Delighting consumers. Hidden surprises. We’ve mentioned them once or twenty times here on the Awesome Blog. But, underlying this trend was the idea that brands touting “big happiness” would struggle to deliver upon that promise in a period of great uncertainty and skepticism. When we introduced the trend, we felt that brands would best succeed [...]

In our lengthy coverage of QR codes and barcode marketing in general, we’ve repeatedly referenced Stickybits without ever diving into how the platform actually works. There’s a reason for that – a couple, actually. But, with Doritos, Pepsi, Ben & Jerry’s, and other CPG giants flirting with the service, we certainly owe them a glance [...]

Ford certainly captured the attention of the ad industry by choosing to forgo the Detroit Auto Show for the unveiling of their 2011 Explorer. Instead, Ford opted to become the first major car manufacturer to reveal a new model on a Facebook page, claiming that the car had been so dramatically reinvented that it deserved [...]

You know this much by now: if it’s Friday and you’re on the Awesome Blog, there’s a good chance you’ll be reading about some awesome projection executions. But, before you dismiss us as being a little too predictable, admit that you didn’t expect us to be covering slingshots in the same post, right? Meet the [...]

Old Spice sure has a hit on their hands with their “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like.” People clearly love the eccentric spots (sort of a surreal twist on Dos Equis’ “Most Interesting Man”), and have generated plenty of conversations about the budding star of these videos, Isaiah Mustafa. We’ve talked about a variety [...]

Thanks to everyone who attended our latest Smartshot webinar: “QRacking the QR Code.” We’ve posted a recording on the webinar in two pieces above. Since we included functioning QR codes in the presentation, you will get the most out of the webinar if you download a QR code reader to your smartphone before watching . [...]

In our 10 Trends for 2010, we cautioned brands to be wary of the rise of Consumer Controlled Conversations. Now that consumers had become comfortable “expressing themselves” online, we felt they would increasingly use their (digital) voices to demand accountability, immediate assistance, flawless customer service, and other perks from brands and retailers. So, it’s not [...]

Well lookee here. Fresh off our conversations about innovative display ads and great World Cup activations, we’ve got an example that brings the two together (and spikes ‘em with a bit of augmented reality and casual gaming to boot!). The video above shows a display ad from AT&T, in which users try to head a [...]

There’s a reason that display ads (formerly known as banner ads) often leave a bad taste in consumers’ mouths: so many of them are just outright terrible. Cluttering up a user’s screen with dancing babies hocking insurance or flashing banners claiming we’ve won an iPod devalue the medium as a whole, which is a shame, [...]

We’ve had plenty to say about “viral marketing” here at The Awesome Blog. Heck, we even dedicated a whole Potty Posting to the topic (or, at least the “dude” side of it). In that posting, we mentioned the “Was that real?” genre of these campaigns, where the point of the effort is to create a [...]