pauldervan: random thoughts on marketing

American Psycho. I love this.

2008-07-25T11:39:00.000+01:00

The copy reads:

"The Perfect Billboard. Eggshell white with romalian type. Nice. Raised lettering, a subtle 7 inch bone border, and just look at the tasteful thickness of the headline. All perched on four evenly spaced 3.2 metre powder coated stanchions. My god, it even has a watermark.

American Psycho. Friday 9.30pm. TV2"

I really like this. I admit there is a lot of copy here and it would only make sense to fans of the movie, American Psycho. But it is good stuff and would spark conversation. Maybe a youtube URL or link to TV2's website showing this particular scene would enhance the ad.

Via Ads of the World

37,000 comments on one post

2008-07-24T13:47:00.000+01:00

Read this by Mark Collier on MarketingProfs daily fix and had to share this along. This pos t by Heather B. Armstrong offered her blog readers a chance to win one of five Nintendo Wii Fit systems.

It generated a massive 37,000 comments...yep, that's right. 37,000.

Mark Collier's post asks how much this must have been worth to Nintendo?

Cyberbullying - Talentshow

2008-07-23T11:29:00.002+01:00

Saw this and reminded me of a tragic story I read last December. It's actually hard to believe this even happened.

'Megan (13, St. Louis) had a MySpace profile when a cute boy "Josh" (16) begins courting her. All is well until Josh breaks up with her online by sending cruel messages about how she hurts her friends, is fat and a slut, and "the world would be a better place without you."

Shortly after reading this, Megan commits suicide. Josh turns out to be a fake profile created by Lori Drew, the mother of one of Megan's former friends.'

I know this kind of thing can happen offline too. Still scary and very sad. I've lifted it directly from Danah Boyd's post. You'll find a fair bit of discussion there.

Found video via toddand

Why business people speak like idiots

2008-07-21T11:44:00.002+01:00

Found this via Helge Tennø

Fight the Bull is a website dedicated to eliminating business jargon. Some nice stuff here.

You can even download a toolbar that will scan your document and take out all the bull. With the Bull Composite Index, you can see how jargon-filled your Word doc or Powerpoint slides are.

The bit I like best is their Mystery Matador. If you get an email from a colleague that is full of bull - you can paste it into the Matador and anonymously send your colleague's email back to them from this site, with a score on how much bull was in their original email.

Let the fight begin.

Roger Federer + Nike

2008-07-19T23:23:00.000+01:00

Posting this one especially for you Elaine K. I like it.

Via Toddand

Darth Vader plays golf

2008-07-19T13:22:00.002+01:00

One of several spots, made by the agency, Mother, promoting all the Star Wars movies on Spike TV.

Via adland

Compromise is not always a good thing

2008-07-17T15:37:00.000+01:00

This is a very insightful video for anybody that works in marketing communications. While each small additional message can be justified on its own merit - compromise is not always a good thing.

Thanks to Kevin for sending onto me.

For anybody that uses Focus Groups

2008-07-16T10:20:00.000+01:00

For anybody that uses Focus Groups. If you like this, watch the groups for Apple's famous 1894 ad.

Found via Helge Tennø

Top 3 results get 79% of the clicks

2008-07-15T09:54:00.002+01:00

Eye tracking results from Cornell University show that the top three results get 79% of the traffic. Worth a visit to seoresearcher.com - there were over 60 comments, many querying the validity of the research, but worth a quick read regardless.

Found via Jeremiah Owyang

The 'crucial bit' is coherency

2008-07-14T17:06:00.001+01:00

While I'm not overly fond of the actual executions (except this outdoor ad), I think Club Orange's latest advertising campaign is pretty solid.

'Some bits are crucial' is consistent with many of their previous advertising campaigns during the years. They have actually been talking about the 'bits' for a long time. With good reason, as this is linked to why we should all drink Club Orange. As explained on their club.ie site: "it’s all in the bits!! Club uses over 11% fruit juice and contains real orange bits, making it a premium and great tasting product".

