Koko Brown from Kona Brewing Co.

One day we will make it to this brewery. One day. And it will be glorious...

Bottlecap from a tasty Koko Brown

It's been a couple of years since I discovered this brewery. My first beer was the Pipeline Porter, which is a dark beer made with Kona coffee. It's delicious.

The most recent one that I found was Koko Brown, a dark beer made with toasted coconut. It's also delicious.

But, my favorite thing about Kona Brewing Co. are their bottlecaps. Since their beer is brewed in Hawaii, they teach you a Hawaiian word on each of their bottlecaps. It's supposed to make us smarter by drinking their beer, but I think that it's a charming way that they've emphasized the Hawaiian language and culture with their brand.

This is (Almost) Too Much

When I saw the photo below, I knew that I had to use it on my blog. Photos like this are one of the reasons why I started this blog.

Images courtesy of MotoCorsa.com

How ingenius that the team at MotoCorsa, a Portland, Oregon, Ducati dealership decided to do their photoshoot with both a sexy female model and some of their own male employees! What a smart way for this dealership to get tons of attention.

It's a little bit ridiculous, but hilarious that they did this campaign. It's always great when a brand can show that they don't take themselves too seriously!

P.S. The video that they posted on their YouTube page is pretty amazing. It's posted below:

Nivea Ad with Phone Charger

Last week, I attended a Social Media Club Dallas event. They're always fun and I learn a lot about marketing and of course, social media. The speaker was Jay Baer, who has written a book called "Youtility", which is marketing by helping your customers.

One of the examples of Youtility used in marketing was a Nivea sunblock print ad in Brazil. They were selling suntan lotion and created an ad that could charge your smartphone using solar electricity.

Incredible! People will remember this campaign because of its genius. They will also likely tell their friends about it because it helped them to easily charge their phones.

Water-Generating Billboard In Peru

I am a sucker for any marketing campaign that can make the world a better place. That is exactly what UTEC, Peru's University of Engineering and Technology, accomplished with a campaign to increase their enrollment.

They teamed up with Peruvian ad agency Mayo Publicidad to create an incredible billboard that helped turn the humidity in the air into clean drinking water.

Check out the video below:

Let's Grow Mold Together

I love plays on words, especially when they are used in marketing. Murray's Cheese has used an expression that many of us are familiar with, "Let's grow old together." Instead of "old", they used "mold" to represent cheese in this relationship. 
 

Image from MurraysCheese.com

I always wonder how people come up with such great ideas! Some people just have a gift when it comes to wordplay. 

Who Rescued Who?

Image from Petco.com

I have seen this sticker on a few vehicles lately. As a pet lover, I find this message very powerful.

Animals bring so much joy into our lives. At my home, we have one dog, and a kitty who has his own bowl and a litter box, but does not technically live with us. I don't consider him a rescue, though, as I know that he visits his real home sometimes.

They bring a lot of joy to our lives. Animals are so wonderful for your well-being. Every time I see this message, it makes me smile and think about the two sweet boys that I have at home.

Child Abuse Billboard

The first time I saw this video about a billboard for the ANAR Foundation, I was blown away. How interesting that marketers are using creative technology to ensure that their messages are seen by the right demographic (and not the wrong ones).

I would love to see (and share) more examples of marketers thinking outside of the box.

Ze Frank and his Incredible YouTube Videos

I'm sure by now many of you have watched the "Sad Cat Diary" on YouTube. For anyone who's familiar with cats, this video perfectly shows their me-centered personalities.

After showing this video to my husband last weekend, we dove a little deeper and watched many of "Ze Frank's" YouTube videos.

He does a series of videos about quirky animals that are incredible. They're a little off-color, but hilarious. Our favorite so far is "True Facts About The Sea Pig".

His personal commentary is so funny. The beauty of these "True Facts About...." videos is that they're educational and funny. It's definitely a win-win for all of us, as we learn about unusual animals and are entertained at the same time.

How To Quit Your Job

When this picture went viral in April, it was incredible! This is an amazing way to quit your job, especially if you want to work full-time baking cakes.

Image from Epicurious.com

Epicurious.com took it one step further by interviewing Mr. Cake. What an inspiring story for anyone who wants to follow their dreams.

http://www.epicurious.com/articlesguides/blogs/editor/2013/04/how-to-quit-your-job.html

Drink Water, Not Sugar

I love sparkling water when it has a hint of flavor. I've been drinking Canada Dry Sparkling Seltzer Water for years. All of the flavors are good, especially raspberry, lemon-lime and mandarin orange. They're perfect when they're cold.

My husband bought a couple of hint waters for us to try. The water isn't carbonated, but it is naturally flavored with fruit and/or herbs. It doesn't have sugar or cancer-causing aspartame.

Image captured from drinkhint.com

The best thing about hint water is their motto, "Drink Water, Not Sugar". Every single time I drink a carbonated beverage loaded with sugar (or high fructose corn syrup), I wonder why I do it. I would much rather drink something that's naturally flavored without sugar.

Woman Within

I'm not sure why, but we received this in the mail for my dad. It's a clothing catalog for women that runs from sizes 12W to 44W.

 

Receiving this catalog made me question the merits of the direct mail list that this company purchased. I'm inclined to think that sending a catalog to male baby boomers is not a wise use of marketing dollars. 

