A city as a source of the ‘creative spark’. Urban streets as basis for bold and massive campaigns. For many decades, smaller towns and megalopolises have been inspiring advertising agencies behind multiple marketing projects, which on the one hand are targeted at promoting brands and, on the other hand, encourage consumers to compare different cities, unveil creativity and strong dedication to sport, cinema and quests, or even bring rural accents to urban settings. We at Popsop have reviewed global brands’ ad activity during 2010 and first two months of 2011 to see how they’ve been embedding city into their promotions. Now, we are presenting our 3-part study dedicated to the subject. The first section of this review will highlight competitions, cross-city studies, urban sport-related promotions, which have been taking place within big cities around the globe and in a way were dedicated to them.

MINI is expanding its cooperation with Red Bull by becoming a partner of Red Bull Crashed Ice, where groups of four athletes on ice skates plunge down an ice cross downhill track some five metres wide and peppered with bumps, jumps and banked turns. This innovative and—in every sense—cool winter sports events comprises four events. The races take place on an artificial ice cross downhill track specially created for each event and extending to around 350 metres in length. As in 2010, the venue for the season opener on 15 January 2011 is the Olympiapark in Munich.

To celebrate the success of the Red Bull racing team at Formula 1 Championship, the producer of energy drink unveiled a new 473ml Champions Edition can featuring the portraits of two champion drivers of Red Bull team, Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber. By displaying the portraits of the racing drivers on the limited edition cans, Red Bull plans to boost the sales of the drinks especially by targeting F1 fans.

Red Bull Wake of Fame marks the next generation of wakeboarding and wakeskating as it pushes the boundaries of the sport. At the legendary Ft. Lauderdale Aquatic Complex that is nestled just behind the International Swimming Hall of Fame (Florida, the USA), there are three pools that typically host world champion swimmers and divers but on December 3 it will transform into a “wake park” and become the newest playground for the industry’s top riders.

Red Bull asked Tracy Lee Stum, one of the most prominent 3D artists or our days and a Guinness record-breaker, to decorate the floor of Skate Park of Tampa for the parks upcoming 17th Annual Tampa Am skateboarding competition. The huge art work (15 meters wide and 2 meters high) was painted on the skating surface features two angry bulls (which are red, of course).

Red Bull commissioned 12 young Brazilian artists to add creative touch to one of the oldest skyscrapers in the country’s capital. The aspiring talents are transforming the space into Red Bull House of Art during two months— they were demonstrating their talents from September 12 till October 13 (that’s the first term) and are going to come back on November 3 to continue their work through December 18 (that’s the second one).

Red Bull, the energy drink brand, which is well-known for its extreme sports and music projects, is going on extending its Red Bull Bedroom Jam program oversees. The project, which originated in the UK three years ago and since then has been encouraging local rock musicians to demonstrate their talent first from their own bedrooms and later on the stage of the biggest music festivals of the country, eventually has arrived in Australia.