Esquire cover model Brooklyn Decker is making appearances and posing for pictures at Barnes & Noble stores around the nation. Virtually, that is.
B&N is running a promotion with GoldRun to enable shoppers to take augmented reality photos of themselves posing with Decker as a way to promote B&N's newsstand.
Oh, and you can track down augmented reality versions of the letters in the Esquire logo and you might just win an iPad.
If you can pull yourself away from Decker, that is.
For more on how major brands are putting mobile augmented reality to work, pick up a copy of my new book, THE ON-DEMAND BRAND (available everywhere books are sold).
In part three of my conversation with Orabrush CMO Jeff Harmon about the grassroots, social media efforts that Ad Age has placed among the top 10 of the last year, we learn that the popular iFart app inspired Orabrush's own iPhone app - The Bad Breath Detector.
Here, we'll learn more about this app, the brand's Facebook integration, and most important of all, what Orabrush's 24-year-old CEO Jeff Davis - another Jeff - calls "Reverse Branding."
I'm just going to come out and say you're going to going to get a kick out of Jeffrey Harmon, the 28-year-old CMO at Provo, Utah-based Orabrush, and the lively, behind-the-scenes story of how his little social media campaign for a product nobody had ever heard of came to inspire Ad Age to name it one of the best campaigns of 2010.
On its face, none of it seems like a forgone conclusion.
Let's just say it involves a device for scooping out the halitosis-causing germs from your mouth, a video about testing your breath; a newer series of YouTube videos featuring the misadventures of an obnoxious misfit named Morgan, called "Diaries of a Dirty Tongue," which has been viewed 31 million times, and a Facebook page about halitosis.
This week, the company even released a paid iPhone app called "The Bad Breath Detector Pro" - to compliment the free version released a few months ago.
This after 76-year-old inventor Robert Wagstaff had almost quit trying to sell his product after spending a fortune trying to market it. Then he discovered Harmon, who was just finishing up school at BYU. Harmon challenged a key assumption about online marketing, prompting "Dr. Bob" to give this kid a chance to show him how it's done.
Since the launch of the campaign - created almost entirely by Harmon and his friends without an ad agency or professional videographer in sight - Orabrush has sold over $1 million worth of its tongue brushes through its YouTube channel, called Cure Bad Breath, instead of being overtly branded to Orabrush.
And today, Google routinely flies Jeffrey out to meetings to help other brands grasp the power of YouTube video marketing.
What's more, drugstores around the world are beginning to stock the product, and now even the guy in the original halitosis video - a friend of Harmon's who performed for about $100 - has a stake in a small company that may be valued as high as $50 million.
In short, it's exactly the kind of digital initiative that embodies the ideals explored in the new book, THE ON-DEMAND BRAND.
Here's Harmon in his own words - which include some great secret strategies for video marketing and branded entertainment - as well as a bigger picture perspective on what he calls "branding in reverse."
A BRUSH WITH FAME: THE JEFFREY HARMON INTERVIEW (PT 1)
Here's a look at a new mobile app launched at CES today that works with the new Ford Focus electronic vehicle that enables you to manage your car - and even control many features by remote control. Heck, you can even share how much gas and money you've saved on your Facebook or Twitter pages.
I do wonder if the app's charge-finder feature, which shows you places to charge up your car, makes the car itself seem complicated. Will buyers find it too much of a pain to go find charging stations vs. gas stations? Early electric cars seemed to fail because of this, while hybrids took off because people used the same infrastructure they always used.
I do wonder if having to use a special app to find a charging station will scare some buyers away.
But kudos to Ford for getting out there and innovating what clearly is the future of automobiles.
“Through persuasive arguments and Q&A's with the major players in advertising, Mathieson makes an excellent case for greater creativity and outside-the-box thinking backed up with solid ideas."
The more I see of the Wordlens augmented reality iPhone app, the more impressed I get. Here's what happens with CNN puts it to the test. I could see brands hitching a ride on translator maps to help you find your way to their stores when you're abroad. Or to plant special offers embedded in signage that are invisible to the naked eye, but there for anyone with the right branded app.
“Through persuasive arguments and Q&A's with the major players in advertising, Mathieson makes an excellent case for greater creativity and outside-the-box thinking backed up with solid ideas."
