creative new ways to advertise

There are many ways to make a brand stand out. You can create a very flashy ad that grabs people's attention from being so showy or you can make your ad be shocking. People will remember both. Another way is to get creative when trying to show off your new ad. Bounty paper towels made a big show of their product when they left props on a street corner. They had two props, one was a giant coffee cup that had spilled and another was a Popsicle that someone had dropped. These were definitely seen as big messes to the public and were memorable. Some people even took photographs by them. These are very interesting and memorable ways to catch the public's eye, by making your product more real to the consumer. There was a Redbull drop here on campus a few weeks ago that definitely got my attention. They left a big wooden crate full of the different Redbull flavors that had just come out on the market. The crate seemed to have been dropped by a plan because it had a little parachute tangled in a tree next to the box. There were tons of students around it grabbing a the new free flavors. After I tasted  the new flavor it grew on me and I bought one after class. This is how you grab your audiences attention in a new fascinating way.

Toblerone, so nutty

For our Toblerone advertisement, we thought about the idea of what a couple other companies did to create buzz on their project. Mountain Dew tried to have their consumers be involved in the choosing of the new flavor, Mountain Dew Red. We made the idea of having the campaign be on different social media sites. We would use Twitter, Facebook and a separate website specifically for the Toblerone Almond product. We would have the audience/consumers make their own bar to be produced on Christmas day. The idea would be one person would choose a one flavor for their bar and send a request to their friends on Facebook to finish the bar by adding another flavor. The website would have you take a picture of your face and your friend's face; half of your face and your friend's face would be placed together to show the joining of your flavors. The flavors would be made to seem very affluent and exotic because of the target audience that Toblerone has. There would be a voting poll to see which bar was the favorite among consumers. Whichever won would be placed in a Toblerone box with the Almond product and given away somewhere in San Francisco for free on Christmas day in a giant present. This would inspire people to buy the Toblerone Almond because of so much buzz about the give away and others wanting to try the flavor the audience chose. Our catch phrase was "things are better in two," to show that there are two people creating one flavor and you are receiving two bars in one package.

TV: interruptive ads

I don't think television creates as much interruptive television as it used to. Now we have options to fast forward through commercials but it does get in the way. Its interesting how advertisers found a way to get inside the American minds through intimates settings. They can creep into your living room and sell you their pitch and there is nothing you can do. This goes for the Internet too. Except with the Internet there is no escape. They have found ways around the muting the ad and doesn't allow you to skip it unless you pay a premium. Interruptive advertising is also moving to billboards, when you are stuck in traffic there is no way to get away from them. Radio can have a captive audience too with their endless commercials that take up more time than the music or talk. All advertisers have captive audiences because they have crept into all forms of our lives; TV, radio, billboards, Internet, etc. TV is not the only elephant in our room. The more we become dependent on electronics the more the advertisers will move into our lives and occupy our times.

"Everybody Poops" with the iPod dock toilet roll!

In my group we decided on the iPod dock toilet roll product because we saw it applying to a busy mom that is buying a gag gift, with actual real world application, for a young individual. Let's face it, as said in the popular children's book "Everybody Poops". And its not always subtle. This product helps for either poop-shy or those who are a little noisy in the oval office. For our advertisement, this product would give inspiration to poop. We incorporated very fun, inspirational songs to go with the different modes of advertising.


Less Conversation
SFX: Elvis - A Little Less Conversation slowly fades in. Music cuts quickly during toilet flush.

Announcer: (Mr. Moviephone Deep Voice)
Claim your porcelain throne,
Be the King of your Bathroom,
with the Toilet Roll iPod Docking Station.

SFX: Song cuts back in to guitar solo.

Putting ____ back into the conversation - typewriter ad

For this project, my group and I were given the audience of affluent middle-aged people who use technology daily and the quickness of it. In order to include the typewriter into their daily routine we had to remind them that everyone needs time to slow down. We wanted them to remember seeing their grandparents using the typewriter to write letters and the the thought of family. Our campaign would have three ads which would be on magazines, TV, and print ads. The magazine ads would be featured in Sunset, Forbes, and Time. The TV ads would be seen on channels like the news, Travel channel, history, food network, and TVland. The print ads would be seen in airports and subway stations.

