Another Engaging Marketing Tactic For UNIQLO. A Pinterest Takeover For Their Dry Mesh Project.

More opportunities for branding continue to spring up on the web as popular user-generated and social network-related websites grow.



Pinterest, one of the fastest growing sites out there, with over a reported 13 million registered users, was recently hijacked by UNIQLO to increase awareness of their Dry Mesh Tshirts. Part of the new UNIQLO Innovation Project (UIP), the idea was conceived of and executed for the Japanese brand by New York digital agency Firstborn.



Firstborn had to do something big for the Japanese brand to stand out from the chaos of online fashion and social media. To promote "the ultimate functional wear" that keeps you cool and dry while exercising, Firstborn created the first-ever branded mosaics on Pinterest.





As users scrolled through Pinterest public feeds, giant blocks of images appeared. Together, the image blocks worked to create an impossible to miss, branded mosaic. As users continued to scroll down, the branded images seemingly animated.









How did they do it?
To reach active consumers, the guerilla campaign targeted five categories: Men's Apparel, Women's Apparel, Geek, Fitness and Sports. Extensive R&D ensured the images would appear in one group. To evade Pinterest's detection algorithms, Firstborn set up over 100 shell accounts ahead of the launch. A group of Firstborn employees simultaneously pinned pre-selected images to successfully free users from the monotony of Pinterest scrolling. With a strong team effort, the UNIQLO Dry Mesh Project on Pinterest brought attention to the new product with an experience as unique as the actual shirts.



UNIQLO has been one of the most innovative brands in terms of their marketing and advertising on the web. This is merely the latest in their engaging tactics.

Polanski For Prada. A Therapy, Starring Ben Kingsley and Helena Bonham Carter.

Branded content continues to permeate the web, especially in the case of fashion. The latest from luxury brand PRADA enlisted director Roman Polanski to write and direct a film for them that debuted at Cannes.





A Therapy stars Ben Kingsley as a therapist to patient Helena Bonham Carter. Both clad in Prada, with a few subtle and not so subtle product shots (like the stills I grabbed of the shoes and coat shown below), we see that Kingsley is obsessively drawn to his patient's purple Prada coat, culminating in the conclusion that "Prada Suits Everyone."




Hesitant at first, Polanski was given creative freedom and reunited his favorite group of actors, screenwriters, D.P and editors to produce the three and a half minute film shown below.



PRADA presents A Therapy by Roman Polanski.

"A game, a thought, that through friendship and mutual respect has come true. When I was asked to shoot a short movie for Prada, I did not think that I could really be myself, but the reality is that in the total freedom I was given, I had the opportunity to reunite my favorite group of people on set and just have fun.

The chance to dwell on what the fashion world represents nowadays, and the fact that it is accompanied by so many stereotypes is fascinating and at the same time a bit upsetting, but you definitely can not ignore it.

It's very refreshing to know there are still places open to irony and wit, and for sure, Prada is one of them" --Roman Polanski

Images from behind the scenes at the shoot:







Credits:
Starring Helena Bonham Carter, Ben Kingsley
Screenplay: Roman Polanski and Ronald Hardwood
Music: Alexandre Desplat
Production Designer: Dean Tavoularis
Director of Photography: Eduardo Serra
Editor: Hervé de Luze
Executive Producer: Max Brun
Produced by HI! Production and R.P. Productions

PRADA

Wonderful Saul Bass Inspired Video For Louis Vuitton 2012 Summer Belt Collection.

As a huge fan of Saul Bass, I was thrilled to come across lovely animated piece of web content for Louis Vuitton. Directed by illustrator/animator Jo Ratcliffe, this fabulous Saul Bass-inspired animated video is promoting the luxury brand's 2012 Summer Belt Collection.





LV describes the project as follows:
As the major point of focus on a human silhouette accentuating the waist, belts could be considered the most essential accessory. They were decorative and mainly associated with the military in past days. However, as a fashion item in modern times, men started wearing belts in the 1920s as trouser waists fell to a lower line. Louis Vuitton has been making belts since the 1930s as both a fashion accessory and necessary yet basic addition to trousers. Here artist Jo Ratcliffe showcases Louis Vuitton’s latest collection in this Saul Bass detective style animation. Fasten your belts!

Credits
Director: Jo Ratcliffe
Animation and Production: Minivegas
Music Supervisor: Rebeca Ann Toledo, Dust Music Supervision of Norway

Louis Vuitton

Kmart Hips Up Their Image and Asks You to Show Us What You Got In A New Campaign.

Seems that Kmart has finally killed off that terrible talking blue lightbulb- or at least I hope so. Their big new fashion marketing effort created in conjunction with Minnesota based Peterson Milla Hooks, "Money Can't Buy Style," is complete with new logo, a new attitude, new music and a new blog.





Debuting in the fall of 2011, the new campaign is aimed at empowering customers to embrace their individualism when approaching fashion. Rather than focusing on brand names or even trends, the ads will emphasize self-expression in fashion by featuring real people in Kmart looks they've created themselves.




The series of digital spots created for the web range from 6 seconds to a minute and invite people to "show us what you got" and will include 20 real people in a variety of pieces from the fall 2011 Kmart collections, selected and styled by each individual. The Kmart team spent three weeks hitting the streets across the country to find real people who reveled in their individual style and brought it to life in incredibly unique ways.



"Our goal is to get people to look at Kmart apparel differently," said Tara Poseley, president of Apparel at Kmart. "We took a fresh approach in our campaign with a message that truly embodies what Kmart does best -- making the aspirational attainable. We have great fashion that we're not getting credit for today. We hope the campaign will get people to consider us for what is a very compelling brand portfolio."

