Although I study advertising, a lot of commercials go right over my head. I hate to admit that I don't always pay attention during commercial breaks. However, I saw this commercial recently and it immediately caught my attention. It uses the song "If I Only Had a Brain" and transforms the lyrics into a motivational anthem of people from all walks of life trying to obtain a degree. It's called, "More than Brains."
The song acts as an inspirational speech so to speak that encourages people to pursue an education. I think it understands its target audience perfectly. It is an online school that's brand is built on convenience. It is targeting people that are too busy to go back to the classroom but want to move up in their professional careers. The commercial itself runs through a slideshow of people from all different walks of life, book in hand and studying intently. The song is sung beautifully with a perfect tone and the lyric changes are subtle and relevant almost the entire time... until the last line.
"A degree is a degree, you're going to want someone like me, but only if you have a brain." The school has come under fire recently for the quality of its programs. However, to say, "a degree is a degree" diminishes the prestige of having one. If that were the case, nobody would spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to go to Harvard or Yale. Additionally, the tagline "We Rise" does not contain the same originality and inspirational context as the rest of the ad. It sounds cliche, which is what the ad avoids, amazingly considering it is rewording a Wizard of Oz Song.
Do you think the commercial achieves its goal of altering negative perceptions?
The average consumer sees thousands (5,000) of advertisements everyday. Making the job of the advertising professional, very difficult as they have to create a visual advertisement campaign that makes their product different and original from the rest so that it sticks in the mind of the consumer, as well as adequately separates their brand from the rest of the products that may populate their respective industry. Three factors of advertising that have proven time and time again to help sell a product is humor, nostalgia, and sex.
Sometimes a company has to take a risk in their quest to give themselves a clear identity. This identity may involve moving away from highlighting the aspects of the product that sets them apart from the rest and instead focusing on the entertainment aspect of the advertisement that may not be informative, but it does draw the consumers attention. Some companies have been able to find that sweet spot between informative and entertainment a prime example would be the entertaining Dollar Shave Clubs ads that are able to sell you on a product without making the consumer feel as if they were being sold a product. That perfect combination of comedy and advertising a product that works very well, was the big "thing" in advertising that helped to ingrain a product and an ad into that moment in time.
Every brand is looking for the next big "thing", the advertisement that becomes part of the culture of that point in time that defines a moment. A perfect example of this besides the Dollar Shave Club that relies on humor to draw in its audience, of course would be the memorable Budweiser ads. That generally run around major events such as the Super Bowl or christmas time, that pulls on the heart strings of the viewers and relies on that feeling of nostalgia, so that the ad then becomes associated with the events that are occurring at the same time as the advertisement. This nostalgic feeling of time spent with family was utilized to perfection by Budweiser to get people to honestly feel a personal connection to beer, a pretty impressive feat.
When it comes to using sex to sell a product no industry does it more than the perfume and cologne industry. Every single one of their advertisement has a scantily clad female or male simply walking around while some catchy song plays in the background. The hopes of these companies is that the consumer will stop and watch these advertisements simply because they notice the attractive people in the commercials or print ads. They rely heavily on the sex appeal of the adcvertisements so the consumer will remember the name of the products and try out the scent at a nearby store. Cologne and Perfume are a tricky product to sell since their are so many products available, many of which use very similar advertisement campaigns. This is the reason that the major players in the industry on top of using attractive people have tried to bring in famous faces to help draw attention to their products.
Humor, Nostalgia, and Sex are three main keys to drawing the consumer toward your companies product. The reason being that they play a major role in controlling the consumers emotions. The majority of the time the consumer will never remember what is said in an advertisement, but they will remember how the ad made them feel.
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 a world where paid search, multimedia and social media dictate the marketing conversation, I think it's refreshing to see a great print campaign. My favorite campaign of all time is Volkswagen's "Think Small." I might be biased because I am a huge VW fan, but I became a fan because of the unique brand image the company has maintained throughout the years.
