Archive for November, 2006
Free marketing idea: Season your stuff
Posted on 24. Nov, 2006 by Jonathan Cherry.
British smoothie makers, Innocent Drinks, have teamed up with loads of grannies to produce woolen hats for their drinks.
It being winter in the UK right now – it makes sense to keep the bottled smoothies warm.
And, every smoothies hat is unique – no two are the same – you’ve just purchased a one-of-a-kind masterpiece.
That said, 50 pence from the purchase of the bottle with the hat goes to keeping the grannies well stocked with gin and tonic. Which is a cause worth contributing towards.
Desk the shelves with hats of woolly – Innocent drinks blog
Previously: Building an Innocent brand – Cherryflava
Gold’s Gym lift…and hold
Posted on 23. Nov, 2006 by Jonathan Cherry.
We’d be a little uneasy about being invited into a lift by a steroid dealer, but we can see how some might appreciate this promotion for Gold’s Gym.
Stickers showing two muscular arms were pasted outside the lift doors.
Another sticker showing the torso of the body builder with arms
stretched was pasted on the inside of the lift wall. When the lift door
opened, the arms parted and looked as if the man is forcing the door
open.
Really hope they don’t also have a speaker system attached that’ll engaged a ‘hhhaaannnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn’ – sound effect when the doors open.
You go you good thing. [via]
Animals…now also available in Afrikaans
Posted on 23. Nov, 2006 by Jonathan Cherry.
Afrikaans is creative and different, and not just when you want to swear at someone in the traffic.
The afrikaans word for giraffe is kameelperd – literally a CAMELHORSE, for a skunk its muishond – MOUSEDOG, and an octopus is a seekat - SEACAT.
You see how much fun you can have with this?
Simple yet effective ad campaign for National Geographic Kids from hot Cape Town outfit FoxP2. [thanks Justin]
More after the jump…
The ‘Make Africa Wealthy’ campaign
Posted on 22. Nov, 2006 by Jonathan Cherry.
How long has the world been feeling sorry for Africa?
Superstars like Bob Geldof, Bono, Oprah and Bill Clinton have spent countless hours and personal wealth in ‘helping poor Africa’.
Charity drives like the (Red) campaign, ‘Make Poverty History’ and numerous others have received and distributed billions of dollars to Africans – but this continent is still diseased, poor and sitting waiting for the next handout.
Nothing significant has changed, and nothing will, until Africa’s charity stigma gets changed.
What if ‘just reducing poverty’ or ‘helping people with AIDS medication is actually reinforcing the mindset of the people of Africa to believe that they are useless and sick.
Bono and Oprah – we know you read Cherryflava – how about promoting the idea of ‘Making Africa Wealthy’?
This continent’s primary aim must be wealth. Its amazing how all the other problems would disappear if we created enough of our own.
Forget poverty, AIDS, TB, malaria and corruption and lets focus on making Africa stinking rich.
Keep you charity money, we don’t need a handout. But we do need your time and creative business ideas.
You want to help Africa – get personally involved.
Advise on our business plans, open your markets, make it easier for us to contribute. Don’t give us money because you feel sorry for us. Help us find things that we can sell to you and so make loads of our own money.
Handouts and charity are keeping the problems alive. Why would we stop begging if you keep on giving?
Lets keep our eye on the prize which is really going to make a lasting difference. Make Africa Wealthy - promote education, investment, cheap access to telecommunications and turn your charity money into African venture capital.
If you really do care – you’ll stop thinking of Africa as a poor continent and rather as a rising competitor.
Hopefully the funds raised from fantastic ideas like Your name on toast and (Red)emption can be used as a Web 2.0 VC investment in a cutting-edge African business that will offer a good return to the fund’s contributors.
Now that’s really empowering people and creating African role models that are so desperately needed.
Girl succeeds in getting advertisers to sponsor a new MacBook Pro
Posted on 22. Nov, 2006 by Jonathan Cherry.
Back in September, Leah Culver set up a website selling advertising on a soon-to-be-purchased MacBook Pro.
As a struggling programmer, she didn’t have the dosh to buy her own MacBook – so at $150 a pop, she got all these companies to buy one for her.
So here’s the finished, laser-etched result. It worked.
Wonder what a Vanquish would look like with sponsors logos all over it?
Website: Help me buy a laptop
[via]
VW’s airport greeting
Posted on 22. Nov, 2006 by Jonathan Cherry.
Ogilvy Cape Town came up with this tactical guerrilla campaign for their new bus.
