Move over Hello Kitty, there's a new Japanese pop culture must-have and its name is Tare Panda, a flatish looking panda bear which is fast becoming the want of the tween/teen set. Created in 1995, Tare Panda is one of the most famous cartoon characters in Japan, has no feet and is also known as "Pa-pa Panda" or "Lazy Panda." Since it has no feet, it moves around by rolling - at a speed of 2.7 meters per second to be exact. Tare Panda is also lazy unless near it favorite fruit, Swama, which then causes the little guy to actually exude some energy.
To fight the plethora of competing brands and market fragmentation, publishers are striking licensing deals to insure their brands remain top of mind with consumers. Prevention has a line of vitamins. Maxim has put out a hair color product and may brand nightclubs and frozen food. This Old House sells branded paints. And Vibe will brand sheets, towels and greeting cards. Where are the Razor branded razors?
It's well known that advertising has seeped into every pore of life and it has become largely inescapeable. While there is already some forms of advertising that touch the pristine experience of skiing, Sno Ads wants to plaster big advertiser's logos all over the the snow at ski resorts and on the sides of mountains.
Hiding behind the environmentally safe aspects of its methods, "Sno Ads" masks the ugliness of its business proposition. There are some places in this world, where advertising does not belong and a mountainside or ski slope is one of them.
MasterCard is launching a new television spot as part of its long running "Priceless" ad campaign. This time, the spot will target small businesses explaining how MasterCard can assist business owners realizing their dreams. It still won't be as good as this spot in which MasterCard helps a guy ask his girlfriend to realize his.
Speaking at AdWatch: Outlook 2004, McDonald's CMO Larry Light is abandoning the concept of universal messaging via mass media and embarking upon what he called "brand journalism."
"Any single ad, commercial or promotion is not a summary of our strategy. It's not representative of the brand message," he said. "We don't need one big execution of a big idea. We need one big idea that can be used in a multidimensional, multilayered and multifaceted way." Huh? English, please.
Muddying this new marketing direction even further, Light gave "brand journalism" two other definitions - "brand narrative" and "brand chronicle" all as means by which to see "what happens to a brand in the world," then somehow turn all that blather into some form of new and different storytelling type marketing communication.
Light also commented on his "I'm Lovin It" campaign calling it a big shift in direction because they chose to use a hip-hop soundtrack. Whoo!
If you're a guy on the prowl in a hotel bar, you might want to think twice before giving your hotel key to that gorgeous woman smiling at you. Conversely, if you're a woman, you might try the tactic demonstrated in this viral video when some drooling dude drops his room key in front of you. Either way, this commercial, which B.L. Ochman pointed out, is suppose to have something to do with selling leather. Take a look.
To promote its upcoming movie, "Sleepover," MGM Pictures and Milton Bradley are planning what they call the World's Largest Sleepover. On June 23, coinciding with the release of Milton Bradley's new game, Cover to Cover, satellite sleepovers will be held simultaneously in 21 cities across the country with the movie's stars Alexa Vega and a bunch of other tween hotties piped in for the giggle-fest.
Anastasia Goodstein of Ypulse says the trailer is lame and we'd agree. But that won't stop the pajama party nor the crashing of it by men of all ages who can't help but follow with glee the current paedophile-like teen/tween cultural obsession with or the chance to see a bunch of tweeners dressed in ridiculously small but tantalizingly hot sleepwear. Someone take pictures.
Found by Martina of Adverblog, Mercedes has launched its new Grand Sports Tourer with a multi-language microsite that takes viewers, in 45 seconds, through the development process rather than the winding road process. Viewers can sign up to receive a newsletter that will take them through the car's design process and also enter to win a home design concept from Graft Designers - Hollywood's hottest architects.
London's viral and buzz marketing agency DMC has seeded a campaign for English menswear label Hope & Glory in conjunction with EURO 2004 to promote its new website. The campaign consists of a quirky video called "Queenie" with Prince Philip introducing the Queen who then breaks into some odd dance jam while uttering the words, "David Beckham's having a party, bring your vodka and Bacardi." Creative work was done by Drugstore.
Attorneys Edward and Alex Shenderovich are known to Pittsburgh residents as "The Double Team." Like the DoubleMint commercials of yester-year, the Shenderovich brothers appear together in a television campaign promoting their legal practice. Whether it's America's fascination with twins or the thirty television spots they run each month that drives their success, their personal injury business has grown 500 percent in the six years since they began running the television campaign.
"As soon as we put an ad on, the phone started ringing," Edward Shenderovich said.
The twins see television as the primary driver of their business. "We had a Web site but we didn't get any response," Edward Shenderovich said. "If somebody gets hurt and they're laying in the hospital they don't have any access to a computer. But if they're laying in bed, they can reach for the Yellow Pages or see us on TV."
Perhaps to boost their business even further, the pair might ask jailbait graduates Mary-Kate and Ashley to join them in their next commercial.
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