Showing posts with label advertising. Show all posts
Showing posts with label advertising. Show all posts

14 January, 2011

If You Can Transform a Brand, You Can Transform Your Agency

Yes, I borrowed that line from the title of an article published in AdAge. Truth be told, it's the platform for this post.

Right now we (Renegade) are in the trenches of re-branding ourselves. And I would be a liar if I said it was the easiest thing we've ever done. It's surprising how difficult the work becomes when it is no longer directed towards your clients and suddenly becomes all about you. Case and point, have you ever had to write about yourself? Perhaps a bio, a blurb, about me, etc... It's more difficult than you think. As Christine puts it "Decode your DNA". Figure out who you are. Figure out what your trying to do/sell/offer. Strip everything away and focus on the one thing that makes you, you.

This is the case with any branding initiative but it's a lot easier to dissect the fruits of someone else's labor. When you are forced into a moment of introspect, things get uncomfortable, usually a bit sticky and ultimately someone steps in something gross and tracks it across the living room floor. Fortunately for this industry, a creative solution can clean up any mess.

Once you have the fancy adjectives and fluff stripped away and you can clearly see your vision, corporate culture and unique differentiator, you can begin the process of putting your brand back together. Don't forget all of the other cosmetic details either - you have to think about curb appeal in this neighborhood.

So now you've got a new look, a new approach and now a new buzz in the atmosphere. Now what? Oh yeah, now it's time to launch. I'll leave that up to you while I segue into the Renegade brand launch.

For some time we've been revamping the Renegade brand - who we are, what we do and how we do it. As I mentioned earlier, it was not an easy process and for any agency that has gone through it, knows that.

It's almost like planning a wedding.

You lock down the foundation that everything else will fall into first - who you are, where you're going and how you'll get there (a.k.a. research). Then you move on to the more detail oriented tasks - brand positioning, brand identity, brand plan. And last but not least, the nitty gritty details that you can't forget but never remember - updating all letterhead, docs, envelopes, business cards and email signatures with your new look, setting the tone for your new culture and rallying your troops (in the midst of all the top-level business decisions, you can't forget about your front line - these folks are going to be your brand ambassadors).

With that said, I highly recommend checking out Christine's article in AdAge and also keep checking back to the Agency Confessional and the new Renegade Communications website for the launch of our new brand.

- Jim Luparello III AE Brand Ambassador


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08 December, 2010

Intern Sweatshop: or How Ben Found the Secret to Internet Buzz




Fact: The internet is a great marketing tool.

Did I just blow your mind? Ok, so that wasn't exactly groundbreaking news. The internet's ability to cause buzz and spread things like wild fire is not lost on advertisers. But, the internet is a fickle place and getting your product/client/brand talked about and spread around takes something special. Here is an example.

Ben the Bodyguard is a grizzled, streetsmart Frenchman who knows about the seedy side of things. He has made a living keeping things hidden that need to stay hidden. Ben's most unique biographical tid-bit, however, is that he's an iPhone app.

Developed by Nerd Communications, Ben the Bodyguard is an upcoming way to keep the things you keep on your iPhone protected. And their marketing efforts are amazing.

First, personifying this piece of software was a stroke of brilliance. The app's job is to protect you, making it a "person" adds an extra, unconcious level of comfort. People are increasingly wary of technology's slow theft of our privacy, so helping us relate to a piece of software also helps us trust it.

Secondly, they gave Ben an intruiging personality and spread it through out their advertising. Their Twitter feed is written as if it is Ben himself tweeting. Their Facebook page is set up as a personal page, not a business page. You can't "like" Ben, you can "friend" him. Then there is their website. Oh man, their website. It went live last Thursday, and the internet exploded with links to the site. If you search Ben the Bodyguard on Twitter, it is still getting passed around a week later. I will now link you to the website and you can see why people are still talking about it. I warn you though, now I am going to blow your mind.

http://benthebodyguard.com/index-b.php


Kyle Sacks, Intern. Going to buy Ben when he comes out.

