This one might take a little explaining, as it is the new urban phenomena which seems slightly confusing to me, but lets try to understand it.

MEME - Pronounced as in CREAM

Wikipedia describes it like this.
The British scientist Richard Dawkins introduced the word "meme" in The Selfish Gene (1976) as a basis for discussion of evolutionary principles in explaining the spread of ideas and cultural phenomena. Examples of memes given in the book included melodies, catch-phrases, beliefs (notably religious beliefs), clothing fashion, and the technology of building arches.

A better way to describe it is an interaction between people of similar (and specific) interests, or an 'in-joke', probably one that most people won't get.

This is the most basic of descriptions, and definitions vary, but it is becoming the terminology used to describe a wide variety of social interacts.

Lets start here. This is a real product














CLICK HERE TO SEE IT'S MEME'S




These are MEME cakes





































If you don't 'get them', then that is the very nature of a MEME. There is lots more to see on this topic, just google MEME.

Cultural shift, or superfluous descriptor as validation for creation of @£$%? Only time will tell...

Some interesting little facts worth knowing here, set to some rather humdrum music

From the New York Times: "The discount retail chain Daffy's staged live performances over the weekend at the Ziegfeld Theater in Midtown Manhattan before screenings of the new film Amelia. In a campaign by Johannes Leonardo in New York, dancers acted out how shoppers try on clothes in what was called Fitting Dance."

This KFC TVC from Austrlaia looks like a bad Paula Abdul video - in the immortal words of McEnroe, "THEY CANNOT BE SERIOUS!"

The thought here is interesting, and the set up of the piece is surprisingly very simple but effective. Overall it doesn't seem too successful, but in the end that doesn't really matter at all I guess.

It's impossible to read the small print here, but it's easy to imagine it is some kind of health warning.

This one is bad. Microsoft seem to be making fun of apple in this one, which is a little funny in itself as they emulate apple, by launching their own app store. Well, at least there is some kind of comedy to the whole thing.

Abercrombie & Fitch is a brand that seems to have brought about a renaissance to the idea of 'All American Beauty', with Ad Campaign models that are not only frighteningly good looking, but also living ambassadors working for the brand.

This is because in order to even qualify for the chance to become an Abercrombie figurine, you have to first be employed as a shop assistant in an Abercrombie Store. What this boils down to is one cleaver piece of 'product meets marketing meets product'.

Imagine each branch being like a store room of Human Americana, shop assistants that consider themselves the embodiment of perfection, stacking t-shirts in slow motion. While you, the customer, are being served by the people who most embody the brand. While at the same time, the marketing department has an endless source of talent; at arms reach. With models glowing with the look of achievement and maybe appearing more proud having actually been part of the product.

While such a strategy isn't possible or even required here, it's worth thinking about the people who are cast to most reflect a brand, as they are often the real people who are using the brand. There is a symbiotic relationship between the two and raises the importance of street castings and customer involvement in being 'the face' of a customer centric brand.

Sign up

Or just have a look rather

This just about qualifies as a viral, it is certain to eat it's way through the internet with some voracity, simply for it's slow motion style and breaking two things by smashing them together.

I can't help but feel it could all have been a little more impressive though.

Tiny hands man returns for the whopper Jnr Promo August 09. Made by Crispin Porter (US)

Guerilla marketing is certainly on the upturn and this makes it increasingly more difficult to know what is real and what is staged. The only difference between them is often only an end-frame with a logo or a web site. But even then, without such signs, it's no guarantee it's authentic.

We can learn from this to realise Guerrilla needs to be, or at least appear to be, absolutely authentic. Consumers don't seem to mind if these types of videos are actually advertising, the key is to have the consumer imagine this is something that could have happened.

Boy proposes to his girlfriend with Retro Mario Game, 'modded' (or hacked) to write the words 'Will you marry me' in computer game coinage.



