts is starting to really take off; tho I find this particular campaign a bit crude. Still, Carnival has been light years ahead of the competition. There should be a lot of ops where mobile, and even, console game concepts and techniques can and will be used in DOOH to create some very good campaigns in the future.
Anyway, a near-perfect video in terms of relevancy with the previous post, and enjoy the fun Friday vid!
LG: They Don’t Just Make Screens; They Really Care About Our Content As Well
LG is obviously known as one of the largest LCD/DS makers in the world, but they really do care about the content within the screens as well! Some Friday fun LOLs for the folks! The translation is pretty good too.
Fans Buy Out of Home Billboard to Bring Back Their Favorite Show
Who says Out-of-Home Billboards are only for advertisers? This is fairly old actually, but just wanted to show how individuals; even those not in the ad game, see OOH billboards as an effective measure of communication and perhaps rallying up a community as well.
Fans of the TV show “Jericho,” a look into a small mid-west town in a post-apocalyptic setting, rallied up support to find the temporarily-cancelled show to find a “New Home.” A group of fans gathered up their own money and donations from others to create the billboard and buy the space for it. Quite heart warming and clever if you ask me.
The result: there were reruns on the Sci-Fi network and a possible film and comic book series in the works. The show did grow on me as well, but more importantly, here’s a case of how a group of passionate people can get together and get creative to used OOH billboards to convey their message. Hey, it’s certainly a lot more creative than some other creatives I’ve seen out there.
A Little Piece of LED Heaven Right Smack in the Middle of NYC
So, Yes: I had the good fortune to attend the XL LED Lab event yesterday as well, and Yes: @manolo_almagro of DailyDOOH beat me to the post. Argh, he is Such an “Early Bird”! He wrote up a nice professional piece on the event at My Visit to Soho’s Coolest Loft… and some great videos as well on XL Video – LED Lab Soho – Reception 9 Apr 2009. Two reasons why this event was relevant:
1: These are the folks who apparently are behind and dominate the Time Square LED boards; the Digital Out-of-Home capital.
2: They are also behind all the LED spectaculars in many of the concerts for huge names. I attended the ColdPlay show at the Continental Arena a few years back, and the LED show simply blew me away! Since then, I always wondered who was behind the work, and now I know.
For those of you whom have visited this site before, I like “futurific” things, and the event and all the different LEDs was a glimpse into where some of DOOH will be heading in the near future. Think “Blade Runner,” but a LOT sooner than you thought. The motion and resolution capabilities were far more advanced then what I thought was possible, and I am glad to see this sector of the industry step up in such a rapid manner. They were indeed hard to illustrate on pictures and even videos; you had to simply be there to get the full effect.
So all serious things aside; it’s Friday, and time for some fun. Here are some visuals: INCLUDING the JustOutOfHome.com Exclusive of Manolo “REALLY enjoying” his time at the event. Apparently drinks in the “-teens” were not enough to slow him down… A tactical failure of the week on my part! But all in all: Great times were had!
Manolo seemed to be enjoying the XL LED Lab event a lot.. Perhaps Too much, as by end of the night, he was getting REAL FRIENDLY witht the LED Mannequin. "Sir, you are causing a scene.."
He was also getting in the way of Most of my shots. Argh...
DJ was putting on some good tunes as well
Out of Home Affiliate Marketing
Image bought from the black market: originally from http://springwise.com
Most of you know all the affliate marketing ops online these days, but such opportunities are available in the Out-of-Home media market as well. Everyday Models is an example of such an opportunities for everyday joes and joessetts like you and me. It’s like renting out “space” in your daily lives. Remember those people who were selling ad space on their heads, or pregnant bellies on Ebay? Pretty much the same concept here, except a bit less extreme. With these kind of services you can place ads on your fashion, cars, and houses to become an instant “walking” OOH campaign. This is not so off considering that must of our wears are branded all over anyway, so you might as well get paid to wear them. And in this economy, we can certainly use some extra cash. I know this kind of companies exist in the U.S. as well, so Google it and may be you can start your own localized OOH mini-network.
GE’s Smart Grid Augmented Reality Campaign: Quite Possibly the Coolest Thing EVER!!
@manolo_almagro (who by the way is too smart and cool for his own good!) just sent me the link for General Electric’s “Smart Grid Augmented Reality” campaign. All I want to say is; go to the link, print out the sheet and check it out yourself!! Definitely! All you need is a printer or mobile phone, and a webcam. How does this relate to Out-of-Home? I’m thinking handouts on the street that also ties in with a bit of mobile to communicates and illustrates a brand message or product. That’s just in OOH / mobile, but I also see Digital Out Of Home being able to use this as well, which I’ll leave to Mr. Almagro and his expertise. 
I’ve seen this work from the print out, And Mobile phones, so this is a great example of how different medias can tie in / work together to send out an Integrated message and ultimately do something Really cool that is eye-catching and memorable.
This has SO many implecations in our space and others was well that my brain is going into overdrive as we speak in terms of how this could be used in the advertising sense. Manolo says, “this is quite possibly the coolest thing I’ve seen (today);” I say this is the coolest thing EVER! It’s So good, it’ So good! Thanks Manolo!!
