Author: Marketing Journo

2018, A Big Year of Cashierless Shopping!

2018, A Big Year of Cashierless Shopping!

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2018 is a big year of Cashierless Shopping!
2018 is a big year of Cashierless Shopping!

In 2018, technological innovations of retailers for cashierless shopping have raised the bar over the expectations of customers on the convenience in the retail checkout process. Following the roll out of the checkout free Amazon Go at Seattle in January this year, the trend of cashierless shopping seems to have picked up steam among a significant number of retailers and start-ups.

In this article, I present a list that provides an overview of the technologies of such retailers and start-ups. Here we go!

Amazon Go:

In January 2018, Amazon opened the first checkout free convenience store, Amazon Go in Seattle. Since then, it has opened two additional stores in Seattle and a couple of stores in Chicago and San Francisco. To ease off the check-out process at the stores, one has to download the Amazon Go app (which is available in both iOS and Android) and have an Amazon prime account.

Before entering the store, the customer has to open the amazon app in the smart phone, swipe it at the turnstile present at the storefront, put the phone into the pocket and start shopping. When the customer takes a product, an entry of the same gets added to the app’s virtual cart. And, when the customer puts the product back to the shelf, the entry of the item gets automatically removed from the virtual cart. Once after leaving the store, the technology adds up the prices of the collected items and charges the customer’s Amazon account. The receipt of the transaction is send straight to the app, which completes the checkout process.

Amazon has used computer vision, deep learning algorithms and sensor fusion, much like one would find in self-driving cars, to implement the above transaction process and calls the same as Just Walk Out Technology.

Click here to watch how the checkout process pans out in Amazon Go!

X-Marts:

In 2017, the Chinese e-commerce Company JD.com had announced that it would be opening hundreds of unmanned convenience stores called X-Marts across China by partnering with the leading Chinese Real Estate Developer China Overseas Land & Investment LTD. As of now, the company has opened 20 of such stores. Technological solutions for the stores have been fully rendered by JD.com’s in-house logistics innovation lab JDX. The solution is provided by integrating smart technologies such as RFID (Radio-Frequency Identification), facial recognition and image recognition.

The checkout process is facilitated via the ‘JD.ID’ app. Before starting to shop, one has to open the app, go to my account and tap the option, ‘JD.ID X’. As a result, a QR (Quick Response) code will be generated in the app, which has to be swiped at the turnstile. Following which, one’s ID is confirmed through facial recognition. Thereupon, the customer will be good to go for shopping.

RFID tags are attached to each of the products that are present in the store. Post the shopping, the checkout terminal will identify the customers through facial recognition, add up the prices of the picked items and charge their credit card. The transaction details will be sent directly to their smart phones.

Watch the video, ‘Introducing JD.ID X-Mart’, to know how the checkout process works in X-Marts!

Sam’s Club Now:

This year in June, the Walmart’s members-only warehouse retailer Sam’s Club announced that it will be opening a new store in Dallas. In October, it shared the news that the new store will be named Sam’s Club Now and it will serve not just as a retail outlet but also as an epicentre of technological innovation for Sam’s Club. In the new store, Sam’s Club will be testing out technologies like computer vision, augmented reality, machine learning, artificial intelligence and robotics.

To kick off its process of technological innovation, the retailer will be launching an app named Sam’s Club Now based on its existing ‘Scan & Go.’ app. In the app, by combining machine learning with the customer’s earlier purchase data, a shopping list will be auto-filled. This shopping list will then be used with the beacon technology to map the most favourable route for customers through the store. A map will pop up in the app and guide the users within the store.

Also, the app embodies voice search to identify products in the store. And, by using the app’s augmented reality feature, customers can scan the items and bring them to life.

Once the shopping is done, the customers will be getting a code in the app. To complete checkout, the code has to be scanned at the exit.

Click here to check out the video about the technological amenities that are available at Sam’s Club Now!

7-Eleven:

The convenience store, 7-Eleven will be introducing a service, similar to that of Sam’s Club Now, at 14 of its locations in the Dallas metro area. To avail the service, customers have to download the 7-Eleven app and register for the 7Rewards loyalty program. Also, the customers have to be located within the geofenced area surrounding the pilot stores.

In the products available in the stores, there will be options for the customers to scan using the app. Post the scanning, payment can be done via Apple Pay, Google Pay, a debit or a credit card. Once the payment is done, a QR code will appear in the confirmation screen. The QR code has to be scanned while exiting the store.

Zippin:

Bay Area start-up Zippin has launched an automated checkout store in San Francisco. The store is expected to turn into a full-sized convenience store offering a cashierless shopping experience in the coming months. To shop in this store, customers have to download the Zippin app, open it, scan the QR code displayed in the app at the store’s turnstile, pick up items and leave the store. Customers need not scan at turnstile to exit.

Overhead cameras available in the store track the movement of people. Weight sensors, over which the products are placed in the shelves, track the items picked from and put back to the shelves by the customers. When the customers leave the store, the app sums up the prices of the items picked and charges their online account.

Rather than to rake in profits, Zippin has set up the store as a prototype to showcase their new-found technology to potential clients and is aiming to sell it to other stores.

Also, the bay area neighbours of Zippin such as AiFi, AiPoly, Standard Cognition and Trigo Vision too have jumped on the bandwagon in bringing out similar systems. Out of which, Standard Cognition has announced that it aims to equip 3,000 convenience stores in Japan with its technology, by summer 2020. And, it is planning to start its own demo store in Japan. As of now, its technology is available at its proof-of-concept location at San Francisco, Standard Store.

Trigo Vision:

The retail automation platform Trigo Vision, shared the news that the Israel’s largest supermarket chain Shufersal will be adopting its software platform in its 272 locations.

