Category Archives: praising

advertising, branding, praising

In praise of… the old-fashioned tease campaign currently proffering a little mystery to our post-information age

Tease_sep_08
there's nothing Mediation likes more than a decent tease campaign, and this one has certainly been splashing itself around London's transport network at the moment.  tube card panels, cross-track 48s and station dominations have all been showing images of Obama outside No. 10, golden footballs, overweight kids and what I think is a pic of the magnets from the new large Hadron Collider at CERN.

the tease (then reveal) model is as old as the hills; use the medium of outdoor to tease the public with non-branded images that provoke questions as to what they are, and why they're there…  and of course which brand they're for!

it's an approach that's increasingly rare these days.  partly I guess due to the requirement for more demonstrable returns on investment (essentially with this strategy you're paying for the space twice), but it's also a model that has somewhat been reversed in recent times…

Bravia-playdoh-rabbits
its Fallon's fault.  ever since the set of their San Fransisco Balls effort was captured and posted before the ad was released, it's become somewhat fashionable to do the opposite of the tease model.  now several brands advertise the making of the ad… on-set photos of the recent M&S summer ad for example made the national press.

I guess that why I like this campaign.  not only is it demonstrating confidence with it's investment, but in a post-information hyper-transparent age it proffers a little mystery to a sometimes all-too-knowing media landscape.

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29.9.08 supplemental:

the campaign is for The Times.  sales and marketing director of Times Media Katie Vanneck as quoted in an article on Brand Republic:
"The Times is the only national daily without a dogma — the paper does
not tell you what to think but encourages the reader to question and to
challenge. 

"We wanted to reflect this ethos of 'show and not
tell' in our brand campaign which is why we have gone for strong,
simple images that set you questioning and thinking.

"We want readers to think again about our times and to think again about The Times"

…mission – I suggest – accomplished.  thanks to Eva for the comment on the post and the heads up…

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broadcasting, internet, praising, viewing

How South Park gave a little love and it all came back to view

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pop quiz… what would most brands give to have people say the following about them?

"And in widescreen format, too! Oh God, I just pooped my pants!* This is
an awesome gift! Thanksyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou…"

"It's true! You do love us! This entire website is proving that! And you don't stop surprising us! Thank you for Imaginationland!!!!"

"O.O…..I….I….ILUVYOU"

the above posts are from the South Park Studios website, where (if you're in the US) you can watch all the South Park episodes for free. the site this week added the full, uncensored, directors cut of the acclaimed three-parter Imaginationland for free. all packaged up as a reward for the fans of the series.

the genius of this is twofold. in the short term they're packaging up something that anyone can get, as a reward for the show's fans. because they're fans they'll be on the site, pick it up first, and get the social currency of being able to tell their friends about it.

but in the longer term South Park understands that giving their back-catalogue away for free will encourage and maintain viewing of new stuff. which generates a fair few impacts and revenues for Comedy Central, so South Park can keep getting made. so everyone's happy.

what are your brands doing to demonstrate how much you love the people who consume you?

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branding, engaging, praising

When Positionings Get Real. How Honda Show Their Power of Dreams.

gotta love Honda’s efforts.  having demonstrated their ‘Power of Dreams’ positioning thru several high-profile ads, they’ve taken the step of allowing their 4ft 3in ASIMO – which stands for Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility – into the real world.

plenty of brands can talk at length about their positionings, but few get the chance to demonstrate it.  fewer still allow themselves the effort and energy to demonstrate it with such panache…  ASIMO is demonstrating Honda’s positioning for real, and that speaks volumes for their ambition to show rather than talk about the power of their dreams.  watch and learn.  watch and learn.

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engaging, praising, viewing

“The one Cadbury’s didn’t want you to see”, that you really should see

discovered this courtesy of a post by Faris on TIGS.  wasn’t going to post about it but haven’t been able to get it out of my head.  it is so right in so many ways…  positioned as ‘the one Cadbury’s didn’t want you to see’, its a slow-mo version of the suicide cult which formed the climax of this year’s creme egg campaign.

its so totally mesmerising you forget your watching dozens of eggs get smashed to a pulp by their own personal wire on a spring.  and some delightful restraint at the end of the piece ensures that it only hints at it’s marketing origins.  just lovely.

