Progressive is a company that has been very creative in their advertising since the beginning. They have succeeded in becoming a well-known insurance company through they’re commercials. I believe the reason they are so good at this is because they always stick themes. For example, they use the same characters in a lot of their commercials. One we all know and love is the woman pictured to the right, Flo. She has been featured in Progressive's ad's for years. She is a known image and mascot of the company and when people watch her cute and funny commercials, it leaves them with a good feeling of progressive.
Some of Progressive's best commercials have been a part of this theme. All of the situations that Flo is seen going through are funny, but relatable situations that consumers can connect to. The following commercial was released in 2018 and demonstrates their insurance policies slightly while mainly portraying a relatable story between Flo and her sister.
I personally found this commercial super relatable because we all know this person. Even though the commercial doesn't focus on what they're selling, it will still be effective because of brand awareness. Consumers will relate to the story line, remember the ad, and will think of Progressive.
For one last example, here is one more recent Progressive commercial driving home the same concept of brand personality.. and one that gave me a good laugh.
Progressive is large enough as is that they don't need to explain who they are as a company in their ads and no one wants to listen to a boring commercial about insurance anyways, so why not relate to people and give your brand a personality?
NBC announced last week that national advertisement sales for the Rio Olympics have topped $1 billion. This is ahead of the record pace set by the 2012 London Games, which reached the $1 billion mark only 2 days before the opening ceremony. The opening ceremony for the Rio Olympics isn't until August 5th, standing as evidence for how healthy and bullish the Olympics market is. Advertisers know that integrating their brands through the Olympic platform is a great way to reach large target audiences; therefore, it is expected that national ad sales will only continue to increase and set records.
While the Olympics is the biggest stage for
companies to advertise on, it is also one of the most difficult to be
effective. Such a wide range of consumers watch the Olympics, it is one of the
few events that brings together various countries and demographics. Advertisers
must have the ability to appeal to this wide range audience and send a message
that many different people can connect with and be persuaded to take action.
The value of live, big-event programming is more important than ever to
advertisers. Due to the shift toward watching shows on demand, Netflix, and
other online platforms, less consumers are exposed to advertisements during
live airing of episodes and programs. Despite this trend, sports and live
events have continued to draw large audiences and remain essential areas for
advertising.Big ticket events like the Super Bowl and March Madness have been drawing record revenues the past couple of years. Consumers want to watch these types of programs live; they want to be part of the conversation on social media and join in on the excitement of a live event, where anything can happen. The Olympics is no exception. People all around the world are excited to watch their country compete. The Olympics' ability to dominate primetime for 17 consecutive nights is unmatched. If brands want to reach viewers and their customers in the third quarter of the year, they have to be in the Olympics. But also,not just being a part of the Olympics advertising, but have a compelling ad that appeals to the diverse audience.
Below is an advertisement from the 2012 London Olympics that successfully connected with consumers all over the world. Click here to watch more ads that aired during the Olympics.
Cause-related advertising has shifted
toward finding new ways to target advertisements to specific audience groups in
recent years. Nonprofits are trying to differentiate their causes from others
vying for attention, a difficult task in today’s media saturated society. The International
Rescue Committee launched a campaign March 14th in hopes to do just
that, in reaching out to fans of pop culture.
The popular HBO television series “Game
of Thrones” has teamed up with the International Rescue Committee in order to
raise money for real-life victims of conflict and exile. “Game of Thrones” is
an epic fantasy series featuring story lines about civil war and banishment,
making for a perfect partner for the humanitarian relief organization aiding
refugees. This campaign will feature actors from the extremely popular show in
online videos, raffle off celebrity-related experiences, and offer the chance
for show merchandise for donations. Ads will appear exclusively online on the
International Rescue Committee microsite, YouTube channel, and social media
platforms. The campaign will run through the
series 6th season starting April 24th; however, the first
public service announcement of the campaign has already been released. The
video features actors and actresses from the show speaking individually about
the struggles of refugees hoping to escape war, famine, and destruction. The
campaign urges viewers to “rise up” and donate, utilizing the tagline “Rescue
has no boundaries” and the hashtag #RealmToTheRescue.
