Techniques of grabbing the consumers' attention

Creative advertising ideas always attract our eyes to know more about it or understand the message it delivers. Here I selected some prints that stand out from the crowd through originality and a creative approach. But creativity and originality are not enough. In order to persuade, an ad should have a strong relationship with its brand, should inform properly and efficient and should communicate the right messages.

 At the last lesson, we learned about some techniques that may help us to reach people in their immediate environment in a unique manner.

Transformation

For the campaigns from below, the banal objects are transformed in order to communicate an idea that stand at the basis of the brand. They used the environment as its full potential in order to catch the attention of the passer-by.

This "Dinozaur leg" expresses the fact that the fridge is so good that this leg is fresh after many years of existence.

In Sydney, this campaign gained a lot of articles in media and people were stunned to see this social campaign.

An important technique that may help in reaching people in their immediate environment is intrusion. This campaign quickly grabs the attention of the passer-by due to its simple idea. The message is relevant and the image clearly communicates more than 1000 words:

An advertising company has to be very original when it comes to its promotion and communication because people and companies will pay attention at its style and manner of approaching the clients. If they have a lamentable campaign for themselves then for some customers they will have really bad ones. Therefore they need a very strong and original idea in order to make people come to them because this is what they sell.

This is an ad  titled BALDY and was done by Saatchi & Saatchi Jakarta advertising agency for Panasonic Hair Nose Trimmer in Indonesia. 

Sensation

Interaction

Stunts

Nike encouraged passers-by to stop and walk or run a while on an interactive, ground level billboard with a built-in treadmill, located in Mexico. For every kilometer run, Nike donated a certain amount of money to Unicef.

Illusion

Adventure is anywhere, these billboards seem to say – any ordinary place could be the setting for a range of exciting activities when you’ve got a Sony PSP. Unfortunately, these were not real Sony billboards but a clever concept created by an advertising student.

If choosing a different way may catch the public's attention, it also can generate word of mouth and publicity because people will start to share pictures about the "new idea" that appeared in "town". The pictures from above generated a lot of Social Media content and their brands became more famous due to those eye-catching ideas.

Maria Bogus

If Advertising is dead.. LOVE will rise above

As we have seen in the last Marketing Communication course, too many advertisers use the same channels in order to promote a brand, to reach the same target groups at the same time, and so, the efficiency decreases dramatically. Nowadays, people are tired of advertising, they feel bothered and invaded. They don't pay attention to commercials anymore and therefore, the advertisers' job became harder.

But there are other ways in order to gain the people attention and sympathy, ways that can help you inform and promote in a unique and more captivating manner. Here I have some examples of interesting ads that are in my opninion, relevant, innovative, creative and original. 

 Pantene makes a promise of strong hair. And so, the core benefit of Pantene Shampoo is communicated in an interesting manner.

 Using the stripes for the blind people, stripes so common on the pavements, Durex managed to reach their target, known as young and non-conformist one, through this innovative and original campaign that suits the brand very well. They just used some color and stickers. Cheap and worthy!

As we can see above, sometimes, the environment can help you in developing an idea able to communicate the core elements that stand at the basis of your brand.

The Venice Airport looks like a Casino Royal..

And The Zurich Airport embraced the colors and logo of one single brand being the exclusive presence.

The evolution of technology helped Samsung to promote in a different way their new TV screens.

Therefore, there are infinite ways in promoting a brand and its products, all we need is LOVE- Limitless ideas, Originality, Vision and crEativity.

