Chado Advertising & Design has recently finished development on a new website for Trophy Fly Fishing. Based in the Cabo Pulmo marine park in Baja Mexico, Trophy Fly Fishing is the premier destination for big game sport fishing chasing the elusive Rooster Fish. Knowledgeable, experienced guides demonstrate proven techniques while helping guests track, chase, and catch the much sought after rooster fish. The services are offered out of El Pulmo Eco Palapa, an eco-lodge that offers comfortable accommodations off the grid and right on the beach, where guests can savor the tranquility and solitude living far away from civilization while enjoying the camaraderie of fellow fly fishers.
The new website includes information about the guided fly fishing adventures, the luxurious accommodations, the rooster fish, and the unique location. The site also features a photo gallery, video playback, social media integration, pay pal functionality, and a custom content management system.
Since 2009 Adidas has released limited edition Star Wars themed shoes and apparel in a wildly successful cross-branding campaign that has utilized social media technology andviral videos featuring prominent Adidas athletes and famous musicians including David Beckham, Daft Punk, and Snoop Dogg. So far, this limited collection has been a top seller, appealing to a wide variety of different markets and demographics. With creative designs, including Boba Fett track jackets, Chewbacca fur-lined parkas, and Stormtrooper high tops, Adidas has created apparel that appeals to both Star Wars fans and serious shoe collectors.
One of the most creative and appealing parts of the Star Wars campaign has been their unique product packaging. By recognizing the growing market of consumers who buys shoes strictly as a collectors item that will never be worn, they have created packaging that is consistent with the cross-branding theme alluding to Star Wars action figure collectors while providing the protection of sealed packaging for the limited edition shoes. They have also released special packaging specifically for their limited Han Solo SL72 shoes. Alluding to the end of The Empire Strikes Back when Darth Vader preserves Han Solo by freezing him in carbonite, the shoes come in their own shiny carbonite packaging as if they, too, were frozen.
This unique choice of packaging takes appealing elements from their biggest target markets and combines them staying consistent to the brand. With their innovative advertising and creative designs, Adidas has created a truly unique collection that is out of this world.
For the first time in over fifty years, the iconic Chiquita banana brand is changing their label. The little blue stickers that have been their product’s differentiating trademark will be redesigned. What is interesting about this campaign is that they are calling upon their consumers to design new stickers. The contest started earlier this summer and the brand received hundreds of consumer-generated images that were eventually narrowed down to fifty finalists. The banana giant then encouraged the public to vote for the winning design. Today, after collecting thousands of public votes on a great variety of different directions including monkeys, smiley faces, robots, beach combing bananas, and oddly, lucha libre masks, eighteen winners were announced. These lucky designers will soon see their own design grace the iconic Chiquita bananas in grocery stores nation-wide this November.
This design contest is part of a growing trend where brands will incorporate their customer base into the branding of the product, implying ownership and creating an emotional connection with the brand. Also, by allowing social media connectivity linking to facebook, it allows users to run their own mini campaigns for their design focused on the Chiquita brand. For a product as generic as bananas, Chiquita has done an exceptional job.
Chado Advertising & Design has begun work on a new website for Trophy Fly Fishing Adventures, a unique saltwater fly fishing guided trip in pursuit of the elusive Roosterfish. These highly sought after trophy fish can easily sense predators and are particular about the fly and presentation making them very difficult to catch without the help of an experienced guide. Recently, with the release of the fly fishing documentary Running Down The Man, shot on location, there has been increased interest in this big game fish with anglers traveling from all corners of the world for their chance to hook the legendary species.
The fly fishing adventure is located in Cabo Pulma Mexico on the Baja Peninsula with lodging available through Cabo Pulmo Eco Palapa. Cabo Pulmo Eco Palapa offers comfortable accommodations right on the beach and “off the grid” where guests can enjoy tranquility and solitude living far away from civilization.
The new website will feature information about the guided adventure, accommodations, the unique location, the Rooster Fish, and video clips from Running Down The Man. Other features include search engine optimization, a custom content management system, updateable photo galleries, and PayPal functionality. There will also be social media integration to the GetReeled community and YouTube. Please follow the Chado blog for further updates.