This campaign is a smart
decision for the International Rescue Committee. Not only does “Game of
Thrones” have enormous popularity, but also a parallel of stories exists
between the show and reality. A fictional story of displacement and conflict
joins forces with a real-life story of the similar struggles, hopefully making
it easier for audience members to create a connection to the cause and be
prompted to donate. “Game of Thrones” fans make up a huge target audience in which
the IRC now has access to, bringing the cause to the audience, rather than the
audience to the cause. Actors in the video emphasize this story is not fantasy
and they can be the heroes, rather than simply watching them on TV. Three other
videos are set for release, which will take a lighter tone than the initial
video. A lighter tone, along with the introduction of “perks” of winning show
prizes, used for this younger audience will most likely be more successful than
the initial serious tone video. Fans of entertainment want to be entertained;
therefore, the IRC needs to provide something interesting to this audience in
conjunction with their message in order for the campaign to be effective.
To
learn more about the International Rescue Committee and the campaign visit their website.
So, we've all been there. You don't feel like Netflixing, and Facebook/Twitter/MySpace (if that's still your thing)/Everything else is boring you. Enter, YouTube. It's the greatest, because all you do is bounce around from topic to topic. In case you have some kind of organization to your YouTube browsing, let me show you what I mean.
What I've used YouTube for in the last few hours:
music videos
game highlights and player interviews
make-up tutorials
all of Snopp Dogg's plizzanet earth (truly, a masterpiece of our generation. 10/10 would recommend.)
buzzfeed videos
montages of puppies
YouTube is the Super Wal-Mart of the Internet. There's everything on YouTube. It's fair to say that our lives have improved since the video site has been around.
So what has YouTube done for advertising?
First and foremost, it's changed the way companies advertise using videos. Nowadays, you'll see adds running on popular videos. These ads vary in length, anywhere from 15 seconds time to a minute. A lot of times, these videos will just be shorter or modified versions of the company's ads that run on TV.
Secondly, it's changed the way pop-ups happen. The pop-ups can now be embedded into the video, prompting viewers to "click for more" or "subscribe" to other videos and channels.
It's also allowed for advertisers to really hone in on their audiences, and target a specific part of the market.
For instance, as I mentioned above, I was watching beauty tutorials earlier. Before one of them, there was a rather lengthy advertisement for eyeshadow. I was annoyed, yes, but also intrigued that Covergirl took the time to advertise specifically to people watching make up and hair videos. That's pretty smart.
On the other hand, advertisers on YouTube also just saturate the market, and add their commercial to everything. Most recently, it's been the one with Amy Schumer.
What do you think works? What doesn't?
Regardless, I think we can all agree that, since its creation in 2005, YouTube changed the World Wide Web for the better.
For whatever reason, we love celebrities. We love knowing who's marrying who, who's going bankrupt, who's selling out, who's cheating, and who's career is washed-up. Check any magazine stand, and you'll see glossy cover after glossy cover describing famous people doing the same mundane things we all do, but it's somehow more noteworthy because they're famous, and we're not. (See: Celebrities doing things.)
Therefore, it comes as no surprise that some companies and organizations choose to advertise with celebrities. Actors, actresses, singers, and a whole host of different athletes appear in ads for a variety of products and services.
Take Taylor Swift and Diet Coke. The music megastar recently signed to a partnership with Diet Coke.
(Sidenote - Hey Coke-a-Cola, I have an idea for your "Share a Coke with" campaign: Create a line of bottles and cans solely with Taylor's ex's names on them. Joe, Conor, Jake, Harry, Zac, John....they're all generic, anyway. Mark them as such. Instead of insisting to "Share a Coke" with an ex, put catchy song lyrics. i.e. - "i knew you were trouble", "we are never ever getting back together," ect. and insist on promoting all over social media. This perfectly blends crazy ex-girlfriend with extended embarrassment of said ex-boyfriends, and wonderfully captures the passive-agressive nature of high school breakups, which is what Taylor primarily sings about. Right in time for Valentine's Day. #nailedit)
Pepsi, not wanting to be outdone by archenemy Coke, launched a commercial, starring a different music queen.
