I wasn't there in person to know if people were topless, maybe that is an Axe/Lynx campaign, but the gang at Nokia scored a homerun with their Skating Into Summer campaign, rolling across the the UK.  The event is a classic before it starts - rollerskating is good clean nostaglia and good for Nokia for knowing when it was time to do a bit of retrofun.  There obviously is a technology twist to it all - you sign-up online for a one-hour skate time slot and tickets are sent to your mobile within 24 hours before the event, and then you just show your ticket to get you and a friend into the rink, wearing the pair of provided skates. 

The events take place in three cities (London, Birmingham and Manchester) and are over a weekend.  During the day the rink is open to children and families and then after 6PM the bar opens and only 18+ can own the rink. Cool DJ line-ups ensure people will want to roll on by for the fun, and stick around for the tunes.  You can tell by the campaign site how much of a success this already is - many of the days are already "sold out" with only a slim chance of walk-up tickets for a handful of skater-wannabes. 

The Nokia connection is a sublte one, the best kind.  You get a Nokia Music Store Voucher PIN code when you sign-up, to use at the Nokia Music store that just launched, providing free tracks for downloading.  Of course on-site branding plays a role but its all about the music and the skating - the brand plays its part in making it a reality but doesn't shout at you when you come for the fun. 

Everyone, in your best yodel singing voice, YAAAAAHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!  Yes, it’s the yodel that rocked the world back in the day when YAHOO! first came on to the scene, instantly putting a smile on everyone's face with their very addictive YAHOO! yodel.  The YAHOO! yodel was an instant success and became a pop culture phenomenon (I totally remember Jack and Karen from Will & Grace doing a big YAHOO! yodel on one of my favourite episodes guest starring Mina Suvari, but that's another story).  

In any case, the yodel is back down under, alive and well thanks to a campaign that H&K Australia just launched for YAHOO!7 (the joint venture between YAHOO! and the 7 Network in Australia).  To really bring to life the fun of YAHOO! and the yodel, the team knew it needed someone that really captured the fun of yodeling – and luckily found yodeling sensation Taylor Ware of Nashville, Tennessee and invited her to Australia to bring to life the campaign.  Taylor was actually first discovered by YAHOO! in the States when the company did a yodel search in the US.  She was only X years old when she won the nationwide search.  Then, a few years later, Taylor entered America’s Got Talent and was runner-up in the competition, yodeling her way each week to the big finale show.

In Australia the team launched “the Odel to the Yodel” campaign site, showcasing Taylor and providing easy to follow yodeling tips – fun for the entire family.  And Taylor burned up the interview circuit – appearing on a variety of national TV programs and radio stations, teaching Aussies how to start off their day with a good yodel.

The “start your day with a yodel” element helps to tie in the campaign overarching platform – start something wonderful with Yahoo!  A simple yet right-to-the-point way to remind people that they can start their day or their first jump online with Yahoo! – the best way to explore the web.
So a big WOOHOO for YAHOO!, a great campaign example of how to pull through a central message in a very fun and entertaining way.

Like many people around the world I headed out to the theaters a few weeks ago to catch the latest Indiana Jones movie (is it me or are there no new ideas in Hollywood).  As you may have heard the movie had a huge opening weekend and continues to be on pace to provide a pretty good return for Mr. Spielberg.  In any case,  I heard from some friends who work at Paramount that they helped fuel the buzz with a very simple but cool Facebook application.  

The Wednesday morning before the movie hit theaters two days later the company provided Facebook users the ability to sent friends a digital version of Indy’s brown hat as a “virtual gift.”  Normally these cost $1 but Paramount offered 250,000 of them free-of-charge, and you guessed it, they sold out in one day.  

If you were lucky to get a hat from a friend it provided you a link to the movie’s Facebook page where you could find local listings to see the movie, download widgets, review reviews and check out movie photos.  The fun didn’t stop there, you could watch a video on “how to crack a whip like Indy,” check out behind the scenes photos and could upload your own videos.  

Today the site has nearly 90,000 fans – not bad for a movie page.  Most visitors I’m assuming checked it out, had a look around, and went on with their day.  Some came to the site and provided some reviews (some not so good at all) for others to check out.  

Given the low costs to create the Facebook page, and the smart use of assets from the movie production that would have probably just been deleted, I think this is a smart way for a company like Paramount to experiment a bit in the social media world to learn how to do an even better one next time.  It’s the experimental part of the new online world that companies need to embrace – try something out, give it a shot, see what happens and keep trying.  It’s fun, trust me. 

