Category — Marketing

In-game advertising group, Massive Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Microsoft Corp, has announced that it signed a multi-year deal with Activision’s Blizzard Entertainment (maker of Starcraft and Diablo) today. Massive will be delivering dynamic in-game advertising to 18 titles on the Xbox 360 and PC platforms.

But in-game doesn’t necessarily mean in the game… Paul Sams, chief operating officer of Blizzard Entertainment, was quick to point out that there won’t be any ads cluttering up your battle Blood Raven, or worse, Mephisto: “This partnership does not include in-game advertising, as Massive understands and respects our stance against advertising that might detract from gameplay or offend our players.” Good call.

Activision’s major game franchises like “Guitar Hero: World Tour” and “James Bond: Quantum of Solace” are among the 18 titles included in the deal. The youth market is tough to reach with traditional advertising, so this in-game deal will probably end up being very profitable for both parties. Look for in-game advertising to grow exponentially over the next few years until it becomes one of the major advertising trends. Check out the complete press release:
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The Visa Black Card comes with an Exclusive Rewards Program. Apply Now!

A while back, we wrote about the Centurion card, better known as the American Express Black Card, the criteria you need to meet to get one, and some of the competing cards that have popped up to try to get in on that same market niche.

The Visa Black Card – a new ultra-high end card

There are a few of these “ultra-high end” cards out there, most of them issued by various banks or lending groups. Now Barclays Bank has tossed it’s hat into the ring with the Visa Black Card. Check out this website for some information about it.

Visa already has a high end card called Visa Infinite, which is issued by Visa, but the Visa Black card is handled by Barclays directly. Read more about the market for these cards:
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Best Animation & Best Direction & Best Model Making & Best Use of Recorded Music (Joint Winner)

Title: Play Doh
Product: Sony Bravia
Client: Sony
Nominee: Darren Walsh
Animation Production Company: Passion Pictures
Agency: Fallon

And the rest:
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Kraft Foods Stove Top brand will be pumping warm air and delicious stuffing into some the chilly bus stations around Chicago this month. Out of the 50 bus shelters getting Stove Top print ads, ten lucky shelters will get specialized Stove Top ads with temporary heating units in the ceilings. The company also plans to hand out samples of it’s new Stove Top Quick Cups instant stuffing in the streets of the windy city.

The new ads read, “Cold, provided by winter. Warmth, provided by Stove Top.” Apparently, this is the first time heated bus shelters have been used for advertising in the US. Why don’t they pump delicious stuffing smell in with the heat? Well, we all remember what happened with the GOT MILK? cookie smell campaign. They pumped in the delicious smell of cookies into various bus shelters around San Fransisco hoping that the smell would get people craving a glass of milk, but instead of making commuters get all hungry for cookies and milk, the snooty SanFransiscans complained. Only in San Fransisco could people complain about the scent of freshly baked cookies.

Anyway, check out a list of all the heated locations and the locations of the free samples:
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Ok AdSavvyites, it’s time for some audience participation.

I was reading one of my favorite blogs, David Friedman’s Ideas, and he had an interesting topic: Ways to promote your political ideology. Let’s say you’re a moderately wealthy and talented individual with a strong desire to promote a certain political viewpoint. How do you go about doing it? What’s the most effective, efficient way to get it done? You want the most amount of change for the least amount of money and effort. I want to hear your ideas.

First, let’s consider some of the more common methods:
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Freak out videos are big. People love to laugh at the misfortune of others, plus we can all relate with the one guy who just has too much one day and finally snaps. It could be one of us, if we were mentally unbalanced. Fortunately for society, most of us are at least partially balanced, so we keep that terrible rage bottled up deep inside, buried in our special place, where it can do no harm except for the gradual eating away of our soul and joy of living.

Yes, well, the videos: This unfortunate nutcase in the hotel lobby is a fictional character as you may have guessed from the website displayed at the end. That website, www.donthaveameltdown.com, is actually a front for Cisco’s Unified Communications Create Adaptive Workspaces service. You sold me, Cisco, hook it up in my living room. Wait, it costs how much?

Moving on, check out these past freak out viral video ads:
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A former customer of Classmates.com has filed a class-action lawsuit against the company, saying their claims are fraudulent and they tricked him into upgrading to a gold account. Sound like a simple false advertising case, but if the case progresses, it could force Classmates.com, and other websites like it, to change they way they advertise.

Anthony Michaels signed up for a free member of Classmates.com last year. However, with only a free membership, Michaels couldn’t interact with other members or do anything interesting at all. He said that he began receiving emails from Classmates.com claiming that old classmates of his had been looking at his profile and trying to get in touch with him through the site. The thing is, he had to sign up for a paid membership to gain access to any messages his old classmates were trying to send him.
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This is advertiser Ogilvy Action’s public awareness campaign for MTV Switch.

Switch is MTV’s environmentalist arm. It tries to increase pubic awareness about environmental issues. I think Ogilvy Action’s low-cost/high-impact signs get the job done nicely. Strangely realistic-looking hands stick out of the water, holding up a sign with a simple question and the website address; and the whole assembly is attached to a remote controlled mini-submarine.

The theme of the campaign: we’re in deep.
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Researchers at Leeds University, led by Prof Jens Krause, performed a series of experiments where volunteers were told to randomly walk around a large hall without talking to each other. A select few were then given more detailed instructions on where to walk. The scientists discovered that people end up blindly following one or two people who appear to know where they’re going.

The published results showed that it only takes 5% of what the scientists called “informed individuals” to influence the direction of a crowd of around 200 people. The remaining 95% follow without even realizing it.
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We’re big fans of Agent Provocateur here at AdSavvy. They’re hip, they have quality collections, and their advertising is top notch. Plus they always have the hottest models. We can’t get enough, and neither can consumers apparently. Even in economic tough times, AD is doing well.

The company is poised for some rapid expansion following last years’s $120 million dollar acquisition by the private equity firm, 3i Group. There are already 40 boutiques worldwide, including 8 in the US, and their planning on building even more: Boston, Chicago, Bahrain, Geneva, Puerto Barres, Madrid, St. Petersburg, and Germany to name a few. AD also had a fragrance launch party in London recently where Daisy Lowe showed off the goods on the catwalk.
Check out Daisy Lowe’s near-naked hotness; plus more recent sexy adverts:
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