Pepsi: A do-good-brand

The Inspiration Room presented today this interesting project. I love when companies are starting to do good. Sure, it´s to earn money in the end, but as long as they are actually doing good, I can´t see a problem with that. When states are overspending and causing nations to fall, it highlights the importance of having your finances in order. When you do, you have room to help. Just as you need to love yourself before you can love someone else, capitalistic values lead the way to altruism and generosity. 

"Pepsi‘s partnership with the My Shelter Foundation Liter of Light project in the Philippines has won Gold for “The New” at the London International Awards. The Isang Litrong Liwanag (A Liter of Light) project, based on research by students from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), involved installing solar bottle lights to provide a unique daytime lighting solution for urban poor communities living in homes without natural light sources. Pepsi sponsorship involved the installation of used plastic Pepsi bottles on roofs to refract sunlight into 55W of light. This cuts down electric bills and helps reduce carbon emission. The brand has installed over 20,000 lights through the combination of volunteer action, online donation and direct sponsorship.

To spread the project, Pepsi helped establish a center to train volunteers and educated companies, schools and people on how to create and install lights. A model community, wherein every home is lit by at least 2 bottle bulbs, was established to help take the model across the global Pepsi system.

The project was covered by TedX, BBC and NHK. It received ‘Best of the Best’ at the 2012 Global Pepsi Performance with Purpose Awards and was specially commended at the 2011 World Climate Conference.

See more on the Liter of Light project at aliteroflight.org and the Liter of Light Facebook page.

Credits

The Pepsi Bottle Light project was developed at BBDO Guerrero, Makati City, by chief creative officer/executive creative director and copywriter David Guerrero, group creative director/art director Dale Lopez, copywriters Rachel Teotico and Raymund Sison, art directors Dennis Nierra, Tim Villela and Ley Mababangloob, agency producers Jing Abellera and Ino Magno, account directors Carmella Q. Montilla, Fran Gonzalez, Dalla Sucgang and Denise Gamo, working with Pepsico International brand manager Michael Eric Rosales and marketing director Steve Romasanta, and My Shelter Foundation founder Illac Diaz. The production team included creative technologists Marissa Manaloto and Xerg Aguilar, social media strategist Roshan Nandwani, programmer Dennis Billano, production manager Al Salvador, graphic designer Manny Vailoces, photographers Karel Sevilla, Leo Dino, Joy Aquino and Aids Tecson, technical developer Chico Jabines and editor Ed Santos."

Coke keeps celebrating happiness - now on an Instagram look-alike

Psfk reports today about Coca-Cola´s new photo site, filled with pictures of Happiness.

It´s so simple but yet so clever how Coke keeps repeating its love for "happiness" and sticks to the value, the message, the theme. It makes all communication attempts line up nicely and strong. In the eyes of people its clear and consistent, making people trust the brand. Repetition is the key, and even if a marketer gets bored of a certain message or way of doing things, it´s important to understand that the consumer meets a LOT of messages and brands every minute, and will need some time to pick up your marketing idea. Dare to stay focused, dare to keep still.

• 
  
• COCA-COLA LAUNCHES
• INSTAGRAM COMPETITOR

Coca-Cola is planning to launch a new photo-sharing service called ‘Happy Places‘, and has released a free iPhone app that shows what it will be like. The app, which looks similar to Instagram, lets users take photos and share them with their social networks. It focuses on what makes people happy, letting them search by relevant hashtags such as #music, #beautiful, and #joy.

Your day, your friends, your trips, your music… your life is full of happy moments worth storing and sharing. Happy Places by Coca-Cola is that place where you can upload photos of your happy moments, share them, and remember them any time you want. Take a picture or pick one from your albums, add it to your profile, and share that moment of happiness with your followers in Happy Places, or your friends in Facebook or Twitter.

Popsop reports that the app lets Coca-Cola fans create a profile, browse photos, and get notifications on new photos added in their interests. Users can also create their happy moments offline and then upload them when they have a wi-fi or 3G connection.

Happy Places

Pay with a tweet - more common?

Cassandra Daily reports about some interesting Twitter-campaigns, where twitter meets real life.