Most of my friends know I’m a huge dog lover (have two Labradors myself) so of course one of them sent me a note about the guys over at Milk-Bone (dog treats, food) conducting a search for “100 moments of joy” between pets and their owners which will lead to a new company spokesdog. Love it!

The search is connected to the company’s 100 year anniversary – which they have blown out to the max with the following activities:

• Milk-Bone kicked off the fun in Times Square in NYC with the world’s largest dog house, made entirely out of Milk-Bone biscuits – so more than 100,000 biscuits were used. Some celebs like Ivanka Trump (photo) helped kick off the celebration.
  
• Photos of celebrities and their dogs have been auctioned off for charity, raising funds for Canine Assistants
  
• A nationwide “Milk-Bone Moment” tour around the US, stopping at fairs and festivals, taking photos of dogs and their owners to enter in the contest
  

The company also checked off the “do the right thing” element, providing a $1 million donation to its Canine Heroes program that provides dogs to people in need as well as dogs for police to use. The campaign site has some great photos and videos already uploaded, showcasing how crazy we all really are about our dogs.

The only thing I would have added would have been an active campaign blog that covers all of the stops of the mobile tour and talks about all the fun dogs/owners found along the way. Just something to add a bit more conversation and content to the site, and could have provided a way to give a “bark out” to special stories from the road.

All in all the campaign does a nice job of really blowing out an anniversary celebration to add some personality and fun to the brand.

I'm a big fan of adidas, and had the pleasure of working with them in the States for a few years before moving down under (hello, adidas Australia, give me a call).  In any case, the brand is known for really aligning its overall company focus or product/category mantra across all marketing disciplines, the way it should be to really stretch and maximise the available budgets.

The latest case in point came arrived for the kick-off of the EUFA Euro 2008 championships and the company's launch of their "Dream Big" campaign.  adidas is a huge sponsor of all things soccer/football, and has on its roster some of the sports biggest names.  The two collided in Zurich when the "dream big" and the "best players on the planet" merged to create a 17-meter high huddle of 11 players from 9 different countries all sporting their adidas jerseys and, as such a nice bonus, and cheer twice a day during rush hour in their own native language. 

The fun doesn't stop there, adidas also unveiled an amazing "dream big" visual using the Czech national team goalkeeper, Petr Cech, shown with 8 spinning arms (blocking every ball that comes his way).  The arms are actually attached to a giant ferris wheel, so they circle behind Petr - AWESOME.

And that's not all folks, adidas also created 16 larger-than-life football boots showing off their new F50 Tunit 16 range, with each participating nation being featured in the display.  And, as another masterstroke of genius, the shoes traveled to their current viewing location in Vienna on the back of a car transport truck, stopping traffic along the way.  You can read the company's official news release about it all here.

Many, many companies could learn a lot from adidas - how to leverage all parts of the marketing mix by having every team and every agency work (and play nicely) together, all connected by the one single proposition/focus.  It truly is an inspiration to us all, and a great new bar for others to strive to reach and exceed. 

 

This new site (Brand Tags) rocks, and its worth you donating the next 10 minutes or your day (or longer) to check it out.  It's created by a guy in the States who simply created a site that asks people to provide a word or phrase that best describes their impression of a company logo that pops up on the screen.  You type in your answer, hit reply and up pops another one for you to do the same thing with.  Eventually you'll click on the link at the top of the intro paragraph that says "whatever it is they say a brand is" and be transported to another page of every company included in the database - click on one you like and then see all of the words/phrases people used to describe that word (up to 1,000,000 words/phrases have been entered). 

I love this, congrats to the Panasonic team who pulled off a great PR stunt yesterday.  The photo says it all, the company wanted a way to show the power of its new batteries and through what must have been some fun brainstorms came up with this idea.  They found a robot that climbs rope and strung a piece of rope off the edge of the Grand Canyon and 1500 feet below the robot (7 inches tall) started to make its way up.  Nearly seven hours later the robot made it to the top, and set a new World Record in the process.  I was looking for something on YouTube but can't find it - not that I want to watch a 7 hour journey but a time lapse video would be fun

I'm sure the bunny will be coming up with something next - I'd put the bunny on Route 66 and start him (or her, is it a girl or a boy) in a cool city and see how far the bunny gets down the historic route.  Could have a very cool motorcade watching the whole thing and would naturally start a "Robot vs. Bunny" media stunt competition which consumers and media would love.  Good for Panasonic for taking it to the category leader in a way that has to have the bunny hopping mad. (I had to go there.)