ICA does it again :)

ICA have come up with a new TV commercial, making a parody out of a Swedish video blogger (Amanda) who is quite "popular" on YouTube. Some like her blog, and some find her posts being quite meaningless. Anyway, many have heard of her, and many will certainly find ICA's commercial hilarious (as I did). Unfortunately, both clips are only in Swedish, but I am pretty sure the ICA one will become a viral video soon...

Check out one of the "original" clips from Amanda's Youtube channel.

And here is ICA's commercial:

My previous blog posts about ICA.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all of my readers! I won't be so active on the blog during the Holidays, trying to have as much time off as possible, since I start a new job in Stockholm the 4th of January.

But please enjoy a picture of our Christmas Tree, and a page with some Christmas wedding ideas.

Peace out... ;)

Glacéau Vitaminwater launch party

Some pics from Glacéau Vitaminwater's launch party at Summit:

Finest.se

Rodeo.net

Some bloggers about Glacéau Vitaminwater:

Fast Food Lovers

Who cares it's only fashion

Fashionguide.se

Glacéau Vitaminwater "Guerrilla" Campaign

On Monday, Glacéau Vitaminwater was launched in Stockholm. The hydrating, great-tasting vitamin enhanced beverage comes in 6 different flavors and functions, and is only promoted through sampling and PR activities. No commercials on TV or in magazines. Interesting. Read more about it in Dagens Media.

Picture from glaceau.se.

Of course, I might be a bit biased reporting about Glacéau Vitaminwater, since I'll be working for UMG with the PR activites... but, hey, I wouldn't be human if I had always been objective. ;)

The only downsize is that the glaceau.se web page is not finished yet, apparently due to the IT guys playing too much online poker. ;)

ICA and Jamie Oliver

ICA is a grocery chain in Sweden, and they have made theirselves a name out of making short TV commercials building up a story about their employees. Many of the commercials are very popular, and the most recent one features Jamie Oliver. I like it!



Follow ICA on Twitter.

Gay marriage in New York

Unfortunately, yesterday, the New York State Senate voted against a bill legalizing same-sex marriage in the state of New York. Apparently the New Yorkers aren't as liberal as I thought....

Short article in Swedish.

My other post about same-sex marriages.

The difference between good and bad customer service

My suitcase got broken the last time I flew. I reported it to SAS who would replace it with a new. This post will however NOT be about SAS' customer service.

SAS couldn't replace the suitcase with one exactly as I had (since it had a pretty cat design on the outside, corny, I know, but very easy to spot on the luggage conveyor). So, SAS told me I could go to the store where I bought the suitcase, buy a new one and get refunded.

I had bought the suitcase at an accessories chain called accent, this April. I remembered I've seen the suitcase a few months ago, so I was hoping they would still carry it. So, I stepped in to an accent store, at a mini-mall in Stockholm. I asked the vendor lady about the suitcase (which I couldn't see anywhere in the store) and she confirmed that they didn't have it any more. I asked her if she could check if any other store had it in store (haha). She looked at me like a question mark and said: "No, we don't have that kind of computer system." OK, that is understandable, not all retail chains today have that kind of system. So I asked her if she could provide me with the phone number for the accent store in Östersund (the biggest town close to Duved, where I live) because it was there I'd last seen a suitcase like mine. Vendor lady picked up a paper with something scribbled on it, looked through it and said; "No, I just have a few phone numbers for the stores in Stockholm, you must use a computer to find the number yourself." At this point, I got a teeny bit annoyed and told her that maybe, in the future, it would be good to have a catalogue with phone numbers to other accent stores, in case customers would need them. I was on my way out when vendor lady half yelled after me; "Well, our headquarters tell us to tell the customers to go find the numbers themselves."

Picture from accent.se. It's not really my suitcase, but it's a similar one...

I got a bit more annoyed by this statement, and wanted to go to another chain to find my suitcase, but since I have a Samsung Galaxy phone, with unlmited internet access, I decided to check the phone numbers for the store in Östersund as well as the rest of the stores in Stockholm myself. I called Östersund without any luck, and also two other stores in Stockholm. When I reached the third, and last store in central Stockholm, a girl answered. I asked her about the suitcase and got the answer that they didn't carry it anymore. I was on the verge of saying "Thank you anyway" and hang up, when she asked me; "But do you want me to check if it can be found anywhere else?". And she didn't just do that. She took the time to find the article number for the suitcase, to check the computer system for which stores still had the suitcase in store, AND she gave me the phone numbers to those stores. I was amazed.

It all ended up with me calling a store in one of Stockholm's suburbs, having them hold a suitcase for me, driving over there and buying it.

