More entertainment than advertisement, this 2:44 video created by The Martin Agency for Benjamin Moore Ultra Spec 500 paint spoofs painters by inviting them into an old abandoned hotel in Atlanta to paint a wall. The painters are welcomed by an elderly English butler type (which should have immediately tipped off the painters something was amiss) who ushers them through the hotel, past lowly-lit, decaying rooms.
Then the fun begins. All manner of scary is thrown at the painters including mysterious noises, flickering lights, a chair that rocks by itself and a freakish looking ghost girl. Predictably, the painters freak out before the spoof is revealed to them.
How this sells paint we’re not sure but it was certainly enjoyable to watch. Add this to the growing list of hop-on-the-bandwagon prankertising stunts.
More retailers are tracking shoppers via their mobile devices, but government and industry players are now trying to build privacy standards and tools into the technology –,before issues over privacy get out of hand. Senator Charles Schumer, Democrat of New York, announced an initiative to that end on Tuesday with the support of several mobile tracking technology firms and The Future of Privacy Forum, a group that aims to help protect consumer privacy without squelching tech innovation.
“The time to impact these technologies is when they’re still being built,” said Jules Polonetsky, executive director of the Future of Privacy Forum.
Mobile tracking technologies that would be affected by the code of conduct often work by tracking the media access control, or MAC, addresses associated with shoppers’ mobile devices. The systems are used to gauge checkout wait times and to trace customer footpaths around stores or restaurants. Most shops using these technologies say that they don’t want to track people on an individual level and that the tracking systems usually only provide analytics data in aggregate.
I was enjoying Telemundo the other day when Danny Trejo interrupted a trio of cellphone-using friends to save Miller Time.
I don't speak Spanish, but you don't need to in order to appreciate the presence of Trejo. Casanova Pendrill made an excellent choice by casting the toughest of toughs. Without nothing more than a stone cold stare, he castigates the inconsiderate friends who are paying more attention to their technology than to sacred beer time. He inclines his head slightly, his heavy-lidded eyes drifting downward in an unspoken threat. Drop the phones, his face says, before you disappoint me. All three quickly dunk their phones in the Miller Lite ice bucket. Trejo lets a smile flit across his face before turning, his hair whipping back in an unseen wind, presumably running off to protect Miller Time elsewhere.
From New Belgium's app that shuts down your phone when you're drinking to the Offline Glass, which stands up straight only if it's resting on your cellphone, bars and beer companies are taking a stand against social media's social-killing effect. Of course, none of them stand quite as tall as Trejo.
L’artiste allemand 1010 repense avec talent les murs des villes qu’il visite avec des interventions graphiques d’une grande qualité, donnant une impression de profondeur grâce à des couches de peintures. Un style qu’il reproduit aussi sur des toiles, dont une partie a été montrée en septembre à Berlin à la Stroke Fair Art.
The riverhead area in Kumamoto, Kyushu is renowned for its high quality of pure natural water. We created a music video kind of a TV Commercial by syncing the footage of the dancing water with the original sound of water, filmed and recorded around the area. The music is a widely known piece called Pachelbel’s Canon.
Sean “Diddy” Combs premiered his new music cable network, Revolt, Monday night from the steps of Notorious B.I.G.’s house, kicking off the channel with the mantra, “the revolution will be televised.”
In an ode to the deceased rapper, the first music video played on the channel was Biggie’s 1994 hit, “Juicy.”
In what has become a rare occurrence in prime time, Revolt launched with a programming block of music videos, interspersed with interviews with Mr. Combs about his vision for the channel.
Conheçam o Mindie, um aplicativo recém-lançado para compartilhamento de vídeos. Porém, chamá-lo apenas de mais um “vídeo app” pode não ser muito justo.
“Música traz criatividade e até transforma um vídeo ruim em mais interessante.” – Grégoire Henrion via TechCrunch
Tentando pular fora da concorrência entre Vine, Instagram e MixBit (app para criar vídeos colaborativamente), a história do Mindie é a música.
Funciona assim: você escolhe (obrigatoriamente) uma música, grava até 7 segundos de vídeo e compartilha o resultado nas redes.
Usando a API da iTunes Store, o aplicativo permite escolher qualquer música disponível dali. Essa API dá acesso aos 30 segundos de preview da Apple. O catálogo é gigantesco, incluindo exclusividades. E, pelo preview da música ser exatamente a parte principal, não é preciso editar nada, apenas gravar o vídeo.
Mindie foi posicionado na categoria de aplicativos de música, seu foco.
