The game of marketing has changed fundamentally. Taking out uninspiring, run-of-the-mill print and TV ads doesn’t fly any more. Marketing a brand effectively requires exceptional ideas and concepts that are entertaining and unusual enough to capture the imaginations of today’s cynical, ad-wary consumers. Our advice is to go beyond the traditional media to capture your audience in other platforms as well – offline brand experiences that DEMAND consumer attention.

Brave, new, exciting, entertaining offline experiences are talked about, blogged about and spread through social media. This is viral marketing at its best and most effective. If the idea is good, nothing can stop its spread. We spend all of our waking hours evaluating and creating such ideas. We see more innovation and ideas and concepts each day than we ever thought possible and the ideas we’ve created have achieved incredible attention. We have access to a global roster of creative talent of all disciplines whom we can tap for our projects. Our new ACCESS AGENCY website will launch in June. In the meanwhile, if you want us to help your brand to create such experiences, please get in touch. - Bill Tikos

Time to have some offline fun with The Cool Hunter! Once again, we are aiming to create some buzz all over the world, including New York, Los Angeles, London, Sydney, Paris, Barcelona, Singapore, Sao Paulo, Rome, Tokyo, Toronto.

 
People who may not have heard about TCH yet, will find themselves Coolhunted. We will place cards at art galleries and events with inspiring visuals. We’ll slide bookmarks in certain business books in bookstores.

We’ll put stickers on magazines on magazine stands. We’ll stick them on cars that need an upgrade and on cars that already have a sense of style. Bikes, vespas and cool helmets will not be safe either.

 
And the most talked-about version of this stunt: In clubs, at parties, fashion week, and other events, people will find stickers on the backs of their friends -- or on their own back -- that say “OOWWWAA, aren’t you a hottie! You have been Coolhunted.”

 
Whenever we have done this kind of offline campaign, we see huge numbers of people find us for the first time. They talk about it on Twitter and Facebook and we love all that talk! Welcome to all those who’ve already been Coolhunted.

 
When it happens to you, we want to know about it! Have you discovered TCh via our stickers?

TCH Stickers designed by Fernando Volken Togni from Brazil. Pics vis Yvan Rodic & The Cobra Snake

The bloggerati have well and truly taken over the various fashion weeks around the globe, front rows filled with social networkers tweeting to their faceless fans. So how does an old-school fashion magazine stand out?

French Grazia magazine tackled the challenge recently at Paris Fashion Week with pug dog balloons. Of course!! Why not?? A simple, old-school talking-point stunt that certainly got their girls noticed. We're guessing they're referencing the chi-chi practice of carrying a lap-dog to such events. We're not sure. And who cares. We just think they're cute. Lisa Evans

HBO’s show HUNG has now made its New Zealand debut on TVNZ’s Channel One.

Auckland-based ad agency Colenso BBDO was retained to promote the show and to generate some buzz. They have definitely created a buzz with their risqué billboard, recently erected on Victoria Street in central Auckland. Whether you like the billboard or not, and whether it draws you to watch the show or not, you must admit that the old, tried-and-true subjects – well-endowed female and male bodies – never seem to fail to draw attention.

Established in 1969, Colenso BBDO is consistently one of New Zealand’s highest-ranked ad agencies. Campaign Brief has also named Colenso BBDO Agency of the Decade. - Bill Tikos

While Italians take cars seriously, it doesn’t mean they cannot have some fun with them. The advertising campaign for the special edition of the Bologna Motor Show 2009 takes full advantage of this. With toys in a retro home playing at taking themselves seriously — including Barbie-like dolls and toy cars and bikes — the advertising campaign pokes fun at the clichés about boys and their toys, hot girls and hot cars.

The show's promo has a reputation of pushing boundaries and being provocative with Milan-based Armando Testa agency having been in charge of the advertising campaign for the past decade. The 2009 campaign — billboards, magazine and newspaper ads, online, TV and radio — was creative directed by Nicola Lampugnani and Francesco Guerrera, with Federica Saraniti Lana’s copy and Nicola Rinaldi’s art. The press campaign was edited by LSD studio. The TV ad was by The Family with Federico Brugia’s direction and music by Ferdinando Arnò. - Tuija Seipell

Lego Kitchen meets Lego fashion.

