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.

Whose Guess Is Right?

"An economist's guess is liable to be as good as anybody else's."
-Will Rogers

Will Rogers, famous for his quips, quotes and humorous anecdotes about our reactions and responses to life, gives an interesting perspective. In his observations, there is always a nugget of truth. The quote from above is lifted and paraphrased from the following. Here is the complete and accurate statement, taken from a radio broadcast in May 26, 1935:

“I would never make an economist in the world. An economist is a man that can tell you anything about – he’ll tell you what can happen under any given conditions, and his guess is liable to be just as good as anybody else’s too.” (To all of you editors and proof readers out there – I know the quote is grammatically incorrect, but it’s a quote).




Unfortunately, when it comes to advertising, the aforementioned quip might well be in play for you. Whose “guess” are you making decisions based on? Each representative from each industry and specific media has a story. Most of them are “rooted” in observational truth. So who are you to believe?

Does TV work? What about direct mail? How can I get radio to make my phone ring? You know, everyone I know is advertising on the Internet…isn’t that where I should be spending my money? The newspaper still gives me the most bang for my buck! I like billboards... everyone sees them... and on and on ad-nauseam!

Observationally, it occurs to me that many people selling advertising are much more interested in how much and how soon they can sell you something than they are interested in how much return it is going to generate for you. In advertising, the “cookie cutter approach” has been taken to an all-new level. Very few representatives have been properly trained in their own medium.

Over the years, I’ve seen and oft times been a part of many different successful programs. Unfortunately, I’ve observed many that failed – outright – or at the very least did not meet the expectations of the client.

You hear people talk about branding and throw the word marketing around like a hot potato. Try this. Next time an advertising person goes down that path with you, ask them to give you a definition of marketing. Be prepared, you may have to perform the Heimlich as they choke on their words.

So where’s the good news? While it is true that advertising is half art and half science, there are some principles that you can apply and follow that will significantly improve the performance of your efforts.

Over the next few weeks, we are going to demystify the advertising game for you and give you some relevant insight and solid information that will help you improve the performance of your marketing and advertising program.

Here is the preview of what is to come. Stay tuned...

5 keys to success in advertising.

1. Valid Product

2. Correct Target

3. An offer

4. Compelling Production

5. Ahhh . . . I’m going to hold out on #5.

Fantastic Ad Friday

For this week's Fantastic Ad Friday I wanted to give "thumbs up" to my favorite commercial from the 2011 Super Bowl. It was such a simple ad compared to some of the intricate, expensive spots that you see from many advertisers. With the legendary costs associated with Super Bowl spot buys, it's no wonder many companies think they have to have the big-budget commercial to go with their big-budget placement, but this just proves that sometimes, less is more.

Fantastic Ad Friday - Day of Silence

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Introducing: Fantastic Ad Friday!

We are always on the lookout for intriguing advertising messages to inspire us (and occasionally make us laugh)! In a world where we are continuously bombarded with ads, we tip our hats to those that are unique and bold enough to cut through the clutter.

To recognize the great work being done in our industry, we'd like to start a new weekly feature here on the Branding Plus blog to show you some of our favorites. Introducing: Fantastic Ad Friday!

First up: Toyota Sienna's Meet the Parents Campaign.



This is one of my all-time favorite campaigns. I loved that they took the notion of minivans being "uncool" and attacked it head-on. It left me wondering if their intention was to make minivans seem cool or if they were simply saying "we are what we are" and owning it while not taking themselves too seriously. I think in the end, it was probably a little of both.

Toyota was also able to get significant additional exposure by creating online videos that were geared toward viral. This video has received over 8 million views at the time of this post:


Eight million views that they didn't have to pay a dime for other than initial production costs? Not too shabby...

Gublin & Green

You have to love it when Saturday Night Live parodies your industry. While this skit definitely takes advertising in the legal field to an unlikely angle- the concept itself isn't too far off from much of what you see out there. This is a prime example of why you should do an intense creative audit of your competitors before concepting your own ad campaign- don't end up as an SNL parody!