Joyous holidays @ Spirou Miliou Arcade, CITY LINK

Our beloved fairy tales magic becomes animated in the specially designed and impressively decorated Spirou Miliou Arcade. Wonderful toy statues, dainty morsels from chestnut makers and candyfloss for our beloved little friends!!! Talented musicians mingling with expressive artists that add such a melodical note to the festive atmosphere!!!

December, Wednesday 22 - Friday 24 &  Tuesday 28 - Friday 31, 17.00 - 19.00!
Χmas & New Years Eve, 15.00 - 17.00, the Children's Choir will be spreading over the arcade their Christmas Carols and songs!

Just be there... and do not forget while you walk through the arcade, have a look at the top roof and smile at the view of our unforgettable childhood heroes :)

BARBOUR for Steve McQueen

As part of their 75th anniversary celebrations, Barbour will be releasing a “Steve McQueen” tribute collection. The line consists of t-shirts, jackets, and knitwear and will be released at the WP Store Florence on January 11th, 2011.

An essential element of the store is Barbour’s long association with motorcycling, apart from the famous usage in hunting. From 1936 to 1977, the Barbour name was synonymous with trials biking and Barbour biker suits were worn by virtually every British International motorcycle team during that period. In the 1954 International Six Days Trial (ISDT), nearly three-quarters of all competitors wore them. As a member of the elite US team, actor and racer Steve McQueen wore a Barbour International suit in the 1964 East German ISDT.

Beats by Dr. Dre

In 2007, Dr. Dre, Jimmy Iovine and Head Monster, Noel Lee, introduced the world to Beats by Dr. Dre™ Studio headphones and forever changed how people listen to music. Since then the music game has never been the same. Over-ear, in-ear, beatboxes, beats audio software in collaboration with HP as well as an exclusive artist's headphones and a variety of colorful gadgetry is here to fascinate your music world !

A CAR-like hotel :)

Heading for Stuttgard and searching for an innovative place to stay? Also crazy for antique cars? Then I have come across the best place for your staying. The V8-Hotel, a 4* hotel displaying car models from the past and not only displaying but transforming them into your accommodation. In this instance, residing in a car is not a last-min solution but rather a luxury! The V8 Hotel is located at the ex airport area of Stuttgard and is recently renovated offering 34 rooms for strong car lovers. The whole decoration is inspired by cars and races varrying from drive-in cinemas to car service stores, highways, car laundries and so many more.
Visit online @ http://www.v8hotel.de/

FANatic tee for the football lovers

Genius tee for the Dutch Football Team fans during the FIFA WORLD CUP 2010!!!
Exceptional concept!

''Nike Stadium'' packaging!

Nike innovates in its creative expression of being a supporter of soccer! The avant garde trainers packaging received a 2007 Cannes Lion. The shoe box is the classical Nike package, brown - orange exterior and while it opens... there comes the surprise! The interior is designed to look like a stadium full of spectators and the best comes when it opens and there is the embedded sound clip of the crowd cheering!!!  Only a limited number of them and though a Nike lover, I envy the lucky ones to have purchased trainers boxed like this !

ART AND THE CITY ...@ the heart of Athens, City Link

ART is so vivid in the City. Athens downtown gets painted !!! From September 30 till October 10, at the heart of Athens, in specific at the City Link Spirou Miliou archade, young artists create and display their artworks! Twenty young graduates of the National School of Fine Arts  have been drawing with their City in mind. Their arts get inspired by Athens and their paintings are collectively exhibited in Spirou Miliou archade. At the time being, the young artists have initiated their projects and there is so much color and artistic vibe downtown. It is worth passing by the pedestrian street of Voukourestiou that leads to Spirou Miliou and wander around the out-of-home atelier. The atmosphere is uplifting, colorful, vivid and the citizens need to add color in their daily routine. The exhibition which is a live experience starts on September 30 and finishes on October 10. The official opening ceremony as well as the top 3 artworks distinction is set to take place on October 2. Afterwards, all the exhibits will be displayed in the archade for the passer bys. An artistic initiative aiming at adding freshness, inspiration and color in your life and City :-)

Hope you N-joy ... ''ART AND THE CITY '' 

LOGORAMA - animated short movie by H5

This is a short film that was directed by the French animation collective H5, François Alaux, Hervé de Crécy + Ludovic Houplain. It was presented at the Cannes Film Festival 2009. It opened the 2010 Sundance Film Festival and won a 2010 academy award under the category of animated short. It is an adventurous short movie using animated logos and keeping the viewer breathless till the very end ;) N-joy at:

http://vimeo.com/10149605

MasterCard MARKETPLACE pops up in the streets...

