I've seen lots of advertisement campaigns talking about how fast cars are that look all the same: there's some kind of mountain or hill, surrounded by a beautiful scenery, with the car in the middle, as if driving past at full speed, accompanied by some kind of slogan allusive to said espectacular speed. What else can they do, right? Well, if they would be Renault, they would do it quite differently.
If you haven't already seen online some kind of art with dead flies (it sounds desgusting, but it's really cool), go look for it. It's incredibily funny and it takes a lot of creativity to put the flies playing football, for example, or going for a swim.
As you well know, bugs get stuck in the grill of the car and on windshields when one drives very fast. We don't care about it or the poor bugs, but this campaign shows their side of the story. By showing how badly wounded the poor flies get from the "0 to 62 mph in 10 seconds" of the new Renault Megane, the ads convey the message that the car is, indeed, so fast that the poor flies will need medical treatment afterwards.
I really like these ads, because they get away from the usual mountain + landscape + fast car scenario. They get the message "our car is really fast" through without getting the car in the center of the add and being incredibily obvious. And, on top of that, they're quite funny.
I love the touch of the visitor flies. They even take their friend a bouquet!
Everyone knows, just by looking at the title, what I'm talking about. The story of the "KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON" sign starts in 1939, when England joined the allies in the fight against Germany in World War II. To reassure the population, the newly created Ministry of Information created motivational ads that should follow a uniform design pattern, in a sophisticated and elegant font, with the image of George VI's crown on top.
The slogan only got famous, however, in 2000 - 61 years after its creation - when the owner of Barter Books, a bookshop in Northumberland, found one of the original ads and framed it. The discovery ended up inspiring an add campaign that got the attention of the new generation, who fueled it by sharing it in social network sites and putting their own twist to it.
Nowadays, the famous slogan transcends its own original purpose and it's sold in mugs, towels, key rings, paintings and t-shirts. There is even a short film about it, directed by Temujin Doran , that has already been seen by more than a million people on YouTube. Therefore, it's not that hard to understand why Rover picked this approach for their Land Rover Defender campaign for South Africa.
Refering to casualties that I can imagine occuring quite frequently in the South African savana, this campaign brings back one more time the famous concept but, instead of keeping the "KEEP CALM..." part, as it's usually done, Rover opted to go with the "...CARRY ON" approach - which makes sense giving they're advertising for a car/truck that it's supposed to survive everything: poisonous darts, snake bites and language barriers.
They have, similarly to the original, a very simple and uniform design: all the ads have the new Defender on top, followed by the slogan and the Land Rover logo, all over a slightly rough blue background; they go straight to the point: Defender will, indeed, defend you from all this and you'll manage to "carry on" your journey.
It really is a good, clear campaign - and I'm not just saying that because I used the same concept for the Creative Writing assignment. Because of the assignment I am saying that this is a concept that has been used quite often: on one hand, it can be good, since it's already viral, which means people will like it and adhere to it and the campaign will have full effectiveness; on the other hand, this is such a well known design and slogan that it may come out as non-creative, as a copy of what as been done a hundred times before, which would have the exact opposite effect: people would just dismiss it as one more "KEEP CALM..." add.
I quite like it, though. I'm not planning on buying a car that would help me go through the African savanas but, if I was basing my decision in advertisement campaigns only, the Defender would win that race.
Printed advertisement is a personal favourite of mine. I actually collect my favourite ones and study them carefully. But what Budweiser did this May, in a unique parternship with Will.I.Am, was beyond my wildest thoughts.
"Budweiser really is in sync with what we are living at the moment in Brazil. The communication of the brand speaks of optimism and celebration, and the whole country experiences that with all the good that is coming: Olympic Games, World Cup and big events. The song and video of Wiil.I.Am gave life to the brand's positive speech, and we managed to unite two powers with this parternship: the most famous beer in the world and one of the main names of the music industry", explains Manuel Rangel, Brazil's Marketing Manager for Budweiser.
The most valiable brand of beer in the world invited the famous singer/producer to be its embassador in Brazil, perfectly aware of the love of the latter by the tropical country and of his approach to living, very similar to what of Budweiser: "Good Times Are Coming". Besides, since its launch in Brazil, the brand has been always linked with music, sponsoring music festivals and events all over the country.
