Unbottle Yourself

Carlsberg beer has a new contest utilizing a mobile app called "Unbottle Yourself", which will take place in Sweden. Why Sweden? The Carlsberg contest asserts that Swedes are "the most reserved people on the planet."

The grand prize: a party trip to Hong Kong

What to do to win: Swedes must accomplish various "missions" that include: "skipping down the street for at least one block; wearing a helmet at the gym; washing the windshield of a stranger's car; pretending to be a tour guide on a bus; and placing water bottles on the floor and racing between them like a ski pro."

Read article here: "Carlsberg tries to unbottle bashful Swedes" by David Gianatasio

((Branded)) Royal Wedding

Prince William and Kate Middleton are expected to wed on April 29th of this year. Everyone who has been following the couple has been waiting for them to tie the knot...including marketers who want to know what threads the royal couple will be wearing on their special day. 

So coot. 

But according to Robert Klara's article (click link below to read), "the palace announced that any brand caught using William or Kate's names as part of its marketing can expect a king-sized lawsuit."

But Klara adds that it leaves brands at two different ends of the marketing world: well-known brands vs. not-so-well-known brands cranking out "knockoffs". This reminds me of that time my mom bought me a pair of $100 brown boots at Macy's last semester. Months later, I go to Forever 21, wearing said brown boots and see a table of brown boots that looked a lot similar to the pair I had on. They were $25. So...$100 vs. $25. Brand name vs. Price efficient. Does it matter?

What do you think?

The Brands of Windsor

Also, check out a brief blog post about Forever 21 and Trovata's lawsuit on their veryyy identical fashions back in 2009 from Ethical Style Forever 21 Copyright Lawsuit to go to Trial

Creative Advertising

Cool design blog with post about creative ads from around the world

http://www.fromupnorth.com/2011/03/creative-advertising-216/

All about the whiskey

Adweek's Ad of the Day: Jameson Irish Whiskey, "Fire" 

The new spot for the whiskey brand was shown like a brief, fictional history tale. Along with the company's other spots, it shows the importance of the brand's whiskey that no matter what problem arises, John Jameson always finds a way to save his beloved libation.

How Do You Do Alot?

Keds Starts Campaign to Introduce Its Brand to a New Generation by Tanzina Vega

Keds is launching a new national campaign aimed toward millenials called "How Do You Do?" Keds intends on repositiong the brand as an iconic brand to 20 somethings. They intend on doing this through a pimped out campaign that involves a cross-country tour of college campuses in a 32-foot shoebox on wheels.

Check out promo video for campaign:

The campaign involves a massive amount of elaborative ideas, local artists and designers, creativity and most of all, lots of shoes and spending money. According to the article, Keds only spent $450,000 from January to September 2009 on advertising. During the same period the following year, they spent $1.68 million.

Since the campaign incorporates SO MUCH, read the link above for more info. What do you think - campaign overload or simply an elaborate and unique campaign for a shoes company that has been around since 1916.

AdFreak's 30 Freakiest Ads of 2010

The article speaks for itself: Click here to view them all

I don't want that with my data plan, thanks.

Going with the theme of psychos, and the fact that the new movie The Roommate came out last weekend, I thought I'd blog about Virgin Mobile's new commercials...scary, creepy commercials.

AdFreak's article included the new commercials for Virgin Mobile's Android phone with unlimited messaging, email, web, & data. I don't know if going in the route of first date turns into creepy, stalker chick will help with sales. Creative tactic, considering that with all of this technology, we can easily "creep" on others on our phones rather than just on computers. The scary music in these commercials doesn't really help me feel assured if I were to get a new data plan with a phone company like Virgin Mobile. I understand that many young people who are paying their way through college also have to pay for other necessities like cell phones. Companies like Virgin Mobile make it easy for them with pre-paid plans, some of which are adding more features to their plans since a lot of us are using smart phones (i.e. Crackberry, iPhone, Android, HTC etc).

Read more here: Virgin Mobile perfect for crazy stalker types

Here is another short from Virgin Mobile's Android commercials...