What do you do when trying to increase awareness of the new AC/DC album? Naturally a viral is a cool way to kick things off and generate interested right? Facebook or YouTube would seem the natural habitat for such a campaign, yet think of the audience, how many have access at work? Hence the leftfield approach by the guys at Sony who choose Excel as the vehicle for the viral. Using a cool ASCII video written in VB script can only be called cool! With a million downloads and an unknown amount of email forwarding Excel has become cool.

AC/DC new video in ExcelVision!

Among the experiments: does turning a set of subway stairs into a real-life piano encourage people to use them (answer: yes, 66% more). Another experiment asks whether making a trash can sound like a 50ft-deep well will make people pick up their trash. An upcoming experiment, meanwhile, will turn a bottle recycling center into an arcade game.

The brand placement is as subtle as it could possibly be: a simple VW logo dropped in at the end. And yet the content carries that logo all around the web, as tens of thousands of people pass around the video, along with their positive associations for the VW brand. Isn’t that the definition of a perfect brand campaign?

World’s Deepest Bin

Bottle Arcade

Via Mashable

You know that you’ve made it as a company within the UK tuning market when Codemasters and Electronic Arts ask your company, brand, products and demo cars to feature in games such as GRID and Need for Speed:SHIFT!, allowing users to select you as a sponsor and modify their car. While working with my business partner at SRB Power Ltd we were fortunate enough to develop a relationship with Codemasters and Electronic Arts that made this a happen and provide another fantastic marketing opportunity to gain further brand awareness and cement our reputation with existing loyal customers. 

Screengrabs from Need for Speed:SHIFT!

Screengrabs from GRID Race Car Driver