Kellogg’s Tweet Shop: Kellogg’s London promotion for its Special K Cracker Crisps, the Tweet Shop was a 4-day pop-up shop that accepted tweets as payment for snack samples. “Shoppers” were asked to post a review containing the hashtag “#tweetshop.” Once their messages appeared on the store’s LCD screen, customers received a box of the chips. Proving that plenty of people are willing to sell themselves out, the stunt garnered significant participation, with tweets like “Forget Trident Layers, I want to be paid exclusively in Cracker Crisps” and “At the #tweetshop – getting my crisps. For free. In exchange for a tweet. Must be the future.”

BEV Vending Machine: South African beverage company BOS Ice Tea has developed a Twitter-activated vending machine, called BEV, that dispenses a free can of its Rooibos drink when a customer stands in front of it and tweets with the hashtag “#BOSTWEET4T.” An overhead LED screen shows the person’s Twitter handle and a countdown until the "free" can emerges. When the drink is delivered, colored lights blink while a speaker amplifies a robotic voice telling the person to enjoy their beverage. Rigged with a series of microphones and cameras, the conversational machine delivers a series of playful messages for passersby, saying things like “You look thirsty, human. Let me help you.”

PunkMoney: PunkMoney, a twist on peer-to-peer sharing economies, is a platform on which tweeted promises are currency. For example, someone could tweet "@Alice I promise to mow your lawn next week. #PunkMoney @Bob,” after which the vow will appear on the site’s ticker to be redeemed at a later date or transferred to another person. The “#PunkMoney” hashtag identifies and tracks what happens to each promise over time. Creator Eli Gothill, who was partly inspired by OWS grievances, designed the system to be “entirely trust-based, and between peers, so it encourages community. The only way that this money has value is if people trust each other.”

Disney re-shapes the princess role.

I really like how Disney is showing that being a "princess" is not the same as wearing uncomfortable glass shoes and search for princes :) But I am missing the little boys? Can´t they be princesses too? 

Disney has released an inspirational new video to celebrate the Princess inside every young girl. It rebrands “princess” by framing it in terms of bravery, trust, loyalty, kindness, generosity, compassion, standing up for oneself, and standing up for others.

The ‘I Am a Princess’ video shows what the company believes it means to be a Princess today. You can check it out below:

http://www.psfk.com/2012/10/disney-rebrands-princess.html for full story

Swedish article... Gratisprovernas dilemma

Varför gratis inte är gott

Skrivet av Carolin Dahlman

Häromveckan rusade jag runt på T-centralen i Stockholm och någonstans i gångarna stod ett gäng ungdomar och delade ut något. Sweet, tänkte jag. Alla gillar ju presenter. Så jag öppnade handen och fick… en pump handdesinfektion. Jaha. Läs mer Kommentera (0)

Show don´t tell why you are good. Actions speak louder!

I love this campaign from Forsman & Bodenfors. It´s a part of the "exaggerate trend" where more and more brands are not just telling what makes their products really awesome, but actually shows it by overstating the practical benefit - and in that way making it emotional.

The world-record holding tightrope walker was challenged by Volvo to walk between two semi-trailers, speeding toward a tunnel in order to demonstrate the precision of Volvo’s FH trucks. Scary!!!!

Another example of a brand that exaggerates. From Psfk: 

VENDING MACHINE DISPENSES CHINA PLATES [VIDEO]

Corelle wanted to demonstrate how chip-resistant its dinnerware was, so it set up a machine that dropped down its plates when customers purchased them.

Agency Grey in China developed a unique promotion to demonstrate the strength of Corelle‘s dinnerware. The company wanted to demonstrate that its products were chip-resistant, so a vending machine was set up to dispense plates to customers. People could purchase the plates the same as they would a typical vending machine snack and they dropped down without a scratch. You can see the machine in action in the video below:

via PSFK: http://www.psfk.com/2012/08/china-plate-vending-machine.html#ixzz256IR61PH

Planning is useless and a waste of time and money

Is planning and strategy useless?

I´ve worked at agencies where planning is seen as "overhead", something extra, like a little decoration to add on to the most important creative work. Where deep knowledge is seen as unnecessary - "it only complicates things".

