There are a lot of things left unanswered as far as our future is concerned and a lot of it has to do with where we will find ourselves in the course of time. One thing we have to note is that global warming and eco-friendly issues will be beside us all the way and with that in mind, we cannot help but think what companies such as Sony will have for us by that time.

Sony can help us get a glimpse of things to come and they are showing this to us with this video that gives us highlights of the future. Take a look at this video so that you will have an idea on whether to look forward to the future or simply keep on wondering what we have in a couple of years ahead of us.

Technorati Tags: sony, technology, highlights, future, advertising, video, eco-friendly, global warming

Food has to be the most essential good that most people will surely buy. Food is among the basic necessities that most people need but it still remains that their benefits will be considered by people as well.

Food is at the top of the heap of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs of man. People need them to survive but they are also particular on what they eat. To ensure that people are not conned into something that will not provide them any good when it comes to digesting, it would be best to make sure that potential markets know what they are bargaining for.

Besides, healthy eating is an obvious practice today and people want to know if what they will be eating is bad or good for their overall health.

Government ministers today welcomed new television food advertising guidelines, saying they were a step forward in tackling New Zealand’s obesity problem.

The New Zealand Television Broadcasters’ council has launched a new Children’s Food Classification system as part of the guidelines for television adverts.

(Source) TV3 News

Technorati Tags: food, maslows hierarchy of needs advertising, television, guidelines, healthy eating

For people who want to make the right moves in advertising, it would be only normal to find them cramming to find the right books on how to make advertising work to their advantage. Most people turn to the usual educational marketing and advertising books, but the difference really lies on a book that focuses mainly on advertising prowess.

Such is the highlight of this book simply called “The History of Advertising”. Once you hear it, it may seem that it is a book made for a college student. But the real essence of any subject, advertising in this case, really lies on the focus of books that are available in the market today.

Divided into sections by decades, this book explores the legendary campaigns and brands of advertising’s modern history, with specific anecdotes and comments on the importance of every campaign. You will find the picture of the camel that originated the Camel pack, the first Coca Cola ad, and even how artworks by masters such as Picasso and Magritte have been used in advertising.

(Source) Design Directory

Technorati Tags: advertising, coca cola, picasso, magritte, marketing, books

Absolut is bringing one of their print ads to life in the newest spot from TBWA, titled, “Dissection.” The original print ad featured an exploding glass that reveal the vodka within. In the spot, TBWA takes it to the next level with the Absolut bottle itself exploding in slow-mo and the liquid inside staying in the quintessential shape. According to AdWeek, the vodka was actually shot in slow frames and minimal (20% or less) was CGI animation. I enjoy the ending where the pieces assemble themselves back together for the end tagline, “In an Absolut World.” Check out the ad for yourself below… what do you think?

Technorati Tags: Absolut, vodka, liquor, advertising, marketing, CGI, animation, commercials, TBWA

Apparently, the power of online advertising has been so far restricted and acknowledged only by the people who are in the United States and the United Kingdom. While online advertising and Internet marketing is rampant in the world today, it is really out of curiosity that countries such as the Philippines has not adopted such a tactic.

I call this funny for the fact that most of the Internet marketers in the world today come from the Philippines and India. While they are serving countries abroad through telecommute jobs, it makes you wonder why their point of origin does not know what it is missing.

“There is still a huge potential in the Philippines when using the Internet for marketing and advertising campaigns. All that is needed is that they are informed with the methods and tools that can be used by local advertisers and marketers,”

(Source) Philippine Daily Inquirer

Technorati Tags: advertising, Philippines, United States, United Kingdom, Internet marketers, online, telecommute jobs

Audi has been creating (or rather constructing) some fascinating spots lately, like the “strings” spot I wrote about a few months back.

This most recent spot from BBH London continues along the deconstruction & construction path, stylizing the internal workings of the Audi RS6 via Hugarian Gymnasts. Certainly not the first thing I would think of, but the suspension of reality and the acceptance of the gymnasts loosely representing the internals of an RS6 engine does something fairly powerful, and certainly creates an interesting spot.

