Hasta La Creative!

Make sure you don’t miss TBS’s airing of Very Funny Ads’ World’s Funniest Ads tonight at 9 EST.

And now, from the lighter side of advertising…

Kush Support is a company that manufactures and markets what they call “breast supports.” These are not your surgically prepped and sterile packets of silicone or saline installed at the local cosmetic body shop. Nor are they fitted items of clothing meant to hold everything in place during duress.

No, the supports were developed to help women pregnant women, women with implants or large breasts, and women with wrinkles in the bust area get a full night’s rest. The inspiration behind the Kush came when founder, Cathinka Chandler,

“began to notice the appearance of wrinkles in my cleavage area. No matter how much I used creams or exercised, the creases didn’t go away.”

I think for most, that would be called “aging.”

Made out of lightweight plastic with a slip-resistant outer layer, Kush is inserted between the breasts to maintain a shape that is “more natural” for women that sleep on their side. Unfortunately for the Kush, the supports are fairly suggestive in appearance…and the ads depict smiling women with phallic shaped objects stuffed in their nightgowns, just smiling away. To make matters worse, a “small” Kush (only for nursing, pregnant, or women with implants) starts out at $55.00!

Of course, this story could not be totally complete without a goofy tagline: Kush Support – A Natural Rest for the Breast. At this point, it is up to the ladies suffering from this silent epidemic: Is the Kush a “bust-saver,” or just plain busty…busted?

Jeff Louis: Strategic Media Planner, Project Manager, and New Business Account Coordinator. His passion is writing. Reach out and touch him: www.linkedin.com or www.twitter.com.

It’s one of those tough predicaments: your client wants to be the spokesperson for your new TV spots…well, his new spots. He’s the man driving the company-the brand-no matter how much time you’ve put into it.

A very charismatic and charming man, unfortunately he’s “got a face for radio,” standing 5′ 5″ tall with wispy hair that seems to start in his ears and wind it’s away around the back of his bald head. From the looks of it, the ears have never seen a trim. (Yummy…)

CEO's Melon

You weigh the options; he’s definitely not stupid, so the whole “we need a perfect fit for the brand persona” BS angle is dead. In his mind he’s part of the brand’s image, and he is to an extent, just not the TV extent. If you tell him that, the account won’t be in jeopardy, but the relationship will be strained. Then again, saying that he’s the perfect fit is a straight-out lie. Plus, you’ll pay for it in terms of reputation and credibility. Slinky’s will start showing up in your office…to remind you of your backbone. So, what to do?

If you are thinking correctly, you’ll head down to Media and see if they can dig up research on the effects of CEO’s in TV commercials. (That’s what I’d do.) They won’t have the information, but they’ll have an idea on where, and how, to get it. Remember to always love your media department…

In this case, they provide you an Ad Week poll done on LinkedIn. According to the  Ad Week article:

When a company uses the CEO in its advertising, do you find the message more credible, less credible, or does it make no difference? Overall, “makes no difference” won a plurality, with 49 percent of the vote. But “more credible” beat “less credible” by a wide margin, 36 percent to 14 percent.

The poll addresses other CEO characteristics such as age, company size, gender, etc, and is available on LinkedIn.
So, unless there’s another way out of it, it looks like your spots will revolve around the CEO. Yet, it could be worse…you could be working with kids and goats…

Jeff Louis: Strategic Media Planner, Project Manager, and New Business Account Coordinator. His passion is writing. If you would like to get in touch with Jeff, please leave a reply or follow the links: www.linkedin.com or www.twitter.com.

Microsoft launched two “Hulu-esque” online TV spots this week that star Dean Cain, the actor known as Superman from the TV series “Lois & Clark.” The spots are a bit surreal, much like the Hulu commercials that have were released earlier this year. The two spots, named F.O.M.S. (Fear Of Missing Something) and S.H.Y.N.E.S.S. (Sharing Heavily Yet Not Enough Sharing Still), are in support of Internet Explorer 8 (IE8), released in its final version on March 19th of 2009.

It’s unclear if Microsoft is experiencing low download rates for IE8, or are simply running the spots to support the new software in a more competitive environment. The IE8 browser is chock-full-o-features that include new malware protection, a discrete browsing mode (for those that need to hide their searches) and greater tab control. One of the best features is that when the browser crashes, it only restarts that particular tab, leaving the rest of the tabs operating normally. However, there are problems with IE8, such as it has to run in “compatibility mode” to read a majority of websites, and it is not as fast as the sparsely-featured Google Chrome browser.

