I Amsterdam – The campaign to re-brand Amsterdam
Posted: November 5, 2012 Filed under: Ambient, Art, Case History, Design, Event, Graphic, Graphic Design, Installation, Promotion, The Nederlands | Tags: A Portrait of a City and its People, Amsterdam logo, Amsterdam Partners, FOAM, I Amsterdam, installation, Kesselskramer, Promotion, sign 1 Comment »
I Amsterdam was a photography exhibition devised by tha ad agency Kesselskramer (in conjunction with Amsterdam Partners) as a promotion for the city of Amsterdam. Twenty well-known photographers, who were either Amsterdammers or Amsterdam-based, were commissioned to capture the city from their own perspectives, resulting in a personal and diverse portrait of contemporary Amsterdam. The exhibition opened initially at the FOAM photography museum in Amsterdam before travelling the world, proving a subtle promotion for the city as a place to live and work. A 308-page book of exhibition was also published, and the motto “I Amsterdam” has continued to be used in promotion of the city.
From “Changing the Tide: The campaign to re-brand Amsterdam.”
By M. Kavaratzis & G. J. Ashworth Urban and Regional Studies Institute University of Groningen Netherlands
The re-branding of places whose existing brand image has become for various reasons inappropriate or ineffective poses particular challenges to the marketing of major multifunctional cities. The position of Amsterdam as the national cultural capital and major international cultural centre has for some time been threatened by a sharpening of competition from other cities both within and outside the Netherlands and by social and economic trends within the city that have seriously undermined the previously successfully promoted brand image. Furthermore, one of the main elements of the city’s international image associated with the liberal attitude towards soft drugs and prostitution is now seen as inappropriate for the city, as it overshadows other more desirable aspects of the city’s aspirations. This has focussed official thinking and led to a serious and fundamental attempt at strategic re-branding involving a far-reaching examination of stakeholders, goals and competitive positioning. The main tangible result so far, is the recent launching of the ‘I amsterdam’ brand. This paper first elaborate on the context of the intensifying inter-urban competition expressed through the re-branding of cities. In this context, the process of developing the brand and the ‘I amsterdam’ campaign that has followed is described and explained and its likely success is assessed.
Introduction
The environment in which European cities operate has significantly changed in recent years. The process of European Integration and the transition to a knowledge-intensive society are only two basic trends that prescribe new characteristics to the urban system of Europe and pose challenges to individual cities within it. According to Kotler et al. (1999), the main challenges European cities are facing are the accelerating pace of change in the global economic, political and technological environment, the growing number of competitors in their efforts to attract scarce resources and the increasing dependence on their own local resources to face growing competition. Van den Berg et al (1990) further identify the growing importance of the quality of the living and location environment as a determinant of economic growth, the fast intensifying spatial interaction among European towns, with respect to goods transport as well as business, leisure and social traffic and, finally, the diminishing influence of national governments and growing influence of regional and supranational governments. In order to secure development and growth, localities or individual cities now have to offer even more inducements to capital, whether a refashioning of the city’s economic attractiveness (e.g. tax abatements, property and transport facilities) or alterations to the city’s image through manipulation of its physical form and/or its soft infrastructure (e.g. cultural and leisure amenities) (Gospodini, 2002: 61).Within this environment, city marketing has become an increasingly popular practice across Europe. It has been developed in most cases as a response to the new conditions that the above economic, political and social changes pose to cities and their operational environment. Its use has been accelerated in an attempt for cities to position themselves strongly within the fierce competition between them for finite and increasingly mobile resources, whether investment capital, relocation of companies or recreational and business visitors.
The concept and methods of city branding have also been employed by cities in order to reinforce and manage perceptions of the cities held by relevant target audiences. The topic has also drawn scholarly attention from various disciplines (e.g. Kavaratzis and Ashworth, 2005; Trueman et al, 2004; Evans, 2003; Hauben et al, 2002). City branding is an approach that centres on the conceptualization of the city as a brand; and a brand is a multidimensional construct, consisting of functional, emotional, relational and strategic elements that collectively generate a unique set of associations in the public mind (Kavaratzis and Ashworth, 2005). This construct is what should provide guidance for all marketing efforts, in order to achieve consistency in the messages sent and in such a way that the ‘stories’ told about the city by the brand are built in the city (Kavaratzis, 2004). As Hankinson (2004) suggests, the brand lies at the centre of marketing activities and the focus of branding activities extends “beyond communications to include behaviours; a focus of considerable relevance to place branding” (Hankinson, 2004:111).
Amsterdam and its brand image
Official place marketing programmes are all too often a response to a crisis driven by political considerations. City league tables play a major role in creating and defining this sense of crisis. Although the relevance and accuracy of such rankings can be questioned and the importance attached to them by city residents or tourists has not been demonstrated, local officials and politicians in most cities all over the world take them seriously (Ashworth and Voogd 1990) and Amsterdam is no exception to this.
Metropolitan cities have been retaining their predominance by constantly attracting corporate headquarters, international finance houses, producer services, research and development, high-level public administration, internationally dominant institutions and arts and media industries (Gospodini, 2002: 62). Amsterdam has been scoring well in many of these sectors but with the competition increasing, it is precisely in this context that the city decided to develop a new marketing strategy and specifically attempt the re-branding examined in this paper.
Problems became evident in the early 1980s as Amsterdam began to slip down the various league tables of European cities in the face of competition from cities such as Brussels, Barcelona and Munich (Ashworth and Tunbridge, 1990). In the DATAR lists of European cities in 1989 Amsterdam was still 5th in art gallery visits and 10th in international congresses but did not appear in the European top 10 for international organisations, headquarters of international companies, cultural performances, or foreign visitor nights. More recently research undertaken by the city itself indicated that Amsterdam’s position had continued to weaken in a number of respects (for example hosting international conferences) and that even in the areas of relative competitive strength (e.g. as a business location) competition was increasingly sharply (City of Amsterdam 2004). Even on the national stage Amsterdam was increasingly seen as a city of problems rather than opportunities. Explanations of the weakening of the competitive position of Amsterdam have generally focussed upon the perceptions of the city held by various actual and potential users whether national or foreign and thus it is not surprising that place branding has been enthusiastically embraced as the solution to the problem.
The image problems of Amsterdam can be traced back forty years and are to some extent a consequence of earlier highly successful branding long before the term itself was in use. The image formed in the 1960s was composed of two dominant elements. First, there was the urban tourism image of ‘Vermeer townscapes and tightly packed canal side building’ (Ashworth & Tunbridge, 1990), which has become so established as to lock the city into a single historic period and single morphological product. Secondly, together with London and Copenhagen, Amsterdam acquired an international status as ‘swinging’ youth centre based upon sexual liberation and narcotic indulgence. The intrinsic problems of these images stem in part from their very strength. The established image made product diversification difficult and the tourism image of the capital was sharply discordant with the official nationally projected ‘Holland waterland’ image (NBT, 1987), and the popular ‘clogs windmills and tulips’ foreign image of the Netherlands. In part however it can be attributed to fashion changing faster than brand image. In addition, ‘… an easygoing tolerance slipped effortlessly into personal insecurity and public disorder. Acceptance of soft drugs and of sexual variations became a serious hard drugs problem and a sordid commercial sex district on the ‘Wallen’ and the city’s continuing polycentric vitality as a focus for homosexual tourism is equivocal for its general tourism promotion’ (Ashworth and Tunbridge, 2000: 221).
Vandalism, graffiti, antisocial behaviour, personal insecurity and a lack of public order became firmly established in the international as well as national psyche (VVV Amsterdam, 1987) reinforced by the 1982 public disorders at the royal inauguration and failure, partly as a consequence, of the bid to stage the Olympic games. The ‘T’ shirt slogan, ‘I went to Amsterdam and survived’ evoked a certain local pride in resilience among residents but was hardly conducive to attracting more tourists, investors or enterprises. Current ‘Easyjet’ promotion of its Amsterdam flights aims quite explicitly at a youth party market (especially ‘stag and hen’ parties) stressing the advantages of cheap alcohol, possible sexual encounters and indulgent policing.
There were a number of attempts to analyse and correct the increasingly unfavourable city image (Binnenstad Amsterdam, 1987: KPMG, 1993) but these tended to founder on a lack of official coordination and indeed political will, in a social democratic city whose interests lay in social provision for residents rather than attracting exogenous economic enterprise. However by the first decade of the twenty- first century, the necessity for re-branding had become quite evident and impossible to ignore.
Re-branding the city
Over recent years Amsterdam has had many brands promoted by diverse public agencies often for a specific purpose. The remains of some of these (for example, ‘Amsterdam Has It’, ‘Amsterdam Capital of Inspiration’, ‘Capital of Sports’, ‘Small City, Big Business’ and ‘Cool City’, ‘Amsterdam: living city’) can still be found in promotional material. However the need for long-term continuity and consistency determined that a more through approach was required.
A first step was the commissioning of a comparative study of current city marketing practice in 4 other European cities (Berlin, Dublin, Barcelona and Rotterdam). The choice of these cities was somewhat arbitrary: only Dublin and Barcelona were competitors on the European scale while Rotterdam although to some extent a competitor in some domestic markets is a city with a quite different set of functions and perceptions. This survey focused on two main subjects, namely how the marketing effort was organized in the selected cities in terms of specific organizations involved in marketing each city and on how these organisations cooperate and coordinate their actions. The general conclusion of this benchmark study was that Amsterdam compared unfavourably in both these respects. In particular, compared with the other cities, there was the lack of a clear ultimate responsibility for the Amsterdam brand, which remained muddled and muted. Five rather general lessons were drawn. There was a need for, a coherent long-term vision, a selection of priorities, a realistic promoted image, a powerful brand, and a balance in the roles of the public and private sectors (Gemeente Amsterdam, 2003). None of these were very surprising or indeed very helpful in framing policy.
Who brands Amsterdam and to whom?
The main coordinator of the whole marketing effort of Amsterdam is a newly established organisation called Amsterdam Partners. This is run by an Advisory Board, of which the chairman is the city’s burgemeester, and by a Management Board. The main executive functions within the organisation are managed by a ‘City Marketing Manager’, an ‘Events and Festivals Manager’ and a ‘Corporate Affairs Manager’. The partners in this organisation include, seven departments of the municipality, representatives from several large private companies (such as, ABN AMRO bank, Heineken, ING, KLM, Phillips and the Schiphol Airport Authority), organisations concerned with travel and tourism (such as Amsterdam Uitburo, Amsterdam Tourism and Convention Board, AMS Cruiseport, Amports, Topsport AMS) and representatives from the seven neighbouring municipalities. The specific tasks of Amsterdam Partners were defined as branding, positioning and merchandising; assisting, supporting and advising on marketing festivals and events; encouraging the existence of a supportive business climate; relations with national and international media; creating a new approach to hospitality; and research and monitoring
Three primary target groups were identified, which can be summarised as businesses, residents and tourists. The first focuses especially upon business decision makers, especially of international enterprises with their head offices in the Amsterdam area, the ‘creative’ and ‘knowledge’ sectors. The second ‘active city dwellers’ that is, residents attracted by the special atmosphere of Amsterdam (such as empty nesters, two income couples, homosexual couples, young professionals and students). The third are international visitors and congress participants.
There are many questions raised by this selection. The search for ‘creative’ and ‘knowledge based’ enterprises is currently fashionable amongst urban managers but remains vaguely defined in terms of both what these are and which locations they favour. Equally, the elements of the urban ‘atmosphere’ attractive to specified groups of residents remain undefined. There is a clear tendency to being all-inclusive and it should be remembered that in place as opposed to other product marketing it is very difficult to distinguish between the various groups of users and cities are not in a position to exclude groups of users, for reasons of social justice, political balance or future security and sustainability. There is, however, a consensus that a fundamental objective of the marketing effort and a necessary precondition for its success is to make residents believe in the core values of the city, ‘feel’ the city’s brand and be proud of their city.
