Big dreams bring bad dreams for Kevin Durant and Dwyane Wade

via adweek.com

OK, so does everyone watch Game of Thrones? You all do, right? You know how Ned has those horrible nightmares about things that actually happen in the first season? This is kind of what happens to Kevin Durant and Dwyane Wade, who both have horrible, horrible dreams about Gatorade.

Wait, no, they have horrible dreams about what happens when you don't drink Gatorade.

Point is, Gatorade and G1 series chews give you terrible, terrible nightmares.

Here's my question: Does Wade's dream include Kevin Durant's dream and his training regimen? Because if so, I want to know what happens when, I dunno, Chris Paul wakes up screaming, having dreamed both Wade and Durant's dreams and goes to his fridge and gets out a bottle of … POWERADE.

Too serious a twist, probably.

This is a clever ad. It's actually kind of bleak if you stop to think about it too hard, as I clearly have. Are these two men locked in an infinitely iterating dream battle? Will either ever emerge victorious? It's the Inception of salty-fruit-punch commercials.

Speaking of Paul, man, these basketball guys do a lot of commercials, right? It took me a few minutes to actually notice, but wow, MJZ director Rupert Sanders and agency TBWA\Chiat\Day have done an incredible job staging a basketball game in this spot. The training montage is kind of vanilla, but the game is top-notch, and the music couldn't be better. Also, this one will air well internationally—doesn't require a single line of dialogue.

And that's good, because you know what Americans are not thinking about right now? Professional basketball.

These Clever Packages Can Turn Crates of Coke Into Boxes of Life-Saving Medicine

via gizmodo.com

It's one thing to have life-saving medicine, but it's quite another to get it delivered to where its really needed. And what better way to make sure it gets to the furthest reaches of the world than by packing it in with a truly vital necessity like Coke.

In every crate of Coca Cola, there's a bunch of wasted space between the necks of the bottles, and the AirPod, designed by Simon Berry, makes good use of it. And that's to say nothing of piggybacking on Coke's stellar distribution network. In its current test run in Zambia, the pods contain an anti-diarrhea kit, but the possibilities are only limited by what you can cram in that pack. And since people crave Coke a little more enthusiastically than they do anti-diarrhea medication, both the goods will keep flowing.

Berry's project, dubbed ColaLife, has teamed up with the soda behemoth to get AirPods in distribution alongside crates of Coke destined for the outer reaches of Zambia, but ironically, no kit-selling retailers have actually been slipping the packages in with the Cokes. Instead, they've just been shipping them packed separately, negating that bit of clever packaging. Still, the piggyback project has had a net benefit by cleverly filling holes, just ones inside delivery trucks instead of ones inside actual crates. Now if only someone could turn coke into live-saving medicine, then we'd really be set. 

The Examiner: Dr Pepper Sales Better than other Sodas

via The Examiner

"Sales of carbonated drinks have fallen for eight straight years. According to a March 25 report by the Dallas News, of the three largest soda companies, Dr Pepper Snapple Group Inc. saw the smallest decline in sales.

Although Coca Cola is the market leader, it saw a 1% drop in sales. PepsiCo's sales dropped 2.5%. Dr Pepper's sales only fell half of a percent.

“Dr Pepper is just better than Coke or Pepsi,” Joe Thompson, from Oklahoma City, said. “I love Dr Pepper. Coke would be my next favorite, but I don't like the taste. I guess I'd rather have 7-Up than Pepsi. Pepsi is too sweet. No other soda has the flavor or zip of Dr Pepper.”

It is believed that the drop in sales is due to consumers purchasing healthier drinks than sodas. Sales of soda was on the rise during the early and mid '90s. They began to slow in 1999. Soda sales have been dropping since 2005.

Dr Pepper, despite the small drop in sales, is the fifth largest selling soda. It has 6.5% of the market share. That is less than half of the market share Coca Cola has. They have 17% of the market share of sodas."

New Sprite Commercial is...Chugging a Bottle of Sprite

Justin Timberlake Surprises Biggest Fans on Set in New Target Commercial A fun prank this time, from Deutsch

via adweek.com



Advertising has been obsessed lately with scaring the crap out of people. So here, for your Friday enjoyment, is a more benign prank. Target, which is the exclusive retail partner for the release of Justin Timberlake's new album, got 20 of the pop star's biggest fans together for a commercial shoot. They thought they would just be singing a Timberlake song for the ad. They didn't realize the great and powerful JT himself would actually be there. Check out the spot below, and a behind-the-scenes video after the jump. All the reactions are genuine. Decent work by Deutsch in Los Angeles—though to be honest, the bar for this kind of thing was set by David Beckham and Adidas last summer. If you don't leave someone sobbing tears of joy, maybe you haven't gone far enough.

Pepsi Updating Its Bottle Shape in the USA, for the First Time Over Past 17 Years

via popsop.com

Pepsi is changing its look in the U.S.—the brand is set to introduce an updated, “easier-to-grip” bottle shape along with the wraparound shorter label featuring a bigger logo. Starting April, the new look will be rolling out for the Pepsi 20-ounce plastic bottle and later for all plastic and glass packaging of the entire range, including Pepsi, Diet Pepsi, Pepsi Max andPepsi Next. It is the first major redesign in 17 years.

Photo: The new Pepsi bottle, AP Photo/Pepsi (click to enlarge)

The new bottle shape has been created with convenience in mind—it features a swirled grip in the bottom part to make it easier for holding and a shorter label with the enlarged Pepsi ‘smiling’ logo, introduced back in 2008, which is the 11th in the brand’s 115-year history.

“We started with single serve, because it is the package you’re seen drinking and holding. The longer-term view is this new design system would eventually hit all touch points beyond packaging, to be honest, but certainly all other package types, as it applies,” commented  to Ad Age Angelique Krembs, VP-marketing for the Pepsi trademark. She also added that the swirl element could be tracked in some early glass Pepsi packaging, which in a way served as a source of inspiration for the update.

The new Pepsi bottles got a positive feedback from consumers on testing, so the 20-once packaging is soon to be available in the New York area, followed by Chicago, and some select cities in California and Florida. Ms. Krembs predicts that it may take a year or two before the national market will be converted to the new packaging. At the moment, it’s not clear, if the company plans to introduce the new bottle on the international markets.

The Pepsi bottle redesign follows a number of the last year’s prominent marketing initiatives, such as the cross-platform international campaign “Live for Now,” $50-m advertising partnership with music diva Beyoncé, and the 2013 Super Bowl sponsorship. Despite its efforts, PepsiCo reported a 4 percent decline in beverage volume in North America in 2012.

Coke Vending Machine Fosters International Cooperation

via http://www.fastcocreate.com

Coke quietly posted this teaser video back in late December, but sources suggest a bigger announcement is coming soon and that it will be a major project for the brand. It shows vending machines capable of connecting users, bound for not-so-friendly neighbors India and Pakistan. Video technology means the users in the two countries will actually be able to see each other and touch hands virtually; the idea is that it could roll out to various countries in conflict. It's all part of Coke's "happiness project" which has already seen other innovations with vending machines, including a machine that you can hug, in Singapore, and a machine that gives you a Coke if you can prove you are a couple, in Turkey.

CHAIRS ARE OUR REAL OVERLORDS IN COKE AD

Coca-Cola pulls a Facebook and cryptically focuses on the lowly piece of furniture known as a chair in this majestic ad from Publicis Spain and directed by Agosto's Nacho Gayan. A young man who is toiling in the office late at night is brought into the powerful inner sanctum of the four-legged beings that have been controlling us with their plushy offerings for years--until he asks a simple question that topples their power structure forever. The ad is the latest example of the soft drink giant's attempt to address obesity issues.

