Tubecrush A new website lets people view “hot” men travelling on the Tube. Users secretly take photos of male passengers they find attractive and upload them with comments, ratings and then once all of these are counted, we get a nice neat mark for the ‘fittest’ tube line. Is this just sharing the beauty of the male form? Is it an invasion of privacy? Would most men feel flattered? Would it be ok if women were being objectified this way? It’s certainly popular - averaging 22,000 users a month. Check out the latest ‘tube crushes’ here.
Evian Cool new ad continuing the baby theme, but this time a little less creepy! Seems like the ‘baby’ territory is everso fruitful for Evian, after years of cherub-plagued ads. But we wonder, is it liberating to give a heavily directed brief each year to the creative team? Or are they suffering from using ‘babies’ as the sole expression of the overall ‘youthful beauty’ benefit? With a lot of clients putting a 365 days expiry date on their creative theme, we do wonder whether Evian’s advertising benefited from being so consistently themed.
Range Rover Evoque Hotly anticipated, this is the car launch of the year with a marketing budget to match. This is a clever, fully integrated campaign that targets young city dwelling professionals by allowing people to download an app for their iPhone and drive their favourate route in their city. The app uses GPS technology to track their route so they are able to create other-worldly art from their route.
A Tale of Two Collaborations We love a good collaboration. Whether it’s Dangermouse and Jack White, or Rob Ryan and Michael Marriott, they're always interesting regardless of whether the final product is superb or mediocre. That’s why when brands have an opportunity to collaborate and contribute to an initiative, it’s always disappointing when they opt for the age-old in-your-face branding exercise instead. And it’s Starbucks’ sponsorship of A.V. Undercover 2011 that does just this. The former, a global coffee chain named after the first mate in Moby Dick, the latter an excellent musicproject which is an offshoot of The Onion. 25 bands are given the opportunity to cover one of 25 songs, but it’s first come first served, so if you’re tardy you may be left with the one that no one wants (in this case probably Chumbawumba Tubthumping). All of these covers (including a beardy Iron and Wine covering George Micheal) can be viewed online in the midst of a sea of Starbucks’ Frappucinos. It’s frustrating that Starbucks’ advertising is so unsympathetic to the context in which it’s operating, jarring completely with the initiative’s laid back cool. An opportunity missed to build a personality and distance themselves from being another smiley but generic corporate being. In contrast, a wonderfully orchestrated collaboration has also launched recently. This takes the well-cut shape of ten limited edition T-Shirts and prints brought to us by ASOS and It’s Nice That. The Tshirts have been created by ten nauseatingly talented illustrators/designers/photographers (particular favourites being Greg Eason and Rose Blake). And with each T-shirt you also get an A3 print of the artwork. So for £25 you can own a ridiculously awesome T-shirt as well as a renowned artist’s print. If you’re sold, check them out here. For the clever collaborators, this mutually beneficial relationship exposes their websites to a far broader audience and, above all, rewards the consumer.
Websites
Are you Middle Class? Kate Middleton is – say the media (ad nauseum). David “Dave” Cameron says he jolly well is. And the Beckham’s are not nearly middle class enough (according to parents at a leading private school). Research published last month shows that 71% of Brits now consider themselves to be middle class. But what defines our class? Income? Family background? Accent? Education? Postcode? According to research agency BritianThinks it can all be boiled down to one simple question: Would you happily use one of these? If the answer is ‘yes’ – you are middle class. If the answer is ‘no, my mates and family would rip the piss’ – you’re working class. If the answer is ‘well, I pour it but my man does the rest’…well, enough said. The full study by BritainThinks, released last month, identifies six distinct groups of middle class Brits, and make an interesting quick read (though I suspect a fully Scottish version of the study would throw-out some different results).. It’s a useful reminder that the old ABC1, C2DE classifications are becoming an increasingly blunt tool. Though largely banished from creative briefs (thankfully) they often still lurk dubiously on research recruitment briefs and should probably be viewed with caution or at least used with proper accuracy and shared understanding by agency, client and recruiter (I strongly suspect they are not!). If you’re looking for the most up-to-date definitions, you can find them here . Or better still, let Tangible Thinking magic-up a bespoke profile of your target audience and their behaviour. After all, maybe they don’t even like coffee.
Budweiser Poolball
Budweiser Poolball
A great piece from Budweiser that uses a simple insight into beer drinking guys (they love football and they love a great night out, but the two rarely come together) to deliver something that truly connects and makes a bigger noise than most experiential activity. Give a warm welcome to Poolball.