The advertising technology in Blade Runner has come to reality. Life imitating art?
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DM that rips off your customers? Brilliant!
Budget car rental in the U.S. has been sending $10 cheques to customers who've rented from them over the past year or so. Hey, everyone likes an extra ten-spot.
Except for a little hitch. Signing the cheque means you agree to be signed up for a 'shopping club' with monthly fees - fees charged to the credit card you used to rent your car with.
Shenanigans or brilliant marketing ploy?
Watch the Banned Super Bowl Ad Here
It's not print, but it is the big show on the weekend: A sexy ad from, all of all sources, animal rights activist PETA, has been banned by NBC from Super Bowl airing due to the hot girl-on-veggie action. Maybe that's what mom used to mean by warning not to let PETA-in go too far.
USPS Setting Green Examples for Businesses
The U.S. Postal Service is leading the charge in going green as a business and is being smart about its future by testing a number of energy-efficient technologies. NPR took a look at some of the USPS' environmental efforts this weekend.
It was interesting to learn from the article that the Postal Service has the largest fleet of alternative fuel vehicles in the nation: 43,000 in all and it's using solar cells to power some buildings. It's also using eco-friendly packaging, among other efforts they're employing to reduce carbon emissions and waste. Hey USPS, keep up the great work! Now to get Canada Post on board!
It was interesting to learn from the article that the Postal Service has the largest fleet of alternative fuel vehicles in the nation: 43,000 in all and it's using solar cells to power some buildings. It's also using eco-friendly packaging, among other efforts they're employing to reduce carbon emissions and waste. Hey USPS, keep up the great work! Now to get Canada Post on board!
LG Laptop magazine insert
Here's a cool magazine insert with holographic bar simulating a computer loading.
Although cruel, cross cultural marketing mistakes are a humorous means of understanding the impact a lack of cultural awareness or bad translations can have on a product or company when doing business abroad.
Here are a few classic cross cultural marketing blunders for your enjoyment.The Japanese company Matsushita Electric was promoting a new PC for internet users. Panasonic created the new web browser and had received a license to use the cartoon character Woody Woodpecker as an interactive internet guide.
The day before the huge marketing campaign, Panasonic realised its error and pulled the plug. Why? The ads for the new product featured the following slogan: "Touch Woody - The Internet Pecker." The company only realized its blunder when an embarrassed expat explained what "touch Woody's pecker" could be interpreted as.
In the late 1970s, Wang, the American computer company could not understand why its British branches were refusing to use its latest motto "Wang Cares". Of course, to British ears this sounds too close to "Wankers" which does not endear customers to you.
There are several examples of companies getting tangled up with bad translations of products due to the word "mist". We had "Irish Mist" (an alcoholic drink), "Mist Stick" (a curling iron from Clairol) and "Silver Mist" (Rolls Royce car) all flopping as "mist" in German means dung/manure. Fancy a glass of Irish dung?
"Traficante" an Italian mineral water found a great reception in Spain's underworld. In Spanish it translates as "drug dealer".
Sharwoods, a UK food manufacturer, spent £6 million on a campaign to launch its new 'Bundh' sauces. It received calls from numerous Punjabi speakers telling them that "bundh" sounded just like the Punjabi word for "arse".
Honda introduced their new car "Fitta" into Nordic countries in 2001. If they had taken the time to undertake some cross cultural marketing research they may have discovered that "fitta" was an old word used in vulgar language to refer to a lady's privates in Swedish, Norwegian and Danish. In the end they renamed it "Honda Jazz".
HBO Audio Outdoor
Everyone has something to hide. That’s the theme for the third season of Big Love on HBO. And it’s also the idea behind new interactive murals created to promote the show by BBDO-NY. These murals, launching in New York and Los Angeles the week of January 5th, feature snapshots of people walking through a city street. Headphone jacks are built into each person’s head, so that passersby can use their headphones (or those provided by street teams) to plug in and hear each person in the mural’s inner and most personal secrets. These secrets range from the innocuous (i.e., a woman who’s in love with her boss) to the dramatic (i.e., a woman who is hiding her drinking problem from her husband or a man who is planning to leave his pregnant wife for someone else). In addition, when people plug into the headphone jack near the logo, they can hear a trailer made up from some of the most dramatic clips of the upcoming season, in which secrets abound amongst all the main characters. Big Love’s season kicks off on January 18, 2009.
