Who Needs People in Commercial Advertising?

One thing you will notice in advertising these days is that many companies look at the available talent in the market to cast in commercial productions. But the real question is, do you really need to pay high costing ads to make sure that they get the right mix in producing these ads?

There are various ways to get through commercial advertising and this can be done through creative wizardry. You just have to think outside the box, use resources like technology and representation in other forms such as this one which makes use of balloon dolls that can capture the whole essence of the product being advertised.


Levi’s – Dolls
by YforYerom

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Clean Advertising Comedy Reel

We all know how it is to make the unique concepts in the world today and apparently, putting a touch of drama into the commercial advertising flicks we see today is something that will capture the attention of most consumers to date.

Products often have to create catchy storylines for them to get noticed. It all has to be in line with what the product has to offer and once compiled, you will find that your creative commercial can be a hit advertising medium especially if placed and targeted towards the proper audience it should be effectively exposed to.


Clean advertising
by VAGABONDDZ

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A Poster Against Prostitution

Prostitution Poster

Posters are known to have their share of gaining attention and with the matter of prostitution placed on the table, it should not be surprising if some sectors would become wary of this growing pain and deprivation for the younger kids of today.

Prostitution is something that many despise. Some people even go around the bush in trying to avoid this delicate issue that usually burdens the youth. It is apparent that prostitution is something that society can do well without. All it really needs is proper awareness and orientation so that people will not forget its impact on society today.

Mr Coaker added: “These women are being treated as commodities and are sold, controlled and exploited by others for a profit. This is totally unacceptable.

“The advertising campaign we are launching today should help draw attention to the plight these women face and make men think again about what they are doing.”

(Source) BBC News

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What Makes a TV Ad Appealing?

TV Advertising

We all know that one of the best mediums of advertising comes from the boob tube. But bear in mind, just because you get to advertise on television, it means that you will hit your niche market.

There is a matter of healthy competition in TV ads and this involves appeal. You cannot discount the fact that your competitors will be doing the same thing in helping out their marketing strategies and it is in these cases that you have to pull out your creativity jacket so that you can make the most out of your advertising investment.

There are rules in advertising to which we must follow. Do remember, you gain exposure but if you don’t abide by the standards set forth by advertising boards, you may just find yourself investing in a losing cause.

Every business must first identify exactly who their ideal client is before they do any advertising. Next, they must identify where this client is searching for the product or service you have and how they make their decision to buy. Only when these items are understood should you decide on marketing or advertising your business.

(Source) Success

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The Matter of Making Simpler Display Advertising

Display Advertising

In a nutshell, advertising doesn’t have to be sophisticated. There is a belief in some companies that the more high-tech your advertising campaign is, the more attention you will get. This may be true but not all people are appreciative of sophisticated display advertising.

Remember that advertising aims to attract the masses towards your product or service. It doesn’t matter if it is basic or simple. What remains is the fact that most people today have varying tastes towards taking notice of advertising campaigns set loose today in the various mediums.

Simple advertising works to the advantage of people but in the end, it still depends on how you can make your product or service become a need towards people in their daily needs.

“In order to really move into large masses of advertisers, display advertising has to be easier and simpler,” said Ajay Agarwal, managing director of Bain Capital Ventures. “Google did this with search advertising. We think the same thing has to happen with display.”

(Source) Wall Street Journal

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The History of Advertising Book

History of Advertising

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

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Bringing Print to Screen

Absolut is bringing one of their print ads to life in the newest spot from TBWA, titled, “Dissection.” The original print ad featured an exploding glass that reveal the vodka within. In the spot, TBWA takes it to the next level with the Absolut bottle itself exploding in slow-mo and the liquid inside staying in the quintessential shape. According to AdWeek, the vodka was actually shot in slow frames and minimal (20% or less) was CGI animation. I enjoy the ending where the pieces assemble themselves back together for the end tagline, “In an Absolut World.” Check out the ad for yourself below… what do you think?

