We tend to talk a fair bit about how useful, progressive and downright effective experiential and buzz marketing is (or, to qualify that, can be when done right) – so, who’s doing what, where and why? Well…
This melted ice cream van/ installation art work, created by the Glue Society, is a fantastic example of how to get peoples attention. Unfortunately, it isn't for any kind of promotion but we put it here anyway to show you what can be done with a great idea, and a lot of time, patience and effort. This piece of art was for The tenth annual Sculpture by the Sea. It is Australia’s largest annual outdoor exhibition of contemporary sculpture with more than 100 sculptors exhibiting.
It’s the time of the year again when people start talking about Cannes…a film festival so famous and influential that, well, the fact that there’s a film festival there isn’t even mentioned… The furore surrounding Cannes (pretty much the entirety of the world’s film press appear en masse) leads to a peculiar, almost surreal, atmosphere for the festival’s duration. And, with so many filmmakers, film stars and film promoters kicking around as well as the press it takes something pretty special to get your film noticed.
It’s been another busy week for most people – us included – and, for those who may have missed things, here’s our take on the more interesting news from the last several days. With each week more and more news comes in of web-based initiatives, link ups and ad campaigns – the future appears to have arrived. Here are a couple of the most recent and interesting campaigns coming up.
Customer location doesn’t, at first glance, seem to be a burning issue when it comes to marketing. After all…we, as campaign co-ordinators and creators, dictate where we put our focus and advertising. They come to us right? Well, not if you’re in experiential marketing, no. 
Too often a product launch is little more than a product with a party hastily tacked on to it. And, whilst this is all very fun and good for some media exposure it does very little for the product itself.
The use of an experiential marketing company (such as Hotcow for instance…) can ensure a range of beneficial aspects to any launch event. Here’s why.
There’s news the other week that Marks & Spencer are set to start charging for carrier bags in their outlets and we at Hotcow find this rather interesting. It has, as most people know, been on the cards for sometime with trials having been in place at 50 stores (in N. Ireland and the South-East) since early last year. This is not the interesting part per se – no, we like the way the entire “project” has been announced and planned for several reasons.
You may remember the news some weeks ago that Mark Boyle, a former organic food company boss and now a member of the “freeconomy” movement (which aims to get rid of money altogether in order to foster a return to community based living) decided to walk from Bristol to India without any form of currency to show his faith in humanity and, presumably, promote his philosophy. Well, the attempt has failed after reaching Calais, when it was realised that no one in the party spoke French. Farcical.
Women are different to men we already know this…and if some of us don’t is there really any hope for the human race? However, there are plenty of people – notably in the advertising industry – that don’t seem to know just how different….and persist in either marketing products to women as if they had either exactly the same motivations as men or were a minority market lacking in real purchasing power. This is wrong on both counts.
News the other day that Facebook has seen its first drop in UK users since Nielsen Online first started collating data on the site in July 2006. The fAll – of 5% - equates to a slide from 8.9 million users in December to 8.5 million in January. Whilst this slide won’t worry either Facebook or its competitors unduly it does raise an interesting talking point…when does a lot become too much?