Hasta La Creative!

We all know for a fact that paying immediately for all ads that we have produced would need payment in the worst way. All companies including the advertising agencies need to financially resolve their current standing and while some of them may not be as liquid as many would hope large companies would be, the alternative mode of payment today has been in the form of offering company shares.

If you think about it, what will you do with shares in these times where it seems that everyone is in need of cash? Further, it may be risky to take shares in lieu of cash for advertising services and if concerned parties tasked in business and advertising projects are concerned are not careful, they may end up in the losing end.

ONE of India’s leading newspapers launched an unusual advertising drive last month. “Money cannot buy our integrity” read a front-page slogan in Daily News & Analysis (DNA), a Mumbai daily. “Make the headlines tomorrow.

By paying for it,” it added, in reference to some other papers’ supposed tendency to give favourable coverage to firms that place advertisements. That charge is hard to prove.

But an increasingly popular practice is exposing Indian newspapers to growing conflicts of interest: accepting payments for ads in the form of shares in the advertiser’s firm.

(Source) Economist.com

As far as advertising is concerned, getting the message across is one thing but considering the logical intelligence of the viewing market to which it is aimed at penetrating is another. In short, there are some advertisements that really do not care if their ad campaigns make sense or not. A simple word or two is all that matters for endorsing companies, normally terms that associate their brand to the consumer’s mind.

But while imagery is one thing, it is apparent that there are a lot of ads that do not make sense at all. Some call them wasted money and opportunity while others look at simply creating an image towards placing brand awareness for products and services.

With these tactics in mind, many people will agree, is it really for strategic management or plainly for conning people into intellectual proportions on the whole advertising paradigm.

We all have our personal advertising bugbears. I am frequently dumbstruck by the portrayal of young men as henpecked morons, perennially outmanoeuvred by their vastly superior girlfriends. And I can’t be the only person bothered by the ambulance-chasing personal injury adverts – the “no win, no fee” propaganda packs of the compensation culture.

(Source) theblog

Technorati Tags: advertising, brand, paradigm, imagery, money, brand awareness, smoking, fish hook

Have you ever tried to spend on an advertising campaign without even mentioning the brand of the product or service even once? It seems like a poor way to advertise and spend tons of dollars for promotional practices but apparently LG Electronics has a lot of things in mind.

Scarlet, an advertising campaign launched by LG Electronics features Malthe as the sexed-up, butt-kicking, red-eyed heroine “Scarlet.” There’s no mention of LG _ or even a prominent image of the TV itself _ in the advertising materials or commercials.

Now if that is something that seems like poor advertising then I don’t know what is. But fooling people and getting their attention in a different manner is perhaps the initiative. So what gives?

“To be honest, the most difficult thing for me on this campaign was to convince myself and my bosses to really own this idea,” says Lee. “To spend money without letting people know about our brand is really, really risky, right? But that’s the idea of this. We need a breakthrough idea to change the rules of the game.”

(Source) The Washington Post

Technorati Tags: scarlet, advertising, lg electronics, branding, marketing

As far as advertising is concerned, you would be surprised at the things that most companies would come up with to get attention and this one is really something that is similar to them. This new print-ad gimmick is for readers to take camera phone pictures of icons and ads and send them to a certain number. They will in turn get more information from the advertiser concerned.

If you think of it, it is quite a long shot and seeing people wasting their time taking pictures and then getting information of these products does seem strange at this point.

Wait a second. Haven’t we seen something like this before?

Ah yes, the CueCat, a handheld device that scanned special barcodes to save you the trouble of typing in a web address, which was introduced in the year 2000, pretty much failed that same year, and are now as hacked as Roombas.

(Source) Jossip

Technorati Tags: advertising, cuecat, print-ad gimmick, camer phones

We all know that the key towards making advertising work is to find ways to get attention. Apparently, this has been in the mind of people who have let out their creative artistry towards various means such as goods and transport media images that can really draw attention.

For some, this may seem funny, but the thing is, you are getting the attention which is important in any advertising and promotional gimmick. Laugh at it or like it, the fact remains that the key here is baring the ideas of modern advertising the people will use for larger market awareness and penetration needed by businesses today.

Technorati Tags: advertising, transport media, promotional gimmick, market awareness

Familiar to most people who invest a lot in advertising is the fact of sponsoring events that are held on certain periods of time. This includes concerts or even sports events that draw a crowd to which provides a good medium for exposure particularly for brands that are still on the rise.

Aggressive giant companies like Coca Cola, Nike and Nokia do this. We can see their endorsement at various points in time. Notable among them include being seen over the NBA, the World Cup and concerts from known artists such as Christina Aguilera and Michael Jackson.

These events are held at various points of the world and the advertising support is something that makes them happen. With that in mind you can imagine the sum needed to finance these events and the returns expected from them on the chosen target market.

You can read something related to this here at the Business Week

Technorati Tags: advertising, nokia, nike, coca cola, world cup, NBA, Christina Aguilera, Michael Jackson

The people at Greenpeace are none too pleased with Unilever, the makers of Dove beauty products. According to Greenpeace, Unilever is purchasing palm oil from suppliers who are destroying the rainforests in Indonesia. This deforestation is causing all sorts of problems such as climate change as well as the extinction of certain species. So, what is Greenpeace doing about it? Well, on April 21, 2008, they released a bunch of apes (or possibly Orangutans) into London and Merseyside to guilt Unilever into stopping this madness! They also came out with the following video to hopefully raise awareness. I guess the price you sometimes pay to be beautiful may not be worth it after all.

Maybe I spoke too soon. After the amazement that was the Jordan spots, I came across W+K’s newest Heineken spot, “Share the Good,” for the Heineken Light product. The ad directs you to a website where you learn all about the movement to Share the Good. The site is FAR more impressive (at least in my opinion) than the rather corny commercial. Just watch the opening animation of the hands/backgrounds changing. After learning about the movement, there is of course, info on the beer, sweepstakes, the commercials and more. But I must say, personally, I do enjoy the thought of encouraging people to share beers. Thoughts?

Technorati Tags: beer, Heineken, bars, TV, commercials

 

With the 2010 Vancouver Olympics practically a year away, it would be wise for companies who are planning to get advertising slots towards this world-renowned event early. With practically the whole world watching, you can just imagine the number of companies worldwide jockeying for position for good slots in the expected expensive yet lucrative exposure that one can just imagine.

The strategy here is simple. It is all on a first-come, first served basis. You can expect giants such as Nokia and Sony to be at the forefront of it all in what is expected to be a circus of sorts since this meet will really hit the global target audience. Just look at Canwest which just closed the deal of their advertising pact for the 2010 Olympics.

Canwest Publishing Inc., the largest owner of Canadian newspapers, has signed an Olympic-sized deal to supply advertising to the 2010 Vancouver Organizing Committee.

The deal, which will be announced this morning, includes all 10 of Canwest’s regional newspapers, including The Vancouver Sun and The Province, but not the flagship National Post.

Vanoc is calling Canwest an “official supplier”, a category that generally is worth between $3 millon and $10 million. In a memo sent to staff Wednesday morning Dennis Skulsky, the president of Canwest Publishing, and Kevin Bent, the publisher of the Pacific Newspaper Group called it an “Official Regional Newspaper agreement”.

(Source) The Vancouver Sun

Technorati Tags: olympics, advertising, canwest, nokia, sony, global

Elana Olavesen from John St, Toronto explains the strategy behind the new Autotrader.ca campaign here.

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