Hasta La Creative!

For people who want to make the right moves in advertising, it would be only normal to find them cramming to find the right books on how to make advertising work to their advantage. Most people turn to the usual educational marketing and advertising books, but the difference really lies on a book that focuses mainly on advertising prowess.

Such is the highlight of this book simply called “The History of Advertising”. Once you hear it, it may seem that it is a book made for a college student. But the real essence of any subject, advertising in this case, really lies on the focus of books that are available in the market today.

Divided into sections by decades, this book explores the legendary campaigns and brands of advertising’s modern history, with specific anecdotes and comments on the importance of every campaign. You will find the picture of the camel that originated the Camel pack, the first Coca Cola ad, and even how artworks by masters such as Picasso and Magritte have been used in advertising.

(Source) Design Directory

Technorati Tags: advertising, coca cola, picasso, magritte, marketing, books

I’ve never been a die-hard fan of much of the Axe creative – some is pretty stellar, and others just don’t quite hit me right. But this newest spot/website for Axe Canada is stellar, and just a bit different than much of the past Axe work.

Simple, not over the top (over the top for Axe, that is), a simple website, and a contest to win a trip to the Axe Cottage. What more could a guy want? Be sure to check out the website for more video clips and to enter the contest.

In one of the coolest guerilla marketing campaigns I have seen in awhile, HP and Publicis (in Malaysia) have created giant fake black holes to give the appearance that you are walking towards a background.

  

Each “black hole” was placed in different urban settings (as you can see above) and they look like someone has busted through. Now, clearly this is selling the realistic look of their photopaper. I mean, from what I can tell from the photos, that must be some darn good paper if it looks that real. I guess I’ll just have to plan a trip to Malaysia and check it out for myself… but in the meantime I’ll just sit and wonder why I didn’t think of that.

Technorati Tags: HP, photo, guerilla, marketing, advertising, international, Malaysia, Publicis, urban

 

As far as health is concerned, advertising can make a difference. Today, most people are being oriented on the health risks that come their way and for most pharmaceutical companies, there is still a part of the market that they can penetrate when it comes to pills that help you sleep.

But while it may indeed be a risk since people are being wooed away from relying on medical tablet means towards solving their problems, it is apparent that it is a short time deal. People are wiser these days but as long as advertising draws in the sales, then why not?

“Pharmaceutical companies pour a tremendous amount of money and effort into these ad campaigns,” said Michelle Dockhorn, a Rockhurst University assistant marketing professor who has worked in pharmaceutical sales and marketing. “A popular campaign takes a monumental effort. They do a lot of brainstorming to understand the target market and what will make them buy the drug.”

(Source) Kansascity.com

Technorati Tags: advertising, sleep, sleeping pills, health, marketing, pharmaceuticals, sales

Apparently, the power of online advertising has been so far restricted and acknowledged only by the people who are in the United States and the United Kingdom. While online advertising and Internet marketing is rampant in the world today, it is really out of curiosity that countries such as the Philippines has not adopted such a tactic.

I call this funny for the fact that most of the Internet marketers in the world today come from the Philippines and India. While they are serving countries abroad through telecommute jobs, it makes you wonder why their point of origin does not know what it is missing.

“There is still a huge potential in the Philippines when using the Internet for marketing and advertising campaigns. All that is needed is that they are informed with the methods and tools that can be used by local advertisers and marketers,”

(Source) Philippine Daily Inquirer

Technorati Tags: advertising, Philippines, United States, United Kingdom, Internet marketers, online, telecommute jobs

As far as achieving your goal in advertising is concerned, expect it to be a rough one. Not all people who turn to advertising will immediately be satisfied for the reason that they need to impress people on the feasibility of such an added expense and investment.

Normally, the goal is for proper exposure. But once that is satisfied you have to hit your target market and make sure that you are getting what you want from it. One thing about corporate management leaders is that they want results. Advertising is not spared from it and if such a campaign proves to be futile expect some heads to roll or people placed in the hot seat to explain why goals are not delivering according to expectations.

First-quarter advertising revenue at AOL grew a scant 1%, after several quarters of sliding growth rates. A particular weak spot was display advertising on AOL’s Web pages, where sales eased 18% from a year earlier.

“We were not satisfied with the performance of display advertising,” Bewkes told investors on a conference call. Bewkes said other advertising, including sales on non-AOL sites, was a strong point in the first quarter.

(Source) CNN Money

Technorati Tags: advertising, campaign, time warner, corporate management, leaders

I’ve been intrigued by the new “Haggen-Dazs loves Honey Bees” campaign for a few reasons. Both the spots and the website are both beautiful and cute and well executed. But what’s more fascinating is the concept and message behind it.

The website has a wealth of information on the bee situation. They’ve even created a Haagen Dazs Bee Board to “provide insight on the honey bee issue,” and are proponents of community outreach. They’re promoting planting bee-friendly flora and donating to bee research efforts underway at Penn State and UC Davis. Haagen-Dazs has also released a new flavor, Vanilla Honey Bee, with proceeds going to the research efforts, in addition to other “bee-dependent flavors” being identified.

It’s an interesting idea, and a seemingly well-executed campaign. I’m curious how much of the proceeds actually go to research efforts, and how much effort Haagen-Dazs is actually putting forth. The message is good and I certainly hope Haagen-Dazs truly stands behind it and actually follows through. In a time when green and pro-environment movements are rapidly gaining popularity, it’s easy to come out with messages that are green. Actually being green, and not just greenwashing, is a whole different ballgame.

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

Audi has been creating (or rather constructing) some fascinating spots lately, like the “strings” spot I wrote about a few months back.

This most recent spot from BBH London continues along the deconstruction & construction path, stylizing the internal workings of the Audi RS6 via Hugarian Gymnasts. Certainly not the first thing I would think of, but the suspension of reality and the acceptance of the gymnasts loosely representing the internals of an RS6 engine does something fairly powerful, and certainly creates an interesting spot.

So the ultimate question: do gymnastics, string figures, and automotive orchestras work to sell cars and change brand awareness? Or does it simply yield commercials that are interesting to watch?

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