HyperQuake

Did I say good sports? I meant sore losers. From Best Week Ever:

So in the past few weeks apparently a wide spread, seemingly (but also much disputed) consumer-generated drinking game popped up and started gaining lots of viral traction online. The interesting thing about it though is not so much the game itself, but more the many questions that surrounded it.

Known only as Bros Icing Bros (which lived online at this website before being shut down this week), the core focus of the game was the sweet malt beverage, Smirnoff Ice.

The game was quite simple as the entire premise was that if someone approached you with a bottle of Smirnoff Ice and you didn’t have one of your own to fend off the attack, you’d be ‘Iced’ and have to get down on one knee and consume the bottle of Smirnoff that your attacker approached you with. Given the need to have your own ammo to arm yourself against these sniper like attacks and the apparent desire by many college students to ‘Ice’ their friends, cases of Smirnoff began moving fast from the shelves, leading some to believe that it was merely a viral marketing ploy by Smirnoff’s parent company Diageo, known for successful viral marketing campaigns, to move products.

Move products it apparently did, but many people, myself included, doubted that it was a viral marketing ploy by the company because it was essentially one huge binge drinking game. It was very hard to understand why the company, viral marketing campaign or not, would want to be associated with a.) binge drinking and b.) people essentially using the product to make fun of the product. Individuals interviewed in some articles made this clear when they would indicated one wouldn’t want be iced because Smirnoff Ice is a “pretty terrible” drink.

Well, answers came yesterday as Diageo apparently confirmed that the past few weeks of games and the online site www.BrosIcingBros.com were not part of a marketing campaign. The site is down, saying only “We had a good run Bros…”

Right now, the Bro the started the whole thing, apparently only known as ‘Joe’, may or may not be in hot water for copyright/trademark issues stemming from the game and the site.

Should be interesting to see how it all plays out.

So you may remember a couple of months back when we shared with you some news about the newest poster in our poster series having been printed and released to the world.

Create Your Own Environment

Well, since then, poster #3 in our series has been finding its way to the far corners of the earth and all spots in between.

Most recently, one of the prints made its way over to Melbourne, Australia (I told you we were there!) where we sent one out to the crew at LifeLounge.com (a design/art/typography blog) as a thank you for feeding our creative juices and providing us with inspiration on a daily basis. Turns out, the gang over there gave us a shout out on their site, which you can check out here. Thanks guys!

HyperQuake's 'Create Your Own Environment' Poster Featured on LifeLounge.com

If you have not been to their blog before, and you didn’t click on the link above, what are you doing? Definitely go visit, do it now, because you are missing out. When you get there, tell them the crew over at HyperQuake says hi.

HQ recently had the opportunity to leverage our digital marketing and brand design strengths to pitch and ultimately win the agency of record assignment for the Cincinnati based, Buffalo Wings and Rings restaurant chain. What’s even better is the fact that we will continue to leverage our passion for all things food to help build this nation-wide, 54 restaurant business (and who doesn’t like wings?).

For 2010, our efforts will be focused on developing an integrated campaign utilizing  social media, loyalty, customer advocacy as well as both traditional and non-traditional media launching later this summer. Our recent return from the Buffalo Wings & Rings annual franchisee meeting in New Orleans, LA gave us a great chance to hear directly from the dedicated front line teams of owners throughout the US.

“Buffalo Wings & Rings is a different kind of restaurant brand centered on catching up and connecting,” says Roger David, CEO of BWR. “Families and friends choose us because of the unique BWR experience. We want our marketing to reflect and build on that experience and sense of engagement. As a leader in experiential marketing, consumer connection and new media technologies, HyperQuake is well positioned to help us.”

Thanks Roger and the entire Buffalo Wings & Rings team. We look forward to helping build your business and our own knowledge of your 45 wing sauce/heat combos in the future.

So, apparently despite being an burger lover, I missed the news back in October that to mark the release of Windows 7 in Taiwan, Windows and Burger King were teaming up to help the Taiwanese answer the question “Where’s the beef?” They were doing this through selling 7 patty burgers, for 7 days only, to the first 30 people at Taiwan Burger King, during the release of Windows 7 of course.

Forget your sweet tooth, feed your meat tooth

Apparently, the answer to that question is that all the beef is in this mega burger that I shudder to even write this blog about. I know that the Cattleman’s Beef Board and National Cattleman’s Beef Association have helped remind us that beef is in many ways, “What’s for dinner”, but I think this story makes clear that in this case, beef is what’s for breakfast, brunch, lunch, linner, dinner and all your daily snacks…

Thanks to the fine crew @ahamburgertoday on Twitter, I stumbled upon this story last night and my mind still can’t recover.

I get the idea behind the marketing tag-team that Windows and BK came up with here, but I just can’t comprehend why anyone would want to let their body take on this challenge. Again, this coming from a hamburger fan. I am a little bummed though that they didn’t unleash this on the United States.