“I amsterdam”
The main idea behind the new branding campaign, launched in September 2004, was that previously the Amsterdam brand had been badly managed. There had been little consistency of brand usage, uniformity of style and availability of image material. Both the city and the region needed a tangible new positioning; a new brand that would typify the city’s benefits and values. To this end an advertising agency developed a new logo, which was approved by the city. In the new approach, the slogan is intended to serve as an umbrella in both a practical and intrinsic sense, to be versatile without being implicit and to clearly stand for Amsterdam’s main benefits and values. They eschewed the choice of one or two dimensions, thereby excluding the rest. Amsterdam’s strengths are thought to lie in the combination of associations, the versatile city, and thus the effort was made to profile the entire range of dimensions as strongly as possible.
‘I amsterdam’ is the new slogan for the city and the region and will be the ‘flag’ on city marketing plans. The choice of the specific slogan was based on the assessment that it is clear, short, powerful and memorable. Brand usage is coordinated under the supervision of Amsterdam Partners, who especially initially while the brand is becoming established, will carefully consider how it is used, by whom, and for what purpose. The city expects to gain significant benefits in income, visitor numbers, investment, market position in the world, and general image from the new brand. These ‘returns on the brand’, are summarised in three mutually supportive components. These are the subjective mental position of an increase in familiarity and preference, a measurable increase in actual visitors, investment and purchasing behaviour, and a more general improvement in market position on the relevant international lists. The chosen slogan, ‘I amsterdam’, is certainly inclusive and all can identify with it. The parallel disadvantage is its non-specificity and also that it relies heavily on a single linguistic association in a language foreign to the city’s residents and many visitors. However, in a preliminary review Amsterdam occupied the 6th position in the world’s most successfully recognised city brands (Anholt City Brands Index 2005).
The branding is to be supported by a range of other policy measures. These include the promotion of festivals and events, which are powerful vehicles for profiling the city. Tourism will be encouraged through the ‘Hospitality’ programme which is a combination of improved information, activity and facility coordination and a campaign for hospitable reception of visitors. Marketing is to be linked to a series of continuing infrastructural planning projects, the so-called ‘pearl projects’, including the ‘Zuidas’ plans, which link image with visible development
The brand image vs. the product?
In Amsterdam the research and preparation work that was done before initiating the campaign was extensive and involved significant conceptual development, which is not common in the practice of city marketing which too often sees the marketing effort as just a promotional campaign. The chosen organization is also strong and coordination, although still not perfect, is proceeding with a broad consensus on strategy. All participants in the research and all reports on the marketing effort of the city agree that city marketing and especially city branding is a long-term activity, which needs a long time to establish both within the city and beyond. Similarly the translation of the chosen strategy into specific, feasible projects clearly demonstrate that the city has adopted a wide view of marketing and integrated it into broader city policies.
However, branding in Amsterdam is being used mainly as a promotional tool, something exemplified in the disproportionate amount of significance attributed to the merchandising that displays the logo. Furthermore there is some confusion in the meaning of the terms image, brand and logo, a confusion that extends to much of the literature of city marketing (Ashworth and Voogd, 1994). An evident distinction in the marketing and branding effort in the city of Amsterdam is between the content of policies, projects and actions and the ‘visibility of the brand’. This distinction in itself leads to the confusion of the brand and the logo chosen to ‘carry’ the brand.
The slogan, ‘I amsterdam’ has advantages over other approaches which would exclude markets and possibilities. It has the potential to address multiple audiences. However, a brand that tries to associate with everything, is risking association with nothing. The connection of the slogan with the chosen priority dimensions or the core values of creativity, innovation and spirit of commerce is also not clear.
A certain point of criticism can be concentrated on the early stage of the process when the sixteen dimensions of the city were transformed first into three core values and then to one slogan. It is not clear exactly whose choice these dimensions were and how the three core values were deduced from them. It is also not evident how the slogan ‘I amsterdam’ expresses the core values. The seven selected target groups are vague and the apparent effort to be all-inclusive, might lead to problems of ill-defined target groups and therefore confusion in actions and messages addressed to them. This, of course, seems to be an almost intrinsic characteristic of much city marketing in general, simply because of the lack of understanding of the peculiar nature of a city. Unlike commercial companies, a city is not in a position to exclude groups of users.
Finally, if city branding is a way of thinking about city management that centres on the conceptualisation of the city as a brand then the Amsterdam brand is unhelpful in this respect. Much of the strategic thinking seems to miss all the important issues. The image of dirt and disorder, of cheap beer, drugs and pornography is rooted in enough reality to make product improvement a priority over product promotion. While other European cities have invested in spectacular new cultural, tourism and infrastructural facilities, Amsterdam has done virtually nothing for 30 years. The branding effort of Amsterdam is vulnerable to the accusation of being used as a crisis-solving mechanism to provide immediate solutions to urgent problems when it should be used as a long term, consistent and proactive strategy. If the new brand developed for Amsterdam is really intended to work as “a source of orientation, identification and order” (Mommaas, 2002:36), then a redirection of efforts is needed.
From “The Making of I Amsterdam”
Analysis of carriers of the Amsterdam brand
Over recent years Amsterdam has had many brand ‘carriers’; remains of old brands can be found in promotional material. ‘Amsterdam has it’, ‘Amsterdam Capital of Inspiration’, ‘Capi- tal of Sports’, ‘Small City, Big Business’ and ‘Cool City’ are some of the examples of slogans we continue to run into. But Amsterdam needs continuity, slogans need time to be recog- nised and become effective. Slogans from the past do not provide an umbrella for Amsterdam’s key values and benefits. They tend to cover but a single dimension, or focus on a sin- gle target group.
The Amsterdam brand has also been badly managed. There were few if any agreements on brand usage, uniformity of style and availability of image material. The idea of combining slogans attracted few.
With which rules should brand carriers comply? An intrinsic descriptive brand name is recognisable yet less distinctive and specific for the brand it refers to: there are several artistic cities in the world so ‘Amsterdam city of art’ or ‘Amsterdam the art metropolis’ are neither unique nor distinctive in the communication war between cities. The same goes for a process-based descriptive brand name: a slogan such as ‘Amsterdam has it’ does not say much about Amsterdam’s identity. In the brave new world of brands and identities it calls up an image of total lack of colour rather than a distinc- tive profile. This does not mean that intrinsic and process-ori- ented slogans cannot work well in certain areas of city mar- keting. Slogans such as ‘Amsterdam Airport Area – nerve cen- ter of your European business’ is effective for the logistics sector. So carriers should also provide specific sectors the possibility to build on these slogans.
Mokum is an example of an imaginary brand name (although it has a historical foundation). An imaginary brand name is cre- ative, surprising and makes a unique link to the brand. The disadvantage, however, is that recognition might cause prob- lems as the imaginary brand name only means something when combined with the brand. These terms often come up in an unguided way. Inventing them involves a lot of energy when they need to be conveyed to the market. Unique carri- ers such as Big Apple and the City of Light lead instantly to associations and are recognised by all. These are loaded imaginary brand names which have developed a huge mean- ing.
Both the city and the region need a ‘tangible’ new position- ing; a new brand that will typify the city’s benefits and values. Organisations are willing to link their brand names to a new brand. This means the brand has to meet conditions; for instance it has to be useable for any organisation and also effective beyond national frontiers.
A new brand
In the new approach, Amsterdam Partners has opted for a slogan which will serve as umbrella in both a practical and intrinsic sense, will be versatile without being implicit and will stand for Amsterdam’s main benefits and values. I amsterdam is the new slogan for the city and region. It will be the flag on city marketing plans. It will be one of the instruments used to establish Amsterdam’s name on the world map. Why we chose for I amsterdam? It is clear, short and powerful. I ams- terdam is easy to remember and an appealing slogan accord- ing to research thusfar. I amsterdam starts in Amsterdam and its region and over time will travel the world. The concept was developed by Kessels Kramer.
The idea behind and mission of I amsterdam has been described in the manifesto. The starting point is the Amster- dammer, city ambassador. I amsterdam is the slogan for both people and area. I amsterdam allows the people to voice their pride and confidence while expressing support and love for their city. I amsterdam can be used in many ways, but must always come from the people; this is the slogans true power. The people who live here, the people who work here, the people who study here, the people who visit here and the people who come to Amsterdam seeking a better future are, in the end, the best evidence for why Amsterdam is a city of choice. I amsterdam should embody the spirit of Amsterdam, and therefore its use will create a city brand recognized the world over.
Many organisations, institutions, companies and events will be able to benefit from the new brand, however not in an unre- stricted manner and and not in any form desired. Brand usage will be coordinated under the supervision of Amsterdam Part- ners. Especially in the beginning, when the brand is still vul- nerable, Amsterdam Partners will carefully consider how it is used, by whom, for what etc.
From the brand manual
The way in which the slogan should be used has been described in the manual by Kessels Kramer. The manual specifically limits usage. This document contains the following parts:
I amsterdam conclusion form
I amsterdam applied form
I amsterdam mission statement I amsterdam slogan & proportions
I amsterdam font + colour specifications
I amsterdam pure form
I amsterdam forward I amsterdam downloads
I amsterdam legal guidelines.
A number of forms as to usage of I amsterdam are described and illustrated. I amsterdam in combination with photography is the basis for the I amsterdam campaign. Here I amsterdam shows the human face and the human story of Amsterdam.
I amsterdam also means a clear choice. I amsterdam is an active statement that can be used as an answer. Therefore, I amsterdam is a conclusion. So, use I amsterdam to answer specific questions about who, what, where and why in choices for Amsterdam. The questions themselves should be the same size and typeface as the answer: I amsterdam. Always place I amsterdam on a separate line from the question. This creates a spatial heartbeat giving I amsterdam an appropriate finality and strength. If there is more information, include the logos of partners in a separate space from the question and I amsterdam. This cues the reader to register the further sup- port and partnership for Amsterdam in the specific area in question, and maximizes the call of the City of Amsterdam overall. Where do I find inspiration? I amsterdam.
The 23rd of September marked the beginning of the ‘I ams- terdam’ campaign. Representatives from the business com- munity, cultural institutions and promotional organisations, amongst others, got acquainted with the campaign in the ele- gance and old charm of the Amsterdam Concert Hall. The book ‘I amsterdam’, showing photographs of the city, its sur- rounding area and local residents represents the first tangible result. The book will be exhibited in the Amsterdam Museum of Photography for a month, and subsequently included in a travelling exhibition, Japan to be the first destination in autumn 2004. We expressly say the start of the campaign, in spite of all the preparatory work undertaken and results already achieved. From the slogan launch we must give body to what the brand stands for. It will need time to grow, may- be 8 or 12 years, Therèse van Schie, director of the Amster- dam Uitburo, correctly commented. That is why a slogan has been chosen that can and should last for many years to come.
What has thus far been achieved was demonstrated by the testimonies of many captains of industry, creative entrepre- neurs, regional mayors and directors of cultural institutions. All of them, from Tony Ruys of Heineken to the ‘magician of Amsterdam’, Hans Klok, from the mayor of Haarlemmermeer, Fons Hertog to Duncan Stutterheim of ID&T, feel closely bound to Amsterdam. Personally, because they live and work there, and more formally as representatives of their organisa- tions. They all acknowledge the mutual interest between their organisations and the city, and hope both sides will benefit from the joint city marketing efforts. That all these partners are eager to back Amsterdam and ‘I amsterdam’ is thanks to the work undertaken over the past year and a half.
All parties clearly understand what we want to achieve. The Amsterdam ‘product’ is good, says Economics Alderman Frits Huffnagel, but could also be improved where necessary which will happen with help from other committed parties con- cerned. The city marketing and the specific campaign linked to it will benefit city, region and partners. The result will be more visitors, more companies and more residents. According to mayor Cohen the first step is for current resi- dents to feel committed to ‘I amsterdam’ and proudly carry and disseminate the slogan. Thus his appeal to all present and all people and lovers of Amsterdam – “Spread the word.”
