Great news for us automotive fans here at the agency, T

onic International will be re-launching Škoda in the Middle East.

Škoda was first built in the Czech Republic in 1895 and has since grown to become one of Europe’s leading car brands.

It can now be found in over 90 countries around the world.

With a proud history of innovation and design, Škoda continues to grow and develop new ideas for “simply clever” driving.

Look out for the Middle East campaign for Fabia RS starting end of June.

A lot of numbers today: 1, 5, 8, 9, 100 and 873…and the new rules of

engagement. Don’t worry, it’s not a math special.

And translating all this:

1 to look back at the latest technology in race cars, 5 to learn from the best ever Facebook campaigns, 8 to build a better work environment, 9 for a little fun, 100 inspirations, and watch your life in 873 picturesin 1 minute to go wow!

The Audi A1 has teamed up with Marvel’s The Avengers and three vehicles have been specially branded to represent the characters; Captain America, Iron Man and Thor.

These super cool cars were designed in-house by our Audi Creative Team and premiered at the Dubai Comic Con on the weekend.  Comic Con is the region’s largest popular culture festival and showcases Film, TV, Sci-Fi, Animation, Manga, Comics and Collectables.

The premiere of The Avengers in the Middle East will be screening on the 4^th of May at Dubai Mall, Reel Cinemas.

Toys vs. reality; Science vs. toys; Reality vs. technology; Social media ”life” vs. real-life installation; viralvs. traditional advertising. As usual not all is as it seems, and only the unexpected should be expected. Enjoy!

There are product catalogues. And then there are innovative ways of presenting said catalogues. http://kitchenview.ru/en falls firmly into the latter category. And what an execution!

If anyone could have done this without making it seem trite, it had to be IKEA. They already excel at amazing displays in the offline world and it was only a matter of time before they impressed us online.

What’s fascinating about this is the usage of an interactive multi-view story. You wander from kitchen to kitchen, viewing it through the eyes of every character in the film (including, dogs, fish and flies!) Each character’s view point is completely in sync with the others so the overall feeling one gets is of navigating through the film in real time.

This is not just beautiful to look at. It is effective storytelling too. Altogether, 540,759 kitchen solutions are discoverable through the video. Do check it out. It’s worth something for a whole host of other retailers.

Tip: Unless you have a reliable connection, turn off the HD version. Makes for a better viewing experience!

PEUGEOT

Peugeot UK has unveiled an RCZ that uses an innovative reactive paint to change its body colour to reflect your emotions – be it happy, sad or anything in between.

MINI

Mini launches the new Clubvan Concept! The MINI feels very much at home just about anywhere on the planet. And soon the world will also be the oyster of MINI drivers and their entourages. 12 days on from the “official” start of spring, MINI can announce its arrival among the ranks of camping outfitters.

BMW

As an official sponsor of London 2012, BMW has been inspired to develop a new technology helping customers to boost their fitness in the run up to the Games. The new driverless Running Coach feature uses a combination of ConnectedDrive technologies and surround view cameras to enable the car to follow the runner, at a safe distance, while pounding the pavement. To help with motivation, integrated exterior speakers play encouraging words while the Lock Out Logistics feature makes sure that any distance set is completed without cheating.

NASCAR – GOOGLE

Even Google chose today to ‘announce’ their partnership with NASCAR for… wait for it… the autonomous race car partnership. According to their press release, “Google believe that one the most important thing computers can do in the next decade is to drive cars—and that the most important thing Google Racing can do in the next decade is drive them, if possible, more quickly than anyone else. Or anything else.”

Google finds this announcement important enough to actually provide a link from their otherwise-staid and uncluttered homepage (Er… check http://www.google.com; not any local country version)

Step 2: Add something else that appeals to ‘other’ audiences. In this case the popular music star Tomomatic

Step 3: Showcase some truly extraordinary tools you are known and respected for. In this case navigation.

Step 4: Package it all up with cutting edge technology. In this case Augmented Reality.

Step 5: Find a receptive audience/venue and hope for the best!

The result is the following:

Something tells me this will go viral. Considering that this has just gotten out there, let’s wait and see!

Do you think agencies in the Arab world take any risks to release bold and daring campaigns?

This article blames clients who wants to please the audience, and since agencies wants to please the client, we end up with a (Play it safe) arabic campaigns.

Read the full article here

As a follow-up, this week saw the release of some minimalist posters which took the same idea forward, albeit in a different way.

The TVC was complex; the posters the extreme opposite. Together however, both these campaigns work well to establish the overall brand value and positioning. Even if one were trying not to read too much into the timing, considering that media credibility in the UK is at an all-time low! Would have loved to see some more online extension of the same thought. Maybe the coming weeks will have more for us!

I have to agree on the (all dressed in Gold) and on the (I want Al Jazeerah logo too). On the other hand I do not think that the palm tree is a cliché, yes it is overused in Saudi, but not in the rest of the Arab world.

I have always enjoyed building Arabic words out of (deconstructed, rotated, and scaled Latin letters from popular Latin fonts), maybe even when the time comes where we have enough professional Arabic fonts out there, this would still be one of my options.

