Surreal Creative

chocolate blippar marketing KitKat augmented reality

Creative Confectionary

KitKat are being very active in their new campaign Choose a Chunky Champion where members of the public vote on the favourite limited addition KitKat, with the victorious chocolate bar staying with us on a long term basis.

Amongst the traditional methods of TV and Radio advertising, KitKat is conducting a very extensive social media campaign using targeted Facebook advertising to get the voting underway, with one voter everyday winning £100. However the most interesting aspect of the campaign is KitKat’s integration of augmented reality tool, Blippar to its print advertising.

Launching the Blippar app on your smart phone brings up an interactive menu and when the camera is focused on a KitKat wrapper or its many pieces of print advertising it allows customers to instantly vote for their favourite (watch the video here).

It’s a shame Blippar hasn’t quite taken off in quite the same way QR codes have, despite offering a much more creative way to interact with an audience, but time will tell on this. The KitKat-Blippar pairing is also a good example of how augmented reality can have a genuine future in product marketing.

February 9th, 2012 by Tom Lamb, filed in Blog-roll

The Original iPhone

Can you believe it! The first iPhone was only imagined in 1983. It was a landline with full, all-white handset and a built-in screen controlled with a stylus. Who needs Angry Birds!? The phone was designed for Apple by Hartmut Esslinger, an influential designer who helped make the Apple IIc computer (Apple’s first “portable” computer) and later founded Frogdesign.

January 5th, 2012 by AndrewD, filed in Blog-roll

Cobra Release New Glass

Cobra has designed a ssssss-eriosly nice new glass for you to enjoy your crisp, refreshing beer. My apologies for all those giving it up for the month of January, good things come to those who wait, or something like that…

January 4th, 2012 by AndrewD, filed in Blog-roll

Resolution Ideas List

2012 is finally upon us! We’re back to work, a stone heavier and full of hope for the coming months. Surreal has just finished its first team meeting of the new year, and there’s been a few re-occurring keywords, the most prominent of all being gym.

Take a look at the list above for some more realistic ambitions.

January 3rd, 2012 by AndrewD, filed in Blog-roll

Wonder-fully Creative

The world of marketing throws out some stunts every now and then, but not for a long time has it managed to raise a smile like this. In launching its Ultimate Plunge Bra, Wonderbra decided it was about time somebody really earned a closer look.

How you ask?! Well, via a live bungee jump in front of London’s Battersea Power Station of course!

Guaranteed news coverage, guaranteed word of mouth, guaranteed smiles. She’s Slovakian and called Adriana Cernanova by the way. That’s part one of the girlfriend’s pile sorted then.

December 7th, 2011 by AndrewD, filed in Blog-roll

Original Christmas Decorations

I saw this and thought it could pass as Christmas decorations for some reason. If it does it’s definitely original, if it doesn’t then I promise I’ll be posting images our office decorations next week. Until then, cinemtaic looking lightbulbs dangling from well-worn rope will have to do.

Enjoy your weekend folks!!!!

December 2nd, 2011 by AndrewD, filed in Blog-roll

Absolutely Mullered

Jamie Oliver says…

“Peel large sections of peel from your clementines, lemon and lime using a speed peeler. Put the sugar in a large saucepan over a medium heat, add the pieces of peel and squeeze in the clementine juice. Add the cloves, cinnamon stick, bay leaves and about 10 to 12 gratings of nutmeg. Throw in your halved vanilla pod and stir in just enough red wine to cover the sugar.

Let this simmer until the sugar has completely dissolved into the red wine and then bring to the boil. Keep on a rolling boil for about 4 to 5 minutes, or until you’ve got a beautiful thick syrup. The reason I’m doing this first is to create a wonderful flavour base by really getting the sugar and spices to infuse and blend well with the wine. It’s important to do make a syrup base first because it needs to be quite hot, and if you do this with both bottles of wine in there you’ll burn off the alcohol.

When your syrup is ready turn the heat down to low and add your star anise and both bottles of wine. Gently heat the wine and after around 5 minutes, when it’s warm and delicious, ladle it into glasses and serve.”

November 30th, 2011 by AndrewD, filed in Blog-roll

Shopping Mad

It’s that time of year again. Family and friends, mulled and un-mulled. Our homes become a collection of post card images and brightly coloured light bulbs. We rest in the warmth with no plans to leave for days on end, other than to go to a place of more warmth and even more indulgence.

We are welcomed wherever we go with handshakes and cheers and smiles and even more beers. We are a Christmas knit unit at one with the cold and hoping for snow. Guiltily renewing our religious duties for at least an hour at midnight or nine hours later. Feeling good about ourselves until we’ve eaten into oblivion.

What happens before this is far less joyous though… following America’s 2011 Black Friday bonanza that resulted in a shooting and many hospitalisations, we all must accept and embrace the SHOPPING and the CHAOS. Good luck everybody!

November 29th, 2011 by AndrewD, filed in Blog-roll

The Art of Going Viral

These things just happen. I hear a strange noise rising from my work colleague’s computer, some muffled shouting and the sound of a heavy wind and then I hear it again and once more again.

“What’s that?!” I ask, concerned about the content and the fact that it’s not even 9.30am. He calls me over and says the classic YouTube set up line, “Have you seen this?!” He’s clearly not that impressed but wants a second opinion. I lean over and wait for the magic.

I firstly hear a man screaming “Benton! Benton! BENTON!!” and then repeating “Jesus Christ!” after he realises he’s out of the chase and the dog couldn’t give one. I then see a herd of deer sprint into view and towards the road that splits Richmond Park. Benton I assume is the smaller beast giving chase.

My work colleague informs me that this footage has blown up over the internet and then adds, apparently, it was the credit card comedian Stephen Mangan who originally posted it.

My first visit to Facebook of the day sees a shared like to Benton and Richmond Park as the opening story in the stream, my TweetDeck then flashes “watch this…” ”Hilarious…”, and after scanning the national media news for inspiration for today’s blog post, I find the Guardian have already published an article about the footage.

It has already been adapted to fit into the narrative of An American Werewolf in London and I’m sure this won’t be the only one.

The speed at which these mildly amusing clips spread via the internet and social media is incredible, and a dream goal for any advertising agency looking for the next oligarch Meerkat or drumming Gorilla.

Going viral, is word of mouth on a 90 foot unstoppable digital wave’s scale. But for now as a mass of awareness, all this 47 second clip has sparked is a name debate…

Is it Benton! or Fenton!

November 22nd, 2011 by AndrewD, filed in Blog-roll

Robbo Inc. Resurfaces

Following the heated graffiti feud between Banksy and Robbo and the subsequent calm over recent years, one of Robbo’s offerings has reappeared. Make of this what you will, but I thought it was certainly worth a mention and to be on display.

November 21st, 2011 by AndrewD, filed in Blog-roll

today we are mostly feeling this: