Archive for June 2005

A monster dictionary of the “rich colourful language” of British slang is now available online. New slang added every month. Considering the trend started by the recent BA and Getaway campaigns, this resource could sort you out, proper.

Peevish

Two in five of Britain’s top grocery brands have negative commentary amongst the top results on their Google search page, according to new research.

The brands with critical commentary in Google’s UK top ten search results include Coca-Cola, Walker’s crisps, Lucozade, McCain oven chips, and Mars Bars. For Kingsmill Bread and Bird’s Eye fish fingers the negative results were ranked number one, ahead of the company’s official web presence.

Net Imperative Article

Movistar, the spanish telecommunication company, has sponsored the letter “m” in every message typed by spanish MSN messanger users. When you type an M, the Moviestar “m”-logo appears instead…..

New idea but possibly a little annoying, no?
[ via Ad Land ]

MC Planner: “To my way of thinking, there is no justification whatsoever for the Hello Kitty fire extinguisher.”

!! (Click Image For Full Pic)

Recongizing the boom in mobile data sticks driven partly by a new portable game console, the website Playfeed ran a competition recently where they gave away a 1 GB Memory Stick Pro Duo - usable in the PSP and a whole host of other gadgets.

Is it time to consider something beyond a “holiday of a lifetime” as a promotional prize?

Playfeed Competition

Apple introduced iTunes Custom Cards to Europe at Glastonbury Festival last week. Apple describes its iTunes Custom Cards as: “An exciting new promotional tool for record labels, artist managers and promoters to distribute music to fans.” The front of the card features a special custom design, while the back contains a unique download code for a specific song or album on the iTunes Music Store.

Custom Cards
MacWorld Report

A project to to create a single Toronto brand and to develop a fresh new way of communicating the city’s strong and dynamic identity to the rest of the world has been realised with the publication of a logo and a tag line.

However, after 13 months, 250 interviews, 4,500 contributions from Torontonians and 14 focus groups in 3 countries; several blogs have quickly popped up to criticise the final outcome. Graphic designers and members of the public have slated the logo. Maybe the Toronto brand team should have used the web as a sounding board for the branding designs. Would you have?

Toronto Unlimited
Toronto Limited Blog

We don’t know how far this is going to take off but it’s a pretty smart idea: Clickwheel have decided to deliver the world’s first desktop application for downloading digital comics — or ‘podstrips’ — to the iPod photo.

The’ve commissioned a number of leading artists to create work including demian.5, Ted Dewan, Daniel Merlin Goodbrey and Colin White.

How could your brand use this medium to communicate through podstrip brand entertainment? Could you support one of these artists maybe through sponsorship?

Clickwheel

Nike has built a "build your own shoe" promotion in Times Square that allows passersby with cell phones to call a toll-free number and use their dial pad to customize the sneaker they prefer and build it in real time on the sign. Between noon and 1pm, and then 3 and 5pm, customers can pick the color for the laces, swoosh, swoosh, uppers and mid-sole, then customize it with initials or personal tags. They then get an SMS message follow up and a URL where they can purchase it.

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