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22 September, 2010

Off Topicness: Edumacationalism

The Wire, Season 4. See it and understand.

Had a chance to stop by AdVerve with the incomparable Bill Green and Angela Natividad. The discussion had a whisp of advertising threaded throughout, but BG & Ang were swell enough to let me jack the conversation and wax existential on public education and all things Bawldimore, Marelynn.

Have a spare hour and change? Give it a listen. The inherent uncensoredness of AdVerve guarantees it'll be a naughty pleasure for all you unruly adholes out there.

Go here to hear.

Enjoy. And feel free to disagree.

Links of note: What got me into this mess; fixing public education in 1-2-3-4-5 easy steps.

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03 August, 2010

Intern Sweatshop: It's an iWorld and We're Just Living in iT

So by now I’m sure you’ve all heard of the iAd from Apple—the new mobile advertisement network that merges the interactivity of online ads with the emotional elements of television ads, or so Steve Jobs would have us believe.

The way it works is banner ads appear on most free Apple applications. Click on the banner then open up (cue booming voices) “THE iAd EXPERIENCE.” Then you shake, tilt, scroll, and search the “app-vertisement” however you like, just like you interact with many other apps.

The “revolutionary” iAd experience has participating companies paying $1 million to join and others, such as Nissan, up to $10 million for exclusivity. Wouldn’t you love to borrow a couple seeds from their money tree?

But wait, iAds are only available to iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch owners, who total about 85 million users, and only represent a small quantity of the much larger Smartphone population. Furthermore, the selective group of these people who may come across the ad may pass by and possibly (re: probably) not even click. And Apple even offers an alternative for those who want to avoid the ads altogether—purchase the full version of the app.

So with a questionable audience size and ROI, why are these companies even signing up? Well, being associated with one of the most well-established companies doesn’t hurt, for one, and puts youthful Apple eyeballs on your products. It’s also a longer time with the audience than traditional TV advertising. And the caliber of people who own these expensive gadgets, mostly have a sizable amount of disposable income.


My take: That’s a good, specific audience, but a small audience for your $10 million - never mind the question of whether or not people will even click, which makes me think Apple has totally conned businesses into buying into the iAd platform. And they’ll continue to do so. But soon will Google create a competitive alternative for its Droid platform? When will Windows follow suit? Or will they leave it to Apple to rake in all the revenue? If you don’t see these competitors jumping on the wagon, it’ll be because it really isn’t worth the investment.

As an iConsumer, I think these ads are especially annoying. But as an advertising student, I see Apple simply basking in their inenious innovation as they rip off some of our country’s most recognizably wealthy brands. But hey, that’s their fault if they’re not as smart as a 20-year-old college student. Excellent play Steve Jobs. Where do I send my resume?


For more information on the iAd experience: check out the video demonstrations.


--Cristina Burke, Creative Dept. iNtern

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28 July, 2009

Craig Ferguson: Advertising deifies youth...and stupidity

He's got a point. Haggis for everyone.

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24 July, 2009

Friday Ad Haiku: Spec Work

(via)

I suppose every industry, in one way or another, gives a little sumthin'-sumthin' away for free to wet a client's whistle. Ice cream parlors divvy out the tiny spoons to taste test the newest flavors. Flooring companies give away free swatches of Berber to color coordinate. Hell, even the corner boys give away testers of H to drum up buzz amongst the junkerati.

But our freebies aren't like others' freebies. They're not as simple as handing out a sample to help people figure out if the carpet matches the drapes. We don't dip our hands into an ice cream freezer to pull out comps for a broadcast campaign. We've gotta make it on demand.

What a business: we work for the opportunity to work for money. While it's no big deal to the food court hustler pimping bourbon chicken samples whether you eat at their place or out of an ashtray by the GAP, it makes all the difference in the world for us. Because free, ain't easy. And the truth is, no matter how good your work is (or you think it is), no matter how much of yourself you've invested into a free sample, there are no guarantees. Them's the odds, friends. Especially in an economy that's sucking sand.

