Cherryflava

Solar flowers announce the launch of the new Toyota Prius

News out of Boston now that's sure to get Jeremy Clackson's hemroids swollen and irritated once again is that Toyota have 'planted' giant 18 foot high 'solar flowers' in Boston’s Prudential Plaza as part of the launch of the 2010 Toyota Prius, bringing to life the theme: “Harmony Between Man, Nature and Machine.”

The oversized flower sculptures are partially powered by solar panels on the back of their petals and the base of their stems. Each of the five Solar Flowers provides seating for up to 10 people, access to free Wi-Fi service and power to charge cell phones and laptops.

In South Africa, some dude would probably be standing underneath the flower selling wire replicas, that do nothing, as a small momento of your high-tech experience. That's just how we roll down here. Every trippy-freaky ad idea has got an in-built employment opportunity attached to it...free...mahala.

More here

[thanks Isabeau]

Virgin Active's Powerplatevertising

Not sure when last you popped in at a Kauai - well they have these vibrating discs which go mental when your order is ready.
Well at the Kauai in Cavendish - Virgin active are advertising on that little thing with the message: ‘WOBBLE YOUR WEIGHT OFF’ - TRY A VIBRATING POWER PLATE WORKOUT AT YOUR NEAREST VIRGIN ACTIVE.
Most of the time those things just come across as spam - but this one is pretty appropriate and the message fits the environment perfectly.

Trained dogs used to sell dog food at supermarket

In Joburg, security guards were to distracted chasing a daily infiltration of armed robbers to notice that their shopping mall was being over run by canine sales beasts working hard for Eukanuba and their agency Saatchi&Saatchi SA.

The mall roving dogs were trained to run around with empty Eukanuba dog food bags as part of an ambient marketing campaign for the brand.

Having offices directly over the road from Cavendish, where you get thrown out for not wearing a collared shirt, we're impressed that mall authorities even considered allowing these pesky pooches near their hallowed retail shrine. But then again maybe the lure of chasing AK-47 wielding bandits was too great for them to care.

More: Ads of the World

Is there a dentist in the house?

The simplicity of a great idea.

The more people who need this type of oral service, the more evident it becomes that a good dentist is good to find. Makes you wanna gnash your teeth together in applause. [via]

Previously on Cherryflava: Ballet class lamp post ad

In case you encounter a vampire - please take one

Unfortunately True Blood is not playing on any South African TV channel Wednesdays at 9:30pm, but who watches TV in anyway?

Public embarrassment billboard

We're all for innovative, interactive public advertising, but when does the interactive nature of the ad start infringing on your right to privacy?

Here's an ad, which was designed for bus stops in Amsterdam, that weighs the person sitting on the bench waiting for the bus. Their weight is then displayed on the LCD display just above a logo advertising a local gym.
So if you're feeling embarrassed about your weight, it probably time to hit the trendmill.

Clearly this gym brand doesn't think much of client confidentiality.

[via]

Possibly the cheapest ad ever made

Proof that a cheapie can be a goodie.

Obviously there's no way of telling whether this is a real campaign or just some random idea that an art student smoked up one night together with his giant bong [the lack of egotistical branding makes us wonder], but a good idea all the same.

[via]

Lego creates a box that let's you see what's in the box [huh?]

The technical term for it, if you can handle jargon on a Friday morning with one eye on the cricket, is Augmented Reality Marketing [cough - splutter].
Our definition: 'These are digital interfaces which enhance real-world objects with animation or additional marketing content.'

Lego [the toy block that you still secretly want to play with] have tapped into this fancy tool and created the Digital Box. The idea is that while you're browsing in the toy shop, you slap a standard box in front of the device and WHAM - the digital box shows you what gets built. Future versions may even have Mr T building it for you...maybe.

"This interactive terminal will utilize innovative technology supplied by metaio in the form of a software program specially-developed for the LEGO Group by the Munich-based experts in
augmented reality solutions. Together with a camera and display screen, the software lets LEGO packaging reveal its contents fully-assembled within live 3D animated scenes.”

It sounds like a bit of a gimmick, but just the act of getting potential buyers to interact in a different way with the product is worth the experiment effort.

Watch out for more 'shoppertainment' like this in the years to come.

More:

Lego's Digital Box - NOTCOT

 

Wine bag: Warwick wines' great bagvertising

The original intention of this website was to post inspiring marketing related trends and innovation news from around the world with the hope that a local business would use the insightful content in their own marketing efforts. As a marketing company - it's our free daily gift to ourselves.. and you.

So how cool is it that award-winning local wine brand Warwick spotted that 'beer bag', that we posted some time ago and have responded with their own 'wine crate' carrier bag just in time for the busy end of year season.
Next time we're in Stellenbosch we'll be stopping over at Warwick to get a couple of bottles of Trilogy '06 and one of these babies.

Previously: Beer bag - Cherryflava
More: Warwick gets carried away - Warwick Wine Blog

According to 7-Eleven, Obama is gonna win

7-Eleven in the US have jumped on the Obama / McCain rumble to get America in their stores... and buying coffee.

The stores are offering a national coffee cup poll, which they've called the 7-Election. [See even the morning cuppa Joe has turned into a defining political weapon.]
Choose blue for Barack, red for McCain or white if you don't have a cooking clue who these two guys are.
7-Eleven's very loose poll has Obama winning with 60% of the caffeine vote.

Website: 7-Election
[via]