Ikea redecorates the Paris Metro

This week, Ikea has decided to give the Paris metro system a little facelift by installing "living spaces" in the metro waiting areas. This was done in efforts to declare to the Parisians that spring cleaning may involve purchasing some new Ikea furniture in lieu of keeping around old and stuffy pieces. Modern living room furniture adorned busy metro stations (Saint-Lazare, Champs Elysées Clémenceau, Concorde, and Opéra) and trompe l'oeil posters of living rooms were plastered behind the colourful sofas and lamps. This project should really put Ikea's furniture quality through the test of time. Although the pieces will only be installed for a week, I wonder if the pieces will uphold to thousands of passengers (and maybe a few homeless people)'s abuse. (!)

via Fast Company.

Tropicana Brightens Inuvik's Sunrise Festival

BBDO Canada has teamed up with Tropicana to film an advertisement in Inuvik, Northwest Territories, where people spend 30 days in the winter in darkness, literally. A helium balloon filled with light was suspended into the air to recreate a sunrise during Inuvik's Sunrise Festival, a celebration for the sun's return. This ad has been viewed on Youtube approximately 50,000 times, so unfortunately, I don't feel too ahead of the crowd by posting this video. However, I wanted to point out the effective "shock value" of the ad; most likely, the people of Inuvik will never see this spectacle again, so imagine living in almost 30 days of darkness and waking up to a helium ball of light! Tropicana distributed free cartons of orange juice to each household, which interestingly sells for $12-$13 per carton. (!)

Business spotlight: Opening Ceremony

Opening Ceremony is a boutique in New York City full of contemporary clothing including its house brand and various collaborations with brands and artists. Nestled in between Soho and Chinatown, it is a must-see for every tourist and a hip place to shop for the locals. I was compelled to share this business with you all after watching their interview with VBS. What intrigued me was how their unique buying strategy has helped to keep the brand relevant and innovative in the eyes of the consumer, year after year. The owners, Humberto Leon and Carol Kim, travel to a destination and bring back approximately ten designers to showcase in their store, ensuring that one brand showcased is in popular demand to drive sales, bring in-store traffic and to expose the other, lesser known but equally as interesting brands. Although many of you already know that an established brand (sales and traffic driver) + up-and-coming designers (brand building attributes such as trendy, innovative, forward thinking) = a recipe for a successful retail boutique, it was the use of this strategy backed by interesting co-branding and collaboration opportunities that really established a differentiated position for the Opening Ceremony brand - a brand which has now grown to three locations, an online store, and a network of boutiques globally which stock and carry its house brand.

The owners' vision of fun and fashion is clearly communicated through their unique product curation, branding, co-branding, collaborations (with Chloe Sevigny, Levi's, and Keds to name a few), and mission of bringing pieces of the world back to New York, creating a space for idea generation and sharing. Maybe this is allusion is a bit farfetched, but Opening Ceremony reminds me of the positive side of globalization in the way the brand chooses to bring cross-cultural ideas closer together in one space. Unfortunately, I am having video embedding issues. Click the links below for the interview which talks about their roots, strategy, and new projects such as their collaboration with Ace Hotel in New York. (!)

Opening Ceremony VBS pt. 1

Opening Ceremony VBS pt. 2

coca cola co-branding collage

Packaging sells. Well, maybe not to everyone, but packaging is the selling point for me in many battle-of-the-brand scenarios. I'm always persuaded by packaging that something is superior than another. Even though I'm a marketing major, Coke persuaded me, with packaging, that these products were superior to "normal" cokes. More after the jump. (!)

Coke x 100th anniversary Selfridges UK