Enjoy the full article here

You simply sync your American Express credit card with Twitter. Once this is done, you keep a look-out for special hash tags like #Amexbeach, #Amexcoffee, #Amexdining etc. These hashtags could be directly from Amex or even from the brands themselves. When you tweet the hashtags, you’ll have the offer loaded directly onto your saved card. All you then have to do is to visit the retail location, swipe your card to avail the offer! No coupons, no short codes… nothing!

A few of the offers currently available on the Amex Twitter page (@AmericanExpress) include:

Tweet #AmexZappos, get $10 back 1x on next $75+ online purch w/synced Amex Card!

Tweet #Amex1800flowers, get $10 back 1x on next $50+ online purch w/synced Amex Card!

Tweet #AmexMcDonalds, get $5 back 1x on next $5+ in store purch w/synced Amex Card!

This is intelligent instant gratification taken to a whole new level. Amex is able to promote increased usage of their cards and gain social mentions while enabling users to get hold of great savings instantly. Win-win for both with Twitter being the free-to-use platform of choice.

“Sync. Tweet. Save.” Is being showcased at SXSW 2012. It is currently only available to users in the USA. Wonder when some savvy bank and retailers in the UAE will implement something like this? Any takers?

It’s that time of year when I start thinking about where to go for a Summer vacation.  Should I take a city break and visit friends and family, or should I go on a beach vacation to work on my tan while sipping on exotic fruit cocktails?

Well KLM have thrown a spanner in the works this year.  They are offering travel into space aboard the SCX Lynx spacecraft.  The journey takes you to Curacao where the spaceflight will commence.  After a mission briefing and medical check, you are ready for take-off from Hato Airport.  You rapidly accelerate into orbit, breaking the sound barrier and reaching a maximum altitude of 100km.  Here you experience weightlessness and marvel at breath-taking views of the planet.  As you re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere, prepare for a maximum 4.5 g-force experience before safely gliding back to Earth in Curacao.

Super cool! I think this beats going to see the family or any exotic fruit cocktail on the beach.

The only question I have now is, how many frequent flyer points do I get and can I check-in online?

If you pride yourself on your truly-awesome search skills, maybe it is time to pit yourself against the Big G. Every morning at 12:01 a.m. Eastern Time, Google releases a daily puzzle challenge for the geeky search masses. Featured at ‘A Google a Day’ the puzzle challenges  avid searchers to find and post their answers as quickly as they can. There are a host of other sites that help spread the word but commenters often spoil things by revealing the correct answer.

Today’s puzzle (rather yesterday’s for this part of the world) is:

“You’re at the intersection of Tai Mo Shan Road and Route Twisk searching for a mountain to hike. How many feet high is the nearest park’s highest peak?”

Come on now, give it a shot!

The buzz around the social web is that soon mobile phones will outnumber people on our planet. While this is undoubtedly great news for telecom operators and phone companies, what does it really mean for the good old website?

Think about it. When was the last time you actually typed in a URL into your mobile phone browser to access something? For search, you probably used an app as you did for social networks like Facebook and Twitter. A built-in app brought YouTube content streaming to you while foursquare located your presence on maps. Your contacts are searchable through specific apps and you can Skype them, post on their walls, instant message them and even connect with them; all without ever having to go to a website. Each time you wanted to morph a friend’s face on a quirky image, you probably used an app. You even shared the end result through apps. Your email is pushed (or pulled) to your phone as is your news. If you are the sort, you even read and edit your documents and presentations on the move.

More and more sites are releasing companion apps with (or even before) they actually launch on the www. What you read, whom you follow and what content you consume is already decided by major players in the social network world. The interesting part is that they are able to do this without your ever having to visit a website. Any website. Everything was facilitated through apps resident right on your mobile device. With near field communication becoming popular, you can soon even buy and sell stuff without going through websites!

Think about what that means the next time your client asks you to build a website. Really. Or else, you’ll find your business going the same way as the good old dodo.

But last week I received an invite that was to a The Woman’s Lunchbox and no shades of pink, shoes or handbags were to be found.  The topic also intrigued me; Social Media: Return on Investment.

I can’t say that I learnt anything new from today’s session, but what I liked most about this talk was the bringing together of such diverse and great minds in one panel and hearing how important social media is for them in their business.

Akanksha Goel, Executive Director at Socialize really had her finger on the pulse and has done some great work for clients here in the region.

Gail Potter gave her experiences as Content Manager at ExpatWoman.com in various countries here in the Middle East.

From the client side Mahitab Hamed shared her knowledge from her role as  Marketing Manager for Freisland Campina Middle East managing several brands.

Saba Wahid who is highly active in social media with her own blog site Culinary Delights.

And from another perspective, Aisha Ali from Dubai School of Government’s Communications and External Affairs.

With social media growing at a rate of 160% here in the Middle East (the biggest growth rate in the world) in English and Arabic, we can not ignore it.  It is not just for the younger generation and certainly is not just a fad.

I am looking forward to the next Woman’s Lunchbox event (as long as there is no pink in the invite).

