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IT’S ABOUT TIME
 Posted
11/10/2011 10:42:00 PM
One of the best lessons I learned in advertising: Don’t sell the journey, sell the destination.
You could spend a million dollars advertising “Air Botswana” – the airline may have the most luxurious airplanes, the most efficient hosts and world class cuisine, but if people aren’t interested in going to Botswana, you’re wasting your time.
Montblanc sells elegant, efficient and well crafted time pieces. You know… watches. Remember them? I don’t know about you, but most people I know have stopped wearing a watch because they get the time from their cell phone. So, if you’re Montblanc, your challenge is to help people appreciate ‘time’. The value of a minute. The fleeting wonder of a second.
I won’t lie to you. I’m not getting a gut-instinct one way or the other about this campaign. I have no idea if it will rekindle an interest in wearing a timepiece again. I ...
Hey you... BEND OVER!
Posted
9/27/2011 9:37:00 AM
Sometimes advertising coaxes its target audience.
Sometimes it begs, seduces or even threatens the intended audience to sell a product.
On the odd occasion, to my delight, advertising will slap you upside the head, knee you in the groin and throw you down a flight of stairs to get your attention. You gotta admire spunk.
Why would someone have to take such drastic measures?
Well… someone would have to do this when the target audience is very resistant to the product or service that is being promoted. The message I'm referring to in this blog is 'long life and good health'.
Yup, someone is selling 'long life and good health' but the target audience (men) isn't interested. In their minds, someone is selling them 'a finger up the ass'. Naturally, the only way to get through to these guys is to take their childish fears and anxieties, stomp on them ...
Hey… catch this!
Posted
9/23/2011 1:44:00 PM
My mind is reeling with old adages to get this started.
Truth is stranger than fiction.
Don’t tell them how it works… show them.
Wash your hands before you eat.
If you keep making that face, it’ll stay that way.
Okay, that last one has nothing to do with this blog, but it’s memorable for me because it was the comment that made me realize my parents may not have been 100% truthful with me for the first five years of our relationship.
Is truth stranger than fiction?
Probably not.
Is it scarier than fiction?
Maybe.
The people who marketed the movie Contagion realized that the premise of the movie was grounded in some truths that we all take for granted.
We are surrounded by germs.
They grow.
They can do bad things to humans.
The genius of this campaign is that they didn’t just tell the ...
Shiny Chrome
Posted
5/13/2011 4:13:00 PM
Are you the type of person who looks at a blank piece of paper and sees a million possibilities? Stories to be written? Artwork to be created? Emotions to be expressed?
Google Chrome is betting that heavy users of internet have a creative spark waiting to break loose and ignite the world. Their ‘Savage Love’ video campaign plays to that innate desire to be a creator.
The first time you see the video, you might wonder what the association is between Google Chrome and Dan Savage’s “It gets better” campaign. As far as I can tell, there is no actual association. Google Chrome piggybacks on the warm and fuzzy feelings generated by an on-line campaign encouraging gay teens not to commit suicide. The message is: you’re not alone, there are thousands of us who know what you’re going through and… it gets better!
Google Chrome is ultimately inviting other people ...
Where do ideas come from?
Posted
2/28/2011 9:50:00 AM
Good athletes make the most remarkable plays look easy. It isn’t easy, but their minds and bodies are trained to work in harmony so it becomes ‘natural’.
A stand-out creative idea looks remarkable for the same reason. The creative idea works in harmony with the product to look ‘natural’.
One of my favorite classic campaigns was the “Big Mac Attack” for McDonalds. I have no idea how it originated but I like to believe that a six year old kid randomly said, “Hey Dad, I’m having a Big Mac Attack”.
It was memorable, quickly became a pop culture trend and the idea worked in harmony with the product… effortlessly. It was a natural.
While planning a campaign for the Zurich Chamber Orchestra, someone at Euro RSCG likely said, “Listening to this music is like riding a roller coaster”… and they were right.
Another natural idea evolved ...
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