We all know that sustainability is a good idea, but shouldn’t it became a movement? Have no fear – “sustainism” is here. The word was coined by Michael Schwartz and Joost Elffers (respectively a cultural theorist and a designer) for their new book Sustainism is the New Modernism, which we highly recommend, if only to look cool on the metro.
Subtitled A Cultural Manifesto for the Sustainist Era, the book is mainly about design, even proposing a logo for the movement, but it could just as easily be adapted to commercial messages.
So what exactly is sustainism? A recent article in the International Herald Tribune gave us this handy précis. Sustainism needs to be: “ethically and environmentally responsible; socially and geographically inclusive; collaborative; networked; sensitive to nature; and savvy enough to make the most of: a) leaps in technology, and b) both globalism and localism.”
What if a pet food brand was not a company selling products, but a global fan group for everyone with a furry friend? What if it was not just about dog nourishment – but about dogs?
That’s what happened when Pedigree set out on a global mission to connect with consumers like never before. Together with TBWA, the brand held Disruption Days in several markets around the world. This process led to a powerful brand idea: everything we do is for the love of dogs.
“Dogs Rule”, said TV spots and posters featuring cute, mischievous and faithful hounds. Pedigree seemed to be speaking to and on behalf of dog lovers everywhere. The company even changed its working practices to allow dogs into its offices. Salespeople went on the road with dogs. The brand behaviour reflected the disruptive idea. What’s more, this was the first time Pedigree had spoken with a single, global voice, bringing power and consistency to the brand.
But there was still more to be done. So in 2008, Pedigree’s European markets took part of the marketing budget and used it to support dogs who really needed it: the millions of dogs in shelters.
With the help of Media Arts, Pedigree turned its global idea – Everything we do is for the love of dogs – into localized brand behaviour. The adoption drive was launched across nine
European countries with an emotional, impactful TV ad. Over images of dogs behind bars, a voiceover said: “I know how to sit, how to fetch, and how to roll over. What I don’t know is – how I ended up here.” The spot explained that when customers bought any Pedigree product, the company would make a donation that would help dogs in shelters find a loving home.
In the UK, the adoption drive was launched at Crufts, a famous dog show. British actor and comedian Neil Morrissey was enlisted to host a mass dog walk in London. Pedigree even produced a weekly documentary called “Dog Rescue” featuring the UK’s leading shelter, Battersea Dogs’ Home.
In Germany, real dogs from local shelters “spoke” to dog lovers via captions on posters. Smaller markets focused on PR activities. In the Netherlands, for example, Pedigree installed cardboard cut-outs of dogs on lawns and in parks. The signs read: “I wish I was here.” In Austria, interactive posters featured dogs with many leashes – consumers could remove a leash containing details of the adoption drive. In Ireland, a hard-hitting poster featured several photos of dogs. These were removed over time, confronting the public with the fact that 43 homeless dogs are put down every day. Hungary took an online approach, allowing potential owners to pick their rescue dog from the Pedigree website.
RESULTS
The reaction was overwhelming. People showed their support not only via Web buzz, but in concrete numbers. In Ireland, the brand grew by 8% and the adoption drive generated more than €400,000 worth of free media coverage. In the UK, the campaign raised over €1.9 million for homeless dogs. The German magazine “Dogs” described Pedigree as “the most dog-loving company”. In Spain, 150,000 people subscribed to an adoption drive newsletter. And in the Netherlands, the campaign was so successful that it was extended for an extra ten weeks at the request of retailers. Across Europe, Pedigree raised over €3 million for the drive.
And most importantly, the adoption rate of dogs grew by 30%, helping thousands find loving homes.
It was the ultimate expression of Pedigree’s brand belief: to make the world a better place for dogs.
To mark World AIDS Day, AIDES, France’s first anti HIV/AIDS organization has released “A Life”, its latest film. Unlike AIDES most recent film, the wildly popular “Zizi Graffiti”, which was made for a youth audience, “A Life” is a more serious look at the consequences of unprotected sex. Although the AIDS virus has been around for some 30 years, we still need to be reminded that the disease affects the population at large. Indeed, the average age at which HIV is detected as of 2008 is 28.2 years. For women, age of detection has increased from 33.7 years to 36 years of age, for men, the rate has remained stable at 39 years.
The film, produced by TBWA\PARIS, features an elderly man who narrates his life from the end of it, to the beginning of it. After descriptions of grandchildren, children, a marriage and travelling, we discover that at the age of 20, the narrator became HIV positive and thus, will not have the life that has just been described.
2010 was the year mobile connected the world. With stunning statistics, facts, and visual cues, this video takes a tour of key consumer and technology mobile trends across an eventful year. Some highlights of the video include:
Massive increase in apps downloaded:
- FIVE BILLION apps downloaded – up from 300 million in 2009
Whopping expansion of location-based services
- FIVE MILLION Foursquare users — up from 200,000 users in 2009
Surge in mobile social media platforms
- 347 PERCENT growth in Twitter mobile usage
- 200 MILLION mobile Facebook Users
- 100 MILLION YouTube videos played on mobile devices everyday
Digital death. It sounds bleak, harsh, and without a future. In fact it is optimistic, positive and quite literally lifesaving.
The Digital Death campaign was launched by TBWA\Chiat\Day New York and Keep A Child Alive, a non-profit organisation dedicated to fighting the spread of AIDS in Africa and India.
On World Aids Day, December 1 2010, Hollywood died.
