Archive for the 'Advertising' CategoryPage 2 of 4

Dodge’s “First Time” Free Ride

Published
by
Matt
on Sep 8, 2007
in Advertising, Analysis and New Marketing
. 0 Comments

Subscribe to the RSS feed?Oh heck yes. Well played sir/ma'am, well played.

If you watch any TV, I’m sure you’ve seen this commercial for Dodge’s summer 2007 lineup.

Rife with imagery trying to create associations and evoke feelings for the brand (hockey player collision?), the ad does a pretty good job of getting across the vibe that Dodge is going for. But the real trick is the song, Lifehouse’s “First Time”, that plays during the 30 and 60 second spots.

Lifehouse’s new album has been on the billboard top 100 for 11 weeks, and the song “First Time” has been on the hot digital list for 13 weeks. This is a song that’s popular now, which means it’s getting a lot of radio play and a lot of downloads. And even though I’ve only seen the actual commercial a handful of times, every time I hear the song on the radio or on a computer, I think of Dodge immediately.

Dodge has created a Brand Hitch. Now people have seen the commercial, and they will start to think “Dodge” every time they hear that catchy song.

While not entirely novel, it was a smart idea for a brand that’s always fighting for mental real estate. So what other opportunities are there for a Brand Hitch? Where else can you attach your brand to something without creating a negative association or killing good will? Might be worth looking for a free ride.

In A Vacuum

Published
by
Matt
on Aug 29, 2007
in Advertising and Marketers
. 0 Comments

What would happen if your favorite brand of cola stopped advertising? Would you stop buying it? What would happen if any of your favorite brands stopped advertising all together? Would we be able to survive in this unthinkable advertising vacum?

My guess - absolutely.

The thing about advertising is that it’s great for building brand awareness and making announcements, but once you’ve got people on board, you’re just wasting your money on them. And companies spend/waste billions a year.

The line over the past few years has seemed to be “more advertising” and the only way to compete with that, naturally, is more advertising. They’ve been figuring out ways to advertise to you in your email, in your car, on your cell phone, in video games and almost everywhere else you can think of. I think it’s time that we start thinking about “better advertising” instead. Google AdWords is a good start, but with all the creative geniuses out there, why isn’t more advertising like it?

Maybe we should work on creating a “bad advertising” vacuum. One that hopefully no one will fill.

When The Gloves Come Off - Audi Style

Published
by
Matt
on Aug 17, 2007
in Advertising and Analysis
. 0 Comments

You don’t often find companies taking direct shots at each other, but when they do it sure is fun!

What’s your opinion of this? Do you think it’s beneficial or detrimental to marketing when companies go head to head?

Hairy Soap - A Look at Old Spice Body Wash

Published
by
Matt
on Aug 13, 2007
in Advertising, Analysis, Branding and Products
. 1 Comment

To continue Old Spice’s new look and re-branding, they’ve re-released their body wash with a new package and a new ad campaign.

I love it. The scary music, the dramatic cuts, the slow reveal of the soap, it all builds to the “aww gross!” moment. It’s semi-shocking, but definitely gets your attention. The moral of the story? Use Old Spice body wash and no more hairy soap. Wow. As a member of their target market, I can honestly say that this ad resonates with almost every younger guy.

I like this ad, and more importantly, I like where it fits in with Old Spice’s new direction. The “Experience” campaign, with the ever-cool Bruce Campbell (check him out in USA’s Burn Notice) has given new life to a lagging brand. Old spice was getting clobbered and needed something to combat AXE’s edgy, sexy appeal. Their answer? Old-school with a touch of class and sass. Check out the old and new body spray designs:
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Old Spice was smart here in recognizing that you can’t win by following the leader. Their move was similar to Nintendo’s with the Wii because they decided to go in a different direction. Sometimes the answer isn’t overtaking the leader in your niche, but either taking a different angle at the same niche or finding a different one all together.

A Revolution? Be a DIY Editor-in-Chief

Published
by
Matt
on Aug 9, 2007
in Advertising, Analysis, Blogging, Communication and New Marketing
. 0 Comments

“Revolutionary” is a word that gets thrown around a lot, so you’ll understand my hesitation in using it. However, something is happening now that just might fundamentally change the way people get a lot of their information.

