Chevy Runs Digital Video Ads in Print (Yes, You Read That Right)

via Ad Age

Here's something you don't see every day: Chevrolet bought print ads to show off its digital videos.

The ad, which promotes Chevy's Colorado truck, appears in the May issue of certain subscriber issues of Esquire and Popular Mechanics. And it allows readers to watch one of three short videos, which were created by Chevy's creative agency Commonwealth//McCann.

Some 10,000 subscribers each to Esquire and Popular Mechanics -- those considered likely Colorado buyers -- received copies with a video player embedded inside the print page.

"We had these awesome digital films that we created for the Colorado launch and we thought, why not ... put video in print," said Jill Mida, manager-Chevrolet Truck Advertising.

Chevy "leveraged all of Hearst's consumer data" to determine which 20,000 readers fit the profile of a Colorado buyer and should receive the ad, according to Ms. Mida.

She wouldn't disclose how much the ad cost, but did say, "the unit is obviously expensive."

The video-in-print ads are one part of Chevy's marketing push around the Colorado. Print ads for the Colorado (that don't include video) are also running in Men's Health, Sports Illustrated, Backpacker, Surfer, Bike and Dirt Rider magazines. It's already run TV commercials as well as digital ads.

This isn't the first time a magazine has put video in print. Back in 2009,Entertainment Weekly, which is owned by Time Inc., used Americhip to put a video ad for CBS in a print issue. That ad showed off CBS's fall lineup.

Executives at Hearst, owner of Esquire and Popular Mechanics, said the idea for putting video in print sprang from a meeting in which they discussed promoting the videos on their magazines' websites.

"But we got to talking further about having it run in" the magazine, said according to Jack Essig, publisher director and chief revenue at Hearst Men's Group. "We're always looking for innovative ways for print to come alive. This was one of those aha moments."

A company called Americhip created the technology that allows the videos to play in print.

Esquire has carved out a reputation for trying new technologies in the print and the digital spaces. Under Editor-in-Chief David Granger, the magazine has experimented with so-called electronic paper as well as a weekly tablet edition and paywalls around certain articles.

Coke Zero Pours You a Drink from the TV

via PSFK.com

'Drinkable advertising' campaign shells out free soda from an on-air commercial, billboard and more

Whenever a commercial comes on TV of a warm pizza or a sweet treat near to dinner time, how quickly does it trigger your desire to order in? Considered one of the great successes of advertising is a brand’s ability to translate broadcast activations into purchases. With marketing moving farther and farther away from the ‘traditional’ in any sense of the word, age-old brands look to new forms of delivery to engage the modern consumer. So, instead of looking at a warm pizza or sweet treat through the screen, what if you could eat it at the cost of . . .nothing?

Coke Zero has launched a new initiative that has been touted as “drinkable advertising,” creating a fun way to shell out free products to unsuspecting consumers. In a series of drinkable campaign activations and events, Coke Zero has partnered with advertising agency Ogilvy & Matherand music discovery app Shazam.

The unveiling of the campaign coincides with Coca-Cola’s sponsorship of March Madness of the NCAA Men’s Final Four with a 26 x 36 foot drinkable billboard. The first-of-its-kind structure features a massive contour bottle and a swirling straw, spelling out the words “Taste It.” Weighing in at 23,000 pounds, the billboard magically appears to pour out ice-cold soda into six drinking fountains for anyone at the sampling station.

For Coke fans outside of Indianapolis, Coke Zero has also created a drinkable commercial so people watching TV can enjoy the beverage at their leisure. As it works, an on-air commercial synced up with Shazam, the service that lets users discover music and TV streaming around them, will offer mobile coupons for a free 20-ounce bottle of soda.

During the live broadcast, viewers watch a Coke Zero poured from the iconic glass bottle and are prompted to log in into the app. Within Shazam, the Coke Zero will continue to fill up until it reveals a free bottle to the user at any participating retailer.

The marketing campaign is rethinking traditional advertising in a way that offers consumers a refreshing opportunity to experience a physical product they might not otherwise engage. Following in the vein of the second screen user experience, the brand has created new touch points for consumers through direct out-of-home advertising.

Coke Zero will host other events that include a drinkable flyer and drinkable interactive mall kiosks where participants will also receive free soda.

Here's Why Your Favorite Brands Are Making Their Own Emoticons

via Ad Week

Many brands are creating their own emoticons. Illustration: Matthew Billington

Cute-Crazed. Selfie-Obsessed. Bad Happy. These are just three of the names of Mentos' new branded emoticons, or "ementicons," which will soon be available for the mint brand's socially savvy fans to use. Mentos isn't alone. As communication on mobile devices has become more image-based—through the use of emoticons, emojis and stickers—brands like Ikea, Coca-Cola, General Electric, Comedy Central and others have created their own branded emoticons to engage audiences in a new way.

There are nearly 2 billion smartphone users worldwide, according to eMarketer data. Given the size and scope of this connected audience, "It's a no-brainer that brands would explore this," said Thomas Ordahl, chief strategy officer for Landor. "It will create new opportunities to communicate and relate to people that are important for you to engage as a brand."