So we keep doing it. Because that's the price to play in this competitive climate. And because, deep down, we secretly love the chase.


The first one's free. But
the second'll cost ya. Just
kiddin'. That's free too.

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07 July, 2009

Out-of-Home Stigmata, Kiwi Style

I've never been to New Zealand, but based on my anthropological research - consisting mainly of HBO series, travel ads, and discussions with Australian people - I can confidently say they take auto safety very seriously.

Exhibit A: Their billboards bleed when it rains to remind drivers that inclement weather can be dangerous.

(via)


I'm not quite sure what the billboard up the road that vomits pea soup is supposed to warn people about.



More outdoorsy stuff here, here, and here.

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27 May, 2009

The Vendor-Client Relationship in the Real World

M.M. McDermott



When it comes to economics, advertising is its own animal. Like a peacock. Strange. Fast. Flashy. And marginally housebroken. But so worth it.

I love this business.

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On Advertising...

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On Advertising...SocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

13 April, 2009

The less you talk, the more I love you.

by M.M. McDermott


Count on someecards to dredge the real muck of the human heart. While its twitspiration is obvious, really, couldn't it be the rule of engagement for most relationships? Husband and wife. Teacher and student. Advertiser and consumer. It's all the same.

Think about that while I kill my heart with Easter ham leftovers for breakfast.

Thanks to our favorite expatriate for the e-bon mot.
Je hais les bérets et Camus m'ont toujours ennuyé.

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06 April, 2009

Quit Victoria. And quit yer bitchin', too

If you haven't seen the Quit Victoria ad yet, take a moment to watch and then keep reading.



It's causing a big stink amongst people who care to get miffed about this sort of thing. Oddly though, their issue doesn't lie with the messaging. And how could it? The ad communicates pretty solidly that, for a child, a parent's death is far worse than their temporary misplacement in a crowd. As far as anti-smoking messages go, this one is probably one of the most effective I've ever seen.

No. Everybody has their panties in a twist, not over the message, but over the perceived treatment of the kid in the ad. Some comments I've seen have likened the spot to child abuse.

Child abuse?

Really?

First of all, these critics have no idea what happened on set during filming. The kid could be...acting. That's what paid actors of any age generally do once the cameras come on. He could just be very talented, and not provoked to cry by some unseen mistreatment. We'll know for sure when he turns up a few years from now playing Harry Potter's son in "Hogwarts: The Next Class."

Yes, it's possible that someone told little Nigel his real mommy hated him and was never coming back for him...ever, and then shouted "Action!" It's possible. But that seems unlikely. The producers could have cast any kid in the role if all they planned to do was kick him in the shins, steal his candy and tell him daddy left because he was born. No. More likely, as in any commercial, casting people spent weeks combing through child actors, looking for that one special kid who could cry, convincingly, on command. That's not child abuse. Enabling a child's acting career which will, statistically speaking, spiral horribly out of control in a vortex of drug and alcohol abuse, ending in either death, obscurity or parody could be, but that's a different topic.

But let's just say this kid was smacked around a bit and called a poop head in order to get his tears streaming. If that's what it takes to produce an ad which could potentially save thousands of lives, it's worth it. Without question fifteen seconds of perceived mental anguish for thousands of lifetimes lived fully is an easy trade-off. The kid won't remember it the next day anyway. He'll be back home, blissfully munching his Mr. T cereal, dreaming of kid things, unaware of the trail of bickering and complaining he left in his wake.


UPDATE: It's been brought to my attention that Fiona Sharkie, executive director of Quit Victoria, in an interview with the Today Show revealed that little Alastaire's tears were real. He apparently lost sight of his mother amidst the crowd of 150 talent and crew members, and lost his #$%&. There was only one take, and five cameras were rolling during Reginald's breakdown, so the abandonment was most likely intentional.

