Nice Nike digital outdoor campaign in Singapore

Good use of Twitter me thinks.

Thank Balloonacy, I'm blogging again

So, thanks to Orange's Balloonacy campaign that has been under the expert stewardship of Noel and Adam here at Orange towers (who are doing a pretty awesome job it has to be said) i am blogging again.

I don't really have much of an excuse as to why i haven't really contributed anything to the ether for a year, i have been a little busy but that is a pretty lame excuse, but i am back on it now and am going to post something at least once a week.

And to kick things off this is my third post in a week (go me!).

Thanks to Contagious for bringing this to my attention, a great little short film of the life (on Facebook) of the presumably fictitious Alex Droner... great to watch, nicely put together and good music make it a really compelling short film.

A LIFE ON FACEBOOK from maxluere on Vimeo.

Beautifully shot and directed ad... although i'm not convinced about the brief

So there's is no doubting (in my mind anyway) that this is a beautifully shot and directed ad (plaudits to Jonathan Glazer of Sony "Paint" and Guinness "Surfer" fame) which had be fixated when I first saw it on Saturday.....


However, when I got to the end I was pretty surprised (and a little disappointed) that it was for the VW Polo, it just felt like something that you would expect from a brand with a bit more of an edge. I get the aspiration of making the Polo to appeal to a younger and cooler crowd but I wonder how realistic that is? In my mind at least the VW Polo is a car for middle England.

All that aside though, it is a great ad that I am sure that people will sit up and take notice of (even if they wouldn't consider the product).

Interesting print ad from BMW to promote their second hand sales buiness (!)

Did you know 4.0

So i have been massively lame at updating this recently.. maybe this post will see me getting back into it.

Just seen the latest 'Did you know' video and i am sure that the facts that these guys come up with get scarier and and scarier.

Anyway, is definitely worth investing 4 1/2 minutes of your life on.

BMW Magnetic Tow Technology - April fools or just a little fooish

As is becoming customary today saw a host of April fools gags in the press.. apparently The Guardian is ditching print and going to be exclusively available on Twitter and there are several fake stories in the Metro that people in the office are talking about this morning.

BMW decided that rather than missing out on the fun they would run the below ad and get into the spirit of things.



As it goes it works pretty well... it looks and feels very BMW and someone here mentioned seeing something similar talked about on Tomorrows World (and as far as i can remember that hasn't been on TV for at least 10+ years).

And i am sure that BMW's Head of Innovation, Herr Noitt All must be very proud and the inbox (mailto:uve.vollenvorit@bmw.co.uk) on ad is clearly going to be filled with gullible potential buyers wanting more info (i would love to see what responses they do get?)

But without sounding like a complete humbug the question that i found myself asking is whether or not, given the current financial gloom and general state of the car industry, it was a stoke of genius or a bit foolhardy.

I saw the ad in The Guardian this morning and only after i read an article on the cover of how Porsche's car sales are down by 27% (and they only made a decent amount of cash last year by acting like a hedge fund), then flicking on a few pages to the financial section you get to an article on how beleaguered General Motors is having to go through yet another round of restructuring to try and survive by offloading (or winding-up) the Hummer brand.

I'm no financial expert but I am guessing that if every other car manufacturer is hurting then BMW must be feeling the pinch too... begging the question whether running the ad was the right thing to do?

To be honest it probably is... it has talkability (hence me writing this post) and light hearted relief is something that I am sure we could all do with, it certainly beats riots and anti-capitalist protests.

Probably the Best House Party In the World

The concept for this ad could have been for Carlsberg's 'Probably the Best' campaign with the exception of Carlsberg probably not being able to secure this amount of talent and the fact that they might like to be they could never be this effortlessly cool.





Celebratory based advertising tends (in my experience anyway) to be advertising of the worst kind. The majority of which tends to be lazy and lacking in any kind of real creative thought/edge and relying on the celebratory(ies) alone to sell the product through association (I can't help but think of the recent Gillette ad's as I am typing this).

I guess that Adidas have a bit of a headstart on most and it must help when;

A) you have a really very cool brand to start with

B) you have a whole host of talent that are ready and waiting to endorse it

Those two things aside this is probably the slickest TV ad that i can remember for some time. It blends a perfect balance of celebrity (some of which I don't have a clue who they are suffice to say that they are clearly that cool), product and lifestyle in a package that even the coolest of music video's don't come close to.

I doubt that any other sportswear/lifestyle brand could pull this off, the likes of Nike are strong in sports stars/sponsorship but the presence of Run DMC, Ting Tings, Katy Perry plus the likes of Beckham et al really does demonstrate the depth of the Adidas brand.

Apart from the odd pair of Stan Smith's i have always been more Nike than Adidas and in recent years have been more drawn to Converse and Onitsuka Tigers but this is making me question whether i need to reappraise my trainer selection....