We want to draw your attention to something pretty groovy - the Hong Kong Lego Users’ Group and its rendition of the Beijing Olympics in Lego. Since we already know that not everything in the Opening Ceremony was strictly as it appeared (girls miming songs and firework displays generated on computer for broadcast), we’d like to see some of these models being incorporated from now on. Come on, let’s have a few shots of the Lego stadiums instead of the real thing!
Brand Strategy visited the 2008 V Festival in Chelmsford this weekend, thanks to Virgin Radio. We were there to check out the Virgin brand’s flagship music event and see what marketing initiatives we could pick up on at the site…….
V Festival brandwatch
Virgin Radio - as the lead sponsor of the VIP area, the Virgin Radio brand was held up as the festival’s most exclusive partner. We saw plenty of festival-goers hanging round the door of the VIP area, hoping to catch a glimpse of any famous faces and hear the special sets from bands such as Squeeze, taking place inside the tent there. Meanwhile, with locally-sourced food and plenty of free booze, many people seemed to find no reason to leave the VIP area once they’d found themselves inside.
BRAND STRATEGY FESTIVAL MARKETING RATING: 8.5/10. The local food was a nice touch and the area positioned Virgin Radio at the heart of the festival, with live radio broadcast by the presenters from a specially-adapted caravan inside. Not too heavy on the branding and marketing once inside, the area was mainly dedicated to broadcasting the radio brand’s image.
Sloggi - not content with doing some marketing, underwear brand Sloggi had a stage at the festival. It appeared to be pumping out dance music whenever the Brand Strategy team wandered by and occasionally showing off a range of the brand’s underwear on models. There was also an MC shouting a lot about the company’s competition ‘Show Me Your Sloggi’ which seemed to be about finding the best male and female bums.
BRAND STRATEGY FESTIVAL MARKETING RATING: 4/10. While it was good to see that Sloggi had decided to do something a bit more inventive than slapping its logo on some merchandise, the stage itself seemed a bit redundant. It was never playing any really inventive or interesting music (that we saw, anyway) so it was just a giant ad. However, we suspect that this view may be something to do with the Brand Strategy team being a bit older than the average V customer; we saw plenty of festival-goers enjoying a boogie to the dance music being blasted out even though the content wasn’t the most exciting stuff on offer.
The latest instalment of the James Bond franchise, Quantum of Solace, is tipped to have as many product placements as Casino Royale - maybe even more.
So far it has been announced that Ford KA will appear in the upcoming movie, as will Virgin Atlantic, Bollinger, Turnbull & Asser and Heineken.
The film is attracting many of the same brands as Casino Royale, which raked in £1.7 million on its opening day at the box office in 2006, including Smirnoff vodka, Omega watches and Sony electronics.
These brands all have products placed in the film and each will shell out tens of millions of dollars as a promotional partner of the film.
Daniel Craig, who reprises his role as 007, won’t be the sole face to promote the products. Bond girl Olga Kurylenko, who plays feisty 007 ally Camille in Quantum of Solace, is being used to push Heineken beer and the latest version of Ford’s small European car, the Ka. (more…)
The BT Digital Music awards, due to be held on October 1st, are now open for entries. Amazingly, they are now in their eighth year.
They look to recognise UK pioneers in digital music - music artists, services and companies making innovative use of digital platforms to share, promote and sell music.
Any keen artists and music companies can enter one or more of the 19 award categories, via the BT DMA official website. The deadline for entries is August 26th 2008.
After a team of judges, including Jack Horner at music marketing agency FRUKT, have cast their expert eyes over the entries, music fans will be given the chance to vote for their digital favourites in 12 categories, including Best Artist, Best Podcast, Best Music Store and Best Music Magazine.
There are three People’s Choice Awards, for Best Unofficial Music Site, Best Music Blog and Best Official Music Site. Best Unofficial Music Site is open to music fans who create and develop their own online music presence for themselves or for their favourite artist. The latter, Best Official Music Site, is open to music professionals and recognises the official online homes of recording artists all around the world. Best Music Blog is open to fans, artists and music industry professionals alike and was won last year by David Gilmour’s official blog.
So why does a brand like BT get involved with these awards? The company, after all, generally says ‘telecoms’, not ‘music’ to consumers. We guess that since the brand is now moving so heavily into the broadband area, it wants to be associated with the things that people are using their broadband for. What do you think? Do BT and these awards make a good brand partnership fit? Let us know.
