Ad agency people often exist in an echo chamber. So read Deb Owen's insightful take on the agency-client "partner or vendor" conundrum. It might give you a new perspective on things.
The brave ad men and ad women of Milwaukee and Chicago-based Hoffman York breaks an in-your-face ad campaign for Argentinian cigarette, Cuello del Toro today.
Using headlines like, "You just found a brand new way to flip off the rest of the world" and "The smoke for the man that just won't take no for an answer," Hoffman York flies in the face of convention, clearly mocking the anti-smoking efforts so pervasive in our litigious culture.
A big tip of the AdPulp hat to these politically incorrect communicators.
Citizen activist, John Coonrod, made the following comments regarding our earlier post about the desecration of the historic Flatiron Building by clothing retailer H+M.
After speaking with the Landmark Preservation Commission, I was informed on 30-March that:The Department of Buildings issued nine violations for the illegal advertising banner recently placed on the apex of the historic Flatiron Building at Madison Square today.
The violations were:
1. Failure to comply with filed plans. Plans called for a 4-foot high shed and they built it to 8 feet in order to accommodate the Citigroup ad.
2. Sign on surface area is too large.
3. Prohibited advertising sign.
4. Installing advertising sign without a permit.For the immense sign on the scaffolding:
5. Sign creates hazardous wind load.
6. Prohibited advertising sign on scaffold.
7. Sign exceeds the 40-foot height limit.
8. Surface area for the sign is too large.
9. Failure to get permit from Buildings Department.
In the photo we posted, one can't see the Citigroup violations, obscured as they are by a bus. Coonrod has a much bigger, more revealing image on his page.
from Adweek: After settling false advertising claims in 47 states, Blockbuster is eliminating 20 percent of its headquarters staff to offset a $70 million increase in spending for its online operation, the company said.
The layoffs will affect between 200 and 300 employees, the company said.
A $630,000 settlement with 47 states' attorneys general stems from Blockbuster's "No More Late Fees" ad campaign created by independent Doner of Southfield, Mich., and launched in January. Doner was not faulted for its work in the campaign.
The states claimed that Blockbuster's ads deceived customers into thinking they could keep the movies without a penalty. Instead, Blockbuster charged customers the purchase price of the movie if it was not returned within the grace period. When the movie was returned, its price was refunded on a customer's credit card, but Blockbuster charged a $1.25 restocking fee.
Blockbuster agreed to refund fees charged to customers who did not understand the new policy and said it would clarify the policy in future communications. The company was allowed to continue running the "No More Late Fees" commercials.
As it announced the layoffs, Blockbuster also reported that it paid CEO John Antioco $51.6 million last year. That equaled the combined 2004 pay of Intel CEO Craig Barrett, General Electric Co. CEO Jeffrey Immelt and Gillette Co. CEO James Kilts, according to Bloomberg News.
from Allentown's Moring Call: Combine medieval Jewish mysticism, a fizzy strawberry-flavored drink loaded with vitamins and a splash of holy water and you have the perfect fusion of two of the hottest fads sweeping the country: Kabbalah and energy drinks.
Next week, the hip, the curious and the thirsty in the Lehigh Valley will be among the first consumers east of the Mississippi to find 16-ounce cans of Kabbalah Energy Drink at select convenience stores and supermarkets. It helps that the East Coast distributor, XL Beverage, is based in Bethlehem.
What is Kabbalah Energy Drink? A $2 can of sweetened, carbonated, caffeinated, vitamin-charged water to which some Canadian mountain spring water blessed by a rabbi is added. Red Bull, the leader in the nearly $1 billion energy drink market, can't say that.
But what is this newest energy drink's link to Kabbalah, besides its name?
Religious scholars and mainstream Jews say the energy drink and other items marketed under the Kabbalah rubric have nothing to do with true Kabbalah teachings, and everything to do with money.
''Frankly, I think it's marketing,'' says Rabbi Mordechai Torczyner, of Congregation Sons of Israel, an Orthodox synagogue in Allentown. ''The original kabbalists weren't marketing products with logos and the like.''
Chava Weissler, a religion studies professor at Lehigh University who teaches an undergraduate course about Kabbalah, says, ''I would not think there would be any actual spiritual benefit to drink this. The true teachings of Kabbalah have nothing to do with energy drinks.''
"It’s got a light citrus taste and no after-taste like so many other energy drinks," says Darin Ezra, the director of the company. Ezra expects to sell 20 million units this year.
Trendwatching's April newsletter introduces an interesting term—Tryvertising—and the ideas behind said term.
Think of Tryvertising as a new breed of product placement in the real world, integrating your goods and services into daily life in a relevant way, so that consumers can make up their minds based on their experience, not your messages.
They give several examples of Tryvertising, but one that interests me most is the move by luxury automakers who are increasingly teaming up with hoteliers to introduce guests to high-end cars during their stay. Ritz Carlton's "Key To Luxury" program offers guests use of new Mercedes-Benz with unlimited mileage, a full tank of gas each morning and overnight valet parking. At the Fairmont San Francisco and The Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn & Spa Guests guests can choose from a Porsche Boxster or Cayenne to explore San Francisco in style. And The Mosaic Hotel in Beverly Hills puts guests in a Mini Cooper for an extra $10 per night.
from USA Today: Garment factories in Cambodia, one of the world's poorest nations, aren't gloomy pits of Dickensian misery. Instead, Cambodia is seeking to become the rare Third World country to develop economically while treating workers reasonably well.
