The Week in Advertising Episode 21

Multisensory Media

Smelly Postage Stamps

Australia Post spokesman Noel Leahy said the stamp was a sensory explosion "sure to rekindle warm feelings for every romantic out there".
Mr Leahy said he hoped the initiative would encourage lovebirds to shy away from sending a less romantic email or SMS on February 14 this year.
"Sending an SMS or email doesn’t have the same impact as a card you choose personally and accompany with a hand-written message of love," he said in a statement.
"The value of a heartfelt love letter and scented stamp is priceless."

Smelly packaging shall enforce impulse purchases

The scent of chocolate is now being incorporated into a new packaging method with hopes that it will induce impulse purchasing in would-be consumers. ‘Chocolatine,’ as the product is being called, doesn’t have any specific product ties yet. At this stage, it’s basically a new style of glass capsule designed to emit fragrances and distribute them over long periods of time. The project combines technologies from Eastman Chemical Company, Eurofragance, Rotuba and EJ Pack.
Rotuba is responsible for the development of the jar lid that captures the fragrance of Chocolatine, which also has notes of vanilla and orange. In time, project developers say that the smelly packaging could be used to market products such as DVDs. Also, here’s a Chocolatine press release from EMG

A Commercial You Smell
Nivea was the first company to utilize scent to add a new dimension of realism to cinema advertising. As moviegoers watched a typical beach setting, the scent of suntan lotion filled the theater. The ad, ending with the line, “Nivea. The smell of summer.” engaged a sense that is always on. The scent tapped into people’s memory and invoked a psychological trigger that significantly increased the ad’s impact. Exit polls showed a 515% higher rate of recall compared to the same ad shown without the scent.

Collateral You Touch
In Portugal, 4,500 new cases of breast cancer are detected annually. Roche, the world’s largest cancer-treating drug company, is raising curiosity and generating awareness regarding the importance of self-exams using stress balls with a “lump” inside and the message: “You don’t see breast cancer. You feel it. Do the self-exam.” By physically squeezing the ball, women were shown what to look for and just how vital self-exams are. There program has inspired a 22% increase in mammograms and 28% in hospital visits

A Billboard You Taste
Instead of just talking about how good their chocolate tastes or showing an appealing visual, Thorntons Chocolate Company decided to actually let people try their product with an edible billboard. Thorntons created the world’s first chocolate billboard (just in time for Easter) consisting of ten massive chocolate bunnies, 72 giant chocolate eggs and 128 panels made of pure chocolate. People walking by were encouraged to sample pieces of the 860-lb. 14.5×9.5 foot billboard and have a literal taste of the product.

A Master’s Degree in Social Media

Next year, Birmingham City University in the UK will be offering a one-year master’s degree course in social media. Students will learn the ins and outs of social networking applications as public relations, communications and marketing tools.




Jon Hickman: MA in Social Media from Kasper Sorensen on Vimeo.

Designed to accessible to anyone, the course takes a scholarly look at services like Facebook, Twitter, Bebo and so on.Although learning the nuances of social media in the business world may have a place as part of a larger curriculum, it seems like too little to base an entire Master’s program on.
Early responses to the class have people scratching their heads at the relevance of a line of study that could essentially be completed for free by just getting hands-on experience with the social media tools out there.

Korean... Made in Amman

Wonho Chung monologue ...
Won-Ho Chung, a Korean born in Saudi and raised in Jordan

FP7 Doha::: forced to apologise after Jesus ad scandal

The ad has been called "an attack against Christian symbols", after it was published in the Lebanese newspaper Al Mostakbal last week.

Samsung had not commissioned FP7 to create any ad campaigns, and argued that the agency had only created the spot in order to pick up some honours at the recent Dubai Lynx Awards.

The investigation follows the publication of a damning entry on bloganubis, in which the legitimacy of FP7 Doha's work for clients Higeen Mouthwash, Samsung and Nissan was questioned.Steve Lane, festival director of the Dubai Lynx, confirmed that complaints had been received from numerous agencies as a result of the blog, as well as from clients.

Sunny Hwang, the president of Samsung Electronics Levant, said: "At no time was Samsung Electronics aware of these advertisements and the company has not approved or commissioned FP7 to create any advertising campaigns. "Samsung has the utmost respect for all cultures and religions and would never produce or approve the use of such culturally insensitive advertisements."At the award ceremony, FP7 picked up two golds and a silver for its Samsung work, as well as winning the agency of the year title.

