etnies PAS House for Public Domaine La Gaite Lyrique from etnies on Vimeo.

It's such a cool project footwear and apparel brand Etnies, founded by ex skateboard champion Pierre André Sénizergues, ordered in their research theme "Imagine the future of skateboard"!

French artist Gil Le Bon Delapointe with the help of architect François Perrin imagined how skateboard could be even more present in our daily lives and devised the PAS House: a in-house skate ramp/park for skateboarders!

A whole house dedicated to skateboarding where interior architecture as well as furniture has been thought to serving the purpose of skateboarding. A real fan's dream! Might be a nightmare for the fan's parents actually...

Very interesting project you can see more about if you're lucky enough to be in Paris before August, 7th, since it's part of a series of exhibitions, talks, performances about the skate culture initiated by new creative venue La Gaîté Lyrique. I am and I've already bought my ticket! Not tat I'm a skateboarder myself (I wish I could) or living the skate culture, but I've always been interested in that culture! See you there!

Source: www.trendhunter.com

Not a brand-new idea to recycle containers into pop-up spaces; nor is this specific idea: the Boxman Solar (launched in 2010). I've heard about it for some time now and I've never taken the opportunity to speak about it here.

So here I am! Why is the Boxman Solar interesting amongst the quantity of container-based pop-up spaces? Simply because it's a ready-to-be-used environment-friendly pop-up lounge. A "Party Box"!

20mn to set it up and get a 500sq feet lounge, energetically independant since it's solar-powered, furnished, branded. Super convenient for a brand that doesn't want to invest time, teams and money in designing their own lounge when sponsoring an event.

More information on Boxman Studios website here.  

Source: www.bornrich.com

Spotted: the "YSL Thursdays". A new concept launched on April, 7th by haute-couture brand Yves Saint Laurent: until the end of the Summer, from 5 to 8pm every Thursday at Yves Saint Laurent Hommes, rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré in Paris,you could shop over a glass of champaign and get some advice from the sales team.

Saint Laurent lovers, don't miss tonite!

Source: www.parischeri.fr

I've just discovered that awesome initiative by Tropicana in January last year. To concretely illustrate their new campaign "Brighter Mornings for Brighter Days", the juice company has come up with a bright brand experience: on January, 8th, 2010, they decided to bring the light back to the small town of Inuvik, northern Canada, to break up with the traditional all-dark-winter they entered 30 days before that day. Better than any word, just look at the commercial below:

100000 lumens, an 11-meter wide balloon specifically designed, 40- to 70000 watts of electricity for 2 days of light. It's been said total cost of the project amounted to $1M, $100 per minute of light...

However, though I find that experience fantastic in itself, I'm feeling the link between the brand values and the illustration of it may be a little bit far-fetched.

In any case, congrats BBDO!

Spotted: one of the oldest and strongest brand in the world opened yesterday its first-of-its-kind café in France: the Freemasonry Café.

Hosted by the Café de la Cloche in Lyon, this is a place to debate, question, inform yourself about the not-so-secret Freemasonry. A concept launched by a group of Freemasons and non-Freemasons. A place that wants to be kind of opened-minded to open a little bit more the doors of that controversed group and pursue the Freemasonry goals: sharing about society issues to move forward. But watch out: that group may be open-minded, the Freemasonry spirit is there: asking a participant about his/her belonging to the Freemasonry is forbidden; not asking permission to speak is also...First topic: "What is the Freemasonery? What is the use for?"

Interesting idea for that brand to add that point of contact to their traditional ones. Because yes, I consider it as a brand and a strong one. Think about it, you should agree, no matter what your opinion on that group is...

So, interested? Visit their Facebook page here.

Source: www.lepoint.fr

Dubaï is THE place of all crazyness! Money, space and a future to design, this is the place to be creative! Here's the most stuning tennis court of the world: the Burj Al Arab hotel tennis court...

Not only is the court at 210m above the sea but there's no vertical filet to ensure you stay on the platform should you become too focused on your game and try to catch a ball after the back line of the court...So who said tennis was no dangerous sport?

And to advertise about that amazing tennis court, top-of-the-world tennis players André Agassi and Roger Federer tried it! As you can see, the game is not very committing, the back line being so close to the edge of the platform! Enjoy that pure moment of childish discovery with Agassi and Federer. So which was so lucky as to try that tennis court?  

 

On July, 5th, Ikea hit again with an unconventional initiative: inviting press and clients to test their new Sultan matress for a whole night at...the Olympia, iconic concert hall in Paris, France.

