Nike Boom!

Nike has released a new series of ads from Wieden + Kennedy with the simple theme of "Boom!" The ads draw attention to high-impact moments in sports and the role Nike plays in making these moments happen.I first came across the ads on NFL.com. Nike have recently won back the rights to produce NFL apparel from Reebook who paid $300 million dollars for them in 2001. The deal will see Nike become the official NFL uniform provider for five years from April 2012.

"Nike is proud to become the official sponsor of the NFL," said Nike Brand president Charlie Denson. "With this relationship, Nike's position in our largest market in the world will be stronger than ever. We believe our agreement with the NFL enhances the Nike brand, and provides a significant opportunity to drive growth across the business both in our performance products and sportswear."

I'm looking forward to seeing a lot more of these types of ads from Nike in the future as well as the new NFL team uniforms.

Gavin McCarthy

New Budweiser 'Pool' ad

Dont know if anyones seen it yet but Diageo launched a new Budweiser ad in Ireland on the 25th October. It's a pretty cool ad and theres actually little mention of the beer or the name throughout, except at the very end, which is pretty unusual for beer ads. The ad shows a city at night and uses music to build up to a giant lifesize game of "human pool" taking place on the rooftop of a skyscraper. Its a real cool ad and the tag line "King of Good Times King of Beers" is pretty good. What you all think of the ad?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OaBgseOU4OU

Sean

Lebron Addresses Critics in new Nike Ad

Should he have stayed with the Cleveland Cavaliers? Gotten his "Chosen One" tattoo removed? Admitted he's a failure because he teamed up with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh? Given up on hoops altogether and focused on something else? Ignored the advice his friends gave to him about his free agency, his brand and his life this summer?

In the 90-second clip released during the week LeBron takes aim at each and every columnist, blogger, NBA analyst and talking head that took shots at him after he made his decision to join the Heat in July. He addresses them, not through answers, but by questioning what they would have done if they were in his shoes (a nice touch, considering the spot was paid for by Nike). And he finishes by posing one simple question: "Should I be what you want me to be?" It's nothing if not effective.

I loved this ad because it shows that LeBron is not what we want him to be. He's flawed. He's imperfect. He's dare I say it human. But, you know what? There's really nothing wrong with that. And even though we think everything he's doing is wrong for his life, wrong for his career and wrong for his legacy, he's ultimately the one that's going to have to live with it. So, it doesn't really matter what we think, now does it?

Take a look

Role reversal

Just came across this ad today and I think its really well done you should check it out!

http://jackjones.com/girl-toy

I really like the way the ad plays on the whole reversing of the traditional roles per se. Apparently us lads have feelings now days! It's really well made and very contemporary. I think it is the type of ad which works really well with its target market, as the guy in the ad can be easily related to by the brands young male target market. The whole concept of men becoming a womans toy is really clever and innovative. The ad is very simple but delivers its message extremely effectively. It plays on some of the same principles as the Lynx ads "irresistable to women" did except in a less obvious more sleek way. It basically tells us to wear J & J to become a womans toy which is many a mans dream and the way it is portrayed in the ad as a negative emotional burden is brilliant. The imagery also kind of reminds of the Puma "weekend athelete" ad campaign. I just think this type of ad fits the brand perfectly!

What does everyone else think?? I for one really liked it.

Sean

Where Are All The Women?

As I was doing research for our assignment on branding Ireland I came across some information on Mary Robinson (former president) that I had no idea about!!! I am blaming my young age and possibly my parents for my ignorance, for those of you who arent aware of what she has done, see below for a summary:

• The first Bill Mary Robinson wrote as a new senator (this was in the late 60's) sought to overturn the ban on importing, distribution and sale of contraception in Ireland (thank goodness)
• She married a protestant man, despite protests from her parents who would not even go to the wedding because they did not believe in mixed religion marraiges.
• She transformed the position of President of Ireland.
• She has dedicated her life to lobbying for human rights for people who cannot stand up for themselves, not just in Ireland but around the world.

" I was elected by the women of Ireland who, instead of rocking the cradle, rocked the system" -Mary Robinson

But the thing that struck me when I was reading about this was that are there any Irish women of this generation that are a patch on the likes of Mary Robinson? If yes - who? If no - why?????

With all the problems in our political systems and in our economy where are the women with the balls and the brains to get us out of this mess???? They are certainly not in the Dail anyways......

