Hello, Lexus.

This is me, the consumer who can be edgy or conservative, or in your words "fit in or stand out." 

Love it.

Spotify. For Music.

Spotify launches a brand-spanking new campaign tonight! The spot will premiere on the national premiere of The Voice on NBC. Perfect placement, especially since The Voice has been receiving heavy advertising. They have revamped the site in preparation for the traffic increase once consumers see the spot and wonder "what is Spotify?" Droga5 , the first AOR for Spotify, is aiming to strike an emotional chord with 18-40 year olds with the help of a $10 million budget... for the first three months.

Screenshot of current Spotify.com

GAP - Gaining And Profiting?

It’s no doubt that Gap has been making an enormous effort to make them your shopping dstination. Their ads scream in colors. The ads are actually quite beautiful and apparently have done their job. Gap’s sales have made a drastic turn for the best as they went from a 4% decline in 2011 to a 5% gain in annual same-store sales for 2012. I love seeing the power of marketing at work. Here are a few ads from Ogilvy & Mather for the “Be Bright” campaign that helped Gap achieve their great results. 

Publicis Groupe Interactive YouTube Video

Publicis Groupe's New Years greeting from CEO Maurice Lévy took YouTube videos to a whole other level. To make what would normally be a lengthier video a bit more interesting, Digitas France created the video so any action the viewer takes results in an action different from the typical YouTube viewing functions. The short clip below will direct you to the actual greetings video. During the greeting video, make sure to do the following:

• Press Pause to see Maurice Lévy record a new voicemail, watch a video on his iPad, rock back forth in his chair, or any other action he might do to entertain himself while you take a "short break" from his monologue
• Press mute to read what he has to say
• Skip forward to see his reaction
• Go fullscreen to see the entire image behind the camera
• Adjust the volume to hear him speak at different levels
• Change the level of quality to see the quality of the office object change

On a different note, clickable videos are the way to go if you're in shopper marketing. Integrate the products into a video (natural, life-style videos for social media)and give shoppers the opportunity to click the products in the video. Definitely, a must-try (now if only I can convince my team/client to execute this idea).

Amazon Grins Greater in 2013

2013 will be bringing big changes. Among many changes, Amazon is launching its very own self-serving advertising platform. Advertisers currently have the ability to advertise on Amazon.com, sites they own such as IMBD.com, and other third party sites via Amazon. Now they can set up the ads through the self-service ad center, similar to Facebook Ads. However, the major breakthrough for advertisers will come at a limit-pushing price. There hasn't been any discussion on pricing structure (CPC, CPM, etc), nor any reference to ranges but it's unlikely that advertisers will find low prices for the great targeting based on Amazon's data collection.

As we move into 2013, predictions have been flying around that full-service agencies will begin to shift media buying to the hands and expertise of media buying agencies. Amazon seems to be setting themselves up for a power house ad network with the correct use of their endless data. Watch out, Google Adwords.

In case you didn't notice, the arrow is a smile.

73% of Users Found This Post Interesting

Sometimes you randomly get inspired. All it takes is a short talk, a long drive, or a simple reassurance that I'm on the right path.

It also helps that the first article I read today was on Google's marketing scheme that lightly pokes fun at itself. Google, the search engine royalty calls out e-retailers who use search features to make e-commerce tedious (cough I mean easier). Why? Google is obviously going for a different target audience with these spots. Not consumers, but agencies. The message? Agencies and retailers need Google Analytics to get to know their online consumers' behavior. As a Google Analytics user (with this blog and in my professional experience), I can attest to the fact that analytics is a must.

Check out the videos for yourself:

An Ode to Insurance

My brother thinks this commercial is hilarious and I must agree. The whole campaign succeeded in taking a different approach to making consumers concerned about safety (or insurance I should say). No wonder it won a Gold Addy award in 2011. 

Cleint: Allstate

Agency: Leo Burnett - Chicago

Insurance companies in general have used a different method to attract consumers. The focus is no longer "good"insurance coverage. There isn't even a major emphasis on prices anymore. Insurance companies (their AOR) are attempting to create a personality for which consumers can relate.

The two personalities that stand out are Allstate's Mayhem and Progressive's Flo. Both have created an audience willing to listen to these "people" without feeling as if the insurance sale is being shoved down their throat. While looking into the audience who has opted in to Allstate and Progressive's messages through Facebook and Google+, I found Flo has a larger audience with 3,258,681 fans. Mayhem may have a smaller Facebook fan base with 1,101,076 fans, but engagement seems to be higher on Mayhem's Facebook page. 45,105 fans are engaging with Allstate by mentioning Mayhem in personal posts. 

     

Although both take a similar approach by  creating separate Facebook pages for the personalities instead of categorizing the personality under the brand Facebook page, Google+ is another story. Flo continued to keep her Google+ page separate from Progressive, while Mayhem is simply featured on the Allstate Google+ page. This was a smart move since 776 consumers have Allstate  in their circles since the page was created on November 7, 2011, while Flo is only in 147 circles since joining Google+ on November 9, 2011. I'm interested in seeing how the pages and audiences develop and grow given more time. 

Wild Life Coming to a Mall Near You

Client: National Geographic
Agency: Appshaker

Thanks to Great-Ads.blogspot.com for the find

The Halloween Variety

In honor of my favorite not-so-official holiday, here's a compilation of a few halloween ads.

Client: Honda

Agency: RPA - Santa Monica, CA ( I used to intern here!)

Client: Audi

Agency: AKQA, United States

Client: Mini Cooper

Agency: Taxi 2, Canada

Client: Guinness

Agency: The Marketing Store - Toronto, Canada

Got Milk?

Austin Power, 1997

Carson Daly, 2000

Jessica Alba, 2002

Clark Kent, 2006

Taylor Swift, 2008

Harrison Ford, 2011

Harrison Ford doesn't look too bad in the newest Got Milk? ad released in July 2011.

It's a Google World, and Facebook Just Lives in It.

Google+ vs. Facebook 

I'm curious to see who will win. 

I really like the middle comic hahah. Enjoy!

Changing Twitter

According to eMarketer.com, "80% of advertisers renew their campaigns" with Twitter. This isn't surprising since brand presence is heavy on Twitter. However, there are wins and fails for many brands. #ReinventThewheel is a promoted trend right now, but what does that mean?! The posts with this hash tag are all over the place. Some campaigns are definitely not obvious while others like every gourmet food truck campaign is straightforward and helpful for consumers. 

Expect big changes on how marketers utilize Twitter and what that means to brands. Foursquare is attempting to redefine their role in Twitter by getting tweeters to write content in their check ins. Foursquare gave companies an idea of the traffic and the level of engagement with their brand on Twitter, but what now? I guess we'll have to wait and see.

Mufasa vs Fabio

Agency: Wieden + Kennedy, Portland, USA

Guess who I like better.

Funny Spots

Agency: RPA, Santa Monica, CA

Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi, NY, USA

Back Again!

Agency: Cramer-Krasselt, Chicago, USA

Agency: Sukle, USA

Testing

Why did all my pictures stop working?

Agency: TBWA

They seem to be working now, so I'll be posting again.