Sauce

Forget the sport..some of the most interesting things that happened at the Beijing Olympics came from clever sponsors who dreamt up creative ways to promote their brands at the mega global event. Mini Cooper, dragged traditional Chinese street transport into the 21st century with these great bike-powered Minis. Samsung were equally creative, giving Olympics’ fans a chance to view all of the action from their own “private” alien-like pods.

Series 3 launch of cult ’serial killer’ TV show Dexter by Showtime took a guerrilla marketing approach to the launch, mounting fake pop-up news stands in heavily trafficked public spaces in cities across America including New York (positioned right by Central Park), Philadelphia (at 30th Street train station), Los Angeles (outside the Kodak Theater), Chicago (in the financial district) and San Francisco (Union square). The stands featured the show’s star Michael C Hall on mock covers of high-profile magazines like Rolling Stone, The New Yorker and GQ. Snacks wrapped in suitably blood-red packaging also figured on the stands.

The two-day pop-up pieces debuted on the weekend to coincide with the airing of the first episode. The innovative idea was dreamt up by experiential marketing agency Pop2Life that also came up with last season’s national launch campaign which consisted of custom-made fountains spitting fake blood. Fake blood fountains and fictitious news stands – we can’t wait to see they do next season.

Thecoolhunter.com

Swedish furniture giant IKEA has converted the Kobe Portliner Monorail into a moving showroom before the April 14 opening of a new retail outlet at Port Island. The redecorated train, which features a colorful exterior, bright upholstery and fancy curtains, will carry passengers in style until May 6.

Is this the ultimate experiential catalogue for the time pressured urbanites. Ikea have mastered the art of ensuring anyone who interfaces with them at the store is taken on the choreograped journey. This just takes it one step beyond and gets it to us with little effort – great idea, although with Ikea being used to deck out most expats residences, seeing it all on the train too may be a tad too far.