Archive for the ‘ Online Creative ’ Category

From around the web

from-around-the-web

Web Trends:

If your online habits are anything like mine, you probably see a lot of Best Buy ads. Next to West Jet, they are the ads that I seem to be served the most.  (This is why I never clear my cookies – they ensure I see more ads relevant to my interests) A few days ago I saw this ad from Best Buy:

What is interesting here (other from the departure from the Blue and Yellow colour scheme) is that they are clearly trying to pick up on the recent popularity of sites like Groupon and Living Social, which focus on daily specials. Best Buy is well know for its constant special promotions, and  the only real change here is that their creative department has taken notice of a new trend and tried to capitalize on it. I’m actually pretty impressed to see such a large company tailoring a campaign to an emerging trend.

Internet taxation:

A new bill has emerged in the US, pushing for a tax on items bought online. This is worth paying attention to, as this could directly affect you if you buy or sell items online from the US ( anyone use Ebay, Amazon or iTunes store?)

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2367551,00.asp

Useful advertising.

useful-advertising

Let’s talk a moment about advertorial.

Usually one turns to advertorial when they have a story to tell. This story, while important to the advertiser, usually is “very corporate” and sometimes original but not unique. All of these things can make a good idea flat by the time it makes it to the consumer. I’m often asked by creative partners or clients what the formula is for a good viral/social campaign and I’m often left telling them that it differs from client to campaign to intended audience. However, if the advertisers is willing to give up a certain amount of ownership and stops looking so closely at the ROI, wonderful things can happen.

One of the major issues with advertorial is that it often looks fake. Even when the pub-set job is masterfully done, most people can still tell advertorial from editorial – especially when the content is technical or corporate. If you consider that the most successful online campaigns tend to be cool and/or informative first, branded second, there might be something that advertorial can learn, both online and offline.

Be Genuine. Be Useful.

I’ve probably said this a million times and if you’re working with me, you’re likely to hear it another few thousand. It’s a golden rule for a reason and your consumers can see right through a lie. So be honest and build trust with the online community. While you’re at it, why not provide your customers with something useful, not just fun or irreverent. You might get a few million clicks from being pass around the popular web, but a useful clip will be passed on to potential customers who could genuinely benefit from your knowledge and product. It’s a win win situation.

Here is a fantastically useful video that makes me want to go out and get new runners. Maybe I should head to Runner’s World and see what else they can teach me?

Advertising is (not) Creepy?

advertising-is-not-creepy

IAB_ad

The IAB has released a great site that focuses on the issue of online privacy. As I mentioned in a previous post, the general public needs a better understanding of how online advertising works, especially since so much of the free content available online is made possible because of ads. Its great to see that Kathryn and I aren’t the only ones who think this is a issue that needs more attention.

Not only has the IAB launched this site, but they’ve also developed some great creative ads that I hope they make available for general distribution.

if the IAB allows it, I would encourage all websites to run these ads. Educating people about online advertising will improve the industry for all advertisers and providers.

Check out the Privacy Matters site at www.iab.net/privacymatters.

View the Privacy Matter ads here

Shiny Suds: The Power of Online Ad Videos

Credit for finding this gem: Alexander.
Faster posting to the blog: Kathryn. (Winner: ME!)

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Interactive Zombies.

You may remember my telling you about the Innovid technology that Sympatico was sharing at the IABC Roadshow. As I was chatting with my husband this evening, he shared another example of interactive video (using a similar technology). While this link doesn’t feature bikini babes and bud, the ability to shoot down zombies in a game trailer is still pretty freaking cool. Check out the Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles trailer and get your end of week frustrations sorted out by accumulating headshots as the video progresses.

In case you missed it, check out this Wario YouTube video while you’re at it. This video came out months ago, but is a great example of how the idea progressed to include user interaction.

Getting local, getting informed: 2009 IAB Canada Mixx Roadshow

Today, Alexander and I attended the IAB Canada Roadshow. You may remember from previous posts my dissatisfaction after having attended the past few roadshows. I’m a big fan of the IAB in Canada and rather than sitting in my office chair grumbling like an old man, I decided to contact them prior to this year’s workshop.  Specifically, I was frustrated with the lack of local content and I was annoyed that some of the advertised topics never made it into the presentation. I was immediately contacted by the IAB Canada president Paula Gignac asking me to be more specific about my concerns. She also pushed back that she believed that the conference was still very much of value and that I was too harsh. I will admit to being a little harsh on the conference as there are still people in the industry that are only interested in “online” in very general sense. At the same time, I wanted to see the conference grow; the industry has changed so much in the past 2 years with new opportunities and more dollars being spent in this medium. I also had been to the Toronto Mixx conference this year, so I saw what the big smoke was getting to see and wanted some of that pizzazz to trickle down into the local presentations. So I continued to push and received a promise that she would ask her presenters and research partners to get a little more focused this year.

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There is a reason that Pringles are awesome…

…and its not just cause their tasty chips come in a cylindrical can.
http://awardshome.com/cannes2009/pringles/can-hands.htmlpringles

Miller one-second ad follow up

It turns out a lot of people didn’t see Miller’s one-second ad during the Superbowl, and it’s not because they blinked and missed it. As has been the case in previous years, Budweiser is the exclusive alcohol advertiser during the Superbowl, and Miller actually had to buy ad space from individual NBC affiliates airing the game.

So really it wasn’t really a Superbowl ad at all, it was just a commercial that ran during the Superbowl. Does that make sense? Don’t worry, it’s not important. What is important is that while the Budweiser ads have already been long forgotten (something about horses or frogs?), Miller’s ad is still being talked about, even by people who didn’t see the ad during the Superbowl. The idea of the one-second ad was more important then the ad itself. It was covered in the news, and then it was blogged about, commented on, dugg, tweeted*, and found just about anywhere you could look. So was it a success? Miller seems to think so. Oh, and so do I.

Since I’m talking about advertising during Superbowl, I’m going to use this as an excuse to bring up a non-online ad campaign that was absolutely brilliant. Read more