So their idea or, more accurately, the idea of the Africa agency, which is in charge of all the brand's campaigns, was to record Will.I.Am new song - "Great Times" - into vinyl. But not just a simple vinyl record. No, actually they recorded it into vinyl paper and inserted the ads in the inner sections of the magazines. One could just detach it from the pages and play it in a record player. Simultaneously, the YouTube teaser (which you can see above) was released, getting people's attention.
I applaud the creativity. I think printed ads are getting more and more innovative. But I'm not quite sure of the effectiveness of this particular one.
We are, for a few years now, the mp3 generation. Smaller songs to fit in our 4, 8, 16 ou 130 gb Ipods; we get our songs via Internet (euphemism, I know...) and we only buy CD's when we really like the singer/band. And, most of all, we are Budweiser target group: 18-34 year old consumers. So, I wonder: what's the point of creating a vinyl printed add when we can't 'play' with it?
One can argue that you can always enjoy the printed campaign and then download the song from wherever on the Internet. Again, I ask: what's the point of the printed campaign if, in the end, the target group ends up where it always is: online? On the other hand, in the past couple of years, the cult of the vintage is getting stronger, mainly powered by the fashion industry. Therefore, the probabilities of the individuals of the target group having a record player are a bit higher. But I don't think they would be high enough for this to be a really successful campaign.
Still, this is, like Manuel Rangel said, "the most famous beer in the world", and it's associated with "one of the main names of the music industry". So, regardless of people being able to actually manage to play the record, the campaign will always have some kind of impact.
And that's the whole point of advertising, isn't it? It doesn't matter if people talk good or bad about it, as long as they talk about it.
HEMA (an acronym for Hollandsche Eenheidsprijzen Maatschappij Amsterdam, "Dutch Standard Prices Company Amsterdam") is a Dutch dimestore chain, characterized by relative low prizes of generic housewares, which are mostly made by and for the chain itself, often combined with original design.
That we all love dimestores there's no denying, especially if you are an Erasmus student on a budget and in need of a toaster. And if you are a girl, when it comes to clothing - which HEMA also sells -, you like low prices and good quality. Or, at the very least, you want to pay a fair amount of money for something that will enhance your assets, so to say. Well, HEMA might not have the best quality when it comes to their products, but they do know how to advertise them.
Many women have problems with finding the perfect bra for the perfect ocasion, with the perfect shirt/dress/sweater/etc, particularly when extra support is needed. Therefore, HEMA, in December of last year, offered to their female clients a range of push-up bras that would - so they said -, give you two extra cup sizes.
If you look at the ads, you don't see anything different from the usual blond girl in a tight shirt smiling at you with a dark background and a souple of text indicating prices and the brand. But this add has a twist.
Do you know who Andrej Pejic is? I must admit, I had to go check. Those of you who like fashion might know him. Yes, it's not a typo. The 'girl' you see in the poster above is, actually, a20 year old man.
I was completely astonished by this provocative and yet quite simple angle that HEMA persued for this push-up bra campaign. Their slogan, "A push-up bra that gives you 2 cupsizes extra. Modeled by Andrej Pejic. A man. Imagine what it can do for a woman", is the only thing that gives away Andrej sex (if you don't know who he is, of course); it's a funny and bold way to present a rather normal product - that we, women, buy regularly - , and deliever the message to the target group effectively: if it can give a cleavage like that to a man, it will do wonders to women! HEMA hit the jackpot with these ads, that actually caused quite a buzz, being mentioned in all kinds of media all over the world:
"The controversial campaign has set tonges wagging on social networking sites, with the topic trending on Twotter just hours after the adverts were released.
One user tweeted: "That HEMA campaign is brilliant: Andrej Pejic sporting a push-upbra?! If a man looks good in that bra, it must be good stuff."
Another added: "Andrej Pejic is the prettiest man woman known to man." (Mirror.co.uk)
(abc NEWS)
In my opinion, this is not only a brilliant campaign. I think it focus, although indirectly, in the matters of gender and all the issues associated with it, These advertisements broke with all the conventions about gender roles and not only to what concerns the fashion world.
Remember
Harvey Nichol’s campaign, a few months ago? If not, you can always remember it here.