180 Amsterdam for BMW Motorrad – Unstoppable GPS Drawing
Posted: October 17, 2012 Filed under: Awards, Car, Case History, Digital, Event, The Nederlands, TV/Film | Tags: 180 Amsterdam, Andy Fackrell, BMW, BMW Motorrad, Case History, Digital, f650gs, f800gs, gps device, motorcycle, Unstoppable, Unstoppable GPS Drawing Leave a comment »“Advertising’s always been about using entertainment to push a product and nowadays there are so many more channels to engage with people” – Andy Fackrell, Executive Creative Director 180 Amsterdam
UNSTOPPABLE was created in 2008 by 180 Amsterdam to advertise BMW Motorrad motorcycles. The campaign emphasized the GPS device on the bikes by encouraging riders to use it to create “drawing” via the Google Maps website. Instructions for taking part were given on a website, which explained how users could begin by mapping out their drawings on the site.
Coordinates were then supplied, which, when trasfewrred to the bike’s GPS device, would instruct participants where to drive in order to create their drawing o the map. The website also offered a section where users could upload their journeys, photographs and film to share with others.
TV Campaign
One of four films from BMW’s new campaign about GPS drawing. See the rider write ‘unstoppable’ on a map of Montevideo, Uruguay. Featuring motorcycle globe rider Sebastian Klein and the new BMW F650GS
One of four films from BMW’s new campaign about GPS drawing. See the rider draw a sailboat in Cabo Polonio, Uruguay. Featuring professional motorcycle rider Dirk Thelen-Farber and the new BMW F800GS.
One of four films from BMW’s new campaign about GPS drawing. See the rider draw a bridge off-road north from Rocha, Uruguay. Featuring professional motorcycle rider Dirk Thelen-Farber and the new BMW F800GS
One of four films from BMW’s new campaign about GPS drawing. See the rider draw scissors on a map of Montevideo, Uruguay. Featuring motorcycle globe rider Sebastian Klein and the new BMW F650GS.
Coca-Cola Happiness Truck around the World – Where Will Happiness Strike Next?
Posted: October 1, 2012 Filed under: Argentina, Beverages, Brazil, Canada, Case History, Coca-Cola, Event, France, India, Italy, Malaysia, Mexico, Poland, Promotion, Russia, The Nederlands, The Philippines, Turkey, Viral | Tags: Coca-Cola, Coca-Cola's 125th Anniversary, Coca-Cola's Semangat Truck, coke and meals, Del Campo Nazca Saatchi & Saatchi, Happiness Truck, Olympic edition, rio de janeiro, The Cheering Truck, uefa edition, Viral, Where Will Happiness Strike Next? Leave a comment »
Inspired by the vending machine that dispensed Coca-Cola and other “doses of happiness” on a college campus in New York and quickly became a global viral video sensation; a specially rigged Coca-Cola delivery truck took to the streets of Rio de Janeiro recently to spread refreshment and smiles to passers-by.
All the action is captured in a two-and-a-half-minute film. In the video, several unsuspecting Brazilians push a button on the back of the truck to dispense Coca-Cola and other fun items such as soccer balls, surfboards and sunglasses.
“‘Happiness Machine’ connected with so many people because the emotion was authentic, unscripted and contagious,” said A.J. Brustein, Global Senior Brand Manager, Coca-Cola. “We wanted to inspire that same feeling again by creating something consumers would respond to and want to share with others because it put a smile on their face.”
Happiness Truck is one of many videos that can be found on the Facebook hub for “Where Will Happiness Strike Next?”. The hub features more than 25 films from around the world that have been created by local Coca-Cola teams to continue the theme of the award-winning “Happiness Machine,” which has generated more than 3 million online views. The interactive site lets consumers search for videos by country and even vote for where they’d like to see happiness strike next.
“We weren’t trying to replace ‘Happiness Machine’ with the ‘Happiness Truck,’” said Christy Amador, Digital Marketing Manager, Global Content Excellence. “We wanted to build on this great idea and continue to answer the question, ‘Where Will Happiness Strike Next?’ by spreading a message of happiness around the globe. These videos from markets all over the world help us to do just that.”
Two of the new films on the hub include a version of “Happiness Truck” filmed in the Philippines and “Happiness Store,” where convenience store customers in Rio are surprised with confetti, lights, live music and more upon grabbing a Coca-Cola from the cooler. ”Happiness Machine” – which cost very little to produce – proved that we don’t need to spend millions to produce winning creative, and that great ideas and content can be sourced from anywhere.
Happiness Truck in Rio De Janeiro
A Coca-Cola delivery truck is converted into a happiness machine on wheels delivering “doses” of happiness in the streets of Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. Where will happiness strike next?
Happiness Truck in Canada
A Coca-Cola delivery truck is converted into a happiness machine on wheels delivering “doses” of happiness in the streets of Toronto, Vancouver & Montreal, Canada. After a full day of sharing happiness, the experience culminated in a 3-city simultaneous musical celebration featuring Kardinal Offishall in Toronto, These Kids Wear Crowns in Vancouver & Duke Squad in Montreal, to celebrate Coca-Cola’s 125th Anniversary. Where will happiness strike next?
Happiness Truck in Philippines
A Coca-Cola delivery truck is converted into a happiness machine on wheels delivering “doses” of happiness in the streets of Marikina, Philippines. Where will happiness strike next?
Happiness Truck in Kenya
Happiness Truck in Malaysia
The town with a population of over 150,000 kicked off its evening with a surprise from Coca-Cola’s Semangat Truck. What a nice prelude to dinner.
Happiness Truck in Venezuela
Happiness Truck in Ecuador
Happiness Truck in India
Happiness Truck in Russia (CHRISTMAS Edition)
Happiness Truck in France (UEFA Edition and OLYMPIC Edition)
Happiness Truck in Honduras
Happiness Truck in Turkey
Happiness Truck in Naples (COKE & MEALS Edition)
A Coca-Cola delivery truck is transformed into a happiness table in a small square in Naples. Famous chef Simone Rugiati is on a mission asking people
to eat together delivering “doses” of happiness through a magic food cloche.
Happiness Truck/The Cheering Truck in Argentina (FOOTBALL Edition)
This time, Coca-Cola outfitted a special red truck with a recording booth and has been travelling around Argentina collecting the cheers of football (or soccer depending on where you are from) fans to support the Argentinean team. Fans are encouraged to record their cheer to be heard by millions.
The truck drove through 19 different provinces in Argentina as it collected the cheer of over a million different voices. On the day of the match, the Coca-Cola Cheering Truck drove into a stadium that only had room for 50 thousand fans and played the recordings of over a million fans chanting and cheering for the team. Way to rally the troop Coca-Cola!
Coca-cola has been doing some really creative marketing campaigns that have utilized a traveling truck concept (see The Happiness Truck). It’s their way of spreading happiness throughout the world…not to mention strengthening their brand!
Happiness Truck in Hong Kong (TRANSFORMERS Edition)
Happiness Truck in Mongolia
Happiness Truck in Nederland
Happiness Truck in Poland (Euro 2012 Edition)
Happiness Truck in Azerbaijan
Where will happiness strike next? Of course in Baku, Azerbaijan. A Coca-Cola delivery truck has been converted to a happiness machine, which rides through Baku streets and shares the 125 year old happiness with Azeri people.
Happiness Truck in Ucraine
Happiness Truck in Egypt (RAMADAN Edition)
Coca-Cola Egypt gives people more reasons to believe using its Happiness Truck to spread happiness and joy in Cairo making Ramadan 2011 better for all Egyptians.
Happiness Truck in Mexico
Mercedes-Benz – The Campaign Created By Nature
Posted: September 24, 2012 Filed under: Best Use of Print, Car, Case History, Event, Press/Outdoor, The Nederlands, Viral | Tags: boars, Car, Case History, Ed van Bennekom, euro 6 engine, installation, Jasper Diks, making of, Mercedes Benz, N=5, pawprints, posters, rabbit, The Campaign Created By Nature, truks Leave a comment »
Mercedes-Benz Trucks has chosen an innovative approach to promoting the clean Euro 6 engine. The entire campaign is literally created by nature. That’s because it is vitally important that we switch to cleaner engines for the sake of nature. And who can convince you to switch better than nature itself. How have animals made the posters? Cut-outs of letters are put on canvas posters and then placed in nature so that rabbits, hedgehogs, boars and other animals can create the advertisements with their pawprints. They do this by leaving behind their muddy pawprints on the canvas posters. So this is how the cut-out letters are gradually filled in. The posters can be seen at car shows and in outdoor advertising together with a link to the making of.
Advertising Agency: N=5, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Art Director: Ed van Bennekom
Copywriter: Jasper Diks
Producer: Guy van der Hoop
Director: Danny van den Bersselaar
Production Company: Big Shot
Year: 2012
United Colors of Benetton – Unemployee Of The Year
Posted: September 18, 2012 Filed under: Case History, Digital, Direct, Event, Italy, Press/Outdoor, Promotion, Social, The Nederlands, TV/Film | Tags: 72andSunny, advertising, alessandro benetton, call for entry, Case History, dignity, Fabrica, Italy, Promotion, TV/Film, Unemployee of the year, unhate, United Colors of Benetton 2 Comments »United Colors of Benetton has launched “Unemployee of the Year”, a a contest created for young people all over the world, aiming to award 100 projects proposed and voted by the online community. The project, promoted by the UNHATE Foundation, aims to spread a positive message of hope and celebrate young people’s ingenuity, creativity, and their ability to create new smart ways of addressing the problem of unemployment.
For decades, Benetton, the Italian apparel retailer, has been known for provocative advertising that attracts publicity by stirring up discussion of contentious topics like politics, religion and the treatment of AIDS patients. For almost as long, critics have dismissed the ads as exploitative because they do not offer solutions to the problems or assistance to the causes that could use financial help.
Now, however, Benetton is going to put some money where its mouth is — 500,000 euros, to be exact, or about $650,000. A campaign that begins on Tuesday for the United Colors of Benetton brand, and is devoted to the problem of youth unemployment, includes a contest to find worthwhile projects suggested by unemployed young people, who will receive financing from a Benetton foundation.
Information about the contest, called Unemployee of the Year, will be available at unhatefoundation.org, the Web site of the Unhate Foundation, which is named after a campaign carrying the theme of “unhate” that Benetton ran last year.
The contest will be open to unemployed people, ages 18 to 30. They are being asked to submit to the Web site ideas for projects — nonprofit or not — that would improve lives in their communities. Visitors who register at the site will vote on their favorite proposals, and the Unhate Foundation will give the people behind 100 winning projects 5,000 euros each, totaling 500,000 euros. The money to be awarded the winners is a small sum compared with the estimated budget for the Unemployee of the Year campaign, which is 20 million euros, or about $26.2 million. But it is a major commitment compared with what Benetton has spent until now on the issues addressed by its ads.
The goal is “a new generation of Benetton, a Benetton 2.0,” Alessandro Benetton, who in April became chairman of the Benetton Group, said in a phone interview last week. The difference now is that when Benetton seeks to “talk about contemporary social issues,” Mr. Benetton said, the campaign “needs to have a practical response to the problems we’re raising. Not by ourselves are we going to change the world,” he added. “But we want to set an example.” Mr. Benetton said he hoped people would be surprised to see the company spending money to promote “values in which we believe. And I hope it’s something many other companies are doing,” he added.
The campaign is being created by Fabrica, the internal Benetton agency, in collaboration with the Amsterdam office of 72andSunny, an agency owned by MDC Partners.
The campaign includes a commercial in which young people in countries around the world are shown trying hard to find jobs. Some take part in a demonstration, holding banners with uplifting messages like “Dignity.”
“That is meant to counter the widespread complaints directed at jobless youth” Mr. Benetton said, “charging them with being “lazy” or being “anarchists,” or that it is somehow “their own fault” they are unemployed.”