Macy’s:

Apart from the aforementioned instances of cashierless shopping, the American department store chain Macy’s is planning to implement a mobile payment feature in all its stores before the 2018 holiday season. Macy’s is facilitating the payment process via its app.

And, as per a Reuters report, Microsoft appears to be in developing an Amazon-Go-like technology and is in talks with retailers like Walmart to become their strategic ally.

Conclusion:

Apart from offering a seamless shopping experience, the implementation of the cashierless checkout feature helps the retailers to better their inventory management. With many retailers climbing on the bandwagon of adopting a cashierless shopping feature, we have to wait to see on whether this trend is going to be the wave of the future or a flash in the pan.

Image Source: jeshoots.com

Tip to improve Vocabulary: Lesson from ‘The Pursuit of Happyness’

Tip to improve Vocabulary: Lesson from ‘The Pursuit of Happyness’

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Tip to improve Vocabulary: Lesson from ‘The Pursuit of Happyness’
Tip to improve Vocabulary: Lesson from ‘The Pursuit of Happyness’

By the end of the day on most Fridays, I have this habit of watching a new film, predominantly from Hollywood. The choice of the movie and its genre depends upon my mood, prevailing at that time. I always look for movies possessing seamless narrations. At the same time, I pay special attention to moments, which provide some serious lessons that are essential to life, in the movies. For instance, I would define the 2006 American biographical drama film, ‘The Pursuit of Happyness’ a repository of highly valuable life lessons. Besides the movie rendering illustrations for aspects like determination, killer instinct, upbringing and forbearance, a sequence in the film provides a brief lesson on vocabulary. The sequence features the conversation between the father-son duo, Chris Gardner (the character of a dad, played by Will Smith) and Christopher Jr. (the role of a soon-to-be five-year-old son, enacted by Jaden Smith) during the course of their walk to meet a potential client of the former. Prior to the sequence, Chris Gardner conveys Christopher Jr. that possibly he would take him to the football game after the meetup with the prospect.

The interaction between the two during the walk transpires as follows

Christopher Jr.: Are you bringing it (referring the bone density scanner, which Chris Gardner is carrying) to the game?

Chris Gardner: Yeah, I don’t wanna leave it. And maybe we’re going to the game.

Christopher Jr.: Where are we going now?

Chris Gardner: To see someone about my job.

Christopher Jr.: I don’t understand

Chris Gardner: You don’t understand what?

Christopher Jr.: Are we going to the game?

Chris Gardner: I said possibly we’re going to the game. You know what “possibly” means?

Christopher Jr.: Like probably.

Chris Gardner: No, “probably” means there’s a good chance that we’re going. “Possibly” means we might, we might not. What does “probably” mean?

Christopher Jr.: It means we have a good chance.

Chris Gardner: And what does “possibly” mean?

Christopher Jr.: I know what it means.

Chris Gardner: What does it mean?

Christopher Jr.: It means that we’re not going to the game. 😊

Whenever I come across the usage of the words, “possibly” and “probably”, I just recall the aforementioned conversation and get myself clarified. This brief lesson suggested me a valuable tip on vocabulary. The tip is to note down informative and appealing dialogues like the above mentioned, as and when I notice them.

So, what makes the dialogue appealing? As the convo has been written out in such a way that a father describes about the difference between two words to his soon-to-be five-year-old son, the explanation has been rendered in a simpler form. Also, if something like a thought, idea, or a concept is explained with a relatable example then there is a high probability for individuals, who are able to relate with the instance, to have a lasting remembrance of the concerned topic’s meaning or context.

Hope you found my tip on vocabulary to be useful and practicable. Now, head down to the comments and let me know your ways to improve vocabulary.

Feel free to share a link to your blog post, which is relevant to this article so that I can check it out as well!

 

 

4 Examples of Captivating Fusion Marketing Campaigns (And Why They’re So Great)

4 Examples of Captivating Fusion Marketing Campaigns (And Why They’re So Great)

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Recently, I have been reading the late American Business Writer Jay Conrad Levinson’s book, Guerrilla Marketing: Easy and Inexpensive Strategies for making big profits from your small business. In a chapter of the book, the author has listed down twenty ways in which guerrilla marketing differs from the old-fashioned brand of marketing. In one of the ways, the writer defines traditional marketing as an approach, which suggests a brand to observe its industrial market completely to decide which of its competitors are to be utterly defeated by it.

Conversely, he proclaims guerrilla marketing as an outlook, which advocates a brand to discover businesses that possess the same kind of potential customers/clients and standards as it does, so that the brand can collaborate with the selected businesses in their marketing endeavours.

By opting the latter, Jay Conrad Levinson asserts that a brand is expanding its marketing reach, but reducing its marketing cost as it is sharing the expenses with the fellow business. And, he puts forth the term Fusion Marketing, which guerrillas use for this viewpoint.

There are tons of great examples for Fusion Marketing out there. To show you what makes them so captivating, I have curated a list of 4 examples of interesting Fusion Marketing instances. Here we go!

1. Burger King and Budweiser

Targeting the 2018 summer, the American brands, Burger King (BK) and Budweiser partnered and launched a limited edition burger named American Brewhouse King Sandwich and a special crown referred as Freedom Crown, for fans of both brands, to celebrate the Independence Day of United States of America. The crown, which holds both an American Brewhouse King Sandwich and a Budweiser beer, was available for people aged 21 or older, for a limited time. In the process, the collaboration revived the American beer maker’s iconic campaign, Whassup. In which, the original Budweiser Whassup commercial was remade by seasoning it with a special cameo from The King himself. To top it all, the BK’s mascot, holding a set of the new burger in his hand, “spoke” for the first time, in the spot. The ad was meant for supporting the revitalized campaign, driven by the agencies MullenLowe and David.

