PSFK Author:
JT Barnhart

In an interesting move, Toyota reported by Automobile Magazine yesterday is ready to create a stand alone brand for it’s hybrid vehicles. The Prius line by 2011 will include three models an A, B, and C which denote their size. The A model will be a compact like the Yaris, B evolution of the current Prius, and C will be a slightly smaller Camry like sedan.

What’s interesting to watch is how this will affect Toyota. They have put forth a lot of marketing energy to promote it’s hybrid technology. Once this focus shifts to a new brand, will Toyota suffer? While we’ve seen the emergence of automotive subbrands to cater to different lifestyle segments (Scion, mini, Hummer) This could be the first technology based sub-brand.

Interesting new set of ads from Absolut. They’ve ditched the bottle shape in exchange for views of the world as we’d like to see it. The incorporate the tagline ‘in an absolut world’. Maybe if you drink enough Absolut you actually will. The Times Sq. photoshop job is the nicest and I wonder if it would give Christo any ideas.

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We mentioned on PSFK that wescoped out the Suupaa Pop show at the AIGA in NYC before it opened. This week we got a chance to stop in and have a look. The AIGA doesn’t have evening or weekend hours which only leaves business hours during the week. So we thought we’d post some photo for those who can break away. Also they have a fold out poster with a bit of text about the show and japanese package design in general which is a good read.

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You could say 2006 was Uniqlo’s year. They opened pop up stores, created mobil container stores, blanketed the city with advertising on buses,cabs, telephone booths, and street scaffolding. Then they threw the doors open on their US flagship in Soho in November, attracting a massive amount of press. How’d they do it? Entrepreneur got to speak to Uniqlo’s chief marketing officer for the U.S., Shinichiro Shuda to find out.

Shuda aimed to bring Tokyo’s pop culture to the U.S. and did so by targeting New York City’s cutting-edge influencers through PR, advertising and brand building. Says Shuda, “It was classic advertising where you start with getting attention, getting interest, getting desire, [then] motivation and action.”

Read the rest here at Entrepreneur.com

Spotted this today, partly because it was dark and rainy. Don’t know how long it’s been up or where others might be placed in NYC. From a distance I thought it might be a full panel LCD screen showing a bit of motion graphics. Closer inspection revealed it’s actually an animated lightbox. The company that makes them is called Lumigraphics. The whole thing takes ten or fifteen seconds to cycle through. So it’s just a flashing sign right? Well not quite. Acccording to some pretty small text at the bottom, anyone with a bluetooth enabled device can download music from the sign. It works through pepsismash.com Keep a look out for these in the city and give it a try. This one is located on the west side of Broadway between 19th and 20th street.

Taking cues from a film trailer, TBWA rolls out the first component in what looks to be an interesting cross media campaign for the launch of the Sony PS3 in Europe. It all begins at thisisliving.tv The site, which invites visitors to register for a fictitious hotel.(Stateside folks will have to select a fake country of origin) Part alternate reality game, part old-school mystery, the campaign comprises a series of virals, TV executions of varying length and a theatrical trailer, all based round the strap line This Is Living.

The hotel officially “opens” on March 23, at which point users of the website will be able to nose around guests’ rooms to unlock further secrets and upload user-generated content relating to the personality of the inhabitant. There are also rumours of a virtual hotel in Second Life along with MySpace, eBay and Flickr pages for the characters in the story.

“The strategy behind the campaign was to produce a variety of content that would provide multiple entry points and allow users to craft their own experience and story from the various elements,” TBWA\London executive creative director Steve Henry told shots.net. “These days, audiences look to multiple sources to shape their own media packages at the same time as building networks and communities. That’s really what this campaign is about - using established and emerging channels of communication to create a dialogue with consumers and provide the building blocks of a story from which they can determine their own level of engagement. We’re not competing with other ads for attention any more. We’re competing with movies and music and clubbing. Marketing has to become an event that the audience can respond to and participate in.”

via shots

MSNBC posts a not too surprising list of trends including consumer segments, traditional and online marketing. Beyond the surprising inclusion that younger people favor the internet as a search tool(you think?) is that so many actually know what the yellow pages are:

Trends in Traditional Media

5. Yellow Pages

According to a study from the Kelsey group, marketers targeting younger demographics should transition away from print. Only 28 percent of teens said they would turn to print Yellow Pages first to find a local business, product, or service, while 47 percent said their first choice would be search engines. And just 44 percent of respondents between the ages and 18 and 34 favored print Yellow Pages.

Read the entire article here.

We reported last week of Park Avenue opening of the Audi Forum. I’m still sore for not skipping out of the office to see the parade that morning. But we managed to bring back some photo’s of the space from over the weekend.

While the opening of the Audi’s largest Forum was delayed nearly six months, the new space was perfectly timed to debut the new R8 to the US. The car made a worldwide debut recently at the Paris auto show. Speaking of which, the Forum also opens at the beginning of the auto show season. And in fact the Park Ave. space functions more like a auto show stand than a dealership. It’s really there to preform brand building activities. Currently there are only four cars displayed in the space. and of those, one is the R8(not readily available) and the other is one of the legendary 1930’s Auto Union grand prix cars.

While Audi has added lots of techno bits to the space, there’s a moving LED panel that runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week, traveling back and forth between Park Avenue and 47th Street at a speed of two feet per second, it’s not a new idea to NYC. GM held a ‘showroom‘ on 5th Ave. for 25 years.

But with the popularity of auto shows spiking over the last decade, it’s clear that people like looking at cars, but hate going to the dealership to buy them. We may see a return to more unique formats for promoting auto brands in the next decade. The US is now nearly saturated with retail lifestyle centers and I find it odd that none of the auto brands have jumped at the opportunity to try opening a showroom adjacent to one. Dealers tend to get nervous about those kinds of plans as it is perceived to cut into their turf. But I give Audi credit for successfully finding a way to roll out the Forum model and stick with it.

The Forum expects to update the floor every month and will also hold special events in the future. The Auto Union car currently there will depart in a week or so back to Germany. So those in NYC who want to check it out, don’t sleep on it.

More photo’s here: [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ] [ 4 ] [ 5 ] [ 6 ]

It was joked that the reason constriction sites have to put up barricades is to keep all the men out who want to stand around and ’supervise’. And for a long time, crudely constructed plywood walls were the norm. The only innovation was the addition of the peek hole, an obvious concession for men.

But lately, building sites are looking more like strategically planned installations of graphics and communications. Call it a by-product of the rise of the starchitect. Interest in architectural projects now spans through the entire building process. Developers are becoming keen on the technique of outdoor advertising to build interest and keep the site looking beautiful. Two good examples up right now in NYC that really show this well is the 40 Bond project and the Lincoln Center w.65th expansion.

40 Bond is the new Ian Schrager residence designed by Herzog and de Meuron. Installed is a series of panels reflecting the tone of the website and using interior images to give a sneak peak.

The Lincoln Center expansion was designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro in collaboration with FXFowle Architects. The street level and overhead barricades have a construction derived graphic language that wraps the site. Lincoln Center promotes upcoming programs and even included a site map at the exit of the subway (nice thought).

More photo’s of both sites here: [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ] [ 4 ] [ 5 ] [ 6 ] [ 7 ] [ 8 ]