With Christmas just around the corner my friends of BaseKit have thought it would be fun to create an infographic on the business of Christmas. From the explosive growth of online shopping to the top selling Christmas gifts of different decades, BaseKit's Christmas infographic has got it covered.
People who love advertising always enjoy going to the cinema and watching the special commercials that are created just for this amazing media.
This is my case.
I enjoyed a lot doing that when I lived in Spain but here, in UK, it´s even better. If the hour scheduled for your film is 10.30pm, you can be sure that the film doesn´t really start until 11.00pm... you can watch half an hour of commercials and trailers.
The last two times I´ve been to the cinema here I´ve enjoyed so much watching the new HP cinema campaign. This campaign features a version of Plan B's song "She said" to show the power of the "Beats" audio technology that comes installed in HP Premium PCs, laptops and tablets.
I think the advert is great and Drum, the agency that developed the campaign, did a fantastic work. Well done Drum and, of course, well done HP!
After Benetton remove the controversial advertising of their campaign 'Unheat' showing the pope kissing a muslim leader, I've been thinking about the advertising line of this always polemic brand.
Here we go some examples:
Did you like these ads?
What do you think about Benetton and their campaigns?
Last Friday, I was surfing the internet when I found a very interesting blog called No Tan Genérico, that has published a post with some amazing building advertising pictures.
Since long time ago, public buseshave becomebillboardson wheels.Theyannouncedlastfilm premieres,trendy restaurants...and since somedays ago inValencia, Spain, buses also advertise eroticclubs.
Part of thepublicmetropolitanbus fleethas in theirrearhugeposters ofshowgirls,dating sitesanderoticclubs.The issue, exposedvyesterday by the Spanish newspaperPúblico,causeda scandal in thegovernment offices.
Those ads,as said the newsagencyEfe,are on the streetsof Valenciasince lastApril, butyesterday the governmentdecided to remove them.
What do you think? Do you think the government must remove this ads or not?
You can read the whole piece of news, in Spanish, in this link to the newspaper El País.
Last October 8th the UK-based yogurt brand Muller launched a new advertising campaign called Wünderful Stuff.
This campaign that is being supported by on-demand video, digital marketing strategies, print, cinema, social media and point-of-sale activity, has been made up by the advertising agency TBWA\London and has cost Muller £20m (that's a lot of money, don't you think?).
The key of this new advertising campaign is a 90 second commercial that is running across 60 channels and which debuted during ITV’s X Factor, one of the most popular UK TV programmes.
The day after the debut, the London's newspaper Metrowas all covered with the Muller print advert.
In the campaign you can see a lot of the old TV favourites such as Mr Men, Yogi Bear and Kitt from Knight Rider.
I have to say the first time I saw this ad I was really surprised and interested because I was trying to guess what the hell were doing Yogi and Kitt saving that city of the "grey life" with a music that really sound like the Pirates of the Caribbean music... and of course, why it was related to Muller…
I think the goal of Muller and TBWA was to show that a better and happier world is possible and (of course) you can have a lot of fun and happiness tasting a Muller's yogurt. The problem I see is that people don't understand the ad. They don't know what are those cartoons doing and what do they have to do with Muller. And that's not good…
Anyway, I think it is an interesting campaign for a yogurt brand.
What do you think about it?
Do you like it?
Doesn't it remind you to the Coke Happiness Factory ad but with a lot of brighter colours?
Social Bookmarking is the process that we do when we save a website, which content is interesting for us, in websites known as bookmarks, so every time we want we can go to this sites just having a computer with access to the internet, without need of download anything in one computer. Our bookmarks not only will available for us but also for other users that could see and follow our bookmarks. And, because of everything happens in the online ambit, it’s easy to share our bookmarks wit our friends and contacts.
What is Social News?
Social News is a bookmarking tool very similar to Social Bookmarking but made up by communities who make possible to users to bookmark news contents, but also relevant contents from blogs, interesting stories, etc, and images and videos as well.
