Hasta La Creative!

All hail Bravo! the current reigning champ in the world of product placement! And I do mean that in all sincerity. Bravo! for the most part has done an excellent job in integrating relevant products in to many of the their programs. And while it can some times be executed a little heavy handedly I can usually get beyond that if it makes sense in a program, like the “Glad family of products” so often referred to in on Top Chef by the lovely Padma Lakshmi. But the other day I felt the the bonds of relevance strained as the designers on Project Runway were challenged to create an ensemble using only the things they could find in the Times Square Hershey’s store. In all fairness the designs they created out of a pile of crappy looking Hershey’s tschotskies were very impressive. And what I originally thought was a tenuous relationship between the marketer and the program at best, the contestants were able to bring back around. What really got me with this instance of product placement was Hershey’s rep Michelle Gloeckler monologue that was summed up quite nicely by Missy Schwartz at EW.com as having “all the gusto of a stale Twizzler.” (Check her out at about 3:00 here.) Marketers, come on now. You know product placement works so why not treat it seriously? Would you use an actor who with all the charm and charisma of bowl of cold oatmeal in a tv spot? I think not. How would that reflect upon your brand? Product placement, like any form of marketing, requires careful thought, planning and execution. It’s not bludgeoning your audience to death with images and references to your product. And if you are going to go the animatronic route, go with a model like Vicki the Robot in Small Wonder who was capable of delivering a range of life-like emotions.

Technorati Tags: product placement, review, beyond madison avenue

I was watching some Ms. Paula Dean a bit on Sunday and I noticed a campaign that had run a few spots in a couple of hours. It was from the Foundation for a Better Life.

One of the spots was about reaching out to a new girl in school as she would inevitably be shunned everywhere. Of course in this commercial the new girl was a cutsy blonde teenager whom life must be very tough for being an attractive white girl. Not an acne ridden ginger kid with a sunken chest… that wouldn’t sell.

But I digress… As silly as it seems to me for commercial to be teaching values to children – “parents, where the fuck are you?” – but what shitty/diva/bitchy teenager will be watching Paula Dean on a Sunday afternoon? WHO THE HELL IS YOUR MEDIA PLANNER!?!?!?!?

And stop preching! Seriously, what the fuck?

Peace in the Middle East YALL

Technorati Tags: foundation for a better life, paula dean, beyond madison avenue

Howdy doody all. Okay, so I am a huge film buff and this past year, especially within the past two months, two Viral movie campaigns have been kicking into overdrive with varying levels of celebration. The two movies that have been hitting the internet are Cloverfield and The Dark Knight.

Although I was pumped when I first discovered Cloverfield, I have grown weary of its un-engaging marketing techniques. It is just clue after clue after clue with little payout. Check out all Cloverfield news here.

The Dark Knight Marketing, on the other hand, has been brilliant, engaging, and they have always ensured all of their clues have given the fan some sort of reward for his troubles. Check out an example of one of its sites here. The rest of the Dark Knight campaigns are clearly better thought out and more generous to those who spend their time researching movies. I think The Dark Knight viral campaign is one of the best of the year.

Of course, not all viral campaigns are for movies, so please let me know which ones you think are the best.

Take care party people.

News media outlets are heralding Ribbit’s goal to “be the platform company for Voice 2.0 applications.” Countless articles in mainstream news media and posts in blog media have appeared, written by individuals with a solid command of exactly what Ribbit is all about. Om Malik, writing for GIGAOM, sums it up: “…what they have done is built their own Class 5 softswitch and back-end infrastructure and married it to front-end technologies like Flash and Flex from Adobe Systems (ADBE).” Okay, if you say so.

The company calls itself, “Silicon Valley’s first phone company.” Chief Executive Officer Ted Griggs comes across as a really nice guy on a promotional video. The video will probably challenge the attention deficit Web readers are known for. Griggs basically talks about the company and what the technology means.  But the video is about as lively as a lint brush. There’s a photo of a guy in a suit on the front page of the Ribbit Web site. He’s in a Zen state of mind. Who is he supposed to be speaking to? Even a developer wouldn’t relate to this guy. Your average person, to get excited about this product, needs to know in flat English what Ribbit is going to do for us and what it will cost.

