New Year

Well, as you all may have noticed, I haven't updated this blog very often lately. I feel a bit sad about not having the time to do it, due to my daytime work, and also due to my weekly commuting between Stockholm and Göteborg.

I will not make any new year's resolutions about posting more often though. LoveEvent will live on, but more quietly and not so actively, waiting for better times. Times more suitable for me to pick this up again...

I'd like to end this year by writing a short post about two companies who I have written a lot about this past year: ICA and A Non Smoking Generation, who now have a campaign together.

Read more on A Non Smoking Generation's blog, or at ICA's facebook page.

(My older posts about A Non Smoking Generation and ICA.)

Until next time; Happy New Year and I wish you alla 2011 full of energy and new opportunities!

Com Hem repeating themselves

Com Hem (I have written a few posts about them before) have made another TV commercial. Still funny, but they have now gone with the same concept for quite some time. Maybe it's time to renew?!?

F**king brilliant commercial

Yeah, well, I'm sorry for swearing, but this is the best commercial I've seen in a loooong time! A friend of mine shared it on FB today, but the video has been uploaded on YouTube since the end of August. My only regret is that I haven't seen it until now.

I'm not going to spoil it for you, so just enjoy! :)

SAS Gay Wedding

Scandinavian Airlines, SAS, are right now having a nice wedding campaign. In December, they hope to host the first same-sex wedding in the air!

Couples have submitted photos and their stories and people can vote for the couple that they think should get the opportunity to be married aboard one of SAS' fligths from Stockholm to New York. The happy couple will of course also receive a honeymoon package with hotel nights etc.

A good way for SAS to get traffic to their web site, to get some media attention and also to get some goodwill in showing where they stand in HBT issues. Go SAS! :)

Picture from SAS.se.

Funny diva

I just saw the funniest Snickers commercial on TV. It's not that new, but hilarious if you haven't seen it before! :) Enjoy!

Sounds like branding

So, it's vacation time here in Sweden, and that for me means a lot of reading.

I've just finished reading Sounds like branding, by Jakob Lusensky.

It's a book, that talks about how your brand "sounds" and how that affects your customers and can make them interact more with your brand. Very interesting, and I really like that he talks about lovemarks. Lovemarks is one of the reasons I actually decided to start blogging, because when I read about the concept, on a trip to New York some time ago, I got amazed and wanted to explore the marketing/branding world more. The word in itself is also what inspired me to name this blog (and my company) to LoveEvent.

Picture from Bokus.com.

Now this blog has come to be about a lot more than lovemarks, but nevertheless, the word means a lot to me. :)

Check out the Sounds like branding blog.

Ice cream wedding

I've been meaning to write a blog post about ice cream. Not only because I simply LOVE ice cream, but also due to the fact that the whole of Sweden wants to ride the wedding wave created by the royal wedding to come. GB Glace, Sweden's largest ice cream manufacturer, have a clown, Clovve, as their mascot. Clovve will get married to Clovina, at Sweden's largest amusement park, Liseberg, on the 16th of May. Cute idea, and to honor their marriage (or possibly to sell more ice cream ;) GB Glace have come up with a special wedding ice cream cone; "Bröllopsstruten". And kanal 5 (a TV station) has created a whole campaign site, and will live stream the wedding on their site on the 16th.

Picture from GB Glace.

So, why I decided to write the ice cream post just today was that I saw (on Facebook, thanks to Anders Sporring) that 7Eleven/GB Glace give out one free ice cream cone per person (they have 5000 to give out) if you log on to their site using your Facebook account. Then you enter your phone number and get an SMS coupon that can be used in 7Elevens all over the country. (On the site they also have a counter, that counts down so you can see how many of the 5000 free ice creams are left.)

So, first they have a campaign to draw more attention to GB Glace (Clovve getting married). Then they give out free samples to even more strengthen the brand and make people love it. Clever. They even get your email address and phone number; you give them up voluntarily, because you know you'll be getting one of their delicious ice creams, for FREE! Even more clever.

Picture from GB Glace.

