Sunday

Diamond Shreddies!


If you haven't seen the new Diamond Shreddies campaign, you might be missing one of the best cereal campaigns in the last 20 years.

As a non-cereal eater and someone who doesn't wake up before noon on Saturday's (thus missing the morning cartoons and cereal commercials), this is one of the only cereal campaigns I actually remember (aside from Lucky Charms).

Shreddies hasn't changed in a number of years and unlike many cereals, it's not going too. This presents a problem from a marketing standpoint. The campaign objective is to make people think about Shreddies again - to make them talk about the simple cereal.

The "Diamond Shreddies" campaign meets this objective by having fun with the brand. Everyone knows that nothing has changed about the cereal. Everyone knows that turning the Shreddie sideways isn't that special. But some of the spots around the campaign are.

From the simple billboards to the research groups asking people to evaluate new diamond Shreddies vs. the old square ones, this campaign is creating word of mouth and has become a big hit.

Some people think the campaign is just plain dumb, others believe it's absolutely hilarious, but if we're talking about it (good or bad), it has done its job.

Check out the 'research' video below.

Live Fast; Ignore Bad Ads

Diesel does it again - creating "shock" value print ads in the hopes to be even cooler and more stylish. Although I don't hate these as much as the Global Warming campaign, I've got to say that these rank a close #2.

Nothing makes me want to wear $500 jeans more than the visual of making a blind man run or praying in a church on a treadmill.






Thanks for the heads up, Jen!

Apple's New Competition


Microsoft made a large decision this week and awarded their $300 million ad account to one of the hottest agencies in North America, CP+B.
According to Adrants, Microsoft spent over $1 billion in advertising in the US during 2006 and they have finally found their new agency.

CP+B are the creators of Whopper Freakout, Volkeswagen's "Ego Emissions" and "Safe Happens" campaigns and the "Man Law" Miller Light campaign. They've won a number of awards in the past couple of years and are on track to win more with their latest BK campaign and their Domino's Pizza website.

Fallon was Microsoft's previous AOR and I have to admit that I did enjoy their brand campaign TV spots for Vista. That being said, every time the marketing execs from Microsoft watch an Apple-PC commercial they must cringe at the success of their competitor.

Microsoft and CP+B have their work cut out for them. The reviews of Vista have not been kind and Apple's creativity continues to uplift their share price. Could an agency change be exactly what the company needs?

Maybe. But CP+B's ideas have been more on the irreverent side of impact than what Microsoft might be expecting. They have created impact and won awards but this will be their largest challenge.

For Microsoft, the next campaign will be their most critical. Can they shift from being the nerdy, boring brand that Apple made them? Better yet, can they go back at the folks at Apple to raise some points about their competitive advantages?

My guess is we will find out, one way or another, in about 6 months.

Horrible Parents

I just found this video on Digg and I have to say that it's one of the meanest pranks I've ever come across.

If you've ever said that your parents are mean, watch this and be thankful you grew up in the family you did.



Tech superblog Engadget has offered a free Microsift XBox 360 to the boy on the condition that he doesn't let his family play it at all. They've had some luck getting in touch with him and we will update the story when the reward has been given.

Microsoft might want to take this a bit further for some good PR - give the kid a ton of games, gear and swag. Then take it a step further and destroy his parents lives through a series of personal computer hacks (like Sandra Bullock in The Net), canceled social security cheques and mysterious withdraws from their bank accounts.

In the end, have the son get them on video as their house is being foreclosed. Then, in a fun ironic twist, have the son give them an XBox 360 as he drives off into the sunset in his Microsoft Hybrid car.

10 Interview Questions for the Digital Candidate

Found a quick (and simple) list of ten questions for aspiring interactive candidates. If you work in the space or are thinking about moving over, these questions may help to decipher who might be a good fit.

What these questions attempt to answer is whether someone is genuinely interested in the space or just simply aware of it. Everyone has heard of blogs, Google, Facebook and YouTube but if you've never taken the time to actually use them, how do you really know their capabilities?

Check out the full article from Logic+Emotion here and if you're interviewing anyone soon, be sure to throw a few of these in.

1. Do you read blogs? Which ones?
2. Do you have a personal blog? What's it about?
3. Do you participate in at least one social network? Which one?
4. Have you ever uploaded a video online? What did you use to do it?
5. What's your favorite search engine. Why?
6. Have you ever used an online classified service like craigslist?
7. Besides making phone calls—how else do you use your mobile phone?
8. Have you ever registered a domain name?
9. Do you use social bookmarks or tagging?
10. Do you use a feed reader of some sort? Which one? Why?

Friday

Ameriquest Campaign



I have got to thank my buddy Chris for this link. The entire "Don't judge too quickly " campaign one after another. Great campaign.