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Quiznos Vs. Subway

A few days ago I wrote about the Subway commercials advertising $5 foot-long subs with the annoying yet catchy jingle. Well, what do you know. Today, just now, I got home from work, find an excellent rerun of Top Chef and the firs thing I see is an ad from Quiznos for $5 foot-long subs. However, this one is lacking a little jingle. Instead I find myself in a laundromat where the lady behind the counter peels a five off the wall and eats it. The payoff? There is a better way to “eat five dollars.” They also boast more meat than Subway, which is why you are getting more bang for your buck. When it comes down to it and the battle of the $5 foot-long, Subway did it better. Quiznos strikes me as overdone and obvious (and what seems to be done in a crunch to compete with Subway’s offer). But take a look for yourself. I’ve even posted the Subway spot again.

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HP & Guerilla Marketing

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.

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Pharmaceutical Advertising Aching for Attention

Pharmaceutical Advertising

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

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Using Company Shares to Settle Advertising Fees

Using Company Shares to Settle Advertising Fees

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

AOL Advertising Gets Failing Mark from Time Warner CEO

Time Warner

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

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More Than Milk’s Best Friend

Oh the Oreo. That delightful bite of heavenly joy. Unfortunately, in countries other than the US, consumers disagreed. After being on the market for 12 years in China, Kraft finally learned that the lackluster sales of Oreo cookies were due to excessive sweetness. Their solution? Revamp the morsel into something less… sugary. Enter the Oreo WaferSticks. Layers of chocolate wafers, chocolate cream and vanilla cream all coated in milk chocolate. Now, to me, they still look sweet, but with the help of some guerilla marketing from college students the Oreo WaferSticks has taken off and become a top selling treat in China. So here’s the important question. When will this delicious looking treat be available in the US? Cause frankly, it looks fantastic.   (Source WSJ)

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Advertisements that Insult Human Intelligence

Smoking Fish Hook Ad

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

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Haggen-Dazs wants us to Help the Honey Bees

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.

The Real Secret of the Scarlet by LG Electronics

Scarlet

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

 

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Dude.

According to Bud Light’s (from DDB Chicago) newest commercials, one word says it all – Dude. While the spots themselves are hysterical and can pretty much guarantee a laugh out of anyone, it’s the new website that really brings it all together – dudemadness.com. Here you can not only test your “dudeness” by clicking on the poster your prefer, dude, but you can also send coded dude messages to your friends (which will be decoded via text message). And in case anyone out there was wondering, I happen to be 68% Righteous Dude, 17% Game-On Dude and 15% Redneck Dude (where did THAT come from?!?).

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Century 21 finally gets into the 21st Century

I find most companies asking for user generated content want one of two things:

1)Other people to do their work for them on the cheap and/or
2)Don’t want to pay an advertising agency

Sometimes it works (Doritos and the Super Bowl) and rubs advertising creatives the wrong way and we all get in a tizzy and think of ways to criticize the work as “unprofessional” when really we’re thinking “we should have thought of that.”

Sorry, this new campaign from Century 21 doesn’t sell me on wanting to create a wacky video of me doing wacky things for “exposure”

I’m personally of the opinion that payoff doesn’t match the efforts, but then again, closing costs are a pain

Being that I hang out with people who do these things, I’m sure I’m going to get a lot of emails asking for my vote…but that teaser ad. Yikes



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Familiar Snap and Win “Dud Contest” Again?

Cuecat

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

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Quebec City might ban billboards

Canadian flag
From The Canadian Press

MONTREAL — Historic Quebec City hopes to take down a modern roadside decoration – the ubiquitous billboard.

The 400-year-old city is proposing a bylaw to wipe out large ad panels across much of the Quebec capital region in the next five years.

Serge Viau, the city’s assistant director general, says billboards mask Quebec City’s European architecture and stunning views.

“With the goal of cleaning up the urban landscape in mind, we decided to make the signs disappear,” Viau said of proposed changes to the city’s urban plan.

I defy the Quebecers to say this view is not stunning

People move to the city for the urban landscape, next thing you know, Quebec City will be getting rid of their strip clubs.

Also remember, if you’re going to have a billboard, the French part must be predominant if you’re also going to have your signs in English…silly separatists

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