| THIS MONTH’S BEAUTY FOCUS |
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| AVEDA SHOWS YOU HOW A NEW HAIR COLOR REALLY CAN CHANGE YOUR LIFE |
 http://vimeo.com/23979869 |
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| VEET’S VIRAL CAMPAIGN GOES BAD |
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To promote its hair-removing products, Veet launched a new website,www.MonMinouToutDoux.com. Anyone visiting the website was greeted with a video, of a female cartoon cat, singing lines such as “When my ‘minou’ is lovely and soft, it loves being stroked all over” (‘minou’ being the French for ‘pussycat’…). Visitors to the website could then play a game where they had to remove all the cat’s fur before it was inspected by a tomcat. The video was subject to substantial criticism almost immediately, as it was deemed to convey the sexist message that women should remove all hair in the ‘bikini area’. The campaign was therefore removed from the Internet so as to “avoid all possible am biguity”, according to the brand. The advertisement, published only on the Internet, was apparently “a trial” for a potential buzz marketing campaign. |
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| SOCIAL MEDIA |
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| LET LANCÔME HELP YOU CHOOSE YOUR EYESHADOW ON FACEBOOK |
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Following its iPhone and iPad applications, which enable users to simulate what their make-up might look like in real life, Lancôme US is launching a Facebook application offering its clients the same service along with make-up advice too. All you have to do is go to the ‘House of Color’ tab on the brand’s Facebook page, where you can watch videos offering advice on using make-up and try out the make-up simulator. Just upload your photo, or choose one of the models offered, and you can try out the various eye-shadow shades before being re-directed to Lancôme’s online sales website. The strategy also comprises a competition, social network and mobile phone advertisements and partnerships with fashion bloggers. |
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| INNOVATIVE TWITTER CAMPAIGN FROM TURKCELL |
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| Mobile-phone operator Turkcell has launched a competition on Twitter to promote its new mobile and Internet package. |
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The smartphone has been artfully hidden in a box covered with Post-it notes, and Internet users have to remove all the Post-it notes by tweeting them, accompanied by the hashtag #turkcelltweet, one by one. Once theyve opened the box and got to the phone, competitors have to try and win the smartphone by getting a celebrity to retweet their message. So far the game has generated 56,000 tweets. |
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| EUROPCAR POSTS YOUR TWEETS ON A BULLETIN BOARD |
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| Europcar has launched a new car home delivery service called ‘Freedeliver’, which promises to save users at least an hour of their time. |
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To promote the scheme in London, the company had the idea of displaying tweets with the hashtag #myextrahour on a giant bulletin board, so that Internet users could tell everyone how they would use that extra hour of free time. |
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| PERRIER: THE MORE YOU SEE… |
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| Perrier has launched a new campaign, which is exclusive to Youtube. |
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This is the first campaign featuring a video whose content changes according to the number of times it has been viewed. Before you can get into the ‘Perrier Club’, 6 new versions of the video have to be triggered. A thermometer shows how many times it’s been seen and the video changes as the temperature rises: “The more people who watch, the hotter the party,” promises Perrier. |
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| LISTERINE GOES FOR COMEDY ON ITS YOUTUBE CHANNEL |
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Listerine is a dental hygiene brand, with a particular emphasis on mouth washes. To make its advertising material a bit more fun, the brand has just launched its own Youtube channel. A little film humorously demonstrates all the nasty things we put our mouths through. The channel also offers the full range of extras from the director’s cut to the TV commercial. |
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| MOBILE & APPS |
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| TESCO BUILDS VIRTUAL SUPERMARKET IN SOUTH KOREA’S SUBWAY STATIONS |
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When figuring out how to increase its market share, Tesco looked at the South Korean lifestyle: working very long hours, South Koreans don’t have a lot of time to spend at the supermarket. However, they are way ahead in the technology stakes, so Tesco had the brainwave of setting up virtual stores in the subway. The walls are covered in posters that look just like supermarket shelves, telling commuters they can order products online just by scanning the QR codes. This way of promoting e-commerce has helped sales rise by 135% in just two months. |
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| NOW YOU CAN ‘LIKE’ DIESEL DESIGNS RIGHT THERE IN THE STORE |
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| First we had the RFID chips that let you like a Renault at the car shows. Now it’s Diesel’s turn, and you can share your favorite Diesel designs with your friends on Facebook. |
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In Madrid, clients can link up Diesel products with their Facebook profile by just scanning the QR Code. Once theyve done that, theyre redirected to a mobile site that offers them the chance to become a fan of the brand. |
