Budweiser UK Launches Knitbot, a Twitter-Powered Sweater Knitting Machine

Budweiser Knitbot

It looks like this year big brands have discovered the lowly holiday sweater, and have made it a part of their marketing campaigns leading up to Christmas. First out was Coke Zero’s Sweater Generator contest, where fans could create a mockup of a holiday sweater using the online tool. The 100 sweaters with the most votes will be produced and awarded to their creators just in time for the holidays.

Budweiser UK has launched a seasonal sweater-themed promotion in support of designated drivers. The brand is using Knitbot, a Twitter-powered knitting machine that responds to tweets that include the hashtag #jumpers4des.

The Knitbot will work around-the-clock for 10 days (November 26 to December 10) creating the red sweaters that include images of the Budweiser’s iconic Clydesdale horses. On December 11, designated drivers in the UK can apply on the Budweiser UK Facebook page for a chance to win one of the creations.

[via PopSop]

UK

IKEA Norway Creates Campaign to Sell Customers’ Used Furniture

IKEA Norway - The Second Hand

A frequent site in urban and suburban areas is used furniture placed next to a dumpster or waiting on the curb for pickup. Granted some of these pieces are beyond recovery and are indeed ready for the landfill or scrap heap. But, some pieces of furniture still have life left in them, and just need some TLC to be useful again.

A recently completed campaign for IKEA Norway saw the company and their Oslo-based agency SMFB create a secondary market for customer’s used IKEA furniture. The campaign dubbed “The Second Hand” started with IKEA asking customers who were shopping for new furniture whether they’d like the retailer to help sell their old furniture. From this group the agency selected 50 volunteers and brought their furniture to the studio to star in professional photo and video shoots.

During the next 8-weeks IKEA shared their advertising space across TV, outdoor, print and social media with their Oslo customers. Each ad featured the new IKEA item that the customer had bought and the piece they were getting rid of, along with the actual phone number of the seller

In addition to the advertising placements, for several Sundays the IKEA Norway Facebook page was turned into a Flea Market (or Bruktmarket) where even more customers could post their used furniture for others to buy. The items would be displayed from 11am – 5pm before the fleamarket was closed and the items were deleted from the page.

[via PopSop]

Norway

A&W Tweets Mouth-Watering Response to Rogers Outage

With a service outage affecting nearly two thirds of Rogers 10 million Canadian customers, thousands took the opportunity to use social media to vent their anger and frustration with the company.

However, over at A&W Canada, their social team was taking things in stride, tweeting “#Rogers is down? I needed both hands to hold this Teen Burger anyway.

The post came complete with a first-person view of a fully loaded burger.

Canada

Bertolli Germany Responds with Facebook Flair to Barilla Chairman’s Anti-Gay Comments

Bertolli - Love and Pasta for All

As the week ended, the uproar continued on social media over comments made by Barilla Pasta chairman Guido Barilla in a interview, Wednesday on Italian radio interview.

Barilla commented that: “I would never do (a commercial) with a homosexual family, not for lack of respect but because we don’t agree with them. Ours is a classic family where the woman plays a fundamental role.”

Barilla went on to say, “If gays like our pasta and our advertising, they’ll eat our pasta, if they don’t like it then they will not eat it and they will eat another brand.”

On Friday morning, Bertolli Germany’s social media agency Orca im Hafen, responded with a Facebook status titled “Pasta und Liebe für alle!” (Pasta and Love for all), and image of various “pasta couples” happily dancing their way along a wooden spoon towards their delicious demise.

While there have been calls for a boycott of Barilla products, the controversy is not hurting their social media followers. The total likes on the Barilla Facebook page has increased nearly by nearly 10,000 followers since Thursday.

[via Ad Week]

Germany

How Quick Can You Click? Volkswagen Races Into Your Web Banner

Volkswagen GTi Bannenbahn

Banner Blindness is the name given to explain one of the reasons that internet users ignore banner ads. In fact Doubleclick has reported that the average click through rate for banner ads in the U.S. is a measly 0.11%.

However, this Friday (Sept 13) ad agency ACHTUNG! and Volkswagen will have internet users in the Netherlands paying extra attention to the banner ads on 4 of the country’s most popular web sites, including nu.nl, telegraaf.nl, autoweek.nl, and geenstijl.nl.

The agency will bring the banners to life with a live video feed from a local airport runway where 20 x 25 metre versions of the web pages have been reproduced. On Friday from noon to 4pm (Netherlands time) a stunt driver will pilot a Volkswagen GTi around the runway, speeding and sliding across the reproductions of the web page and through the banner ads. Internet users with quick reflexes have to click on the car when it appears. At the end of the day, the user with the quickest reflexes wins the car in real life.

While only people in the Netherlands can win the car, everyone can test their reflexes at gtibannerbahn.nl.

