Esquire Magazine just came out with an AR-featured (Augmented Reality) issue. David Granger, Editor-in-chief at Esquire, appears in the video above to explain how the technology works. This is an innovative and exciting option for print magazines, because (like I mentioned in the last post) today more than ever, people are getting their information online. So a print magazine can immediately become interactive when you point the QR code to your webcam on your computer. It takes a second or two to recognize the code, and then a world of additional multimedia content is unveiled.

There has been a lot of talk about the interactive advertising initiative. It’s a great idea, and not just because it got a lot of people talking about it and buying the magazine to discover it. It’s mainly cool because that form of traditional media is dieing right now, and they are scrambling to figure out ways to adapt to today’s digital environment. That being said, I see it more as an advertising campaign that includes several viral videos similar to this first one rather than an “enhanced editorial plan.”

The aspect that amazes me the most is the amazing job they’ve done building content with celebrities — who doesn’t love Robert Downey Jr?? Seriously the guy is an incredible actor and has a great personality to build a campaign around. This is the real added value of the initiative and possibly the hardest thing to replicate for other publications and creative agencies.

by Jonathan Marshall

The Sun Newspaper decided to go with a very unique twist on Apple’s commercials in their latest advertising campaign. In one of their viral videos, they basically used Apple’s personality and recognizable brand traits for the foundation of their video, and then inserted their appropriate content. They used a similar background music, the same basic format, a similar concept (explaining how to use the device), and then began bashing Apple by describing the advantages of using the magazine over the IPHONE.

Thumbs up to their creative agency that came up with this concept. It’s funny because I, like many people nowadays, get all of my information online. I realize this is somewhat generational, but it seems like I hardly ever see people read through all thte way through a newspaper anymore, our attention spans suck. And the idea of doing so seems more and more foreign these days.

As ridiculous and equally frightening as the premise of this commercial may seem — people really do have to re-educate themselves on how to consume their information through more traditional forms of media like the newspaper or print magazines. Just goes to show how Apple has contributed to that shift of social interaction with their innovative products, clever campaigns and solid brand strategies.

Since you definitely can’t read the small font at the bottom of this first ad, it says, “To get the message out about a McDonald’s free coffee promotion, a common street light was transformed into a giant carafe pouring a cup of coffee.”

The second one is a little more self-explanatory, but it might take a second to register… These bus stop windows are full of coffee beans…

In the world of Creative… there has been mixed feedback on this advertising agency, campaign and I’m kind of on the fence. While it certainly is eye catching, I wonder if clients with smaller budgets than McDonalds would pay for this type of creative? Usually, if they do, they have a progressive approach to grass roots marketing and see the potential value through increased product/brand recognition.

Companies like McDonald’s that purchase these campaigns obviously realize the strength of their brand recognition and hope to take a little chunk of business away from their competition (i.e., Starbucks) by getting people in the door to try their coffee. It’s a tough battle.

We’ll give them an A+ for the message though. If giving away coffee doesn’t get people in the door… what will? After all, “FREE COFFEE UNTIL MAY 3rd AT McDONALDS.” sells itself.

What do you think?

by Jonathan Marshall

To encourage people to take the staircase instead of the escalator, Volkswagen converted a set of steps at the Odenplan subway station in Stockholm into working piano keys. DDB Stockholm, the agency behind the campaign, considers these mediums to be effective Stunt or Ambient advertising. The idea is to get people talking about those crazy piano stairs in the subway, or the weird whistling trash can – word of mouth.

These are just two of the many efforts that appear on the carmaker’s Rolighetsteorin.se or “Theory of Fun” website, which showcases efforts to get people to change by simply making things more fun. Additionally, the ideas are centered around activities that are not normally fun but still productive – like encouraging people to get more exercise by choosing to walk up stairs instead of an escalator, as well as by throwing away their trash.

Volkswagen already has a lot of brand recognition, they don’t need to get their name out there or be cornered into a specific advertising approach. Generally, the bigger and more recognizable the brand, the more potential creative slack the advertising agency has to experiment with new mediums.