Around 80 draw clients were invited to spend the night at the Olympia for a pure Swedish night. Programm thay could attend: a cocktail, a visit of the concert hall by its Director, an Abba symphonic concert and the latest 2 Millenium movies in preview...all that quietly (or not) layed down in a Sultan double bed! Bonus: a wake-up call by birds at 7am...

An experiential marketing from the test itself to the unique opportunity to spend the night at the Olympia, what to say more? Oh yes, that the result of the test were positive: the matress is a good mattress!

Source: www.strategies.fr + www.agence-modedemploi.com

Do you feel like having some a croissant this morning? Go to Mmmh...Délicieux! What about lunch time? Something to take away or rather a table for two? Go to Mmmh...Délicieux? Oh, you need some delicatessen for your dinner? Go to Mmh...Délicieux. And what about having a drink tonite? Where? At Mmmh...Délicieux, of course!

Because Mmmh...Délicieux is all of them! This is the latest concept-store in Padova, Italy, imagined by the Minale Design Strategy agency for a French client. An all-in-one 150 sq.m venue. But not designed through different corners for different functions in the same space. No. This is about one function at a time. 150 sq.m that change several time a day to adapt the function of the venue (restaurant, bar, deli, bakery). The concept is very consistent: space lay-out, merchandising and communication are all changing together to make the place the dedicated function it has to become. Interesting, right?  

Pictures here.

On January, 19th, the famous Parisian Museum of Modern Art, the Centre Pompidou, turned into an ephemeral nightclub for one night! The responsible for it? The alcohol brand named J&B to make their new water beverage Aquapax well known. A colourful party inside the walls of the museum, 2000 flashy-colour-dressed guests invited through the use of the onlines communities, famous DJs for the music. A premiere for the museum. If you were lucky enough to get an invitation, please tell us about that night!

Source: http://aquapax.blogspot.com

Huts have been a trend for a few years. Individual housing, hotels, restaurants, everyone has tried to use this architecture to propse an experience to the consumer.

The Treehotel in Harads, a small town hidden middle of the forest of Sweden, doesn't break with this trend. True, that's one more hotel proposing a hut as a room. Not one room, but 6 different rooms, 6 different huts. OK, the "new concept" as their website sells is gathering famous designers and architects. Resulting in futuristic huts. But it's still about huts.

Yes it is. But I can't help being transported when I see this mirrored cube hanging on a tree, reflecting the forest around to the extend the hut is completely disappearing.

So yes, it's one more hotel hut, but experience should still be there. Now, we can only wait for the hotl to be built. Opening next year.

Source: www.paperblog.fr et AD Magazine, May 2009.

So simple an idea but so efficient!

If you're lucky enough to be in Tokyo before January, 19th, 2010, go to Ginza and see the wonderfully serene video installation designed by Tokujin Yoshioka for the Hermes store.

Enjoy!

Source: www.fubiz.net

How lucky you were if you had seen Angelin Preljocaj as a dancer from September, 3rd to 15th, 2009 at the Theatre des Abesses in Paris! And how I wished I could go see my favorite choreographer ever!

His company touring for his latest amazing Blanche-Neige, the French-Albanese incredible choreographer decided to go solo on stage! An event in itself since it's so scarce to see Preljocaj before the curtain. More than that, for this new performance, he went further and took the risk to create a choreography on a text of French writer Jean Genet "Le Funambule". Plus, for the fans of design, the stage design by Constance Guisset was a key element

of the choreography, made of huge paper ribbons falling form the ceiling. If like me, you were so unlucky to miss ANgelin Preljocaj latest creation, you can only hope he will perform it again in a few years!

Source: www.constanceguisset.com and AD Magazine, French edition, December 2009-January 2010

This is THE exhibition everyone has been expecting: Tim Burton retrospective at the MOMA in New-York!

From November 22nd, 2009 to April 26th, 2010, you can discover more than 700 examples of drawings, story-boards, costumes etc of this hugely talented movie maker! This exhibition has been so expected that the museum has issued timed tickets!

So hurry up, some of the side events are already sold!

Source: Vanity Fair, November 2009

The blog will make a break of 2 months for holiday reasons.

I'll become one of the happy fews to discover remote places on earth like Papua New Guinea and Salomon Islands and meet remote tribes! I won't then be able to connect to my blog and do my job properly.

Hope you'll follow me when back early December 09.

See you soon!

I've just felt upon an announcement of a dinner: "the Ferrero Rondnoir Dinner of Discovery" with Australian Chef Tobie Puttock, a $195-dinner at the restaurant of the Sydney Tower.