When it came time to shoot the campaign, the creative team wanted to ensure a casual, upbeat atmosphere where everyone could feel at ease and comfortable in letting their style shine through. Each look was shot privately with the talent and photographer only for enhanced intimacy. As is typical in fashion shoots, surround sound music was blasted throughout the sessions to create a high-energy environment that kept participants energized throughout the day. Authenticity was essential: to capture the true essence of each participant, and encourage him or her to be both spontaneous and natural in their self-expression, the photographer asked fun and unconventional questions. The end result was a series of genuine responses and expressions captured on film.



"Our new campaign is a disruptive break from fashion advertising clutter," said Robin Creen, chief marketing officer of Apparel at Kmart. "It truly hits the mark in conveying how fun and accessible fashion can be, by capturing the essence of real people who know how to put it all together."

In addition to highlighting the true style of everyday people and the attainability of great fashion, the campaign is designed to convey the insignificance of money in making a statement. With new brands and a new approach to style, Kmart hopes its accessible fashion environment will also excite the senses and inspire unique, personal style through mixing and matching.

The new campaign will launch in September with an assortment of print, digital and outdoor advertising.

You can see all of the "Money Can't Buy Style" Kmart spots here

Infographic: The Growth of Social media

Source: The Growth of Social Media: An Infographic

Google Launches A Powerful TV Spot To Hype Their Chrome Browser.

A smart, moving and demonstrative new 90 second tv commercial achieves a dual purpose: introducing people to both Google's latest Chrome browser and Dan Savage's anti-bullying project, It Gets Better.

"It Gets Better" for Google Chrome:


The 90 second commercial is one spot in a new campaign for Google Chrome (another spot in the campaign is Dear Sophie) which premiered last Tuesday night during an episode of GLEE and shows people using Google Chrome’s toolbar and YouTube to record videos for the It Gets Better Project to empathize with and give hope to gay teenagers who fear bullying.

The ad shows some examples of videos uploaded to YouTube to support the project by people and celebrities:




According to the NY Times, The Google ad campaign, called “the Web is what you make of it,” is the biggest offline campaign ever for Google, which has typically shied away from advertising. It declined to disclose its spending plan.

The ads zero in on the computer screen, showing what people are typing, uploading and sharing, similar to the “Parisian Love” ad that aired during the Super Bowl in 2010, which told the story of an American exchange student who falls in love with a woman in Paris.



“We try to get rid of everything but the user and the tools and let you feel what is happening there, without a lot of commentary from Google itself,” said Andy Berndt, vice president of the Google Creative Lab, which created the campaign with the ad agency Bartle Bogle Hegarty.


Full Credits
Agency: Google Creative Lab
Client: Google
Executive Creative Director: Calle Sjoenell
Agency: BBH New York
Executive Creative Director: Pelle Sjoenell
Executive Creative Director: Robert Wong
Associate Creative Director: Jesse Juriga
Art Director: Steve Pack
Art Director: Caprice Yu
Copywriter: Jeff Johnson
Head of Broadcast: Lisa Setten
Project Manager: Jessica Beavers
Web Content Research: Nickerson Research
End Tag Graphic: Buck
Music Supervisor: Search Party Music
Executive Producer: Stephanie Diaz-Matos


The "It Gets Better" campaign, started in 2010 by Dan Savage, now boasts contributions from a number of high-profile names, including President Barack Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and, as seen in this video, Woody from Toy Story." (The Advocate, 5.03.11)

You can download Google Chrome here

Pet Names For Your Pussy Promote The Mooncup, An Alternative To Tampons.

The Mooncup, a reinvention of a centuries old concept by entrepreneur Su Hardy, is a smart eco-friendly alternative to tampons. Made from medical grade silicone, without bleaches, dyes or pesticides, the reusable menstrual cup leaves no fibers behind like other sanitary products.



The first sanitary protection manufacturer in the world to be awarded Ethical Business status, Mooncup Ltd. is guided by people and environmentally-friendly business practices.

But what is equally as smart as the product design is the advertising poster campaign and website promoting the Mooncup, created by St. Lukes in conjunction with the company.

The Advertising
Posters with euphemisms for lady bits began appearing around the London Underground signed off with a url that read loveyourvagina.com.


above photo courtesy of Uplift Magazine

The five advertising posters:




The Website

Equally blind and compelling, the posters lead you to a website where you can not only get information about the Mooncup, but as is smart engaging behavior these days, invites the audience to add their own vaginal moniker to the many other hilarious ones posted by others.




Above are just a few of the submitted nicknames from their site. You've got your expected ones -- coochie, va jay jay, beaver, muff, etc. and some very unexpected ones. Some that may make you cringe and some that will make you crack up... my personal favorite being "The Downtown Entertainment and Dining District." You can visit loveyourvagina.com and add your own nickname.

Kath Clements, Campaign Manager for Mooncup, says: “We hope the ads will get women thinking, smiling and talking about their vaginas. We’re up for women feeling good on the inside too!”

Clearly, this humorous approach is getting some serious attention. With lots of blogs, women's sites and magazines, such as Marie Claire, writing about the campaign... the relatively unknown product is reaching larger audience than it otherwise would have. Mooncup Ltd also has a facebook fan page and a twitter account, intelligently using social media to further promote the product.



Mooncup was launched by Brighton entrepreneur Su Hardy in 2002 and is now stocked in Boots, as well as independent health food stores and through the mooncup.co.uk website.


all images and information courtesy of Mooncup, Ltd.