For Mentos, the 10 ementicons, which are available through a new keyboard in the messaging app Ultratext, were a way to play off the freshness attribute of the brand by refreshing the already available emojis. 

Ikea's Swedish meatballs were included in the brand's 100 emoticons.

"We've seen messaging, emoticon and emoji use skyrocket across platforms globally," said Ben Shaw, strategy director for BBH in London, Mentos' agency. "Creating branded emoticons, or social stickers, allows Mentos to participate in a space that can be difficult for brands to penetrate."

In mid-February Ikea and Coca-Cola both launched branded emoticons. Ikea launched 100 emoticons, including its Swedish meatballs. Coca-Cola in Puerto Rico created 30 emoticons that the brand dubbed "emoticoke."

"In general you could say emoticons offer a great way for brands to—potentially on a global scale—become part of the everyday conversations of people," said Mark Ogertschnig, an Ikea spokesman. 

GE's Emoji Periodic Table of Experiments

The list of brands looking for new ways to penetrate this space keeps growing. For the premiere of Broad City's second season in January, Comedy Central partnered with the platform Snaps to create a Broad City-themed emoticon keyboard. For a science event in late 2014, General Electric developed the Emoji Periodic Table of Experiments for Snapchat users. In December, AT&T made an interactive holiday site where users could create personalized emoticons to sing carols.

According to Swyft Media, 41.5 billion messages and 6 billion emoticons or stickers are sent around the world every day on mobile messaging apps. "When we offer mobile app users the imagery of their favorite brands, they don't see it as advertising," noted Evan Wray, co-founder of Swyft Media. "They see it as self-expression." 

Broad City's emoticons derive from the show's jokes.

But brands looking to take advantage of this trend need to understand the difference between emojis and emoticons or stickers. The emoji keyboard, which now comes standard on many smartphones, is comprised of various emojis approved by the Unicode Consortium. Brands looking to create their own emoticons and stickers have to make their own apps or partner with messaging apps like Kik, WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger to have their branded emoticons available for consumer use.

Taco Bell recently lobbied the Unicode Consortium to add a taco emoji to its keyboard. The brand circulated a Change.org petition that's secured 30,000 signatures. So why not create its own emoticons or stickers instead of waiting for the Unicode Consortium to add a taco emoji? "We didn't go create our own app because people use the emojis natively already," explained Taco Bell rep Ashley Sioson. "We want it to be a natural tie-in to how the user already uses emojis."

Johnnie Walker ‘smart bottle’ Performs for Consumers and Supply Chain

via Packing Digest

Diageo's prototype "smart bottle" uses near-field communication technology to interact with consumers and deter counterfeiters. 

 

Diageo is making waves in beverage packaging with an electronically tagged bottle for Johnnie Walker Blue Label whisky that promises to not only enrich consumers’ experience of the top-shelf Scotch but also provide supply-chain tracking. The brand owner displayed a prototype of the smart packaging at this week’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. 

Created in partnership with Thinfilm, the bottle uses near field communication (NFC) technology, integrated with labeling, to let consumers interact with the package using NFC-enabled smartphones. 

A thin, flexible NFC tag is attached to each bottle, enabling consumers to simply tap their phone to the bottle’s back label to access product and brand information. The tags are made using Thinfilm’s OpenSensetechnology; they are applied to the bottles in such a way that the tag is torn if the bottle’s seal is broken. 

A Diageo spokesperson describes the package as a “‘smart bottle,’ which uses Thinfilm’s electronic tags [and] links with a user’s smartphone to deliver instant consumer benefits direct to device, such as cocktail recipes, promotional offers and exclusive content.” 

She adds, “This is a way of providing relevant content in a more seamless way for the digital generation. And this isn’t just about consumers. The tech allows Diageo to streamline and bring more transparency to its supply chain.” 

Each of the NFC tags is encoded at Thinfilm’s factory with an identifier that cannot be electrically modified or copied—by counterfeiters or others who would divert the product during distribution, for example. 

In addition, members of the supply chain can use a smartphone or NFC reader to check the tag on any bottle and determine whether its seal has been broken, which would indicate tampering. 

The tag’s ability to sense “unsealed” status promises added value for consumers, as well. Consumers tapping their smartphone to the bottle at home, after breaking the seal, will be able to access more or different digital information than they received when tapping the sealed bottle at the store. 

“This is very much a prototype and not a commercial product, and so the team is still exploring with concepts and possibilities, but the main aim is to enhance the consumer experience. What we can say is that the possibilities are endless once the bottle is made ‘smart’—the information/data/content available are in theory limitless,” says Diageo’s spokesperson. She adds that it is too soon to know when or where the smart bottle may be introduced. 

In the meantime, the number of consumers equipped to interact with NFC-based smart packaging continues to grow. Research firm IHS Technology predicts that global shipments of smartphones with NFC capability will reach 1.2 billion units by 2018.