LONDON РReaders are being asked to send in their questions as Media Week TV prepares to interview Nicholas Coleridge, Cond̩ Nast UK managing director, and Simon Waldman, group director of digital strategy and development at the Guardian Media Group.
Last week when the mysterious ads for Obay cropped up around Ontario many a blogger speculated what it might really be selling. The Accordion Guy Joey Devilla posted the 15th about the Mysterious Ads for “Obayâ€
It’s obvious that the product doesn’t actually exist and that it’s some sort of viral marketing campaign. As for what the campaign is meant to promote, most people with whom I’ve spoken to about the ads think that it’s some kind of jab at parents who are following the disturbing trend of medicating their teenage kids out of normal teenage behaviour and into Stepford adolescence.
The comments are full of speculation on who the sender might be, from drug companies to anti-drug companies to churches before someone working for a College in Ontario reveals that they are the ones behind the campaign. So, now that the buzz it built, will people care?
Image from *J-Bl*’s photostream
Today in Canada.com the story Mystery ad gains momentum: whodunit? looks at the risks with a campaign like this. Just because people were curious when the campaign first went up doesn’t mean they’ll care when the sender is revealed.
In early 2007, an unbranded video of a bridezilla lopping off her hair in a pre-wedding fit drew 12 million views on YouTube but garnered next to nothing in the way of publicity for Sunsilk when, two weeks after the Canadian clip was uploaded, the hair-product company revealed its involvement.
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Though Scientology and anti-pharmaceutical lobbyists have been widely named as suspects in the Obay whodunit, detective work by Canadian blogs Accordion Guy and Torontoist have pegged Ontario Colleges as the likeliest source of the ads – which despite being clustered in eastern Canada, have gained national attention online.
Questioned about their involvement with the campaign, Ontario Colleges spokesman Rob Savage was cautiously vague (“at this point, we don’t have any information we can give you”), but told Canwest News Service he would follow up before the end of the month about the “long-term marketing stuff” being undertaken by the organization.
CHINA – Nokia is re-examining its pricing strategy as it extends its N-Gage online gaming platform into China.
MALAYSIA – Unilever’s Rexona deodorant brand has launched a widget on its Friendster profile designed to drive sales among Malaysian teens.
“What people say is media-neutral, but what they do is “matching luggage,†with the print tagline on the banner, or the 30-second spot as the Flash intro to the website.
Such thinking fails to grasp the changes that digital has brought to the communications industry, that all media are digital, that all marketing is interactive, […]
To win the youth vote Obama stole like a thief in the night, Hillary further strains our suspension of disbelief with “the playlist for YOUR future.”
The PS3 has among its multiple qualities the hability to let you play mini-games as the console loads up. One of these games was the beautiful Flow. Now it’s the turn for Eden, a beautiful videogame that mixes awesome physics interactions and gorgeous colors.
It’s still not out; but I imagine that just like Flow this will also be downloadable por the PC. Stay sharp.
(TrendHunter.com) The Greener Gadgets Conference had some really ‘interesting’ concepts. Take this concept by Jim Mielke for example; a gadget that is ‘tattooed’ under your skin and runs on blood by turning glucose and oxygen into electricity.
It’s an electronic interface embedded under the skin that looks like a t…
(TrendHunter.com) Prada Fall 2008 shoe collection likes ruffles and fins on the heels. Throw in some chunky heel designs too. Have great legs if you wear these shoes because they are designed to draw attention. How can you not love the brown boot with the totes exaggerated heel and legging. That design alone makes P…
(TrendHunter.com) The Edge Phone, with its fashion-oriented design and glowing glass keyboard, uses light and touch technology to target the style-conscious fashionistas. To answer an incoming call, simply slide the glass keyboard out. An embedded LED illuminates the etched numerics via refraction creating a glowing …
Monster.com’s “Your Call is Calling” campaign has been a buzzkill since launch, particularly against CareerBuilder’s darkly funny “Start Building.”
But “The Stork” — a :60 spot by BBDO, NY for Monster — begets a bit of greatness.
(TrendHunter.com) We usually think of photos as a two-dimensional representation of a scene. However, Stanford University researchers have developed an image sensor that adds a third dimension by judging the distance of subjects within a snapshot. The new technology is called ‘multi-aperture image sensor,’ and sees t…
(TrendHunter.com) I’m not joking, this design by Tobias Wong is really called ‘Killer Engagement Ring’. It is a sturdy diamond ring whose point faces out, turning it into a potentially lethal weapon. The diamond sharp edge will cut skin down to the bone with a minimum of 1 karat stone – but the larger the stone the d…
(TrendHunter.com) If you don’t want a mannequin of Agyness Dyn, and don’t want to offend the Brit it girl with a model attack shirt, then you might want to show the world you’re a fan of the young model by wearing of these Deer Dana tees printed with a pencil sketch drawing of her face.
They were designed by Dana V…
(TrendHunter.com) We’ve seen all sorts of cool homes on Trend Hunter, like tree houses and shipping container homes. We’ve also seen a rising obsession with aqua culture, so it’s neat to feature something that combines the two with this extreme house boat concept, the Trilobis 65.
Similar to the Jelly-Fish 45 Habit…
CORPORATE: Global nutrition firm Herbalife has appointed Julian Cacchioli for the newly created role of vice president, corporate comms for EMEA.
CONSUMER: PR shop Dada has been taken on by Scottish drinks firm Whyte & Mackay to promote its drinks portfolio. The agency has also been called in by Domino’s Pizza to manage PR activity across its Scottish franchise network. www.prweek.com/uk for the full versions of these stories.
A lingerie brand specialising in large cup sizes has brought in PR support to improve its market share.
The Cornish Pasty Association is planning a national campaign to prevent its name being used on pasties made outside the region.
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