Residue is Evil
A viral microsite named “Residue is evil” was set up, showing nothing but an armpit full of hair that was stuck with popcorn-looking residue. Every click of one of those little dangles created a random irritant, from screaming voices to an alteration of the mouse movement, the only way to stop it was to click on the deodorant.
Definitely a viral, its sleek and simple interface would surely drive much traffic to its main site, where the visual treat gets even more intense. All about a range of toiletry solutions, the copy is witty and cheeky, targeted at youths and the new age of men who care about their scent.
Graphics and art direction alike are fresh and new, interactive and engaging. Together with the viral microsite and a promising webpage, print ads are also created in sync with the concept of “residue being evil”.
Slapstick, yes we know it but somehow perhaps due to the nature of the product and the target audiece, we can just see it working so well.
Not being sexist about it but, yea, you get what we mean.
The Wonder(button)bra
The Wonderbra brand has a new integrated campaign to grow awareness around it. Toying with the idea that with Wonderbra, the button on the lady’s blouse can potentially pop and hit someone, the visual for its poster is simply hilarious.
From this concept, they realised a viral ad, a special promocard, a mini website, and a fan page on facebook. All these operations work in synergy to spread the concept on all the media involved.
Everything is pretty much in Italian on the site so we daren’t comment for our lack of multi-linguistic ability. The idea on the other hand, consists of the facebook profile page and a picketing contest that has so far garnered fan response of about 800 people.
There’s even a National Cleavage Day, affectionately known as NCD, which seems to be a real hit with their target audience of penny-wise, confident and feminist-inclined women.
This perhaps is one fine example of hitting the bullseye from a thorough understanding of the target audience.
Its iAbsolut
It is without a doubt that the Absolut brand is a leading icon in its league and always taking the lead to be at its coolest. Their website too, is a refreshingly sleek interface of 3D graphics and smooth animations. It is the sort of homepage you’d like to be seen looking at on your swanky iphone while waiting for a friend outside the club. Aside from their product range and recipe introduction, little notifications pop up at the corner saying things like ‘Sky Rickey – United States 58 seconds ago, 3 Sky Rickey’s ordered’ etc.
There isn’t anything extremely fantabulous about the site so why are we ranting about it?
The people at Absolut now have an application for iPhone, called “Drinkspiration”. Made with an interactive 3G technology, it integrates GPS, Twitter and Facebook guiding the user to make a custom drink and name it the way you want, with a recommendation based on real-time data and trends.
The purpose of this application is to be an extension of its site, where the experiment continues.
As with all online and interactive mediums, even the best descriptions will not do justice to its creator so experience the goodness yourself .
Download the application free here or check out the overview video.
Dictionary.com’s new skin
Dictionary.com has always kept a clean and informative interface that has garnered a dedicated following. There’s bound to be a time that you’ve visited their site at least once, either out of accident or as your regular homepage tab.
Today however, it took on a new skin from ask.com, that featured the Toyota Prius on its site.
We thought it was a neat idea to sponsor frequently visited sites instead of usual web banners or ads (which we all try to ignore the more they attempt to irritate us). Not only does it capture the attention for a good 3 seconds or more, it also causes minimal disruption to whatever you’ve intended to do – in this case, search the dictionary.
Only one thing is that the effort could have been a little wittier to connect itself with the dictionary service, but for now, a fresh change for that boring blue look will do them good.
With every CRISIS, an OPPORTUNITY
Of course we know that phrase very well by now and are probably jaded by the negative happenings of the world. ‘Crisis’, being one of the most commonly read words in our news, is literally changed into ‘Opportunity’, thanks to a clever little program from Mr Leo Burnett & ARC.
Inspired from Mr Burnett’s practice when he started the agency, where giving a green apple was a sign of optimism in the difficult times, the idea aims to spread the same message – to see the OPPORTUNITY not the Crisis.
It works by downloading the program for firefox-only browsers, and upon reading any html pages with the word ‘Crisis’, it is replaced with the word ‘Opportunity’.
Probably a nice and inspiring idea, thought provoking for some but likely to be useless for many.
Is My Job At Risk?
2009 started on a downward note and Ape being ape, we decided to do a community project that allows people from around the world to fill in a short 30 question quiz to analyse their risk profile. It was supposed to be a little tongue in cheek (but scientifically calibrated) to lift up the spirit of workers worldwide and give some encouragement to those fearing for their jobs.
Doom and gloom no more!
This new Intellectual Property (IP) project was developed as a microsite quietly together with Monster.com as a means to build up their brand and steer highly targeted viewers to their website. From Ape’s point of view, it was just an idea that we could push out in 2 weeks and get over 250,000 click through traffic for our sponsors.
With no additional publicity or online advertising, the site’s popularity grew purely through word of mouth.
How much will an online advertising or search engine marketing campaign cost to get highly targeted 250,00 clicks through users? $100,000 or more….. this cost a fraction of that.
Apply for the Best Job in the World – For Real!
An Australian state has launched a global search for candidates for “the best job in the world” — earning a top salary for lazing around a beautiful tropical island for six months.
The job pays 150,000 Australian dollars (105,000 US dollars) and includes free airfares from the successful applicant’s home country to Hamilton Island on the Great Barrier Reef, Queensland’s state government announced on Tuesday.
In return, the “island caretaker” will be expected to stroll the white sands, soak up the sun, snorkel the reef, “maybe clean the pool” — and report to a global audience via weekly blogs, photo diaries and video updates.
This call crashed the website and apparently this is a real job offer that comes with a 6 months stay in a multi million dollar 3 bedroom villa. So does this gimmick work? YES, it was featured in many of the major news outlets globally and is still gathering water cooler talk today.
Want to apply? Applications close on the 22nd of Feb 2009.
Website to apply is Here but be warned it might be slow with all the other applications. Good Luck!
Saving up for a Holiday
The latest Zuji campaign revolves around the idea of ‘Helping Holidays Happen’. To do that, they created everyday products and sold them at ridiculously low prices. First off, a can of baked beans going at 10cents. By saving up on everyday items, people could have enough for a holiday. Ironically as it may seem, these cheap foods were widely promoted and sold in special ‘Zuji Bean Shops”, across Australia’s major cities and were covered through all major avenues of advertising. A small idea massively executed which will definitely drive sales and traffic to their site.
See the video of the campaign here.