Whassup 2018 is one among the campaigns of BK that epitomizes the fast food restaurant’s Global CMO, Fernando Machado’s regular catchphrase, Burger King team is fighting the good fight for creativity!

Watch the ad below!

2. Uber and Mission Impossible 6: Fallout

When Tom Cruise is committed in doing all his high-risk stunts in the sixth Mission Impossible instalment, Fallout then how are the trained stunt men, hired by Paramount Pictures, occupying themselves?

You get to hear a light-hearted answer encapsulated in a video created by Uber, to promote its sponsorship of the red carpet premiere of Mission Impossible – Fallout that took place on July 12th 2018 in Paris.

In the documentary-style interview video, a fictional stunt man named Adrian Cooper talks about the ways in which he uses his plentiful downtime on the shooting spots.

One best way, in which he spends time, is to drive for Uber. Apart from enthusiastically letting his customers know about Tom’s daredevil stunts in Fallout, he conveys them on him being eager to watch the live streaming of the movie’s world premiere in Uber’s YouTube channel. The video ends with him saying, “I can’t wait to see all the stunts I didn’t do”!

Watch the hilarious video by clicking the link in the below tweet!

3. The Lego Movie and Turkish Airlines

Ahead of the upcoming release of The Lego Movie 2, Turkish Airlines partnered with The Lego Movie franchise and created an in-flight safety video, comprising the stars of The Lego Movie, driven predominantly by characters like Emmett and Wyldstyle. In the infotainment video, the cast takes passengers through the safety procedures, which are usually explained by the crew members before the flight takes off. It’s a fun way to kick-start the flight journey with a video, which brings together two brands that are well-known across the globe.

As per The Drum, 16 production specialists have toiled for 950 days to turn 2,938,840 Lego bricks into this edutainment video.

Also, the video kicks off a drive, which will encompass a global TV campaign, themed wrapped airlines, in-flight and in-airport activations and a second safety video.

Click the link in the below tweet to enjoy the Turkish Airlines Safety Video with The LEGO Movie Characters!

4. Aquaman and Ocean Conservancy

Going by Jason Momoa’s comments to Comicbook.com, the threat posed by pollution in the oceans seem to factor into the Aquaman’s portrayal of the conflict between the surface and Atlantis. This major plot point of Aquaman makes sense of its pairing with the non-profit environmental advocacy group Ocean Conservancy for the organization’s 33rd annual International Coastal Cleanup event, conducted on September 15th 2018.

As a lead-up to the event, people were encouraged through the Aquaman’s social media to be an Ocean Hero by joining it, downloading the organization’s app, Clean Swell and subsequently, participating in a Cleanup event near them. Post cleanup, volunteers were asked to submit data related to the marine debris collected by them in the app. Volunteers using Cleanup data cards were provided with an option to enter the details into Ocean Conservancy’s database. Eventually, the data will be formulated to Ocean Trash Index, which will then be an information source for everyone on the impact of the ocean trashes.

Please find below the peek into the International Coastal Cleaup, which happened on September 15th 2018.

Conclusion:

In the aforementioned fusion marketing campaigns, it is evident that the brands have adopted the guerrilla marketing outlook by discovering businesses that possess the same kind of potential customers/clients and standards as they do and collaborated with the selected businesses in their marketing endeavours. These approaches would have helped the brands to get more bang for their bucks, with less work.

Experiential Marketing Campaigns: Warner Bros. Pictures’s ‘The Nun’ vs 24AM STUDIOS’s ‘Seema Raja’

Experiential Marketing Campaigns: Warner Bros. Pictures’s ‘The Nun’ vs 24AM STUDIOS’s ‘Seema Raja’

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Experiential Marketing Campaigns: Warner Bros. Pictures’s ‘The Nun’ vs 24AM STUDIOS’s ‘Seema Raja’

Previously, in my article titled, ‘Experiential Marketing Campaigns: Warner Bros. Pictures’s ‘IT’ vs 24AM STUDIOS’s ‘Velaikkaran’’, I presented you the similarities between the marketing tactics of ‘Warner Bros. Pictures’ and ‘24AM STUDIOS’ for the 2017 American supernatural horror film, ‘IT’ and Tamil social thriller movie, ‘Velaikkaran’ respectively. As a follow-up, in this write-up, I share my thoughts about the Experiential Marketing Campaigns of ‘Warner Bros. Pictures’ and ‘24AM STUDIOS’ for their recent offerings, ‘The Nun’, an American gothic horror film and ‘Seema Raja’, a Tamil action comedy drama film, respectively.

Warner Bros. Pictures’s photo booth at ‘FANEXPO Canada 2018’ for ‘The Nun’:

Fan Expo Canada is a fan convention being held year after year in Toronto, Ontario. As part of the event for 2018 (August 30th 2018 – September 2nd 2018), ‘Warner Bros. Pictures Canada’ had put up The Nun-branded photo booth for the purpose of activation for the movie. Wherein, the fans stepped inside a mobile mirror room and clicked a selfie with the lookalike of the scary Valak. Taking a snap with the entity’s double in a room with an eerie backdrop created an illusion of posing with 100 of such creepy Valaks. When exiting the booth, people were provided with a complimentary photo, sharable in social media. Also, it was advertised that fans will get a chance to win prizes including passes for the advance screening of ‘The Nun’. The customized photos had the movie’s name and theatrical release date i.e. September 7.

Atop the booth was the call-to-action, ‘SHARE YOUR #LASTPRAYER’, which was prominent enough to encourage people to share their photos using the hashtag, ‘#LastPrayer’ in social networking sites. The phrase, ‘WITNESS THE DARKEST CHAPTER IN THE CONJURING UNIVERSE’ was imprinted over the exteriors of the booth along with the movie’s name, theatrical release date and the technologies in which the flick is going to be available in theatres like IMAX and Dolby Cinema.

