CP+B

Time To Bend Your Noodle and Fight Hunger in America.

CP+B have created a desktop and iPad experience for KRAFT Macaroni & Cheese designed to stop food waste, promote creativity, and help stop hunger in America. The application was built using flash and cross compiled to work on iOS. (I’m kind of surprised hey don’t have an Android version of this available as well since the desktop app was developed using Adobe Flash.)

KRAFT’s ‘Dinner Not Art‘ application donates 10 noodles to Feeding America for every virtual noodle saved in the macaroni art that you create. While this number seems small, think about the number of pieces used on average by a kid when making a macaroni masterpiece. It ads up fast. The application is easy to use and a little addictive. So long term, this could create a large payout for Feeding America if the application takes off.

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The application features a fun easy to use interface that is intuitive for younger children, and actually rather fun for adults. The bright colorful UI reflects the KRAFT Mac and Cheese box and branding colors, but does it in a way that never feels like Kraft is promoting their product. It’s this subtle balance that really wins here. Throughout the experience the participant is shown a counter that increases with each noodle added. (The feel good factor). At the same time the KRAFT brand is represented in an unobtrusive way, and subtly promotes the product. At the end of the experience you have the option of saving and sharing your creations. (another feel good factor).

CP+B get Creative With QR Codes for Scandinavian Airlines.

One of my biggest gripes about QR codes used as an advertising vehicle has little to do with their effectiveness (although I do have doubts about how effective they are in the long term). One of my biggest gripes has to do with the lack of creativity that goes into the global experience that surrounds them. Especially the most important portion which happens after the scan takes place. That overall lack of creative design is what leads to most call to action failures when it comes to QR codes, or NFC based campaigns as well.

A great example of where the post scan action is extremely creative, and effective is CP+B‘s “Couple Up to Buckle Up” campaign for Scandinavian Airlines. The campaign uses two unique QR codes across every touch point, from email to Facebook, print, to direct mail etc. that leverages how couples commonly book trips. The campaign works like this, couples each scan a unique QR code which displays half of a video offer. In order to get the offer to work, both smartphones have to be connected to get the entire promotion. Simple yet effective game play that helps extend the offer and build the brand in a fun and memorable way.

Whopper TV.

I am a Direct TV customer, but I haven’t seen this yet. I think I am going to have to tune in to channel 111 tonight though. CP+B has purchased dedicated time on Direct TV and set up a specific channel to air an endless loop of a Burger King Whopper.

The entire week long spot is the latest Burger King challenge, that works like this. Tune to channel 111 and you’ll see a 5 minute countdown. Watch the perfectly flame grilled burger spin for 5 minutes and you get a free burger, watch it for 10 minutes and you get two, 20 minutes and you get four… The loop is endless. The catch is that you really do have to pay attention. At given points in the loop, the channel prompts you to hit certain buttons on your remote, if you miss one the clock resets and you start over. Complete the challenge and you can claim the free burger right there on the TV.

This is a simple yet very effective way to create an interactive TV experience. So effective, that Burger King has already given away more than 50,000 burgers this week, and is expected to give away more than 800,000 by the end of the contest on Sunday night. That means more than 13 thousand hours of Whopper TV will get watched and interacted with. Pretty impressive don’t you think?

Your Travel Plans Are “Up For Grabs” With SAS.

CP+B Europe created a new campaign for SAS airlines that was just a blip on the radar thanks to Facebook promotional terms & conditions, and the fact that the campaign directly violated them. I’m not sure how quickly Facebook shut this down, but I bet it was within 12 hours of launch. The thing is, when CP+B Europe and SAS Airlines were called out, they were happy to admit they broke the rules because the campaign was successful for them.

There are some things about both of the campaigns highlighted in the videos below that I really love. The level of engagement was so simple and a bit risky. It’s not easy to get people to change their Facebook profile image,let alone getting them to take another photo and combine it with the new profile image. The idea is simple, but getting people to actively engage in it is not. As for the second campaign, getting people to take a chance and travel to a foreign land with another individual randomly selected from a Facebook app… very simple idea, very risky when thinking about engagement and end results.

In the end though, both ideas worked, getting SAS Facebook fans to engage and participate on a grand scale before the campaign was pulled. This says something about the SAS brand, and the brand loyalty of their fan base. (the fact that you were getting a free trip didn’t hurt the participation results either). I hope that CP+B Europe, and SAS continue to push the envelope with these kinds of ideas. It could make Facebook interesting again.