Drive-in Theater by Coca-Cola

How can traffic jams can create good will among your consumers. Well, to do this right you need to have the right ingredients.

Let me see:

1. A traffic jam - something that will hold people long enough for you to take action.

2. Something that will make them feel good while being stuck in traffic (I know, that's just pure evil).

3. The right incentive to make them use your product.

Well that's exactly what Coca-Cola and Ogilvy Columbia did in Bogota, Columbia. How long has it been since you watched a movie from your car? Or, did you ever watched a movie from your car? I believe some of you, just like me, never did it.

Before watching the video, allow me to explain what they did.

The problem: a daily 4 hours traffic jam in Bogota. How can Coca-Cola turn headaches into smiling faces?

The solution: build a giant video screen for those stuck in traffic and invite them to tune their car radio to the local FM station so they could hear the audio.

Incentives: what could make this even better, but people walking up and down the rows of cars offering 250ml bottles of Coca-Cola, popcorn, nachos and other goodies.

MINI Getaway Stockholm - a Social Media Success

Photo cred: Erik Mörner


I'm sure you will appreciate this post since it's going to be a bit different than the others. I've thought about starting to share with you some live examples on how social media works and what you can achieve using it.

I came across the advertising agency Jung von Matt from Stockholm. As Emma Hutchings wrote in this blog post, the creative agency won numerous awards for this creative and innovative modern-day brand building idea. I'm talking about the Getaway Stockholm campaign for MINI.

The prize - a brand new MINI Countryman.

The rules

To get in the race for winning the real car you needed to download an app into your iPhone. App users could then view the location of a virtual MINI on a map of Stockholm, and once within 50 metres of it, could claim the MINI for themselves and then run away from the other participants who could try to steal it. At the end of the 7 days campaign the person with the virtual MINI in his possession won the real car.

New Marketing and Transparency

 

Photo cred: Trey Ratcliff

Marketing campaigns have a very well established plan on what, when and how to present a brand or a product to the potential customers. Every company wants to fully control the process that determines how the people will see them in the future. Do YOU think this is the natural way of doing things?

What we see and what is

A very strong businessman once told me that "Facts speak louder than words". This makes very much sense because anyone can talk, but only the results really matter in the end.

What does doing business really mean?

Photo cred: Trey Ratcliff

This is a question that I've asked myself for some time now. The business world, the big corporate field seems very appealing nowadays for the young businessman or professional to be. It gives you a steady environment in which you can learn, grow and bring your personal contribution not only to the organization but to the business partners as well. I understand that any company wants to have better and more customers in order to raise capital and profit. The question I have is "Why are people and corporations acting like there is no limit to natural resources?" Without falling into the Greenpeace environmentalist spirit I simply ask you, the reader: "Is the way things have been going for the last fifty years sustainable?"

Leaving the Earth's resources issues aside it's important to speak about the other item on the list, which seems absolutely necessary for conducting business and obtaining profit: humans. On numerous occasions creating a life-time connection with clients has proven beneficial to companies. Sometimes all they had to do was care a little bit more, not going directly for the person's money, but looking to enrich his personal life and experience, finding a solution to his concerns.

What matters now

In one of his many books, Seth Godin asks this even without the question mark, maybe showing us that indeed questions are answers. He reminds us one of the basic things in the business world. The fact that in order to get what you want you first have to help a lot of people to get what they need and want for themselves. Offering value to others will make them want to return the favor in the future. Honestly caring for them as if their problem would be yours could really bring the best solutions for customers.