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Innovative Use Of Google Maps In Digital Advertising

Last week we were invited by Google and innovation / marketing website PSFK to discuss our Volkswagen Street quest campaign. We were joined by Hyundai‘s New York agency Bossa Digital and Innocean, who were talking about their Driveway Decision Maker app.

The Google hangout also talked about where the future of mapping tech and advertising is heading. From our side Chris Rawlinson, Nic Wittenberg, and Adrian Varkel discussed the exciting opportunities of Indoor Positioning systems (IPS). We see it giving people a much more personalised experience, enabling them to find exactly what they are after quickly and easily. From an advertising perspective there are huge direct marketing opportunities in the form of targeted retail promotions etc, as well as there being huge creative possibilities (How about a DHL app that gets you from A to B in the fastest time, or maybe Adidas shows you directions that make you fitter? ). We also touched on the continued theme of layering information on top of maps, be it from a brand, or from crowd-sourcing of information.

Innocean talked about the exciting leaps being taken in in-car navigation. More and more cars are starting to become connected to the internet, allowing them to have constant up to date access to real time mapping and layered info (live traffic / roadworks / friends locations / road conditions etc). The other trend that hopefully keeps on speeding up is the number of cars that take advantage of smart phones capabilities. If done right even entry level cars could be online, and have powerful connected entertainment systems, all for the price of a screen and a USB socket / Bluetooth hub.

More on the above can be found on the PSFK website here.

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Cape Town Tourism: Facebook Holiday

Our client, Cape Town Tourism, briefed us to come up with an online campaign that also promotes the unexpected side of Cape Town. All the small communities, never-heard of places and unearthed gems that can’t be found on Trip Advisor, Lonely Planet, Expedia, or even Google.
So we thought, we can’t send everyone to Cape Town, so let’s send their Facebook profiles instead. They got a virtual, tailor-made Cape Town holiday that exposed them to all the unexpected places, and finally, a few lucky winners got to experience their Facebook profile’s holiday for themselves.

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Chappies Edible Street Art across South African

Chappies Edible Street Art

In January we helped local iconic bubble gum brand, Chappies, pay tribute to its fans by creating and sharing six edible street art pieces, each inspired by “Did You Know?” facts submitted by South Africans. The largest of the six murals took 177 681 pieces of Chappies to create, about 15 hours to complete – and not surprising less than 15 minutes to be eaten by the ever eager fans. The above clip shows an quick and easy overview of the work. Enjoy.

The edible art went up on walls in Cape Town, in Woodstock, Khayelitsha, and at Cape Town Station. The Johannesburg edible art went up on 4th Ave, Parkhurst, at Arts on Main, in the Maboneng Precinct, and in Greenside. The campaign was put together by us, and the edible art was built by SJ Artists.

DID YOU KNOW? FACTS ABOUT CHAPPIES

DID YOU KNOW Chappies was introduced in the late 1940’s by Arthur Ginsburg who worked for Chapelat, a Johannesburg confectionery manufacturer? The name ‘Chappies’ is derived from the then company name Chapelat, which was apparently named after Miss Chapelat. The “Did You Know?” concept has been part of the Chappies history since nearly the beginning. And where did all those questions come from? The ‘Three Wise Men’ was a popular quiz programme on Springbok Radio which inspired the DID YOU KNOW facts. The “Did You Knows?” have taught South Africans countless weird and wonderful facts for over 60 years. They’ve also helped settle a few arguments in the process! Did You Know that up to 7 million Chappies are bought every day.

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Adrian Varkel: Start Them Young on the Library Run

Adrian Varkel, our resident boss of OgilvyOne, is also a very accomplished children’s book author. Below is a great article he wrote on taking your kids to the library, and why it’s the way forward.

Adrian

By Adrian Varkel Originally publisehd for The Times

I am never quite sure where my interest in reading and books began.

Strangely enough, I cannot clearly remember my parents reading to me, but I know they did. Whatever they did, it must have rubbed off on me somehow as I remember many exciting trips to the big Sea Point library, using my own library card and returning home with as many books as I was allowed to take out.

I would read avidly in the dark, and because I shared a room with my younger brother, much of this was done under the bed covers with a torch.

As a I grew up I found the library had books to match my changing interests. Whatever I liked they had.

I was always amazed by the concept of the library, even as a young child. It impressed me as being one of the last bastions for good. There were people to help you, you were allowed to take out books free, and they trusted you to return them, too. If only the rest of world could operate this way.

The library and my stints under the covers have kept me enjoying books in my adulthood, even though the world has changed so much around me. I still prefer reading a story to watching the 3D surround- sound version of it. The book’s imagery is more vivid, the enjoyment I get out of the story is deeper and the relationships I have with the characters are more significant.

For these reasons I take my children to the library every week, even though people say it is antiquated and dirty. They are as excited as I used to be, which is warming to see, considering the multitude of alternative technology-based entertainment they have at their disposal.

And every night they excitedly haul out a library book for me to read before bed (often they will try to sneak in a second book).

Story time is not a time to be rushed, even at the end of a long, tiring day. My children notice things I do not in the pictures and the words. They are always excited to ask questions and they love to laugh hard at the silliest things.

Their pure pleasure and curiosity about the story inside the covers of the book are some of the reasons why I began to write children’s books.

This is our first and possibly last chance to get children interested in books. It is what got me hooked.

It’s never too late to start reading, for yourself or to your children.

Adrian heads the digital division for Ogilvy Cape Town. He and his wife, Stacy, have two children, Seth and Ava. He has written two children’s books, Little Lucky Lolo and Little Lucky Lolo and the Very Big Boy(both Pan Macmillan).

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