A new craze has hit London underground – one that few people will notice but those that do are sure to chuckle.

Stickers are being put up all over the underground in an attempt to add some humour to the somewhat dullness of a typical underground journey.  They can be purchased online for as little as £2 each and come in many shapes and sizes.

And they are starting to get peoples attention.

They use the same font and branding as TFL but turn the typical warning sign or underground map into something a bit more fun.  

The Euro is in crisis, England is in a recession, so what are Bristol traders doing about this? Creating their own currency.

Businesses local in Bristol have started trading in Bristol Pounds, which has been set up as an online currency as well.

By having their own currency, Bristol is encouraging money circulation within Bristol itself.

If someone walks into a shop and pays for something in Bristol Pounds, they cannot go and pay a national supplier using this as it won’t be accepted. Instead they will have to use it to pay local suppliers or pay staff.

By doing this they are keeping money circulating within Bristol and promoting the use of local traders and suppliers.

Whenever something ‘big’ happens in the world that could be used as part of a marketing campaign, its a race between the big players to become a part of it.

The Olympics was one of the recent events which saw many businesses use to their advantage despite the tight advertising control Locog insisted on.

The latest so called scandel to be used is the current sensation around naked Prince Harry pictures. 

A lot of businesses have been trying to cash in on the Olympics but with very strict advertising rules this has been hard to do. 

Without having millions of pounds to secure being an official Olympic sponsor you will not be able to the mulit-national brand partners that are cashing in on being able to boost their advertising through the games. 

So Odd-bins took a slightly different approach and decided to launch an attack on the Locog advertising rules. 

With Adidas being names the official sportswear partner of London 2012 and Team GB, it was only a matter of time before Nike came on the scene with some form of Olympic advertising.

Nike are set release a 9 month long campaign with the strapline ‘Find Your Greatness’ which is based around inspiring UK athletes, whatever their aspiration or level and inspiring potential in everyone.

And guess when it’s going to be released – Friday 27th July – the same day as the opening ceremony.

There have been some creative, innovative and brilliant marketing campaigns so far this year, but one of my favourites I have seen is the McDonalds campaign used at Warsaw Train Station in March.

This saw a departures board with a difference – details of how many McDonalds items you could eat before your train leaves.

This has no direct marketing on it, no McDonalds logo plastered on the boards, but just simple, recognisable pictures of the McDonalds food you have enough time to eat.

Just found this on a guerrilla marketing blog and I thought I would share it.  This is an image of a printed pint glass that was used for a new Guinness marketing social media stunt.

The idea is that it tweets, updates facebook, checks in on 4square and downloads various coupons and promotions that you can use to either buy guinness or win prizes.

However when you actually scan the QR code the link takes you to a holding page on godaddy.com.  I’m not sure if the domain is not yet active or if they forgot to actually buy the domain in the first place.

I don’t want to point any fingers as the Guinness marketing department could one day be one of our clients  But clearly something went wrong somewhere.

I’ve discussed at length before QR codes.  Short for “Quick Response” codes.  The code consists of black modules (square dots) arranged in a square pattern on a white background.  More recently, the system has become popular outside the industry due to its fast readability and large storage capacity compared to standard UPC barcodes.

The Challenge: The African continent has the world’s highest number of child soldiers, fighting in wars they don’t believe in, for causes they don’t understand. UNICEF extract many of these children from combat and reintegrate them into society. Our aim was to rally support for this programme.

The Solution: Sending out a direct mailer that garners support for UNICEF’s child soldier programme. Initially, the mailer appears to be a typical packet of toy soldiers, but once opened, the recipient finds that the figurines are in fact children – reading books, playing soccer, riding bikes and doing other childhood activities.

Results: The package went to UNICEF supporter mailing lists as well as potential corporate sponsors. Awareness is up, and beyond the desired reaction from the recipients, many compliments are being received about the unique way in which it was put forward. More than a simple message, it’s an ongoing reminder of the realities these children face every day.

When I first got contacted a few years ago by the Sharpie Team in the UK. I was told that Sharpie had invested millions and millions in their ad campaigns across the world.

Even signing up the likes of David Beckham to their huge advertising budget.  I was sceptical at first as I really only saw it as “just another marker pen”.

About 6 months later the advertising stream started to hit the UK and I really saw the public recognition of these permanent marker pens.

Although available in loads of colours for the regular market. (As seen to the right). The image below shows an amazing interactive sharpie poster that has been seen around streets and bus stops.