Electronics company Sony have pulled their support for the carbon-reduction initiative 10:10 after the climate change campaign group’s latest promotional campaign was met with public outrage. The aim of the campaign is to cut global carbon emissions by 10% each year from 2010, with their centerpiece day of action coming up on the 10.10.10. The content of its latest promotional video ‘No Pressure’ is certainly set to shock. It contains footage of schoolchildren being blown to pieces, along with actress Gillian Anderson and French footballer David Ginola. Leading UK comedy writer Richard Curtis (Director, Notting Hill) agreed to write the 4 minute film for the campaign. It appeared on the company website last week but was pulled down hours after.

In an official release on its corporate website, Sony said that it strongly ‘condemned the release by 10:10, the climate change campaign group, of a video entitled ’No Pressure’ that Sony considers to be ill-conceived and tasteless’.

In a statement, 10:10 said that it sincerely apologised to anyone who was offended by the promotion. According to the 10:10 UK director, Eugenie Harvey; ‘10:10 is a young and creative team but we will learn lessons from this. We are going to investigate what happened, review our processes and procedures, and share the results with our partners’.

What do you think? Do you believe Sony were right in pulling their support from the campaign; just a few days before 10.10.10? Did Gillian Anderson and David Ginola do the right thing by lending their support to the campaign? Were 10.10 correct in using shock tactics in order to highlight the issue of climate change? In a world where traditional marketing is losing its place, should they be admired for concentrating their efforts on a unique ‘humorous’ digital campaign?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgG1SMo1oTw&feature=related

Warning: do not watch this video if you are in anyway queasy!

Aislinn Mahon

World Smile Day

SMILE )))))))

Good Day fellow bloggers & Happy World Smile Day.

World Smile Day is held on the first Friday of October each year and is a day dedicated to "good cheer and good works". The catch phrase for the day is "Do an act of kindness-help one person smile".

Harvey Ball, a commercial artist from Worcester, Massachusetts created the smiley face in 1963. That image went on to become the most recognizable symbol of good will and good cheer on the planet.

As the years passed Harvey Ball became concerned about the over-commercialization of his symbol, and how its original meaning and intent had become lost in the constant repetition of the marketplace.

Out of that concern came his idea for World Smile Day.

Smiling is infectious so let it spread today.

Donal 'Smiles' Mc Sharry

Green Marketing in the Automobile Industry

Following on from the ‘Nissan Leaf’ example, here is an advertisement for Toyota’s 2010 Prius. The commercial entitled ‘Harmony’ was produced by Saatchi and Saatchi LA for Toyota USA and was aired in 2009. It topped the Nielsen’s Top 10 Most Liked New Ads List in May 2009. The effectiveness of any green marketing campaign is determined by the strength of the emotional connection that is established with the audience. Creating ads that engage consumer emotions isn’t easy. Both ads manage to do so in different ways. Which do you think is the more effective?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tq4nrmnqY9o

Aislinn Mahon

Polar Bear Hug Anyone? The Nissan LEAF ad

Does owning the new Nissan LEAF all electric vehicles [EV] feel like getting a warm, furry hug from a polar bear threatened by global warming? That’s the clear reference of a new television ad for the Leaf. This ad follows a lone polar bear on a trek from a melting Arctic, through forests, along motorways and into the city, where he finally reaches a driveway in the suburbs. There, as a man prepares to open the door to his Nissan LEAF and the massive bear rears up on its back legs and gives him a big loveable bear hug.

During an interview with The New York Times, Jon Brancheau, the vice president for Nissan marketing at Nissan North America, said the polar bear ad presented “a little twist, perhaps a wink” at more serious efforts to promote ecofriendly products by other companies.

What are your thoughts ?

McDonalds brings nostalgia back

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wi7Z3HhPCVk

The above link is a clip of the New Mcdonalds ad that has just been launched in Australia. In March of this year McDonalds built a 32ft playland weighing 15tonnes for adults in Sydneys CBD. When professionals stepped off the train on the way to work they were faced with this giant playland and at first they did not know how to respond. Within a few minutes the businessmen and women began pulling off their shoes and socks and ran into the playland where they enjoyed such features as the Hamburgular slide and the Grimace swing. In the centre of the giant playland was Ronald McDonald himself and in the ad we can see the adults hugging him as if they were children again. The ad is a 60sec clip of the response to the playland and conceptualises how successful this use of ambient and Nostalgic marketing was for McDOnalds.