So the ultimate question: do gymnastics, string figures, and automotive orchestras work to sell cars and change brand awareness? Or does it simply yield commercials that are interesting to watch?

We all know that the key towards making advertising work is to find ways to get attention. Apparently, this has been in the mind of people who have let out their creative artistry towards various means such as goods and transport media images that can really draw attention.

For some, this may seem funny, but the thing is, you are getting the attention which is important in any advertising and promotional gimmick. Laugh at it or like it, the fact remains that the key here is baring the ideas of modern advertising the people will use for larger market awareness and penetration needed by businesses today.

Technorati Tags: advertising, transport media, promotional gimmick, market awareness

 

To draw attention, controversial practices such as injecting sexual images will be condemned by most but it is relevant to the product or service being advertised, chances are they will be allowed to do so. Apparently, there are a lot of advertising and promotional practices used today that have had their share of being hit for their uncanny means of attracting attention.

It cannot be discounted that a lot of people have used these techniques to use controversy as an added value as far as attention grabbing is concerned. Some may not like it and even deem it as a dirty tactic. But in the world of business today, you just have to pull out all the stops even if it may be pointing towards risking morality issues we know of today.

“Naked people are wonderful, of course, but they have to be relevant to the product. You could have a naked person advertising shower gel or a cream, but not a woman in a bikini draped across a car.”

(Source) BBC News

Technorati Tags: advertising, promotional, naked, controversy, sexual images, business, techniques

In honor of Earth Day, here is a catchy poster by a non-profit organization called Pro WildLife. Located in Germany, Pro WildLife is committed to protecting the world’s wildlife from over-exploitation, habitat destruction and abuse. In this particular poster, penguins are pictured with what appear to be machine guns. Not only is is both edgy and attention grabbing, but it also drives the point home that we should never take for granted nor abuse our environment, including the other animals we share it with. This is just one of several posters in the campaign which can be seen here.

If you thought you could tell time, try using one of these unique watches from Tokyoflash Japan. How the heck do you tell the time on it? The watch goes for 14,900 yen or roughly $145 US bucks. This particular brand watch is the Shinshoku design, which consists of a stainless steel band and looks like it was attacked by a hole puncher. Twenty-nine brightly colored LEDs light up to somehow tell you the time. According to the makers, 12 red LEDs tell you the hour, 3 green LEDs indicate increments of 15 minutes, and 14 yellow LEDs indicate single minutes. Confused yet? Don’t worry; it comes with directions.

 

As far as making brochures and flyers is concerned, many would find it as pressure-packed as they have to create something out of the original ones we see in the market today. Most companies have graphic designers and artist whom propose the proper layout that will carry important company information which in turn will be the key towards providing information for its clients.

We see different concepts and layouts on how these print ad materials are presented. It all depends on what best suits the corporate image, an important thing that must be associated whenever a new idea for the marketing support materials comes up.

One thing you must consider though is not to be too enthusiastic about images and graphics. Remember, you need to put in proper text and use of fonts to make sure you get the real deal in making the most out of print layouts for marketing support of your business.

Here are some good tips on Brochure Designing

Technorati Tags: advertising, brochures, marketing, graphic_designers, print_ad_materials, marketing_support

We are all aware that arts and images are not the only thing that makes ads complete. There will be always the famous slogans and taglines to which contributes to the ultimate purpose of making brands stick into the minds of the consumer market.

Brand recall is a perfect pitch to make any product or service become totally familiar in the minds of the consumer. Although it may not immediately create an impact, effective slogans will really be something you should aware of if you want your whole advertising campaign to serve its purpose well.

Some famous slogans:

1. Coca Cola - “Always Coca Cola”
2. Camay Soap – “You’ll be lovelier each day, with fabulous pink Camay.”
3. Playstation 2 - “Fun anyone?”
4. Singapore Airlines - “Singapore Girl, you’re a great way to fly”
5. Verison Wireless - “Can you hear me now?? Good!!”

You can find more of the famous advertising slogans here.