For the
first campaign this year, Harvey Nichols tried to get the idea that the sales
in their stores were impossible to miss, since the prices were so low you
almost felt you were stealing. For this new campaign, they tried a different approach.
This time, you won’t steal, but you’ll be so
excited that, most probably, you will pee in your pants. The campaign raised
some controversy in England, since flyers were distributed in mail boxes and
some people were shocked to see these kind of ads all over the country (in The Sun).
Even with all the controversy around it, we can
surely say that, even with a different approach, Harvey Nichols kept the same
message and position in both campaigns: their sales are so amazingly cheap that
no one wants to miss them! Besides, it also gives the idea thattheir store is
light headed, humorous, young and modern, using this kind of strategies to get
in touch with their target. But there’s more:
With this approach, they don’t tell you you’ll
get excited or feel like a thief just because the prices are low: they just say
that, you’ll want so much that specific product that you’ll fight for it with
everyone that steps in your way, because is not every day that you can get
those prices.
With three different approaches, Harvey Nichols
is able to keep with the same idea about the company and their product. By
this, we can see how their marketing strategies are connected, in order to keep
always with the same message, to attract the target and keep with the idea that
the sales in Harvey Nichols are absolutely mandatory for someone who likes
fashion at low prices.
It’s a good example of branding and how you
need to be sure about your position and message, in order to create
communication with the same criteria and messages, always speaking to the
target the same way, just changing the approach.
Two months ago, in Prague, it opened the Communism Museum. The uniqueness
of this museum is that makes you intimate with History – or, at least, is what
they say.
That idea is mostly stated in the advertisement campaign when the
opening of the museum:
Through this three pictures, we have a glimpse of that message: by
having Stalin with women or Marx cutting his nails, scenarios in which we would
never imagine the these three figures of communism, we can the perception that
actually we are going to be in contact with more information about Communism;
you can actually be in touch with History in a way that you never were.
In the end, it’s a way of showing how this is not just one more museum,
but something more; you get a different perspective about History and its
participants.
Actually, it’s a bold campaign: putting in the centre of your campaign
figures so controversial as Stalin, actually expecting a good outcome from it,
it’s not what you could expect. But we are talking about a museum, and these
are the central figures of Communism. In a way, we can also get the idea that
we are going to see these figures with new eyes, besides the knowledge we get
from school.
Probably, this is where the target gets in: people who really want to
know about History, more that the common sense or the History classes. In that
way, this museum appears to be the solution.
Besides, it has a humorous side, although playing with these characters
and humour, once again, can be a tricky thing.
Nevertheless, it’s a different way of getting people to know what you
have to offer. For a museum, this is probably the boldest campaign I came
across with; it’s different and not common. If more effective or not, I don’t
know, but I definitely became curious.
How many of you listens to the radio? And how many of you dislike imensely when the ads come on, sometimes cutting the songs in half? Well, what if the ads were for donuts? And what if, with the ad, you could smell freshly baked donuts and hot coffee?
Smell branding is the new bet of the South Korean franchising of Dunkin Donuts. Everytime Dunkin Donuts' jingle plays on the radio, sound recognition technology enables the spraying of coffee and donuts. The best thing is this technology was placed in public buses: the aroma reinforced the sensory connection with the brand and therefore boosted in-store traffic in South Korea. According to PSFK, "...over than 350.000 people experienced the ad during the campaign, leading to a number of visitiors to the Dunkin' Donuts stores increasing by 16% and sales going up 29%".
So, it obviously works. But why? I think it's because it hit three senses at the same time: smell, hearing and vision. Plus, coffee is already and addictive drink, so how could anyone resist?
The mouth wash products Oral B lauched a
printed ads campaign in Romania for their new product Pro-Expert, a mouth wash
which, not only kills the germans in your mouth, but also gives you a mint
flavour that keeps the bad breath away. These were the ads they used:
Did you follow the idea? I confess it took me a
couple of seconds to fully understand the concept, but then it stoke me: each
ad shows us a conversation between two people but in the form of text messages,
probably because their breath is so smelly that they’re not able to talk to
each directly.
