There were 40 of them, they were full of enthusiasm, but most importantly they were with us for a whole weekend in Marseille, France, for the presentation of the new The Body Shop fragrance: Love Etc...™.

It is in a kind of crazy but mostly relaxed and a little magical atmosphere that the BuzzParadise team met up with 40 of its bloggers from France and Switzerland on a Saturday to embark on a very special train journey to Marseille.

In honor of the launch of its new Love Etc...™ fragrance, the ethical beauty company decided to invite the blogging ladies to the French metropolis Marseille to one of the largest The Body Shop boutiques in Europe to introduce them to the new fragrance before the perfume's official launch. There were several fun activities on the agenda:

Firstly, a train ride during which the bloggers could:
get their makeup done by Sandrine, the official The Body Shop make-up artist,
get a hand massage by Julie, also a member of The Body Shop team,
participate in musical blind tests mc'ed by our friend Florent,
participate in other surprising activities around the Love Etc…™ theme.

Secondly, a The Body Shop party in a privatized boutique in which the bloggers could:
discover the Love Etc…™ perfume (whose scent based on a mélange of jasmin, creamy musk, sandal wood and bergamot should seduce more than just a few) before its official launch. Not to forget, it contains alcohol derived from sugar cane obtained through fair trade. This is one way for The Body Shop to continue developing their fair trade program.
discover the The Body Shop Christmas product range

This was followed by a “Fiesta du Sud” party with VIP access, champagne etc… and last but not least a “sea, relax and sun” day on the Frioul Islands for a lunch themed Love Etc…™ thanks to The Body Shop and Raphaelle.

In short, a very successful perfume launch (95% positive feedback among the participants) that allowed all to get together in a welcoming and agreeable ambiance. A huge thanks to the bloggers that attended and participated in the activities, and especially to The Body Shop, who showed that an internationally renowned brand can be available and listen to its consumers. The team gave us a warm welcome and was there for all the bloggers to ensure a great weekend.

You can find photos of the event here. For those that would like to relive the weekend in a moment, a video says more than a thousand words!

The world's leading steel producer, ArcelorMittal, has launched a new innovative online version of its corporate magazine boldspirit.

After the 2007 high end print version praised for its dynamic and human approach, the magazine has now entered the digital world.

The objective of this new website is to facilitate internal communication within the group, in line with its slogan ‘transforming tomorrow'. This global, innovative and inclusive communication project is complementary to the brand's highly successful Web TV that was launched 3 years ago in cooperation with Vanksen communications agency.

As an ezine written mainly in English, boldspirit addresses a mainly professional, both internal and external audience, including the media. This allows for a real communication between all stakeholders on an international level. The human dimension is underlined by highlighting employees worldwide, such as in the feature, “A Day in a Life” which highlights one worker's day.

boldspirit is the latest of a number of successful projects created in cooperation between the steel giant and Vanksen communications agency. Season 1 and Season 2 of ArcelorMittal Web TV were a major success both internally and externally.

Vanksen USA has launched its latest viral video to support Lands' End's Big Warm-up campaign (great flash website created by Firstborn) aiming at enticing consumers in the Boston region to donate their gently used coat for Boston's 8,000 or so homeless people. Produced by New York based Caid Productions, the original viral video not only delivers what the brand wanted but also puts the user at the core of the experience, activating emotions as a powerful trigger to engage consumers.

In addition to the powerful creative concept and the flawless production, a new innovative technology was developed: a viral module for Twitter and Facebook, allowing users to easily post and spread the video through these leading social platforms. While the results of the campaign are confidential, it already appears that all the elements of a wildly successful viral campaign are present: creativity, execution, innovation and customer engagement.

As explains Thierry Daher, CEO of Vanksen USA, the results of the The Big Warm-up campaign were so heartwarming that Lands' End CMO decided to extend the campaign to a national level and to involve SEARS, their parent company into the promotional effort. In addition, a 30 seconds TV commercial version of the video was cut, to be broadcasted on TV in Boston. A great success for a good cause!

More information on bigwarmup.com.

Evian has just launched a teasing campaign in order to promote their new website, evianliveyoung.com, in which the stars are... babies. They are little, they are talented... they are the Evian babies!

This of course reminds us greatly of the superb campaign orchestrated by Euro RSCG BETC, which featured babies dancing to the Hollywood ("Bathing Beauty" with Esther Williams) inspired choreography over a "Bye Bye Baby" score.

10 years later, the brand that claims to be a "source of youth" to the body is again ready to show the beneficial qualities of their products on babies.

