Viagra-ing your brand

Newfoundland and Labrador don't claim to offer visitors a big city experience, in fact they market themselves as the exact opposite of that - quiet, small, and friendly. Have a look at some of their most recent television ads. The scenery is breathtaking, the music is calming and it makes you want to hop on the next flight to take it all in for yourself.





But they save the best for last, and enhance their brand image at the same time, by offering a personalized telephone number on the last screen. Sure it's a 1-800 number, but you have an actual person's name to speak too. How small town is that? How personal and special do you feel calling a specific person as opposed to a main phone line? Simply brilliant marketing, and no doubt leaves a smile on peoples faces - exactly the way they want people to react.

Marketing that makes you go hmmm

How often do you receive, hear, or see an advertisement that just completely confounds and confuses you? Probably more often than the companies who employ these marketers would like. It makes me go hmmm, but not in a good, thoughtful way, more like a who the hell would approve this kind of way.

For example this afternoon I received this email from a comedy club that I had once submitted my name to in hopes of winning free tickets to a future show.

This was the whole email and the title of it was "Yuk Yuk's special Announcement"

Sooooooo, I can surmise from the local service provider that this is a new television station but other than that it really tells me absolutely nothing. The email was also just one big image which I have now copied to make fun of them for not knowing how to market, and it did not click me anywhere. Not to a page dedicated to the television channel or anything. I watch a decent amount of television and i've never heard anything about this channel, I haven't read anything online about it or seen anything in a newspaper.

As far as I know, this is the first effort they have put into marketing this channel. Fail.

Confusing your customers

To write, direct, and produce a 30 second television commercial is expensive, then you get into placing it on television and the costs continue to rise higher and higher.

So why would you waste your companies advertising dollars on something that doesn't explain a competitive advantage of yours, or even really explain what your offering your customers.

Exhibit A: Ramada worldwide




At least there is an offer in the second ad that may help explain what the advertisement is for. What is their message supposed to be though? "Do your thing"
Do you get a lot of scottish kilt wearing business people that like to ride bulls as guests at your hotel? Is that the niche market your targeting with these ads? Because to me you seem to be advertising to just-graduated frat college people that are starting out in the business world and want somewhere they can crash after a party. If that is the message, well then I guess well done. But to me instead of making a couple of crappy 15 second ads, why not create a full 30 second ad that will actually grab peoples attention and tell them why they should stay at your hotel.

Compare that to the Holiday Inn Express commercials, which use the same sort of angle in their ads of not talking about the hotel but rather the person that would stay in it. However, Holiday Inn Express does a lot better job of getting across the message of why or who would stay at their hotels - Smart people. They are telling their audience that their hotel is a no brainer.



The Holiday Inn Express team obviously spends a lot more money on creating their commercials but they are getting a lot more return on their investment than Ramada is in my opinion.

Microsoft using their customers for more than feedback

Over the past couple of years Microsoft has launched a number of different advertising campaigns and some of them have been incredibly successful, thanks in large part to the use of an adorable little girl


However, none of their advertising ever seems to live up to the stylish, cool Apple advertising. So, most recently they have been using the "We listen to you" sales tactic in their advertisements. Not a bad idea. Let your customers know that you listen to them and value their feedback. Good concept, but as I kept seeing these customer-centric ads I could'nt help but feel like something just wasn't quite right.




Then it hit me.....they are using their customers as scapegoats! "Windows 7 was my idea". So when Windows 7 goes wrong like so many of its predecessors (Vista, XP, etc) then Bill can just point right back at the people complaining and blame it on them. It's pure evil genius! No wonder he is much richer than I am.

You know you've done your job as a marketer when..

When your campaign can make another marketer realize that they need your product then you have officially done your job as a professional marketer.

I realized this after seeing a recent Sensodyne commercial on TV. The commercial was nothing flashy, funny, or attention grabbing, what it did was tell me the benefits of the product and hit the right target market - me. Sometimes marketing can seem complicated, trying to grab peoples attention with a fancy new guerilla campaign featuring monkeys released into the city with a fancy website you designed painted on their backs. But sometimes, it's just as easy to stick to the old mantra of tell your target what you are offering them and what the benefits are to them. Make it look professional and show them you have knowledge in the area.

That's what Sensodyne did, and that's why I use their toothpaste.

This is an older commercial but still follows the same format as the commercial I saw.



Have you thought about dumbing down your marketing and just getting to the point of what you have to offer your target?

Cialis commercials come up limp

As most people in the marketing world know Cialis, Viagra, and other pills aimed at adding some pop to people's peckers have restrictions on the type of things they can say and do in their advertisements. This has led to some amazingly creative work from Viagra and to a lesser extent Cialis.



But some of the latest Cialis commercials are more puzzling than interesting, funny, or attention-grabbing. First they had one featuring a guy at work sitting on some scaffolding (I can't find the commercial on youtube) and then all of a sudden the scaffolding starts moving and being pulled down roads back to his house where his "lady friend" is watering the garden or something. They are clearly going for a symbolism-type commercial but I am totally missing this one.

Then they came up with this

cialis morning from Me on Vimeo.

