Ephemeral museum exhibits street art in Portugal

I came across this award winning (Cannes Gold Lion) campaign fro Pampero Rum while putting together a PR course. A really nice example of relatively low cost but big impact PR based around a simple but very clever idea. The brand created an audio guide to street art in Lisbon (Portugal) that could be downloaded to mp3 players from their website:

New campaign for Capitec Bank

Atmosphere has just launched The Capitec Bank Youth Prosperity Survey. Aimed at connecting with young people and their parents, the survey takes a look at young adults attitudes and aspirations in relation to wealth.

To support the campaign we collaborated with Cow Africa to create a microsite to host the survey’s findings and includes a (beautifully designed) interactive quiz on spending habits and vox pops. In its first day the campaign has already scored a primetime interview on E TV, frontpage coverage in the Pretoria News and articles in Weekend Argus, Daily Dispatch, Weekend Witness, Beeld and Die Burger with much more expected over the next few days.

Vice South Africa launch party

Didn’t make it the Vice magazine launch party myself but as you can see it was full of Cape Town’s young and hip, finger-shape throwers.  As Ace (publisher) rightfully points out these people know their way around a bottle of hair conditioner. Shot by idoidea.

Steri Stumpie update

Our campaign for Steri Stumpie is still rolling – we did our second appointment of a official unofficial brand ambassador yesterday at UCT. This basically involved giving a Steri fan a whole bunch of stuff to the sounds of a marching band. We then toured the campus playing Dancing Queen. This is also my first video edit ever – other than some shaky camera work i think its quite cute?

The campaign is picking up some nice compliments – still early days but should be a good case study (and also an encouragement to other clients to let us go down a more imaginative path). Its a collaboration with King James RSVP, Mnemonic and Atmosphere (all part of the King James Group) so also great example of team work between different agencies.

SLXS said this.

and Chris Rawlinson said this.

Ask not what your consumers can do for you ask what you can do for your consumers

Thought for the day: People don’t want their worlds to built by brands – they want to build their worlds themselves. But obviously they don’t have the access to cash that brands do.

Most brands spend tens of thousands talking about themselves and just get lost in the clutter . The ones willing to support their consumers achieve their own dreams, create their own stuff, have fun at events without feeling like they’re walking in an ad are going to win attention (and graditude) far more surely?

10 things brands could consider doing (amongst many more):

1. Paying for an up and coming bands tour expenses (maybe give them a branded tour bus?)
2. Bring in some overseas DJs/bands – maybe helping out some of the local festivals to bring over bigger acts (yes i know some brands do this already)
3. Pay for a local band to go and tour (and make it) overseas (maybe they can make a blog of their experience hosted by the brand?)
4. Holding creative workshops (e.g. t-shirt design, photography, djing, cup cake making)
5. Paying for everyone to get in for free to a popular club night?
6. Holding free cinema nights of classic movies people have always wanted to see on the big screen (star wars? the shining? breakfast at tiffanys?)
7. Providing decorations for matric dances
8. Sponsoring a recycling service
9. Free pizza to office workers that have to burn the midnight oil (in a cool branded box)
10. Putting on free transport to big events (e.g. music festival) or discounted taxis on a friday night

Great examples of brands that do this already include Levis gigs and Red Bull’s Music Academy i’m sure a few more…

Jeremy Scott on “being an original”

Love Adidas (ever since Adicolor) and also big fan of designer Jeremy Scot and i’ve already mentioned the Adidas Original campaigns great house party ad/video. But something bothers me about this clip.  Its something I see from brands all the time, particularly brands involved in youth marketing. It’s the shoe horning of a theme from the advertising into all communications – in this case Adidas is original. Really guys you don’t need to spell it out so bluntly i feel like i’m being marketed to now. Don’t tell us, show us. Prove it. Now what is an otherwise cool campaign feels slightly like brand brainwashing.

I think it comes from guilt on the part of the brand manager/agency that they’re  having too much fun – so they feel the need to inject it with a bit of “brand messaging”.

The Smarteez: South Africa’s Harajuku Kids?

There is a great article in September’s Elle Magazine on South Africa’s new black fashion kids, making a parallel between the show-off style taking off in the townships/urban streets with the Japanese Harajuku street style trend. The piece calls these kids Smarteez: brown on the inside, multicoloured on the outside and points us to the work of Nontsikelelo “lolo” Veloko who documents SA street style (amongst other things). The photos above are from her exhibition last year at the Goodman Gallery and some earlier work.

See also Radical, Fashionable, Beautiful from Fairlady Magazine’s blog and Arthrob