On April 14, 2013, Dove took a big step along its path to changing women’s perceptions of themselves. In 2006, Dove began its crusade against the beauty industry with the much hyped short titled Dove Evolution. I want to explain why the Real Beauty Sketches campaign is better.
Situation: How do you tell an abused child how to get help if the abuser is standing nearby?
Solution: Hide the message in plain site.
In a new campaign titled Only For Children, the Aid to Children and Adolescents at Risk Foundation (ANAR) in Spain is cleverly using lenticular printing to hide a message and phone number so that only kids can see it. Lenticular printing is the technology used to create the 3D-like bookmarks you often find at bookstore check-outs.
Tis the season for come backs. Or at least attempts at one. First Kmart released Ship Your Pants and now JCPenney, or just JCP these days, has come out in a new ad titled It’s No Secret saying, “We’ve made some mistakes, but we’ve also listened to you. Please come back. Pretty please.”
But is this commercial going to be enough? Or where does Penney’s need to go from here?
So am I supposed to ship or shi* my pants. I’m not completely clear. Either way, this ad is hilarious. And going viral. For example, I’ve had two different people text it to me in the last hour in addition to all of the online shares I’ve seen.
But despite the hype, is Ship Your Pants a one time headline grabber or a game changer like what Old Spice experienced a few years ago?
Recently, I’ve been studying the The Lean Startup by Eric Reis. He talks about various growth engines and I love how it describes viral businesses. So I’m borrowing his concept and adding some thoughts of my own.
For the purposes of this post, I am not discussing creating one viral campaign. I am instead focusing on products or services that are inherently viral themselves. In other words, they don’t use sticky growth (subscriptions) or paid growth (print, TV, radio ads, etc).
You probably didn’t see these McDonald’s ads since they ran in Australia during the later part of 2012. At face value, they seem like pretty smart ads considering the fast food giant’s reputation for unhealthy, obesity causing foods.
The basic message says, “Hey, our food comes from the same place as your food.” McDonald’s is subtlety addressing the quality of its foods by talking about the source and not the food itself. That’s an important distinction. Read more →
There has been a lot of talk over the last two weeks about the Super Bowl ads and which ones were the best. As far as I’m concerned, the best ads are the ones that address a business need and move the sales needle.
The problem with a lot of the popular ads is just that they are funny. At times, it seems as if Super Bowl advertisers are just competing with each other to be the funniest or most talked about. Yes, that can translate into dollars but not always. Although Budweiser’s “Horse and Trainer Reunited” topped USA Today’s Ad Meter, I’m curious if it did much to move the sales needle.
(Caveat: I recognize that the creative brief for the Budweiser ad may have contained other objectives)
Mercedes-Benz’ “Soul” ad featuring Willem Dafoe was the best ad in Super Bowl XLVII because it’s designed to meet both of the criteria mentioned above.
Brands that identify large-scale social disruptions and then position themselves within the disruption as the brand of choice reap great financial rewards.
For example, brands such as Pepsi, Mountain Dew, Apple and Ben & Jerry’s have all exploited some disruption.
I will spend the next few minutes outlining several current disruptions and then how you might approach them.
My name is Adam Williams and these are my musings and observations about brand and product marketing. I hope you'll join the conversation.
