Hasta La Creative!

Alaska Airlines is introducing a system to create unique ads for consumers. From The New York Times: “The company is combining data from several sources to paint a picture of the consumer sitting on the other side of the screen, clicking past the airline’s ads. Then, as each Web page loads, an ad is swiftly assembled.” This is literally rocket science, because the company’s online marketing guru is a former engineer at NASA. The space administration never has any problems with its flights, so I’m sure the Alaska program will go smoothly. An example of how it works: “Someone who had visited Alaska Airlines’ site frequently but then abruptly stopped visiting it might be greeted with [a] $200 Hawaii offer.” So, consumers like cheap flights to the the tropics, instead of, say, to Juneau or Nome. Did they really need high-tech individual profiling to figure that out?

—Posted by David Gianatasio

According to The Wall Street Journal, Heng Yuan Xiang Group, a top Chinese wool producer, wanted to celebrate its sponsorship of this summer’s Beijing Olympics. So the wool company began running a 60-second ad in February, during the celebration of Lunar New Year, China’s biggest holiday.

When the Chinese public first saw the ad, some people thought their TV sets were broken. Viewers savaged the commercial in print media and online, some calling it intolerable or singling it out as the worst spot they had ever seen.

The backlash suggests that increasingly sophisticated Chinese consumers are rejecting low-budget, low-quality marketing.

The arrival of foreign ad agencies in the 1990s, together with the rapid expansion of the nation’s middle class, altered Chinese consumers’ expectations, the Journal surmises.

LONDON – CNN International has extended its sponsorship deal with Danish energy company Vestas Wind to cover North America, as well as Europe.

Saatchi and Saatchi, Stockholm has done an almost global commercial for Sony Ericsson which will be aired in “twenty to thirty” different countries. In the ad, several people sing Depeche Mode’s song “enjoy the silence”, and it’s the first time this song has been used in an advertisment.
The most interesting feature of this mood-ad is that there’s a transvestite in it. At least I think this lass is born a lad. Sony Ericsson – Enjoy the silence – (2008) :60 (Sweden)

Saatchi is also aiming for a world record in the amount of people who sing the same song and with the site Jointhesong.com created by B-Reel, Sony fans can upload themselves singing along to the same song. If the campaign works, a Guiness book of records place might be in order.

“I think that the current record is 275 000 [people singing the same song], so it won’t be easy to beat. Be we’re officially aiming for it.”

said Stefan Bergström Sony Ericsson’s Nordic communication manager to Resumé

read more

LONDON – Levi’s came out as the clear global favourite in a recent survey about jeans, with more than one in five respondents nominating the brand as their preferred choice.

Cut as you like.
WMF Damasteel Chef knife now at XXXLutz.

Advertising Agency: Demner, Merlicek & Bergmann, Vienna, Austria
Creative Directors: Tolga Büyükdoganay, Florian Nussbaumer
Art Director: Tolga Büyükdoganay
Copywriter: Florian Nussbaumer
Graphic Designer: Elisabeth Laggner
Published: March 2008

LONDON – Experian has signed a five-year deal with UK-based home emergency service firm Homeserve, to create a database system to aid the company’s current and future marketing programmes.

Advertising Agency: BBH, London, UK
Illustrator: Mark Verhaagen / Shop Around

LONDON – Oneworld, the global airline alliance, has appointed Imagination as its global advertising and marketing communications agency, following a competitive pitch.

LONDON – Hicklin Slade & Partners has hired Louise Isaacs, a former senior consultant at Dunnhumby, to head up its newly created loyalty marketing division, Loyalty Practice.