I’m over in NYC this week and whenever I come here I totally dig seeing the advertising and marketing that’s happening here in person. It’s so much more fun and interesting for me to see it in person, then through a blog or on a website. It also brings you a totally non-biased report on who’s doing the best and coolest stuff in town!

Here’s a sampling of What’s Hot Now in Advertising and Marketing in NYC! As witnessed live by advertisinginhawaii.com

1.  Times Square Billboards:  Oh, I can stand for hours and look at the billboards and snap pictures of them.  Back in the Day-The real looking smoke rings that came from the Marlboro man was really good and so was the Chock Full O’ Nuts Coffee Billboard.  Now-a-days T-Squre feels like it’s on mega steroids, with Hollywoodesque art happening everywhere.   Some of the billboards basically show crisp, clean snippets of TV shows that are clearer than the TV I watch at my house!  I saw a :60-:90 billboard snippet of some fun reality show where the ladies were partying and having a great time ala’ NYE, then they got in a cat fight.  I’m not quite sure of the show, but it was really fun to watch on the Mega-Mega-Mega-Tron.  And I really like the girl with the blue lips as seen at the top of this post, she really stands out from the clutter and clatter of the rest of the Billboards. I would say the color palette does if for them. And the boldness of the vision of the art director.

2.Bloomingdale’s Window Display:  OH the FUN that I had here!  Basically I walked along from window to window, pressed the star button next to the window, it took a picture of me, then within seconds, my picture appeared above the window!  It was so much fun, I did it at all 3 windows!  I felt like a star right in the center of the universe (BTW: that’s what I call the area around Bloomingdale’s in NYC).  And what I liked is your/my picture stayed on there for three slots, thus, it gave me lots of time to take a picture of it.  Everyone down there was having a great time! So much fun, I busted out the Bloomie’s card and bought a couple of things. 15% discount on purchases with a  Bloomingdale’s card all day long and lots of things were already 40-50% off.  Here’s the picture of me in the window display at Bloomingdale’s-December 2011-Mid Town NYC.

3.  In Cab Advertising:  As you know, I totally love QR codes and lately I’ve been looking for the best practices on how to use them well.  When I arrived in NYC, I got in the cab and a TV screen came on that told us about some Celebrity Gossip, sports scores, then a really cool ad came on to win Sunglasses.  What I liked about the ad is the lady in the spot, told us at the beginning of the spot, “Get Ready to scan the QR code to win a pair of Sunglasses”  this gave the rider plenty of time to locate their QR code on their phone and by the end of the :30 seconds you would be ready to scan it to win. I scanned it and it took me to their site and told and sold me on their sunglasses and they had a really easy to fill out form to win the prizes-especially wise when using a smart-phone.  Congrats!

4.DESIGUAL Stores NYC:   A Couple of years ago I noticed how fun and exciting this store seemed to be from the mix of dark lighting and bright colors inside the store. Now their marketing is proving their vibe to be true and in synch with their brand’s funness. In their store in Soho, These guys actually had a real red carpet outside on the side-walk, then as I walked in I was treated with bright balloons and thumping yet not overly banging house music and a free red bull!  How fun is that!  They made me feel special and gave me a bit of caffeine to wake up from my non sleep I usually get when I vacation over here in the big city. Note:  the only thing that did NOT match up with the marketing was the people working there.  They could care less about giving me a drink or a balloon or even asking me if I needed any help. So, You guessed it, I bought nothing. Two years ago I bought my first pair of what I would call expensive jeans ($220), at that time they were nice to me and the jeans were really nice and different, fun and exciting like their marketing.  But mainly they were attentive and helped me with my needs. Little did they know, I was back to do some shopping, but nope, not if you’re not going to be friendly forget it!  Double Note:  at Union Square I saw a shirt I was for sure going to buy-I actually still want it. But I asked the lady at the counter a simple question of “do you have any more of these?” she snapped and shouted “NO” so  once again, no sale. I do still want the shirt. But I just can’t buy from employees that suck! I forget her Kiosk name, but do hope she reads this blog sometime. Triple Note to lady:  It was a Black and grey and blue plaid shirt with buttons with X’s on them.  Back to DESIGUAL, here’s a picture of what they had going on this past weekend in Soho in NYC. Their marketing was good, just not their sales people or sales training.