Best Ideas In The World

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?

AC/DC played at our Xmas party

…and other adolescent fantasies …actually Ozone’s Christmas party this year was an evening out at a concert by none other than those gods of rock and roll –AC/DC.

As an adolescent in Australia, Acker Dacker were heroes to all of us long before the rest of the world fell for their classic talents. So there we were, screaming along to fantastic songs that are as much as forty years old now, by guys that are pushing sixty, and just having a great time knowing that true and deserving legends of rock were playing for us at our Christmas party.

What’s the great idea in all of this? Just some easy lessons – you can’t beat the classics, go back to them often, or as often as you need to keep them current, and speak to people about things they hold dear. Also, never underestimate the power of rock and roll – we used that in some work we did for MTV networks a while ago, http://www.ozoneads.com/work_print_MTV.html and we took the front half of that thought and applied it for our client IPAC http://www.ozoneads.com/work_print_ipac.html

Dutch Re-Branded

The Dutch government has over 200 different departments, all of which have different logos and type representing them. Whenever a new sign needs to be made it is confusing, costly, and not easily recognized as government. They needed something to unify the look of their government and cut costs of making so many different signs. To solve this problem they have re-branded their government. It has a new font, logo, and identity. The font was created by Peter Verheul and comes as bold, regular and italic. The new font of the Dutch Government is named Rijksoverheid Sans and Rijksoverheid Serif. For the next two years every department is required to use the new identity.
We know from experience that working with government entities and associations can be challenging - but also rewarding - both for us and our clients. An integrated campaign and identity that we created for Mendocino County was shown in a recent independent study to have delivered an ROI of 17 to 1!

Here’s a good idea – why not swim across the Golden Gate?

This web log is dedicated to great advertising and marketing ideas from around the globe. Sometimes, however, good ideas occur closer to home of course. One idea I had recently was to swim across the Golden Gate. It was very cool.

Well actually, it was freezing. The Bay is not known for warmth and this early in the morning it gives cool a whole new meaning. Adding to the atmosphere was a thick and heavy fog. You could barely make out the North Tower, let alone the other side. I jumped in, I started swimming, I started thinking. Staring down into the murky depths every stroke sets your mind wandering.

The fog and grey sky make the water more foreboding. You can’t see much down there. I think about the importance of clarity - specifically Message Clarity. Our client IPAC needed to clearly emphasize that the level of service they offer differentiates them from the competition. We created an ad that delivered that message loud and clear.

A foghorn’s wail shakes me out of my reverie. Down here they sound much closer than up on the bridge. MUCH. I’m passing the South Tower now. It gets very choppy around the towers, eddies pop up out of nowhere, there is nothing predictable about the currents, and every other stroke hits a wall on one side of a swell, or gropes through fresh air on the other. You have to concentrate to make any ground (is ground the right expression?).

Whoa! An arm full of seaweed! One moment you are swimming just fine, the next you unexpectedly reach into a huge wad of seaweed and it snaps you back to reality. I am half way across the Golden Gate, only my head above water. The bridge towers above – it looks a long way up from this perspective. We used the Bridge in our website design for the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce.

It gets worse. I reach in for another stroke. My arm bumps against something. It’s not seaweed. It’s alive! A big, throbbing jellyfish. I hate that. They don’t get out of the way. You panic, you kick like crazy, your legs bump up against them a couple of more times before you’re clear. Jellyfish mid-swim are stressful. Makes me think of the outreach campaign we’ve just created for UC Berkeley addressing stress among students. Don’t be a Stress Head is the headline used on posters, a website and other collateral. We follow with tips for stress reduction. The tagline is Be Well to Do Well.

Land! I can see the North Tower and Marin. Nearly there. I can see the boat waiting to take us back. I’m going to make it. A warm, peaceful feeling washes over me – of course, that could just be hypothermia.

I think about some commercials we have just shot for some autobody shops – the message is peace of mind, the one true service everyone who’s been in an accident really wants.
We’ve created a website for Crocketts Premier Autobody that carries that theme through, too.

I’m on the boat; I have made it – slowly but surely. My skin is blue, my teeth chatter. Freezing. Actually, very cool. Be clear with your message; be vigilant with your brand.
David

Taking Video Games For A Ride

In Stockholm, Sweden there is a crew who has decided to take video games out of the confines of their living rooms to the outdoors. With a van, a projector, and a generator they drive to various locations in the city, project their XBOX 360 games on to buildings and play. Seeking out locations to play has become a new and entertaining challenge for gamers. Their guerilla gaming technique has caught the attention of gamers all the way in the U.S.. For a generation of people who consider skateboarding a professional sport and graffiti an art, this is a great way to make XBOX attractive to them.

http://www.myspace.com/urbanxbox