Advance

AT LAST SOME GOOD NEWS . . .

25/02 2009 // aaron

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In the first of what may or may not be a series of occasional upbeat economic stories, we present the Zenvo ST1, concrete proof of the world-renowned Danish car industry’s ability to thrive, even as auto-makers around the globe are staring into the abyss.

This success story is visualised below*:

To quote the manufacturers:  “Denmark has always been known around the world for its cutting-edge design. Now, for the first time, Danish design is applied to a supercar.”

A total of 15 ST1s will be built, each of which will retail for around 16 million Danish kroner (around 2 million Euros). Genius.

*All figures quoted are based on random supposition.

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NOW YOU SEE IT, THEN YOU DON’T

23/02 2009 // Annette Flinck

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Actually I don’t think this is new. But it is to me, and it’s a great idea so that qualifies for the attention. 

The brand behind the campaign is Sprint – the American Telco giant – and the idea is a promotion element to their mobile Internet service.They have created a realtime futuristic dashboard. It’s got tickers for eggs being produced, 911 calls being made, top Google searches of the day and amount of people stuck in elevators and so on, and so on. It’s all factual, and it’s all in service of Sprint’s “Now” slogan, by which they mean “we have a really fast 3G network, and we want to sell you a modem for your laptop” – I guess?

A Matrixified voice guides you through the dashboard functionalities and randomly selected slogans like:

It’s currently NOW in all time-zones

Please keep your hands inside the moment at all times

In the last second your hair grew 5 million of an inch

This point in time will self-destruct NOW

And if I am too passive on the site, the kind voice tells me, that my NOW hand coordination needs work. You gotta love that!

Besides the huge amount of more or less useless stats, the site also has a sense of environmental responsibility. Global energy use, coffee cups and sticky notes being produced, and bicycles versus cars being built all lead to one statistic, hidden on the right-hand side of the page: “Habitable planets: 1.” That statistic does not change.

Unfortunately I don’t know the brand nor the company good enough to judge the brand fit or the strategy behind it. But you know a cool data visualization when you see one. The site enables you to download a widget to your desktop or on your Facebook profile.

(Developed by Goodby, Silverstein & Partners)

Tags: Sprint Data visualization Now Environmental Telco Mobil

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LEGO POWER MINERS ARE GO

20/02 2009 // aaron

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Our latest project with LEGO is up and running and burrowing its way into the imagination of kids across Europe and North America.

Several years in the making, the Power Miners launch has gone brilliantly with initial reports from the shops indicating that kids are loving it. The team pulled out all the stops for this launch, throwing their creative muscle into everything from the packaging to a limited edition run of comics, and a series of short Power Miner films for the web.

Here’s the two TVCs:

Tags: lego, power miners

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A WATERY SAVE

17/02 2009 // aaron

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We’ve finally taken the plunge and stopped drinking bottled mineral water here at the agency. We worked out that we were drinking over 20,000 bottles a year, which we belatedly realised was sheer lunacy.

So now everyone has their own nice glass bottle from IKEA which we fill with lovely Danish tap water whenever we so desire.

The ‘personalisation’ process is well underway:

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‘GOOD PRODUCTS DON’T NEED ADVERTISING ANYMORE’

16/02 2009 // aaron

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So says Alan Wolk over at his consistently excellent blog. Instead: ‘Word-of-Mouth amplified via social media is enough to make them successful even in the face of bad agency-created advertising.’

I think he’s mostly right. In these days of hive-mind connectivity, a bad product well advertised just ain’t gonna cut the mustard.

If you are in any doubt as to the truth of this, I offer Denmark as an example. Agencies here produce some of the world’s most mind-numbingly terrible advertising but most companies are managing to get by because most of them produce good products.This is because, as well as uniform broadband, the country has a long and proud heritage of great design and attention to detail. Two things which are far more important than good advertising.

I think maybe I’ve just talked myself out of a job.

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THE COORDINATED APPROACH

11/02 2009 // aaron

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At Advance we often preach the benefits of a coordinated approach to marketing and advertising. Now we’ve decided to implement that approach across all business segments and have accordingly introduced a draconian dresscode. The new rules mean all male employees must wear matching ‘smart casual’ outfits while female employees must adopt the ‘inversely symmetrical’ look. Here’s how it looks in practise:

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THE IMPOSSIBLE PROJECT

10/02 2009 // aaron

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The members of The Impossible Project have a simple goal: to restart production of analog INTEGRAL FILM for Polaroid cameras in 2010.

The team has acquired Polaroid’s old equipment, signed a lease on its old factory and has set about hiring the experts it needs to design a new type of instant film that builds on the unique, much-loved properties of the original. Or as they put it: “An innovative and fresh analog material, sold under a new brand name that perfectly will match the global re-positioning of Integral Films.”

I think that determination to create something fresh and new is what makes this such an intriguing undertaking. It’s not just misty-eyed nostalgia, but a belief that instant photography still has a lot to offer.

Ther other two things I especially love about this are the quote above, which the team seem to have adopted as a kind of rallying cry, and  the awesome Polaroids of the original production factory that you can find on the site. Like this one:

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BIT BAFFLED BY THIS ONE . . .

06/02 2009 // aaron

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I saw this ad in an Indian newspaper on a flight from Mumbai down to Goa recently. Not sure I can make any sense of it whatsoever. Any suggestions?

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THE FUTURE OF THE BOOK?

03/02 2009 // aaron

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A quick snippet about an interesting initiative from publishers HarperCollins who have released a video version of Jeff Jarvis‘ book ‘What Would Google Do?’. As Jeff notes succinctly: “The point of this is that the publisher is trying to find new ways to release books and the ideas in them.”

Is this the future of the book? Who knows, but it is an interesting and definitely forward thinking move from a publisher. Unfortunately, the video book itself doesn’t seem to be available to anyone outside the United States. Which is a bit laughable. HarperCollins say they’re also hoping to develop iPod and iPhone versions.

Here’s a sneak peek of the video thanks to YouTube:

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COPENHAGEN TWESTIVAL

02/02 2009 // aaron

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As I mentioned back in November, Twitter is growing rapidly here in Denmark, and now, as if to prove the point, Copenhagen is shortly to play host to its very own Twestival.

Twestivals are informal gatherings of Twitterers who gather to listen to some interesting speakers, network, and raise money for charity:water.

The Copenhagen Twestival takes place on February 12, and is organised by two mega geeks who I happen to know personally. Mark Jensen and Kristoffer Solberg have been working day and night to pull this thing off, so if you’re in town and you’re at all interested in finding out more about Twitter, or you just fancy blagging a few cheap beers, then you need to be there.

Tags: cphtwestival

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