Nike recently developed a campaign that used the London postcode grid and existing telephone boxes as the main components for the Nike Grid experience, driven virally online.

As the video demonstrates, the aim of the game is to run to as many post codes in the London grid and prove you did it by dialling in from a phone box and entering your given number – all in 24 hours! Sound like a challenge? Perhaps, until you take a closer look…

Some responses online include, “how can you stop people from cheating and driving the circuit” and “can’t you get your mates to sneakily help out”? Perhaps I am taking the game element a little too seriously…

While some may have found holes in the execution, results speak for themselves…15,000 you tube views, 2851 people who gave it the thumbs up on Facebook, hundreds of twitter postings, not to mention the many blog postings – including this one!

Check out Nike Grid online.

With final touches being made as we speak, PLAY’s new campaign for VW is raring to go! Word on the street is that Marco’s got a few surprises up his sleeve… get the inside scoop at facebook.com/marcopolo

It is always great to get clients who want to push technology to the edge – however it usually comes with a large price tag that is hard for some marketing managers to grasp. But as digital equipment evolves the outcomes are only going to get more impressive and show stopping…

Take for instance, this incredible virtual catwalk created for Diesel. Not only does it tick the “wow” factor box, but it also has fantastic legs from both a viral campaign and WOM perspective. This is a great example of how some creative thinking can produce a small event that can be leveraged online and shared with the rest of the world. I love it! Just make sure you watch at least 1.30 into the video because it will surprise you…

Johannes is on a roll at the moment! Tonight’s debate is no less than “The Future of Media”. The future’s still up for grabs, so this promises to be scintillating…

Innovation Forum, 7pm. Its a date.

Not wanting to come off as a, raging bra-burning feminist, but I did go to a very interesting ‘Marketing to Women’ talk last week run by agIdeas. I learnt that women allegedly make around 80% of household purchasing decisions yet they are still considered a ‘niche’ market. In the US, women’s annual earnings total 1 trillion dollars, but their spending amounts to 2 trillion; this means they are spending their own salaries…and their husbands!

So…here’s some food for thought – key areas to consider when marketing to women:

1. Highlight the benefits not the features. More time poor than ever before, she wants to know what she will gain from the product. How will it enable to her to save time and improve the way she carries out tasks?
2. Consider her body. It’s hard to believe, but there are still a heap of products that women use which were not designed with her body in mind. Sporting equipment springs to mind!! The days of women fitting into men’s products should be well and truly over…. and yet they continue.
3. Consider her life stage – does she have kids, is she a baby boomer? Women all have different needs and motivations and their emotional approach to purchasing decisions will make her frustrated with marketers who don’t understand this.
4. Consider how it makes her feel. It is ridiculous to believe that a women will be happy with the ‘shrink it and pink it’ approach. Consider her feelings and how you want to product to make her feel… this is what you should communicate to her.

Visit agIdeas online

Here at PLAY, we all have some kind of artistic, design background, therefore are always interested in new and innovative ideas. Something that recently caught my eye was the winner of the young Brit Insurance Design Award at the Design Museum in London. The young designer Mr Choi, a 29-year-old recent graduate, was put out by the disparity between his new wafer thin mac book air and the large chunky plug. In response to this he designed a plug that folds flat and has achieved something that is not only pleasurable to the eye but also has a practical purpose – a winning concoction.

The design of the British plug has not changed since its invention over sixty years ago. This simple concept illustrates how something we take for granted and use everyday can be changed to suit societies changing needs. All it takes is a little time, thought and someone brave enough to challenge what has come before – something that PLAY is also very interested in.

For more check out designs of the year