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Using Augmented Reality In A Live Presentation (Video)

 This is a pretty cool video: Paul Donovan - HP's General Manager, Product Marketing Personal Systems Group, HP Asia Pacific and Japan - uses augmented reality as part of an onstage presentation to launch HP's new line of notebook PCs. (Full disclosure: HP is a client.)

Yes, very gimmicky - this is really just a video demonstration, not a live presentation. You have to watch the video monitor to take in the presentation, instead of Donovan standing in front of you on the stage. But it's a giant leap beyond Donovan standing there with onscreen PowerPoint slides.

This could get cool moving forward.

Read more about the campaign, here.

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 OD_cover "... EXCELLENT ..."

 

“Through persuasive arguments and Q&A's with the major players in advertising, Mathieson makes an excellent case for greater creativity and outside-the-box thinking backed up with solid ideas."

Publisher's Weekly

 

>>> IN STORES NOW: ORDER YOUR COPY HERE <<<

 

 

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Calvin Klein Fashions Ambitious New Social Media Campaign

 

Calvin Klein is hoping to reintroduce an iconic '90's brand.

If that giant, mischevious QR Code campaign from last summer wasn't enough, CK is kicking off an ambitious new, multiplatform campaign for the CK One brand that may be it's most extensive - and innovative - initiative yet.

There's the site, ckone.com, which will enable visitors to shop for CK products and learn about 30 cast members (presumably some of the folks featured in the video above) from the campaign. Users will also be able to upload videos and discuss the brand across social platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Ren Ren and more.

There will be digital outdoor billboards and print advertising.

And there are mobile apps that give users access to content, social media and augmented reality experiences.

What's nice is that instead of just linking to content, consumers are invited to become part of the campaign in what may be CK's most extensive social media initiative ever. What's also nice is that CK gets that digital is not a replacement for traditional - it empowers it.

The campaign breaks March 1, and will no doubt captivate industry press. At least until Apple's iPad 2 launch hijacks everyone's attention, March 2.

Read more about the campaign, here.

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 OD_cover "... EXCELLENT ..."

 

“Through persuasive arguments and Q&A's with the major players in advertising, Mathieson makes an excellent case for greater creativity and outside-the-box thinking backed up with solid ideas."

Publisher's Weekly

 

>>> IN STORES NOW: ORDER YOUR COPY HERE <<<

 

 

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Giant QR Code Projection Promotes New Hip Hop Album (Video)

 

A new mobile marketing effort has "Fiasco" written all over it.

The effort, in San Francisco in New York, includes giant projection laser shows, videos and a QR code that you can scan with the Redlaser app for the opportunity to pre-order hip-hop artist Lupe Fiasco's new album, called "Lasers," and to unlock exclusive content.

The effort, from San Francisco-based Swirl Integrated Marketing, is well in tune with today's young consumer, and even involves the use of the QR code as Fiasco's Twitter avatar, on billboards and even on guerilla marketing-style stickers placed around New York and San Francisco, according to DailyDOOH.

In my new book, THE ON-DEMAND BRAND (available everywhere books are sold), I look at how mobile is most powerfully used as an activation mechanism for traditional advertising - including outdoor - instead of just an avenue for mobile ads.

Time will tell if this particular effort transfers into sales for the album, which breaks March 8.

But the campaign, at least, looks like anything but a fiasco. 

Read more about it, here.

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 OD_cover "... EXCELLENT ..."

 

“Through persuasive arguments and Q&A's with the major players in advertising, Mathieson makes an excellent case for greater creativity and outside-the-box thinking backed up with solid ideas."

Publisher's Weekly

 

>>> IN STORES NOW: ORDER YOUR COPY HERE <<<

 

 

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The Other Mobile Marketing: Coke 'Happiness Truck' Drives Good Times (Video)

 

Coke brakes for good times.

If you loved Coke's Happiness Machine, you're going to dig the new Happiness Truck, too. A twist on that first effort, which involved a machine that spit out free Cokes and other things, the Happiness Truck dispenses Cokes, sunglasses, soccer balls, even surfboards, on the streets of Rio. I think the ice cream machine-esque music is a nice touch, too.

A Coke and a smile is right. And the perfect reminder that the original form of mobile marketing can work pretty darn well, too.

Read more, here.

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 OD_cover "... EXCELLENT ..."

 

“Through persuasive arguments and Q&A's with the major players in advertising, Mathieson makes an excellent case for greater creativity and outside-the-box thinking backed up with solid ideas."