There are also print ads in the campaign, which present portrait-style photographs of well-dressed unemployed young men and women. The subjects of the print ads are identified with phrases like “Angel, 29, non-industrial engineer from Spain,” “Valentina, 30, non-lawyer from Italy” and “Eno, 28, non-actor from the U.S.”
Advertising Agency: Fabrica/72andSunny
Year: 2012
Titanic in advertising
Posted: April 3, 2012 Filed under: Animation, Belgium, Brazil, Cannes Lions, Car, Chile, Cliché, France, Germany, Illustration, India, Malaysia, Portugal, Press/Outdoor, South Africa, Spain, Testimonial, The Nederlands, TV/Film, USA | Tags: Argentina, audi, Brazil, Canal plus, Centraal Beheer, Citroen, DDB, Der Spiegel, henkel, history channel, home theatr, iceberg, L'equipe, Leo Burnett, leonardo di caprio, Panasonic, Soken, Sony, Spontex, tam, TBWA/Paris, Titanic, TV/Film, Volkswagen Leave a comment »Centraal Beheer
Four men transport a heavy box with precious contents to a waiting ship. The box survives lots of dangers and finally arrives safe. Unfortunately the ship is the Titanic.
Advertising Agency: DDB Needham, Netherlands
Year: 1993
Gold Lion
Der Spiegel Magazine
Advertising Agency: Springer & Jacoby
Year: 1998
Gradiente Home Theatre
Advertising Agency: Young & Rubicam, Brazil
Year: 1998
Alka Seltzer
Advertising Agency: BBDO Portugal
Year: 1998
Audi
Advertising Agency: Tandem DDB, Spain
Year: 1999
Titanic Food Festival
Advertising Agency: PSL Erickson, India
Year: 1999
Publicaciones Semana
Advertising Agency: Lowe & Partner, Colombia
Year: 1999
Canal +
Advertising Agency: Equator Belgium
Year: 2000
Shortlist
Priya Village Cinema
Advertising Agency: Contract Advertising, India
Year: 2000
Canal +
Advertising Agency: EURO RSCG BETC, France
Year: 2000
Star Channel
In a scene reminiscent of “Titanic”, the workers in an office try to fix a broken shelf.
Advertising Agency: Dentsu, Tokyo
Year: 2001
Fisherman’s Friends
Advertising Agency: Springer & Jacoby
Year: 2003
Meio & Mensagem Magazine
Advertising Agency: Neogama BBH, Sao Paulo
Year: 2003
Citroen XSara Picasso
Advertising Agency: Duezt EURO RSCG, Sao Paulo
Year: 2003
Soken DVD
This series show the problems when you play a DVD player. It then recommends a Soken DVD player instead. The office girl talks to her friend at the elevator about the ‘Titanic’ DVD she saw yesterday. However, she isn’t speaking smoothly. Why? Because her DVD player can’t play smoothly either.
Advertising Agency: EURO RSCG Flagship, Bangkok
Year: 2004
Gold Lion
Sony Wega Home Theatre
Advertising Agency: BBDO Chile
Year: 2004
L’Equipe Sport Magazine
Advertising Agency: DDB Paris
Year: 2005
Dakino Film Festival
Advertising Agency: Lowe & Partners, Romania
Year: 2005
Volkswagen Fox
A ship, a man, a woman. Ship sinks. Man dead. Woman alive. Watch Hollywood’s legendary blockbuster “Titanic” in 30 seconds. Short and fun. Just like the VW Fox.
Advertising Agency: DDB Dusseldorf
Year: 2006
Silver Lion
LG Home Theater
Advertising Agency: Lowe Porta, Chile
Year: 2004
Blockbuster
We see the memorable scene where the Terminator is going to be melted in the industrial plant, everything occurs as normal, but the soundtrack we hear is “My Heart Will Go On” from Titanic. In the credits we read “Terminator or Titanic? Take Both, Tuesdays 2X1 at BlockBuster”
Advertising Agency: BBDO Guatemala
Year: 2006
Shortlist
Panasonic Veira Plasma TV
Advertising Agency: Lowe Porta, Santiago
Year: 2006
Shortlist
History Channel
Advertising Agency: Ogilvy South Africa
Year: 2006
TV Guide
Advertising Agency: Jung von Matt, Germany
Year: 2006
Hyundai
Advertising Agency: Duval Guillaume, Brussels
Year: 2006
HENKEL Loctite
Advertising Agency: DDB Milan
Year: 2007
Montex Carbon Paper
Advertising Agency: Percept H, Mumbai
Year: 2007
Utopia Groups Cinema
Advertising Agency: Duval Guillaume, Belgium
Year: 2007
McDowell’s Diet Mate Whisky
Advertising Agency: Mudra Communication, Bangalore India
Year: 2007
Spontex
Advertising Agency: TBWA Paris
Year: 2007
L’Express
Advertising Agency: Bambuck, Paris
Year: 2007
Megastar Cineplex
Advertising Agency: Ogilvy & Mather, Vietnam
Year: 2007
TAM Airlines
Advertising Agency: Young & Rubicam Sao Paulo
Year: 2008
Shortlist
Toys ‘R Us
Advertising Agency: Volcano Advertising, South Africa
Year: 2008
Cape Times
Advertising Agency: Lowe Bull
Year: 2008
Kaercher (immersion pump)
Advertising Agency: FJR Werbeagentour, Munich
Year: 2009
RIOS Illustration Studios
Advertising Agency: Artplan, Brazil
Year: 2009
Textliner Faber-Castell
Advertising Agency: Young & Rubicam Malaysia
Year: 2009
Show Off Film
Advertising Agency: Fuel Lisbon/Euro RSCG
Year: 2009
Orange Foundation
Advertising Agency: Ignitionk, Madrid
Year: 2009
Rocklets Chocolate Candies
We see the Titanic sailing over the dark waters of the Atlantic Ocean. In the crow’s nest there’s a watchman, personified by a Yellow chocolate Rocklets. Suddenly, he spots a huge iceberg and informs the other Rocklets who desperately trie to alert the Captain. As soon as he takes off to do so, a huge human hand takes it away and eats it. The Rocklet was never able to inform the ship that it is about to crash into an iceberg. Super: The beginning of the history of a Rocklets is very close to the end.
Advertising Agency: Leo Burnett Argentina
Year: 2009
Post-It
Advertising Agency: BBDO Mexico
Year: 2010
Vodafone
Advertising Agency: Scholz & Friends Duesseldorf
Year: 2010
Canal +
Advertising Agency: BETC EURO RSCG, Paris
Year: 2010
Iffco Financial Service
Advertising Agency: Publicis India
Year: 2010
Mitsubishi
Advertising Agency: BBDO Santiago
Year: 2010
Melody Enterteinment
The first all Arabic movie channel makes its take on ‘Titanic’.
Advertising Agency: Leo Burnett Cairo
Year: 2010
Bronze Lion
Ford KA
Advertising Agency: Bassat Ogilvy Group, Madrid
Year: 2011
Washin Bifocal Glasses
Advertising Agency: Grey Tokyo
Year: 2011
Listerine
Advertising Agency: JWT Mumbai
Year: 2011
Braun Silk-Epil
Advertising Agency: Impact BBDO, UAE
Year: 2011
The Royal Dutch Guide Dog Foundation – Google Maps Directions for Guide Dogs
Posted: January 5, 2012 Filed under: Digital, Social, The Nederlands | Tags: Digital, Google, Google Maps Directions for Guide Dogs, Google Maps driving directions, KNGF Geleidehonden, Selmore Lynx, The Royal Dutch Guide Dog Foundation, tool Leave a comment »A new nifty Google Maps tool. Getting safely from A to B with a Guide Dog with Google Maps. It really works. Clic here
KNGF Geleidehonden (The Royal Dutch Guide Dog Foundation) trains puppies to be guide or seeing eye dogs. To help promote the charity and help raise some of the mobility issues faced by the visually impaired KNGF have created KNGF Maps.
The map is a pretty impressive iteration of Google Maps driving directions. The map includes the usual driving, public transit and walking directions but also includes some novel seeing eye dog directions.
If the user selects the seeing eye dog directions they are presented with a blanked out map. When the user asks for directions a seeing eye dog walks the route and lights up the way on the map.
The map serves as a useful metaphor for the invaluable help provided by seeing eye dogs to the visually impaired. The map also includes the usual text based steps of the walking directions and can therefore also be read by screen readers.
“For blind people, getting from A to B is often a challenging route. Guide dogs enable blind people to safely, easily and independently take to the streets. This is why KNGF Geleidehonden (The Royal Dutch Guide Dog Foundation) trains puppies to be guide dogs.”
Advertising Agency: Selmore / Selmore Lynx, The Netherlands
Concept/Art Director: Tibor van Ginkel
Concept/Copywriter: Thomas Reinhold
Creative Programmer: Mark Vertegaal (Selmore Lynx) , Benjamin van Rossum (Action This Day)
Design: Gabor de Man
Year: 2012
Merry Christmas from your Advertising Agency
Posted: December 12, 2011 Filed under: Agency, Ambient, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Case History, Design, Digital, Direct, Germany, Guerilla, Italy, Promotion, Social, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, The Nederlands, UK, USA, Viral | Tags: 180 Amsterdam, Christmas agitation front, christmas card, Christmas Gift, gift a stranger, giving is glorious, Grabarz & Partner, green christmas, grey mexico, H57, Happiness, Lego, Leo Burnett, london, Lowe Brussels, Merry Christmas from your Advertising Agency, Mother, Nitro, re-pack, Santa, Shackleton, the smallest wish card in the world, the ungrateful bastards, virtual holiday dinner, Vitruvio Leo Burnett, Wieden+Kennedy, Young & Rubicam 1 Comment »Merry Christmas from Lowe Brussels: THE SMALLEST WISH CARD IN THE WORLD (2008)
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————-
Merry Christmas from Wieden+Kennedy, Amsterdam: VIRTUAL HOLIDAY DINNER (2010)
The brief was to make a Christmas card on behalf of WIEDEN+KENNEDY AMSTERDAM – something that we could give to clients, family, friends and even strangers. We realized what people want most around the holidays, more than any trinket or card, is to simply be together. No distance should keep loved ones apart. And so we decided to create a virtual holiday dinner, using the Internet to create a new type of Christmas greeting and blowing the traditional Christmas card out of the water.
This Christmas message was especially relevant in our office, which is 75% expatriate – there are 130 people from 20 different countries. Nothing could have been more meaningful to our people than enabling them to connect with people far away.
The rustling faux fireplace, festive holiday table and well-dressed mannequins set the scene.
Mannequins were fitted with screens as faces and connected to Skype so people could simply call in and with the help of their webcam, appear on the face of one of the dolls at the table. The cameras on their foreheads let the people at home have a real-time view of the space and everyone at the table. To make this dinner as realistic as virtually possible, we partnered with a robotics specialist to build a unique facial tracking software. Users could move their mannequin’s head by simply moving their face from side to side. Thus, diners could turn and focus on each person.
We packaged the invitation and booking system onto a website and spread the news via Facebook, Twitter and email.
At the end of the three days there were 16,000+ twitter mentions and 3,800 Facebook likes. Most importantly, 156 people, from 6 continents had gathered together for a holiday dinner. There were romantic dates, cross-continental family reunions and even first time meetings.
Voted 2010′s Best Agency Holiday Cards by Adweek.
Adverblo called it, “A lovely Christmas gift from W+K Amsterdam.”
Fast Company said, “The dinner was an undeniable success.”
“WIEDEN+KENNEDY AMSTERDAM make it possible to sit down with faraway family and friends for a virtual holiday dinner.”
creativity-online
“Now, I really have to dinner with my family!”
Brandsplat Report
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————-
Merry Christmas from Tequila/TBWA Auckland: SNOWMAN (2006)
The brief: create the annual Christmas card for New Zealand agencies Whybin\TBWA & TEQUILA\ to send to clients, suppliers and business partners.