Baby Moonwalk

BuzzParadise has been happy to be involved with the teasing and the launch of this campaign across Belgium, France, Switzerland, the US, the UK and Germany. These two videos are just the beginning of a series of entertaining and surprising creations.

To be continued on evianliveyoung.com on July 3rd!

To celebrate the 1 year anniversary of the MA DAME perfume, the Jean Paul Gaultier Maison de Couture has collaborated with a yet to be revealed artist. MA DAME is pumping the volume, shaking any tails, and shrouding itself in mystery.

Launched on June 8th, 2009, the new Jean Paul Gaultier campaign managed by Vanksen/Culture-Buzz kicked off with a teasing phase broadcast all over the Internet and on the ma-dame.com website.

Female bloggers of the BuzzParadise community have also been invited to participate in the celebration. Their challenge is to discover, with the help of their readers of course, the name of the very secret special guest. The first 30 to write an article containing the "guest star's" name will be treated to a JPG prize. This is a truly cosmopolitan contest, as it is open to the French, Italian, Belgian, Spanish and English blogosphere!

So who is the hidden face behind Rose'N'Roll? For those who haven't seen the teaser yet, check out the MA DAME website and watch the video filmed at the Jean Paul Gaultier Maison de Couture, it contains a few clues...

You can also follow more MA DAME adventures on the Facebook page or the website.

In order to be one of the first to find out who is behind Rose'N'Roll on June 22nd, 2009, you are invited to leave your contact information on the site. In the meanwhile, get to investigating!

For one second, just imagine this: You are seated comfortably in your office watching a video on your computer. All of a sudden, your cell phone rings. You pick up the phone and ask who it is. On the other side of the line is none other than the hero of the video you are watching, asking for your help!

Once you answer your phone, you embark upon a unique and exciting adventure. You become the true game master. The goal of the game is to direct the hero via the shortest route to the closest airport using your cell phone.

Does this not strike you as a utopian concept? easyJet developed the concept in collaboration with Vanksen, relying mostly on the revolutionary technology known as web call-back. This brilliant technology allows the player to interact directly with the game using his/her cell phone keys, which synchronizes the video based on the player's directions.

Vanksen is gearing this interactive experience for the German, French, Swiss, and Italian market, meaning that it is unfortunately not accessible from the United States (in 2008 the agency had already conducted a similar action for the French theme parc Futuroscope). Despite its inaccessibility from the U.S., this is nevertheless an extremely interesting concept that global attention should be paid to.

Vanksen's objective, directed by its client, is to increase easyJet's brand awareness. In a domain as competitive as the airline industry, a campaign must be even more than just inventive to capture attention across the board and stay ingrained in people's minds.

Once the player has entered his/her information, it is collected in opt-in (consensually of course, by way of a check box), which allows easyJet to put together a list of people potentially interested in their offers.

Numerous studies have shown that when customers engage in a particular action they also emotionally engage themselves with the content, as in the case of the game. The rate of retention in relation to the brand is much higher when the consumer is able to actively participate.

In reality, it is not merely a game, it is a veritable consumer experience. Even though they may not realize it at the time, while playing, the consumers are much more exposed to the brand than they would be by simply navigating on the brand's official website. This is due to the fact that they must stay on the application several minutes at a time in order to play.

Through these types of innovative tools, the consumer experience is much more personal, and communication becomes much less intrusive. This new kind of marketing allows for content to infiltrate the unconscious, all without the consumer feeling manipulated or overwhelmed by countless promotional messages.

If you happen to be in Europe right now, try it out at itstimetoleave.com!

For the second consecutive year, Orangina is organizing the Wake Jam Tour in the heart of France's biggest cities for the entire month of June: Paris (May 29—31), Bordeaux (June 5—6), Tours (June 13—14), Lille (June 19—20), and Marseille (June 26—28).

As wakeboarding means being pulled by a boat on a body of water, this sport is not easily accessible to most of us. Orangina has thus decided to allow city dwellers to discover this sport. Framed by two French professional riders (Kevin Calvez and Bertrand Oustrieres), those who are both courageous and curious can initiate themselves to wakeboarding and refine their style in a festive and convivial setting, and of course cool down at the Orangina bar all day long.

To promote this online, Orangina called on BuzzParadise for a social network operation (PR2.0, Facebook, Flickr...). Two French bloggers (coached by the pros) selected by BuzzParadise got the chance to live up to the challenge and show us their physical condition (or lack thereof...).

You can find more information on the Facebook Official Orangina Page group (in French), and of course also exclusive photos on Flickr (yes, you'll understand those even you're not fluent in French...!). To be continued...

