Test Drive - Hilarious Pepsi Max Commercial

Laugh out loud commercial by Pepsi Max - a zero-calorie cola in disguise ... Brilliant :) 

Test Drive

Fashionable or Sexy Diet Coke?

Since 2003, Diet Coke / Coca Cola Light has always pursued a strategy linking itself with fashion, and many collaborations with designers have already given the packaging of this juice a glamorous make-over.

Now, to celebrate thirty years of Diet Coke in Europe Marc Jacobs has been appointed the brand’s new Creative Director for 2013! Jacobs, who is already Creative Director at his own label and Louis Vuitton, will bring his unique vision to the brand by creating a limited edition collection of must-have bottles and cans inspired by the ‘80s, ‘90s, ’00s!

"It's just another proof of people loving the power of fashion," Jacobs tells WWD of the collaboration. 

"Designers have personalities, and their clothes have a voice and a vision, and people respond to it."

Watch this launch video! Marc Jacobs as the Diet Coke Man!

Do you remember these great collaborations:

Jean-Paul Gaultier (2012):

Karl Lagerfeld (2011):

and again... Karl Lagerfeld (2010)

And even though I like these collaborations where famous fashion designers' creativity is unleashed on the already famous Diet Coke bottles and cans, I still love the original cheeky approach of Diet Coke with the hunky man passing by office women the most. 11.30 - Diet coke anyone?

The one I remember best:

The very old one:

The new one! Yeey!

So how do you like your Diet Coke? Fashionable or Sexy?

Suits and Mr Porter

I am totally hooked on the legal drama Suits! I discovered the serie which is now in its second season on the UK channel Dave (with catchy yet maybe not so likeable slogan - the home of the witty banker). Very entertaining legal drama (and the fact that the two main characters are very uhm sexy has nothing to do with it aaaaat alllll)

The on-line luxury men's wear shop Mr Porter (the male equivalent of the female net-a-porter) has also noticed the show's appeal and collaborated with them to create some witty content for the online shop - all about suits of course!

Boys, you can finally get an answer to those questions that haunt you at night:

• What is the difference between an expensive suit and a cheap one?
• How do you know when a tie is too skinny?
• How often should you clean a suit?
• How does one tell if a suit fits properly?
• What is acceptable neckwear at a black tie event?
• I just dropped a ton of money on some English-made shoes - how do I look after them?

Find the answers on Mr Porter!

And you can download an app to Suit Yourself!!

Love this marketing!

Happiness in a Cup

I realize it's the second day I am writing about coffee :) But at least you know how much I appreciate the black brew that enlivens my mornings and treats me in the afternoon. And all who knew my mom well know that this is probably something that is just baked into my genes... 'koffietje' anyone? I  blame it on genetics :)

But what I wanted to share with you were these new Illy totally sweet sugar sticks: live happyilly. Can't argue with that!

I've always loved Illy's art collection espresso cups. Coffee just tastes better when you drink it out of a beautifully decorated cup. At home I enjoy drinking coffee from the little cups decorated by the Spanish film director Pedro Almodovar. It just makes me happy in the morning :)

Cloud Imagination

Clouds spark imagination...

How I dream of having a 'cloud car' :) I would fly south whenever it gets too cold here. It also seems so much more comfortable than a flying carpet - I imagine it to feel like a super soft fluffy down :)

A cloud is also the star of Guinness' new commercial by AMV BBDO UK - "Cloud" - Made of More (see video below). After watching this ad I had the feeling that Guinness is on some kind of mission to position the brand more upscale - it seems a bit far from its heritage.

Either way, although I find the link with Guinness a bit too loose to be a great ad, I just love the story being told about the cloud: great script and good shots, good casting of the voice-over and the choice of music works wonders. You really start liking the cloud, and wanting to take it in and take care of it (probably not an association that you would have with Guinness though - a bit too cuddly)

We're also nearing the end of the year, a time often characterized by year reviews and reflection. But also a time where I  like to look ahead and look forward to the new year that is coming. Rather than looking to long at the past, I prefer to dream of the opportunities that are out there. When I saw Christopher Jonassen's pictures series I recognized this feeling. His pictures series is called 'Before we begin'

I wish you happy holidays in which you can celebrate with friends and family and reminisce on all the good moments, and I also already wish you a good new year full of Cloud Imagination!

