Musical Road Lancaster,CA

VSL brought my attention to this fantastic branded utility that is now gone. My favorite part of this video is the driver and passenger response not only to the "utility" but also the sponsoring brand. Way to go Honda!

The Santa Monica ad agency RPA cut half-inch grooves into a quarter-mile stretch of Avenue K, in the exurban L.A. desert city of Lancaster. The grooves were synched in such a way that driving over them at precisely 55mph caused Rossini’s “William Tell Overture” — a.k.a. the Lone Ranger theme — to echo in the air around you. Well, not so fast, Kemosabe! Avenue K borders a quiet subdivision, the RPA failed to take variables such as tire pressure into account, and the Civic ad became a civic nuisance. The road has already been repaved, but YouTube is loaded with clips of drivers getting their grooves on.

Brand Immersion: Clean Up Your Act

Long a fan of Kenneth Cole's provocations, I find my admiration growing. While many a brand has gone guerrilla with wild postings, street painting, chalking and other forms of commercial graffiti - Cole takes it one step further. To get their point across, they power washed city sidewalks using stencils. Rather than add to the mess - they chose to clean it up. And how 'bout that contextually relevant messaging...

Brand Immersion: Sign of the times

How to Work Better

Swiss artists Peter Fischli (b1952) and David Weiss (b1946) have, since the late 1970s, captivated and amused audiences with their extraordinary transformations of the commonplace. I particularly like this use of space, transforming a surface of an office building into refreshingly sensible insight.

Thanks to PSFK for bringing this to my attention.

Brand Immersion: Public Service or Advertising?

In the same vein as the previous post about the health care company whose advertising was of service...

Last week I was walking through the Times Square subway passage and was treated, along with thousands of other commuters, to holiday wall murals. Red, white and green graphic snow scenes. Every third or forth mural had a smallish logo placed in a corner.

With limited logo placement but strong visual continuity - those who experience these murals know within minutes this is from Starbucks. Because these murals appear where advertising posters usually hang - I walked from one to the next in a kind of eager anticipation to see which brand was responsible for this little bit of visual pleasure. Granted, I'm always looking for innovative advertising so maybe others were less inspired to find the brand - but regardless, I've overheard people talking about how nice it was to have the subway passage filled with holiday scenery.

Starbucks is a brand that gives us a "third place" - not work, not home, but that lovely place to stop in for a moment or for an hour and just be. Now they've taken a little bit of that and extended it to the New York underground.

Brand Immersion: How to calm down during rush hour...

In my quest to find and reveal great examples of analog and digital branded utilities I've come across a health insurance company that believes even its advertising can be of service in keeping people healthy. Check this out - as reported by Creativity...

Health maintenance organization Kaiser Permanente aims to maintain health in the frantic workaday world exemplified by this friendly domination effort seen at the Montgomery Street BART station in downtown San Francisco last month.

"Suggestions on how to live well in a busy world," along with "calming images" lined the walls of the station, allowing Kaiser Permanente to "actually provide a healthy moment in a person's busy day," says Karnowsky. In addition, sponsored musical performances heard during rush hours "can lower a commuter's blood pressure," she says.

Brand Immersion: Dove Evolution

In discussions about Branded Utility I generally use the example of Dove Soap. When one uses a bar of Dove in the shower, the brand, in the form of the product, is of use to us. And the question that follows is, "how can this same brand be of service when it appears as a printed page or video?"

Watch this spot posted to YouTube for the answer. Here, Dove is of outstanding use as a brand. And, the results are proof of how positively audiences respond to advertising that is of service.

Video Posted: Oct 6
Cost of Distribution: $0
Engagement: +1.7 million views and counting
Buzz: Top 15 most linked to spots among bloggers
Featured on The View, Ellen, CNN, Entertainment Tonight, and Geraldo

Brand Immersion: Advertising that is Of Service...

I've been thinking lately about ways in which brands can be of service in every form they take - especially in advertising. There is a flurry of writing and thinking being done, especially in the digital word around the notions of branded utilities. And I've heard more than once this month that applications are the new advertising.

Here's a fantastic example of a brand being of service through its advertising. Charmin is gifting the city of New York with toilets in Time Square for the holidays. My question to P&G is why not make it permanent?

For more on the story about Charmin - check out the story in the New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/15/business/media/15adco.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

For more on branded utility see PSFK
http://www.psfk.com/2006/11/branded_utility_9.html