Give MINI six words and they will work magic. That was the challenge solved last fall by Portland designer, Mathew Foster, a partner at Official Mfg Co. MINI USA’s agency Butler, Shine, Stern & Partners asked fans to submit in six words to express their idea of “The Best Test Drive Ever. Period.” The contest, inspired by Larry Smith’s Six-Word Memoirs Project, was seeded on Facebook and Twitter and …
Election Season Provides A Window Into the Making of a Political Brand
This radio spot from "consistent conservative" Rick Santorum helped the former Senator from Pennsylvania, go toe-to-toe with establishment candidate Mitt Romney yesterday in Iowa. From a media perspective, Santorum's showing -- he lost to Romney by just 8 votes -- overshadows how well Ron Paul did in Iowa. Paul's liberterian ideas had a lot of traction in the state, as evidenced by 21.4% of the vote. Now, …
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Google Goes For The Heartstrings As Well As The Eyeballs
Google is one company that definitely doesn't rest. Nor are they immune from good ol' fashioned advertising efforts. The New York Times has more: Lorraine Twohill, Google’s vice president for global marketing, would not disclose how much the company had increased its advertising spending, but said there had been a shift in strategy. “As we got bigger, we had more competition, more products, more messages to …
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Jean Paul Gaultier Proves Thinking Is Always In Fashion
Holidays are always a good time to relax and recharge, and if you can do something that inspires you during your time off, so much the better. That's exactly what happened this year after I gave my wife a Christmas gift of tickets to the Jean Paul Gaultier exhibit at the Dallas Museum of Art. Gaultier? You mean the guy who designed those crazy cone-bras Madonna wore back in the day? Yes, that's him. Before last …
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Get Rid of Cable
Don't wake up in a roadside ditch. Don't have a grandson with a dog collar. Stop taking in stray animals. These news Directv spots sure have a lot of directives for us to follow. But it's this directive the company hopes will come through loud and clear: Get rid of cable. I like this campaign a lot, probably because it's a campaign that relies on narrative to sell. And in a clever ways it …
A City Without Billboards
Good Magazine takes a closer look at Sao Paulo, Brazil, where they've banned outdoor advertising. Where businesses are concerned, it turns out some advertisers are actually thankful for the ban, as it's forced them to reevaluate and improve. "Companies had to find their own ways to promote products and brands on the streets," Lalai Luna, co-founder of ad agency Remix, told the Financial Times last year. "São …
I’m Michelle Bachmann, And I Approved This Message
The Iowa Caucus is tomorrow, and one would think that Iowa-born Michelle Bachmann--a Christian conservative--would do well. Whether her latest TV ad will help garner votes is another question. According to The New York Times, the ad is running on the local NBC station, WHO, 14 times over the next two days at a cost of just $7,600. By contrast, Mr. Romney and Mr. Gingrich have spent about eight times that on …
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It’s New Year’s Day, Do You Know Where Your Headset Is?
It was a pleasure and an honor to appear on Episode 182 of The BeanCast Marketing Podcast last night. It was also a bit of an effort, as I do not recover from two consecutive late nights on the town as quickly as I once did. I was on the show with Valeria Maltoni of Conversation Agent; Peter Shankman, founder of Help a Reporter Out (HARO); and Marc Whitehead, EVP/Managing Director at Reason Partners in Toronto. …
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The Key Rebrands A Car Dealership And Flips The Category On Its Head
I love, love, love it when a brand markets itself in a way unlike anything else in its category. And that's happening in Oklahoma City right now with a used car dealership rebranded as The Key. While there's a brand video on the homepage, its Facebook page links to a 90 second spot that serves as a great intro to what the brand is all about. In addition to cars, lifetime maintenance, and financing, The …
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Childhood Obesity Ads Serve Up Truth With A Side Of Guilt
As health care costs increase along with portion sizes, Children's Healthcare of Atlanta has decided to tackle the problem full-on in a series of ads that expose the problem of childhood obesity. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has more: Using tools such as television commercials and billboards late this year, the campaign has offered stark black-and-white images of overweight children sharing bold and …
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