Publisher's Weekly

 

>>> IN STORES NOW: ORDER YOUR COPY HERE <<<

 

 

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'Old Navy Records' Combines Music, Fashion & Your iPhone

 

Looks like the 'modelquins' could be headed for the scrap heap.

Old Navy is launching a campaign around a concept called "Old Navy Records," that involves enabling Shazam uses to be able to "capture" branded songs when they hear them - in TV commercials, in-store, on Facebook or YouTube - to access key looks featured in the songs, styling tips, exclusive deals, and the chance to download the song. 

Old navy records promoIt's all billed as "an important evolution for the brand as it looks to cultivate more loyalty among Old Navy's target customer" - a persona known as "Jennie," which is described as a "25- to 35-year-old women looking for on-trend fashion at great prices for herself and her family."

  By combining this persona's love of music and fashion, the new campaign seeks to forge new ground with elements such as the campaign's first branded original song, out today, called "Super C-U-T-E," the first of many to celebrate (and, I take it, send up) Jennie's everyday activities - from a trip to the dentist to roaming the grocery store aisles.

Associated music videos will be produced by industry legend Joseph Kahn (think Eminem, Rihanna and Britney Spears), and music is from the likes of The Audio Threadz, which makes its debut with "Super C-U-TE."

As Old Navy moves from plastic to vinyl, we'll see if the cool quotient goes up, too.

Read all about it, here.

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 OD_cover "... EXCELLENT ..."

 

“Through persuasive arguments and Q&A's with the major players in advertising, Mathieson makes an excellent case for greater creativity and outside-the-box thinking backed up with solid ideas."

Publisher's Weekly

 

>>> IN STORES NOW: ORDER YOUR COPY HERE <<<

 

 

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'Projection Mapping' Poised to Transform The Shopping Experience (Video)

Some cool examples of projection mapping that, while eye candy today, could someday transform the in-store and outdoor experience for a new generation of shoppers.

The examples show here come from a company called Mr. Beam, but there are many others out there - and worth checking out, if you want a glimpse of what's coming to a store(front) near you.

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 OD_cover "... EXCELLENT ..."

 

“Through persuasive arguments and Q&A's with the major players in advertising, Mathieson makes an excellent case for greater creativity and outside-the-box thinking backed up with solid ideas."

Publisher's Weekly

 

>>> IN STORES NOW: ORDER YOUR COPY HERE <<<

 

 

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Viewdle Mashes Social Networking, AR & Facial Recognition (Video)

 

Are we ready for mobile apps that mash up social networking, AR & facial recognition?

Then demo here is cool when you teach your phone to recognize a friend and then automatically upload pictures you take to Facebook or whatnot. What's a little scary is the prospect of this kind of technology evolving into a solution that be able to teach you about the person you're aiming a phone at.

Advertisers will love that - systems built into signage, for instance, that see you as you pass by, recognizes who you are and then analyzes your clickstream, updates and relationships you post out there, and then serves up pitches aimed directly - and uniquely - at you.

(Other) stalkers will love it too.

But should we have a conversation about whether we really want that? In addition to Do Not Track lists, will we need Do Not Recognize lists, too?

Still, very cool in its current form. Read more here.

 

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 OD_cover "... EXCELLENT ..."

 

“Through persuasive arguments and Q&A's with the major players in advertising, Mathieson makes an excellent case for greater creativity and outside-the-box thinking backed up with solid ideas."

Publisher's Weekly

 

>>> IN STORES NOW: ORDER YOUR COPY HERE <<<

 

 

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Looking Back At 'The Lost Experience': Q&A With Mike Benson, SVP/Marketing, ABC Entertainment

BensonIn its day, ABC-TV's "Lost" could be found in some mighty strange places.

In what was considered the first transmedia "alternate reality game" (or "ARG") associated with a major TV show, ABC set out to fuel fandememonium among the show's most fervent fans.

The man behind the initiative: Mike Benson, then senior vice president of marketing for ABC Entertainment.

As it turns out, Benson didn't even know there was a name for what he was trying to pull off. Happily finding himself with a phenomenon on his hands in the form of this hugely popular show, Benson was simply trying to find a way to keep viewers satisfied between what was shaping up to be a seemingly interminable break between seasons.

His plan: to launch an ambitious digital marketing campaign designed to be as frustrating at it was elaborate, involving a mind-bogglingly intricate scheme to bring verisimilitude to the show's back story in the form of a vast online scavenger hunt.

