Renault is going to give a Renault Mégane Hatch Diesel vehicle to an Australian, who manages to find the car on a virtual map of the country. To celebrate the new 0% finance rate on selected models in Australia through December 16, the brand has launched “Zero In,” an online-game, which is supported by a massive campaign including TV, DM, print and outdoor promotional elements.

Renault that has recently opened the Passion d’Avenir exhibit at the Futuroscope park, has launched its first social business initiative in mobility aimed to restore the autonomy of people with low incomes. Called Renault MOBILIZ, the program will offer real-life mobility service solutions, an investment company to finance mobility projects; and a partnership with the ‘Enterprise and Poverty’ Chair at HEC Paris.

Want to kill two birds with one stone, get a husband and a new car at one time? Building on the old tradition which allows women propose to their men on February 29 with no fear of being judged, Renault and Yahoo! are offering ladies in the UK an opportunity to finally make it and ask their boyfriends to be their husbands, but do it with a modern twist. The auto brand is calling female users to submit their ideas on how they would like to propose—Renault will give the winner a new auto and film the moment and post the video on the Yahoo! homepage. Happiness should be shared.     

Now, with AR being probably the most powerful advertising tool in the set of ‘reality’ features used for promotion, let’s look back at another, traditional ‘reality’ promotional approach, which still works perfectly. TV commercials with their made-up plots, characters and dialogues can appeal for sure, but genuine emotions of real people are much more convincing. Building on the success of extremely popular reality programs, brands launch their own initiatives of this kind to entertain and educate audience while spreading the word about the goods—some of these projects are grandiose, the others are small-scale, but this format never leaves consumers untouched.

The story of close relationship between brands and cinematography started nearly at the same time as the cinema itself was born—in the beginning of the  movie era, the big companies promoted their products though short clips which were screened before movies. Now it’s not that easy to tell for sure for which product the pioneer ad was created, but according to a range of sources (IMDB is one of them), the first filmed advertising for a today’s global brand was shot for Dewar’s Scotch Whisky (1897). Today, connections between filmmaking industry and brands go beyond this simple presence and include a lot of examples such as much discussed product placement, festival sponsorship and opening cinema clubs, cinema-related advertising campaigns, collaboration with filmmakers on commercials, and creating movies under brands’ supervision.

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.

Renault has been a partner to Dame Ellen MacArthur since 2001 and last week it renewed its partnership with the yachtswoman for a further three years. In its new capacity, Renault is one of the founding partners of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, launched on September 2, 2010, in London, at the Science Museum together with a number of influential business, education and government leaders.