Without a doubt it was a very creative idea: we
live in the cell phones era, when we talk through technology all the time –
it’s not a difficult scenario to imagine as reality, as a matter of fact. It’s
mostly humorous, picking up something so trivial as a conversation in bed
between a couple or an elevator talk through text messaging. It surely wants to
get attention and be remembered by the target.
That can even be seen through the risk they
took by designing such ads: if you see the ad for the first time, you may not
understand what it stands for. You see the product, you know it’s for bad
breath, but you don’t understand what are the dialogues for. Unless you are
acquainted with the fact that the layout of text messages in an iPhone is
exactly like the one of the ad. When you finally understand it (and, as I told
you, I took some seconds to figure it out), you see how genius and funny it is.
By the time you get it, it’s impossible not to
enjoy the improbable conversation via sms due to bad breath. It turns to be
funny, able to remember and, most
importantly, effective. There is nothing in the ad which tell us those people
have bad breath, but the presence of that specific product makes us use our
imagination and get there. Besides, is really subtle the way the brand places
the product, creating in the minds of the consumers how the only possible
solution must be the Oral B Pro-Expert, although nothing in the ad says so,
besides the little image of the product in the bottom. The main attention goes
to the problem so many people have; very discreetly, they show us a solution.
In this case, the risk of placing a possible
not understandable ad for all and the kind of humour used end up working with
each other, giving the image that, the times may change (we can now text
everything we want and find there a solution for our problems), but talking
with each other face to face is always the preferred way of communicating and
some problems are always there. Apparently, bad breath is one of them.
“For seven days a piano has been suspended
above a car. Every time a prediction about an uncontrollable event was
fulfilled, one of the ropes was cut.”
The Russian insurance company Intouch opted for
a different kind of campaign while publicizing its External Factors insurance.
The premise was simple: “what does safety depend on?”; each rope symbolized all
the situations we cannot predict and put our cars in jeopardy and, most of the
times, we are the ones who have to pay for the damage. Not if we are InTouch’s
clients.
During the seven days the piano was suspended
above a car, anyone could send one prediction and wait for it to happen, or
not. The events were diversified, from predicting that the temperature in
Moscow reached the 21ºC or simply that Barcelona would get to the Champions
League’s final. The idea was to show that we cannot predict all the external
factors that can damage our vehicles, but we can be insured so we don’t have to
be worried about them.
In that sense, we cannot say that InTouch’s
idea was particularly out of the blue: it had a point and showed a bit of their
message and their product – an insurance against all the external factors which
damage our cars and how we are not responsible for them; be insured is the only
way of preventing unwanted bills. By the
by, it even got it touch with possible clients and caught the attention of
social networks, spreading the word faster than in any other medium (one of the
prediction was that the last rope would be cut if 100 people tweeted the
sentence “fall, piano, fall! #carvspiano” in a 59 minutes time. There were 100
tweets in 15 minutes). It didn’t tell people directly about their need of
having an insurance, but showed them (giving that everything was broadcasted
live).
Even so, the campaign got more attention for
itself than the product t was being sold; people were excited for having the
ability to participate in such activity, maybe even predict one of the events
which would result in the smashed car. You can even ask for one piece of the
broken piano and car if you like, just sending an email to the company.
All in all, we can never be sure how tour campaigns
are going to result. We can have the most creative idea and it fails for it not
being so connected to the product that we forget what product we are talking
about. Probably, most of the people following the events were not even aware of
the fact that it was a campaign for an insurance company, and only noticed it
in the end, when everything was already finished.
In a way, Intouch did what needed to catch
attention: it created a different campaign which got talked about in the social
networks so much that everyone knew what was happening. Only by the end it
inserted it in the company’s objectives. Did the message got to all of the
people involved the same way, or most of them just cared about the event and
not the product?
You can check all the information and get familiar with the campaign in the website Car vs Piano.
The image we get from a certain brand has to
pass by through the advertisement used by that brand: the way the brand is
introduced to us gives us an idea of what it stands for.