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broadcasting, converging, praising, viewing

Build then advertise it, and they will come: how the iPlayer delivers and relies on BBC’s platform-neutral offering

Iplayer
news that the BBC’s iPlayer delivered 42 million downloads in the first quarter of 2008 confirms the success of the BBC’s online offering [source: MediaWeek].  it doesn’t come as a surprise.  the player is simple to use and easy to navigate, and crucially the streaming option allows you to dip into programmes without the drawn-out drama of downloading and saving to your hard-drive.

it marks the most important of what is a range of moves to ensure platform neutrality of the BBC’s offering.  hot on the heels of it’s Virgin Media and iPhone deals comes the news that BBC will be joining forces with Wii to deliver it’s content on Nintendo’s home entertainment system.

the strategy is as spot on as you can get as we approach digital switch off.  Henry Jenkins in Convergence Culture introduced us to the notion that it’s not technology (and applications) that’s converging but rather content.  we’re consuming converged content on our terms across a range of platforms to suit our needs.  brands and other advertisers could learn a thing or two.

that said, you can sympathise with the criticisms of commercial broadcasters, especially those beyond page one of the EPG.  the BBC – despite the fallout of it’s current restructuring, has investment to spare in developing the iPlayer – it’s remit to digitise the nation being a keystone of it’s license fee settlement.  they are in an enviable position, being a broadcaster that knows what you have to do is one thing; having the investment to make it happen is quite another.

of course the other benefit of being a big broadcaster is being able to cross-promote your platforms.  the iPlayer is as reliant on the eyeballs delivered by it’s more established parent as the parent is on the 15-34 reach delivered by its new offspring.  and the BBC trumped it again here.  their penguin trailer on April 1st was just class.  enjoy.

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praising, viewing

In praise of, happy birthday and a big thanks …to Channel 4

twenty five years old today, a big happy birthday to Channel 4 …and a big thanks for – in no particular order – Queer as Folk, Chris Morris, Father Ted, Jon Snow, Vic Reeves Big Night Out, Countdown, R O’B & his Crystal Maze, Zig & Zag and The Big Breakfast, Spaced, Treasure Hunt, Friends and many many more.

Media Guardian have assorted a collection of great and good clips here.

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gaming, praising, social networking, user-generating

in praise of… Anshe Chung

Anshe_chung_avatar
…who has become Second Life’s first virtual millionaire.  how?  by developing – according to the wiki entry – an "online business that engages in development, brokerage and arbitrage of virtual land, items and currencies"

no, I’m not quite sure what it all means either.  but with Linden dollars able to be swapped for real world money, I’m pretty sure it does mean that I’d better get my virtual entrepreneurial head on, and fast!  Anshe Chung, we salute you.

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branding, praising

in praise of… Innocent Smoothie Bobble Hats

Innocent_smoothies_with_hats_1this isn’t just a couple of innocent smoothies bobble hats on.  …well, actually it is just a couple of innocent smoothies with bobble hats on, but its more than that too.

me and my friend Charity met for breakfast this morning at EAT on Tottenham Court Road where to our surprise and joy the entire shelf of innocent smoothies were adorned with bobble hats.

it turns out that 50p from the sale of each bottle (25% of the retail price) goes to Age Concern.  so a great case study of a Christmas-season promotion to make people feel better about spending £2 on a bottle of crushed fruit.  well yes, and no…

of course its a marketing campaign with the aim of getting you to buy more smoothies, but the promotion doesn’t stop at the shelf…  the Innocent smoothies blog directs you to the Supergran flickr group, where you can view pics of all the hats different people have knitted, as well as the people who’ve knitted them.  it really doesn’t feel cynical or false, its a promotion that seems to have galvanised a community of people to get knitting for good.

and thats the real joy of this promotion.  when you learn that each hat is individual and hand made, and that for the last six months thousands of volunteers have been knitting hundreds of thousands of bobble hats.  for smoothies.  for us to buy.  so that Innocent can sell more bottles and give money to Age Concern.  its actually all a bit crazy when you think about it, but I guess thats why I like it.

so to Innocent smoothies and moreover to all the volunteers who have worked for half a year to knit hats for bottles of fruit… we salute you.

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praising, user-generating

in praise of… William Sledd

William_sleddtoday we praise a 23 year old from Paducah, Kentucky, whose youtube channel currently has over 20,000 subscribers, and whose Denim Edition vlog special has attracted almost a million views in a month.

yes, this entry is in praise of William Sledd; the presenter of youtube’s ‘Ask a Gay Man’ series, who in the world of web 2.0 has become a user-generated celebrity in the blink of a month.

the big question… is he sponsored by his employer?  he wears GAP, he compares GAP and he recommends that if you’re after something you head to the GAP.  are we in lonely girl territory; is this corporate wolf in user-generated sheep’s clothing?  or is the kid from Kentucky who loves fashion, telling it straight, and Sex And The City a genuine brand advocate, whose found fame just by saying it as he sees it?

and does it matter?

well yes it does.  the point of something being user-generated is that its precisely that, its made by kids in Kentucky, or guys in Grantham…  that is its value; its real.  to learn that something’s not, that its the result of a corporate brainstorm, leaves it all a little soul-less.

but that is to take nothing away from the completely-genuinely amazing William, online mega-celeb and fashion hero to the masses, and of whom Davodd of tribe.net sagely notes "Who would have thought some kid out of Padukah, Kentucky could be so right?"  …we agree, and William, we salute you.

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