11/30/2009

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

11/27/2009

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.

11/22/2009

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.


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 :)

11/18/2009

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.

11/14/2009

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.



11/12/2009

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!

11/10/2009

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. ;)

11/08/2009

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.

11/06/2009

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?!?