Aap! - Alternative Advertising Possibilities

ShuffleSaver is a dynamic screensaver that grabs your favorite photos (by tags, username or interestingness) from flickr.com and shuffles them. So everytime your screensaver starts, you will see amazing new pictures. You can even create favorites of your settings or save your favorite images to your harddisk. Screensaver’s are not boring anymore…

• Loads your favorite photos from flickr.com and shuffles them
• Get new photos everytime the saver starts
• Favorites: save different settings
• Skip pictures you don’t like
• Save pictures you like by just pressing a key
• Choose from beautiful transitions

Why you need this to Get out of XXX or whatever industry you are a part of:

As Paul Arden of Saatchi & Saatchi so clearly points out in his mini essay in the collection “It’s not how good you are, Its how good you want to be.” >
“Get out of Advertising”

With “90% of advertising inspiration comes from other advertising. To be original, seek your inspiration from unexpected sources.”

Download ShuffleSaver to be greeted by random and inspiration photography from the depths of the Flickr Vault.

So it’s official – fixies or fixed gear bikes have broken from the underground communities of Hipsters and old school Japanese fixed gear bike racing to becoming part of the main stream - Fixies have arrived to the cultural mainstream and were recently used by Nike in an large outdoor media campaign launched in Shibuya with the great slogan “No brakes, No Problem - Just Do It - Nike”

Its not uncommon for main stream companies like Nike to use underground trends to market themselves as hip and cool, however these marketing tactics don’t always work and can back fire as in the case of this advert.

Spontaneously - furious discussion started up on the bicycle board of 2-channel, a Japanese internet forum which is thought to be the largest in the world. 2-Channel is a significant influence in Japanese society, approaching that of mass media such as TV, Radio and Magazines. After the erection of the advert forum members launched a flash mob of phone calls and campaigns against Nike, police departments and other government bureaus. The mob reminded the officials of the dangers of biking without brakes - less than 48 hours later - the bill board was taken down.

With civilian backlash - “No Brakes - Big Problem!”

Its great to see this type of civilian accountability towards corporate messaging motivated and channeled through the net, but as a fan of fixies internet parenting is more terrifying.

Read more on the power of 2-Channel by Lisa Katayama’s Wired magazine article “2-Channel Gives Japan’s Famously Quiet People a Mighty Voice“

A real time active two-way radio setup has been installed in transit shelters in Vancouver, Montreal, Toronto, and Calgary to showcase Solo’s walkie talkie feature. The system supposedly connects users in the different cities to one another with the touch of a button.
While waiting at a bus stop I for sure would love to have random complete conversations with foreigners (profanity and weird-o-s aside.)

Even more fun would be the addition of a camera feature and or international calls.
Advert Information:
Agency: Rethink, Vancouver.
Copywriter: Michael Milardo
Art Director: Bart Batchelor

Via [ Core 77 - Via AdGoodness ]

More on wonderful transit stop adverts in our post “Transit Ads Invaded“

Last year at the 2006 Games Convention in Leipzig Germany Sony executed an excellent and creative ambient campaign for its horror title Forbidden Siren 2 by handing out disposable cameras. To the surprise of party goers the little disposable trinkets weren’t simply Playstation branded trinkets but instead special cameras that when developed displayed horrific spooky figures in the printed film. On every picture taken, ghosts and frightening faces appeared on the pre-expose film. The last picture of the series woudl reveal the mystery pitch - “The Horror is closer than you think” Forbidden Siren II - Out now for Playstation 2

This promotional campaign was created and executed by the German offices of TBWA.

Agency: TBWA\ Germany
Creative Directors: Philip Borchardt, Dirk Henkelmann
Art Director: Leila El-Kayem
Copywriter: Friedrich Tromm

Via - [Kotaku]

Taking a cue from the wild west practice of “wanted posters” - communities worldwide are using billboards and out door media to help police find fugitives, help find missing children and deliver emergency information.

According to the CEO of the American OOOH Organization>

“Outdoor advertising has a proud tradition of public service, which tops $350 million a year for multiple worthy causes,� said Nancy Fletcher, OAAA president and CEO.

“The outstanding feature of public safety messages is that it unites a community. Everyone can see the impact.�

Here are some rather impactful examples of the crime fighting power of public service out of home media taken from a recent OOOH media survey:

• More than 40 criminal suspects have been apprehended due to billboards.
• More than 53 communities have used outdoor advertising for crime fighting efforts within the last three years.
• An increasing number of outdoor advertising companies are helping police by posting pictures and Crimestopper call-in numbers for anonymous tips.
• Authorities are using digital billboards to issue AMBER Alerts and emergency information.

If you’ve liven in Japan it is more than likely that you’ve seen the following “Wanted Ads” searching for remaining suspects of the 1995 Tokyo Subway Sarin Attack.

If you’ve seen them - report to your nearest Koban

OOOH Crime Fighting Stats Via Impact Marketing NYC Out Door Media Blog

So its in full effect - out door media is now banned and dead in the glorious and concrete jungle that is Sao Paulo

.

Flickr user Tony de Marco has documented the rather [depressing, liberating, freeing, decaying, ghostly, (choose your verb)] sight of a city stripped bare of commercial visuals.

Our thoughts - even with the ban - expect the ad business to not even blink an eye to keep and to kick on - expect more ambient, internet, television, radio, and print advertising to replace the OOH dollars of the city.

Tony’s Flickr Series Found Via [Boing Boing a directory of wonderful things!]

Read more of our thoughts on the Sao Paulo ban in our previous post>

Winners and Losers in the Sao Paulo Billboard Ban

Adcreep or just plane strange. Considering we’ve put advertising on everything from the floor to subway tunnels - we commend Aquarium Media of Singapore for this fun, strange, wacky media.

Just try to remember - the medium is part of the message.

Today’s campaign of note is Common Design Room’s integrated campaign for popular sports drink “Pocari Sweat.”

Trying to capture the teenage market - Common Design Room, the agency behind this campaign attached removable “Puri Kura” or print club stickers with girly handwritten notes written to Pocari Sweat bottles in supermarkets shelves. Purikura is very popular among young girls who often carry around books containing purikura to show and swap with their friends. The intention of the campaign was for teenagers and other fans to collect the bottles and attach pictures of the starlet to their “techo” or schedule books.

The campaign integrated well across television and other media spots which featured the young starlet who would voice small heartwarming messages about the drink. The campaign stickers mirrored televsion copy like “I’ll protect you with Ions and Water Content (Heart)” and “Tangerine, Kotatsu (Japanese seat) - Pocari)”

Why it works:

Japanese teenagers often shoot themselves with superimposed stars, celebrities and more - in this campaign , individuals have a real print club with one of the fans. Fans then feels as if they are friends with the star and the brand integrates into some of the most personal spaces.

A simple, light campaign. Highly Commended.

More info:

“PuriKura” - Wikipedia provides you with info on this popular Japanese teenage obsession.