Thinner
It's the magazine industry's version of a bad Stephen King novel. Ad buys are down and magazines are getting...THINNER!
The latest issue of Wired is down to a staggering 3 millimetres (or 113 pages)! If Vogue or Elle starts to shrink, it'll be the most definitive indicator of shrinking ad budgets available. Keep your eyes on the newsstands - forewarned is fore-armed.
Saxofunny sound production company
Noisy interactive posters for Saxofunny sound production company. Every image has a sound.
You can piss all of the people off some of the time.
A lesson in how not to spend your print advertising dollars, followed by a lesson in how not to respond to online consumer anger, topped off with a lesson in how not to make the whole thing disappear and not be noticed.
Brought to you by Chrysler Motors.
I think it's called 'convergence'...
Print versus digital. Good versus evil. Online versus offline. Why can't we all just get along?
Seems like the good people of Chicago are trying just that. And hey, they did give the world Obama so...
Content is content, regardless of where it comes from or how it's delivered. And content doesn't always need to be confined to one channel only.
A great application of heat-sensitive ink
The Natural Resources Defense Council wanted to highlight the rise of oceans due to global warming. They certainly did it in a novel way.
Exploring new channels in advertising
Is it outdoor/out-of-home? Targeted marketing? A crass and tasteless publicity stunt? You be the judge.
Bring your kids to work day
Everyone in the company came into work to find their computer monitors vandalized with crayon scribbles. To promote “Bring Your Kids To Work Day,” childlike art was hand-drawn on acetate sheets, which were trimmed to fit the screens. Building security secretly unlocked over 500 offices the night before so the acetate sheets could be affixed to everyone’s computer monitor.
Agency: BBDO New York, USA.
Print ain't just for paper
The things you see when you walk down the street.
I'm sure some of these are familiar, but there are a couple that are absolutely brilliant executions of creative, and they definitely get the clients message out.
There's a whole world out there beyond Helvetica
Here's a sampling of ten fonts judged to be the top 10 of 2008. It's worth remembering that there is an entire world of fonts beyond client-specified ones. Anyone for a saucy little sans-serif?
And while we're at it, how about a bit of hot logo action?
Esquire opens its covers to embedded ads
Esquire opened up its February cover to advertising for the Discovery Channel series One Way Out, featuring escape artist Jonathan Goodwin. The magazine is the first to include a flap that allows advertising material to be placed inside a mini-cover attached to the front cover. When readers open the cover-within-a-cover, they encounter both the ad and various quotes from the articles inside.
The idea, created by Esquire's editor-in-chief David Granger, could lead to further covers of the sort in the coming months, and showcase one way that traditional print media are working harder to generate profits.
The ad cost Discovery Channel $250,000, including production and placement.
Esquire has a circulation of 700,000.
The One Club "New York State of Mind"
To promote the 2008 One Club New York State of Mind Exhibition (a show featuring the best advertising work from NY based agencies). They created a campaign centered around something quintessentially New York: street-side bootleg DVD vendors. They designed a poster and a series of 15 DVDs to be given away at the show premiere; each DVD being an agency "best of" reel masked with its own unique cover to mimic a bootleg movie DVD.
How do your customers view the environmental impact of your direct mailing?
DMNews and Pitney Bowes recently released the results of a survey of 1000 Americans that shows that many people grossly overestimate the environmental impact of direct mailing (pdf).
According to the EPA, direct mail accounts for just 2% of all municipal waste in the US. However, 48% of respondents guessed that waste from direct mail makes up over 1/2 of the total municipal waste, and 36% of respondents thought that direct mail makes up over 1/3. Only 20 of the 1000 respondents chose correctly.