To prepare audience for the feel, which the movie is going to deliver them, replicas of tombstones rigged with bells (Reminiscent of a nightmarish graveyard sequence from ‘The Nun’) were erected over a couple of false burials at the booth’s entryway. And, a couple of effigies of a faceless nun (Reminiscent of the character appearing in the movie) were placed at the top of the booth.

An announcement, about The Nun-branded photo booth, was put out by ‘Warner Bros. Pictures Canada’ and ‘FANEXPO Canada’ in social media.

Check the replies to the below tweet to have a look at the customised versions of the photos, captured at the activation!

24AM STUDIOS’s karaoke booth at popular multiplexes for ‘Seema Raja’:

Karaoke Booth in Luxe
Couple of karaoke booths (One for adults and the mini version for kids) placed at ‘Jazz Cinemas Luxe‘ at ‘Phoenix Market City‘ in Chennai

‘24AM STUDIOS’, apart from deploying traditional marketing tactics, has been a production house, which has been interacting with the movie going audience using innovative ways for their films.

For their debut venture ‘Remo’, the studios had employed ‘Cupid Standees’ campaign, which served as a perfect example of how content can be personalized in such a way that it resonates with the target audience.

For ‘Velaikkaran’ (24AM STUDIOS’s second film), the makers had made the slum set, featured in the movie, open for a public visit.

“People do not pay attention to advertising; they pay attention only to things that interest them.”

I came across the above phrase in the book, ‘Guerrilla Marketing: Easy and Inexpensive Strategies for making big profits from your small business’ written by the late American Business Writer Jay Conrad Levinson. The recent promotional strategy of ‘24AM STUDIOS’, for their third production venture, ‘Seema Raja’, Seema Raja-branded karaoke booth appears as a perfect illustration of the above quote.

Of late, a lot of people seem to actively express themselves in platforms like ‘musical.ly’ and ‘Dubsmash’. So, there seems to be no better time than the present to roll-out the offline customer engagement marketing tool, karaoke booth. Karaoke booth is where people can privately render their vocals for pre-recorded music and eventually combine both.

The booth unveiled for Seema Raja, emphasizes the movie by offering the pre-recorded musical tracks of five songs from the film as of now. Also, it contains the lyric videos and the trailer of the movie. People can also try out Dubsmash with the teaser of Seema Raja.

The best from among the performers in the karaoke booth will be picked and provided with an opportunity to meet D.Imman (Music Director of Seema Raja). It has also been advertised that the performances of the people will be uploaded in YouTube. In order to encourage an online conversation around the campaign, hashtags such as ‘SingAlongWithSeemaRaja’ and ‘#SeemaRajaKaraokeBooth’ have been created.

This participatory tool powered by ‘CanLah! Studio’, has been placed in popular multiplexes like ‘Palazzo’ at ‘The Forum Vijaya Mall’ and ‘Jazz Cinemas Luxe’ at ‘Phoenix Market city’ in Chennai, ‘Cinipriya Complex’ in Madurai and ‘FunCinema’ at ‘Fun Republic Mall’ in Coimbatore. This approach should have helped the movie to gain more exposure among the theatre-going audience.

A Special Midnight Screening for ‘The Nun’:

To make fans feel utterly terrified, ‘Warner Bros. UK’ offered them an opportunity to watch ‘The Nun’ at midnight on September 6th 2018, inside Brompton Cemetery (a London cemetery in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea). To get a pair of tickets, the fans had to visit www.seeitfirst.com and enter the code, BCM37X.

Click here and watch fans appearing panic-stricken by faceless nuns, jumping out at them at the cemetery, before the screening!

A Special Touring Talkies Screening for ‘Seema Raja’:

‘Touring Talkies’, an almost defunct concept, is the practice of screening films under a tent, usually covered with a thatched roof or a ceiling using asbestos sheets. ‘24AM STUDIOS’ tried reviving this thing of the past by arranging ‘Seema Raja’ shows at three locations of Tamil Nadu namely ‘S.E.V Matriculation School’ (Natham Road, Madurai), ‘St. John’s Vestry Anglo Indian School’ (Trichy) and ‘Cluster Media Academy’ (Peelamedu, Coimbatore) at 7:00 PM on September 16th 2017. The hashtag, ‘#SeemaRajaTouringTalkies’ was created to nurture an online dialogue around the campaign.

Apart from karaoke booths and touring talkies shows, ‘24AM STUDIOS’ came up with Seema Raja-branded mini trucks, carrying bioscopes equipped with head phones, which traveled across Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry. Wherein, people were able to watch the videos of Seema Raja. Customized hashtags, ‘#SeemaRajaBioscope’ and ‘#SeemaRajaBioscopeVandi’ were launched to integrate this street marketing drive with the online space.

Leveraging the marketing tool, ‘360° video’ to encourage the audience to go through an immersive experience:

To promote ‘The Nun’, ‘Warner Bros. Pictures UK’ had released a 360° video titled, ‘The Nun – 360 Experience – Official Warner Bros. UK’ in its YouTube channel. In the video, the fans get a chance to virtually traverse through the cloistered abbey, featured in the movie.

Click here to watch the 360° video!

Conclusion:

In addition to being interesting, the aforementioned experiential marketing campaigns of ‘Warner Bros. Pictures’ and ‘24AM STUDIOS’, for ‘The Nun’ and ‘Seema Raja’, offer some important takeaways such as the right place (or) platform where a campaign has to be deployed and the ideal partnership to be involved in, to plan and implement a striking marketing strategy. To top it all, the campaigns had boosted a significant pre-release buzz for the respective movies and have become memorable!

