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Chado Advertising & Design is pleased to announce that we will be working on a new identity development campaign for Corner 90, an upscale restaurant in the trendy Kwun Tong district of Hong Kong that serves healthy, fusion and contemporary style food. Corner 90’s unique menu will include a collection of ethnic and fusion food as diverse as Hong Kong itself with European, Indian, Western, and Asian offerings. Deliverables for this campaign include a new logo and tagline, along with stationary, letterhead, envelopes, three sets of menus, placemats, sales flyers, and two multipurpose advertisements. This identity development campaign will capture the inviting atmosphere, unique culinary offerings, and unforgettable dining experience Corner 90 has to offer. Continue to follow the Chado blog for further updates!

Yesterday, along with the iPhone OS 4.0, Steve Jobs introduced iAd, Apple’s own mobile advertising platform that according to Apple, “combines the emotion of TV ads with the interactivity of web ads”. This new platform, that will directly compete with Google’s new mobile ad platform, enables users to view fun, interactive in-app advertisements that unlike current ads do not require the user to go into a separate browser to view content. The average iPhone user spends an estimated 30 minutes inside apps everyday so if an ad is displayed every three minutes there would be over one billion ad impressions everyday on all of Apple’s 100 million devices in use. The new ads will be different than traditional mobile ads. They will feature interactive and video content within the ad enabling instant video playback, sound clips, and even games. For example, a Nike ad lets users watch videos, design their own custom shoe, or find a store all within the app. Apple plans to sell and host the ads while giving developers 60% of the revenue. Since Apple devices do not support Flash media all interactive ads will be done through HTML5. The ads will also be targeted towards specific users based on the content in their app.

I think iAd is a great idea for Apple to release now for a number of reasons. First it keeps the actual prices of the apps down while allowing app developers to get paid. As the developers get paid more for their apps they are more likely to develop better apps or provide better support for current apps. Also it gives magazines and other publications a good reason to move to the iPad. They make their money and run their business from advertising sales and these specialty apps give them an incentive to transition to their product. Lastly, this new platform will be very profitable for Apple. It will be very interesting to see how the new ads evolve, how they are received by users, and what impact they have on the industry.

Twuition is a new web application integrated into twitter that automatically responds to tweets with information about products, local weather, directions, and other useful information. To use this service you simply tweet a specific “hashtag” like #twuitionweather Portland, OR. then in about three minutes you receive a response. Along with the informative tweet it also generates an advertisement.
Twuition was developed by Blast Applications; a New York based company that specializes in developing applications for Facebook, the iPhone, and Twitter. The application is intended to make twitter more convenient for mobile users, allowing them to stay on twitter instead of switching applications to find information. The technology is not necessarily groundbreaking; they have had similar applications for AOL instant messenger, but it is one of the first on Twitter that provides more information that just weather reports while effortlessly incorporating advertisements.

The Superbowl is well known as being the biggest advertising event of the year, with around 95 million viewers it showcases the most expensive television advertisements. Advertisers are willing to pay close to $3 million for 30 seconds of airtime. Super Bowl ads have become almost as iconic as the game itself. In recent years with the recession and more companies cutting back their ad spending, many predicted that this year more companies would not be willing to pay high prices and it would become increasingly difficult for CBS to sell the ad spots. Last year no automakers were able to afford the high price tag of running an ad during the game.

Surprisingly, this year they have had no problem selling the expensive spots. Over 90% of the spots have been reserved and the only ads left are in the fourth quarter and post-game. To put this into perspective, last year NBC was only able to move 85% of their Super Bowl spots at this time. Although ad space has always sold old, these early sales are a good indicator of how demand is rising and more businesses are willing to increase their ad budgets again.

This could have something to do with the increasing use of social media for advertising. Superbowl ads are much more than 30 seconds of airtime, today there are calculated social media strategies behind the ad. According to Advertising Age, last year there were more online views of the ads than viewers watching the game on TV. The spots during the game are still extremely valuable with all the viewers but paired with social media the shelf life of the ad is greatly extended. Last year 90% of the brands had their ads up on YouTube before or shortly after they aired during the game, a quarter of the brands utilized social media to drive additional comments and facilitate conversation, and more that two thirds bout paid-search ads online for their brand. One great example was GoDaddy.com’s spot where viewers were forced to go online to view the ad in its entirety. Similar tactics and social media spending should increase this year as well with the growing popularity of social media and its cost effectiveness. Online video sharing sites are gearing up for the event too placing emphasis on the posted ads to attract more visitors to their sites. As more brands try to find innovative ways to mix traditional and new media for their advertising it will be interesting to see how brands this year integrate their social media with the high profile TV spots to get more for their marketing dollar. I would predict that Twitter will be heavily utilized this year in some form or another with its massive increase in popularity over the last year.

Be sure to check the Chado Blog in the days following the game for more articles, videos, and commentary on the ads and new campaigns unveiled during the Super Bowl.

Advertising Age recently posted an interesting case study in their About Digital video series about Vail Resorts and their recent shift this season to social media advertising. The video explains how they are abandoning their traditional marketing strategies and opting for new media solution. Specifically, the long lead times associated with the print advertisements they have always relied on as a primary source for advertising is not as effective because their message can change with the weather and social media is the best medium to deliver their message at the right time. They are also posting videos as the season begins, that they refer to as “ski porn” to get consumers excited about the upcoming season and get people talking and planning their winter adventures. The shift to social media has also taken some strain off their advertising budget that primarily is spent before the season even starts. I think this is a great strategy; it allows the resort to connect with customers on a more intimate level and it saves them money that will hopefully alleviate the rising costs of lift tickets. Other resorts have resorted (terrible pun) to social media in their marketing strategies.  For example, Mt. Hood Meadows has a twitter account where they can announce specials, weather alerts, new websites, and other items of interest. I know they get cell reception at Meadows so I would love to see an app that reports on snow conditions, trail reports, and the size of lift lines so riders can get more runs out of the day. In October Mountain High Resort announced that they would be the first resort to launch an app that gives weather conditions and ticket information and I would expect to see other resorts following suit. As more and more businesses find new ways to use social media for its advertising potential it is very exciting to see where this new medium will take us.