On Mainstreaming Sustainability (the Fun Way)

Last week, as you might already have read on CATALYST, I went to the first D&AD White Pencil Symposium. It was instituted to award creative work aiming to make a positive change in the world. The event hosted an impressive line-up of speakers. One of these was Kim Slicklein, President of OgilvyEarth. She held an interesting and entertaining exposition based on the OgilvyEarth paper ‘Mainstream Green’ and I would like to share with you a synopsis of the paper and her best points from her talk as well as a selection of brilliant and hilarious ads!

‘Sustainability is the outcome, not the communication strategy’

If we are to achieve our sustainability goals, mainstream consumers must be shifted to a more sustainable way of living. In order for them to do so, the available sustainable products and services need to be marketed in a way that speaks to them, in a relevant way. This means taking into account all drivers of mainstream consumption rather than just the sustainability factor. By solely and overly green-labelling you risk setting yourself up for the niche market of green consumers, which makes up less than one fifth of the market. To really make a change, it is necessary to appeal to the majority. This is important, as it is in our human nature to do and to continue doing the things we like. So for sustainable behaviour to be in itself sustainable, it needs to be desirable and appealing.

‘Make it normal’

An important element for behaviour to be desirable and appealing is that is considered normal. People want to fit in and be normal – it is a very simple truth about human behaviour. We are social creatures and look to others around us to help us make decisions in how we live our lives because we want to feel accepted. This means that often behaviours drive belief systems much more than the other way around.

You can do this by letting people feel that everyone does it. Simply start moving people to environmentally friendly behaviour by telling them what those around them are doing.

I really like the commercial for the Rainforest Alliance as it shows brilliantly the conundrum we often struggle with when we start feeling guilty of our lifestyles and then want to make a positive difference and then often only think of the most radical way to do so…. It is hilarious so enjoy it!

‘Make it personal’

Companies that can link their products to highly personal benefits are better positioned to succeed. It might be a bit strange to link green marketing to cancer, but the insight that OgilvyEarth has taken from it, is I find a good one

From their Mainstream Green Paper:

“A cure for cancer and our new 3Ps of green marketing.

Fully 70% of Americans claim they would rather cure cancer than save the environment. Cancer marketing has the new 3Ps in spades. To close the Green Gap, we should take a page out of the cancer marketing playbook.

• Personal: One out of every two men and one out of every three women will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime, translating into in a personal understanding issue on a human level for everyone in America. So the relevance factor is built in. On the contrary, the environment feels too abstract and remote compared to the immediate concerns of our everyday lives.

• Plausible: We’ve cured other diseases, so why not cancer? On the contrary, there’s no analog for “curing” the environment.

• Positive: The messaging around curing cancer has been incredibly positive, especially around breast cancer - the pink ribbon is a modern icon of hope and optimism. Contrast this with the apocalyptic

messaging of environmental doom and gloom.

We need to get out of the game of crazy calculus and cataclysmic inciting and start to motivate people with something tangible they can relate to personally — with a good dose of hope thrown in to counteract all the doom and gloom and crazy calculus.”

‘Lose the crunch’

Just because the product is environmentally friendly, doesn’t mean that it has to marketed in an off-the-grid hippie way. Rather it needs mainstream hip! And sometimes the best way to do this is by not mentioning the ‘Green’ factor in marketing communication at all. Or by positioning green further down the benefit hierarchy. The brand 'Method' has done just that, rather than focusing on eco-friendly, they focus on design and performance, marketing all their eco-friendly products with the line: 'To make a happy, healthy home revolution.'

Notice how in the ad: 'clean like a mother' they speak to all mothers' concern of keeping their kids safe from 'ikky' bacteria but also highlighting that the Method products are keeping the kids safe from harmful toxins in other ordinary cleaning products. The lyrics to the song are hilarious! Watch the video!

‘Turn eco-friendly into male ego-friendly’

OgilvyEarth’s study has shown that being green is associated a female virtue. When respondents to the study were asked the question whether they thought the green movement was more masculine or feminine, a whopping 82% answered they considered it more feminine. Making sustainability manly hence makes for an interesting marketing challenge. I absolutely love how the AXE advertisement brings across the message of the importance of saving water – creativity at its best!