Coke Zero Spot for Selection Sunday

Sprite's Stevia Makeover: Experts Question If New Recipe Is Healthier For People With Obesity, Diabetes

via http://www.huffingtonpost.com

Last week's announcement that Coca-Cola would tweak its U.K. Sprite recipe to include stevia as an ingredient comes amid growing concern that sugary soft drinks are contributing to an obesity epidemic affecting both sides of the Atlantic. But will stevia really make Sprite healthier?

Stevia is a no-calorie sweetener derived from a plant of the same name. In recent years, food and beverage makers -- including Coca-Cola -- have sought to harness the ingredient in low and lower-calorie drinks; it was approved by the FDA in 2008.

The new Sprite will be made with a combination of stevia and sugar, which may help combat the bitter aftertaste sometimes associated with the former ingredient. Coca-Cola is still exploring the possibility of changing the recipe for Sprite in the U.S., a company spokeswoman told the Associated Press.

The U.K. move comes as Coca-Cola rolls out a global anti-obesity campaign, which includes an ad that aired in the U.K. this week for the first time. The spot had previously debuted on U.S. airwaves in January and will appear on television in other countries in the future, although a list of nations has not been released. It states thatobesity "concerns all of us," but stresses that soda isn't the only thing to blame for problematic weight gain.

That's true -- consumption of excess calories of any kind will pack on the pounds -- but the new stevia recipe only shaves off 30 percent of the calories in the original version. That means that going forward, a 20 oz. bottle of Sprite with 250 calories will have about 175 calories. The decrease -- which is notable, though small -- concerns experts like Dr. Sharon R. Akabas, a director at Columbia University’s Institute of Human Nutrition.

"It gives the impression that that's a really healthy thing to do," she explained in an interview with The Huffington Post, "but it's still... calories of sugar, which has no nutrients." Akabas worries that the couching of the new stevia Sprite against the backdrop of an anti-obesity campaign will provide a false sense that the product is healthy, creating what she calls a "healthy halo effect."

"Any time you use reduced this or reduced that … reduced to what?" she said. "Better in some people's minds translates to healthy, but it's not … it's still really junky."

There's also worry that those who suffer from obesity-related illnesses, like Type 2 diabetes, will lump the stevia Sprite in with other diet drinks that have 0 calories. Toby Smithson, spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietics and the founder of DiabetesEveryDay.com, thinks the new recipe may muddle the already complicated question of 'What is healthy?'.

"I do think there will be confusion for PWD (people with diabetes) with a product that is marketed as lower or less," she wrote in an email to HuffPost. "PWD often get confused with items that are marked 'no added sugar,' and define that as 'all I can eat,' when the real story is there are still carbs and calories in the product."

According to the most recent data posted in 2011, there are about 25.8 million people in the U.S. living with diabetes. Reports from 2012 suggest this figure is 371 million globally.

In response to these concerns, Coca-Cola offered the following statement to The Huffington Post:

When it comes to achieving energy balance, all calories count -- whether from soft drinks or any other food and drink. Reducing the calorie content of Sprite, one of our largest brands in the U.K., by 30 percent is a positive move because it can help people reduce their calorie intake. We do not make any nutritional claims about Sprite in our marketing. We know people choose it because it is refreshing and great tasting. It is now refreshing and great tasting, but with 30 percent less calories. We have also reformulated brands like Fanta Orange, Oasis and Lilt to reduce their calorie content by between thirty and fifty-six per cent, whilst one in three of the drinks we sell in the UK are low- or no-calorie. This figure is rising.

There's still another issue complicating things for diabetes sufferers -- in February, reports surfaced that a new French study suggested an association between consumption of "light" or diet soda and increased risk of Type 2 diabetes. Although the study could not prove that consumption of such drinks led to a diabetes diagnosis, it did note that participants who drank more artificially-sweetened beverages tended to have greater sugar cravings than those who drank the drinks' regular counterpart.

Akabas brought up this point as well. "So the stevia people want us to focus on whether stevia is good or bad," she mused. "I think it's important to bring people back to the question of whether soda is healthy or not for the human diet."

