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Posts tagged “advertising”
Making khakis cool again is no easy task. Even after taking this challenge into account, the ad above is one of the worst I’ve seen all year.
Best of luck. (Via AdPulp.com, NYT)
caro:
Hey, branding nerds: AOL is revamping its logo along with its NYSE debut on December 10. Read more here.
I like it.
Right now it seems that the one move in consumer technology marketing is the “you” move. Yahoo, Microsoft, Blackberry, HTC, and others strive to communicate that their products will instantly and seamlessly merge with your life.
But the companies embracing “you,” embracing personalization, execute their brands with the cloying subtlety of a sledgehammer. I mean, according to the ads in my BART station, in the last month I’ve redesigned Windows, the Yahoo! phone page, and several phones.
Except I haven’t. And over-promising is never a good move when marketing a product that is used daily.
But I like this: it’s personalization without ceding control. It’s a collaboration between AOL and it’s users. AOL (or Aol now) is negative space, brought forth with infinite designs. Perfect for a company that’s about to build its second act on niche content.
“ Miracle Whip, I know when I’ve been bested. Thank you for buying ad time on my show because let’s face it revenue is down throughout the television industry and I could certainly use the money, to buy more delicious mayonnaise. ”
Stephen Colbert.
When Best Foods/Hellmann’s kicks in the spend, Colbert’s product-integration-by-antagonism (PIBA) is going to be the smartest media move of the year. (Via AgencySpy)
I just received the strangest Netflix email. A tiny Netflix icon sat next to the sender field in my main Gmail inbox. The message itself featured an AJAX gadget on the bottom that allowed me to page through movies and add them to my queue straight from the message.
Gmail now has “sponsored mail with enhanced content.” Their info page explains:
If you’re subscribed to receive email from certain senders, the messages you receive from them will be enhanced with an interactive gadget that has up-to-date content from their website (you’ll also see an icon in your inbox identifying these messages). For example, if you receive a Pregnancy Bulletin newsletter from Babycenter, you’ll be able to view up-to-date content, including the baby name of the day, and browse though the current top 100 baby names within the message… We’re currently testing this with a small number of senders and will decide whether to make it widely available based on user and partner feedback.
I like it. Notification messages that allow you to manage an option quickly, without opening another window are badly needed. I’d love to RSVP to Facebook events, accept friend invites, feedback video quality for Netflix, or view the status of my Amazon shipment right from a Gmail message.
In terms of advertising, this is epic. You ask a lot less from your audience when you can contain a bit of interactivity in the message itself and not redirect them to another microsite. I can think of a few clients who could benefit from this feature.
NFL shipwrecks Captain Morgan campaign
As far as anyone knows, it’s the first time we’ve seen that type of guerilla-style advertising campaign in an NFL end zone. And if the league has its way, it will be the last, too. The “Captain Morgan” was effectively banned this week after the league learned of a wider campaign meant to get players to repeatedly strike the pose during NFL games. “A company can’t pay a player to somehow promote it’s product on the field,” NFL spokesman Greg Aiello told Yahoo! Sports this week. “Every league has the same rule. … It’s come up before, companies trying to use our games and then players for ambush marketing purposes.”
Captain Morgan offered a ‘bounty’ for the pose, which would go towards the Gridiron Greats Assistance Fund, “a non-profit which helps retired players with various hardships.”
“ Having one or both MAOA alleles of the low efficiency type raises the average likelihood of having credit card debt by 7.8% and 15.9% respectively. About half of [the U.S.] population has one or both MAOA alleles of the low type. Prior research has linked this genetic variation to lack of conscientiousness, impulsivity, and addictive behavior. ”
Oh no. DNA Marketing. This is bad for everybody. (Via The Neurocritic)
I’m soooooo tired of this: the creative, designer, programmer, writer, or maker gets pissed off because their ‘brilliant’ ideas never get sold through and blames it on the realities of the business world.
People who make these complaints usually suffer from one of two problems:
- Their ideas aren’t as good as they imagine.
- They have trouble communicating the benefit of their ideas.
Sadly, it’s usually the latter. Good ideas die all the time because creators make the mistake of thinking that the brilliance of their idea is unavoidable.
The funny thing is, the piece above is a good list of the realities that require navigating. Understand those and what they desire, then contextualize your idea within those borders. You’ll spend more time doing and less time venting.
On the Offer Discussion
A little over a week ago, Michael Arrington called bullshit on “offer” start-ups and services. These services exchange user actions or virtual goods in exchange for the user accepting an offer from, say, Netflix for a free trial. Or a ringtone ‘service’ that sends a sample ringtone, then charges for the next. Think the Columbia House Record Club (only 2 pennies to start!) but online.
These “offer” ads, or CPA ads, are a dirty secret in ad-land. Marketers trick themselves into believing that people who opt-into these out of context engagements represent an area of growth for themselves or their clients. This type of ad is a numbers game, one that is pulled to fix your own numbers to reach your goals or one that fits a carefully calculated equation to sustain your business through a solid volume of duped ‘customers.’
The capabilities of mobile advertising and messaging, with regards to Google’s AdMob purchase today. (Via VentureBeat)