Recipeace - Winner D&AD White Pencil

I am still a bit star-struck from yesterday evening D&AD’s first White Pencil symposium having heard brilliant speakers David Jones, CEO of Havas and Co-Founder of One Young World, Jan Chichase - Executive Creative Director of Global Insights at frog (also dubbed the James Bond of design research by FastCompany), Kim Slicklein - President of OgilvyEarth Worldwide, Marc Mathieu - SVP of Marketing at Unilever and Jeremy Gilley, British filmmaker and founder of Peace One Day. True CATALYSTS convinced that creativity can change the world for the better!

What the Oscars are for the movie industry, D&AD’s Pencils are for the creative industry bringing together the crème de la crème of creative commercial talent.

Founded in 1962, D&AD, formerly known as British Design and Art Direction, has been awarding their coveted and widely recognized Pencils for the best and most innovative creative work in design, advertising and digital. Yellow Pencils are awarded to outstanding, rather than merely brilliant work. The best of the best and truly groundbreaking work is awarded the ultimate of awards; the Black Pencil.

This year, in its 50^th year of existence, D&AD introduced a new pencil to the range. The White Pencil category was established to award the best design work and creative campaigns aiming to make a positive difference, aiming to solve real problems in the world, aiming for sustainability in the broadest sense - social, environmental and commercial.

For the brief of the first White Pencil, D&AD partnered with the non-profit organisation Peace One Day (POD).

POD was launched by British filmmaker Jeremy Gilley in 1999 to establish an annual day of global ceasefire and non-violence with a fixed date. In 2001, the UN member states adopted 21st of September as Peace Day and since then the goal has been to grow awareness of and engagement on the day so that people can take action to end conflict in their own lives and in the lives of others.

The communications task was described as such in the brief: ‘The task is to grow grassroots awareness and active personal engagement with Peace Day, to make this day ubiquitous and as part of our social fabric as Valentines’ Day or Mother’s Day, in fact more so. To be truly effective Peace Day needs to be observed by a huge proportion of the earth’s population on an on-going yearly basis.’

The entries were judged on I)a highly original and inspiring idea II) well executed and III)relevant to its context

with the work also having to demonstrate:

• The power to effect real and positive change in the world through creative thinking and the potential to make a real difference, not just in perceptions, but first and foremost in human behaviours
• Global potential. Your resources may only allow you to implement your ideas in a limited way - within your own region or locality for example, but judges will be looking for ideas that demonstrate the ability, or show the potential to be executed anywhere in the world
• Media neutrality. The idea should be strong enough to be executed in different media and cultural contexts

And the winner of the first White Pencil is Leo Burnett Chicago, for their project Recipeace, a social movement designed to bring people together over a shared meal.

A winning idea in its simplicity and brilliant execution! The campaign had all the winning ingredients: the ‘Big Idea’, savvy copywriting with a catchy play on words, brilliant art direction with visuals that attract and ignite serious thought as well as make you smile while calling for positive engagement.

Most importantly I find, it is an idea that can be implemented by so many so easily reaching a very large audience. Not only can restaurants participate as done so in the campaign, how about schools, company cafeteria, and even just at home with family and friends!

Ready to change the world for the better?
Is your glass half full or half empty???

For more information on subjects from this article, go to the following links: Peace One Day, D&AD, Recipeace

Unlock the 007 in you!

For many of us, Bond is the blueprint of a spy. Intelligent, resourceful, strong, driven, charming and loyal. As an officer in the Secret Intelligence Service, more commonly known as MI6, he jets across the globe to save us from the peril of exotic villains with his wit, arsenal of futuristic gadgets and cruelly good looks. Who wouldn’t want to be James Bond?

Exactly what the creative team behind Coke Zero’s new brilliant ad must have thought! Set in the train station of Antwerp in Belgium, travellers are enticed to win tickets for the new Bond movie Skyfall. They are required to enter their name and then get the mission to unlock their inner 007 by running to platform 6 in 70 seconds. Of course, it would not be fun if it were too easy, so obstacles are put on their path to test their resilience. I will not give any more away, you’ll just have to watch this brilliant video and discover yourself!

And for those of you who REALLY want to unlock their inner 007, MI6 is recruiting! I saw their ad in this week’s Grazia (UK women’s magazine). Apparently they need more Jane Bonds! You can find out more at sis.gov.uk/intelligenceofficer.