1. INFECTIOUS
A round up of the latest communications news and ideas from around the world
SEPTEMBER 2010.
Brought to you by

2. GETTING DRIVERS TO
SLOWDOWN? THAT’S
CHILD’S PLAY.
How do you get drivers to remember
that they need to kill their speed before
they kill a child? Simple. Make them feel
like they have.
This hard line tactic is quite literally
being road tested in Canada during the
busy back-to-school period.
A 3D trompe l’oeil has been placed in
the middle of the road between two
major primary schools and a car park in
the city of Vancouver. Although
appearing as an undistinguishable mark
in the road from a distance, it will
appear as an image of a young girl
chasing a ball as a vehicle gets closer.
Those driving within the speed limit will
be able to stop. Those who aren’t…
well, you get the idea.
There’s also a risk that drivers could
cause other accidents by swerving.
However, the groups behind the project
say this level of direct advertising is a
necessary evil. “The static messaging
that we do becomes part of the
landscape and it’s on the periphery,”said
Brent Dozzi, manager of roads and
transportation.

3. TWEET FOR A TREAT!
Japanese clothing retailer Uniqlo is
re-launching their online store and in the
lead up to this they’re running a clever
Twitter campaign inviting shoppers to
‘Tweet for a Treat’.
The discount clothing chain have set
up the ‘Lucky Counter’ on their website
which features a number of clothing
items – the top sellers from their online
store. UK shoppers and their friends can
tweet about any item on the page and
thus drive the cost of the clothing down.
The idea being the more you tweet, the
more you save. The items will sell at their
final discounted price when the campaign
ends this Thursday and the new site is
live.
This makes a refreshing change from
sticking up a holding page stating that
you’re redeveloping the site and serves
to create awareness of the value clothing
available in advance of the launch of the
new site.
This initiative follows on from
another successful Twitter-based
campaign launched by Uniqlo in June
to promote their summer sportswear.
SportsTweet was a website (no longer
live) that analysed the ‘sportiness’ of your
tweets, ranking them against other users,
encouraging people to compete with each
other for the top ranking. Whilst awaiting
your ‘sportiness’ ranking, you watched
video footage of athletes wearing the
latest sports clothes from the retailer. It
reportedly attracted over 5000 users who
could also share their score on Twitter.

4. HELLO 3D!
Iconic lingerie brand Wonderbra has
unveiled a 20’ wide 3D billboard poster
near Waterloo Station to advertise its
latest product, the Full Effect bra.
Special 3D glasses are required to
appreciate the ‘full effect’ of the
48-sheet poster, which is the first step
in a cross-media campaign that will
include both traditional and online
advertising streams. The graphic recalls
the famous ‘Hello Boys’ posters from
the brand’s 1990s advertising push.

5. TIPPEX BEARS ALL.
The correction fluid brand’s latest
campaign features a video of a hunter
caught in the dilemma of whether to
shoot a bear or not. Having decided not
to, he grabs a Tipp-Ex Pocket Mouse
and amends the video to ‘A hunter
____ a bear’, before inviting the viewer
to fill in the blank with their choice of
verb.
Once the viewer has suggested a new
action, the hunter and bear duo act
out the new command or, if they get
stumped, hold up a cheery ‘Error #404’
placard.
For possibly the first time in YouTube’s
history, the comment section is actually
helpful, with suggestions of actions to
try out including: eats; watches TV with;
swims with; moonwalks with; shows his
ass to; is shot by; smokes with; and the
rude one which you’re thinking of - yes
they do that too.
down computers and re-discover the
Of course, fun as it is, we’d be surprised joys of handwriting their docs just so
if the campaign made people close they can roll out the Tipp-Ex to correct
their inky mistakes.
To watch this video click here
http://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=4ba1BqJ4S2M

6. SPOTS VS STRIPES!
As an official sponsor of the London
2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games,
the thinking behind the current
Cadbury campaign is to split the nation
into two teams, the spots and stripes, to
compete in game play in the lead up to
London 2012. All people need to do is
join one of the teams by signing up on
the website to begin scoring points for
their chosen team.
Cadbury will encourage people to
engage with the Spots v Stripes site
through dedicated social media
channels, like Twitter, Facebook and
YouTube, in combination with more
traditional marketing methods like TV
and outdoor advertising in keeping with
their online/offline theme. And while the
site definitely plays on social
gaming interaction, you can score points
for offline games like running or crazy
golf and can also download games from
the site to play offline.
This new campaign by Cadbury really
seems to recognise a current trend –
that social media doesn’t just take place
online. Their advert is incomplete
without referring you to their social
media site. And this site would not stand
alone and be as successful without the
advert driving people to it.
Watch the TV ad here
http://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=Zh-s3auYdKo