An article in the February issue of Motor Trend had a list of the top 10 Internet auto ads.  The first thing I noticed was that the first place ad had over 6 times the views of the second place ad.  This immediately caught my attention as I had never seen these ads before.  “The Fun Theory” campaign by Volkswagen.

This is one of the three videos they made for the campaign a few months ago.  I don’t know how I missed out on these as they really are great.  They manage to get the point across without even showing any cars.  The perfect kind of ad to make waves on the internet.  Truly fun to watch and they are all real.  They also have a strong message: Making things fun is good for the world.  By making the ads all about fun they clearly send the message that their cars are fun.  They have an entertaining video that gives their product value and leave the viewer feeling good.  I wish I had seen these sooner.

McDonald’s is always the big food sponsor of the Olympics.  Every year they try and make that make a bit more sense.  SUper greasy and fattening fast food is the sponsor for the best athletes from all across the world?  Makes sense to me!

This year makes a bit more sense in then in the past.  McDonald’s has really been pushing their healthier menu and the “all natural” aspect of their food.

Their big plan this year is based around their new smoothies.  I agree that this is a better angle for something like the Olympics.  Smoothies are something most people can agree on, even athletes.  Add in the fact that McDonald’s is a worldwide chain (the reason they are sponsors in the first place) and it all comes together.

McDonald’s even got the children of the world involved.  Athletes sponsored children’s teams from across the world and they competed to make the best smoothies in 90 seconds.  The winners got the prize of attending the Olympics.

Pretty good PR there.  It’s got children, competition, involvement of the smoothies and the athletes themselves.  What more could they ask for?

I mentioned DVR’s effects on commercials in an earlier post, and now we have an example of someone trying to do something about it.  Who would have thought it would be some virtual phone system company to try it.

Well, it’s certainly an interesting concept and will get them a lot of buzz.  The reality of all this is that it really won’t make a difference.  Sure a few people will notice the grasshopper in fast forward but the text isn’t there long enough to actually be noticed.  Not to mention the fact that most DVR systems have a 30 second skip or something similar that could make of this hard work go to waste.  Interesting concept, but this is not the solution.

As for the commercial itself, watching it at normal speed when you can actually see it, is very boring.  It’s almost as if it was meant to be seen in FF without the sound.

And why is the grasshopper talking on the phone while driving?  Bad grasshopper!

While looking around for a good story today I got to thinking about this past year.  I can remember some stand out ads from magazines I read but absolutely no TV commercials are popping into my mind.  I’m sure there are a few good ones but it is strange that I can’t think of any.

Further thinking on the matter I realized that I don’t watch much live TV anymore.  I always watch episodes of shows that I have on my computer or sometimes shows that pop up On Demand.  This is much more the case for people with TiVO.

I know this is old news.  However, I never realized how few commercials I personally see any more.  It’s quite strange.  I watch more commercials on Youtube than I do on TV.  I hear someone mention a funny or good commercial so I search for it online to watch it.

That is another interesting evolution of the commercial.  With sites like Youtube people are actually searching for specific commercials so they can watch them.  The people who still catch them when they air spread the news to their friends, and those people care enough to go out of their way to watch the commercials.  The fact that Youtube tracks the views makes it all the better.  You have numbers for how many people watched the commercial… and since they chose to watch it they actually paid attention.

Yes this is a bunch of rambling, but it’s what is on my mind today.  The ever changing world of advertising is always getting more and more interesting.

Mountain Dew is beginning the campaign for the new flavors through their crazy ‘Dewmocracy’ program again.  Another three flavors and only one will win.

The most interesting part of the campaign are the ad spots.  Dew had a plethora of different small companies, from production groups to animators, try their hand at making 12 second clips.  These clips were then voted on by the fans until only six remained.  The final six made their pitch to Mountain Dew and three were chosen.

This is an awesome system because it let the fans really decide who was going to be behind the advertising.  Fans aren’t normally involved directly with advertising but now they are getting to pick the style and companies they like the best.  This really helps the advertising seem more true and less invasive.  The ads become something people are more interested to watch and pay attention to because it is something they were involved in.

This is also a great opportunity for these three companies.  Not only will they get paid exceedingly well, they each now get to represent one of the three new flavors of Mountain Dew.  They get a huge client on their resume and all sorts of exposure that will greatly help their future endeavors.

I think this is a cool program Mountain Dew has going here and I hope they can keep it interesting enough to keep it going in years to come.