Ambient Marketing at it's finest in Sydney

In the "Age of Digital" I am getting a little bored of the repetitive viral campaigns being recycled and reused by marketers. In my opinion creativity is the beauty and backbone of successful marketing. Selina's feature about McDonald's creating an "adult sized" playground in the central business district of Sydney inspired me to take a look at some other ambient marketing campaigns.

Turns out Sydney is quite the creative spot!Ikea turned a popular footpath into a walk in kitchen,inviting members of the public to pose for photographs. 3D Chalk artists Jenny McCracken and Anton Pulvirenti developed a scene on a circular quay that provided an illusion of an enormous kitchen sink complete with dish rack. The stunt was a part of Ikea's preparation for the 60th anniversary of the Ikea catologue 2011. Clink on this link to see Ikea's ambient stunts....

It is this type of innovation and creativity that keeps well established brands like Ikea at the forefront of the consumers mind.

However how do marketers ensure that this form of marketing doesn't become outdated and overdone? What are the key elements needed for a successful ambient marketing campaign?

Kate Flanagan

Debenhams New Campaign

Following on from my progress yesterday, Debenhams have launched a new campaign which they are rolling out in all their stores in the UK and Republic of Ireland. This groundbreaking campaign features a disabled model and it is the first of its kind on the highstreet. See poster above.

I understand that Debenhams decided to launch this after positive feedback they got when they trialled it in three of its stores however I think that Debenhams are really clutching at straws trying to give themselves an image and they are going out of their way to make it obvious in this poster that the model is disabled. Personally it wouldnt make me shop more in Debenhams and I doubt it will increase their sales. I do agree that for children it is important to have positive images in stores rather than stick insect perfect models I believe that models should look healthy and reflect real people. So fair play to Debenhams for hopping on the band wagon.

What are your views on this new slant for Debenhams??????

Lady Gaga - A friend or a foe????

Celebrity endorsement and product placement have never been more popular than they are today. Many brands are fighting to jump on Lady Gaga's success and align their products with her and her billions of worldwide fans. Lady Gaga has embraced this and has incorporated brand culture into her image and has made brands part of her art. For example in her music video 'Telephone' she featured brands such as Diet Coke, Virgin and Polaroid and in her video for 'Bad Romance' she featured Nemiroff Vodka.

However, taking into account Lady Gaga's recent meaty showcase at the MTV awards (see picture above) which managed to offend vegetarians, animal rights activists and many other people all over the world, do you think that product placement with Lady Gaga is more of a risk than a benefit? Who knows what Lady Gaga will do next and can brands take that gamble? What brands, if any do you think are suitable for Lady Gaga to endorse and what brands should keep their distance?

Google Instant webinar with Krishna De

Hi All,
No doubt you are all aware of the changes that have happened in Google over the past two weeks. If not I suggest you take a look at a webinar that Krishna De carried out last week about Google Instant and the impact it can have on online marketing.

Krishna De is an expert in online and digital marketing and we have been fortunate enough to confirm her as a guestspeaker for our alumni event "Developments in Digital Marketing: A leadership mindset for a turbulent times". The event will be held on the 21st of October so stay tuned for further updates. I suggest you all take a look at her blog aswell as taking a look at the video below.



Kate Flanagan

Lessons on Leadership

All,

Recent trawling of the blogosphere has lead me to discover another blog, other than The Blue Sky Board, to take notice of. Simon Oates a UK based blogger has set-up a blog called Leadership Expert, it is a blog for aspiring leaders featuring articles, tips and the sharing of ideas.

In particular I like this video on lessons on leadership featuring Richard Stengel, author and managing editor of Time Magazine and David Remnick, author and editor of The New Yorker. They discuss the interesting topic of whether you are born a natural leader or can develope the talent through time and experience.....

Born leader, either you have it or you don't. What are your thoughts?

Kate Flanagan

The Man Your Man Could Be: Old Spice Online Success

I'm sure you've all aware of the Old Spice campaign at this stage, if not click here to see it.A huge number of ads that we look at are really interesting and provocative but at the end of the day the end goal of most ads is to get the consumer to purchase the good. I'm sure most people would probably agree that Old Spice was quiet a dated brand and this new campaign has really reinvigorated their brand by looking at who they were targeting and who is actually doing the buying when it comes to body wash. Much like Brylcreem did in the late 90s they've sought to move away from their traditional older loyal users and attract younger men to the brand(as well as their girlfriends).

