Hotel Room in Melbourne - Free of Charge!

Yes, you heard right.

You can stay for free at the
Lost & Found Hotel Room in the heart of Melbourne. That's what I call aggressive promotion and I like it!

According to PSFK "Tourism Victoria-run e-newsletter Lost and Found recently added a hotel room to their venture, offering lucky subscribers the chance to experience Melbourne’s cultural offerings free of charge. Decked out in products exclusively made in Victoria, the furnishings, gourmet offerings, music, fashions and bath products all “tell a story about Melbourne as a city of creative people producing interesting things.”

Movies That Inspire Travel

Tourism boards advertise via various media, nowadays they even include social networking sites. But sometimes a movie can promote a place like nothing can.

10 movies which made me want to pack my bags:

1. A Good Year - Directed by Ridley Scott, this adaptation of Peter Mayle's best-selling novel is the story of a London-based trader Max Skinner (Russell Crowe) who goes to Provence in the south of France to check out the vineyard estate that he has suddenly inherited from his uncle. Need I say more?

2. Brokeback Mountain - Based on a short story by Pulitzer Prize winner E. Annie Proulx, this movie is about the intense relationship between Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal) and Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger). But I will always remember the movie for its stunning cinematography. The film was filmed in Alberta, Canada and not Wyoming as the story suggests. I had a hard time not booking a flight to Alberta after the movie ended.


3. The Holiday - Writer-director Nancy Meyers shows glimpses of Los Angeles and London as the protagonists Amanda (Cameron Diaz) and Iris (Kate Winslet) swap homes, each unique to the characters they are playing. Always made me want to go for a rental instead of a hotel.

4. A Perfect Getaway - Hawaii never looked more enticing, not even on it's most expensive advertising campaign. Throw in Milla Jovovich, an edge-of-the-cliff hike, the blue-green ocean and a pair of shady characters - you have a winner. And yes, she does kick some serious ass but less than usual.


5. The Bridges of Madison County - The beauty of the American midwest, a National Geographic photographer Robert Kincaid played by Clint Eastwood and Meryl Street as the not-so-happy Iowa housewife Francesca Johnson come together to present a moving story filmed against a powerful backdrop.

6. Into the Wild - These verses right at the beginning of the movie summed it up for me

There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,
There is a rapture on the lonely shore,
There is society, where none intrudes,
By the deep sea, and music in its roar:
I love not man the less, but Nature more.
- Lord Byron


7. Under the Tuscan Sun - If this movie does not make you book a flight to Italy, nothing much will. Newly-divorced American writer Frances (Diane Lane) quits her job and goes to Tuscany where she buys a house on a sudden impulse. What follows is a picture postcard tour of romancing Italy.

8. Up in the Air - One of my favorite movies, this one simply inspires you to keep moving. That's it. George Clooney and Vera Farmiga make a perfect pair - traveling for work never looked this sexy.


9. Nights in Rodanthe - The film's underlying sense of tragedy is overcome by the beauty of coastal North Carolina. Based on the novel by Nicholas Sparks, Diane Lane and Richard Gere are as much as a treat for the eyes as the soothing landscape. The scene with the wild horses is something which reminds me of Assateague Island. 

10. Autumn in New York - Another tear-jerker starring Mr Gere, this movie has steam coming out from the street vents. Yes, very New York. Travel tip - Autumn is when North-eastern America is all ablaze with colors. A must-see for anyone who visits.

The movies are in no particular order and of course, there maybe many more that I have missed. Going by my list, one thing is for sure, you always don't have to go to Europe or some exotic island for that perfect holiday. As my trips have taught me, North America is much more than New York and San Francisco...and it's all out there waiting to be explored.

Bergdorf Goodman - Setting Trends in Visual Merchandising

Located on an Avenue aptly called a shopper's paradise in New York City, Bergdorf Goodman is a well known high-end retailer with a flair for visual merchandise. Each year, during the holidays, the legendary store windows attract many a fashionable eye and scores of photographers.

As my photos suggest, this was the year of the fox and a much-needed cross-promotion. The windows depicted sets from "Fantastic Mr. Fox", a movie based on the classic children's book by Roald Dahl. Each of the twelve windows of Bergdorf Goodman Men's Store located on Fifth Avenue and along 58th Street depicted scenes from the film few of which I have captured on a recent visit to the city. The attention to detail made the puppets look almost life-like. The clothes were tailored to perfection and co-branding was achieved seamlessly.

