Have Pam, will travel…
If you’ve ever been to MIPCOM, a massive TV programming market held every fall in Cannes, you’ll know how crazy it can be to cut through the maze of entertainment congloms vying for attention.
But even though the market has seen almost every stunt in the book, Viacom International managed to stop traffic in October by running Stripperella ads on receipts for a local taxi company.
In an effort to gain visibility for its Spike TV booth, the ads featured an animated version of the ever-robust series star Pamela Anderson, along with the titillating tagline, ‘AFTER THE TAXI, YOU CAN RIDE MY SUCCESS.’
With taxis in high demand in Cannes, few could miss the plug, which, in addition to highlighting Pammy’s animated assets, pointed thousands of taxi riders to the net’s booth.
Your big day…made complete with advertising!
Bernadette Navarro expects her wedding day to be the stuff of a bride’s dreams: a silk organza gown, exquisite flowers, a decadent wedding cake…and a promotional booth for the sponsor footing the bill.
While Navarro may be the first in Canada to actively seek out corporate sponsorship for her wedding day, our American friends have been active on this front for a couple of years.
The debt-laden 31-year-old Barrie, Ont. native plans to marry fiancé Marty Beaulieu courtesy of sizeable contributions from the highest bidder. Navarro says she’d like two or three sponsors, and has even made up a five-page pitch pamphlet that she has sent to potential prospects at banks and media outlets.
Navarro says the logos of sponsors will be displayed on wedding invites, program cards, menus and thank-you notes – and will even get a mention in speeches to the 150 guests.
Eighty-eight-storey paper makes big news
A newspaper for giants is currently wrapping Hong Kong’s newest and tallest skyscraper, Two International Finance Center.
In a plug for The Financial Times’ new Asian edition, the newspaper enlisted Mediaedge:cia and ad agency Doremus to wrap the 88-storey building with 60,000 square feet of mesh fabric depicting front cover sections. Not to be greedy, the gargantuan paper also features ads for Hong Kong advertisers Cathay Pacific Airways and HSBC Bank.
The mammoth promotion was installed by 18 climbers from Japan and will hang until later this month.
You can take that ad to the bank…
It’s so logical, it makes you wonder why no one’s thought of it before: Why not tell consumers how to spend their money right on the back of their paycheques?
A company called Adchek, out of Ventura, Calif., has done just that. The company puts ads on the backs of employee paycheque stubs and direct-deposit drafts on behalf of advertisers such as Earthlink, CitiFinancial and American Express.
Companies can buy space on the paycheques for an entire company, or by region within the U.S. Adchek put messages on 32 million paycheques in 2003 and is gunning for 40 million in 2004.
Since most people usually hang on to their pay stubs for income tax purposes – indeed, the company’s slogan is ‘The ad they won’t throw away’ – they could be on to something here.