Nikon took its cue from our celebrity-obsessed paparazzi culture to launch the brand's D700 model in Korea.

At a busy Seoul subway station, Nikon mounted a huge interactive, light-box billboard displaying life-like images of paparazzi. Huddled together as if at a premiere, the "paps" appear to be jostling and competing for the best celebrity snap. The celebrities in this case were the passersby, who automatically triggered a deluge of flashing camera lights as they walked past the billboard. The accidental superstars then followed the red carpet all the way out of the station and into a mall - directly into the store where they could purchase the new D700. Mission accomplished. - Lisa Evans
 

 

Have fun with your pimples! That was likely the thinking of Gideon Amichay, Chief Creative Officer and partner at Shalmor Avnon Amichay/Y&R Interactive in Tel Aviv, Israel, when he created a campaign for Clearex acne treatment gel. A pimply-faced, 5-meter-tall climbing wall at Israel’s largest climbing center exposed 8,000 teenagers per month to the brand during their summer holidays. The agency’s online take on the same predicament earned it a perch on 2009 Cannes Cyber Lions shortlist. Teenagers entered their friends’ photos online and pimpled their faces liberally. The only way for the friend to remove the pimples? Use “online” Clearex, of course. This campaign gained over 2.7 million exposures and 25,000 active surfers in under 48 hours. - Tuija Seipell

Thanks to Apple the standard of marketing undertaken by computer and tech companies has dramatically increased. Apple showed the world that tech products can be 'sexy' and marketed creatively. The latest brand in this realm to take a creative approach to advertising is Microsoft. New Zealand agency Y&R zoomed in on the idea of home entertainment for this series of ads for the software giant. Promoting Microsoft Vista, which allows you to access your phone, music and photos etc from your PC, the ads are anchored around the idea of making your home a theme park of entertainment - a bouncy castle of fun. - Lisa Evans.

Sometimes it’s the simplest of ideas that make the best advertisements - and who doesn’t remember creating wacky hairdo’s with the bath bubbles in the tub as a kid. Well at least we do. Take a look at these simple yet effective ads by JWT Frankfurt for ‘extra strong’ Priorin shampoo. - Brendan McKnight

Brussel's agency TBWA took the concept of a 'splash of paint' quite literally when it created this striking print ad for paint manufacturer Levis. Drawing a parallel between interiors and fashion is nothing new but rarely does it work so well, particularly in a print context. Sexy and commanding. Not usually word you associate with paint. - Lisa Evans 

Call it buzz, guerrilla, viral, word-of-mouth, whatever – marketing and advertising stunts and ideas that achieve free attention are working now perhaps better than ever before. Of course, they are much less expensive than TV or print ads so they are a good alternative in this economic climate. And even if the marketer had the money to spend on lavish conventional media campaigns, using guerrilla tactics appears frugal and smart and appeals to an audience that appreciates such attitudes.

If the guerrilla stunt works and gains news media coverage and serious online buzz, then it has also achieved the coveted third-party endorsement and peer-reviews  that are so important to today’s consumers.

We’ve recently highlighted a few simple and clever examples of this in our advertising section. The most recent was the People as Fleas idea.

A similar large-scale floor sticker was used in January by a Swiss skydiving school. Their agency, Wirz/BBDO Switzerland, managed to execute a simple idea that achieved media coverage and is still making the online rounds. The images of the city skyline make it extremely clear what Swiss Skydive.org can do for you. - Tuija Seipell

No more living in denial about the size of your waist line, thanks to this fantastic albeit terrifying guerrilla marketing initiative from the health club chain, Fitness First. Unsuspecting commuters in the Netherlands are faced with viewing their body weight in bright lights - quite literally - when they take a seat at this Rotterdam bus stop. Scary to say the very least, but extraordinarily clever and likely to increase membership numbers at the local Fitness First. The brainchild of Netherlands’ agency N=5, the initiative takes the concept of guerilla marketing to a whole new level. - Lisa Evans

If it’s bubbles you want, Aero offers them up in more ways than one, at least on video. Aero’s maker Nestlé chose Skate Fairy Ty Evans of the Lakai footwear Fully Flared video fame, to create a yummy video that is making the viral rounds. It features the Rio-born Bob Burnquist aka Robert Dean Silva Burnquist having some enviable fun on the bubbles.

