A social networking tool becomes a publicity tool when "I speak, you speak, I reply, you reply" becomes "I speak, you listen".
From CenterNetworks.
Monday
Prep Unit
A couple years old but still classic – I always love a good Tea Party. And with over 4 million views on YouTube, I'm not the only one.
Check out the West Coast response previously posted by PJC.
Check out the West Coast response previously posted by PJC.
Saturday
Friday
Thursday
Nike + Supersonic = Amazing Promotion
This could be one of the coolest event promo's I have ever seen. Nike is creating an event in London called Supersonic for 3000 fast people.
There are only two ways to get in; run fast or know someone who can. Tickets can be "earned" competing at four weekly 100m speed trials across London throughout October. Each trial will feature live DJs, athletes, celebrities and Nike gear. Then the fastest 1,000 runners from the trials will get the opportunity to join the Nike+ Supersonic night with two guest passes.
The final event is starts with a 1K race at a secret location where ALL 1000 (500 men, 500 women) will be equipped with a iPod nano, Limited edition Nike running shoes with the Nike Plus sport kit. Who knows what the winner gets. Apparently a top DJ act will be performing during the run for all spectators.
One thing that instantly stood out when I visited www.nikesupersonic.com is that you land on a myspace page created for the event. Check out the site and watch the video it is well worth the time.
The campaing has a great viral aspect by including the 'know fast' element as you can forward an invite to your fastest friends hoping they qualify and bring your lucky ass.
Once again Nike has done something incredible.
Sony Bravia - Pyramid
Sony has released a 4th commercial - Pyramid. According to Adverblog it is rumoured to be a local execution for Egypt created by Y&R. I am not a big fan of the music selection, but the decorated pyramid at the end is awesome to see. Enjoy.
Wednesday
Super Crunching the Ontario Election
In the Ontario Provincial Election tonight (in Canada), TV network Global announced the minute the poles closed that the Liberal Party had won a majority government with at least 54 seats in the assembly.
No ballots had been counted, no ridings had reported.
Immediately after this prediction, Global went on to interview high ranking members of the Liberal party to congratulate them on the win and the majority.
How did they do it? Global conducted an exit poll across Ontario with approximately 6500 respondents. They asked respondents to disclose which party they had voted for and some of the factors as to why. The analysts were confident that their poll was accurate 19 times out of 20, with an error margin of 1.2%.
It was strange to say at the least, but it highlights a trend that is going to become more common - using statistical regression models (tracking the history of an event) to help predict the future.
This concept is wonderfully described Ian Ayres' new novel "Super Crunchers." It's scary to think that we can predict the future based on previous trends / polls.
For advertisers, having terabytes of consumer data to crunch provides us the ability to predict future actions - developing highly effective executions. Think it's far fetched?
Think about all of the information that you currently give to companies. Credit Companies, Teleco's, Amazon and Facebook - all storing your purchase history, likes and dislikes, goals and dreams. This information can be used for advertisers to effectively target the exact group they want.
If anything, it's interesting to see Super Crunching hit the political mainstream.
Stabilo Print.
I haven't yet decided if I like this campaign or not. I like the insight because I hate highlighters that run, are to thick, to skinny, etc. I don't think I like the campaign.
And...who selected the font for the line?
Do I like the execution? Ok, it is a little bit funny; yes it has an endless supply of possibilities...but does that mean it has legs? No. After viewing one or two of these I think the average consumer will choose to ignore them and move along. It reminds me of the word magents that you can use to make poems, one-liners, and jokes on your friends fridge. Yes the first couple times you are there you make a Juvenille Haiku about sex or a dirty rhyming couplet about...umm sex. After that you move on. Let's see how long this campaign remains in market.
And why not get the consumer involved? They should post pages form text books on a website and drive consumers to the site to highlight what they think is the funniest lines using their mouse. Then they can forward to their friend. Another thought could be to have students upload a picture of their highlighted text book making a funny statement as per the ads and then allowign them to forward it to friends for them to vote on the best. The page with the most votes wins free books and highlighters....I don't know just a thought.
And...who selected the font for the line?
Renault Ballet Crash Test
This would have been one hell of a shoot to be on. I especially appreciate the last scene. At first I was thinking "Here we go again, another commercial with cars driving in a desert as if they are performing a choreographed dance". Then it turned into a beautiful demolition derby. Nice twist Renault.