Recently Old Spice have come out with a video to show how successful their campaign has been. Here are some of the stats shown in the video below:

Old Spice accounted for 75 percent of conversations in the category in the first three months of 2010.
• Half the conversations came from women.
• The YouTube/Twitter social media response campaign was "the fastest-growing and most popular interactive campaign in history."
• Total video views reached 40 million in a week.
• Campaign impressions: 1.4 billion.
• Since the campaign launched, Old Spice Bodywash sales are up 27 percent; in the last three months up. 55 percent; and in the last month up 107 percent.

A lot of the stats shown in the linked video are a little fuzzy and while they may show a heightened awareness of the brand the stats that I think really matter are those at the end of the list. Old Spice have managed to find a way to transfer online interest in the brand into sales and I think that that is the real success of this campaign.

The Age of Event Sponsorship is over

One of the main points I sought to get across in my progress this morning was that the age of huge corporate sponsorship of sporting events like the World Cup is well and truly over. Associations like FIFA can no longer guarantee exclusivity to its partners. This World Cup has in my opinion proven that a well-timed ad or the ambush of a major event is far more effective than sponsorship of the actual competition.

Dutch brewer Bavaria hijacked to great effect the Holland v Denmark game last week. However the consternation which FIFA have kicked up has played into the hands of Bavaria, giving them a massive amount of prime time media coverage. Paddy Power are even happy to hijack an event which they themselves sponsor, such as the Cheltenham Festival.

Official sponsors of the World Cup have been fairing very poorly when it comes to association with the competition. A study by Nielsen found that Nike has created a significantly bigger "online buzz", based on an analysis of blogs, message boards and social networking websites, and association to the World Cup than any other brand.

Nike, which is not an official sponsor of the World Cup, had more than twice as many references in relation to the World Cup than official sponsor Adidas.Adidas had the second highest level of mentions, and therefore share of World Cup buzz, with official sponsors Coca-Cola, Sony and Visa filling out the top five slots.

Carlsberg, which recently launched its own star-studded "best team talk in the world" TV campaign, ranked sixth. The brewer is not an official World Cup sponsor. Official beer sponsor Budweiser did not appear in the top 10 in the report.
Adidas recently struck back with a TV ad featuring celebrities in a remix of the famous cantina scene from the 1977 Star Wars film. The ad launched on 5 June and given Nielsen's research only covers the period 7 May to 6 June the German sportswear giant will be hoping its digital buzz factor has significantly increased since the report.

These examples show that compelling, savvy marketing can establish this sort of connection in the eyes of consumers without having to write that expensive sponsorship check

Gavin McCarthy








Ad of the Week

McDonalds "Come as you are" Campaign

Following on from this mornings discussion in progress about McDonald's latest ad campaign "Come as you are" I would like your opnions on other ads featured in the campaign. The first ad below features two "silver-surfers" adopting new identities online and interacting with one another. The second ad features a mother and daughter and illustrates the similarities between the two as they both manage to lose their bags in the same day. The campaign sees its brand move away from its usual focus of the traditional family set-up to recognizing a wider clientele. Is this a good move in the right direction or should McDonalds revert back to the likes of it's happy easygoing "I'm Loving it" campaign??

Cadbury's Chocolate Charmer

On Friday 9th April at 7.45pm, Cadbury Ireland launched its latest Dairy Milk advertisement for their Chocolate Charmer campaign. It follows previously successful Cadbury ads – Gorilla, Eyebrows and Airport Trucks - and cost them €500,000 to make. The campaign will include TV, experiential marketing, online and PR. It shows the chocolate charmer at work, using his magic to whip the milk and chocolate together. A Cadbury spokesperson announced that the aim of this ad is to show people the joy of creating chocolate.

Tiger Woods Ad

Here is the new Tiger Woods advertisement for Nike with a recording used from his late father Earl. One quote underneath the video on Youtube stated, "Totally exploitive. Tiger woods just sold himself and his father out at wholesale. Its obviously a money thing for him. The guy has no integrity." On the other hand, it's being hailed as a great idea that has sparked a lot of interest for both Nike and Tiger Woods. The question is have they gone too far or is it marketing at it's best?

Pepsi New Strategy

A £700 million revamp of the Pepsi brand has begun. The first phase involves relaunching the UK website with the new logo being used for the first time. The second phase involves a social media campaign in which they want people to show their wild sides. This is based on the popular series of advertisements they ran recently. Also, Pepsi wants people to tell them how they should spend £13 million on charitable causes. The third phase involves ambush marketing the FIFA World Cup (which is kindly sponsored by Coca-Cola) by launching viral and traditional media advertisements using the controversial Thierry Henry and other soccer stars. It will be interesting to see if a reference is made to the Irish qualifier game. So, it seems they have a comprehensive strategy there but it will be interesting to see if the investment level is warranted.

