When in doubt, nothing wins people over like a good story. Playing the bard is a standby for good CEOs and, we think, great marketers.
That's one reason why we found Richard Maxwell and Robert Dickman's The Elements of Persuasion so interesting. It doesn't just emphasize the importance of telling tales to persuade; it does so from a branding and sales perspective, without neglecting the importance of listening, and sharing plenty of relevant stories along the way.
It's also compact, easy to read, and orange. How do you beat orange?!
This is neat. If you were ever a fan of that game show Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? you'll enjoy the hell out of this location locator game for DHL.
The object is to locate each state as it appears on your country's map. The faster you can do it, the higher your score. Your mistakes are also counted.
Our teachers will be happy to know that we finally know where Wyoming is. Seriously. We were beginning to think it didn't really exist.
Nothing rings in the holidays like the thought of wearing a new Chloe while unwrapping a golden box of truffles. Even if those truffles came from grandma, and even if you gave her the exact box two years ago.
This set of prints by Sugartown Creative is Godiva's attempt to position itself as a luxury item a la 10,000 water bottles or LV bags.
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Dentsu, Canada put together this spot -- dubbed its "latest and greatest" -- for the Lexus H. (The H stands for "hybrid".)
You know, no one could ever accuse Lexus of being too flashy. For an upper middle class status symbol, it manages to resist the compulsion amazingly well.
In its quest to boot cable out of the home and replace it with FiOS, Verizon has launched a home upgrade reality show of sorts, My Home 2.0, which will be aired on TV as well as the web and include social media concepts such as blogs and YouTube videos. Five families in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh will have a team of techno types come to their homes and outfit it with the latest and greatest Verizon has to offer.
The installations and block parties held in each neighborhood will be recorded and placed on the My Home 2.0 website, YouTube, Facebook and Verizon's FiOS on-demand cable channel.
If a reality show about people living on an island can sustain itself, we suppose a show about people getting new home technology toys could fair just as well.
Here's a semi-witty use of a coupon in an ad for an issue that usually doesn't align itself with wit: pre-planned funerals. Even the creative brief is witty, reading, "The truth is, at some point it becomes too late to pre-plan. Why? Because you're dead." Hey, why be coy when you can get right to the point. After all, that's what all good advertising should do.
ACLC Toronto created the campaign for Mount Pleasant Cemetary.
As part of a promotion to tout its classified advertising sections, the Charleston Post and Courier launched a television and print campaign accompanied by a third, very interesting element: pizza box advertising. Yes, there's been ads on pizza boxes before but the paper's agency, RawleMurdy, worked directly with local Charleston pizza shops providing them with a total of 50,000 pizza boxes branded entirely with the paper's message and an offer for free classified listings for items under $100.
The campaign ran between August 27 and September 26. The paper reports phone inquiries and online listing are up. Not half bad in an age where many paper's are seeing a decline in classified ad revenue. You can view the print work here and one of the spots here.
We were skeptical about how many more ways Sony would be able to push its swath-everything-in-color manifesto for the Bravia campaign, but at this rate, we're pretty sure it could go on forever.
Y&R, Egypt is responsible for this pyramid and thread spot. It's appealing -- even without a Rolling Stones tune -- but it also filled us with a sense of dread. How many takes did this require? Who cleaned up all those spools?
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Everyone plays with their food from time time time. Perhaps, because what's on the plate isn't very palatable. Maybe it's the result of nervousness while on an awkward date. Maybe one too many martinis were consumed prior to dinner and one more bite of food will, assuredly, turn the stomach into a launch vehicle for its contents. But how many people play with food just to make a commercial?
OK, so a lot of people do but this Leo Burnett Toronto-created, Head Gear Animation-produced commercial for Kellogg's All-Bran Guardian goes far beyond pushing food around with a fork or styling it for a photoshoot. In this commercial, the food becomes the makings of a video. Enjoy.
It's almost impossible to remember, given what's happened between now and then, but Christina Aguilera and Britney Spears used to be on the same track career path towards stardom. Obviously, things have changed over the past several years for the former Mouseketeers.
For Spears, it's been mostly for the worse. For Aquilera, it's been a smooth sail so it isn't a surprise she comes of as the elegant lady she is in this latest celebrity perfume campaign for her namesake's fragrance. Yes, Aguilera had her slutty 'Dirty' period but she's settled quite nicely into the blond bombshell category and appears happy to stay. Spears (who has also done her fair share of fragrance commercials), well, let's not dwell but, rather, enjoy Aguilera's new commercial.
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