Mars brand Snickers has come up with some great campaigns that showcase the brand’s personality.  Here are two nice ideas from Snickers that put a smile on our faces and got us talking this week.

Snikkers Googel

Snickers Foosball

We have seen more and more charities embracing experiential marketing in order to connect people with their core messages.  Creating experiences, which resonate with an individual, can mean that the charities needs are understood on a much deeper level. 

This week we’ve spotted an effective and simple campaign devised for Domund, a Peruvian charity.  Fake grocery products were placed on a shelf in a shop, when consumers attempted to pluck one off the shelf they couldn’t as it was glued in place.  After a bewildering moment, a banner was revealed that stated that a lack of access to food is something that thousands of Peruvians in extreme poverty experience every day. 

Why skirt around embarrassing issues when dealing with something as important as cancer detection?

We recently read an interesting article on The Marketer’s fantastic new website that got us talking.  The piece, by Philip Graves titled Marketing the Unmentionable, looked at the psychology of embarrassment and how marketers could use that to drive home important messages.

From our perspective sometimes it’s essential that marketing approaches don’t skirt round embarrassing issues – especially where health products and services are involved.

In recent months we have been talking to hundreds of people a day on the street about “blood in their poo” for a Department of Health campaign.  The approach is designed to encourage the public to think and act when they spot the symptoms of bowel cancer.

This tactic may seem little uneasy on the eyes and could be seen as something that would make the public turn and flee, but at the route of it blood in poo is actually a telling symptom of bowel cancer.  So why avoid saying it?

What’s interesting is just how receptive the general public has been to this honest, straight-talking face-to-face campaign. Often taking the first step to facing embarrassing problems is the biggest barrier. Providing people with a friendly, knowledgeable ear during their daily routine makes it easier for people to ask questions and address concerns – either for themselves or a friend and family member.

In an age where consumers are increasingly sceptical of organisations that paint over real issues, a little honest face to face conversation  can go a very long way in building consumer trust.

Volkswagen Canada kept things simple with this nice little stunt designed to show the capabilities of the Touareg’s 4Motion technology.  To do this the brand created a free parking spot that was up a steep ramp, catching the eye of passers by.

This week, Target unveiled a life-size dolls house in Grand Central station that was “designed for exploration”.  The two-story show home was only up for two-days and was packed full of around 4,000 products from Target’s new Threshold collection.  It featured décor, homewares and furnishings.  Alongside products there were activities such as makeovers in the bathrooms and a small army of brand ambassadors on hand to encourage people to interact with the products.  Visitors could also have photos taken using iPads placed around the dolls house, which would then appear on digital photo frames in the rooms – an activity designed to encourage people to feel that the place was their own.  Key items could also be bought from mobile devices, using digital tags.

This reminds us of the IKEA experience that Joss Davidge, Business Director here at BEcause, discussed in one of his Talking Points blogs for The Marketing Society last year.