Absolut Pears UGC

From NOTCOT:

"Next in the ever growing family of Absolut fruit flavors… PEAR. And this time they are selling it with some gorgeous videos of things being blown up… from apples, espressos, watches, donuts and more… (see videos below). Apparently this is the Absolut Temptation."

What's really cute about this is the way they provide bloggers with all the tools required to make this go mega viral.



One of the other cool things is the way the let you create your own temptation video... I'm sure this could get a lot more sordid!



Another great way of showing what a brand's global website can do as well as highlighting that spirits drinkers, shock horror, do use the internet. I think this would have been better had Absolut let go a little bit more. But I guess with booze it's normally safety first.

Visit the Absolut Pear site here.

Distill your own Spirit

From Coolhunting:

""The Still" is an edition of 15 hand-blown pyrex receptacles based on a complex mathematical formula that Kinmont derived to condense, reduce and transform a bottle of wine over the course of dinner. By the end of a meal, the wine becomes eau de vie (or with the included Lemon Verbena, it makes a digestif), which Project No. 8 co-founder Brian Janusiak describes as an incredible sensation, evaporating instantly in your mouth. In addition to the plant, the kit also comes with a case of Cabernet Sauvignon that Kinmont himself made and candles that he designed and cast. The first edition (there are only two remaining) is $1,750 and can be purchased from Project No. 8 by calling +1 212 925 5599."

Could be a great piece for some brand education work. It would certainly get people talking.

Brand Enthusiasm

We are all getting very excited about the concept of Brand/Marketing Enthusiasm as a move on from Brand Engagement. The best person to find out about Marketing Enthusiasm is John Grant on his Brand Tarot blog. He is vigorously expounding the theory in an open source manner with his a presentation on Marketing Enthusiasm available to view on Flickr here.



To read his full post on Marketing Enthusiasm click here and see below for an extract.

"This should be understood as a radical new alternative to marketing aspiration (image). It is about being involved in things you have a passion for vs passively buying something which might make you look good. That’s still a factor in some markets - eg fashion - but even here TopShop have shown that marketing enthusiasm can play a role.

Enthusiasm is if you think about it the key driver of internet 2.0
eBay, YouTube, Flickr, Wikipedia… no brand image, but a lot of enthusiasm."

1. find a bigger enthusiasm than your brand
2. Give people a way to get involved
3. Innovate to build life-relevance
4. Co-operate
5. Catch On
6. Partner Up
7. Build a Molecule

Have one strategy; ie one enthusiasm. (Anyone who insists on calling this a proposition, that’s fine - it’s nearly Christmas after all - but I would tend to call it your issue or agenda). For instance Top Shop brings the high fashion experience to the high street. Then you need to add multiple ideas to keep it fresh, attract different segments, develop it organically, avoid being cling film wrapped with ‘consistency. Top Shop and London Fashion Week, Kate Moss, Personal Dressing, the AIDS charity auction, vintage range…"

This is all gold dust and is fleshed out more fully in his book "The Brand Innovation Manifesto" and to get involved in the community that is chatting about this idea get involved in the Brand Tarot blog.

His idea really strikes a chord with all the stuff we have been focusing on recently and fits very snugly with the concept that how and what you do is far more important than what you say.



Hoopla also has some brilliant support for this idea as well. CP+B have been doing this work for years and their book is brilliantly engaging piece of communication in its own right. Work such as Subservient Chicken for Burger King, the Rabbit for VW and Truth against smoking is completely on the money.



What does everyone think? I'm very enthusiastic about it for starters.

Recent Visitor Map

Most hits are from the UK and US but it's great to see visitors from Europe, Russia, Asia and Australia too.

Apple + Mitchell & Webb

These are getting a very mixed reaction. I rather like them but Mitchell and Webb are getting a lot of criticism for selling out:

"Yep; well, I've never seen the U.S. ads these are based on, but they got some stick for relying on "image" stereotypes, and this one is pretty substance-free too. Wouldn't mind if they'd used more appropriate ones, but the "PCs are just office machines and can't do home stuff" is about 10-years out-of-date."

"Obviously never heard of Dave Gorman - a man who can effortlessly capture the craziest of events through pie charts."

"...Impressive? as though that's the fruition of their talent? Love the idea that '2 british sitcom wirters' need validation from some shite advertising campaign. That's their finest hour?! Bollocks. They blew it."

Either way, it's work that's getting talked about.

New Guinness Ad

I like it. It's worth talking about.

Great article on Hendrick's gin

Brief extract from the excellent adliterate blog:

"Stop brushing the 'mother's ruin' heritage under the shag pile but embrace it with the ferocity of a dog on heat. Wallow in the debauched world of 18th century London whose 17,000 gin houses were rapidly sending the capital to the dogs. In particular design your bottle to look like something straight out of Hogarth's Gin Lane. This will give you stand out on the back bar, curiosity value and a way in to a wonderfully rich visual language.

Wrap this counter category approach up in a personality that revels in the unusualness of the product - maybe publishing your own newspaper, holding an annual Chap Olympiad, encouraging bartenders to play croquet or providing rushed commuters with momentary relief."

For the rest of the post click here and explore the links.



It's a great case study of how to launch a brand into a stagnant market and highlights that using the internet in the spirit of the brand is a very powerful tool. What I like most is their use of well thought out merchandise that people actually want in their lives. This brand has Ooze written all over it.