Under a global trade regime that expired Jan. 1, quotas limited the amount retailers could buy from individual countries. In effect, that system forced companies such as Wal-Mart and Gap to spread orders across dozens of countries.
The quotas now are gone, leaving retailers free to buy from wherever they want. As a result, China's share of the U.S. clothing market is projected to jump to 50% from today's 16%, according to the World Trade Organization.
To carve out a market niche, Cambodia is billing itself as sweatshop-free. In December, a World Bank survey of 15 top buyers ranked its garment industry No. 1 in working conditions. So far, that has helped Cambodia avoid significant losses to China, despite having higher costs.
Cambodia's sweatshop-free sales pitch is laser-focused on U.S. buyers. Gap is the Southeast Asian country's largest customer, with purchases last year of about $350 million, according to Ken Loo of the Garment Manufacturers Association of Cambodia.
Few countries would seem a less likely worker champion. Under the radical Khmer Rouge regime that ruled from 1975 to 1979, more than 1 million people were literally worked to death in a crazed bid to construct an agrarian utopia.
“A good woman is like a McGriddles…”
In a post titled, "The Resemblance is Unmistakable," Jason at 1115.org says, "There might not be a more frightening sentence in the English language. But that didn’t stop McDonalds from building a commercial around it anyway, adding another gooey layer onto the marketing landfill that is “I’m Lovin’ It". I’m sure that an entire gender loves being compared to a greasy breakfast sandwich that was once thrown at a stripper’s ass on the Howard Stern show.
from New York Times: The footwear retailer Steven Madden has decided not to shy away from the imminent release of its namesake founder from prison. The company is promoting the return of its creative leader in a series of eye-catching posters and print advertisements, and is having some fun with it in the process.
Mr. Madden has been in a federal prison in Florida since September 2002, serving a 41-month sentence for a stock-fraud scheme.
The campaign is being created by the company along with Cramer-Krasselt/Hampel Stefanides, the New York office of the Cramer-Krasselt advertising agency.
from San Francisco Chronicle: Al Gore never said he invented the Internet. But the new San Francisco-based cable TV network he's heading promises to transform television by plugging it into the Internet.
Current, the name of Gore's enterprise, hopes to do that by airing a shuffle of short news features, some produced by the network but many submitted online by viewers. Current will also air segments every half hour showing TV viewers what Google searchers are tapping into at that moment -- everything from current events to tourist destinations. It's all directed at a generation that thinks nothing of plugging into more than one media outlet at once.
Current plans to air short-form, fast-paced segments and snippets called "pods'' rather than shows. Tailored for the short attention span, they will be anywhere from 15 seconds to five minutes long.
The short-form format, pioneered by MTV, "is consistent with the fast- paced, two-screen-consuming-at-a-time nature of this audience,'' said Current Programming President David Neuman, a former NBC executive and former president of Walt Disney Television and Touchstone Pictures.
Those hoping for a liberal network to balance the conservatism of Fox won't find it here.
"We have no intention of creating a Democratic channel, a liberal channel, a TV version of Air America," Gore said. "That's not what we're about. We're about empowering this generation of young people in their 20s to engage in a dialogue of democracy and to tell the stories about what's going on in their lives using the dominant medium of our time.''
Hugh has been hammering the emerging trend where marketers jump on the blog bandwagon without first buying a ticket to the Cluetrain. Here's some of what he has had to say:
As if fake blogs weren't "beyond lame" enough.Now I think we've got... wait for it... fake comments.
What a great scenario: Some twentysomething PR intern being told to write that crap hour after hour, from some gasket-popping "Creative" Director about to lose his job. Hysterical.
As someone interested in bringing authenticity to the marketing sphere, and someone who sees blogs as a perfect tool for such an end, I must agree with Hugh's assessment. But if we are to explore what's wrong with fake blogs, we must also determine what exactly makes up a blog.
Urban Dictionary says a blog is, "A meandering, blatantly uninteresting online diary that gives the author the illusion that people are interested in their stupid, pathetic life." That's close, but close only counts in horse shoes and hand grenades.
To my mind, a blog is a frequently updated web site with posts ordered in reverse chronology. I like the simplicity of my definition, but clearly there's more to it, or bloggers would not be put off by marketers who dare to do it incorrectly.
I believe the more to it part has to do with use of first person narrative. Thus, a blog is a place where readers get to know the blogger, or bloggers, via daily use of this purposefully personal voice. And therein lies the problem with fake blogs--there's no one home. No body behind the "I", only a maketing department or an ad agency with the same old, tired, ridiculously fake pitch.
The Good, Bad & Ugly Awards Show, established eight years ago by Advertising Women of New York, has emerged as an irreverent yet purposeful look at the way women are depicted in advertising. It is dedicated to encouraging creative, effective and positive advertising to and representative of women and highlights not only the good but also the bad and ugly—the stereotypical, outdated or patronizing communication to and representation of women in advertising.
Agenda Inc. reports that pop superstar Christina Aguilera's flesh-baring commercials for American shoe company Skechers have been slammed by AWNY as the worst advertisements of the year.
It could have been worse. Sketchers could have used Britney in their ads, for instance.
from Ad Age: Embattled supermarket chain Safeway is set to launch an unprecedented $100 million advertising campaign that includes spot TV buys on prime-time shows such as The Apprentice and CSI -- but utters nary a word on price.