The MDP's Favourite AD

Ok guys,

Following on from progress this morning, I am starting a poll to find out what the MDP's favorite AD is? My favorite AD is the "Coco Madamosille" AD featuring Keira Knightly. I love this AD because it communicates the attributes of the product very well. All the elements of the AD (music, product placement ect.) combine together to create a very effective AD for Chanel.

Do you like this AD? Why? What is your favorite AD?

The Super Bowl is over for one more year......

The Super Bowl is over for another year and with it came another set of fantastic advertisements. These are usually the most talked about ads of the year and costing $2.4 to $3 million they would want to be. The ads have moved from being an interruption to being part of the main event. According to a survey undertaken by the US’s Retail Advertising and Marketing association 26.9% of people rated the Super Bowl ad’s as the most important part of the day.

That perhaps is some justification for the amount of money spent. Viewers’ sit down and wait to see your ads, the complete opposite of what is audiences are doing for other programs. The trend is that viewers are actively avoiding the ads by flicking channels, doing something else or fast forwarding through them with ad skipping technologies such as TiVo. Viewers’ critique them immediately afterwards, both with friends at Super Bowl parties and online. It is a process that separates the good from the bad, meaning they have to be the best. It is clear why air time costs so much, and why many big brands invest heavily in them. This year saw ads from Dr. Pepper and this year’s top rated ad from snickers (See Below) amongst others.

However in what might seem like a strange move Pepsi have decided not to run a Super Bowl ad for the first time in 23 years, instead they have decided to focus their attention on Facebook and an online strategy. This is a brave move by Pepsi who have historically invested heavily in celebrity endorsement (Britney Spears and David Beckham, to name just two) and less than average in online marketing. They cited getting close to the customer as a main reason for this decision. Ralph Santana, vice-president of marketing for PepsiCo North America said customers:

"...are looking for more of a two-way dialogue, story-telling and word of mouth. Mediums like the digital space are much more conducive towards that."

So is this the beginning of the end for traditional advertising, if big brands are moving away from it? Doritos (the only PepsiCo owned brand advertising at this year’s Super Bowl) provide a good example of what I believe we will see more of in the future. They have merged both traditional and online campaigns, one form supports the other and Doritos reap the benefits of both. Doritos launched a competition to for their customers to design their ad for the Super Bowl, entries are loaded onto the website and the winner is eventually voted for online (available at http://www.crashthesuperbowl.com/#/winners ). By doing this Doritos manage to hack into the creativity of their customers and discover how they really feel about the brand. The winning ad is then broadcast during the Super Bowl, reaching a wide audience eager to see it. I think this is quite a clever approach to take and that we will be seeing more and more brands adopting this tactic in the future.

DR. Pepper and Kiss



Snickers, 2010 best ranked ad


1 of Doritos 5 finalists

The Superbowl is coming up...

ETrade is a financial corporation based in the US and is divided into trading & investing, retirement & planning and banking & credit cards. As the name ETrade implies they concentrate on online services, e.g. buying stock online. Last week we discussed the use of humour in ads for “serious” products such as financial services.

ETrade paid $ 3 million to place their snarky baby ad during last year’s Superbowl. Although most of us did not really like this ad, it was a huge success because after the broadcast 19 million people surged on the website.

Barclaycard's Rollercoaster

Barclaycard’s Rollercoaster, launched Sunday 24 January 2010, is the follow up to its popular Waterslide advert released 2 years previous. The campaign, which was created by Bartle Bogle Hegarty uses the same CGI special effects technology employed in the Spider Man blockbusters. Paul Troy, head of advertising and content at Barclaycard says that the ad is the most technically advanced the card company has ever produced, saying, ‘I think it was quite brave when the financial meltdown happened to keep with the style of creative we have...It feels anti-recessionary even if it wasn’t designed to be’. As budgets for advertising and marketing are often cut during recession, the more savvy companies use it as an opportunity to gain market share. Barclaycard has opted to advertise for maximum memorability, thereby getting more bang for their buck. Rollercoaster also taps into the escapist fantasy genre that becomes so popular during recessionary times. The film, romance and sci-fi literature, and gaming industries have seen their profits rise over the past two years. In line with this, Barclaycard will be launching a ‘Rollercoaster’ iPhone app this coming May as a sequel to its popular ‘Waterslide’ app which has been downloaded 8.5m times to date.