Disrupt Christmas conventions (ie: send a card). Stand out from the ho ho ho hum. We sent out a plastic bag containing water, a pipe, a carrot and two round black stones. The attached message was simply: “Warmest Christmas wishes from Whybin\TBWA & TEQUILA\”.
The Christmas mailer exceeded all expectations and snowballed into a huge promotional piece for the agency. Recipients loved it (whether they got it instantly or had someone busting to explain it to them). More than that, they started talking about it and testing it on their friends. Before long, it was being picked up and discussed on radio stations and profiled in the national newspapers. Generating thousands of dollars worth of free publicity for the agency – and an unexpected ROI of over 1100% on agency costs.
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————–
Merry Christmas from Mother London: GIVING IS GLORIOUS (2010)
Brief and target audience: To show existing and new clients, as well as creatives in the industry, that Mother London is one of the the leading creative agencies. Strategy: Millions of electronic Christmas greeting cards are sent around nowadays. It’s considered by many as something that clutters your inbox rather than something to appreciate. We turned this on its head by creating one email that appears to be just another piece of junk mail but was in fact one of the most important emails that you received all year.
We gave a corporate Christmas gift/card in a unexpected way, the first honest spam, which strengthened the brand as a inventive creative leader. A gift that was entertaining for both existing and new clients as well as creatives in the industry.
We decided to spend our whole budget on a christmas gift to one person.
A spam e-mail offering $10 000 for the first one to reply, was sent out to hundreds of clients and partners. Only one guy replied and we gave him a visit. We filmed the experiment and sent another email to all the people who got the spam. We explained ‘On the 10th of December we offered you $10 000, but you didn’t reply’. Attached was the link to the film. Both our clients,as well as everybody else, could enjoy the film as it spread online.
A quater of a million views on YouTube in a couple of days. 5th most viewed clip in the UK on YouTube (that month). It also reached a number three on the subjects ‘most Twittered about’ during the first days.
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————–
Merry Christmas from Brey Leino Bristol: CHRISTMAS CARD (2006)
“This year, instead of Christmas cards we’re donating money to the NoMore Landmines Trust. Best wishes from all of us at Bray Leino Bristol.”
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————–
Merry Christmas from Shackleton, Madrid: XMAS REVISITED (2007)
We used the excuse of the Christmas Seasons Greeting for an action to demonstrate in the most practical way the creative capacity of the agency.
Objectives:
• Seasons Greetings: Send our clients and prospects our Christmas and New Year wishes
• Display the creative capacity of the agency
• Anchor the image of “creative and integrated agency” in our clients and prospects.
The solution: an exercise full of humor and irony, playing on what is generally the daily relation between “client-agency” in relation to the IDEAS.
We wrote a book following the structure of a “meeting report” where we address, consecutively the surrealistic propositions and comments from both the client and the agency on different aspects of Christmas, such as:
The characters (Father Chrismas/St.Klaus, etc…
The customs (grapes, roscón: kings’ cake, etc…
The location (urban rules in Bethlehem, etc…)
The ambient (climate changes, etc…)
The company’s Christmas present.
Results:
• 531 emails of Thank you and cards (67% SPONTANEOUS answer)
• We got 26 agency presentations when the expected standard would have been less than half.
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————–
Merry Christmas from Young & Rubicam Brands, Milan: GREEN CHRISTMAS (2011)
Christmas greetings card that challenges the receiver to save energy. Recipients were delighted by receiving a typical greeting card that to address a very important theme uses irony.
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————–
Merry Christmas from Grey Mexico: TEDDY BEAR (2005)
Brief: send an original and emotional Christmas card to all Grey Global Group clients that communicates the spirit of the holidays.
We decided not to send a regular Christmas card, but a 3D mailing. A box containing a teddy bear with instructions of what to do with it. It must be given to a street child, and the smile that it generated was Grey’s present to our clients.
Most of our clients returned the coupon which translated into a donation to an orphanage. We received lots of emails and letters congratulating Grey for such an original and emotional Christmas mailing. All of them gave the teddy bear away.
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————–
Merry Christmas from Happiness Brussels: GIFT A STRANGER (2011)
The typical yearly agency brief: create an agency Christmas Card.
As Christmas is a traditional period of gift giving, we at Happiness Brussels wanted to push that giving spirit of Christmas just a little further…
We created Gift a Stranger: a website that allowed people to send a gift to a random person somewhere in the world, and spread a little bit of happiness
The site automatically found a random address somewhere in the world. People could then print out this address, and send their gift to this unknown person. Their gift appeared on the map, with all other gifts from people all over the world.
Results and Effectiveness:
- More than 700 gifts sent during Christmas
- 75.000 unique clicks on the website
- Gift a Stranger was featured on leading blogs
- More than 6.000 impressions on Twitter, Facebook & Tumblr
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————–
Merry Christmas from H57, Milan: RE-PACK PROJECT (2011)
H-57 loves and respects the environment. For this reason, during Christmas, we decided to launch an initiative that would promote our agency and be useful at the same time. We have therefore implemented a very simple idea, but in our opinion very effective to make people understand the importance of reusing old boxes/ envelopes/packagings even after the Christmas holidays, to produce an awareness on environment issues (even with a small action), to protect and save a lot of trees!
The challenge was to promote our agency doing a good deed. We started thinking to a very simple creative idea with low production costs. Moreover, it would have been perfect if we could find something that would help to “educate”our clients to respect the environment/nature.
The idea came one day while we were at work in the agency. There were some boxes and we tried to close one of them inside out then we had the idea to reuse all the boxes that we had here in office. We personalized the boxes with a red sticker to make the idea understandable, elegant and cool without being cheap. Our concept has been published on many blogs and our customers liked and appreciated our funny promotional operation too.
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————–
Merry Christmas from Grabarz & Partner Hamburg: RECYCLED CHRISTMAS CARD (201o)
The task was to design a Christmas greetings card for clients and business partners of the advertising agency Grabarz&Partner with the advice that money would be donated to a charity in their name. The aim was to generate affinity for Grabarz&Partner.
Presentation boards of Grabarz&Partner campaigns that had been rejected internally were cut up into postcard-size pieces and dispatched with Christmas greetings. Grabarz&Partner received many positive reactions from clients and business partner.
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————–
Merry Christmas from Vitruvio Leo Burnett, Madrid: THE GIFT IS US (2009)
The main goal was to say Merry Christmas to other agencies in a special way. We wanted to give an honest gift, inspired by generosity and love, that reoresented the values of Christmas. We wanted to present them with a gift that would be hard to forget, something that would leave the best impression of our agency on the advertising industry.
Each creative went with a special kit, which included: one numbered laptop bag, two t-shirts (one for each day), 1 pendrive with the goodbye email and some goodbye sweets. They worked with new accounts and new bosses. The decision about which creative had to go to each agency was made studying the profile of each creative, in order to really help the agency with their capabilities, all of our creatives went to their designed agency with the intention of helping out and doing the best possible job. It was the only way to approach the main goal of the campaign.
The experience was greater than we could imagine:
- A pitch won.
- A print campaign published.
- 3 webfilms created.
- More than 90% of our ideas were presented to clients.
- And the most important thing, according to our objectives: more than 500 new friends were acquired.
The best thing we could do to leave a good impresion on the agencies was to do something valuable for them, something they would remember us by. We offered them our time and our work to help them to go forward with their own projects. Is there a better gift for an agency than that?
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————–
Merry Christmas from Ruf Lanz, Zurich: RUF LANZ CHRISTMAS MAILING (2009)
Over the Christmas season, customers receive many greeting cards and mailings. Most are placed straight in the wastebasket. The challenge was to create a distinctive mailing that would get the agency noticed both in its idea and execution – and one that customers would not forget for a long time.
Each year at Christmas, the Ruf Lanz advertising agency sends their customers a surprise. With 2008 having been such an economically difficult year, this Christmas they wanted to make it a special surprise.
During the Christmas period, many people like to light candles. That’s why the heads of the four members of the creative board were reproduced as candles. A mould of each of the four heads was elaborately hand-carved in wood. They were used to pour 150 sets of candles – and then hand-painted by the French artist Martine Siragusa. The candles were sent in a wooden presentation box.
The customers responded enthusiastically to the quality mailing. Many put the candles in their offices– and lit them. Some even took them home and decorated their Christmas tree with them. The mailing was also sent to potential customers: one subsequently brought his advertising budget to Ruf Lanz.
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————–
Merry Christmas from Nitro, London: UNSUBSERVIENT SANTA (2008)
Nitro’s alternative Christmas card comprised of an interactive microsite called Unsubservientsanta.com. Users we’re invited to write their Christmas wish in the dialogue box and submit it to Santa. Santa would be woken by a flashing light and the request appearing on his printer. Using the latest in interactive technology, Santa would blatantly ignore the request and do something unseasonably unpleasant such as make a rude gesture, smash up the presents or cut down the Christmas tree with a chainsaw. The site proved incredibly popular with staff, clients, friends and the general public.
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————–
Merry Christmas from Wunderman Zurich: WAKE UP SANTA (2006)
The annual greetings for Christmas and the New Year are a part of Christmas like Santa Claus and the Christmas tree. The tradition of these greetings is to be maintained, without being traditional. The agency network Wunderman/Futurecom should therefore look for a solution, which stands out against the flood of Christmas cards, amuses and at the same time underlines the expertise of the two agencies on their creativity and integrated communication.
The Solution: Wake up Santa, an unconventional sort of Christmas communication via an entertaining and engaging mailing and web game: Wunderman and Futurecom sent the selected recipients a printed Christmas card that asks them to be a hero. They should save Christmas online. This means waking up Santa by choosing the correct combination of waking-up-methods. http://www.wake-up-santa.ch is an interactive site: each try to wake up Santa is shown live via video streaming. The videos were produced in-house, by the agencies themselves. Despite the fact that the visitors had no possibility to win anything or got any other kind of incentive on the website, the campaign obtained remarkable results.
With a send out of 2750 addresses the Website generated:
- 3 784 visits
- 2 287 visitors, 20.4% of it regular
- average of 176 visits daily
- average of 5,27 minutes spent on the website
- 2990 waking attempts or approximately 15 000 streamed waking video clips
- 220 reminder registrations (9,6% of the visitors)
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————–
Merry Christmas from Villarrosas, Barcelona: CHRISTMAS AGITATION FRONT (2007)
The Brief
At Christmas, the agency sent its season’s greetings to its clients and friends by creating the Christmas Agitation Front (F.A.N. in Spanish). “
The Solution
A kit was sent by post with templates of slogans for windows and a spray, calling all the group’s followers to action. The themes on the templates were the F.A.N. logo, a Christmas ball-bomb, “Happy Climate Change”, “More ham and less syrup”, “Pay rise!” and “Consume moderately. It’s your responsibility.
The Results
250 welcome packs for the Christmas Agitation Front were sent in total.
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————–
Merry Christmas from Wunderman Germany: CHRISTMAS DINNER (2006)
The Brief: develop an attention-grabbing mailing for the agency’s business partners, that:
-differentiates Wunderman from other agencies
-proves the creative excellence of Wunderman
-works as the perfect Christmas greeting.
The Solution: Christmas time is greeting time. And it’s also the time of perfect dinners.
Wunderman links both together. By sending out an eatable mailing, that – even if it’s made of paper – tastes like the classical Christmas turkey.
It was realized by Chicago’s chef Homaro Cantu, who developed a patented method to print the taste of different dishes to eatable paper.
Results. It’s fascinating, by attention and surprise. This innovative greeting supports the positioning of Wunderman as competent and creative dialogue-agency. Even if there was no response required, 36% of the addressees felt inspired to answer – some of them by inviting our Board of Executives to a Christmas Dinner.
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————–
Merry Christmas from KMS Team, Munich: BUILDINGS BRANDS CHRISTMAS GREETING (2011)
The task was to develop a Christmas greeting for clients and partners on behalf of KMS TEAM, a company for brand strategy, brand design and brand communication.