Every morning, my Dad wakes up, grabs his coffee and spends about half an hour reading the newspaper before work. The Editor-in-Chief (EIC) of the Philadelphia Inquirer, has decided what might be important/of interest to my father. And not only my father, but most of the newspaper readers in the greater Philadelphia area.

Every morning, I also wake up and grab my coffee, but instead of paging through the newspaper, I fire up my laptop and spend 30-45 minutes going through the new posts in my RSS reader. And who decided that these stories/posts would be important or interesting to me? I did. I didn’t have to worry about the greater Philadelphia area. I didn’t even have to worry about the rest of my family. Just me. I’m my own Editor-in-Chief.

This could be a revolutionary change. No longer do you have to let someone else decide what matters to you, now you control what information you recieve. Love the NY Times’ book reviews, USA Today’s entertainment news, and the Wall Street Journal’s economy reports? No problem. As DIY-EIC you can create your own media outlet.

The impact of this on marketing is huge. As people become more selective, they might not be interested in the entire paper anymore, but the segmented content that matters to them. Pretty soon, RSS feed advertising will become a more efficient and effective way of reaching people compared to traditional media outlets. As the feeds become more segmented, targeting audiences will become easier, for example the NY Times already has 67 individual feeds.

If you’re trying to stay ahead of the game, then you can’t ignore the power of RSS and the growing number of DIY-EICs. After all, if you don’t understand the way that people are interacting with their media, then how can you expect to reach them?

MKTG Toolkit Vol. 1 - The Brand Gap

Published
by
Matt
on Aug 4, 2007
in Advertising, Branding and Toolkit
. 1 Comment

This is the first installment of a series of posts designed to make you a better marketer. So enjoy Vol. 1 of the MKTG Toolkit.

If you have even the slightest interest in branding, watch this slide show. It’s honestly worth going through the whole thing.

Branding? Ask a riot cop.

Published
by
Matt
on Jul 23, 2007
in Advertising and Branding
. 0 Comments

Riot Cops

“Don’t mess with me. Seriously.”

Few people/organizations in the world broadcast their message as clearly as riot police.

The two branding lessons that you can take away from them are -Be focused and -Be consistent . Without those two, it becomes impossible to distinguish yourself from the masses.

Being focused is important because it defines the message and identity that you’re trying to establish. If you’re trying to show that you’re X, then anything that portrays you as anything other than X is a branding failure. Looking at the riot cops, you can see their aim is to convey the seriousness of their presence. Shields, face masks, horses, boots, and teargas all say,“Don’t mess with me.”

Being consistent is important because without it, your message will never be fully understood. If you’re broadcasting one thing, and people are starting to take hold of that idea, the worst thing you can do is switch things up. If you’re trying to be X then always be X, no matter what. If you’re not consistent in your portrayal of yourself, how are you ever supposed to achieve consistency in the minds of others? Have you ever seen an on-duty riot cop smile or joke around? My guess is no, - “Don’t mess with me.”

Branding is a tricky thing, and there are no guarantees, so we have to do the best we can, and that means putting out a consistent, focused message.

Benefits > Features

Published
by
Matt
on Jul 18, 2007
in Advertising, Marketers, New Marketing and Products
. 1 Comment

Unless you’re in the computing or automotive industries, highlighting features is a bad way to sell your product.

Features tell us what a product has, what it’s made up of, or how it’s made. The only problem is, most people don’t care about that at all. The thing people want to know is, “What can it do for me?”. Explaining the benefits will get you much farther.

If features are the only thing provided, people mentally convert them to benefits anyway. It’s a natural progression that we’ll call The Derived Benefits Model:
See feature listing >> Think about features (in relation to self) >> Figure out derived benefit from features

For example:
The TV is capable of 1080i resoultion >> The picture will be sharper >> I can enjoy my favorite shows more because of the clearer image

So why let people go through that entire process when you could just explain the benefits right away? If you cut out the middleman and get right to the benefits, it cuts down on the work people have to do to understand your offering.

Instead of advertising the 100gb hard drive on that DVR, let people know that they can save entire seasons of Lost, 24, and Grey’s Anatomy. Instead of talking about a carbon fiber frame on your sunglasses, tell people that they’re so light they can wear them all day. Instead of explaining the depth of the spikes on your cleats, let them know they’ll get a great jump stealing second base.

So the next time you’re writing copy, giving a speech, putting together materials, blogging, or talking to a customer - just remember Benefits > Features.