Apart from it being a good piece of communication – we have to chuckle at the rather PC mix of names on the boards.
Well done guys – you’ve manage to effectively cover every single demographic profile we have, in one ad. That has to be a first.
[via]
Design your own South Africa 2010 logo
Posted on 21. Nov, 2006 by Jonathan Cherry.
Here’s the deal.
The real reason Internet access in South Africa has been kept unaffordable and out of reach of your grubby paws for so long – is that the people who are supposed to be running everything around here are damn scare of what you lot are going to do with so much power at you fingertips.
A prime example of such blatant anarchy is; Not the 2010 logo…dot see ooh dot zed aaaaai.
If you’re bummed that you didn’t crack the nod to assist with the design of our country’s most important logo ever – then here’s you opportunity to set that record straight.
Ok – so your submission will never be used in an official sense, but that’s never stopped you before.
Pretty soon we might just be electing our next President in a ‘Hot or Not-type’ online forum.
Website: Not the 2010 logo
Back to school
Posted on 21. Nov, 2006 by Jonathan Cherry.
December holidays are almost here – which means that those stupid ‘back to school’ ads will follow shortly.
Too bad CNA are not selling the essential school stationary supplies that our kids really need.
We’ve ordered a couple of these Desert Eagle rulers and are holding out for the sawn off shotgun edition.
From here.
Credit card city maps
Posted on 21. Nov, 2006 by Jonathan Cherry.
Cities with underground transport systems require maps.
And if you’re a tourist in London or New York – trying to navigate your route using the graphic at the back of your Lonely Planet, you might as well stick a big sign on your head saying: ‘I’m a dumb South African, please rob me and kick me in the nuts for good measure’.
That’s why these classy, stainless steel, credit card subway maps not only look good, but could save your life…and your dignity.
Come to think of it – a similar thing wouldn’t be such a bad idea for Joburg either.
Airport to Sandton is a navigational challenge if you’ve never been to the Big Smoke before.
Cape Town doesn’t need such things. When you hit the ocean, you know you’ve got too far.
Credit card underground maps – Firefox
Please, hijack me….
Posted on 20. Nov, 2006 by Jonathan Cherry.
Without so much as a thank you to the kids who spent their own time on
it, (let alone the chance of receiving a cheque or ice cream voucher for the
effort) – Fox Entertainment got their new movie;
"Borat: Cultural Learnings of America
for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan" advertised for
free….nada….niks – and everyone is paying attention.
Crazy tykes from all over loaded versions of the Borat trailer on YouTube
and blogs, creating a free buzz storm for what has become – the most successful
Hollywood release of 2006.
Sure, Borat’s antics come second only to watching a live Parlimentary debate in
the funny stakes, but instead of sweating like Madonna in an African village
about losing control over the film’s marketing, Fox have seen the value in
having their $17 million baby hijacked by spoofers and are now rubbing their
Beluga-filled bellies with glee.
This is the new form of collaboration. A seemingly obvious marketing trend,
where brands are handing over the reigns to their users and sitting forward -
holding tight and quietly, for the free viral ride.
Where, not so long ago – small t-shirt companies were getting sued for their
satirical take on monopolistic beverage brand icons, it won’t be long before
that kind of behaviour is soon encouraged and hoped for by marketing execs.
From designing your own dream Beetle, to loading a picture of your choice on
your bank card or luggage tag – brands are tapping into the creative talents of
their users to help promote themselves.
Control is dead.
But brand hijacking doesn’t just stop at the marketing department’s door.
Termed ‘Crowdsourcing’ – companies are even inviting users to improve the way
they deliver their services.
Recently – Internet movie rental company; Netflix, needed to improve their DVD
search and recommendations engine. But instead of calling thousands of meetings
and trying to solve the issue internally, they offered $1 million in prize money
to the geek or geeks that could help them do the job and earned tonnes of street
cred in the process.
Multi-gazillion dollar t-shirt makers, Threadless.com, have built an entire
company on the simple idea of channeling their user’s wants and desires. People
send in their creative t-shirt print designs while other users vote for their
favourites. The top ideas on the pile get printed and stocked in their online
shop for everyone to buy.
A truly global, cheap, broadband-fueled world is going tribal. Hordes of
fragmented tribes are gathering around niche entertainment, blogs, music
networks and forward thinking brands. With unlimited choice, tribe members fall
in love with brands that speak their language and connect with them. Its
open-source business – and the marketing / product / development manager – is
the user.
Brands that allow users to tweak, customise, personalise, play, share, engage,
own and hijack – win.
