The Inquisitr » advertising

OMG Stop the Web! Twitter is gonna run ads – and Scoble says you’ll love it

Steven Hodson — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 20:01:39 +0000

Hang on a sec and let me check out the window and see if the world is still spinning….

Yup at least that is still normal but in the world of social media everybody’s darling let it out today at yet some other silly conference that they will be rolling out an advertising format that will just amaze everyone over its incredibleness.

Well if you listen to Robert Scoble this is the impression you’ll get; but c’mon this is a guy that cried at seeing the World Wide Telescope.

This is a huge shift in what Twitter is saying publicly.

But advertising isn’t something many people love. So, how will Twitter make advertising you love?

By building a SuperTweet!

Wow, a SuperTweet – someone pass me a tissue quick, I think I’m going to lose it.

Seriously though it is about time that Twitter did something that would come even close to justifying the billion dollar valuation that the company has gotten the last time they went back to the VC teat. All this means is that suddenly we are going to get tweets loaded down with a whole bunch of metadata crap and links attached to what we have written – so really who’s going to care?

Thought so.

Please Apple, don’t destroy my illusions about you

Steven Hodson — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 22:11:48 +0000

We all understand Apple to a large degree, even those of us who don’t bow at the alter of Jobs.

We understand the egalitarianism of the Apple ethos.

We get that normally intelligent people can become raving fanboys at the drop of a new Apple gadget.

We realize that Apple gave the world a different way to look at those beige boxes we used everyday.

We understand that Apple has forever changed the way we perceive our mobile devices and how they are suppose to look and behave.

The problem is that none of this is inherent evil or anti-consumer. If anything it is ultra-consumer albeit in the vision of Jobs but even at that Apple has given us an alternative way to interact with our electronic devices.

Then we come to the iPhone App Store and the first inkling of evil or anti-consumer behavior. Nominally questionable apps, whether by design or intent, are being approved others that seem to run counter to some line of acceptance get tossed. There doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason but even with all the bitching we chalk it up to Apple being .. well .. Apple.

So it is with all this understanding and high hopes that Apple will still keep its ethos, its ability to turn sensible people into kool-aid sippers and think twice about ever using the most insidious idea for advertising delivery ever wrought on mankind, and yes even those lost Windows user’s souls.

I am, of course, speaking of a patent filed last year with Steve Jobs listed as one of the co-inventors (this has only happened four times in the history of the company) and made public last month.

Filing a patent application, of course, doesn’t necessarily mean that the company plans to use the technology. But the application shows, at the least, that Apple has invested in research to develop what it calls an “enforcement routine” that makes people watch ads they may not want to watch.

Its distinctive feature is a design that doesn’t simply invite a user to pay attention to an ad — it also compels attention. The technology can freeze the device until the user clicks a button or answers a test question to demonstrate that he or she has dutifully noticed the commercial message. Because this technology would be embedded in the innermost core of the device, the ads could appear on the screen at any time, no matter what one is doing.

The system also has a version for music players, inserting commercials that come with an audible prompt to press a particular button to verify the listener’s attentiveness.

Source: The New York Times

As anal retentive as Apple maybe this is not the sort of things your loyal loving devotees expect from their pie-in-the-sky company, and yes even us lost souls of the Windows world would expect better of you.

So please Apple, for all that is holy please re-consider ever using this patent. Lock it away within the bowels of Cupertino never to see light of day. It would be curse upon all mankind that could never be taken away if used.

Please Apple think of mankind like you never have before.

The Independence Day delivery of the DROID

Steven Hodson — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 03:38:10 +0000

Market share in the mobile phone market is fought by percentage points and exceptional products. Up until this point there is no denying the fact that Apple’s iPhone has been gaining ground percentage point by percentage point. Combined with an exceptional product that has left the other mobile phone providers eating their dust Apple has been a disruptive force in the market place.

Android based phones held out early promise that they would be able to take on the the Big A and take back some of that market. The only problem was that the product didn’t live up to the hype and no matter what advertising they tried Apple kept marching forward.

