Brandopia

And another Live service sees the light. This time it is: Windows Live Barcode. It is a new way to avoid repetitive input, store more information and enjoy better handset service within seconds. On the other hand it’s also an opportunity for advertisers. Just have a look at this campaign in Mexico: Promo Sprite . It’s extremely simple. You take a photo of the barcode and your phone translates it automatically: wheter it’s a promotional code, some text or your business card. On Windows Live Barcode you can easily try it yourself. I’ve tried it and on the right you can see my businesscard converted in a barcode. Pretty nice, no?

Crossposted on our teamsite and triggered by reading Marketingfacts

Kris wrote a nice summary of the day we organized together with Shel and Rick:  Link to A day with Shel & Rick « ‘Cross The Breeze .

I have to admit, it was a very inspiring day and again a confirmation that: “the conversation is already going on, also for your brand, so you’d better join.”

Fantastic parody on the Da Vinci code. I don’t know if Microsoft made this themselves or if this is a spoof (if somebofy knows, let me know). I actually hope we did ourselves. I think it’s great.

Video: Da SBS Code

A trip to memory lane. It’s great to see all these ads for computers (from the Atari 400 in 1980 to the ‘Get a MAc’ this year). My personal favorite remains the ‘think different’ campaign from Apple.

You can find the whole article here: Link to PC World’s Techlog A Brief History of Computers, As Seen in Old TV Ads

Stunning ad for Dove. After their campaign for real beauty they stretched the idea for reality in advertising a bit further. Fantastic

Great article on Marketingfacts, this quote form Jim Nail says it all:

A consumer may see an ad, recall it, and even repeat the key benefit, but until they undertake this process, or “co-create” the meaning, they haven’t truly engaged and it is unlikely to impact their behavior.”, bracht Jim tot de volgende conclusies:

1. Media engagement provides a context that can facilitate this engagement.
2. Ad engagement draws the consumer in to begin to create that personalized meaning.
3. Engagement marketing reactivates the associations and symbols at a time when the consumer is ready to move from the emotional, subconscious form of engagement to an active form.
4. Brand engagement results when the individual ads, messages and experiences blend into a seamless whole that drives preference, word-of-mouth recommendation, and other loyalty behaviors.

Integrated marketing assumes that each element of the marketing mix has a particular role and that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. Consumer engagement may be to the marketing mix what gravity is to the physical world: the unseen force that keeps it all together!

Just found the viral for the launch of Vista. Great site Clearification but I’m still not sure what the message is. It will probably become clearer after a few episodes. 

I love this posting on Adfreak: Advertising Week: the Cliffs Notes version

He posts a summary of Advertising week in 9 points, here they are:

   1. People still watch TV.
   2. Direct marketers are nerdy.
   3. It helps to put celebrities in ads.
   4. John Wren is concerned about “profits.”
   5. When clients spend more on interactive ads, that money “has got to come from somewhere.”
   6. Good ideas help make good campaigns.
   7. Marketers should “respect” their audience.
   8. Clients like accountability.
   9. DVRs are a new technology capable of initiating “change.”

We would submit that the tenth and most important lesson, courtesy of a presentation by AmEx, is one that the event’s organizers should take to heart: “Everything is content.” And by extension, content is everything.

Great stuff!

After reading the article on FON on Mo(nu)ments I had a look to see if anybody in Leuven was using it. On the map enclosed you can see the result. Not much but it’s growing. I love what these guys are doing. I’m wondering if I should become a Fonero as well