Maria Bogus

Audi A5- a fairytale campaign

 Audi launched a new campaign in order to promote the new car model- Audi A5. This model was inspired by an experimental model developed many years ago and has the same cutting-edge concept and vintage look. But Audi has always had a strong focus on innovation and technology, a concept that was brought to life in this ad, titled ‘The Swan’, the ad meant to promote the new model.
The spot represents how its unique concept developed in 20s have led to today’s aerodynamically efficient model, Audi A5. The concept and the story of the model is properly emphasized by the Hans Christian Andersen’s story-The Ugly Duckling:

The black-and-white creative features shots of an early concept car driving through a village, watched by disapproving locals. The ‘ugly duckling’ then transforms into the Audi A5, communicating the message that the Audi has a brand heritage and a history behind that allowed them to create a unique new model.
As long as most people are familiar with The Ugly Duckling fairy tale, this campaign will have a wide appeal, a simple story, well-told, goes a long way. The Audi spot triumphed from a shortlist of ads shown in March and April, voted on by Thinkbox’s Creative Academy of ad industry experts. Procter & Gamble’s ‘Best job’ came second, while Weetabix claimed third place.(According to http://www.iqads.ro)
 As we have seen, many brands use different approaches like fairy-tales and fairy characters in order to promote their products. They want to stand out from the crowd and in the same time they want to benefit of the positive feelings that consumers may have in relation with the story in case. People like more and more to go back in the past and to remember the good moments from their childhood and this may be a niche ready to explore by brands.

Maria Bogus

IKEA.. The Princess and the Pea approach

Princess Xenia Gabriela Florence Sophie Iris of Saxony was recruited by IKEA as part of its latest ad campaign to promote its range of beds and mattresses. The real princess  features in the press and radio campaign for Ikea’s Sultan beds range.  By doing so, Ikea hopes to drive awareness of its free mattress guide, designed to find the mattress that best complements individual’s sleeping habits and help everyone “sleep like a princess”.
Choosing a real princess to promote a mattress may sound interesting as long as the retailer claims that it developed the guide to make mattress shopping easier as most people find it complicated and end up spending less time choosing a mattress than they do choosing lunch.
The campaign also includes a partnership with Absolute Radio’s breakfast show with Christian O’Connell that will see members of the team presenting the show from their beds at home and posting content via Facebook.
Therefore, they tried to emphasize the fact that choosing a mattress is not an ordinary task and may require special attention. In this case, a real princess can help the retailer in gaining free publicity and also in pointing out the fact that a mattress is very important in everybody's life.
This is the print:

 The celebrity endorsement in this case is seen as a unique solution in approaching customers. If we remember the story -The Princess and the Pea by Hans Christian Andersen, we may think that who can promote better a mattress than a princess?!

Maria Bogus

The way to a successful campaign with a low budget

While I was zapping and spending my time on Facebook, I observed that many of my friends from Romania share on their wall an advertisement for a social campaign. I watched the commercial and I immediately understood why do they are so interested and why they appreciate so much that TV ad.

One of the reasons is because Maia Morgenstern, a famous actress in Romania and worldwide is the protagonist of the spot. So, the campaign benefits of celebrity endorsement because this actress is very appreciated and talented. Another reason is the goal of the campaign: aims to illustrate a new perspective on the discussion around the subject Rosia Montana.In Carpathians there are some mountains rich in mineral resources and they have been exploited since Roman times.The state-run gold mine was forced to close in late 2006 in advance of Romania's EU asscension but Gabriel Resources, a Canadian company, wants to replace it with a new mine. This has caused controversy over the destruction of Roman remains and on fears of a repeat of the cyanide pollution in one of the main cities in Romania. The campaign against the cyanide mining at Roșia Montană was one of the largest campaigns over a non-political cause in the last 20 years in Romania but many politicians want to approve a law that permits the exploitation.

Therefore, a social campaign started yesterday and is signed pro-bono by Papaya Advertising agency and the duration and frequency of broadcast TV spot is up to the TV stations. The ad launched last night managed to raise so far over 80,000 online views on YouTube. This is the video:

This is a simple video but very touchy in the same time. It says: "Hello! I am Maia Morgenstern and I want to make a donation to those who really need gold. Here you have all my gold...just please, let me live in peace!"