And, here ends my blog post about the Experiential Marketing Campaigns of ‘Warner Bros. Pictures’ and ‘24AM STUDIOS’ for ‘The Nun’ and ‘Seema Raja’ respectively. Now, let me know your opinion on my article in the comments section!

These are the 10 Best Burger King Marketing Campaigns of 2018 (So far)

These are the 10 Best Burger King Marketing Campaigns of 2018 (So far)

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These are the 10 Best Burger King Marketing Campaigns of 2018 (So far)

The marketing campaigns of Burger King have always been a delight. Hence, it is business as usual so far in the year 2018 for the fast food restaurant’s marketing and communications wing. Plentiful campaigns, which are buzzworthy, are being rendered from its various locations across the globe.

The social media presence of the Burger King’s Global Chief Marketing Officer, Fer Machado and the mentions, pertaining to the campaigns, in popular online media like Adweek and The Drum prompted me to list down BK’s 10 best marketing campaigns of 2018 so far. So, in this article, I present my list in no particular order.

1. A wrap to transmogrify a bus into a fire truck:

Agency: &Partner

&Partner, an advertising agency from Copenhagen, wrapped the right side of a bus to transmogrify the transit vehicle into a Burger King-branded fire truck. The meaty idea, inspired by the iconic fire trucks in New York, is the agency’s entry in an outdoor advertising competition in Denmark. In the contest, each participating agency was asked to select its client and come up with an idea to advertise the chosen brand with a bus. The concept bolstered the focus of the fast food chain on flame grilling.

2. Free WhoppHER for every Saudi woman behind the wheel:

Agency: Grabarz & Partners

To celebrate women driving in Saudi Arabia, post the lifting of the decade-old controversial ban on the same, Burger King offered free Whopper sandwich to every women passing through its drive-thru restaurants in the country. The quick service restaurant chain set the ball rolling for the campaign from June 24th through July 24th.

Click here to watch the campaign video!

3. A parabolic solar cooker to sear a burger:

Agency: Memac Ogilvy

Burger King’s Kuwait operation and Memac Ogilvy together devised and executed an idea to cook up Whopper using the heat produced by parabolic solar cookers, which mobilize direct sunrays to generate the heat. In Kuwait, when the temperature reaches 122 Fahrenheit, BK prepares this Sun-Flamed Grilled Whopper. This offering is available only at select locations in Kuwait (provided when the temperature favours).

4. A Good Samaritan Day video presenting a good-natured stunt:

Agency: David the Agency

For this year’s Good Samaritan Day, Burger King treated everyone with a good-natured film. In the video, you see a car fire on the side of a highway. Alongside the car is a guy who appears to look up to travellers vrooming past him to lend him a hand. People who pull over to assist the guy are in for a surprise when Burger King’s advertising mascot, flame grilling Whopper, welcomes them. What appeared as an engine fire are actually the flames from the grill. The Samaritans are then offered Burgers and iconic Burger King Crowns.

5. Whopper Neutrality stunt to explain the potential effects of Net Neutrality:

Agency: David

Burger King got behind the topic, Net Neutrality to explain it to not just a handful of its store customers but in fact to possibly every internet user with one of its brilliant in-store stunt. At one of BK’s outlet, if customers were to get served their Whoppers quick then they had to pay the QSR more than the actual price of the food offering. What if they don’t? The answer is simple. Even if the Whopper is ready, the customers had to wait pointlessly for a certain amount of time to collect it.

The expansion which the Burger King had displayed for MBPS over the pricing board (i.e., from “megabits per second” to “making burgers per second”), to be showcased to the customers, was also innovative. Hidden cameras placed in the store captured the goings-on inside the store and varied emotions of the customers in focus and rendered an edutainment.

6. An ‘explainer’ video on ‘Pink Tax’:

Agency: DAVID the Agency (Miami)

This is yet another instance of the fast food chain getting behind a topic concerning the public. The topic in this campaign is ‘Pink Tax’, a price, which refers to the products made for women like razors, shampoo and conditioner, that is significantly higher than the cost of the male equivalents of those products. In a film released by Burger King, one can see female customers charged $3.09 for “Chick Fries”. Whereas, “Chicken Fries” being charged at $1.69. Wherein, the only difference between the two food items is the box in which they are served i.e. “Chicken Fries” in a yellow box and “Chick Fires” in a pink box. Like Whopper Neutrality, the goal of this campaign as well is to render an infotainment around the focal topic and to convey the stand of Burger King on the same.

Watch the ‘Chick Tax’ spot by clicking here!

7. Gift Whoppers or Oreo shake to ease co-workers stuck at office in summer:

Agency: Buzzman

Burger King Belgium and the agency Buzzman collaborated and yielded the summer special digital campaign, ‘Whopper Out of Office’ that kick-started on July 3rd. In which, the fans, enjoying their summer vacation in a remote destination, were given an innovative option to taunt and then pacify their fellow coworkers stuck at office by treating them with eatables. All they have to do is provide their destination, duration of their journey and a description in the website setup for the campaign. So, when a person contacts them, he/she will receive an automatically generated email along with a gift voucher for a Whopper or an Oreo shake and their individually tailored message for him/her.

Click here and have a look at the campaign video!

8. Summer pairing of Burger King and Budweiser – A paragon of Collaboration Marketing:

Agency: David and MullenLowe

The pairing of the US brigades of Burger King and Budweiser is what I call as a perfect example of Collaboration Marketing. Targeting the summer season, the partnership, in addition to yielding the limited-edition burger ‘American Brewhouse King Sandwich’, revived the American beer maker’s iconic campaign, ‘Whassup’. To top it all, the BK’s mascot, holding a set of the new burger in his hand, “spoke” in the spot. The ad was meant for supporting the revitalized campaign.