The super popular Facebook app/real-time farming simulator FarmVille has recently began a cross-promotion campaign with 7-Eleven convenience stores. The cross-promotional campaign features signage and Farmville branded snacks. The campaign also introduces limited edition Farmville items that are only available with the purchase of 7-11 FarmVille Food. The items, which are unlocked with special codes on the product packaging, include water towers, swimming pools, and sandwich carts. These two brands seem like a strange fit for a cross-promotional campaign; FarmVille is associated with organic farming and fresh produce which people usually don’t associate with 7-Eleven. 7-Eleven will also run similar campaigns with other Zynga Facebook game titles like Mafia Wars drink cups with promotional codes for in-game items.
Although this campaign seems absurd and a very odd fit for both brands it is opening the doors for increased cross promotion with products and unlock-able virtual content in video games. If proven successful, this type of campaign could become commonplace where players will purchase other products to gain an edge in their game or unlock new features. Special downloadable game content is already available with game pre-orders or for purchase via online services so this doesn’t necessarily require new technology.
This week Arrested Development alumni Jason Bateman and Will Arnett premiered their first viral video for their new production company DumbDumb, a sponsor driven comedy enterprise that specializes in branded content. DumbDumb is a first of its kind production company; backed by Barry Diller’s IAC and partnered with Ben Silverman’s Electus, it makes only comedic advertising content to be distributed virally. The first short viral video titled The Prom Date is the first of three “Dirty Shorts” webisode videos sponsored by Orbit Gum. The video series is built around Orbit’s brand promise to clean up dirty situations and this particular video features Bateman playing an angry dad, Aubrey Plaza as his angst filled teenage daughter, and Arnett as Skip her prom date/social studies teacher. The 5 minute web feature is absurdly funny, nailed their brand message, and could possibly mark a new era of branded advertising content taking product placement to a whole new level. By taking popular comedy actors and allowing them to produce content built around the established brand message it delivers funny, viral content that viewers and fans are much more likely to go out of their way to watch and share. After viewing this first feature it seems DumbDumb is destined to be a success, attracting viewers with its edgy content and the chance to see Bateman and Arnett work together again, that is until the rumored Arrested Development movie finally comes out.
There are very few products out there that are incredibly hard to market and differentiate using video as a medium. Video is so versatile it allows for endless possibilities in motion, graphics, and music allowing you capture the use of your product and attach emotional appeal. Until the rise of Tivo, it has been seen as a surefire, indestructible medium where a very small number of products find it difficult to utilize. Paint however, is one of those few products. It is no easy task communicating the texture and brilliance of your paint’s colors on a standard definition TV or monitor. That is why the newest campaign for European paint company Dulux is so great. After six months of planning, working, and editing they have finally launched an amazing television commercial/community project that is both memorable and motivational. The “Let’s Colour Project” is their worldwide initiative to transform ugly grey spaces covered in dirt and graffiti in urban communities around the globe with colorful paint. By rallying the community’s support with over 500 volunteers and 1,800 gallons of Dulux paint they took to the streets to brighten neighborhoods. They recorded the community event over a four month period in the UK, France, Brazil, and India and using time lapse photography developed an unforgettable two minute commercial.
Not only did they produce a brilliant TV commercial but the meat of their campaign is the real places around the world that have been completely transformed with their vibrant colors. The commercial is just the beginning for this ongoing campaign; they plan to release a documentary and other web based content. This campaign is a great achievement on many levels; it is excellent PR for the paint brand, they have facilitated unforgettable neighborhood events with their brand as the centerpiece, have literally left their mark all over the cities, and have participated in a large scale urban renewal project. It will be great to see how the campaign continues and if they take on another similar project in other cities but for those four months the world truly was their canvas.
Chado Advertising & Design is currently taking on new clients! Our firm is continuing to grow and as we finish current projects we are on the lookout for new projects and accepting new clients. If your business is looking to update current visual communications, introduce your brand or products to another country or culture, or starting fresh with new identity and brand development we would love to talk with you to see how we can help you meet your goals.