Then came word of Android V2.0 and a whole new phone from Motorola that rumor had it could be the phone that could not neessarily stop Apple in it’s tracks it could slow it down. For the most part we have been seeing anything to do with the Droid phone, as Motorola is calling it in the US, has been pretty piecemeal.

The advertising campaign around the phone has been cryptic and offering only the smallest glimpse of what is to come. Now if the company was to win any points for creative advertising the newest offering definitely deserves some major points for attention getting.

Courtesy of the crew over at Boy Genius here is the latest advertising from Motorola and appears to have just hit the web. Enjoy.

Apple ad bombing Windows 7 on Google

Steven Hodson — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 18:18:37 +0000

If there is one thing you can say for the Apple marketing department it is that they love nothing better than taking subtle swipes at Microsoft. While their television and web ads have been doing this for some time much to the glee and satisfaction of Apple fans around the world it seems that they are adding another area to their arsenal.

Alex Wilhelm over at The Next Web points out that Apple has begun taking out Google AdWords that are centered around Windows 7. The ads are showing up in searches for `download windows 7`and `windows 7 download`as you can see from the image below (thanks Alex)

Talk about a fine example, and funny, of guerrilla advertising.

Those ads are just so fly – literally

Steven Hodson — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 03:35:37 +0000

I’ve seen some pretty ingenious advertising in my time but the idea of using flies – yes flies – to help deliver your ads is definitely out there in left field. I’m not sure who thought up this idea but they deserve a bonus.

The video is of a German trade show where one of the exhibitors released a whole bunch of flies with advertisements attached to them. You got to admit it is rather clever and a hell of a way to get people to look at your ad.

Honest local tv mobile home ad

Kim LaCapria — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 21:32:16 +0000

This one had me scratching my head for a bit.

I couldn’t figure out if it was making fun of trailer park inhabitants, really real, or something in between. Turns out it’s the latter. From ILoveLocalCommercials.com, an explanation of the reasoning behind the ads:

How Does All This Work?
It’s simple, you nominate a local business that you think is worthy of attention and, if it’s one of the more inspiring entries, we’ll help them get that attention. We’ll do whatever it takes (funny songs, crazy antics, perhaps even some amateur pyrotechnics) to make the best local commercial on whichever side of the Mississippi you happen to reside.

So What’s The Catch?
The catch is, there is no catch. This program is supported by MicroBilt Corporation, a company devoted to helping small businesses see profit. They want to see deserving local businesses get their props and have fun doing it, so they’re pimping us out to make it happen and frankly, if loving small business is wrong, we don’t want to be right.

After I read that bit, I was impressed at not only what they were doing but how it managed to make it totally not condescending while still maintaining a gritty honesty. Check out this particular effort, for Cullman Liquidators in Alabama:

FTC to celebs: you are responsible for what you’re hawking

Steven Hodson — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 21:14:27 +0000

As I delve further into this whole FTC mess and their new guidelines, which you can download and read all 81 pages yourself, one thing is clear – celebrities are screwed. Now whether or not the FTC guides were this blunt before I can’t speak to all I can do is point to what the document refers to as being new.

From the FTC document (page 19 and page 20)

The Commission is not persuaded that a celebrity endorser’s contractual obligation to
read the script he or she is given should confer immunity from liability for misrepresentations made in the course of that endorsement. The celebrity has decided to earn money by providing an endorsement. With that opportunity comes the responsibility for the celebrity or his or her legal representative to ensure in advance that the celebrity does not say something that does not “reflect [his or her] honest opinions, findings, beliefs, or experience.” See 16 CFR 255.1(a).

Furthermore, because celebrity endorsers are liable for what they say, not for the rest of the
advertisement, their lack of control over the final version of a commercial does not warrant the
immunity sought by the commenters. Nor are they required to become experts on the product or the industry, although they may have an obligation to make reasonable inquiries of the advertiser that there is an adequate basis for assertions that the script has them making.

So in other words all those celebrity endorsers of products or services can’t hide behind “they were just reading a script” as a protection from any potential lawsuits or fines from the FTC.

