Fantastic Ad Friday

What can I say? I love everything about this:

• The emotional appeal.
• The simplicity of the production.
• The humanization of a "tech" company.
• The fact that they took something as simple and mundane as email and completely turned the way we think about it on its side. 

Hats off to Google- this is one of the best ads I've seen in a very long time.

Fantastic Ad Friday

Much of our craft is about the words we choose. Words are powerful. Choose yours carefully. Watch this video and understand the impact. It's good

Much of our success in our our craft is about the words we choose and how we say them. Words are powerful in advertising. Choose carefully. Pay attention to the order and to the inflection. Not only do the words make a difference, but how you say them can create an entirely different meaning. We like this little ad we found on YouTube. Enjoy. Experience the impact of a GREAT ad!

Exactly what is a valid product?

What is a valid product might seem like a silly question.  The fact is, when you think about it there have been thousands of products launched that failed and billions of dollars lost because of the the fit and timeliness of their product in relationship to the marketplace.

I want to demonstrate what I think is one of the best examples of a product that may be valid today, but was originally launched way before it's time . . . hence, my contention is that it was not a valid product.  Now this is personal and I also think very funny.

For those of you old enough to remember this, enjoy.  For those who aren't old enough to remember this year, well imagine the story as it relates to your time.

It was Christmas 1975 and I'd been married to my beautiful wife (now of 35 years) since June.  Our little apartment was adorned with all form of "eclectic" Christmas decorations.  It was full of things that we had from our youth, things we made and things that we bought but probably could not afford.  We had a nice big live Blue Spruce Christmas tree that practically filled our entire living room.  That tree coupled with a our first Dachshund puppy created some interesting events, including turning the tree over and a "complete un-decorating of our beautiful tree one ornament and string of lights at a time while we were at work.  When we came home from work to discover the mess with the tree, the little dog, obviously thinking (this is a very large assumption - that puppies ever think about anything),  that she had committed an act of such proportion that it might border on unpardonable, was meekly peeking around the bedroom door.  Upon seeing our shock and awe, she promptly ran under the bed.  Fortunately for all,  I was actually slim enough back then to still be able to crawl under the bed to retrieve her.  It was one of those funny experiences we all have as newlyweds that has absolutely nothing to do with marketing.  I just felt like telling the story.

It was with total enthusiasm and anticipation that I approached this Christmas.  I was quite certain that this was going to be the best Christmas ever, since I got my big 20 inch Schwinn Deluxe bicycle when I was eight.  Laden with the naivete of a 23 year old newlywed "man-brain" and empowered by a MasterCard with at $500 credit limit  I set about to select the "perfect gift" for my beautiful future mother of my children.

We were so inexperienced.  Looking back, neither of us had ever really lived on our own.  We both had moved from our parents homes to college dorms.  Through those years

Fantastic Ad Friday

We tell our clients that whenever possible, give a little back to their audience. If you can give them a laugh or two while describing your product, you have a better shot at staying in their memory. I think All State does a great job of this with this series of commercials. Insurance is a tough category to make entertaining, but these achieve that while still being relevant and informative.

Fantastic Ad Friday

I chose this spot for it's huge viral success. We tell our clients that one of the five keys to a solid advertising plan is compelling production. To us, compelling production is production that activates. It's doesn't have to win an Addy or any other award- if it gets people to call our clients' businesses or log on to their website, it works.

The difference between our clients and Old Spice is that we work in direct response world. All of our clients keep very detailed metrics aka "hash marks on the wall". Old Spice isn't necessarily trying to get you to visit their website right this second, but they do hope that you remember them the next time you are in the deodorant aisle at your local drugstore.  As quirky as these spots are, you can't help but agree that they are memorable if anything.

Quirky has also helped Old Spice get over 31 million views on YouTube. Not too shabby. I've seen chatter over these spots in various social outlets, including blogs and Twitter. Need further proof of the viral success of this campaign?

{photo credit}

Yes, someone actually put the Old Spice guy on a cake.