The most shocking aspects are not what she says but what she does while she says- she is bleeding because she injures herself while she is trying to take out her earrings.

The campaign objective is to bring a different angle of view on the subject Rosia Montana, pointing out the fact that the gold resulted from gold mining operation would not be the only aspect of the discussion but there are more negative aspects to take into account. Campaign message is "A person worths more than the gold that she/he wears. Also a country". I was very pleased to see this ad, I liked its simplicity, the fact that through emotion they emphasize the bad effects of the exploitation and the fact that they humanize the country in order to make the public to empathize with the cause, no wonder that has so many shares and viewers. As many social campaigns, this campaign has a very low budget and one of the goals is to gain as much word of mouth as possible.

Therefore, an appropriate approach, a strong message, a good cause behind and a properly chosen celebrity may be the key factors that can help you in creating interesting ads. Just find another way to stand out from the crowd.. 

Maria Bogus

Social media done right?

While I was wandering on Facebook, I found some interesting way of social media: 

 

As our social media teachers told us constantly to take care of the public, to manage the discussion and to answer as prompt as we can to our costumers on social media platforms, I think "Samsung Canada" did a good job. Even if the costumer above required a present in a ridiculous way, they treated him with seriousness and importance, answering him in a funny and particular way. I was pleasantly surprised by the company because they showed sense of humor and interest, speaking with regular costumers from the same to the same. Their answer can be also a source of "word of mouth" because it is a funny answer and people can speak about it, they can disseminate and share this picture to each other. Therefore, in my opinion this kind of social media is done right and has the power to spice things a little bit, banishing monotony woven around your company.

Maria Bogus

London advertisments

Hello everybody!

I've been recently to London and I really loved the city and the british style of living and having fun. It is a unique place in the world and if you had the chance to visit it I am sure you have the same opinion. Anyway, while I was walking through the city I noticed some interesting ads and I want to share them with you.
The picture below was taken into an underground station and I found it funny.

The idea of personification in this case is nice, mostly due to the fact that it is a current trend to speak about aesthetic improvements.
Another interesting and different way of advertising was using the taxi cabs in order to promote something. This idea may seem  a common one but maybe you know that London is famous for its  black taxi cabs, looking so classic and serious. Well, I've seen some taxi cabs really interesting painted and with a lot of good taste. I couldn't take pictures with everyone but here you have just an example:

Even if those are just some examples and maybe they are not the most evocative ones, I was very impressed by the british style and by their particular and unique way of representation. There you can feel the queen's touch in everything and every breath you take is full of british joy.


Maria Bogus

Pepsi & Twitter = LOVE?

On 30 april, Pepsi launched a new global rebranding campaign having as partner one of the most successful social media platforms- Twitter. The campaign name is "Live for Now" and is based  on the brand’s new global positioning. According to Pepsi, the company conducted an extensive global research, connecting with thousands of fans, and “Live for Now” reflects the insight that Pepsi fans all around the world desire to capture the excitement of now – a mind-set that is aligned at the very core with the brand’s DNA. The goal is that “Live for Now” will invite and inspire Pepsi fans to live each moment to the fullest, to connect  under the same motto- "Carpe Diem!".

For me, this approach seems a little bit similar with the Coca Cola campaign- "Open happiness" when their biggest competitor invited the consumers to have fun together with a Coke in their hands. The exclusive partnership with Twitter will include pop-culture platforms,concerts  and entertainment brand evangelists, digital innovation, epic events and many other surprises. Coca Cola and Pepsi  have both a long history of using music to connect with young consumers and this campaign is not making an exception. As part of the campaign, Pepsi will partner with emerging entertainers or artists from a variety of disciplines, from music to sports and they want to position themselves as a pop- culture brand. The hope is that the campaign define what Pepsi represents - a young, fresh, entertainment globally brand.  The fans will be reached through twitter and many other marketing tools during this multi-year campaign.
I am looking forward to see how this campaign will go, if this approach will have success globally because this campaign will  be launched first in the United States and after that, in the whole world throughout 2012.