I wonder how many celeb lawyers are going over all those million dollar contracts right now hoping that they comply with the new guidelines?

Sony using Nazis to sell PlayStation 3 [UPDATE]

Chris Greenhough — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 20:59:26 +0000

[Update: Seems this wasn't actually sanctioned by Sony, after all. A sheepish BBDO has admitted that it sent the advert - a "mock campaign" - to festivals without Sony's permission. Read more here.]

Sony has never been too shy about pushing controversial ad campaigns for its consoles, and I guess this could safely be called controversial.

Over in Chile, the company has hired ad agency BBDO to produce PS3 adverts featuring … World War II Afrikakorps General and famous Nazi Erwin Rommel. Because that’ll work out well, right?

The advert depicts a prone Rommel lying on a bed (with a swastika on its frame) and receiving a blood transfusion from a modern generic gamer. The point presumably being: PS3 brings history to life! Or Sony wants to revive Nazism. I can’t work out which. Either way: shit hitting fan in three, two …

On a less unsavoury note, an accompanying ad shows another gamer giving a heart transplant to the teenage French Catholic saint Joan of Arc. I have a feeling that one will be ignored when the furore kicks up, so here it is while it’s fresh in our minds:

[Copyranter, via Engadget]

Can I have one of those giant coffee pots in the sky?

Steven Hodson — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 23:26:20 +0000

Recently in Vancouver, Canada, McDonald’s was giving away small cups of their coffee over a two-week period. To help publicize the promotion that had someone change a lamppost to resemble a giant coffee-pot in the sky pouring coffee into a giant cup on the street. Talk about a getting attention.

hat tip to My Modern Metropolis

Google letting 3rd party ad networks in on the party

Steven Hodson — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 01:17:49 +0000

I just got this in my email but it seems that Google has decided to allow “certified” ad networks to compete for display ad space on our blogs. This will let these ad networks bit in the AdSense auction as long as they meet Google’s requirements when it comes to user privacy, ad quality, and speed.

Here is the email in full that went out to AdSense users and a video from Google explaining out it works.

Hi,
We’re writing to let you know about an upcoming update in your AdSense account designed to help you generate the maximum revenue from your ad units. You’ll soon be able to allow multiple ad networks to show on your pages, which means that advertisers from external Google-certified networks will be able to compete with AdWords advertisers for your ad space.

If you’re unfamiliar with what ad networks are, they’re companies that partner with advertisers and publishers to buy and sell ads on sites they don’t own themselves, similar to AdSense. Ads from these networks will compete with Google ads to show on publisher sites, and the ad generating the highest revenue for publishers will be displayed.

To ensure the quality of the ads appearing on your sites, we’re certifying all participating ad networks for adherence to our standards for user privacy, ad quality, and speed. You’ll also have control over which networks can show ads on your pages — you can choose to opt out of receiving ads from specific networks, or all networks completely. This means you can continue to show ads from only AdWords advertisers if you’d like.

Finally, some ad networks use tools similar to Google’s interest-based advertising to show more relevant ads to users on the sites they visit. These ad networks won’t be permitted to collect data from your site for the purpose of subsequent interest-based advertising, but we’ll allow those who comply with user privacy guidelines to show ads using these tools. You’ll have the ability to opt out of showing ads based on user interests from these ad networks, and we’ve changed our requirements for third-party ad serving to reflect this. More information is available at http://adwords.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=94230 .

These new capabilities will automatically be enabled for your account, and you’ll see a new section in your Ad Review Center where you can allow or block specific ad networks. Please note that we’ll gradually be adding new ad networks to AdSense accounts over the next few months, so you won’t see any immediate impact on your ads or your earnings.

To learn more about this launch and managing the ad networks appearing on your pages, visit the AdSense Help Center at https://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/topic.py?hl=en&topic=13522 and watch our video demo at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HyJPOVLd3I .
Sincerely,
The Google AdSense Team

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So why does Johnny Walker come in a square bottle?