So, I just wanted to write this post to show the HUGE difference between good and bad customer service. I could hardly believe that the two persons I encountered today actually work at the same company! So, this should go without saying, but, your reputation as a company all depends on how you treat your customers, and especially how you treat your customers when something has gone wrong.... Good thing for accent that they have someone like the last girl (don't remember her name though) to work for them, otherwise this post would have been much harsher in it's judgement... Thank you, nameless girl, for making my day! :)

Winter Wedding Photo

I was browsing around the net and ran across Vimsmamman's blog. She has this lovely photo in one of her posts, and she writes that this is the best photo from her wedding. The best photos are taken when no-one is really prepared... I must of course agree, it's such a beatuiful photo, full of joy! :)

Vimsmamman is from Jämtland, the county where LoveEvent is based, so you get an idea of how a wedding in the North of Sweden could be...

Picture from Vimsmamman

True Blood Guerrilla

I ran across this inventive guerrilla campaign for True Blood season 2 (in Sweden the series apparently airs on Canal+).

This lightboard is at a bus stop, and the picture of this guy is advertising some shopping mall. Oddly enough I didn't even check what mall, I was just so amused by the True Blood campaign... Anyway, someone attached a transparent sticker to the guys neck, making it look like he's been bitten by a vampire. There is also text saying "True Blood, season 2, Wednesdays at 20.00, Canal+". I liked it and it made me smile! :)

The show has been aired since September though, and I wonder if I'm just slow on noticing the campaign, or if Canal+ needs more wievers?

An older blog post about True Blood can be found here.

Chocolate!

In Sweden, around the holidays (Christmas in particular), there is a custom to buy boxes of chocolates named Aladdin. The Aladdin chocolate boxes are manufactured by Kraft Foods (the largest producer of chocolate in the Nordic area) and Aladdin has been sold on the Swedish market for 70 years.

Picture from kraftfoodsnordic.com

Next year, Kraft Foods will exchange one of the chocolates in the box, for a new one. So they created this website called Rädda Julen (Save the Christmas) where you can vote for your favorite chocolate, and the one piece that gets the fewest votes will be the chocolate exchanged for the new one.

I think this is a good way of Kraft Foods to engage people in their product. People are voting to keep their favorite chocolate in the box. Nice looking website too! And there is also another cliffhanger (besides from the obvious one of which chocolate will be exchanged), and that is; what will the new chocolate look and taste like? People will probably check back to find out... Now, go save Christmas; vote!

P.S. I voted for gräddnougat :)

Be a hero!

In Sweden, if you own a TV, it is mandatory to pay a fee for public TV and radio. There are two commercial-free public service TV channels that are bascially run by the government. The money is used to produce and purchase TV shows, and the news are (supposedly) objective.

The problem is that many people don't pay. It is kind of hard for Radiotjänst, as the name of the company that handles payments is, to check every home for a TV. So, they make commercials in order to get people to pay. They have previously run a few fun campaigns, including the popular "En snigel på ögat" (A snail on the eye) and Hembesök (House Call), and now they have a new one out.

Picture/logo from radiotjanst.se.

I saw a link on Facebook, from one of my friends. I clicked it and was redirected to a (Swedish) movie, where a woman, in an international press conference, asks how we can be sure that what we see on TV is real, and how we can be sure that even the little voices get heard. She explained it was due to one person, a hero, and she opens en envelope with a photo of my friends dog. You then see people all over the world cheering for the Swedish hero, and more photos of the dog, in different crowds, beeing hailed as a hero. I was amused, and curious, until the end of the movie, because it wasn't until then that it was revealed that why this dog was a hero was because it paid it's TV fee! So, the whole site, where you an upload a photo of yourself (or of your dog) and become a hero, is a campaign for the Swedish TV fee.

Ok, so the idea is maybe not new, but I like it nontheless, and here is my Hero movie (and yes, we do pay pour fee... ;) and here you can be a hero!

Footnote: Hembesök (House Call) actually won the Guldägget award for best film. Guldägget (The Golden Egg) is a competition hosted by The Swedish Association of Communication Agencies, an organisation for independent companies active in the business area of advertising. Here is a previous post about Guldägget.

Paint, or insurance, anyone?

I stumbled across this lovely guerrilla/ambient marketing campaign for Nationwide insurances, called "Life comes at you fast". The campaign is quite old, from 2007 or so, but I think it's really funny so I decided to feature it anyway.

I found a post about it at adsoftheworld.com, and that's also from where I borrowed the picture.

The agency who created the campaign was TM Advertising, in Texas.

Trash the Dress

On Twitter, I follow Weddingistas, a wedding planning service in Connecticut. Through their tweets and their blog, I came across this absolutely GORGEOUS Trash the Dress photo shoot. Check out photographer Michael Maler's mini web site with pics from the session. Fabulous!

