When hearing the word “tequila” a lot of things come to mind. Like images of agave plants scattered around the Mexican desert. Big haciendas keeping traditional recipes, always claiming to be more original than the rest. It also makes us think of screaming people ala “Real Housewives of” having shots at a bar and getting wasted. For Dobel, an ultra premium imported Tequila, the whole idea was to stay away from all that. And make debauchery (which at the end is the sole purpose of tequila) into something decadent, wicked, luxurious.
How do you call a concierge who takes care of your sinful requests? A SINcierge of course. A concept that was implemented in real life at selected, hip hotel lobbies as well as with an IPad application. The SINcierge would guide users and patrons through wicked places and activities all over the city any given week, fulfilling special requests and helping them misbehave like a pro.
What if you take the most iconic part of an already iconic brand and make it come alive in the form of a IPad app? What if every single BMW model ever produced is at everyone’s fingertips? What if beemer lovers (and just plain auto-aficionados) can get access to a wonderful virtual museum?
This application for IPad lets users learn about BMW’s car-making heritage through an interactive game. Each half of a model’s grille will move up or down and the main objective is to make them match. Once each half is perfectly aligned, the user will be given the option to see the corresponding BMW model through beautiful front-view pictures of it, as if it was a virtual museum.
Here’s one the latest projects I’ve worked on and something I am very proud of. It’s not a big, fancy campaign. It’s something a little more meaningful. It all started when a friend of mine asked me for just a copy line for a series of posters and billboards promoting a local movement featuring committed gay couples supporting same-sex marriage. The movement is called “Let love reign”. I thought it would be great to come up with a playful, yet very powerful phrase that conveyed the idea of a country where equality is possible, where people can actually propose regardless their sexual preference. A line that was critical of the infamous Proposition 8 but have a positive, optimistic and even funny take on it.
Look at those gorgeous, attractive individuals wanting to hook up with you. Or wait, maybe it is YOU the one who wants to hook up with them. Either way, here’s a fun and interesting project I got the chance to work not so long ago.
The Caribbean Tourism Organization wanted a digital platform to promote all its 33 participating countries. That was a challenge in itself, since each destination had a distinctive personality, very different from each other. Yet somehow they needed a unified image.
The solution was to create an online hub where each the 33 countries had the opportunity to showcase their best attributes and allow users to pick their perfect destination for future trips. That is why I developed a whole integrated campaign based on the idea of matchmaking. Instead of soul-mates, people would be paired up with their perfect “sun-mates” or ideal matches. Each country/destination would be personified by a character, making the planning of a vacation trip more fun, real and approachable.
The “SunMate” app for IPhone allowed users to match up with their ideal destination in the Caribbean based on their preferences, likes and hobbies.
Users were given the choice of accessing the destinations directly or randomly, after answering a short questionnaire. And since a hook-up never can wait, once a user identified an ideal match, an interface powered by Travelocity helped them book immediate travel arrangements to have a rendezvous with their perfect island.
“Sun Mate” played very well on social media vehicles such as Facebook. There, users could take fun personality tests to find out which Caribbean country or island would be their perfect match. Online users could even spread the word by inviting friends to try the questionnaire themselves. Once finished, an automated status line would appear on their profiles, stating they are now in a “relationship” with, let’s say, Bonaire, Aruba or Curaçao. There is even the possibility for sending customized e-cards to their friends, posing with their new “hookups”.
The beauty of this idea is that it also can be expanded and implemented outside of the digital world. One of the grassroots events envisioned and based on the “Sun Mate” theme involves staging speed-dating events in public spaces between Caribbean countries and people who want to travel there. Models personifying each island would get one-on-one interviews with passersby, giving them information and showing them the charms that make every destination unique. At the end of the event, people would get the chance to book a vacation with the country chosen as the perfect match.
When a company like Coca-Cola calls for proposals to improve their global website for a program like “Living Positively,” you know they mean serious business. Skepticism aside, some big corporations are actually committed to areas such as the environment, community and education. And in that sense, the red giant from Atlanta has been doing a great job for years. Still, how do you communicate the message about such a wonderful enterprise in a way that didn’t look like an end-of-year shareholder report?
I’m a firm believer in manifestos. Not even as a tactic to wow a client. But as a way to get the whole creative team into the spirit of a project. Living Positively is a great global cause and before developing any new digital/social media platform, all the people involved in developing it need to share the same the common values.