Marc Jacobs Starts in New Diet Coke Campaign

via fashionista.com

Marc Jacobs, Diet Coke’s newest designer/creative director (he follows Jean Paul Gaultier and Karl Lagerfeld in the role) unveiled his new ad campaign for fashion’s favorite soda in London yesterday, WWD is reporting.

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Jacobs in his PJs, as usual, at the launch event for his Diet Coke campaign. (Getty)

The adorable campaign features Jacobs in his signature skirt and button down (don’t worry he still wore pajamas to the launch event) handily hoisting up models like Ginta Lapina on top of the Diet Coke cans he designed. In one ad he’s holding up the can, and a model, on his shoulders, in another he’s holding a straw that a model is reclining on.

Since the campaign celebrates 30 years of Diet Coke in Europe (Jacobs designed one can per decade) the newest commercial features Jacobs and a gaggle of fan girls time traveling in a photobooth. We’re partial to the ’90s flashback. Take a look. Click through to see the full campaign below.

Gatorade Looks Back at Its Impressive History Once Again in New Ad

If Gatorade's latest commercial from TBWA\Chiat\Day seems vaguely familiar, that's because it treads some of the same ground as Element 79's mid-'00s work for the brand, recounting the drink's 1965 creation in a lab at the University of Florida. From there, the TBWA spot mixes stock footage and new clips of Peyton Manning, Michael Jordan, Dwyane Wade and others as it assesses the brand's place in the history of modern sports. Thisheady concept works best in a pop-culture context. Gatorade is a beloved and ubiquitous game-day fixture, itself iconic, sloshing around in small plastic cups and giant buckets, ever ready to drench the winners in sparkling showers of limey-electrolyte glory. Sure, Gatorade might help gifted athletes—and by extension, you and me—win on the playing field. But more important, the brand is synonymous with triumph and superior achievement in overall. That status gives Gatorade a shared meaning that transcends its sporty origins and helps ads like these appeal to anyone hoping to catch lightning in a bottle.

JEFF GORDON GIVES CAR SALESMAN HELL RIDE FOR PEPSI MAX

NASCAR driver Jeff Gordon gives a surprised Chevy salesman the fright of his life when he goes on a test drive with him, in this sure-to-go-viral video from Pepsi Max.

Previously, Pepsi got NBA star Kyrie Irving to do a triple turn as writer, director and actor in a short film that made the Cleveland Cavaliers player dress up as "Uncle Drew," who ends up subbing in for an injured player during a late night game of pick up.

Judge Strikes Down New York Ban on Large, Sugary Drinks

via adage.com

A New York Supreme Court judge has overturned Mayor Michael Bloomberg's ban on large, sugary drinks.

Still legal in New York.

The decision was announced just hours before the ban was to go into effect. Industry groups including the American Beverage Association, the National Restaurant Association, the National Association of Theatre Owners and others sued to stop the plan, which was approved by New York City's Board of Health in September.

At the time, the Board of Health reported receiving 38,701oral and written comments. Of those, about 32,000 comments were in favor of the proposal, while 6,000 were opposed. One opposing petition, however, included 90,000 signatures.

It was Mayor Bloomberg's most aggressive move yet to curb obesity rates and improve New Yorkers' health. Many of the measures adopted in New York have become models for other cities, such as restrictions on smoking and trans fats and the requirement that restaurants post calorie counts next to prices. Board of Health members had hoped the ban on large, sugary drinks would also become a model for other cities.

While some marketers, like Dunkin Donuts, had been proactive, educating employees about the ban and prepping patrons for the upcoming changes, others, like Starbucks, had taken a wait-and-see approach. Barclays Center and, at least in some cases, Madison Square Garden had already begun complying with the ban.

On Monday afternoon, there were few indications the ban was just hours from being implemented. Delis had bottles of Arizona, Gatorade and regular soda that all exceeded the 16 oz. limit in stock, as did a variety of quick-serve restaurants. A Europa restaurant in midtown was advertising meal deals featuring 20 oz. bottles of soda and Vitaminwater. Food carts in the midtown area were also stocked with products that would have been forbidden under the ban.