“What we are doing is very different,” said Brian Cornwell, chief marketing officer at the Pleasanton, Calif.-based chain of 1,802 stores with $35.8 billion in sales. “We are moving from the traditional price/item advertising, which is the norm of the supermarket industry, to a more brand-focused identity.”
More than just a tagline change, from “Giving Our Best” to “Ingredients for Life,” the campaign launches April 18 with TV, radio, print and Web elements.
“We are trying to take a page out of the consumer package industry,” added Mr. Cornwell, who joined Safeway in April 2004 after serving as president of Pepsi-Cola North America’s Food Services division.
The campaign, created by Interpublic Group of Cos.’ Dailey & Associates, Los Angeles, represents a significant shift away from print advertising for the chain.
“Retailers like Safeway are stuck in a shrinking and unsustainable middle ground,” said Jon Hauptman, vice president of Willard Bishop Consulting, a Chicago-based firm focused on the grocery industry. “Safeway is being outflanked on all sides.”
On the price side, Safeway must battle with Wal-Mart and limited-assortment retailers such as Aldi, Sav-A-Lot and, increasingly, the so-called dollar stores, which have beefed up food offerings. On the quality and lifestyle side, Safeway competes with upscale regional operators and growing national, high-end retailers such as Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods.
According to Lewis Lazare in today’s column:
“Edelman and Intelliseek have jointly published a white paper on blogs, which provides a first-of-its-kind directory of influential bloggers, segmented by industry. Titled "Trust Media ... How Real People Are Finally Being Heard," the paper is available for download at www.edelman.com/insights
Haven't read it yet to see if AdPulp is included, but I'm excited anyway.
Robert Scoble, a.k.a. The Scoblezier, a.k.a. Microsoft's Geek Blogger, asks in a post on The Red Couch, "Why let your ad agency write your blog?" He ponders the situation thusly:
A good blog is written by an authority who is passionate about his/her topic.How many ad agencies are passionate about your business? Not to mention an authority on it? (After all, if your ad agency were an authority on your business we'd just deal with your ad agency, not you). I'm an optimist, though, so I hold out hope that there might be a few, but they are few and far in between.
Here's the answer. An agency worth their salt knows how to connect with the consumer. Granted, many agencies know nothing of the kind, but I'm not talking about them (every industry has losers, ours is no different). But back to the argument...X Company knows how to make widgets, or computers, or rum. They know how to work their product through the distribution channel. They may even spend tons on product innovation. But rarely do they know how to effectively communicate their product's benefits, for they are too close to it to bring any perspective to the communications problems at hand. Clients live and breathe their product and they assume that everyone else gives a shit. Everyone else does not give a shit. Getting them to give a shit is the agency's job.
At this point in time, I am unaware of a good blog being generated for a client by an ad agency. But I believe this will soon change. Agencies didn't get the web at first, and many do not get the web today. The same holds for blogs. Yet, I have every reason to believe some smart agency people will find a way to build a legitimate blogging practice. There are too many upsides in blogs to dance around them for much longer.
Bag us our next client and you're hired.
Before you count your chickens here are a few things you need to know.
1. It’s no joke. Zipatoni is a promotional marketing and advertising agency and we’re always on the hunt for our next big client. That’s where you come in. Break out your Palm Pilot, cell phone or if you’re old-school, your Rolodex, and get busy making a connection. Bag Zipatoni our next client and we’ll make you an honorary member of the Zipatoni family, and it’s an honor that comes with perks.
2. It’s not what you know, it’s who you know. Generate a meeting between Zipatoni and a new prospective client that leads to real new business and “You’re Hired." Take home a $100K salary, head out for a night in Zipatoni’s flame-adorned, vintage Cadillac company limo, cocktail with friends at the überhip Zipatoni bar, and take the rest of the year off. It could be the easiest $100K you’ll ever make.
3. All leads must be submitted to yourehired@zipatoni.com – leads submitted by any other means will not be accepted.
4. And, when we say leads, we don’t mean your best friend’s coffee shop or tattoo parlor. Zipatoni is a full-service promotions and advertising agency and we work with clients like eBay, Energizer, Jim Beam, Motorola, Home Depot, Maytag, Majesco Entertainment, White Castle, AOL, Splenda and Hallmark.
5. OK. Let’s see if you’ve got the chops, connections and ingenuity to land Zipatoni our next big client.
Note from the "legal bullshit" attending this offer: New business must generate $5,000,000 in net income for Zipatoni. So the agency's $100K offer is 2% of the minimum qualifying ammount.
Thanks to Agenda Inc. for the pointer.
Fox Sports Radio host, Ben Maller, has an entry on his blog about Boudreaux's Butt Paste. Maller reports that the anti-rash ointement has found a home in NASCAR by sponsoring a Busch Series car driven by former Louisiana school principal Kim Crosby.
According to Maller, athletes including the Miami Heat's Shaquille O'Neal, Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning, former New Orleans Saints and Chicago Bears head football coach Mike Ditka and iron-man cyclist Lance Armstrong, have all reportedly used the product with much enthusiasm.
Aside from treating baby bottoms Boudreaux's Butt Paste attends to a variety of other ailments, including heat rash, acne, bed sores, abrasions, chicken pox, shingles, razor burn, feminine irritation, poison ivy, fever blisters and even chapped lips. Butt paste is also used to treat male itch (otherwise known as jock itch) in athletes, and several major-league baseball teams keep the handy one-gallon jugs around the clubhouse.
