During the day, I work for an advertising agency in Chicago designing and developing interactive marketing for major consumer brands. I'm also a creative thinker, wannabe animator and occasional film maker.
As I go through my day, my thoughts, ideas and interests slip in and out of focus. This is an attempt to capture some of those things - in whatever form they may take.
Or not.
Kraft Foods to Change Name
Kraft Foods said it plans to change its name to Mondelez International, a word it coined (made up) to mean “delicious world.” Apparently this was announced last week, but I just heard about it.
The name reminds me of an episode of Seinfeld, where Mr. Pitt is negotiating a merger of two bottled water companies and the new name was going to be “Moland Springs.” Elaine screws up the merger when she says the obvious: it’s a stupid name.
Nobody wants to drink water called “Moland.” The same applies here, I don’t want to eat “Mondelez Macaroni & Cheese.” Of course, I’m sure they won’t be rebranding all their products as “Mondelez.” I’m sure the “Kraft” brand will stick around. Right?
Irene Rosenfeld, the soon to be Mondelez International chief executive, said when announcing the name change, “Mondelez perfectly captures the idea of a ‘delicious world’ and will serve as a solid foundation for the strong relationships we want to create with our consumers, customers, employees and shareholders.”
Really? Nobody in the board room stood up and said it was stupid name.
Targeted Advertising
Came across this screen capture from about a month ago on my desktop. I thought it was funny.
Dear Oracle,
Some friendly advice. If you are actually paying ad agency money for that shit, not only are being ripped off by the agency doing the work but your marketing team is incompetent. It’s time to fire your CMO and get a new agency.
Best regards,
-chris guy
Pepsi shows lack of respect for their audience
Here is the final lockup for a banner ad for Pespi Throwback that I ran across on Kotaku.com. Can you see the problem with the image?
No? Take a look a the cardboard cutout of the can a “designer” Photoshoped into the girls hand. I don’t care that the ad uses stock imagery; the image fits the throwback idea. But some marketing genius demanded that she be holding a Pepsi and this was the best they could do. Really?
This is why people ignore banner ads; 90% of the time they are crap. From the production houses that create them to the marketing teams that approve them, work like this proves they have no respect for their medium or their audience.
PepsiCo, you’re a billion dollar company, pay for a fucking photo shoot.
I thought about doing this exact comparison a couple years ago, but because I work for an ad agency that has ties to one of the restaurants showcased, I thought I’d better not. That won’t prevent me from re-blogging it because I think it showcases a good point.
Let’s face it, we’re all expecting the food to look like it does in the advertisements. No matter what, there is going to be some disparity between the advertised ideal image and the reality of what the customer receives. There just aren’t enough food stylists in the world to make sure every sandwich that is purchased is as pretty as the advertising. These restaurants spend billions on advertising to promote and build their brands. I believe that when the food that the customer receives is significantly different (i.e. Burger King’s Whopper above) from what the customer is expecting, it negatively impacts the customers view of that brand.
I’m kicking myself because the comparison was and still is a great idea and I didn’t do it. Ironically, the idea came to me when I received a Whopper that looked very similar to the version above. I actually held my sandwich up and compared it to the in-store ad hanging on the wall. It was such a disappointment.
Here is my free advise to the CEO of Burger King whose restaurant chain is going through some tough times: if you want to improve your sales and your brand image, don’t put an inedible looking product in front of your customers. Before your customer even puts the food in their mouth they’ve already decided whether it tastes good based on the look and the smell.
I’d like to see comparisons for all fast food restaurants. Anybody want to take this idea further?
Ads and the real deal. Surprise, surprise.
Since Apple bought Quattro Wireless, I’ve wondered how they were going to put Quattro’s mobile ad network to work. It looks like the answer will come Thursday when Apple announces a mobile iAd/AdKit framework for the iPhone OS.
For those who want an easier way to monetize their applications, it’s great news. I expect that Apple has realized a mobile ad platform that can not only serve ads to users and track their interactions but also tie that data to a specific device, location and/or person. That could be exciting. Is it the Holy Grail of marketing? Time will tell.
Nokia N97 fails to deliver on advertised functionality and ease of use. This should be Marketing 101: If you are going to market a product and claim to have certain features and look and work a particular way, you better deliver on those expectations. If you don’t, you’ll end up with a youtube video highlighting your failures.
Via: Agency Spy
AdFreak breaks down Wieden + Kennedy’s 9 month, 9 circles of hell guerrilla marketing campaign for EA Games’ Dante’s Inferno. The campaign received 47 million impressions on a modest budget of $200K.
