Today we are leaving the world of traditional print ads and exploring the great outdoors! These are ads that reaches consumers on the go so they need to be short, sweet and interesting.
Sprite Shower by Ogilvy Sao Paulo
This simple yet ingenious ad has been providing 1500 sweaty Brazilian beach goers with refreshing cold showers every day. How can brand that boasts refreshment demonstrate it better than making us feel it all over our bodies? It can't.
It works on the whole mirage concept, on a sweaty 40 degree day you see a HUGE sprite dispenser in the distance. You think it's just your douchebag brain making cruel jokes until you get a bit closer and realise it is real! You stand under it and experience ultimate relief from the heat. Your mind becomes clear and you are ready to dedicate another hour or two to sunbathing and people watching.
Sprite was very clever with this ad. Not only did they increase Sprite sales on the beach but they also attracted world wide attention with tourists flocking to the beach to get a picture that they can Tweet/Instagram/Facebook to all their friendsexpanding the ads reach.
If we are going to think about it literally then it's a bit of a sticky idea but conceptually it's pretty damn awesome.
Casino di Venezia lugguage belt
You have arrived at your destination and have to navigate an enormous maze of tired and frantic people scrambling to get out of the airport. After hours in a cramped flying tin can, breathing recycled air and eating sub-standard food there are still customs queues to wait in and bags to wait for. How can we make this tragically UN-funny sequence of events a little more bearable and dare I suggest...a little fun?
Make the luggage conveyer belt into a giant roulette wheel so that you can bet where your bags will land! You could even make a couple of Euros betting against the fat Croc-wearing woman who kept you awake with her snoring and blocked your way to the bathroom. Fun-ctional interactive adverts like this really stick in our minds and Casino di Venezia has seen a 60% increase in customers thanks to this ad.
Halifax Municipality MetroTransit's Do it on the Bus Campaign by Acart Communications Canada
Sleeping, texting and reading- all no-no's when you are driving in a car. Other peoples lives are in your hands! Sadly this doesn't stop some people and more of the population are becoming tragic statistics. Metro Transit has found a way to use these facts in a humorous way to promote their bus service.
I think this is a great billboard ad that can be viewed to or from work and in heavy traffic because it reminds us that those things should NOT be done in the car and also makes us want to do those things thus making us think that we should consider using the bus instead. The copy "Do more while you get around" makes me think. How much time could I be saving? How much more productive could my mornings/afternoons be? If only I had used the bus! Simple, witty, informative.
I think that outdoor ads will be the most fun to come up with and I can't wait until I get a crack at doing them later on in my career!
I may come across as a sex crazed blogger having already recently written a post about sex and advertising but I am not... Well not really. I just had a lot of awesome sex ads left over and I thought they deserved the spotlight too. Although this time they are much more humorous and a little less macabre.
OK so it's not an ad, but I wish it was. Lets just say it is an ad for the sake of discussion. This simple red and white depiction of what happens when you shake a coke bottle could be construed as innocent, until you see the headline. Men are like Coke. What? So they are bad for your health? They are a significant cause for obesity, diabetes, and weakening bone structures? Full of gas? If you shove a Mentos down their throats do they explode??
No my dear, innocent reader, they mean something a little more PG 16. If you shake a Coke bottle, like you may shake a mans penis (although I strongly suggest a smoother less violent action), they will explode and both will get your hands sticky. Similarly both can go in your mouth. If you are thinking "Thank god I am not the only guy with one that shape" then I am sorry but you are wrong, you are a freak and will die a lonely crazy cat man.
I agree that its a bit low rent for mainstream media but I can definitely see it being used in a Cosmo's annual (read monthly) sex issue or something to that effect. It is clever, simple and not overtly perverted and it made me laugh during a week of hell.
Lifestyles condoms by Mortierbrigade, Brussels, Belgium
I have a large collection of condom ads, you could call me a connoisseur of sorts. There is a wealth of great condom ads out there that encompass wit and innuendo without being blatantly perverse (or maybe a bit perverse if your imagination is one that leads you to the proverbial gutter- as long as its not the proverbial drain).
This one is for Lifestyles range of ribbed condoms. The insight for this ad is that condoms are a bit of a let down compared to the feeling of an "unsheathed sword". For this reason condom companies come out with lines of textured "third leg stockings" to stimulate their customers female counterparts to the point of undeniable pleasure which would result in juice obviously implying lady juice ( I don't know a "nice" way to put that). This ad implies that without the textured ribs on their condoms, women will fail to be satisfied and thus won't achieve orgasm. The visual used is a juicer without the grooves or "ribs" that would usually squeeze the juice out. It is a perfectly innocent way to show a not so innocent topic and that's why (and how) I like it.