After presenting the FOREVER 21 interactive OOH promotion in Times Square where a real model interacted with the passer bys via a giant video wall and also VISA creating its social media space RIGHTCLIQ where members gather , discuss and decide about their shopping, here comes MasterCard with its MARKETPLACE launched in the streets. Digital screens are placed in the streets, out of home media, nearby shopping areas and with detectors and RSS feed mechanisms , they show images to purchase at real bargains targetting thus the walking pedestrians :)
the full article is featured in AdWeek as follow:

MasterCard Takes E-Commerce to the Streets



Retail displays consist of motion sensor-activated screens on which items like purses, laptops and sneakers appear. MasterCard has launched an out-of-home campaign to promote its MarketPlace e-commerce site. The goal? To get consumers' attention both online and offline. The credit card brand has put up storefront ads featuring black-and-white vinyl panels and taglines like "A smarter way to shop online" and "Where bargains find you." The effort, which includes ads in New York, Chicago, Miami and Philadelphia, wraps up this month. The displays, set up in busy retail locations, consist of motion sensor-activated screens on which items like purses, laptops and sneakers pop up when someone walks by. There is also a mobile component: Pedestrians can view the latest offers via MasterCard MarketPlace's RSS feed and e-mail deals to themselves. MasterCard hopes "to capitalize on consumers' dual online-offline shopping behavior by directly placing the MasterCard MarketPlace 'shop smarter' message within the physical, brick-and-mortar shopping experience," said Cheryl Guerin, the company's svp of digital marketing. Storefronts were a "natural channel extension," she said. In addition to the OOH campaign, MasterCard is running TV, print and online ads to promote its MarketPlace business. Digital efforts include tweeting "overwhelming offers," which are "time-sensitive" deals offered daily on the site, Guerin said. The company did not disclose the campaign's cost. It is, however, the first time MasterCard has launched an interactive outdoor initiative to support a larger marketing push. GSD&M Idea City, digital agency R/GA and Inwindow Outdoor worked on the campaign.
MasterCard spent $164 million on advertising in 2009 and $31 million through the first five months of this year, excluding online, per Nielsen.  


- Elaine Wong, Brandweek

City cab posters by Mehmet Gozetlik

Mehmet Gozetlik is a 29 y.o. artist having been born and residing in Istanbul. He is a great contributor in the Antrepo. His recent ''Taxi, please'' art project illustrates 4 different cities through the images of their taxis. Very vivid and catchy print artworks; the Black style taxicab from London, the Yellowcab from New York City, the Panelvan style from Istanbul, the famous VW Beetle from Mexico City. Enjoy the AWs below...

KANYE WEST's new video ''POWER''

After providing some behind the scenes footage, Kanye West now unveils the long awaited video painting for “Power.” Directed by Marco Brambilla, the visual was said to be inspired by Michelangelo’s frescos in the Sistine Chapel, and depicts “an empire on the brink of collapse from its own excess, decadence and corruption.” You’ll find this on his yet to be titled album due out on October 12th 2010.

 http://videos.onsmash.com/v/brfbslPmrDsCqTlk

VISA social-medializes e-commerce

VISA pioneers and creates its own social media space with a focus on e-commerce activities. Therefore, the rightcliq fans meet online so as to discuss shopping plans, bargains, fashion tips, wishlists, prices, opinions and reach decision making as well as track shipment. The web tool does not impose VISA though but lets the members choose their credit/debit card. The application will be featured in fashion websites and blogs so as to target the appropriate groups, trendsetters and shopaholics and fashion audience generally speaking.

http://www.rightcliq.visa.com/

Socialize and have fun via e-commerce... powered by VISA!

HSBC CSR campaign - GLOBAL WARMING

The eye-catching swimming pool in Mumbai, India, has been built to raise awareness about the threat of sea level rises as a result of global warming. It was constructed by attaching a giant aerial photograph of the New York City skyline to the floor of the pool. The idea was conceived by advertising agency Ogilvy & Mather. Ogilvy spokesman Nabendu Bhattacharyya said: "The challenge was to reach out to people who are otherwise indifferent to the cause in a non-theoretical manner. "HSBC wanted to convey the message in a unique visual way that would grab people's attention and couldn't be ignored." "The Ogilvy team came up with an innovative way to show the adverse impact of global climate change.

