I’ve been in plenty of creative meetings recently. Creative sessions to me are brilliant: lots of enthusiasm, energy, ideas and the best thing is you can’t be wrong (often!)  One of my favourite things is how fresh and innovative they can be. However, in the last year or so, one thing always seems to come up; flash mobbing. Now I’m not opposed to it – quite the opposite if you see below - but I don’t think it works for every brand.

Hats off to T-Mobile who reignited the trend once again at Christmas.  I’m sure you’ll have read about it and seen the ad but if not take a look below:

A quite brilliant intro to the use of flash mobbing, I’m sure you’ll agree.  Now for my new favourite, one I’ve just been sent today.  This is from NY400, an initiative set up to celebrate 400 years of friendship between the Netherlands and the USA.  If you’re in a hurry skip the first 30 seconds, but well worth a watch.

Not right for everyone maybe, but definitely right for some brands and this one certainly got me thinking about going Dutch.  So next time we have a creative meeting and the ‘flash mob’ gem pops up we’ll be giving it some thought. This piece demonstrates beautifully that you can still be innovative with a concept that’s been used time and time again.

By Ben Wilkinson on April 7th, 2009

Tags: Advertising, Brand marketing, Branded content, Digital marketing, Experiential marketing, Flash mobbing, Media, Music, Television, Viral Marketing, YouTube