The Christmas gift had to meet the following requirements: establish a personal connection, take up the topics of “brand” and “Christmas”, and invite the recipient to become active.
As a Christmas greeting, the brand agency KMS TEAM sent its clients and partners a personalized LEGO set: a conference room with the logo of the respective recipient as an image projection. Under the title, “Building brands”, the accompanying card established the connection to KMS TEAM’s core expertise. Thus a classic gift (LEGO for Christmas) became a delightful means of communication.
Many recipients of the present personally thanked the sender and had very positive things to say about the Christmas greeting.
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————–
Merry Christmas from Advertising Depot, Brisbane Australia: ISTANT CHRISTMAS TREE MAKER (2005)
Brief: to generate new business without having to plead with prospective clients for lunch dates.
We created a Christmas gift that challenged expectations and was interesting enough that prospective clients would give us a call, instead of the other way around. In a market rife with predictable Christmas Gifts, the Instant Christmas Tree Maker aimed to turn expectations on their head and position us as an agency that achieves cut-through and can add new dimensions to our clients’ advertising.
The majority of prospective clients contacted us to say thank you, presenting us with an opportunity to set up a meeting to discuss their account. We have consolidated 3 substantial accounts as a direct result of the campaign, increasing our billings by approximately 30%.
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————–
Merry Christmas from Red C Advertising, UK: CHRISTMAS NUMBER ONES (2008)
Wish clients a Merry Christmas in a fun and interactive way that shows how the agency is now producing work both online and offline. Include some form of Christmas present in the idea to prompt response.
Over the last year the agency had taken steps to offer online services alongside traditional offline services. This included the ability to film and edit digital video, build forms and design and build websites… no mean feat for what was once known as a traditional DM agency. We decided that the big rush to become Christmas No.1 would be a fun way to show off our skills to our clients… so we created an alternative Christmas No.1s competition with staff starring in their own pop videos and singing their favourite Christmas songs. Visitors to the site could then vote for their favourite and be entered into a draw to win an IPOD Touch. We sent out 300 cards, and had over 150 entries into the competition, giving us a response rate of well over 50%. With one very lucky person then going on to win an IPOD Touch!
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————–
Merry Christmas from Lowe Roche, Toronto: HOLIDAY BUTTONS (2006)
Because in this magical time of goodwill and cheer, it’s easy to lose sight of what makes this season truly special: controversy.
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————–
Merry Christmas from Leo Burnett, Milan: THE JUST BEFORE CHRISTMAS PARTY (2005)
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————–
Merry Christmas from Creature, Seattle: CREATURE TOE HOLIDAY GIFT (2008)
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————–
Merry Christmas from Young & Rubicam, New York: THE UNGRATEFUL BASTARDS (2010)
Y&R NY launched a new website called “The Ungrateful Bastards.” If you received a gift during the holidays that you don’t want (and who didn’t?), you can visit this site and trade for someone else’s unwanted gift. “Because one man’s stupid, unwanted holiday gift is another man’s treasure.”
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————–
Merry Christmas from Saatchi & Saatchi, Slovenia: GREEN SANTA (2009)
Y&R NY launched a new website called “The Ungrateful Bastards.” If you received a gift during the holidays that you don’t want (and who didn’t?), you can visit this site and trade for someone else’s unwanted gift. “Because one man’s stupid, unwanted holiday gift is another man’s treasure.”
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————–
Merry Christmas from Recreate.lu, Luxembourg: XMAS ROAD SIGNS (2010)
Nice little guerrilla action noticed in the streets of Luxembourg. Road signs have been discretely decorated in Christmas fashion. Charming initiative in this holiday season.
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————–
Merry Christmas from 180 Amsterdam: CHRISTMAS MESSAGE (2007)
The Christmas card is a light-hearted attempt to contribute to current debates raging about multiculturism, secularism and the true meaning of Christmas. It’s also an appropriate greeting from an agency that boasts over 24 nationalities.
Recipients are invited to assemble their own nativity scene from an empty stable and an accompanying sticker-sheet that features a whole mélange of characters. Choose Santa over Joseph or a Burka-clad woman over Mary. Further options include an array of gift bearers, animals, stars and gifts (many of which are courtesy of the agency’s clients). The broad selection guarantees endless fun and limited offence.
The Christmas message was sent out to clients, colleagues, partner agencies and competitors as a funny way to spread Christmas cheer and also awareness of the agency’s ability to execute an idea in an irreverent and entertaining way.
The Christmas card created a stir and was noticed and appreciated in a season that generally is drowned in clutter..
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————–
Advertising Advent Calendar: 25 ideas for an unconventional Christmas
Posted: December 1, 2011 Filed under: Ambient, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Car, Case History, Coca-Cola, Denmark, Design, Digital, Direct, Event, France, Germany, Guerilla, Italy, Promotion, Social, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, The Nederlands, UK, Viral | Tags: 25 ideas for an unconventional Christmas, advent, Advertising Advent Calendar, Christmas, Christmas Gift, Coca-Cola, Donated song, drunk santa claus, elf yourself, iving Christmas Cards, Lego, Macy's, Mini, operation Christmas, Santa Claus, Santa's forgotten letters, Santamatic, Swedish Postal Service, Unexpected luggage, Xmas 2 Comments »December 1 from Lowe SSP3, Bogotà
Ministero de Defencia National – Operation Christmas (2011)
After 60 years of struggling against Las FARC, the longest running guerrilla warfare group in the world, 6000 guerrillas still remain in the jungles of Colombia. The Ministry of Defense asked us for an idea to demobilize the remaining guerrillas, but delivering demobilization messages to them is very difficult because they hide deeper in the jungle everyday. We discovered that Christmas is an emotional time of the year for guerrillas because they are away from their homes and loved ones, so we created a four-day operation that brought Christmas to the jungle. Along a strategic guerrilla route through the jungle, we chose a 25 meter tall tree to decorate with lights. When guerrillas approached the tree, movement sensors made it light up and a banner announced the following message:
“IF CHRISTMAS CAN COME TO THE JUNGLE, YOU CAN COME HOME. DEMOBILIZE. EVERYTHING IS POSSIBLE AT CHRISTMAS.”
Result: 331 guerrillas who have demobilized acknowledged that they were motivated to finally give up their weapons thanks to this idea, that was replicated with 9 more trees. The Operation got so many people involved, that it was shown all over the world through videos, websites, social networks and blogs. Main local and international media networks like CNN and BBC broadcasted it. This Operation showed a more humane and positive side of Colombia’s internal conflict.
————————————————————————————————————————————————
December 2 from MarketingVivo, Madrid
Madrid City Council – The Wishing Tree (2008)
The Challenge was to find a relevant idea for an event that would involve citizens of Madrid, in the City Council Christmas campaign. A Christmas related idea but not a cliché. We create a concept for a participatory action that fulfilled the challenge: The Wishing Tree that grows with the wishes and hopes of Madrid citizens, for 2008. On that base we built a stunt in the Retiro Park, Madrid’s most famous park, located in the centre of the city. Starting December 21st, a huge Christmas tree kept growing in the Retiro Park in Madrid, thanks to the participation of the citizens who went to set down their wishes for 2008, written down on helium balloons; the tree got to a height of 32 metres. 21 actors dressed up like gardener elves, with their giant snails, welcomed the visitors, and made the process easy, emotional and fun. This was a very moving experience for all participants. The action ended in a special ceremony, the tree opened up and all the balloons were released: all the wishes flew into the Madrid sky. By creating a participatory activity, we made Madrid City Council Christmas campaign, more relevant to the citizens A part from the fact of the massive participation, this was a very moving experience, not just for the kids but for grown people, who focused their energy and hopes in the moment that their balloon wishes for 2008 were feed into the tree. Result: over 120,000 people participated and wrote their wishes. Over 40,000 people attended the final event of balloons release, great media coverage in main newspapers (El Pais, El Mundo, ABC) and on main TV News. Madrid City Council wants this event to become a tradition at Christmas in following years.
————————————————————————————————————————————————
December 3 from Ogilvy Brasil
Coca-Cola – Santa’s Forgotten Letters (2011)
Coca-Cola and Christmas have always gone hand in hand. However, adults don’t care so much about Christmas anymore, and its magic is almost lost. Our challenge was to give adults a reason to believe in Christmas again.
And to do that, we decided to take them back to a time when they believed: their childhoods.
Creative execution: remember a letter you wrote to Santa as a kid? What if Santa found it now and brought to you the exact gift you had asked for many years ago? That’s exactly what we did. We searched the world and, in the little town of Santa Claus, Indiana, found the Santa Claus Museum, a place that keeps letters to Santa dating back to the 1930′s.
We went through 60.000 letters, selected 75 of them and then set out on an impossible task: to find the writers and give them the exact gifts they had asked when kids – from a Cathy Quickcurl doll to an Evel Knievel Skyrocket. We also made a video documenting the whole process, including each personalized stunt, and spread it across the world through Coca-Cola’s facebook fanpage, which has more than 25 million fans.
By creating these emotional and personalized door-to-door stunts, we gave the impacted adults a special reason to believe in Christmas again – some of them even sent us thank you emails saying they would never forget the day Santa knocked on their doors. The video was also very successful, being featured in several blogs, twitters and facebook pages. More importantly, we made adults believe in Christmas again.
————————————————————————————————————————————————
December 4 from GOSS, Gothemburg
Gothemburg Homeless Aid – Return to Sender (2008)
Gothenburg Homeless Aid is a voluntary organisation that helps the homeless, substance abusers and other vulnerable people.
People are a bit more generous around Christmas and tend to give more to those less fortunate than themselves. That’s why Christmas is a very important time for the Gothenburg Homeless Aid, a time when a large proportion of the entire year’s funding is collected.
But what can be done to stand out in the onslaught of mailings and Christmas cards? Actually, we created another Christmas card. To draw attention to all the people with no fixed abode in Gothenburg we sent out the Christmas cards in envelopes addressed to: “Lasse Persson, a doorway/tunnel/stairwell, Hisingen (a part of Gothenburg)” and wrote the details of the actual intended recipient on the back of the envelope. Obviously the Swedish post office couldn’t find Lasse because he has no real address. The mail therefore had to be returned to the ‘Sender’ address on the back of the envelope with a post office stamp saying ‘Not known at this address’. The yellow label on the envelope not only highlights the fact that there are people in Gothenburg who have nowhere to live. It makes it virtually impossible for the recipient to simply discard it without opening it and seeing what it’s all about. The Christmas card was sent to 20,000 people in Gothenburg, in the days before and after Christmas. The campaign raised SEK 1.6 million (around EUR 170,000), which is more than any other campaign for Gothenburg Homeless Aid. The result was also an increase by 60% compared to the previous Christmas campaign.
————————————————————————————————————————————————
December 5 from Lowe Brindfors, Stockholm
COOP – Update the Christmas Table (2007)
In Sweden, people are very traditional – especially when it comes to food. We eat the same Christmas dishes as our ancestors have done for hundreds of years. Many can be traced back through the generations to the time of the Vikings. Needless to say, much of this food isn’t healthy or inspiring. With this campaign, Coop wants to challenge traditional notions and introduce the target group to new ideas, including healthier Christmas food. The main goal of the campaign is to “Update the Christmas table”, which the visitor literally gets to experience.
————————————————————————————————————————————————
December 6 from Leo Burnett Lisbon
Bola Amiga (Abandoned Children Awareness) – Christmas Gift (2006)
The brief: motivate wealthier people to donate for helping abandoned children.
The solution: we decided to create a mailing peice for company directors and managers. It consisted of a Christmas gift. Only when opened, instead of a gift, they found a cardboard box with a printed image of a homeless child sleeping in it. Near the child, a card read: “For some, Christmas is never merry.” The results: donations grew 35%. Nearly 60% of the people expressed their thanks. Many felt touched by it, and wrote things like: ” The best Christmas present anyone could receive”; ” I was totally surprised”; ” My wife even cried when she saw it.”