Steven Hodson — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 00:10:57 +0000

If there is one iconic brand name for scotch it has to be Johnny Walker. This video is the story behind Johnny Walker and its never changing square bottle or diagonal label. The question is why the square shape and why is the label set at 24° exactly?

Well follow along with Robert Caryle as he tells the true tale of Johnny Walker.

Oh and by the way the video was shot in one single shoot – mind you it took 40 attempts.

hat tip Steve Clayton

Advertising can work and here’s a few examples of how

Steven Hodson — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 00:45:00 +0000

We all like to make fun of advertising calling it things like mind-numbing and stupid but sometimes some ads come along ad show that when done right ads can grab our attention and not be stupid about it or make us feel like idiots.

Lays Chips

This ad is being run for three weeks starting back on July 27 and can be found in Chicago’s Jackson Tunnel. Talk about being a great stop in your tracks and go WTF! – nicely done.

Donations Poster

An interesting way to promote a cause and to give people a chance to make a donation at the same time.

Battery Power

This one is just plain fun and perfect to play off of the idea of a toy store.

It’s all about a television show

A two way mirror to make you feel like you are watching an interrogation – while in the bathroom.

No related posts.

Very cool Toyota, too bad the flowers are only temporary

Steven Hodson — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 05:45:24 +0000

How can you tell when technology has become totally mainstream?

Well when a major marketing campaign centered around something totally different targets the growing number of people who live online regardless of where they are. The perfect example of this kind of marketing comes to us from Toyota as they launch the 2020 3rd generation Prius in the US.

Rather that paste billboards all over the place and plaster us with all kinds of print advertising Toyota is heading right to the minds – and wallets – of those people who will most likely be their future Prius customers. They’ve done this by planting 18-foot high flower sculptures that are doubling as public comfort zones as well as solar powered wi-fi stations. As well you can also plugin to the portable charging stations that are a part of the ‘green zone’.

You gotta admit it’s a great idea but unfortunately they are only temporary and will soon be moving from their current location in Boston to other temporary homes during the campaign.

hat tip to My Modern Metropolis

It is definitely one way to get attention

Steven Hodson — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 23:03:40 +0000

So … you are walking down the street and all of a sudden your attention gets caught by what looks to be fish swimming around is the sign for a restaurant. Guess what – they are real fish and it is the sign for a seafood restaurant.

Chalk up one successful business advertisement.

The idea is the brainchild of a Frankfurt seafood restaurant called Fish Franke and as you can see in the video below the sign is pretty well an aquarium with a poster of a plate with a fork and knife along with the restaurant’s logo and slogan as the backdrop. Gotta admit it’s pretty clever.

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I’m not sure the same idea could work for another type of restaurant as well … say a steakhouse.

hat tip to AdFreak

The Recession 101 ad Campaign – who’s paying for it?

Steven Hodson — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 19:45:00 +0000

Jessica Pressler over at the Daily Intel blog has a really cool story about an outdoor ad campaign that is being run across the country but no-one has any idea who’s behind it, or paying for it. Well Jeff Golimowski from the Outdoor Advertising Association of America knows but he isn’t telling. According to him the ad are running on donated space by the association because they think it’s a really cool idea.

As you can see from the picture they are all headlined with “Recession 101” and as they say at the website for the campaign – "Recession 101 isn’t selling anything other than the American spirit,". The billboards were design by Florida-based designer named Charlie Robb on behalf of “an anonymous East Coast donor who was depressed about how the country was reacting to the economy’s tailspin”, and now number around 2,000.

The only other thing we know about them comes from Robb as well

"I’m not trying to be coy about this but I have a responsibility to honor my client’s wishes," he said."The client wants to remain anonymous out of a belief that you don’t do public service for recognition. I found that commendable. Altruism, apparently, isn’t dead."

Everyone from the Obama Administration to Goldman Sachs has been cleared out of the way of being responsible for the campaign. I almost hope we don’t find out.

Printing to the music

Steven Hodson — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 18:25:00 +0000

There are all kinds of interesting stuff being these days when it comes to advertising products, especially from recognizable brands like HP. All it takes is a bunch of people with some unique ideas and a a company willing to go out on a limb and try something new.