Also Read: 4 Examples of Captivating Fusion Marketing Campaigns (And Why They’re So Great)

9. King Popcorn campaign to hack Whopper into the movies:

Agency: McCann Lima

As soon as the prohibition in the Peruvian Law on taking outside food to the theatres was ceased, movie halls started letting consumers enter their premises with foods ‘similar’ to those sold in the cinema’s concession stands. Burger King Peru and McCann Lima sensed a marketing opportunity, seized the situation and ended up with the King Popcorn campaign. Wherein, the fast feeder, located in food courts close to the movie theatres, packed a popcorn tub with a Whopper at the bottom, a French Fries pack above it and a tray containing a handful of popcorns at the top. The outward appearance of this food item named King Popcorn resembled the snack sold in the theatres. Thereby, it facilitated the hacking of the Whopper and French fries inside the movie. This innovative move by Burger King increased its sales by 40% in the activation period and put the brand in the consumer spotlight.

10. Incendiary print and outdoor ads for a recruitment campaign in Germany:

Agency: Grabarz & Partner Werbeagentur GmbH

For the Burger King Recruitment campaign in Germany, the fast food chain in the country and Grabarz & Partner came up with a series of incendiary, eye-catching print and outdoor ads. The ads depicting real-life events had the text, ‘LOVE FIRE? CONTACT US’ accompanied by the web address, ‘bk-careers.com’, catch phrase, ‘FLAME GRILLING SINCE 1954’ and the Burger King logo.

Conclusion:

Even though I consider the aforementioned campaigns as best of Burger King in 2018 so far, I can’t resist myself in admiring the other efforts of the restaurant like Burger King China’s celebration of International Women’s Day 2018 and Burger King Romania’s “Whopper No Show” campaign. Also, it sounds appealing when coming across tweets from BK’s Global CMO that gives a glimpse of the interiors of the fast feeder’s outlets of different countries. Overall, I find the collective marketing and communications efforts of the QSR chain to be lively!

Having documented a list of best Burger King marketing campaigns of 2018 so far, I now eagerly look forward to what the chain has in store for the remaining months of this year.

Amazing ads that helped ‘Tamizh Padam 2’ get massive pre-release buzz

Amazing ads that helped ‘Tamizh Padam 2’ get massive pre-release buzz

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Amazing ads that helped ‘Tamizh Padam 2‘ get massive pre-release buzz

“Coming up with the right titles and honing the creative”

This was Fox Home Entertainment’s game plan to pull off its amazing Blu-ray stunt at Walmart for Deadpool 2.

Likewise, to promote Tamizh Padam 2 (a sequel to the 2010 Tamil Parody film, Thamizh Padam), the below note appears to be the game plan of its makers.

“Picking up movies (or) news that made headlines and honing the creative”

To turn the film, Thamizh Padam into a franchise, Y Not Studios and Director C. S. Amudhan (Director of Thamizh Padam and Tamizh Padam 2) have pulled out all the stops.

The sequel’s large-scale promotion commenced with a bold and a wacky poster. Since then, each step in the movie’s marketing drive has been simple yet effective. At the same time, all seem to appear cost-effective (or at least so, when compared to the prevailing regional movie promotions).

Here’s a rundown of the amusing ads, which Y Not Studios rolled out in the lead-up to the release of Tamizh Padam 2.

First, here’s one of the early poster, advertising the initial release date of Tamizh Padam 2, in theaters… and Tamil Rockers. Wherein, Tamil Rockers was mentioned as the movie’s ‘Official Piracy Partner’. Actor Siddharth tweeted out the poster first from his Twitter handle.

On the eve of Women’s Day (2018), Actor Madhavan shared a ‘soup song’ for women (part of the film) in Twitter.

Then, in May, Director Venkat Prabhu shared the ‘official first look’ of the film’s press release. The note briefed the ‘reasons’ behind the delay in the release of the movie.

On May 31st, Tamizh Padam 2 teaser dropped. All along, every single announcement above the movie triggered a significant online conversation. To top it all, the teaser kicked up the already prevailing excitement.

Following the viral photo showing a group of leaders including German Chancellor Angela Merkel and American President Trump, C. S. Amudhan tweeted a still featuring actors Shiva, Iswarya Menon and few others on June 12th.

Soon after the release of Tik Tik Tik (advertised as India’s first space adventure), a poster – featuring actors Shiva, Iswarya Menon and Sathish – was released on June 24th. All three in casuals, wearing space helmets and playing cards in space (Supposedly!). The poster carried an announcement about the release of a full video song on June 26th.

As a follow-up to the announcement, on June 26th, the video song titled, Naan Yaarum Illa got released. The song was sensational and raised further expectations over the movie.

To announce the ‘U’ rating, obtained by Tamizh Padam 2 from censor board, the makers shared the following ad

And finally, as a countdown to the movie’s release, a series of posters popped up in the social media of Y Not Studios.

‘Timely ones’ like…

‘Even more timely ones’ (within a matter of hours) like…

The social media presence of Tamizh Padam 2‘s cast and crew (especially the ones of director, producer and production house) has been crucial… crucial in pumping up the excitement towards the movie. The weird tone of the movie did translate well in their social media. But, in taking the franchise forward, it is ideal to complement it with an exclusive social media account. Such an account for the franchise can come in handy in mobilizing the fans in an even better way.

(Photo Courtesy: Y Not Studios)

Here’s how Brands are making the most of Experiential Events!

Here’s how Brands are making the most of Experiential Events!

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Find your target audience. Know what they expect from you. Create and offer them a unique experience around their expectation. Thereby, make them feel moved by your approach.

When you do all the above, you may earn not alone customers but their loyalty too.

This has been the beauty of Experiential Marketing.

But, your marketing efforts need not stop with providing just an experience. There are opportunities for you to make the most of such occasions.

