A Walk in the Park

I've been working on some projects up in Yosemite National Park, completion sometime in the late fall.  This follows on the re-conception of the Visitors Center and Museum we did earlier at GroupDelphi:



There's a lot of interesting work happening in parks, and when innovatively conceived and delivered, a real boost for our clients:


Walking on Air
Perhaps the most vertiginous viewing platform in the world is the Grand Canyon Skywalk.  4,000 feet above the canyon floor, it's a 70 ft. horseshoe shaped platform with a glass floor.  Spew-on-anyone-with-you scary. Designed by Mark Johnson

Check out these other cool observation decks:

dachstein skywalk

aurland lookout

the house on the rock

top of tyrol


langkawi sky bridge


Ride, Don't Walk
Scheduled to open in October of this year, Ferrari World Abu Dhabi is set to be the world’s largest indoor theme park, sitting under a roof designed in the style of a classic double-curve body shell of a Ferrari. There is energy, excitement and passion for the entire family at Ferrari World Abu Dhabi. With over 20 rides and attractions, including the world’s fastest roller coaster, Ferrari World is more than a theme park – it is the total Ferrari experience.

benoy are the architects and Jack Rouse Associates is responsible for design and execution

Explore
And here's a nice subtle spot that takes us into the park.  Eurostar’s first TV spot in 3 years premiered last week kicking off the new campaign, Exploring is beautiful.

Reflecting the spirit of exploration, the ad is designed to capture people’s imaginations as it showcases a young girl’s tenacity and inquisitiveness as she searches for animals that will talk to her.

It acts as an emotional reflection of how Eurostar would like their travellers to explore Europe. Encouraging them to go further than Paris & Brussels. So that they look beyond the norm, question what might be possible, and ultimately re-assess the way they travel to Europe.

Directed by Fallon's Juan Cabral

Ambushed!

My last few weeks in Europe were incredible - but I was amazed at how World Cup fever had taken over - especially in Berlin.  It was virtually impossible to get any of the locals to focus on the task at hand.

Marketers have been concentrating a lot of their efforts at the World Cup as well with some great successes - often ambushing the official sponsors efforts.  The successful campaigns integrated a variety of platforms:


Write the Future - Nike

Building on the 360° LED experience we created for EMS, Nike is using social media on a "massive" scale. It's draping the "Write the Future" campaign over a Johannesburg building, creating an incredible four-sided screen. "Write the Headline” allows fans around the world to root for their favorite World Cup player in a really big way.
Participants can "talk" to the player they think will ‘Write the Future’ through submissions at Facebook (facebook.com/nikefuture), Twitter (#nikefuture), QQ (a Chinese chat program), and Mxit (a South African IM app).  These messages, combined with pre-produced video, are fed to the translucent LED screens covering the building.  This stunning "pop-up billboard" is visible throughout much of the city and has served as a backdrop for many news stand-ups.
Talk about taking over the city!

The Rumpus Room handled production.


Play the Future
Nike has adapted the campaign to various venues all around the globe.  For instance in Spain's Nike stores, shoppers can interact and play digital pinball games on flat screens.  The interactive experience is similar to what we created for Medtronic's booth.

Produced by DoubleYou in Spain.


Oh Africa - Pepsi
Even though Coke was the official sponsor, they were ambushed by Pepsi who managed to have their beverage served at the Fifa-sanctioned fan fest in Durban - supposedly due to a "delivery error."
And check out this great spot that went viral. Great soundtrack, cute kids, big-name players including Messi, Henri, Lampard, Kaká, and Drogba.  It definitely feels authentic (without needing vuvuzelas).

Orange - Bavaria Beer
The best ambush is probably Bavaria Beer of Holland. Official sponsor Budweiser spent millions, but all the attention has gone elsewhere.  And Fifa's heavy-handed reaction has kept this brewery front and center.  They couldn't have dreamed of a better result.  The story:
36 women who were removed from the Soccer City Stadium in Johannesburg during the Holland-Denmark World Cup match. The group arrived at the match dressed as Danish supporters, but soon stripped off their red and white gear to reveal orange mini-dresses marketed by the Dutch brewery Bavaria.

The dress has become very popular in the Netherlands and caused a minor “beer war” even before the start of the World Cup. Sylvia van der Vaart, wife of Dutch soccer star Rafael, played a prominent role in the Bavaria campaign – rather embarrassingly for rival Dutch brewer Heineken, the sponsor of the Dutch national team.

And now Holland is in the finals on Sunday - everyone will be wearing Orange.