Maria Bogus

The first branding campaign for the U.S.A. began today

Surprising. This is the word who can describes best my opinion about the newest tourism campaign- USA- Land of Dreams. When I heard that there is an attempt of branding for this country I wondered.. Why a country like USA needs a branding campaign? Well, the answer is simple: Why not? Even if USA is a country that most people want to visit at least once in their life,  tourism must revive and reinvent itself even in a "land of dreams" so titrated. Through this campaign USA shows an interest to bring as many foreign tourists overseas as possible. But trying to capture a nation of America's size, complexity and diversity in a  TV spot is an elusive goal requiring creativity and a good understanding of the American spirit that gives this country mystery, fame and love to those who do not live in it. I'm not sure if they succeeded to reach this goal through this spot:

 As you can see, the spot is nicely shot and produced, the music is soft and a patriotism feeling is present everywhere. But is this America? For me, USA is more about  liberty, roughness, The Grand Canyon,  nonconformism, New York, cosmopolitanism, choice, diversity and so on. This spot looks like an usual TV commercial and doesn't impress me much. America is more than this. America is more fun, creative and impressive than this spot captured. I think most of the people overseas can get in touch with the feeling and the landscapes showed in this spot without going to USA. I wanted something more but maybe this spot is folded and describes the slogan campaign: Discover America like never before! Surprising..


Maria Bogus

A creative lesson from Belgium

I just found an interesting and funny video and I want to share it with you. I don't want to compromise its mystery so I invite you first to watch it.

At the beginning, when I saw this short movie I thought it's a bad joke but at the end the mystery was solved and I actually believed that this is a creative and original idea capable to come out of the box. This is a new type of advertising, a live show that attracts attention and that makes people to talk about it. The word of mouth is not the only benefit of this kind of promotion. This movie can go easily viral and can attract free publicity and various fans. I also believe that another strength of this action is that people can look at this brand through other eyes, more benevolent, because this kind of communication doesn't seem invasive and so, people enjoy to be exposed to it. Even if this kind of action can't be done very often and in every town or city of the world we can still see that nowadays, thanks to the internet, a lot of people can find out and see this video. In this way they save money, they make a good impression and they interact in a different, original and funny way with the audience. Can you ask for more?

Maria Bogus

Crowdsourcing - how sometimes a million heads is better than one

During the International Day I attended  Stephanie Fachner's course about The Detoured Media and I heard an interesting story about crowdsourcing that made me curious about this notion. How does it work? Is it really better to ask the public for an idea?
Many successful companies are using this method in order to stay in touch with their audiences, to entertain them and to receive the most loved ideas directly from the public. I think this is a nice way to challenge customers and to show them that their opinion matters to you. Maybe these are the reasons why Starbucks, Mc' Donalds, Oreo, Yahoo, Peugeot, Fiat, Lego and many others are taking in seriously this way of picking marketing ideas. 
 For example, Starbucks  has a popular internet page- My Startbucks Idea - promoting a crowdsourcing campaign for those who want to shape the future of Starbucks by adding products, promotions etc. Here are some results (http://mystarbucksidea.force.com/apex/idealist?lsi=0) :

Product Ideas

• 28,435 Coffee & Espresso Drinks
• 2,508 Frappuccino® Beverages
• 8,565 Tea & Other Drinks
• 13,380 Food
• 6,890 Merchandise & Music
• 9,324 Starbucks Card
• 1,766 New Technology
• 9,299 Other Product Ideas

Experience Ideas

• 7,028 Ordering, Payment, & Pick-Up
• 12,640 Atmosphere & Locations
• 9,746 Other Experience Ideas

Involvement Ideas

• 4,198 Building Community
• 8,061 Social Responsibility
• 5,079 Other Involvement Ideas
• 1,163 Outside USA

Because of the internet, now we have so many and easy ways to ask and provide feedback and opinions from the costumers. We are grew up in the Internet age and  we should take advantage of the networked world. Sometimes is better to engage the customers in developing new offerings or products because it keeps them close to the brand and  they can offer great ideas.  Crowdsourcing taps into the collective intelligence of online communities to complete marketing-related tasks that a company would normally either perform itself or outsource to a third-party provider. Therefore,  "wisdom of the crowd" becomes in this era an important tool for a brand in order to be successful.