They might be right, those people. I am not sure. Agencies who are planning hostile win awards and those who have loads of strategists fail. After all, advertising is a creative art, and it´s mysterious and magical in its way to think completely different and evoke emotions by avoiding the straight line from message to receiver.

Maybe my role is pointless. Maybe I just disturb by adding too much insight on the market, the product, the brand, the consumer? I read a lot, spend hours trawling through articles, blogs, websites and videos to find out more - to find those nuggets of insights that will lead to revelations about the relationship between brand and consumer. To find out what really triggers them. To understand them beyond "women 22-24 y old who buy shampoo".

When it comes to shampoo I don´t need to know everything about the active ingredients or what the factory it´s made in looks like. There are such things as "too much information" - but it can be interesting to look at women´s beauty regime, psychological phenomenon when it comes to shampoo ads, trends in beauty or retail, lifestyle trends, how people speak about hair and shampoo on blogs or to interview people on brand perceptions, their view on priorities and usage. From hours spent on digging there may be insights that makes the strategy clearer, edgier.

Or not.

You could just make an ad that looks like most. Just use a sexier lady and more foam. Just say "shampoo" with a hotter voice or add a little "made from extracts from exotic flowers in remote places".  And it can work! Creative people can even be truly creative and make untraditional ads that makes you love the brand.

Sometimes I doubt the value of myself. Especially when I meet amazing talented creative people, or when I read bunches of articles without finding much new, or when others doubt the value of me.

I love my job and of course I find myself very important - LOL - but it´s a fact that strategy sometimes is simpler than you think. And it´s also true that if you never even consider finding insights, building brands, choosing among paths, using the left brain, you will most likely fail.

Guess we need a combo. Common sense. The ability to see our own value or uselessness and be creative on the subject of planning or not planning.

What do you think?

Girls: Be flirtatious but not friendly if you want to win business

Roger Dooley´s blog at Forbes.com is a gem - always full of interesting, new and useful information. Today I´m learning about something that women have known forever though...Women who flirt a little in business meetings (with men) are winners in the "get the job-promotion-business" game. Being a prude buddy, trying to act "professional", gets you nowhere. OK, I hear ya...

Friendly or flirting?

"Is flirting in a business environment ever a good thing for women? The answer is a qualified “yes.” New data shows that women using what the researchers call “feminine charm” achieved better results in business negotiations. Flirtatious (vs. merely friendly) behavior also had a positive effect.

Researchers from UC Berkeley and the London School of Economics looked at both social charm and flirtatious behavior by conducting negotiations using male and female subjects, reporting the results in thePersonality and Social Psychology Bulletin. The result of multiple experiments enabled the researchers, led by Berkeley’s Laura Kray, to conclude that using feminine charm produced better outcomes. This was true both in “zero sum” negotiations, where one party’s gain is the other’s loss, and in cooperative negotiations where the gain by both parties can be increased by working together.

You might wonder how the researchers define charming behavior. Here’s how they instructed female participants in one of their experiments to turn on the charm:

In the feminine charm condition, females were advised to be animated in their body movements, make frequent eye contact with their partner, smile, and laugh. They were further advised to be playful and to compliment their partner in as sincere a fashion as possible.

Flirty vs. Friendly

Two key components of feminine charm are flirtation and friendliness. It appears that both are important. Friendliness, which signals a focus on others, increases likability but also indicates a weaker negotiating stance. Flirtation signals a concern for self, which could decrease likability but increase negotiating strength.
One of the interesting conclusions was that friendly women pay an economic price because by demonstrating warmth signals they are seen asless competitive and self-interested. Being flirtatious (and hence apparently self-interested) helped women negotiate better deals. The exception: the deals were worse if the flirting was perceived by their male counterpart as merely being friendly.
In short, the research suggests that the ideal negotiating style for women is to avoid a neutral style and instead use feminine charm. The “charm” should include both friendly behavior and flirtation. The ultimate goal is to be viewed as likable but also motivated by self-interest.

(I feel compelled to add that this research didn’t include any highly aggressive flirtation or behavior that might cross either legal boundaries or typical company guidelines. It would be a mistake to think that if a little flirting is good, a lot is better!)