Their typology makes them great sources of information, and also make them sites where to intervene in, comment and discuss the most important recent events.
Main differences between Social Bookmarking and Social News
Despite being very similar tools and with similar performances, there are important differences between them, which means that should be evaluated independently.
The nature of the marked: it is the most notable difference between the Social Bookmarking and Social News, being the first one web pages, and news and relevant and current content for the second one.
The length of the marked: a page may remain marked in a Social Bookmarking site so long as the user who has marked wants, while it marked in the Social News, to be mainly news, lasts for hours or days, until it is losing popularity.
The way of socialize: Another significant distinction between the two social tools. While the Social Bookmarking sites provide users can share their bookmarks with their lists of friends and contacts, the Social News sites are not raised to share content with friends or contacts because the importance resides in being aware of what news or content is the most popular of the moment.
The type of traffic generated: another important difference to make between Social News and Social Bookmarking is the purpose, from a commercial point of view, of the use made of both tools in order to attract traffic to our website. While the Social News, being a sort of popularity contest, we can get a lot of traffic very quickly –but with the risk of having a non quality traffic and non loyal traffic- Social Bookmarking gets traffic for a long term, as a user is getting more and more readers and scoring more and more pages. In this way, traffic that originates with Social Bookmarking will be, with certainty, more relevant and of better quality.
We must recognize that religion has always been one of the veterans in terms of advertising is concerned. However, one thing is to advertise one religion and another to use religion as a way to advertise a service or product.
One of the most used advertising tools that has better results is the use of famous icons to sell. That is why not take long to think of religious icons, taking into account the quantities of these remain followers. More or less this is the case of 4U British mobile operator, which used a cartoon showing Jesus with his thumb raised and exaggerated wink, used to sell.
The regulator of British advertising banned this advert as "irreverent" "While advert intended to be light and humorous, we considered that the portrayal of Jesus with his thumb up and winking, accompanied by the slogan 'miraculous reduction' in Easter period seemed to ridicule one of the fundamental Christian beliefs"said the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA).
4U operator apologized to more than 80 people who had filed a complaint and argued that they never intended disrespect to Catholics, but instead they wanted to project "an image light, positive and contemporary" of the religion.
However, this is not the first time that an advertisement of this kind is banned. The Brazilian Catholic Church asked to remove a poster which that used the image of the statue in Rio de Janeiro to incite infidelity. They asked to remove a billboard placed in Rio de Janeiro by a sex website that used the image of Christ the Redeemer statue to incite infidelity.
The ad, located on a main street in the neighborhood of Barra da Tijuca, displayed a photograph of the iconic statue next to the slogan "Have an affair now! And be sorry later", as local media reported.
Below a video compilation of ads with religion as a basis.
All people who love the advertising world, enjoyed when we saw these images at Minority Report movie. We knew that one day it would be possible and we also knew that the future of advertising would be like that.
Well, this future has arrived, because today there are different softwares able to create a facial recognition and used for advertising objectives.
In that way, there are some smart billboards able to recognize the person who is looking at them. So, this billboards can know if this person is a man or a woman, if is young or old, if looks casual or elegant... and, so, the advert can be modified in order to be adapted to the kind of person who is looking at the billboard. Let's imagine a billboard about shoes, for example, if the person who is looking at it is a young men who wears casual, the advert will show him some modern and casual sneakers... if the person is a old lady, the advert will show her some classical and elegant high-heeled shoes.
Interesting, isn´t it? It is the perfect way for targeting the best as possible. I bet brands must be excited about these new softwares...
However, I guess that this new facial recognition advertising stuff will wake up controversial related with the people´s privacity... what do you think?
Burger King has announced his decision of remove 'The King' from his position as a mascot and image of the hamburger chain, with the aim of bringing its image to the food and fresh and quality ingredients, in a clear effort to get closer to its competitor McDonald's and get to be seen as a quality restaurant and even as a healthy food.