Regardless I stand by my earlier statement. The potential good this spot can do far outweighs any short term distress little Leslie may have suffered, and will have already forgotten.

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02 April, 2009

Hasta Ra Vista, Baby.

Who would've thought the Guvinator's Japanese was better than his English? (via these guys)





Kinda reminds me of that episode of Friends where Joey reveals that he'd done ads in Japan for men's lipstick. Don't act like you didn't see it.

You so saw it.

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24 March, 2009

I hate Facebook's stupid face. Or do I?

Great article in Slate pointing out what H.L. Mencken always knew: the masses are easily cajoled into liking whatever the Illuminati/Politicati/Economati tell them to. It just takes time. Admit it or not, even the most liberal Web 2.0 evangelist is nothing more than a crotchety old man shaking his cane at the neighborhood kids from his lawn chair.


We hate change. We like things comfortable. We like things easy.

But, over time, we'll adjust. Hell, we adapted to the crappy, discombobulated Facebook interfaces of olde. And we'll adapt to this one. And this time, it'll be even easier seeing as how Facebook stole everything but the whale from Twitter.

We'll accept this version of Facebook. And the next one. And the next one.

Carry on, fellow social media succubuses.

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13 March, 2009

Friday Ad Haiku: Filchbook

You know you're on to something when Facebook wunderkind Mark Zuckerburg pilfers what makes your utility great. Twitter, as if it needed the validation, was obviously the primary inspiration for Facebook's face lift - namely the addition of a real-time friend stream and a reworking of the status window.

(Click pic=big pic)

Personally, I'm not impressed. Using Facebook is the social network equivalent of unhooking a bra on prom night: full of good stuff, but way more complicated than it should be. A parade of sketchy apps and pokes and super pokes and ultra-craptomic pokes. Sure, I still use it frequently, but it's more in spite of all the moving parts, not because of them. Unfortunately, every step Facebook takes to be more like Twitter gets it that much further from what makes it unique.

Social behemoth.
Useless apps. Still, how else would
I stalk old classmates?


Previously in the Friday 5-7-5: Responding to a-hole blog comments

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18 December, 2008

The 9 Most Inappropriate Soundtrack Choices of All Time

Sorry I've been a little out of the blogging loop, but a busy December/November in the office, combined with staying up until 2 a.m. most nights preparing a grad school thesis has left me little time for "non-billable" work, as the person who hands me my paycheck says. But I came across this article from Cracked.com one night when my brain had given up on my thesis for the evening:


Examples include protest songs for capitalism and and Iggy Pop pitching for FTD florists.

I agree with them all, except Timbuk 3's The Future's so Bright I gotta Wear Shades. Maybe the video is an allusion to the terror of the Nuclear Age, but never in my life did I think any lyrics to that song were talking about how the entire world would be nuked by the end of the 80s.

NOTE: There's no shocking imagery on this post, but the language on Cracked gets pretty blue, so keep that in mind when sharing this with your children or church group. But that's good advice for anything that contains a picture of Iggy Pop. Enjoy.

--Captain Awesome, Copywriter

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14 November, 2008

Friday Ad Haiku, Intern Sweatshop Edition: The Ideal Consumer

Some of us see an ad and need to go out and buy that shiny new item right away. I, for one, am the prime example of this stereotype. An ad for flawless makeup, a heavenly body wash, the simplest Internet connection, the tastiest light beer, a getaway cruise…it never stops! I could be deaf and someone could sell me a set of sound speakers with the right flashy pictures and catchy slogans (if I could hear them). Alas, if only every consumer were like me.

For Your Friday Ad Haiku Pleasure: The Ideal Consumer

Ads everywhere
Bigger! Better! More! Faster!
Where’d my money go?