————————————————————————————————————————————————
December 7 from Akestam Holst, Stockholm
The Swedish Post – Living Christmas Cards (2011)
Swedish Post’s (Posten) business relies on people sending tangible things (cards, packages etc.), thus in a way the rapid digital development poses a heavy threat. Year after year, we see a decline in number of Christmas cards sent, and an increase in digital messages spread around this holiday. Consequently, the objective was to inspire Swedes, primarily young people who don’t usually send tangible greetings, to send real Christmas cards and decelerate the negative trend. Main insight: people love getting cards but think it’s too much of a hassle writing and sending them – thus, sending cards needs to be more fun.
New technology merged with old-fashioned thoughtfulness resulted in “Living Christmas Cards”; the world’s first Christmas cards photographed live from the web. Our expectation was that this would re-energize Christmas cards and make them more relevant to young Swedes. A reindeer’s pen was built on the top of a mountain and web-cameras were mounted in and around it so people could take their own unique pictures from the pen through a website. “Living Christmas Cards” was connected to a web-tool called “Real Postcard” where you upload pictures and write messages, which Posten then deliver as postcards.
Since many (especially young folks) think that Christmas cards are something for the elders and that is not something they go about doing, the key in this execution was to re-define what a Christmas card can be, and not the least how to create and send one. Hence, the execution made people interact with Christmas cards in a whole new way and realize that this product is not obsolete – it’s in fact the opposite. This was also important from a brand standpoint, since Posten is often seen as old-fashioned… not so much any more.
In order to make people aware of our projects we placed advertising banners on relevant external websites, as well as on Posten’s own site, that would lead the target audience to the respective landing site. Furthermore, the message was spread through social media, which played a key role in driving traffic. Results: the negative trend for real cards decelerated heavily. 2010 became the best year ever for the “Real Postcards” web-tool (from where the Living Christmas cards were sent) – an 18% increase in sent cards compared to 2009. 55.5% of all cards sent through ”Real Postcards” were sent around Christmas, indicating that this promotional campaign was highly effective. Furthermore, the campaign generated massive impact in non-bought media. In total, PR contacts were estimated to 6.6 million (Sweden’s population: 9 million) and PR was highly positive.
————————————————————————————————————————————————
December 8 from McCann Erickson Belgium
Hospital Cavel – XMas Card Premature (2011)
Every year, the premature baby unit at Edith Cavell hospital sends cards to the other departments as well as to some ex-patients.This year, they sent this card in mid-October. When you open it, you see the message “It’s a little premature, but Happy Christmas”. The surprise to receive a Christmas card 2 months in advance was really appreciated.
————————————————————————————————————————————————
December 9 from Shackleton, Madrid
Spanair – Unexpected Luggage (2011)
Spanair flight JK5208 from Barcelona arrived at Las Palmas on the evening of Dec. 24, at a time when most European families are traditionally enjoying their main Christmas celebration. As the 190 passengers waited impatiently for their suitcases, they saw the luggage belt lurch into action — but instead of seeing their own bags, they saw an array of bright, gift-wrapped presents of all shapes and sizes parading past them. Covered in gold, silver, red, purple and green candy-stripes and decorated with flamboyant ribbons, the unexpected packages chugged past the astonished passengers. People gradually began to notice their own names on the parcels’ gift tags, but nervously watched them go past a couple of times before daring to pick them up. After awhile, they began to pick the presents up and shake them suspiciously for clues as to their contents. Eventually they tore open the wrapping to reveal gifts for every kind of passenger. For the kids there were teddy bears, giant candy bars, toy horses, cars, trumpets, puppets and costumes; and for the adults, beauty products, Lomography cameras and hats.
The passengers directed a spontaneous round of applause at the luggage belt, and each had a heart-warming tale about Spanair — which markets itself as “La de Todos” or “Everyone’s Airline” — to tell their loved ones at Christmas.
The whole stunt was planned by Spanish ad agency Shackleton, based in Barcelona. The agency’s VP, Enric Nel-lo, said in a statement, “We understand the emotional stress of traveling on such a special evening, particularly on one of the last flights, when everyone else is reunited with their families celebrating Christmas Eve. These passengers deserve a gift like the rest, with all the excitement and the surprise factor, too. It was a very special gesture for all those who have no other choice but to fly on the night of December 24th.”
Nuria Tarr, commercial director of Spanair, said in the statement, “This action strengthens the company’s image in the areas of innovation and closeness to our passengers. We’ve created a very warm and human brand experience and it’s a true reflection of the positioning we have been building since last year.”
In less than 48 hours, a YouTube video of the event received more than 100,000 views, and more than 7,000 users shared it on Facebook and Twitter.
————————————————————————————————————————————————
December 10 from Ubachswibrun/JWT, Amsterdam
MINI – MINI Christmas Box (2010)
2009 was the year of MINI’s “99 euro” campaign. MINI was looking for a closing offensive within this campaign for the month of December. The goal was to convey the MINI brand experience in combination with the low price. We used the familiar day-after-Christmas street scene: rubbish bags, Christmas trees, and the cardboard boxes our presents came in. A recognisable scene that MINI also makes intriguing. Because all over the city, we see a MINI Box on people’s doorsteps with a big “99 euro” price-tag. This is how we showed that MINI falls under the category of “affordable presents”.
————————————————————————————————————————————————
December 11 from Saatchi & Saatchi Romania
Toyota – Christmas Bubble (2008)
Toyota client asked the agency for a direct mailing that would convey the company environmental commitment, also when wishing their clients Merry Christmas. We decided then to produce some delicate and precious objects such as hand painted Christmas balls, and to put them in an anonymous box with the word Fragile on it.
The boxes were then delivered one by one personally to a selected list of VIP clients, journalists and Romanian opinion leaders.
When they opened the box, they found a “Christmas globe” and with it a strong but sweet message: “The world is in your hands. Treat it well. Merry Christmas from Toyota.
————————————————————————————————————————————————
December 12 from Contract Advertising, India
Cadbury India – Christmas Celebrations for the blind (2009)
The challenge was to create a package which would touch lives directly. A package that would reflect the simplicity and more importantly, the sincerity of the idea. The key objective was to take the brand and its gifting properties beyond regular consumers, to cement Cadbury’s reputation as a good corporate citizen during Christmas. Cadbury Celebrations is an assortment of fine gift chocolates. During the festive season, alongside the usual boxes of chocolates, the client wanted us to initiate a Corporate Social Responsibility activity which would in his words, ‘directly and tangibly make a difference’ to someone.
Keeping the objective of ‘corporate social responsibility’ in mind, we thought of including blind children in this festive season. Could our pack make an emotional bridge between the season of giving and the brand?
Taking off from who the gift was intend for, the idea to do a Braille pack for Cadbury Celebrations came spontaneously. How wonderful would it be for a visually-challenged boy or girl to wake up on Christmas Day and receive a Christmas gift like none other? We set about designing various options, using papers of different GSMs till we had a cost-effective, yet appealing solution which offered a unique texture.
This special package was not up for sale. However, it earned us rich dividends in terms of the joy that was spread in abundance. To see the children break out into smiles as they read the cover of the box, and then bite into the chocolates, was so heartwarming, that the Victoria Memorial School for the Blind invited Cadbury for every festival of the year. The goodwill earned, has cemented Cadbury’s reputation as a good corporate citizen, who performed its Christmas act of giving, in a quiet and unobtrusive manner. No PR articles were issued around this for example, preserving the integrity of the project.
————————————————————————————————————————————————
December 13 from Starcom/JWT Italia
Coca-Cola- Illumina la città di Milano (2009)
The 2008 campaign has a new claim “Light up Christmas with a Coca-Cola emotion”. The challenge was to revitalize and further amplify “light up” communication code with innovative activations.
The insight that sparked the idea was drawn from the fact that media at the time was focusing on urban security concerns following an apparent wave of street crime. Dark winter streets were the symbol of this feeling – and large city administrations were putting a lot of effort into bringing light to their citizens. Coca-Cola could leverage this initiative and add joy and positivity to the initiative, by lighting up an urban vehicle (a tram) in the fashion of the traditional Coke Truck – which would navigate the streets at a peak moment in pedestrian traffic.
In order to illuminate Milan, Coca-Cola has chosen an urban transport icon, the tram – also, supporting the public transport service as a mean of higher security in a traffic-intense part of the year.
Historic trams were converted into branded cable-cars of white light, spreading brilliance through the streets and serve as an iconic image for both the advertiser and the city.
The cars toured the central area of Milan, spreading its positive message with the further support of actual Santa Clauses on board, distributing branded Christmas gifts at every stop. The Coca-Cola logo was highlighted at the head of the car, associated with holiday wishes from the Municipality. Adding a signal of social responsibility, the project was also engineered using low energy technology.
The project was announced in a press conference that also featured prominent Italian political figures including a Minister and the Mayor of Milan.
Even amongst the already sparkling Christmas decorations of the city, the tram had an extremely positive impact on passers-by and passengers. Immediate reactions captured on the spot clearly show the deep success that this initiative had in enhancing the overall Christmas atmosphere.
Also, due to its public component – as it involved local authorities and the support of their efforts in improving the life and aspect of the city – the action enjoyed a wide resonance and PR support, ranging from publicly expressed commendations from political personalities and the mayor, to press coverage, to word-of-mouth through the population of Milan.
————————————————————————————————————————————————
December 14 from UM Sydney
Lego – Santa’s Little Helper (2010)
To adults, gift-buying for children at Christmas time is a daunting experience. Especially when making the right choice validates them as a good parent, grandparent, auntie or uncle. Add to this the sheer volume of toy advertising pre-Christmas and you quickly turn a daunting experience into a nightmare. Too much choice, a whole lot of pressure, and very little time. Efforts were focused on taking the stress out of choosing a gift, and in doing so positioning LEGO as the No.1 choice this Christmas. LEGO = Santa’s Little Helper, a multifaceted campaign that spoke to kids and adults.
At the campaign’s epicentre was a purpose-built local website taking the anguish out of buying toys. Simplifying things, it showed parents the LEGO range by their child’s age group. It also helped them find their nearest retailer, and print a product page to take in-store. Never before had such a LEGO service existed in Australia. To get gift buyers there, we bought a unique search term: “Santa’s Little Helper”. We placed the term front and centre in all advertising: Santa’s Little Helper appeared in cluttered retail, outdoor, print and sampling environments in the Christmas lead-up. A refreshingly simple message, in chaotic places, at a chaotic time. Santa’s Little Helper didn’t stop there. Via product TVC’s, kids were invited online to a fun-filled destination to create LEGO e-cards showcasing their favourite LEGO toys, which they could then send to Mum and Dad, unwittingly aiding the Santa’s Helpers list.
Results: over 682,000 searches for LEGO or ‘Santa’s Little Helper’. Santa’s Little Helper generated a click-rate of 3.5%… double the toy-industry average. And better still, our overall search click-rate was 6 times the toy-industry average. Gift buyers viewed an average 14.8 pages per visit – an extremely sticky result. Santa’s Little Helper drove more product page views than any other LEGO-related term (brand terms are normally the strongest drivers). 5,263 store searches. 1,170 kids sending e-cards to their parents. 15,000 bricks in-hands through sampling. Sales were up 39% year on year.
————————————————————————————————————————————————
December 15 from JWT New York
Macy’s – Believe Mailboxes (2009)
The 2008 holiday season threatened to be the most difficult since the Great Depression. Macy’s needed an idea that would drive traffic and rekindle the holiday spirit from new and existing customers, in a time when it was in very short supply.
Despite the economic forecast, there was hope. The election brought a sense of change to America, and people were desperate for good news. This led us to the insight that to believe in something as ineffable as Santa Claus is to believe in the true spirit of Christmas. For Macy’s 2008 holiday campaign, we asked America to “Believe.” Macy’s has had a long history of epic Christmas celebrations. The brand boasts a world-famous holiday parade, iconic Christmas windows, and a well-known relationship with “the real Santa.” Even a classic American holiday film “Miracle on 34th Street” is about the fact that Santa Claus works at Macy’s. No other American department store had the permission to ask America to Believe. And few brands could pull it off at the scale at which Macy’s is used to operating.
