Check out this Holiday Inn commercial featuring three corporate dweebs capping on a female cohort’s blog. It’s not participation with a blog, but it’s certainly acknowledgment of the power of blogging and the significance of viral video in the blogging community.
Posts from the Advertising Category
Holiday Inn Gives a Nod to the Blogosphere
August 14th, 2007 by Chief Nut
Shocking and Unexpected Advertisement
August 5th, 2007 by Chief NutCreating a powerful advertisement is tough… really tough. One approach would be to keep the ad to a simple powerful title, a sentence of small descriptive text (just enough), and one reeeeallly powerful image that combines something unexpected with something a little shocking. Here’s one:
You Don’t Mean THAT!
April 29th, 2007 by Chief NutWhen writing ad copy, knowing it’ll be translated into a foreign language, you have to stay on your toes. Derrick Daye, with Branding Strategy Insider, shares some brand trivia which includes some of these gaffes:
In Spanish, Colgate can be translated into “Go hang yourself”
KFC translated it’s tagline “Finger lickin’ good” into Chinese for the first time and it came out as “Eat your fingers off.”
Pepsi translated it’s tagline “Pepsi gives you life” into Chinese and it meant “Pepsi brings your ancestors back from the grave.”
Here are a few more …
Chevrolet’s Nova flopped in Mexico because it means “No go”
Similarly, the Ford Pinto failed in Brazil because Pinto is slang for “tiny male genitals”
A Parker Pen ad slogan, “It won’t leak in your pocket and embarrass you” was translated for the Mexican market as “It won’t leak in your pocket and make you pregnant.”
Frank Perdue’s slogan “It takes a tough man to make a tender chicken” was translated into Spanish (Mexico) as “It takes a hard man to make a chicken aroused.”
Let me tell you, I am DEFINITELY gun shy about translating our tagline “Go nuts”!
1984 Mac Commercial
March 12th, 2007 by Chief NutAlthough the tagline “Think different” evolved from the former “The power to be your best”, you still get the strong sense of how Apple connects with people. The rebellious, do things different than the masses idea. Click to watch this classic commercial;
Suicide; A New Fad? Egad!
February 23rd, 2007 by Chief NutMy post about GMs assembly line robot was misunderstood by some which led to my clarification that I don’t endorse GM’s decision to create such an ad … but do encourage that type of bold, emotion-based ad development strategy. They just picked the wrong emotion to tap into …€” suicide, dispair, fear.
Now consider;
- VW Polo: Suicide Bomber
- Electrolux: Suicide Jumper
- VW: Suicide Jumper
- Career Builder: Cliff Jumping
- Levi’s Jeans: Train Track Girl
- Washington Mutual: Mass Suicide Jumpers
- Bridgestone Tires: Dog Suicide
Let’s consider that this trend may NOT be mass hysteria. There may be a logical reason for all of these commercials … whether we agree with it or not. Case in point; In September of 2005 VW fired long time Boston agency Arnold Worldwide and signed up (hopefully more aggressive) Crispin Porter + Bogusky in Miami. CP+B is known for taking these kinds of “in your face” risks in the development of ad campaigns. There’s no such thing as “bad press”, right?! As long as the ad gets talked about, it’s a sound approach. That’s dangerously logical.
As much as we believe in a hyper-aggressive, jolting approach (as one possible strategy), we also think the emotions you shock with are as important as the shock-value itself. Take another look at a CP+B classic;
VW Jetta: Safe Happens ad campaign
The emotion is “relief” …€” all summed up in the words cut off at the end of the commercial “HOLY SH..!” This shocker ad celebrates life … it doesn’t dwell on the darker side of suicide. Big difference, don’t you think?
Simple Ideas Are Tough
February 21st, 2007 by Chief NutWhen designing logos for a client, I always explain that simplicity in design is tough. It’s much harder to pull off a simple, elegant design than it is to create a complex one. In a similar vein, marketing and advertising concepts are the same. Simple; hard. Complex; easy.
A couple of weeks ago, Lani Voivod wrote this scathing comparison of Toshiba’s magazine ad to the popular “I’m a PC, and I’m a Mac” ad campaign. This morning, after finding this post at Scootinger.net, from a 1996(!) MacAddict Magazine ad, I start to wonder. Are either, or both, of the new ads a blatant rip-off? … or is it a coincidental use of a similar, simple idea? The world may never know.