Maria Bogus

The power of stories in marketing

Kaja Tempere, the guest lecturer from Estonia told us: "Don't underestimate the power of stories" and I remembered immediately an advertisement for Canal +, one of the best advertisements in my opinion. Here it is:

From the first moment I saw this funny commercial I looked for more advertisements of Canal + and almost all are based on the same theme: the power of a story. Here you have an another example:

As you can see, the advertisement from above is telling us another funny story. Many advertisers are saying that a hand who doesn't tell a story, doesn't receive money.. I wonder if this is entirely true. I think this preference for stories lies in our human nature. We love stories and we pay attention if someone tells us a good one. Why not making more brand successful stories or clever advertisement stories ? This bear from Canal + advertisement may not make it in Hollywood, but during the commercial, he conquered advertising.
Telling a story is important because the only messages anyone will see and hear are the messages they choose to see and hear. By telling a nice story maybe we'll succeed in gaining the attention. And I think is easier to  connect brands to customers by telling engaging and entertaining stories that audiences actually want to hear. Those spots for French channel Canal+ demonstrate how a great story can sometimes get you out of a tight corner.

Maria Bogus

Shocking new anti-smoking campaign in USA

The federal Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has launched an anti-smoking advertising campaign, which horrifically illustrates the dangers of smoking to shock people into giving up cigarettes. The name of the campaign is "Tips From Former Smokers" and all the ads are shocking through the power of the presented stories. For some of us, those ads may be hard to look at because the images are incredible and disturbing but, as many others social campaigns, is probably better that the images are shocking in order to trigger an alarm signal or to peek into a smoker future. Here you have some examples of ads:

As you can see, the idea of this campaign is to persuade trough terrible stories. This campaign has a budget of $54 million and looks like a tipical social campaign only a little bit more horrifying. In order to break through the advertising “clutter” to capture attention and create buzz, and also to attract an audience some social campaigns become more and more frightening, using scare tactics and elements of fear to sell a product or to deliver a public service message. I just wonder if it will have success or  is just a depressing campaign. Even if shows some impressive stories, I wonder if they will be really effective and not only sad..

Maria Bogus 

“Outdoor is not print – even if it’s printed on paper”

“Outdoor is not print – even if it’s printed on paper.”

-Robert Fleege

When I first read this sentence I didn't understand the  real meaning of it. But after I saw some creative billboards I realized that this successful advertiser is completely right. Even though the creative standards have taken a giant leap over the last  years there are still a lot of bad billboards being produced. Why is the creative so important? Mostly because hard earned profits are being wasted with bad creative not only in smaller cities but also in the most desirable markets where the mistakes are much costlier.  We all know that is hard to pay attention at billboards lately. They are so many, so common and we are just used with them. Nowadays, picking great locations and making sure the message is seen multiple times is important, but the audience does not see the media buy. They only see the creative, the simplicity, that great and smart idea depicted in a view or in some simple words. With billboards is harder to say all what you want because in this case there are constraints of space. You have to say a lot trough little. you have to choose the exactly right words and images in order to transmit the right message.Today’s audience is bombarded with messages and has made it the norm to tune out advertising.  Creative and simplicity may help you to stand out from the crowd. Creativity gets you noticed and give the audience a reason to pay attention.  If you don’t do something smart, creative and  worthy the audience won’t pay attention and certainly won’t care that you just wasted lots of money on a bad billboard. 

