Best Ideas In The World

Put your hands together

AT&T’s “Hands” campaign was recently awarded America’s Favorite Magazine Ad. The campaign features elaborately painted and positioned hands that depict iconic images from foreign countries. The campaign was created to emphasize the international foothold of AT&T.

Italian artist, Guido Daniele, was commissioned to paint the hands for the advertisements. His work in the campaign includes the elephants of India, the Great Wall of China, a Costa Rican bird, geishas of Japan and several more. The print campaign is featured in magazines, newspapers, airports, and on billboards and the sides of public transportation.

Trillon Dollar advertising campaign.

African newspaper, The Zimbabwean, was recognized at the Media Grand Prix in Cannes for their advertising campaign against President Robert Mugabe and the Zimbabwean government; however, awards are not what the newspaper seeks to achieve with this campaign. The Zimbabwean, printed outside of the country, was forced into exile for writing articles placing Mugabe at fault for the super inflation and economic downfall of Zimbabwe. The inflation is so high that the Zimbabwean currency is actually worthless. In June 2008 the Mugabe administration placed a 55% luxury import duty on newspapers printed and shipped from outside the country. This made The Zimbabwean unaffordable to the citizens. Not willing to back down, the newspaper collected a trillion dollars of worthless Zimbabwean money. The money was used as artwork and backgrounds on billboards, murals and posters. Written on the money were statements saying thanks to Mugabe, this money is just wallpaper. The money was also placed in the mail and sent to media personalities and celebrities. The Zimbabwean, named “the voice of the voiceless”, is a pioneer in the fight against the Mugabe administration.

Kit Kat recognized for chocolaty postage

Kit Kat and partner JWT Japan were recently recognized at the Media Grand Prix in Cannes for their unique Kit Kat Mail product. The product started when Kit Kat found out their name, translated in Japanese “Kitto Katso”, means “surely win”. Kit Kat, being a very popular candy bar in Japan, wanted to utilize the translation in a campaign. This reminds me of how Chevrolet was not as lucky with the Spanish translation of their 1970s car, the Nova. Nova, spaced no va, literally means “No Go”. As you can expect, the Chevy Nova was not a big hit in Spanish speaking countries. Kit Kat, however, found an old Japanese tradition they could capitalize on. In Japan, it is accustomed for family members to send students good luck wishes before higher education entrance exams. Kit Kat and JWT Japan, partnering with the Japanese Postal Service, created a mailable, edible postcard to be sent for good luck. The chocolaty card was placed in post offices all over Japan and quickly became a hit. Kit Kat Mail did so well that the company has decided to keep it as a permanent product.

‘Best Job in the World’ sets trend.

In the previous posting, you learned about Tourism Queensland and the creation of ‘The Best Job in the World’. Although Tourism Queensland just finished selecting their Island Caretaker, similar PR stunts have already surfaced. In Sonoma, the Murphy-Goode Winery has recently closed their application deadline for ‘A Really Goode Job’. While employed, the participant will taste hundreds of wines, experience the wine making process and even work with the chief wine maker on making a signature wine to commemorate the experience. The job will last six months with a $10,000 stipend every month. The participant will have full accommodations at a home in beautiful Healdsburg. Like Southall, the winery participant will be required to Blog about their experience.

The city of Orlando is also doing a similar campaign. ‘67 Days of Smiles in Orlando’ is a contest where one team of two will be selected to live and tour Orlando. For $25, 000, the pair will visit landmarks, take a trip to one of the worlds greatest amusement parks and soak up the Florida sun. Similar to the other contests, the participants will be asked write about their experience and post to social networking sites.

The Best Job in the World!

ATTENTION Job Seekers! Tourism Queensland, seeking to promote the islands of the Great Barrier Reef, created ‘the world’s best job’. The position, dubbed ‘Island Caretaker’, calls for one individual to immerse themselves in several strenuous tasks while residing on the isles: swimming in the pristine waters, island hopping, snorkeling and relaxing on the beach during the illuminated sunsets. While the job specifications may seem alluring, the Island Caretaker will have one actual duty. The participant is required to maintain a Blog with weekly postings featuring the islands beauty and natural attractions. Tourism Queensland recently selected the new Island Caretaker, British adventurer Ben Southall. Southall was selected out of approximately 34,000 job seekers and will receive a $150,000 salary while employed for six months. Southall reported for work on July 1. Tourism Queensland and partnered advertising agency, Cummins Nitro, have already received numerous awards for the campaign and an unbelievable amount of press.