The ban would have prohibited restaurants, movie theaters, sports arenas and street carts under the purview of the city -- anything that receives a letter grade -- from serving large sugary beverages. It would not have applied to alcohol, juices or dairy-based beverages or any drinks with fewer than 25 calories per 8-ounce serving, such as diet sodas and unsweetened iced tea. "Large" was designated as any container holding more than 16 ounces.

Wrigley Rolls Out Caffeinated Gum 'Alert'

via  adweek.com
CPG giant will join energy gum space with campaign featuring TV, radio, digital

Wrigley is entering the energy gum market with its new Alert Energy Caffeine Gum brand, targeting 25-to-49-year-olds who, per the company, "want a portable product that lets them control their caffeine intake."

Taking on the likes of Jolt Gum, the Chicago firm told Adweek today that a campaign entailing TV, radio, digital and shopper marketing will be in the offing around Alert's retail release in April. Energy BBDO/Chicago, which handles Wrigley gum brands (Juicy Fruit, Big Red, Doublemint, etc.), will helm creative around the Alert effort.

The gum contains 40 milligrams of caffeine—the equivalent of half a cup of coffee or a 16-ounce soda pop. Alert will feature fruit and mint flavors; the caffeinated gum comes in tubular packages that hold eight hexagonal gum pieces.

Alert's packaging will feature warning labels about caffeine intake and will not be targeted to minors, according to Wrigley, the world's largest gum producer. The firm is setting a suggested retail price of $2.99.

While digital advertising will be a part of the new player's integrated campaign, interestingly, Wrigley has yet to establish Twitter accounts for its swath of gum brands.

Honest Tea's New Soda

When Honest Tea, makers of low-sugar teas and juices that are organic, decided to get into the carbonated beverage business, it faced a communication dilemma.


Company executives and consultants debated how to convince consumers that Honest Fizz, the new line of soda, isn't just another high-calorie, carbonated drink. "A lot of natural-food consumers don't even think there is a soda out there for them," says Seth Goldman, chief executive and cofounder of Honest Tea, which is owned by Coca-Cola Co. KO -0.03%
 
At least one of the company's advisory board members worried that making any kind of soda conflicted with the company's mission of making natural drinks, says Mr. Goldman. "There is nothing offensive about bubbles," he says he and most executives argued. Carbonated drinks are by far the biggest category of drinks sold in the U.S.

Package designers set out to highlight Honest Fizz's natural ingredients and zero calories.
The cans' white background is intended to convey its simple, natural ingredients and echo the labels on its other Honest Tea products, says Michael Kravit, creative director for the company. The soda comes in four flavors: Orange Pop, Lemon Limey, organic Root Beer and Professor Fizz (a caffeinated, Dr Pepper-style flavor).

Designers considered making the central image on each can a graphical zero made of bubbles. They abandoned the idea in favor of realistic-looking fruit and a brown barrel for the root beer, says Sarah Williams, creative director and partner at Beardwood & Co, a New York-based branding and design firm that worked on the packaging. "Ultimately people drink products because they taste good," says Julia Beardwood, founding partner of the firm.

The 12-ounce cans are slimmer and taller than traditional soda cans to suggest that "ingredients are more premium than what you would normally get," says Mr. Kravit. The drinks are sweetened with two "natural" sweeteners—erythritol or sugar alcohol and stevia leaf extract. Fruit isn't a listed ingredient. The company says it uses plant-based flavors.

The phrase "Zero Calorie" is prominent at the top and bottom of cans. Because some of the company's other drinks have up to 100 calories per container, they wanted to clearly state the difference, he says.
Designers spent time crafting the perfect bubbles on each can, says Mr. Kravit. They worked to make them look realistic to clearly show the drink is carbonated, but also whimsical to convey a sense of fun, he says. "We were calling it 'romancing the bubbles.' "

Google: Art, Copy & Code -- Smileage

via fast.cocreate.com

Targeting agencies and marketers, Google's back with a new campaign.

