I got into a discussion today with a friend about the Nike and Adidas campaigns and how they address the sport of soccer. I was well-aware of the recent Nike campaign, “Take it to the next level,” but I wasn’t as familiar with what Adidas was up to putting forth. Well I looked around (and watched) and have to say I’m impressed. Adidas produced a documentary surrounding Kaká, Messi, Gerrard and Beckham meeting local football teams in Andorra, San Marino and the Isles of Scilly as part of the film project “Dream Big”.

The production quality of the project is awesome and the feeling that it creates is truly heartwarming. Adidas sending out sports stars to these small cities creates a sense of global awareness and conscience. The concept of “Dream Big” is a strong message that speaks for both Adidas and youth culture in general.

Check out the full-length documentary on youtube: part one and part two.

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

Apple is known for it’s advertising. Has been for awhile. Recently, mostly with the invention of the iPod, Apple has been responsible for helping to launch the careers of some once-unknown artists. I don’t think I actually know anyone that had heard of Feist, CSS, Yael Naim or The Ting Tings before their partnerships. And hey, as an up-and-coming artist, can you think of a better way to launch your career?

Now, while I’m excited that these talented artists are getting some of the attention they deserve, whenever I hear “New Soul,” by Yael Naim I want to throw my TV/radio/computer through a window. I don’t know if this is because the commercial was WAY overplayed or what. But this morning, while watching VH1, the song started playing, I immediately turned around to change the channel, thinking it was the ad and having zero desire to see that laptop in an envelope one more time. However, I found that it was actually VH1 doing a little news blurb on her. So I feel like I’m torn. I like the ad… but only for the first three times I see it, because next thing I know, I can’t stand hearing the song. Unlike other ads I could watch over and over without getting old. It got me thinking… does this happen to anyone else? Do you hate Apple commercials? Or do we just grow tired of the song, like being overplayed on the radio? Maybe a mini test you can try for yourself. MacBook Air commercial is below, followed by music video for the song. Can you make it through the whole thing? I can’t.

Technorati Tags: Apple, MacBook Air, iPod, music, Yael Naim, CSS, Feist, The Ting Tings, advertising, promotion, commercials, music videos

It never ceases to amaze me how GMC, Ford, Toyota and Dodge always seem to get it right when targeting their core audience when it comes to truck buyers. For example, when you’re watching your next sporting event on TV this weekend there is a 90% chance you will see all of the following: heavy duty manual labor being performed, a ball-cap and/or flannel shirt, some rough terrain driving, and of course a shiny new truck. That’s a given, it’s been that way for at least thirty years.

 

Now, here’s where it gets really clever. You will probably see four or five different landscapes that represent a generic part of the US. This gives the prospective buyer their real sense of identify. Much more so than the other characteristics listed above. To me, this marketing scheme is brilliant. What these advertisers have figured out is that “America’s Heartland” is not in the fields of the Midwest, the Texas plains, or the back roads of the South, but rather about thirty miles outside the city limits of anytown USA.

The bottom line is this; the truck is distinctly American. Not rural American, country American, western American, northern American , southern American, etc. And if you think I’m wrong, go to any major city and look at who is driving them. There is no “typical” owner. America identifies with trucks not so much for use anymore but rather for landscape and memories.

This morning I read an article in Ad Age about new campaign that will be launching soon for Amstel Light. Previously, Publicis had dubbed Amstel Light as a beer for the connoisseur, someone who was looking for a sophisticated taste and used the tagline was “Live Tastefully.”

Now, the Richards Group is taking a stab at changing the brand and naming it, “Dam Good Bier,” proudly showing the beer’s Amersterdam heritage. The campaign, which will heavily hit New York City, is set to feature Dutch-style bikes (including a beer bike, like a traveling bar), and will rely on lots of print and TV as well. Personally, I’m pretty excited to see how the Richards Group is going to pull this off. It also makes me wish I lived in NY and could see these bikes riding around. Perhaps a special trip is in order.

So as the new campaign will be upon us, it’s time for beer drinkers everywhere to say goodbye to tasteful living and embrace Amstel Light as a lawless party beer, Amsterdam style.

