OK this is just weird. A Richmond-based restaurant chain called Sticky Rice with help from RVA TV and Bark Marketing launched a plate of sushi into space. Well, more accurately, not space just really high up in the air. When you watch the video illustrating how this was done, it's one of the most unappetizing things you're likely to see. It appears all manner of nails and glue were used to make sure the sushi stayed on the plate while in flight. Hey, it's fun to send food into space but we prefer our food without nails and glue on it.
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In this third outing of our video series, Future of Engagement, host Murray Newlands speaks with Alpha Bird Chief Revenue Officer Alex Rowland about how brands can syndicate their content through social platforms and websites via contextual links. Rowland discusses the benefits video can bring to a marketer's goals and the metrics by which such efforts can be quantified.
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Wouldn't we all love to frolic with a Victoria's Secret model on a beach in the tropics. Sadly, that pleasure is reserved for a limited few. But thankfully, we have commercials. Or, more specifically, Victoria's Secret commercials in which gorgeous models frolic on a beach in the tropics for us all to virtually enjoy.
So grab some popcorn...or whatever you need to enjoy this minute and a half of blissful beauty...and give the video a watch.
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Who says social media is just a fad and doesn't work? Not Israeli fund raising organization Latet which, along with Shalmor Avnon Amichay/Y&R and Facebook app Shaker, launched an in-Facebook fundraising event during which celebrities - who were assigned avatars - gave live performances, talked with event attendees and posed for virtual snap shots.
The goal of the event was to solicit donations. Each person who donated was awarded a virtual t-shirt. The online event reached 2 million people. Many donated and Latet signed up 129 new volunteers.
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This new FCUK ad for FCUK Friction fragrance featuring Lindsay Lohan might as well scream "fornicate (insert the other F word) with friction." The ad's image, shot by Yu Tsai who also shot Lohan for her recent Playboy pictorial, was taken in 2010 and used as part of a story about the relationship between Kate Moss and Johnny Depp in Muse Magazine. FCUK bought the rights to the image and decided to use it for a current campaign.
Despite her various difficulties, Lohan has appeared in several recent campaigns including fashion labels Philipp Plein and Jag. Some say the star will never recapture her former glory. But it seems a few brands are willing to wager on her current notoriety.
Ever been at an intersection where you had the right of way but the idiot crossing your path didin't feel the need to heed the stop sign? Ever given that person the finger? Of course you have. Well here's a campaign that gets in touch with that emotion.
Creeated by Shalmor Avnon Amichay/Y&R Tel Aviv for JCDecaux, the creative resembles a stop sign but also carries the image of a hand giving the finger. It's hoped the campaign will reduce the number of idiots running stop signs. Not sure it will work though. For the most part, once and idiot always an idiot.
So everyone's covering this Marcus Thomas-created ad for Crown Condoms which touts the brand's 0.04 mm thin condoms by using the terribly tired analogy that kids, themselves, are a form of birth control. Because, God forbid, who would ever want a bunch a screaming kids in their lives? Of course, if you are a parent, you fully realize there are so many things that are remarkably positive about having kids, the occasional tantrum is well worth it.
But for those that aren't and just see children as a nuisance, this ad is right up their alley.
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French lingerie brand Etam has been threatened with legal action after it hired three models to enter Paris museum Musee d'Orsay, drop their coats and parade around the museum in their underwear. The models, who were filmed (which is prohibited inside the museum), wander around the museum a bit and then drop their coats. They then run and giggle to the amusement of museum goers.
The threesome also pulled similar stunts at the Eiffel Tower and at the Charles de Gaulle airport. Musee d'Orsay has requested the brand remove the videos from its website (it appears they have) but we all know once video hits the web it lives on forever for all to see.
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A recent Vizu-sponsored Digiday survey of 450 advertising executives and marketers found 60 percent of online budgets will be allocated to brand advertising in 2012, an indication spending on online branding may surpass spending on direct response advertising for the first time in the coming year. Top findings from the study:
- 64 percent of marketers plan to increase their online brand advertising budgets in 2012, with 22 percent saying they will increase spending by more than 20 percent.
- In contrast, only 56 percent of marketers plan to increase their online direct response advertising budgets in 2012, with only 15 percent saying they will increase spending by more than 20 percent.
- Additionally, 60 percent of marketers responding indicated they are allocating dollars away from direct response to brand advertising initiatives.
Of the findings and in a statement that is sure to spark debate over what some see as the attempt to fit a square peg in a round hole, Vizu CEO Dan Beltramo said, "These growth predictions are clearly optimistic, but very encouraging nonetheless. There's still more that needs to be done in order to realize those numbers and make online the medium of choice for brand advertisers. I believe that when brand advertisers understand that their online ads can now be measured and optimized using classic offline brand metrics such as awareness and purchase intent, we will see a further growth in their online ad budgets."
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This guest contribution is written by Dave McMullen, partner and lead strategist at redpepper integrated agency.
Say the word "advertising" at a cocktail party and most people will immediately engage in a conversation about their favorite television spots. To be a part of this conversation used to be the holy grail of advertising.
Then along came the search engine, and along with it came a new holy grail--the top spot in a list of search results.
While the whole world was clamoring for Google's coveted number one, unsponsored search result listing, Facebook and Twitter began not-so-quietly supplanting Google as the central nervous system of the world wide web. These two social media juggernauts gave rise to an engagement era during which the once lauded "impression" began to fall out of favor as a legitimate measure of a return on marketing investment. And, as a result, yet another era in marketing arose. And we're smack dab in the middle of it at this very moment in time.
Welcome to the sharing era--an era in which a company's brand awareness and advertising messages have fallen, quite literally, into the hands of the market.
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