Boudreaux's Butt Paste is the creation of pharmacist George Boudreaux, who opened his Louisiana drugstore in 1978 and soon began whipping up an old fashioned elixir. In 1994, Dr. George Boudreaux sold his pharmacy to concentrate on marketing his product, which by then had taken off in a big way. Today, his product is sold at Wal-Mart and Target, among other retail stores.
More than 27.5 million hot dogs will be consumed by baseball fans this season while cheering their team in the stands, according to the annual consumption survey conducted by the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council. Laid end-to-end, that's almost enough hot dogs to stretch from Citizens Bank Park in Philly to Edison Field in Los Angeles, Calif.
The Top Ten Hot Dog Eating Stadiums
1. Dodger Stadium – 1,674,400
2. Coors Field – 1,545,000
3. Wrigley Field – 1,543,500
4. Yankees Stadium – 1,365,000
5. Minute Maid Park – 1,248,000
6. Edison Field – 1,133,000
7. HHH Metrodome – 850,000
8. Citizens Bank Park – 800,000
9. Shea Stadium – 745,000
10. Dophins Stadium – 250,000
Thanks again to Ben Maller for the pointer (and his quirky looks at American culture).
I like it when people coin new terms, especially if the terms are fun to say. Vaspers The Grate has recently managed this with the term "bloatosphere". Given that the word "blogosphere" is cumbersome and self-important, I think Mr. Grate has given us a marked improvement.
The blogsophere is becoming bloated with anti-blogs.This bloated, burdensome, obese blogosphere I refer to as the "bloatosphere".
Let's consider the various components that make up the "bloatosphere".
"bloatosphere" = the realm of blogs that is becoming bloated or fattened by the rapid accumulation of anti-blogs: broadcast blogs, pseudo-blogs, simulated blogs, drivel blogs, sleazy link blogs, fictional persona blogs, and link farm blogs.
Of course, Mr. Grate's intent is not to replace the term "blogoshpere" with "bloatosphere". But I think it works, if one is inclined to lump the entire blogosphere into the newly coined bloatosphere.
Advertising has always subsidized the media, but it's clearly a love-hate relationship. And now, this story suggests that GM has pulled its advertising in the Los Angeles Times, in an objection to "factual errors and misrepresentations" in the Times' coverage of GM.
I haven't looked into this particular matter, but I suppose a free press isn't really free. And when newspapers who have to kowtow to their advertisers and alter their editorial content to reflect an advertiser's wishes, readers don't get all the news they deserve. I'm sure this happens all the time, but still it's not a good thing.
On the other hand, I once had a client who knew there was going to be a critical report on the local news about her company--on a station that she bought lots of commercial airtime on. Her response was to buy more airtime on the station, to "offset" the report. We recommended against it, but in general, she was dumber than a brick anyway, so maybe GM's doing the right thing.
I'm conflicted.
Adfreak makes our Friday morning with this hangover cure of a print ad from Mickey D's.
At long last, the Golden Arches embraces truth in advertising.
from Reuters: If you think video games are engrossing now, just wait: PlayStation maker Sony Corp. has been granted a patent for beaming sensory information directly into the brain.
The technique could one day be used to create videogames in which you can smell, taste, and touch, or to help people who are blind or deaf.
The U.S. patent, granted to Sony researcher Thomas Dawson, describes a technique for aiming ultrasonic pulses at specific areas of the brain to induce "sensory experiences" such as smells, sounds and images.
"The pulsed ultrasonic signal alters the neural timing in the cortex," the patent states. "No invasive surgery is needed to assist a person, such as a blind person, to view live and/or recorded images or hear sounds."
A Sony Electronics spokeswoman told the magazine that no experiments had been conducted, and that the patent "was based on an inspiration that this may someday be the direction that technology will take us."
We know that brand managers need be monitoring what's being said about their brands in the bloatosphere, by using Technorati, for instance. It might also be wise for them to see what's being posted to Flickr and other photo-sharing sites. In a quick experiment I turned up all sorts of interesting brand-centered images, proving (in case you're still wondering how well advertising works) just how deeply brands are embedded in our daily lives.
By using "tags" one can easily find just about anything of interest on Flickr. Simply type "flickr dot com slash photos slash tags slash (your brand here)".
Here's a small sample of what's out there:
Adweek is now letting you rate agencies in all sorts of categories, like most creative, least creative, best reel, worst reel, best run, most likely to be a sweatshop, etc.
It's like a 35-question survey, and I think you can do it only once. So have fun. Every vote counts!
McSuckle image found on Flickr
Note: "dot at" is Austria's two-digit domain extension and McDonalds.at is the official McDonald's site in Austria
Ad Age reports that a new global study, "Wireless Works: Exploring New Brand Connections," from Omnicom Group's BBDO Worldwide and Proximity Worldwide surveyed more than 3,000 mobile phone owners. The purpose of the study was to "better understand how consumers interact with their phone," according to a BBDO spokesman.
Fourteen percent of the world's cell phone users report that they have stopped in the middle of a sex act to answer a ringing wireless device. The highest percentage was found in Germany and Spain, where 22% of users interrupted sex to answer their cell phones; the lowest was in Italy, where only 7% reported doing so. In the U.S., 15% say they practice cell phone interruptus.