I was browsing the web recently (does anybody even say that anymore?) and I came across some pretty cool urban bus shelters. Bus shelters can often be a pretty tricky advertising medium, and a difficult one to use to get your message across. These companies, however, did an excellent job!

-Chris

I found a fun little chart on adage earlier today that had a breakdown of what has influenced people into where to shop this holiday season.

Topping off the list by a huge margin is coupons at 45%.  Obviously shopping for discounts is a huge part of every holiday season and even more so this year given the state of our economy.

Tying with word of mouth at 27% are advertising inserts.  So one of the most simple and relatively cheap methods of advertising is pulling in the most customers.

Broadcast TV is next up at 23%.  While not the biggest number 23% is nothing to scoff at.  I would still say that it is worth the advertising dollars.

Newspaper ads next at 22%.  This one is very interesting and probably something newspapers should be happy about.  The  platform thought to be dying off is actually pulling more customers to retailers than most other advertising methods.  With this in mind newspaper advertising seems like a good buy for the price.

Following closely behind is direct mail at 21%.  These numbers are all sorts of crazy.  Direct mail is about large reach with a very low return rate.  But this chart tells it all different, 21% of the people interviewed were actually swayed by the direct mail.  Amazing.

E-mail advertising is also shockingly high on this list 16%.  I’m so used to deleting everything I get, I guess I didn’t realize how many people actually read that stuff.

Cable TV spots are sitting at a rocky 12%.  Considering the cost of TV spots compared to others on this list one may wonder if it’s even worth it.  When you really think about it though, should one really give up that 12%?  Even if lower than rest it’s still a substantial number.

Magazines and Internet ads are both sitting at 11%.  This is not the best thing for magazines as they are the MUCH more expensive cousins to the newspaper ad and they have HALF the response rate (in this survey).  Has everything been turned upside down by the economy?

And lastly on the list is radio at 10%… finally something that makes sense.  I’m not even entirely sure what to say.  This information is contradictory to much that I have been learning in school.

www.singingintheshower.co.uk

That is a website from Burger King where every morning at 9:30am you can watch a young lady shower while wearing a bathing suit.

Before I even start talking too much about the idea behind it and whether I think it’s a good/bad idea I want to cover something else.  The tag line: “The world’s first guilt free shower cam.”  I have a lot of problems with this statement… and I doubt any of them are what you are thinking.

1) Is it guilt free because it is not a hidden shower cam?  If so… I would sure hope it’s not…so… just.. what?

2) There are many other examples of females being filmed in a shower wherein the female is fully aware she is being filmed.

3) A bathing suit does not magically remove the guilt someone might feel.  You are either ok with watching someone shower or not… regardless of attire.

So basically my problem is that none of the statement is true or makes any sense.  It is not the world first anything and there is nothing to make someone feel any less guilty or dirty about watching it than watching any other similar video.

Now that I got the off my chest… if they removed that tag-line I probably wouldn’t have a problem with it.  It doesn’t particularly interest me in any way but I doubt I’m really the audience on this one.  I don’t think anything would interest me in Burger King very much.  I didn’t find the “King” ads funny either, but they worked with the audience.

This really is the key here, BK did their research and found out that the primary consumer of their breakfast food is men aged 18 and up.  So BK made the choice to market directly to them and forget about everyone else.  It makes sense.  It is also important to note that this is a UK website.  People are more comfortable with sexuality in the UK than they are here.

Some people will undoubtedly complain, but that will just drum up some extra publicity about BK being edgy.  I’m sure there are plenty of people who enjoy the site and take part in picking the young lady’s bikini and song every morning.  So honestly, I think this idea works.

This terrifying video here is currently topping the viral video charts.  Last week it was sitting at 1,043,538 week views.

What I see here is more a normal commercial.  This is not really what a viral video is about.  You don’t just make a commercial and pop it up on Youtube.  Viral videos are a diffierent medium, a medium that allows different kinds of advertising, not the traditional commercial.  A viral video should either be a really cool video that somehow relates to your product or a video that people spend weeks trying to figure out because it didn’t directly mention your product.

Obviously my complaining doesn’t mean much in the grand scheme of things.  The video is doing it’s job and getting around.  Heck I just posted it and have helped them out even more.

What I’m trying to say is… I don’t like rollerskating babies and I don’t understand why this is so popular.  I guess I’m the weird one.

-Wes