I’m a typophile at heart and regardless of the project I’m working on, typography always plays one of the most crucial roles. Bad type is despicable and good type often near-orgasmic. For a quick refresher of the beauty of type, take a look at this short film:

It was Created by Vancouver Film School students Boca (a.k.a. Marcos Ceravolo) and Ryan Uhrich in the VFS’s Digital Design program. Impressive, to say the least. And inspirational. And just a quick & friendly reminder of the criticality of good type.

As far as creating advertisements are concerned, it is best to keep them simple. Not too wordy or too sophisticated. Remember that the first thing you have to consider is that people are not too fond of seeing ads with too much on it.Background colors are nice or even silhouette pictures. Use one or two expressive but general words that can capture the attention of your target market. The essence of a good ad is luring in the wandering eyes of the public. Once they are up and close, that is when they will start to read the fine print and see what you really have to offer.

Social marketing has an interesting, often overlooked, and somewhat confusing place in the advertising world. Using talent and skills to promote actual social change is no easy task, and it’s good to see agencies and events promoting positive social messaging every now and again. Good 50×70 is back in it’s second year, promoting “awareness amongst the creative community of the power they have to be a force for good.” Good 50×70, while much more at it’s core, is essentially a poster design contest:

There are 7 briefs from 7 charities on 7 issues that affect thousands of people around the world. All you have to do is pick a topic that inspires you and submit a poster on that theme. 210 posters (30 from each brief) will be selected by our jury of leading designers and exhibited around the world and published in a catalogue,but more importantly they’ll be presented to the charities for their use as a potential campaign.

This year has a broad and impressive list of charities involved and a hefty list of endorsers, including AGI, icograda and BEDA.

Cool stuff. Photos from last year’s event are on the Good50×70 flickr page. Good 50×70 is open for entries starting today, February 18, 2008, and entries are accepted through April 20th, 2008. And as it should be, entry is 100% free.
[via osocio :: photo via flickr]

I’ve always been a fan of Onitsuka Tigers, and most of the advertising and marketing over the past few years, like the Hero Breath cans, has certainly piqued my interest, but this newest campaign might just surpass all the others.

I’d heard the “Made of Japan” tag in the past and knew of the “Electric Tiger Land” concept but the end result thus far is more impressive than I’d anticipated. I could go on about the branding and messaging behind this round of Tiger marketing, but what strikes me most is the actual physical execution.

The fact that Strawberryfrog Amsterdam and R&D/product design firm Freedom of Creation teamed up to execute something fairly monumental is both impressive and refreshing. Today, there are many people (many of my good friends included) who would jump at the chance to entirely digitally create a world like that of the shoe above. It could be done fairly easily. But the fact that it wasn’t is beautiful.

The fact that Freedom of Creation actually went as far as to design the meter-long shoe and other branding accessories like a mini-led-shoe-USB stick is just perfect. And it speaks to the heritage and design sense that Asics is trying to keep alive with the Onitsuka line. The branding and message they’re communicating is great, but the fact that their methods speak directly to their means is superb. Check out the “making of” video below, and if you want more details, photos, etc, check out the Tiger page on FOC’s site here.

Technorati Tags: advertising, shoes, asics, tiger, onitsuka, beyond madison avenue

The International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas was this past week and being the tech geek I am, I was catching up on all of the event coverage, but nothing stood out quite as much in my eye as the Taser personal mp3 player, which apparently offers us “Fashion with a Bite.”

Is there really that high of a demand for a taser/music player combo? Maybe on the heels of “Don’t tase me, bro!” there’s a new market that has opened up I wasn’t aware of. I do applaud Taser International for executing such an unexpected combination, but my question remains: How does one effectively market such a device outside of a show like CES? Is it an ipod competitor or a personal protection device with the added feature of an mp3 player? The possibilities of music and tasering pairings do intrigue me. Maybe Taser could give us a Pandora station? In a world where products are constantly evolving to accomplish more, it’s always interesting to see what will come next. I can’t wait for next year [another interesting article (and video) on the mp3taser at The Guardian]

Technorati Tags: marketing, taser, leopard print, mp3 player, beyond madison avenue

So it’s barely 2008, and several high-profile brands are already in the midst of re-branding campaigns. I’d be willing to bet that this year will see more re-branding, more corporate identity re-structuring, and a shift in the direction branding is going.

