Karthik SMar 6, 2024

2 creative ideas by brands where they make us look at something so routine... and think of their brands!

The first is McDonald's, from Finland, via the agency NORD DDB Helsinki. What the agency has done is create a 'mockumentary' (a mock documentary) named 'The Icon', where hobby detectives Kaitsu and Anna-Maija try to follow clues to uncover the truth behind the hamburger menu that we see in almost all digital interfaces (which gives us the 'settings') including websites and apps. 1/5

Show threadKarthik SMar 6, 2024
2/5 The question they ask is this: Yeah, we see the hamburger menu, but which brand of hamburger is that? Their detective work—which involves interviewing Norm Cox, the designer of the hamburger button, tracing his drive in 1981 when he invented that icon, and finding that he passed McDonald's outlets multiple times and linking it to a conspiracy theory! Enjoyable yarn :) Watch it here: https://tinyurl.com/bigmactheory
The Icon - Truth About the Hamburger Menu

YouTube
Show threadKarthik S
3/5 The 2nd is from Puma. Puma launched the 'Puma Dive' idea back in October 2023 (for the Cricket World Cup 2023) where they wanted us to think of Puma's logo (a diving Puma) whenever we see someone diving to catch, in cricket. The agency (Leo Burnett India) extended that idea into an interactive, AI-led activation where we can share pics or videos of dives on social media with #pumadive and the AI engine ascertains the angle of that dive and matches the % with the angle of the Puma logo dive.
Mar 6, 2024 at 4:48amWeb
Show threadKarthik SMar 6, 2024

4/5 That % becomes your score which becomes a promo/discount %. How many people used the promo to gain something tangible or how it affected sales for Puma (considering this was a campaign from last year) isn't clear, though.

I also wonder what would happen if we used Photoshop (and AI, perhaps?) to rotate a diving photo to perfectly match the Puma logo dive and share that. 100% free Puma products?

Show threadKarthik SMar 6, 2024
5/5 Both are similar ideas but with wildly different executions. The McDonald's idea tries to build a legend around the icon that we see everywhere, in an intentionally deliberative, old-worldly way. The Puma idea wants to link the brand with a fairly common cricket move in a (seemingly) more participative and interactive way.