Popsicles with Pop

Some cool news from Brazil: popsicles now contain ipods! At least in Kibon brand popsicles which are now known as “propsicals”. 10,000 “propsicals” were produced that contained frozen ipod shuffles inside. Many factors had to be taken into consideration in developing the marketing plan including: the size of the popsicle, the ability of the ipod to stand the cold and transporting ipod accessories like the manual and charger to the winner. In fact, Apple was still reluctant even after a special type of fake ice cream that protected the ipod against humidity was produced.

After countless tests and trials, they decided they just weren’t comfortable with sending the accessories, so instead, in the end, if you found an ipod shuffle in your popsicle, you could just phone a number and find a code on the package to receive the ipod accessories.

This little piggy went to market

News from our contacts in Japan regarding a unique marketing technique. With this recent promotion, a potentially boring product became far more interesting and popular. Piglets, dressed up in little branded T-shirts, were accompanied by people handing out flyers. Hundreds of people stopped by to adore the cute lil’ piglets and in the process, overcome by cuteness, also accepted the flyers from the promoters. Add to that all the pictures of the piglets in their t-shirts that were taken and shared by people with their cell phones and the advertiser can be sure there logo was spread across the social web, too.

This did remind us of a campaign we helped create for UC Berkeley – http://www.ozoneads.com/work_print_UCBerkeley.html - it was an initiative to help address stress among students, and we had lovable, pettable dogs be led around the campus wearing doggie-saddle bags. It is scientifically shown that just petting a pup can help relieve stress all by itself, and in the saddle bags were flyers with other tips and resources for stress reduction.

Let a smile be your umbrella

Our contact from Brazil has brought us quite an interesting story. It’s based on the use of technology that can recognize smiles! Sony in Brazil created a campaign that uses Emotion Recognition Software. A ring is set up with technology that has a special function that automatically takes a photo as soon as the sensors recognize a smile in the picture frame. Inspired by the popular pastime of staring contests, Sony’s new CyberShot digital camera campaign involves competitors facing off in the ring and staring at each other until the first flash goes off. Sony then takes the photos and posts them on the campaign website. Does this mean it is possible to go semi-pro in staring contests?!

Greenvertising from the UK

We’ve just received word from our contacts in the UK about some pretty cool greenvertising ideas. And we do mean cool. One of these ideas is called snowvertising. Agencies go out into the icy streets of London and actually use laser-cut stencils to stamp out advertisements into the snow. One agency managed to stamp over 3500 impressions of their client’s logo all over jolly old London! It was for the sports brand, Extreme.

Next comes “cleanvertising”, a technique that has been used here in the US and throughout the world, but has also become quite popular in the UK. Companies first go out and find dirty sidewalks. They then lay stencils across the cement and spray high -pressure hoses on them, producing advertisements.

Agencies must choose their companies with caution because cleanvertising will leave an impression (if you pardon the pun) because something new and different will always leave some sort of effect. Even if it’s green.

I sang on stage with Jimmy Barnes

Another adolescent fantasy realized. Again, growing up in Australia, we’d get to see bands like AC/DC, Midnight Oil and INXS – sometimes all on the same bill. Headlining right alongside these now internationally renowned acts was a brilliant band that at times was as good or better than all of them – Cold Chisel.
Belting out all the classic Cold Chisel hits as lead singer and then continuing on with his own hyper-successful solo career was the one and only Jimmy Barnes.
On Stage with Jimmy Barnes and his Band
And none other than Jimmy Barnes came out to San Francisco recently, and though he is used to playing to stadiums filled with tens of thousands, for some unknown reason actually agreed to play before 400 hundred shocked and screaming expats at the Australian American Chamber of Commerce annual Australia Day Ball. I stood there most of the performance wondering should I or shouldn’t I? How could I pass up this chance to live out a fantasy from those heady late-teenage days? As Jimmy and his band were nearing the end of their set, I took that chance, and made my way around to the side of the Stage.

As one song finished, and another was about to begin, I stepped on stage and up to a microphone – the song was Goodbye Astrid, and I knew it word for word. Barnsey was a complete gentleman about it, and actually took my camera from me and took some footage of me right there on stage with him.

As the last notes faded I bowed and left, stage right. Jimmy kindly acknowledged me with a nod, and here I am to write about it. What’s the ‘idea’ to come out of it? Why write about it on a blog called ‘best ideas in the world’? It could be something simple like seize the day, or relive your youth if you’re ever given even half a chance, but the real answer is the same one I gave myself while out in the audience that evening – why not?