The idea was brilliantly simple. Top celebrities agreed to give up their digital lives. Famous social networkers like Alicia Keys, Usher, Lady Gaga, Justin Timberlake, Kim Kardashian and many others wiped themselves off of the web. In one stroke, they denied millions of fans their tweets and Facebook updates.
But there was a deal involved. The fans could buy back their heroes’ digital lives. When US$1 million had been raised, the stars would return to Facebook and Twitter. All fans had to do was go to buylife.org or text a participating celebrity’s name to 90999 to make a donation and help buy a digital life back.
Not only celebrities took part. Less famous social networkers committed digital suicide too. In fact, anybody could wipe their identity from the web and challenge their friends to buy back their lives. Those who took the brave step saw their names featured on the Buy Life site alongside those of the celebs.
The reaction was overwhelming. In only a few days, all the participating celebrities had been resurrected and the US$1 million target had been overtaken. At the time of writing, fans had donated US$1,000,792 to buy back the digital lives of VIPs and their friends. Then they could scan a special bar code on the site to see a thank you note from campaign spokeswoman Alicia Keys.
But the campaign isn’t over. You can still Buy Life – or donated 100 dollars and buy a T-shirt. For more details, go to http://buylife.org. It’s dead simple.
For any comments or suggestions, send an email to Ulrich Proeschel.
…and with MusicMapper you can share your you can connect music to your milestones in life.
MTV had it first, today the 2011 ad campaign kicks of across multiple media channels. MTV reports on their website “The Grammys are kicking off the new year with a certain Detroit rapper. Eminem is spearheading the Recording Academy’s Music Is Life Is Music social-networking and promotional campaign, and MTV News is giving you an exclusive first look at the commercial.”
“The camera kind of literally walks through his life,” said Bob Rayburn, creative director of ad agency TBWA\Chiat\Day in a conversation with MTV. “It was important to capture his struggle.”
The rapper is in the first of three upcoming Grammy commercials, developed by TBWA\Chiat/Day Los Angeles and illustrated by design firm National TV.
Eminem’s piece will debut on all media platforms on January 6th, and the print portion of the Grammy campaign begins in two weeks. The Midwest rapper earned 10 Grammy nods, including Song and Record of the Year (for “Love the Way You Lie”) and Album of the Year (for Recovery, which is also up for Rap Album of the Year). He also scored noms for Best Rap Solo Performance (for “Not Afraid”), Pop Collaboration With Vocals (for his turn on B.o.B’s “Airplanes Part II”) and Best Rap Song (for “Lie”).
BBC News US & Canada just posted a very interesting feature on its website explaining some of the latest developments in advertising. Using the example of product placement, the reporter demonstrates how brands are becoming part of the story.
As TBWA’s Worldwide Director of Media Arts Lee Clow observed in a recent interview: ”Brands did advertising: they talked at people; they bought television commercials and held you captive. Now they must interact with their audience in a multifaceted but coherent way.”
Some of the world’s most inspiring brands have proved that delivering content and becoming part of peoples’ lives is not only possible, it also drives success. This is because they do not distract audiences from the content they love. Instead, they create original ideas that people want to experience.
Check out how Gatorade and TBWA\Chiat Day LA initiated the Replay idea. Or how Absolut Vodka became part of the plot of “Sex and the City” by introducing the Absolut Hunk.
One of the latest examples of disrupting the rules of product placement comes from Germany, where McCafé has launched its newly developed brand idea as a key storyline within the German telenovela “Anna & die Liebe” (“Anna and Love”). Skillfully utilizing both digital and physical media, the campaign was developed by TBWA in Berlin.
Instead of interrupting the audience with commercial breaks, McCafé’s brand belief “Alles Gute beginnt mit einem guten Kaffee” (Everything good begins with a good cup of coffee) is brought to life in a popular TV show featuring fictional Berlin advertising agency Broda&Broda.
McCafé does not appear in the show through conventional product placement – but via campaign placement. Broda & Broda develops the campaign “Everything good starts with a good cup of coffee” while pitching for the McCafé account. Over several episodes, the audience sees how the claim was conceived, how the “first kiss” moment was shot and, finally, how Broda&Broda wins the pitch.
Many other aspects of the campaign will take place simultaneously, giving the audience a chance to interact with the brand both digitally and physically. For example, on the “Anna & die Liebe” site, fans are redirected through banners (in the form of recruitment ads for a new creative director post at Broda&Broda) to the McCafé Facebook fan site. Here, they are invited to upload their very own stories of good beginnings. And to reinforce the brand experience for the audience, the first real poster in the campaign will actually be seen in Berlin four days later, blurring the borders between virtual and real, fictional and actual.
For any comments or suggestions, send an email to Ulrich Proeschel.
According to TBWA\Nebkoko, the beer brand Heineken (1873) is the god-father of social networks, just a little older than Twitter (2006), Facebook (2004) or its dutch version Hyves (2004).
Hyves is the most popular social networking site in the Netherlands with mainly Dutch visitors and members and competes in this country with sites such as Facebook and MySpace.
If you have any comments or suggestions please email Jeroen Konings.
We all know that sustainability is a good idea, but shouldn’t it became a movement? Have no fear – “sustainism” is here. The word was coined by Michael Schwartz and Joost Elffers (respectively a cultural theorist and a designer) for their new book Sustainism is the New Modernism, which we highly recommend, if only to look cool on the metro.
