DIARY: MindShare Japan gets a free ride with client brand

<p>Nice to see the region's finest exercising their considerable </p><p>brainpower on the crucial issue of blagging themselves free cars, er, we </p><p>mean coming up with innovative media ideas. Always on the lookout for </p><p>new types of placement, the clever chaps of MindShare Japan have come up </p><p>with a media solution which is nothing if not impactful: a </p><p>MindShare-branded car. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Known as the MindCar (surely it should be the MindMobile, or maybe the </p><p>WPP Wheels?), the car Ford Escape will be used for PR purposes, to </p><p>schmooze clients and media owners, and to ferry staff around to </p><p>meetings. It will also be loaned out to staff, who'll be able to use it </p><p>zoom around the streets of Tokyo at the weekends. It should raise a few </p><p>eyebrows there, according to Mindshare Japan CEO Mark Patterson, because </p><p>liveried media are a rarity in Tokyo. People who can read the English </p><p>writing on the car are also a rarity in Tokyo, we might add, but we </p><p>won't, because that would be cruel. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Best of all is the news that, in best hard-bargaining media-buyer style, </p><p>the agency got its hands on the car via a contra with its client </p><p>Ford. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>The question on everyone's lips: does the network plan to do the same </p><p>with its other clients? Can we expect to see a steady flow of </p><p>MindShare-branded Sony hi-fis, De Beers diamonds, Rolex watches, </p><p>Kellogg's cornflakes etc coming through the agency's doors? </p><p><BR><BR> </p>