No more. I wasn't able to find more about this news. It seems Ferrero promotes its latest chocolate bonbon with experiential marketing and organize quality events around it. Is this dinner a sole event or are they other around the world? I'd be keen to know what's all about. If you have further information, please write a comment.

In any case, it's sufficient an experience in itself to save the date (6pm-10.30pm, Wed 28 Oct) and try a Ferrero chocolate dinner!

A few days left for the lucky people that would be in New-York till August, 23th, 2009 to visit the "Franck Lloyd Wright: From Within to Outward" exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum. A rich exhibition created for the 50th anniversary of the death of this great architect.
More information here.

Source: www.reveries.com

On July, 5th, Domino's Pizza and Ben & Jerry invited 50 of their fans to a picnic in the French countryside near Paris.

That event is the result of the brands cleverly using the online communities. We know that brands have invaded the online communities like Facebook and try to use them to create a closest link with their audience. However not every brand knows how to successfully deals with this online tool. You my have heard about French energy brand Veolia and its failure on Facebook (French language article)? Deciding to have a social media strategy means being active and control your image on those networks as you would do with any other communication tool.

I find the Domino's Pizza and Ben & Jerry's brand initiative a good way to make the most of the social media. First, out of the 20 000 Facebook fans, only 50 had the chance to win an invitation to the "Pique-Nique des Familles", gripping that way the attention of all the 20 000 fans! Second, turning the online community into a real one enables the brand to embody for real. Last, this was the opportunity for Domino's Pizza to make these fans taste and test their brand-new products!

To me, such a brand inititiative is a simple and clever use of the social media for brands.

Agency: Tribeca, Paris.

Source: http://www.marketing-alternatif.com/ / http://www.benjerry.fr/blog/

If there's a brand that has managed to develop and maintain a guts link with its audience, it's well Absolut Vodka.

Absolut hits again with its Art Pieces campaign, a synthesis of its brand positioning: "Doing things differently leads to something exceptional". A 1mn online-only movie. 7 artists commissioned by the brand to interpret one of the 7 words of the baseline in an innovative and creative way:
- "Doing": icy-block letters realized on a pristine glacier
- " Things": 2000 Absolut bottles suspended to trees in a forest, only readable when being beneath
- "Differently": wheat crop sculpture set up in a field
- "Leads to": dozens of light lanterns released by dozens of people in a remote canyon middle of the night
- "Something": giant helium-filled letter balloons flying from city roof-tops
- "Exceptional": an intricate distillery systel that leads to form the word "Exceptional"!
Are you part of the few internet people that have already see this movie campaign?  

As Rupert Sanders, the movie Director, says: "In an absolut world, there's an unlimited budget to shoot a 60 second commercial most people will only see on youtube. Doing things differently leads to something exceptional? Perhaps." Not a name and brand statement without any content, a real state-of-mind!

Congrats to TBWA Chiat Day New York. Lucky people that are part of Absolut creative agencies!

Source: http://theinspirationroom.com/

Examples of containers being used as building for stores, houses are numerous (Illy Café Quick House, Keetwonnen student housing in Amsterdam). But every case is always very interesting. At a time where we try to reduce disposals and be more green-thinking, every of these initiatives can just be applaused.

Two major differenciation points in the case of Puma:
1/ the Puma City is kind of an architectural exploit in term of portable structure. In 8 months, the a 24-container building of 220 tons for a 11000 square-foot portable retail store was completed!
2/ the Puma City has been created for sponsorship purposes. Freshly entered the ocean race milieu as a sponsor in 2007, Puma wanted to make the most of it by following in an original way the one-year-long Volvo Ocean Race 2008. Alicante, Spain, then Boston, the USA, Cape Town, South Africa etc... The space had been designed as a all-in-one (store, bar, event space) to connect to the Volvo Ocean Race by adding containers and creating a whole sponsor village and events. 

I like what Antonio Bertone, Puma's Chief Marketing Officer, has declared in an interview for the Boston Globe last April: "Obviously it's not the best of economic times to bring something like this here, but people need something to do," he said. "It can't always be gloom and doom. At the end of the day I kind of look at it as a bright spot."

That way, by taking this financial risk in crisis times and staying innovative and creative with this concept, Puma manages to keep its strong relationship with its audiences in a dark period where lots of brands have freezed every action and wait for better times.

Source: Surface Magazine n° 76 /  http://www.graphic-statement.com

THE exhibition to go this year: the retrospective of the Bauhaus model "Bauhaus. A Conceptual Model" from July, 22nd to October, 4th.

The world ever largest exhibition on this inter-disciplinary art school with over 900 objects presented. When you know the 90th anniversary of this school coincides with the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall, this gives you the importance to go to such an exhibition!