Lisbon store brings back forgotten favourites

Taking a firm stand in the face of globalization, A Vida Portuguesa has tracked down Portugal’s unique brands and opened a store dedicated to products that have resisted the urge to keep up with changing times.
At the store, located in a former soap factory in Lisbon’s traditional-yet-hip neighbourhood of Chiado, customers can find over 1,000 products that

1)have maintained their original packaging,

2) that are made by hand,

3)or that represent traditional Portuguese craftsmanship.

Soaps, pencils, mugs, jewelry, notebooks, coffee, tea, blankets and even toothpaste—everything on stock holds a fragment of the nation’s collective memory.

Some items are widely available and familiar throughout Portugal, while others were almost impossible to find and buy before the store opened.
A Vida Portuguesa appeals both to

a) nostalgic adults delighted to find the brands of their youth, and to

b)younger generations attracted by old-fashioned products and retro packaging that provide an alternative to mainstream brands.

It’s a testament, once again, to the enduring appeal of (still) made here, a trend that rewards brands for staying true to their local roots and identity.
Website: http://www.umacasaportuguesa.com/

Contact: avidaportuguesa@gmail.com

Western Union::: Rural movie project

BRAND OWNER:Western Union
CATEGORY:Financial
REGION:China
DATE:Jul 2008 - Oct 2008
Western Union’s money transfer service relies on brand awareness but also brand familiarity to drive usage.

Consumers need to trust Western Union to use the service.

In China a key target was people living in villages around tier 3 and 4 cities who tend to be older with lower educational attainment.
Reaching these consumers is hard because there are few targeted media options, printed materials may not be effective or understood and they are also conservative when it comes to testing new services.

The key way to earn their trust, however, is recommendation from family and friends and the communications solution was to create a family event in their villages and use the occasion to personally explain the Western Union service.

It created a tailor-made event in 95 different locations, promoted via posters, offering villagers the chance to see a relatively recent movie.

Before each screening a 10-minute video about Western Union was played with representatives on the ground also giving out leaflets and one to one explanations.

The event was totally branded with Western Union yellow stools, banners, event and leaflets.
Research carried out after the event showed nearly everyone questioned said they would try Western Union products for future transfers. The activity is being expanded for 2009.

Hansaplast::: Marching blisters

BRAND OWNER:Beiersdorf
CATEGORY:Pharmaceuticals/ Healthcare
REGION:Germany
DATE:Apr 2008 - Jan 2008


Special plasters for blisters are a niche product. Hansaplast had been mainly targeted at women to help them adapt their new shoes but the product was also suitable for other groups.
The Beiersdorf brand needed to ensure potential customers didn’t use less specialised products when they needed protection from blisters.
It identified new army recruits as a rich potential market – around 60,000 young men join the German army every year and undergo a gruelling fitness programme for nine months.
Their best friends will not only be their fellow recruits but also the boots that will carry them through the miles of route marches and exercises.

They need blister plasters just as much as they need the rest of their uniform.
And with extreme experience of the pain of blisters they would become advocates for the benefits of Hansaplast both in through the army as well as to their civilian friends.

The brand decided that each new recruit should receive not just a sample pack but also information on how to treat blisters.

Each quarter 35,000 sample boxes, including a camouflage sample were handed out.
Questionnaires revealed 40% satisfaction rates with the blister plasters and there was also a significant boost in sales at barrack shops, which rose permanently by 15%.

WWF::: Visualizing charity donations

BRAND OWNER:WWF
CATEGORY:Charities
REGION:Brazil
DATE:Feb 2009 - Mar 2009

When people give to charity, it is often hard to visualize where exactly their money is going. Many people can question that the money they donate is actually going to directly help the cause they are donating to.

WWF wanted to create a tangible link between donation and the animals that were going to benefit from the cause.
WWF was particularly concerned about the plight of the toucan, the sea turtle and the marsh deer.

WWF decided to set up donation areas in public places including gyms, cinemas and company reception areas.

It created large magnetic posters with a faint painting-by-numbers style outline of a toucan, a sea turtle or a deer. Within the outline were markings where people could place different types of coins to create the features of the creature. The message on the poster read: “Make your donations to WWF Brazil here and see who you’ll be helping”.

Silver coloured 50 centavo coins would form the lightest parts of the animal, gold and silver coloured 1 real coins would form the bulk of the animals, while the darker coppery coloured 5 and 1 centavo coins would build the shaded areas.