Here's my idea for the next Viagra/Cialis/Levitra campaign.

A man is rummaging around in his record/CD collection. He picks up a new disc/record and looks at the back of it. He throws it over his shoulder. More rummaging ensues. Again he picks up a disc, looks at the back, thinks about it for a moment and then tosses it over his shoulder. More rummaging. He finds another disc, and a broad smile crosses his face. He removes the disc and puts it in the player. Cut to his wife reading in another room. Marvin Gaye, Let's Get it on, begins to play loudly and the noise enters the room the wife is in. A broad smile crosses her face. Close with the standard Viagra ending.

BAM! That's how its done Cialis.

Great casting can make lasting impact

I don't know that I have ever seen a Banking commercial on TV that has actually made me think about switching banks.....until I saw the Ally commercials in Canada. Absolutely brilliant. They cast the perfect actor to play the role of the "big bank" and the children that they cast to act out the role of the confused consumer are budding stars.

Here is the latest ad from them that has me laughing everytime I see it.




That combined with this ad, which was the first one of theirs I saw make you seriously consider switching to Ally if ever your bank pissed you off.




Brilliant casting leaves a lasting impression in your mind. There are many different ways to make an ad a classic in peoples mind, and casting is clearly one of the best. Just think about the brilliant casting job Apple did for their recent apple v. mac ads, these Ally ads have much the same feel.

Great musical commercials

One of my original posts on this blog was about using music to help create a memorable commercial. Well lots of ads have used this technique since I wrote about it, and its not like my post was anything earth shattering, and some of my recent favourites are these:

Honda Accord 2010 Crosstour commercial


Nissan Titan



Alexander Keith's Beer Birthday commercial


A little different, but a movie trailer (technically still an ad) for Dear John


The musical editing provides the tone and feel for these commercials and draws you into them deeper as a result. They are all really well done and the musical selection is incredible. It still impresses me each time I hear a song in an ad that i've never heard and how powerful it can be to grab the attention of the viewer.

Have you seen any ad's like this lately that utilize a good background song?

My favourite new tv ad

Without a doubt the new "Scents for gents" Old Spice commercial is one of the best i've seen on tv lately.



It's a rather brash commercial but seems to be taking up the steam that was created by the Dos Equis "Most Interesting Man in the World". These style of advertisements target the male ego and show off the bravado/confidence that every man dreams of possessing. Very well done in my opinion. Any other thoughts?

What is Bing bringing to the table?

The search engine wars have heated up recently with Microsoft's Bing joining the game. Make no mistake, Microsoft is trying to take Google down and is putting some major money and resources behind it, ie. the creative team that basically stole the Google "concept" of using a distinct sounding, simple name for a search engine. Can you imagine if they named it Supercalifragilisticexpealidocious? Anyways, Microsoft seems to be pleased with the early results and are calling it a success so far.

As we all know, humans are creatures of habit and the habit for most humans the past number of years has been to log onto Google when needing to find anything online. How is Bing going to change people's habits? One way would be to make their search engine different, and I know that Microsoft probably has different bots that run behind the scenes and filter results, etc., etc. But 90% of people don't really know how a search engine works, or really care to find out. They want something that that provides value to them that they can see/use. Now in their latest advertisements (which are actually pretty good) Bing makes itself seem like it is different, calling itself a decision engine and adding an airplane, shopping cart, buildings, and medical symbol next to its logo........ohhhhkay. Don't really understand the significance of those but i'll let you run with it. Here's one of the commercials


What does a decision engine get me? Let's go to Bing to check it out. Okay i'll type in Hawaii Tickets as per their commercial. Bing! Make my decision for me decision engine.......oh. The results are pretty typical of Google's. Hmmm. Thats not really following through on your promise, or maybe you just haven't explained well enough what makes your search engine a "Decision" engine. Might want to think about that, or at least explain it somewhere on your page. Just a thought.

I wonder what "Decision Engine" even means, I think i'll Google it.

Lack of Creativity

In an earlier post I talked about the lack of creativity of car companies.

Well, turns out they aren't the only ones who aren't creative. Lately there has been a lot of "combination" commercials, where one thing is mixing with another to create this "new" idea. Unfortunately the companies and their agencies haven't put much thought into a "new" idea for the advertising.

Car commercial exhibit A



Burger commercial exhibit B



Exhibit C: Arby's Fajita flatbread commercials which feature a mexican guitarist meeting a chef and embracing. Can't find them on Youtube because no doubt they aren't that proud of them.

Could this lack of creativity be the result of creative companies not getting as much work because more and more companies are encouraging their consumers to come up with marketing ideas? Is this leading to a brain drain from the creative area of the advertising/marketing world?In Canada, Doritos consumers were asked to name a new chip for them and come up with an ad for it. I've seen numerous requests for consumers to help work on a new packaging look for products (Pepsi, Kokanee, etc.). Is this costing us good creative? Who knows, I certainly don't have any stats to back it up.

Maybe its just companies being less willing to step out on a ledge and actually stand out from the crowd. Play it safe and hope for the best. Seems like a waste of money to me.

