Company: IBM
Campaign: People for Smarter Cities
Agency: Ogilvy & Mather France
This campaign is innovative for a number of reasons. The first is that it caters to the customer first. This piece of advertising does not just scream at people walking by to pay attention (which is what it often feels like when you walk down the streets of New York everyday). The campaign, much like IBM’s brand, seeks to help the consumer with their everyday needs and provide a service.
The other, more obvious piece of innovation is the piece itself. The minimalist design drives the idea of innovation, and how to create a solution to everyday problems through one simple alteration.
I’m sure I’ll see many ads in the next few months trying to think “off the wall” like this soon, but IBM will be the root of that movement in my mind. The number one takeaway is that the ad gives to the consumer before asking for any participation.
Allison Munson 
5 replies on “People for Smarter Cities”
I like it. I think it’s (for lack of a better term), smart. It also gets IBM’s value proposition across, we want to give you something smart (and practical) so you can go on and do the same.
Exactly! It really demonstrates the brand goal through the physical ad, which can be difficult to do with a technical brand like IBM
If only I was in NY… AND yes IBM is the creator of so many wonderful models we live by every day.
Actually it wasn’t in New York, they were in London and Paris.
Google inbox update…
Unless Google knows that I am a female and created this for just us girls it seems to me Google is implying that more females use Google than males??
I loved the TED talk it really hit home in so many ways. AND the yogurt pic “GREAT”