Tuesday
PostSecret
For all the complex websites out there, it always seems like the simplest ideas are the ones that breakthrough. Smart, easy ideas that allow users to engage with a site in an easy way.
PostSecret is a blog with a simple purpose - to allow people to anonymously post homemade postcards with a secret on them. By simply scrolling through the blog, you can see hundreds of examples.
Since it's inception, the blog has over 100 million hits and the author Frank Warren, has published four books using the images from his blog.
What does it take to do something like this? A smart, simple idea and a forum to start the conversation.
The (Useless?) Focus Group
A few weeks ago, we posted a quote from Henry Ford that went something like this:
"If I asked my customers what they wanted, they would have told me a faster horse."
Why do we use focus groups? To refine our creative or to ensure that if things go wrong we can respond, "...Well it did well in testing..." At best, these groups help provide a reality check for the brand and agency.
At worst, they influence the creative in horrible ways - diluting the execution making it un-inspiring, boring and terribly forgettable.
Arnold created this video for an opening to one of their presentations.
For those of us in the industry, it leaves you thinking - if they had listened...if Apple had been influenced or the account team scared, would 1984 have been created as it was? Would we still think of it as not only the most expensive ad ever created (at the time), but also one of the most iconic and memorable?
Focus groups can be helpful and smart respondents can point something out that an overly focused agency can forget. But they can't tell you exactly what they want.
If they could, we wouldn't have jobs.
"If I asked my customers what they wanted, they would have told me a faster horse."
Why do we use focus groups? To refine our creative or to ensure that if things go wrong we can respond, "...Well it did well in testing..." At best, these groups help provide a reality check for the brand and agency.
At worst, they influence the creative in horrible ways - diluting the execution making it un-inspiring, boring and terribly forgettable.
Arnold created this video for an opening to one of their presentations.
For those of us in the industry, it leaves you thinking - if they had listened...if Apple had been influenced or the account team scared, would 1984 have been created as it was? Would we still think of it as not only the most expensive ad ever created (at the time), but also one of the most iconic and memorable?
Focus groups can be helpful and smart respondents can point something out that an overly focused agency can forget. But they can't tell you exactly what they want.
If they could, we wouldn't have jobs.
Google is freakin huge.
When will the google machine slow down...
Google currently has a closing price of $609.62 per share. Based on this number Google has a market cap of $190.28 billion. The traditional media's Big 3 - Time Warner ($71.23 billion), Walt Disney Co. ($68.50 billion) and News Corp. ($49.00 billion) - equaled a combined $188.73 billion.
Media Daily News noticed that ..."Looked at another way, Google's market value is now 3.6 times greater than all of Madison Avenue's publicly traded ad agency holding companies - WPP ($17.72 billion), Omnicom ($16.43 billion), Publicis ($8.57 billion), Interpublic ($4.89 billion), Aegis ($2.96 billion), Havas ($2.484 billion), and MDC Partners ($274 million) - combined."
Google currently has a closing price of $609.62 per share. Based on this number Google has a market cap of $190.28 billion. The traditional media's Big 3 - Time Warner ($71.23 billion), Walt Disney Co. ($68.50 billion) and News Corp. ($49.00 billion) - equaled a combined $188.73 billion.
Media Daily News noticed that ..."Looked at another way, Google's market value is now 3.6 times greater than all of Madison Avenue's publicly traded ad agency holding companies - WPP ($17.72 billion), Omnicom ($16.43 billion), Publicis ($8.57 billion), Interpublic ($4.89 billion), Aegis ($2.96 billion), Havas ($2.484 billion), and MDC Partners ($274 million) - combined."
Monday
Cartoon Beer Ads - circa 1978
I guess back in the 70's ad standards related to alcohol were a little less stringent.
Quit Smoking or this will happen to your mouth.
Here is a anti-smoking ad from Australia. Extremely powerful visual that definitely sticks; that being said the first time I saw the ad I didn't register a thing that she said because I was in such shock from the picture.
Found on The Bottom Rung
Found on The Bottom Rung
Saturday
Thursday
"We need to create something viral"
A pretty daunting task for advertisers these days. Where do you start?For most people, the common response seems to center around video.