What does that mean?
Although direct mailers do not actually fill the landfills with their material, many people believe that they generate very large amounts of waste. This is likely because people “dispose of mail every day, whereas the other big items are probably disposed of less frequently,” says Michael Critelli, executive chairman of Pitney Bowes.
“When you take a shower or operate a washing machine, you can’t really put your hands on how much energy is being expended,” adds Paul Robbertz, VP of environmental health and safety at Pitney Bowes. “But, when you physically touch something and move it [into the trash], it has more of an impact.”
Luckily, the survey also showed that respondents have very positive reactions when direct mailers make efforts to be more environmentally-responsible. Survey respondents reported they would feel more favorably towards direct mailers if they: Used recycled paper and cardboard products. (68% of respondents) Planted trees to offset paper production (67% of respondents) received a “green mail” label awarded by the industry or the EPA (53% of respondents) Obviously, conservation of natural resources and reducing waste is high on customers' priority lists.
The survey also clearly shows that companies need to do a better job communicating their green initiatives to the people receiving their direct mailings. And, as Robbertz suggests, the best way to to reach people is to put proof of environmental commitment directly in their hands.
When someone receives a direct mailing, and they end up putting everything in the trash, they assume that the company is not environmentally-friendly. If, on the other hand, a customer receives a mailing that is obviously made of eco-friendly materials--and then doesn't have to throw everything away, they receive a very different message about the direct mailer.
According to the EPA, direct mail accounts for just 2% of all municipal waste in the US. However, 48% of respondents guessed that waste from direct mail makes up over 1/2 of the total municipal waste, and 36% of respondents thought that direct mail makes up over 1/3. Only 20 of the 1000 respondents chose correctly.
What does that mean?
Although direct mailers do not actually fill the landfills with their material, many people believe that they generate very large amounts of waste. This is likely because people “dispose of mail every day, whereas the other big items are probably disposed of less frequently,” says Michael Critelli, executive chairman of Pitney Bowes.
“When you take a shower or operate a washing machine, you can’t really put your hands on how much energy is being expended,” adds Paul Robbertz, VP of environmental health and safety at Pitney Bowes. “But, when you physically touch something and move it [into the trash], it has more of an impact.”
Luckily, the survey also showed that respondents have very positive reactions when direct mailers make efforts to be more environmentally-responsible. Survey respondents reported they would feel more favorably towards direct mailers if they: Used recycled paper and cardboard products. (68% of respondents) Planted trees to offset paper production (67% of respondents) received a “green mail” label awarded by the industry or the EPA (53% of respondents) Obviously, conservation of natural resources and reducing waste is high on customers' priority lists.
The survey also clearly shows that companies need to do a better job communicating their green initiatives to the people receiving their direct mailings. And, as Robbertz suggests, the best way to to reach people is to put proof of environmental commitment directly in their hands.
When someone receives a direct mailing, and they end up putting everything in the trash, they assume that the company is not environmentally-friendly. If, on the other hand, a customer receives a mailing that is obviously made of eco-friendly materials--and then doesn't have to throw everything away, they receive a very different message about the direct mailer.
The Lung Association "Hole"
“This man smoked 125,000 cigarettes before he got cancer. What number did you just finish? The Lung Association - Nothing is more important than your next breath.”
Agency: Humber College Toronto, Canada.
Transit ads in Russia
Here's a photo set from Kyiv, Ukraine showing how they do up their stations and subways. Funnily enough, if you squint a bit, it looks just like Toronto. Minus the chandeliers in the stations of course...
This is why a proofreader is useful
Typo or new payment method? If it's the latter, get ready to hear Love Me Tender belted out to pay for a 50" plasma display...
What is the average percentage to expect for overs in print projects?