The survey also found that 78% of respondents have their cell phones in reach 16 or more hours per day. In Russia, 89% have their phone on for long hours, while 75% keep their phone on most of the day in the U.S.
The findings arrive as the wireless industry is aggressively ramping up its effort to promote the cell phone as a content- and advertising-delivering device to potentially rival that of TV or the Internet.
As Seth Godin considers Eddie Harris and Les McCann's performance at Montreaux Jazz Festival in 1969 and the various ways that performance has been handed down over time from LP to digitally remasted CD to MP3, he laments the loss of authenticity in digital reproductions.
I wonder what happens when our digital culture has nothing to do but spread pale imitations of the original experiences? I wonder what happens when the media companies that depend on our attention start losing it when all we've got is a ringtone.I think my books change a lot more minds than my blog does. But books don't spread the way digital ideas do.
All this leads me to an argument I've made several times in conversation, but not in writing. The entertainment industry's panic attack over digital content is beyond absurd. Forget for a minute that they ought to be focussed on how to profit from this change in consumer preference, and simply examine the obvious fact that a disc of "ripped" and "burned" MP3s is not a true representation of the original work. Sound quality is distorted via the file compression process, plus the "end product" lacks the packaging and liner notes and such. Therefore, a free copy of a copywrited work is a sample, not a perfect match, nor a replacement for the original.
By encouraging, or at least allowing, peer-to-peer distribution of such samples, the music industry can create more fans for the music they market. These fans of the music will continue to pay for the real thing for reasons of convenience, sound quality and the details or story contained in the packaging.
Joseph Jaffe of Jaffejuice put together a rough clip of Tiger Woods' amazing shot at the 16th hole of The Masters yesterday for a spot Nike & Wieden & Kennedy should--and probably will--do.
Check it out here.
That's CBS's Verne Lundquist making the call--and it couldn't have been scripted any better.
International Herald Tribune reports that George Jones, Alan Jackson, Keney Chesney, Van Morrison, John Fogerty, John Hiatt, The Knack, Alejandro Escovedo, Kenny Loggins and Joni Mitchell all share space on the First iPod--the digital music player given to President Bush by his twin daughters last summer.
The leader of the free world/oil industry likes to use his iPod as an excercise companion when mountain biking on his Texas ranch.
from San Francisco Chronicle: Five years after the dot-com bubble burst, Internet advertising is finally delivering on its promise.
A passel of industry and analyst reports tell of a very strong 2004 and an even better 2005 for online ad spending. It's still a tiny portion of the entire advertising-dollar pie, estimated to be $12.3 billion of $256 billion in total spending by one account, but the talk is it's only going north.
Online advertising's strong suit is a better sense of accountability, the watchword of the day for marketers, who say they can learn in real time whether a message or interactive elements are effective. Basically, advertisers can see whether someone clicked on an ad and bought something.
Online Ad Spending
1996 $267 million
1997 $907 million
1998 $1.9 billion
1999 $4.6 billion
2000 $8.1 billion
2001 $7.1 billion
2002 $6 billion
2003 $7.2 billion
2004 $12.3 billion
Source: Interactive Advertising Bureau
William Safire, our supreme guardian of the English language, writing in New York Times Magazine said:
The time has come to unbrand the word brand.The noun blazed on the scene a thousand years ago as a burning stick, and the meaning soon transferred to the mark left on the skin of a horse or a criminal by such a stick, or branding iron. That mark became the sign of infamy: Richard Hooker wrote in 1597 of an age marked ''with the brand of error and superstition,'' and later, a firebrand became the symbol of an inflammatory rabble-rouser.
The burned-in mark, in the 19th century, began to signify ownership not just of an animal but also of liquids in wooden casks, like wine or ale. The brand-mark became a ''trademark,'' and in the 20th century the designated item so labeled became a brand. In 1929, Fleischmann's Yeast absorbed the coffee maker Chase & Sanborn and other companies to form Standard Brands (now a part of Kraft), in hopes that brand names would produce brand loyalty. A generation later, David Ogilvy, the advertising executive, was dubbed by the author Martin Mayer in 1958 as an ''apostle of the 'brand image''' who sought to persuade the consumer ''that brand A, technically identical with brand B, is somehow a better product.'' Within two years, the novelist Kingsley Amis extended brand image from a product to a genre: ''mad scientists attended by scantily clad daughters'' constitute ''the main brand-image of science fiction.''
Tom Peters, who took the whole brand called you thing to new heights in a 1997 Fast Company article, picked up on Safire's piece in his blog (which is actually written by several other people). Here's a comment I like from Trevor Gay on that post:
What worries me is 'branding' being turned into some complicated academic subject when, in reality, 'branding' is simply a distinctive element that makes an individual or a company stand out - in other words what they are recognised 'for' and 'as'.Keep it simple - don't let academics make 'branding' a complex science.
Branding is not complicated.
from Ad Age: BMW of North America, which scored a major publicity coup with its groundbreaking online film series The Hire, has turned the story line's Driver character into a branded entertainment comic book series.
The idea was that if Hollywood has been able to harness the appeal of comic books to lure moviegoers into theaters, why not use graphic novels to bring buyers into BMW showrooms?
BMW's ad agency, Publicis Groupe's Fallon, Minneapolis, one of the key architects of the online films, handled the comic book project as well.