So, which one is better? There is definitely a right and wrong answer, but I guess everyone's entitled to their own opinion. Even if it's wrong.
Is using celebrities like this an effective way of advertising? In my opinion, no, especially as far as soda (or "Pop", for all you crazy Yinzers) goes. Queen Bey is #Flawless, yes..but just because she's drinking Pepsi in that ad doesn't make Pepsi any less gross to me. I personally hate Pepsi. I'm team Coke all the way, but not because of Taylor Swift. I just think Coke is better than Pepsi.
Another reason why I don't think this works is because it's soda and not something that Beyonce or Taylor would really have any in-depth knowledge on. I think Swift should advertise on something she's really known for, like red lipstick or something.
And maybe in that ad she can give a 15 second tutorial on how to put on red lipstick without looking like an absolute fool.
@Taylor: How do you get your lipstick on so perfectly? How is it not everywhere? Every time I try to wear red lipstick, I look like I just got punched in the mouth and my lips are busted, which is the exact opposite effect I go for when trying to wear lipstick. How do I go from "someone get that girl some ice, her mouth is bleeding" to "wow, totally Joulie worthy pout"? Teach me your ways, Swift.
Celebrities should stick to advertising to things they care about and things they know about.
Perfect example, one of my favorite hockey players and yours, Pascal Dupuis.
Now, maybe I'm biased, but I feel like I can safely assume Dupuis knows the sport of hockey. So, if I was in the market for hockey gear, I'd trust his opinion. Volia! An effective ad.
Celebrities should stick to what they know and what they're known for, and it will be a better advertisement for all parties involved.
In just a few short days, football fans across the country will congregate to celebrate what has become one of the most important (if not, THE most important) games in professional American sports: The Super Bowl. This year's contest will be hosted at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, California, and will pit the young gun quarterback Cam Newton and the nearly perfect Carolina Panthers against the Denver Broncos, with their league-topping defense and their legendary quarterback at the helm, Peyton Manning.
While the ordinary prudent person sees the Super Bowl as "The Big Game" or "A Really Good Excuse to Gorge on Wings and Beer" (depending on how much you enjoy football), advertisers see it more like "The Holy Grail". Thanks to tools like Nielsen, companies know exactly how many TVs are tuned into The Super Bowl. If SB 50 will be anything like the Super Bowls of the past, the Big Game will be the most watched event this year by a long shot.
To most companies buying ad space months in advance, it really doesn't matter who's playing in the Big Game. It doesn't matter if America is more #Panthers than #Broncos. It doesn't matter if you're a diehard and you've already resolved to name your first child Peyton, boy or girl, no matter what your husband/wife says. It doesn't even matter if you don't actually know who Peyton Manning is - to you, he's just the Nationwide guy who really loves chicken parm. And why wouldn't he? Chicken parm is the bee's knees. And real talk: that chicken parm sandwich he's got looks a lot better than literally anything he's cooking with in the Papa John's ad.
"Chicken parm, you taste so good." Same, Peyton. Same.
Nah. Stick to quarterbacking and chicken parm.
Now, if you've ever turned on your television for 20 consecutive seconds over the last decade, you'd know that Manning is no stranger to being in commercials; he's all over the place. The guy has appeared in ads for everything from Gatorade and Nerf, to Mastercard and Buick. But that's another blog post assignment topic for another day.
While people are betting, bar fighting, and breaking up over which team is going to call themselves Champions on Sunday night, top companies are passive-aggressivley trying to call themselves Champions, too. Every company that advertises in the Super Bowl wants to be the commercial everyone is talking about around the water cooler on Monday morning.
In the past, there's been commercials that have truly left a lasting impression on viewers. A lot of times, these commercials elicit some kind of emotion, or trigger a memory for the viewer. Like we've discussed in class, invoking these kinds of associations with advertising is what makes them so successful, and what gets the company's message across.
