• by June 17, 2013

As someone who thrives on innovative uses of technology in advertising, I make it a priority to check out lots of prototype ad formats and technologies integrated into new and native forms of brand messaging.  But when someone takes a universal problem -- like cellphone battery life --  and solves it in an ad, then I’m really left wishing I had done that myself.

In an effort to demonstrate to the already bronzed Brazilian beach crowd that they “don’t need to leave the sun for anything” -- not even to charge their cellphones  -- skin care brand NIVEA and its agency DraftFCB/Sao Paolo have created a “Solar Charging” print ad. 

Constructed with a material that captures solar energy, the print ad literally turns the sun’s rays into power for your cellphone.  Consumers who buy the pubs with the ad simply attach their cellphones to the ad with a USB power cable and then leave the ad in sunlight to charge.

When a brand marketer is able to provide immediate and additional value to the customer beyond its own brand benefit, the company’s halo of collective cool most certainly rises.  Finding a way to demonstrate that your brand is smart, eco-friendly and useful -- using media in a completely contextual way -- now, that’s worth ringing the cash register and rubbing in anyone’s awards annual.