The “Friendly” Trap

How Women Should Negotiate

Note that much of the perception of “flirty vs. friendly” is in the eyes of the negotiating partner. That is, the same behaviors could be interpreted either way. This suggests that women who want to optimize their social charm benefits need to gauge the reactions of their counterpart to avoid sending the wrong signal.

While all of the experiments were one-time negotiations, this advice should be relevant to more general behavior in the workplace. Women who use feminine charm effectively with co-workers, bosses, and employees will convey the message that they are friendly but not overly accommodating.

Social marketers think all people want is info. Hahahahaha. So funny

Today I´ve borrowed from Brian Solis who found research from Pivot:

-  76% of marketers feel they know what their customers want yet only 34% have asked customers. 

- 83% of consumers seek deals, but only 53% of businesses think that’s what customers really want. 

- 45% of marketers feel that rewards programs are important to customers and 70% of social consumers thought otherwise. 

- 59% and 58% of social customers wish to engage businesses for buying insights and customers service respectively; on the contrary only 37% of marketers believe that these services are in demand by their customers. 

- There’s agreement between customers and marketers on product feedback. 55% of consumers and 53% of marketers would like to collaborate on improving products and experiences.

These are data proving social marketers have no clue on what to offer... As always, marketers and brands are stuck in the belief that they are in the centre of the world and that people are dyyyying to know more about what they need to offer. Sigh... We all need to face the fact that people are horribly selfish and all they want is goodies for themselves :) Offer what they search, and you will be loved:

Also have a look at:http://howwemove.blogspot.se/2012/05/statistics-on-how-we-use-facebook-and.html http://howwemove.blogspot.se/2012/01/why-does-4000-people-like-shoe-brand-on.html http://howwemove.blogspot.se/2012/05/statistics-on-how-we-use-facebook-and.html

Love this campaign

Thanks to Campaign Brief:

Droga5 Sydney smashes social media records and one billion target with UN World Humanitarian Day campaign featuring Beyoncé's latest single

Monday 20, August 2012 at 8:03 AM by CB

  Comments (19)

Droga 5 Sydney's campaign for the UN's World Humanitarian Day smashed its social reach target of one billion people following the release of 'I Was Here' - Beyoncé's latest single and WHD 2012 anthem.
 
The social reach for the message - encouraging people to do something good for someone else - hit the goal of 1 billion less than 20 minutes before 9 a.m. (US Eastern Standard time) Yesterday August 19, which was the deadline to sign up for a new technology platform called Thunderclap - owned and developed by Droga5 - that aggregated the social reach of each campaign supporter.
 
VIEW THE FILM CLIP

To introduce World Humanitarian Day to the world, Droga5's Sydney and New York offices partnered with the United Nations, Beyoncé, Kenzo Digital and RSA to create a campaign that would make August 19 a day to remember.
 
"There are seven billion people in the world and we reached hundreds of millions of them with our message. People really care," said Valerie Amos, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs.

At 9 am (US Eastern Standard Time) on 19 August more than one billion messages were shared at the same time: "This World Humanitarian Day I‟m doing something good, somewhere, for someone else. Join Me!" Upon navigating to whd-iwashere.org, people can now mark their good deed on a global interactive map.

The campaign numbers soared following the release of the "I Was Here‟ music video by Beyoncé on 18 August, whose support for the cause, alongside other major brands and celebrities, put this campaign on the global stage.

The agency turned Beyoncé's song into an iconic symbol and geographic marker that represents individual humanitarian actions wherever they happen, and allows individuals to make their own mark on the world and say 'I Was Here'.
 
The campaign launched with a unique performance by Beyoncé in the UN General Assembly Hall. Accompanied by a giant projection, and filmed to create a music video, the song told the story of humanitarian work around the globe.
 
Yesterday (August 19), Droga5 released the video and the single message around the world to over a billion people. It encouraged people to do one act - simply something good, somewhere, for someone else.
 
With the help of the social amplification platform 'Thunderclap', 'I Was Here' has become the largest single social media message in history, supported by brands, celebrities and events across the globe.
 
The World Humanitarian Day 2012 campaign was powered by a new technology platform called Thunderclap that aggregated the social reach of each campaign supporter.
 
