BSandS riding high in a Mini If you read all the way to the bottom of this NY Times article on Butler Shine & Stern's Mini Cooper account win, you will find this nugget. Ms. Hardy and Mr. McDowell (Mini USA marketing execs) notified Butler, Shine's employees that they won the review in a nontraditional way: A bulldog was sent into the agency's office, wearing a collar decorated with clues to the decision written on …
Us And Them: A Stocking Stuffer For Budding Account Planners
I wish I had taken an anthropology course in college. Because in a communication business like advertising, it's important to understand people, their backgrounds, their formative experiences, and their current perceptions, all of which affect the way the way they make purchasing decisions. I truly believe human beings are basically groups of tribes, and not merely in an ethnic sense. That's why David Barreby's Us …
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Change The Music, Change The Meaning
Product Shop NYC: Spike Jonze produced one of the best Nike commercials ever, so it's no surprise that the GAP wanted him to direct a commercial for them. His GAP commercial, titled "Pardon Our Dust", which is promoting a massive remodeling of GAP stores, is scored with Edvard Grieg's revolutionary masterpiece "Peer Gynt Suite". While the executives were okay with the concept of customers and employees demolishing a …
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Who Needs A Catchy Tagline When You Have A Compelling Value Proposition?
Mark Babej likes Off Soho Suites' approach to attracting customers. What really caught my eye was the idea of putting the hotel’s positioning right on the awning. Mystique: null, and some word-smithing might be in order, too. But while other hotels (even of the budget persuasion) try to outdo each other with cliché promises of charm and romance, the Off SoHo Suites focuses on a relevant and compelling value …
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Is Google Getting Evil?
I suppose "Don't Be Evil" is a pretty good corporate mantra to have, if you must have one. But as USA Today points out, the Google backlash is starting. Lauren Fine, a media analyst at Merrill Lynch, warned in a Nov. 28 research note that the launch of services like Google Base classified advertising could tarnish its do-only-good reputation. "As Google's newer businesses start to encroach on some otherwise …
Branding Is Nowhere Without Operations
Jennifer Rice: An effective brand keeps its promises. Advertising should communicate the brand promise, and operations should fulfill it. Everything should work together. Think Apple, probably the most coherent brand on the planet. I'm probably going to take some heat for this, but I personally don't believe that a traditional ad agency can do an effective, unbiased job at brand strategy. Their primary sources of …
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Chillin’ In The Ice Bar
Decent Marketing: We all know how a lot of corporate-themed events and experiences turn out fairly cheesy and silly. So I was a little skeptical when I read about the Absolut Ice Bar in London in the November 28 issue of Fortune magazine. "Since it opened Oct. 1, London's Absolut Ice Bar has been drawing locals and tourists alike to the 23 degree lair [-5 C for you international readers], where the walls are lined …
Pastors Encouraged To Send Parishioners To The Box Office
Philadelphia Inquirer: Attention, pastors: You have just four weeks remaining to work a lion, a witch or a wardrobe into your next sermon. Walt Disney Pictures is so eager for churches to turn out audiences for The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, which opens Friday, that it's offering a free trip to London - and $1,000 cash - to the winner of its big promotional sermon contest. The only …
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