Sony Bravia Spoof

Remember the Tango spoof of the Sony bouncy balls ads. Well... this isn't as funny but it does go to show that the Sony idea is strong and interesting enough to precipitate spoofs.

Spoofability - strong creative ideas that can be picked up by anyone with a camcorder or a mac and reworked.

Master Card
Sony
iPod
Nike
Tesco
M&S
Sony Bravia

Smirnoff Water

From for the love of food:

"I have just been dying to start writing this blog entry! Yesterday I was reading through yumsugar and I came across their post “Pure Spring Water + Alcohol = Awesome?“. Oh man, when I read this the first thing that sprung to mind was - they’re adding water to alcohol..and calling it beer?? And, people want to pay for that? I envision workers in a factory dumping out 2/3 of a bottle of Smirnoff and then filling it back up with tap “spring” water. I am interested to know who goes for this stuff? The health-conscious alcoholic?? Don’t get me wrong, I love a glass of red wine or a margarita or a glass of cider or a glass of sparkling wine or a piña colada or…you get my drift. But, give me the real stuff - don’t add water to it and try to sell it to me! Give me a freaking break people (Smirnoff)!

Here is their gimick..."





This is getting quite a bit of publicity. It's probably just a loss leader to get the message across that Smirnoff is very clear/pure/refined vodka. Maybe...

Happy Birthday to the Beam Team Blog!

It seems amazing that the Beam Team Blog has been going for a year now! Thanks for the 6,453 visits... and all the ideas that you have contributed.

Special thanks go to Aiden for "baking" such a great cake and to Lulu, Laura, Paul and Jeeda for being great posters. If anyone else wants to join the party and become a contributor just drop me an email or post a comment.

Looking forward to the blog going from strength to strength in its second year.

Absolut New Orleans - Special Bottling

Via the ever brilliant NotCot:

"Absolut New Orleans “the flavor of inspiration” - apparently Absolut (insert city name here) is no longer just an ad you see, but they are now becoming real liquors of their own. The limited edition Absolut New Orleans is a fruity mango vodka with a spicy black pepper kick (sounds yummy, must find some!). 100% of the profits from this product are donated to various Gulf Region charities. Yesterday, at Tales of the Cocktail, the annual New Orleans culinary and cocktail festival, this special flavor was officially announced. You can even go vote for the next city (i vote LA)."

Always doing something newsworthy, interesting and fun aren't they!

Brilliant Guinness Responsible Drinking Campaign

Genius.

Patrón Online Social Community

Patron hopes to cozy up to tequila drinkers through a new community site that solicits information of new trends, clubs and eating establishments.

The "Patron Social Club," hosted by a video avatar "concierge" in a white suit, is a forum for its customers to find and share cool experiences.

Throughout their site visit, the concierge urges visitors to contribute content around food, drinks, nightlife, cars, technology and other lifestyle areas. All submissions are vetted before they go live on the site.

Like Anheuser-Busch's Bud.tv, the Patron Social Club has a multi-step entry process, requiring visitors to enter a user name, password, date of birth, full address, e-mail, then complete a questionnaire of their interest areas and brand preferences. Beyond the legally required information, the additional steps will give visitors a more customized experience on the site, despite the extra time required to get to it, said Megan Smith, brand relationship marketing, Richards Relationship Marketing, which crafted the campaign with parent agency The Richards Group and interactive sibling Click Here.

Patron is following in the footsteps of brands like Coke and MasterCard, which have tried to build community-based Web destinations around the attraction to their brands. While others have found it hard going to establish communities, Patron has a cadre of premium tequila enthusiasts who already look to it for lifestyle cues, Smith said.

"They wear it often as a symbol or declaration of uniqueness," she said.

Patron hopes to turn that affinity into a customer-relationship marketing bond with users. The site offers an opt-out to receiving Patron marketing messages.

"The focus is creating a means to provide those who are advocates of Patron an opportunity to interact, and to find out how we can help improve and better their lives with providing information on trends and social scenes," she said.

The Patron Social Club site also includes background information on the making of the company's tequila, photos from Patron-sponsored events and a tool for finding out the history of each bottle of Patron tequila via a unique number included on each product.

The site is part of the Richards-crafted "Simply perfect" campaign, which launched a little over a year ago. The effort also includes simplyperfect.com, a site dedicated to debating perfection. The idea is while all forms of perfection are open to discussion, when it comes to tequila, Patron is crowned the best without debate.

Richards is supporting the site with print ads that will run in regional and lifestyle magazines like GQ, Details and Blender. It will also use direct mail and e-mail marketing.

Bacardi's New Emphasis on Mixing

Everyone knows Bacardi as a spirit that goes with Coke but noone really thinks of it in any other capacity. This is what the brand is hoping to address through its latest £15 million "Versatility" campaign. The brilliant TV ad (see below) broke last month and makes up part of a growing trend amongst food and drinks brands to position the product as an integral part of a wider function. For example think of the Lurpak's fantastic recent 'Good Food Deserves Respect' work (also below). This doesn't simply shout about how good the butter is, but instead makes you consider it as an inherent part of a wider experience, in this case delicious and wholesome cooking. Bacardi is moving towards this too, and has come up with a range of new serves, including three new "perfect" serves: with ginger, cranberry and soda and lime. This is definitely something to think about in terms of alcohol usage occasions.