At the core of the Believe campaign was an activation idea where we asked people to prove they believed by writing a letter to Santa Claus and mailing it at Macy’s. For every letter collected, Macy’s donated one dollar to the Make-A-Wish Foundation – a charity devoted to fulfilling the wishes of children with life-threatening illnesses. To collect the letters, we installed Believe mailboxes in every one of Macy’s more than 800 stores nationwide. Our goal was stated from the beginning – we wanted to collect more than a million letters and donate $1 million dollars to the Make-A-Wish Foundation.
The Believe Stations that housed the mailboxes helped Macy’s become a fun family destination for the Holidays, and not just another place to shop.
The idea inspired the nation. The Herald News from Joliet, Illinois tells of a four-year old leukemia victim named Mia, who collected over 800 letters from her classmates because she wanted to help the Make-A-Wish Foundation.
We exceeded our goal and collected 1,079,206 letters to Santa. On December 23, we presented the Make-A-Wish Foundation with a check for $1,000,000.
————————————————————————————————————————————————
December 16 from Crispin Porter+Bogunsky Europe, Gothemburg
Swedish Postal Service – Magical X-mas Cards (2010)
What can the Swedish Post do about young people only sharing their lives on Facebook these days? How can we prove the strength of a traditional post card? Our solution: let people create and send Christmas cards, using modern technique! Let all the hours you’ve spent sharing your life on Facebook come to use, now as a real Christmas card – containing personal design made of the texts from you and your selected recipient. Write a greeting on the flip-side, and the card is delivered to your friend’s doorstep, tempting her to send her own greeting.
By collecting status updates and comments from Facebook then making them come alive in the physical world, we created something original and unique. The target group was impressed by the personality and character of a physical Christmas greeting. Something they, in many cases, had never experienced before. This suited the brand like a glove. The Postal service wants people to feel that a physical letter is the most personal way of communicating. And you couldn’t find a more personal Christmas card than this. Each one reflecting the sender and reciever’s communication during the past year.
The strength of this campaign was two-fold, it spread itself through the actual physical cards delivered and also through social networking. The way this campaign combined the physical world with the digital was paramount in its success. To begin with, 100 cards were sent to chosen individuals in the target group. As a result, during the campaign’s short span (18 days) more than 5000 cards were made and delivered by the Postal service.
The campaign created a massive positive reaction in blogs and social media where the Postal service was portrayed as well in sync with the present. During the 18 days this campaign ran, over 5000 cards were sent as a result of 65000 unique visits. The average time spent on the site was 3:40 and the sales cost per response was 25 SEK.
————————————————————————————————————————————————
December 17 from Scholz & Friends, Berlin
Bosch – The Push-Puppet Chainsaw (2006)
Brief: create a retailer-mailing that draws attention towards the Bosch Professional Chainsaw which combines great power with outstandingly easy handling. We used a well-known toy to dramatise how powerful and easy it is to handle this professional chainsaw. Well timed for Christmas, we produced the “Bosch Push-Puppets” and sent them to the retailers. If they pressed the button at the bottom, the trees were cut down and a “conqueringly“ lumberjack stayed standing, holding a Bosch Chainsaw in his hands. A sticker at the bottom reads: “High performance. Easy to use.” The push-puppet was sent to retailers in Germany in combination with a request-fax for a personal presentation from the Bosch sales staff. The mailing generated an unusually high response of 11.5%.
————————————————————————————————————————————————
December 18 from Famous Brussels
Belgian Lawyers Association - Santamatic (2011)
The Flemish Lawyers Association wanted to improve awareness about online agreements. Consumers don’t realise that those are real agreements as well. With real obligations. Just like any other contract you’d sign. How could we make consumers aware of that carelessness?
Consumers are not aware of the fact that online agreements are also legal agreements. With real obligations. Just like any other contract.
The Santamatic confronts us straight with our careless behavior.
After seeing the movie, you could send it to a friend including a ridiculous obligation added by yourself. And wonder if your friends would read the terms and conditions.
A week before Christmas, an online application was launched in which you could morph yourself into an 80 year old Santa. You had to upload your picture, fill in your name and agree with the ‘terms and conditions’ But instead of seeing yourself as an old Santa, something else happened.
A man confronted you with what you just signed. The picture you uploaded could be used to promote ivory.
At the end he reveals that he’s a lawyer. The few people that actually opened the terms and conditions before they started morphing, got a congratulations message from the ‘Flemish Lawyers Association’
Results: of the 24.000 visitors of the first 5 days after launch, only 6.566 opened the terms and conditions. That means that only 1 out of 4 people actually read what they’re signing up to.
————————————————————————————————————————————————
December 19 from JWT Spain
Amnesty International – Christmas Gift (2011)
Amnesty International needed funds so as to be able to continue campaigning against human rights abuse.
Our challenge: to do a Member-get-Member promotional activity encouraging current members to give an Amnesty International subscription to their loved ones for Christmas. We chose the typical gift you’re committed to at Christmas time (a pair of socks) and turned it into a gift with commitment. In conjunction with a fair trade workshop, we created some socks with designs related to injustice.
As detailed on the list of type of media referred below (and in the presentation board), there was a print campaign in the Spanish Amnesty International magazine and an email sent out to all the people listed in their database (including members and supporters), along with banners that addressed people to the micro-site of this campaign.
These socks became the welcome pack which new members would receive with their gift subscription to Amnesty. And they were the first step to Amnesty International’s Catalogue of Gifts with Commitment.
We multiplied the number of members recruited in previous Amnesty International ‘member-get-member’ campaigns by 26. And we ran out of socks.
————————————————————————————————————————————————
December 20 from Wirz/BBDO
Salvation Army – Donated Song (2011)
During their traditional street collections, the Salvation Army sings the same well-known Christmas carols every year. This means the organisation is reaching fewer and fewer people and particularly lacks appeal to younger donators.
To reach a young target audience, our strategy was to make the Salvation Army appear surprisingly younger without losing its well-known singing tradition – after all, there are plenty of other musicians who have a lot of success with their songs.
Our idea was to ask Swiss music stars whether they would be willing to donate one of their hit songs to the Salvation Army. Some of the most famous bands in Switzerland took part, allowing the Salvation Army to sing their songs for free, several of which had been number one hits in the Swiss singles charts. This eventually enabled the Salvation Army to sing songs on the street from big-name stars who have an enormous fan base among young people in Switzerland. The Salvation Army was out rocking and rapping on the streets, attracting attention and giving it a younger image.
Everyone has seen the Salvation Army singing on the street. Everyone knows the hits that were donated. But the fact that the Salvation Army – which had always had a serious but slightly boring reputation – was out on the streets just like before but this time singing hit songs, confused people – but in a positive way. And that was despite the fact that the Salvation Army was out there doing what it does every year – namely singing.
The reporting carried out by TV and radio stations, newspapers and websites achieved 65% penetration countrywide. Achieving similar results using conventional advertising would have required a media budget of Swiss franc 550,000, i.e. seven times more than our entire communications budget.
The song donations were effective not only in the mass media but also out on the street. Young people reacted positively and the Salvation Army became a topic of conversation. It also helped to halt the slide and turn things around in terms of donations, which amounted to around Swiss franc 1.5 million, despite competition from other charities.
————————————————————————————————————————————————
December 21 from TBWA/Hunt/Lascaris, Johannesburg
Drive Alive (safety message) – Xmas Tree (2007)
Ambient piece of media (a real christmas tree) placed in Johannesburg Town Centre and shopping center.
————————————————————————————————————————————————
December 22 from TOY, San Francisco
Ministero de Defencia National – Elf Yourself (2007)
Our job was to get people to associate OfficeMax with the holidays. Treating the office cubicle as our medium, we created twenty holiday-themed websites linked together under one rollover tab. ElfYourself.com became the hit of the season. At peak, it received 200 hits per second and became the 275th most visited site on the Internet according to Alexa. Featured on Good Morning America, CNN, #2 on Entertainment Weekly’s Must List, VH1′s Best Week Ever, USA Today’s Pop Candy blog and others, the site had over 40 million visitors and over 10 million elves were created in a five-week period.
————————————————————————————————————————————————
December 23 from Ogilvy Beijing, China
Greenpeace China – Coal Globe (2009)
As China is now the world’s second largest contributor to global warming, the nation plays a vital role in any global environmental decision-making conference. And as coal burning accounts for a vast majority of China’s CO2 emissions, the objective was to show delegates that Greenpeace, along with others, provides a strong voice of opposition to China continuing their business as usual ways of energy production. The main physical challenge was that since there was very little known about the venue in advance, the design would have to have impact by simply sitting on a tabletop.
Greenpeace China needed a strong message to take to the UN Poznan Climate Change Conference, as it would determine how ambitious the environmental goals of the critical Copenhagen Protocol could be.
The Conference was taking place during the middle of the Christmas season. Therefore, a typically cheery snow globe scene was turned into a poignant environmental coal-burning message by replacing snow flakes with coal dust.
“It gave us the kind of jaw-dropping impact needed to convince global delegates that China is feeling the necessary pressure in the lead up to Copenhagen,” said Greenpeace’s Communications Director, Sze Pang Cheung. And subsequently, the Copenhagen goals being discussed for carbon emission reduction have been far more ambitious than previously thought possible.
————————————————————————————————————————————————
December 24 from Swiss Publicis, Zurich
Blue Cross (alcoholism awareness) – Drunken Santa (2007)
People with alcohol problems have even greater difficulties at Christmastime. Wine and mixed drinks are available everywhere; one celebration follows the next. Some alcoholics are ashamed of their addiction and drink along so as not to call attention to themselves. Others don’t want to admit that they have a problem. Blue Cross is an organisation that helps people with drinking problems. This was to be conveyed at Christmastime with a PR-attracting promotion.
Because it’s difficult during the hectic Christmas season to generate attention for such themes, we had to conceive of something special. We sent an actor dressed up as Santa Claus into downtown Zurich. He acted drunk, staggering through the streets in his costume and trying to distribute flyers in this condition. He carried a sack with the message: “Alcoholism can affect anyone. For help call: 044/262 27 27. Blue Cross.” The entire action was filmed by a cameramen and captured by a photographer, and passed on to the TV stations and newspapers to create even more publicity.
Alcohol addition is a taboo theme. Those affected usually cannot help themselves in regard to their addiction and friends and relatives often ignore the problem. Through this seasonally relevant action we brought alcoholism and the fact that it can affect anyone into media discussion.
The goal was to bring the theme of alcoholism to a broad public. The action was a complete success; thanks to the large number of spectators, hundreds of flyers were distributed. Multiple press reports from large newspapers and magazines such as the Tages-Anzeiger, 20 Minutes, Swiss Illustrated, etc., multiplied the value of the investment. Due to the PR as multiplying factor, more than a million readers (= 0.01 CHF per contact) were reached. The client received many letters and e-mails referring to the action.
————————————————————————————————————————————————
December 25 from TBWA Germany
Sony Playstation 3 – LittleBigXmas (2009)
Christmas time is the time for Christmas cards. However, Sony Playstation didn’t just want to wish its customers and business partners a Merry Christmas, but really wanted to give them a merry time.
Based on the game “LittleBigPlanet”, a special Christmas greeting level was developed, produced and released online. All business partners were informed about this exclusive Christmas level through a mailing, and were challenged to play the game.
Therefore, a special Christmas Greeting Level was developed and built based on the Playstation gaming highlight LittleBigPlanet, and then placed online. Partners and friends of Playstation were informed about their exclusive Christmas Level by means of a mailing, and were invited to play it themselves.
Of the 3,000 persons who received the playable Christmas greeting, 910 finished it completely and awarded it with 4 of 5 stars. Amongst all the other 100,000 levels, this is a real top-rating.