Click to watch it - It's awesome

Perwanal Saatchi & Saatchi in Jakarta, Indonesia, has taken interactivity and creepy-crawliness to a new, flat level with the creation of this massive 'floor sticker' in an Jakarta shopping center .
 
The ad, for Jakarta's pet emporium JAKPETZ, promotes Frontline Flea & Tick Spray  with the slogan 'Get them off your dog.'
 
Viewed from the upper levels, the people walking on the ad look disgustingly flea-like, and the scene elicits constant reactions that sound something like 'yikes!' The team behind this effective promo included Chief Creative Officer Andy Greenaway, Executive Creative Director Juhi Kalia and Art Directors Aryanto Salim and Joel Clement. - Tuija Seipell

We don't think there's a person left on this earth who isn't thrilled/glad/relieved to see the back of George Bush, America's worst president  - and that includes Republicans. Which is why we laughed out loud when a reader sent in this brilliant ad in the Australian newspaper, The Daily Telegraph today. Supermarket hair removal brand Veet joined in the loud chorus of 'goodbye and good riddens' and sold a few more tubes of hair removal cream at the same time. Brilliant. No more Bush indeed. - Laura Demasi

Created by EuroRSCG Australia
Art Director: Patrycja Lukjanow
Copy Writer: John Gault
Creative Director: Rowan Dean

Many of us have a fascination with graffiti art, and we sometimes even look over our shoulders to make sure no one’s watching when we scratch out our initials in a freshly laid slab of cement — or carve them into a wooden desk — or even scribble profanities across the stall door in a public restroom. 

The creative minds working for Sharpie, the ultimate in permanent markers, have discovered a way to satiate our desires to deface public domain.  Interactive e-cast billboards have been scattered around cities, which allow people to experience the rush of creating their own graffiti.  Choose some colours, write a message and Sharpie makes it possible for anyone to leave his permanent mark on the side of the bus stop or the public phone or anywhere else billboard adverting may be experienced. Andrew J Wiener.

It's just days away from one of the most anticipated US federal elections in history and both sides are plowing into spin overdrive. Which is why we love this amazing original advertisement that has succeeded in doing what most politicians don't  - cut through the crap in a single succinct moment.

Created by creative director - Tor Myhren from Grey NYC,  the posters slice through the race issue between candidates - acknowledging that much of this campaign has predictably but stupidly been re-cast as a battle between black and white. Myhren's powerful imagery rightly implies that this is all just distraction, seeking to refocus our attention onto what really matters - the issues.

Even before the results are in, the posters have become collectors items, with New Yorkers unable to help themselves from swiping them off the streets.  - Lisa Evans

 

Thanks to Apple and its superior design, marketing, advertising and, well, anything else to do with creating and selling a product, most other global communications brands have languished in a kind of brand-image purgatory. Sony is fighting back with this great campaign created by Saatchi & Saatchi Sydney, helmed by art director Eron Broughton. The agency took Sony's earphones and literally mapped out the New York subway system, mimicking a traditional subway map. It's a simple idea but powerful in its execution, giving Sony a much-need dose of coolness. At last, other brands are thinking outside of the square. Now all Sony needs to do is apply that principle to its actual products. Innovate or die, guys. - Laura Demasi

 

To promote the exclusive thrillers and horror films on 13th Street, the toilet of a nightclub in Hamburg was specially prepared. Just after entering the room, the light suddenly goes out and the room is bathed in Black light. And now a bloody crime scene becomes visible on the floor and walls: "See what others don't see. 13TH STREET. The Action and Suspense Channel."

Ad Agency - Creative Director: Bernd Kramer