Volvo's New (Moon) Consumer

Unless you've been living under a rock the past few days, you know that the second movie in the Twilight series, New Moon, is releasing Friday. It broke box office records for the most presale tickets ever. Ever. Like, more than Harry Potter or the Dark Knight. It's a pretty anticipated movie.

If you saw the first movie, Twilight, and especially if you read any of the books, you know the vampire hero of the story, Edward Cullen, drives around in a Volvo. He does this to seem 'less ostentatious' than his vampire siblings in their Porsches and Mercedes convertibles. The first movie capitalized on this a bit, putting Edward it quite the sporty little Volvo hatchback, the C30. In New Moon, Edward is apparently cruising in a different Volvo model, the XC60, which is a crossover SUV. 

Well Volvo is running a fun promotion, What Drives Edward, with the release of New Moon and offering the chance to win a XC60. That's a pretty awesome prize. There are 6 puzzles that you need to complete. The first five puzzles are available now and the sixth will release on Sunday. The first person to complete that sixth puzzle wins the car.

Its a pretty fun promotion with a great pay off, and the best part about it is it really does fit with the movie. Edward really drives a Volvo in the book. It's not simply a promo forced on the movie by Volvo which makes it feel less gimmicky.

NPR had an interesting take the on the promotion as well. When you think of Volvo and you think of the loyal teenage girl audience of New Moon, they don't really jive. But this bestselling book, and the extremely popular movies are providing Volvo with a priceless opportunity to reach a younger audience.

Most of the puzzles are just fun games with a New Moon twist but one includes features about the Volvo XC60. Happy puzzling!

New Font Driven By Toyota

Two font designers took the Toyota iQ (Toyota's version of the Smart Car) and made the above font out of the car's tracks. It's not the most legible or versatile font, but the concept behind its creation is quite cool. Essentially the font designers gave each wheel it's own identity and tracked the movements of the lines they made as a race car driver drove the iQ around making different letterforms. They digitally tracked the movements from above and turned the recordings in the font. Check out the video below to view the whole process and go here to download the font for yourself.

[via Gizmodo]

Magical Tweets

I'll admit it, I'm a Harry Potter fan. I read the books, saw the movies, bought the movies and then reread some of the books again. I love the stories and even as over-commercialized as the franchise has become, I still love it all.

Even if you're not as enamored with all things Harry Potter as I am, you have to give them credit for their recent Twitter application to promote the latest movie. Marketers everywhere are trying to figure out the best way to use social media to promote, but since Twitter and social media are driven by the consumer, it's a tricky beast. This current Harry Potter Twitter application, however, is a great blend of entertaining and promotional.

Essentially, you visit HarryPotterTweet.com and select one of four spells featured in Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince to direct message (DM) to your twitter friends. If they click on the link in the DM, they'll see a fake version of their Twitter homepage followed by an animation of the spell being cast and a message from you. Unfortunately the messages are pre-written, but they have a variety of amusing and appropriate messages. Check out the thumbnails on the left to see the spell cast on me last week.

The only glitches with this clever application, are the inability to customize your DM and making the default "Check this out, it's simply magical. [URL]" so vague it's a little too close to spam. The application's been a bit slow to load at times too, causing spell victims to leave the page before the spell's animation has occured. Beyond those issues though, the idea and execution of this Twitter application is fantastic—the marketer's ideal blend of promotional and fun.

Weezer + Snuggie=Wuggie?

Apparently Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo is a big fan of the Snuggie, the imfamous infomercial blanket with sleeves, and he's partnered with the company to create a special Weezer Snuggie that they're calling the Wuggie, the difference being the Wuggie has Weezer's name on it. That, and it apparently comes in rockstar leopard...

I'm still never going to buy one, but if you're into Snuggies, it's the perfect attire for your next Snuggie Pub Crawl.

Update: Free Dr. Pepper Delivered

We blogged about Dr. Pepper's free soda giveaway coinciding with the release of the new Guns N' Roses album back in November. Due to overwhelming traffic, the Dr. Pepper Web site was down for most of the 24-hour registration period, so I called my info into the toll-free number the following day after Dr. Pepper extended the offer.

To follow up, I received my free coupon in the mail today, so look for yours soon. It's good through the end of February. Interestingly, I also received my People magazine today and in it, a Diet Dr. Pepper ad with a coupon for a free 2-liter, good through the end of March.

(Does anyone know, are there really 23 flavors in Dr. Pepper? And what are they?)

Dr. Pepper Extends Free Soda Offer Through Monday Night

According to an article in MarketWatch, Dr. Pepper is extending its offer for a free Dr. Pepper through 6 p.m. EST tonight. With overwhelming demand, the Dr. Pepper Web site was down almost all day Sunday. They've added a toll-free number for those unable to access the site: 1-888-DRPEPPER.

Though the offer is a free Dr. Pepper for everyone in America, the recorded message at the toll-free number limits one per household.

Dr. Pepper Pays Up at the Release of New Guns N' Roses Album

A few weeks ago my husband came home from work all excited because he had heard a radio DJ announce the release of a new Guns N' Roses album, and with it, a free Dr. Pepper. I offered the usual shrug and, "That's nice," clearly not sharing in his enthusiasm. I've never been a hardcore fan of rock 'n roll music and certainly don't know anything about its history. To the shame of my husband, I can't even tell the difference between Metallica and Def Leppard and AC/DC. I'm surprised he married me.

I'd forgotten about this until he came home yesterday saying that people could get their free Dr. Pepper on one day only. I hadn't seen any advertising about this offer, and didn't really understand it, so I did a few seconds' worth of googling to let you know what I know.

Apparently, fans have been waiting for Guns N' Roses new album, Chinese Democracy, since 1994. Yes, 1994. The band hasn't released an album of new songs since 1991. And along the way the band members had issues with each other causing, I think, the break-up of the original band. (Anyone that knows anything about rock music can correct me if I'm wrong.) Since fans have been waiting for so long with canceled release dates and not much hope they'd ever actually see (or hear) the album, Dr. Pepper thought they'd challenge the band by promising a free soda to every person if Chinese Democracy hit shelves in 2008.

Guess what? The album releases tomorrow, Sunday the 23rd. If you want your free Dr. Pepper you must sign up for the coupon on Dr. Pepper's Web site, and you only have tomorrow to do it.

My thing is, why would Dr. Pepper give the challenge if they're not going to promote it?

At any rate, I think I'll sign up for my complimentary Dr. Pepper alongside my husband tomorrow. Anything I can do to make him proud.

Sex and the City Movie Marketing

Unless you've been living under a rock the past couple weeks, you know that the Sex and the City movie is finally ready to debut soon (May ३०th, I believe). I stumbled across a promotion for the movie inviting fans to bum around on Carrie's laptop. It's pretty gimmicky, but a nice 5-minute distraction nonetheless. iChat conversations with the other characters challenge you find trivia clues on Carrie's Mac. Easy enough. I'd say a little too easy to be very interesting. A few tips from Veer might be helpful. Although if I actually cared about the movie even half as much as most women I know, it might have been more interesting too. Even so, I completed the questions and now I'm registered to win a movie poster. How special.