Thunderclap tallied the number of friends supporters had on Facebook and/or the number of followers they had on Twitter to determine each individual's social reach and add it to the total. 

For celebrities and big brands, the number of likes each had on their Facebook fan pages were substituted for number of friends. The Twitter calculation did not change.
 
In China, social reach was calculated based on the number of each supporter's Weibo followers.

Supporters included influential individuals and brands alike, from Michelle Obama, Jackie Chan, Lady Gaga, Ben Affleck and Kaka to Coca-Cola, Sony Music, PUMA, Oreos, MTV, Toshiba, Gucci, Hershey's Kisses, Johnson & Johnson and Pepsi.

The screen used for the event in the UN General Assembly (created by SuperUber) was the biggest indoor screen ever created, weighing more than 7 thousand pounds and measuring 10,304 square feet.

On August 19, World Humanitarian Day events were hosted in countries around the world, including Australia, Papua New Guinea, Ethiopia, Colombia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

"Creating ideas with a genuine sense of humanity has always been central to our approach, so forging such an exciting relationship with the UN is a brilliant outcome," says David Nobay (above), creative chairman, Droga5 Sydney. "The fact that our first campaign comes out of Sydney and is being produced in New York is strangely fitting given the UN's commitment to working within the global village. I couldn't be happier."

Says David Droga, founder and creative chairman, Droga5: "There are few forces for good as extensive and important as the United Nations. Being able to work with them and other global aid organizations for World Humanitarian Day is a humbling and extraordinary opportunity."


Supporters included:
 
Musicians;
Lady Gaga
Rihanna
Shakira
Chris Brown
Justin Bieber
JayZ
Hilary Duff
Keith Urban
 
Screen stars;
Jackie Chan
Ben Affleck
Charlize Theron
Oprah Winfrey
Katie Couric
Jamie Oliver
 
Brand support;
PUMA
Gucci
Coca-Cola
Pepsi
Oreo

World Humanitarian Day 2012_I Was Here Campaign_Credits(v2).pdf

Spend the night at Ikea!

Don´t we LOVE this idea? Can´t wait to spend a night at Ikea :) From Psfk: 

IKEA PLANS TO DEVELOP BUDGET HOTELS

The Swedish retailer’s latest offering will be a line of affordable hotels in Europe offering a boutique experience.

By Emma Hutchings on August 16, 2012.

Swedish retail giant IKEA is planning to get involved in the hotel industry for its latest offering; a range of budget design hotels across Europe. The company is looking to develop at least 100 hotels in countries such as the UK, Germany, Poland, and the Netherlands, which will offer boutique styling at affordable prices.

The Financial Times reports that the budget hotels will not use the IKEA name and will be run by an established hotel operator instead of the Swedish company. The whereabouts of the first hotel in Germany is expected to be revealed within the next few weeks, and talks are being held with hotel operators to rapidly implement this concept.

IKEA

via PSFK: http://www.psfk.com/2012/08/ikea-budget-hotels.html#ixzz23mPEhIWT

So wonderful

The Metropolitans - who are they?

United Minds in Stockholm (who I worked for during 5 years, yay) has together with Metro (a free newspaper) interviewed 15 000 people from 30 cities around the world to find out who they are, and they have found a "metropolitan mindset". Check out the vid:

 


The Metropolitans identify themselves as strongly with their city (67%) as with their nation (69%).

- The city is our new nation. Rapid urbanisation combined with the effects of globalisation is producing
a class of citizens who share many values, habits and defining characteristics related to urban living,
says Paul Alarcón, Research Director, United Minds.

The constant meeting and melding of cultures, ideas and races in modern cities produces a global and open mindset. Metropolitans are excited by new challenges, not scared of them.  Metropolitans are affluent, socially liberal, mobile, globally and environmentally conscious and well-informed. They are less defined by race, culture and geography than by their common citizenship of cities. They
embrace the diversity of urban life - with 65% saying they would rather live in an ethnically diverse community than in a homogenous neighbourhood.  53% of Metropolitans also think same-sex marriage should be legal.

- Cities are inherently diverse. Tolerance and understanding are prerequisites to enjoy life in places
you have to share with millions of others. In the long run, the emergence of the Metropolitan mindset
is bad news for nationalist parties around the world, says Wilf Maunoir, Global Research Director,
Metro International.

