While researching various channels and verticals for our sandboxsports.com theme, we’ve come across a number of creative adverts that are…. well let’s just say puzzling. It’s not too difficult to discover ads where there is an obvious disconnect between the creative imagery, cheeky copy and what it is that most advertisers’ hope to achieve with their marketing budget.

This is fine for the ad agencies and creative professionals who get paid to “create” but not so good for the paying customer who receives a disappointing consumer response in exchange for their valuable - and limited - advertising dollars. It’s also fine for Coke, Nike, Budweiser and so on because the big dollar outlay on repetitive advertising is almost exclusively geared to brand promotion and almost never an immediate call to action.

For small business it’s a mistake to follow this type of strategy. Some marketing experts suggest that as consumers, we are presented with over three thousand advertising messages in a typical day. Billboards, T.V. commercials, radio commercials, email marketing, banner ads, pop-ups, pop-unders, direct response mail at home and at work (aka junk mail), telemarketing, fax broadcasts - you get the idea. To break through and capture the attention of your target audience, your advertising message needs to interrupt and then it must engage the attention of your qualified prospects so that they’ll continue to search for more information.

No doubt you’re probably familiar with the adage that sex sells - right? It’s not true. Sex interrupts. If a sexy image captures your attention in an advertisement, then it has interrupted you, but it has not necessarily engaged you - encouraging you to learn more - leading you to a purchasing decision or some other immediate action such as opting in to a promotion with their name and email address.

This print ad for a sporting event is a pretty good example of a misguided advert. The image of the sexy female squash player does a decent enough job of interrupting. But then it fails to push the hot buttons of almost any potential spectator with the exception of the demographic that is male, twenty something, hormonally motivated and probably indifferent to the game of squash.

Think about it, if you are a heterosexual female, a homosexual male, a family, a legitimate squash fan, an elderly person, just about anyone else - are you really interested in going to a sporting event that is going to be packed with obnoxious, Neanderthal, male patrons? This advert would work better if it were promoting a brand of beer.

If female squash players are really that hot, how about an action shot that captures the essence of the game and presents an image of athleticism, skill, competitiveness and drama. If the athlete happens to be a babe (think Anna Kournikova, Chris Evert) and if she were attired in revealing athletic sportswear (think Anna Kournikova, Chris Evert), then the ad would still work for the Neanderthal but it would also appeal to a much broader market demographic. A whole market segment that just might be engaged enough to want to learn more - maybe even buy a ticket.

The marketing buzz phrase du jour is “web 2.0″. What web 2.0 is exactly is open to some interpretation but for certain, it’s a concept that describes the use of multimedia video and audio on the web. Harmonizing your website with next generation web-sites such as wikipedia, MySpace, YouTube, Digg, Jumpcut, blogging and so on, makes for a richer, more interactive experience for your sites’ visitors.

For advertisers, it has become a means of generating more traffic and more publicity. This means more sales opportunity and increased brand identity. As a good example, it’s worth revisiting the recent, viral advertising initiative brought to the world of web 2.0 by Frito-Lay Inc.

During October/10 and December/04 of 2006, Frito-Lay sponsored an online competition for its’ Doritos brand of tortilla chips. The competition was billed as the Doritos “Crash the Super Bowl Contest”. Entrants were invited to create their own Doritos video commercial and submit it to a website to be judged. There were over 1000 Doritos commercials submitted.

This is from the contest site’s “How It Works” information:

Five Finalists will be chosen by our judges based on the following criteria: Originality and Creativity - 40%, Adherence to Assignment and Regulations - 30%, Overall Appeal - 30%. America will choose the grand prize winner.

Prizes: Five (5) Finalist prizes: $10,000 US each and a trip to Miami for a private Super Bowl XLI viewing party. The Grand Prize winner’s submission will be aired during the Super Bowl XLI broadcast.

From concept to execution, the Doritos campaign ties in with our recent posts concerning “The Long Tail” and “What’s The Big Idea”. It’s a terrific example where the world of big brand advertising partners with the little guy empowered through the mechanisms of web 2.0.

The following video is the creation of Five Point Productions - the winning entrant. Their video is titled: “Live the Flavour” and it aired during the Super Bowl XLI television broadcast. How would that look on your resume?

