Chado-Design.com

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.

It was reported earlier this month that Twentieth Century Fox is working on a movie based on the babies from the E*Trade commercials that have premiered during the Super Bowl over the past two years. The movie will most likely be terrible but studio heads still believe it could do surprisingly well at the box office. The plot supposedly involves the talking babies from the popular commercials trying to cross a playground. This isn’t the first time trade characters have made the leap from commercials to longer endeavors. A couple years ago they gave the Geico cavemen their own television show. As expected it didn’t last a full season but it demonstrated the ability for trade characters to have a screen presence for more than 90 seconds. While having your recognizable trade character star in a full length feature seems like a good way to increase brand exposure it also runs the highly probable risk of destroying the character. The E*Trade babies have been launched pretty successful commercials for the brand; people talk about them and they are often picked as favorites among the Super Bowl commercial premieres, effectively increasing the company’s brand equity. If/when this movie fails it will cast a negative shadow on the trade characters making them unpopular, irrelevant, and possibly unsuitable for further commercials. Also, the movie would be blatant rip off of the Look Who’s Talking movies, which were run into the ground in the early 90s with uninspired sequels. I believe that if E*Trade wanted to prolong the success of their “talking baby commercials” and keep their credibility intact, do not make this movie.

Product placement has always been a bit of a controversial topic in advertising. Some feel that it is unethical pitching consumer products and brands in mediums meant to entertain and can be seen as disrespectful to the viewer trying to sneak in blatant advertisements. I have usually taken the stance that it is acceptable in most cases and can usually add to the viewer’s experience. Placing real products in television programs and movies makes the film’s universe seem more realistic and, as long as the brand being represented doesn’t take artistic control away from the writers, actors, and everyone else involved in production, it is an ultimately good thing. Also with the rise of DVRs, Tivos, and streaming video with the capability to skip commercial breaks, traditional television commercials are becoming less effective and being seen by relatively fewer viewers. To remedy this situation it makes sense that ad dollars would be spent on adding the brand directly to the content for maximum exposure.

AMC’s Mad Men does an excellent job of realistic product placement; the advertising firm on the “period piece” show has real brands as clients such as Lucky Strike cigarettes, Heineken Beer, and Hilton Hotels. They also use retro ads to make the 1960s they portray more realistic and engaging.

Another example of well-executed product placement is a recent episode of ABC’s Modern Family, where one of the main characters was very excited about the release of the iPad coinciding with his birthday and not only did the iPad make a cameo, it was the focal point of the episode. The main storyline was about his family going to great lengths to buy the hot new product in time for his birthday. It was mentioned throughout the episode by name numerous times with testimonials on how awesome it will be. Viewers were also treated to a demonstration at the end when the character finally received his new iPad with 37 seconds of screen time.  The episode was very well received with about 9.5 million viewers making iPad’s product placement work close to $1 million. Surprisingly, Apple did not pay a dime for this high profile placement! They did a great job of maintaining the show’s integrity while still incorporating a product placement.

This recent example immediately reminded me of past Seinfeld episodes where products and brands like Junior Mints, Bosco, Drake’s coffee cakes, and even Kenny Roger’s Chicken Roaster restaurants were the main focus of the episode and moved the storyline along playing an integral part of the episode’s plot.

Another medium where we seen increased product and brand placement is videogames. Although much different than television the same theory applies; as long as it doesn’t take away from the content and adds a touch of realism to the game’s universe it can be done ethically. So far it has mainly been sports games that feature real brands and products that add realism to the game’s universe with in-game advertisements and sponsors. For example, in every game in the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater series the player can skate on real skateboard decks, wears real clothing, and be sponsored by real companies. These in-game placements added value to the player’s experience while enriching the game’s universe.Although product placement in video games has been done well in recent years, it seems to be changing. It was recently reported that the next title in the wildly successful Metal Gear Solid franchise, Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker will feature product placement for brands like Axe body spray, Doritos, Walkman, and Pepsi Next (a flavor currently available in Asia only). This wouldn’t be a problem in most games but this game’s storyline takes place in the early 1970s, long before any of these products were available. Discussion boards and blogs are already going nuts with Metal Gear’s rabid fan base and looks like it is already starting to backfire.

I believe that content creators have responsibility when determining whether or not to include product placement. They should be the gatekeepers to determine if including brands will add value or cheapen the consumer’s experience. Product placement is becoming more and more necessary as the industry changes but ethical considerations must be taken.

Today Nike premiered a controversial new ad featuring a sad, tired, vunerable looking Tiger Woods and a voice over by Earl Woods, Tiger’s recently deceased father/coach. The 30 second spot was shot in black and white and is airing to kick off Tiger’s return to golf at the Masters. The ad is very dark and besides being shot on location at the Isleworth Country Club course has nothing to do with golf. Earl Woods’s voiceover seems to be asking Tiger to reflect on his recent actions.

“Tiger, I am more prone to be inquisitive, to promote discussion. I want to find out what your thinking was. I want to find out what your feelings are. And did you learn anything.”

I am also inquisitive to what exactly Nike is trying to accomplish with this ad? Was bringing Earl Woods into the commercial the best idea? His recent death could make this ad seem in bad taste along with previous claims that back in his day he had affairs of his own. Does using the voice of his deceased father taken out of context to sell a product cross the line? I understand that they are trying to re-launch the Tiger Woods brand but I expected Nike to steer clear of the entire incident rather than address it head on in the first ad. But maybe this ad is just one small part of an entire campaign aimed at Tiger’s redemption. It will be very interesting to see how the ad is received and what will follow in the re-branding of Tiger Woods.

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.

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.