I really like this idea. To advertise their live coverage of the 21 days of the Tour De France, SBS created a live rotating billboard powered by a cyclist on a stationary bike. The cyclist pedaled from 8am to 4pmfor 21 days, with only 2 days of rest. Rain, wind, sun, hail, it didn’t matter - he kept pedaling.

This ad campaign did exactly what it was supposed to do - it got people to notice and it drove home its intended advertising message. The word-of-mouth marketing effect was likely huge, too (as I blog about it).

Thanks for the tip, Brandflakes.

Garret Ohm
http://www.orange-element.com

The goal of any advertiser is to create an advertising campaign that engages the target audience. We want to create something that makes people take notice and perhaps even more importantly, take action. Chevrolet recently created an outdoor campaign in London that did both of those things–whether or not it was truly effective is in dispute.

To advertise the low starting price of their Chevy Aveo, they created a billboard made of 769,500 pennies, the exact amount that it takes to purchase a new Aveo. People noticed. Unfortunately, the action they took was not going to their local Chevy dealer, it was STEALING THE PENNIES off of the billboard. They were reportedly gone within 30 minutes.

Next time perhaps Chevy will put the billboard somewhere higher than street-level (although it didn’t stop the guys with the ladder…).

Garret Ohm
http://www.orange-element.com

Thanks to Agency Spy for pointing me to this ad done by DraftFCB for Oreo.

It just goes to show you that sometimes design doesn’t even involve fancy graphics or effects. Sometimes it’s all about finding a creative way to use something existing (exposed elevator) to create drama around a product or service.

How sweet would it be, though, if there was a kiosk just around the corner that sold Oreos? Instant gratification…

Garret Ohm
http://www.orange-element.com

Thanks Andy Bonner, for pointing me to the Veer Blog posting about an art installation at this year’s Wimbledon tennis tournament. HSBC, in an effort to highlight their partnership with the tennis tournament, hired artists Heather Ackroyd and Dan Harvey to create walls of photographic grass.

For those who have never heard of it, it’s where the artists create photographic images by projecting black and white negatives onto grass seedlings as they grow in a dark room for 12 hours per day for more than a week. Apparently, the grass grows in accordance to its exposure to light, thus the photo “develops” on a living canvas of grass.

Very cool, and it definitely opens the mind to all the possibilities:

Check out more AMAZING stuff by the artists on their site HERE.

Garret Ohm
http://www.orange-element.com

I was reading one of my favorite design and branding blogs yesterday and I found out about a really cool organization in New York that I think really needs to come to the city of Baltimore. Groundswell is a community mural project that uses murals to bring positive change in cities. The description on their Web site reads:

Groundswell is a NYC based nonprofit that brings together communities, professional artists and grassroots organizations to use art as a tool for social change.

In a nutshell, it’s a non-profit that does beautiful murals with a positive, meaningful message in areas where crime, violence, poverty, drugs, etc. are a problem. Hey Baltimore, are you listening?

Garret Ohm
http://www.orange-element.com/