Sand In Your Campers

In 1877, Antonio Fluxá went all the way from the island of Majorca to England to learn about shoemaking. Whatever he learned there, he put into action immediately and founded a shoe company that his grandson Lorenzo turned into Camper Shoes in 1975. Today, the family's fourth generation is at the helm, the company is still based in Majorca and its shoes are sold worldwide. If you were lucky, you received an invite to this fun-and-games Campy party held in Germany recently, to celebrate the launch of the Spring/Summer 08 collection. AstroTurf, retro gear, great music and sand in your sandals. We're in. By Tuija Seipell

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Chanel's Extraordinary Stage Set

Karl Largerfeld never puts a pedicured foot wrong and hispresentation for Chanel at this week's Couture shows proves that he isstill one of the most innovative and creative minds on the planet. Largerfeld unveiled his collection amid an extraordinary 50-foot setmade up of steel-grey tubes inspired by organ pipes. Lagerfeld worked the tubes theme into the collection, showing tubular shapes in severaldifferent manifestations.

Lagerfeldis one of the masters of catwalk theatrics, dreaming up incrediblelarger-than life sets that seem to get more elaborate each season. Forsome of the best of recent shows check out Runaway Runway Success. By Lisa Evans via Fashionation

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Danish Ripple Effect in Zaragoza

The team behind the Danish pavilion at the World Expo 2008 in Zaragoza, Spain consists of three Copenhagen-based firms – architects Spektrum Arkitekter, graphic agency Loop Associates and communications agency 2+1.

The Danish pavilion houses Círculos de Agua (Circles in the Water), an exhibition about sustainable living and lasting solutions that echoes the World Expo 2008 theme of water and sustainability. Círculos de Agua highlights Danish technologies that have started out small yet have the potential to affect global change. The underlying message is that everything we do spreads like ripples through water. The pavilion will be used again at the COP15 Copenhagen – United Nations Climate Change Conference 2009.

The pavilion consists of five cylinders with five themes. The Wind Cylinder explains how the tiny country of Denmark with only five million inhabitants has become a leading supplier of wind power technologies. The Water Cylinder explores the planning of cities to cope with rising water levels and the extreme climate of the future. The Daylight Cylinder showcase natural light as a vehicle for both style and sustainability. The Biomass Cylinder extols the virtues of bio fuels produced from harvest waste. The Restaurant & Shop Cylinder, dedicated to creativity, showcases the latest in Danish design and crafts. The World Expo runs till September 14, so it's not too late to see it. - Tuija Seipell.

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BMW Hour Glass

What’s an hourglass? Oh yes, it’s an ancient time piece, flowing fine sand quietly marking time in a perfectly balanced glass. Or, as everyone should know by now, it is the main prop at Never Stand Still. It was the kick-off party to start the countdown for BMW’s European launch of the latest model of BMW 7 series, slated to take place this fall. The car, displayed in the world’s largest hourglass in the Red Square, has not received much coverage but as soon as the construction of the hourglass marvel began four months ago, online buzz about it has been consistent. The 12-meter-high glass contraption was the centerpiece of the party thrown to 400 invited guests and celebrities. At the start of the build-up, more than 180,000 silvery balls concealed the car that was gradually revealed as the balls fell to the lower level. Moscow is a strong and growing market for BMW, and what better place to strut its latest but the historic location against the backdrop of the Kremlin, St. Basil’s Cathedral and G.U.M. — all veterans of many a communist-era motorized military parade. By Tuija Seipell

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Creative Brands Rising Above The Noise At Beijing Olympics

Forget the sport..some of the most interesting things happening at the Beijing Olympics are coming from clever sponsors who have dreamt up creative ways to promote their brands at the mega global event. We're loving the offering from Mini Cooper, who have dragged traditional Chinese street transport into the 21st century with these great bike-powered Minis. Samsung has been equally creative, giving Olympics' fans a chance to view all of the action from their own "private" alien-like pods. Both of these offerings are a lesson to global brands: get creative and innovative in your marketing or risk being drowned out by the noise. - Laura Demasi

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Portugese Pavilion - Expo Zaragoza 08

Held between June 14 and September 14, 2008, the International Exhibition Expo Zaragoza 2008 is already a distant memory but its effects still reverberate.