 

A page on the company’s Web site does give consumers an idea of what to expect. You’ll be able to: make calls through your computer so you have a phone wherever you have an internet connection, read your voicemails so audio playback is no longer a necessity, play your messages in any order so you decide the order of importance, and access your messages on the go from any phone through a smart voicemail interface.

A New York Times headline asked, “Would you buy a telephone from a company named Ribbit?” Most of us would if we get a unique service at reasonable cost. I actually think the name can be an asset—frogs are cute and there’s a lot of creative leeway in those little amphibians. Think about what GEICO does with a gecko who talks like an Aussie and has better manners than most of us. You have to wonder what kind of accent a Ribbit-promoting frog might speak with, in between ribbits.

Meanwhile, developers are positive. According to the Ribbit Web site, more than 600 have joined the development community to date,  located throughout the world in over 65 countries, including the U.S., Europe, Brazil, China, and India. Time will tell whether future marketing efforts will succeed with consumers—maybe we’ll see a Valley girl frog offering up a designer beer, ‘ribbiting’ with zest, selling us on a new phone service in the process.

 

Okay…who has the best brand in this race? Tough question, right? It all depends on what attracts you most and what your image of our next President should be.

Is it character? How about leadership? Does experience matter… and, if so, what kind of experience? How smart is the candidate? How likable? Does he or she look and/or sound “Presidential”? And, the all-important buzz word after most eight-year Presidencies, “change.” Is being a change agent an important and desirable brand quality here?

Who’s got the right stuff this time around? For the Republicans, is Rudy the best leader with concrete results in public office? Is Mitt the most well-rounded manager – public and private success story? And, just who is this guy Huckabee? For the Democrats, does Hillary really have a lock on experience? Is Barack the kind of change agent that brings us back to the excitement of Jack Kennedy? And, are we ready to embrace the populist approach of John Edwards?

Jump in…let’s discuss.

Technorati Tags: mitt romney, marketing of politics, beyond madison avenue

The Bourne Ultimatum DVD hit the market Tuesday, and the trailer promises more of the same from Matt Damon. Bourne’s character is so resilient if you could bottle his secret for survival you could make at least a million bucks. The TV spot snipped from the trailer reminds us we are privy to the inside scoop on the most dangerous unofficial government agent alive, opening with the statement, “Jason Bourne is at large in New York City.” The tone of that statement is as solemn as a dirge.

For those not already hooked on the Bourne franchise, this trailer won’t do a lot to entice. While the hand to hand combat scenes have the right levels of smacking and thumping sounds and shots, there’s not much going that hasn’t gone before. The possible exception comes when Bourne uses a hardcover book as a weapon, ramming it horizontally against an assailant’s neck—a bonus self-defense tip if you fear a home invasion.

The trailer does sum up the lead character in a brief scene when Damon as Webb/Bourne declares, “They can’t stop me.” His character, always as dry as an accountant five minutes before the annual tax filing deadline, is perfectly captured with that statement delivered in a casual manner, and in the resigned attitude reflected in his body language as he eases from his chair in a room defined in black and white tones.

I have to admit the trailer works a little like a poem here—the compact nature of the video equals the book equals the franchise. Bourne rather expands in the mind as a result, if you’ve seen even one of the movies in this series.

Fans will certainly love another installment on DVD, and I think the trailer is basically preaching to this choir. If you’re a Bourne newcomer, this clip doesn’t offer anything different than typical neo-Rambo clashes courtesy of a brooding leading man who despite assassin Carlos the Jackal’s pursuit, lives to fight another day. In Publisher’s Weekly, a review of the Robert Ludlum novel that inspired the movie noted, “This is formula writing that delivers even less than its meager performance.” The same might be said of the trailer and maybe the DVD as well. Catch the complete trailer at The Bourne Ultimatum Web site.