Last year, the automaker signed a deal with Dark Horse Comics to publish six comic books based on the character, played in The Hire shorts by Clive Owen (Closer, The Bourne Identity) as a mysterious driver who is thrown into comedic or dangerous situations thanks to his passengers.
Each installation of the comic book series features a single model vehicle that’s recognizable as a BMW, but purposely futuristic.
Jackie Huba posted this humorous cartoon by Tom Fishburne.
Media veteran and popular blogger, Steve Hall, busts some chops when considering the recent move by Volvo to act as sole sponsor on MSN Spaces, thereby seemingly embracing blogs as a desirable venue for online ad spending.
A quick review of weblogs listed as recently updated on MSN Spaces revealed few, if any, containing more than a post or two. Many simply state, "There are no entries in this blog." Apparently, Volvo, in its decision to sponsor MSN Spaces weblogs, did not see this as an issue.Volvo, seemingly unable to realize MSN Spaces is filled with newbies with nothing to say when a plethora of intelligent, quality blog content is right around the corner at the BlogAds blog advertising network.
Hall also makes mention of Boing Boing's report on MSN's poor decision to censor blogs on their network, keeping them free of "dirty" words, while flying in the face of blogger convention (a.k.a. free speech).
BlogAds is cool. I have no issue with them. But an enterprising media buyer at Volvo's agency could just as easily negotiate deals diretcly with blogs that fit the auto maker's criteria. This is the path we've chosen here. We have a sponsorship deal with Talent Zoo, and we are looking for other opportunities that work well for us and the advertiser.
How do you create some warm and fuzzies for one of the most controversial companies in the world? You give the urban, educated, left-leaning Volvo drivers who are fighting you some space.
from Ad Age: Embroiled in a nasty battle with organized labor and environmental groups, Wal-Mart has launched an ad campaign to run through April 24 that includes idyllic images of eagles in flight to promote “Acres for America,” a program to preserve one acre of land for every acre occupied by a Wal-Mart store.The program is a partnership with the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and will preserve 88,000 acres and an additional 100,000 acres over the next five years. The NFWF said the acreage translates into a $35 million commitment.
Environmental groups immediately criticized the campaign, created by Bernstein-Rein, Kansas City, Mo. Wal-Mart bought ad time for the spots on CNN and MSNBC.
Of course, Wal-Mart does not genuinely care about preserving habitiat for wildlife, but isn't it nice that they've been moved to act for the public good? I think it is. Having once worked in the conservation movement, I learned to accept that all corporate money is in some way dirty money, and that it would be best to get as much of it as possible for positive use.
from E-Commerce Times: In a move to enhance its search and advertising businesses, Yahoo announced today it would offer free Web hosting to small businesses.
Yahoo Local general manager Paul Levine said, "As more and more consumers rely on the Internet for information about their neighborhood -- from finding restaurants to plumbers to dry cleaners -- local businesses are realizing the value of reaching potential customers online."
Analysts expect that helping hand to be well received. According to The Kelsey Group, over 50 percent of the more than 20 million small businesses in the U.S. do not yet have a Web site.
Kelsey Group analyst Greg Sterling told the E-Commerce Times this is an attractive offer for small businesses because it removes a lot of barriers to adoption, like which host to use and how much storage space to purchase. And Yahoo's template wizard makes it easy to set up a working site in a few steps.
Tim Nudd at Adfreak rightly questions the packaging trend whereby humorous quips are placed on the product label.
We’re officially on the fence about witty product packaging — labels and containers that have flippant, supposedly charming observations about life, the universe and everything (even, sometimes, the product).
Yet, when one considers a partity product like bottled water, one can conclude that packaging is all there is. Thus, suggestive copy like, "we the makers of this product, hereby rebut any offers by any professional sports league to become 'the official water' of anything" becomes a key differentiator.
Thanks to eBay, anyone willing to bid high enough can have a young woman in Oklahoma go out on the town with their logo emblazoned on the front of a form-fitting t-shirt. The enterprising lass also promises to scream out one's brand promise. And she will provide video footage of the above, verifying the media expenditure.
Thanks to Business 2.0 for the pointer.
from Brandweek: The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau has ruled that Miller Brewing did not violate regulations relating to comparative advertising nor did the No. 2 brewer make false, misleading and disparaging statements in spots that took on rival Anheuser-Busch.
The SABMiller unit's "Good Call" TV ad campaign showed football referees penalizing Bud Light and Budweiser drinkers for toting beer with "less taste" and "less flavor" than Miller Lite and Miller Genuine Draft.
"We will continue to remind consumers that they have a choice when they select beer, and we will continue to assume that Anheuser-Busch will complain about Miller advertising," a Miller rep said.
The Counter Counterfeit Commission is an independent, bipartisan organization with the tireless mission of countering counterfeits and protecting you from being duped and disappointed. For some time now, the CCC has been combating the criminal element responsible for knock-off goods ranging from watches to sunglasses to little porcelain figurines. But last year, the decision was made to shift our efforts and focus solely on the newest and most atrocious kind of deception: counterfeit MINI Coopers.
"Ad skipping and on demand viewing could cost the TV industry $27 billion in lost ad revenue over the next five years, according to new research released today by Accenture."
Looks like bad news on the horizon for the networks. I purchased a DVR unit less than 6 months ago and found it surprising just how fast my viewing habits changed. We have no problem waiting until 20 after to watch one of our regular shows so we can skip the ad breaks.