They glued an aerial view of a city to the base of a swimming pool. When the pool was filled with water, it gave a shocking effect akin to a city submerged in water. The visual of a sunken city shocked swimmers and onlookers, driving home the impact of global warming, and how it could destroy our world someday."
The pool, completed at sports centre in Bhaktipark, Wadala, Mumbai, in 2008, has been so successful that HSBC is considering building more of them in cities worldwide. just... Brilliant!!!! :-)

''Public'' Art

There are many times that while wandering in the concrete, dull, colorless streets of the city, all of a sudden there comes the surprise! In particular, some attractions, some pieces of art, some catchy installations capture your eye... tinkle your senses... raise your interest... vibe your soul... cultivate your manners... pause and... exclamation mark ! WOW... u utter and search for your photo camera :-)  Art installations in public venues and in general, are always effective in bearing reactions... Let the images speak instead of words ...

2,500 Coca cola cans for the Crateman statue located at a harbor in Cape Town during FIFA WORLD CUP 2010.

Exceptional massive FLOOR STICKER in a shopping mall of Jakarta. The ad rights belong to Saatchi & Saatchi and the product is an insecticide for pets.

The BMW Munich Museum Kinetic Sculpture made of 714 metal orbs

Mini-Cooper awesome OOH billboards... the catapult campaign, the YO-YO mini car billboard as well as the entrance-exit trick at the Zurich metro station. So, there comes the question: HOW MANY can u pack into a MINI :; ???

Athens Cow Parade 2006

HSBC CSR campaign - GLOBAL WARMING

Nike’s 20-meter-high, half-ton Ball Man made of 5,500 Brazilian Skill Balls was a huge hit during the FIFA World Cup in South Africa. It was the centerpiece of a Nike installation Carlton Mall Atrium in Johannesburg.

 

 

Piraeus Bank Group Cultural Foundation (PIOP) @ the “Istanbul European Capital of Culture 2010”

The Piraeus Bank Group Cultural Foundation (www.piop.gr) participates at the big cultural event that takes place on yearly basis, the "European Capital of Culture", by presenting two exhibitions at the Sanat Limani (Antrepo 5) in Istanbul, from July 30 until September 19, 2010 (opening on Friday July 30, at 19:00).


The exhibition "Architectural counterpoints in Greece: from 19th c. tradition to 21st c. mutations" assembles more than 100 photographs, taken by the distinguished Greek architect Aristotelis Zachos (1871 – 1939), that derive from the Neohellenic Architecture Archives of the Benaki Museum and raise issues regarding the current situation and common attitude towards architectural heritage.

The contemporary art show "A space between" (Eleni Kotsoni, Raziye Kubat, Cagr Saray) is a site-specific installation including various objects, drawings and paintings and evolving through the dialogue established between Greek and Turkish artists.

Ads Should Help Folks Have Fun, by Bob Deutsch

Fun and happiness, partly because of their scarcity, are hot topics. Today life is hard, in new ways. In addition to the economic downturn, people experience life as TOO fast, TOO complex and TOO competitive. Everyone is rushed. Everyone is pulled in many directions.
This hardness of life can all too often push away the experience of fun and happiness. But people want some fun in their lives. And, of course, Americans are always in pursuit of happiness.
When folks are having fun they feel they can let their hair down and put aside their inhibitions. Marketers rarely talk about fun directly, but in designing digital offerings that promise an "experience," or when focused on building customer relationships, the covert subtext of most advertising should be aimed at creating the feeling of fun.
As a cognitive anthropologist working in marketing and consumer decision making, I recently completed three projects -- for a cruise line, a sporting goods line and a refreshment beverage -- that uncovered some key aspects about peoples' experience of fun.


FIVE FACETS OF FUN


1. New. A key word in the experience of fun is "new." People often have fun when having new experiences, learning new things, meeting new people.
2. Going beyond expectation. To have fun requires going beyond the routine or familiar, to meet what people call "something extra." Surprise (something new) and the unexpected (something not habitual) contribute to a feeling of the non-ordinary.
3. Feeling open. To have fun people need a sense of "becoming," wherein nothing is pre-scripted and the end is unknown at the beginning; here there is an unfolding and an exploration.
4. No. Fun often requires the absence of things. In this case, no analyzing, doubting, pressure to conform, pretense, restrictions, judgment.
5. Freedom. Choice and independence are undercurrents of fun. People interpret this as doing what one wants, when one wants, and doing it at one's own pace ("finding your own rhythm"), without any external demands. This is often called "me time," which people now deem a luxury.