Not content with providing young hipsters with clothing in its Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie and Free People stores, Urban Outfitters Inc announced last year that it was starting a new home and garden retail brand.
The brand, which is called Terrain, takes the business into a totally new area. You can check out the look of the new store concept at the official site here or this blog.
So will this be a success in difficult economic times? As consumers cut back on their clothing spending, will they decide to improve homes and gardens as house prices drop? Let us know your views.
A new consumer habit called ‘precycling’ is catching on, according to some research from The Intelligence Group. Consumers who precycle aren’t keen to simply throw their cans and bottles into the recycling bin and let waste management sort it out. With more people buying into the idea of sustainable living, the precyclers aim to avoid any products that result in more superfluous stuff.
Brandweek reports that The Intelligence Group’s Cassandra Report found that that 45% of ‘trendsetters’ and 14% of ‘mainstream consumers’ have “cut down on bottled water purchases” in the past six months, while 49% and 16% respectively have “cut down on use of plastic bags” during the same period.
The firm noticed that more people have started using the term ‘excess’ as a dirty word, rather than a symbol of opulence. Examples of companies tapping into this trend are brands such as Pom Wonderful’s reusable glasswear and Chaco footwear’s programme where customers get a 20% discount for sending in used, clean shoes (which are then donated to developing countries).
The research also found that the viewpoint that recycling itself is an antiquated misuse of energy is on the rise, with people considering that rather than expending that energy, they would rather remove themselves from junk mail lists, read media online. Some apparently even carry around “precycling kits” consisting of cloth napkins and silverware—anything to reduce waste and not contribute to the recycling bin.
Not that precycling is set to replace recycling completely but the research agency suggests this trend is evidence of a shift in consumer thinking. People may also recycle in a slightly different way; selling on eBay, for example, rather than throwing away. The researchers were told that 49% of consumers consider the resale value when buying a product.
So what do you think? Is this really a new trend? Is it just those at the most conscious end of the market doing more to make sure they don’t create any waste at all? Will it catch on? Or is this just a new fancy term for a general shift in the way people buy and use objects in a Western world that’s running out of resources and money? Thanks to Brandweek for the tip off about this interesting story.
Women’s sanitary brand Bodyform has announced a new advertising drive designed to highlight the plight of women in Zimbabwe, where sanitary products can cost as much as five times the average monthly wage. The firm is providing 2.3 million products to females in the African country by the end of the year as part of its ‘Dignity! Period’ campaign in a ‘buy one and we’ll donate one’ scheme. Sanitary products in Zimbabwe can cost as much as five times the average monthly wage.
The ad drive targets women aged 18-24 with press advertising, in-store activity, an on-pack promotion, a new microsite, online marketing and PR. The PR campaign launches with an array of new celebrity support from the likes of actresses Amanda Holden, Kym Marsh and Suzanne Shaw. As well as raising awareness of the cause, the campaign also hopes to persuade consumers to donate money themselves.
Interested? Check out the dedicated microsite here.
We are enjoying this story on Gawker about an ad spoofer who has er, ‘remixed’ American Apparel ads a little. The marketing from the sweatshop-free clothes brand is known for its sexy overtones (with founder Dov Charney well-known for his interest in the much sexier side of life). But this ad remixer has created some spoofs taking the pretend marketing for the brand closer to porn….
Do check it out (unless you are easily offended, of course!)
Long gone are the days of the prudish sex shop consumer - it seems the lingerie market is fast turning away from luxury to everyday, and more and more women are looking to buy “nice” underwear.
If the nineties were all about the G-string, or “thong” as some may know it, then the millennium is all about the nice knickers.
It now doesn’t seem cool to see someone’s bright orange g-string anymore. It’s rather about matching bras to pants - or more over, what style you’re wearing.
Agent Provocateur, the saucy British lingerie brand and retailer, is cashing in on the trend.
It has come a long way since its first boutique opened in London in 1996 and is now a global “luxury” underwear brand. (more…)
The credit crunch is allegedly causing supermarket shoppers to tighten their purse strings, leaving many food retailers with a challenge of how to market the gourmet or the playful side of things. However, one area where the crunch is not biting so hard is in the realm of the little people and with the re-launch of their full product range, home baking brand Green‘s is set on capitalizing on the trend to spend on the kids. Positioning itself at the quality end, muffins, cookies and cakes are offered up with natural ingredients and taste. The brand has worked to enhance the baking experience with features such as decorating tubes and a website to show off new content and features (www.greenscakes.co.uk). 