Thursday

Your Guide to Viral Videos...By Jimmy Kimmel

We are a bit behind in posting these two videos from the Jimmy Kimmel show, however they are worth it if you haven't seen them.

It all started with Sarah Silverman's video to her 'boyfriend' Jimmy:



You can image the effects that something like that would have on a guy - anger, dispair and frustration (especially when it's Matt Damon).

Jimmy just aired the response to this video and with over 8 million hits in just a few days, it's become quite the web hit.



Is it shocking that a video with about 50 celebs became viral? Not really - especially when Ben Affleck is involved.

FED EX CUP - CONFERENCE CALL

Ad Quote of the day

"A brand exists in your mind. It's a collection of associations or feelings people have about a particular product, service, or an organization. Branding is the tangible process of creating the signals that generate these associations."-- Allen Adamson, "BrandSimple"

Entertaining little video



Just for fun. Excellent brand placement by lego ;)

Found on exitcreative

Etrade - Baby gets Clown



The other day a girl I work with had a birthday. Her boyfriend sent her a singing clown.

He totally underestimated the creepiness.

This campaign is awesome. Babies, comedy and great casting on the v/o.

DC Shoes Gets it

DC shoes founder and current Chief Brand Officer is also a rally-car driver.

He is the guy behind the wheel. This doesn't feel forced, DC shoes isn't trying to be cool; it is cool so it can pull this sort of thing off. Skechers please don't try this.

Viral marketing is the future of entertainment

OOH - I liked

I mainly liked it because I despise smoking. Thank you Elana for the heads-up!

Old Bell Solo - Great Idea

Transit Shelter Ads were posted in different Canadian cities. By pushing the walkie-talkie button you were instantly connected to another shelter in a random Canadian city.

A great way to demo a product benefit while entertaining. I hope they recorded teh conversations.

From adgoodness

Sunday

Do You Know Your Target?



Do you really know your target? What they think, what they want and what they do?

A large number of people in our industry - account, creative even production - have no idea. It's easy to get sidetracked; we've got timelines to meet, clients to answer too, research, studio, production, creatives, more briefs to write, copy decks...the works.

But that's no excuse. Are you working on a product that targets children 8-16? Well then you must know who this is. No?

It's Disney superstar - Hanna Montana. Currently one of the hottest tickets in the world to see...and yes, she even dances. If you watched the Oscars on Sunday, you might recognize her as she was one of the presenters.

You don't have to love what your target does (even though Aladin was amazing) but you should know what they do. It might take a few days of reading and watching shows you wouldn't on your spare time, but it will be worth it.

Saturday

The "Fun" of Client Approvals

How many approvals does your creative have to go through?

My guess is that the norm would be at least 4:
  • Creative Director
  • Brand Director
  • Direct Client Report
  • Clients Boss
For some, it's way more. But hey, at least the feedback is never consolidated...



From Bannerblog

Hey Jude Cover

This video currently has over 2200 digs...

Monday

How Agencies Sell Themselves

Found this great post from the W+K London blog tonight. It's all about the different slogans that agencies use to help position themselves to clients.

What do you think? Rhetoric or meaningful?

JWT
Slogan: 'Time is the new currency'
They say: "The power of brands can be measured in their ability to attract people's time. Time is what's most valuable to people all around the world, and the way they spend it is predictive of the way they spend their money. Our role is to ensure that more people spend more time with our clients' brands, in the knowledge that their money will follow."

DDB
Slogan: 'Co-creation'
They say: "Co-creativity is a process that puts consumers at the heart of the solution. It's agnostic about where the best idea comes from – online, branded content, advertising, an event – in fact, it is increasingly likely that it is through combining all of these and more that the most creative and influential ideas will be gained."

M&CSAATCHI
Slogan: 'Brutal simplicity of thought'
They say: "The slogan comes from the idea that it's easier to complicate than simplify. Simple messages enter the brain quicker and stay there longer, so brutal simplicity of thought is therefore a painful necessity."

Saatchi &Saatchi
Slogan: 'Nothing is impossible'
They say: "From the outset the Saatchi brothers broke the rules, challenged industry norms and created work that was groundbreaking in every respect. Brands are faced with the danger of becoming commodities that lack differentiation, but we believe that bold and infectious creativity can drive loyalty beyond reason for brands."

BBH
Slogan: 'When the world zigs, zag'
They say: "Our first ad was a poster for Levi's black denim: a flock of white sheep heading one way, with one black sheep going the other way. The message captures our approach to life."

TBWA\London
Slogan: 'The disruption agency'
They say: "All brands have ambitions to outpace the competition, but too many go through life copying their competitors. We aim to uncover the clichés, assumptions and conventional wisdom that hold a category back, then look for opportunities for brands to grow by disrupting those conventions."