Important note; If you’re going to create “simple”, pay particular attention to the possibility that your idea isn’t new. In fact, it may be so “NOT new” that it crosses the line of trademark infringement.
DVRs - 60% FEWER Commercials Watched!
February 19th, 2007 by Chief NutNote the way the title of this post was written. Now, take a look at this New York Times Ad called “Viewers Fast-Forwarding Past Ads? Not Always“. The key factoid in the article is that users of digital video recorders (like TIVO) don’t always time-shift their viewing and don’t simply skip past the commercials … to the tune of 40%.
I suppose that’s ONE way of looking at it (40% commericials are watched). But, the MUCH more significant perspective …€” at least from an advertiser’s point of view …€” is that a whopping 60% of the commercials are NOT being watched!
Like it or not, the world is changin’ … and right quick! Are you an advertiser? If so, what are you going to do about this?
Dig deeper into the article and you find out about tactics like;
- Running ads while fast-forwarding is taking place
- Running ads as marquees at the bottom of the screen
- Asking viewers if they would like to see an ad after the show is over
I understand WHY these attempts are made, but can’t the advertisers see that these tactics are just bucking the specific efforts of the viewer to NOT see their interruptive commercial in the first place?
The world of commercial advertising is going to have to get VERY creative … in a hurry … to overcome this trend…. Embracing relationship building, evangelism and great customer care are just a couple of steps in the right direction.
The Heated Debate Begins
February 12th, 2007 by Chief NutOF COURSE it was going to happen after publishing something like my last post. Heavy sigh. Joan writes;
Your points on this are well taken BUT consider if you lost your mother, father, son, daughter, wife or husband to suicide via a bridge jumping. Would you feel entertained by such an advertisement? Since 32,000 Americans complete suicide each year and each of these suicides guinely effects a minimum of 6-8 people, that is a huge group of people to offend…not to mention all of the mental health practitioners, physicians and researchers who are working to save lives.
PLEASE don’t think of me as an insensitive brute! I think you missed my point. I’m not endorsing what GM did … I would probably not have done the bridge-jumping thing. BUT, I would have definitely gone far enough to upset some OTHER group!
Consider the Nationwide Insurance commercial with Kevin Federline that heated up the Restaurant Industry to the point where they too asked to have the ad pulled. Before getting all wound up, I’m NOT comparing “rapping in a restaurant” to “suicide”. However, you can’t discount the fact that this group of restauranteurs were truly upset by the commercial! Did the Nationwide marketing team purposely try to tick off people who work in restaurants OR did they simply play on the idea that everyone has dreams … some dream BIG … let’s call it “the human condition”. If you can imagine a kid working as a fry cook dreaming of being a rap star you can then actually picture in your mind the commercial happening in real life. The play on the idea comes when an actual rap star (and I use that term VERY loosely) is caught in the act. FUNNY STUFF!
More on the Human Condition:
This was a topic of quite a bit of discussion/debate in our office today. The effectiveness of all three of these ads is based on; observation of the human condition and of stereotypes. The human condition of the GM ad is; how do people in an automobile plant feel when they worry about the quality of their work? Do they fear for their jobs? If they lose their job, how will it affect them? THAT’S the “human condition.”
So, if the GM ad doesn’t work, WHERE did they go wrong? I would say they tapped into the wrong emotion - too much fear and sadness! There are VERY few people who will walk away from watching that ad with the feeling that it was “funny” … or they could “relate with it” … or that “GM really cares” … or “GM must understand quality because I too have those fears”. Why? Because the visual of a robot waking from a suicide dream is STILL on the topic of suicide, it’s almost impossible to get the viewer focused back on any other emotion. Yes, emotions are powerful and HUGELY important in the development of great brand/advertising.
Back to the KFed fiasco…. what’s the human condition? It’s the reality that people have dreams beyond where their jobs are located. If the marketing team for Nationwide would have instead picked garbage truck drivers, or dental hygienists, or dishwasher repairmen, or hotel bellhops, or, or, or …. I’m sure we would have somebody else up in arms instead of restauranteurs. That’s not really the point though is it? The point is that KFed put himself out there in a self-deprecating display that was intended to be funny.
