;)
Agency: Chuo Senko
Via: Ads of the World
Reid Gower is a big fan of NASA, but has been very frustrated by the Agency's lackluster marketing. In particular, he feels that they have really dropped the ball in terms of using social media.
So out of frustration as much as anything else he put his own video together for them and posted it to his YouTube page. Gower wants to help rekindle public interest in what he feels is "the most fascinating, adventurous, epic institution every devised by human beings". And since NASA is doing such a poor job of it, Gower decided to take matters into his own hands.
This one young man (24 years old), working alone, produced one hell of a video. It's only been up for a day, and it's waves are already rippling across the Internet. Let's hope NASA takes note, and is appropriately moved. I know I was.
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Agency: Chuo Senko
Via: Ads of the World
Up until about 15-20 years ago cork had a virtual monopoly on the wine stopper market. The percentage of wines using a cork stopper stood at around 98%. With the increasing popularity of non-cork wine stoppers such as screw caps, plastic plugs and "zorks" however, that market share has dropped to 70%. Perhaps less.
Needless to say, the Portuguese Cork Association is not happy about this. So they have begun fighting back with a $22 million PR campaign based around the natural and (of course) "green" qualities of natural cork.
To that end they are funding the 100% Cork initiative, and so far they have been fairly successful. For example they've already generated over 30,000 "likes" on Facebook, with the majority of those coming from women. The particular concern of women on this issue may have been what inspired the creation of the video below.
Note that this campaign mostly ignores whether or not cork is actually the best product to use as a wine stopper. So far the consensus seems to be that it is best for some wines (especially those that need to age), and perhaps not for others. But since there are legitimate arguments pro & con on that point, this button is ignored.
That cork is more "green" and sustainable is difficult to argue however. So that is the point of differentiation used. Twenty or thirty years ago this might not have meant a lot to the average wine drinker. But these days it means quite a bit more, so this is a very clever positioning strategy.
Four Takeaways: 1) Focus your communication on your strengths. 2) If you can legitimately attach a "green" label to your product or service, you should. 3) If it matters to women, it will very soon matter to men. 4) And of course - even a somewhat silly presentation will sound perfectly reasonable when delivered with a British accent.
]]>Remember my last post about sweating the details? Jarrett put in over 500 hours on this, and it shows. Really well done.
]]>Important point - Google is known for having a fairly simple design approach. People often confuse simple for easy. Not the same thing. In fact a quality design that's also really simple can be devastatingly difficult to pull off. And large organizations do not, by their nature, lend themselves to simplicity in design or anything else. The video below, for example, is a fairly well-known jab at just this tendency. Anyone who's worked in a large organization will tell you that this video is more true than not.
Multiple Takeaways - 1) Sweat the details. It's worth it. 2) Simple is best, but don't assume it's easier. It's often far more difficult. But again, worth it.
]]>Another in our series of commercials that, either by intent or accident, really push the creepy button. This one is from Argentina, is for the Sony Playstation, and was produced by Del Campo Nazca Saatchi & Saatchi.
In many ways it's actually a really interesting and very creative ad. I think it gets its point across well, and it definitely grabs your attention. But at some point, at least for me, the "creative" definitely turned into "creepy". I don't know if that's good.
Then again, here I am blogging about a commercial from Argentina, so maybe they know exactly what they're doing.
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This site was put together by some of the guys who worked on the Google Chrome browser, and is illustrated by Christoph Niemann. It’s a terrific introduction to the Internet as well as a showcase for a beautiful, functional web site. Highly recommended.
As a side note - if you’re using a modern browser, the page turns will be smooth, and the URL’s clean. If your browser has to reload each time you turn the page, it’s time to upgrade your browser. Actually, WAY past time. Remember, browser's are free so there's no excuse for using an outdated one. You not only rob yourself of the complete and current web experience, you hold the rest of us back as well. OK? Thank you...
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Now far be if from me to question the marketing skills of Microsoft. And even more so, far be it from me to question an agency like Crispen, Porter & Bogusky. But the new positioning for the Windows phone looks really problematic to me.
If you look at the video below, you'll see their first salvo. The commercial starts out by showing numerous examples of people missing out on life experiences because they're too busy tapping away on their phones. Then the commercial transitions into situations where people are making really foolish (and even dangerous) mistakes for the same reason.
A voice-over then kicks in and tells us that "it's time for a phone to save us from our phones." The Windows phone will do this because it's built to quickly get you off your phone and then "back to life."
OK I get it. Microsoft is really late to this party and they know it. They have essentially missed an entire generation of smart phone development, and are jumping into a market in which Apple and Google (Android) have a tremendous head start. In order to get people to try their Windows smart phone they have to position their phone in a way that sets it apart from both Apple and Google. Which means they have to decide how to be different.
]]>The Guardian has a great graphic showing who is suing who over wireless patents. The answer? Pretty much everyone. Wow.
Add startup funding to the list of the million things that the Internet has changed forever.
It used to be really tough to get funding for a new project. There were only a handful of organizations (banks, investment firms, venture capital firms, etc.) that even offered such funding, and getting them on board was time consuming, complicated, expensive and exhausting.
It was also unlikely, in that most companies got turned down. It was especially tough for companies who needed small (by corporate standards) amounts of money. Small investments generally lead to small returns, and VC firms are not in the business of small.
But just as web sites like Kiva have shown the amazing power (and empowerment) of micro-loans, sites like Kickstarter are showing the power of micro and crowd-sourced funding.
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