Follow Weddingistas and Michael Maler on Twitter!

Lindex downsizes...

So it turns out, Lindex' new collection, Affordable Luxury, designed by Ewa Larsson, has gotten some criticism due to the fact that it is only sold in the sizes S and M (Swedish sizes 36-42).

PR expert Paul Ronge thinks it is discriminating, (web TV from Aftonbladet.se, unfortunately only in Swedish). Lindex claims it is a limited collection, and that 36-42 sizes are the sizes that are mostly sold in their stores. Lindex have written an explanation (in Swedish) here.

I agree with Ronge, it is discriminating. Thumbs down for Lindex.

Link to my Lindex post from the other day, where I comment on their Party Collection dress sizes.

ComHem <3 YouTube

ComHem, a Swedish internet and TV supplier, have made the coolest commercial viral video ever! ComHem's spokes persons are Judit & Judit, two middle aged women (twins?). Anyway, the latest commercial features popular YouTube clips, but with Judit & Judit acting out in the clips instead. The commercial is hilarious if you are interested in viral videos and their spread, and if you have spent some time on YouTube, you have probably already seen most of the original clips...

The video is, according to ComHem, a tribute to everyone contributing to the internet, making it what it is. Check out ComHem's campaign site (in Swedish). Here is a link to the English version of the commercial, and if you want to compare Judit & Judit's clips with the original clips, I suggest you try this YouTube link.

And I'm guessing this will become a bit of a viral video itself, since it has been played over 240 000 times since it was uploaded on the 28th of October. ;)

Ashes

A Non Smoking Generation (ANSG) have started a collaboration with Swedish jewelry retailer Glitter. In order to celebrate ANSG's 30th anniversary, Glitter have created a jewelry collection called Ashes. Ashes will be sold during the month of November in all of Glitter's 80 Swedish stores.

In the press release you can read that according to a survey, 41% of second year high school female students are smoking. 41%! That's a lot!!!!. You can also read that half of Glitter's income from the Ashes jewelry line will be donated to ANSG and their work. Good intiative Glitter, way to go! :)

A Non Smoking Generation's blog.

My previous posts about A Non Smoking Generation.

Lindex goes SM?

Lindex is one of the biggest fashion retailers in Sweden. They recently announced that they will be selling some of their clothes on Tradera (Swedish eBay). The winner of the auction will get a code that they will use in Lindex' web shop to purchase the clothing item. A good idea to drive more traffic to their site perhaps? Way to go Lindex! Check out the Lindex Tradera store to see what items are up for grabs.

Lindex have quite recently started exploring social media. On May 4th they started a Twitter account, with news from their stores and from their web shop, but, they only have 359 followers! Even I have more followers than that, and I wonder why? But maybe it's just the fact that Twitter hasn't had quite the impact in Sweden as it has had internationally yet...

Lindex are also present on YouTube (20 followers) and on Facebook, (4360 fans) and you can easily follow from Lindex' web site.

Cute dresses are always appreciated, and Lindex did recently come out with a very nice collection of party outfits. What is not equally appreciated is that the dresses can only be bought up to Swedish size 42. Not nice, Lindex! Why not make the dresses up to size 44, or even size 46?!?

Gay marriage in church, finally

Yesterday, the Swedish "State Church" voted YES to allowing people of the same sex to get married in church. (Article in Swedish from GP, and an article in English from The Local.)

I think this shoud have been done many years ago. I mean, why shouldn't all people have equal rights?!?!

"Wedding of Mathieu Chantelois and Marcelo Gomez, one of the first same-sex marriage in Canada; Toronto, 3 July 2003. Personal snapshot." (From Wikimedia Commons)

This ad cost nothing

Marketing agency The Via Group donated a guerrilla campagin to The Salvation Army in Portland, Oregon. They used local businesses, and the campaign was known as "This ad cost nothing". The campaign site can be found here. (Picture borrowed from the site.)

The campaign was quite inventive and cute, and the agency embraces one of the trends that is growing bigger and bigger; CSR, Corporate Social Responsability.

An article in English, from Springwise, and an article in Swedish, from CSR i praktiken.

And by the way, The Via Group probably has the coolest tagline ever: "The difficult we do immediately. The impossible will be done by Thursday." I love it! :)

Gorgeous wedding pictures

From time to time I check out this blog: Style me Pretty, a wedding blog well worth reading.

Today I just wanted to share with you some gorgeous wedding pictures taken for Brides Northern California. The sets are styled by Gloria Wong and photographed by Lisa Lefkowitz, and they are absolutely fabulous! If I would get married now, I'd want my wedding to look something like this!