Technorati Tags: beer, Amstel Light, Amsterdam, party, alcohol, advertising, branding, guerilla marketing, bier, Dutch

We are quite familiar with the integration of the movie the Transformers into most car advertising today and while some may like them, others use them as a point of reference to show other people why it would be best to use known brands.

There are two ways to which this type of advertising approach can be used. Positive in the sense that it gives life into the cars that are being sold today and negative for people who want to avoid a complicated and techie automobile when all they want is convenient transportation.

Whichever way you look at it, it all boils down to one thing; getting the eye of most car enthusiasts whether they will buy a car or not.

Technorati Tags: advertising, chevrolet, transformers, commercials, brands

I’ve been staring at this ad for two days trying to figure out if I like it or I don’t.

I love the image on the right. I think it’s clever and pretty.

I don’t like the break in the middle of the page (it appears to be a corner?) because it distracts the text.

I find the usage of “bold” and “light” superfluous in the copy but most of all my nagging is over one word:

“soulmates”

I’m trying to decide if I’m being too tough or if, my initial reaction that it’s just a cookie and the melodrama of the word soulmate is reaching a little high.

I get what the writer is trying to say. I don’t necessarily mind the attributing of human qualities to inanimate objects, which is often death, but can be done well.

But my initial reaction was there are other ways to say what the image is conveying than the use of the word “soulmates”–”together forever,” “a perfect match,” “inseparable,” “love,” “perfection,” “perfect” etc.

To be honest I kind of scoffed at the use of the word when I first read it, even though I love the image on the right.

While searching for a picture of the ad, I found another take on it, one that not only takes the writer to task for making “soul mates” into “soulmates” but also claims the ad is racist compared to other ads that define chocolate as “the devil:”

Is the primary intent selling cookies or white supremacy?

…

When studying the racist idea of chocolate over white you clearly see it defined as a devil

When it is white over black it uses captions that are definitively described as Angel’s food. In the case of the ad with the white male image and the black female image it clearly reads soulmates.

Even the written grammar “soul mates” in the Pepperidge farm ad becomes a conjunction and is now one word thus you have soulmates. Angel’s food and Soulmates both quantify as a relative meaning. The further you go into this mindset the more disturbing this behavior gets (pathological).

Comedian and Writer Warren Hutcherson used to have a great bit on how is father could find racism in foods at the grocery store (green olives are in clear jars, black olives are in cans; white Frosted Flakes are “great” but black Cocoa Puffs make you go cuckoo, etc.)

After reading this guy’s take on the Milano advertising, ironically enough my reaction was the same as the first time I saw the word “soulmates.”

“Dude, it’s just a cookie”

Technorati Tags: Pepperidge Farms, Milano, cookies, racism, copywriting, Warren Hutcherson, reading too much into things

One thing you have to note about the great commercials we know of today is that people will want to see them over and over again. This is one of the best forms of advertising today and apparently most companies want to make sure that their ads cover all the grounds and necessities expected by their target market with regards to the product or service that they are offering.

Tools used in advertising such as the consideration of people, place and the script are important. To most, advertising means something only if they cost and show the product. Add that touch of creativity and right mix of tools and you will find people wanting to see that production on television over and over again.

Advertising commercials likewise helps establish an indirect form of brand recall so that future products or services will likewise be established in the process.

Walt Disney Co. is trying to get inside the minds of television viewers.

The Burbank-based entertainment company, with its profitable ESPN and ABC entertainment networks, said Tuesday that it was developing an “emerging media and advertising research lab” to try to figure out why people watch the shows they do.

(Source) Los Angeles Times

I’m a huge fan of the idea behind the “original games” campaign. Cafe ping pong & street fencing are genius. The 180 Amsterdam commercial (below) produced by Stink (London) piqued my interest.

And with concept that grabs my attention as much as this one, I was hoping for a bit more than some playable computer games. And while the Skate-or-Die-style of game is cool, there’s still a bit of a disconnect for me from the true idea behind it all (or at least what I hoped the true idea would be). Still a cool execution, but I hope these games aren’t the finale of the “original games” concept… it seems to have so much potential.