This was Five Point Productions take on winning the contest:

Obviously, this is a true Cinderella story for us… WE CAN’T THANK YOU ENOUGH FOR YOUR SUPPORT!

We’re hoping to break Super Bowl Ad records in the following ways:

-Smallest Budget (Total = $12.79)
-Smallest Crew (Cast/Crew = 5 people)
-Shortest Production Time (4 days… including concept development)
-Youngest Crew (age 22 and younger)

No pun intended but here’s some more (snack) food for thought;

Go ahead and watch all five finalist productions. To experience more of this campaigns’ creative interactivity go to snack strong productions. It may take a moment to load but it’s worth a peak.

To stimulate some fresh creativity for your own original productions check out this source of concept triggers from the thought provoking folks at AdCracker. Another interactive tool for Creative Directors, Copywriters, Art Directors - and all those who create, sell or teach persuasive communications. That should include you!

A high touch and consistent approach to sales management and training can significantly improve the selling skills and techniques needed by your organization’s sales professionals. A clear understanding of buyer/seller rapport, sales call planning, questioning and listening skills, presentation skills and closing strategies will drive the top line results for any business.

The goal is to achieve a solution driven sales approach to your customers most pressing needs. To find those pressing needs, go get some real marketing muscle.

To master the art of selling, the following three adverts are required viewing. They are brought to you by the very serious, big brand folks at IBM. Big Blue knows a thing or two about how to target the right customer. Watch each spot back to back - too funny. We all know a Bob Hooey or two in the real world of corporate sales. Did we mention that they’re too funny?

So, are you a farmer of a rancher? Now go sell something!

In case you were planning a test drive over the weekend, we thought we would post an excerpt direct from BMW promotional copy. Featured along side the copy, is a creative and interesting print advertisement.
The marketing copy and the print ad are both taken out of context but nonetheless, the brand messaging and the stated brand values are both part and parcel of BMW’s overall strategy for the positioning of their luxury brand identity.

Since its inception, the BMW brand has stood for one thing: sheer driving pleasure.

Sporting and dynamic performance combine with peerless design and exclusive quality, resulting in the unique appeal of BMW automobiles.

Experience the fascination of BMW.

What are BMW brand values?

The BMW brand is a blend of the company’s values, products, history, image and visions.
BMW brand values are:
• Joy
• Dynamic
• Cultured
• Challenging
They represent ’sheer driving pleasure’ in every model.
These are communicated to the customer through the end product.

With the print ad, we’re just wondering if BMW realizes that successful women like to own and drive upscale automobiles too. We doubt that this advert is the way win their business. A surprisingly bad taste ad!

The Ultimate Attraction

For an interesting analasis of another successful interactive marketing campaign from BMW marketing, check out Viral Marketing - Case Study - BMW Films

Our own informal marketing study has revealed that nine out of ten consumers surveyed, who are likely to own or lease a BMW are also likely to consume Lavazza Coffee

Google has announced that it is rolling out a new beta test that it has labelled as “pay-per-action” advertising. Under the new program, businesses using Adwords advertising, will define specific actions that they are willing to pay for such as, a visitor opt-in, a certain page view or an actual sale. They also define the amount that they are willing to pay based on the type of action.

When the advertisers’ ad is clicked by a visitor, Google will in turn, only bill the advertiser if the predetermined action is completed. An advertiser needs to establish a conversion tracking system and then, create the adverts. Ads are then displayed on the so called publisher websites that comprise the Google content network. Publishers will also be introduced to new ad units under this new pay-per-action model that can be featured on their sites.

In a nut shell, with this new Google proposition, advertisers only pay for desired results. And content publishers determine whether to run a specific type of ad or group of ads on their websites. Initially, this pay-per-action beta test is only available to advertisers in the United States.

From a publisher’s perspective, there is some risk reversal in featuring the new cost-per-click ads. There is no guarantee that the publisher will receive any payment for a given ad that gets clicked by a visitor from their site. From the advertiser point of view, they will no longer be charged for ads that are ineffective and the annoying risk of click fraud is going to be significantly reduced.

Along side this pay-per-action news, Google has also revealed that it will be adding click-to-play video ads to their line-up of text, Flash and image ad formats all being supported currently by it’s content network. At launch, video ads will be available to AdWords advertisers in the US, Canada and Japan and progressing to other global regions eventually.