Final Words:
Again, my last post was NOT to defend or endorse the GM ad. It was to point out that emotions are powerful things and when you use them in your brand development (AND YOU SHOULD), you run the risk of polarizing the world. To this I say “GREAT!!” If I can polarize the world with my own brand and only get 1/10th of 1 percent of all the people on the planet to be true, die-hard, dyed in the wool, evangelists for my company …€” and the other 99.9% think I’m looney …€” I’ll be MORE than happy to provide services only to those 6 Million people on my side. This is a MUCH better strategy than to be completely bland and safe with nobody on your side.
Keep those cards and letters comin’!
What’s REALLY Going On Here?
February 12th, 2007 by Chief NutA couple of advertising issues in the news:
1) The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention has asked that GM pull it’s ad that features an assembly line robot jumping off a bridge.
2) The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) AND the Human Rights Campaign have similarly asked Masterfoods (makers of the Snickers bar) to pull their most recent ad, claiming it is offensive and defamatory to gays and lesbians.
Let me begin by stating that creating an ad campaign that potentially endangers lives, offends the majority of viewers or severely degrades corporate brand value is just plain bad. Consider the recent Cartoon Network “Bomb Scare” ad campaign in Boston … definitely not good for sales.
HOWEVER, when you create a campaign that is edgy, bold and differentiates you from your competitors, you should expect some people to get a little T.O.’d. If that doesn’t happen at all, you probably didn’t take the idea far enough. Water down your ads to the point where nobody even comments, and you also water down your effectiveness.
What really gets my goat is the kinds of reactions the above ads got. Let’s take them one at a time….
1) The GM ad DIDN’T show the robot jumping off a bridge, it showed a robot dreaming about jumping off of a bridge. Minor distinction, for sure, but it’s important. If you’re going to create an ad that portrays a robot with anthropomorphic qualities of fear, depression, loss and sorrow, you might show it having such a terrible dream. This commercial is NOT an endorsement of bridge-jumping … it is simply the portrayal of something totally unexpected …€” a robot thinking like a human. It’s this unexpected idea that makes the ad powerful.
2) Although stereotypes are generally “bad”, they can’t be ignored and they can sometimes be the basis for a wealth of ad ideas. The stereo-type of two manly-men working in a garage, head down in an engine compartment (right or wrong), is something most people ‘get’. The unexpected event is when one guy leans over to eat the candy bar out of the other guy’s mouth (a la The Lady and the Tramp spaghetti scene). YOWZA! If that were to ever actually happen in the real world, what would you expect these two testosterone-laden guys to do?? I’m bettin’ a bit of macho, chest hair pulling is in order! This isn’t defamatory against gays and lesbians any more than the Jack McFarland character’s (Will & Grace) comments about straight guys was defamatory to heterosexuals. Both cases are simply portraying a character doing pretty much what you’d expect them to do.
Lesson to be learned; If you’re in the process of creating brand, don’t let these kinds of events instill ANY kind of fear in your decision-making. BE BOLD! Don’t be afraid to differentiate!
Big Game Time Shifting
January 21st, 2007 by Chief NutTaking back large portions of your life by recording long television programs (called time shifting) is a great idea. Tim Sanders gives us his strategy for using Tivo to record football games so he catches up to the real-time event somewhere in the fourth quarter. This way he sees the entire game, catches the exciting ending at the same time as everyone else and completely skips all of the commercials.
There’s only one problem with that plan. What if you’re like me and you LIKE to watch the commercials? OK, maybe not ALL of them … and certainly not the same ones over and over and over and over (like during football games). But, I do like to check in on advertising strategies, rate the creativity, score the impact of the message, judge the editing … generally keep tabs on the world of advertising. Watching TV commercials, for me, is like fishing. It’s A LOT of boring mediocrity punctuated with just a few choice ads that make it all worth while. Believe me, I DO understand that I’m a little freaky in this regard (and if you just made a mental crack about the word “little”, you can contact my wife to join the club … she’s the president!) Sigh.
Feeeed Meee
