According to Adweek, Space150 attached Nike’s new Vapormax to a weather balloon and sent it high into the stratosphere. The shoe looks nice up there, I must admit. But why is this shoe 117,500 feet above the California desert? Is Nike just doing it because they can? Is this what “Just Do It” means today? […]
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When a giant technology company releases an innovative new product, the creative community must experiment with it to see what the technology can do, and how it might be used to entertain or inform customers. McCann Lima, for one, has Google’s Cardboard figured out. The agency created a breakthrough sampling program and virtual-reality experience for […]
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Pizza Hut just made a faux public service announcement for the YouTube generation, as a means to sell more pizza. Let’s take a look: The video was made by Shareability, the first full service brand agency to focus exclusively on YouTube. According to their own website, the company combines the art and science of digital […]
The post Pepperoni With A Side of Ridicule: @PizzaHut Skewers “The Selfie” On YouTube appeared first on AdPulp.
Mashable’s Todd Wasserman believes the ad industry’s “state of flux has swung open the doors for entrepreneurs, usual refugees from big agencies looking to capitalize on new opportunities.” Hey, I can identify with that.
Wasserman points to three new types of ad agencies, including the viral video factory. He argues that it is impossible to create a viral video, but then points to an agency that does so consistently.
New York-based Thinkmodo has had viral hit after viral hit including “Bubba’s Hovercraft,” “Flying People” and, most recently “Devil Baby,” which have all racked up millions of views.
The aforementioned “Bubbba’s Hover” was commissioned by Oakley Sunglasses. The video has been viewed 8,547,837 times on YouTube in just over a year.
Thinkmodo cranks out the hits despite a staff of just three.
In related news, social media agency Huge took 45 days to plan, create, approve, and publish a corporate social-media post, according to Business Insider.
Here’s the agency’s real-time reply to the absurdity of BI’s claim, delivered in a Tweet from the client in question, President Cheese:
While our Camembert may take 45 days to age, this tweet certainly didn’t!
— President Cheese (@presidentcheese) May 27, 2014
The fact is a lot of work goes on behind the scenes in advertising, whether its TV production, viral videos, print, radio or social media that’s being made, approved and run.
Take the 30-second commercial—the person watching can not possibly conceive of the thousands of hours and dozens of people behind the idea, and all it takes to bring it to life. Putting up a Tweet is simpler and happens a lot faster for a lot less money. At the same time, big brands like a team of professional writers, strategists, designers and data scientists to make things for them. These agency teams need to meet to discuss the research, meet again to go over the strategy, before meeting again in smaller groups to concept new campaign ideas, which will then be presented internally and again externally before the day-to-day execution of writing Tweets begins.
The post Viewer Counts In The Millions—An Impressive New Agency Credential appeared first on AdPulp.
Travel to Dr. Pepper TEN with me and taste the Bold Country.
As a child of the 1970s and a fan of John Denver, you can see why Deutsch’s 70s flashbacks appeal to me. Nostalgia is a trip.
To evoke an authentic 70s feel, Deutsch made an effort to get the images to appear historic. The commercials were shot on 16-millimeter film, then copied onto a VHS video tape, which was then baked to age the images further.
The Grizzly Adams meets Hamm’s commercial-inspired work is now spawning some original reproductions, a.k.a. honorary spoofs, which is high praise for any ad campaign (much higher praise than even the most prestigious industry award, if you ask me).
Of course, in the spoof above, Miller Lite gets a starring role, not Dr. Pepper TEN.
See what happens when you don’t have attentive PAs on the set?
Previously on AdPulp: Dr Pepper Ten Is The Manliest Way To Drink Diet Soda
The post Consumers Salute Dr. Pepper’s 70s Flashbacks With Parodies of the Parody appeared first on AdPulp.
Texas-based Big Red Soda launched a new TV spot featuring the new BBQ Bottles. Available in either Brisket or Chicken.
As they say, Only in Texas.
Brought to you by Real Normal/Beef & Sage
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Every now and then, an idea captivates the advertising world and beyond. This week, that honor goes to Dove’s “Real Beauty Sketches.”
It’s a very simple idea rooted in a universal truth: We don’t see ourselves the way the world sees us. And to dramatize that through the lens of a criminal sketch artist — a world not many of us see up close — brings the idea to life.
But the very personal nature of this idea, and the product, always rubs some people the wrong way. And it’s good to hear those voices even if we don’t agree.
A Tumblr called Jazzy Little Drops speaks to some of the basic executional issues with the video as well as the larger picture:
It almost seems to remind us how vital it is to know that we fit society’s standard of attractiveness. At the end of the experiment, one of the featured participants shares what I find to be the most disturbing quote in the video and what Dove seems to think is the moral of the story as she reflects upon what she’s learned, and how problematic it is that she hasn’t been acknowledging her physical beauty: “It’s troubling,” she says as uplifting music swells in the background. “I should be more grateful of my natural beauty. It impacts the choices and the friends we make, the jobs we go out for, they way we treat our children, it impacts everything. It couldn’t be more critical to your happiness.”
