Tagged : Marketing

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Imported from Detroit

Superbowl ads, or “Brandbowl,” as its been coined is the time for the advertising industry to bring out all the glitz and whizbang, pull out all of the stops and create something wondrous — supposedly wondrous.

It’s probably the biggest pissing match in the marketing world, and traditionally Superbowl ads are funny, schlocky, and imaginative, or at least that has been the tradition for as long as I can remember. Remember the Budweiser Frogs?

Well, times are a changin’ and this year’s standout ad was a gritty Chrysler Ad featuring Detroit native and savant rapper Eminem produced by the ad agency Wieden + Kennedy. The commercial starts out documentary style with iconic working class imagery from Detroit and a steely voice over. Slowly, The riff from Lose Yourself builds as Eminem drives the new Chrysler 200 through Detroit. The reveal of Eminem and of the car is also done very carefully. This isn’t a typical auto orgy like the Kia Optima Superbowl spot, this is a historical narative, and a Rocky-esque triumph back to glory.

Chrysler has used Eminem to good effect in this commercial, and the reason that it’s effective is that the whole thing feels real — it’s authentic.

Everyone loves an underdog. After a time of government bailouts and controversial corporate executive spending, Chrysler is touting the worker as its champion. It may almost become cool to own an American automobile again — imported from Detroit.

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Kia Soul Hamster Commercial Campaign

Street cred is the name of Kia’s new game, and if you’re like me, after seeing their recent campaign, you were probably left wondering “what’s the song from that Kia hamster commercial?”

For a little over a year now Kia’s lightweight compact SUV box thing has been making in-roads into the urban compact car market.

For a company that originally made me make barfing noises, they have come a long way, and they’ve done this in part, by embracing the young up and coming creative class in a way that is playful and not too “try-hard.”

Thanks to some ingenious work from their ad agency David and Goliath, Kia has been very successful with solid sales of the Soul model, which launched for the 2010 model year.

It’s hard not to like the car. It’s unique, affordable, funky, and is sold by hamsters. I mean really, how could you not?

The original Hamster Ad featured a city full of hamster wheels that is shaken up by the new looks of the new Kia Soul — also driven by hamsters. The metaphor is great, the tunes are catchy, and the hamsters are just plain cool.

Kia even hired Staple Design, the New York creative agency responsible for the Nike Pigeon Dunk craze, to create a couple of custom Kia Souls to show off around the city.

The most recent ad campaign brings back the hamsters to “kick it old school” Brooklyn style with the hamsters all hip-hop clad and pumping “The Choice is Yours” by the Black Sheep c.1992.

The whole thing is rather infectious, and there is a very good chance I will rush out and buy a Kia Soul after writing this.

Go hamster go!

in Media Culture

Gossip Girl Pumps Verizon

Gossip Girl is an endless fountain of product placement, but the one consumer product on the show that always interests me most is the mobile phones that the characters use. Surely on a show where the whole premise centers around a Facebook-esque website accessed via cel phone, the provider of choice must pay top dollar for screen time.

There is no doubt in my mind that there are many thousands of Serena Van Der Woodsen wannabes out there looking to be like the TV show character adopting everything from her pouty demeanor to her fashion to her cel phone.

For season 4 on Gossip Girl the characters have aligned themselves with Verizon. If you notice, none of them use an iPhone, and the cool phone of choice is actually a Motorola Droid X smart phone powered by Google’s Android platform. I guess the iPhone 4 is already passe on the Upper East Side.

Most of the characters seem to carry one of Verizon’s line-up of smart phones, with the exception of Lonely Boy Dan Humphrey, who being from Brooklyn can only afford a rather plain LG flip phone despite his dad’s marrying into money.

I’ll be curious to see if next season the cool kids will have migrated to Sprint’s 4G network, after all, it’s the fastest network going and they have the HTC Evo.

in Media Culture

Blackberry Love What You Do Campaign

Hip music, cool visuals, and cool people with cool jobs — this ain’t your daddy’s blackberry.

With an emphasis on the creative class of the youth generation, Blackberry is clearly trying to shape the “business only” reputation that tends to dominate their brand ethos.

A friend of mine once told me, “iPhones are for creative people who like to take pictures and daydream. Blackberries are for people that do real work.”

This is something that has stuck with me for a while, but clearly Blackberry too, with their diminishing market share, is trying to shake the “old whitey” suit and tie getup that they’ve been wearing for so long.

