Cool Sh*t - Dove, Stanley, Heinz, Sony, Doritos and more...

Vol. 44

Welcome to the 2 cool as sh*t people (Matt and Garrett) who joined us recently! If you haven’t subscribed, be cool and join 228 subscribers here:

If you liked reading this, feel free to click the ❤️ button on this post so more people can discover it on Substack 🙏

Happy New Year and welcome to 2024 you cool as sh*t legends!

I haven’t posted in a while. Honestly, I’ve struggled mentally and physically over the past 2 months…

For those of you who don’t know, I’m a father of two amazing kids, aged 6 and 4. My wife is a hardworking nurse doing sporadic shifts and studying to increase her qualifications. I also started a new job in August, which I love, joining the leadership team at Hopeful Monsters, an awesome creative agency. We live in Sydney, Australia. Neither of us are natives, and our parents and siblings all live overseas. While we have some amazing family and friends here who help us, we both find it hard to manage day-to-day life sometimes. To top it all off, we’ve also been getting ready to sell our apartment in the hope of buying our first house this year. So, life has been busy and my free time to write this has been very limited.

However, after a short break, I feel somewhat re-energised and fully committed to publishing new content frequently again. Above all else, I enjoy it. So thanks for staying tuned!

Now let’s get into some new cool sh*t…

#1 – Dove continues to boost representation in gaming

The Unilever-brand teamed up with the Open Source Afro Hair Library to improve the quality of Black hair textures and style options for avatars in games. Most importantly they made the code open source.

One of Dove’s core missions is to redefine beauty by challenging toxic beauty standards and creating a more inclusive definition of beauty. They identified a problem that some of their audience faced and presented a solution. Simple and well-executed.

Dove has a good product, which I sometimes buy, but not religiously. This kind of brand marketing significantly impacts my choices and that of the wider consumer population. Do good, do well.

#2 - Stanley cup survives car fire, presenting manufacturer with a unique marketing opportunity

A Stanley cup went viral recently after surviving a car fire. The owner posted the video online and it blew up 😉 Stanley jumped at the chance to do good and do well. They replaced the car.

The video is a little scripted and cringe but it does the job. The 48.7 million views, and counting, are worth every cent of a new Mazda. In marketing terms that’s an insane cost per view. A great example of how important it is to know where and how your brand is showing up, seek opportunities to connect with your community and be nimble and reactive in executing.

@stanleybrand#stitch with @Danielle Stanley has your back ❤️

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#3 - Fuel your run with Heinz ketchup

Heinz, my new favourite brand, does it again.

Who would have thought that runners were using Heinz packets to fuel up when they run… Yes, it’s disgusting 🤢, but that’s not the point!

By knowing their audience, Heinz were able to identify a problem they face and solve it in a fun way that got people talking. A stroke of marketing genius. Ok, I can’t hold it any longer… 🤮🤮🤮

#4 - Sony is testing cameraless real-time production for new “Ghostbusters” film

(Guest Contributor - Oz Dean) As part of a so-called “proof of concept”, a scene for a new Ghostbusters film was produced using real-time rendering.

The innovation is that the scene was not shot first and then edited on the computer as usual. Instead, a special real-time game engine from Epic Games (known for hits like “Fortnite”) was used, with which the scene could be produced live on a motion capture set.

#5 - 'Doritos Silent' AI powered App that lets you munch without angering others

Having spent many hours of my life gaming, this is an audience problem I can relate to. Nothing worse when you’re playing your favourite game then someone in your team chomping and slurping away in your ear. Doritos knew this and set about solving it in a fun, newsworthy way.

Interestingly this App works with any program that uses a microphone. Now I’m hanging on for one that silences the kids, who wait patiently until I’m about to speak on an important client call before unleashing a verbal assault of I wants... 🤣

The simple act of reading about an act of kindness can also give your love hormone (Oxytocin) levels a boost. So feel the love…

Barber Shop offers haircuts to the homeless ❤

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I’ve included Aussie, alternative EDM trio Haiku Hands before, but they’ve just released a new album with some bangers. ‘Grandma’ makes it onto the Cool Sh*t Spotify playlist this week.

ICYMI - Cool Sh*t Vol. 43 - Passenger Drones, McDonald's, The Beatles, League of Legends, Yeti, and more...

Cool Sh*t is typically written from the comfort of my own home, here in Sydney, Australia - Gadigal land. Always was, always will be. I pay my respects to their Elders past and present. I extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

The views expressed are my own.