While Snapple is re-branding with a bit of Web 2.0 flair, Xerox is going for more than just a little web flair. Trying to shake the copier association while simultaneously ushering in the digital age, they announced yesterday their plans for re-branding via a live webcast between the Xerox CEO, president, and 57,000 global employees.

Xerox cites the need for a logo that retains visual integrity in the coming HD format, as well as the need for a logo that translates better to the animated world of the web. While I can’t say that I always consider animation possibilities when designing a logo, I suppose it’s indicative of the shift away from print, which is certainly the direction in which Xerox wants us to follow them. Despite looking like a holiday rendition of the x-box logo mixed with a beach ball, I personally like the Xerox logo, as much for the logo itself as the justifications behind the re-branding. There’s an article in the NYTimes today detailing much of the the shift, with Xerox providing logical support for their changes, which is always nice to see.

Modern, dynamism, and youthfulness are continually (and somewhat arbitrarily) tossed around when discussing new directions for companies, especially relative to branding, which I find interesting although somewhat expected. With the growing popularity of YouTube in 2007 and the explosion of Facebook, the internet, web culture, and invariably the “youth culture” associated with it are rapidly becoming driving forces in the media, pulling both ad revenue and corporate attention. I guess in the grand scheme of things, it really isn’t all that surprising to see companies beginning not only to allocate resources to emerging media but to cognizantly re-brand with these new digital media and digital targets in mind. Any time large corporations shift with the trends and not years after, it’s refreshing. Whether or not these new logos will stand the test of time is a whole different story.

So, I am reasonably impressed with the new MS Zune advertising. It is not the most memorable campaign that has ever been produced, but it is doing, and doing well, what so many other campaigns are attempting to do but often fail. It is creating a sense of what the user experience will be when using the product.

These days, the ladies and fellas who make the commercials understand that the consumer does not want to be preached at. Instead, they work to convey a sense. The worst example of this are the PS3 ads from last year. And, I would honestly say that the Zune is one of the best examples at conveying an experience.

Technorati Tags: beyond madison avenue, zune, ps3, advertising, user experience

I’ve never worked in a call center. I’ve never dealt directly with complaints for any company I have ever worked for nor have I been responsible for trying to rectify a complaint on behalf of my company. But, I have made many complaints to companies over the years from the consumer end. Comcast, AOL, Newegg, and a host of other businesses have been the target of my wrath over the years. Needless to say, one bad experience, like the one I had with Newegg, ruins a company’s reputation and forces me to look elsewhere for ever and always.

Some companies just have a bad reputation for customer service. Comcast, for example, was recently ranked third worst in an MSN poll for customer service. I take little comfort in knowing it’s not just me.

Dell didn’t fare much better. Only 15% of the population polled called their customer service ‘Excellent’. The one difference between Dell and Comcast, other than industry, is the quality of Dell’s advertising campaigns. You’ve seen the new Inspiron commercial highlighting the company’s new colorful notebooks, I’m sure. The catchy tune in the background, the coloring associations, and overall imagery all blend together to form a highly successful commercial.

For a brief moment, I forget that a majority of Dell’s customer service call volume goes to call centers based outside the US where you’re forced to wait what seem to be hours before a real person answers, only to direct you to someone else because their department doesn’t handle your particular question. I forget that an e-mail inquiry can take up to a week before you receive a response. I forget that every so often a Dell simply ceases to function and the company charges you to replace the system (including the cost to ship it back to them) or its parts when you forgo their expensive three-year warranty extension. I forget all of the negative experiences I’ve had and complaints I’ve heard from others.

All I think is, “Wow that was a cool commercial.” Maybe that’s the point. Commercials aren’t just designed to highlight new products or deals; they’re also designed to increase positive brand recognition. Still, saying one thing while watching a spot during the game and thinking that same thing when I am in Best Buy picking out my next toy rarely happen.