"Let's create a cool, low-key video showing [insert target] doing [insert semi-related brand event] in a neat way.
We'll post the video to YouTube, buy some Google keywords and bam - the next Dove Onslaught."
What we tend to forget is the "pass on" factor. Now that the video has been posted and stumbled upon by a few hundred people, what makes it worthy of an email? Why would some random blogger write about it?
More importantly, why would you spend 30 seconds or a minute engaging with it?
On extension of a viral idea is customized messaging that can be sent to your friends.
Remember how cool it was to get a Snakes on a Plane email from Samuel L. Jackson saying your name, career and hobbies? Or how strange it was to get a call from Chris Angel after he accurately predicted your phone number?
This simple application (that is also on Facebook) creates a customized video of Bob Dylan in one of his most famous music videos. In the video, Dylan has a series of signs that he goes through - each with different messaging. The catch? You simply type in what you want each sign to say and a video is created with Dylan shuffling through your message.
Send it to your friends and show them something neat. Great awareness for Dylan? Certainly.
Allow users to make their message personal. After all, it's a lot more fun to read a message from a friend than from a marketer.
It could be worse...
Interesting AIDS spot from the US. Not overly new, but with World AIDS week coming up in November, we will most certainly see another national AIDS Campaign.
EBAY - shop victoriously
A selection of the new spots for ebay. I think the insight is perfect. You actually do feel like you "won" your purchase when you have a succesful bid on ebay.
The victorious ads in order of my preference:
The victorious ads in order of my preference:
Wednesday
The Fall of Facebook?
One of the latest posts to the Wired Blog outlines a recent interview with Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. The subject of the interview revolves around three potential ways that Facebook could fail.
Based on some of the other recent social networks (ahem...MySpace), these scenarios could certainly play out:
1) The User Base evaporates - the current 40 million users grow tired of the network and as certain friends leave for other sites, they follow.
2) Weak Business Model - although marketers are seemingly dumping money into sponsored groups and targeted advertisements, the model is murky at best. Without proper expansion / a consistent revenue stream, things could start to go downhill.
3) Growth Stunted While Waiting for Public Sale - with user growth still going strong, is Facebook hurting itself while waiting to sell? Increased funds could help the network expand and increase its core revenue.
With the rapid increase and falls other networks, it might not be long until the Facebook base moves elsewhere to the next great Web toy.
Based on some of the other recent social networks (ahem...MySpace), these scenarios could certainly play out:
1) The User Base evaporates - the current 40 million users grow tired of the network and as certain friends leave for other sites, they follow.
2) Weak Business Model - although marketers are seemingly dumping money into sponsored groups and targeted advertisements, the model is murky at best. Without proper expansion / a consistent revenue stream, things could start to go downhill.
3) Growth Stunted While Waiting for Public Sale - with user growth still going strong, is Facebook hurting itself while waiting to sell? Increased funds could help the network expand and increase its core revenue.
With the rapid increase and falls other networks, it might not be long until the Facebook base moves elsewhere to the next great Web toy.
Tuesday
Dove Onslaught
A decent follow-up to the evolution campaign. What I like the most about the campaign for real beauty is their programs supporting the campaign such as the School for real beauty program, self-esteem fund and discussion boards.
Thanks Snowden.
Thanks Snowden.
Monday
7 Great Movie Speeches
Wanted to throw together a quick list of some of the best movie speeches out there. Why? No reason - other than to entertain and inspire. Tried to pick a number of different subjects and actors. Feel free to recommend and add.
Next week, we'll put together 7 of the best "real" speeches all-time.
Fantastic speech on the responsibilities of the media.
Hope - Morgan Freeman's greatest speech?
Best Sports Speech ever?
Potentially one of the most memorable moments in film History.
Memorable speech on life.
The Most Beautiful Thing?
Greed is good.
Next week, we'll put together 7 of the best "real" speeches all-time.
Fantastic speech on the responsibilities of the media.
Hope - Morgan Freeman's greatest speech?
Best Sports Speech ever?
Potentially one of the most memorable moments in film History.
Memorable speech on life.
The Most Beautiful Thing?
Greed is good.
Sunday
Ad Quote of the Day
"If advertising had a little more respect for the public, the public would have a lot more respect for advertising."
James Randolph Adams
James Randolph Adams
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)