This post originally appeared in our February Issue of “Live Report from the Future of Marketing,” our monthly Post-Advertising newsletter. Subscribe for free here.

The blanket of snow that fell across the UK a few weeks ago reminded me of one of my favourite marketing campaigns in recent years. If you haven’t seen this fantastic piece of opportunistic advertising before, the Polo Snow Stamp was pressed into thick snow on cars, park benches and roads across London, creating a perfect replica of the iconic white mint with the hole.

What impressed me most then and still impresses me now is that whilst the rest of the country perceived the onset of snow as the perfect excuse for a day off from work, Polo’s agency was looking at the weather reports and seeing only opportunity. Smart planning and a quick response to circumstances beyond its control (in this case physical) created some fantastic earned media. Now, three years later, people who saw the campaign are reminded of Polo every time snow falls. 

Over the past month, I’ve noticed other brands adopting the same tactics time and again with great success. No brand can wait for that one-day window when it snows in England for an opportunity, so instead the white canvas of snow and mint replica have been replaced with social media platforms and seminal events that tap into the buzz in those communities. Those that do it well join the conversation and experience the moment with their audience. 

1. Oreo’s Dunk in the Dark

The winner of the #BrandBowl 2013 has had enough praise since Super Bowl XLVII that everything that could be said has been, but it’s so brilliant that it’s worth revisiting. The creation of a Super Bowl command centre hosted at the offices of agency 360i, with representatives of several of Oreo’s agencies as well as the brand, meant that even though no one knew the lights were going to go out in New Orleans, Oreo was the brand in the best position to react to even the most unpredictable events.

The other side of this ad, which has been overlooked amongst all the compliments, is why an ad with such simple copy and unexceptional visual imagery managed to resonate so exceptionally well with audiences on social media (our own Jon Thomas has a strong opinion about it). It is my belief that the fundamental reason relates to something that is at the heart of everything we do here at Story Worldwide: connecting brands to their audiences with engaging and entertaining stories that audiences actually want to hear.

As the lights went out in New Orleans and confusion enveloped the hundreds of millions of observers around the world, people took to their trusted social channels for more information. As friends checked Twitter and Facebook, amongst the jokes about the imminent arrival of Bane or the Undertaker, Oreo was there, sharing the moment with its audience and in a tone of voice true to the brand. No one will forget the great Super Bowl Blackout, and Oreo will forever be a part of it by having placed itself in the conversation with its audience.

2. Specsavers

In discussing brands reacting in real time to events, our CEO, Kirk Cheyfitz, observed that ‘we all know social media is a real-time sport, not to be attempted by those who can’t work weekends or nights’. An obvious statement, but no brand has epitomised this always-on, reactive approach better than the UK high-street optician Specsavers. 

The tactic of responding to sporting mishaps began at last summer’s European Championship. Once again a game involving the English national football team boiled down to a decision on whether the ball had or hadn’t crossed the goal line, though replays showed it had. The next day, Specsavers posted an ad taunting the official for his decision in a number of the UK newspapers. The strapline ‘Should’ve gone to Specsavers’ is so deeply etched in popular culture that the audience knew exactly what was being said even when it was written in Ukrainian.

After the success of its Ukraine press ad, Specsavers was quick to react again to sporting stories. When the South Korean flag was flown during the North Korean national anthem at last summer’s Olympics, and last month after Chelsea player Eden Hazard was accused of kicking a ball boy, Specsavers utilised its Twitter account to post similar ads.

3. Virgin Holidays

Of the three examples given here, no brand has been truer to the audience it is attempting to reach or its brand persona than Virgin Holidays. Instantly recognisable and personified by its eccentric founder, Richard Branson, Virgin is renowned for fighting the established force in whatever market it chooses to diversify into next. For example, if it comes up against British Airways, the flag carrier for Britain, which represents the choice of airline for the conformist, Virgin Atlantic offers the sexier and younger option. 

When a historic bill granting same-sex couples the right to marry was passed by the UK government, Virgin was uniquely positioned to genuinely engage through a picture of two lipstick-marked champagne flutes and the strapline ‘Time for a honeymoon’. If the same strategy had been adopted by another brand to address this particular situation, that brand could have risked looking opportunistic for the wrong reasons. 

Virgin’s excellence highlights again how vital the twin pillars of smart planning and quick response to external circumstances are to ensuring great real-time social media advertising.  In this instance the smart planning guaranteed that the published ad spoke to the audience and brand in a genuine way, and it was delivered the moment the bill passed.

These three examples illustrate how powerful advertising can be when agencies and brands work in tandem to engage in real time with their audiences. The ads that are winning these moments are those that respond fast whilst staying true to the brand story and its audience. The brands that continue to tie up progress in review processes will continue to miss out on these opportunities and will see audiences going elsewhere. 

Just 48 hours after its official launch, Apple’s Mountain Lion, the latest version of Apple’s desktop operating system, has already captured 3.2% of Mac web taffic according to a report by ad network Chitika. Given its low cost ($19.99) and the fact that it’s available as a download and very easy to install, chances are these numbers will continue to increase quickly over the next few days. Mountain Lion has already passed OS X 10.4 (Tiger) in Chitika’s stats and is on its way to pass Leopard in the near future.

Last year, Chitika reported that the adoption of OS.X 10.7 Lion was lagging behind expectations and that users weren’t updating from Snow Leopard at their usual rates. Judging by the data Chitika released today, that continues to remain true, as Snow Leopard remains the most popular Mac OS on the company’s network (45.5%), followed by Lion (35%). As our own MG Siegler pointed out in his review earlier this week, though, “If you didn’t like Lion, you’ll probably love Mountain Lion even more because it seems to fix a lot of the performance/quirkiness issues that some folks were having with the last version of OS X.” While not every Mac that runs Snow Leopard today can be upgraded to Mountain Lion, chances are that quite a few Snow Leopard users will decide to finally update their computers now.