The 25 hectares along the river Ebro near Spain’s fifth-largest city, Zarazoga, hosted thematic pavilions and thematic squares plus the pavilions of more than 100 countries, all exploring the overall theme of the Expo, “Water and Sustainable Development.”

Some of our favourite Expo mementoes are these spectacular images from the Portuguese Pavilion. Theming the Portuguese participation in the watery event, Lisbon-based Bak Gordon Architects envisioned a river’s ever-changing flow from its trickling source to a river mouth by the sea.

BAK created the pavilion’s spaces as versatile, changeable and changing surroundings for audience participation at levels of each individual’s choosing. The three main areas – Alert, Consciousness and Change – explored water and sustainability and featured a red “river” of pavement that helped the visitors track the flow of the exhibit.

From an alarming tubular “jungle” of Alert, to Consciousness where Nuno Cera’s photography highlighted the three mighty rivers of Iberia – Guadiana, Tagus and Douro, the visitor ended up in the hopeful Change, where the promising movement of citizens was depicted, literally, with the movement of images and words spoken in various languages. - Tuija Seipell

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Cancer Council Australia - Truth or Dare, Sydney

Truth: prostate cancer kills thousands of Australian men each year — equal to the number of women who die from breast cancer. We know, definitely not cool. But the Cancer Council of Australia is far from giving up hope. This year they are asking Aussie blokes to participate and help raise funds for Daredallion Week from March 2nd-6th.

Dare: register to take on the Daredallion challenge — dare someone to do something they normally would not do — or else challenge yourself to something completely outrageous and raise money that will be used to promote awareness for men’s cancers. Eugene Tan, our friend over at Aquabumps, photographed one of the first dares this year — a guy unsuccessfully attempted to float away from Bondi beach strapped to a bunch of helium balloons. Check out the Daredallion site and either register a dare of your own, or use their Dare Generator and take on one of the challenges already developed — we dare you! - Andrew J Wiener

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Fiat C Tree Planters - Milan

From August 5 to September 30, the cutely nostalgic Fiat 500 C, unveiled in February, appears on Milan’s world-famous fashion street, Montenapoleone, in an unexpected role. Exactly 20 fiberglass replicas, precisely the same size and shape as the little Fiat, have become planters for real trees of various shapes. The happening, called “Per fare un albero” (Create a tree), is a cooperative effort between the City of Milan, Fiat, and artist-designer Fabio Novembre. In Novembre’s words, his solution to merge into one object trees and cars, two elements always vying for urban space, is a “symbol of a new way of living.” According to Fiat’s spokespeople, Fiat 500 C’s cheerful, friendly, innovative and eco-friendly character is a perfect fit for such an undertaking. - Tuija Seipell

Our world is full of noise, coming from every angle. Consumers have seen it all before, creating an unprecdented challenge to marketers.

It’s not enough just to be noticed. To rise above the clutter brands need to be extraordinary in every way. Extraordinary is the new ordinary; a mandatory requirement in a globaiised world where consumers are savvier, better educated and more connected than ever before.

Over the last five years The Cool Hunter has sought out the extraordinary and these finds have been a source of inspiration for hundreds of thousands of readers. But what you see on the site is only the tip of the proverbial iceberg as we don't always give away content for free. For hundreds of examples of innovative brand communications - from guerilla marketing through to environmental and outdoor - visit our consulting arm The Cool Hunter Platinum.

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Pop-Up Skate Park - Access Agency

Here at the industry arm of TCH, our agency Access collaborates with some of the world's best companies to help them stand out from their competitors. We specialize in developing ideas to help brands move into the new, niche Cool Age niche.

We also develop ideas to take TCH into the offline space, starting with TreeLife and now our Pop-Up skate park.

This innovative concept sees art, design and extreme sports collide creatively in an awe-inspiring, customised skate park entirely unique in the skating world. Using pop-culture icons and the latest trends, the Pop-Up Skate Park by TCH creates ultra-cool skating environments, designed to garner the ultimate media exposure through their incredible appeal and popularity.

