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Archive for July, 2006

Hard To Be Original

31 Jul 2006

Hmm. JoeLaPompe has a point. And it’s a good one. It’s hard to come up with new ideas, sometimes. But I think it’s possible. You can’t tell nobody at Saatchi & Saatchi Poland knew about this. I mean, the first thing I do when I came up with an idea, is to go check if it’s been done before or not. And if it’s been done already, how much does mine look like it. Is it enough to be different? Are they too much alike? If so, rethink the concept. Especially when it’s in the same sector. There no shame in ‘adopting’ an idea or concept, as long as your own touch is clearly visible and the ad as a whole is not in the same line as the original. If you see these, and then note that the previous ads (from 1997 and 2002) are both finalists at really big contests… that means the agency of the third ad didn’t really do its research that good. Or is there a rule that says you can recycle an idea or concept altogether if there’s ‘x’ years between the last known execution and yours. What do you think?

Mercedes

Type: Mercedes-Benz Class-E
Year Of Execution: 1997
Source: One Show volume 19 – Print Finalist.
Creative: Jeff Ross
Art Director: Mark Wennecker
Agency: The Martin Agency – Richmond (USA)

Audi

Type: Audi Quattro
Year Of Execution: 2002
Source: New York Advertising Festival – Finalist.
Creative : Mirella Valentini
Art Director : Giovanni Policastro
Agency : Verba SRL (Milano Italia)

Toyota

Type: Toyota Land Cruiser
Year Of Execution: 2006
Source: http://www.garicruze.typepad.com/
Art Director: Bartek Grala
Creative: Daniel Piecka
Agency : Saatchi & Saatchi (Poland)

 

Wheelchair Anyone?

31 Jul 2006

Here’s another campaign for the GAR (Groupement pour l’action routière). Translated, GAR would be something like ‘the group for road action’. It’s a nonprofit organization that’s trying to raise awareness for the irresponsible behavior caused by speeding drivers, pointing to the results of their moronic conduct. The action is quite sophisticated, because they present a funeral wreath, an urn of ashes or a wheelchair, as if they were prizes you could win or bargain sales you could be eligible for if you drove at a certain speed and hit someone. Tough visuals. Nice work from Ogilvy.

If you were wondering why the urn starts at 129 km/h and the funeral wreath at 119km/h, it’s because the impact is so terrible at 129 km/h that a regular coffin is mostly out of the question. The ‘damage’ is too much. Think about it, the next time you’re driving.

Copy: for ‘Ashes’ : “starting from 129 km/h (80 mph)”
Copy: for ‘Wheelchair’ : “starting from 89 km/h (55 mph)”
Copy: for ‘Wreath’ : “starting from 119 km/h (74 mph)”

Client: GAR
Agency: Ogilvy Brussels
Account: A. de Terwangne
Creative Directors: Phil van Duynen, Koen Demaré
Copywriter: Koen Demaré
Art Director: Phil van Duynen
Photographer: Christophe Gilbert
Retouching: Yannick Lecoq
Media: Dailies (regional), Posters, tarpaulins at events

 

Oxy Cream

31 Jul 2006

These ads for Oxy are really amusing. If it’s hard to get rid of the nasty zits that refuse to ‘pop’, you’ll try the most crazy and stupidest things. I bet you could have a good laugh with yourself if you’d record your movements and saw them again, right on those private moments where you need both your hands, tilt your head in an impossible angle to keep looking in the mirror to then find out the little bugger decided to grow in a place that’s impossible to reach. Luckily there’s a cream that can solve it. Although (this might sound really gross) a cream doesn’t take away the satisfying feeling you have when you succeeded in ‘popping’ the pimple.

Oxy 1

Oxy 2

Copy: “When you’ve tried everything else”
Agency unknown | Thanks, Dave

 

Carnival Of Marketing

30 Jul 2006

Hola chicos & chicas! It’s time for the great Carnival Of Marketing, a linkdump of fresh and tasty stories from all over the world. I’m glad I’m participating in this series because there’s so much good stuff being written that a short overview and some pointers once a week might help us marketeers to get a grip on the humongous stream of data the interweb provides. So, let’s kick it off and see what’s worth reading elsewhere. Welcome to my carnival!