Will the networks approach the subject of in-show advertising, expand product placement programs, or move in the direction of commercial-free-but-sponsored-by programs — similar to the way soccer games are broadcast - to make up for the lost revenues?
Tip o' the fedora to AdAge for the story (free reg. req.)
AdPulp.com reader Adam G. pointed out a new awards show brought to you by Adweek Magazines (and Promax/BDA), The Buzz Awards.
"When a branded entertainment effort marries medium and message to create that kind of resonance in the marketplace, it deserves special recognition. That’s why Adweek Magazines have created The Buzz Awards, celebrating excellence in integrating brands and media. Winners per category and one Grand Prize winner will be honored at Promax/BDA in New York on June 23."
More information available from the following PDF: http://www.adweek.com/buzz. Why a direct link to a PDF? I wish I could answer that question; every link referenced in the PDF either links back to the PDF download or to an error page (the link on the registration form).
Apparently, the best way to build buzz is by avoiding any aspect of being user-friendly. Happy Friday :-)
from Adweek: CP+B issued the following statement Friday: "We have had the privilege to work with Molson for almost four years. During our partnership, they became the fastest growing top 25 import in the U.S. and had their first years of growth following several years of decline. Yesterday, they informed us that due to the merger with Coors, they will be consolidating their business using existing resources. We find this to be an extremely exciting industry and we hope to have the opportunity to use the knowledge that we have gained through our work with Molson to continue operating in this category in the future."
Deutsch/LA in Marina del Rey, Calif., and Foote Cone & Belding in Chicago pick up duties on Molson's $10mil account.
A shameless plug for my new column on TalentZoo.com. Enjoy.
Jonah Bloom of AdAge waxes poetic as he laments the retirement of Miller High Life man.
That many of America’s marketers muddy instincts with science, shy away from points of difference and kill great creative is not news. Still, I was somewhat surprised last week when Advertising Age magazine’s Jim Arndorfer, who reported the debut of the “High Life man” in 1998, learned Miller was planning to terminate this gem of a campaign.In an era when much advertising feels fake, especially brewers’ ads, which tend to depict too-preened girlymen prancing around predictably beautiful women, the High Life man has been an honest, authentic campaign that regular beer drinkers could relate to. More young men than ever before are deserting beer for fancy liquors and silly spritzers -- on-premise spirit sales grew an estimated 10% last year, while beer sales declined -- and here was a campaign reminding us real men drink beer. It played perfectly into the cultural backlash against metrosexuality, it spoke to those of us who still aspire to our stoic fathers and grandfathers, who built stuff, who knew stuff.
I must concur with Jonah. This campaign from Wieden + Kennedy is some of the best advertising created—and run—during the past several years. In fact, it was so effective, I even started opting for Miller (mostly MGD) instead of the more spendy microbrews I've long favored.
Technology Review reports that Cingular Wireless launched its new ringtone service this week with the exclusive release of "Speed of Sound", the first Coldplay single from its upcoming album XY, the response from fans was immediate.
"We've been floored," says Mark Nagel, director for entertainment and downloadable services for Cingular. Fans can plunk down $2.49 to purchase a 15-second song snippet that can be used as their phone's ringtone.
While mobile carriers have singed various deals with artists -- Nokia teamed with Jay Z in 2003 to ship a phone that came loaded with MP3 versions of songs from The Black Album and ringtones, Cingular scored a coup by locking up an exclusive deal with one of the most eagerly anticipated bands of 2005 and offering a listen to its latest before any traditional outlets -- radio and MTV. And the company is already locking up other artists. Upcoming exclusives include Ludacris songs and clips from bands appearing on the Vans Warped Tour this summer.
Interestingly, a quick check of the band's website (by me) revealed that the band will be selling the ringtone on their site beginning tonight, and this disclaimer, "A ringtone of Speed of Sound is already available in the US as part of a new promotion via a mobile phone company to its customers. Coldplay have not entered into any agreement to facilitate this promotion."
from San Francisco Chronicle: The old adage used to be "you are what you eat.'' But with the advent of digital music and the popularity of gadgets like the iPod, now it's "you are what's on your playlist.''
Last week, musicologists and media pundits around the world had a great time trying to divine what makes President Bush tick by analyzing the songs loaded on his iPod.
But playlist watching has also become a parlor game played by college students and office workers hoping for insight into the lives of people around them. They use a feature in Apple Computer Inc.'s iTunes digital music management program that allows a limited number of people to surf and hear songs in someone else's library.
Playlist peeking isn't limited to your neighbors. A number of famous iTunes consumers have published their lists of favorite songs on the iTunes Music Store site, including Tom Brady, quarterback for the New England Patriots, and Broadway composer Andrew Lloyd Webber.
In a report released earlier this month, researchers from the Palo Alto Research Center, known as PARC, and the Georgia Institute of Technology studied 13 workers at one small company and found they were forming judgments about co-workers based on the songs they found in each others' iTunes music libraries.
At the company, the employees became aware that their music was projecting an image of themselves to co-workers, Grinter said in an interview.
That caused some playlist anxiety. One worker said he was worried others would get the wrong impression because he downloaded songs by Justin Timberlake and Michael McDonald for his wife.
Shawn points to this Associated Press story, about a SPAMer getting sentenced to nine years in prison.