Ever since website usability came onto the scene, designers and information architects have fallen all over themselves to stick to the principles of usability. One side effect of this has been that the vast majority of new websites look like they’ve been forced through the same old cookie cutter. Sure the designs have been radical and the content organisation fresh. But everyone chose not to mess around with the navigational elements.

Fortunately for us, there are still a few mavericks out there who choose to swim against the tide. I like the approach three of them have taken with regard to re-defining navigation. Whether they are usable or not… you be the judge!

http://www.hellogoodlooking.fi

http://www.sectionseven.com

http://www.gleis3.wm03.de

What I liked most about this interactive identity is that it moves away from the static nature of most brands and can be creatively applied and themed on all digital media platforms. Read more…

They’ve been around for decades. They are quick, inexpensive to produce and very effective at adding an interactive layer to two-dimensional printed advertisements. Most brands however, continue to struggle with them. In the annals of advertising lore, notable failures far outnumber success stories. Which probably explains why QR (or quick response) codes have been written off by most marketing pundits.

But is the QR code really doomed? Or have most agencies, unable to comprehend their potential, been abusing them in all possible ways? Take the recently run campaign by Visa Gold, (pictured) which is plastered across all the metro stations and malls. The initial design called for a subtle gray QR code that fit beautifully into the layout. Trouble is this didn’t provide for enough contrast to get the code working! Imagine how many users were frustrated when they tried getting it to work. Now, there are ugly black patches stickered on top of the design making it unsightly in addition to advertising the fact that it wasn’t thought through. I’ll bet very few of the initial users are going to be coming back for a second helping.

QR codes demand an active, engaged audience. You know – that rare specie who is willing to search for and download an App, point at a square piece of code on a random surface and wait, hoping to gain access to unspecified content which could be anything ranging from a YouTube video to a basic link to a website or (rarely) free downloadable content that truly adds value. When brands reward them with valuable content that makes their experience better, they will lap it up and reward said brand with clicks indicating loyalty. Mess up and QR codes as a whole get a bad name.

It is actually up to the brand to intelligently make use of QR codes. There is no point in including a QR code randomly in a print advertisement to guide people to a website when it offers no additional value. There is even less point to doing the same thing online when the user can just click a link to get to said website! Just like what these guys, who really should know better, have deplorably done.

While we all wait with bated breath for someone, somewhere to get it right, here are some fundamental questions that anyone planning a campaign with QR codes must necessarily consider.
Is there a genuine business objective?
Does the campaign add value for the consumer?
Where is the campaign likely to happen?
Does the venue have adequate Wi-Fi or Internet access?
Does the QR campaign make access to content simpler?
Lastly, are you simply doing this for the perceived ‘cool’ quotient?

Try it out honestly. You’ll see whether you should toy with QR at all!

In the last issue of Culture Pub (http://www.culturepub.fr), I discovered a new LG commercial. And for once, I was pleasantly surprised to admit it is pretty cool.

Breaking away from their usually stale brand of advertising. You know the one where they take an otherwise pretty mundane product feature and shove it as deep as possible down our throat. The kind that makes you think you’ll never get these 30 seconds of your life back.

Well this time, they managed to make me laugh while clearly demonstrating the USP of their new vacuum cleaner. Check it out on (http://tinyurl.com/6lhp8r4).

Of course, it’s from Australia and they are used to raise the bar, but still, doing this on LG is a feat in itself. Kudos to George Patterson Y&R in Sydney (http://www.gpyr.com.au/). A great demonstration of their “ruthlessly relevant” motto.

Chicken or egg

Music consumption habits change, and here’s a cool info-graphic to show current trends. Philip Bump at Mediaite poses an interesting question in his post Breaking down then rebuilding the media industry one atom of content at a time , with reference to the digitalisation of music; Did people gain a taste for picking out their favourite nuggets – or did MP3s allow people to realise a latent desire? There are fundamental changes in the way we continue to consume media – but are all shifts driven by human desire, or does technology start to alter the way we think?

$35K to create

YouTube launches another campaign to cultivate original, quality content on its servers >>READ

Adidas converges

Adidas’ new commercial looks to weave all its sub brands into one message >>WATCH

Social currency

AmEx campaign positions rewards points as social currency >>READ

Arabic web fonts

Shasha Font is a great project funded entirely by Google to create the perfect Arabic font tailored for digital screens >>SEE

Mini-trends

Venturebeat discuss nine mini-trends set to be of vital importance in the near future. Trends covered range from increased privacy desires to the support for home workers and new applications for nano-technology >>LEARN

Top 10 video innovators

Fast Company share their thoughts on the most innovative companies. This particular link looks at the key players in video innovation, and why they are there >>LOOK

“Don’t let ticks and fleas become your pets.
Petzone
Where pets come first.”

Advertising Agency: Tonic International, Dubai, UAE
Creative Director: Vincent Raffray
Art Director: Peter Walker
Copywriter: Vincent Raffray
Photographer: Rainer Holz
Published: August 2010

That’s tonicinternational.com