According to Googles’ “Inside Adwords”, users will have total control of the ad viewing experience;

“Finally, unlike some intrusive advertising, users will have complete control. When a page loads, only a static image will be visible; the video will not start playing until the user initiates it. He or she will be able to advance the video, pause it, adjust the volume or click through to the advertiser’s site,…

But, you may say, video is only for big branding oriented advertisers. We beg to differ. This feature makes video ads much more accessible to all advertisers. Now, an owner of a small bed & breakfast in Lake Tahoe can put a video tour of his beautiful chalet right next to an article that talks about skiing the epic slopes of Squaw Valley.”

From script to screen, Connecticut based XVIVO is an award-winning animation studio that creates spectacular, custom visual productions for advertising agencies, broadcast companies, educational institutions and a variety of science, medical and technology companies.

Harvard University selected XVIVO to create an original animation that would illuminate the mechanisms that allow a white blood cell to sense its surroundings and respond to an external stimulus. The objective for the project was to introduce a medium that could take undergrad students beyond the more limited perspective of their textbooks.

The end result was a masterful feature that explores and illustrates the different cellular environments and the inherent communications within this micro universe. “The Inner Life of the Cell” is a hypnotic, three-dimensional journey through the microscopic world of a cell. It’s an eight and half minute feature that took 14 months to produce.

Since it’s release, “The Inner Life of the Cell” has been well received – to say the least. This is an excerpt from a recent Wired News interview with David Bolinsky of XVIVO:

Wired News: What was the reaction to it there?

Bolinsky: We started receiving tens of thousands of e-mails and phone calls, the hits on our website went from 200 a week to 650,000 a week and it was picked up by ABC News. We were getting e-mails from major universities all over the world asking if they could use this for their students (and) calls from high school teachers wanting it for advanced biology classes … and museums that want us to work on museum exhibits because they want to modernize how they teach science.
This is what I hoped when I started this company — that it could change how people saw things. We (thought) this great academic animation would be shown at Harvard and would disappear forever under the Ivy dome of silence - We didn’t really anticipate that it would go anywhere and when it did it took us all by surprise.

The complete Bolinsky interview is at Wired.com -
“The Inner Life of the Cell”

While this video excerpt is set to music - the full eight and a half minute version includes narration that explains the dynamic processes that you’re watching.

So what does this have to do with marketing news? Well there’s the viral concept in play here – good creative takes on a life of its own. The publicity has surprised even Bolinsky who expected that his creative feature “would disappear forever under the Ivy dome of silence”. But the story has legs.

The following advert is the creation of Brazilian ad agency; Dez Brasil for the Asics athletic brand. The ad copy featured with the print ad reads:

Left is rational. Right is emotional. Left, right, left, right, left, right is balance.
Running is in our DNA.
Asics. Sound mind, sound body.

We wonder if the creative elements behind the print advertisement were in any way inspired by “The Inner Life of the Cell”. Strong symmetry between the two projects! Both thought provoking and both well done. Click the image for a good look!

The observant among you will notice the muscle of the “sound minded” Asics runner. The progressive marketers among you who want to thrive in your own business universe realize that you need your own Real Marketing Muscle.

Now this is an advertising print campaign that caught our eye! The adverts are brought to the marketplace by the popular Lavazza Coffee brand of Italy. Interesting imagery but we’re not really sure about the correlation between naked bodies and coffee beans. Coffee is a stimulant and the images are stimulating too - OK maybe we’re reaching. The ad copy reads; “Italy’s Favourite Coffee”

The art direction and creative photography of the graphics were produced by renowned advertising photographer Eryk Fitkau. He is best recognised for his specialized methods of post-production which include unique techniques for double exposing images and hand colouring.

Too bad Lavazza beat us to it though because naked bodies and Caffeine Marketing – well that’s another story. Even if it is narcissistic, we think that these graphics are just the type of promotion that would better suit our own brand identity goals.

Nuf said, study the ads, critique the ads, debate the ads – we just hope you enjoy them over another cup of your daily marketing news.

Click on the posters above for a better look! This is a sneak peak of sorts. Our Mazda “marketing insider” sent us these posters with a bit of additional perspective and insight about the logistics that go into the actual production of a major ad campaign.

