Bad Dog, Good Volkswagen

I love this spot from Volkswagen. From the song selection to the casting (including the dog with the perfect guilty look!) Hysterical. And it demonstrates a product feature/benefit – the convenience of keyless access – in an engaging and entertaining way. I could watch it over and over again. Kudos to VW!

Rangers Bandwagon

It appears that the New York Rangers bandwagon is the Times Square Shuttle. Hockey fans know that the Rangers are hot, having finished the regular season in first place and starting the playoffs with a convincing win last night. But for those New Yorkers who haven’t noticed yet, the Rangers have wrapped an entire subway train to get the word out!

So make sure you get on the Rangers bandwagon before this train leaves the station.

Go Rangers!

Clever Ad Placement Creates Lasting Impression

I love when creative and placement work together to create a relevant and memorable brand impression. This clever marriage of the message and the medium from BBC America drives home  the impression that BBC America delivers a serious, high quality product, while differentiating itself from the competition in a highly memorable way.

Marketing Never Stops

With such a large portion of Nike’s business intertwined with the fortunes of the NBA, their new viral video, “Basketball Never Stops,” is brilliant marketing. Its early success (4.2 million views in its first week) suggests that Nike’s timing – just as the NBA games would have been starting – and the creative – depicting all the places the game is still played, except an NBA arena – are spot on. So, is it just me, or would this video have been even more powerful if they had left out the NBA players?

A Good Laugh

This 60-second spot from Australia gave me a good laugh for a good cause. It uses a very funny premise to urge Australians to participate in Earth Hour 2011. At 8:30 PM on Saturday, March 26, 2011, everyone around the world is asked to switch off their lights in a symbolic display of our commitment to the environment. Learn more here: http://bit.ly/gBNO8r.

Meanwhile, enjoy a good laugh at the fate of the last people in Australia to participate.

JetBlue Snaps the QR code

Being a life long New Yorker, snapping a picture on the subway is not something I would ordinarily do, but this subway ad from JetBlue motivated me to do just that. I love the way they integrated the QR code into the main visual, catching my attention by highlighting not just the promotion but the activation mechanism as well. And now, using the QR reader on my Droid, I’m now entered to win a trip to St. Pete and have documented it here, all in the time it takes to get to Canal Street!

A Few TV Spots from Overseas

Here’s a few recent TV spots from around the world that I wouldn’t mind seeing on a TV near me:

 

I love this spot from Stella Artois. It’s so very smooth, just like the beer and the way I want to be perceived when drinking it.

 

This spot from New Zealand shows a variety of joyful sounds and scenes to share the joy – including, of course, Cadbury Dairy Milk Chocolate bar. Nicely done.

 

I’ve included the next spot mostly because it reminds me of a very successful promotion I helped develop and execute in Texas back in 1992 for Coca-Cola, called cashbox, in which we inserted real cash in 12-packs of Coke.