Give longer. Take longer Love machine condoms Jung von Matt/Alster, Hamburg, Germany
Men want to be known as having the stamina of a carthorse (carthorses do in fact have incredible stamina) and to be well-hung stallions with penises reminiscent of battering rams. To help them along, Love Machine Condoms have produced a line of love gloves that can delay orgasm in order to prolong the act of baby making practice in order to achieve maximum pleasure levels for both parties involved. They use a very titillating image of a woman's arched back obviously receiving some backdoor pleasure, which according to all the men I have asked, is one of the best views ever. This coupled with a tattooed crossword that implies that the act at hand is going to take a while makes this a very interesting ad to contemplate
However, while it is a clever and interesting visual it makes me think that, like standing in line at the traffic department, it may take too long and in fact become boring enough to actually DO a crossword puzzle. Good ad until I thought about it for long enough. Thankfully for Love Machine- most people don't.
Condomi ultra thin condoms by DRAFTFCB KOBZA, Vienna, Austria
I don't mean to burst your bubble but... Anyone else see a fatal flaw in this ad for Condomi? Yes men like to feel like they aren't actually wearing a condom but at the same time I don't think that using a visual metaphor in the form of something that bursts into thin air at the slightest touch is going to instill any sort of trust in them. GREAT visual, bad ad.
Before I end off I would like say 400 views, 4 weeks, 4posts. Without readers I would not be as inspired as I have been lately. So from the bottom of derriere, which is bigger than my heart, I thank you for reading my whimsical ramblings and I hope you will keep coming back.
Before I begin I would like to thank all the people who have taken the time to read my blog. Three weeks, three blog posts and three HUNDRED (and forty four) views, needless to say I feel inspired.
After a discussion with my lecturer last week about my last blog post she displayed her disdain for people who keep saying we should look to Europe for all our solutions.This got the cogs turning and I thought about looking on the other side of the world for this weeks topic and challenging myself a bit. Well Self, challenge accepted.
Japan has gotten a lot of things right. They have the highest life expectancy from birth, a rich and thriving cultural heritage, awesome anime, really ahem..interesting adult cinema, blah blah blah basically they are quite cool. I decided to see what they were doing in terms of advertising and how it differed from the Western way we are so familiar with. After days of searching for suitable ads I realised that the reason they made little (read no) sense to me is because I lacked the INSIGHT into Japanese culture that would serve as the key to this very discombobulating subject (this could have something to do with my disgust toward sushi). That set me off on a mission to try and understand the culture and then showcase an ad that reflected what I had learnt.
Traditional western marketing does not generally translate well to the Japanese market and vice versa. This is because Japanese consumers are the most demanding in the world forcing international brands to change their ways of advertising specifically for their Japanese audiences.
The Japanese are a nation that communicate a lot with symbols. The idea that a product is being advertised for its functionality is not really as popular as it is in the west. It is all about creating an emotional connection with the consumer. This can be done with using Japanese and western celebrities that embody what the product is trying to put forward. There was a big trend of using international celebrities such as Tommy Lee Jones in the BOSS campaign and Softbank TV advert . The Japanese know him for his role in Alien and use the role he played and his celebrity status to sell a product.It is a visual shortcut and a very lame cop out if you ask me. For a "smart" nation they are too easily pleased.
There is one thing that everybody desperately craves in Japan. No, it's not money nor power. Not even fame. All those things are just means to an end and that end is kawaii. Being "kawaii" (cute and beautiful) is a highly valued
aesthetic quality in Japanese society and mostly Japanese pop culture
which means it features a lot in advertising
Another use of symbols in Japan comes in the form of mascots. Large corporations will use kawaii mascots in order to show a sense of humanity to consumers who would otherwise be intimidated by them. One example of this is the Tokyo Metropolitan Police department who came up with a mascot lovingly dubbed Pipo-Kun who is an orange mouse-like creature with big ears to listen to people and an antennae to stay "in tune" with what is happening out on the street. This is a huge public relations tool and I doubt they will stop using it in advertising as it is deeply ingrained in Japanese culture.