Aqui, a faixa escolhida pelo usuário é o principal elemento para se compartilhar sentimentos e gostos, e o resultado acaba repensando o formato do vídeoclipe. Gastar quase 5 minutos assistindo aos vídeos super produzidos pode ser entretenimento, mas não é a melhor forma de descobrir novas músicas e artistas.
Seguindo um caminho diferente de ferramentas como Spotify, Deezer, Rdio, Last.fm e outras, Mindie está trabalhando para ser uma plataforma de descoberta de músicas usando o poder do vídeoclipe, reconfigurado-o a partir do contexto mobile e o trazendo mais parte do dia a dia do usuário.
You don’t require a TV to see a commercial these days. Thanks to the Internet, commercials can now be e-mailed, shared on Facebook and tweeted about – all potentially resulting in millions of additional views.
To receive more views and a lasting impression, companies are competing in this advertising arms race. Two tactics have risen to the top.
Comedic Commercials
Funny commercials are no longer limited to the four hours of the Super Bowl – more companies are creating hilarious ads, with hope that these clips will go viral.
It’s not complicated. The “It’s Not Complicated” campaign from AT&T began almost a year ago and people anxiously wait for the newest commercial. Four kids surround Beck Bennett and discuss why faster is better, or unrelated topics like the biggest number they can think of (infinities times infinity – in case you didn’t know).
The AT&T YouTube channel has 18 of these commercials, many with more than 1 million views. The ads themselves are not complicated – they’re funny and make it obvious that faster and more coverage is better.
Jump program. T-Mobile reminds us that “two years is too long to wait” for a new cell phone. Their campaign with SNL’s Bill Hader premiered this past summer with the introduction of the “Jump” program.
Hader goes through the many struggles of having an old phone, such as soaking up the water by placing it in a container of rice or having it sat on (and the screen cracked) at the bus stop. Each situation that Hader endures is something we’ve all been through (admit it – you’ve dropped your phone in the toilet), making the ad not only funny, but relatable. It leaves a lasting impression.
Halloween and football season. Verizon has joined the comedic competition with both its wireless and FiOS services. A timely Halloween commercial shows a Star Wars characters-dressed family using their Verizon service to find the biggest candy bars and to figure out which houses to avoid (i.e. the dentists’ house with floss instead of treats). Their #fiosfootballgirl commercial targets NFL fans, telling the story of a left out sister who uses technology to learn about football and eventually joins Terry Bradshaw as a commentator.
Verizon’s videos have not gone viral like AT&T’s, but perhaps a continued campaign could help the cell phone and Internet service provider.
Dodge Durango, starring Ron Burgundy. Dodge Durango has recently recruited the one and only Ron Burgundy (Will Ferrell in Anchorman) to star in about 70 commercials. Anchorman 2 hits theaters in December, so the timing and collaboration is brilliant.
The manly movie and manly truck combination have already gone viral – in five days, there were more than 3.5 million views. For this campaign, timeliness, comedy and a celebrity all play a key role in the videos’ success.
Bashing the Competition
While some companies are choosing this comedic tactic, others find success using commercials to bash their competitors.
Less talking, more doing. Microsoft, who hasn’t had the greatest success selling tablets, has an advertising campaign comparing its tablets to Apple iPads and uses Siri to mock the brand. Although iPads typically receive much better reviews than the Windows 8 tablets, Microsoft makes it pretty convincing that their products are better and more affordable.
One ad shows the Acer Iconia W3, which you can use to play Halo and get on Microsoft Office. Siri, on the other hand, can only read on the iPad Mini (except we all know you can do a lot more than read on the iPad Mini) and the iPad is $100 more than the Windows tablet.
On the “less talking, more doing” original commercial, Siri offers to play “Chopsticks” on a piano app while the Microsoft tablet is doing more important tasks, like using PowerPoint – again, for a fraction of the price.
The next big thing is already here. Similarly, Samsung attempted to bash Apple’s iPhone with its “the next big thing is already here” commercials. The campaign gained popularity when the iPhone 5 was coming out – making a joke out of the fact that people stand in line for days for these Apple improvements, like 4G (which the Samsung Galaxy S3 already had). On a later commercial, at a graduation party, the attendees compare all the perks of the S4 to the iPhone 5.
Which Method is Better?
It’s hard to say which method or which campaign is most successful – it’s like comparing apples to oranges. Both tactics have had great success, however, ultimately bringing in more brands to compete in this advertising arms race.
If businesses do not bring consumers “onside” with the brand, they have “no hope” of succeeding, according to Graham Hales, chief executive of Interbrand.
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