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I’m sure that there’ll be less articles on TheScrapBook about new clothes and things, and perhaps more about the effects of the credit crunch on marketing and design, as time goes on. Here’s my first!
Contagious has an interesting article about recession marketing that mentions Nike’s new Zoom Victory shoe. Not only is this a great technological innovation in the construction of the shoe, but it’s a way for their business to retain some money otherwise spent in production.
Fast Company magazine examines the emerging innovations related to the Olympics, and mentions particularly the Nike Zoom Victory. By dispensing with the elements previously needed to hold a sneaker together (stitching, material) in favour of a ‘flywire’ suspension bridge design with merely a coating of fabric, the shoes weigh in at less than a chocolate bar. What’s more, because the design is so pared down, the Nike team can use rapid prototyping to design and manufacture unique versions in a fraction of the time that it would take to knock up a regular sneaker.
What this means is that the Zoom Victory’s cheaper production process could enable Nike to shift some of its manufacturing out of China and back to its home in the United States, thus creating jobs in an otherwise exhausted marketplace.
Any business opportunity for a client that not only cuts costs, but potentially earns them an income and revenue stream is surely onto a winner.
For more on Credit Crunch marketing, check out Contagious’ other article on how consumers might act in a recession and what the opportunity is for us - most notably, apparently, for packaging designers!
R&B singer Chris Brown has a top 10 hit out at the moment called “Forever”. The chorus has the line “Double your pleasure/double your fun” - sound familiar?
“Forever” is an extended version of a new Doublemint jingle written by Chris Brown and scheduled to begin airing next month in 30-second spots for Wrigley’s green-packaged chewing gum. Turns out that Chris Brown is hired by ad agency Translation Advertising to update the images of three of Wrigley’s best-known brands. It’s a product placement scheme, and all the artists are looking at sampling sounds from previous Wrigley’s advertising jingles.
I thought this was nothing new, but the Wall Street Journal and PSFK both seem surprised enough to deem it newsworthy. Maybe the only surprise is that someone’s releasing Chris Brown singles… or more seriously that whilst Busta Rhymes’ hit “Pass the Courvoisier” was an unashamed nod towards a brand, this time round it’s actually been paid for in advance by Wrigley’s to promote Double Mint. More on “Push the Courvoisier” here. DJ Premier, Nas, KRS-One and Kanye’s hit “Classic” was commonly accepted as a clear push for Nike (the song’s an homage to the Air Force One shoe). And what about the deal between Bacardi and Groove Armada?
The most interesting thing about this appears to be that Jay Z is behind it all (surprise surprise!) as he’s a partner in Translation Advertising - read the New York Times article for more!
Here’s Chris Brown’s song. (Not my thing, but it did rather well in the charts!)
Two great websites that deserve to be here on TheScrapBook. Play with them yourself to appreciate what they’re all about!
Clever data capture opportunity from Absolut, following on from the infomercial we showed last week.
The copy says:
Each option asks you to put in your phone number, but to what extent will people be irritated by this coming from a brand, Absolut? I think not too much, given the type of brand that it is. It’s more akin to Groove Armada and Bacardi’s relationship in my opinion - alcohol is a social lubricant, viral ads are conversation starters, and Kanye West is a party animal. Sounds good in my experience!
Have we posted this before? Can’t remember! Click the images to view the film
It’s in the same vein as Designer Slash Model
I’m not late on this, I just thought that someone should post it up. The Uniclock is lovely, charming, and vaguely useful. The music is great too!
From Divinity Metrics:
“This weeks top video for BMW in Brand20 index surprised us, its a beautiful video of the Kinetic Sculpture at the BMW museum and undoubtedly getting a lot of views for BMW this week. The interesting part is that, Honda is advertising along side and in the video. A few second into the video you notice an ad of the Honda Pilot, and on the right side a contest promotion by Honda.”
It’s not the first time that Honda have been clever with online advertising. They notoriously rank exceedingly well for “green” cars (hybrid etc) and have had positive shift in their associated brand values, even though the number one “green” car (in terms of marque) is Toyota Prius.
If you like bikes as much as i do you’ll lose hours perusing the virtual museum that speedbicycles has created. Above are a few snapshots (by no means highlights, just a few grabs) of an ottusi pista, an Andy Hampsten eddy merckx special Motorola Alpe D’Huez racer, and a gitane aero racer… If you appreciate good design/typography/engineering you’ll enjoy this site. highly recommended.
Vans are in the process of releasing a range of shoes and saddlebags designed with fixie riders in mind. The usual cotton canvas has been replaced with a ballistic nylon (love that description), which means they should be ultra hard-wearing. If they had any sense they would also use a harder compound for the sole, or insert a harder section behind the ball of the foot, so it’s stiffer in the toe clip; but we’ll see. I personally really like the white version. They all have 3M reflective patches, which may or may not help a car see you hurtling down a hill, brakeless, at 40kmh. the white version gets thescrapbook seal of approval.
all pics courtesy of crooked tongues.