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| LYNX HELPS YOU REMEMBER YOUR PARTY |
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| Lynx deodorants (‘Axe’ in France) has launched a new mobile application called ‘Lynx Stream’ that saves all your mobile activity during your last great night out. |
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First you use the app to organize the party, and then the app does the rest, collecting all your status updates, tweets, texts, check-ins, photos and videos. The result of all this data collection is an automatically generated video that lets you and your friends relive every moment of that great night out. |
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| WEBSITE |
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| SAGRES LAUNCHES A NEW WEBSITE ENTIRELY MADE OF CHOCOLATE |
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| A few weeks ago, Portuguese beer manufacturer Sagres created a website made of real chocolate to promote its dark chocolate flavored Preto Chocolate beer. First the website was designed on a computer, before being completely copied in chocolate by master chocolatiers using moulds and cocoa paste. |
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Every detail was then photographed and the photographs formed the digital raw materials for the online version. The actual chocolate items were then auctioned. It’s a pity the idea had already been used byconfectionary brand Whittakers… |
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| NARS OFFERS A FRESH TAKE ON SOCIAL SHOPPING, WITH AN INTERACTIVE WEBSITE THAT HAS A SIGNIFICANT SHARE OF COMMUNITY INPUT |
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Nars is a cosmetics brand that encourages women to have fun with make-up, and to help them it’s launched a new website,MakeUpYourMind.com, where Internet users are invited to publish their look online. And to provide a bit of extra encouragement there’s the chance to win a trip to the next New York Fashion Week. If you want to take part, login via Facebook Connect and follow the various stages to create your look and then share it. At each step you will be given advice on using the brand’s products, and redirected to their online sales site, where you can order the product directly. Once you’ve completed all the stages and created your own brand new look, your entry will be included in the competition, the winner bein g the one that elicits the most hearts. |
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| HELENA RUBINSTEIN LAUNCHES NEW E-COMMERCE WEBSITE |
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| As long ago as 1910, Helena Rubinstein was the first to see that every woman is unique, which led her to put forward the idea of classification by skin-type. She also invented mascara and the first no-surgery face-lift products. |
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Wanting to continue with its efforts to enhance womens well-being, now the brand has launched a new website focusing on scientific research and daring. The website takes its visitors deep into the heart of the brands world, offering a totally new online cosmetics experience, where visitors can learn about the brands history and its products, using a highly visual, interactive navigation system. There are also videos providing guidance and advice on choosing and applying the brands products, as well as a personal telephone service. Soon there will also be a range of exclusive services and an individual web-based support program. Meanwhile, the usual social functions are included on the website, with a Lik e button on every product page. |
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| ONLINE CAMPAIGNS |
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| ALL-DIGITAL PRODUCT LAUNCH FOR KENZO’S NEW PERFUME |
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To promote its new perfume ‘Flower Tag’, Kenzo sent journalists a press kit with an LCD screen incorporated, where they could see the film of the new fragrance. The press kit also included a USB flash cable so that users could plug it into their computers and access exclusive photos as well as a video of the making of the commercial. Kenzo then unveiled a new video website based on tags (as in spray paint, not Facebook!), whereby users could have their own message incorporated i nto the perfume commercial. The personalized video could then be emailed to friends. You can also take part in a worldwide tag contest, ‘spraying’ your tag onto the brand’s ‘Flower Wall’ in the hope of winning a week-end in New York. Lastly, and still in keeping with the street art theme, Kenzo organized a brief exhibition of some thirty or so tagged photographs, which were subsequently offered for sale, all proceeds going to the Japanese Red Cross. The exhibition was advertised via a simple blog-based treasure-hunt, with Kenzo bags and cosmetics as prizes: one of the photos from the exhibition was cut into 6 pieces and each piece was hidden in 6 partner blogs. Once all 6 pieces had been found and the photo put back together, competitors had to send their contact details to the address shown on the photo, so as to be included in the prize draw. |
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| PAYOT ORGANIZES BLOG-BASED TREASURE HUNT |
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Cosmetics brand Payot has organized a treasure hunt in collaboration with 6 beauty blogs. The premise is quite straightforward: a 6 piece, coded jigsaw puzzle which, when put back together, makes a film. When you have found all 6 codes, they have to be entered on a special grid on a Facebook tab. And when you have completed the picture, you can enter your contact details in a prize draw, with the chance of winning a day at the Espace Payot spa as well as a range of the brands beauty products. |
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