Blew Me Away

This spot won the Gold Lion at Cannes last year. It’s a melancholy story of a very lonely man finally becoming useful. Very cool idea. Nordpol+ Hamburg is the brilliant agency. Enjoy!  

A Drinkable Art: Dew’s taste is good

I was reading ESPN magazine this morning and I was advertised to. It made an impression. Mountain Dew’s greenLabelart campaign crossed seven amazing artists to design six customized labels for Mountain Dew. Haze, Dez, Chuck Anderson, Peat Wolleager, Scott Lehardt, Danny Davis, Troy Denning are the great designers. BBDO New York is the brilliant agency that pushed for this idea. Mountain Dew, good for you for spending the budget because there’s no way this was cheap.

First, the art in the print is so eye catching it made me stop while reading a sports mag.

Then not an hour later I saw the Mounatain Dew: Drinkable Art spot and I noticed it. It made me remember the ad I just saw–to me this was a little crazy. These costumes were cool, the art was cool, and the direction kept me watching.

By then I had the ole laptop out so I went to greenLABELart.com. The music was nice. The movement was smooth. But what really stopped me where the first three words I read. INSPIRATION, EXPRESSION, CREATION–you got me, I’m staying and playing for a little while. Checked out the video on the side, pretty cool. It profiles the individual artists, and show them working on their designs–very smart, BBDO. These six different styles mesh on the shelf and dominate any the bland world of soda labels. These bottles all look great together.

Great creative. Great Campaign. Great Everything. Kudos.

“Look before you leave. 20% of cycling accidents involve children.”

Simple idea, and very cool medium. Nice execution, and it’s very effective. Great Idea, Marshall-Fenn, in Toronto, Canada.

The Darker Side of Chicken

These are some Super Bowl Peta spots that were banned by fox. They are pretty dark, and pull a weird emotion out of you, but a little too dark for the range of audience watching the Super Bowl at least according to FOX. Even though I’m not a fan of KFC, I do love chicken. Cool work people. Love the direction.

Advertising Agency: The Cricket Club™, New York, USA
Creative Directors: Roald van Wyk, David Ekholm
Art Director: Roald van Wyk
Copywriter: David Ekholm
Director: Scott Corbett

Advergaming pt. 2: Brand Familiarity

Tips to get your brand noticed in video game land:

1. Make sure your brand is appropriate for the virtual world. Volcom, Nixon, Vans, Spy, Tony Hawk’s clothing line are  all customizable pieces to make your skater exactly they way you want. If you’re in a band, more titles, especially sports titles, feature real bands doing real tracks. Yokohama tires can be bought in multiple racing titles, and I have Yokohama tires on my car, coincidence? Nope. When I had the tires put on my car I needed low profile tires, Yokohama was the only brand I knew. They got me at least. I have a Volcom beanie I really like, too.

2. Find, if possible, a functional purpose for your brand in the game. The brands above all have an appropriate presence in the games and have a functionality purpose with the game. You can wear the clothes in the skateboarding game and use the tires in racing title. Clothes might add style points to your character, or your brand of tire might provide that racer’s edge if your lucky, but I’m sure this doesn’t come without a hefty price tag.

3. Manage your expectations. Find a way to Measure. Not to hard to buy a specialized URL, and integrate a microsite, right? Do it. Let’s say your brake brand has a presence in a console game, like a racing game for xBox 360, buy a virtual billboard on the side of the road–you can do that–throw your URL on their and see what happens. Offer something once they get there codes, tips, money, but reference yourself back to the game–think search engine marketing, gamers are searching for codes for games, walk-throughs, and FAQs all the time, why not be a source? But realize that one of the biggest benefits–at least that you can truly hope for in a game is familiarity with a new audience because if you are only putting up a billboard in a high speed racing game and your presence isn’t known any where else in the game I wouldn’t expect a big result as you’re flying by at 205 mph. You gotta have functionality, or stretch the brand’s presence as far as the budget will allow.

4. Creating a game isn’t the always the answer. Consider the amount of games on the internet, and “win this win that games” are flooding the internet. Find some money in your budget to get into a console game that includes PC titles too. It’s hard to drive traffic with a game that is lost in a land of similar point and click games, with similar contests or sweepstakes attached, often arriving just to suffer through a registration process that immediately deters people from staying and playing. Sometimes just presence in another game might work just as well. View the strengths of the brand, and take a chance on a specialized URL, or once you create a partnership with a game you can cross promote. Here’s a story about cross marketing for Tony Hawks game and JEEP. Story here.