A man convicted in the nation's first felony prosecution for illegal spamming was sentenced to nine years in prison Friday, but the judge postponed the sentence while the case is appealed.Loudoun County Circuit Judge Thomas Horne said that because the law targeting bulk e-mail distribution is new and raises constitutional questions, it was appropriate to defer the prison time until appeals courts rule.
Jeremy Jaynes was convicted in November for using false Internet addresses to send mass e-mail ads through an AOL server in Loudoun.
A jury had recommended the nine-year prison term.
Virginia, where AOL is based, prosecuted the case under a law that took effect in 2003 barring people from sending bulk e-mail that is unsolicited and masks its origin.
Prosecutors said Jaynes used the Internet to peddle sham products and services such as a "FedEx refund processor."
Imagine how good advertising would be if we handed out costly citations—or prison terms in extreme cases—for dumbed-down, offensive and poorly rendered work.
from USA Today: Nancy Drew is 75 years old and still the hippest girl in town.
Fresh from getting a new hybrid car and cell phone from Simon & Schuster last year, Nancy now gets her first graphic novel, one of the fastest-expanding areas in book publishing. The Demon of River Heights (Papercutz, $7.95 paperback, $12.95 hardcover) is out this week.
We're living in a very visual age and kids have a lot of different distractions — from the Internet, to videos, to video games, to TV and DVDs," says Papercutz founder Terry Nantier. "We're using a point of view and a style that kids know and understand."
Graphic novels, like traditional comic books, combine illustrations with word balloons. The pocket-size Papercutz series is drawn in the style of the popular Japanese comics known as manga.
Sales of graphic novels have been soaring in the USA and Canada, up from $165 million in 2003 to $207 million a year ago.
from Boston Globe: The first time he robbed a bank Timothy Connor just slipped a note to a bank teller. The next time, he slipped the note while nonchalantly talking on his cellphone, an act, police said, that mimicked a Super Bowl commercial.
His technique, police said, is similar to one used in an Ameriquest Mortgage Company commercial that debuted during the Super Bowl. In the commercial, a man talking on his cellphone at a convenience store tells the person on the phone that he/she is getting robbed, and the store clerk thinks the store is being robbed.
''Watching the surveillance tape, he mimicked that commercial exactly," said Officer Michael McCarthy, a spokesman for the Boston Police Department.
Steve Hall points to JohnsonSheen's new work for running shoe client, Brooks. But, I'm more interested in the Portland agency's self-promotional copy.
SOME AGENCIES PARTY HARD, wear Armani, serve 12 kinds of martinis, and film with Spielberg's second cousin, because, well, he's Spielberg's second cousin. Not coincidentally, they make advertising that's shiny on the outside and empty on the inside.Then there's JohnsonSheen. On the Andy Scale, we're closer to Griffith than Warhol. Not that our work isn't eye-cathcing, page-stopping and intriguing. It's just weighed down by, well, strategy. You'll never have to guess what the point is.
As for perks, we serve halfway decent donuts.
This article in Ad Age talks about the FDA's recent decision to pull ads for Levitra and Zyrtec off the air due to misleading claims.
What's interesting here is that pharmaceutical companies seem to be doing what other comsumer marketers used to do, and have been trying to get away from: make claims of superiority, or "puffery" if you will, and bash the competition in the ads.
As long as pharmaceutical marketing is legal, it's going to be big business.
Is there a way to do it compellingly, and legally, without
a) making bogus claims
or
b) showing dewy meadows, happy couples, and listing every side effect in the world?
Sun Times advertising columnist, Lewis Lazare, explores the rigorous work being done by Leo Burnett on behalf of the Army.
Gosh, it's gotta be tough -- crafting commercials that persuade parents to encourage their offspring to enlist in the Army, when almost every day we see and read of more carnage in Iraq.And Iraq, of course, is just one of the battlefields where American soldiers find themselves stationed in what promises to be a long and potentially quite bloody war against terrorism and assorted other threats to the homeland.
But boy, is Leo Burnett, the U.S. Army's agency of record -- at least for the next couple of months -- trying hard to make a compelling case for parents signing off on their kids' signing up for military service.
A new series of what are being termed "influencer" spots make that case in often startlingly emotional terms.
We admit to being surprised at finding a bit of a lump in the throat as we watched a couple of these new commercials. They are populated with some fine actors who know how to plumb the emotional depths of a line of copy.
I'm not sure what's so tough about it. If the parents in question are supporters of the President, then they most likely agree that a modern day Crusades is a good idea. Granted, if the parents oppose the sitting administration, no commercial is going to sway them.
Call me crazy, but I don't see much opposition to this war, nor any of Bush's policies for that matter. I guess we're too busy working and pursuing the material objects that our commercial culture (of which advertising is the mouthpiece) claims will make us happy.
One would think Ann Coulter would be thrilled to be on the cover of Time Magazine. But no. On Hannity + Colmes last night she claimed to not have read the article. She says she stopped at the "elongated funhouse photo."
Well, you know, a hundred years of Madison Avenue advertising suggests that it's not a good idea to put an elongated funhouse photo of a girl next to -- if you're trying to sell a car or toothpaste. Just a month ago, Graydon Carter, the editor of Vanity Fair, said, "No more men on the covers. We're going to put attractive photos of females." So apparently, Time magazine is willing to sell fewer magazines in order to run an unflattering photo of a conservative.
And here I thought the image, to say nothing of Time's reporting, was rather flattering.
Thanks to Media Matters for breaking it all down.