And over at Salon, Erin Keane argues that the ad isn’t one feminists should embrace:
It’s never okay for a woman to admit that she knows she’s kind of average-looking and she’s okay with that. In the radical world of Dove, nothing matters more than being perceived as beautiful — not being a kind and generous friend, not being a smart and talented professional, not even being decent to kids.
Of course, most brand managers would, in theory, love to have any type of idea that caused this much buzz and analysis. Advertising people love both the execution of the idea, and its seemingly feel-good message. When other folks view it, the criticism gets more personal. It’s a good reminder that advertising can still be powerful, and polarizing at the same time.
The post Two Contrarian Views on Dove’s “Real Beauty Sketches” appeared first on AdPulp.
Native advertising is a stupid name for a decent development in media circles. Regardless, sponsored content is on a lot of media and marketing minds today, because online advertising is a disaster from a brand building perspective.
Native is definitely on the mind and the desktop of Jonah Peretti, MIT grad and co-founder of BuzzFeed and Huffington Post.
Andrew Rice, writing for New York Magazine, reports that “beneath BuzzFeed’s cheery gloss lies a data-driven apparatus designed to figure out what makes you click.”
Peretti doesn’t care whether a post is produced by a journalist or sponsored by a brand, so long as it travels. He’s a semiotic Darwinist: He believes in messages that reproduce.
“To me, advertising is fascinating, partly because it’s part of culture, and partly because it sucks,” he told me one evening in February. “There’s a bit of the geek mentality, which is that when you see something that’s broken, you try to fix it.”
Of course, Buzzfeed is also home to Mark Duffy, a.k.a. Copyranter. Duffy’s lastest offering: 18 Meat Ads. It’s not highbrow content, but it is network-friendly; therefore, it is money.
Let’s revisit the infamous words of A.J. Leibling, “Fortune lies not in the main stream of letters, but in the shallows where the suckers moon.”
I’m not making a judgement, merely an observation, and one I might learn from. Buzzfeed has millions of readers, AdPulp has thousands. If we were to take a page from the Buzzfeed book, we’d start posting tons of lightweight “contagious” material, which would then coexist with our thought pieces and original reporting.
Of course, doing so would also take us way off-brand, and remove us from our Reasons Why. The things we have to do to make money these days…
Previously on AdPulp: Can Journalism As A Civic Good And Native Advertising Live Side-by-Side?
The post Buzzfeed Spreads Content Around Like Butter On Toast appeared first on AdPulp.
or do most of the viral/microsite/buzzworthy things get most of their traction because of ad industry publications and blogs?
I’m wondering because of the Converse discussion, and it occurred to me that I’d never hear about 95% of the viral stuff unless I read it on a blog or in Adweek or something.
Seems that intra-industry PR fuels the perception that this stuff is successful. Are all these viral things just a big ad industry circle jerk? If you didn’t work in advertising or marketing, would you hear about these viral/buzz-type efforts?
Maybe I just need some new, hipper friends.
Draft FCB is making strange videos for Claussen’s Pickles. Because, “limp pickles can kill a cookout. OK, well, maybe that’s extreme, but fresh pickles do matter.”
Everyone’s writing about Cutwater’s viral video campaigns for Ray-Ban and Levi’s. I guess I better get in on it too.
But first, a message from the sponsors…
Added to YouTube on May 6, 2007. 3,490,589 views since.
Added to YouTube on May 5, 2008. 3,291,680 views since.
The vids are the work of “Benzo” Theodore, and both were seeded on the Internet by The Feed Company.
Adweek notes that the number of views made execs at Levi’s Plaza sit up and take notice.
“Jumpin’ In” unexpectedly garnered 3.5 million hits in 10 days, Good Morning America play and Wall Street Journal attention. The video was released May 5 to stir curiosity leading into Levi’s first global brand campaign for its flagship 501 jeans, “Live unbuttoned,” which will break in 110 countries from now until fall.
“[‘Jumpin’ In’] was supposed to be a small seeding activity,” said Robert Cameron, vp of marketing, Levi Strauss, San Francisco. “We didn’t know it was going to blow up. So we’re meeting with BBH on how to chase this. What do we do to adjust the strategy and ride the wave?”
No doubt, BBH is thrilled with this development.
In an earlier Adweek article by the same writer (Gregory Solman), Josh Warner, president of The Feed Company, said, “For a brand to not investigate and experiment with an aggressive online policy in today’s Web-centric marketplace is like making a TV commercial and not running it.”
Which begs the questions, are these videos extraordinarily entertaining? Or is The Feed Company that good?
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.