Carnival

For those amongst us on the sales rep department, making cold prospect calls is often hell. It’s the last thing you want to do because you’ve got to start at the bottom of the chain of familiarity, introducing yourself and the product from zero. Suzanne Falter-Barns attented a teleclass with Wendy Weiss, the alleged ‘Queen of Cold Calling’ and has listed up seven points you should pay attention to while making cold calls. – [check it out]

When you’ve created a good product, other people will start to give it away for free. There’s a few reasons why they do that. First of all because your product is good. The other reason is that it would place their product at least on the same level of quality. One thing you’ve got to do is ask yourself if your product is good enough to give it away for free. StopBuyingCrap takes an interesting look at the how and why. – [check it out]

I don’t know who Patty is, but apparently you can ask here anything. [hold your jokes] – Patty influences 80% of all vehicles purchased in the US and buys aproximately 50% of all new and used cars and 40% of all trucks sold in the US. “Ask Patty” invites all women to share their stories, books, ancedotes ( good, bad, funny or sad), ask questions, offer answers, information and news for the benefit of all consumer women. I really had no idea that it was so big. Jody DeVere, president of Ask Patty writes about her organization and reaches out to the online women/consumers. In the post she sent in for this carnival she explains all about Ask Patty – [check it out]

David Maister has moved a terabyte in data from the free stuff he’s been putting on his website. That’s pretty neat. The resources he’s sharing are podcasts, videos and articles in .pdf format. There’s some really interesting stuff over there, but of all those things you should really take a look at his latest article “Adventures in Modern Marketing”. This article is about some of the lessons he has learned (or relearned) about marketing in an Internet world, through his own recent marketing activities. – [check it out]

Jack Yoest is thinking about why the web-based competitors are winning the readership. ‘Reach’, ‘frequency’ and ‘awareness’ drive the marketers’ attention on placing ad dollars. To know where the future is, and how, when and where you can have a moment to grab the attention of your audience, read his article. – [check it out]

Nedra Kline Weinreich wrote a really nice review about Katya Andresen’s new book “Robin Hood Marketing: Stealing Corporate Savvy to Sell Just Causes”. This is not a how-to book, but it should be the first step for nonprofits who want to understand how to apply marketing concepts to their work. It will give you a good overview of the lens through which you need to filter your messages and materials. Head over to Spare Change and tune in, if you’re into nonprofit things: order the book. – [check it out]

The Long Tail is also applicable in real estate. The long tail phenomena that’s most relevant to the Tomato is how online real estate searches in your area are not always as obvious as “San Francisco real estate.” Showing up in the top 10 for such a search is not happening. Not to worry, being found online by your next lead doesn’t have to depend on which searches are most popular. Getting exposure online is as easy as writing about your industry on your website. Find out more about this and… – [check it out]

Marketing and advertising are very closely related. That’s why I’ve decided to also point in the advertising direction. It’s always nice to see what visuals are being used, which tricks, what sort of billboards or print ads… because very often you’ll get some inspiration or find new ways to market your products. So, here are a few links from the land of ads:

There’s two archives I frequent a lot when I’m looking for inspiration. One of them is AdsOfTheWorld, where Ivan is archiving ads and billboards from all over the world. It’s really a wicked large archive, you can spend hours and hours browsing the ads, seeing what has been done, thinking about how you could integrate one idea or another in a marketing campaign of your own. Daily updates. – [check it out]

Another fine archive to drop by is adverlicio.us, the world’s tastiest collection of online advertising. It’s in fact a large archive of all sorts of banners and teasers that are being used on the internet. If you’re considering an online campaign, be sure to drop by here and see all the good ideas that have been launched and that have proven to be successful. I’m sure there’ll be some things you can ‘redo’ or ‘make better’ if you want to promote your product or service online. Note that the ads don’t always link to their target, but that they’ve been listed to see what has been done, so clicking doesn’t always take you to the advertiser’s site – [check it out]

So, thanks for joining me this week for the Carnival of Marketing. The next episode is going to be hosted at Seeds of Growth. Submit your blog articles here!