But for me anyway, the idea itself felt a bit weak in the past.

For example, a previous TV ad, Club Steam, shows a guy dancing naked in a steam room with his bottle of cold Club Orange, only to notice at the end that a few girls are in the steam room watching him. And we're told "It's a Club Orange thing, when the bits kick in". This feels a little vague to me.

However, their "Some bits are crucial" idea is stronger. No ambiguity here - choose Club Orange because it has bits of oranges in them, and this is the crucial part to a quality orange drink.

But it has also given them more scope to play with very different executions while having a coherent campaign.

For example, their TV ad, produced by McConnells, is about a guy 'Jumping Jack', that tries to jump a load of trucks on a honda 50, but forgets the ramp. The ramp is the 'crucial' bit.

Their online video, produced by vstream, is a video about a couple of dolls trying to get it on, but they can't because the male doll is missing some 'crucial' bits.
I spotted this clever outdoor ad in Ranelagh, where the 'crucial' bits are the large bolts keeping the billboard up.

The TV ad, online video and billboard look nothing in common - and this is perfectly ok, as the idea is coherent across them all. This coherency is in fact the 'crucial bit'. The lazy route might have been to copy and paste a scene from the TV ad onto the outdoor ad and host the TV ad online.

The online presence is not as seamless as it could be.

For example, there is a (nice) site dedicated to this campaign called somebitsarecrucial.ie which shows both the TV ad and the online video but doesn't have any info about the '11% fruit juice'. I found this at the club.ie site. Is there a need for two sites?
And if you go to Club.ie, there is no reference to the campaign at all. In fact, an older TV automatically plays as soon as the page is loaded. Which is a pity. But these things happen, and I'd say this is result of internal processes, as opposed to just not thinking about it.
Finally there is a facebook page set up, which is a nice idea in theory, but I wonder if this will be maintained? Maybe it will.

Overall though, I like it.

Website usability rap

2008-07-13T18:33:00.003+01:00

Website usability rap. Not bad. I preferred the Search Engine Optimisation rap.

Found via Viralblog.

Do premium brands need expensive ads?

2008-07-09T21:19:00.001+01:00

Do premium brands need expensive ads?

I suspect most would agree that they do not. Perhaps fashion brands need them, but I wonder. Or cars? Again, I'm not sure. If the answer is no, then why do expensive advertising? Sometimes the brand has been built using expensive, high end advertising and this is what is expected. Catch 22?

Doritos are happy to do it cheaply, having recently spent just six pounds making this ad.

Given the opportunity, I think any new brand should consider how to do cheap advertising - without looking cheap. Easier said than done. Red Bull seem to have managed this balance I think. Their ads clearly cost very little but they don't seem to have damaged the brand perception, going by the prices they charge.

Innocent Drinks and The Economist also come to mind...

Content Marketing

2008-07-07T21:01:00.000+01:00

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Found this via Paul Isakson. Worth a flick through. If you like it, you'll enjoy Paul's own slides here. Good quote from CP+B "We think the future of advertising is great products with marketing embedded in them".

This is also one of the themes within this book.

Most creative use of press advertising I've seen in a while.

2008-07-03T21:23:00.004+01:00

Most creative use of press advertising I've seen in a while.

It might be a bit difficult to see here, but they've used the numbers at the top of newspaper pages to illustrate stark statistics on AIDS. So for example, on page 6, they've written "6 million people in South Africa are living with HIV".

I'm sure you couldn't help but read these when flicking though the paper. Very clever.

Via Ads of the World

Billboard ad in airport

2008-07-02T20:18:00.003+01:00

The copy says "Uninterrupted talk with the best mobile coverage in Sweden".

I like that they used the five billboards as one canvas. Nice.

Sandals with bottle openers

2008-07-01T17:21:00.000+01:00

Sandals with bottle openers. I love this innovation.

I suspect that Reef really understand their customers - and have found that lots of them are young men and women with a fondness for beer.

Perhaps recruitment sites can learn from P.Diddy?