The surprising primary constituent of fun is feeling understood.
Relief (minimizing loss) and satisfaction (maximizing gain) are experienced differently and are, in fact, represented by different neurological activity patterns.
If I like a product or an activity and buy (or pursue) it because its attributes meet my interests, I can be relieved to have it. However, if I feel that having a product or engaging in an activity reflects my identity and expands my latent expressions of self, a certain relationship develops with that product, brand or activity. It is that relationship that makes me happy and that I experience as fun.
People feel happy not when a product or a store demonstrates an understanding of the consumer as a purchasing process, but when the marketer authentically displays an understanding of who the consumer is as a person.
Understanding a person as an identity is different than explaining him or her as a consumer, as a demographic unit. At best the former generates "liking" while the latter establishes "attachment." While I can like a transaction, I am happiest in a relationship when having fun.
In a relationship, people talk about feeling "truly alive," of "turning on a different brain." This can only occur when marketers seek not only to make magic, but to make magic fun.
Fun is a magical thing. You can find the "YOU" in fun. People are intrinsically drawn to such an experience.
So come on marketers, think "fun" and people will follow your brand more often.


Bob Deutsch is a cognitive anthropologist and founder of the consulting firm Brain Sells. He can be reached at dr.bob@brain-sells.com.

SONY VAIO ''The Rocket Project'' ... make.believe.

Earlier in spring 2010, Sony's Rocket Project gave eight lucky high school students several Vaios, a crash course in rocketry, and the opportunity to design and build a rocket that could make it to the stratosphere. Well, what do you know? After a few weather-related setbacks, the thing finally launched on Friday, July 23 from its launchpad in the Black Rock Desert in Nevada, achieving Mach 2.8 (nearly three times the speed of sound) in the process. Thumbs up!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSTWQ8H7Pr0&feature=related


and launch day:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4CP_fpxXeo

FOREVER 21 in real interaction with the passer bys

FOREVER 21 - interactive digital BB @ Times Square - such smart & catchy promo!space150 built this digital billboard for Forever 21's new Times Square store. The sign uses high-def cameras and custom built video software to allow giant models to interact with the crowd in real time - so cool!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ON8jLppE9-s

Volkswagen' FUN Theory :)

In most of the times, there is no better way than FUN so as to convince and/or encourage people to follow a methodology, an example, a good deed!Here is Volkswagen's efficiency combined with fun that results into more litter being thrown into a dustbin :) This has to do with positive manipulation of human curiosity! Fun & CSR... the more playful it is, the most efficient it turns out ;)
N-joy @ :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7MfxFjbHWw&feature=player_embedded

The FAVELA PAINTING CSR project

A splash of colour and design can go a long way toward beautifying a grey, ugly space. The Favela Painting project aims at adding some lively color to the slums of Rio de Janeiro by means of large, community-driven murals. And this is to be achieved by incorporating training and employment for the local residents. The idea conceivers are the Dutch artist duo Haas&Hahn. Dre Urhahn, one of the several artists participating in the project wisely comments: “This work of art can make a colorful difference in the lives of local individuals, the community and the city of Rio. It has the potential of working as a catalyst in the processes of social renewal and change.” I proudly add it in the CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) exemplifications I intend to add in my blogspot.

The Favela Painting has already completed two community painting projects in Vila Cruzeiro—Rio's most notorious slum—along with the first portion of O Morro, its current effort to paint an entire hillside slum. Some 34 houses and 7,000 square meters of Praça Cantão in Santa Marta have already been transformed through paint, and the project hopes to paint even more of the hillside. In each of its projects, Favela has focused on recruiting local residents to do much of the painting, including training and paying them. In this latest one, local inhabitants were trained through a partnership with Brazilian paint company TintasCoral on everything from different types of paint to safety measures while working on scaffolding.
Favela Painting is supported by Firmeza Foundation, and recently the decorative paint division of Dutch AkzoNobel. 


For more, visit:  http://www.favelapainting.com/

Aloe Blacc's forthcoming album ''GOOD THINGS'' to be released in late September 2010

Video for Aloe Blacc's single "I Need A Dollar" from the forthcoming album Good Things - awesome video in dual window screens - black-white-red direction - so down to earth as a story. Additional video ''Loving you is killing me'' in the studio.
Aloe Blacc is so much into the soul, funky and rhythm n blues feeling and sounds... check his latest two tracks (I need a dollar & Loving you is killing me)  @ :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iR6oYX1D-0w

&


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ufz4i4NeeaE

Enjoy & get ready for the album :)
he is said to be uncovered by Kid Cudi (?) - not tested source, cross my ears ...