The ads do nothing to dispel these irregularities, and instead are somewhat humorous takes on personal browsing habits. Both of the spots are featured on YouTube, as well as below. F.O.M.S features a woman frantic over missing a bid on EBay, while S.H.Y.N.E.S.S. enables people that send crap over the internet to send it faster using one of IE8’s accelerators. (great…)

The campaign, if it can be called such, is masquerading as a set of PSAs that are promoting BrowserfortheBetter.com, which is a landing page devoted to the new browsers. What’s great about downloading IE8 from this page is that for every download, Microsoft will donate eight meals to Feeding America, the nation’s leading domestic hunger-relief charity.

Whether a humanitarian effort or a sales ploy to get the browsers downloaded, the result is the same: food for the hungry. And for this, Microsoft deserves recognition.

Jeff Louis: Strategic Media Planner, Project Manager, and New Business Coordinator. His passion is writing, contributing to BMA as well as freelancing. He’d love to hear from you, so leave a comment or follow the links:linkedin.com or twitter.com.

Beyond Madison Avenue: The site’s title could double as our mission statement, as it’s not just the headlines we look for, but that which lies beyond. Or, better yet, it’s the news that the others missed.

Talent Zoo is the only site of its kind on the Internet. It’s unique and yet friendly. It carries an air of superiority, but is humble. Why? Talent Zoo plays a part in an important decision: where will you find a great job? Or, where will you learn the most and contribute to the team? (Realize though, that when applying, it’s all about them, but secretly, in your deepest heart, you know it’s about you. And they do too.)

If you’re familiar with Talent Zoo, then you know they have some fantastic writers that present factual, timely, and helpful articles to aid you during your career. Talent Zoo also owns Offset Media, a site consisting of four blogs from industry professionals (Beyond Madison Avenue, Digital Pivot, Beneath the Brand, and 12pt Type).

My main gig with Talent Zoo is writing for Beyond Madison Avenue (BMA). After looking at what I was writing in comparison with every other marketing blogger, I decided that I needed to take a new direction with my part of BMA. That, or sink into mediocrity, which is never the best positioning these days. After mulling it over for a week or so, I decided on “the new endeavor.”

My own mission statement is: separate the wheat from the chaff, the hot shops from the not shops, and the blusterers from the listeners. This will take me some time – to find and verify everything –  but in the end, I think it will be worth it.

Here’s The Deal

So, has your agency, your company, or shop stepped beyond the advertising-creative field to become an inspiration?Do you do it differently? How?

If you, your company, your shop, etc, has a unique business concept, outstanding campaign, or an innovative idea to share with the readers at Talent Zoo and Beyond Madison Avenue, send it my way. The only thing I ask is that you are prudent with your selection. If your idea is ho-hum, one day it may get written. It it’s good, probably next week. Earthshattering will be written tomorrow if everything works out. It’s all going to depend on volume.

First, PLEASE review the idea so that you can provide three or four salient points that you’d be proud to show other industry professionals. What was the challenge? Why did you/your agency go down this road? Why was it successful? What made it unique?

For instance, Right Brain Design was built on an innovative business model: instead of a brick and mortar agency, they were actually a network of at-home professionals that combined, as needed, to meet a client’s needs.

Lisa P Maxwell offered clients complete and total access to their employees, and understood that to promote social media to their clients, first they had to be social media consumers. Thus, all of their employees are connected to the outside world via personal web cam.

Boone Oakley went an entirely different route: their whole website is comprised of a series of YouTube videos. The videos are interactive: and viewers can navigate through the entire video site. Here is an example that ran in the original post:

A New York City purse designer, Rachel Nasvik, stashed hand-made bags throughout NYC at various locations and then sent clues to their followers (fans, mailing list, interested parties) about how to find the bags. Not only was this a great example of  gaining followers by giving away free merchandise (nice free merchandise), but it also showed that a campaign could consist of nothing more than a great idea, merchandise, and a clever advertising plan.

The bene: Not only will your company be mentioned on the site, but it will also go to my Facebook page (read by 6 adoring fans), my mother (not kidding), and  will be sent to my Twitter followers 2x/day. Additionally, the blog will be sent to LinkedIn groups for which it is appropriate (ie, a TV campaign would not go to Social Media 2.0). Plus, there is what ever you decide to do with it…send it to clients, block the site, etc.

Thus, this small effort on Beyond Madison Avenue will cross a lot of eyeballs.

Although there’s no official name for this effort, my working title’s been “SHOW me, don’t TELL me.”

Or, in playground terms, “I double-dog dare you…”

So, this is a chance to shine. A chance to promote your efforts above the rest. We’ll even use your quotes if you want.