2008-06-29T11:43:00.010+01:00

A friend of mine works for a popular online recruitment website. It is a good site, gets shed loads of traffic and I believe it does a decent job matching employers and applicants. But I reckon they are missing opportunities.

Online recruitment is a competitive enough industry with several big players in Ireland. But are they all the same? There are probably some differences around usability, features etc but do we choose one site over another? And if we do, why? And do we have any loyalty to our recruitment sites or are they all seen as commodities to help with our job search?

Of course, if we have no loyalty to a recruitment brand, this is their fault - not ours.

Recruitment was one of the first big (and profitable?) sectors that embraced the internet. It feels though that they haven't moved on much in the past 5-10 years? For example, should we still only be applying for jobs by uploading template-driven paper CVs?

Perhaps recruitment sites can learn from P.Diddy?

Cheering on Spain tonight

2008-06-29T10:52:00.002+01:00

My girlfriend Marta is spanish and a big football fan. So we will both be cheering on Spain this evening...

Blink and it's gone

2008-06-29T10:30:00.004+01:00

Sunday morning and I can see the sun breaking through the clouds. It's not going to last though. Sporadic. Reminds me of this charming ad. Very insightful.

Adopt a Designer

2008-06-29T09:15:00.003+01:00

Image courtesy of is1313

Making it as a successful designer is not easy. There are lots of talented designers around looking for their first break.

But if you know your fashion and think you can spot up-and-coming talent, you might be interested in "Adopt a Designer", an initiative from an Irish company called Catwalk Genius.

In a nutshell, you buy shares in a designer to help her design her new collection and get a cut in the profits. And you even "get an exclusive limited edition design from your designer as a reward". Pop over to their site to see if there are any designers you might want to adopt. You can be part of it for just €15.

Nice idea. Another example of using crowdsourcing or crowdfunding as trendwatching.com called it in their recent free report 'Innovation Avalanche'

TV + Online is better than just TV on its own

2008-06-27T22:01:00.006+01:00

Research firm Advertiser Perception recently surveyed 25,000 people and found that consumers are more likely to buy if they are exposed to ads across more than one media channel.

So for example, TV + Online is better than just TV on its own. Nothing new, but it is always good to have recent research to back up our comms strategies.

Via Brandeo

Why do marketers dumb down communications?

2008-06-26T09:12:00.002+01:00

Why do marketers dumb down communications?

The worst examples are 'enter to win' competitions. You know the formula...we're asked a simple question and given three possible answers, but two of them are not only incorrect - they're often not even real words.

Why do brands do this? Is it because:

(a) They think we are not up to a difficult question
(b) They want as many people as possible to enter
(c) They are lazy

Which is why it is refreshing to see the above. Google did this when recruiting. They wanted smart, curious people - so they made their competition difficult. Those that figured out the problem were directed to a webpage asking them if they'd like to apply for a job with Google.

Brands communications that involve us more can often leave us feeling more rewarded.

More creative media by McDonald's

2008-06-25T20:51:00.002+01:00

Via The adBlog

Seinfeld + Marketing

2008-06-23T13:11:00.002+01:00

George Contanza is a hero of mine. I love his honesty about his insecurities and his selfishness. He says the stuff we think but don't like to admit.

So I was excited to hear somebody had written about how the show 'Seinfeld' can teach us about marketing. Bill Gammell uses scenes from the show to demonstrate marketing lessons - although not just George scenes. Definitely worth a read if you are a marketer and a Seinfeld fan.

I am jealous that I didn't write this first to be honest. Thinking about it now, I'm going to make a conscious effort to to link the occasional post to a Seinfeld insight - I'm convinced there are loads to pick from.

You can download it for free here.

The Girl Effect

2008-06-22T11:11:00.004+01:00

The Girl Effect. Their website is well worth a visit. These guys really know how to communicate. They captured my attention, kept me interested and persuaded me to share here - which was one of their 3 key goals. Learn. Change. Share.

Do take a look.

Found this via Deborah Schultz