Waiting in Transit…

Was offered this on Facebook recently in that little Advertising block on the right hand side of your screen offering a free marmite cereal bar. So I though ‘What the hell… let’s give it a go.’ Well I got it in the post yesterday and I was impressed by how integrated the whole campaign was in terms of Marmite launching the new innovation. The objectives must certainly have been awareness and trial, with a higher focus on trial of the product since the messaging of the campaign encourages feedback on their new product.

The product itself, well, it falls under the general feeling around Marmite doesn’t it? You either love it or hate it. Well, I do like Marmite in general and the cereal bar is pretty good. It’s not overbearingly marmite, but you get the taste and it fulfils all the passport factors of being a cereal bar.

I don’t know if they’ve done any TV advertising around it, but the Outdoor is fairly ubiquitous in London and very eye-catching and engaging. I especially love the twist and the emotion it creates around even thinking of having a Marmite showergel, Fabric Softener or Perfume. In contrast, the cereal bar looks like a great idea.

Check ‘em out…

Ad Agency: DDB

An overall brilliant marketing campaign which fitted Social Media into its mix and overall strategy pretty brilliantly and was the first FMCG brand to do so. The bars were also sampled at tube stations and other places and the sample bars through facebook were obviously voluntary and you had to put in your address. So instead of Social Media i.e. Facebook Ad units being the main driver it was, in fact, only a part of the campaign for marmite to increase its reach.

Great Idea. Great Work.

written by Muhammad \\ tags: Advertising, Facebook, Marketing, Sampling, Social Media

Best Agency Christmas Present I ever received… so far.

"So what the hell does that mean?" is probably going through your head. Well here’s the rub… the Poster design for Inglourious Basterds was akin to having a great shot of a fishfinger on a pack of… well.. fishfingers.  No differentiation, nothing to build the brand. Bland. Blends into the background. Status quo. Following Market conventions… Don’t agree? Let me prove it.

Exhibit A: The Inglourious Basterds Poster (Mainstream)

Exhibit B: The Valkyrie Poster

Spot the difference. None… design-wise anyway. Now you can see Brad Pitt in typical fish-finger style… blending into the background of mediocre poster history.  Why would Tarantino bow down to corporate pressure like this and risk his almost instantaneously recognised style and colouring for mass-produced crap like this?

To be fair… there were incredibly great-looking posters made alongside this one… the issue I have is that the mass-produced poster was the most ubiquitous. Which was a shit move, marketing-wise. I’d fire whoever approved it, and am highly disappointed with Tarantino for condoning it.

Anyway… here’s the great ones…

So there you have it.  On the mass poster, Brad Pitt is a fish-finger. That poster should not have been made, let alone be put up as the main attraction.  The movie was fucking awesome, regardless.

written by Muhammad \\ tags: Analysis, Branding, Cool, Design, Inglourious Basterds, Marketing, Movie, Tarantino

I love the way they did this ad. Very creative :) Combines artful photography, functional branding and it communicates the specific targeted message very, very well.

Technorati Tags: McDonalds, Advertising, Cool, Lobster, Creative

written by Muhammad \\ tags: Advertising, Cool, Marketing

Philips Cinema has launched this really really cool ad that keeps you mesmerised by it throughout the entire two and some odd minutes it plays for.  The scene is a robbery at a hospital by lunatics dressed as scary-looking clowns (something I think would be very at home in a Batman-Dark Knight scenario).  The entire thing is in bullet-time in which a single moment.

I would have liked a point to the entire story (maybe I’m missing it), but I think the main point is not the content but rather the ad itself.  Obviously because this is an adventure supposedly purporting the beautiful benefits of having a Philips Cinema.

I would definitely say it’s effective advertising. I want a freaking Philips Cinema now.

Check out the ad… be blown away.

Technorati Tags: Philips, Cinema, Clowns, Cops, Shootout, Advertising, Brilliant, Cool

written by Muhammad \\ tags: Advertising, Cool, Marketing

This is an interesting twist for in-store marketers… The opportunities if we only had our target markets just sitting and staring at our store displays!