Marketing.....nothing

What happens when your company has no competitive advantage? What happens when your company is in an industry where acheiving a competitive advantage is near impossible? When differentiating yourself from your competitors is a tough thing to do.

Do you fold up shop? Do you spend oodles of money marketing your brand?

This blog idea came to me yesterday as I was watching TV and saw an add for Wal-Greens pharmacy. The entire ad didn't really say anything and seemed like an incredible waste of time (would post it if I could find it on youtube but a cursory glance returned nothing for obvious reasons). Then I started thinking, well how else are they going to get customers to get their prescriptions there, because lets be honest there is a lot of money to be made in prescription filling. But the question behind their commercial/marketing campaign should have been "Why would customers get their prescriptions filled with us?" and they should have developed it based on that question.

Maybe answering it is the tough part and will take a lot of research or getting everyone together for an entire day of brainstorming, but its probably better than burning your marketing dollars on a commercial just to say your doing something. Use your customers, find out what they would like in a pharmacy, maybe its speediness, price, comfort, customer service, knowledge, you never know until you ask.

But that is the challenge that their marketing department should accept greedily as this is their e=mc squared.

The automotive industry needs an advertising bailout

If you have seen one car commecial, you have seen them all. They all blend in to one soupy monotonous mash of person announcing that this "amazing car" gets you so many miles to the gallon, handles like a gem, and is as quiet as their empty showrooms. Well news to car companies, your not fooling anyone and you are all saying the exact same thing. So why would you continue to waste so much money on basically promoting the exact same car as your competition. Here's a crazy idea:

a) Design a car that is different from your competitors, get crazy with the look of a car
b) Have something in the car that differentiates you from every other car company out there and is actually of use to someone (just spitballing but apple is a pretty hip company maybe you can make an arrangement like Nike did with the ipod shoes)
c) Market the crap out of your unique offering (this is pretty much the first lesson in any marketing class)

It baffles me that car companies haven't been able to come up with something like this. As much as I don't really like Scion, at least they are thinking slightly outside the box and not trying to be everything to everyone. GM, Ford, and Chrysler seem to be mailing it in like a lot of the union workers that are on the line.

It also seems like none of these poor advertisements are available on YouTube which is definately a great way to help not drive traffic virally. Good thing they have now gotten to the point where they are appealing for national pride "Over half of these quality Pontiac products are made right here in Canada including......"

Well that did it, i'm sold. I'll buy a car for my country. And full disclosure, I own a GM product currently that I bought brand new 4 years ago and can say that it is not really the "quality" that a lot of these commercials tell me it is. My family has always owned GM so we are pretty loyal, but I can tell you this much, the loyalty ends after this car is done.

You know you've got a great ad concept when.....

It's the same as anything else, copycatting is the most sincere form of flattery. And it rings true in the advertising/marketing world as well. In general once some creative tactic or ad or media buy or initiative proves to be a huge success there will be people everywhere copying it. Trying to make lightning strike twice.

One of the most successful television advertisements in recent years has been the Apple - Get a Mac ads. These ads have transcended the likes of being an annoyance in between parts of your program to something that people look forward to seeing. They may be some of the most powerful/popular advertisements ever, and they are still able to pump out new ones without it seeming like too much of the same.

Now of course people have caught onto this and the commercials are so well known that people are piggy backing on the concept.

Here is a Mac ad:
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=DDuB8NLTj_I

Now check out this video regarding a provincial election in British Columbia, Canada
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9nhHsFKato

Very similar concept and pretty good execution. When someone sees this commercial they may be more friendly and open to it because they recognize the format (unless of course they are voting for the other party).

The new 30 second spot is a 10 minute spot

According to a recent Joseph Jaffe post, Only Poor People Watch 30-second spots, the American Idol key demographic is getting older, along with also trending to lower income earners. Maybe that is why they have added a rather attractive young female judge to be the 4th on the panel this year. But more importantly in his post was this fact:

"A new survey suggests that upscale households account for a disproportionate slice of the DVR distribution pie, as more than half of all U.S. homes with incomes of $100,000+ subscribe to some form of time-shifting device"

Advertising revenues are already down across the board for the traditional mass media outlets, so it's not like this has anyone shocked. But what are the companies that pander to these high income earners going to do to get their target markets attention. What is the future for television advertising as a result of the TIVO/PVR technology. This took me back to a session I attended at the Marketing Week conference in Toronto last November. It was on the lack of attention that people pay to traditional media nowadays and one of the panelists was Ian MacLean from Etc.tv

Etc.tv is a company that does on demand advertising in Canada, which basically puts the power of advertising in the consumers hands. They are allowed to click on a commercial or product and be taken to a more in depth longer commercial or experience with the product. This could mean a reverse in thinking, instead of people be less interested in a commercial they could be fully engulfed for as long as 1o minutes by a product advertisement. The only difference is they are choosing when and how they want to view the ad which is quite an ingenius concept. Although this concept is a long way from being in the mainstream, it does seem like a movement in the right direction. Technically this is where we are already heading with people able to youtube advertisements they like, so it seems like a natural evolution. The only problem is the set up to allow consumers to view this on demand advertising. Right now it is only available in Quebec through Etc.tv so look for it to expand in the future.