College students will do anything for coffee

CoffeeCompany, a cafe chain in the Netherlands, has turned cash-strapped, caffeine dependent college students into their most effective brand ambassadors. The company recently began offering free coffee to those willing to add a CoffeeCompany branded Powerpoint slide to their classroom presentations.

Captive audiences, comprised of the company's target demographic, receiving brand information through one of their peers... does it get any better than this!?


(at)

Let it Snow: Taking advantage of Mother Nature's ad-space

In a matter of hours a London based media solutions agency was able to create one of the winter's coolest street marketing campaigns. After an unexpected storm blanketed London, over 2,000 Extreme Group logos were stamped into the fresh snow. The teams used laser cut stencils to stamp parked cars, post office boxes and busy downtown areas. Cost-effective, environmentally friendly, and eye-catching. Nice.

(at)

Legal Graffiti, brought to you by Sharpie

Sharpie's new ad campaign is drawing in young consumers by allowing them to (legally) doodle whatever their hearts' desire on billboards in various cities across the country. The interactive e-cast boards allow you to choose from a multitude of colors, as well work through your desire to deface public property. If you happen to see one of these interactive boards in your city, make sure to leave your mark. Perhaps "I love you, Attack!. You fill the marketing hole in my life."

(Guest Contributor: Valeri, Primo Intern)

How do you say "Balloon-enabled pizza picnics" in French?

That's right ya'll. Here's another thing France can take credit for! The Parisian restaurant Pink Flamingo Pizza now allows patrons to order their pizzas for delivery to the picnic spot of their choice through the help of a distinctive pink balloon, a pretty cute location spotter for Pink Flamingo's delivery squad (traveling by foot or bicycle). Customers simply order the pizza for delivery to a picnic spot of their choice such as "the banks of the nearby Seine," and are given a pink helium balloon, which acts as a mobile marketing tool, a sweet souvenir, and an eye-catching map marker!

With locations in Canal St. Martin and Marais, it's notorious in the city for its cleverly named pizza options including "The Bjork," which includes smoked salmon; "The Ghandi," topped with spinach saag and Baba Ganoush; and a paella themed pizza called "The Almodovar." Pizzas are reasonably priced starting at 10.50 Euros a pop, which is just under 15 U.S. dollars. Sounds like a pretty good deal to me!

(Guest Contributor: Tracy, Primo Intern)

Lexicon: "Fauxmotions"

Sometimes the English language doesn't provide you with the proper word to describe a person, place, thought, action or thing and you need to make one up. At Guerrilla Sushi, we embrace the invention of new words and make them up as often as possible.

A "Fauxmotion" is the act of creating a television commercial that looks like it was guerrilla/street marketing "caught on tape." It was made popular by the always thought provoking TheTruth.com TV ads and now a handful of other companies, including the Kleenex's "Couch", General Mills "Cereal Box Aisle" and more recently Kashi's "Steal a Cookie" have been airing similar ads.

Don't get us wrong, we're not against this form of advertising, some of our best friends make TV commercials, we just felt the act deserved a word.

That said, we'd like to see more "real" execution of those ideas in several cities, either leading up to or following the commercials. It would add even more buzz to the campaign with people excited that they got to see the real thing.
(nc)

Top Model

British fashion giant TopShop knows exactly what their customers want to see more of: themselves.

In select U.K. stores, fitting rooms were turned into self-shoot photo studios, allowing shoppers the opportunity to play dress-up, stylist and photographer all in one go. The event was positioned as a tribute to Helmut Newton's 'Newton Machine', the controversial photographer's take on self-shot and styled photography.

Photos were printed out for customers to take home as souvenirs, as well as posted online for all to admire. Word of the day: Gravanity.

(at)

MINI Rickshas Invade Beijing

Those clever little elves over at Mini Cooper have found a way to infiltrate traditional Chinese transport at the '08 Olympic Games by setting lose several bike power MINI-cycle rickshaws on the streets of Beijing. Functional, stylish, and branding so spicy you'll be chattering about it until the next Lunar New Year. (al)

Flavor Tripping

A very cool twist on the art party, Flavor Tripping is described as “is an ongoing series of Bacchanalian food tasting smackdowns that occur about once a month, beginning in February ‘08 in NYC and SF.”

I can’t do much of a better job describing it than they have on their site, but the berries of the Miracle Fruit add an experiential and almost ritualistic element to the event.

From the site:
"$25 - includes a berry and a buffet of regular everyday food items that we have curated to showcase the transformative power of the fruit. Everything from lemons, to cheeses to beer to other things you may not expect. A berry should give you a trip of one to two hours."

We didn't get to attend the event as it sold out quickly (and we found out from the inside that it was because they ran out of berries) but hope to attend it in the future and will re-post with information about our experience. (nc)

Wrigley Gets in Your Face

Ah! Giant, sparkling, white teeth!

Wrigley is bringing a little humor to morning commutes and coffee breaks with its "Extra White Smile" ad campaign. The stickers, cleverly placed on the bottom of Starbucks cups, give you full permission to point and laugh at random people on the commuter train. Who knows, you might even be inclined to start a conversation. Word of mouth marketing at it's best (and most literal, har har). (at)

Grassy Flip-Flops by...Krispy Kreme?

Crappy job. Cramped cubicle. Broken A/C. Enough to drive the average human worker drone insane. Until now.

Krispy Kreme is hard at work forcing the Summer "vibe" upon us (well, at least those of us who live in London - only available in the UK for the time being) from the ankles, down with their new Grass Flip-Flops. In conjunction with Summer concert giveaways, Krispy Kreme is hoping that this will kickstart a "at-one-with-nature" frame of mind with those who live kilometers away from the nearest patch.

If anyone sees this promo in effect, please snag us a pair. There are a box of sumo squishies in it for you! (al)