Recent research strongly suggests that the better informed you are, the more broad-minded and tolerant you are likely to be. The Metropolitan survey reveals that city dwellers are heavy news consumers and that they are equally interested in international news (67%) as they are in local news (65%).
Their interest in the world goes further than reading newspapers. Nine out of 10 are interested in travelling and visiting new places and every second Metropolitan has travelled abroad for leisure in the past year. As urbanization continues globally and cities get increasingly connected to each other, the future for narrowmindness and nationalism looks bleak.

A helmet that signals when you turn and stop

I love the Psfk newsletter, where people from all over the world write about innovative ideas, crazy communication campaigns and so on. It makes me curious and impressed by humans. Oh dear, how creative we have the potential to be! 


This new invention is awesome, don´t you think? :)
 

MOTORCYCLE HELMET SYNCS WITH TURN SIGNALS AND BRAKES, LIGHTS UP TO ALERT DRIVERS

The Signal concept helmet light is a removable attachment that syncs with your motorcycle’s brakes and indicators via RFID signals.

By Emma Hutchings on August 1, 2012.

• ‘Signal‘ is a helmet attachment that aims to improve motorcycle safety through advanced technology. Made from a stretchable reflector fabric and a lightweight fiber-optic fabric called Lumigram, it easily fits over any full-face or open-face helmet. The concept, currently featured on product development site Quirky, could enter production soon if enough interest is shown.

‘Signal’ syncs with your motorcycle’s brake lights and turn signals via easy-to-install RFID transmitters. So when the brakes are applied or the rider uses a turn signal, the light on the helmet indicates these to give the motorcycle increased visibility to other drivers.

via PSFK: http://www.psfk.com/2012/08/motorcycle-helmet-turn-signals-brakes.html#ixzz22McpAyJs

Smokers kill their friends - beautiful ads

This bunch of ads are amazing. And they point out a "new" problem. Smokers don´t just kill themselves, but also their friends!! 


I really can´t understand smoking in public is allowed and accepted, considering how disgusting it is when you sit at an outdoors café and get the dirty fumes all over you ... I hope this ad will work, but I´m not sure. We know smokers are a tough bunch, as are all people who are addicted. They will probably think it looks pretty and go out to admire their own smoke creations :) 


From The Inspiration Room: The Lung Cancer Foundation of America reminds us that 60 percent of new lung cancer diagnoses will be in non-smokers, with “The Haze”, a spot developed at Make Visual. A ballet dancer swirls through smoke.

The Haze spot was developed at Make Visual, Minneapolis, using 3DS Max and Fume FX. Original music is by Horner Music.

People hate change - like "new" products

It´s said that in times of social media, brands are now sensitive to customer feedback, that they are mouldable, adaptable into becoming their best to serve. Bah! Most times, when a customer points out something that could be improved, the company owner or staff starts to defend themselves. And miss an opportunity to become better!

Sometimes I see how a café or a shop could benefit from doing things in another way. Like the silly system we have in Sweden, where we stand in a queue to get a coffee, while the same person who takes your order also makes the coffee, hence the queue is a prison for sometimes ten-fifteen minutes when you have to stand there, waiting for 8 people´s lattes to be produced.

I´ve never seen anything like it in any other country. In Australia there is one person who takes your order, charges you cash, and another who does the coffee. While waiting you can go and sit down, or at least not stand in a line, humiliated like a sheep.

Every time you somehow point this out (in a nice way), the café owner starts saying "no, can´t do that". An instant reaction. An impulse. "No, can´t do that".

I know change is hard and we are biologically created to avoid it, but for an entrepreneur it´s a mystery. I´ve many times tried to point out how much better it would be to turn the chairs in another direction, word things differently to attract more customers or say another way of organizing would be smoother, but no matter how smooth my voice, or big my smile is, they look at me as an enemy. I´m trouble. I have opinions!

It is an interesting psychological phenomenon. Customers react in the same way. Try to give them a new option and they will say "No, can´t do that", and their smart profrontal cortex part of the brain will come up with heaps of arguments. While in fact, it´s their emotional selves, their fear of change, that is running the show.