(I was going to embed one of the games, but this site’s formatting shrinks it down and messes up the flash a bit, so click the image above to be taken to the Adidas site to best experience the games.)

Small businesses do not have the luxury of advertising lackadaisically today. For one thing, budgets are limited and by all means, they have only one shot at making good their advertising opportunities work for their business.

Overall, this may seem easier said than done. There is a gamble and risk in using advertising tools. Being a small business on the rise, proper analysis and deliberation must be done by business managers to make sure that such resorts can indeed be helpful to the company’s cause.

For what it is worth, it would be best to consider everything through analysis and studies. By doing this, the feasibility of using advertising mediums can be justified and lowering the risk of a useless way of helping promote a business and what it has to offer.

“In advertising, large companies can make small mistakes and survive,” notes Mark Preiser of Walter F. Cameron Advertising in Hauppauge. “They can even make large mistakes and survive. Small companies don’t have the same luxury.”

(Source) Newsday.com

Technorati Tags: advertising, small business, feasibility, advertising mediums, promote, business

Check out this new ad by London-based CHI&Partners for their client, Drench, a bottled water brand in the UK. In this Napoleon Dynamite-esque spot, you watch as a marionette impressively dances across a stage to “Rhythm is a Dancer,” by SNAP!. The puppet featured is Brains from the hit British TV series Thunderbirds from the 60s. The name Brains cleverly works with the product’s positioning that since your brain in 75% water, you should keep it topped up and it also brings back the marionette animation that the TV show was known for. For those unfamiliar with the show and character, enjoy the spot for the entertainment factor. And for those who know Brains, well, this one is for you.

 

Technorati Tags: bottled water, Drench, Thunderbirds, Brains, hydration, advertising, London, UK, Napoleon Dynamite, SNAP!, commercials, TV, advertising

If you haven’t heard it yet, Facebook is the latest hit social networking site that has been the cause of all the commotion these days and a lot of the people endorsing this are the youth. Now with that said, this is a wide area of opportunity in getting ads across which apparently are being abused by some sectors, most notably the credit firms.

It has also set up a Facebook group, called ‘Debt can seriously cramp your style,’ to warn people of the dangers of getting into debt.

A spokesman for the charity said: “It is such a popular method because they can target young people, with whom the site is so popular.”

(Source) Telegraph.co.uk

Facebook has its share of aggressive advertising campaigns due to its immense exposure. But if it fails to double check the companies seeking ad spots, it may just hurt them in the end.

Technorati Tags: facebook, advertising, credit, opportunity, ads

Remember that old thick yellow book you have beside your telephone? Well thanks to technology, a new way of trying to serve the public and not lost the growing list of companies who need information and advertising as well has been announced.

Apparently, the online market is growing and this is a clear sign that providing service in the form of advertising across print, online and mobile platforms. With the apparent growth of the market, the Yellow pages sees this as an opportunity to expand its market by penetrating the advertising needs of the online communities today.

Yellow Pages chief executive Dudley Enoka said his company was in talks with several other online players regarding partnerships, and he expected announcements would be made shortly.

He said customers were increasingly looking to diversify their advertising across print, online, voice and shortly, mobile platforms.

“We’re immensely proud of our heritage as a business based in print and we are still seeing excellent growth there.

(Source) Stuff.co.nz

Technorati Tags: yellow pages, online, market, advertising, technology, information

One thing you will notice in advertising these days is that many companies look at the available talent in the market to cast in commercial productions. But the real question is, do you really need to pay high costing ads to make sure that they get the right mix in producing these ads?

There are various ways to get through commercial advertising and this can be done through creative wizardry. You just have to think outside the box, use resources like technology and representation in other forms such as this one which makes use of balloon dolls that can capture the whole essence of the product being advertised.

Levi’s - Dolls
by YforYerom

Technorati Tags: advertising, levis, jeans, pants, dolls, commercial, technology, balloon

First email spam, now cell phone spam.

The New York Times has your hook up:

The fees that customers pay to receive messages are a source of profit for the phone companies. It is hard to estimate how much they make. Many consumers pay for a monthly plan that allows them to send and receive large numbers of messages. But for those without a plan, getting as few as 10 unsolicited text messages a month at 20 cents each would cost an extra $24 a year.