Whether your interests are those of a major ad agency executive, a marketing student or those of a small business marketing manager, it’s interesting to watch a new marketing campaign of a major global corporation unfold.

And while Mazda’s consumer reach is global, these advertisements are geographically targeted to a region - the European consumer. The lesson with small business marketing in mind is that, it can be a very effective use of your ad dollars - even corporations with massive marketing budgets - to market to a specific geographical region.

This concept, or strategy, is something that is very scalable for small business marketers and we’ll be adding some content on regional marketing for small business in our next post - so stayed tuned.

This is what our insider told us!

“Regarding the print work, I’m sending along two additional adverts for the “Desert Treasure” phase of the campaign. As of yet, they’ve only been published in the paper edition of a Swedish advertising magazine as the actual film is having the finishing touches made in post-production in London… So these adverts are still somewhat “exclusive”…

The photo-shoot itself happened alongside the film production in South Africa. Despite the fact that the films were being shot around-the-clock (“Desert Treasure” by day and “Casino” by night) the photo-team and film-team worked perfectly together and the entire project was as uneventful as a successful shoot should be…There are actually several additional versions of the “Casino” adverts, the differences being if the Mazda MX-5 is shot from the front or the back with the hardtop up or down… We’ve sent you the ones we like best…

The photographer was the same that we used for the “12 Second Thriller” posters; a German by the name of Peer Brecht. And all the “models” in the shoot were also the actors in the films. And the sets were the same too.”

Scroll down to our Zoom Zoom Grows Up post if you haven’t already and you can check out more of the new ads targeted at the European car buyer.

Mazda continues to get good mileage from its brilliant and ubiquitous zoom zoom branding strategy. The car maker’s marketing brain trust is producing advertisements that have a more sophisticated and mature appeal.

“Every Drive’s a Thriller” is the new advertising campaign from Mazda Motor Europe and JWT-Düsseldorf for the new generation Mazda MX-5. The campaign features two commercials, “Casino” and “Desert Treasure” that create a sort of ninja noir vibe – imagine Black Rain meets Kill Bill vol 1.

The Black Rain reference is no small coincidence given that the two commercial set was directed by Luke Scott, the son or Sir Ridley Scott who is the award-winning director of the 1989 thriller Black Rain.

According to Damian Donnellan, Communications Manager at Mazda Motor Europe, “At Mazda Europe, we work with 22 markets across the entire continent. And they all have their special cultural idiosyncrasies. So it’s important that our communications appeal to everyone and excite all of our owners and customers, no matter where they live. The Mazda MX-5 and the “Every drive’s a thriller” campaign achieve that.”

Go ahead and watch the commercial spot below:

AdCracker has released its’ selections for the world’s ten most creative ads during 2006. Nominations were open to all commercial communications with persuasive intent and published during 2006.
“Huggies Rock” is the title of AdCracker’s number two winner. It’s a charming television commercial created by McCann Erickson, Tel Aviv, Israel. The spot features toddlers living out adult roles at work and at home.
This engaging commercial goes beyond the obvious cute babies and the familiar Bobby McFerrin “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” tune. There is the clear philosophical message about life and attitude. You may not control what happens to you in life but you do get to choose how you respond.
It’s hard not to feel pretty good about life and just a little more empowered after you watch this spot. And the branding effect is in full force.
Scroll down a couple of posts to read the full AdCracker press release and check out their site to see the
AdCracker top ten list.

In the meantime, you can watch the full Huggies Rock commercial [more than once :)] below:

San Clemente, CA, February 7, 2007 (PRWeb) — Apple’s “PC vs Mac” TV commercials are #1 on AdCracker.com’s annual list of the world’s most creative ads. Winners also include a world record radio spot, and coupons that ask you to pay more.

“Humor, surprising plot twists, and simplicity are among the most popular advertising techniques this year,” said Steve McNamara, AdCracker’s Creative Director. “There is also increasing parity in advertising creativity around the world, with ideas that work in any language.”

The AdCracker Awards focus on ads that display branding, positioning and direct response techniques. This year, six TV commercials, three print ads and one radio spot comprise the top 10. You can see all ads at AdCracker.com

# 1 “PC vs Mac” for Apple, USA. The ads in this campaign use multiple advertising techniques, such as personification and conflict, to characterize the brand and depict product benefits. All in a simple format - two guys interacting on a white background. The Apple ads accomplish so much, so easily, that they come in at #1.