Can you imagine the statements after some official gets to see this picture? It won’t be that young men should control their hormones and get a clue… it’ll be that shop owners are no longer allowed to display mannequins in their underwear in the window.

I guess with the current laws in place in a heavily restrictive society, you can’t expect anything else. A trend which may arise from this… Increased internet purchases of Blow-up dolls? Rise in female clothing retail stores, owners being young men ofcourse?

written by Muhammad \\ tags: Humour, Marketing

This is one of the simplest, most brilliant explanations of our current predicament in Marketing. Specially focusing on the relationship between branding and the consumer’s perception of brand and it’s evolution from the time products started getting packed and put onto shelves. Brilliant.

The short animation is done by Scholz & Friends.

written by Muhammad \\ tags: Advertising, Branding, Marketing, Social Media

The new Sean John Fragrance and its accompanying marketing campaign is so saturated with Puff Daddy’s, I mean Diddy’s, I mean… whatever … His new fragrance called “I am King” is a bottle of concentrated Diddy Ego.

I’ve already come across three (1,2,3) accounts of people actually almost barfing after coming into contact with the stuff, some even after coming into contact with the advertising (see above pic, it’s disgustingly narcissistic!).  I can’t believe that this guy can be so full of himself!  No doubt this campaign makes me feel sick, Like most products and brands, they sell an idea.  Diddy’s idea and product are designed to sell him and his overinflated ego.  How a person like this can be a role model to kids, I have no idea.

He should stick to making beats (because his lyrics SUCK!) and so does most of his other products.

#FAIL on this marketing campaign, not on the choice of media or tactics but on the underlying idea and concept.

written by Muhammad \\ tags: Advertising, Marketing

I love this joke… and it drives home a great point about the true essence of marketing, knowing your audience/customer.

Two beggars are sitting side by side on a street in Rome. One has a cross in front of him; the other one the Star of David. Many people go by and look at both beggars, but only put money into the hat of the beggar sitting behind the cross. A priest comes by, stops and watches throngs of people giving money to the beggar behind the cross, but none give to the beggar behind the Star of David. Finally, the priest goes over to the beggar behind the Star of David and says, ‘My poor fellow, don’t you understand? This is a Catholic country, this city is the seat of Catholicism. People aren’t going to give you money if you sit there with a Star of David in front of you, especially when you’re sitting beside a beggar who has a cross. In fact, they would probably give to him just out of spite.’ The beggar behind the Star of David listened to the priest, turned to the other beggar with the cross and said, ‘Moishe, look who’s trying to teach the Goldstein brothers about marketing.’

Courtesy JP Rossouw

Got this from David Donde

written by Muhammad \\ tags: Humour, Marketing

Intel’s Digital Drag Race launches today. It’s a competition in which professional digital designers go head-to-head at designing under pressure. The site also has a consumer-generated aspect for non-professional designers.

The Idea: a collection of professional designers will spend 70 minutes on a computer powered by the brand new Intel Core i7 Extreme Edition Processor using Adobe Creative Suite 4 to create a 17 second motion graphic using supplied assets; video, music, vector images. The content of the videos are to center on the themes of power, speed and innovation.

After each race, judges will select competitors with the best final product. The first two digital drag races will be unveiled on the Digital Drag Race today, site visitors will be able to view and vote for their favorite designs.

There is a cool Social Media Aspect to the campaign, other designers and artistsare able to download the same tools used in the competition to create their own 17 second masterpiece which can then be uploaded to a YouTube Channel and will also be featured on the Digital Drag Race site.

Razorfish developed the program and Ignite Social Media developed the social media portion of the campaign.

Link

written by Muhammad \\ tags: Design, Marketing, Social Media

This is an interesting concept and funny as hell.  An international magazine (anonymous for now) is running a promotion utilising the picture above.  Here’s what Adrants sources had to say about the promotion…

“We prefer to keep the publication anonymous for now but this will be going to print in the very near future and we expect it to provoke some discussion and probably some threats of legal action.”

No shit, I don’t think anyone at Nike will sit by while an ad takes a dig at them with “Just Douche It.”

written by Muhammad \\ tags: Advertising, Cool, Magazine, Marketing