24.02.14

This Week...Rise, freezing in Syria, DHL is faster, James Corden Lip syncing, Free-soloing

Rise (Heidi Kloser)Liberty Mutual

Freezing in SyriaSOS Children’s Village

DHL is fasterDHL

James Corden Lip SyncingCadbury

Free-soloingNorth Face

A quick reaction from Liberty Mutual resulted in PR gold for the company. Heidi Kloser, one of America’s top skiers fractured her leg one day before the opening ceremony in Sochi, leaving her without hope of winning a medal.

Adman Alex Boguski and major Heidi fan took matters into his own hands and sent a direct tweet to Liberty Mutual, whose Olympic ad theme has focused on past Olympic athletes who have overcome adversity at the Games. He urged Liberty Mutual to go real-time and quickly feature Kloser in one of its rise-from-the-ashes Olympic commercials. Liberty began their own Olympic race to make this happen, and within days, they had shot an ad in Kloser’s family home, which aired last week during NBC’s coverage of the games.

While Kloser was happy to appear in the ad, she did say, that she’d rather star in one when she’s won Olympic Gold!

Rise (Heidi Kloser)Liberty Mutual

Freezing in SyriaSOS Children’s Village

If you saw a boy without a coat shivering alone at a bus stop, would you ask if he needed help? Would you lend him your gloves, scarf or jacket?

Commuters do just that for 11-year-old Johannes in this hidden-camera video from SOS Children's Villages Norway, which is seeking to raise awareness and funds to help Syrian children in need. The goal was to touch upon the fear of becoming numb to crises that don't affect you directly.

In the film, shot over several hours on two freezing days in Oslo, the young actor tells adults that his jacket was stolen during a school trip to the city. "We were touched by the many people that got involved, and risked getting cold so Johannes could stay warm," says Rønning, adding that only three of the 25 or so people who shared the bus stop with him didn't try to help.

DHL is fasterDHL

Here’s a great piece of guerrilla marketing from DHL, who used rival shipping companies like UPS to advertise on their behalf.

DHL hired their competitors to deliver large black packages to hard to find locations around the world. However little did these shipping companies know that the boxes were in fact covered in a thermoactive foil that turns black when cooled down below freezing. As the packages began to warm up, they revealed the message “DHL is faster” across the box.

Simple and well executed idea from DHL.

James Corden Lip SyncingCadbury

Cadbury has rolled out the latest phase of its ‘Free the Joy’ campaign starring actor and comedian James Corden strutting down the streets of London lip synching to Estelle’s song ‘Free’.The online film, titled Corden's Ultimate Chocolate Lip-Sync, was created by Gravity Road, and directed by Ben Winston of Fullwell73.

Kate Wall, brand manager of Cadbury’s Dairy Milk said: “Our glass and a half of chocolate unleashes spontaneous moments of joy. James’ performance is the absolute embodiment of this and has helped extend our current lip-synching campaign giving another proving point. We’ve combined two national treasures, Cadbury Dairy Milk and James Corden and created a film which you can’t help but feel joyful watching.’

The ad has waltzed its way up the Unruly Viral Video Chart, attracting almost 3,000 shares and 270,000 views in its first 24 hours.

This could be one of the best pieces of branded content we’ve seen in a long time. Adventure brand North Face sponsor Alex Honnold, a solo-climber, and they followed him on his quest to free solo one of the world’s most difficult cliff faces. The perfect partnership is apparent.

A daredevil he is, and luckily we’re only watching this video after a successful climb up 2,500 foot limestone big-wall route called El Sendero Luminoso in Mexico. He brought his friend, photographer Cedar Wright along for the ride. Armed with a RED EPIC mounted on a custom octocopter, Wright got every dizzying angle of his friend’s climb for North Face.

Free-soloing North Face