Bubbly flying logos, of course, they're "Flogos"

In the late 1990's, two international special effects inventors, Francisco Guerra and Brian Glover, wondered what would happen if they could make clouds into shapes? Nearly 10 years later, Flogos was born!

This is essentially a bubble-machine on steriods - a soap filled machine generates a cluster of eco-friendly bubbles that float up through a customised stencil, is sliced off and then floats into the sky. Click below to check out a video about how it all works.



This form of eco-friendly outdoor marketing has already been used by the likes of McDonalds, Mercedes Benz and Sheraton. This frothy promotional option joins the ranks of other 'green' advertising options (see previous post on GreenGraffiti), like those now spruked by Curb, the 'natural' media company.

Inspiration for this post: Springwise

Media monitoring

Kraft US heats bus stops

It seems the people at Kraft have reached out to the hearts, mouths and temperatures of the American public in their latest soup campaign.

According to the New York Times, the campaign, which is estimated to cost Kraft more than $100,000USD, is a collaboration of JCDecaux North America; the Stove Top, MediaVest and Draft FCB. The campaign was executed in select Chicago bus stops over a month and as Springwise explain:

Kraft has already posted ads in 50 bus shelters around Chicago featuring the tagline, "Cold, provided by winter. Warmth, provided by us. It's a good night for Stove Top." Earlier this week the company went a step further and began heating ten of those shelters to give consumers within a little sympvertising in the form of relief from the cold. Next, beginning today and continuing for three weeks, Kraft will also be giving out samples of its Quick Cups at those heated shelters, for a dose of tryvertising as well., and also featured 'tryvertising' by handing out samples of hot soup.

While we haven't uncovered any measurement of the campaign, we would be very surprised if this investment didn't produce a fantastic sales result. The PR alone will have served them well.

Food for thought as the southern hemisphere heads in the chiller part of the year...

Thanks to Springwise.com for the original post and to NYTimes for original story.

Media monitoring

Digital magazines for all!

In the space of few days I was notified about completely digital versions of some of my favourite magazines. The terrific Australian 'mook' Dumbo Feather, is offering a free trial of one of their recent issues, and the US based ReadyMade magazine is offering a 'tree-free' version of their latest issue. Great to see the world of magazines evolving.

Then Springwise tell me about issuu, where you can create and publish YOUR OWN MAGAZINE. I'm in publishing nirvana.


What issuu really does is take your run of the mill pdf file, and make it a flip-the-page style digital file, which you can then share on their website, or embed on others.

See for example the Media Kit created by MMP Communications which they then embedded into their website, the case study booklet by AdWalker or Network PR's monthly newsletter. But what about also using it for your clip books, brochures, white papers, portfolios etc etc?

To test it out, I took a pdf version of the Slice tour on our website, and converted it into an issuu file, then posted it to our facebook page. Admittedly the text is too small, and you need to zoom in, but more usability testing will further refine the interface. The great thing about the file though is it adds interactivity to your website, and allows people to access graphic information without having to download a pdf file. Also by sharing the information on the issuu website and inviting comment, you've created another tool in your web 2.0 arsenal.

Issuu describes themselves as "the place for online publications: Magazines, catalogs, documents, and stuff you'd normally find on print. It's the place where YOU become the publisher: Upload a document, it's fast, easy, and totally FREE. Find and comment on thousands of great publications. Join a living library, where anyone finds publications about anything and share them with friends."

But hey, don't be shy. Just get on issuu, give it a whirl and see where your creative comms juices take you. It's free after all!

Tracking the media, monitoring the message