As more people donated by placing their coins on the magnetic surface, the image of the animal appeared.

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.

Holiday Inn :::Stay smart, presidential style

BRAND OWNER :InterContinental Hotels Group
CATEGORY :Travel/Airlines
REGION :USA
DATE :Feb 2008 - Apr 2008


The Holiday Inn Express frequent business traveller spends a lot of time on the road and they know what they like: practical amenities, without all kinds of extra fluff (and cost).
This is the premise for Holiday Inn Express’ “Stay Smart” brand promise: you’ll feel smarter for having stayed with HI Express instead of “fancier” full service hotels.
Holiday Inn capitalised on the unprecedented level of media interest in the 2008 US Presidential race by creating a media conversation around the Holiday Inn Express brand positioning.
In the midst of the most expensive campaign in history, the Stay Smart, America website exposed how fiscally responsible- and irresponsible- the Presidential candidates were.
The success of the website hinged on a risky but hugely successful communications strategy that relied solely on PR to push the website and its message. No paid media was purchased, online or offline, to tout Stay Smart America. This was an unconventional strategy that paid off huge for the brand.
Leveraging the candidate’s public FEC filings, the website analysed and published the candidate’s campaign lodging expenditures and determined how much they would have saved if they stayed with Holiday Inn Express.
The story was first offered up to respected journalist and blogger Chris Elliott of The New York Times for inclusion on his blog. Once Elliott ran the exclusive, the release was then strategically distributed right before Super to the Top 100 daily newspapers, national television and relevant Web sites, blogs, social networks and message boards.
In the first 2 weeks the website generated over 85m media impressions and secured online and offline, national and international coverage on Fox News, CBS, The London Times, The New York Times, The Washington Post, LA Times, and USA Today, among dozens of political and news blogs. The Stay Smart, America website, developed for $100K, set off a storm of press activity that returned over $2.5MM+ in free media coverage.

Obama :::Rock the vote in-game

BRAND OWNER:Obama
CATEGORY:Government/Public Sector
REGION:USA
DATE:Oct 2008 - Nov 2008

For Barack Obama to win the 2008 election, he needed to secure a majority of young voters in key battleground states. The Rock the Vote campaign sought to engage and incite young Americans under 30 to register and vote.
In-game advertising has become an effective way for brands to reach coveted young audiences. Among the hard to reach 18-34 male audience, console and PC gaming is strongly preferred as their favorite leisure activity.
While playing videogames, engagement is extremely high and multitasking is almost non-existent compared to watching TV or surfing the internet.
Brand Obama partnered with Microsoft in-game advertising specialist Massive to reach the Xbox Live community.
Rock the Vote was able to successfully call this social community to action through relevant political issues that they care about. Gamers could get voter registration forms sent to their email, vote in an online presidential poll, download themes and gamer pics to show their allegiance for favored candidates.
Obama ran his “Rock the Vote” campaign in 11 Xbox 360 titles across 10 battleground states using geo targeting, time date targeting and content targeting. Gamers who were online in those states saw key messages in realistic settings while playing the video game titles running the campaign. ‘Early Voting has begun’ and ‘Vote Early’ were on billboards, stadiums and outdoor locations.
Additionally, the Xbox LIVE community was polled on their candidate of choice. Nearly 100,000 participants cast their votes, with Obama trending 12 percentage points ahead, providing a unique insight into young voters minds and served as one of the largest unofficial polls in the nation.
The campaign was a first for a political party and succeeded in targeting a hard to reach audience that spends more time gaming than on other media. Some 80,000 voter registration forms were downloaded through Xbox LIVE and Xbox.com and 100,000 Xbox LIVE member were polled voting preference and often acted as the bellwether of national polls.

Know better::: I Cant Believe Its Not Butter

BRAND OWNER :Unilever
CATEGORY :Food
REGION :USA
DATE :Jan 2008 - Mar 2008

I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter!(ICBINB) was under a new threat. The growing health trend towards all-natural products reinforced many women’s long-held belief that butter is healthy because it is natural.

ICBINB had been communicating that it was the healthier alternative to butter for years, but consumers were confused about which health messages to believe.

ICBINB had to reinforce its health credentials and dispel some incorrect beliefs held by the target audience of women aged 45-54.
The brand worked with MSN Games to develop Now You Know Better, a custom online trivia game with an opportunity to win $1 million. In the game, players answered a variety of trivia questions dating back to the '50s on topics ranging from U.S. history to health to movies.