I think it would do well at those BK Whopper Bars that are coming to South Beach in Miami, that we wrote about a few months back. Don’t you?

So consumers have often shown their love for brands in a variety of ways, some more endearing than others.

At one point in time, the pinnacle when it came to a consumer showcasing their love and dedication to a brand may have been the simple act of cutting the logo of the brand in one’s hair.

This took the top haircut spot recently, surpassing the faux-hawk.

Not only is it another form of advertising for the brand, but hey, this looks pretty killer and who wouldn’t want a haircut like that whether they liked the brand or not, right?

Of course there is always getting a brands tattoo on you (oh and if you need help with that, just see our earlier post on how you can find a good tattoo parlor via your iPhone), but come on, that’s still not showing a brand the love they deserve.

Well, thanks to the gang over at The Onion, we now know that at least one consumer showed his true love for a brand recently. They reported that earlier this week in a Circle K convenience store in Redmond, OR, Bryce Thompkins proclaimed his devotion and love for the Pepsi brand. Apparently only a small group of employees and close friends were there to see the ceremony.

Details from The Onion’s report:

‘”I love Pepsi,” Tompkins vowed as he offered the clerk two crisp dollar bills, symbolizing his willingness to sacrifice for Pepsi, and received 71 cents in return, symbolizing the portion of the two dollars that Pepsi does not cost. “Always will.” The solemn union of man and flavored soda was commemorated by a small bit of printed paper, which Tompkins declined.’

Now I ask you as you read this, can you say that you show the same dedication and support to the brands you use and respect? Our connections with the brands we use everyday are changing and Mr. Thompkin’s actions are a testament to that. I’m will to bet that as brand advocacy by consumers continues to evolve in 2010, we’ll see more of these types of reports.

So in short, take a cue from Mr. Tompkins and show the brands you love, some love.

So it was AOL’s 25th birthday on Tuesday last week.

You’d be hard pressed to find anyone who disagree with the statement that AOL was very much a major catalyst in millions of people starting to use the internet. Remember the days of coming home from school or work and finding a shiny new AOL disk in the mailbox? Now those were the days.

ALL NEW!

AOL might now be the powerhouse they once were, but it sounds like they have some plans for the next year.

Happy Birthday AOL.

Oh, I don’t know, shoot free hot dogs out at the crowds that would inevitably gather, via a Hot Dog Cannon I guess. I’m pretty sure this unexpected delivery of deliciousness would put a smile on all the Oscar Mayer Wieners fans out there.

As far fetched as that might seem, believe it or not, it really isn’t. That even goes for the Hot Dog Cannon part!

This actually exists.

That’s because as it turns out Oscar Mayer is auctioning off a Wienermobile adventure on eBay.

You too can have an adventure.

Now the term ‘adventure’ is kinda subjective here. That’s my only gripe. I’m sure this Wienermobile isn’t the easiest thing to drive, but an adventure riding in the passenger seat, I don’t know. I think I’d get the hang of it pretty quick. I was really kinda let down when I found this out because I was fully expecting to get the chance to see just what kind of power this thing has in it. I was thinking maybe if I won we could get it set up with some turbos or a supercharger and shoot the prequel to the Fast and Furious movies. One of the guys in the office has a new Mustang so we could easy throw down for pink slips like Paul Walker and Vin Diesel did…

So if you like Hot Dogs, specifically Oscar Mayer Wieners, you should probably go check this out, because I forgot to mention, in addition to the ride in the car, you might win a years supply of hot dogs (26 packages). I’m going to have to check with our resident package meat expert Andy on this count though, I think it’s low based on the recommended daily meat requirements.

The 2012 Olympics so far have not failed to entertain with each announced design choice/uber-Britishy production number, and things over in England have just gotten a whole lot crazier. Meet the mascots, Wenlock and Mandeville:

This video explains the characters’ origins…I guess?

The press have been particularly unkind to this newest Olympic development. Barry Petchesy, of the Deadspin blog, describes them thusly: “Wenlock and Mandeville, their cyclopean eyes representing England’s Big Brother police state, were unveiled today. You might as well just sacrifice your firstborn now and get it over with.” Both the Telegraph and The Independent have ridiculed the choice as well.

Waldi

Mascots were originally introduced during the 1972 Munich Summer Games with Waldi the Dachshund. Subsequent mascots have seen the full spectrum of acceptance, from the much-reviled Izzy (Atlanta 1996) to the recent superprecious Vancouver mascots. Olympic mascots are important for two reasons: the more altruistic Getting Kids Interested In Sports, and the more practical Merchandising Bucks (Wenlock and Mandeville will be sold as cyclopean digital cameras, among many other things).

Izzy and the Vancouver 2010 mascots

It will be interesting to see how the new 2012 mascots fit into the overall Olympic plan, till then my only question is, Why so angry-looking, Wenlock?

Oh yes, they did.

It’s in Brussels.

This looks photoshopped, right?

Seems to be real, though “why” is another story.

More to be read about it at Apartment Therapy.