--Heather Knapp, Creative Dept. Intern

Last Week on the Friday 5-7-5: Office Spirit

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18 August, 2008

The Intern Sweatshop: No Gold Medal For the Golden Arches

Olympics advertising is perhaps even more cutthroat than the annual media circus that is Super Bowl commercials. Chinese filmmaker Zhang Yimou got a reported $300 million to organize the Opening Ceremonies , and if you saw, they pulled out all the stops. Don’t worry, there haven’t been any wardrobe malfunctions (yet).

But when the Games aren’t on, it’s when commercials use the Olympic spirit to sell cameras, phones, and Oreos. Intercut with shots of the world’s finest competitors, either running the track or pole vaulting or back stroking. That’s all fine; I love me some doublestuffs, and it makes me kind of proud to buy something for the betterment of the world.

But then McDonald’s pulls the big one:




Right. Because no Olympic athlete’s diet is complete without a Big Mac and fries. I’m guessing Morgan Spurlock is going to try out for the decathlon in London ’12?

Of course, with the grueling training sessions these athletes endure, it’s likely they need orgasmic amounts of calorie intake, and a value meal will put over a thousand of those suckers in you right quick. For example, according to several sources Michael Phelps takes in nearly 12,000 calories a day. Do they all need to be deep-fried or sugar-laced though?

If that isn’t enough, the Beijing 2008 website also lists Snickers and Budweiser as commercial partners. You know, so the athletes are covered for their pregame sugar boosts and postgame “R&R,” respectively. Of course, that must be why.

Oh well, McDonald’s being the worldwide institution it is, would definitely not be absent from the Games. However, they are showing all the Olympians enjoying their Big Macs together, like kids in the school cafeteria. Well, let’s just hope one of them brought a healthy yogurt or bean sprout sandwich to trade.

In the end, I understand that’s smart advertising. 39.5 million viewers tuned-in to watch Michael Phelps swimming the 200-meter butterfly last Tuesday, and 39.9 million watched Phelps win his eighth gold medal in the men's 4X100 meter medley relay Saturday night. And that may not even include the many who watched on the Times Square Jumotron and the more than 70,000 (ed. note: Minus 55,000, give or take. But who's counting, right?) who watched from M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore, Md., Phelp's home town.

But it still puts a bad taste in my mouth (pun intended, have you eaten at McDonald’s recently). Then again, I’m not sprinting the 400 meter individual medley after wolfing down a Quarter Pounder. If you’re feeling the irony as well, wash it down with this Coca Cola ad. Yes, it’s still selling a product through the Olympics, but at least this ad makes an effort to promote cultural understanding and not world-class athletes hawking burgers or chicken sandwiches with 1000+ mg of sodium…and pickles.




--Aditya Desai, Intern

Previously fabricated under duress in the Intern Sweatshop: Missile FAIL.

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25 July, 2008

Friday Ad Haiku: Finding the Muse


It's days like these, when the ideas hit the skids, that I start thinking literary boozehounds like Faulkner and Hemingway may have been on to something. Writers, artists, adpeople: drinkers all.

So for you creatives out there who've developed Little Orphan Annie cataracts from staring at the blazing, bleached whiteness of a blank Word doc, I think it's a capital idea to lose yourself in the warm, familiar embrace of a happy hour, post haste--for the sake of your craft. Slide the Jameson out of your desk drawer and get to it. Bukowski would have wanted it that way.

Though ideas aren't at
the bottom of the bottle,
I still like to look.

M.M.McDermott, ACD/Flawed Protagonist


Previously in the Friday 5-7-5: Vacation Hangovers

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21 July, 2008

Heat Stroke Non-Sequitors

I don't complain about weather. But with temps in Baltimore licking 100 degrees and the humidity somewhere between rain forest and bathtub fart, even I started to get a bit whiny this past weekend. It was a gradual escalation of pissing and moaning, like the way kids get when you take them shopping; starts with a few whimpers outside of Gap and ends up with them sprawled out under a mannequin in Sears begging for ice cream. (Note: I won't be a parent until September, but I subscribe to the theory of giving whiny kids "something to cry about." In fact, I'd start a charity if I could: Give Kids Something to Cry About ™ . For just a kick in the ass a day--less than a cup of coffee--you can make an instant difference in the life of a child who's crying for no good reason.)