Currently, we are creating two Pop-Up Skate Park themes – Transformers and Space Invaders — both ideal promotional media for high-energy brands that want to attract serious attention.

For Transformers Skate Park, we commissioned Christiann Klaassen and his amazing team from Rockhunter in London to visualize the recreational and promotional space where design, technology and skate culture meet with a cool Skate Park.

This is a fully customizable skating environment, designed for each specific location’s surroundings, and incorporating a range of innovative ramps, bowls, half-pipes and landings.

Two oversized Autobot Transformer robots, impressively positioned at either end of the skate park, signify guardianship of the ramp and those who use it, echoing seamlessly the Transformers film concept of robots protecting humans.

En all-encompassing landscape of illumination and light-projected designs enhance the skating environment. There is also the option of showcasing a range of rotating art works to further emphasize this hyper- real environment.

Space Invaders, in turn, are arguably the biggest pop-cultural icons of the 80s! The original characters that introduced the world to the realm of video gaming through their pixilated aesthetics, enjoy the unique advantage of multi-generational appeal. Globally, from children of the 80s through to Generation Y, the public has recognized and appreciated these characters for their cool simplicity.

The Cool Hunter is taking these alien invaders and super-sizing them for their unique skate park. A pair of larger-than-life Space Invader characters frame the two ends of the skating environment. Made from translucent Perspex, these illuminated figures create the visual masthead for the Skate Invaders Park.

The skating surface itself reflects the playing environment of the original 80s game. This design comprises of illuminated alien ships, fighter units and laser beams as seen in the games architecture.

The entire Skate Invaders environment will be visually enticing and provide innovative user functionality for Skate Invaders. Skate Invaders has been rendered by Per Krogsgaard and Jason Idris Alami from What!

If your brand is ready to launch a Pop-Up Skate Park by THC in your city, get in touch.

Mini Cooper by TCH is also another project we'll soon announce online.

How can TCH work with your brand on innovation and creating new brand experiences worth talking about? - get in contact with Access Agency.

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Puma Spinstar

Our new creative ideas agency ACCESS is helping brands and businesses see the world differently. We add substantial value by creating customized experiences that change the consumers’ thinking in some way. A simple idea for our McFancy project for McDonald's has already been viewed by over 3 million readers through this site. Millions more have interacted with it via hundreds of blogs that have featured it (google "McFancy Mcdonald's or McFancy by Access Agency"). And dozens of magazines internationally are featuring the concept in forthcoming issues. That's several million eyeballs before a single $ has been spent.

Enter our latest concept for Puma that we call SPINSTAR, which aligns perfectly with the brand image. It is a touring program that finds participants who can last the longest in a spin class, with Puma as the backdrop. Participants are offered a free pair of Puma sneakers and workout gear once they pass 2 hours (most spin classes run for 45 minutes). The winners of each session (which can last up to 8 hours) will receive the Puma bike and would then be invited to the final competition where the winner of the longest spin-class is crowned Puma SPINSTAR, receiving $25,000 cash along with $10,000 worth of Puma gear.

Two stellar examples of how ACCESS has taken brand expriences to a transformational level. Is your's crying out for the experience - contact bill@thecoolhunter.net

Puma renderings created by Dobson White

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The Audi Spectacle - A New Breed of Billboard

Audi, a brand exuding an attitude of self confidence and progressive thinking, and associated with the latest technology and innovative design, is a perfect brand to pioneer this entirely original concept, a new breed of “billboard” created by Access Agency.

It is a display of four life-size Audi cars, suspended inside the silver rings of a massive Audi symbol attached to an iconic bridge structure or in front of landmark spaces — the Sydney Harbour Bridge, Brooklyn Bridge, Tower Bridge, Venice. The rings rotate around, light-up at night, and move up and down the bridge. Against the backdrop of spectacular urban architecture, the Audi installation reflects Audi’s continuous challenging of the status quo, its capacity to innovate, and its ability to avoid the bland and the ordinary.

But what will create valuable media attention and social media buzz is not just the actual final display, but the entire anticipation, the process of creation, the engineering feat of the installation and the spectacular launch event.