The agency is now being investigated by the event's organisers, and is expected to be stripped of its honours. Phillip Thomas, the chief executive of Cannes Lions, the organiser of the Dubai Lynx Awards, said: "It appears in this case that FP7 Doha has knowingly tried to mislead ourselves and our jury regarding work they claimed to have created on behalf of Samsung Electronics, which in reality the client had never seen or approved."

Will FP7 change this page

Source: http://www.promoseven.com/

Perspective on thankfulness

Tim & Kristen Koehn talk about living and working in Kuwait and how that's affected their perspective on thankfulness

Nova Scotia ::: "Come to Life": Pomegranate NS08

Check it out: http://www.pomegranatephone.com/

Advertising Agency: Bristol Group - Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
Creative Directors: Albert Ianni, Mike Whitelaw
Art Director: Daniel Couto
Copywriter: Albert Ianni
Designers: Daniel Couto, Michael Gatto, Jake Owens
Production (Video/Animation): Egg Films / Hatch
PostProduction (Web): Breathe Media
Video Director: Evan Kelly
Released: September 2008

TV commercials review: Ariston Aqualis

The song is called "Ask the mountains" and is composed by Vangelis.
It appears on Vangelis' 1996 album, "Voices". Stina Nordenstam contributes with the vocals.

Christina Aguilera Perfumes:::Sometimes it's all you need to wear

BRAND :Christina Aguilera Perfumes
BRAND OWNER :Procter & Gamble
REGION :Israel
DATE :Jan 2009

Based on the concept: "Sometimes it's all you need to wear", Diplomat Distributors wanted to create awareness of Christina Aguilera’s perfume and motivate them to buy the product in the midst of a global economic crisis, when people were reluctant to make unnecessary purchases.
Tens of thousands of quality clothes hangers were hung in public locations all over the country, each with a perfume sample and a branded Christina Aguilera label attached.

The hangers were hung in every possible location, mostly in crowded places outside malls and near Israel’s leading pharmacy chain, SuperPharm, where the perfume was exclusively sold. The message: “sometimes it’s all you need to wear” suggestively adorned each one. The hangers were placed on railings, on trees and in stores.
The total activity cost $30,000 and the campaign reached more than 1.5m consumers and led to the highest ever sales for a new perfume in Israel, with the scent selling out within a week.

The client also got extensive news coverage in newspapers, TV and online. Estimated worth of free publicity – more than $200K.

Conservative Party:::Sorry from Gordon Brown

BRAND:Conservative Party
REGION:UK
DATE:Mar 2009 - Dec 2008

The UK opposition party, The Conservatives, wanted put the pressure on the governing Labour Party. The Tories were particularly keen on putting the pressure on him for his economic policy, which contributed to the fact that the country was in a state of recession and that banks have had to be bailed out by the Government.

The Tories launched a search marketing campaign that aimed to mock the Prime Minister for his economic track record.

The strategy was to buy the paid search key words “Gordon Brown”, so that any time anyone on Google entered the name, the first sponsored link that appeared along side it was a link to www.sorryfromgordon.com.

The site said it wanted an apology and claimed that: “Gordon Brown bottled out of saying sorry in his speech to Congress yesterday so write an apology for him and send it to your friends.” Users on the site could write a fake letter of apology from Gordon Brown from a selection of drop down menus featuring humorous options. Users could finish the sentence “Today, I feel duty bound to say sorry...” with one of the following options: “I genuinely believe that I have let you down”; “Britain is on the brink of bankruptcy and it is my fault”, or “Peter Mandelson told me to”.

The site also gives the option to send the apology to up to five friends, giving it a viral element.

Canon:::Human statues

BRAND:Canon
CATEGORY:Electronic Goods
REGION:South Africa
DATE:2009

Canon wanted to demonstrate the image stabilizer found inside the new Canon Powershot IS 2000 camera with a suitably “stable” media platform.
While performance artists who pose as human statues are nothing new, using them as a media platform is.

Their ability to stay still and cool under pressure is precisely the functionality that Canon was trying to highlight. Canon recruited a selection of such performance artists to stand on a Canon branded plinth in high traffic areas close to camera shops or in high action locations which would usually be photographed.

The plinths carried the message: “The ultimate in image stabilization”. The human statues would remain perfectly still for ages, before rapidly moving to the amusement or surprise of passers by.