So, in this article, let me explain on how brands are using experiential events to the best advantage.

Effective Email Marketing Drive as a follow-up to GlassBarge:

Corning Incorporated (an American multinational technology company) started as Brooklyn Flint Glass Works in 1868. It founded Corning Museum of Glass (CMoG, a museum in Corning, New York) in 1951. To mark the journey of Corning Inc., Corning Museum of Glass is presenting GlassBarge (a canal barge furnished with CMoG’s all-electric glass making equipment). The canal barge travels for four months to various shore sides of New York. Wherein, it does a free glassblowing demonstration in each port city. People can view schedules and reserve seating for the shows in Eventbrite (U.S.-based event management and ticketing website).

CMoG collected the list of GlassBarge visitors who reserved advance tickets via Eventbrite. It sent them a thank you email and invited them to the museum by providing a discount on entrance fee. The emails saw a 50 percent open rate. This open rate is double the average open rate as per MailChimp.

This case conveys on how a notable event can transform to an effective email marketing drive.

Event as a channel to know the fans:

RQ, a marketing agency partnered Pizza Hut with Getty Images (American stock photo agency) at South by Southwest, 2018. Wherein, Pizza Hut served Pizza at the lounge outside the photo studio of Getty Images. In the event, the American restaurant chain interacted with the customers. Whereby, Pizza Hut got to know a group of fans which it manages to use for influencer campaigns.

This instance lets us know on how a brand used an event as a channel to interact with its customers. And, got to know their viewpoints on the brand. To top it all, the company identified its brand advocates and is leveraging them.

Conclusion:

The scenarios have shown the options for brands to make the most of experiential events. One in the form of using the data obtained from live events for email marketing. And, other in the form of getting to know a brand’s fans to later tap into them for influencer campaigns. Thereby, the strategies illustrate on how far the experiential marketing can be beneficial.

Alive Humans’ body spaces for Advertising: 3 Weird but Interesting Strategies

Alive Humans’ body spaces for Advertising: 3 Weird but Interesting Strategies

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Of late, I have been trying to dig deep into the concept of Guerrilla Marketing. While trying to do so, I came across the terminology, Forehead Advertising. As the name suggests, the advertising is carried out on a person’s forehead… of course after obtaining consent from the concerned person.

A prominent case study of forehead advertising occurred way back in April 2004. To publicize tC coupe, a new model of the now defunct Scion (a discontinued brand of Toyota), Cunning, a London-based firm conducted an event. The event took place in Times Square. Wherein, 40 young adults, employed by the firm, participated to advertise tC. Cunning made the participants wear one or more of the below messages as temporary tattoos in their foreheads

  1. tC (Coupe’s model name)
  2. $16,465 (Price of the car)
  3. Scion (Company’s name)

Each enlistee got paid $11 per hour. The event ran from 10 A.M – 1 P.M on the day when Toyota launched tC at New York Auto Show.

Much like the above forehead advert, there is this weird “billboard” drive of Air New Zealand in 2009. The airline recruited 30 people. It made them shave their heads. And, stick the below message over their bald heads as temporary tattoos for 2 weeks

“Need A Change? Head Down to New Zealand. www.airnewzealand.com.”

Air New Zealand labelled the advertisements as “cranial billboards”. In return, the temps received either of the below options

  1. A round-trip ticket to New Zealand (Cost of the ticket was about $1,200)
  2. Cash reward of $777 (The cash amount was an indirect reference to Boeing 777, a model in Air New Zealand’s fleet)

Likewise, FeelUnique.com, an online beauty store conducted a marketing drive in 2009. The company hired 10 men and women, in a random manner, from 6,000 who applied for the campaign online. The store made them apply the store’s web address as temporary tattoos on the eyelids. And, asked them to wink at strangers. FeelUnique.com paid them 100 pounds.

The London-based firm, Mischief ran the campaign. As per Mischief, the drive generated significant referral traffic to FeelUnique.com… as a result of articles about the campaign which appeared in various media.

Conclusion:

In the past, tattoo-related ads weren’t confined to the heads and eyelids alone. They have extended even to the rounded bellies of pregnant women. But, not all such strategies have turned out into a win-win like the above mentioned three cases. Hence, the instances serve as ideal case studies of how brands leveraged alive humans’ body spaces… for advertising.

Sources:

  1. SELLING SCIONS WITH FOREHEAD ADS
  2. The Body as Billboard: Your Ad Here
4 Guerrilla Marketing Campaigns of popular movies you love!

4 Guerrilla Marketing Campaigns of popular movies you love!

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A collage of stills from Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, Ant-Man, IT and Deadpool

This happened a week ago.

IT looked much like how the savage beast thrust the doors of a cargo hold in the climax of The Lost World: Jurassic Park.

IT prompted many among the passersby to double-check on what they saw.

IT made the commuters click photos and share them on social media.

Thereby, IT spurred a series of conversations from netizens… and a sequence of interpretations from media houses.

IT…IT…IT…IT…What was IT?

IT was a giant replica of a dinosaur breaking out of a container on a boat, which floated on River Thames in London.

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Giant replica of T-Rex on River Thames in London

IT appeared like the ‘recreation’ of the below scene from Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom.

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This event, presumed to be a stunt for Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, is unusual… unusual in the case of movie marketing. By that means, it serves as an ideal example of Guerrilla Marketing.

This occurrence made me recall few Guerrilla Marketing campaigns… campaigns implemented for certain movies. In this article, I present them to you.

‘Ant-sized’ bill boards for Ant-Man:

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A still from Ant-Man

It was way back in 2015. Marvel Cinematic Universe superhero, Ant-Man was about to launch his first feature film. By then, Mr. Glasses (an Australian experiential marketing agency) pitched in to promote Ant-Man among the Australian audience.