This new series of commercials called “Love What You Do” is all about you. Not you the lawyer or investment banker, but you the passionate food catering guy, you the fashion designer, you the bike courier, and you the photographer. Also notable is that the commercials depict a culturally and racially diverse group of people.

What I like about these ads is that it legitimizes and empowers the growing Nouveau Creative Class that has really only started to take shape in the past few years, and also tips the hat to America’s cultural roots.

Ultimately though, I can read between the lines and understand that this is all just clever marketing schlock, and Blackberry is really trying to go toe-to-toe with Apple and HTC, but I do think they may actually be onto a good thing here.

While it will seem obvious that they’ve jumped on the hipster wagon, if the product is good they may just make it. Otherwise, the last thing a hip creative young person wants is to be labelled and told “this is what you’re like, and this is the device you should use.”

Let’s see how it plays out.

in Media Culture

The New Gap Logo

First of all, do you like the new Gap logo?

It’s certainly a peculiar time for a redesign, but perhaps with a decline in sales and market share it was time for a reboot.

On a personal level I don’t feel that every brand should take this clean and simple approach. Helvetica is one of the nicest and most effective fonts available, but to say it’s ubiquitous is an understatement. Don’t get me wrong, I love the font, and I love the clean and simple look, but I feel that the “Scandinavianizing” of graphic design may not actually be a good thing.

While it may look good in your apartment, think about how boring Ikea furniture has become. It’s not that it is bad at all, it’s just that it is everywhere. If you truly want to stand out you would need to shop elsewhere (full disclosure: I shop almost exclusively at Ikea or places that resemble Ikea).

Maybe the point is that The Gap is to clothing as Ikea is to furniture — functional, clean, fun — but painfully mainstream. I highly doubt anyone would set out to be average, but then maybe I’m wrong. I have recently converted my wardrobe to all plain black t-shirts and blue jeans to simplify my life.

Maybe the new Gap logo stands for a simplification of life. Maybe you should look at it and feel a wave of calm that is often felt when absent of clutter? I honestly don’t know.

What I do know is how I feel about the old Gap logo now that it’s gone. I kind of miss it like an old friend. It was a familiar landmark that would act as a reminder of home while travelling and it was literally everywhere. At no point did I ever feel like the Gap was intruding on my life, and I think the old logo with the navy blue square and serifed font stood for something. It was timelessly wholesome and has probably met it’s demise before its expiry date.

You could say that there is no such thing as bad press, but I don’t know that making a controversial change is the best way to make a splash. Still though, people will be talking about the new Gap logo for a while, just as I am now.

I know, I know. Helvetica…controversial? I’m not changing my choice of words. The Gap moving from it’s old logo to a stark Helvetica version is like the party in high school where all of the goody goodies showed up and took a sip of beer and thought they were rebels, but after all, this is the Gap – not Guess.

What do you think of this? Go on now…don’t be shy. I want to know. Please feel free to comment below.

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Moosehead Cracked Canoe

I saw the ad on TV and almost thought it was a joke. Cracked Canoe? Really? Yes, it does exist, and it’s a slow brewed premium light lager. Premium light lager even sounds a bit oxymoronic, but there is something else going on here.

Despite our constant desire for the latest and greatest, and our now over-communicative nature, there is a flip side to that coin. In a time where life and messages go by at a frantic pace there is an underlying craving for simplicity — a throwback to the simple times.

I personally couldn’t do this for very long, now that I have fully adapted to a well connected life, but there are moments where I just want to push pause on life and enjoy the scenery.

I don’t think I’m alone on this one, and clearly neither did the respondents who likely influenced the latest effort from Canadian independent brewery Moosehead. John St. is the ad agency behind the communication which features a lot of positive slow motion moments like a man and woman exchanging a seductive glance in passing, and even a baseball going through a TV set in slow motion — apparently taking aim at media for creating for us an undue hectic lifestyle.

The Cracked Canoe website also pokes fun of our over-produced lives with a mock newspaper covering everything in a ridiculous “fast.”

Will Cracked Canoe be a hit? It’s a little tough, but as the slogan goes it’s an Ode to Slow, so when you’re thinking of those quite moments on the lake with a beer in hand, the folks at Moosehead are banking that you will be sinking a few Cracked Canoes.

Here’s to you slow!

Source: CBC News

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