sparking curious mind

The Australian reports that Unilever set up communications planning and digital advertising operations last year, as part of efforts to respond to the declining impact of television advertising.

"The ad industry is struggling at the moment in pulling all the components of brand communication together". "There is a struggle to have traditional media and digital and content and public relations all brought under one roof under the agency side."
says Alan Rutherford, Unilever's global media director

He is not alone. Jim Stengel, global marketing officer of Procter & Gamble, agrees with Rutherford that "the job of media planner - the person who decides where to place advertisements - should be combined with that of creative planner, who helps decide what kind of ads to run."

Uh oh! What is going on here? Is this a warning or what?

Glue London has produced a viral for Mini UK aveaword.com, that lets users put together a personalized video message for their friends.

Very nice work

MPreis, a chain of supermarkets in western Austria, bills itself as "The Seriously Sexy Supermarket".
The company's stores literally stand out because of their unusual and progressive architecture.

MPreis has been commissioning up and coming architects for the last fifteen years, encouraging them to design buildings that make the most of their settings in the Tyrolean Alps. Which is in stark contrast to most chain retailers, who find a formula and repeat it, regardless of location.

A keen eye for aesthetics continues inside the stores, which feature sleek café's and carefully chosen materials. And the experience goes beyond design – MPreis also understands the value of storytelling, emphasizing that the company is family-owned, and was founded by an entrepreneurial woman (Frau Therese Mölk) in the 1920s.

Surprisingly, price levels at MPreis aren't higher than at competing supermarkets in the region. Although award-winning design comes at a slightly higher cost than generic structures, the buildings look more expensive than they are.

The key of the matter is that everything can be upgraded, and creating a richer customer experience doesn't necessarily require raising prices. Plenty of opportunities for big-box retailers across the world to become patrons of good architecture and bold design!

via Springwise

Which File Extension are You?

The World Cup is almost here.
Linotype has a very good feature on football jerseys fonts

Theatergoers Sit Through 'Live Ads' Before Plays

When theatergoers at Piccadilly's Comedy Theater settled into their chairs last week to catch the comedy, "Steptoe and Son," they first witnessed a unique pre-performance "live advertisement."

The commercial, which took the form of a mini-play, got just one run, but it will live on as the cast hits Dublin, Madrid and New York theaters in the spring.

via Kottke

Ah, insights, everybody these days talks about insights.
A consumer insight is like God - present everywhere but not seen, felt or easily understood. Verbatim judgments, linearly-observed consumer behaviour, or simply aphorisms for life are often passed off as insights. However, to get insights, you need deeper thinking.

An insight is what connects the advertising idea to brand attributes via consumer life.
And insights into consumer life cannot be obtained via noisy Focus Groups relying too much upon consumers to talk about their own world. Consumers tend to talk about the obvious.
So, we get past and current playback, not what can possibly be. New insights cannot be unearthed through this method alone. Marketers have to delve deeper, and not rely upon consumers to define everything for them, which is really just lazy marketing.

The deep insights come from one-on-one, in-depth interviews, observation at home or consumption points, sociological studies, or by just observing life keenly. Focus Group discussions, at best, can be one of the methods. Meeting more consumers is not the solution. More reliance on indirect methods and deeper interpretations is required.

Adevarat!

via Gapingvoid

Sony Bravia spoof, filmat in Swansea, Tara Galilor, pentru Tango.
Se pare ca locuitorii sunt foarte nemultumiti de faptul ca strazile le-au fost umplute de fructe!

P.S. Site-ul este facut de cei care au facut si spotul, so is part of the plan!

When Professor Lisa Jardine and Annie Watkins of Queen Mary College, asked hundreds of British female academics, teachers, writers, publishers and literature students what book had changed their lives, many respondents wondered whether there would be a male version of the survey as well. Jardine and Watkins complied: The results were fascinating in their own right, and more intriguing when juxtaposed with the findings for women. Not only did men and women find different books to be meaningful, but they approached reading in divergent ways.

Men's Fiction

Top Five

1. "The Outsider," Albert Camus

2. "Catcher in the Rye," J.D. Salinger

3. "Slaughterhouse Five," Kurt Vonnegut

4. (tie)"One Hundred Years of Solitude,"Gabriel Garcia Marquez

"The Hobbit," J.R.R. Tolkien

5. "Catch-22," Joseph Heller

Women's Fiction

Top Five

1. "Jane Eyre," Charlotte Bronte

2. "Wuthering Heights," Emily Bronte

3. "The Handmaid's Tale," Margaret Atwood

4. "Middlemarch," George Eliot

5. (tie)"Pride and Prejudice," Jane Austen

"Beloved," Toni Morrison

Other findings:

• No male authors made the women's top five, and no female authors made the men's top five.

• Only four books made both top 20 lists.

• Six male authors broke the women's top 20, but only one book by a female author made the men's top 20: "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee.

• Older men were more likely to cite female authors as influential.

• Men were most likely to have read their formative books as adolescents.

• Women were more likely to read books to cope with difficult times.

• Men were more likely to cite particular authors as "mentors," particularly, among these British residents, George Orwell.

• Women liked shared, hand-me-down books; men liked new books and hardbacks.

• Women had a more diverse list of favorites — 400 women named 200 books.

• Men answered the question of what book marked a watershed moment more reluctantly than women.

