Kenny Powers & K-Swiss Tubes a Bizarre Match

You have to hand it to the marketing guys at K Swiss for pulling off the move of the summer. They had a new sports shoe to sell, not a fashion accessory, but an actual shoe built for to maximise athletic performance and endurance and who do they get to endorse it? Kenny Powers of course!

For those of you unaware Kenny Powers is the fictional star of the HBO series Eastbound and Down. One of the funniest shows ever made. He is a deluded fading baseball star who also has a penchant for steroids, cocaine, beer and hookers. Not exactly your average sports endorsement so. For those of you unfamiliar with Mr Powers, heres one of the best clips of series 1

VT: Samsung, BMW, Nokia & Lego

VT: June 15th 2010. A round up of some of my own fave virals doing teh round at the moment. This time about its the return of Samsungs outdoor 3D projection this time as an interactive Youtube Takeover, BMW go all outdoor 3D projection in Asia, while Nokia keep it simple but inventive & relive the USA versus England highlights in Lego.

VT: Star Wars IPad, Samsung 3D, MTV, Tesco, Nike, Fiat

Viral Tuesday: June 1st, 2010 – My roundup of the best virals of the last few weeks. This batch of good and bad feature Star Wars I-Pad briefing, Samsungs outdoor 3D projection from Amsterdam, Les Grossman and Robert Pattinson’s MTV Movie awards viral, plus Nike, Tesco and Fiat.

McMarketing: The Strange Marketing of the Big Mac

One company that keeps on cropping up when I’m looking up examples of guerrilla and ambient marketing is McDonalds. The fast food giant knows a thing or two about how to break through the advertising clutter out there to connect with their target audience in new and interesting ways. Whatever your own personal view of the chain is, it’s hard to knock some of these examples of clearly clever marketing. These examples, from around the world, really puts my local McDonald’s to shame, with their discount coupon on the front of the local paper. Or was that Burger King? Hard to differentiate when both of them use the same tactics. For a chain that thrives on having a menu that is almost identical the world over, they do like to mix things up in their marketing. Here’s 15 examples of cool McDonalds Marketing.

My Most Hated TV Ad’s of Right Now

Its only four ad’s but these really really exemplify what happens when brands run out of ideas. Creativity has been replaced with poorly executed ideas. The four ads are for Volvic, Magnum, Citroen and WeBuyAnyCar.com. Feel free to add your own suggestions at the end.

More Ikea Marketing

Ikea are all about experiencing their products in unusual ways, they clearly like people to encounter their products in different settings than what you’d normally expect. Here’s two more examples of Ikea marketing one thats currently on display in Paris and one from London in 2008

Heineken’s Football Stunt

Sometimes marketing can make you go wow! And this certainly did. Its centred around the Real Madrid versus AC Milan match last year. In Italy Heineken recruited 200 people, that is girlfriends, bosses and lecturers, to go and make their partners, workers and students attend a poetry and classical musical recital instead of watching that match. Over 1100 people attended the recital all under duress. Little did they know that it was all part of an elaborate stunt by Heineken to demonstrate that the most sacred moment guys have is watching football together. Once they were in the auditorium, news broadcasts and the big match build up kept cutting across to show footage of the guys wanting to be watching the match. The moment when the penny drops and they realise they will be watching the match is pretty cool the place erupts into excited applause. It’s moving stuff and not very often that can be said about marketing.I have a sneaky suspicion that this will make my Top 10 list of 2010.

VT: Crystal Swing, Tron Legacy, IamAmIWhoAmI, BMW

VT: March 16th, 2010

The weeks best virals includes Ireland’s crountry and western internet sensations Crystal Swing and how they became Irelands first viral stars, Tron Legacy and its viral camapign, the latest IamAmIWhoAmI viral shows whoever it is it isn’t Christina, how social media is transforming retail and the new viral from BMW.

VT: Paddy Power Banned, Lego Force Unleashed, Hungry Beast, Torpedo7.com

VT: March 9th, 2010

A round up of the weeks best virals including the new banned ad from Paddy Power gets an online airing, the excellent stop motion of Lego – The Force Unleashed, a short clip from an Oz based news show about the massive growth of Google into all areas of life including genetics and finally some jackass style stunts on a New Zealand golf course… to promote snowboarding obviously!

VT: Ok Go, Skoda, State of the Internet, Mercedes, IamAmIWhoAmI, Improv Everywhere

VT: Tuesday March 2nd, 2010 – The weeks best new virals: 1. Ok Go ‘This Too Shall Pass’ The new Ok Go video is on Youtube and its possible to embed! Last week I wrote about how EMI had signed a deal with the video sharing site that disabled the embed function. It would seem [...]