5. The business is about to boom, with that media buys in games will to. Take advantage now, before it’s too late. Advertising in video games as a non-traditional medium is on the rise. Total spending is expected to be above a billion in two years. That means plenty of options to find the perfect place for your brand, because games are being produced just as fast and will continue to evolve, and make sure your brand does evolves with it.

Advergaming: The Booming Possibilities of In-Game Advertising

In October of 1985, the Nintendo Entertainment System was born in the US–I was three. And I was hooked immediately. With a youthful generation that has been surrounded by 3D worlds, avatars, second lives, xboxes, buttons, and joysticks becoming money earning consumers it’s no wonder the the advertising world is jumping on the band wagon. The billion dollar a year industry–or at least will be by 2010 if predictions are correct, is about to be completely invaded by brands and your brand should be there. I think it can be a lot higher, especially with the booming emergence of online game play, interactive games like the Nintendo Wii, and it’s presence and influence in pop culture.

Here’s a cool campaign for the Wii with a little retro influence, both appealing to the retro gamers, current Wii fans, and an invasion of space that can’t be ignored.

According to the Entertainment Software Association, consumers spent $9.5 billion dollars on video and computer games last year. Now, game developers are getting younger, faster and smarter. With rising prices, the young indie developers are taking the internet by storm. I’m talking young, like high-school age and younger–producing, creating, and designed they’re own games, then posting them for the world to play–FREE. Facebook is littered with them, and flash based games are everywhere. Hell, some sort of video game is on almost every youthful brand’s website. All in attempt to bring in traffic for one reason or another. For the developers, it’s a chance to show off their skills. For the brand, it’s a chance to have a little face-to-face time with the consumer.

EA noticed the rise in user-generated games and has taken full advantage of it. Shankar Gupta reports on EA’s new program called ‘Blueprint’, here’s an excerpt: “The big idea for Blueprint seems to be finding and supporting independent developers, supplying them with funding and project management (cash and managers, two things EA has a nearly endless supply of), to produce games based on EA intellectual properties for Facebook and other social networks.” Beautiful. Brilliant. Great idea. These kids are going to be doing this anyway, why not brand them, hire the, and get them on your side. Let them do the work. Let them be as creative as they want. Reep the benefits.

Video games are one of the most adaptable mediums for advertising. The best thing is you have your audience’s attention–they’re to busy trying to win, shoot, score, out run, or even save the world to peel their corneas from the screen for a crucial split second. Creating a presence by using product placement, playing your band’s fresh single, sponsoring fights, races, worlds, buildings, and materials anything and everything–eventually anyways. The beautiful thing about the virtual world is the mirror to our natural consumer state of mind. Buy. Buy. Buy. Racing games have branded cars, tires, oil changes, signs on the road, customizable parts, paints and interiors are all available for purchase from the funds you’ve spent hours acquiring.

We are surrounded by brands and the virtual ability to buy. You can order Pizza Hut from World of Warcraft. Pepsi vending machines in Sim worlds. Walk out with the Burger King in Fight Night Round 3, as he takes the place of a trainer that ironically boosts your heart. And pretty much every video game involving a character is completely customizable all the way down to eye color just to personalize your relationship within the game, and as a result you get a brand experience too.

Online video gaming is exploding right now. It’s only a matter of time before brands are completely integrated and you are just a click away from an online store with out even pausing your game. That’s one of the hopes of Second Life, the completely virtual world that launched back in 2003. Businesses have moved in a made a presence, stores are up to buy clothes for your avatar, and you can even watch the news, go to news conferences, and listen to lectures and speakers. Brands are everywhere and have created entire sub-worlds in this vast virtual space. Business entrepreneurs have been born from this imaginary world just by creating products for other avatars to use, wear, and even drive. And with the spawn of commerce comes banks. Virtual banks. Crazy.

In-game advertising should be an easy sell, with the average gamer spending at least seven hours a week playing games, with how much video games influence pop culture, and a personal brand experience to influence brand familiarity–which to me is the most important part of advertising. No one will buy or use your product if they don’t know your brand, and we are constantly influencing each other just on popularity of the brands we use. When groups of gamer buddies are having a cold one talking about games they play, are wanting to play, games to try, shopping online for games, visiting and forwarding websites that feature games, and now even making their own games, where will your brand be?

