The photo of “The Martian” in the potato section is making the rounds online, as Albert Bartlett Potatoes, who partnered with Twentieth Century Fox, is cleverly using the film about an astronaut stranded on the red planet, to promote their line of red potatoes.
In the movie Matt Damon’s character is trying to grow potatoes in Martian soil to ensure his survival, until a rescue mission can reach him.
Images via gizmodo
As the first month of the new year is coming to an end, so is the open enrollment period for health insurance. And health insurance companies want to make sure you know it – with mailings, phone calls and advertisements…
One company is taking to the approach with humor: OSCAR – the healthier health insurance. While the campaign launched last year, it is still going strong… too bad they only provide coverage in New York, New Jersey, California, and Texas.
This is a first. Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year is not a word, but rather an emoji – 😂 – ‘Face with Tears of Joy’.
Oxford Dictionaries said that the pictograph “best reflected the ethos, mood and preoccupations of 2015” and provided a brief history of the word: “An emoji is ‘a small digital image or icon used to express an idea or emotion in electronic communication’; the term emoji is a loanword from Japanese, and comes from e ‘picture’ + moji ‘letter, character’. The similarity to the English word emoticon has helped its memorability and rise in use, though the resemblance is actually entirely coincidental: emoticon (a facial expression composed of keyboard characters, such as ;), rather than a stylized image) comes from the English words emotion and icon.”
The use of emojis has seen an enormous growth, as usage more than tripled in 2015 over the previous year. While emojis have been adopted as a form of expression, even bridging language barriers, they are always open to interpretation. What the writer tries to articulate while using a certain emoji might not necessarily mean exactly what it stands for or the recipient reads into.
Take the quiz below to see what I mean:
For the shortlist of other contenders for Word-of-the-Year, check out the article on Oxford Dictionaries blog.
A sense of humor can go a long way and businesses can profit by engaging with customers and making an impression by stepping outside the realm of the expected.
“Laughter relieves stress and boredom, boosts engagement and well-being, and” – according to Harvard Business Review – “spurs not only creativity and collaboration but also analytic precision and productivity.”
When Doc Emmett Brown (Christopher Lloyd) and Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) went on their second adventure, traveling 30 years back in time to October 21, 2015, they most likely didn’t anticipate the excitement that would accompany the movie more than a quarter of a century later.
While everybody is talking about “Back to the Future II” and which predictions came true (video conferencing, big screen tv’s, virtual-reality goggles, the cubs (having a chance at) winning the world series) and which didn’t (flying cars, hover boards, “Jaws 19”) – two brands are emerging as true winners of product placement years after the fact.
PepsiCo released a limited edition Pepsi bottle today to pay tribute to Marty McFly’s arrival in the future and to celebrate one of the biggest movie franchises of all time.
PepsiCo even released a commercial for the product launch. Not that it was necessary to sell the product. Retailing at $20.15 – to commemorate the year – the bottle had a limited run of 6,500 and appeared to have sold out immediately.
Nike, whose shoes had also been featured in the 1989 film, released 1500 replica pairs in 2011, and although they were not of the self-lacing type as in the movie, the company raised $4.7 million dollars for the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research.
Having filed a patent back in 2009, Nike did confirm that an actual self-lacing shoe was in development, teasing fans yesterday with a tweet to Michael J. Fox stating “see you tomorrow.”
.@realmikefox see you tomorrow.
— Nike (@Nike) October 21, 2015
Maybe today is the future?
Update: Self-lacing are indeed here. Nike send a pair to Michael J. Fox along with a hand written letter from Tinker Hatfield, the shoe’s inventor. The self-lacing shoes will be produced in 2016 and once again auctioned off to benefit the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research. The actor showed them off, appearing on Jimmy Kimmel Live.
IKEA has been known to come up with creative ways to promote it’s catalogs and store openings. And this year was no different. IKEAS Switzerland (Agency: Wirz Werbung Zürich) got Germany’s famous literary critic Hellmuth Karasek to review the catalog like any other piece of literature, since it is the most widely distributed “book” in the world.
“It is a furnished novel,” he says tongue-in-cheek. “The characters are forced to crowd themselves between the furniture, they seldom get their say, they barely speak coherently — and yet this work has become such a success.”
With summer comes the opportunity for marketing approaches that are out of the ordinary. Below are some fun campaigns that took summer refreshment to a new level:
Soda Machine Shower – In 2012 beach-goers in Brazil got to enjoy a refreshing taste of Sprite soda, along with a free shower! Sprite installed a giant (water – not soda) shower on the beach. By giving away samples, combined with the refreshing effects of a cool shower, the brand made people associate the flavor of Sprite with refreshment – a brilliant campaign!
Share a Coke – Beginning in the summer of 2013, Coca-Cola made a big splash when it swapped its famous logo with the most popular names, so people could Share a Coke with the people who matter most.
“The campaign capitalised on the global trend of self-expression and sharing, but in an emotional way. Coke is big enough to pull off an idea like this, which speaks to the iconic nature of the brand.” – Marketing Director Lucie Austin
Heat Resistant Water – Back in 2009 Perrier presented itself as the drink that can withstand melting temperatures. Bottles of Perrier appear as cool as ever in the heat blistering environments of the tennis court, the night club and beach. The campaign won a Silver Press Lion at Cannes International Advertising Festival 2009.
Hot Dog Legs – Not a beverage advertisement, but one that plays on a favorite summer meme, Mettre Alimentos based its summer ads on the “hot dog legs.”
Coke image via Share A Coke | Perrier image via The Inspiration Room | Mettre Alimentos image via Creative Awards
While plenty of PowerPoints presentations have a reputation to bore people to tears, they are still widely used to distribute information. And a great presentation can get the point across, while holding the audience’s attention. To help out, Udemy, the place to learn real world skills online, put together this infographic:
The Outings Project was started by the artist and filmmaker Julien de Casabianca, after he visited the Louvre last year, noticing a lone painting in a back corner. Wanting to get the painting seen and appreciated by people who may never visit the museum, he made a copy of the painting and pasted it on a public street.
Since setting free the first painting, people in several cities have followed suit, turning this into a participative project, which Casabianca says, was not the original idea, but one he embraces.
Below are some favorites that have popped up in the project gallery:
New York, USA – The Metropolitan Museum of Art
San Francisco, USA – De Young – Legion of Honor, Fine Art Museum of San Francisco
Frankfurt, Germany – Städel Museum
Pantone announced the release of its newest color – Minion Yellow – based on the bespectacled and bright yellow little creatures in the Despicable Me movies, which marks Pantone’s first ever movie-inspired color release.
“Color is contextual and right now there is a desire for colors that are more vibrant and uplifting,” Pantone Color Institute vice president Laurie Pressman said in a news release. “This is especially the case with the yellows, so given the worldwide popularity of the Minions, it seemed only natural to name a color after a character for the first time in our history.”
For obvious reasons this is another color we can give two enthusiastic thumbs up.
Minions picture was created with image from Pantone Color Institute