 

Heinz

30 Jul 2006

There’s two things I like about these images. The fact that a tortoise and a snail are being used really illustrates just how long it takes for the ketchup to melt on hot toast or freshly baken fries. Next: I love it when the ketchup isn’t melting, especially on tasty food. These images look so yummy I could eat the food right away. And that’s exactly what Heinz is trying to say. “Don’t worry about the sauce, it’s thick, it’s going to stay where you’ve put it”.

Tortoise

Snail

Copy (top right corner): “Ultrathick”
Agency unknown | Thanks, Dave

 

HBO – Van Helsing

29 Jul 2006

I don’t know who made these ads, but I kind of liked them as soon as I saw them. They’ve been in my archive for half a year already. I’ve been looking for credits, but I didn’t find any. If you know who did this, feel free to comment. Otherwise, enjoy them like I did. :)

Singer

Storyteller

Nurse

Copy: “The Bad Are Turning Good – Van Helsing – 11 nov. 9PM – Only on HBO”

 

Say Cheese

29 Jul 2006

You gotta love the daring plan the South African branch of Ogilvy came up with for the Audi RS6. Those are things you couldn’t do in this country without having some tickets on your ass and a few nasty phone calls from ‘los coppers’. This placement is quite amusing. Not only does it alert people of the traffic cam behind the billboard, it also gives Audi a bit of a ‘helping you out’ status. On the other hand, the ad might also indicate something completely different. Those who can afford the RS6 will probably not feel bad about being flashed for speeding. RS means ‘Racing Speed’, so I imagine some of the Audi RS6 drivers will just put their head out of the window and put up a huge smile for the picture, making fun of the entire ’speeding camera thing’. Also, in my country the cameras are placed in the direction the traffic is heading for, in this case it’s the opposite, so it might be less daring as it seems, given the fact the camera might be ‘flashing’ cars that come from the other direction as the one you’re driving in whilst seeing the billboard. I might be wrong here, I’m just comparing it to the situation in my country. Fact is: on this picture there are no cars coming from the other direction. That would indicate that the camera is scanning and taking pictures from approaching speeding drivers. I didn’t know they could do that. Would the camera be part of the execution as well?

Audi RS6

Agency: Ogilvy, Johannesburg, South Africa
Executive Creative Director: Gerry Human
Creative Director: James Daniels
Art Director: Tetteh Botchway
Copywriter: Mahle Kwababa
Via AdsOfTheWorld

 

Whoah! Bravia!

29 Jul 2006

Check out what Sony’s pulling for the next Bravia ad! Damn impressive! This is going to be fun to watch! Those guys from Fallon attached paint bombs to a deserted buiding and made them explode. I can’t wait to see the entire clip. 70,000 liters (18 and a half thousand gallons) of paint were blown up by a clown. Glasgow’s Queen’s Court, Toryglen, will never be the same again. :)

Sony Bravia

The clip will be aired really soon on the site. Stay tuned for that.

The partial result, the explosion on itself, unedited, is already available on YouTube, filmed by some Glasgow resident. Pictures of the making of and aftermath have been uploaded to Flickr, so check that out as well. Apparently they’ve also made paint-fountains in the near surroundings of the building, as an extension of the colorful event:

Sony Bravia

(picture by Briggaitman)

70,000 litres of paint
358 single bottle bombs
33 sextuple air cluster bombs
22 Triple hung cluster bombs
268 mortars
33 Triple Mortars
22 Double mortars
358 meters of weld
330 meters of steel pipe
57 km of copper wire

Also check out the pictures on the Bravia site!