In 1959, an era of bright colors and crowded posters, Volkswagen went against the grain and called on DDB to develop and ad that balanced white space with small copy. The ad read "Lemon," and the small text underneath it reads a few paragraphs about how much Volkswagen pays attention to details when designing its cars. Overall, the car was a lemon because the chrome strip inside the Beetle had a blemish.
The print ad was a huge success and regarded as one of the best ads of the twentieth century, and of all time. It helped spark Volkswagen's surge in the US and define its brand. Today, Volkswagen continues to go against the grain, making license plates that read, "Uber Cool" and lining their cars with "hipster" bike racks. The design of Volkswagen's themselves are simple and understated, and its ads today continue to utilize white space, event though it isn't quite as innovative.
In the clip below is from Mad Men when Don Draper his creative team are talking about the ad.
The creatives of Sterling Cooper seem to think the ad is a waste of space. However, Don Draper poignantly points out that even though they hate the ad, they are talking about it. Do you think people of the 1950s and 60s talked about the ad because they liked it or because they hated it?
As we approach our creative portion of the group projects, take a minute to scan this nifty, interactive breakdown of design
The site, Avocode break down how designers really worked in 2015. Avocode sampled over 400,000 designs that were uploaded to their site in 2015 and analyzed everything from design software, color palette, to final naming conventions.
It won't take you long to scroll down through the page, but as you do, take in the helpful tips that they illustrate as you begin drafting your creative ads.
What the website does very well is take seemingly boring statistics and create a visual, interactive way to absorb the necessary information. It is important to follow and stay up-to-date with the years design trends. There are many of other web resources available for this.
As the entire country sits down to watch the most important game of the year, The Super Bowl, many – like myself - are really only interested in the Super Bowl commercials. I am that one person who does not understand anything about football and will be on my phone during the game and then staring at the TV during the commercials. This year, what caught my attention were the commercials that were quite, well, unpredictable. It was fun to see people in the room trying to guess which brands owned the advertisement and then getting really surprised at the end of the commercial realizing that the brand behind the commercial was not any of the ones they had initially thought of.
The idea is very interesting as it engages viewers and deals with people's rational side of the brain while they are trying to decode the advertisement. This type of advertisement also tends to stick with people for a longer period of time because they had to actually think about the advertisement, therefore having a longer recall of it.
Some examples from this year's Super Bowl that got me trying to figure out the brand behind the advertisement were these three very clever ideas:
Avocados from Mexico:
Michelob Ultra:
Buick - Cascada Convertible:
I was going to let you decipher them but I am sure we have all seen them on TV. I also am sure that every single one of you readers were just as clueless as me of who the brand behind the ad was during these commercials when you first aired on TV. What do you think about these ads?
The day has come, Super Bowl Ads. Grab some wings and friends.
There have been few advertisements in 2016 that have been changing the brand image of certain companies (for example, Kellie Kemper Buick Ad). USA Today posted an article about how the ads of 2016 are becoming more diverse, and has taken a noticeable change since 2015.
Kevin Heart, a well known African-American Comedian has become an icon in upcoming movies and TV shows; and now making appearances in car commercials for Hyundai Genesis.
The Mini Cooper #DefyLabels commercial is a very ground breaking advertisement, it includes Serena Williams, Abby Wombach, and many others. This ad is to choose to break away from the stereotypes that are labeled as a car and a person. By showing that the car does not match the stereotypes of a person, it is a car for everyone; size, sex and age.
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.
After last years Super Bowl, many people were left wondering
whether or not depressing-informative ads should be placed during the big game. There were quite a few different commercials from 2015 in particular that left people feeling sad.
Here is one example:
Sure this is a good commercial overall, but airing it during such a pumped up event as the Super Bowl left people not only sad but angry. Do you agree that this isn’t the time
or place for such ads, or do you think maybe form a marketing perspective that this
is the PERFECT time for companies to get their important messages across.
Here are some responses to last years depressing ads:
Supposedly this years ads won’t be demonstrating cyber bullying, domestic abuse, sick dogs, etc.
I think we can all expect plenty of celebrity features this
year. There will be at least 33 celebs during the game, not including the half
time show or movie trailers. Let's hope the buzz kill is over.