Answer: That’s a great question. However, there isn’t an easy answer. The average percentage of overs could be between 0-10% depending on many factors, such as the:
print technology or process used – Typically the percentage of overs is higher for some types of print processes such as web printing, in which you might commonly see 3% over. Compare this to a well-executed variable-data print job which might result in no overs, as digital printing allows for a print run of one piece.
print quantity – In general smaller quantity print projects usually have a higher percentage of overs, then larger quantity jobs. So if your print quantity is 1,000 – a print supplier might deliver 10% overs and those 100 pieces might be highly valued. If your print quantity is 1 million, 10% overs – or 100,000 pieces - would certainly not be acceptable.
buying company’s standards – If a buying company communicates to their print suppliers upfront the percentage of overs that they consider acceptable and that they’ll pay for, universally solutions providers adapt to those requests.
and the print supplier – Every print solution provider is different. There are printers who still try to maximize their profitability by delivering and billing for a large percentage of overs that were not explicitly ordered by the buying company. That tactic is much less tolerated by today’s professional print buyers. Moreover, almost all printers have responded to the customers’ increased sensitivity to waste. In addition, many solution providers have streamlined there workflow for less waste.
print technology or process used – Typically the percentage of overs is higher for some types of print processes such as web printing, in which you might commonly see 3% over. Compare this to a well-executed variable-data print job which might result in no overs, as digital printing allows for a print run of one piece.
print quantity – In general smaller quantity print projects usually have a higher percentage of overs, then larger quantity jobs. So if your print quantity is 1,000 – a print supplier might deliver 10% overs and those 100 pieces might be highly valued. If your print quantity is 1 million, 10% overs – or 100,000 pieces - would certainly not be acceptable.
buying company’s standards – If a buying company communicates to their print suppliers upfront the percentage of overs that they consider acceptable and that they’ll pay for, universally solutions providers adapt to those requests.
and the print supplier – Every print solution provider is different. There are printers who still try to maximize their profitability by delivering and billing for a large percentage of overs that were not explicitly ordered by the buying company. That tactic is much less tolerated by today’s professional print buyers. Moreover, almost all printers have responded to the customers’ increased sensitivity to waste. In addition, many solution providers have streamlined there workflow for less waste.
Erase this letter.
Staedtler, manufacturer of premium quality erasers, wanted to reinforce its brand image and increase sales of their Mars Plastic eraser through art schools. The agency came up with highly personalized sales letters, every single one entirely handwritten in pencil by the Staedtler marketing manager. Enclosed was a Mars Plastic Eraser. The letters were sent to principals and supply managers of art schools. After reading the letter, they were asked to erase it with the Mars Plastic eraser. This was the best way to prove the eraser’s superior quality. 43% of the contacts responded to the offer, leading to higher sales.
Billboards that will make clients envious of how creative you are.
Billboards. They are omnipresent in most cities, highways and almost any other large flat surface. Some cities have banned them, some are overrun with them. Many of them are boring with a capital B. That said, sometimes someone comes up with a concept so incredibly innovative, insightful and downright cool that you must pay attention...
Funny and Clever Chinese Shanzhai Brand
Chinese Lesson Time:
shanzhai = literally “mountain stronghold” in reference to historical warlord holdouts that were outside of government control. A “shanzhai” edition product thus refers to products outside of government regulations that are widely reflected in the numerous fake and knockoff electronics/commodities made in China today. The term “shanzhai” can also refer to things that are improvised or home-made and are generally crude in both form and function (the closest English equivalent would be “ghetto”).
Gaze into the crystal ball...
Here are some predictions for 2009:
1. Peanut Butter will evolve a new flavour - smunchy (smooth/crunchy)
2. Man will walk on the ___________ (insert location here)
3. Print media will die (again)
4. Print media will grow stronger (again)
5. Someone, somewhere, will do something really, really cool
For some more specific marketing related predictions, click here
A bench is a good place to sit. And advertise.
Street furniture is a constant presence in most cities. For years they've been the province of small, local businesses and the creative has been, well, wanting. All that is changing. See for yourself.
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