The questions focused on ‘then vs. now’ and took a tongue-in-cheek look at the naiveté of the past, while educating on the present and on ICBINB.

Players could compete against up to four other players online and select an animated online personality and screen name. Celebrities like Gary Coleman and Dustin Diamond took part in the game through a series of public service announcement-style vignettes in which they confessed their "Know Better" moments. In addition to the $1,000,000 grand prize, there were more than $40,000 in prizes up for grabs during the Sweepstakes.

The Web site also featured recipes and instant print coupons for I Can't Believe It's Not Butter! Now You Know Better was the most popular trivia game on MSN Games ever, with 1.2 million unique players. Among its target 45–54 female audience, the campaign increased the perception that the brand “is healthier than butter” (21.4% increase) and “has the great butter taste” (11% increase). The campaign helped ICBINB to outperform the category during the first half of 2008 in terms of both volume and dollars.

McDonald’s::: Personalised coupons

BRAND OWNER:McDonald's
CATEGORY:Food
REGION:China
DATE:Feb 2008 - Mar 2008


Discount coupons are an important element in driving in-store traffic, but McDonald’s wanted to help lower cost of its coupon strategy while breaking through the cluttered coupon market and targeting 18-25 year olds.
McDonald’s came up of a way of putting the target audience in control of their coupon – allowing them to customize their personal coupon according to their preference.

McDonald’s partnered with China’s largest online network QQ, and created an advertising banner that was embedded within the QQ Member Instant Messaging screen to encourage click-thru.

After clicking on the banner, users are able to customize their meal according to their preference.

They could then either print or download their personalized coupon onto their mobile phone.

In just 4 weeks a total of almost 550,000 clicked through and some 800,000 coupons were created. 680,000 QQ members downloaded the coupon onto their mobile or printed them after having customized them.

This represented a 43% conversion for McDonald’s. Furthermore, 190,000 people redeemed their coupons at a McDonald’s store, giving the campaign a total response rate of 11.87% (compared to a traditional insertion coupon campaign that yielded a 0.62% response rate).

Sony Ericsson:::15 seconds of fame

BRAND OWNER:Sony Ericsson
CATEGORY:Telecoms/ Mobile
REGION:Netherlands
DATE:Nov 2008

For the launch of its C905 model, which boasts an 8.1 mega pixel camera, Sony Ericsson transformed a bus shelter at Rembrandtplein in Amsterdam into a photo studio.
The aim of this campaign was to demonstrate the camera’s capabilities, with a special focus on how the mobile imaging of this model is as good as any digital camera.

To illustrate this, the panel was fitted with a touchscreen, which passers-by could interact with. The panel was fitted with a C905 camera, and people could pose for a photo in the bus shelter and then have their image transferred to a large 87m2 screen opposite.

The campaign took seconds but gave everyone who wanted it their 15 seconds of fame.

MasterCard::: Priceless in Brazil

BRAND OWNER:MasterCard
CATEGORY:Financial
REGION:Brazil
DATE:Apr 2008 - Dec 2008


In Brazil, people have developed their own interpretations of what it means for an experience to be “Priceless" independent of MasterCard’s landmark campaign.

Many Brazilians' personal expressions of moments so special one cannot put a price tag on them were already online in video and blog-posting form. MasterCard could not ignore the opportunity to marry the pre-existing affinity for this concept to a whole new level of affection for the credit card brand.

Brazilians are the most active social networkers in the world: 76% percent have an online profile and 56% manage their profiles daily.

MasterCard’s goal was to move its “Priceless” concept forward using user-generated content (UGC) and social networking capabilities.

It launched a central site (http://www.naotempreco.com.br/) inviting Brazilians to share real events from their lives. The winning submissions were taken on as TV spots, with many others used on cable TV, magazines, newspapers and online.
MasterCard teamed with the SBT variety show “Domingo Legal”—the most popular Sunday TV program in Brazil—to feature viewers’ “Priceless” moments. One-minute “Priceless” segments were showcased on AXN and Sony cable channels, which offer the highest penetration for MasterCard’s upscale target audience. Viral networks, search engines and social networks were also engaged.

This was the first time any financial services company in Brazil had ever attempted to use UGC in a marketing initiative. Some 63,000 “Priceless” ideas were submitted via http://www.naotempreco.com.br/. The site had 36 million page views.