Top 10 Innovative Marketing Ideas for 2016
We’ve picked out our top ten Marketing & Advertising ideas from the last 12 months on Springwise, designed to provide you with plenty of fresh inspiration for the future. Note: in order to read some of these articles, a Springwise Access account is required.
Ad-supported stations offer EV drivers free charging
Electric vehicle use has risen from 750k to 1.3m globally in the past year, and EV charging stations provide prime locations for visibility. Volta makes use of this opportunity with their electric vehicle charging terminals, which host advertising and sponsorship to enable drivers to charge their cars for free.
Billboard evolves based on passerby reaction
With advancements in image recognition technology, adverts are now able to adapt to consumers in real-time. M&C Saatchi created the world’s first artificially intelligent poster campaign, inspired by Darwinian natural selection. The responsive poster changes its font, layout and copy depending on each passerby’s length of engagement.
We then saw this done online, with Vyking using webcams to analyze viewers’ real-time emotional responses to ads, and adapting the content according to how much they smile.
Billboard rest-stop provides temporary bedroom for tired drivers
This year we saw two great marketing campaigns connecting billboards with sleep. The Sodimac Resting House billboard guides tired drivers to a decorated one-car garage, where they can take a break from a long journey and nap for free.
In Pakistan, mattress makers MoltyFoam created the Billbed — a roadside billboard made of foam, which advertises the company during the day and transforms into a bed at night for the city’s homeless laborers.
Biometrics tool measures audience response to The Revenant
Alongside the wave of facial-recognition ads, technology in biometrics is opening up ways for marketers to get inside consumers’ heads (only those who have given their nod of approval, of course). Bioanalytics platform Lightwave enables film companies to monitor the emotions of audience members during their viewing experience.
Neuro-headset manufacturer Emotiv also developed a range of brain monitoring headsets under USD 500, which could help smaller teams, schools and individuals with market research.
Commitment rings prevent Netflix cheating
Finally we have Cornetto’s commitment rings. The pairs of NFC bands stop TV series addicts from watching ahead without their streaming partner present — the equivalent of “Netflix cheating” on their other half.
In Brazil, coffee wrapped in daily newspaper shows off its freshness
It is often the most simple ideas that are the most effective. Brazilian coffee company Café Pelé teamed up with a local daily newspaper to show how quickly its fresh products arrive in supermarkets. The iconic newspaper is instantly recognizable, evoking a sense of familiarity in consumers while adding a good dose of humor.
Elsewhere, dev.Coffee is targeting a niche demographic with their discounts on coffee beans for programmers who complete a coding challenge.
In Brazil, lawn mower test drives clean up city parks
Many innovative marketing campaigns look to solve two problems at once, as we saw with Tramontina, a lawn care company that helped tidy up Sao Paulo’s city parks by offering customers test drives on its new lawn mower.
Across the South Pacific Ocean, Australia Post is hosting ecommerce pop-ups instore, providing web-based retailers with a small store front presence at a network of post offices across the country.
Platform helps optimize emotion in web content
AI is helping to fuel many of the most innovative ad campaigns we’re spotting, and a Japanese AI has even been given a position coveted by many humans — Creative Director of marketing agency McCann.
We also saw emotionally intelligent platform Toneapi help companies optimize the impact of their content by analyzing its emotion and tone.
Smart spoon remembers which flavors consumers enjoyed most
Hirsch and Mann have developed a smart spoon, which digitizes the mustard tasting experience to suggest recipes based on users’ preferences.
Using blockchain to tell a product’s story
It is increasingly easy for customers to research a company’s social responsibility online, and a generation of responsible shoppers is steadily growing. Helping brands be transparent and showcase their ethos and journey, Provenance is a SaaS platform that enables companies to track and display their supply chain information using blockchain.