# 2 “Huggies Rock” is the title of a charming TVC from Israel featuring toddlers playing adult roles at work and home. But this commercial goes beyond cute kids and evocative music. There’s a philosophical message for adults about life here. And that extra layer earns it a spot in our top 10.

# 3 A print campaign titled “Slim” for Levi Strauss & Co., India. These ads use a thin-line illustration style to communicate a Unique Selling Proposition, which also helps the ads leap off the page. Simple sells.

# 4 “Worlds shortest radio advertisement” for the Guinness Book of Records, Norway. A one-of-a-kind, world-record, radio spot. Once you hear it, you won’t forget it. Which is more than can be said of the other 2,862 radio spots you probably heard last year.

# 5 “Suicide” for Electrolux, China.
Here comes the People’s Republic with this TVC showing a woman saving a suicide leaper with her Electrolux vacuum cleaner. This ad made it into the top 10 with the help of a gutsy tag line, “It really sucks.”

# 6 “Old People’s Home” for Norsk Tipping, Norway. In this TVC a Norwegian Nurse Ratched is making life miserable for the old folks until one clever little lady gets lucky at Lotto. A great human interest story with a surprising twist.

# 7 “Park Bench” for Cole Vision Corporation, Canada. In this TVC we see woman sitting alone on a park bench, wearing glasses. She slowly looks into the sky. Then she opens an umbrella over her head. Several seconds pass. Then SPLAT, bird poop hits the umbrella instead of her face. How in the world did she see the bird crap coming from sooooo far away? A clever way to show a product benefit, eh?

# 8 is a TVC titled, “NoitulovE” (that’s “Evolution” spelled backwards) for Guinness, UK. Three gents in a pub suddenly travel backwards in time, all the way to the primordial ooze, where we are told, “Good things come to those who wait.” For you non-pub-crawlers, it takes 126 seconds to properly pour a pint of Guinness.

# 9 on our list is a series of coupons titled, “Reassuringly Expensive” for InBev / Stella Artois, USA. The twist is that the coupons require you to pay more for the product, should you elect to use them. Now that’s a novel idea. And a fresh expression of a traditional positioning strategy, “More expensive, and worth it.”

# 10 “DHL corporate campaign” for DHL Worldwide Express, USA. This series of magazine ads feature strong visual branding elements: layout, typography and color. Plus a distinct brand personality brought to life in the copy. A rare combination in B2B print.

You can see all 10 winners at AdCracker.com

About the AdCracker Awards.
AdCracker Award nominations were open to all commercial communications with persuasive intent, published during 2006. Registered AdCracker CD and online users, about 1000 ad and marketing pros worldwide, voted on a selection of nominations. The final award winners are judged on excellence in 1) branding, 2) positioning, or 3) direct response techniques.

About AdCracker.com:
AdCracker is an interactive tool to trigger advertising and marketing concepts. AdCracker.com was launched in 1999, with Internet sales of AdCracker CD beginning in 2001. AdCracker CD and Online Access are used in over 90 countries by ad agencies, Fortune 500 marcom departments, schools and small businesses.

MEDIA CONTACT: Steve McNamara, Creative Director. Phone: 888-559-6535 or 760 815 4063. Email: pa06 at adcracker dot com.

MarketingSherpa has just recently announced its Annual Email Marketing Summit to be held in Miami March 4-6th. Around 30 renowned marketers are presenting email advertising case-studies based on their real life email marketing campaigns.

MarketingSherpa boasts this Summit as the largest annual industry event of its kind.

The detailed agenda and event info is available at:
http://www.sherpastore.com/Email-Summit.html

- Jeff Marshall, the Vice President Managing Directory for Starcom is working to solve the problem of tracking and monitoring online ad spending and return on investment.

- Outdoor Life Network lets bulls loose around New York City with two billboards across Madison Square Garden and manholes with smoke-flaring nostrils for the 2007 Professional Bull Riding season.

You can now discuss the latest marketing happenings with fellow marketers like yourself. You can upload avatars, choose one from our gallery of hand picked avatars, communicate with professionals in a variety of categories, upload photos and videos, and much more.

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