It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

     December just began, but I feel like I've been in the Christmas spirit since October...that's what the advertisers want. I've fallen into their trap! It's dark down here. Companies pushed up the dates of their holiday campaigns this year because of the economy, but this doesn't really make me want to buy more presents for people (I have however had the urge to buy a lot of presents for myself lately...but that's just because I'm selfish). When I see Christmas ads starting to appear in October, I think "it's way too early for this. Let me at least get through Thanksgiving." And after seeing ads celebrating Santa and his elves and reindeer and every other Christmas icon since October, by the time November rolls around I'm sick of Santa and his fucking elves and Rudolph's deformed nose and don't want to go buy anything. I sadly have a feeling this trend will continue; we've already seen in happen with Black Friday. I think I started seeing spots advertising deals in the second week of November. Brands want to be the first to publicize their deals to grab attention away from consumers, I get it, but starting the cycle of holiday ads in October just takes away from the special creative work you can only do this time of year. Next year hopefully Santa will slow his roll and leave his sleigh in the North Pole until after Thanksgiving. 

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Read All About It...Just not on The Daily

     The Daily, the iPad-only newspaper, will be no more at the end of this month. What started out as an intriguing idea has turned out to be a flop. At first I wondered why no advertisers would be interested in supporting the publication, but after thinking about it for a few minutes those reasons became clearer than an iPad's retina display...on which you will no longer be able to read The Daily. Why would an advertiser support an iPad only app when they can give money to a more reputable news source that is available no matter the tablet platform. It's almost essential now for a major publication to have an accompanying app, and I'm sure agencies recommended going with those first over the new startup only available to Apple users. iPad users seemed to be the only targeting for the paper as well. It didn't have any sort of unique identity that advertisers could see as specifically relevant to their customer base. Finally, I think the failure of The Daily demonstrates that print advertising is still powerful. People still like to pick up a hard copy of their favorite magazine and flip through the glossy pages. The advertising industry and its clients aren't completely ready to abandon the medium. It will be interesting to see if a new, only-digital paper pops up again at some point in the future, I don't think it's necessarily a bad idea, but hopefully it will work out the issues this magazine had and be a more appealing vehicle for advertisers.

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Dumb Ways to Die...Smart Advertising

     Well, that was gruesome and adorable. This video to promote safety on Metro rails in Melbourne, is such a great, effective, and now viral video. It already has over 30 million views...and how could it not? IT IS SO CUTE. That all caps was completely necessary. Yes, the entire thing consists of little blobs getting mutilated, but it is still CUTE. The mixture of the not so pleasant message with sweet animation and a soft, melodic song is genius. The song itself is so catchy I'm still singing it days after seeing this video. Watching these little nuggets get murdered is the most enjoyable thing I've seen in a while. 

     The brand is going to continue to capitalize on the success of the ad. You can now buy the song on iTunes, in its original form or the karaoke version (I'll stick to "No Scrubs" for my karaoke needs), they've based their website on the video, and an iPhone game will be released soon. It also runs in traditional media as well, as TV and radio spots. This is a simple idea with perfect execution that can be translated to all mediums. Perfect. I could say more, but instead I'll just leave you with this... 

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What's In a Name? CASH!

     Jason Sadler sounds like any other typical guy, right? Now what if his name were Jason Nike? Jason Oreo? Jason Panasonic? Ok, I'll stop now, but I'm sure those peaked your interest way more than the original name. In one of the strangest media buys I've ever seen, Jason has started a website auctioning off his last name to a brand for an entire year. His new brand inspired moniker will come up on his driver's license, his social media channels, and whenever he introduces himself. Currently, the highest bid is $34,500, placed by an earphone manufacturer. WHY?! What is this going to do for your brand? This will probably garner a little press after the auction ends on December 12, but afterwards I cannot see anything coming out of this. It's completely pointless, and I can't believe this guy is totally willing to give up his identity to a company that he might not even use. But don't worry, good old Jason has morals. He won't take bids from organizations pertaining to religion, politics, or porn.

     I'm trying to decide if this is worse than people getting brands tattoos on their body. I mean, nothing is worse than the picture above, but is someone's physical identity more or less important than a name? Either way, I don't think these stunts do anything for a company or brand...but what do I know, this Jason guy is currently $34,500 richer than me.

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No Mushrooms, Please

     A new Twitter campaign from Mellow Mushroom has everyone talking...and possibly calling the cops. The idea is extremely simple: If you follow Mellow Mushroom on Twitter, there's a possibility a giant, scary looking yellow blob that kind of resembles a mushroom will follow you. Word of mouth for the execution is spreading really quickly, and I've seen several articles about it on websites not focused on advertising. I just don't get it. The idea is funny, but it doesn't tie into any bigger thought. And it definitely doesn't make me want to order a pizza. It makes me want to change my phone number and delete my Twitter account. I see it as a cool way to get followers, but at the end of the day Twitter followers aren't going to necessarily translate into customers. For me this falls short. I'll stick to Domino's. 

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Instajam

Instagram Music Video

     Above is a link to a music video made entirely of Instagram photos. The video is creative and at times really beautiful, and this is coming from someone who is sick of seeing a ton of filtered photos everywhere. Facebook and Twitter are the big dogs when it comes to social media, but I think Instagram is at times overlooked and is constantly gaining popularity and cultural clout. Instagram as a brand has a personality, a reputation, and although that might not be favorable to some people, it's more than can be said for other social media sites. I think as time goes on people will begin to use Instagram in much more innovative and interesting ways, hopefully some of them the result of advertising. I could easily see the above music video as an advertisement for the site itself, or for several other products. Clients can create photo contests or custom filters, but I think that's just the beginning. We can use the photos people upload to gain insights into how they use other products. We can find stories and interesting people to sell brands. I don't even use Instagram but am still excited to see how it grows as an advertising vehicle, just like its predecessor Facebook and now Twitter. A photo is more personal than a status or a tweet, and I think there is ample opportunity to use that to our advantage. In the future I foresee Instagram being even bigger than it already is, and capitalizing on that to create some very interesting ad campaigns. 

God Bless 7-Eleven

     Originally, I wasn't too compelled by 7-Eleven's "7-Election" campaign, but after reading a little more about it I thought it at least warranted a blog post. This season was inundated with campaigns trying to play off the election, but all of them had the same concept: vote red or blue. Nothing really stood out. With the 7-Election campaign, at least a customer had to make a purchase to actually cast a vote, instead of just clicking a button online. However, the concept is not what I find extremely interesting, it's the results. 

     Unbeknownst to me, the convenience store has run the campaign for the past three elections...and every time it has accurately predicted the outcome. Here are the results from all 7-Elections: 

     Not only that, the company ran the same campaign in the Philippines in 2010, and accurately predicted the winner of their election out of ten potential candidates. To me, that's impressive. The idea of the campaign isn't extremely original, but the accuracy is intriguing. I wonder how long their streak will last until they fail to predict the election...guess we'll have to wait until 2016 to find out. 

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