Know your limits

At this time of year, it’s not unusual to see plenty of people full of Christmas Cheer, it’s also not unusual to see people full of alcohol either and that’s where the trouble tends to start.

We see messages all year warning us about binge drinking, but during the festive period those messages seem to be even more prominent, and with good reason. With all the parties on the lead up to Christmas and the parties in between Christmas and new year, many a drinker goes a bit over the score, either passing out in a stupor in their own beds or, if they aren’t so lucky ending up in the nearest A & E department or police station.

It’s nice then to see the adverts promoting a healthy attitude to drinking out where revellers will actually see them – on taxi doors. Although only on London cabs (I think), it would be good to see the idea roll out to other parts of the UK next year, certainly all the big cities.

Nice work from CST, London.

Ho, ho, ho - Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from all at AME Marketing!

We're all very excited at Santa's imminent arrival.

Hope you all have a lovely day tomorrow and the man in red and white is good to you all!

Whopper Freakout

Found over on Angus Whines – ‘Whopper Freakout’ - the day they took the Whopper away.


And what happens when a company takes away the product that they are famous for? Well, absolute disbelief, shock, confusion, sadness, anger even. Listening to the customers, many had been eating Whoppers for years, recalling driving from other towns to find one when they didn’t have a Burger King in their own town, growing up with the burger, even measuring their arrival to manhood when they could finally finish a whole sandwich.

Quote of the Video has to be that without the Whopper, it may as well be called ‘Burger Queen’ – classic!

No doubt they managed to show how well-loved the sandwich was/is in the town where they filmed anyway and I reckon the effect would have been the same in the majority of Burger King restaurants around the world. So another well done for Burger King who’s creative ideas just seem to keep coming this year, what with the computer games they launched earlier this year also.

Just wondering where’s left for them to go next year?

Literally the world's coolest fitting room

I actually saw this a couple of weeks ago now, but forgot all about writing a post about it, It wasn’t until I stumbled across it again today that I was reminded of its sheer brilliance. What am I talking about? - The world’s coolest fitting room in Sweden.

Selling coats for extreme weather conditions, the best place to test them out probably isn’t your normal retail store where the temperatures are usually well above normal room temperature, let alone the conditions they are actually made for. The solution then – to make the world’s coolest fitting room from 10m3 of snow and 200 kilos of dry ice to create a room at -25 degrees Celsius. I’d reckon if the coat is going to keep you warm(ish) in there, it will anywhere.

The concept was marketed through one ad in a daily newspaper, by posters outside the store, pictures were taken by a web cam and spread on the internet, then spread by word of mouth, radio and the newspapers. And the result – the store in Stockholm drew 400% more customers in (the target was 100%) and more than 100% more jackets were also sold against their goal. I’d say that made it a rip-roaring success. Well done Äkestam Holst (the agency behind it) and Playground (the brand behind it)!

Just wish they had one over here too...

Via directdaily

Just in case it does rain...

If you are still looking for presents for Christmas, never fear, I've found the perfect product for you - especially if the intended recipient is living in Scotland!

Found through Angus, via SwissMiss, via Zinc Details - an umbrella stand with a difference.

OK, granted, at $155 there are cheaper options on offer, and probably you wouldn't manage to get it before the 25th - but if you happen to have a natural sponge lying around and some metal and a blow-torch you could knock one up for yourself.

Love it!

Never mind the Christmas Parades...

Don't get me wrong, I'm full of the Christmas cheer and love nothing better than seeing Santa at this time of year, but coming across this parade on brand dna, I find myself hankering after this type of parade instead...

Classic

Stan's blog also alerted me to the reading level of the blog - apparently ours is Junior High level - which for us in the UK translates as a reading age of 8-12 (? - I think). Not too bad I suppose, better than the tabloids at least...

Dragon Lisa

Last week I had the pleasure of going to Blacklands Primary in Kilwinning and acting as a ‘Dragon’ for their ‘Dragon’s Den’ pitches. Four groups of the Primary 7s had been working for a number of weeks on a project, researching, designing and marketing a desk tidy that they then pitched to us through presentations, 3D images, i-movies and fielding any questions we threw at them afterwards.

And I have to say that I was immensely impressed by all the children who took part. Not only did they learn to work together well in a team, they also put so much effort into everything they had done and really showed an enormous amount of imagination and thought.

When I was in Primary 7 I can’t imagine how I would have approached something like this, but I think it’s fantastic that schools are now giving children projects like this, preparing them for life outside the school walls. My only worry is how good they are going to be by the time they come out!

Unfortunately we didn’t have any piles of cash to hand over, just a winner to pick out of the groups and it was a hard decision as they all did so well. In the end it was the level of research one group had put into their processes over the others that just swung it, but it was close, very close.

So well done again to all the kids in Primary 7 at Blacklands and thanks for letting me be one of you your dragons!