MktgCliks

Saturday, August 8, 2009

Coldplay STRAWBERRY SWING Music Video Gets Attention

Despite negative publicity over the years, music videos have often led the charge in using creativity to reach out and market their wares to interested buyers – after all, aren’t music videos a form of advertising for the music industry? Coldplay’s STRAWBERRY SWING music video is as an example of a new music video that gets attention through the creativity it uses to weave a story and entertain.

Coldplay is a band that has used interesting approaches in their music videos over the last few months to encourage people to listen to their music, purchase it in one form or another, and attend their concerts. Their last two music videos, single releases from their album Viva La Vida, have used creativity to get attention; their February 2009 music video release for LIFE IN TECHNICOLOR ii, unexpectedly rendered the band members as puppets, and their latest single release and music video for STRAWBERRY SWING, uses the stop-motion animation technique being seen more and more frequently in videos/ads/short film renderings. This stop-motion animation technique was successfully used by Olympus cameras in their July 2009 PEN Story advertising campaign where a viral three minute ad video was created by shooting 60,000 photos, developing 9,600 prints, and then re-shooting over 1,800 images to get just the right shots. This visual story was told over a catchy tune, “Down Below” by Johannes Stankowski, produced and arranged by Michael Kadelbach, (http://mktgcliks.blogspot.com/2009/07/olympus-pen-story-campaign.html).

Coldplay’s STRAWBERRY SWING music video also uses stop-motion animation. This music video, released at the end of July 2009, coincides with the planned digital release of the STRAWBERRY SWING single on September 14, 2009. The STRAWBERRY SWING music video uses a stop-motion animation chalk rendering technique to portray their front man, band member Chris Martin, as a super hero fighting with a giant squirrel to save a female hostage. As you watch this music video you will marvel at its creativity and wonder how it was actually put together in a manner that gets attention and encourages you to listen to the story. This STRAWBERRY SWING music video is worth watching for is creativity and usage of different media to engage the viewer into listening to the story, relayed through the music’s haunting melody – quite beautiful!

The STRAWBERRY SWING song was written by Berryman, Buckland, Champion, and Martin. The video was directed by the art collective Shynola.

From a marketing perspective the STRAWBERRY SWING music video has been uploaded to YouTube, is available on the Coldplay website (http://www.coldplay.com/), and has been discussed on music sites where free downloads of the STRAWBERRY SWING ringtone are available. The STRAWBERRY SWING music video has been given extra traction in the UK through media buys in July/August 2009 at Odeon cinemas where the STRAWBERRY SWING music video airs prior to the movies BRUNO, and THE PROPOSAL. Let’s not forget that the Viva La Vida album is front and centre of Coldplay’s current concert tour.

Below you can see the STRAWBERRY SWING music video and the PEN Story three minute stop-motion animation ad video.

Coldplay STRAWBERRY SWING music video (Viva La Vida album) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8XcSHCRwI8

Olympus Viral Ad Video, The PEN Story
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9Et7UQh1tg

Thursday, July 30, 2009

Soccer star Kaká featured in Sony BRAVIA'S Motionflow campaign

FIFA’s World Player of the Year, Kaká, the Brazilian soccer star who plays for Real Madrid, is the focus of Sony BRAVIA’S new Motionflow advertising campaign for 2009, competing directly with Phillip's "Carousel" online campaign, (http://mktgcliks.blogspot.com/2009/07/philips-carousel-brings-creativity-to.html). The UK advertising agency responsible for this unusual and creative campaign is Fallon Worldwide, the agency which in 2005 introduced the Sony BRAVIA advertising premise, COLOUR LIKE NO OTHER. This memorable platform is heralded by a trilogy of "larger-than-life" spots that have surprised and entertained viewers over the last 4 years with captivating sound-tracks and imaginative portrayals of colour. This trilogy of ads; “Paint,” “Balls,” and “Play-doh” got attention with an over abundance of paint, bouncing balls, and colourful bunnies which communicated the vivid colour spectrum visible through Sony BRAVIA’S high definition LCD TV sets.

Fallon’s latest campaign for Sony BRAVIA moves away from this COLOUR LIKE NO OTHER platform, focusing instead on the smoothness of motion that Sony BRAVIA’S new Motionflow 240Hz TV technology provides. (Motionflow technology provides the viewer with 200 frames per second, delivering an extremely smooth viewing experience.) The “larger-than-life” premise from the previous BRAVIA campaigns still remains, almost as a Sony BRAVIA signature trademark, but this time it is diverted into the creation of a technological marvel as the centerpiece of their spot - a modern-day zoetrope. A zoetrope is a contraption that harkens back to 19th century film technology. It works by rapidly moving successive static images to give the perception of movement.

Fallon’s mission for the Motionflow campaign was to build a “larger-than-life,” fully functioning zoetrope and use it to demonstrate Sony BRAVIA’s Motionflow technology. They did just this, creating in northern Italy a BRAVIA-drome (zoetrope), a large donut-type (room-size)carousel of sorts, as the centre piece of their set for the 2009 advertising campaign. The campaign featured celebrity Brazilian soccer star and FIFA’s World Player of the Year, Kaká. Once the BRAVIA-drome was built, the commercial shoot took place, complete with the zoetrope and sixty-four static images of Kaká controlling the soccer ball in amazing ways. The shoot comprised of crowds of people, including Kaká, watching as the BRAVIA-drome containing his static images started to spin. As the BRAVIA-drome spun and gathered momentum, the static images of Kaká intermittently appeared to be moving until a speed of 44 km/hr was reached. At this speed the static images of Kaká seamless and smoothly flowed, moving sequentially as if on film to display the soccer player’s incredible ball control. This action all comes together in the final edits of the spot which uses the song UNDERDOG by Kasabian to give it that added edge.