An added smell makes your brand stick

If a brand want people to remember what it stands for, it should add a special smell to the item! Research, presented on Neurosciencemarketing.com´s blog shows that if the product smells - especially of something that is relevant - people will keep the product in their memory for longer. Which we all know is great for selling more. 

From the researchers: “Product scent may be particularly effective at enhancing memory for product information as a function of its ability to enhance a product’s distinctiveness within its surrounding context,” write authors Aradhna Krishna (University of Michigan), May Lwin (Nanyang Technological University, Singapore), and Maureen Morrin (Rutgers University).

Scent enhances a product’s distinctiveness, which helps consumers remember it down the line, the authors found…

In one study, the authors had 151 participants evaluate pencils that were unscented, scented with pine scent (common), or scented with tea tree scent (uncommon). “We found that the memory for the scented pencils was much greater than memory for the unscented pencils, and that this effect was especially pronounced after a time delay,” the authors write. They also found that participants’ memory of the uncommonly (tea tree) scented pencils was more resistant to decay. [From the Journal of Consumer Research - Does Scent Enhance Product Memories?]

Some of the product attributes presented to the subjects were claims like, “Is endorsed with the Green Seal environment standard,” “Contains superior graphite lead,” and “Are made from premium oak trees that hail from California.” The subjects remembered these and other characteristics better for the smelly pencils.

Another experiment tested the effects of ambient scent; the researchers found that recall of all objects in an environment was improved by an ambient scent, the recall of individual products wasn’t aided significantly.


Read more: http://www.neurosciencemarketing.com/blog/articles/scent-increases-product-recall.htm 

Adidas and Nike - Totally different vibe and target

I met up with a friend once who was wearing Adidas sweatpants on his way to a party. I asked... ehhh, are you going to a party dressed like that? Yeah, he responded. "We are all going to be dressed up as criminals!"   I came to think of this when watching the new Olympics ads from Adidas. They motto is "Take the stage" and it´s all "come on you can become famous too":

 

This vibe attracts those who look for stardom in life, and we all know that those who do deep down just want to be loved... Many unhappy people will be attracted to the message.

 The difference between the competing brand Nike is enormous. Nike market itself as the shoe for health, for everyday fitness. It´s not about being a sportstar to get chicks and become a billionaire. It´s more a matter of challenging yourself everyday. They say "Greatness is for all of us"

 


This is a clear example of how a brand can differ depending on what target audience they choose, and not in terms of demographics or gender, but in terms of aspirations and personality.

Clever anti smoking campaign

This ad is so strong. Most anti-smoking ads I´ve seen are showing people who are sick, dying and looking awful, but I know through research that most smokers do NOT identify themselves with that image. If they see someone on tv who has cancer, emphysema or whatever, they quickly come up with an excuse or say "As soon as I get ill I will quit but I feel fantastic". They think "Don´t I look awesome? I am young and healthy, out partying, living life, on top of the world... "

This ad let the smokers themselves spread the message in a clever way.

Read more: http://www.adnews.com.au/adnews/thai-smoking-ad-leaves-local-market-gasping

 

Let people work for samples! Great campaign from Fantastic Delites

This is a really interesting campaign by Fantastic Delites, created by an Adelaide agency. It shows people going through a LOT of effort to get a single trial pack of chips.

 The thought from the marketing department was that once people have tried the snack they usually love it. But the true power of the campaign lies in the fact that we appreciate more what we have had to work hard for... When people have put effort into receiving a present, they are more likely to see its amazing value.

 Plus, we love being entertained. Actually, life is like a massive networking event, and everyone knows how awkward it can be to mingle - the small talk, the stepping on toes, the meaningless and nervewrecking chats with strangers... And what breaks the ice better than a piece of entertainment. Let people focus on something else than themselves, and boring questions like "what do you work with", and let them laugh together, and you have forever placed your brand in their heart.

Compare this with the desperate feel of people simply handing out samples to anyone during rush hour. Am I the only one who get the feeling that those items are kind of cheap...?

 This is a very long film, but have a look at it. The hard work will make you feel better :)

 

http://www.fantasticdelites.com.au 


Read about the campaign: http://www.campaignbrief.com/2012/07/fantastic-delites-launches-del.html

Cassandra Daily presents the new food trend: Scandinavian!