Uno: The Regal Beagle

Madison Square Garden. Sold out crowd. Over 3 million watching from home—that’s an estimation based on past numbers, don’t hang your hat on it. Online coverage across the board with a presence over two networks, USA and CNBC. The 132nd year for this highly celebrated event. It’s the Super Bowl for dogs that ended with an erupting standing ovation. All in celebration of Uno, the first beagle to win best in show at Westminster Kennel Club. Why talk about a dog show on ad blog?

Well, this is a very interesting demographic of people. The dog lover. How many people does this demographic represent? Millions. Around 74.8 million and growing according to the Humane Society of the United States. That’s a lot of dog food, leashes, toys, beds, grooming and vet visits, shots, and dog clothes if that sort of thing tickles your fancy. Bring on the ads. There are a ton of creative opportunities surrounding this event, and I hope the brands took full advantage.

Congrats to Uno the 15″ beagle who actually won best of breed last year and came back and took the whole show. And he didn’t do it quietly. There’s nothing like the bark of a beagle. The only thing that would make this dog any cooler would be to have a little yellow bird best friend.     

Super Bowl: MonkeyBulb Favs

 

My Top Five Super Bowl:

1. Audi – “Godfather”

This is a perfectly targeted commercial. The small percentage of men that can afford this car would pick up on the Godfather reference immediately. It’s a well directed and elegant spot for a very sophisticated brand. And to top it off, the car is gorgeous.

This is my Best In Show.

2. Bud light – “Fire Breath”

I love this spot and it does exactly what an ad should do, take advantage of what the consumer likes. The crazy target group of 21-45 men have simple interests. Special Effects. Beer. Super hero powers. A cute enough girl, but not distractingly cute. And fire. Things that are caught on fire are funny, especially when sneezing is involved.

Best Demographic Award, and the Duh Award, as in, is this a good beer spot to run during the Super Bowl? Duh.

3. FedEx – “Big Pigeons”

I’ve already talked about this spot, but I have to say again, technologically advanced pigeons are hilarious. Giant Pigeons. Priceless.

This spot wins Special Effects Award and Gigantic Animal Award in the bird category.

4. NFL – “Mr. Oboe”
They left it up to the players to pitch a spot. Just tell your best story. It worked. This great story gave you the experience of a :60 second full feature film. Personal stories like this give people hope, and encourage and inspire kids…blah blah blah. What they do is allow people to relate to these guys as normal people. Thus, it strengthens the relationship between viewer and brand. I love the line, “you didn’t have the dream, til I told you that you were dreaming.” 240 NFL players tried out for this spot, they picked the perfect one. Really cool concept. View more videos here.

This spot wins the Appropriate Audience Award, Direction Award, and also the Music Award.

5. Tide – “Talking Stain”
I like this spot. It is a little reminiscent of Steve Carrell in Bruce Almighty, but I really like the idea of the spot. It doesn’t matter what you say, all people see or even “hear” is the stain.

This spot wins the Newcomer Award, and Annoying Voice Award.

This was a great group of ads. But were they successful? Were they worth the $3 mil put on the line? America disagrees with me in terms of successful ads. Success in this business doesn’t care if you like the spot or not, it’s about the relationship they create with their audience, so all the buzz about favorite spots, and judgements over the creative is pointless and endless.

Try comparing a couple of .coms like eTrade and GoDaddy.com. Are people going to subscribe more to eTrade if a talking baby says it’s easy? Probably not. Don’t get me wrong, I thought these spots were very well written and funny in a cute way, but GoDaddy.com’s one spot which did nothing but direct you to their website to watch their banned commercial and ended up with 2 million hits in one day–last year? try only 1/2 a million and they ran three spots last year. GoDaddy went cheaper, used “bad publicity” about their banned spot, and their traffic exploded.

What about the drink world? Did dancing undead lizards make you want to drink Sobe? Doubt it. But the Vitamin Water spot with Shaq actually had a good concept, and they used their celebrity endorsement in a funny way. Shaq is big. What’s small? Jockeys. I’ve got an idea. This is a good example of recall for a spot. No one will recall the Sobe spot 5 minutes after they see it, but people will be able to recall the Vitamin Water with Shaq in disussions next year about Super Bowl ads. I call that a success.

I thought the Victoria’s Secret ad was perfect timing for Valentine’s Day. Hot enough to hold male attention which any female in the same room would notice, but tame enough for females to like it and be reminded that football is almost over and the real game time starts. And I think she was holding a football, but I can’t really focus and remember. Happy Valentine’s day indeed. Perfect timing VS.

Good job to all the creatives. It’s got to be hard to get a creative brief that says, “create the funniest and most memorable spot during the most over hyped advertising period during the biggest Live TV event in history.” Easy, right? You guys and girls rock.

