Heineken Street Marketing and Product Sampling in New York City: Free Beer.

OK Heineken Light I'm impressed... at about 2 PM got an call from an excited advertising friend out for a lunch hour walk in front of Grand Central. "Heineken Light is handing out beer on the street." We both agreed that it was pretty incredible to set up a bar on a heavily trafficked sidewalk in New York at midday. Impressive ability to obtain permits. And a big idea...combining street marketing and product sampling of beer. Surprised there isn't more activity...let's hope it's still up there after work. I'd like to see a better themeline than "Share the good" and a more provocative street bar...but kudos for a good idea. Now...will we be able to drink free beers throughout NYC? Just got a final communications from my street correspondent in response to my question about the size of the sample cups. "They only had small cups...I had two." (Thanks to him for the instant Blackberry pictures, by the way).

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Billboard Roadblocks: Like Internet Roadblocks, Stand Out from the Static.

Here are a few more examples of billboard roadblocks. I know, I know...I'm obsessed...I've gotten carried away. But...I can't believe how many examples you can find all over New York City in mid August. Billboard roadblocks are based on the exact same principle as internet roadblocks (see previous two posts)...the need to dominate a crowded, noisy space filled with too much static and too many messages. These work for me. If you want to ride the boards (ad lingo from the Mad Men age): Chile @ 43rd and 7th across from the Hard Rock Cafe in Times Square, The Cleaner on the Adidas Store @ Crosby & E. Houston, Jaguar @ Watts and Thompson St.

Click here to take a look at my new group blog Cable Marketing.

Billboard Roadblocks: More Internet Roadblock Inspired Outdoor Boards

I'm coining a new name called Billboard Roadblocks for traditional multiple panel outdoor ads. Billboard Roadblocks. Please start using it as often as possible, and we'll start a trend. Jugular has just finished one of our extensive reviews of billboard ad space in New York and have discovered, as mentioned in the previous post, this new phenomenon of using multiple billboards in the same style as internet billboards. The first image, taken from a video game Red Alert 3, is another example of how to take over an internet page with adjoining units. The following two images show just how this same method is being applied to traditional outdoor billboards: the fabulous Wamu Theater guitar (the best example of a Billboard Roadblock, we think) and the impossible to miss MVP billboards from the Soap Opera Network. And yes...you guessed right...direct from Times Square. Stop by now to see them. (Thanks for the photos to Katie the intern).

Click here to take a look at my new group blog Cable Marketing.

Billboards and Roadblocks: Traditional Outdoor Inspired By Internet Advertising

Jugular, our ad agency, is on 39th Street, three blocks from Times Square. But I haven't been out much of late because we've been preoccupied with a new internet advertising account where we've been creating banners of all shapes and sizes. Recently, we sent one our interns out to document the current state of outdoor advertising at the heart of the universe where the ball drops and guess what we found? Billboard and wallscape advertising patterned after internet banners....specifically roadblocks where two or more internet ads of various sizes combine to form a unit which dominates the screen...hence, of course the very witty name. So, here's an example of a Discovery Channel wallscape for Mythbusters done internet style. A screen capture of an actual Mythbusters internet roadblock follows...which combines a horizontal and a skyscraper unit to capture more space (and therefore more attention) on the very small scale of the computer screen. Of course, the internet roadblock has a whole host of interactive games, videos and more. But, fundamentally these units are startlingly similar in concept, don't you think?

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Music I'm Listening To These Days.

So...indulge me a bit here. I know this is an advertising blog and I know blogs should stay on message.

But it's Friday. I want to have some fun & I'm repurposing a list from a response I provided to another blog where the author asked what 7 songs you were listening to right now. Here are mine (8). Singles for the most part...but also love the records they're from.

Radiohead: "Creep": Back on the British charts again with the Greatest Hits release. Great slashing guitar. And then...there's the lead singer (YouTube 1994 version).

Coldplay: "Viva La Vida" (the song): Infectious. A Brian Eno production at its best.

Arcade Fire: "(Antichrist Television Blues)": Oh...my...such a fabulous Odyssey. Watch it on YouTube (Glastonbury).

Arcade Fire: "Intervention": THE late 2000's protest song: YouTube: Glastonbury.

Amy Macdonald: "Let's Start a Band": Only available in the UK. Terrific folkie who is 20. Find it on YouTube along with a lot of other songs...most live.

Sia: "Day Too Soon" Famous for singing the song behind the final scene of "Six Feet Under." A Gumby voice that contorts into amazing sounds.

My Morning Jacket "Evil Urges": Whole new record. Great wide ranging work. Challenging.

U2: "Love is Blindness" Always listening to this. One of my absolute favorite songs. Live is best for the searing Edge guitar solo (see the Zoo TV Sydney Show above).

Apple 1984 Actual Focus Group Test (in 2007)

Earlier this year I wrote a long, historical review, of the Apple 1984 spot and why I thought it was the best commercial ever produced for any Superbowl: (http://thenewadvertising.blogspot.com/2008/02/best-super-bowl-ad-ever-apple-1984.html). Recently, my business partner and Jugular creative director, Jeff Griffith, told me about this inspired piece of work that was used to open the 2007 Hatch Awards show, a Boston creative competition. The brilliant video is a send up of advertising testing, the bane of all creatives, where "consumers" sit in a room and opine about a storyboard rendering of the spot (which you see at the beginning of this video...hang in there through this section...it's worth it).

We ad types sit behind the glass and listen intently to what often are a range of inane and off the wall opinions. The problem, as you'll see here, is that the respondents (focus group lingo) rarely can make the kind of directional comments that can improve the work. For example: "confusing," "too symbolic," "literary allusions to George Orwell bore me" or "Nazi imagery has been overused." Instead they insist on rewriting the spot to "improve" it. Well...here the focus group trashes one of the best tv spots ever produced. And this is a REAL group. A perfect testament to how focus group testing can kill the best work...and how hard it is to "test" truly revolutionary, unique advertising.

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Coldplay's Deceptive "Free" Concert in Madison Square Garden: Only 3,500 Winners Get A Pair of Tickets.

So...at 4:30 this afternoon I got an email where Coldplay announced the opening of the contest for their "free" concert in Madison Square Garden in New York where ALL the tickets are free. I'm really bothered by how Coldplay handled this announcement. It was certainly easy enough to enter the contest and that went well. UNTIL I READ THE FINE PRINT. Remember I'm an ad guy so I read the fine print. The Madison Square Garden concert only has 7,000 WINNERS (even less, actually, since they're distributed as 3,500 pairs). Shame on you Coldplay. What was originally billed as a "free" concert" (which certainly seemed like all the Garden seats would be given away) has become a show where about a third of the total tickets or so are free (with a 20,000 plus concert capacity). Not a good way to build credibility with your fan base. Would have been like Radiohead (the gold standard of free) saying "name your price" but restricting the pay what you want program for "In Rainbows" to the first 5,000 people. A great chance for terrific communication blown. Wonder how many people will see this, and will it be publicized? Or...is the fine print just an inadvertent error? Or are they only filling 7,000 Garden seats? Brixton doesn't have the same clause? Weigh in Coldplay fans.