The music for the campaign can be accessed through the Sony BRAVIA microsite for this campaign, http://www.motionflow.eu/ which also includes the Motionflow Kaká ad, information on the TV, interactive visuals of Kaká, behind the scenes footage, and information on the idea behind the campaign. The campaign also includes a BRAVIA in Motion YouTube channel where additional footage can be seen, http://www.youtube.com/user/braviainmotion.

The Motionflow campaign first aired in Australia and is now moving into the European markets, and will be rolled out into other countries as appropriate. The campaign also includes print, internet, viral, and in-store materials.

A few interesting facts from these “larger than life” Sony BRAVIA campaigns:

• The BRAVIA-drome weighs 10 tonnes and is 15 meters in diameter. It is also collapsible and can be easily dismantled and assembled at other locations.
• The BALLS spot was filmed using 250,000 balls being thrown down the streets of San Francisco. It uses the song “Heartbeats,” from Jose Gonzales’ Veneer album.
• The PAINT commercial used 70,000 litres of environmentally friendly paint. The music is from the “Overture to The Thieving Magpie,” by Gioachino Rossini.
• The PLAY-DOH spot was filmed in New York City. It uses the soundtrack “She's a Rainbow,” by the Rolling Stones.

You can see the Sony Motionflow spot below as well as the “making of” the spot, and the trilogy of the COLOUR LIKE NO OTHER spots from the previous 3 years; “Paint,” “Balls,” and “Play-doh.”

Sony BRAVIA Motionflow Kaká's ad
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFvYI5q-Bl4

The making of the BRAVIA Motionflow ad with Kaká
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=we2tce9dklI

Sony BRAVIA, BALLS (2005)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oP5J4W5GQ3w

Sony BRAVIA, PAINT (2006)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGL0gdEPCtU

Sony BRAVIA, PLAY-DOH (2007)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLUAbkRUvVQ

Saturday, July 25, 2009

The Caramilk Secret, Still Wondering Campaign?

After numerous requests, this blog post looks at the current Canadian advertising campaign for Cadbury’s Caramilk chocolate bars which revives their Caramilk SECRET campaign from many years ago. “How do they get the caramel inside the Caramilk bar?” This is the light hearted theme of the 2009 Caramilk summer advertising campaign, STILL WONDERING, which picks up on a communications platform that has run intermittently for over 35 years.

The Caramilk SECRET campaign was made popular over the years, originating back to 1968, when the first Caramilk SECRET ad launched showing a person drilling a hole in the Caramilk chocolate bar prompting the question, “How do they get the Caramilk inside the Caramilk bar?” Probably one of the most famous TV spots was the Cannes and Clio award winning MONA LISA commercial from 1973 where the Mona Lisa smile was attributed to her secretly eating a piece of Caramilk chocolate while Leonardo da Vinci was trying to figure out the Caramilk secret.

After numerous ads over the years that followed the Caramilk SECRET platform, and a diversion over the last 5 years to focus on the eating experience, Caramilk had gone back to its roots and launched another SECRET campaign, STILL WONDERING, which begs the question, “How do they get the caramel inside the Caramilk bar?” This campaign is rather unusual in its whimsical approach and has been met with mixed reviews. Many people enjoy its eccentric qualities, while others have questioned, “What were they thinking?” Nonetheless, when one looks at the campaign in context of the light hearted approach of previous Caramilk SECRET campaigns and the type of humour used, it falls into place quite nicely. Of course, the issue that currently exists is that awareness levels of previous Caramilk SECRET campaigns remains relatively low after a lengthy hiatus. This issue will be remedied over time through consistent messaging and strong media weights which will give the campaign additional traction.

The STILL WONDERING campaign, created by Saatchi and Saatchi New York, includes TV spots, on-line components, print ads, a microsite, and audio boards on the Toronto subway system.

At the end of June, 2009, 50 innovative interactive audio boards were put on the Toronto subway system allowing listeners to plug their earphones into various spots on a Caramilk STILL WONDERING ad to listen to an assortment of quirky voices, unusual accents, strange sounds, and foreign languages, all intentionally incoherent in their explanation on how the caramel gets inside the Caramilk bar. There are six selections on the ad (see above); a five year old boy, a Cockney man, a Xhosa tribesman, a whale, a fax machine, and a speed reader! These Caramilk STILL WONDERING audio options can also be seen and heard on videos posted on the campaign’s microsite at http://www.stillwondering.ca/. People that have listened to the audio transit ad seem rather amused, perhaps a little confused, but have nonetheless enjoyed it enough to spread the word to others, encouraging them to also listen to the ad.

The TV component of this campaign MODERN DANCE is currently playing at heavy weights, using an interpretive dance, a Cirque du Soleil type spoof, to explain the secret of how the caramel gets inside the Caramilk bar. Some have called the spot bizarre while others have enjoyed its quirkiness. MODERN DANCE is certainly unusual and uses a catchy sound track reminiscent of melodic, Peruvian folk music to engage viewers. The music track, called Cachapaya from the Swingle Singers, is originally from the British-South American band Incantation.

Below you can appreciate the Caramilk SECRET platform by listening to a short interview with Cadbury’s on their Caramilk brand and see segments of their original 1968 ad. You can also see the famous Mona Lisa ad from 1973, followed by two further spots in the SECRET platform. Their current STILL WONDERING campaign for Caramilk follows, including their interpretive MODERN DANCE spot and website executions for COCKNEY, XHOSA, and 5 YEAR OLD. The STILL WONDERING microsite is at http://www.stillwondering.ca/. By the way, Cadbury tell us the Caramilk secret is still safely under lock and key in their vault!

Cadbury Interview with Watch Mojo.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1E5WidRHJQ&feature=fvw