Super Bowl: The Advertising Zoo

What a great game. Winning the game in the last :43 seconds with a huge touchdown from Eli to Plax-insane. Marketers couldn’t ask for a better finish. With a grueling battle all game, when a blow out was expected viewers were glued to the TV sets. A record 98 million viewers watched setting a record for the big game and approaching all time numbers that the season finale of M.A.S.H. put up, 106 million viewers. I’m sure at any one point, especially in the fourth quarter around a minute left, it was a lot more than 98 million. Hell, the party I was at had about 50 people over two TVs, so there’s no way to truly tell any solid total numbers. Viewership for at least part of the game was estimated at 148.3 million. So how did the commercials perform?

There are so many “arm chair critics” out there, me being one of them, that are providing their opinions on these spots that you can’t Google “Super Bowl XLII ads” without getting over 4 million results. It’s so funny to me, working in advertising, that watching these super spots is such a fad. You’re playing right into the marketers hands people! Go ahead, talk about their brand over coffee, they want you to. And next time your at the grocery store in the drink aisle think about Shaq as a horse jockey, laugh to yourslef, and pick up a Vitaminwater. They’re delicious.

What’s up with all the animals? So many animals in TV spots this year…big animals, small animals, cute animals, talking animals, even people dressed as animals. Are animals effective? Here’s the spots that made some sort of impression on me that happen to feature furry creatures.

Big Animals. I loved the FedEx spot with the giant pigeons. The special effects were fantastic. The spot was funny. And the best thing, the idea was simple. Carrier pigeons were used to deliver messages, what about big deliveries–how about some big pigeons? Sold. I have a couple of friends who are terrified of birds, so I’m sure they loved this spot.

Dancing Animals. However, I didn’t like the dancing thriller lizards for Sobe’s Lifewater. It was pointless. There was no tying message to the lizards dancing to thriller, or any real significance at all. The only tie I could see to anything is that this year is Thriller’s 25th anniversary, but who really knows that?

Inspiring Animals. The Budweiser “Rocky” spot was ok. and I’m sure it’s America’s favorite, but I’m still not going to drink Budweiser.

Violent Animals. I thought the Doritos spot was funny. The slow melancholy music sucked you in to be punched right in the face when that mouse jumps through the wall and repeatedly punches the guy in the face. Everybody I was around laughed hysterically, including myself. And I’m only kind of ashamed to admit it.

Random Animals. What’s Up this the Bridgestone commercial? Alice cooper? Richard Simmons? And of course, a screaming squirrel. When I was a kid I was always thought it would be funny if animals would freak out and scream in intense situations, I was wrong.

Sleeping Animals. Toyota Corolla. Not really worth talking about. I do enjoy badgers though, but the only car commercial I remember is the Audi spot, which I thought was sweet, but it’s easy to have a sweet spot with a car that beautiful. That car was ridiculous.

Brave Animals. Narnia Trailer. Hope the good guys win again. Good luck saving the world talking forest animals.

Thirsty Animals. Anyone remember the dog drinking water in the spot about Gatorade? Nope? Didn’t think so.

Animated Animals. The salegenie.com spots have cartoon pandas that need sales advice, where should they go? Wait…I don’t care. What salesperson is going to take this brand seriously? Not unless this is directed at the Girl and Boy Scouts of America for their cookie sales. I got a free lead right now. Me. Thin mints please.

That’s enough about animals–I’m starting to feel dumber. Good work creative folks.

Coolest Banner Campaign on Earth

I’m surfing all around the internet this morning and I come across two very cool blogs, AdvertisingforPeanuts and Adverblog. Both of them have posts about this campaign and I have to as well, just in case someone comes across my blog and hasn’t seen it.This innovative banner campaign is completely original, and I can’t wait to copy it. :-) Mediafront are the geniuses behind it and it’s so simple it will make you want to puke.  The idea is easy—live banners, written on the spot about content showing on the page to get your attention. LIVE. The banners are live!

 

I think these banners are impossible to ignore. And with the child-like hand writing, because they are using the Pen Tablet, I think these could be very successful with a youthful brand. So how did they do it?

Well, you can watch them here: An eye on them.

Three rotating copywriters monitored the websites and  wrote on the fly commentary with an ending message to go to sol.no.They logged in 150 hours producing nearly 1000 different creative ads in media placements on Norways most popular news sites. Brilliant creative freedom. They used a publishing tool they created just for this campaign, now that’s innovative. 

Very cool stuff, Mediafront. You can read more about this campaign here.