For this particular campaign, Harvey Nichols
chose to go through a way that was not new for the brand; getting in touch with
the ones who don’t have the economic power to buy designers clothes or truly expensive
products. Actually, Harvey Nichols is an
English department store founded in London in 1831 where you can find a little
bit of everything: beauty products, clothes from various brands, accessories
and even food. Its biggest contestant is Harrods, although younger people have
a tendency to prefer Harvey Nichols. Nowadays has spread around the world, with
stores in Hong Kong, Dubai or Istanbul, as also in several British cities. We all know Harrods, has a lot of background history
behind it and its famous for the meaning it has, the classic style. Harvey
Nichols tries to be directed to a more young population, not the tourists,
getting back from the idea people have of Harrods; it talks to young people
directly, has fashion related campaigns and tries to connect with a different
kind of population. Early this month, the company launched this campaign:
Throughout the campaign, Harley Nichols gives
the idea that the reductions are so high that it almost feels as if you’re stealing
from the store. In a way, we can almost say that, through this, the brand wants
to be remembered by its customers and whoever comes across it; stealing is not
seen with the best eyes or socially admissible. Claiming that its customers are
stealing every time they buy something from the store can be tricky and end up
getting the wrong connotation. But, the thing is, the touch of irreverence is
part of the brand. Not just that, but even the idea given is so strong that is
impossible not to believe in it: they are clearly saying we are going to steal from
them because the prices are so low. How low could they be? You know you’re
curious about it, now that you think of it.
The simplicity of the message strikes us
without even realizing it.
Tic Tac is
a known brand, I believe, for everyone. The little breath mints have been
around for quite some time and, since our childhood we got acquainted with it.
Through the years, more flavours popped up,
but always with the premise that one of those little gums would improve the
smell of your breath, without the need of chewing a gum for minutes and
minutes. The Tic Tac message is clear: one tic tac will keep your breath fresh from the exact moment you put it in your mouth! And you can see that through
this video:
This was a
campaign launched in France by Tic Tac.
Here we can
see that the message is very clear and simple: you need a tic tac so you don’t
kill people with your breath! I believe that the communication and message are
pretty obvious and simple to catch, especially since we all know the product
and what it is for, the premise behind it. It becomes simple, although,
technically, to produce an ad like this one must be considerably hard (giving
that anyone can come up and blow the whole thing). Even so, it’s more than just
the ad you see on television or bus stops; you are there, you see it happen
with actual people, not actors or well-known celebrities who say “Well, before
I kiss a colleague in a movie scene, I always put a tic tac in my mouth”. No:
we can see it happen – if we talk to someone, they’ll spot our bad breath and
we’ll look bad. With a tic tac, the story turns the other way around. We always knew that, in fact; its part of the identity of the brand, what we think of when we hear the its name or see its products.
Sometimes, the
easiest way to tell someone what we do its saying it. Or, in this case, showing
it.
Domino's Pizza, a well known pizza place across the world, saw their business change with the advent of technologies: most of their orders were placed and paid for online instead of the usual going-to-the-store-buying-a-pizza-and-leave act.
Always trying to get closer to their costumers through innovative marketing campaigns, Domino's came up with the idea of letting the costumers order pizzas via a billboard. The billboards are placed in more than 6.000 sites across Britain. As long as the costumer has a smartphone, he or she can download deals and the ordering app, and became a fan of Domino's page on Facebook - all in one click. This shortens the gap between the company and the costumers, providing the first with a opportunity to communicate much more than pizza deals. Domino's shows us how outdoor advertising is reaching new levels, not only and static but, as we are about to see, in mobile media - which is mostly due to the massfication of the use of the Internet.
This billboard marketing stunt, which was launched in January, probably led them to think that if the ordering of a pizza has something special about it, perhaps the delivery of the goods should be special as well. Therefore, a couple of days ago, on the 18th, Domino's lauched in the Netherlands the Safe Sound campaign.
This campaign has integrated human-made noises in the delivering scooters, that not only alert the pedestrians and bikers to the coming of a motorized vehicle - making the roads more safe (hence the name Safe Sound) -, but also draws a great amount of attention by broadcasting certain words like 'Domino's' or 'Pizza' in between the 'vruuuums'.
Give a look at the video below to see the first reactions to the well thought of campaign.
We got to the point that it's needless to say that marketing can be used in all sort of campaigns. Football is no exception. In it’s own way, a football match is a product that must be sold – the tickets are one of the most important sources of profit and, if the team is not popular enough, there are also no sponsors. Getting fans to go to the stadium, buy the tickets and enjoy the match it’s a double profit: not only because more tickets are sold, but also because the team gets enough popularity to get the attention of sponsors.
