The Vitamin Water brand continues to amaze me; not only do they have a wide range of flavors that are all very good, they also have some of the funniest and clever marketing campaigns in the beverage industry that have been remarkably successful. Since partnering with rapper 50 Cent back in 2004, the company has been using a mix of celebrity endorsements, intelligent social media marketing, and entertaining advertisements to reach new customers and build a very strong brand. In 2007, Coca Cola bought the company for $4.1 billion and has increased its availability world wide allowing it to quickly take market share from soft drinks, sports drinks, energy drinks, and juice drinks alike. They have launched hilarious ads featuring the NBA star and self-proclaimed “Canadian Celebrity” Steve Nash that are truly the funniest ads on TV right now. Their newest ads featuring Nash spoof the successful Dos Equis “most interesting man in the world” ads with Nash as “the most ridiculous man in the world”. Previous ads featuring Nash have spoofed infomercials where he portrays a Billy Mays type of spokesperson praising Vitamin Water with a priceless cameo by 50 Cent. They have also just wrapped a successful social media campaign on Facebook that culminates with the launch of a customer-created flavor available next month. Their latest ad, celebrating the Winter Olympics, transforms bus stops in downtown Vancouver BC into a ski lift with Vitamin Water signage. Taking bus stop ads, which seem to be a dated medium that hasn’t experienced much change or innovation and turning them into a spot for photo opportunities centered around the Vitamin Water brand is a great idea. With Olympic fever and increased tourism pouring into Vancouver these ads are sure to receive a lot of attention. As they continue their media blitz with effective inspired ads across a range of different mediums, Vitamin Water is definitely a company to watch.
Chado Advertising & Design produced a high concept print ad for the Epic Group celebrating 31 years of Bangladesh Independence. Chado produced multiple concepts centered on the Epic Group’s constant innovation and cutting-edge technologies fused with imagery celebrating Bangladesh’s rich culture and tradition. The final ad will launch March 26th 2010 in major newspapers and magazines throughout Asia. The ad’s main focus is “Cutting-Edge Solutions, World-Class Manufacturing” with the Epic Group’s superior technology, constant innovation, and quality materials resulting in efficient, inexpensive, superior garment manufacturing. The imagery in the ad resembles the Bangladesh flag. The Bangladesh flag, which was adopted January 13th 1972, is green with a red circle in the center. The green background represents the lush vegetation and greenery of Bangladesh with its vitality and youthfulness. The red circle represents the rising sun and sacrifices the people of Bangladesh made to achieve independence. The ad also has a green background and the red center circle formed out of a two-sided coiled ribbon with one side displaying photographs from different Epic Group manufacturing facilities. This represents how the Epic Group is directly intertwined with the country of Bangladesh. The Epic Group was originally founded in Bangladesh in 1971 and maintains their flagship state of the art CIPL facility in Dhaka where they produce the majority of their high-quality garments. This new ad will effectively increase awareness of the Epic Group and their world-class manufacturing services to more potential clients while giving back and celebrating the history, culture, and independence of Bangladesh.
Follow our blog and twitter stream for more updates as the launch date approaches.
According to a recent study from the research firm TNS in conjunction with ESPN and Electronic Arts, 38% of sports video gamers spend at least as much time playing sports games as they do watching the same sport on TV during its season. This study suggests that advertisers are missing a major opportunity with in-game advertising. The sports gamer demographic is 75% male and half are between the ages of 18 and 34, on average they are single and have a disposable income. This demographic is increasingly difficult to reach using traditional media and sports games could be the ideal outlet. First, it would be very easy to implement; all sports games now feature online support and are constantly undergoing content updates, this would allow advertisers to place updated brand messages and ads into the updated game content so the in-game ads constantly change if the player is playing online or not. Also it would add to the authenticity of the game; broadcast sports already have many ads and brand messages displayed on the playing field and having the same look in the virtual environment would make the game more realistic while providing a new, largely untapped ad space. While this new medium is just starting to gain momentum, I predict this ad space will becoming increasingly effective and sought after.
The biggest night in advertising is finally over. With over an estimated 100 million viewers, who according to a recent Nielsen poll mostly watch the game to see the ads, it is no wonder why companies fork out millions of dollars for thirty seconds of airtime and choose to premiere their best ads. There were some surprising developments this year; Pepsi chose not to run an ad this year and focus on other campaigns and after a short hiatus auto manufacturers are back. It was no surprise that Budweiser had a lineup of very funny inspired ads but there were a few other companies that seemingly came out of nowhere with great, memorable ads. To celebrate all the great work that was done to make some very clever and memorable commercials I have put together a top five list of my favorite Super Bowl XLV commercials. (Although Budweiser consistently produces brilliant ads I opted to leave them out of the list because I wanted variety.)