Enjoy! :)

Starring Maja (Prinsessa)

If you want to see a good movie, and also maybe catch a glimpse of me and my husband (filmed at our wedding) go check out Starring Maja (Prinsessa in Swedish).

In a hopelessly small town somewhere in long and narrow Sweden, lives Maja, 18 years old. Her life’s dream is to become an actress. She wants everyone to see her, the beautiful person she is on the inside. Only, it’s a little hard to see. Heavily overweight, clumsy and socially inept, Maja struggles to realise her life’s dream during her final term at high school.

Young not-so-successful documentary filmmaker Erica runs into Maja by chance and sees the opportunity to make entertainment out of Maja’s seemingly hopeless struggle, but she is soon captured by Maja’s warmth and never ending enthusiasm.

Maja’s road to success is lined with comedy and tragedy, as she constantly has to face the prejudice against someone with the ”wrong” appearance. Yet she struggles on regardless, trying to find the strength and self-esteem necessary to really take center stage – on her own terms.

Prinsessa at Wiki in Swedish.

Prinsessa at IMDb.

Prinsessa's official web site.

Photo: SF Film

From True Love to True Blood...

I just got hooked on this really nice TV series called True Blood. The show is about vampires being part of the normal society (yeah, I've always had this thing for vampires ;), due to a newly invented "fake blood" drink, called Tru:Blood, substituting real blood, allowing the vampires to live amongst "normal" people and feed without having to kill their neighbours. When I did some research, it seems that they did a quite massive marketing campaign for the series before it aired.

Picture from hbo.com.

According to Wikipedia, the marketing company created an "viral marketing/alternate reality game" campaign, and they sent out encoded letters to bloggers. They placed "Sorry, we're all out of Tru:Blood"-cards in some beverage vending machine spaces. They also started selling blood orange drinks called Tru:Blood (like in the series) at HBO.com (truebeverage.com), and, not to mention, Vampire jewelry. More about the jewelry at Brandfreak, and more about the campaign at Marketingshift blog, (Marketingshift blog post is from last year, but the series just started airing in Sweden...)

True Blood is starting to be a hype here in Sweden, the series becoming a buzz (since only the 4 first episodes from season 1 have aired) and I really recommend you to watch it. (Check out SVT Play for some of the alreday aired episodes.)

Göteborg Guerrilla

This post should have been published some time ago, but here goes...

I was in Göteborg a few months ago, and found these really funny signs in different locations. They looked like road signs but had other meanings. The signs were art work, from a Danish duo, Bosch & Fjord, , but they also doubled as guerrilla marketing for the exhibition in which they participated, at Göteborgs Konsthall.

A quite funny and startling intentional (?) guerrilla campaign.

Bored?

If you understand Swedish, and are a bit bored, check out this blog: Nummeruppplysaren. It's a person working for a number information service, who blogs about funny situations from his/her work. You can also check out Nattpass på Nummerupplysningen, on the same theme...

Divorce Dance

A few weeks ago, this YouTube video, of a couple dancing their way into church before the wedding ceremony, was widely spread over the internet. It was quite viral, at least within wedding businesses.

So, a few days ago I found that the same couple made a divorce video, really funny, and a bit more choreographed than the wedding one. Enjoy! (And don't worry, they're not REALLY divorcing ;)

True Love?

This hoodie design is called True Love, and can be found on Zazzle.
True or false? Funny anyway! :)













Picture from www.zazzle.com

Commercials

The blog has had lot's of posts about weddings lately, and not so much about advertising and viral videos, so I thought I'd share one of my favorite commercials/viral videos. This commercial for Volkswagen was never aired in Sweden, but it is hilarious! Enjoy!

Double Wedding pics

So, here are finally some pictures from last week's double wedding in Kall, Åre. I so much enjoyed working with the happy couples, and getting to know them and their lovely big family!














I wish all the best and long happy marriages to Kathrine & Peter and Carolina & Erik! I will so miss our planning
meetings and I really appreciate that you had the confidence and trust in me, to let me be a part of your lovely day!

Royal Wedding number 2

So, yesterday it was (finally) announced that also Her Royal Highness Princess Madeleine of Sweden is getting engaged. Congratulations to her and her fiancé Jonas! They have been a couple for 7 years, but I guess the poor thing had to wait for her older sister to get engaged first... Anyway, if I don't get a chance to work at Crown Princess Victoria's wedding, I might get a chance to work at Princess Madeleine's ;)

Wedding!

And, oh what a wedding! :) It was a success, I have found my calling! Pictures to follow...

Last day preparations

Tomorrow is The Day!
Today was rehearsal at church, and further down you can see my very busy couples, finishing the last details before going off to the hotel for some pampering (the brides) and some beer on the porch (the grooms).

Wish us luck tomorrow!