Mercedes enters the land of Narnia

BRAND OWNER:Mercedes-Benz
CATEGORY:Automotive
REGION:EMEA
DATE:Jul 2008 - May 2008

To celebrate a partnership between Mercedes and Disney’s movie series The Chronicles of Narnia, the auto brand sought a magical online experience that bridged the two brands and harnessed the pester power of children which can greatly influence parent car purchasing decisions. A limited edition of the Mercedes Viano designed to coincide with the release of the Narnia film featured independent screens, infrared headphones with game console connection, an iPod and multimedia reader.
Together they came up with an online communication platform at www.mercedes-benz.com/narnia.
The website was a 3D world willed with adventure and inspired by the second film in the series based on the CS Lewis novels, Prince Caspian.
The interactive website is a complex 3-D globe on which the user experiences their online adventure while travelling with the Mercedes Viano model of car. The car was positioned as a modern steed; the very best place for heroes. After an archery game, the user meets their new travelling companion in the deep, dark forest: the Viano. Users can also share the site with friends by entering their email, challenge the Narnians to an ear waving contest, upload a picture of themselves to be morphed into a mythical creature or watch a trailer of the film.
This was supported by an online banner campaign to support the launch of the website and drive traffic to it, featuring the headline ‘Beware! Enter at your own peril!’.
The site received over 100,000 visits, with an average dwell time of more than 5 minutes. The game also allowed for data capture of thousands of addresses.

Avid::: new logo

website: http://www.avid.com/

At the center of Avid’s brand identity is a new logo composed of simple geometric shapes derived from the buttons, icons and markers that consumers and professionals recognize as fundamental to the digital audio and video solutions they use every day to enable their creativity.

The new logo forms a visual connection to iconic shapes that represent “volume up, volume down, play, pause, record and forward,” signaling a unification of the company’s core audio and video offerings. The distinctive mark also spells out the company’s name in abstract letterforms.

"Avid is coming together as one company with new offerings, a new strategy, and a new operating model. We are stronger as one company than we are as separate parts, and we have a unique opportunity to help our customers achieve greater success in a digital world," said Gary Greenfield, Chairman and CEO of Avid. "Our new identity is one of the powerful ways we are communicating the evolution of our business as well as our commitment to partner with customers by understanding exactly what they want to do. Whether it's the flawless execution of a global television broadcast, a chart-topping hit song, a lean-forward moment on the big screen or in a sold out concert venue, or a home movie that family members will cherish for a lifetime, our customers want integrated, interoperable, and open audio and video offerings. By pulling together all of our category-creating technologies under one roof, we are beginning to serve our customers with digital media solutions unlike any other company in the world."

The old logo was memorable with its italic quirkiness but the new one is both memorable and relevant. At first glance it might feel like a cliche to use the play buttons as a logo, but as truly universal icons for a range of products that are accepted industry-wide, it’s the perfect use. The result is simple and bold. I could definitely do without the shading, specially being so subtle it feels unnecessary. But this will surely look great on screen and some glossy packaging. I also like the idea of filling in the shapes with images and, while it’s one of the oldest tricks in the book, Avid pulls it off nicely.

Twilight:The dawn of Twilight

BRAND OWNER:Hoyts
CATEGORY:Entertainment
REGION:Australia
DATE:Oct 2009 - Dec 2009


Stephanie Meyer’s teen vampire saga is a smash in the US but that didn’t help promote the movie of the book Twilight in Australia.
Launching at the same time as The Quantum of Solace and Australia, distributors Hoyts had a tough challenge to attract the girls and young women it wanted to watch the movie.
Research showed that Meyer’s Aussie 14-19-year-old fans could act as cheer leaders to their peers.

The campaign made Twilight part of the conversation with communities on MySpace and Facebook, bespoke MSN Messenger packs and viral trailer distribution.




Young women were targeted via celebrity gossip magazines, incorporating the Twilight characters into the target’s every day reality and backing this up with bespoke and high frequency placements on popular websites.
Twilight generated more than $20m dollars at the box office, 1,110% above Hoyts average revenues for a movie and $7m ahead of target.

ZDF : Bus becomes Batmobile

BRAND OWNER:ZDF
CATEGORY:Entertainment
REGION:Germany
DATE:Dec 2008 - Jan 2008


Public TV channel Zweites Deutsches Fernehen (ZDF) wanted to communicate its strong movie programming, specifically with the airing of Batman Returns.

ZDF decided to target Hamburg commuters on their way to or from work. It signed a deal with bus companies to place a sticky overlay on the windows with details about when Batman Returns would be shown on the channel.

Then small Batman figurines hanging on flexible wires were attached to the outside of the buses with small suction pads. When the bus was stationary, the figurines hung down, out of sight of passengers inside the bus. As the buses built up speed, the airstream would cause Batman to rise up into the air as if flying.

Many passengers documented the campaign with their cameras, which caused the campaign to spread virally online.

X-Men::: The Wolverine Buddy Poke

BRAND OWNER:Fox Films
CATEGORY:Entertainment
REGION:Brazil
DATE:Mar 2009 - Apr 2009

To promote the premiere of Fox Film’s new film X Men Origins, the film studio wanted to take advantage of the popularity of social networking site Orkut.

One of the most popular applications on Orkut is The Buddy Poke. The Buddy Poke is essentially a greeting delivered by an avatar from one friend to another. Users can express themselves via the character.
For the purpose of the movie promotion, an avatar of Wolverine was created – the first time the application has been used by an advertiser. Users of the Wolverine Buddy Poke can be select two options – either “claws out” or “ask to respond” – to send to friends.

Having selected the greeting, their own avatar gets personalized to look more like wolverine – complete with huge claws and side burns.

Then a small animation of the newly wolfish avatar can be sent to a friend. The Buddy Poke is not branded with the name of the film at all – the idea is simply to make a subtle association with the film, which launches at the end of April.
The movie charts the violent and romantic past of Wolverine, from his complex relationship with

Swedish Magazine is Published as a Tattoo

Taking the notion of limited edition to the extreme, Swedish magazine Tare Lugnt have released their third issue as a tattoo. You can see the magazine being “published” below.

AWM Hot List '09: Top 10 Magazines

AWM Hot List '09: Top 10 Magazines
March 22, 2009
-By AdweekMedia Staff

Methodology

The Hot List and 10 Under 60 Hot list annually recognize consumer magazines with a recent track record of standout advertising revenue and page performance. To be considered, a title’s ad results must be tracked by the authoritative Publishers Information Bureau.

For the Hot List, we look at the last three calendar years, and for 10 under 60, the last two years. Thus, for the Hot List, a title must have been published for at least three years and must have taken in $60 million or more in annual ad revenue, while for 10 under 60, a magazine must have been published for at least two years and reported annual revenue of less than $60 million. You’ll notice that this year, we raised the eligibility cap for the small list to $60 million from $50 million. We did so to reflect the industry’s 23 percent revenue growth since 2003, when the threshold increased to $50 million from $40 million. In examining magazines’ ad performance over time, we give the greatest weight to the most recent year. W

e consider the performance of each title against its category peers, as well as the vitality of the category overall. We also evaluate circulation quality and performance, paying particular attention to the closely watched barometer of newsstand sales for the second half of 2008, as reported by the Audit Bureau of Circulations.

Finally, we consult a number of influential media buyers, who provide insight on which magazines they and their clients favor at the moment. So, please turn the page for this year’s AdweekMedia Magazine Hot List.

1. The Economist 2. Elle 3. People 4. Women's Health 5. Every Day With Rachael Ray 6. Real Simple7. Men's Health8. Family Circle 9. Vogue10. New York