For those not familiar with Audemars Piguet, it is a Swiss brand founded in 1875 by two men with a passion for watchmaking, Jules-Louis Audemars and Edward-Auguste Piguet. Today, the Swiss manufacturer has become an international luxury brand, and like its competitors, the brand must protect its image both offline and online.

During the past 6 years, the domain name "Audemars Piguet" had been cyber-squatted by an illegitimate holder. This holder was using the brand's name for commercial gains through a parking page containing commercial links to sites selling fake watches.

The domain name game has considerable stakes! A cyber-squatted site damages the image of the pirated brand. It also reduces the brand's visibility, and thus also its chances to make sales, especially in case of counterfeit product promotion on the website in question.

In order to protect its e-reputation and to fight against the cyber-squatting to which it fell victim, the brand called on Vanksen-LegitiName, a company specializing in the protection and promotion of brands. After 8 months of negotiations with the cybersquatter, LegitiName finally won. "It has been an 8 month fight that has now ended in success. We have protected a brand that has been under attack by web pirates for several years. [...] We will not let these types of individuals use our brand awareness, cause harm to the watchmaking industry and make counterfeiting profitable", explains Stefano Maddalena, head of the Judicial Department of Audemars Piguet.

The mission of the Vanksen-LegitiName experts is to analyze the level of damage done to a brand's intellectual property rights, as well as the severity of the damage. Cecile Lhemery, LegitiName account manager explains: "We advise our clients to put into place some measures that we find indispensable because sites identified as fraudulent take away sales opportunities and negatively impact a brand's image. It is extremely important to protect domain names in order to protect oneself from long term danger".

In a time where Internet has taken on colossal proportions in the act of purchasing, it is crucial for brands to take an interest in their e-reputation. The actions taken by LegitiName for Audemars Piguet have been covered by different media.

"HOME" is one of the most surprising films of the year. It is a film whose objective is to make us conscious that the earth is in danger, meaning that we are as well.

A worthy successor to Al Gore's film, An Inconvenient Truth, HOME has chosen a very particular way of making itself known. Granted, the traditional media have been used, including the written press and outdoor advertising. Television commercials will also be diffused.

In the meanwhile, HOME is also using a medium that can no longer be ignored, the social network Facebook. Today, Facebook has over 200 million users, and even advertising professionals cannot do without it any more in their media plans. For their campaign, HOME hired TBWA Auditoire, in conjunction with Vanksen-BuzzParadise for the Facebook portion.

The message of HOME is simple: "We all have a date with the planet". Its goal is also simple: to bring together the largest amount of people possible on this page in order to diffuse the video to the largest amount of viewers. We are counting on you to participate in this viralization. So join, share, and viralize!

Videos, messages from Yann Arthus Bertrand, from the director Luc Besson, as well as from Francois Henry-Pinault are all present on the film's Facebook page. You want to know more? It's just a click away...

A few months ago, BuzzParadise was able to allow its blogger community to discover The Body Shop's commitments concerning fair trade. Selected bloggers got the chance to meet brand representatives, debate bio-ethical cosmetics, and spread the ethical and involved brand's message all over the Net.

Present across more than 60 countries and having more than 2,500 stores, The Body Shop positions itself as a brand that responsibly uses the world's resources and whose packaging is 100% recyclable. Also known for its fair trade program and HIV prevention campaigns, the brand knows how to awaken people's consciences towards the causes it supports.

Convinced that companies have the power to positively change world, The Body Shop has decided to work with BuzzParadise again, in order to launch its new campaign, "Yes Yes Yes To Safe Sex". On March 27th, in cooperation with MTV Networks, the brand launched the lip butter Temptation and the yestosafesex.com interactive website, all in the scope of their global AIDS prevention campaign, with profits going to the Staying Alive Foundation.

The foundation's goal is to educate youth on the dangers of unprotected sex and of AIDS. Although we have a tendency to forget this, the AIDS problem is far from being resolved: 3,000 young people contract it every day, and more than half of them are between the ages of 15 and 24 years. It is time to spread the "Yes To Safe Sex" message.

BuzzParadise has called on its committed BuzzAngels and has encouraged them to voice their commitment to this cause. On the website, created by MTV, you can read the word "yes" in different languages. Throughout their navigation on the website visitors are invited to promise to commit to different good practices.

In order to thank them for their active participation, the bloggers were given a BuzzKit, which consisted of two Temptation lip butters to give to their readers. This same butter, which can be found in The Body Shop stores, is sold in a limited edition, and comes with two Durex (also a campaign partner) condoms. Through this campaign the bloggers were able to express themselves for a cause rather than for a product. Again, the The Body Shop has shown through one of its campaigns that blogs can be an effective way of getting out important messages.