Archive Page 2
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The lightbulb on the billboard lights up when pedestrians walk underneath it. By BBDO, London.
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A ground level billboard which passers-by can walk or run on the enclosed treadmill. For every kilometer run, Nike will donate a certain amount to UNICEF. By BBDO, Argentina.
(This is in line with the Nike10K run held in Buenos Aires, Argentina. For a glimpse at the scale of the event, see video.)
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Built-in on the wall of the 02’s flagship store in London, real-time sms messages are being captured in LED word bubbles. By IDEO.
This advertising tactic was in line with the O2 ad campaign, integrating seamlessly with the commercial:
What do all these advertising tactics have in common?
All of them have an element of interactivity, which is crucial in seeking relevance with the targeted audiences and engaging them directly in a physical space.
While online media have stepped up in leveraging interactivity through the perceived platform of Web2.0, traditional media like outdoor and print can also employ the same characteristics that are common to Web2.0, such as its interactive and user-driven qualities. This will, in turn, create a blend between a virtual concept and the physical space, of which the use of physical space will bring targeted consumers even closer beyond the abilities of virtual space.
Which reminds me.. one of the major local shopping centres as well as the Dhoby Ghaut SMRT station used to have one of these interactive projected screens but they had disappear for some reason or another.
See how these projected screens work:
They have interactive properties for sure, but the interactions were pointless and have little relevance to the product for a meaningful connection with its audience. For example, for the juice ad at 00:19, perhaps it could be better if a game was involved where passers-by can “knock” a carton of juice such that the contents pour out to fill a glass. With more glasses filled, benefits such as as dietary fibre and relevant nutrients displayed on the projected screen will rise appropriately. People may stop and play with it while blocking other commuters but that’s okay, you will want people to stop and interact with the ad as much as possible. Inject an element of fun, and more people would stop at the ad, more people will also be curious about the ad, which is great awareness for the brand. Great potential in the technology but ideas weren’t carried all the way to exploit the potential deliverables.
Filed under: Branding, Interactive, Marketing, Media Channels, Web2.0 | 2 Comments
I got myself caught in a tangle of mess for the past weeks, in the midst of ending my internship, starting the semester and constantly wanting to find time for leisure. Had no focus, wasting time on daily chores that doesn’t mean very much and pretty much procrastinating my life away. You know how you can feel the perpetual guilt of not doing anything constructive when you are procrastinating? I’m totally feeling it right now. And I wanna use this blog to help me focus again and set me on an analytical mode.. so here i go..
Came across an inspirational talk on YouTube by Nick Vujicic, a perfectly healthy Australian born limbless, save for a small foot with two toes. He talked about his depression when he was eight, and relate how he managed to be financially independent despite his physical limitations. He is amazing with a capital A and very inspirational. Makes me want to bash myself up internally for all the lousy excuses i have made for myself in the past.
それでは、どうぞ！
Filed under: Inspirational, People, Personal, YouTube | Leave a Comment
Many companies spam through Instant Messaging, emails and SMSes or simply set up a digital portal or a corporate blog, for the sake of it. When such websites gets virtual cobwebs from lack of commitment and updates, it simply reflects the organisation’s waste of efforts and a blind pursuit to ride on the web 2.0/3.0 or whatever-that-comes-along-wave.
Which company do not know by now that the new media is a hugely potential channel to reach the consumer? With a certain amount of push within the organization, there is bound to be action taken to involve themselves in the web. But how much of this effort is efficient?
They fail to understand that the more connected the consumer is, the harder it is to reach him. With the proliferation of companies flocking to get themselves a .com or upload another commercial on Youtube, you must really damn well stand out and shine among the virtual clutter and grab ,specifically, your target audience’s attention. Televisions, newspapers, print, which are channels that are once considered highly cluttered, when compared to the internet, they are really not so cluttered anymore!
The internet has endless potential, but its still not magic. The key point is HARNESS, in which this case the web is simply a TOOL. The one who can take charge and make smart use of the tool will emerge the winner.
Filed under: Marketing, Media Channels, New Media | 1 Comment
Whatever, babeeeyy.
