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INFECTIOUS

SEPTEMBER 2010.

A round up of the latest communications news and ideas from around the world

GETTING DRIVERS TO SLOWDOWN? THAT’S CHILD’S PLAY.

How do you get drivers to remember that they need to kill their speed before they kill a child? Simple. Make them feel like they have.

This hard line tactic is quite literally being road tested in Canada during the busy back-to-school period.

A 3D trompe l’oeil has been placed in the middle of the road between two major primary schools and a car park in the city of Vancouver. Although appearing as an undistinguishable mark in the road from a distance, it will appear as an image of a young girl chasing a ball as a vehicle gets closer.

Those driving within the speed limit will be able to stop. Those who aren’t…well, you get the idea.

There’s also a risk that drivers could cause other accidents by swerving. However, the groups behind the project say this level of direct advertising is a necessary evil. “The static messaging that we do becomes part of the landscape and it’s on the periphery,”said Brent Dozzi, manager of roads and transportation.

Japanese clothing retailer Uniqlo is re-launching their online store and in the lead up to this they’re running a clever Twitter campaign inviting shoppers to ‘Tweet for a Treat’.

The discount clothing chain have set up the ‘Lucky Counter’ on their website which features a number of clothing items – the top sellers from their online store. UK shoppers and their friends can tweet about any item on the page and thus drive the cost of the clothing down.

The idea being the more you tweet, the more you save. The items will sell at their final discounted price when the campaign ends this Thursday and the new site is live.

This makes a refreshing change from sticking up a holding page stating that you’re redeveloping the site and serves to create awareness of the value clothing available in advance of the launch of the new site.

This initiative follows on from another successful Twitter-based campaign launched by Uniqlo in June to promote their summer sportswear. SportsTweet was a website (no longer live) that analysed the ‘sportiness’ of your tweets, ranking them against other users, encouraging people to compete with each other for the top ranking. Whilst awaiting your ‘sportiness’ ranking, you watched video footage of athletes wearing the latest sports clothes from the retailer. It reportedly attracted over 5000 users who could also share their score on Twitter.

TWEET FOR A TREAT!

HELLO 3D!

Iconic lingerie brand Wonderbra has unveiled a 20’ wide 3D billboard poster near Waterloo Station to advertise its latest product, the Full Effect bra.

Special 3D glasses are required to appreciate the ‘full effect’ of the 48-sheet poster, which is the first step in a cross-media campaign that will include both traditional and online advertising streams. The graphic recalls the famous ‘Hello Boys’ posters from the brand’s 1990s advertising push.

TIPPEX BEARS ALL.

The correction fluid brand’s latest campaign features a video of a hunter caught in the dilemma of whether to shoot a bear or not. Having decided not to, he grabs a Tipp-Ex Pocket Mouse and amends the video to ‘A hunter ____ a bear’, before inviting the viewer to fill in the blank with their choice of verb.

Once the viewer has suggested a new action, the hunter and bear duo act out the new command or, if they get stumped, hold up a cheery ‘Error #404’ placard.

For possibly the first time in YouTube’s history, the comment section is actually helpful, with suggestions of actions to try out including: eats; watches TV with; swims with; moonwalks with; shows his ass to; is shot by; smokes with; and the rude one which you’re thinking of - yes they do that too.

Of course, fun as it is, we’d be surprised if the campaign made people close

down computers and re-discover the joys of handwriting their docs just so they can roll out the Tipp-Ex to correct their inky mistakes.

To watch this video click here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ba1BqJ4S2M

SPOTS VS STRIPES!As an official sponsor of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, the thinking behind the current Cadbury campaign is to split the nation into two teams, the spots and stripes, to compete in game play in the lead up to London 2012. All people need to do is join one of the teams by signing up on the website to begin scoring points for their chosen team.

Cadbury will encourage people to engage with the Spots v Stripes site through dedicated social mediachannels, like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, in combination with more traditional marketing methods like TV and outdoor advertising in keeping with their online/offline theme. And while the site definitely plays on social gaming interaction, you can score points for offline games like running or crazy golf and can also download games from the site to play offline.

This new campaign by Cadbury really seems to recognise a current trend – that social media doesn’t just take place online. Their advert is incomplete without referring you to their social media site. And this site would not stand alone and be as successful without the advert driving people to it.

Watch the TV ad here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zh-s3auYdKo