Hasta La Creative!

LONDON – Press and TV ads promoting offshore wind farms developed by British and Scottish Gas have escaped a ban by the Advertising Standards Authority.

LONDON – A price comparison TV ad for Holland & Barrett has been axed by the Advertising Standards Authority.

LONDON – Commercial TV viewing has risen to a record 16.7 hours a week for the average viewer, according to new figures from the Broadcasters’ Audience Research Board.

(TrendHunter.com) I love this new bad hair website, Don’t Judge My Hair! Of course we are going to judge it, that is why we are here.

The concept for the bad hair website comes from the people behind, Look I Fixed It.…

A Honda sabe da enorme taxa de fidelidade entre os seus novos e antigos consumidores. Por isso pensou em utilizar o Facebook para conectar os apaixonados pela Honda e aqueles que conhecem alguma pessoa que adora um carro da montadora.

Lançou uma página exclusiva na rede social (www.facebook.com/Honda) e agregou nela sub-páginas de alguns recém lançamentos, como o Honda Insight, Accord Crosstour, Element entre outros.

É possível encontrar outros fãs dos produtos da montadora, através de uma pequena enquete que definirá quem, além de você, tem as mesmas “preferências automotivas”.

Os primeiros usuários que participarem mais ativamente dessa grande comunidade social da Honda, postando, comentando e “espalhando” a ferramenta, poderão ser escolhidos para protagonizar as futuras campanhas publicitárias da marca.

LONDON (AdAge.com) — Not many branded iPhone games have broken through, but a new one from U.K.-based Barclaycard has quickly become the most popular free, branded game in the history of the iTunes App Store.

(TrendHunter.com) At this rate, sooner or later we’ll just teleport everywhere and cars will become obsolete. I guess in the meantime we can field brilliant concepts like the Halcyon car from Ralph-Tayler Webb.

This car…

A federal judge in Columbus, Ohio, has decided those little bow-tie patterns on paper towels don't make much difference after all, putting to rest for now a question that had kept that part of the marketing industry focused on tissue products on the edge of its seat.

The dollar just isn't what it used to be. But that doesn't mean you can let your competitors and online "entrepreneurs" debase the value of your company's most priceless assets. When the chips are down, brand owners must shore up the foundation of what connects them most with consumers — the brand — and not let it crash and crumble in hopes of future — and costly — repair

Today somebody asked me why I love social media. There are so many reasons and it’s hard for me to choose only a few. So I did what any other social media savvy individual would do: I posted the question on Facebook, Twitter and other outlets. I was able to use social media to explain why I love social media and I think fellow blogger Jenna McWilliams says it best: “Social media is not a trend, but a fundamental human urge to communicate,” and now we have more ways to do so. So, my top five reasons:

1. 1-800 customer care number? Consider it a thing of the past. Remember the time when we had 1-800 numbers? We’d wait on hold for eternity to finally get connected to someone in another country who was so far from executives that we were sure our complaints or problems would never be heard. Social media has changed that. Now companies have to listen to their customers because unhappy ones can broadcast their displeasure through social media. Also, it’s no longer a one-way conversation. Some companies have jumped onto the social media bandwagon (as they should) and created accounts to ask consumers to help create and improve their brands.  Two most notable examples are Starbucks’ My Starbucks Idea and Burger King’s Whopper Sacrifice.

2. Efficiency of reaching consumers. Look at social media this way – imagine all of your customers coming together on a daily basis and talking about topics that pertain to you and your company, thereby spreading even more information about your company and gaining more recognition and consumers. One of my favorite quotes comes from my mentor and good friend, Griffin Farley of 22squared: “Don’t plan for the ones you reach, plan for the ones they reach.”

3. Being connected (this was the most popular answer I received after posting the question). When something happens to ourselves or to someone we know, we share it with others through pictures, comments and tweets.  More importantly, it’s a new way to get news, support, and advice on anything.What better way to educate yourself on advertising and marketing than by following an expert in a specific field? Who knows, it could even get you a job (Tweeter Neal Schafer had it happen to him after he started his blog and web site).

4. Creative campaigns. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – if I had a TiVo, all I would record are commercials. I like advertising, but not because I want to learn about the products. I like the  creativity used to showcase a product to consumers. And now with social media, they’re becoming even more creative. Viral videos, Twitter giveaways, Facebook fan pages, etc. I can’t get enough of them. Old school + new school = awesome, consumer-activity-inducing campaigns.

5. The best thing about social media? It is changing the way we think. And with the exponential growth of it, no social media professional can be sure of where these new media will lead. But I can tell you that it’s exciting to see the evolution.

Megan Green is a freelance propagation planner who has had her work published on PR News Wire, as well as many other outlets. Contact her on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, or at megankategreen@gmail.com.