The proliferation of the ads for the brands “Anything” and “Whatever” left me stunned and perplexed. For the benefit of the confused, they are new brands for a range of canned drinks of which are all packaged in a generic can design that doesn’t tell you what’s in it. ’Anything’ drinks are carbonated and ‘Whatever’ drinks are non-carbonated. Commercials on Youtube can be viewed here and here.
Finally! I thought to myself, someone had actually made the over-used joke a reality, and this time, with a huge marketing budget, spreading its campaign from radio broadcast ads, television commercials and even movie theatres and outdoor print ads.
The idea – so Singaporean, almost corny.
The marketing – such an aggressive and determined effort, such a large commitment of resources, appearing almost desperate to get attention and awareness through bombard and blitzing.
The people behind it – Gutsy with a sense of humour.
While I marvel at the amount of commitment involved in implementing the idea as well as the success in achieving a great amount of WOM for the brands, I cannot help but speculate about their sustainability. Given the nature of this concept and the marketing budget they had, it is actually not difficult to create WOM. The campaign isn’t that smart, it is predictable and pretty straightforward, and does not involve any advertising message about its products. How long can the hype last before it wears off like a bad joke? How much can this hype translate into sales? And to break even given such an exorbitant marketing expense?
I was pretty disappointed when I came to know about the varieties they offer, which are simply the basic drinks such as cola, root beer, cola with lemon, apple, apple tea, peach tea, green tea… yawns. Nothing came up as a surprise for me. Crushed any nagging desire that I might had to induce a purchase. Damn, wasted my efforts for pondering about the contents.
The nature of the appeal that these brands are offering targets a reference consumer who is innovative, curious, experimental, and is not particularly picky about the kind of drinks he/she consume. Why not forget about these boring and common drinks and instead, replace them with innovative mixes of drinks, orange with starfruit, mango with kiwi, cola with papaya .. what the hell, there can even be a prize for the first consumer to guess the mixture. You can even add ‘misty fish bowl water’ as a flavour (kidding). So much potential in the concept, yet it falls flat with the product contents and execution because the concept was not carried through far enough.
It is no longer a sale of a beverage, it’s a sale of a surprise and the feelings of as if you are a winner when you get your favourite flavour. The brand is no longer in the beverage industry, and to sustain the business, new flavours have to be constantly introduced to deliver new surprises to its consumers.
The product falls short in delivering the main concept the instant the consumer take a sip from it. Wanna sell a concept? Might as well bring it all the way and take it to the extreme.
Filed under: Marketing, New Products, TVC | 1 Comment
The efficacy TVCs cannot deliver
With a strong and distinctive advertising message, TVCs are very useful in providing a truly integrated communications to consumers, and as tool to move towards a strong branding in the long run. However, for most of the time, they are highly cluttered, requires commitments of large amount of resources and very often irrelevant to the average audience watching the TVC, no matter how marketeers try to be seletive in choosing the media channels for broadcast. Additionally, accompanying ATL and BTL are neccessary for showcasing relevance to the product in the IMC, else, TVCs may fall flat on its own.
Online media had brought about the ability for marketeers to deliver commercials with similar impact as TVCs, not to mention the additional element of having a highly interactive nature and the capability to collect instant feedback. All these, while at the same time allowing a more targeted blasting of commercials to the relevant consumers in the target audience.
Filed under: Broadcast Media, Marketing, Media Channels, New Media, TVC | Leave a Comment
End-of-Day Thought
People often create things to make their lives easier.. But sometimes, these are also the very things that make their lives even more complicated than before.
Filed under: Thoughts | Leave a Comment
A little on skeptism
The internet is a funny thing. With heaps of information and knowledge that is accessible, rising levels of accompanying skeptism are challenging the purpose of marketing and branding. For more arguments on that, see nologo . As a marketing student it’s rather disturbing, or should I say, sad, to see something like that. The existence of brands do have a part to play in constructing societies that we live in but is the current society an ideal one?
Filed under: Branding, Marketing, School | 1 Comment
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