For promotion, they launched a ‘miniature campaign’. As part of the campaign, they created 200 mini billboards. In other words, they shrunk traditional billboards… like how Ant-Man contracted in size in the film.

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A mini billboard created for the ‘miniature campaign’

The boards contained the name of the movie, production house and the movie’s release date. The boards were then placed in areas where they could garner much audience attention. They got placed across Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.

This promotional activity created a sensation. The campaign got mentioned in a handful of world renowned newspapers and magazines. As a result of the surge in the popularity of the drive, Marvel booked mini billboards worldwide.

The campaign done on a budget of $22K yielded the well-set launch pad for the movie, Ant-Man.

‘Scary’ drive for IT:

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A still from IT

In 2017, Village Roadshow deployed a weird drive to promote the horror flick, IT. This promotion is yet another brain child of Mr. Glasses.

The campaign included two activities. First was to create hand painted murals. The agency made street artists to create murals depicting their versions of Pennywise. They did so as they had restrictions in using the imageries of the clown that appears in the movie. The artists splashed their artworks on the walls of Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. The drawings contained texts such as ‘YOU’LL FLOAT TOO‘, movie name, release date and the hashtag, ‘#ITMOVIE‘.

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A hand painted mural

And, second was to tie red balloons to storm water drains. Alongside the drains was the message, ‘IT IS CLOSER THAN YOU THINK. #ITMOVIE IN CINEMAS SEPTEMBER 7.‘.

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Balloons tied to storm water drains alongside which is the message, ‘IT IS CLOSER THAN YOU THINK. #ITMOVIE IN CINEMAS SEPTEMBER 7.‘

This marketing by the agency went viral globally.

The red balloon has been prominent not only in the movie, IT but also in its marketing as mentioned above.

Both activities sound striking despite the very tight budget (as mentioned in the website of Mr. Glasses) of the client.

Blu-ray packaging stunt for Deadpool:

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A still from Deadpool 2

Among the many innovative marketing of Deadpool 2 is this one, which happened in Walmart. It was business as usual for Deadpool. Once again, he broke the fourth wall and got into the act of the movie’s marketing.

People were in for a surprise to see Deadpool taking over the endcap of Blu-ray movies of which he is not a part of. Some of the movies that Deadpool took over are Predator, The Terminator and Logan. In specific, the packaging stunt involved movies affiliated with Fox Home Entertainment. And, those which were iconic to a degree and had a noticeable art.

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Deadpool taking over the endcap of Blu-ray movies in a Walmart store

The stunt appeared as bizarre and witty as the nature of Deapool. Fox Home Entertainment‘s in-house team along with Neuron Syndicate (Los Angeles based advertising agency) pulled off the stunt.

Conclusion:

All the above mentioned advertisements got placed in unusual and unexpected locations. And, the methods used by them were unconventional. Also, the strategies should be the first or the only ad executions of this kind (or should be so for a period of time). Thereby, they serve as perfect illustrations of Guerrilla Marketing.

What other movie marketing tactics you sense to fit the bill? Let me know in the comments!

(Photo Courtesy: Universal Pictures, Marvel Studios,
Warner Bros. Pictures and Adweek)
Brand Activation: ‘Show Us Your Package’ campaign of ‘Deadpool’ and ‘Trolli’

Brand Activation: ‘Show Us Your Package’ campaign of ‘Deadpool’ and ‘Trolli’

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Deadpool 2, a sequel to the 2016 film Deadpool, opens on May 18th, 2018. As the date is nearing, like other superhero flicks, marketing for Deadpool 2 are at full throttle. But, what makes the promotions of Deadpool 2 sound unique is the aspect of quirkiness. In fact, this has been nature of the Deadpool franchise’s marketing. Of late, Deadpool partnered with the confectionery brand, Trolli for a crossover campaign… a campaign to make the new line of snacks, Sour Brite Tiny Hands active.

It all started with the Deadpool’s ‘Tiny Tease’, SOMETHING TINY IS COMING in Trolli Candy’s social media. The tease contained the date, 5.7.18.

On May 7th, Trolli Candy asked people to show off their package of Trolli on two giant billboards, with Deadpool, in Times Square. In parallel, Trolli’s Twitter account encouraged people to strike a pose in Times Square.

A chance to be on the big screen in Times Square, by showing a package, made people to care about the event and strike a pose. Also, the event included a sweepstakes and photo contest.

On May 8th, a video showcasing the snacks along with Deadpool was put up in Deadpool’s social media.

On May 9th, a video, which briefed on the event, was released in social media.

The website, www.weirdlyawesome.com contains few photos from the activation event. One could either swipe right or left, on the package pics, to give either thumbs up or down.

Also, Trolli encouraged netizens to flaunt a package for the cam and share the pic on Instagram or Twitter. To enter for a chance to win a VIP Deadpool Experience, Trolli asked them to tag ‘@trolli_usa‘ and use ‘#PackagePose‘.

Social media of Trolli kept the conversations, about the campaign, go through in online. They did so by sharing select photos from the event and certain photos put up by fans in social media. Thereby, Trolli identified and celebrated milestones of its campaign, which created news.

This unconventional and unpredictable campaign complemented the anti-mainstream natures of Deadpool and Trolli. The campaign was more impactful, as it drew in more audience, and related to what both the brands are.

The idea of creating Tiny Hands finds its reference from a scene of Deadpool. Wherein, Deadpool equates his then small hands to a KFC Spork.

Conclusion:

The campaign increased customer’s awareness about and engagement with Trolli‘s Tiny Hands. In other words, the campaign ‘activated’ the new product. Foremost, it created an emotional connection between the brands and their customers… an emotional connection where customers will remember the experience and the brands longer.

Photo Courtesy: Marvel Entertainment and Trolli

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