IKEA Furniture Finds Home in Paris Subway

In an attempt to get the attention of busy commuters, IKEA has furnished four Parisian subway stations for two weeks. Sofas and lamps from new Ektorp and Karlstad collections will be available for testing on St. Lazare, Champs-Elysées Clémenceau, Concorde, and Opéra subway stations. What a great way to show the durability of the product! The campaign was created in co-operation with 14septembre More photos here. (via PSFK)

Gaga Pushing Products in New Music Video

With nine obvious product placements, nearly fifty costume changes and a Tarantino inspired execution, Lady Gaga's new music video "Telephone" is generating a lot of buzz around the Web. AdAge suggests that while some brands paid to appear on the video, others were used merely for artistic reasons.

In all its ridiculousness, it's pretty entertaining. And that's what it's all about in an industry where Auto-Tune perfects all vocals and songs are often produced to death. My favorite scene: Diet Coke cans doubling as curling rolls.

Shopping: Online vs. Offline

PSFK published this interesting chart in their blog today that shows how online sales compare to offline sales in various categories. The chart was created by e-commerce buyer acquisition channel Permuto based on US Census Bureau data. As much as it shows the current situation, the chart could also be used to identify potential areas for e-commerce growth. Click here for the full chart.

Betty White in Snickers Viral

(Via AdAge)

A Cool and Simple Banana Promotion

Neff Ink's new campaign for Chiquita brings monkeys, clowns and Mexican wrestlers to the fruit aisle in an effort to make grocery shopping more fun. Sometimes a little effort goes a long way.

Most Innovative Companies in Marketing

Fast Company has ranked companies based on how innovative they are. As one could guess, at the top of their list are Facebook, Amazon, Apple, and Google. The industry-specific list for advertising and marketing, however, is less obvious. I'm happy to see R/GA and Unilever high up on that list because they're both companies I'd like to work for in the future.

Top 10 Most Innovative Companies in Marketing:

1. GREY New York

2. Firstborn
3. Crispin Porter + Bogusky
4. Unilever
5. R/GA
6. Goodby, Silverstein & Partners
7. Mr Youth
8. Mindshare
9. Katalyst
10. Trumpet

Packaging Design for Valentine's Day

Adorable love coupon matchbooks designed by Rachel Wiles make the perfect low-effort gift for Valentine's Day. These DIY matchbooks are available in .pdf form at Etsy (via TheDieline.com).

TBWA\Helsinki's 18th Wake Up

TBWA\Helsinki organized its 18th Herätyskokous (in English: Wake Up seminar) this past Tuesday. The guest speaker, Trent Bigelow, was flown out to Finland from Los Angeles. With an impressive resume in marketing and sustainability, he had been invited to talk about cleantech.

Besides encouraging Finnish companies to pursue cleantech, his message was that we need to do more to leverage the Finnish country brand in our marketing efforts. Currently, Americans have no idea what Finland stands for (or where it's located). Our neighboring country Sweden, on the other hand, is known for IKEA, Volvo, H&M and meatballs.

In Bigelow's view, we are lucky in a sense that we do not have a bad country brand. We just need to be more vocal about our strengths: quality products, amazing design, clean water, nature, technological innovations, our environmentally friendly way of life, and world class education. In other words, we need to stop being so modest!

Apple's iPad: More Hype Than Innovation

I have been a fan of Apple products. I remember watching Jeff Han's TED talk about touchscreens in early 2007, and that summer, I already found myself holding an iPhone. It was incredible how something that had seemed so futuristic was already becoming mainstream. Later, the iPod Touch made most of the iPhone's features available for consumers who didn't want to commit to an expensive cell phone plan.

And now there's the iPad. Although the iPad is being marketed as another revolutionary Apple innovation, I'm not convinced product development required much from the company - most of the product's features have been around for a while now. Even the name 'iPad' was already used by Fujitsu for a similar product in 2002. Three years ago, MadTV also made a sketch about iPad, the then-fictional new Apple product.

Besides trying to steal market share away from Amazon Kindle, the only great thing about the iPad is the hype Apple managed to create. However, as the LA Times put it: "Despite months of hype heralding an entirely novel kind of electronic device, the reality was underwhelming". With all this false hype, Steve Jobs should watch out. The boy who cried innovation will probably have more skeptics at his next product launch.

Lady Gaga, a Marketing Maven

Yesterday, The Wall Street Journal published an interesting article about music industry sensation Lady Gaga. At 23 years old, she's setting an example to the music business, inspiring the fashion industry, and teaching us marketers about persona branding.

I find that in Gaga's case, the term 'persona branding' is more appropriate than 'personal branding', because her exaggerated stage persona is more of a character than a real person. Her flamboyant outfits and eccentric performances add to her enigmatic presence and make the Gaga brand buzz-worthy and memorable.

Beyond the glitz and glamor, Gaga is a talented singer-songwriter with an original sound. In 2009, she topped digital music charts with 15.3 million tracks sold. But most of all, Lady Gaga is a marketer and a business woman at heart. Or as she's now called: Lady Gaga, Creative Director at Polaroid.

Lumene Strikes a Deal with Walgreens

M&M writes that Finnish cosmetics company Lumene has struck a valuable distribution deal with American drugstore chain Walgreens. The chain currently has 7,000 stores around the US, half of which will now start carrying Lumene products. To start off, Lumene will get six of its biggest selling products on the shelves. Additional products and stores will be added later.

As a side note, it's nice to see Lumene has updated their logo, at least the one on their website, to one that highlights the country of origin. Makes sense to leverage the clean and pure country brand of Finland. To read more, click here for a recent post about Lumene.

Colbert Pokes Fun at Domino's Marketing

I've been somewhat behind on my downloads, but tonight, I finally had time to watch video entertainment formerly known as "TV" shows. And there were some funny moments. January 6th, on The Colbert Report, Stephen Colbert put the spotlight on the delicious and foolproof new marketing strategy pursued by Domino's Pizza.

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Alpha Dog of the Week - Domino's Pizza
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Economy

This is Ingenious

(via Adpunch)

It's Official: Fashion Bloggers Are VIP

A few days ago, NYT published an article that discusses how bloggers are now considered as influential as fashion editors. Recognition, of course, comes in the form of front row seats at fashion shows - recently given to a 13-year-old blogger at a Marc Jacobs show.

It's been a good year for fashion bloggers. It'll be interesting to see which other industries bloggers will take over in 2010. My bets are on food, considering that FMCG companies have massive marketing budgets, and well, everyone has to eat. Not to mention that I get so hungry reading smitten kitchen.

Building a Business Around Targeted Emails

Thrillist.com co-founder and CEO Ben Lerer was recently a guest on Bloomberg TV's small business and entrepreneurship show, Venture. Much like Daily Candy, Thrillist is also a free, subscription-based email newsletter and website that functions as a city guide to young, urban professionals.

In the interview, Lerer explains how the success of Daily Candy inspired them to start a similar newsletter for men and what it took to actually get the project off the ground. He also explains in detail how their advertising-driven business model works in practice, how the company measures its activities, and how important it is to build a mutually beneficial relationship with the readership.