This news has led me to think about the most famous mascots that advertising has given to fast-food. Bizarre and eccentric mascots who have become icons of capitalist consumer society in which we live, as part of our daily lives.
Who does not knowthe clown Ronald McDonald or the superamerican Colonel Sanders? Do not show some kids a photograph of the prime minister of their country, as many have no clue who the hell he is, but show them a picture of 'The King' of burgers, now about to leave his throne... and I'm more than sure that all of them will recognize it in seconds!
Normally is very difficult to be able to control near what kind of information our advert is going to be published, but, if if our adverts contains some words related with important and current thematic...wow in this case we have to check it always!
Few days ago, just when London was immersed in the riots that collapsed the city during five days, I was in the laundry and, in order to no die of boredom, I was reading the newspaper "Evening Standard".
It's important to say that a lot of these rioters and looters justified their actions saying that it was a revolution, in order to don't feel like simple thieves I guess...
Anyway, I was turning the pages when suddenly I found out an advert of the bank "Metro bank" whit the headline "Thank you for joining the revolution". This advert was exactly placed in a double page dedicated to the riots of these days. My first impression was "OMG, this is a big blunder of Metro bank!!" because the headline and therefore the bank, seemed to be thanking all the looters have joined the riots and almost have destroyed some districts of the city!!
I don´t know if other people thought the same as I when seeing the ad, but I guess so...
Sometimes it's difficult to know about marketing concepts and so a lot more, about Online/Digital Marketing concepts.
Maybe you know there are a lot of possible actions related with the Online Marketing world, but you really know them?
Bellow you can find a small glosary with the definition of different concepts and acronyms of common digital marketing actions.
Online Marketing. It's the application of the principles of Marketing in the Internet network of networks. You can include from market research to the application of specific techniques of online promotion like SEO and SEM strategies, Email Marketing, etc.
SEO: "Search Engine Optimization". It's the natural or organic positioning. It consists of a series of actions on page (modifications in the website) and external actions that make possible the emergence of a website on Internet search engines, with the aim of achieving top positions for most relevant search terms in each case.
SEM: "Search Engine Marketing". This is the field on the Online Marketing that refers to the emergence and the promotion at search engines. It's very related with the PPC strategies.
PPC: "Pay Per Clic". This includes the contracting of sponsored links in different search engines on the market. There are different formats for this type of advertising, from conventional text ads or image ads through ads on videos, etc. The most famous system of PPC it would be Google AdWords.
SMO "Social Media Optimization". It's the Online Marketing field that generates publicity through social networks and online communities. The methods used are many and varied, from RSS feeds, blogging, social networking, personal or professional ...
ORM "Online Reputation Management". It's the practice of search, analysis and image enhancement and feedback from users of a person, company or brand in online media.
Email Marketing. Consists in using this versatile media by sending advertising of products or services to e-mail addresses that have been purchased or belonging to an existing database. There are two types of Email Marketing:
For Customer Loyalty. It's to offer promotions to specific customers or partners already established. It also includes creating a link to the user either congratulating him on his birthday, by the entry of a new year, any other special occasion or simply sending newsletters.
To Attract New Customers/Users. It's contracted the sending to an external database, in order to get users to become direct contacts of the company. Typically, you use a special promotion or any other claim appeal.
Internet Branding. It consists in building a brand, brand awareness, in online media. The Internet Branding can use many of the strategies of Online Marketing but with the very specific objective of strengthening the brand.
Affiliate Marketing. It's a practice of online marketing consists of creating a virtual network of affiliates, whose mission is to refer visitors to a website target. Obviously there are different possibilities for compensation, either by generating traffic to the website or performing a specific action of the visitor on this site.
Mobile Marketing. It's the use of strategies that bring a product, service or brand to consumers through their mobile terminal.
I hope all these small definitions are useful for you. They were it for me! ;)
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.
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.
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 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!
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".
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.
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?