After the award-winning "Project Re:Brief," Google's program to partner with advertisers and agencies to reimagine classic ads using today's digital techniques, the search giant is back with a new campaign: "Art, Copy & Code." The new program, which is working with brands and marketers to show how Google tech can work with brand creativity to produce great work, has its first partnership with Volkswagen. "Smileage" is a program currently in beta that extends the automaker's 2012 campaign, "It's not the miles, it's how you live them," via a mobile app that will add "smiles" to any drive you take in your VW -- or any other car. The app was developed along with Volkswagen's agency, Deutsch, and Grow Interactive.

The app measures the "fun factor" of the trip, using factors like location, time, traffic and weather. Sign in with Google+ and share your "smileage" experience with your circles -- photos you or your fellow travelers take, for example.

Google thought of the project based on the stat that 144 millions Americans, everyday spent 52 minutes in a car, on average -- 76% of them completely alone.

The program plans more partnerships with brands like Burberry and adidas.

Soft-Drink Giant Wants Consumers to Be ‘Impressed’

via nytimes.com

“McKayla the not-impressed Olympian” sounds as if it might be the title of a song or a book. But as most Americans with access to a TV set, computer, smartphone or mobile device know, it is a reference to McKayla Maroney, an American gymnast at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.

Ms. Maroney’s facial expression — a scowling kind of glare, or a glaring kind of scowl — when she learned she won a silver medal, rather than a gold, after a vault performance on Aug. 5 was captured in a photograph by Brian Snyder of Reuters that captured the popular imagination.

Soon, the idea that “McKayla is not impressed” turned up as a Tumblr pageand became an Internet meme. Ms. Maroney even offered a version of the expression when she and the rest of the United States 2012 gymnastics team met President Obama in the White House — and the president joined in.

This week, the Dr Pepper Snapple Group will proclaim that Ms. Maroney has finally found something that impresses her: five new soft drinks that are entries in the lower-calorie category of the carbonated-beverage market along with Dr Pepper Ten, which the company brought out in 2011.

The “Ten” in the name refers to the fact that each 12-ounce serving of the soft drink contains 10 calories. Dr Pepper Snapple is adding 10-calorie versions of five additional brands: 7Up, A&W, Canada Dry, RC and Sunkist.

Ms. Maroney is to appear in New York on Thursday in a section of Penn Station that Dr Pepper Snapple will fancifully rename “Ten Station” for the day. The promotional event will be focused on one new variety, 7Up Ten — which, when said fast, kind of sounds like a sports score.

Although planning is not completed, a tentative schedule calls for Ms. Maroney to meet the public from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Those meeting her will be encouraged to sample 7Up Ten and take photographs in which they share their “impressed” looks with her.

The goal of the promotional event is to “leverage the meme” and “turn it on its head, that we’re finally getting her impressed,” said Regan Ebert, senior vice president for marketing at Dr Pepper Snapple in Plano, Tex.

“What we’re hoping is the fact she’s finally impressed” will “get digital buzz across the Internet,” Ms. Ebert said.

Ms. Ebert was asked if she was familiar with what happened when Clara Peller, who became famous in 1984 for being unimpressed when she asked “Where’s the beef?” in commercials for Wendy’s, declared a year later that she had “found it” in a commercial for Prego Plus spaghetti sauce. Wendy’s fired Ms. Peller and her ad career ended.

Ms. Ebert said she recalled the incident and described the agreement with Ms. Maroney as different.

Other marketers “have approached” Ms. Maroney and asked her to declare herself impressed with their brands, Ms. Ebert said, “but she agreed to do it with us, exclusively for us,” because “she enjoys the products.”

Ms. Maroney’s fee is not being disclosed.

Ms. Maroney will not appear in an advertising campaign for the five new soft drinks, Ms. Ebert said, which is scheduled to begin next month. The campaign, by McGarryBowen, part of the Dentsu Network unit of Dentsu, will include commercials, coupons and digital ads.