OK, This is simply sharing a little trend from NY, spotted by Cassandra! Have a look at their website for more cool stuff.

New(er) Nordic

The culinary trend of the moment has gourmands looking to the north

Noma, the unofficial temple of the New Nordic food movement, is considered by many epicures to be “the best restaurant in the world,” a presumptuous title that’s made it near impossible for most folks to nab a reservation there. Fortunately, the culinary trend it propelled has made re-imagined Scandinavian fare a widespread phenomenon, with fresh iterations of New Nordic cuisine tantalizing smoked fish fans well beyond the boundaries of Copenhagen.

Frej: Williamsburg, Brooklyn’s Frej is a pop-up restaurant, but judging by the reverent reviews that have been pouring out since its opening this past winter, one can expect that its transient status may be temporary indeed. Situated in the back of Kinfolk Studios, a creative agency that also houses an art gallery, a bar and a bike company, Frej’s dining room is as intimate as its New Nordic menu is thoughtful. The space seats just 18 diners, and its seven-course tasting menu boasts Gotham takes on Scandinavian standards, like pike with potato, sprat, and wild herbs. Proving to be a New York anomaly in more ways than one, the menu is just $45 per person.

Noshi Brooklyn: The breadth of cross-continental fusion cuisine continues to widen. One of the latest examples marries Scandinavia to Asia. Noshi Brooklyn, a culinary project enjoyed by patrons of the weekly Smorgasburg food market, is exploring the intersection of traditional Nordic fish recipes with Japanese sensibilities. The result is a multicultural interpretation of smørrebrød, a Danish open-faced sandwich. The base is rugbrød, a rye bread based on an eighth generation sourdough from chef/co-owner Stephan Alsman’s hometown of Odense. Toppings vary, but they always include a cured-and-smoked fish seasoned with flavors from Alsman’s wife Sayuri’s native Japan, including bonito, nori, ginger, shiso, wasabi, and shiokoji.

Fäviken: Fäviken Magasinet, a 12-seat restaurant in northern Sweden, is hailed as one of the most adventurous dining establishments in the world given its foraged menu items, not to mention the distance one must travel to reach its remote mountain location. Fortunately, Fäviken, a forthcoming book about the restaurant, offers a way to sample chef Magnus Nilsson’s fabled meat oddities at home by including several seasonal recipes created in his preservationist kitchen. Admittedly, it will be difficult for anyone not residing in a pastoral region of Scandinavia to obtain, say, moose meat, but guides to making staples like yogurt, bread, and vinegar will appeal to New Nordic-leaning homesteaders.

References to products and services in Cassandra Daily do not imply our endorsement, but rather are intended to provide objective insights into emerging trends and examples of those trends. Cassandra Daily is published by The Intelligence Group, a trend research and consumer insights company focusing on youth culture. For more information on our services, or to subscribe to our syndicated Cassandra Report studies, please contact Allison Arling at aarling@intelg.com.

Pay with a painting

I love this idea! A lot of brads reward you for posting pictures, but hotel Clarion in Stockholm rewards you with a night at the hotel for your real painting! Give them a piece of art and stay there for free! I might put somethign together myself actually... hmmm...

At Clarion Hotel Stockholm we love art so much that from the 8th of June 2012, artists can pay for their hotel stay with art. It’s all really very simple: An artwork – a room – one night.

 

For reservations email: reservation.stockholm@choice.se

Include the booking code: Room for Art

 

Artworks must be signed by the artist, in A4 format and submitted upon arrival together with a Room for Art form that can be downloaded here >>

 

Conditions

Room for Art offer is valid subject to availability. Rooms can be reserved at the very earliest 7 days before, and at the very latest 1 day before the desired date of arrival. A valid credit card number is required to guarantee reservations. Cancellation without fee may be made no later than 16:00 the day before arrival. This offer is valid based on maximum 2 persons occupancy per double room, 1 night per stay. Offer can be taken advantage of maximum 2 times per person, per calendar year.  Ownership of all artwork - including exclusive rights of use - is transferred in full to Clarion Hotel Stockholm upon submission, without exception.

 

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