Pipo-Kun the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department mascot
Hello Kitty, the epitome of kawaii, actually started out as a mascot for the silk bedding company Sanrio. Kitty was used in ads until her popularity snowballed and an empire was formed around her image. Sanrio ditched the silk and became 100% kitty orientated which made them more successful than the silk ever could have. These days Kitty adorns thousands of products from aeroplanes and diet pills to red wine! In fact the only products that Sanrio has rejected are sharp objects, hard alcohol, guns and cigarettes. I hope the guy who came up with that concept got a FAT raise.
After a week of searching through ads that made less sense to me than buying a pair of Jimmy Choo's to clean a chicken coop, I finally found a print ad from an extremely successful ad campaign that I will attempt to explain.
I can only imagine how this concept came about and the best I can come up with is that the creators were either very stoned and/or drunk or I guess just Japanese.
Meet the White family, a strange name for an Asian family. At first I thought it had to do with the Easts fascination with the West but I was wrong (damn). It is in reference to the service that they are advertising.
Some background on the product: The White mobile plan is Japans cheapest and simplest (white symbolising simple) service plan provided by the mobile service provider Softbank and it has been rated the most successful ad campaign in recent years. The plan allows you to speak to your family members for free (is anyone else thinking "NO THANKS"?) and thus is marketed as a family brand by using, you guessed it, a family as their symbolism.
The White family is no normal family. There are five family members spanning three generations (another translucent advertising ploy used to target different age groups).There is a grandmother, a mother and a daughter, an older brother and a father. The first two are both famous actresses and the daughter Aya, is the most famous of all being a teen pop sensation. They all stand for specific values that Softbank wanted to cash in on.
The most controversial, OK maybe controversial is not the right word, the strangest character of the family is the older brother Dante Carver who plays Aya's older brother. He is an African American actor in Japan who has become very popular as a result of his role in the ads. Can anyone say token black guy? If you thought your dear old dad was strange then you haven't met Mr White...who is a dog. A cute dog, but a dog none the less. This is the point where I realise that lost in translation is not just referring to a movie title.
The White Family series of commercials have been so popular
that many famous Japanese celebrities have begged to be in the
commercials. They have become so large that they
are nearly their own entity within Softbank itself, even having a softball team named after them. Ootosan (Japanese word for father) has become a national icon and has made a lot of money through merchandise featuring his image. This reminds me of the Hello Kitty story I told you earlier.
Statistics show that television and print is actually the most effective forms of advertising and most Japanese clients are looking for a combination. They use more traditional media to grab consumers’ attention based
around some social media platform or television campaign. In this case they use print ads that remind you of the message conveyed in their TV adverts.
The TV ads are like short sitcoms that use a VERY different brand of humour than I am used to. I have included two with English subtitles for your own viewing pleasure and to give you an idea of what the print ad is about. Click "view on You Tube" and then "turn on captions" to get the subtitles.
Shoto Matsuda Softbank part 1
Shoto Matsuda Softbank part 2
(I love the use of the potato as a romantic gesture!)
Back to my print ad review. It is a very simple family portrait showing all he family members on their cellphones the first shows the women in kimonos except and the grandmother is holding a dog shaped device used to talk to the father while he is out on one of his adventures. The second just shows them in normal dress, very simple. In short this ad uses symbolism, visual shortcuts and emotional attachment to characters that work well in Japanese culture. Without the TV ad this would mean very little. The brand relies heavily on the actors past career successes and how the world view them in order to sell the brand. This coupled with their use of the father as their mascot is what makes this one of the most successful ad campaigns in Japan today.
Thanks for reading, I leave you with: Ootosan in a bowler hat and bowtie on a billboard
and a couple of facts that I found while researching this topic that prove that Japan is a very very different place.
In Japan, trains are so punctual that any delay over 5 minutes usually incurs an apology over the tanoy and a "delay certificate" for passengers on their way to work. When trains are delayed for an hour it may even make the news (Metro Fail could learn a thing or two from the East).
There are blowjob bars in Japan (if my boyfriend is reading this- no).
In japan, "Jersey Shore" is aired under the name "Macaroni Rascals"(waaaay more accurate).
It is a common prank in Japan to shove your fingers into someones ass, it is called Kancho (I TOLD you their sense of humour is different!).
When Space Invaders was released in Japan it caused a nation wide coin shortage because people just couldn't stop (obsessive much?).
A baseball team in Japan is said to be cursed by KFC founder Colonel Saunders (yum).