Sporting Clube de Portugal (or, in English, something like Sporting Team of Portugal) is one of the three most important football teams in Portugal. Being one of the most important, it has a large amount of supporters in the whole country and it’s also one of the teams most talked about. During this year, the team has been out of shape, the results are not the expected ones and the supporters are not happy. Last month, the administration hired a new coach, but the supporters continued unsatisfied: the new coach is an old player with no relevant experience in coaching and better results were needed.
This was the administration’s move: (you can check the translation bellow the video)
When a friend calls for help, what do you do?
When there’s a tear in someone’s face, can you make him smile?
Or do you choose night if the day turns out wrong?
Have you forgotten the day Alvalade (Sporting’s stadium) received you for the first time, next to the one who taught how to love and to be loved?
Have you forgotten the goals that made you jump, that stole your voice, that made you dream… Have you already forgotten who taught you what it is to be distinctive or you forgot what it is to honour a history that taught you, that to win, you need to fight? Or maybe you’re forgetting that there is the Jamor’s battle (a Portuguese football competition) to win, and that it’s not only in the past that Europe has your name carved on.
Or do you rather quit, forget that there is an honour to defend because this is our time to discover who is loyal, to remember that only Sporting has Portugal in its name?
Because this is the moment to give a sense to loyalty, to accept the honour for which you were chosen, so today we can believe that there is no biggest strength than the heart that makes you scream, the far roar that remembers you that, if you’re a lion, you don’t cry if you’re losing but you fight until death!
And you, do you have a lion’s heart?
First of all, I’m sorry for the Portuguese ad. The fact is that I found interesting how all we learnt can be applied, even in such a thing as football and this video is an example of that.
As you can see though the video and the narrative, the main target of this ad are the fans, the ones who truly support Sporting. With this video, the administration wants to reach to the supporters who really are there to help the team to go further, to create the need to believe in the team again because it already gave to the fans so many good moments. The ad was shoot in tones of green, not just because it’s the team’s colour, but because it’s also the colour of hope and hope is what they need; they the support of the true fans, who fight strongly with the team, not only when it’s up, but mainly when it’s down.
We can say that the Sporting’s administration is selling the brand with an emotional link to the fans – it’s the team to gives us all the good moments and feelings we can remember, who taught us what it is true support. In a way, you can see how the message goes against the critics that the team has been receiving: you’re only a true fan if you still believe in what we can achieve as a team and, if you don’t, if you don’t remember, you’re not a true supporter. Even the fact of choosing the new coach to say the last words, to ask to the fans if they are true supporters, it’s a way of maintaining that position of “you can say whatever you want about our decisions and our performance, but if you were a true fan, you would not criticize us as much”. It’s not only about selling the brand, but also about giving a perspective of what the brand thinks of itself and what it stands for.
To complete the message that the big victories are not just in the past but also in the future, the administration promoted a single game against Manchester City with a new video (you can see it here, but it’s in Portuguese, again). It talks about past victories when no one believed that the team could win and asks fans if they still believe in victory, again speaking to the supporters and if asking if they continue to believe in their team.
Concluding, marketing can also be a way of responding to the critics and give a new image of a brand. After all the criticisms and bad choices, Sporting shows itself with a new message - that the future can be as bright as the past, that fights against adversities without quitting and its true fans do the same. It creates a connection between team and supporters, leaving players aside - the important thing is the support, the soul, the heart.
We all know the Muppets: those little fury creatures that we used to see on television when we were younger. I must confess I always loved them, from Kermit the Frog to Miss Piggy or the Cookie Monster.
As you may know, in the end of the last year it premiered a new Muppet movie, with the not that creative name “The Muppets”. As you may also know, before the launch of every movie, there is a marketing campaign attached to it: from posters to trailers and interviews with the professionals involved in the film. For the Muppets movie, there was a different and very original one.