MooBella is where taste meets technology. Their vending machines allow you to mix your own flavors of ice cream in less than a minute. The machine itself has a touch screen display that shows an assortment of flavors and mix ins available at that time.

When a flavor runs out its taken down off the menu and the onboard computer sends a message to MooBella’s headquarters telling them that machine needs to be re-stocked with that particular flavor. The machine also sends sales data back to the headquarters wirelessly. The vending machine is perfect for parents and those sunny summers or just Florida. As the old saying goes, I scream you scream MooBella screams for ice cream.

As their slogan says, it's "Quick, Fresh, Now. Wow!"

A solid brief = great creative = smooth production = meeting deadlines = shifting product or perceptions = meeting business objectives = everyone looks good = we all win.


A shit brief = fucked creative = re-brief = missed timings = rushed production = low production values = bastardised completed piece = failed to meet business objectives = we all look shit (until the Agency exposes you to senior management) = we all lose.

So let's all get our shit together and deliver.

Entuziasmul nu este de ajuns pentru a reusi in publicitate.
Sustin un seminar pe Strategii de comunicare si PR, la Comunicare Sociala si Relatii Publice, anul III, Fac. Filosofie, UAIC.
95 % dintre studenti isi doresc sa lucreze in publicitate. Din nefericire, pentru ei, nu cunosc mai mult de 2 agentii de publicitate din Romania. Nu stiu ca exista in Iasi agentii de publicitate. Nu cunosc nici macar o agentie de PR.

Ca sa nu mai vorbesc de faptul ca nu au idee despre cum functioneaza o agentie de publicitate, cum este organizata. Toti vor sa faca spoturi!!!!! Si se plang ca nimeni nu le da vreo sansa sa arate cat de creativi sunt ei!

Cand le recomand sa citeasca, sa se informeze, ma privesc oarecum mirati. Nu par entuziasmati de perspectiva lecturii.
In general dupa ce le povestesc despre ce si cum este publicitatea in realitate, se mai lumineaza. Reusesc ca in urma exercitiilor practice pe care le lucram impreuna sa le starnesc si mai mult interesul. Isi dau seama de lacune si pentru a veni mai bine pregatiti, se apuca de citit.

Dar e jale......Facultatile sunt fabrici de facut bani si nu prea le pasa de ce cunostinte livreaza studentilor. Si nici daca specializarile propuse raspund cerintelor pietei.

"Marketerii care se bazeaza in segmentare doar pe criterii sociodemografice risca sa ajunga la concluzii inselatoare; segmentarea dupa stilul de viata este mult mai relevanta pentru comportamentul de cumparare al oamenilor."

"Sylvester Stallone si Woody Allen. Ambii sunt barbati, au aceeasi profesie (actor), aceeasi varsta (60 de ani), acelasi venit (peste 10 milioane de dolari). Daca te-ai baza pe aceste criterii, ai spune ca sunt persoane asemanatoare, cu stiluri de viata similare. Dar, in realitate, sunt complet diferiti: unul se duce in timpul liber la sala de gimnastica, celalalt viziteaza muzee; unul voteaza cu Bush, altul cu Kerry; unuia ii place sa se uite la televizor, celuilalt sa citeasca ziare; unul bea bere, celalalt vin etc. - iar toate aceste aspecte sunt fundamentale pentru un marketer, fiindca sunt cele care influenteaza comportamentul de consum."

In profunzime, in revista Bilant

"The lesson for agencies is that our old product (advertising) tells consumers what to expect from the brand—but the real equities are created by experiencing the brand in action.
The good news is that while brands are universal, experience is personal. In a world where the consumer’s perception of brands is that they are increasingly similar, customer experience is an ever more valuable source of differentiation."

Cathy Clift, Chief Planning Officer of Rapp Collins Worldwide

Pe larg, despre importanta account planner-ilor, despre comunicare personalizata si cum afecteaza schimbarea, produsa de noile tehnologii, atitudinile si motivatiile consumatorului
la Adotas

1. "I am not creative."

2. "That's a stupid [or daft, or silly, or ridiculous] idea."

3. "Creative people always have great ideas."

4. "Constructive criticism will help my colleague improve her idea."

5. "We need some new marketing ideas for the upcoming product launch.
Let's get the marketing people together and brainstorm ideas."

6. "In order for our innovation strategy to be a success, we need a system of review processes for screening ideas and determining which ideas to implement."

7. "That's a good idea. Let's run with it."

8. "Drugs will help me be more creative."

9. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

10. "I don't need a notebook. I always remember my ideas."

Toate astea nu fac decat sa inhibe procesul creativ. Gasiti o cale de scapare daca in timpul procesului de creatie apare unul din aceste mituri.

Jeffrey Baumgartner ne ofera mai multe solutii in ultimul newsletter Report 103 de la jpb.com

via Creative Calssics

"The landscape is changing.
Agencies and advertisers who fail to recognize that are going to get lost in the shuffle."

Phil Dusenberry, CD of BBDO

More about the subject, with Phil and David Lubars, in an interview on Fast Company website.

"Pants"
Agency: BBH
Client: Axe Boxer Shorts

"A sultry pouting brunette struts down a darkened corridor and begins to size up the muscular man before her. She tantalisingly allows her hands to explore his torso, her hands reaching further and further down, until with a raise of her eyebrows, she makes a discovery..."

view ad here: Glassworks