Below, I chose several creative billboards that, I believe, are able to stand out from the crowd and to transmit messages in a funny and interesting way.

 Maria Bogus

ROM authentic campaign- a nice and successful romanian teasing

As you may know, Romania doesn't have many brands to be proud of. Not because we don't have some quality products but mostly because our companies didn't have the money necessary to invest in branding or in a pattern. Maybe you heard about Dacia- a good and very cheap car but with basic options, but, that's all. We also have a famous chocolate brand- ROM. Being an old brand, Rom chocolate is well known by all romanians but because it reminds them about communism and those hard times, Rom chocolate  got an old air and started to be seen as an uncool product mostly by the young generation. ROM (as in ROMania) was a traditional chocolate bar since 1964,  bearing the Romanian flag on it. Its heritage and nationalistic brand associations were a disadvantage in face of strong competition from cool brands like Snickers and Mars, more relevant to a young target driven reluctant to patriotic feelings by the economical downturn, bad politics and lack of opportunities.
Even if this chocolate has a great taste and the tradition and the recipe was kept and follow during this years, romanians seemed to dislike more and more this product even if belongs to them. So, this brand confrunted with serious problems. Below, I want to show you an inspirational and very smart campaign, in my opinion, which won many awards such as Cannes Lions Neuromarketing Award at Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival 2011, Grand Prix in the Promo & Activation Lions at Cannes International Festival of Creativity, and many others.

ROM campaign reached over 15 mil people, 67% of the entire Romanian population. The PR activities during the campaign generated free media of over 300,000 euro. ROM became the favorite chocolate bar of Romanians: from 14.5% to 25,9% (79% increase of the indicator) surpassing long-time leader Snickers. Rapidly, the American ROM was sold out and became a collectors’ item, while the volumes of Romanian ROM rose with 2% above the market evolution.
As you may notice, a smart teasing, some funny jokes  and focusing on a central idea of the brand may be ways to gain people attention and to make them talk about an uncool brand. Now, Rom Chocolate bar is loved again. I hope you'll enjoy the campaign and when I'll go to Romania I will bring you some delicious Rom bars :P
Maria Bogus

Dollar Shave Club- how simple and entertaining ideas succeed

The Dollar Shave Club is an online membership club that delivers shave packages starting at $1 a month. The basic idea that stands for the entire campaign is that smart men don’t really need expensive razors with unuseful options like light or vibrations in order to get an excellent shave. They just need a simple and basic razor which is doing its job properly and helps you to save money. So, by becoming a member of dollar shave club you stop paying ridiculous prices for razors every month and you can receive monthly by mail a good razor at a very low price. So, for Dollar Shave Club, Science is again investing in subscription commerce for an item a lot of people need to use and usually need to throw away and buy over and over again.

Maybe ar the first look this idea sounds a little bit silly because introducing a low- price product on a market may look like a common and boring idea but making  funny videos that go viral more and more and creating a powerful image of a brand based on a low price, sometimes may be really hard and you may need some active brain. Anyway, what I really like at this campaign is the idea that if you are a member of this club that doesn’t mean that you are poor but does mean that you are smart enough to save some money and precious time. And you also become a member of a cool and funny club. 

 So, finding gaps like that in a marketplace and exploring them with humor, sarcasm and irony to the competition and to those that do not have value for money all in a funny way may sound smart.

As you can see, none of these are incredibly high-tech ideas. All the shaveoholics out there who love the idea of a close shave but hate the idea of spanding a lot of money may feel a high self esteem by becoming Dollar Shave Club members. According to me this is a smart idea, beautifully executed in a good quality commercial. I also like the slogan- Shave money, shave time J because declares what they want to communicate trough the entire campaign- saving money in a funny way.

A simple premise, a nice brand, a good quality video, an excellent choice for name and slogan. All those express the same simple idea in a integrated form of marketing communication. That’s why I like it.

Maria Bogus