Ask anyone. I'm sure they have a favorite Super Bowl commercial. It's the same as having a favorite color or type of coffee. It's just a fact of life.
Mine happens to involve a few of my favorite things in this world: dogs and beer.
To put it simply and blunty, this commercial has everything you ever could want in life:
Cutest little puppy ever to exist in the past, present, and future history of this earth, as well as unknown existing and non-existing universes.
Factual evidence -
Huge but yet still classy and graceful-looking Clydesdales.
Ridiculously good-looking cowboy.
Unbreakable friendship that withstands the terrible occurrence of being taken away by someone who clearly does not deserve Heaven's Most Perfect Canine Creation (see above picture).
Beer.
While Budweiser is always a fan favorite, they might have some competition this year. Heinz recently jumped on the doggie bandwagon with this year's Super Bowl ad for Heinz's "family"of products.
I know, I know. "I LITERALLLLY CRIEDDD," too. Believe me, I understand. I personally want to hug whoever wanted to use baby dachshunds in hot dog buns as a means to bring awareness to a host of different condiments. Pure creative genius. Give the guy a medal.
Looks like it's your move, @Budweiser. You need to out-cute Heinz. Seeing as they have an army of weiner dogs and a toddler dressed as a ketchup packet, you might actually be considered the underdog (LOL) this year.
So, which team will be crowned winners this weekend? That's a question we'll find out the answer to on Sunday night.
The definitive winner, however? Puppies, man. Regardless of the score, nobody's a loser when man's best friend is involved.
While watching television, many of the numerous
advertisements that you come across are promoting colleges and universities.
Whether the consumer recognizes it or not, universities are a business, they
have a product (education) that they are trying to sell to consumers
(students). Although the “product” that colleges and universities are selling
is not tangible, that does not take away the fact that many tactics and
techniques are used to persuade students to enroll. Despite universities and
colleges possibly being overlooked as business organizations, the laws of
advertising still apply to them.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) filed a lawsuit on
Wednesday against DeVry University for deceptive advertising. According to the
lawsuit, the university misled consumers about the employment and earnings of
its graduates in numerous radio, online, and print advertisements. DeVry
University is one of the largest for-profit colleges in the United States and
have claimed since 2008 that 90% of graduates seeking employment land jobs
within six months of graduation. The FTC looked into this claim and realized
the university counted numerous graduates as working in their field, when in
fact they weren’t. For example, graduates of the business school were actually
working as servers at a restaurant and engineers were mail carriers. In
addition, DeVry claimed in their advertisements its graduates had 15% higher
incomes one year after graduation than all other colleges and universities. No
internal data showed meaningful evidence of this statement, leading the FTC to
file the lawsuit.
How important is this case on DeVry? As a college student, I
believe that the outcome will have a major impact on students and universities
throughout the nation. When high school students are searching for colleges to
attend and pursue careers, a main focus is placed on how graduates are
succeeding in the field. Parents and students will undergo significant
financial expense in order to improve employment opportunities; therefore, the
truth of these numbers must be revealed prior to acceptance and enrollment. If
these significant claims were made about a tangible product and the truth was
revealed, consumers would think twice before purchasing it. Currently there are no national standards for colleges
to use in calculating employment statistics or information featuring
post-graduate earnings on the revised College Scorecard (Washington Post). Why
haven’t national standards for these essential facts been established? The risk
level is higher when “purchasing” a university education; this is 4+ years of people’s
lives, not simply buying a laundry detergent that claims to get all your stains
out. So why hasn’t the government paid more attention to university
advertising?