The manufacturing and transportation of the gigantic rings, the installation of the rings, the hoisting of the vehicles, the first test of the lights, the rehearsals of the launch…By the time the installation is complete, and the unveiling event is about to start, the news about it will have reached those in the know.

PR — locally and globally — plus participation and rallies by dealers, and other in-town and on-site activities and happenings leading up to the unveiling, will add to the echo effect of this one-of-a-kind promotion.

The anticipation, excitement and buzz will culminate in an epic night-time launch event that we envision including a live symphony orchestra playing on a barge right under the suspended rings or on the bridge itself, a fireworks presentation or a LED light show above the bridge, and the ultimate unveiling of the rings. Bill Tikos

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A Life Size Pinball Machine You Can Play In

THIS is what we will want in our office now! Pinball may be living a second life as a retro thing to do and own, but what we really want now is to be living (or working, playing) IN a pinball machine!

Our hopes for this were aroused by the super clever exhibit of Modular Lighting Instruments at Interieur 2010, the 22nd International Design Biennale that took place October 15 – 24 at Kortrijk Xpo venue in Kortrijk, Belgium .

In a colourful and fun human-scale pinball machine, completely lit by LED lights, Modular introduced its latest LED ceiling lights, Spock and O’Leaf, for the first time to the general public.

The playing field of the game was divided into the same sections as the Modular lighting catalogue: Orientation, Accent, General and Dynamic making it easy for the “players”-- potential specifiers and buyers of the new lights – to pay attention to the lights, and not just the fun surroundings. Apparently, this energy-efficient exhibit used 70 % less energy than the company’s 2008 exhibit at the same event.

The Roeselade, Belgium-based Modular Lighting Instruments has showrooms across Europe and additional offices in the Netherlands and France.

Both of the new fixtures, Spock and O’Leaf, were designed by Bram Couvreur and Bjorn De Vos of Couvreur & Devos, also located in Roeselade. - Bill Tikos

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Mini Italia Countryman Launch

TCH ACCESS agency's collaboration with the world's best brands and ad agencies continues. We are working on a number of fun projects with car brands, property developers, sports brands beverage (alcohol and non) brands, movie studios.

Last fall, BMW's event agency, EWT invited ACCESS to create the Mini Indoor Drive In Cinema for the launch week of Mini Countryman to the Italian media. We also created a video presentation about the World of Innovation for the same event.

Since we first featured the drive-in cinema and the Mini car-wraps, we have been asked by numerous Mini dealers around the globe to create them for their showrooms. So, this year, we will be creating many more exciting and innovative Mini experiences in various international markets. Stay tuned - Bill Tikos

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A Real-Life Version of The Animated Film

National Geographic Channel have created a real-life version of the animated film Up — launching a house thousands of metres into the air using balloons.

A team of scientists, engineers, and two world-class balloon pilots successfully launched a 16' X 16' house 18' tall with 8' coloured weather balloons from a private airfield east of Los Angeles, and set a new world record for the largest balloon cluster flight ever attempted.

Using 300 helium-filled weather balloons, the lightweight building reached an altitude of more than 3000m and remained in the air for about an hour.

The filming of the event, from a private airstrip, will be part of a new National Geographic Channel series called How Hard Can it Be?, which will premiere in fall 2011.

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Pink Balls of Aires Libres - Montreal

When we saw this great idea in Montreal, Canada, we immediately thought how wonderful it would be if city councils around the world took this on as a way to draw attention to Breast Cancer Awareness Month! The cause deserves this kind of prominence.

However, this presentation by landscape architect Claude Cormier is not for breast cancer awareness. It is part of Aires Libres a summer-long celebration that has turned the street to a pedestrian-only mall of arts and culture. Aires Libres will end September 12, 2011.

Pink Balls/Les Boules Roses consists of more than 170,000 pink balls hanging over a 1.2 km distance from Berri to Papineau Street in Montreal’s Sainte-Catherine Street East Village.

There are three sizes of pink plastic balls, stretching over the street in nine sections, each with its own pattern. Pink Balls was produced by Impact Production in partnership with Société de développement commercial - SDC du Village. - Bill Tikos

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