Yes, it was over-hyped in 2010 - not even remotely ready for prime time.
But in the conclusion of my talk at a recent MNAMA's Digital Series event to promote my new book, THE ON-DEMAND BRAND, I look at some of the ways augmented reality has pointed to possibilities that could redefine the world of marketing in the decade ahead.
You'll hear about some of my favorite recent AR initiatives - including the Hyperfactory's "Virtual Tennis" AR campaign for Coca-Cola Europe; Ray-Ban's AR-enabled website; Publicista's "Cleanest Test Drive Ever" for Toyota Auris and more.
And you'll hear some thought-provoking predictions form Prinz Pinakatt, head of digital marketing for Coca-Cola Europe, on what augmented reality has in store for 2011.
#1 TREND IN DIGITAL MARKETING FOR 2011: THE EVOLUTION OF AUGMENTED REALITY
“Through persuasive arguments and Q&A's with the major players in advertising, Mathieson makes an excellent case for greater creativity and outside-the-box thinking backed up with solid ideas."
You don't get any more contrarian than these predictions for mobile 2011.
In part four of my recent talk at the MNAMA's Digital Series event, I address the #2 big trend for 2011: Mobile marketing - including QR codes, social retailing, traditional-mobile integration & more.
Along the way, you'll hear about apps like this year's Durex concept from Vallads + Ammentorp for enabling one iPhone to knock up another iPhone if it's left "unprotected."
And you'll see classic examples like this campaign from AMF Pension from Forsman & Bodenfors, where mobile supercharges the effectiveness of traditional advertising as never before possible.
Yes, 2011 is going to be a big year for mobile. Just not like most marketers imagine.
“Through persuasive arguments and Q&A's with the major players in advertising, Mathieson makes an excellent case for greater creativity and outside-the-box thinking backed up with solid ideas."
Turns out it's good to play games with your customers.
In part three of my recent talk at the MNAMA's Digital Series event, I address the #3 big trend for 2011: Branded games and other forms of social, mobile branded entertainment.
You'll hear about the remarkable amount of time consumers spend with branded games vs. other forms of marketing communications, some decidedly counter-intuitive research on branded games in B2B marketing, and some powerful ways branded games will extend from the digital world to the physical world in the year ahead (ala the "Tron Livecycle" game from Coke Zero).
Make no mistake: Companies are doing some serious business through branded games. Here's how.
“Through persuasive arguments and Q&A's with the major players in advertising, Mathieson makes an excellent case for greater creativity and outside-the-box thinking backed up with solid ideas."
Technologies like "interest-based advertising" and "behavioral targeting" that once targeted people based on rudimentary consumer profiles are rapidly giving way to a new generation of technologies.
A generation that is, that uses new data mining capabilities to dynamically customize ads to fit each viewer's age, gender, location, profession, personal interests, household income, online activities, past purchase behavior, advertising response characteristics and more. Truly exciting stuff, if used judiciously.
In part two of my recent talk at the MNAMA's Digital Series event, I hit the #4 big trend for 2011 - hyper targeting - and offer up some basic guidelines for keeping digital advertising safe for both commerce and consumer privacy.
“Through persuasive arguments and Q&A's with the major players in advertising, Mathieson makes an excellent case for greater creativity and outside-the-box thinking backed up with solid ideas."
For all the hype around social media this year, it may come as a surprise to many marketers that the percentage of online Americans participating in social media has actually gone down over the last year, according to Forrester Research.
So what's up? In part one of a recent presentation to the Minneapolis Chapter of the American Marketing Association, I look at what happens when users (and marketers) stop buying into the hype - and start getting serious about generating results through social media.
Along the way, we'll talk about the mobile + social + local connection, as exemplified by mobile apps like Foursquare, Groupon and, one of my favorite branded apps, Epic Mix from Vail Resorts (see video here). Look for the #4-#1 top trends for 2011 over the next few days.
AMA PRESENTATION ON TOP 5 TRENDS FOR 2011: #5: SOCIAL MEDIA
“Through persuasive arguments and Q&A's with the major players in advertising, Mathieson makes an excellent case for greater creativity and outside-the-box thinking backed up with solid ideas."
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