This collaboration is a first for Bergdorf Goodman’s, as never before has his holiday windows been partnered with a major film production house. With the demand for luxury brands hitting a low, this may be one of the smartest moves I have seen in recent times.

Holiday Season Window Display in New York - Cartier and Fendi

As you can see in my pictures, Cartier wraps it up much like last year and Fendi clinches it with a double round. Luxury brands in the accessory segment, each had an elegant touch despite the drop in sales. Hope next year is better for all of us!

Louis Vuitton - Destinations Galore!

As you can see from my pictures, Louis Vuitton hits the nail on the head with their "destinations" theme for this year's Christmas display. Tokyo, Mumbai, London screams the stamps from their Manhattan store on Fifth Avenue. They have successfully managed to promote their brand such that it stands out in the holiday clutter and they have done it without losing sight of the function of the actual product. Luggage = destinations = Louis Vuitton. For a luxury brand in this economy this is a bold step and if I may say so, a beautiful one.

Addressable Advertising

TV ads have always lagged behind their technologically advanced cousins...interactive web ads. Not any more.

<- Pic via WSJ Online

According to WSJ Online, "As Comcast gets close to a deal for control of General Electric's NBC Universal, the big cable operator and Madison Avenue think the merger could lead to some major changes in the $65 billion U.S. television advertising market.

The potential new company could speed the development of interactive TV ads and "addressable advertising."

Interactive ads let viewers vote in a poll or use their remote controls to request more information about a product or apply for a coupon. Addressable, or targeted, advertising uses set-top boxes to route commercials to specific households or neighborhoods based on data about income, ethnicity, gender or other characteristics. It lets an advertiser send a sports-car commercial to a childless home and a minivan spot to a home with children."

This summer, Procter & Gamble Co. teamed up with TiVo for Charmin Toilet Paper. As shown in the pic above, the animated ad has an option in the top-right corner with which viewers can interact. If interested, one can apply for a Charmin coupon using their TiVo remote control. For this kind of one-on-one interaction, Madison Ave is ready to spend the big bucks. Of course, the program remains paused and no part of it is lost during the exchange. The coupon is sent by mail but according to WSJ Online, TiVo has declined to provide results for the ads since the campaign is still on.

While this degree of involvement is every advertiser's dream, the actual process behind interactive ads is far from easy. The ads have to be customized for different TV companies which almost always use different technologies. But what seems tough today can be made simple tomorrow. Soon interactive ads may become the norm rather than the aberration that they are today!

To Bing Or Not To Bing

I assume we all know what Bing is by now. After spending $80 million to $100 million on an advertising campaign which forced JWT to thaw its frozen hiring, I would believe the least Microsoft has done is created a brand presence. Always happy to use a new product or the latest in sevice, I jumped in to find out all about Bing. The words "new" and "latest" spell "improvement" and maybe a certain "cool factor" in my mind.

The first thing that struck me were the Bing ads. Here's one from the seriesNow check out the Bing site. What information overload are they talking about? The Bing site itself is filled with unnecessary trivia. Why would I want to know about the benefits of garlic when I am looking for information on Long Island? The brand promise does not match the goods delivered to our browsers. Also, do a mouseover over the homepage image and you will be bombarded with more and more stuff you had no intention of looking up.

I googled my name and my blog showed up. I tried on Bing...no blog! Only my travel articles or rather, the same article came up multiple times. They have a separate link for blogs you might say, but where is the search box on the Bing blogs page?

Maybe marketers will have to re-think their SEO strategy as Bing throws up sub-categories on a search word. For eg. a search for "Long Island" got me a list of links to Long Island clubs, restaurants, tourism, facts, DMV, softball, economy and even maps. The maps link is kind of redundant when you think of it. I would have clicked on 'maps' at the top like I do for Google if I needed to look at a map.

As for the other players, I have never been able to find what I am looking for in Yahoo so I have stuck to Google for like forever. I was willing to change given a better product. Guess I will have to google words for some time more before I start to "bing" them.