Bellow, you can see some of the posters launched before the premiere of “The Muppets”:
So, you can see what they did: they took a really well known movie poster for the younger people and replaced the main characters with… muppets. Films as “Twilight” or “Captain America” are recent and everyone, from kids to grownups, know these movies but specially kids and even teenagers, who probably didn’t had the same contact with the Muppets as their parents, get to know them and can even get curious about these funny characters. But this wasn’t the only Disney’s idea for the promotion of “The Muppets”:
This video is a parody to “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” trailer (here, you can watch the original version). Right in the beginning, you can see the statement that they know (the muppets, of course) they’ve been away for a long time, but now, they’re back! Besides, during the campaign, the various characters were guests on shows such as Saturday Night Live or even the Jay Leno Show, programmes made for adults, specifically. So, it's not only for the children, but the parents of those children who always knew who the Muppets are; there is a new movie for you all go to see out there!
All in all, we can conclude that Disney tried to aim their campaign to a considerably wide range of ages: from the kids who are just now getting to know the Muppets to their parents, who grew up with them. We can’t also forget that in every commercial or appearance, all this characters so well known to us showed always a funny and “trolling” side, convincing the potential consumer how amused they’ll be if they choose to see the movie (like we always expect from a Muppets movie). By the end, we just believe that “The Muppets” is the comic movie among all the others who got out at the same time and more recently.
We talked about how cultures are evolving, how nothing is static and that, with evolution, also our values and habits may change. Uniformly, a culture begins to be identified with other features. So far, so good.
Technology couldn’t come in a more perfect time: in a little time space, with the advent of the internet and social media platforms, can we imagine our lives without these mediums? Probably we can but, as a famous Portuguese add says, it wouldn’t be the same.
As Erasmus students as ourselves, we see even more the impact of new technologies in our lives: the distance between ourselves and the family and friends back home is less than the actual one; with one click we can see our parents in the screen our talk for hours with our friends through email or instant messaging. We use Facebook to show the pictures and update our statuses as the day goes by, we tweet our new discoveries and adventures the moment we live them, we put on youtube the videos we filmed in that amazing party! Yes, each and every one of us, in and out of our class room, has an online life which is difficult to distance from.
The English National Opera used that reality as a way of getting people's attention for their new opera using this video:
Technology became cultural, a part of what we do and even are. With this simple add, they not only made as think about that online lives of ours, but also gave us this need to see more, learn more about it, go and see the opera so we can actually see which dangers are those they are talking about. And they just showed what we do on the internet but refuse to do in real life (and even despise the ones who dare to do it).
As simple as that.
Besides, practicaly all young people has in their minds the idea that opera is for elder ones. With just one video, the English National Opera show that an opera can be about anything at all, even Facebook or Twitter! And what theme can be as captivating to youngsters as technology? In the end, they picked up a current theme, wrote an opera about it and now they want young people to go and watch how fun the opera can be.
Twitter unveiled a plan Tuesday to use advertising to turn its massive popularity into cash.
Biz Stone, one of the three co-founders of the micro-blogging service, provided details of the long-awaited revenue-generating plan for the San Francisco-based startup in a post on the Twitter blog.
Stone said the advertising service, called "Promoted Tweets," will allow businesses and organizations to highlight their 140-character-or-less messages known as "tweets" to a wider group of users.
He said a number of companies, including Best Buy, Bravo, Red Bull, Sony Pictures, Starbucks, and Virgin America, had signed up to take part in the first phase of the advertising program.
Stone acknowledged that Twitter has been slow to add a money-making aspect to the service. But he said the four-year-old company, which has survived on tens of millions of dollars in venture capital funding, "wanted to optimize for value before profit."
"Stubborn insistence on a slow and thoughtful approach to monetization -- one which puts users first, amplifies existing value, and generates profit has frustrated some Twitter watchers," he admitted.
Stone said "tweets" sponsored by advertisers will be featured at the top of Twitter.com's search results pages with only one "promoted tweet" being displayed per page.
"Promoted Tweets will be clearly labelled as 'promoted' when an advertiser is paying, but in every other respect they will first exist as regular tweets and will be organically sent to the timelines of those who follow a brand," he said.
Twitter has allowed Google and Microsoft to index Twitter messages in their search engines for an undisclosed sum of money but the advertising service unveiled on Tuesday is the company's first serious money-making venture.
Source: AFP
Is it going to change our use of Twitter? Will people stop using it to go for another mini-blogging engine? Wait and see...