It does make me laugh to tease my dad about this catalog, though. 

Mobile Clothes

I found a great article this morning called "Why Your Clothes Need A Mobile Upgrade" on Computerworld.com. The author talks about how our clothes need to be more mobile-device friendly. I often wonder about this, because of the sheer size of iPads and iPhones.

It is very strange, when you think about it. There are bags and briefcases with pockets for devices, but clothes often don't have large enough pockets to comfortably fit an iPhone.

The author highlights several companies who have designed clothing to comfortably and safely fit mobile devices. Check out Scottevest.com and their ingenious vests, pants, jackets and more. 

Image captured from Scottevest.com

How interesting that so many clothing companies have not caught up with the gadget and mobile-media craze...

Smooth Move

I visited a natural food store with a good friend and saw this gem, which instantly made me giggle:

Screenshot courtesy of TraditionalMedicinals.com

I'd never seen "Smooth Move" tea before. It helps relieve constipation & apparently will help things "move".

It reminded me of the beginning of a very funny book by Peter Mayle, an English writer who spent time in the South of France and wrote about his adventures. "Toujours Provence" begins with a funny tale of the author being given a pamphlet with constipation advice from a pharmacy in France.

I love when people write about cultural understanding and misunderstanding, especially when it comes to sensitive issues, like bowel movements.

First World Problems Anthem

A friend's wife posted this recently on her facebook page. It served as a reminder of how some of our so-called "problems", which are really minor annoyances, aren't real "problems".

It's so easy to forget how good we have it. I love the expression "First World Problems" because it reminds me that our current cell phone charging, having to plug in our iPad, etc, problems aren't critical.

I love it when non-profit organizations can take advantage of creative marketing and great ideas. This campaign was created for WaterIsLife.com, a charity that was created to provide clean water solutions to communities in developing countries.

Can't get it up?

A couple of weeks ago, I was driving on the highway on my way to work. Minding my own business, and all of a sudden, I saw one of the best things I've ever seen on a wrapped vehicle:

Photo courtesy of Open Up Garage Doors

My mind was like "What???? I have to see what they're talking about. Speed up! SPEED!"

Now, I was in a construction zone, where the speed limit is 50. I wasn't able to do much speeding, but I made a mental note to get in touch with that company, as that's the best question I've ever seen written on the side of a company vehicle.

Turns out, the "Can't get it up?" truck was from Open Up Garage Doors, a garage door company based in Hurst, Texas.

It still makes me laugh when I think about that truck. Props to Open Up Garage Doors for having the guts to turn heads! Also, thank you to Jenny, their Office Manager, for the picture.

Cheetos & Other Visual URLs

One of the recent Cheetos commercials ends with an interesting way of representing its URL. Here is a screenshot from the end of the commercial:



What impressed me the most is that I've hardly ever seen URLs represented in this way. I started trying to imagine what other companies could get away with using an image of their products and a .com to represent their URL.

Last week, I saw a different representation of a visual URL. This time, instead of typing out facebook.com/sokaglam, I noticed this on the Soka Glam website:

It makes me wonder if this is the future of visually representing URLs. 

512 Brewing (from Austin, of course)

A couple of months ago, we went to the Ginger Man Pub to meet up with some friends. It had been a few years since my last Ginger Man visit, and we went during the off-hours, so it wasn't too busy.

The Ginger Man Pubs always have a wide selection of beer on tap. I noticed one of the taps, and instantly knew (or thought I knew) where the brewery was from. This is what the taps looked like:

Image courtesy of thethreadaustin.com

The genius of naming their brewery "(512) Brewing" is that people instantly recognize "512" as an Austin-area area code. My favorite part of their branding process is the parentheses around the area code, to show that it's an area code.

Excellent Video about Melanoma

I recently spoke to someone whose mom is suffering from melanoma, a type of skin cancer. This made me think of one of my good friends, who lost her best friend to this disease over a year ago. I don't think that Laura even made it to her 30th birthday.

This video was created by the David Cornfield Melanoma Fund in Canada and it's quite powerful. Please take a few moments to watch this video called "Dear 16-year-old Me." It reminds me of another powerful video about Sex Trafficking.

Casttoo - The Best Way to Make Kids with Broken Bones Smile!

I found this on Pinterest and thought it was one of the coolest things I've ever seen. I remember when I broke my wrist way back when. My cast was ugly. And white. It was summer. In Texas. And very hot.

But, how cool would it have been if I'd had something like this bad boy to show off my broken wrist?

Photo courtesy of Casttoo.com.

There's a site called Casttoo.com. All you have to do is email them a digital copy of your x-ray. They'll create an image of your break and send it to you. It looks like their cast tattoos are applied to the cast with a hairdryer. 

I wish I had come up with this idea, because it's amazing!

Casttoo.com Blog Post featuring their Broken Bone "Casttoo"

Mooscles

I recently found this ad via AdWeek and loved it! It's so incredible that I had to share it.

Sadly, our food supply is not what it once was. I, for one, get a bit creeped out when hearing about the antibiotics, hormones and other things that are added to our meats. Applegate Farms promotes their all-natural meats with a smart ad campaign.

Here's the link to the article from AdWeek: http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/ad-day-applegate-farms-141449