Interactive Oscars

Sunday night, well in the early hours of Monday morning, the 83rd Academy Awards took place, which are being broadcast on M-Net tonight. In case you missed them, or couldn't be bothered sitting through 3 hours of 'highly regarded and respected' thespians in the Hollywood circle talking about themselves and each other, here are the winners:


Best Film: The King's Speech
Best Actor: Colin Firth (The King's Speech)
Best Actress: Natalie Portman (Black Swan)
Supporting Actor: Christian Bale (The Fighter)
Supporting Actress: Melissa Leo (The Fighter)
Director: Tom Hooper (The King's Speech)

Even pregnant, Portman is beyond an angel

With viewers increasingly 'multi-teching', marketers aimed to use the internet as interactive platform to promote and communicate with the award show's viewers. This from The Wall Street Journal:

"With many viewers expected to watch the Academy Awards this Sunday with computers in their laps and                 mobile phones in their hands, marketers are finding new ways to infiltrate real-time Oscar buzz via Twitter, Facebook and other Web hot spots.

Sprint Nextel Corp. is supplementing its Oscar television campaign by sponsoring live red-carpet coverage at People.com, including 360-degree cameras, live blogs and trivia games. J.C. Penney Co. plans to post to Facebook fashions from collections featured in its commercials that will air during the show."

Heineken Leading The Way

As an avid beer drinker, Heineken isn't neccesarily my go-to beer. It's by no means a bad beer, lets just say it's more like my 2nd beer of choice. Say for example if there was an ice cold Castle and an ice cold Heineken bobbing up and down next to each other in one of those chilly zinc tubs, my right hand's going to dip in and reach for the former. It's slightly sweeter than SABs counterpart, but I'm a man who likes a bit more flavour and body. 


But if the Heineken was squaring off against, say a Hansa Pilsner,  I'm lunging for the one with the red star. So to summarize, I'm not going to order a Heiney at a bar, but if I'm round at a mate's place and he offers me one I'm certainly not turning it down. Perhaps this has to do with the fact that Heineken draft ain't available in the Republe of Afriquie du Sud??


Beer commercials, to me, are some of the best out there. From Castle's overly patriotic renditions sporting fan beer-drinkers swilling beer in foreign locations to the tune of Johnny Clegg, to Stella's more artistic black and white French nouveau ads. However, in this  cut throat world of cool and clever brewski ads, Heineken reign supreme. Their ads are consistently fresh and sophisticated while appealing to males on a universal and accessible level. 




Heineken - The Entrance from Desmond en Demian on Vimeo.


In this case, its the all important 'entrance' that a dude makes to any social event. Everyone knows your entrance can make or break your evening's success. I must say I'm a big fan of this...

Finger Licking Goodness Gets Abandoned For General Goodness

After over 50 years of using the universal catch-phrase; "Finger-Lickin Good", KFC are replacing it with the toned down and down right boring "So Good". This is all in part of a general shift towards a new healthier menu and more 'wholesome' brand image.

Hmmm.... so if their food becomes more healthy does it automatically lose it's finger-licking deliciousness?

Super Bowl 45 2011

The greatest American annual sporting event has come and gone, with the Packers retaining a comfortable lead over the Steelers throughout the duration of the game (much to my dismay). This year's Super Bowl saw 111 million Americans tuning in, making it the most viewed broadcast ever in the history of American television ever, ever.... ever (check out this graphical chart of Super Bowl consumption in The State. Quite something. As such ESPN and the like are able to charge in excess of 2.6 million dollars per 30 second ad segment. Yikes. But I mean, come on, its all worth it right? Especially seeing as these ad slots typically rank very well in the Nielsen ratings. The ridiculously high price tag of these commercials all but promises that they will be spectacular and innovative in most cases. The ads are usually highly anticipated, generating much buzz even before the game is played due to their reputation of innovation or sense of humor.


However, this year the ads didn't fare quite as well with audiences, with many commenting on how dissapointed they were with the quality, ingenuity and humour of the ads. The general lack of hype and audience involvement has been attributed to companies not utilizing social media enough to engage with their target market. Once again pointing to the fact that today's brands need to combine their traditional marketing with relevant online strategies.


However, one commercial did achieve acclaim in the blogosphere. Here's VW's - The Force

Cute and clever. Everyone loves Star Wars (well... epsiodes 3 to 5 anyways), you can't go wrong with Jedi mind tricks. Luke and Darth have become so ingrained in our pop culture that even those have never seen the Empire Strikes Back knwo about using the Force!

New Nike Ad Filmed in Cape Town

This awesome new ad for Nike was filmed (mostly- the bike and rugby scene) in Cape Town, showcasing their new Free concept- using there minimalist running shoe as more than a range of footwear but as a complete lifestyle choice. It also stars my good mate and UCT Ikeys hooker, Dayne "Danger" Jans, as the rugby player, the guy who spits his tooth out at the biker.