In this case HP is promoting a recent project from a pair of graphic design graduates, Matt Robinson and Tom Wrigglesworth, where they wanted to show how HP workstations and printers could be used, along with some music, to bring ideas to life.

HP – invent from Tom and Matt on Vimeo.

hat tip toMy Modern Metropolis

Where is the Microsoft marketing team getting their great drugs?

Steven Hodson — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 17:55:00 +0000

Over the past little while we have been seeing some really different advertising coming out of the Monster at Redmond. Sure a lot of people didn’t like the Seinfeld and Bill ads (I thought they were marginally funny) and some thought the Laptop Hunter adds were a good departure for the company. Meanwhile the reaction to the recent Internet Explorer ads was again mixed with some thinking they were hilarious (myself included) and others thinking they were just stupid.

I’ll leave it up to you to decide which sides the typical Microsoft vs. Apple people teamed up with but the series of ads they are doing for Office 2010 carry on the warped and funny aspect of all their recent product advertisements. Like where else would you find the hero crying to the sky at the headstone for Clippy or see full scale action special effects usually found in actions movies.

I only hope that they continue this funky ad campaign style when it comes to Windows 7 hitting the market.

Billboard campaign uses tears of blood.

Steven Hodson — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 22:15:00 +0000

Speeding admittedly leads to many fatal accidents. Speeding in bad weather can multiple the number of fatalities exponentially. Sure the police can issue speeding tickets as well as dangerous driving tickets but the truth is many people just consider them as part of the cost of driving.

In New Zealand they are trying something totally different to try and get people to slow down during bad weather – public horror. They are doing this through special billboards with pictures of children. They are special in that when it rains the billboard begins to bleed.

hat tip to BuzzFeed

The IE8 puke ad pulled – the warm and fuzzy crowd wins again

Steven Hodson — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 19:39:00 +0000

Last week I wrote here about the new series of online ads that Microsoft was running for Internet Explorer 8 and truth be told I thought they were all funny as hell, and yes even the one where the wife shows her disgust for her husbands browsing habits. Then last night as I was prepping for this week’s Cynical Bastards podcast I was double checking the videos only to find that the “puking ad” had been pulled.

This fact was confirmed by cnet News

The truth is that Microsoft wasn’t 100 percent happy with vom-com.

"We make a point of listening to our customers," a Microsoft representative said in an e-mail Thursday morning. "We created the OMGIGP video as a tongue-in-cheek look at the InPrivate Browsing feature of Internet Explorer 8, using the same irreverent humor that our customers told us they liked about other components of the Internet Explorer 8 marketing campaign. While much of the feedback to this particular piece of creative was positive, some of our customers found it offensive, so we have removed it."

I’m sorry but sure the ad maybe should have had some kind of warning (“weak stomach people with no sense of ha-ha need not watch”) but I don’t think the ad needed to be pulled. It was funny as hell and sure I may have a whacked sense of humor but come on folks lighten up for crying out loud.

While the ad may have been pulled from the ‘official’ channels it still lives on YouTube so for those of you who thought it was funny here ya go. The rest of you who didn’t go watch television or something and make sure you definitely don’t watch this one or you might curl into a fetal ball.

Warning: weak stomach panty waists should not watch this as you might not see any humor

Yet another company shows how ads can work

Steven Hodson — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 22:15:00 +0000

Yesterday I wrote both here and on my home blog about two different types of advertising campaigns that both use video to engage us as a way to promote their products. With both posts I was trying to show that as much as we might rail against advertising there are companies that get the fact that they need to change how they approach the consumer.

While both those examples were centered around video there are some companies in other advertising mediums who are getting this change in attitudes as well. If this latest campaign from Levis Jeans is any indication they are one of those companies. Along with their ad agency, Wieden + Kennedy, and photographer Ryan McGinley Levis wants us to remember that the US was built by people with a pioneering spirit.

Along with their print campaign they have also created a commercial to go along with it that uses the poem “America” by Walt Whitman.

hat tip to My Modern Metropolis