Merry Christmas...in July...

Yes, you have read right. Xmas has arrived in London. 

Really, Xmas has arrived at the most famous department stores in the city, Harrods and Selfridges, which launched last Thursday 28th of July their campaings for the most important shopping holiday of the year.

In that way, Harrods decided to promote the shopping having Santa Claus and Mrs Claus eating ice creams in the store (combining so winter and summer seasons) and Selfridges prepared its Christmas display in order to awake the Xmas shopping feeling in all the Londoners who come into the Oxford Street's store.

So... Merry Summer-Christmas to everybody!!!

The most popular option of the moment to share content

Since few months ago, when a user makes a search via Google, he can do +1 on any link of the search results' website with the goal of recommend content to his contact list, list that can increase considerably since the launch of the new social portal, Google +.

This new method of sharing that Google has implemented allows the user to see the sites that his contacts recommend within the search results of Google. This method could be summarized as "word of mouth" of Google. People trust more in what their friends recommend than anything else ... if a friend tells us that in the Spanish restaurant of the corner we can eat great and the price is very cheap, probably we will go sometime. In the same way, if when doing a Google search we see that the outcome is a +1 from some of our friends, we will possibily decide to enter on this link rather than others.

On the other hand, being aware that users are not always familiar with the sites that they see for first time in a search results, and they need to visit them before recommending them, Google has provided the option to include the +1 button in the content of our website/blog. In this way, we can make our site stand out on Google searches, improving our CTR in search both payment results and naturals.

All you have to do is to include a small line of code where you want the button +1 to appear. 

Below you can find the link where you can get the code.

::. Button to insert the +1 to Google

L'Oreal airbrushed ads banned in UK

Airbrushed make-up ads featuring actress Julia Roberts and model Christy Turlington have been banned after complaints they are misleading. So, L'Oreal has been forced to remove the images used in its Lancome and Maybelline magazine campaigns.

It's because a complaint from Jo Swinson -former marketing manager who won East Dunbartonshire from Labour in 2005, and was re-elected in 2010- who has said the pictures weren't representative of the results the products could really achieve, because they had been digitally manipulated. 

The ASA, has agreed the ads breach its code on misleading and exaggeration.

Below you can compare the images of the beautiful celebrities in de ads and in the real life. Wow!!!

M&M'S World in London: paying for a brand's merchandising

M&M's World is a retail store that specializes in everything from M&M's candy to M&M's merchandising. There are M&M'S World stores in Las Vegas, Orlando, in New York City and, since last 13th June 2011, also in London, exactly in Leicester Square. This new M&M'S London store is the world's largest candy store.

I was there few days ago just for having a look inside the store. 

Of course you can buy M&M’s there, filling with them plastic boxes in diferent sizes and shapes. But the store is actually an apology of the M&M'S brand: story of the brand, logotypes and pets, brand's clothing, brand's gifts... all merchandising imaginable is there, at the M&M'S World store in London.

Maybe for people no related with marketing world it's a nice and funny place, but for me -and I'm sure also for you if you're following this blog- it's like a big joke in which people are coming to this place just for pay for things made with the brand of a famous product...it's amazing for M&M's! Most companies give this kind of merchandising of their products as a present for their customers in their fair or events...but achieve people to pay for them? It's terrific!

I just can say: well done M&M'S!

How Google+ will transform search and search marketing

Google + is revolutioning the concept of what a social network should be and it's being proposed like a real competitor for the giant Facebook.

But Google + is not only willing to change our minds about social networking, but it's also positioning as a superb SEO tool. Here you can find a link for a very interesting  Williams: "How Google+ Will Transform Search and Search Marketing".

Enjoy it as I've done!

What is an advertising insight?

An advertising insight is something quotidian, something thath touch closely the consumers, something that is part of their lifes. 

It comes to observe the quotidian, detect, sense about the lifestyle of consumers, their inner feelings and find new ways to communicate. Insights are the preconceptions are already in our perception.

It is without doubt the star tool used in advertising to get closer to people's hearts.

Examples are thousands, but I leave one in my opinion is not only a great insight, but a sensational commercial.

Advertising fields

Any place is good to advertise our products or services.

Since a long time ago, classical advertising channels (ATL) are not the only option for let us to be known, in fact, in a society highly exposed to advertisment messages, the best way to get our message to be the most effective as possible is fleeing from these conventional channels and looking for originality, which is already 

being used for the techniques of guerrilla and other forms of communication outside of common (BTL).

Today I want to highlight one of these new channels of advertising, which already exists in many countries but is now being proposed and studied to take place around the airport of Barcelona: crop's fields as a new channel for advertising messages. Smart, don't you think? We all have ever flown in an airplane and always or almost always we tend to look outside the window, specially when we are taking off or landing.

We look at the surface of the earth that we have under us ...

What could be better for a company that millions of travelers who fly each year to a destination X, can put their eyes on their ads? 

I leave some examples I found online. Enjoy it!

Less sugar, less calories or not advertising

US government is trying to cut a child obesity rate that's almost tripled in the past three decades to 17 percent.

In this way, some of the largest food companies (Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Kellogg, Krafts...) proposed imposed self-regulations to restrict the types of products they advertise and market toward children. 

The regulation holds companies to limits on the amount of calories, sugar, sodium and saturated fat allowed in foods promoted to children.

All this food and beverages marketed toward children would have to change, or the companies will not be able to advertise those products after Dec. 31, 2013.

Ashley Madison in Spain- the success of the controversial

Last month, the world leading married dating service agency Ashley Madison arrived in Spain.

Of course, in order to let the Spanish people know their services they launched an interesting and very controversial advertising campaing.

His first action was to launch a commercial that, due to ethical reasons, many of the Spanish television channels decided not to broadcast. This generated a huge amount of news about the non-broadcast of the Ashley Madison's commercial ... one mini-point for the infidels' agency!

However, not happy with the great publicity and coverage that the media gave to the controversy of its commercial, Ashley Madison hung up a few days later a billboard with a picture of the King of Spain together with Price of Wales and Bill Clinton. Under the photo the pedestrians were asked: "What do these "royals" have in common?". According to the company they should have used their services, which ensures infidel relationships via the Internet with discretion and maximum security.

The exterior advertising was removed on the day of placement, but again the great controversy generated put Ashley Madison in the top ten most read news in Spain. Again... mini-point and point for the affairs' agency!

Welcome to my place!

In this new digital age in which everyone shares their ideas and opinions online, thanks to the power of social networks and personal blogs, normal people can ask themselves the following existential question: "Do I create my own blog?" Possibly even your neighbor have her own about how to make best crochet scarves... so... why do not you?

Find what you're passionate about, what you're good at -or you believe to be- or what you like to comment and share ideas about. Do you have it? I do.


Welcome to Good, Nice & Cheap, a space to share ideas, news, and most of all, opinions about different aspects and fields of the world of advertising, marketing and communication.