5. Hyundai’s “10 Years Strong Featuring Brett Favre”
Hyundai’s ad featured Brett Favre laughing off the fact that he will probably never retire. The ad, set in the year 2020, shows a locker room press conference where an elderly Favre is receiving an MVP award and mentioning that he will probably retire. I particularly enjoyed this ad because it is clever, effectively speaks about Hyundai’s warranty, and proves that absolutely nobody takes Favre seriously when he claims he is going to retire…not even himself.
4. Homeaway.com’s “The Griswolds”
In this ad/short film from Homeaway.com, a vacation house rental company, Chevy Chase reprises his role as the iconic road tripper Clark W. Griswold from the Vacation movies in this spot from Homeaway.com criticizing the poor service and high costs of staying at hotels. They aired a thirty second spot during the game that served as a trailer urging people to visit their site to view the whole 15 minute short film. I really enjoyed both the ad and the sponsored short film. I’ve been a fan of the Vacation movies as long as I can remember and I was very happy to see an ad give nods to the movies and effectively portray the iconic characters. They managed to deliver their brand message without alienating the viewer and making it all about the brand.
3. Snickers Candy Bars’s “You’re Not You When You’re Hungry”
This ad aired in the first quarter and was the first impressive ad I saw while watching the game. This short spot featured Betty White and Abe Vigoda getting tackled while playing a game of backyard football. Although a Snickers bar probably isn’t the best thing to eat for energy while playing a high impact sport they were able to deliver their message quickly and humorously. The only thing more shocking than seeing the elderly get tackled in the mud was the realization that Abe Vigoda is still alive.
2. Cars.com’s “Timothy Richman”
This cars.com commercial narrated key moments and accomplishments of the fictional genius Timothy Richman. His exploits include extinguishing a house fire as a baby, successfully delivering the birth of a baby Bengal tiger, and saving the lives of an entire cheerleading squad with his knowledge of tornadoes. The ad ends with Richman’s lone obstacle in life; buying a car, which was naturally made easy with the help of cars.com. I really enjoyed the narration and storytelling in this clever ad and the dialogue seemed to be directly taken out of the script of Wes Anderson’s “The Royal Tennenbaums”, one of my favorite movies.
1. Google’s “Parisian Love”
Google’s 50-second spot creatively told the story of a guy trying to get laid but eventually falling in love in Paris. I considered this ad to be the best for many reasons; first it was very effective storytelling that was conveyed only using screen shots of someone using Google. Instead of telling a story about Google they managed to tell someone else’s story using Google making it a memorable, relatable experience centered around their brand. Also, it was a very simple and straightforward ad but also managed to be humorous, sentimental, and genuine all at the same time, by carefully choosing content they were able to grasp a wide range of emotion and surprise the viewer in a short amount of time. Lastly, it had to be incredibly inexpensive to produce. Brilliant storytelling, effective message, and inexpensive production made this my top ad of the Super Bowl this year.
If you disagree or think an ad was missing let us know in the comments section below.
The U.S. House of Representatives have recently approved a bill that will limit the volume of television advertisements. The Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation Act or CALM which was approved in late December will introduce guidelines from the Advanced Television Systems Committee that aim to ban excessively loud advertisements and advertisements that are noticeably louder that the program they accompany. Although it will be another year until the FCC will start enforcing this new bill it raises some interesting questions and ideas concerning ethics in advertising.
Its now common knowledge that television ads are made louder to draw attention and hopefully be more memorable to the audience, but does this tactic work anymore? In the early days of television advertising this tactic was very clever, however, as the viewers evolve they will become immune to a trick like this. Today’s viewers are much more skeptical of what they see and hear so this cheap trick to attract attention could come off as rude and unnecessary rather than effective. The excessive noise is considered annoying to most and is would make them more likely to change the channel making it counterproductive. Also, assuming that they will be more susceptible to the brand message simply because it is louder can come off as disrespectful and seem like you are insulting their intelligence. I believe that this now practice is on its way out and therefore does not require government intervention. It does not harm anything but the brand’s reputation. It is nothing more than an old ineffective trick that is losing its place in modern advertising.