Anyway, I'm lying on the living room floor (the only air conditioned part of the house) watching the entire first season of Mad Men on-demand. And I come to the realization that I was born in the wrong era. Sure, riding my bike around the office, laying down astroturf in the writer's lounge, and Photoshopping Ronald McDonald into Edward Hopper paintings have their charms, but can they really compare to working in the industry in the middle of the 20th century? Fedoras, political incorrectness, and Scotch that flows as free and easy as the mighty Mississippi. All punctuated by big ideas that rippled far beyond the context of simply advertising products; they became ideas that shaped our cultural identity. Big ideas for a small world.

Today, the ideas have to be even bigger to even get noticed, because the world has gotten "harder". Consumers are more sophisticated, more wary, more unwilling to put up with interruptions.

I wonder how Don Draper would do in today's ad industry? I need to lie on the floor and think about it.


M.M.McDermott, ACD/Hot Mess

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10 July, 2008

If This Were Advertising


(Click photo to enlarge.)

Here's a picture of the G-8 summit leaders I found in yesterday's Baltimore Sun. I thought, That's a poorly orchestrated picture. Then I realized, it looks poorly orchestrated, well, because it is. It's not an advertisement where all of the "right" looking people are put in the proper places and where there's an equal balance of gender, ethnicity, ages and body types. Perhaps I've been working in advertising for too long, but here are a few things I'd change if this were actually an ad:

1) Everyone's face would look like (Oh, I only had my lunch break to work on this, so I neglected to look up all of the names of the particular world leaders in the picture, but apparently neither did the guy who wrote the caption.) the guy on the far left--actually happy to be there, although he might tone down the smile just a little.

2) Dmitry Medvedev (the third guy from the left) would not look like a ski jumper.

3) George W. Bush would look less like his boat is listing to the right.

4) The 4th guy from the right would be LOOKING AT THE CAMERA! (unless this were the cover for an alt. rock album.)

5) The only woman in the photo would not look like she's about to tip over, unless of course she was leaning on a "buddy." In which case she'd have a forearm leaning on said buddy's shoulder and would not have her shoulders slumped forward.

6) The UK's Gordon Brown and friend on the far right, I'm okay with them, because at least they're interacting. "Pst, that guy's about to take a picture. Pat me on the back and look like you're laughing at something I just said."

7) And you probably don't put the five-foot-tall Russian guy next to Canada's at least six-foot-tall Stephen Harper.

Now let's talk about diversity.

8) White, white, white, white, white, Japanese (notice how he's near the center--nice placement), white, white, white. Okay, if this were an advertisement, you'd have at least one African-American! (Or for the sake of an international summit--African.) And you'd also have someone Hispanic or Latin American. Now the European Union could shout, "But hey, Spain is part of the EU!" True, but it only counts if the Spanish guy is actually in the picture! Once again he could be, but thanks to the lazy caption guy, that could be Taylor Hicks shaking hands with Jamie Farr for all I know.

9) You'd also have more than one woman. With 9 people in the photo, you'd probably have four or five and at least one would look like the Go Daddy girl, the blond from Battlestar Gallactica or 7 of 9.

10) If this were an ad for AARP, your age group would be pretty on point, but they'd all be playing tennis or walking on the beach. Otherwise your group would fall somewhere between the cast of The Office and the cast of The OC.


See how they even Photoshopped in the ocean there? Nice.

11) And finally, a graphic artist probably would've cropped out or Photoshopped the markers on the ground, put there to ensure every world leader would be equidistant.

But there's reality and there's advertising reality. Now if only reality would take some notes.


--Captain Awesome, Copywriter

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