Browsing Tag

advertising

Sprite Makes a Splash

At the Cannes Lion Festival of Creativity 2012, Ogilvy and Mather won gold prize for Sprite Shower, which was executed by their Brasil team. To see it in action, [2025 Update: Originally linked to Cannes Lions entry].

After offering 1,500 showers to consumers donning speedos and bikinis, the refreshing branded experience for beachgoers was followed up elsewhere. Next, Sprite held a similar concept in Tel Aviv with human-sized showers resembling dispensing machines.

Refusing to take the tagline “Refresh Your Ideas” for granted, Sprite strikes again this week with engaging street art created with teenage models in Prague. Emphasizing the brand’s message of authenticity, the new “Camouflage” campaign illustrates how Sprite tries to stop the cycle of blending in, as the teens break out of character after their first sip.

As everyone’s eager to identify themselves as unique and hip, Sprite’s latest campaigns propose that all it takes to stand out is a sip of their soft drink, which will help you beat the summer heat in the process.

Here’s a behind the scenes look at creating the Camouflage commercial:

[2025 Update: YouTube video no longer available.]

July 17, 2012 by

Girls On Film

Below are a few of my favourite picks screened at the TIFF Bell Lightbox tonight for the Packaged Goods series, where aspiring filmmakers, tastemakers and moviegoers celebrated women’s talent in film.

HTC “One, Freefall”

Director: Sara Dunlop

Take your phone, get outdoors and go on an adventure. Bottom line: have fun.

Dove “Growing Up”

Director: Kathi Prosser

As a loyal advocate for Dove’s Self Esteem Fund, it’s great to see a female director furthering the brand’s vision to help girls with body image and bring an important issue to light. Girls are indeed “growing up” in a turbulent time with too much pressure on appearances and this spot thankfully continues the conversation.

“Skyscrapers” – OK Go

Director: Trish Sie

This music video could easily double as an ad for Joe Fresh or Benjamin Moore. Great colours. Great music. Great choreography.

June 13, 2012 by

Less Than Impressed: Cottonelle

“The Name Generator”

Goal: Encourage consumers to use Cottonelle Ultra Comfort Care* Bathroom Tissue and Cottonelle Fresh Care* Flushable Wipes, as part of a personal hygiene routine, which supposedly needs a cheeky name.

How It Works:

To enter contest, entrants submit name suggestions for the routine. The names are then voted on and the highest voted names are added to “The Book of Names.” How unncessary clever.

Otherwise uninspired entrants can develop an idea using 1 of 3 tools in the Cottonelle Facebook app:

The Randomizer: Simply click to get a name instantly

The Personalizer: Answer a few questions for a personalized name

The Customizer: Create a name to add to our Book of Names and enter for a chance to win a year’s supply of Cottonelle products.

 

How It Fails To Impress:

– Supplies and information provided to mommy bloggers to create sponsored posts led to bland content.

– The white text on the aqua blue background is unclear, while the rest of the site is nothing special.

– The commercial (where I first learned about it) is super cheesy. How many families discuss toilet paper while standing in the kitchen? Yuck. It really irks me when people don’t think of social context.

Personally, I’m still amazed that Secret has acquired over a million Facebook fans. As an example of Cottonelle trying to compete with other personal hygiene brands for online engagement, let’s hope they spend more time at the drawing board for their next campaign.

Cottonelle’s Name Generator app is one of the cheesiest advertising ideas I’ve seen in a long time. Personal purchases aside, I prefer toilet paper commercials featuring cuddly bears and cozy robes.

Consider this for a mini competitive analysis:

Charmin promoted another routine by featuring the Old Spice guy, and their video received close to 2 million views.

How I Imagine the Brainstorm Session:

Manager: “Let’s create a campaign that can be promoted through both traditional and social media.”

Intern: “I got it! We’ll create a name generator that has our audience sharing stories, interacting with us on Facebook and using more toilet paper.”

Manager: “I love it. Who should star in the commercial for it?”

Intern: “There has to be a teenage girl texting. That’s a must.”

Manager: “Ok, great. I’ll share those brilliant ideas with our agency who can whip together a new splash page, Facebook app and TV spot.”

Intern: “Sweet. When it’s all done, we should share it with top mommy bloggers. They’ll dig it.”

[2025 Update: The YouTube video of the commercial is no longer available.]

June 1, 2012 by

Facebook Favourites

Alas, Facebook has finally revised its Timeline design to reflect users’ interests in a way that appears more personalized than simply a list of pages where they clicked Like.

In a digital age characterized by content curation, this is quite meaningful because it suggests users seriously consider which pages to share with friends on Timelines. Since brands began setting aside budget for media buys to attract new brand page followers, tempting users through contests, giveaways and the promise of exclusive content, users’ Timelines became less a reflection of their favourite things and more so a mosaic of where their brand loyalty lies.

 

Next Facebook Timeline Design

Current Facebook Timeline Design

With Facebook’s new changes (in the testing phase), users can gain a better idea of what their friends like, especially if users feel compelled to “Like” TV shows, stores and the like that represent their favourite things. For example, let’s say your favourite band is coming to town, but you can’t remember which of your friends are fellow fans. You can search for the band’s page, where Facebook will then share which of your friends liked the band’s page, then sift through the list of acquaintances to find a friend who’d likely be interested in buying tickets too. If they “Like” the band on Facebook because they’re among their favourite musicians, they’ll be more likely to pay money to see them live. This enhances Facebook’s truly social benefits by making it easier for Facebook friends to plan offline outings.

Continue Reading

May 22, 2012 by

Smile and Share

Noticed a lot of blue and white lately? It’s probably because The Hospital for Sick Children’s SickKids Foundation launched their ‘Doing the Happy’ campaign – a great way to jumpstart the joyful season that is summer.

The excitement surrounding the campaign validates Globe writer Simon Houpt’s observations about what made the KONY 2012 video go viral. “Everyone loves kids,” he wrote.

Influencer engagement has been all the rage for a few years now, but tapping recognizable Canadian media personalities provides a nationalistic undertone, which helps enlist support. Though I couldn’t help but notice a slant toward featuring broadcast journalists from Bell Media, it was refreshing to see actors such as Ashley Leggat, whom I hadn’t seen since Toronto’s production of Dirty Dancing.

Houpt also urged marketers not to underestimate people’s attention spans. I predict that the campaign’s combination of a fun premise, worthy cause and clean visuals will lead to many more views for their 4+ minute long video.

Doing the Happy isn’t the only neat thing SickKids is doing in the digital space. Cundari recently developed a fantastic iPhone app that engages young patients. Through gamification, the app encourages kids to fill out pain diaries and report which medications are working best.

[2025 Update: Removed campaign YouTube video and website links which are no longer available.]

May 12, 2012 by