It Aint Easy Being Green

Consumers are becoming more and more conscious of the environment and the majority are beginning to lean towards brands and products who share their value of sustainability. One “green” initiative isn’t enough to make you a green brand either, you have to live it, breath it, and be utterly transparent. After poor lending and business practices put our economy in the funk it is currently in, earning the trust of the customer no longer comes easy. Brands that are doing it right are getting it right down to the smallest details.

One of those small details is packaging. If you encourage your employees to carpool and you start recycling your office paper supply, what good does it do if your company is still filling landfills with harmful non-biodegradable packaging? One such brand that recognizes this is Newton Running Shoes. They are purveyors of high-end running shoes and have marketed heavily to the multi-sport/triathlete market.

Their new packaging consists of a minimalist box made from recycled materials that is biodegradable and can even double as a compostable flower pot. While a quality, comfortable distance running shoe can’t yet be perfected in 100% biodegradable materials, Newton is doing their best to take major steps in sustainability.

If you think you might not be able to make steps like these, you’d be surprised. Even major landfillers like plastic water bottles may soon see their demise with prototype bottles like the 360 Paper Bottle that is molded from 100% recyclable food-safe paper.

In the near-future, “sustainability” won’t just be a buzzword, it will be just another element of mainstream culture. If brands don’t start to live it, they may just get left behind.

Social Viewing Rooms For Online TV

To accompany their fall lineup, CBS launched a new feature for their website which allows online TV viewers to join a virtual viewing room. In the room, viewers can watch the latest episodes with groups of other viewers, commenting and reading each other’s comments. There is a “LOL” button you can hit every time you find something funny and even a list of icons to choose from which allow you to throw virtual tomatoes, blow virtual kisses, or throw virtual darts. Be careful of this though, I learned the hard way that other people can see you doing this and may be annoyed with persistent kiss blowing in potentially innappropriate places. In addition to the chat room feature, you can compete against others in quizzes about the show you are watching.

The virtual viewing room provides a unique social/interactive element to watching shows online, something that hasn’t necessarily been used up to this point. You can give it a shot by testing out the new CBS comedy, “Worst Week” on the CBS website. The show is pretty funny, it is basically Meet the Parents turned into a sitcom…plenty of uncomortable moments.

Product Packaging: Bar-Code Advertising

Bar codes exist on nearly every piece of retail packaging in the civilized world. Much like many brand messages and bland traditional media, they have become so ubiquitous that we don’t even notice them anymore…until now.

Japanese firm, D-Barcode, creates custom images built into the barcodes which allow packaging to have a little more creative space. Just as we say the media has become the message, in this case, so have the functional elements of the packaging.

Welcome to Ad Pop

Advertising is ever-evolving while at the same time being ever-stagnant. Certain media will never die while other new media are born every day.

In a June, 2007 Ad Age interview with Lee Clow, he said “The world has evolved to a place where brands that need to speak to their audience have to understand that everything that they do is media. Everything that they do is telling their story.”

We here at Ad Pop want to show you what the brands of the world are doing to tell their story. Whether it be a new take on a traditional medium, a unique outdoor installation, or an unheard of new twist on a digital medium, we will be here to show you what makes these ads pop!

Check back daily to see the latest in ad news and unique uses of media.