But what happened next is a short tale on how marketing campaigns make people (me) buy something they maybe didn't need.

I'm on a no sugar/no carb diet. I do it for multiple reasons, but I try, as best as I can, to keep sugar/carb intake as low as possible. So I don't buy ice cream. But then I saw the offer on Facebook, and thought: "Wow, a free ice cream. I can't pass on that, diet or no diet." I went to the site, entered my information while my mouth was watering form the thought of the ice cream. I got the SMS coupon sent to my phone, and went off to the nearest 7Eleven. Since I am in Stockholm right now, you're never far from one. On the way there, I call my husband, to tell him about this great offer. He had (of course) already seen it on Facebook and said; "but here in the north, were we live, we don't have any 7Elevens, so I won't bother." We had a short argument about whether he was right or not (and I must admit that I think he was), but this also made my craving for ice cream even bigger. I arrive at my 7Eleven, happy, thinking about the smooth ice cream running down my throat, only to find that they were all out of the wedding cone, Bröllopsstruten. Total disappointment. So, I take the next best route; I buy another ice cream. Of course I am disappointed, but I still have my coupon, I'll get my free ice cream another day, and I also have another delicious ice cream to munch away at right now, in the sun.

Picture from 7Eleven.

So GB Glace and 7Eleven "win". I fell for a cheap PR trick, went into the store, and came out with something I really didn't need or was planning on buying. Good job! ;)

Now, enjoy your ice creams out there, and I'll try to be present at Clovve and Clovinas wedding to give you a report.

(And yes, Liseberg wins too, since I'm actually considering paying the entrance fee just to go watch a fictional wedding... ;)

(And of course you can "like" Clovve on Facebook...)

Picture from Clovve's page on Facebook.

And again....

I just have to blog about this ICA commercial. In my opinion, ICA keep making hit after hit after hit. This time they "copy" the commercial for Gina Tricot, a clothes retailer. The TV commercial was released in the same day as the news that Gina Tricot's model for the last 7 years, Pernielle Holmboe, is being replaced with Brasilian model Emanuela de Paula.

There are different voices to be heard about the commercial. Many think that the agency behind ICA's commercials, King, is making it easy for themselves, parodising everything. I on the other hand, find the commercials funny. So what if they are "just" parodies? They get attention and people adore the ICA "family". Why not credit the agency for that?

Judit & Judit are late?

Today I saw a very funny TV commercial from ComHem. It featured Judit & Judit in various movies and TV shows, advertising TV "On demand". I liked the commercial, and decided to blog about it (check out my previous post about ComHem's Judit & Judit here.)

Though, I was a bit surprised to find that the commercial can't be found anywhere on the internet. I googled, and checked ComHem's YouTube channel, but didn't find anything. I was a bit annoyed. In my mind, if you release a TV commercial, why not release it in social media at the same time as well? I decided to call Judit & Judit (since they are the spokespersons for ComHem's customer service ;). I talked to a nice boy who didn't know much, just that the TV commercials were released today, and if I didn't find it on YouTube, ComHem probably hadn't had time to upload it there. He suggested me to take a look on ComHem's web site (which I already had of course) but he said he wasn't sure the commercial could be found there. Quite disappointing actually.

The picture in this post is from comhem.se, so apparently there was a launch event held in Stockholm, but then, even more so, why not follow up with a YouTube upload?

So, instead of a blog post about a funny (possibly viral) commercial, it resulted in a blog post about Judit & Judit being late with their uploads. Or am I wrong? Is there maybe a strategy behind this? Please enlighten me! :)

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.

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. ;)

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.

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.

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! :)

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.)

Wedding cake advertising

Click here for a very nice collection of wedding cake themed ads. I like the Axe one best, which one do you like?

Ambient marketing

I found this blog: Crooked Brains, where they have lot's of interesting marketing blog posts and also lot's of not so much interesting, but even so, sometimes hilarious, blog posts with cats that look like Hitler.
Anyway, this post was of particular interest for me, since it has lot's of funny examples of ambient/guerrilla marketing. Check it out!