You've heard of guerrilla marketing — how about gorilla marketing? The Rolling Stones have a greatest hits album that's being released on Nov. 12 called GRRR!, featuring a gorilla on the cover with the band's iconic "big lips logo" superimposed on its face. So don’t be alarmed when you see large images of the cheeky gorilla popping up around the world to promote the album.

The gorillas are taking over 50 cities and 3,000+ locations around the globe, being tagged on such landmarks as Sydney's Opera House, New York’s Empire State Building and London’s Elizabeth Tower (that’s Big Ben to all of you who missed the renaming for Her Majesty). They can be seen in 3D augmented reality via mobile devices that have downloaded UView's app, so fans can "watch the stunning GRRR! artwork fully realized in 3D animation right before their eyes .... some exciting content and have the chance to enter an exclusive competition plus pre-order a copy of GRRR!"

As part of the marketing stunt that's billed as the "biggest global Augmented Reality music campaign" to date, the Stones are encouraging fans to take pics of the gorillas and tweet them with the #GRRR! hashtag to the Stones’ Twitter feed, @RollingStones. The photos will also show up on an interactive wall on the Rolling Stones website.

That #GRRR hashtag is more commonly used on Twitter, by the way, to express frustration — which is what real gorilla lovers are feeling.Continue reading...

"Keep Good Going" is the tagline and rallying cry for New York Life's new campaign. The Facebook announcement includes a Twitter hashtag and the call to action, "What inspires you? There is good all around us, and at New York Life, we believe in perpetuating that good. The people, words, videos and stories on this page have touched and inspired us. #KeepGoodGoing"

The Facebook and Twitter push promotes to a microsite featuring "found" video and photographs in "Snapshots" that highlight a cross-section of ages and customers. The digital hub for the campaign also invites visitors to ponder life lessons such as "#27 Be the man your dog thinks you are" and then share the life lessons that means the most to them.Continue reading...

Volkswagen has been doing all it can to up its visibility in India the past few years. It wouldn’t hurt, after all, to sell well in the country with the second largest population, right?

So it has run ads that make newspapers “talk” and bought silver wraps for newspapers to show off the Jetta’s cool coloring. A few years ago, it lowered a Vento from a skyscraper to introduce it to the nation.

The latest innovation from VW’s marketing gurus is a vibrating newspaper. As news consumers opened one of three papers – The Times of India, The Hindustan Times and The Hindu – a light-sensitive chip attached to ads that teased "Feel the Shiver of Excitement" for the Polo and Vento vibrated the paper — “quite literally, communicating to readers the shiver of excitement they’ll experience when they see the exciting new features” in the cars, according to Asia Media Journal.

Talk about buzz marketing. The move followed an earlier ad tech move in the The Times of India — a talking newspaper ad — that also grabbed readers' attention.Continue reading...

Listerine in Hong Kong with agency JWT came up with a unique idea: using a flipbook with a nasty onion smell in the pages (and a coupon at the end) to leave a lasting impression.

A tough-to-watch, controversy-stirring videotaped event by Lush Cosmetics in the U.K. involved a performance artist undergoing animal laboratory tests in the window of Lush Regent Street London in April to raise awareness of their fight against animal testing in cosmetics.

Jacqueline Traides, 24, spent ten hours in the store window and was subjected to force-feeding, injections, hair shaving and other extreme discomfort while restrained. She later blogged, "It was somewhere after the fourth hour of this live act that I found my self asking the question ‘why exactly am i here?’. I realised then that it was not to Lush, nor to the onlookers but to the beings, animals and humans alike, that endure such suffering without choice."

Intended to shock, thousands of passerby signed the brand's petition on the spot, while the performance was also streamed live on a website where viewers could sign. "I hope it will plant the seed of a new awareness in people to really start thinking about what they go out and buy and what goes into producing it," said Traides.Continue reading...

Pepsi's biggest bid to re-assume brand and cultural relevance begins this week under the rallying cry and new global tagline of "Live for Now." PepsiCo is looking to this new pop-culture-based campaign to deliver on executives' promise to reignite growth in the company's flagship beverage brand.

Songstress Nicki Minaj will be the initial poster child for the campaign, which will get going with a homepage takeover of Yahoo.com on Wednesday by Pepsi, which will cross-promote Pepsi Pulse, as Pepsi's website is branded, reflecting the interactive hub that will serve as the social-media nexus for Pepsi's campaign.Continue reading...

Skype went for the funny bone with its "Skype for String" April Fool's Day prank. But it's not aiming for chuckles with its current marketing push: a multi-channel $12 million campaign in the U.S. and the U.K. with the tagline "It's time for Skype."

Created by Pereira & O'Dell in San Francisco, "It's time for Skype" takes on competitive social media platforms with lines like the Facebook-dissing "Upgrade from a wall post to a first class conversation" and (in a swipe at Twitter) "140 characters doesn't equal staying in touch."

"It's rare that a campaign gives you the opportunity to address very relevant, timely cultural issues. Skype isn't solving the world's problems, but it has a point of view. This is more than just a marketing message with provocative headlines — our message is to help people truly connect in a genuine way," said Justin Cox, Pereira & O'Dell's senior strategic planner-mobile.

With an outdoor push including posters and wraps in the London Bank Subway, on the London Torch, electronic billboards on the Canary Wharf, digital posters on bus shelters and in the Eurostar departure terminal in London Heathrow Terminal, the tagline defines a campaign focused on social connections for family relationships and business travelers and posits that Skype puts humanity back in communication.Continue reading...

For decades, Procter & Gamble has been pitching laundry detergents, promoting a dizzying array of different brands that all basically do the same thing — get clothes clean. Typically, detergent advertising concentrates on the features of the product and the benefits the consumer derives from using it.

So how does a niche detergent brand break through, especially when it doesn't have the luxury of the ginormous promotional budgets of a Procter & Gamble? For Method, the answer is simple: Be quirky.

Method, a pioneer in earth-friendly detergents and cleaning products, has fought against the Tides of the world since its founding 12 years ago. But it is only in recent years that the brand has faced its toughest competition.Continue reading...