Without the fairly obvious logo on this, it would seem like any other home video



This one still claims to be real *but I suspect it's still not a bad piece of 'advertising gratis' for Microsoft (the story goes that his parents know he sneaked a look at the box before christmas, and filled it will old clothes as a joke. Later giving him real xbox)




The real beauty of Guerilla marketing of this king though, is deniability or even absolute disassociation. Even to this day, Ford Claim to have nothing to do with this ad.



Separate yourselves as a company, from anyone doing your guerrilla marketing, and in theory you can't go wrong.

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Augmented reality definitely has potential as a near future technology, but it's applications so far tend to be interesting yet without much substance.

This example, from England it seems, does a wonderful job of putting the fun in to Augmented Reality with this cheeky concept.

As a result, it manages to effortlessly generate crowd interaction which is truly wonderful. Clearly, people on the street enjoy simple interaction with technology, something which A.R. obviously enables.

VIEW THE VIDEO

Virginia Public Library of Henrico County, celebrate the rights given under the 'freedom of speech', by hosting a live book reading of Banned Books, once a year.

It all looks a bit like a bunker, but the idea is nice and it's economic to do plus it has a positive social message.

If you have the money, technology can provide some stunning solutions



Here is a short 'making-of', it's in German, so I will translate the basics "Bayer has lots and lots of money, and we wanted something really big and bright to show everyone how much money we really have"



Personally I'd prefer to see this. The world biggest Firework (apparently)

Uniqlo are definitely a web focused brand. Every web site they create blurs the line between marketing tool and art.

VIEW THEIR NEW WEB

(Note: It probably won't run very well on a lazy computer)

This is truly inspired

VIEW THE WORK

Not exactly new or amazing. But usable media idea nevertheless

This is a quick one.

We have 'random google', but this one gives you results for what the last person searched for. Interesting, what will you search for knowing that the next person will see it? while you peek in to the curious minds of others.


Launch Mystery Google

Nostalgia





Apparently the first mobile phone ad... questionable, but still very early.
"What is freedom to you John...?"
"Well Jack, I'd say an open top jeep and girls with wet hair...."
"What about wet jeeps and open top girls John...?"
"...great Idea Jack, well incorporate that as well!"




A very famous actor from UK informs people from the past, what a mobile phone is.




What we all take very much for granted, was once big news, on the news. ITN UK 1990




Calling for free, universally attractive to consumers, since the dawn of mobile communication. I personally find it interesting to see the likes of Beatrice Dalle in an ad like this also.

Very nice use of interactive media to make Valentine's Day come to life in the right way.
Makes you think about what we should do for V-Day 2010! Let's get planning.

It's funny how we, as humans, are constantly amused by the behavior of other humans. This explains the success of countless 'reality' shows, as we are seemingly perplexed by our own behavior.

Here's a great example of our interest in how people behave. (it's an ad, don't be deceived... however I won't mention what it is, you must watch to see that for yourself)

What is great about this piece, is that it crosses the line effortlessly between social documentary, human behavioral insight and raw viral marketing, while leaving us a wonderful feeling.

It's already making the rounds on the 'blogosphere', doing what all the best virals should do... spread the word with as little investment as possible. Proving that virals don't need to be 'weird' or 'subversive'

The latest TVCs from O2 Ireland.
The first spot shows O2 trying to leverage the sponsorship of the Dublin O2 Arena.
This was created by VCCP London. Pity they couldn't get much of a crowd along to the gig - it looks half empty.
The second spot (created by Rothco Dublin) sees O2 moving on from ducks to turtles.

Banners that directly interact with a known site's layout, are very effective at grabbing attention of visitors, especially repeat visitors to daily visit sites (as long as it doesn't restrict their browsing too much).

Ads of this kind absolutely need to be of the highest production values in order to impress even the most jaded of surfers, rather than simply annoy them. Giving media house 'click through' results even the quickest of glances, it is clear in the internet world, size is as fundamental as motion, to get people clicking.

Often these banners are fleeting, up only for a day or so sometimes, but they are effective enough to grab attention even within these short periods of time. The downside is they are hard to post links to, so here's one great example. From apple, for an iSomethingorother in little video form.




Note: As you can see, the page loads as the banner runs. It's also fully functional even when it is running.