Brand activation at its best

1.
A couple of weeks ago, Coca-Cola launched an eye catching, interactive billboard for Coke Zero, currently in Times Square. Based around their brand message “share a coke”, the digital display board shows fun facts about the names of people who tweet to the sign – all in real-time.

Interestingly, you don’t even need to be in Times Square in order to take part. The campaign is activated through Twitter and works via a webcam snapping a picture of the person’s name. Coke’s social media team then tweet the photo of the board plus their name and fun fact, within one hour, encouraging people to engage on social media.

This is a great example of strong integration cross-channel – OOH, digital, social, mobile; it’s a blend of the digital and the physical worlds. Admittedly we do expect great things from Coca-Cola, but you’ve still got to admire this!

2.
On the topic of drinks - we’ve seen similarly innovative campaigns from Pimm’s and Carlsberg recently. Carlsbergwith their ‘probably the best beer in the world’ billboard that dispenses free beer. And Pimm’s with its weather activated digital out-of-home campaign. When the local temperature hit 21 degrees, the boards would activate alongside the strap line ‘best served with sunglasses’. A highly intuitive campaign that played to the brand’s strengths – it being such an iconic summer drink. Who doesn’t want Pimm’s in the sun?

3.
Ted Baker has opened its first ‘virtual store’ in Shoreditch enabling consumers all over the world to remotely roam the new format online.

Ted Baker’s shopping experiment will see consumers able to pick up items of clothing for closer inspection and roam the shop in a manner not dissimilar to Google street view.

Over the next few months, Ted Baker will monitor consumer interest in the format, in a both virtual reality sense as well as other digital experience currently being trialled in the Shoreditch store. Whether it’s scalable or not, it’s an interesting concept and indicative of the bold experimentation happening in the retail sector.

4.
Samsung unveiled its ‘safety truck’, an HGV that allows vehicles behind it to see the road ahead thanks to wireless cameras at the front of the truck. The cameras feed footage of the open road in real-time enabling motorists to overtake safely.

What a great example of harnessing the power of tech to drive positive social change. Arguably a long way off to be rolled out for all HGVs – but an exciting advancement nonetheless.

5.
Finally, (and just because I love this) – last month, Centre Parcs tweeted actual tweets (as in from actual birds), in its #RealTweetWeek campaign. What a fantastically literal way of promoting the Centre Parcs experience, and of course a brilliant example of integrating the physical with the digital. I urge everyone to check out their Twitter feed - https://twitter.com/centerparcsuk