Ogilvy Group UK
Slogan: 'To be most valued by those who most value brands'
They say: "The slogan was coined in 1993, but its roots go deeper, to David Ogilvy's belief in the power of brands, as long as they stay relevant and continually refresh their appeal. Our view is that branding is a genuinely useful concept that helps good companies defeat bad ones, so the clients we most want are those who share this belief. We don't apologise for this idealism, since the most successful brands tend to have longstanding ideals at their core, which can be dramatised in myriad ways over time."

Wieden + Kennedy
Slogan: 'Creating strong, provocative relationships between good companies and their customers'
They say: "We believe that great brands lead from the front. They provoke, inspire and change the cultural landscape. The most successful brands have fans, not customers, and the relationship between a brand and its fans is based on dialogue, not monologue."

Euro RSCG London
Slogan: 'Contagious ideas'
They say: "We live in a world where consumers can more judiciously edit what they consume, [and can] mould and reconfigure ideas relatively easily and be far more expressive to their friends, family and colleagues about what they like and don't like. Contagious ideas live beyond the space in which they first appeared by creating word of mouth, word of keyboard or media interest."

Fallon
Slogan: none
They say: "We choose not to have a fixed positioning point. In an increasingly open media and creative environment, where more is possible every day, we feel that it doesn't make sense to pre-pack what we do. What we do, and how we do it, is fundamentally bespoke and about building the confidence to do something different."


Thursday

The New Instant Win


Download the software. Find a Pizza Hut promo poster. Take a picture and you are instantly taken to the Promo site and told what you have won. Everything from coupons to prizes.
This promo is simple, rewarding and instant - I like it. What could make it better? Have the software available for a bluetooth download from transit shelter ads or kisoks in Pizza Huts.
Found on Adrants (which I am enjoying a lot less than I used to).

Consumption on the move

I have spent the last 30 minutes studying this graph. I find it amazing. The most intersting items I have pulled from it are that it is entertainment items that have the fastest adoption rates and not quality of life products. It looks to me like the products that have the steepes curves are VCR, colour TV and radios.

I have also noticed that there appears to be some loose correlation between related products, which would be expected. Computer and internet curves both seem to increase after a 20% adoption, for these products it took 20% of households to convince the other 40% that these products are worth your dollar.

Found on Adverlab via NY times

Monday

Rogers Wireless - Now on Facebook

Rogers Wireless, a Canadian Telcommunications company, has recently launched a new corporate page on Facebook called MyMusic.

MyMusic is a page that consolidates a number of music partnerships that Rogers has - from top Universal artists to MTV Canada, as well as their own music properties like the Rogers MusicStore and Redpipe.

It also houses an application, called MyArtist, that allows you to post questions for featured artists. The top five users with the most questions after a few weeks have them asked to Hedley (the current band) in an exclusive interview that is then posted back to the page.

In the interests of full disclosure, I have helped develop this page over the last few months and am excited that Rogers is now involved in the Social networking world.

When developing the page, we did an audit of how other brands are using Facebook (see Verizon or TD for examples) and found that the majority of them are simply creating wallpaper pages that drive back to their home sites.

One of the main objectives of MyMusic was to ensure that the user experience was not fragmented and kept within the Facebook environment.

Although we only have a few hundred fans, the hope is that we will continue to grow the page over time (with additional artists and apps on their way) and become a solid part of the social network scene.

Feel free to add your comments - good or bad - and please visit here if you want to check it out.

Sunday

100 for 18?

In a recent NY times article, columnist Ron Nixon goes into an in-depth overview of how the RED campaign has performed. Launched a few years ago by some mega-brands - GAP, Motorola and now Dell - the campaign was designed to raise awareness about the AIDS epidemic and the funds raised help go to HIV foundations in Rwanda, Ghana and Switzerland.

Even though the cause is an excellent one, many groups are criticizing the campaign because (after an Advertising Age article) of the amount of money spent on advertising vs. the amount donated - approximately $100 million vs. $18 million.

Although their actions are noble, the brands associated true objective was most likely to build brand preference by leveraging a social cause.

It has certainly worked. The campaigns for Red from Motorola, Dell and Gap have been quite powerful but they are also expensive to produce. Would it have been better to have simply lobbied these companies to give a one-time donation directly to the fund rather than advertise as well?

For Red, yes. For the brands, hell no.

$18 million in the context of a donation is a massive number and the Red campaign as certainly done a lot of good for the AIDS cause. But make no mistake, it's sold a lot of non-Red products for the brands involved as well.

Innovative Out of Home






Full list of about 40 more pictures here -

10,156,199,000


That's the number of videos that were viewed online in 2007 according to Comscore.

Google sites (YouTube), represented the largest stake of the views with over 32% of the total. With numbers like that, the pre-roll won't be far away!

From Mashable -