He laughed when I reminded him during the height of the campaign that "ARG" was the term for this kind of game.

"Someone called me and said, 'Oh, you're doing an alternate reality game - an ARG," he said, recounting the first time he'd heard the name. "I said, 'Well yes. I guess that's what we're doing.'"

What follows is a source interview I conducted with Benson after the campaign's conclusion, for the new book, THE ON-DEMAND BRAND. What you'll find is nothing short of a pioneer shaping the future of both television and social media.

PART ONE

For those out of the know, “The Lost Experience" was an enormous, multi-nation, multiplatform “alternate reality” game designed to keep fans of the enigmatic television show engaged in the hiatus between the show's second and third seasons.

There were the faux Web sites for the Hanso Foundation – which was “hacked” and later “shut down.” The mysterious video postings of one Rachel Blake buried on the Hanso site and a veritable labyrinth of advertiser-sponsored Web sites from Monster, Jeep, Sprite, Verizon and others.

Credits for that year's hit movie “Mission: Impossible 3” thanked Hanso, as if it were somehow tied to Tom Cruise and the Scientology community. (In reality, it was another connection: Director JJ Abrams is one of the creator of "Lost")

There was the book “Bad Twin,” from the fictitious author Gary Troup, who was aboard Oceanic flight 815 when it crashed.

There was "Joop," the “ageless Orangutan.” Secret tests of the “Valenzetti Equation” on autistic savants. And who could forget Blake’s rant at the producers of “Lost” at the San Diego Comic Com that July – as if their show was somehow a kind of front for Hanso. And don’t forget the revelation that Alvar Hanso is really Blake’s father. All revealed with tantalizing clues to the future of this imminently aggravating, and immensely entertaining, television show.

Nearly five months later, The Experience came to an end.

It was at this point that I talked with Benson about how he convinced all those advertisers to pay to promote his show, what he learned from “The Lost Experience,” and his views on the power of multiplatform, branded entertainment in promoting products - from content to consumer packaged goods - in the age of viral, social media.

(Approx. 3:30)

PART TWO

In Part 2: The genesis of "The Lost Experience;" and how ABC lined up key promotional partners to make it a reality.

(Approx 4:20)

PART THREE

In part three: Benson's thoughts on the power (and dangers of) integrated, multiplatform marketing.

(Approx. 2:55)

CONCLUSION

In this part: What ABC learned from "The Lost Experience" – and what he'd do different the next time.

(Approx 3:54)


Animated Cereal Boxes Light Up Store Shelves (Video)

 It's not Pine & Oats cereal from Minority Report - but it does point to a new era in on-shelf competition.

In my first book, BRANDING UNBOUND, and also in my new book, THE ON-DEMAND BRAND, I look at how tiny, inexpensive wireless transistors can bring the world of previously-static packaging to life in a amazing new ways. This demo from a company called Fulton Innovation takes the first steps in that direction (though scaling it to every product on the shelves and shopping may start feeling like walking the Vegas strip).

As if this weren't nifty enough, the company also demos self-cooking soup.

You'll want to read all about it, here.

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 OD_cover "... EXCELLENT ..."

 

“Through persuasive arguments and Q&A's with the major players in advertising, Mathieson makes an excellent case for greater creativity and outside-the-box thinking backed up with solid ideas."

Publisher's Weekly

 

>>> IN STORES NOW: ORDER YOUR COPY HERE <<<

 

 

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Beyond 'The On-Demand Brand': New Bonus Content Available

Courteney_monroe_photo Courteney Monroe, EVP, Consumer Marketing for HBO, on the strategy behind "Voyeur" and "Imagine."

Julie Bornstein, senior vice president of Sephora Direct, on enhancing the in-store experience through mobile.

Prinz Pinakatt, head of digital marketing for Coca-Cola Europe, on the power of branded mobile apps.

Adrian Si, head of interactive marketing for Scion, on running a branded entertainment portal. 

And Derek Robson, managing partner for Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, on reinventing the ad agency.

These are just a few of the source interviews recently added to our special Bonus Content Page, Beyond 'The On-Demand Brand.' Check it all out here.

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 OD_cover "... EXCELLENT ..."

 

“Through persuasive arguments and Q&A's with the major players in advertising, Mathieson makes an excellent case for greater creativity and outside-the-box thinking backed up with solid ideas."

Publisher's Weekly

 

>>> IN STORES NOW: ORDER YOUR COPY HERE <<<

 

 

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