Chado is a full service advertising and design firm, meaning we have the capabilities to develop all types of communication including print, broadcast, and digital media. We have developed successful visual communication pieces from engaging corporate videos to extensive, full-color, catalogs and everything in between. No matter what direction you want to take your brand, Chado can devise an effective solution to meet your goals and take your brand to the next level. Our current clients range from small local businesses to large multinational corporations and we are very good at working within your budget. If you want to introduce your brand to an international audience, increase your presence online, or simply grow your customer base within your local community, Chado has the skills, talents, and abilities to help your brand breathe with gripping visual communications and solid brand strategies. Feel free to contact us at anytime and we can sit down with you to show you previous work examples, discuss your goals, and aspirations and come up with an effective marketing strategy.
There has been a recent surge in companies looking to expand their social media presence on outlets like Facebook and Twitter by offering new “fans”, “followers”, and “friends” free products. They offer coupons for free products and similar incentives to consumers for simply becoming online fans of their brand. Einstein Bros. Bagels recently offered digital coupons to users who registered as their friend and gained hundreds of thousands of new fans. TGI Fridays tried a similar campaign last year with dangerous results. They introduced a spokesperson for the brand “Woody” on Facebook who offered free burgers to his first 500,000 fans. They reached the target number of fans weeks ahead of schedule and did not plan to give away so many free burgers. Facing potential backlash from potential customers the company had to extend the free burger offer to one million friends. Starbucks also ran a campaign to attract fans by offering coupons for free pints of their new ice cream brand. Learning from TGI Friday’s mistakes they put a limit on the free coupons and offered other coupons for a discount to fans who were too late for the free offer.
These tactics have been proven to be very effective in quickly increasing your online followers and social media presence, but are campaigns like this effective in reaching the “right” people. By using these strategies most new “fans” are not necessarily brand loyalists or even interested in the brand for that matter; most are there simply because they want free stuff and could care less about the brand. Are the fans genuinely interested in the brand or are they just taking advantage of a free deal? While Einstein Bros. gained hundreds of thousands of online fans they also gave away over $800,000 worth of free bagels.
For social media campaigns like these to be effective, brands must consider the usefulness of having fans on social media and it is a question of quality vs. quantity; is having more fans better than having loyal fans? Brands can take all their new fans and use social media try to mold them into true brand loyalists over time but what about retention rate? Fans can easily join for a promotion and take themselves off immediately after. Most brands derive value form social media by using it to educate their loyal consumers about new products or happenings in the company to build hype. They are also used to directly communicate with their valuable customers to improve performance or learn more about their target market. Some companies even use social media as another way to reach customers for customer service purposes. While quickly expanding your fan base is a good way to get in front of a large number of people how effective is it when they do not care about the message? It seems more important to be liked that simply popular. Brands can derive great value from using tools like social media but unless they understand why they are using it, understand how to use it, and have tangible goals preferably linked to some sort of return on investment, expensive campaigns like this can be largely ineffective.
Sweden’s TV licensing company Radiojanst recently released a new viral video campaign experimenting with emerging video technology that allow viewers to insert themselves or a friend into the commercial. The ad, titled ‘The Hero: A movie about you or someone you know”, builds up with a dramatic announcement about a new national hero who is making life better for the people of Sweden. This new Swedish hero ensures that viewers can trust what they see on television and radio and the voice of average Swede can be heard. Midway through the commercial the hero is revealed to be the viewer because they pay their broadcast fee. The ad shows crowds of people from around the world celebrating the viewer with their photo on billboards, signs, and TV. The idea for this video was for people to upload an image of their friend and email it to them so they can star in their very own commercial. At the end of the commercial it gives the option to make a new commercial with a different image that can be passed along to share with another new “star”. The video was very well received by international audiences with over 14 million site visits within 8 weeks.
This clever campaign was accomplished using viral video technologies like those used in Staple’s “Elf Yourself” holiday campaigns and MoveOn.org’s Glenn Beck satire that takes the viewers image and information from Facebook and inserts them into a viral video where they are appear to be publically smeared by the ridiculous, fear-mongering Glenn Beck. This new trend of in viral videos where the viewer can be a part of the commercial and shared has enormous potential for advertising. After all, one of the main goals in advertising is to get the potential customer to envision themselves using the product or service. Videos like this give the message a personalized look and feel allowing consumers to establish an emotional connection with the brand. It will be interesting to see how this technology will be used next and how it will continue to evolve the viral video.