According to the Washington Post, the Department of
Education is requiring DeVry to pull its advertisements containing these claims
under investigation, as well as notify students of the university’s inability
to validate the statements. In addition, DeVry students who feel they were
deceived have the right to file a borrower defense to repayment claim to have
their federal student loans dismissed. If these measures are not taken, the
university will lose access to the federal financial aid programs (WashingtonPost). Is this enough action being taken though? Yes DeVry is being punished and
students receive some of their expenses; however, I don’t know if this is
enough to stop future universities from making deceptive advertisements. DeVry
University ran these ads for nearly 8 years before they were speculated, during
that time the university made a large amount of money, which was partially put
into more advertising efforts. Students of the university still spent their time and effort learning, which may or may not pay off as much as they believed it would. The FTC first has to put national standards into
place in regard to calculating graduate employment and salaries. Once standards
are established, the government then will be able to investigate university
graduate success claims and protect consumers.
In this busy world we live in, it is quite hard to grab people’s attention. It gets even harder when there are so many things readily available in the internet world and so many people with different interests. That is until your advertisement succeeds at catching people’s attention so much that the busy world of the internet helps your company get noticed through a viral post across the world.
EDEKA, a German supermarket company created a Christmas advertisement where they told the story of an elderly father whose children – who were actually adults that shared a busy life and/or successful career and lived far away – were never home for Christmas. He is shown sitting at the dinner table on Christmas Eve alone for many years up until he gets tired of it and plans a trick on his children so they would come home. He fakes his own death – yes, I know – and so everybody comes home to the surprise that, whoops, he is still alive and tricked everybody! They then get to sit at the table and enjoy a family Christmas Eve dinner to EDEKA purchased foods and drinks.
The advertisement became viral for many different reasons. Many people were very touched and even cried during the advertisement – not me… maybe me – and many people were quite outraged by a father who lies to his children and grandchildren about his own fake, planned and as a means to an end death. Regardless of how people felt about it, being an international student myself and also being friends with many other internationals on Facebook, I was able to notice how viral the advertisement actually became. Not only many known social media pages were reposting and commenting about the video in the United States, but my friends from all over the world were sharing the video (which all included subtitles in their own native language) as well as known social media pages from all over the world. Even Buzzfeed made a video entirely about the EDEKA commercial.
EDEKA could be considered lucky for the fact that now the world knows about the supermarket and maybe if I ever visit Germany I at least know where I can buy food; but we have to recognize the hard work and effort of the people behind the creative team who developed such an emotional advertisement that had such a statement message to it so much it became viral in the internet. The advertisement barely sells the idea of “Come shop at EDEKA this Christmas season” and that is what is most special about it. Companies have an extremely high cash making and branding potential online and in my point of view companies should focus on unique, non-sales pitch, statement making advertisements that people are going to want to share. Share by share, your advertisement can go a long, long way… and so can your brand!
Here is the AD if you haven’t seen it -- which, I highly doubt you haven’t!
What are your thoughts on the EDEKA commercial as a means of advertisement?
Last week Twitter announced its
newest format for company advertising. This ad format is called “conversational
ads,” in which Twitter users are encouraged to interact with content in an
easier way. Very similar to the poll feature, the format gives users different
options to select via custom hashtags or call-to-action buttons. Through this
Twitter exclusive format, advertisers can drive more earned media and brand
influence. Companies are able to spread a brand’s campaign message quicker and
easier because users simply have to click button and a pre-filled tweet with
the brand message is generated. In addition, these Tweets invite followers of
the engaged users to interact with the Tweet.
While Promoted Tweets have successfully increased marketers’ brand engagement through retweets and likes in the past, conversational ads take brand images and videos to the next level by introducing a call to action. The purpose of advertising is to cause consumers to take some sort of action; therefore, this new ad format helps brands on Twitter achieve this. Original promoted ads and content simply included images or video, causing users to have to take additional steps to interact with the brand by Tweeting the custom hashtags manually; however, conversational ads shorten this process. In introducing an easier way to engage with favorite brands, customers may feel more motivated to do so. Advertisers believe that this new social media engagement strategy will help consumers get closer to brands and extend their presence across Twitter. The only issue that I may see with this new format is the pre-filled tweet generation. Since much of our media is flooded with advertisements, we have developed a mental filter for content that appears to be an advertisement. If users are scrolling through Twitter and see the generated content, they may not care or notice that one of their friends posted it. Do you think this new format will be effective?