I just took a glance at our own analytics data for TechCrunch.com and according to Google Analytics, almost 17% of those of you running Mac have already upgraded to Mountain Lion. Also, while Snow Leopard remains the most popular Mac OS in Chitika’s data, almost 60% of TechCrunch readers run Lion today and just 22% use Snow Leopard.

As with all of these stats, then, it’s important to remember that the data is limited to users who visit sites that are part of Chitika’s ad network. This could skew the data, but Chitika’s numbers have typically been very close to those we’ve seen from other third-party analytics companies.

Apple’s newest version of the Safari browser is now available on the Lion OS and the just-released Mountain Lion OS, but anyone with software pre-dating Lion won’t get to join in the fun.

As announced back in June, Safari 6 on Mountain Lion incorporates some ideas taken from Google Chrome and Apple’s operating systems to make it a more polished browser. One big Mountain-Lion-only addition is a feature called iCloud Tabs, which lets Apple users with iCloud sync their tabs across Macs and iPhones, iPads, and iPods running iOS 6. Another cool feature is “Tab View,” which makes it easy to quickly look through all your open tabs. The new browser also includes built-in sharing to Facebook and Twitter.

While most of Safari 6′s new options are Mountain Lion only, users on Lion (OS X 10.7), can still take advantage of big add-ons like the new URL bar that combines the address bar and unified search, Do Not Track support, and a new password storing option. It also has been designed to run faster all around.

But if you have an operating system before Lion, it appears you’re out of luck when it comes to upgrading Safari. At this time, Snow Leopard (OS X 10.6) and Leopard (OS X 10.5) users will not be able to take advantage of the nice updates.

We have contacted Apple to get the official word on this and we will update this post if they respond.

Safari 6 photo: Apple

Filed under: VentureBeat

You can now finally get your hands on Apple’s latest version of OS X, Mountain Lion, on the Mac App Store for $19.99.

Apple announced that it would be releasing the OS today as part of its earnings release yesterday, after previously promising that it would be released in July.

Good luck getting the OS up and running anytime soon though. It took me about 15 minutes to successfully purchase Mountain Lion from the App Store, thanks to the hordes of Mac owners trying to update at the same time. The update itself is also 4.05 gigabytes, so it’ll likely take you a while to download it.

Remember that if you’ve purchased a Mac computer on or after June 11, you can get a free upgrade to Mountain Lion.

Unlike last year’s OS X Lion release, this update will only be available for download via the Mac App Store. Just like Snow Leopard, Mountain Lion is an incremental update, more than a completely revamped OS. (That’s why it’s so cheap.)

Mountain Lion brings over many features first scene in iOS, like a notification center, built-in social networking support, iMessage, and voice dictation.

Filed under: VentureBeat

With more than 200 new features, OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion launched on the Mac App Store on Wednesday as a $19.99 upgrade from Lion or Snow Leopard.

With more than 200 new features, OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion launched on the Mac App Store on Wednesday as a $19.99 upgrade from Lion or Snow Leopard.

Multinational game publisher THQ announced today that its upcoming strategy title, Company of Heroes 2, will have special technology to simulate brutal weather conditions in-game, making this the first weather tech of its kind in the genre. Set in World War II, Company of Heroes 2 will help players realize the full role the incredibly cold Soviet winter played in the Eastern Front theater in that war. The weather technology, created with the Essence Engine 3.0′s ColdTech system, includes an “extreme cold” mechanic that accurately recreates the chill of the era, which reached -40? F in the winter of 1941.

Players will need to keep their infantry from freezing to death by building fires and enclosed garrisons. Snow will build up and accumulate on buildings and vehicles, becoming a hazard to troops and affecting strategies. Players will need to cover their tracks in fresh snow, or melt it from vehicles to continue the campaign. Ice will also play into various scenarios, affecting troop and vehicle movement, collapsing (or being destroyed) underneath armies, and re-forming as the bitter cold continues.

“Company of Heroes 2 is all about authenticity, and no game based on the Eastern Front would be complete without extreme weather conditions,” said Quinn Duffy, Game Director at Relic Entertainment. “Thanks to the enhanced technology offered by the new Essence Engine, we are able to accurately portray the bitter Soviet winter which crippled the German army.”

The first Company of Heroes was released in 2006 and was highly rated by critics and fans alike. The upcoming sequel is scheduled for release on PC in early 2013.

THQ is based in Los Angeles County, Calif.

Filed under: games

Coming on the heels of Proview’s successful $60 million settlement with Apple, a new suit is being brought against the iPad maker from a China-based chemical company that owns the rights to the Chinese language translation of “Snow Leopard.”

Apple on Tuesday released two Java updates for OS X 10.7 Lion and OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard which mimic the functionality of a recent Safari update that disables the automatic execution of Java applets.

Oracle released Java SE 7 Update 4 this week, which finally gives Mac owners the means to receive critical Java security patches at the same time they’re available for users of Windows and Linux operating systems. The new release means that OS X should be receiving regular Java updates directly from the source—helping to prevent attacks like the recent Flashback infection—as well as a fully supported Java development environment.

Before this week, Apple built and released a version of Java for OS X on its own, and often lagged weeks or months behind Oracle in pushing out updates that patched serious security holes. However, Apple deprecated its own Java Virtual Machine (JVM) and other tools in 2010. Though the company committed to maintaining Java for Leopard and Snow Leopard, it warned that “developers should not rely on the Apple-supplied Java runtime being present in future versions of Mac OS X.”

Read the comments on this post