And there ain’t nuttin’ better than free publicity on a scorching summer day, ‘cept maybe a Popsicle…

What, you may ask, do I get out of this? Hopefully a “good job” or a “thanks” or a “great job, but you misspelled dinosaur.” All of that, and the fact that it makes me feel good. Plus, if content is king, I don’t want the same content as all of the other bloggers….

And there you have it.

Please pass this on.

Jeff Louis Strategic Media Planner, Project Manager, and New Business Account Coordinator. His passion is writing. If you would like to get in touch with Jeff, please leave a reply or follow the links: www.linkedin.com or www.twitter.com.

Well, at least it isn’t a stupid sunglass toss.

I have been around the marketing and advertising block a time or two and I’ve seen some changes – some great and some not-so-great. However, with the advent of social media, I have seen a series of trends that I find truly disturbing: over- or underestimating social media’s importance. So, as a public service, here are three trends to avoid.

Scary Trend #1 – Not Giving Social Media Enough Credit.
While I think it’s great that many companies are jumping into the social media fray, there are some who think that social media is “for the kids,” so they underestimate its importance as a communication tool. They hand over the social media reigns to an intern in order to give him/her some “busy work,” rather than realizing the ramifications of a social media strategy that is not carefully planned. If you’re going to incorporate social media into your marketing campaign, do so deliberately. Don’t blow it off or do it halfway.

Scary Trend #2 – Giving Social Media Entirely Too Much Credit.
Some companies (and I’m not naming names!) have decided that since social media is so popular, it should take the place of an integrated communications strategy. They eliminate the rest of their marketing plan and hire a social media guru to do what an entire marketing department has not been able to do, thus setting up said guru for failure. Social media is merely one tool in your arsenal, but it does not take the place of an integrated strategy.

Scary Trend #3 – Too Much To Soon
If you’re at all active in social media, you know this scenario all too well: you start following a company on a social media site because you like the brand. Next thing you know, you’re bombarded with promotional messages, product information, and generic messages, much like getting stuck in the corner at a party, talking to some blowhard who only wants to talk about himself. If you don’t want to engage your customers in a dialog, then skip social media and buy some spots, already.

Sara Barton is a copywriter, social media strategist, and avid blogger who is in search of her next opportunity. Contact her via twitter, LinkedIn, or her blog.

OK so while you can see it coming early on, it takes what seems to be an eternity for this commercial to reach it’s not so unfunny conclusion.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past couple of days, you’re well aware of GM’s bankruptcy protection filing. To assuage the buying public, GM has unveiled a commercial explaining “the new GM,” guaranteeing a leaner, greener company that makes better cars than ever before.

I’m all for corporate transparency, but I have to wonder if the “Reinvention” spot is enough to save the troubled automaker. I think it’s safe to say that public distrust in the automotive industry as a whole is high – especially when auto officials are arriving in private jets to beg the federal government for bailout money.

How does this spot bode for the future of automotive advertising? Is it enough to entice consumers to buy American again?

I think it’s a step in the right direction, but I also think that it signals a change in the way automakers and dealerships place their ad buys. Existing on a campaign of print and broadcast is not enough anymore. If companies want to win the automotive war, they need to regain credibility with the public by actively engaging them. After all, you have to at least shake someone’s hand before you reach for their wallet.

Sara Barton is a copywriter, social media strategist, and avid blogger who is in search of her next opportunity. Contact her via twitter, LinkedIn, or her blog.

Bing was on last night, and no, it’s not Bing Crosby.

Microsoft, tired of watching Google cash in on the search engine game, has been testing their super secret search engine for some months now under the ultra-secret name, Kumo. (It is hard to believe that these people make money, isn’t it?) Along with the huge product release comes the equally huge budget, rumored to be upwards of $80 Million, although Microsoft would not confirm.

“We’ll have what I would call a big budget — big enough that I had to gulp when I approved the budget,” said Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer, who unveiled Bing at a technology conference in Carlsbad, California, run by the All Things Digital tech blog.

The spot, code named “Manifesto,” was on prime time television last night. While the visuals are sometimes a bit confusing, the Google-gauging “one-liners,” such as “we don’t need queries and keywords if the bring back questions and confusion,” and “from this moment on, the search overload is officially, over” are loud and clear.

The creative kudos go to JWT for coming up with a very cool spot. However, it is not known if they came up with the name, and as everybody knows, part of winning the online new product introduction game is coming up with a goofy, yet memorable name. Such as “Bing.” Your search is done.

Jeff Louis: Strategic Media Planner, Project Manager, and New Business Account Coordinator. His passion is writing. If you would like to get in touch with Jeff, please leave a reply or follow the links: www.linkedin.com or www.twitter.com.