The magazine ad would be a photo of a letter to a kid, who is in college, coming out of a typewriter on a modern desk that also holds a smartphone, a flatscreen TV would be in the background of the photo, slightly blurred. There would also be a calendar to show the time period and a digital clock on the desk. This ad would be about "putting thought back into the conversation".

The TV ad would start in a timeless figure sitting in a cafe with a typewriter. People would be blurred around this figure, either a man or a woman, because they are so preoccupied with getting things done fast. People would be having loud, stressful conversations on their phones. Others would be wearing giant headphones while on a laptop completely removed from the world around them. The sounds would all begin to dim and you would only hear the typewriter keys being hit with the ending "ding".
"Putting care back into the conversation".

The print ads would be a bird's eye view of a old wooden desk with a typewriter and a stack of letters to loved ones. There would be a coffee on the table and a pair of glasses and fountain pen. These would create nostalgia of a simpler time. The items on the table would not specifically point out an obvious gender to avoid stereotypes. There would also be stamps near the stack of letters to also bring back nostalgia for a time when getting a letter was the most exciting time. "Putting love back into the conversation".

Nostalgia...Good or Bad

The advantages of nostalgia marketing are that it reminds people of a different time in their life; whether that would be childhood or just a happier time. These instances in their lives can make these people want to buy this product because of what it meant in their life. For instance, someone might buy the new VW Beetle because it reminds them of their childhood when their parents drove around in them. The reason superhero movies are good revenue is because many people want to share their childhood experiences with the younger generation. Heroes like Superman, Spiderman, Hulk and many more continue to live in the minds of people because they are constantly revived through the media. The nostalgia marketing strategy can increase sales and revenue of a product. Everyone likes to relive their past, that's the reason for photos; to remember the past. A product might remind someone of a loved one that isn't around anymore. Nostalgia is usually seen in a positive way which is why it is advertised to sell products. The remembering the past makes people feel younger and their is an added familiarity to the product.

The disadvantages of nostalgia marketing are that it can invoke negative feelings toward the product or alienate a group of people because they don't understand the reference. These can also make the product less accessible. The negative nostalgia will make the sales of the product decrease rapidly. Once example is the movie Speed Racer that was released in 2008. This movie was a huge flop because it was upgraded too much and didn't attract the old Speed Racer fan base that it had as a television show in the 60's. The fans didn't see the Speed Racer from their childhood and weren't reminded of the positive times that they had as kids.

Some of these strategies might not be successful because they overreach an upgrade like in Speed Racer. They changed too much of it to be accessible to its previous audience. There needs to be subtle advances in a product from a different generation or the product will fail. Pokemon has not failed because of the upgrades being small from just adding a few more creatures to the world in which to battle or capture. The goal of the game is still the same which is to upgrade your creatures until you are the best in the game. There are different challenges but it is essentially the same because the changes are  mainly switching up the challengers. The visual effect also gets better each time there is a new release but they were not changed as drastically as Speed Racer which did not attract it's previous audience from the '60s.

New Speed Racer

Old Speed Racer

Jeep Cheeroke - extending the quality of life

For the Jeep project my group and I decided on a humorous way to introduce the Jeep Cherokee to people between the ages of 50-70. We decided to use someone from their past that they could recognize, Chevy Chase. He would introduce the car and be seen driving it around through mountainous areas and beaches. He would be seen working the inside of the car with ease and using the simple GPS. Since more people this age are seen as still acting young at heart it wouldn't just be an older person driving home from work in their new car. This generation is still exploring the world and taking risks, obviously not the same risks as 18-25 year olds but still getting out. The car would be comfortable enough for this older generation but it is also tough enough to be able to stand any adventure around the corner. Chevy Chase would be saying some of his one liners and making everything in the car seem simple. There would also be a large focus on the gear shifter to show how easy it is since in the Cherokee it is just a switch that you turn. Chevy would be seen parked on the beach with his car and a policeman coming up to him telling him he can't park here since it is illegal. Chevy would then act like an old person saying things like, "where am i?" or "I'm sorry I didn't know. I'm frail in my old age and don't remember things that well". He would use some excuse about him being old to get out of tickets in his Jeep Cherokee. At the end of the commercial the slogan for the Cherokee would be "It's never been so simple to live the Jeep life".