The Making of Bannerbahn

[via http://www.digitalbuzzblog.com/volkswagen-bannerbahn-live-banner-challenge/]

Netherlands

Argentine Football Player Deletes All of His 92,000 Twitter Followers for Nike Ad Campaign

Argentine Football Player Deletes Twitter Followers for Nike CampaignWith it’s growth as an important social media platform, people have done crazy things to build up the number of their Twitter followers.

Individuals and companies have been even known to purchase huge blocks of fake Twitter followers to try to bolster their social media credibility. Other individuals have deleted part or all of their following to try to reconnect with the audience that truly matters to them.

On August 16, Argentine soccer star Burrito Martinez of the Boca Juniors, surprised everyone by announcing, “Hoy dejé mis 92.112 seguidores para volvermelos a ganar jugando cada partido como el primer partido.”, which in English would read, “Today I erased my 92,112 followers with the idea of winning them back by playing every match as if it were my first.”

The bold move was part of a Nike ad campaign dubbed “Bautismo” (Baptism in English) in which the team were encouraged to play every game as if it was their first. Thanks to the publicity of his bold move, he immediately began to rebuild his Twitter following and has already attracted more than 45,000 followers in two weeks.

The campaign was created by BBDO Argentina.

[via The Denver Egotist]

Argentina

John Lewis Insurance Extends “Things Matter” Campaign with Vine Competition

John Lewis Insurance Vine Competition

UK Insurance company John Lewis is extending the marketing push around their first TV ad “Things Matter” (embedded below) by working with digital agency Steak and 360i London to launch a competition using the social animation app Vine. Earlier this week, it was tweeted that the mobile app can now boast over 40 million users.

Participants are asked to create a Vine of something that matters to them and post it along with the hashtag #WhatMattersMost. First prize for the winner is £1000 worth of gift vouchers, with three weekly winners awarded Canon EOS 700D Digital SLR cameras.

The app is particularly suited to capture stop-motion animation, which was used extensively in the “Things Matter” ad. The ad was created by adam&eveDDB, London and directed by Dougal Wilson for Blink Productions.

The ad features a remake of the Fleetwood Mac classic “Don’t Stop’ by Scottish singer songwriter Nina Nesbitt.

[via The Drum]

UK

Interactive 3D Model of Audi R8 Constructed from Fan Comments

Audi - #OneMillionReasons

Audi Germany have launched an interactive web experience that takes the positive sentiments posted about the brand on social media using the hashtags #onemillionreasons. The comments are presented as a single particle in an interactive 3D model of the Audi R8.

Audi will select eight fans to attend the IAA 2013 in Frankfurt and enjoy a 2 hour escorted R8 fan ride.

Audi fans can search, find and share their contributions through their social media channels or save the 3D model as wallpaper.

The project was created by agency Razorfish and creative production company Minivegas.

[via The Drum]

Germany

Audi invites eight selected fans to visit us at the IAA 2013 in Frankfurt. Take a look behind the scenes at the world’s largest car show and learn new Audi
already know before anyone else.

But then you have the the Frankfurt skyline behind him quickly: At the wheel of an Audi R8, you experience dynamic and agile pure performance.

They also tell us what you like about Audi and with a little luck we may welcome you soon as a pilot Audi R8 in Frankfurt.

Surrender Control of Your Tweets to Raise Awareness of Tourrette Syndrome

Tourette Syndrome Foundation of Canada - Surrender Your Say

Today, (June 19) people who follow my Twitter account may see some unusual tweets. I’ve volunteered control of my Twitter account for the next 24 hours as part of “Surrender Your Say“, a campaign to help raise awareness of Tourette syndrome. I’ll have no control over what is being posted or the frequency that I post, to mimic the sudden involuntary vocal or physical actions associated with the condition.

“The biggest obstacle for people dealing with Tourette Syndrome is the attitude that people have when they see someone with physical and vocal tics. Without knowledge of the disorder, people are quick to judge. Surrender Your Say will help more people become familiar with the disorder and will help achieve the TSFC goal that all people who have Tourette Syndrome will lead quality lives as accepted and valued members of an informed, tolerant society.”
– Cathy Wylie, TSFC President

The initiative created by Saatchi & Saatchi Canada, and has attracted over 1800 participants last time I checked.

[via Great Ads]

Canada

Fiat’s Abarth 500 “Too Fast to Follow” on Twitter

Fiat Abarth 500 - Too Fast to Follow on Twitter

While certainly not the most important metric of social media success, increasing the number of followers is an important pursuit for a lot of Twitter users and brands. Some Twitter users have even gone to the social media black market to buy large blocks of fake users to increase their follower number.

It’s quite the opposite strategy with Fiat Germany, who aren’t interested in follower numbers at all for the Fiat Abarth 500 Twitter profile. To reinforce the messaging that the car is “Too Fast to Follow”, (top speed is 205 km/h) and contravening everything about the way social media should work, you cannot even follow the account. Yes, you can press the ‘follow’ button, but in moments you will be blocked keeping their follower account steady at “0”.

[via Mdelmas]

Germany