Communications companies say they are not interested in spam as a profit center. They want to one day exploit the power of customized advertising on mobile phones, and tawdry spam pitches threaten to make their customers hostile toward all commercial messages. The companies are trying to head off the

That’s just b.s. If they weren’t interested in this spam as profit, they wouldn’t allow it in the first place. Anyone who has had an accidental internet pay-per-use charge can tell you how unsympathetic the cell phone industry is to your plight if you get a message that links to a video of some sort that ends up costing you 400 bucks (he speaks from personal experience). Plus, since regulators have had a tough time getting rid of email spam, I don’t suppose the vigilance for cell phone spam will be there. Phone companies already sell my information to interested parties, why should I take their word that *NOW* they’re not in it for profit but rather research purposes on the extent of customized advertising.

I love technology but all this meddling is making me want to find a cabin in Montana and start writing my manifesto. Preferably on a typewriter, which is immune to porn spam.

Spam spam sausage spam

Technorati Tags: mobile technology, cell phones, spam, stuff that sucks, Monty Python nerds

We all know how it is to make the unique concepts in the world today and apparently, putting a touch of drama into the commercial advertising flicks we see today is something that will capture the attention of most consumers to date.

Products often have to create catchy storylines for them to get noticed. It all has to be in line with what the product has to offer and once compiled, you will find that your creative commercial can be a hit advertising medium especially if placed and targeted towards the proper audience it should be effectively exposed to.

Clean advertising by VAGABONDDZ

Technorati Tags: clean, advertising, medium, commercial, concepts, drama, audience

Posters are known to have their share of gaining attention and with the matter of prostitution placed on the table, it should not be surprising if some sectors would become wary of this growing pain and deprivation for the younger kids of today.

Prostitution is something that many despise. Some people even go around the bush in trying to avoid this delicate issue that usually burdens the youth. It is apparent that prostitution is something that society can do well without. All it really needs is proper awareness and orientation so that people will not forget its impact on society today.

Mr Coaker added: “These women are being treated as commodities and are sold, controlled and exploited by others for a profit. This is totally unacceptable.

“The advertising campaign we are launching today should help draw attention to the plight these women face and make men think again about what they are doing.”

(Source) BBC News

Technorati Tags: posters, prostitution, advertising, campaigns

In a nutshell, advertising doesn’t have to be sophisticated. There is a belief in some companies that the more high-tech your advertising campaign is, the more attention you will get. This may be true but not all people are appreciative of sophisticated display advertising.

Remember that advertising aims to attract the masses towards your product or service. It doesn’t matter if it is basic or simple. What remains is the fact that most people today have varying tastes towards taking notice of advertising campaigns set loose today in the various mediums.

Simple advertising works to the advantage of people but in the end, it still depends on how you can make your product or service become a need towards people in their daily needs.

“In order to really move into large masses of advertisers, display advertising has to be easier and simpler,” said Ajay Agarwal, managing director of Bain Capital Ventures. “Google did this with search advertising. We think the same thing has to happen with display.”

(Source) Wall Street Journal

Technorati Tags: http://www.beyondmadisonavenue.com/

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

A few days ago I wrote about the Subway commercials advertising $5 foot-long subs with the annoying yet catchy jingle. Well, what do you know. Today, just now, I got home from work, find an excellent rerun of Top Chef and the firs thing I see is an ad from Quiznos for $5 foot-long subs. However, this one is lacking a little jingle. Instead I find myself in a laundromat where the lady behind the counter peels a five off the wall and eats it. The payoff? There is a better way to “eat five dollars.” They also boast more meat than Subway, which is why you are getting more bang for your buck. When it comes down to it and the battle of the $5 foot-long, Subway did it better. Quiznos strikes me as overdone and obvious (and what seems to be done in a crunch to compete with Subway’s offer). But take a look for yourself. I’ve even posted the Subway spot again.

Technorati Tags: Subways, Quiznos, sandwiches, commercials, food, offers, specials, fast food