A social media and digital agency in New York named Code and Theory will work with Dr Pepper Snapple on the promotional event on Thursday. The company also works with Ketchum, the public relations agency owned by the Omnicom Group.

Analysts at brokerage firms who follow the soft-drink industry estimate that Dr Pepper Snapple plans to spend more than $30 million nationally to expand the Ten concept to include the additional products.

Domino's Thanks 8 Million Facebook Fans by Toppling 50,000 Dominos

via adweek.com

Domino's doesn't make much use of its namesake domino logo—until now. The pizza chain topples more than 50,000 dominos in the video below from Crispin Porter + Bogusky, as a thank-you to fans after crossing the 8 million likes mark on Facebook. I think we can all agree it probably should have been 8 million dominos, but that would have been 160 times the work—and required more than two years of nonstop work to produce, instead of the 120 hours it took for this one. 

Mountain Kickstart Full Spot

Yelp to Start Offering Mobile Display Ads in Bid for Revenue

via adage.com

Local business discovery and recommendation service Yelp will start hosting display ads in its mobile app. InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) and Taco Bell will be the inaugural advertisers in the new ad format, with IHG's ads likely starting to appear on Monday and Taco Bell's on Thursday.
IHG and Taco Bell will be exclusive advertisers within their given Yelp category, meaning all ads served while Yelpers make travel-related searches will be from IHG while Taco Bell will serve all ads in the restaurant category.

A third advertiser, Miller Lite, will start a campaign in mid-March, executives close to the two companies said.

The exclusive deals will last for all of March. On April 1, the app display inventory will become available to all buyers with features such as geo-targeting and cross-device tracking via activity on users' Yelp accounts.

Those features are not available to this initial group of advertisers, however. IHG, Taco Bell and the alcohol company to be named later see this month-long exclusive advertising partnership as a way to get in front of Yelp's large mobile audience.

Just less than half (45%) of Yelp searches come from mobile devices, the company said, with mobile searches peaking on weekends. The service was accessed on 9.2 million unique mobile devices last quarter. Yelp is the 24th largest mobile media property, according to digital analytics firm comScore.
"All those users are trying to find all kinds of businesses. Could be a mom and pop or a chain," Yelp's head of display sales Preston Junger said. "The value of our overall audience is the value that Taco Bell sees."

Developing the new ad impressions was precipitated by advertiser interest. Advertisers that had bought banner ads on the web site wanted to do the same on Yelp's mobile app, he said.

Actually Worthwhile Advertising: a Water-Producing Billboard

via theatlantic.com

Lima is the second-largest city in the world to be situated in a desert, right behind sand-blasted Cairo. That means the Peruvian capital's 7.6 million residents have a great and persistent thirst for clean water, which certainly isn't being fed by the 1.1 inches of rain Lima received during an average year.

The coastal city does have one great source of water, though. It's in the air. Peruvians have their faces dampened each day by an extraordinary amount of humidity, which reaches 98 percent saturation on some days. Now, an unlikely alliance of scientists and advertisers have figured out a way to take that damp air and in effect squeeze it like a sponge, producing tasty torrents of fresh agua for Peruvians to slurp.

It's a billboard, albeit an ingeniously modified one. Researchers at the Universidad de Ingeniería & Tecnología and ad agency Mayo Publicidad have built into the towering structure a large reverse-osmosis system, complete with air filters, a vapor condenser, a carbon filter and a cold tank. Moist air gusts waft through those devices, in that order, and wind up as cool water sloshing in a 5-gallon tank.

People with buckets line up at the base of the billboard and fill 'er up via a spigot. The billboard has produced 2,496 gallons of liquid in the past 3 months – about 25 gallons a day – and is valued over water from wells, according to a local man in the above video, because that stuff is "not nice and it's polluted."

What a refreshing dislocation from the general direction that marketers are taking high-tech urban advertising, such as those bus shelters that emit potato smells or stalk you via weird text messages. Here's the Lima billboard in action: