Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Welcome back!

Welcome back advertising lovers! Sorry for such the delay in between posts. However, there is a company that has done such an incredible job in their advertising that I have stopped and said, "How did they think of that?" several times.

As I am sure you all remember a few months ago Toyota took a major hit when thousands of cars were recalled due to the vehicles spontaneously accelerating resulting in severe accidents and deaths. After decades of customer loyalty, rave reviews from Consumer Reports and industry leading awards and status, this colossus took a hard hit. However, due to some timely crisis control on the part of their PR and marketing teams Toyota avoided what could have been much worse.

Now that the dust is, for the most part, settled Toyota continues to reestablish customer trust and loyalty. Although I have sat in awe at the manner in which they handled the situation it was the advertising for their new Sienna that really had me asking, "How did they think of that?"

Watch the video below and you will know exactly what I mean. I would also strongly encourage you to go YouTube and check out the related videos. They are all fantastic!

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Kimberly-Clark vs. Procter & Gamble Co.

There has been a diaper battle waging between Kimberly-Clark's Huggies and Procter & Gamble's Pampers. Such a battle between direct competition brands is as old as the advertising industry. However, along with traditional advertising striving to appeal to a new mother's sense of duty by "doing what is right by their baby," these two diaper giants have taken an additional approach I found quite creative and feel will be effective. Both companies have been targeting "mommy bloggers," new mothers who regularly blog about child rearing. Kimberly-Clark will send free samples to about 500 mommy bloggers and Procter & Gamble will host about a dozen at its Cincinnati headquarters to show how Pampers diapers are developed. By targeting this "mommy blogger" demographic they not only reach their target audience directly but if they can convert these new moms the moms will in turn blog about what they like and can create a viral awareness and advertise for these companies. Word of mouth has always been the best form of advertising and I think focusing on bloggers is a fantastic spin off of this very effective and ancient approach. To read the entire article go tohttp://online.wsj.com/article/SB123957295459311805.html?mod=dist_smartbrief

Thursday, April 9, 2009

HBO's promotes "Eastbound & Down"


I for one love different and creative signs or print components of a campaign and this is one of my favorites. HBO is promoting their new show "Eastbound & Down" about a professional pitcher, Kenny Powers, who got himself kicked out of the big leagues due to his self destructive behavior. The balls contain information about the show and bear the phrase, "Kenny Powers was here" followed by profanities. Grand Central Marketing conceived and is executing the campaign and developed the signs intending people to take the balls and place them in their apartments and create a viral awareness. I love this one. How did they think of that?

Disney

How can we even talk of creative campaigns without talking about Disney, the company that pumps magic into everything it does. We could dedicate a whole blog to previous and current campaigns and ads but I just want to mention a couple. Disney is the master at involving their guests and it comes as no surprise they have such creative interactive campaigns. One of my favorites is the www.mymagicalparade.com It allows anyone to create their own Disney Main Street parade and put themselves and friends and family in the parade as well.
Along the lines of pr campaigns, in conjunction of their new film under the Disneynature documentary label the Walt Disney company is offer to plant a tree for every ticket sold the first week the film is released. I found this an outstanding way to promote a movie and participate in the "green" movement. To read the entire article visit this site http://promomagazine.com/entertainmentmarketing/news/disney-plants-tree-0326

The "Fun Ship" brings the deep blue to us


Carnival Cruise Lines has created what I think is an ingenious interactive campaign. The are setting up interactive screens in empty store windows which look like an aquarium. In these aquariums passersby can create their own fish and control it with their cell phone. To read the entire article go to this site.http://promomagazine.com/mobilemarketing/news/carnival-cruise-store-windows-0331/
Well done Carnival. How did you think of that?

Hilarious Heineken Commercial

If you check out nothing else on this blog, PLEASE watch this commercial. This is a new one from Heineken. Erin, my wife, and I saw it the other day and got a huge kick out of it. I promise you will love it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0LgJo9Do-8